THE HIVE

Chapter 26

It is with a jolt this time, that I wake. With a sharp intake of air, I sit up, gasping, upon feeling a hotness develop on my cheek, the aftermath of a sharp force.

"Ow..." I wince. "Where... am I?" muttering, I look around, taking a quick survey. It doesn't take me long to realise though- that I have never been to this place. Is this on the station? Or back on the planet? Or... somewhere else?

"You've been quite a nuisance, boy, " I hear a child's voice, annoyed and exhausted, emerge from somewhere in the darkness. As if he's been playing all day on the ground and now asking for a meal. "Quite a fit you thew back there. Must say, that was unexpected. Didn't expect you to do that, after finally seeing what you accomplished back on the hive..." he says that with a note of sadness. Is he mocking me...? "Didn't think you'd risk it. You are an intelligent one after all. The blessing chose you well."

I recognise that voice... It's him. I feel my pulse rising. "Did it hurt?"

"Hm?" he lets out a note of surprise.

"I SAID DID IT HURT!" I make an attempt to rise up, but find myself bound. By chains. The same ones as...

Pain. Burning all around. Hell. Shouts.

The trauma envelops me once more. "No... It can't be. You aren't... gonna..."

"That would have been such an embarrassment, had it hurt. Of course it didn't! We have mastered the connection. Getting hurt by physical attacks? That's beyond us."

Hearing that, I rattle the chains, wanting to lunge at him this very second. "I WILL KILL YOU!" I scream at him with an urge that is as sure as my feelings for the home I've lost. "You must repent. For what you've done, YOU MUST-"

"IT WASN'T US," he boldly proclaims.

...

Laughable. Did I hear right?

"Heh, now you... " Trying to repudiate his lie I begin saying something, but stop midway when I take in his form- though it is a dimly lit space I can now see him clearly- not looking at me, the back of him turned on me, his head to the side with his eyes not quite meeting mine.

I hate to admit it, even consider it. But that, seems genuine. It doesn't seem an act. He need not put up an act in front of a slave. We are at their mercy after all. Then... just what is going on...?

"When you first came in, you asked one of us something," saying that, he turns around to face me. It is a resolute stance.

"I... " I try to remember. It's not been that long, even if it seems to be. "I asked him a lot of things, " I say. And he wasn't exactly the nicest of guys to give clear cut answers to every question I did ask, so there's that.

The alien lets out a clicky grunt and sighs. "'Why am I here?'" he... quotes?

I blink twice. Yeah. I did ask that. To which... he hadn't responded. Not right away. What did he say again... "He told me to do as I was told, and I shall have a peaceful life. As long as it lasts... " My forehead puckers up. That line... So ominous.

"He said more than that. Didn't he speak of our suffering? How we are rebuilding? Trying to make up for what we've lost?"

"Actually, yeah." I look up. "I think he did."

He walks in, closer. "Well, what you didn't get at that time, was that he spoke for all us. Not just us, all of sentience." He looks at me dead in the eyes, having brought his face awfully close to me.

I grow unsettled. What's he saying? And- Those eyes... what are they trying to tell me? Because they aren't blank. They are full of something...

But what?