The Hive Engineers

by Emilia Zeeland

  Slowly, with an all too intelligent look in his eyes, the creature shook his head. No. It was a message so clear, it almost slammed into her mind. The shock left Yalena gaping and lowered her last defenses.

  The images came flooding one after the other as if transmitted into a flickering channel inside her mind. Scaly aliens jumped off a ship through the gate onto a new world. Fire flashed all around. And blue blood. Blood drenched them as they fell. As they died.

  She swayed for a second, not sure if it was a memory or a cautionary tale, but she knew what it meant.

  Alec rushed to Yalena’s side to steady her. “What happened? Are you all right?”

  She held onto him for balance. “He’s...inside my head. Communicating.”

  By the stunned looks around her, Yalena could tell the alien wasn’t doing this to any of the others, or perhaps their stronger vibe didn’t let them be as easily influenced as she was.

  “He’s not going to help us,” Yalena croaked.

  “Why?” Stanley asked.

  Yalena understood and didn’t at the same time. Her mind seemed to bend under the weight of these new images, of another conscience inside her head. “I think...I think they’ve done this before—revealed themselves to another species—and it didn’t end well. They got slaughtered.”

  Mentally, she fed the image of the aliens falling into puddles of blue blood back at the creature. He replied with an image of a single alien. Yalena immediately knew it was a female—their Queen. She was just as scaly, but she had sharp-looking transparent wings and was golden, shimmery like a jewel.

  “He gets his orders from a Queen,” Yalena said. It all started to connect inside her mind. Stanley had been right. “He’s not a soldier. He’s a scout.”

  Yalena thought back to first hearing Stanley explain about the hive engineers. It made sense that the metaphor didn’t end there. This race wasn’t like humanity. They acted as one. They rooted out violence against each other with the vibe and Novofex. They didn’t have ambition, egoism or disobedience.

  Although this concept was as shimmery and ideal as the picture of the golden Queen in her mind, the hope Yalena had harbored in her heart crushed to bits. “He’s not going to help us. He can’t.” She thought of Eric, left on his own to fend off Felix. She thought of everything she, Alec and Natalia had been through to get here. To fetch help. And it had been a fool’s errand.

  “What do we do now?” Alec asked.

  Yalena felt a tremble pass through her like an icy mist. “Now, we go to Earth to face Felix alone.”

  Chapter 34. The Portal

  The hours trickled by with an awkward vibe hanging in the air. Every minute that passed by was a minute they weren’t helping Earth. Another minute of the time Yalena had bought Alec with the Earth supplies. Yalena knew it and yet it was impossible to simply load her new bug-eyed friend back onto his ship and send him off. Not when she felt a link.

  He kept sending images zipping through Yalena’s mind. A purple-haze sunset. A golden river. The haze of space when you travel really fast. And always, always, the golden shimmer of the Queen’s wings. Yalena tried to string the images into a coherent story, but she was growing more and more certain it was only a history lesson, like a photo album, depicting key moments for the alien life form.

  Stubbornly, Yalena schemed for a way to make the alien see how much they needed his help. But a concept like that was hard to convey in images, in fragments of her memory. Cross-legged, she sat on the cold floor until the scout followed suit, crouching into a ball as much as his tall body permitted.

  “Let me see,” Yalena murmured to herself. She focused as hard as she could on Earth, on everything she knew about the Quakes. She imagined the tectonic plates shifting, earthquakes reducing cities to dust, water covering beaches and valleys. Then she thought of Farsight. The way she’d seen it on the ice moon popped into mind, but she tried to alter the image. To imagine Farsight carrying survivors through the wormhole and to Nova Fia. Then, she thought of the first-year mission. Of her human crew, crossing the wormhole and finding Nova Fia. Of Felix and the way he’d attacked her and Alec.

  She wasn’t sure at which point she’d closed her eyes to visualize it all better, but she tentatively peeked at the scout again. Glossy black eyes stared back at her. Then, she felt it. His vibe reached deep into her mind, sifting through the pictures she’d shown him. It plucked out the image of Farsight hovering over the Ice Moon.

  “Oh,” Yalena said. She sent him an image of Earth. “That’s where they’re going. To destroy it.”

  No reaction other than a painfully slow blink. Yalena’s chest rose with frustration. This was futile effort. Time wasted, when she should let the alien go, and get back to Earth to help the fight with whatever meager resources they had. How silly it was, how silly indeed to think a lone scout of an apparently peaceful race would summon an army for them—an army big and impressive enough to knock some sense into Felix. Or defeat him.

  The image of Farsight flashed into Yalena’s mind again. She groaned with irritation. “Yes, the army is going to destroy Earth. To turn it into Nova Fia.” But she had no idea how to convey that message with images. “Wait...” She sent the image back to him, but this time, she focused on the details of the ice moon. The training facility. The clones. The rows of soldiers, all wearing the same face.

  “Nat?” Yalena called out. “Do you want to come over here for a second?”

  “Not particularly.” Natalia sounded as sulky as usual, under a thin veil of disgust.

  If the alien sensed that, it wasn’t enough to elicit a reaction from him. He simply sat in the position that had to be anything but comfortable for him.

  “Don’t be annoying,” Yalena snapped. “Get over here.”

  Natalia dragged her feet over, taking her time and putting in enough effort to make sure the sounds of her heavy steps betrayed her lack of enthusiasm. “What?”

  “Sit down.” Yalena braced herself for the coming overreaction. “Can you try to show him some of your memories through the vibe?”

  Natalia rolled her eyes dramatically. “In case you haven’t noticed, he’s not a fan of the rest of us. He’s only doing the mind-sharing thing with you.”

  “Yes, but I haven’t seen what we need to show him so he can truly understand Felix’s madness.” Yalena bit her lip, unsure if she should continue. “Only you have.”

  Natalia crossed her arms defensively. “I’m not showing him that. I’m not showing anyone. I’m not even going to think about it. Ever. Again.”

  Yalena took Natalia’s hand and gave her what she hoped came across as a reassuring squeeze, although judging by Natalia’s frown, the effort was lost on her.

  “Please,” Yalena said. “He needs to see why we have to stop Felix. He needs to understand.”

  Natalia’s nostrils flared as she exhaled noisily, like a fire-breathing dragon. “How do I do this?”

  Yalena smiled and turned to her scaly companion. “Erm...can you please read my friend’s mind?” she asked, as if they were sitting down for something as casual as afternoon tea. Even though the words might be lost on him, she somehow hoped he’d sense what she needed him to do.

  “This is so dumb,” Natalia protested, but in a second, her expression changed. The alien’s black eyes locked on her and her lower lip fell, leaving her mouth slightly agape. She shivered occasionally, but otherwise she remained motionless and speechless.

  Without warning, images flashed into Yalena’s mind, pushed by the alien straight from Natalia’s mind. Yalena’s stomach tightened like she was going to be sick. Natalia was fighting off the clones, one by one, like a madwoman, but more of them kept coming at her. They brought her to her knees, pushed her down to the ground until her face was pressed against the glossy white floor. She didn’t scream. She only murmured to herself, like a prayer.

  They carried her, kicking, to a stretcher. Leather belts tightened around her limbs as she twisted madly. Yalena’s heart ra
ced, but she couldn’t escape it, couldn’t close her eyes to the horror. It was inside her mind, like a flood she couldn’t push out. A needle dug deep into Natalia’s forearm. Purple liquid traveled through her veins as she struggled in her restraints. Her skin changed color slowly, as if bruises were blooming one after the other, covering her skin in blotches until all of it seeped into a dark shade of purple.

  Yalena sucked in a breath and the images disappeared. She eyed Natalia cautiously. Her chest was rising and falling fast like it did when she was panicking, Natalia nodded as if to confirm she was all right, even though she didn’t look it. Yalena’s lips pursed as her expression grew pained. She’d failed Natalia, but she wasn’t going to fail Earth.

  She glanced back at the alien. In all honesty, she was starting to get used to his unusual appearance. “That’s what they want to do,” she said, growing a little more certain that somehow, he could understand her. “To all of Earth. We need your help to stop them.”

  Like entering a tunnel, blackness blotted Yalena’s vision, then the image of the golden Queen shimmered. For the first time, her lips were moving. She made raspy, crude sounds, much in contrast to her gentle appearance. It was only then that the idea crossed Yalena’s mind.

  “It’s not a memory,” she said to Natalia, even though she wasn’t sure Natalia was seeing the Queen too. “They’re communicating right now.”

  Yalena couldn’t explain it with physics, but she was certain that the scout was speaking to his Queen as easily as Yalena could speak to Alec, despite the light years of distance that probably separated them.

  “Are they going to send an army?” Stanley asked.

  Yalena tried to push for an answer, but she only heard more of the screechy language. Then, the alien jumped up to his feet, surprisingly nimble. His claws pulled out something that had been plastered onto his exo suit’s breastplate—two pieces of glass, pressed together closely to preserve a smudge of blue inside. Blood.

  He touched it over the sensor on top of the glowing core and the ship sprang to life.

  “Like a genetic ID card,” Yalena mumbled to herself.

  The Fians assumed their previous positions, preparing for travel, letting the colored forcefield tentacles secure them in place. Somewhat reluctantly, Alec let the scout take his central seat and moved closer to Yalena.

  Instead of lunging into full speed, the alien flipped through the settings until he came across the blueprint of a round shape. He selected it and, through the soft sound of mechanics clicking into place, Yalena could tell he’d pulled out that device at the front of the ship.

  “What’s he doing?” Natalia asked.

  “Is it a weapon?” Blaine glanced from Natalia to Yalena, probably hoping at least one of them was still receiving images from the alien’s mind. But the link had been interrupted, a channel closed.

  Almost routinely, the scout pressed an array of settings and spun the round shape on the screen with the claws of his hand. A stream of light shot out into the blackness of space. Slowly, it seemed to dig into the dark matter, to form the glimmer of a hole.

  Alec swore, but it was out of amazement. “He’s doing it. He’s making a wormhole.”

  Yalena stared, unblinking, in front of her. She’d been on this wild ride since the day they’d discovered the signal. They had barely had time to take in the wormhole, before they had been thrown into a conflict with the Fians. Now, she finally had irrevocable proof of how it all tied together.

  “Where’s he taking us?” Stanley asked.

  After all the images of the golden Queen, Yalena wasn’t sure. “Home to Earth, I hope.”

  Then, the ship lunged inside the purple-hued swirl.

  “Not to sound ungrateful,” Natalia said with a frown. “But what about an army?”

  The alien made a gesture, bringing its odd three-finger fist to his chest, as if to say he was all there was.

  “Great,” Natalia said. “We wasted our time on recruiting all of one peaceful alien to fight in our war against Felix. I’m not liking our odds of success.”

  Chapter 35. Reunion

  Yalena’s knees only stopped their involuntary trembling when the ship was on the other side of the wormhole, facing the familiar green-blue shape of Earth not too far off in the distance. She let out a nervous laugh.

  “See,” she tilted her head at Natalia. “As promised, back home, safe and sound.”

  “I’ll save my remarks on that for after we make it through the battle,” Natalia said sulkily. However, her eyes remained glued to the view. Granted, she was probably marveling at the Moon station with its spinning disco ball sphere, or at Unifier, protected by its electric purple shield, but it was home either way.

  Then, a tile of the Unifier shield caught Yalena’s eye when it turned from black to light purple.

  “There,” she pointed, although unless the others had seen it too, they’d never know what she’d meant. “A ship just left Unifier.”

  Yalena’s lips curled as her eyes made sense of the view. The stations of Unifier and the Moon seemed intact. They weren’t too late. Felix hadn’t spread terror across the world she’d fought so hard to protect. Not yet.

  “How can we contact this ship?” Stanley asked.

  Yalena’s hand flew to her hip, but she wore no holster and her Berry was long lost.

  “Try this.” With a smile, Alec pulled out his Berry and unlocked it for her. Yalena took the device with a wavering hand.

  Browsing through the menu, she felt an aching familiarity in her heart. She was so close to her old world again. To family. To STAR Academy. To Eric.

  Her finger hovered over Eric’s contact card on the Berry screen. With a deep exhale, she pressed it.

  Eric answered almost immediately. “Alec?”

  “Eric?” Yalena’s voice came out strangled. In a heartbeat, she was close to tears. “It’s me.”

  “Yalena?” Eric stuttered in disbelief.

  A smile of relief spread across her face. “I’m with Alec and Natalia and the Fians, who oppose Felix.”

  Eric seemed to feed off that positivity. “And? Where’d you get the nice ship?”

  “That’s going to be hard to explain,” Yalena said, but Eric jumped back in at once.

  “Try me, because we don’t have a lot of time. Farsight crash landed on Earth.”

  The rest of the story followed out in a rush. Yalena tried not to dwell on the images Eric’s words evoked in her mind. Nico hunched down in the back of Jen’s Bluedrop, hands clasped over this alleged death ray device. Over a hundred Bluedrops all linked together, pushing Farsight back until its engines gave in, until the Bluedrops had no more power to fly. Chris and Josie falling to their deaths before the migration ship crashed down. Sibel floating inside the tube where Felix had been keeping her.

  Each image was more horrid than the last. Eric’s tale quickly wiped away the relief of being home. Home was at the brink of destruction. Then, Eric told Yalena about the serum—the best-guess version Jen had taken as well as the final tested and approved one Jea had stocked them up with.

  “You have to land behind the parameter Bako and Adeline have secured and get injected first, got it?”

  “Got it,” Yalena confirmed. She didn’t even ask what Adeline was doing there. There was no time.

  “Ahem,” Natalia cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, Eric, but as if that serum would work on Yalena!” Her voice was ripe with pessimism. “It wouldn’t work on any of us either.” With one thumb, Natalia pointed at Blaine and the rest of the Fians behind her.

  “Of course it would. Jea confirmed the final batch is safe,” Eric insisted, but Yalena didn’t have the time to explain Natalia’s evolution into a Fian right now.

  “Never mind,” Yalena said. “Can you send me the serum compound? I’ll see if anyone on board can alter it to protect Fians too.”

  Eric hesitated, probably doubting anyone of the Fians would be better suited to the task than Jen had been, but he didn’t
know about Yalena’s spindly new friend.

  When Eric sent a file with the molecule, Yalena couldn’t fathom a model so intricate. She turned the screen toward the scout and asked with a calm voice, as if they’d been conversing flawlessly until now, “This is a serum meant to defend us from a death weapon that’s about to go off in order to stop Felix and his mad plan. Can you modify it to protect Fians?”

  The alien’s black eyes stared back at her. The images that had flashed through Yalena’s mind as she’d spoken to Eric ran through it again. She must have projected her thoughts to the alien as she’d spoken.

  “Lenly,” Alec said quietly. “I’m not sure he has any chance of getting that-”

  But to prove him wrong, the alien rose from his seat and walked over to the other side of the corpus, sharp nails screeching against the metal floor. He placed his glass chip, the one Yalena suspected preserved a drop of his blood inside, over a spot on the wall.

  Yalena narrowed her eyes to make out the faintest of lines around the scanner. “There must be a way to see those with heat vision or something.”

  When the alien pulled down a panel from the ceiling—a lab table with an array of vials and beakers—Alec whistled. “I stand corrected. Look at him go.”

  Then, the alien mind invaded Yalena’s head again. Uninvited, the scout sifted through until he dug out the images of Stanley and Alec.

  “Alec, Dad,” Yalena said. “He needs your help.”

  The soft feel of Stanley’s vibe couldn’t hide a tremble of emotion. Yalena had almost startled herself by calling him ‘Dad’, but it felt right. She gave him a small smile as he stood and rushed past her.

  Alec followed suit, mumbling, “We’re right here, mate. No need to mind-invade to summon us.”

  The scout drew blood from both of them, fortunately using what looked like an alien syringe this time. Yalena guessed he was doing a comparative analysis to figure out how to change the serum. While the scout busied himself, tugging and pulling at holo molecular models in front of his table, Alec got back into the pilot seat and let the straps of light secure him down.