The Hive 6 - Chapter Two

More from the upcoming sequel in The Hive series!

2.

Chambers couldn’t move. He was in some kind of cocoon. The thing that had come at him was fast and lean, but distinctly feminine. He felt an energy from her that was almost maternal. There was a layer of fluid between his skin and the rubbery wrapping that held him. Chambers felt the current of that fluid brushing against his skin. There was a faint tickling that accompanied the flowing sensation like he was awash in some kind of chemical. He wasn’t sure how, but he continued to breathe, inhaling and exhaling this thick fluid with some effort, but he did not drown.

There had to be some kind of drug in the mix, too. The tingling was burrowing deeper, until he felt a heat in his sex. He was urgently aroused and could not move to relieve himself. There was a constant swirl of touch around his swollen cock, not quite firm enough to simulate a firm grasp, but enough to keep an awareness of his arousal nestled in the back of his thoughts while he contemplated his situation and a possible means of escape.

And then there were the whispers. It started shortly after he was cocooned by the strange creature, and the volume of these indiscernible sounds was increasing. Not so much that Chambers could make out the individual words, but he knew instinctively that they were meant for him.

The cocoon around him tightened, and the rubbery exterior now pressed tight against his skin, smoothed by the fluid surrounding him. The constriction brought with it another pulse of arousal, and he realized that he was fully erect. The rubbery shell held him in its grip and made him hungry for pleasure. He opened his mouth in a moand and the liquid he was suspending in flooding into his open mouth and he drank it down. The cocoon no longer felt like a separate thing. There was no difference he could tell between his skin and the rubber.

And always the voice whispered. He could make out more now. It was a woman, telling Chambers that it was good to feel such pleasure. That he was important. More, that he was not alone, nor would he be again. The rubbery grip on his cock squeezed with the pulses and the whispers, making his head spin. Just as the latex wove into his flesh, Chambers’s mind was invaded by tendrils of thought, instructing him.

My Queen, Chambers thought, words unbidden but so right. That’s who spoke to him. That’s who was behind this intense pleasure racing through him. Now that he knew whats he was, it was easier to allow her deeper into his mind. She was his Queen, after all, and to deny her probing in hi sthoughts was foolish. Not only because eof his reverence for her, but because he knew he could no more stop her than he could stop the pleasure from blotting out more of his thoughts.

The Queenw as telling him all kinds of wonderful things, about how he could help her, and he wanted to. Chambers had to strain to remember his name, and then it was gone, replaced by more of that blissful adulation of the creature that gave him such happiness. He would do anything for his Queen, including erase himself at her whim, to become a perfect vessel for her will.

The rubbery encasement that held the man who had been Chambers ruptured and vomited out the flow of liquid that once held him suspended. Along with the rush of liquid came a pile of arms and legs, slick and black. It rose slowly to its feet, standing straight and tall. Its face was featureless, covered in black latex. Its skin was like wise coated in the black rubber, and the wet skin shone under the light provided by the flashlight a man called Chambers once held. This drone needed no such light. It could see very well in the dark. It’s lean body was smooth, almost without any sign of its previous form. Between its legs was a swollen dark phallus. It gleamed along with the rest of him, an organ in search of a home.

Go, the drone’s Queen urged, and grow our Hive.

As was its purpose, the drone obeyed.

Harlen marched through the connecting arms of the facility with eyes straight ahead, hands loose at his sides. For someone who spent much of his early life rudderless and depressed, he displayed no sign of that previous insecurity. That’s what money got you. Water and coolant moved through pipes, air hissed as the domes were fed oxygen thanks to machinery of his own design, all of it alive, murmuring and swaying. The press often said this was “his baby,” and Harlen liked the analogy. This was a living, breathing thing of his own creation, though he needed no woman to do it. Like Zeus and Diana, he birthed it whole from his head. In a matter of a couple of years, they would be sending a similar structure to Mars on the back of his Harlen Space Works rockets.

Not that Harlen had no need of women. There were several women on the team he found both quite attractive and even very bright in their own ways. None had his vision or drive, but few did.

He made a right into the greenhouse, slipping through the plastic-covered entrance into the heat and humidity of the dome. He hated how damp he felt the instant he stepped inside the dome, loathing the discomfort that seemed to ignore his project jumpsuit entirely and go right to his skin, painting him with a sheen of sweat. He would have preferred his office and its view of the San Francisco Bay. Climate control, the glass dish of M & Ms he kept on the edge of his desk. His secretary.

Being a kid cursed with genius didn’t make him popular. It wasn’t his fault he was so much smarter than everyone else. The excellence he displayed in his schoolwork alienated him from the other kids who were more interested in parties and exploring each other’s young flesh. There would be time, he told himself, when everyone else was working their mundane jobs in the course of their mundane lives. He would be a success. And not just a success. He would be an icon.

Harlen Space Works followed after innovation in electric cars and some personal data devices, items that became synonymous with his brand of innovation. It was edgy, it was stylish, and it was not for the meek. He’d made fortunes for venture capitalists until he bought back more of his company, and now he made fortunes for himself. When he announced during a press conference that he would be joining the team of scientists in the biodome, it was met with skepticism. It was a stunt, people said. And so what if it was? People knew Harlen, and if he disappeared for a year and prove that his next grand design was not only feasible, it was inevitable, it would all be worth it. Forget the governments of the world. Harlen would be the name associated with space exploration. He would conquer Mars.

First, he wanted to cruise through the greenhouse and see what Dani was working on. He was sure it was something to do with cultivating food in artificial light, or maybe how to make tuber plants grow in zero gravity. That part didn’t concern him. Her slim body hinted at by her white jumpsuit was of far more interest. She was serious and focused, like Harlen, and didn’t speak much with the other members of the team holed up in the domes. Maybe they had something in common. If not, maybe she’d enjoy a roll in his cot before he left the dome soon. It was remarkable what his wealth and notoriety brought him, including beautiful Asian women.

Charlotte was close to Dani, assisting. Where Dani was withdrawn, almost cold, Charlotte was an open book. As such, she was far less interesting. She did have a nice body, and always wore makeup. That was a rarity among the women in the domes. While he liked Charlotte’s femininity, it was Dani’s exotic looks that caught Harlen’s eye. He liked Asian women, and he wasn’t going to apologize for his taste.

“Quite a morning,” he said, breaching the silence of the greenhouse.

“A little excitement never hurt anyone.” Charlotte’s double entendre wasn’t lost on Harlen. Dani said nothing at all.

“I suppose so,” he replied. “Curious what you’re working on today.”

Dani was staring down at her tabnlet. Without looking up she said, “Viability. Some of the plants are dying and I’m not sure why. They have proper nutrients. It might be the artificial light.”

“I don’t want to step on your toes, Miss Takaki, but perhaps I could help? I do know my way around problem-solving.” Harlen gave her his most winning smile, a smile that cost him several thousand dollars to make so perfectly white and even.

“No thank you, Mr. Harlen.”

“You can call me Devon.”

“No thank you, Devon.”

His smile faltered at that, just for a second.

Charlotte took a step toward Harlen, her chest thrust forward to display her nice tits. Harlen reminded himself that money couldn’y buy everything, and Dani Takaki appeared to be one of those things. Not that he was ready to surrender just yet. Good to know, he observed, that there was a consolation prize waiting beside his prey.

Merlin squeezed the stress ball until the foam bled through his fingers. He had seen Harlen from the first moment he entere the greenhouse. Prick. Throwing his money and fame around. Merlin couldn’t hear everything being said, the mics in the greenhouse were placed high up and the hum of the irrigation and sprinklers and the machines generating the false sunlight contributed to a din that drowned human voices almost entirely. He could snag bits and pieces, but Harlen was talking low. He knew that voice, the one Harlen used around women. You didn’t have to be a psychologist to figure the man out. Billionaire or not, he was still a pimply kid who got nervous around women.

The reason Merlin knew Harlen so well was that Merlin, born Mercy Jackson, was not much different. He had a little more poise around women, a little less flash and more substance. But he knew the moves all too well. Ever since he’d been a chubby teen, using every charm at his disposal to convince a woman to pay him some attention. In college he found more success in dating, but that was youthful hormones. Everyone got laid in college.

Merlin gained his nickname in those college years, displaying an aptitude for computer science and analysis. He was recruited right out of grad school by Harlen’s company, at first for data collation and analysis for the fitness apps, but his efficiency and thoroughness moved him up the ladder fast. Before he was thirty, Merlin was making almost six figures. Harlen needed him, and MNerlin loved making that kind of money for work he found interesting, if not challenging. The brass ring was the space stuff, and so Merlin volunteered for the full ticket in the domes.

The domes spoke to him. As with the leak, which was still there, damn Chambers, the numbers spoke in a language Merlin knew well, and he interpreted for the rest of the team. Will came closest to a similar understanding of the domes’ circulatory system, but even he relied on Merlin for deeper analysis. With the shift of a few numbers, Merlin could tell how healthy every system keeping the domes working was, and relay that information in an understandable way. Lots of people could do the first part. Computer people were notorious for their deep understanding of logic and numbers, but to be able to describe what the numbers said without coming across as patronizing or dismissive, that was the challenge.

Merlin could tell Will or Harlen in a few words what the domes said to him, and Will was excellent at planning for fixes, or adaptations of current practices. Merlin liked Will quite a lot. He had an easy, calm manner that meshed well with Merlin’s.

His thoughts were dispelled by something in the bank of monitors displaying the security feeds. There were remote cameras every few feet armed with motion sensors. When something triggered the detectors, the screens would automatically select that feed to display. And now it was showing Merlin the access tunnel, the same one Chambers was in. The guy had found the hole, he thought. He’d been quiet for a while, and maybe the camera picked p Chambers on his way back.

Only it hadn’t looked like Chambers. It looked like something else. Humanoid, to be sure, but not aperson. Something leaner, moving fast and with a grace that didn’t suggest Chambers’s loping gait, thrown askew by the toolbelt and ever-present flashlight on his waist.

Merlin watched for a long minute. Nothing. He hit the com, dialed to Chambers’s walkie.

“Chambers. I don’t see that hole plugged. You copy? Over.”

Merlin waited, dialing up more of the security camera feeds from the access tunnels.

“Chambers? You fucking around on the job again? Harlen’s going to be pissed.”

More of that silence, swelling in his head with worry. Maybe the older man had a heart attack down there. Or maybe someone had come in from outside.

Someone. Or some thing.

That was the kind of thinking that could drive you crazy in the dome. Still, it merited a look. He’d have to call Colby, whow as probably with the cute biologist. Too bad that one was a lesbian, Merlin could see himself with her.

“Security One, this is Merlin. Over.”

Colby was in bed, close to Kelly. The smaller woman curled up against her side and was tracing small circles on Colby’s bare skin. When the radio crackled to life and Merlin’s voice rang out in the small room, Colby was on her feet in a second. She rolled out fo bed, gained her feet, and slid her long legs into her underwear before Merlin could call out a second time. Her face flushed red. She hated waiting for replies, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to keep Merlin waiting. He had Harlen’s ear, and a big mouth.

“Security One. Go ahead. Over.”

“I know this is a pain in the ass, but I haven’t heard anything out of Chambers since he went down into the tunnels. That rip is still there and he’s not answering. Can you go take a look? Over.”

Colby sighed and looked at the bed. Kelly was sitting up, her healthy breasts sitting tantalizingly against her fair skin, sheet puiddled in her lap. Colby liked the taste of her, and the softness of her body. She had hoped to stay a little longer. Duty called, and this was, after all, what she signed up for.

“Got it, Merlin. Keep eyes on the cameras down there and let me know if you spot him before I get down there. I’ll radio back once I’m in the tunnels. Over.”

“Sounds good. Thanks again. Over and out.”

“You think something happened to him?”

Colby turned to face Kelly. She had a sweet, round face, and eyes that suggested bright innocence. It hurt her heart some to see that faultless affection in her face.

“Maybe twisted his ankle or something. He’s getting up there. Could be heart trouble. Or he hit his head. I wouldn’t worry. I’m more pissed about the paperwork I’m going to have to do.”

“Maybe you can come by after?”

Colby leaned over the bed and kissed Kelly. She had full lips, and Colby liked the soft pressure against her own.

“We’ll see.”

“When my parents said that to me when I was a kid, it usually meant ‘no.’”

“We’ll see,” Colby repeated, hoping it came out softer, but softness was unfamiliar on her tongue and it landed sharper than she meant.

“I should work, too. Be careful though, huh?”

“See you in a bit.”

Colby tightened her belt and checked that she had her baton handy. She never broke stride. There was every likelihood that Chambers had hurt himself down in the tunnels and was on the ground, out of sight of the cameras, but that didn’t explain why he wasn’t answering. That part had her gut turning and her skin marked by goosebumps. She didn’t like things that didn’t have an easy explanation, and the easy explanations here were grave in their implications. The less explainable options included someone having broken into the facility. That she would not allow.

She turned a corner on her way to the access shatch, stopping short and grabbing her chest to hold back a yelp of surprise.

“Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.”

It was Will, all easy smiles and soft blue eyes. There was a scruff of beard he hadn’t attended, and Colby found she like dit. It made him look like a middle-aged farmer about to spin some rural wisdom.

“My fault. Did you hear Merlin?”

“I did. I was coming to se eif you wanted some help down there.”

Colby shook her head. This was the first time in almost a year that she’d been needed in her security role, and she was going to handle it like a professional.

“I got it. I’ll radio if there’s anything to report. Might need some help hauling him out if he’s broken his ankle or something. I’ll let you know if it comes to that.”

“Good deal.” That wry smile again, a slightly raspy voice that sounded warm and welcoming. “We’re lucky to have you.”

“We’ll see. I’ll let you know what’s happening as soon as I do.”

“Be careful. Keep close to the cameras. I told Merlin if he doesn’t see you for more than thirty seconds, we’re going full alert.”

“Yes, sir.”

The pool of water under her feet made it impossible to employ stealth in the access tunnels. Every step was accompanied by a light splash, and the water was finding it’s way into he rboots, making her feet feel damp and uncomfortable. In her left hand was a powerful LED light, banishing the red glow of the utility lights. In her right was the baton, gripped tight in her hand. She hate dthese tunnels. The pipes and tubes bundled and bound over her head and lining the curved walls looked like the thick veins of some industrial monster.

She retraced Cambers’s path through the passage, pausing at each node to check for signs of the man. When she was sure that nothing was amiss, she would move to the next, investigating with the patience of Job. Attention to detail was paramount. A woman like her intimidated most men. Partly because of her height, partly because they would assume by her lack of makeup and neatly cropped hair that she was a lesbian. They were right, of course, but that stereotype brought with it an otherness that would get her passed over for good jobs. There was a perception that she filled some quota. An old girlfriend told Colby once that you had to be so good at a thing that they couldn’t deny you. That was how she approached everything now. Thorough, precise, professional. Kelly had the luxury of naievete. She was smart, from a world of intelligentsia that allowed for otherness. It was part of what Colby liked about Kelly, and also what created the gulf between them.

When Colby stepped into the penultimate node before the tunnel terminated, she felt a hot breeze blowing in. The light swept up and found the thin tear in the exterior fabric. She moved the light around, looking for signs of an intruder or of Chambers. His belt. It was almost invisible in the gloom, half-hidden by the water standing in the utility tunnel.

“Merlin, this is Colby. Over.”

Almost instantly, Merlin replied. “Got my eyes on you. What’s that you found?” Over.”

“I think it’s Chambers’s tool belt. And I found the rift. I wonder if the old fart saw his way out and took it. No sign of him down here. You see him anywhere inside? Over.”

“That’s a negative. Over.”

“Colby? Will here. You sure you couldn’t have missed him somewhere in those tunnels? Over.”

Colby bristled, but kept it out of her voice. “Negative. I would have seen him. This is the only thing I’ve seen so far. Over.”

There was silence from the others. She could almost see Will rubbing his scruffy face, debating the next course of action. Colby kept he rpose, kneeling down by the tool belt while the tear flapped behind her and the dark pressed in.

“Alright, then. You know how to use the patch kit? Over.”

“I do. Over.”

Will was terse, and there was strain in his voice. “Seal it up and meet me at the control center. Over and out.”

Colby returned her radio to the clip on the breast pocket of her jumpsuit. Chambers’s belt arched from the water. Colby lifted it by the exposed loop, frowning as she saw fluid dripping from it. It wasn’t just the water that soacked her socks. It ran in long strings, more viscous than anything she was familiar with in the normal operations of the domes. She brought the belt close to her face, sniffing the air near the toolbelt. It smelled insudtrial, like rubber or plastic.

Colby slid her index finger over one of the pouches where the oozing stuff clung to the suede. She ran it between her fingers. It felt like lube, slick and sticky. It made her fingers tingle, too.

Colby bent and washed her fingers by waving them through the standing water. She made a note to mention it to Will. He might know where something like that might ave leaked from. She shoved the thought aside for now and ran through the pouches of the toolbelt, rinsing away more of the slippery grey ooze as it coated her fingers. It was like those studies where you put some dye on your fingers and in no tie it was all over your face and hands and all the surfaces of your home. She had a feeling she might even be washing some of the stuff out of her hair if she didn’t pay attention.

Finally, she found the patch kit. She opened the flap to feel the heat of the desert blast her in the face, squinting against the bright light. There was a momentary urge to run, to flee the domes and worry about the money she might lose and Kelly and everything else once she was back to civilization. Back to her apartment in Hartford with its wheezing radiator and window that’s tuck halfway up its tracks. Back to a cat that had probably forgotten he rby now and adopted her sister as its new owner. Most importantly, away from the domes and it’s mysterious ooze and missing handyman.

She shook the canister in her hand and uncapped it, shutting out the light by holding the flaps together. She sprayed an adhesive over the flaps, amazed by the wonders of modern technology. A foamy bond formed quickly, sealing the patch. The tear was only two and a half feet long. In short order, it was completely sealed. A test from Merlin later, and Colby was gathering the tool belt over her shoulder and making her back down the access tunnel, dreams of daylight gone once more.