I didn’t need to say any words aloud, knew they were linked to me telepathically, just as I was now linked to them. But I spoke regardless, needed the sound to ground me to reality, remind myself that I was more than just a Hive integration.
“We are Nexus 2. Report. Why have you not finished here?” I was careful to speak as a true Hive even though it sounded ridiculous. As part of the complete entity known as Nexus 2, as part of my supposed Hive master, I never would have referred to myself as singular. No Hive did, except the solo Nexus units that controlled the entire Hive collective. The Hive ‘bosses.’ The dark blue creatures were terrifying, and so powerful with their telepathy they could convince a woman she was standing in a field of butterflies and wildflowers while she was undergoing surgery. Could make her feel affection, even love, with no basis or knowledge that it wasn’t real. Yeah, that had been fun. Not.
Until later. Waking up with Nexus 2 out of telepathic range had been an agony of self-hatred that I never wished to repeat. In fact, seeing the nine Hive Soldiers before me made my skin crawl and my stomach churn with acid.
While I’d been afraid of the Nexus units, these Hive were underlings to me. To them, I was their superior. Confirming this, all nine dropped to one knee before me and I took advantage, scanning their minds for intent, orders, anything I could glean from them. And sad as it was, I touched their minds with my own, looking for one of them still fighting, worthy of being saved. A Coalition fighter who still fought the Hive mind control and just hadn’t been lucky enough to escape, to exist on the Colony.
The highest-ranking Soldier was once Prillon. Covered from head to toe, not one inch of skin remained untouched by silver Hive technology. He looked like an android, nothing biological or natural left. He spoke aloud, as I had done, and I realized the Hive hadn’t been able to hear me through my closed helmet. I couldn’t hear his voice above a soft mumble. But I heard him inside my head.
“My queen, we are to protect the communication array until Nexus 4 is complete in his task.” Complete? I’d heard that term used before. That was Hive code for stealing a female, forcing her to endure Hive implantation and breeding, Hive Nexus mind control, and becoming ‘one’ with the Nexus who tormented her.
“And what of the transporter resources? Have they been secured?” I’d been in on several meetings where the possibility of the Hive stealing the mineral mined on the Colony, the substance used to make our transport systems work, had been discussed. If the Hive took enough to cripple Coalition operations, they would win the war. Despite months of searching, we hadn’t been able to find them—led by Nexus 4—in the network of caves beneath the planet’s surface. Didn’t even know if that was, in fact, what they were doing sulking around like sewer rats underground. And we knew they were there, just like Krael, the traitor, who was with them.
“The first shipment was received. The second shipment is scheduled to depart as soon as Nexus 4 gives us the command.”
Great. So they’d already stolen enough mineral from the mines on the Colony for a full shipment with another ready to go. “And what is the delay? We are not pleased with the delay.”
The Hive Soldiers shuddered at the tone of my voice. As a female linked to a Nexus unit, I could torture them with my mind alone. I was a queen bee in a hive of soldiers and drones. I could quite literally kill any one of them on a whim if the mood struck… and I was definitely in the mood. Everything personal might have been stripped from these Coalition fighters when they were turned, but they did know fear. They still had an instinct for survival. Not even the Hive programming could drive that primal instinct from their bodies. And fear was an emotion that served everyone well if they wanted to remain alive. Or at least functional to the Hive.
“Nexus 4 has not been successful in securing a female.”
I swallowed down the bile that had crept into my throat. I knew very well what it was like to be a secured female. Nexus 2 had taught me well. The dark blue alien creature had wanted me as his mate, his queen. And I’d nearly lost my mind, all sense of self, under his control. A mile-wide stubborn streak, the same one that got me into so much trouble when I was a little girl—hell, still got me in trouble with the governor—had saved me. I simply refused to stop fighting until finally, my chance came, and I stole a ship and escaped.
“We demand the exact location of Nexus 4. We will speak to him directly,” I said, continuing with my use of plural-speak.
I’d kill these nine, then return to the planet surface and take out the rest of them. And Nexus 4, the telepathic Nexus unit who’d tried to murder CJ’s and Rezzer’s twins a few months ago? Tried to take Caroline Jane for himself? Kill Rezzer’s Atlan children already growing strong and healthy in CJ’s womb? He was still down there. Hunting for another female. There weren’t too many women on the Colony—the Nexus wouldn’t care if she were single or mated—which meant bad things for my Earth friends. And I knew Rezzer would most likely go into beast mode if given the chance to join me in a little payback.
I’d give that dark blue asshole a female, all right, just not the easily tortured variety he was counting on. A taste of his own medicine was in order.
The Hive Soldier before me stood, slowly. “Nexus 4 has agreed to meet with you. He will petition you to ally with him, as Nexus 2 is not here to oversee your care.”
It took me a moment to understand what he was saying. That Nexus 4 wanted to be my Hive protector. What a load of bullshit. Breeder was more like it. Jesus.
Were the damn Hive no different about females than the aliens on the planet below? Since my so-called mate, Nexus 2, was in another sector of space and not standing beside me, Nexus 4 felt the need to steal me for himself? For my own protection? To oversee my care? To keep me… what, safe?
Torture was more like it. Forced breeding of more little blue sociopaths. No.
But then I knew one thing that I had told the Intelligence Core doctors. The Nexus units weren’t friends. Hell, they hated one another, saw each other as a temporary yet necessary evil, allies and bodies needed to defeat the Coalition Fleet and conquer the galaxy.
But once that was done, they’d turn on each other like starving monsters fighting over meat. Each Nexus unit controlled a specific sector of space, their own Scouts and Soldiers. They were in a race to assimilate every biological being into their personal armies for when the real war started, the war between the Nexus units themselves.
For centuries, everyone in the Coalition of Planets believed that the Hive was an organized collective of cooperative thinkers. The Intelligence Core, and the few who knew the Nexus units existed, had believed they were brothers in truth. Aliens bound to a single cause, under one banner.
They were wrong. The Nexus units were singular. Selfish. They cooperated because they had to in order to survive an organized Coalition Fleet. A united resistance. Cooperation was expedient. Nothing more. Nothing less.
The Coalition worlds? Raw material. We were supplies to be acquired. Warriors to be added to the Hive tally. Bullets in a gun. Bodies. Expendable.
And the Nexus units would not hesitate to steal another’s Soldiers or Scouts, or me. As far as I knew, I was the first fully integrated Nexus mate.
I couldn’t wait to kill Nexus 4. They were all the same to me. Pure evil. Without a conscience. Without a soul. I just needed to remember not to look into his eyes before I got the job done. One look into those dark depths, and I’d be done. Trapped. Completely under his control. Because while I was balls-to-the-wall tough thanks to them, I had one weakness, one way they could gain control over me against my will.
Connection. Mind to mind connection.
If I let Nexus 4 in, I was done. Mind fucked. It would be o-v-e-r.
“Send us the coordinates,” I commanded. “We will go to him now.”
“Yes, my queen.” The information streamed into my head like a data upload and I pushed deeper, gaining access to more information than he intended to give me. Like taking candy from a baby. I received the location of the ship on the lunar surface. Maps of their hidden dens on the Colony. Coordinate numbers. Mining sites. Positions of Hive Soldiers and Drones. I had all of it in seconds, including the location of their waiting Nexus cargo ship and the amount of stolen mineral in the ship’s hold. In a matter of two seconds, it was all mine.