I checked the operations room first, but there were only a couple of Liaison staff studying a mosaic of surveillance camera images. I moved on to our apartment, and found Lucas sitting on a crate with his head in his hands. When I entered the room, he stood up and gave me a guilty look.
“I’m sorry, Amber. I must have made a terrible impression on Atticus.”
“I don’t care what Atticus or anyone else thinks about you. The first time I read your mind, I saw level upon level of glittering thoughts, all racing past at express belt speed. It should have been a coldly intimidating place, but instead it drew me in with the warmth of a Carnival crowd.”
I took Lucas’s hands in mine. “That warmth came from the fact you are human, flawed, and vulnerable. You feel for those in distress because you’ve known their loneliness and pain yourself. You never have to apologize for your weaknesses, Lucas, because those are the things I love about you.”
Chapter Thirty-seven
The next morning, I was woken up early by a throbbing, high-pitched sound, and sat up in confusion. My dataview was lying on the floor next to our makeshift bed, and the dim glow from its screen was enough for me to see that Lucas was already on his feet. He turned on the room light, and handed my crystal unit to me before fitting his own into his ear.
By the time I had my ear crystal in place, Lucas was already talking. “Does anyone know what that noise is?”
“Not yet,” said Adika. “I’ve alerted both Strike teams to investigate.”
“My Beta team reports all three fire door exits to Level 10 are secure,” said Forge’s voice. “I’m in the observatory myself, and the sound seems to be coming from Outside. I’ll go out and take a look.”
“I’ll be with you in two seconds,” said Adika.
“Juniper’s just come out of her room,” said Eli. “She says the noise is the storm warning siren. Everyone at the sea farm should be getting messages on their dataviews within the next few …”
There was a chime from Lucas’s dataview, followed by another from mine.
“About now, in fact,” said Eli cheerfully.
Lucas read his message aloud. “Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement has issued an urgent weather warning for our area. A major storm is incoming, and winds of hurricane force 12 or higher are expected.”
“Hurricane force 12,” repeated Rothan. “We’ll have to make a quick decision on whether to go back to the Hive or wait out the storm here. Once those winds start building, it will be too dangerous to fly anywhere.”
“We can’t go back to the Hive,” I protested. “We’ve set up a beautiful ambush to catch the third target.”
“Amber and I will get dressed and come to the beach exit,” said Lucas.
We pulled on our clothes and grabbed our Outside jackets. When we went out into the corridor, we found it full of bleary-eyed unit members.
“Should we be packing?” asked Megan.
“Amber and I will discuss the situation with Adika and Rothan, then message everyone with instructions,” said Lucas.
We hurried through the fire door into corridor 5, but found it deserted. “Where are you, Adika?” asked Lucas, on the crystal comms.
“We’re all still Outside, assessing the weather,” said Adika.
“Is it safe for Amber to come out there?” asked Lucas.
“It’s safe at the moment,” said Rothan.
We headed on into the observatory, with the sound of the storm warning siren still nagging at us. When Lucas opened the door to Outside, the noise tripled in volume, and we stepped out into a wind that tore at my hair, sending it whipping into my face. The eastern sky was just beginning to lighten with the sunrise, but the beach and the waves were brightly lit by a strange red glow. I looked up and saw a red beam of light was flashing upwards from the top of the Haven hillside.
There was a cluster of people standing a few steps away, including the unmistakable figure of Adika. We went to join them.
“Is that red light part of the storm warning system?” Lucas yelled the question above the sound of the siren.
“Yes.” Juniper came to stand next to us. “That’s the storm beacon.”
“How long do we have before conditions are too dangerous for us to fly back to the Hive?” asked Lucas.
“Conditions are already looking too dangerous to me,” said Adika grimly.
“It should be safe to fly for another few hours,” said Juniper, “but you can’t go back to the Hive before you’ve caught our murderer.”
“I admit the idea of leaving Cador in charge of the ambush worries me,” said Lucas. “How secure is the Haven in a high category storm like this?”
“The Haven never has any problems in storms,” said Juniper. “It’s built into the hillside to protect it from the winds, the entrances are high enough to be safe from flooding, and the windows are all made of unbreakable glass.”
An especially strong gust of wind made me stagger. Lucas took my arm to steady me.
“I’m currently thinking we should stay here,” he said. “Even ignoring the issue of catching our third target, it would take us at least an hour to get everyone dressed, do even minimal packing, and reach the aircraft hangar. The wind is bound to be worse by then. Does anyone want to argue in favour of leaving?”
There was silence on the crystal comms.
“In that case, I’ll message everyone to tell them that …”
Lucas was interrupted by his dataview chiming, and he peered at the screen. “Gold Commander Melisande is calling me. I’ll have to go back inside the observatory to answer her call, or we won’t be able to hear each other.”
Lucas and I hurried back into the calm of the observatory. We turned off our ear crystals, and Lucas tapped at his dataview.
Melisande spoke in an urgent voice. “Tactical Commander Lucas, do you intend to return to the Hive before the storm arrives?”
“We intend to remain at the sea farm and apprehend our target as planned, Gold Commander,” said Lucas.
“Are you likely to need your seven transport aircraft within the next few hours?”
“We’ve no intention of flying anywhere in this wind.”
“In that case, I will order your aircraft to assist with the rescue effort.” Melisande ended the call.
“What rescue effort is Melisande talking about?” I asked.
“I’ve no idea,” said Lucas. “Juniper will probably know. Let me send a message to tell everyone in our unit that we’re staying at the Haven during the storm.”
He spent a minute tapping at his dataview, and then there was a gust of wind as the door to Outside opened. Adika and the Admiral came in.
“I came to make sure you aren’t leaving us,” said the Admiral anxiously. “In storms of this magnitude, we get structural damage to houses, flooding, and large numbers of falling trees. Everyone at the sea farm will be boarding up their house windows, and then coming to take refuge in their apartments in the Haven. They believe that Treeve and Massen were behind all the attacks, so they’ll be perfectly safe here, but I’m horribly aware we still have a murderer running loose.”
“We’re going to stay and complete our mission,” said Lucas, in a soothing voice. “I’ve just agreed with the Gold Commander that our transport aircraft can assist in a rescue effort, but I’ve no idea what rescue effort she meant. Is the fishing fleet in trouble?”
“I told the fishing fleet to start heading home several hours ago,” said the Admiral. “Their last report said they were making good speed running before the wind, so they should make harbour within the next three or four hours.”
He paused. “The rescue effort is for the people who faded into the countryside. They heard my broadcast about Treeve and Massen, and want to come home to the sea farm rather than risk their lives staying in half-ruined buildings through a major storm. They can’t make it here on foot in time, so the coastal patrol base is being inundated with calls for help.”
The Admiral pointed at the gla
ss wall. “Look! The coastal patrol base is sending out their transport aircraft now.”
I turned to see where he was pointing, and saw the black shapes of aircraft in the sky. They came flying low over us, the sound of their engines rising to a crescendo that warred with the sound of the wind and the siren, before fading as they continued along the coast.
“Fifteen transport aircraft,” said Lucas. “How many people do they need to bring back?”
The Admiral shrugged. “Just over four thousand.”
“Four thousand!” Lucas frowned. “They can’t possibly bring back four thousand people before the storm hits. A transport aircraft can only carry about forty people at a time.”
“There’ll be a lot of children and babies sitting on their parents’ laps,” said the Admiral. “If people are sitting on the floor as well, they can fit about seventy passengers into the cabins. The cargo holds will be less than half full with their bags, so the weight of the passengers won’t be a problem.”
“That’s still only a total of about a thousand people across the fifteen aircraft,” muttered Lucas.
“The aircraft will fly back here, rapidly unload people and bags at the seawall, and then go out again. The fifteen aircraft already here will be concentrating on collecting people from along the coastline, and should manage at least two trips before they have to take refuge at the coastal patrol base. The Hive is sending out twenty more transport aircraft to collect all the people who went inland and bring them here.”
Lucas gave a soft sigh of relief. “Yes, the numbers work.”
“Of course the numbers work,” said the Admiral. “With thousands of people scattered across the countryside, and the New Year only a few weeks away, it was obvious we might need to bring them home quickly. I discussed a contingency plan with the Gold Commander during my visit to the Hive.”
The Admiral looked from Lucas to me and back again. “My people fled in fear, and now we’re bringing them home. They believe they’ll be safe here now, and I’m depending on your unit to make sure that’s true.”
I was caught by the raw emotion in the Admiral’s voice and found myself linking to his thoughts.
… this ambush has to be completed successfully, so we can go back to the old, peaceful life and …
“Is there anything we can do to help with the rescue?” asked Lucas.
“You could send some of your men down to the seawall to help get people and bags unloaded from the aircraft. The faster each aircraft unloads, the faster it can take off again.”
“The Beta team are all committed on guard duty,” said Adika, “but I could take the Alpha Strike team down there.”
Lucas nodded.
“There’s one other slight complication,” said the Admiral. “Our own fishing boats are heading back, but we’ve got another Hive’s fishing fleet on the way to us as well.”
“What? Why is another Hive’s fishing fleet coming here?” demanded Adika.
… you’d think even the landlocked would understand that, but I need to stay patient and explain the …
“The other Hive’s sea farm is much further away than ours. The storm would catch their fleet before they reach it, so they’re coming here.”
“You’ll have to tell this fleet that they can’t come,” said Adika.
I felt the Admiral’s thoughts flare with anger. “I can’t tell them not to come. Their fleet is in peril, and they’ve called safe harbour!”
I was hit by emotion and memories of being caught in a storm at sea. Drenched by the waves, frozen by the wind, and the boat keeling over so far that the deck under my feet was close to vertical. Gasping with relief at the sight of the glowing beacon of light coming from the Haven of another sea farm. The beacon that meant the difference between life and death.
And that was the moment the Admiral thought of the Hive Treaty rule which obliged all sea farms to offer refuge to boats in distress. As he accessed that imprinted information, I was hit by a deluge of connected facts. Other Hive Treaty rules for sea farms. Why their people were allowed contact with other sea farms and even permitted to drift between them. Above all, the reason why Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement insisted every Hive should have a sea farm.
“People from another Hive would be a threat to Amber’s safety,” said Adika. “The other Hive’s boats will have to …”
I interrupted Adika, speaking with the Admiral’s fierce passion and knowledge. “Adika, I know that you’re in charge of unit security, so your imprint and training encourages you to think of anyone from another Hive as a threat, but we can’t turn away the other Hive’s fishing fleet. The people on board those boats are no different to the members of our own sea farm, so refusing them refuge from the storm would be inhuman. It would also get our Hive sanctioned, because Joint Hive Treaty’s rules for sea farms include honouring calls for safe harbour.”
“What?” Adika shook his head. “Lucas, if Hive Treaty includes this safe harbour rule, then we’ve no choice but to fly Amber back to our Hive and stay here to catch the final target without her.”
“It’s too late for us to fly Amber back to our Hive,” said Lucas. “Our aircraft have gone to join the rescue effort. Calling them back would take time, and the wind is already at a level where I wouldn’t dare to risk Amber flying anywhere.”
He faced the Admiral. “The boats from the other Hive will obviously take refuge inside the seawall. Will their crews stay on board them during the storm?”
“The rules of safe harbour include offering basic hospitality,” said the Admiral. “Our hospitality area is on Level 4 of the Haven. It has dormitory accommodation for the boat crews, and a combination dining and rest area.”
“You mean that people from another Hive will be staying inside the Haven itself during this storm?” Adika groaned. “How many people are we talking about?”
The Admiral waved his hands in a gesture of ignorance. “I’ve no idea. It depends how many of their boats sailed on this trip. Probably a few hundred people.”
“A few hundred!” Adika repeated in a shocked voice.
“I’m sure the Admiral will take precautions to ensure these people don’t go roaming around the Haven,” said Lucas calmly.
“A visiting fishing fleet would never abuse the rules of safe harbour by trespassing outside the hospitality area,” said the Admiral.
Adika made a disbelieving noise.
“The Admiral’s right,” I said. “A fishing fleet that abused hospitality could be refused safe harbour in future. They’d never risk it.”
“We do take basic precautions on these occasions though,” said the Admiral. “The hospitality area doors are guarded by Sea Farm Security and watched by surveillance cameras.”
“Will any of your own people be entering the hospitality area?” asked Lucas.
“We’ll be delivering food three times a day.”
“In which case, I suggest you tell Cador to make sure the people who come out of that hospitality area are the same people who went in,” said Lucas.
Adika gave a despairing shake of his head. “Why does Joint Hive Treaty include all these ridiculous rules for sea farms? In fact, why does it insist on Hives having sea farms at all?”
Nobody answered Adika’s question. Lucas didn’t know the answer. The Admiral did. I did too now, but I wouldn’t inflict the burden of that nightmare knowledge on anyone else.
I leaned forward to rest my forehead against the cool glass of the observatory wall, and closed my eyes. Hive cities had vastly complicated infrastructures, and a failure of any part of them could lead to disaster. Our Hive had emergency plans to cope with disasters such as when Blue Zone had lost all its power for days. Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement had emergency plans on a far vaster scale.
The mutual aid clauses of Joint Hive Treaty meant that if one Hive suffered a disaster, then other Hives would send assistance, but there was the truly unthinkable possibility that some catastrophe would hit all Hives at once. I’d seen examples
of some potential catastrophes in the Admiral’s mind, and hadn’t understood most of them, but one train of facts had been perfectly clear.
The sea farms were Joint Hive Treaty Enforcement’s disaster plan in the case of a total collapse of Hive civilization. Self-sufficient, low technology communities that would allow the human race to survive when the great Hive cities fell. They even had archaic ways to calculate times and seasons in case more advanced methods were lost. Most importantly of all, the sea farms were used to working together to survive the dangers of the sea, so they would be able to work together to survive future challenges as well.
Sea farm Havens were built with vast unused accommodation areas to allow them to take in the expected influx of survivors from their main Hives. Sea farms were set up to supply food to the main Hive, not because that small amount of food was really significant, but so they’d have the excess capacity to feed their influx of survivors. Sea farms had to be several days’ walk from their main Hive, because the survivors …
I winced at the cold-bloodedness of that rule, while also having to accept the harsh reality that it was needed. Our sea farm couldn’t take in all the hundred million people of our Hive. In the event of Hive civilization falling, the distance from the main Hive to our sea farm was designed to limit the number of survivors reaching it, and to make sure those survivors were all people who could cope with conditions Outside and contribute to the work of the sea farm.
I knew who those survivors would be. There were fifty thousand adult members of the Hive Ramblers Association. Many of them didn’t just go walking Outside, but worked there as well. The Hive helpfully gave these Outside workers very long breaks from their work so they could go on camping trips to places like the sea farm.
So fifty thousand adult members of the Hive Ramblers Association would either know the way to the sea farm themselves or have friends who did. Many Hive Defence workers, like the pilots of our aircraft, were used to conditions Outside and knew the location of the sea farm too. All these people would take their children and head to the place that was pointedly called the Haven. The Tactical team had estimated that could accommodate at least two hundred thousand people and probably more.
Hurricane (Hive Mind Book 3) Page 35