The Hive Engineers

by Emilia Zeeland

  Yalena rolled her eyes. “Do you need a guide back to the crash site?”

  It was the least she could offer, but she stubbornly wished she didn’t have to leave Alec. Not in his condition. Her reluctance must have shown through her vibe, because both Natalia and Blaine softened their expressions.

  “Why don’t you come with, newbie?” Blaine regarded Natalia.

  She balked like she’d tasted slime. “With you?”

  “I don’t bite.” He arched an eyebrow at her. “I mean, unless you want me to.”

  When he turned to leave with a daring smile on his face, Natalia jabbed a finger at Yalena’s collar bone. “You owe me big time.”

  Chapter 27. The Hive

  When Yalena returned to Alec’s room, it smelled faintly of soap, and he was already in bed, breathing evenly. Yalena removed the wet uniform clinging to her body as silently as she could, selected a clean t-shirt and a pair of shorts from the clothes hanging on the door and went into the small bathroom.

  The hot water felt like a calming embrace. Despite the terrifying realization that they were trapped on this planet, a part of her was still considered herself fortunate. So long as Yalena had Alec and her father, she was determined to find a way out. She’d build a ship with her bare hands if she had to.

  She dried herself as best she could, although in the humid air on this planet she quickly felt sticky again. She pulled on the fresh clothes and tucked herself in next to Alec. He stirred to make space for her, shifting closer to the wall. His breathing was deep and louder than she remembered, but he wasn’t asleep. His lips brushed against her temple and left a butterfly kiss at her hairline.

  “We’ll figure this out,” Yalena whispered. “I promise.”

  “Don’t say that,” he grunted sleepily.

  “It’s true,” Yalena insisted. She had to believe it.

  “But if you say it out loud, it’ll never come true.” And he drifted into sleep.

  Yalena listened to his heartbeat, watching his chest rise and fall for as long as she could hold out, before her eyelids closed.

  She woke up with a start, unsure where she was. The events of the day before flooded her mind, but she rested her head on Alec’s chest for a little while still. Either it was early or Novofex was tiring him out at a progressive rate, because he hadn’t stirred at all. Yalena shuffled out of bed and picked up her clothes. Thankfully they’d dried in the well-ventilated room.

  After changing, she slipped out of the room without a plan. Standing in the corridor in front of Alec’s room she had two choices: try to find Stanley here or go back to the communal quarters. She hesitated for a moment, then balled her hand into a fist and knocked on the middle door.

  “Come in,” Stanley said from inside.

  Yalena pushed the heavy door clumsily. Stanley’s room was about three times the size of Alec’s. He sat in an old-fashioned armchair with a cup of coffee in his hand.

  “Lena.” He stood to greet her—a slightly awkward brief hug. “You’re up early.” Then, as if guessing what was on her mind, he asked, “How is he?”

  Yalena took a seat in the couch he’d motioned to. “He seems tired. He has trouble breathing normally. I don’t know how long he...” Yalena hesitated as a shudder went through her.

  “He has a while longer, thanks to you,” Stanley said. He poured a cup of coffee for her too and handed it over. “Blaine and your STAR Academy friend returned with the rations last night. If he stretches them, they could buy him up to ten days.”

  Yalena nodded as she accepted the cup. She tried to feel grateful, but the question “and then what?” bit at her insides. “What about the ship we landed with. Can it be salvaged?”

  Stanley smiled kindly. “We’re survivors of the apocalypse. We’ve been repairing ancient Earthling tech all our lives. We’ll get it operational again.”

  “When?” Yalena wished she had the time and peace of mind to ask her father something else—more personal—or anything but war plans. But she didn’t have that luxury. He knew that or he wouldn’t have told her about Alec so fast.

  “In about a week, we hope.”

  From Stanley’s expression Yalena could tell he’d made the same calculation she did now. That ship was far too slow to get Alec back to the near worlds, even to somewhere in the Belt in time. And if the near worlds were busy fighting Felix, no-one would come get Alec in time.

  “It has to be less.” She didn’t mean to sound ungrateful and through the vibe, Stanley soothed her.

  “We’ll push it as much as we can.” He waited for her to exhale with tentative relief. “But there’s a lot more I need to tell you. Come with me.”

  Yalena took a few big gulps of the coffee she hadn’t thus far touched and followed Stanley out of the apartment. At the door to the sleeping quarters, they almost bumped into Natalia. By the looks of it, she’d showered, and her thick luscious hair shone dry and clean, but her eyes were circled by deep purple blots.

  “No luck getting any sleep?” Yalena asked her.

  Natalia seemed to bite back her usual moaning, straightening up at the sight of Stanley.

  “Here’s every food pack Vero, Nicky and Ronnie left on the ship.” She dropped the bag at Yalena’s feet.

  “Thanks.” Yalena transferred it into the corridor of the flat. Alec still hadn’t made it out of bed. “It will be a nice surprise for him when he wakes up.”

  Despite looking like she wanted to protest or join them outside, Natalia let Yalena and Stanley walk past her.

  Yalena turned back to her while walking off. “Can you make sure he gets something to eat? And you as well.”

  Natalia nodded.

  Stanley led the way out of the bunker—the same way they’d come in the night before. Yalena followed swiftly.

  “So you’re a team leader?” Stanley said with genuine curiosity that bled through the vibe. “Alec told me.”

  “He must have also told you there aren’t many on my team left standing.” Yalena felt her insides convulse as she mentally scrolled through the troubles that had befallen them. Even though she’d said it mechanically, the statement still stung.

  Stanley climbed up the ladder, then held out a hand to pull Yalena up. When he’d sealed the hatch and placed the chair over it, he studied Yalena’s face.

  “Some of them made it out alive, on the second Eagle, didn’t they?”

  Yalena wanted to avert her gaze from him, but she didn’t. “Some, but not all. Alec’s best friend is dead. And Natalia...”

  “She has a new family now,” Stanley interrupted. “She’ll adapt.”

  “And Alec,” Yalena’s voice sounded hollow.

  “He’ll live.” Stanley squared his jaw with resolve. “I promise you, he will.”

  Yalena licked her bottom lip, debating whether she should go on. “He told me you offered him the injection.”

  Stanley guided her outside, under the faintly gray sky and into the sticky hot air. “I wouldn’t have done so lightly, but the boy has proved himself.”

  “You weren’t there when Natalia turned,” Yalena insisted. “She was so horrified. I can’t let that happen to Alec too.”

  Stanley halted, eyes surveying the empty streets. “He’d rather go through that than face death and lose you. But you’re not wrong. There is a price.” A few lines on his forehead deepened when he glanced back at her. “It’s a tradeoff, you see. The humans can’t survive here long. The Fians can’t live there long.”

  Yalena should have known. The pulse of the chilling realization washed over her in waves. “He wouldn’t be able to go back home. Natalia too.”

  Stanley held his palms out, facing up as he gesticulated. “When I was visiting your mom, Fian food and water kept me going for a while, but I never docked in a human world. Bringing Novofex there might have catastrophic effects.”

  Yalena’s mind was a hurricane of thoughts. A ferocious twister that rampaged her insides. “That’s what Felix is going to do, isn’t it? T
hat’s why he was testing the injection on the clones. He wants to turn Earth into another Nova Fia.”

  Stanley didn’t answer right away. He put two fingers into his mouth. A loud whistle tore through the serene quiet. Less than a minute later, a land transporter roared from the end of the street. The driver parked the vehicle right in front of them. He jumped out, leaving the door open and the keys in, so the engine still hummed.

  Stanley beckoned for Yalena to get in. “Hop in. I’ve something to show you.”

  Her mind hard at work, Yalena got in silently. Stanley took them out of the neighborhood and away from the city. The road was new, but the lack of traffic made it seem like Nova Fia had been through an apocalypse. The sky slowly turned a lighter gray with streaks of pink, which didn’t seem entirely normal either, at least not to an Earthling.

  “Where is everyone?” Yalena asked.

  Stanley turned the wheel to avoid a large tree branch on the road. “This city was constructed for Felix’s army. In the south part, they trained and made weapons. The soldiers’ families live in the north.”

  “And you chose the south for the bunker?”

  Stanley gave her a small smile. “We blend in better with soldiers than at kids’ parties, don’t you think?”

  Yalena looked back at the city they were leaving behind. “All these people follow Felix.” It was hard to make sense of there being that many people who agreed with what he’d done.

  “I’m afraid it’s not as simple as right and wrong,” Stanley said. “The Fians are survivors. We’ll pay any price to keep surviving.”

  Yalena was going to object that they had no barriers to surviving here, but Stanley turned down a dirt road, winding between lush, high-reaching vegetation in a rainbow of colors, which piqued her curiosity. “Where are we going?”

  Stanley took a moment before he replied slowly. “To the only explanation that will make you see Felix’s actions as logical. Mad, but still logical.”

  Despite the humid air that always made her skin a little sticky, Yalena felt a chill. “You don’t agree with Felix, do you?”

  Stanley didn’t take his eyes off the road to look at her. “I don’t, but you need to understand why others do.”

  “You’re a strategist,” Yalena said, thinking out loud.

  “So are you.” Stanley glanced sideways at her. “I know you despise Felix, but think past that. How did he gather so many followers? How did he change the political system on Nova Fia from a council of seven to a dictatorship? How did he justify throwing me in jail? What fuels his support?”

  Yalena almost smacked a palm against her forehead. The answer was obvious. “Fear.”

  Stanley’s expression darkened. “Fear of something more terrifying than the atrocities Felix has committed.”

  The transporter came to a halt at the entrance to a cave. It had security warnings all around, but no guards were in sight.

  Yalena hesitated before getting out after Stanley. “Are we going in there?”

  Her father took out a flashlight from the trunk and tested it. “If you want to know the truth about Nova Fia, it’s all in the caves. That’s where Cara White took the injection. That’s where we found out what this place really is.”

  Yalena’s stomach knotted, but she had to bring herself to ask. “What is it really?”

  Stanley stood at the entrance of the cave with resolve. “It’s a hive.”

  Chapter 28. The Hive Engineers

  Yalena’s skin tingled all over at the thought of bugs or larvae crawling out of the cave.

  Stanley chuckled, probably having sensed her discomfort through the vibe. “It’s not what you’re imagining.”

  With a flick of irritation at the vibe always betraying her feelings, Yalena balked at him. “I don’t understand.”

  “The first Fians didn’t either,” Stanley said. “They thought all we had to do to survive Nova Fia was to adapt to Novofex. But the next generations dug deeper and deeper, because something about this planet didn’t add up.”

  Yalena tried to recall everything Jen and Nico had told her about Nova Fia, but the memory of her friends made her heart ache.

  “The ecosystem is too simple. Too lean,” Stanley said. “There are all the conditions for life, but only a few species of fauna. Too few. There are no predators either.”

  “They haven’t evolved yet,” Yalena guessed.

  Stanley scratched his neck for a moment. “The Farsight crew thought so too, at first, but whatever was already here was a stable ecosystem. It seemed like it had been waiting.”

  “For what?”

  Stanley answered her with another question. “Do you know what beekeepers did to cultivate bees back on Earth?” He didn’t wait for her to guess, perhaps discouraged by her slack expression. “They created the perfect conditions. The perfect hive. The right structure, the right location, the right level of protection. And then they waited for the bees to find it and move in. They built a home and waited for the occupants to show up.”

  Yalena stared at him unblinking. “Are you saying...Nova Fia is...”

  “It’s a hive,” Stanley said. “An enormous, elaborate hive. And we were the bees that claimed it as our home.”

  Breathing in the humid, sweet air, Yalena whirled around, eyes drinking in the colorful forest. “All of this was built. Designed?”

  “By a species a lot more advanced than the humans could ever imagine, before they stumbled upon this world.” Stanley gave her a moment for his words to sink in. “We call them the hive engineers.”

  The idea of such an advanced civilization boggled her. Yalena couldn’t help but frown as she struggled to connect all the dots. “What does this have to do with Felix’s insane mission?”

  Stanley flicked the switch of the flashlight, testing it again. “Felix believes that he’s continuing the work of the hive engineers by spreading Novofex throughout the galaxy.”

  Yalena’s stomach lurched. “That’s mad.”

  Stanley regarded her with endless calm. “I didn’t say we all agree with him, but there is evidence that spreading Novofex is their mission.”

  Yalena gasped in realization. “The raptor planet. The reptiles had the vibe, too.”

  “Exactly,” Stanley said. “We only built a small research center there to study the creatures. That planet has many more similarities to Nova Fia than just Novofex. The fauna is sparse, while the flora has evolved more naturally. Novofex had been introduced there to make it a hive.”

  “Don’t tell me the raptors arrived on a migration ship from their home planet.” Yalena almost laughed, but the serious look in Stanley’s eyes made her cut it out.

  “They could have evolved on that world, much like prehistoric creatures evolved on Earth a long time ago, but they could have also been brought there.”

  He didn’t have to specify by whom. The hive engineers again.

  Yalena fought the disgust pooling into her stomach. Was that planet the hive engineers’ version of an alien zoo?

  “And this is where the difference of ideology between the Troians and the Francises—Felix’s family—started. Some Fians believe the raptors were brought there by a more advanced race that cared about their wellbeing. We think that the hive engineers were either saving them from a dying world or moving them from an overpopulated one. That would suggest not only intelligence, but kindness and care for a species which isn’t as evolved as the hive engineers themselves.”

  Embarrassment made Yalena flush with warmth that traveled up her neck. She’d thought of it as a cruel zoo, not a saving grace. “Let me guess, that’s what the Troians believe?”

  Stanley gave her a small smile.

  “And the Francis family?” she dared to ask.

  Stanley seemed to be forcing his expression to remain blank, but a small frown broke through his facade. “The Francises believe that the raptors—and possibly many more species on their world—had already evolved. Then, the hive engineers introduced Novofex into t
heir environment, disrupting the ecosystem, allowing only those species of fauna capable of adapting to Novofex to survive.”

  Yalena felt her throat throb as she swallowed. “A clean sweep. That would suggest the hive engineers are not only intelligent, but supremist. Cruel. Believing themselves entitled to all other worlds.”

  “So you see?” Stanley said after letting out a deep breath. “That’s where our difference of opinion started. We chose to believe in grace. They chose to believe in extremism.”

  Yalena frowned. She thought that unless they met with the hive engineers, they’d never know. “Why does it matter what the hive engineers intended? They aren’t here.”

  By the stone-cold look on Stanley’s face, she guessed that wasn’t entirely true. “It’s time we went in.”

  He pointed his flashlight to illuminate the entrance of the dark cave and stepped inside. Yalena followed a few steps after her father, trying not to slip on the muddy clay surface of the cave. They walked in deeper and deeper, and the path grew steeper the farther they went. They must have gone at least the equivalent of five stories down and two kilometers ahead before the tunnel led them to a bigger gallery. Somewhere far above them, light pierced the cave roof, letting laser-thin streaks of sunshine in, although they weren’t enough to fully illuminate the gallery.

  Stanley fiddled around at the gallery entrance and clicked what sounded like a few switches. An electric hum preceded the light that came out from two massive light modules. They bathed the gallery in light.

  And Yalena gasped.

  Suspended in the middle of the reddish clay was an oval metallic green hull. The hull of a ship.

  “Once Cara White’s child, the first Troian, your grandmother, found this place, even those skeptical of the hive engineers theory had to accept it. We were never the first ones to claim this world.”

  Yalena took a second to process that. The words “your grandmother”—a concept she’d never allowed herself to think of—beckoned inside her head. But the existence of the glistening ship, a little dusty but well-preserved, stole her focus away. “How long has it been here?”