Hive 6: Chapter 3

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3.

“You have a bag?”

Merlin looked up from the console at the sound of Colby’s voice. Will was leaning over Merlin’s shoulder at the bank of displays.

“What do you have there?” Will asked.

“Not sure. Some kind of slime. It was all over Chambers’s toolbelt.”

Will moved fast, opening a cabinet and removing a red biohazard bag from a roll. She was impressed by his conservation of motion and his knowledge of where exactly the item he needed sat. Not for the first time, Colby wondered if Will wasn’t the smartest one among them. He sealed it with a fluid motion and held it up to the overhead lights.

“I don’t think it’s coolant. Merlin, why don’t you send the room order?” He said it as calmly as Will said everything, but Colby’s stomach rolled. That meant a lockdown. Which meant Will thought things were serious, or close enough to serious not to take any chances.

Merlin looked at Will for a longs econd before he turned to his monitors and activated the mic mounted on the panel.

“Attention, campers,” he began, keeping his voice light. He wasn’t smiling. “We are going to issue a room order for the time being. Give me a jingle if you need to be out of your rooms for any reason until we give the all-clear. We know you have many choices in biodomes, and we appreciate you staying with harlen. Over and out.”

Merlin made sure the microphone was dead before spinning in his seat. “What the fuck is going on?”

Will was staring at the slimy toolbelt. “I don’t know. But we are going to find out.”

When the announcement came over the greenhouse speakers, Harlen’s expression turned cloudy. “What the hell is that all about?” His neck craned up to the speaker, as if it still spoke.

Charlotte was already gathering her tablet and keycard. “Pick up after?”

Dani nodded. “I’ll be behind you in a minute.”

“Don’t stay too long. Colby’s likely to tase you,” Harlen chuckled. His ofcus had shifted to Charlotte now that Dani once more gave him the cold shoulder. Maybe he could have a little fun with the curvier woman, and was interested to see if Charlotte’s hair was a natural red. The way she flitted her eyes up to him said she was willing to provide some evidence for him in that regard.

“I’ll be along,” the senior botanist replied, tucking a strand of silken hair over her ear. She looked up only when she heard the door to the hall shut behind Harlen and Charlotte. Dani breathed a sigh of relief. It was only when she was alone that she felt entirely herself. Alone with the plants.

Unlike people, plants were uncomplicated. If you nourished them properly, gave them the requisite amount of sun and water, they would grow. They would flower, and they would feed. Simple.

She knew Harlen was attracted to her. He was unsubtle in his overtures. Dani found him unappealing on almost every level. His body was fine, a little squat for her tastes, but not unpleasant. It was every other facet of the man that repelled her. He had the unearned confidence of Caucasian men who found success early on, and now assumed that every endeavor would be met with the same success. And she felt his hungry eyes on her, the same gaze that many men gave her. Yellow fever it was called. Despite the fact Dani was born in Missouri to parents who were second generation Americans themselves, she was seen as exotic and desirable because her hair was dark and her eyes were decorated by epicanthic folds.

Plants did not try to grab your ass when your back was turned, unlike certain billionaires in the dome. Dani huffed and went back to her work. She had a few more samples to collect before she went back to her room, where she’d stare at her spartan walls until the lockdown was lifted. It never occurred to her that this one might be legitimate. Another test, that was all.

Until she felt the hand on either side of her head. Smooth, strangely sticky, wet. Fingers sprawled over her cheeks. Her body seized, as if she’d been struck by some paralyzing agent. Perhaps that was what the slick fingers were coated with. She couldn’t move, could barely breathe.

I’ve come to help you, Dani, the Queen said. No words were necessary, not when she held her prey this way. The Queen spoke directly into Dani’s mind. Thanks to the drone that had been Chambers, the Queen knew much about the dome and its inhabitants. Dani was mysterious, even with the uploaded knowledge of her drone. Isolated and private. That would all change once she was Hive.

“No…” Dani’s whisper was so quiet, nothing could hear it besides the Queen, who saw this resistance only as the last, pitiful attempts of the human to cling to its isolated nature.

Dani Takaki found her mind assaulted by images of alien desires, of a sensuality that was beyond the ken of normal humans. Her previous life was defined by her ambitions, her belief that she could be best among all. The Queen showed her something new, a different manner of existence. In this new world Dani was shown, she saw herself as an essential cog ina greater machine. Her care and attention given to plants would be redirected and made pure. Her purpose would be to tend the Hive, to grow it and nurture it as she had the flora of the dome. In sod oing, she would serve her Queen.

Dani shuddered in the grip of the latex creature, images of herself as a singular being buried beneath the greater purpose of service to her Queen, and in so servin, she would serve Hive. Already, the faint itching of another mind echoed in her brain. It was a drone, a drone like Dani was becoming, another extension of the Queen’s will, delirious in its fealty to their Queen.

You will tend my garden, the Queen said in her ethereal voice. You will grow our Hive and you will be rewarded with every breath.

Dani shook again. This time it was with a full-bodied climax, a taste of the pleasure her new Queen offered. Whatever resistance had existed inside her was blown to tatters in that orgasm. When she opened he rmouth to cry out in pleasure, she was silenced as thick rubber coated her face in dark tendrils. These bindings came from the Queen herself, a flurry of whipping tentacles that surrounded and covered Dani until she was a shapeless mass. The rubber cocoon rested against the near wall, adhering to it. For a moment, Dani struggled inside as the thick fluid filled the cocoon, penetrating Dabi’s nose and mouth, her ass and pussy. Stillness took hold and the Queen observed the newest member of her growing Hive as her body was transforjmed within. Elation filled the Queen as she felt a new mind connecting with the other. They were not yet in sync, Dani’s mind was too independent yet. Soon their voices would merge in a chorus of worship.

Harlen watched the scene in the greenhouse unfold on the monitor in the control room. Will and Merlin were across the room, conferring` over the possibilities of an actual intruder in the domes. Harlen barked a wry laugh. That was no longer a question. There was something inside with them, and he’d watched as it subdued and imprisoned one of the team members. He couldn’t say whether Dani Takaki was alive or dead. He supposed it no longer mattered. The mission as done. They’d been breached and all their work was for naught.

“You see something over there?”

Will, butting in again. Harlen clenched his fists at his sides. He wanted to throw something, smash the goddamn monitors with the desk chair merlin’s fat ass rested in. He wanted to rip a hole in the side of the dome and march outside. So much money. So much time. All wasted.

Unless…

“We have a visitor.”

Will and Merlin gathered around the monitor in time to see the creature slip from view.

“What the fuck?” Merlin wondered.

“The hell is that?” Will asked simultaneously.

“Your guess is as good as mine. See that sac on the wall?”

“I see it,” Will said. Merlinw as still staring, gaping.

“That is our chief botanist, Dani Takaki. It coocconed her like a spider. Only that doesn’t look like any web I’ve seen before.”

“That’s it, then,” Will mused. “We have to call someone in. This way past anything we can deal with. That’s some kind of… I don’t know. Alien, maybe? Whatever it is, we have to isolate it and evacuate this facility.”

Harlen nodded in thoughtful agreement. Will could think whatever he wanted. They would not evacuate until the thing was secured. Maybe the initial experiment was compromised, but the engineer was right. This was something no one had ever seen before. And as such, it would be priceless, both in scientific value and, potentially, financially. Who knows what studying a creature like this could yield.

“That looked like a person,” Merlin stammered, “but it wasn’t. it was some sort of monster.”

Will put a hand on the chubby man’s shoulder andgave it a reassuring squeeze. “Whatever it is, we’re going to lock it down and get the hell out of here before it can do any more damage.” Then, to Harlen. “We have to assume that whatever this is has done the same thing to Chambers. That means besides the people in this room, only Kelly, Charlotte, and Colby are left. We should get everyone together. If it’s an animal, or thinks like one, it isn’t going to want to attack a group. It got Chambers in the tunnels. Alone. And it got Dani when she was alone. We just make sure that none of us are alone and maybe it’ll stay clear.”

“Let’s talk to our security head before we start making those calls. Merlin, how about you get Miss Colby Prentiss in here.”

“Yeah,” Merlin said, never taking his eyes of the cocoon encasing Dani. “Right away.”

Colby’s steps were hollow in the passageway, coming back at her like sullen ghosts. The extendable baton she usually felt bouncing on her thigh was in her hand instead. The weight of it felt good there, and made the journey through the empty halls of the domes feel less haunted. He heart was pumping quick and steady, her hearing sharp. She knew the effects of adrenaline, knew how to channel that energy, but it didn’t stave off the accompanying fear. That burrowed into he rget and chilled her. There was something moving in the domes that wasn’t them.

Each bend in the passage, she was sure that she’d see something, a gruesome figure all teeth and rage, and each time she was greeted with nothing. When she used her keycard to swipe into the control room, she let out a sigh of relief she hadn’t known was waiting.

“Alright, Miss Prentiss, what’s going on?”

Harlen had his arms folded and was looking flatly at his chief security officer.

“Not to be flip, but you’re going to have to tell me. All I know is that we’re not alone here. What did you see?”

Merlin pushed himself away from the bank of mintors, inviting Colby closer for a look. She gave Gharlen another glance and leaned into the screens, searching the feed from the greenhouse.

“Is that-?”

“Some kind of cocoon,” Merlin said and barked a laugh that made Colby worry that whatever hold on his calm and reason Merlin might have, it was becoming dangerously tenuous.

Harlen spoke up again. Ever the fearless leader. “We’re going to seal it up, whatever it was that did that to poor Dani. And once w know it is safely locked away, the rest of us are getting out of here. But we need our head of security to do just that. Find it and contain it. We’ll help every way we can, but-“

“That’s not going to happen.” Her eyes hadn’t moved from Dani in her rubbery cocoon.

“I’m sorry?” Harlen said, chuckling in that way that meant he was expecting an apology.

“We’re not splitting up. One on one is foolish. We need everyone here. In this room. Right now.”

Merlin watched them both like he caught his parents fighting. That made Colby even angrier, and now she did face the entrepreneur.

“As you said, I am the head of security. I wouldn’t allow anyone in my command to go one on one with whatever this is, and I won’t endanger the rest of the team by putting myself in that same position. I’m the one with experience, after all.”

“This is my facility,” Harlen growled, stabbing his finger at the ground for emphasis.

“And it’s my job to guard it. Even from you, sir.” She didn’t wait for merlin to turn on the microphone. She flipped the channel open and leaned in, pushing Merlin farther from the console on his rolling chair. “This is Colby. We have a situation. I’m going to need evryoen in the command room right now. Hurry. If you see someone you don’t know, call out and we’ll come for you. There’s someone loose in this facility. Be careful, be quick. Get here now. Over and out.”

The Queen moved through the vents with grace and confidence. Her lithe form and dexterity made it easy for her to wind through the passages, unseen by the cameras. Thanks to the chambersdrone, she knew as well as he had the geography of the domes. Most importantly, his mind’s absorption into Hive gave them the shared knowledge of locations of security cameras.

She whipped down the passage and then to a duct that opened easily, tilting upward as she descended into the small room. Nothing more than an oversized closet, the room was the nerve center of the domes. Servers hummed with their cooling fans spinning, and red-knobbed levers were there to reset the main batteries.

chambersdrone was hard at work making the room more befitting of the new Hive’s Queen. The walls now glistened with the wet rubber that had first enveloped and then corrupted him. Now his body exuded it, an ooze that the drone used to paint the walls and make new tunnels of rubber extending from the facility’s brain stem.

The Queen was wise, and she was lustful. Seeing her mindless drone at work awakened the need always within her, thought it had slept while she plotted. She had no need for words. Her mind, powerful and undeniable to her children, pushed its orders to the chambersdrone. It stopped in its work to refashion the biodome in its Queen’s image and moved to the latex-skinned regent.

Another push with her mind and the drone was on its back, its rubber-sheathed sex angled up at her. She descended on him, her pussy slick and hungry. Her ebon canal swallowed the phallus and her slender hips rode the drone. It was stiff and giving all at once, and she caressed it with her walls while it slid perfectly against her clit. The steady rhythm increased. Her pleasure was growing quick, not only for the direct stimulations of her drone’s cock, but that a new mind was awakening to its new home with Hive.

The danidrone was emerging. Through its eyes, the Queen could see the newest member of Hive, its blacks rubber skin tapered into green extremities, shining green vines wrapped around its body, forming a verdant collar around its neck before all uniqueness was lost in its faceless black hood. The Queen liked that it was outwardly distinct, but its mind gasped once before surrendering to the joy of existing as Hive.

As Dani Tataki’s essence drowned in the greater pool of the collective, the Queen arched her back and shrieked with pleasure. The drones followed, their climaxes serving as consummation for one and baptism for the other. Both will filled with bliss. And purpose.