30 June 2025
IM grumbled as she fastened the straps holding her in place inside the small lifter. She was way too busy to be flying around, visiting some 'specialist' but her doctor had insisted. And why couldn't the damn specialist come to her?
"You ready?" the pilot asked his VIP passenger over his shoulder. She grunted a confirmation and the pilot turned back ready the craft for launch.
Exhaustive - but secretive - searches of Wrixom had revealed nothing. No ancient alien ruins or long dead technology. Not even a single spider robot. Talk about a wild reaper chase.
The craft shuddered as its VTOL engines fired and started to carry its weight.
"Sit tight. We'll be there in a jiffy" her annoyingly jolly pilot announced cheerfully.
The inside of the lifter was small, with barely enough room for four seated drones, two facing front and two rear. The small cockpit with barely sufficient space for the pilot and co-pilot was accessible through an open hatch in the front centre of the passenger compartment.
IM stared out the small window in lieu of having nothing else to do. Something was bothering her, but she couldn't quite figure out what it was. Then she realized. The sun was on the wrong side of the aircraft.
"Excuse me? Why are we heading south?" she asked the pilot.
"Because that's where your appointment is, isn't it?" the drone answered happily.
"No, the specialist is in Rho Hive, and that's north" IM answered, flexing her claws. This could have just been a case of incompetence or an innocent mistake, but she doubted it. And if this was something more sinister as she suspected... could one queen take on two drones in physical combat? Maybe. She certainly had the size advantage, but the space here was cramped. It could work against her.
There was a soft click as IM released the buckles of her flight harness. Her hopes of maintaining the element of surprise, or even having a chance at fighting, were quickly dashed as the co-pilot stuck his arm holding a pistol through the hatch and pointed it right at her.
"Please don't move around while the vehicle is in motion" he said. It was the first time the entire trip that he had spoken and IM was surprised at how soft and gentle his voice was.
"If you fire that in here, we all die" IM stated.
The co-pilot gestured towards her seat. "Low velocity. Please refasten your seatbelt."
IM stared at the pistol for a few seconds before relenting and refastening her harness. Her mind was racing, trying to think of who could be behind this. Gamma had no love for her, but this seemed a bit... subtle for Gamma's tastes. Kappa had been biding her time for a long while, that much she knew. Could she finally have acted? Lambda certainly had the capability to pull this off, but she was on her side! At least, she was supposed to be on her side.
A peek out the window revealed that they were now traveling over the ocean. This raised another thought. Why hadn't they killed her yet?
After what seemed like hours of no sound but the rumble of the lifter's thrusters, the sound changed. The lifter lurched as the pilot steered it towards a landing site not visible from either of the small side windows. There was a shudder as they touched down.
"So what now?" IM asked the co-pilot still holding the gun on her. "Time to kill me?"
"Oh calm down! Nobody is going to get killed. We're just gonna show you something" the pilot replied as he climbed through the hatch and struggled to open the side door. IM considered making her move while the other drone's shot was blocked, but the pilot's tone of voice stopped her. He sounded a little exasperated, if anything.
"Why couldn't you have sent me a video?" IM asked snidely.
"Cos no video is gonna do this justice. Now come on" the pilot replied as he cracked open the door and crawled out. A blast of cold air flooded the small craft, making IM shiver. She shot the gentle drone a quizzical glance but he just gestured towards the exit with his pistol. Shrugging, IM undid her harness and crawled out of the ship into the cold.
Once outside, she saw that the ship had landed at an old mine, long abandoned. A thin layer of fine snow covered all the machinery. As she shivered in the cold air, she decided her immediate plan was to quickly kill the outside drone and ambush the one holding the pistol as he left the ship. However, when she looked around to find her erstwhile pilot and kidnapper, she found him standing next to her, holding a coat out to her. He was already wearing his.
"Uhm, thank you?" she said, confused as she took the coat from him.
He smiled at her. "Hope this keeps you warm enough until we get inside. Sorry for the kidnapping thing, but secrecy yada-yada. You know the deal."
"So this is Lambda's doing? Is she waiting for me?" IM asked.
"Not... look, don't worry who is behind this. Just accept it at face value, okay?" the pilot replied mysteriously.
Behind her, the second drone crawled out of the lifter unopposed. "If you don't do anything rash then we can dispense with the weapon" he stated in his gentle voice, the pistol already holstered.
IM ignored him, too busy putting on her coat. As soon as she was finished, she set off towards the main shaft, but the pilot called her back.
"Not that way. We sunk a shortcut recently. Saves some travel time" he said.
IM followed the two drones to a small, crude-looking elevator off to the side. IM had to duck her head to fit inside and the two drones climbed in next to her without even thinking twice. She briefly considered killing them right there, but that would simply have left her all alone in the middle of nowhere with no idea how to fly her only way out. Besides, just because the place looked deserted didn't mean there weren't any other drones around, watching them from out of sight.
The elevator descended for what seemed an eternity before coming to a halt inside a dimly lit rocky corridor which seemed to have once been part of the mine. Directly opposite the elevator was a pitch black doorway broken into the side of the tunnel.
"After you" the gentle drone said, gesturing to IM. There was no sign of his pistol.
"No, I insist" she replied.
The two drones just shrugged and headed in. She entered behind them, her eyes adjusting as best they could to the darkness. She could see little, but there was a feeling of space that was quite unusual for being so far underground. Then there was a click and the hum of a generator starting up and light flooded the area, momentary blinding her. When her eyes recovered, the sight took her breath away.
They were on a ledge near the roof of a cavern so large that the large spotlights set into the edge did not illuminate the opposite side. Inside were structures of a make and material that was unknown to her.
"These are the ruins we've been looking for for months! And they're massive!" IM finally exclaimed. The two drones just nodded. "Why didn't our ground sonars pick it up? An open area of this size should have been visible from orbit."
The jolly drone walked over to the edge of the ledge and partly lifted a thick grey rubbery substance off the wall. "Dampers. The whole cavern is lined with it. Absorbs sound vibrations in such a way as to make the whole place look solid. We only by accident about two months ago. We were mining a few trace deposits left over in the mine when we accidentally broke into this place" he replied.
"Who are 'we'?" IM asked suspiciously.
"Nobody you need concern yourself about" the co-pilot responded quietly but firmly.
"Then you should be aware that this will mean war" IM replied. "If it is discovered that one hive is trying to keep a discovery of this size to themselves, you will be the target of every other jealous queen on the planet. If you give this over to Swarm Hive maybe we can..."
"If any Queen discovers this place, it will lead to a war that will destroy the Wrix" the co-pilot stated cryptically. "Their greed will allow no other outcome. Swarm Hive will never be allowed access to these ruins."
"You know, you sound a lot like Lambda. Is she behind this?" IM asked.
The drones ignored her question. "We need to decide what to do with this place. As long as it stands it is a potential time bomb. The only way to assure our survival is by destroying it forever."
"You want to blow it up?" IM asked incredulously. "Think of all the technology, resources and stuff we would be losing out on!"
"That exact mentality is the reason it needs to be destroyed. No hive will want to miss out on it and they will fight to possess it" the co-pilot answered her calmly and took out a small remote control. "The explosives are already in place."
"Then why even bother bringing me out here to the middle of freezing nowhere!?" she demanded.
"You must witness the destruction. The search for this place is consuming too many resources. Resources that need to be put towards getting as many Wrix offworld as possible."
"And," the jolly pilot added, "we figured you might be able to think of some alternative. It's not like we WANT to blow up potentially groundbreaking alien technology."
IM paced back and forth as she considered this. Was there an option that would make these drones happy and let the Swarm get access to the ruins? Perhaps...
"Would you be opposed to Swarm Hive obtaining these resources and technologies?" IM asked.
"No, if that were possible. But we cannot risk the other Hives discovering this place."
"How about this then" IM suggested. "You keep the explosives in place. They can be detonated at any time, right? Why not see how much we can get out of this place before we have to press the button. I'll send a trustworthy team to examine the ruins. Maybe we can salvage something."
The two drones looked at each other and shrugged.
"That seems agreeable" the gentle one said. "One condition. You send no drones, only infertiles, and we will provide the manual labour."
"Then I have a condition as well" IM cut back. "I want to know who I'm working with. Which hive are you? Lambda? Sigma?"
"It really is best for your safety and perhaps even sanity if you don't know" the pilot replied.
"Now I definitely want to know. Either you tell me who you work for or I go back and do my own research. Might be a little less secure..."
"I am from Rho Hive and he is from Beta Hive. Does that satisfy you?" the gentle drone interrupted her.
"Wait, so two hives are in on this? Then..."
"She's not going to be happy unless we tell her what's going on" the pilot said.
"I suppose you're right" his friend admitted.
"We are both from a group called the Drone Collective, a group of drones who have realized that the Hive Queens, if left to their own devices, will most likely lead our race to ruin. We operate independently of our Hives."
IM stared at her pilot, her mouth hanging open. It took several seconds for her brain to process. "Bullsmeg" she finally said. "Are you trying to tell me that you are free drones?"
The gentler drone answered. "We are still loyal to our Queens, but we realize that if aware of all the facts, they would make decisions that would not be in their own best interests. As such we only tell them what they need to know."
IM's mind reeled. "This isn't possible. Drones can't act on their own initiative. They don't have the mental capacity" she repeated what she had been taught to believe from her hatchling days.
"That's not very nice. Are you calling us dumb?" the jolly drone mocked. "But in all seriousness, we have had the brainpower - and have been using it - for a very long time. Think about the complexity of the orders you have been giving drones your entire life. Have you ever encountered a situation where the drone couldn't figure out what you wanted?"
"That's different! You have the intelligence, you just... don't... have the initiative..." IM tried to argue but faltered. Her own arguments were sounding very hollow to herself, especially since she was arguing with proof that she was wrong.
"That is a superstition that is believed by far too many" the gentler co-pilot added. "Drones, I mean."
The flight back was very quiet. The two drones had sworn her to secrecy about their group and IM was intending to keep the secret. She had no way to know which drones in Swarm Hive were loyal to this group, for all she knew it could be all of them. Hell, for all she knew all the drones on the planet were part of this group and the Queens were just allowed to pretend at running things while they didn't mess up too badly. For all she knew...
For all she knew, her entire culture was a lie.
OOC
Phew, holy wall of text, Batman! So there we have the introduction of a new player, the Drone Collective.
In case you hadn't guessed it, they were the ones with the disc in the first post. At the time, there was a pretty strong faction inside the Collective that was in favor of abandoning secrecy and taking control by force by sending a broadcast to all the drones they could reach (that was the disc). Eventually, the Collective decided that they would only continue with this course of action if the Queens proved themselves truly incapable of ruling by performing some gross act of incompetence or greed, such as destroying the Wrix' first TN-engined ship through greed or over petty grievances. Luckily, that never came to be and there was no attempted insurrection.
I had wanted to work this bit into the story, but it was pretty long already, so I skipped it. Still, the first part does warrant some explanation so I put it in here.