Horizon Beta

by D. W. Vogel

  Chapter 30

  Noah

  She was beautiful.

  By the time I jumped to my feet, recognizing the scent of our newly emerged Queen, the corridors had filled with ‘Mites streaming in from outside. I pushed and shoved but couldn’t get past them. We flowed down the long tunnels as one, with the humans bringing up the rear.

  The pool chamber was filled with ‘Mites when I elbowed my way in. All our misfit fighters clustered around a vision of perfection, perched on the ground below her shattered cocoon.

  She was no taller than my chest. Her eight legs were delicate, still damp and shining from the inside of her cocoon. They joined her body in a star shape at her thorax. Her small head glistened in the light of the torches, and her tail was longer than my whole body. She sat back on her hind six feet, waving the front two at us all. Her feelers tasted the air around her.

  Other ‘Mites were emerging from their own shells, dropping to the floor behind her. They waved their legs around, drying off.

  I pushed my way through the mass of adults to the front of the group surrounding her. As soon as she smelled me, she whipped her head around and stretched her front legs toward me.

  “I’m here,” I murmured, and stepped toward her. Her scent was intoxicating, and I had a hard time keeping my footing.

  When I reached her, she touched my shoulders with her forelegs. Her feelers tasted my face, tickling my skin. I reveled in her touch.

  “You remember me?” Did I dare to hope?

  Her forelegs wrapped around me and pulled me in. She dropped her head and I reached up to touch her shining skin. A pale yellow oil oozed out of the top of her head and I wiped it away.

  The instant I touched the oil, my world went fuzzy. A shiver of pure joy rushed through me. It was like when she had been attached to me, but so much more. My lungs pumped, sucking in the scent of the sweet oil on my fingers.

  “I’m yours forever,” I whispered.

  It was all there. The Hive bond. I had been hers from the mingling of our blood back at the old Hive. I would have given her every drop I had. This was her response. I was hers, and she was mine. I felt it with every breath. I would die for her. And she would live for me.

  She released her hold on me and I stepped back, lost in the awe of the moment. One of the adult ‘Mites gently pulled me back and took my place in front of the Queen.

  She pulled the ‘Mite in and it rubbed its head against hers, tasting the sweet oil. When it stepped back, I wanted to embrace it.

  I had no words for what I felt for that ‘Mite. Brother wasn’t strong enough. It shared the favor of my Queen. I should have been jealous, but her power was strong enough to surround us all. One by one the adult ‘Mites approached her and received the oil. When each one backed away, it joined the group of us all together, milling around the room, sharing the rapture of the moment. One Hive. One family. Glory to our Queen.

  “What in all the hells is going on?”

  Even Mo’s voice couldn’t disrupt my joy.

  “We’re hers,” I tried to explain. “We’re a real Hive now. She’s our Queen, and we’re her ‘Mites.”

  “You’re not a ‘Mite,” he pointed out, and I grinned.

  “I am, though. I am now.”

  The newly hatched came next, accepting her blessing. They shivered with the same obvious joy I felt.

  “Go,” I urged Mo. “She’s Queen of us all. Go and touch her and you’ll see.”

  He raised an eyebrow at me. The other men eyed me like I’d grown an extra head.

  Mo frowned. “I’m not sure I want to. We’re free here.”

  I knew what he meant. I remembered what it was like to be on the outside, seeing the bond of a Hive but not able to be part of it, or even to understand what that meant. As a kid I’d wanted nothing more than to serve my Masters. But this was different.

  “It’s not like that,” I said. “I’m still free.” I glanced back at the Queen, giving her oil to all our ‘Mites. “I’m not her slave. I’m her family.”

  Mo hesitated a moment, then his jaw clenched as he made up his mind.

  He approached the Queen. She took a step back, tasting him with her feelers. After a long moment, she lowered her head and he rubbed his hands in the oil she secreted.

  He waited.

  He turned around to face me.

  “So what’s supposed to happen? Shouldn’t I feel something?”

  I was too blissed out to register more than a faint disappointment. “Maybe it’s only for me. Because she was attached to me. Maybe you can’t really be hers.”

  A gargled scream echoed behind me. It cut through my hazy joy and sent a chill down my back.

  Gil barreled through the ‘Mites that stood there enjoying the Queen’s blessing. He crossed the room at a dead run, arms raised.

  He’s going to hurt her.

  My feet felt like lead. Gil lunged at the Queen, who skittered back out of his reach. He stumbled over the edge of the pool, splashing into the water.

  Go. Help her. Protect the Queen. The scent of it filled the room, the Queen’s blue tinged with silver, icy fear.

  The nearest ‘Mites jumped on Gil, dragging him away from the Queen. I grabbed at his flailing arms, pulling him out of their grasp. Raw fury oozed out of them, and crawled through my veins. We wanted to tear him apart.

  “No! Noah, don’t!” Mo pulled Gil from my grasp and shoved him away. The ‘Mites formed a protective circle around the Queen, every feeler aimed straight at Gil. The few Soldiers that had survived the battle raised their venomous tails toward him.

  I saw the moment it happened.

  His face was a mask of pure hatred, staring murderous rage at the small Queen behind her guards. But in seconds, his expression melted into confusion. He rubbed at his arm where I’d grabbed him. The slick of oil that had been on my hands glistened on his skin.

  He brought his fingers to his face and inhaled deeply.

  Gil crumbled in front of us all.

  He collapsed, sobbing, rubbing his face with his hands.

  I strode toward him and stood over his weeping form.

  His voice was a harsh rasp, and when he looked up, I knew.

  “My Queen,” he whispered. “I’m so sorry, my beautiful Queen.”

  Chapter 31

  Noah

  We all gathered in the main hall. The young ‘Mites and Queen were surrounded by the adults. Five more refugee ‘Mites had arrived since the battle, waiting outside until I allowed them entry. None of our Hive would mistake them for enemies, but the Queen’s safety depended on vigilance. No ‘Mite approached to receive her oil without my initial okay. And no other ‘Mites even considered questioning the authority I’d taken on in this task. Even our strongest Soldiers deferred to me when I stalked through the Hive to sniff out a stranger. Mo might be in charge of the human population, but I was in charge of the Hive.

  To ease my muscles after the fight, I’d made a long dive into the underground river here and harvested a basket of waterbugs, which the ‘Mites were enjoying raw. I was famished, and ate three of my own. The other men wrinkled their noses.

  “Those look disgusting. How can you eat that?” They munched on dry strips of seal.

  I grinned. “It’s the best. How can you eat THAT?”

  Mo sat down next to me, chewing on his meat strip, eyeing my raw waterbug. “Those have got to be so full of parasites . . . Is that what they fed you?”

  The shell of the last waterbug cracked in my hands and I slurped it down. “These, and the other shellfish, and the algae from the ship, I guess. Whatever else the Gardeners could grow in the mushroom patches or gather from the land around.”

  He shook his head at my slimy meal. “So what happened down there?”

  “It’s . . . I don’t know how to describe it.” The ‘Mites had tried to tell me, but the clicking language didn’t have words for what they did. “It’s a thing for them. I saw
it back at the old Hive, on that last day when the old Queen laid her eggs on me. They all did just what we did. Got that oil from their Queen.” I shivered in disgust. She was ancient. Sick. Her oil would be foul and putrid. “It’s a thing they do, apparently. All the Hive goes down to get the oil. It’s . . .“ I trailed off. How could I express the pure rapture that coursed through me when I received her blessing? Mo had tried and felt nothing.

  “But it didn’t work for me,” he said. “I touched it and felt nothing. Still got nothing.”

  “No. I don’t know why. Maybe because she shared my blood?”

  He glanced at Gil, who was fawning over the Queen in the corner. All the ‘Mites had accepted him. His whole scent had changed. “But it worked on Gil, apparently. He touched that stuff and got . . . what, converted? Inducted?”

  “She made him hers.” I sucked down the last waterbug and licked out the shell. “I don’t understand it. But her oil made him part of the Hive. We all are.” I gestured around the room. “It’s like . . . like all of us are just part of the same body, different parts of one big thing.” I wished I had words for what I wanted to express, but they didn’t exist.

  “He didn’t share her blood, though,” Mo said. “She was never on him, was she?”

  “No.”

  “So why does it work on him and not on us?”

  I had no answer.

  Mo stood up and stretched. “Well, maybe Lexis can figure it out.” He looked around the room. “We need to let them all know what’s happened here. The attack, and the Queen. We need to get everyone together and sort out a plan.”

  Exhaustion was tugging at my bones. The wounds I’d taken in the battle that morning felt hot, and every muscle ached.

  “We should be safe for a couple of days at least,” I said. “The old Hive won’t expect their Soldiers back right away, and when they don’t return, they’ll have to sort out another patrol to send at us.”

  The Queen in the corner folded her legs under her and lowered her head. All the young ones clustered around her, and the adults settled in, guarding the sleepy juveniles.

  “But they’ll smell her for miles,” I continued. “We need to get our people out of there and get far away from here. They won’t stop. They can’t.”

  Gil wandered over and plopped down next to me. “They’ll never stop until she’s dead,” he agreed. “I can’t explain it. I wasn’t even thinking, just had this impossible need to kill her. Until she accepted me as hers.”

  Mo shook his head. “I don’t get it. And right now, I’m too tired to think.” He set up a night watch rotation among the humans, knowing the ‘Mites would set their own. “In the morning we’ll send a runner up the mountain. See what we can come up with. And now, I’m going to bed.”

  He stalked away to his chamber.

  I pulled my pile of hides out and snuggled up to sleep next to the Queen.

  ***

  In the morning, we started harvesting what we could from our dead ‘Mites. The huge Digger claws that cut right through rock could be mounted onto a handle and swung like a sword. I’d proven that Builder mandibles were formidable. It felt wrong to be taking these parts from ‘Mites who had died to save our new little Hive, but I knew that if I had died and some part of me could be used to keep the Queen safe, I’d want the survivors to take it and use it.

  And it was obvious that we would need weapons, and practice using them. Soldier ‘Mites were born to kill. We had a lot of catching up to do.

  The men argued about where to go as we all harvested the sharp parts from the dead ‘Mites.

  Carl thought we should take all the ‘Mites up to the cave where the rest of our people were currently hiding. “We can build enough fires and keep them inside close by. They’ll stay warm enough.”

  “And what will they eat?” Mo crouched next to a dead Digger, using a mandible to saw the claw into two usable parts. “What will we eat? You know there’s nothing up there.”

  “So what’s your plan?”

  Mo’s shoulders sagged. “I don’t have one.” He looked over to where I was working on another unfortunate Builder. This one had been missing a leg when it showed up. It was missing more than that now. “I didn’t think they’d be able to find us here. Thought once we got her, we’d have time to raise her before we attacked the Hive to get our people back.”

  I pulled at the strong jaw on the dead ‘Mite. “They’ll never leave us alone here. What’s the other way?” I pointed away from the coast where the sick Hive was, toward the long flatlands and low hills I’d never known existed.

  “More ‘Mites,” Carl said. “A million smaller Hives, all stinking mad as soon as they see you.”

  Mo nodded. “The Queen on the coast, the one that has our people, she’s lived a long time. Way too long. Should have been replaced by new Queens. But having our people to do all their work made her way too powerful. No other Hives anywhere around; she killed them all. But when you leave her territory, they’re everywhere, all battling among themselves. There’s nowhere safe.”

  I sat back on the ground in the sunshine. The sky was grayer today than usual. Mo had told me the whole planet was surrounded by a cloud of tiny rocks flying in space. The sky didn’t look like rocks. Just like a high, gray cloud, some days thick and dark, others open to distant blue.

  “Then what are we waiting for?”

  They looked at me.

  “They’re going to keep coming. We know that. We’re not going to be safe as long as she rules that Hive. So let’s figure out a way to get our people out of there and kill the Hive once and for all.”

  Chapter 32

  Noah

  The rest of the people came back late that night, trooping down from whatever mountain hideaway they’d been staying in. Lexis started directing the Builders and Diggers to start fortifying our Hive, with plans for a wall and a trench around it. Her eyebrows were missing, but I didn’t want to ask.

  All day long there had been a steady trickle of new outcasts. Our Queen seemed to enjoy sitting in the sunshine, welcoming each ‘Mite with her oil. I sniffed them out as they arrived, but the Queen’s serene glow kept the edge off my nerves. Our numbers were growing, but nowhere near enough. Hardly any of the outcasts were Soldiers, and the few that were had obvious physical issues. Some army.

  Lexis had a million questions for me.

  “So you said that the Builders and Diggers at the old Hive helped you escape?”

  I sat back on the ground, securing a Builder mandible to a thick wooden club. I thought back to my flight, with the Queen attached to my belly. “It sure seemed like it. They could smell her for sure.”

  “But the Soldiers attacked?”

  The memory of angry Soldiers raining down into the water sent a chill down my back. “They sure did.”

  “Why?”

  I had no answer for that. We had allies within the old Hive. ‘Mites of every class that realized their old Queen was sick. Her weakness was poisoning the whole Hive. Those few allies had orchestrated our escape in the first place. Did I just get lucky, and happen to run into more allies who recognized what we were doing?

  “I don’t know,” I said. “Maybe because they’re inside with the Queen all the time, the Builders and Diggers are feeling the sickness more? Maybe they’re more accepting of a new one?”

  A clicking sounded behind me. I turned to see a Soldier outcast, one of the few that had survived our battle. “Builders stupid,” it clicked. “No Hive-is-us.” It meant loyalty, but there was no word for that in the click language. “Follow any Queen.”

  Lexis smiled. “That makes sense. With some Earth insects, a new Queen would leave her old Hive with some of the workers and set up a new one somewhere else. Probably with these bugs, some of the worker classes would follow the new Queen and be there to build a new Hive around her. Insect behavior, and insect larval stage with molting on an eight-legged monster that’s technically an arachnid. I wo
uldn’t have expected it, but here we are.”

  She was also full of questions about the oil sharing, which she called a ritual. The Queen had favored her with oil, but like Mo, it didn’t change her scent. She didn’t bond. Wasn’t “us.”

  “Gotta be some reason it works on you,” she said, pointing a Digger where she wanted it to work. “We’re all the same people, genetically. Doesn’t make sense that you’d get it and we wouldn’t. But we’ll keep trying. Maybe we have to do it more than once because we haven’t been around them as much.” She eyed one of the younger guys who was sawing the claw off one of our dead Diggers. “Maybe Mo and I are too old for it to work. Who knows?” She was making a list of every difference she could come up with, and theorized that there was something in the old Hive that changed our brain chemistry so we were susceptible.

  Later that night, we all crowded together in the common room. We had maybe thirty-five people, and thirty ‘Mites. I was using a bit of Builder mandible to cut a dead ‘Mite’s thick back armor into small, sharp arrowheads.

  Mo sat at the front of the group, and in the back, Gil clicked a translation for the ‘Mites of my old Hive that understood the clicking language. Our new Queen was learning fast, and her feelers waved, tasting all the scents of the room.

  “So what do we know, and what do we have?” Mo said.

  Lexis sighed. “We’ve got decent weapons, but nothing that will take down a Hive full of Soldiers. I’ve been working on an explosive, but I can’t blow up the enemy Hive with our people still in it. We’re not safe here, but we’re not safe anywhere that the ‘Mites can go with us. And we’ll need them if we’re ever going to rescue our people.”

  Carl muttered from my left. “We need more Soldiers. All these Diggers are great, but in a fight, we need venom.”