image [https://imgur.com/vpKjzjY.jpg]

The pylon crisis was finally over, so we went home.

Uncle stationed Drone bees to fix the broken pylon tower. Drone bees were the 'fix it' bees. Their job was to repair and inspect broken equipment. they had their work cut out for them.

The whole tower computer had a fatal collapse, meaning they had to build the tower's computer system from scratch. In some ways that was a good thing, since they could modernize it. The software was pretty old.

Janus went to prison. I don't really know where that was, but Uncle said he'd get all the help he needed to survive losing part of his spirit there. All I could really do was wish him the best of luck.

Because of the major compromise in security, The Hive was put under a tentative 24-7 lockdown, so I was stuck in my room. I couldn't even go out to the flower field.

Uncle had to spend time investigating the issue that caused the Tower Control Computer to turn evil, and he also had to make sure no other computer AI were going rogue either. He said it was going to be a long, and grueling process.

He wanted to examine Anima for a little while too, so I gave him permission to check her out. He promised he wouldn’t decommission her, which was really my only worry. When he was done, he’d give her back to me for safe keeping.

In the meantime, I took some time to rest and take my mind off of things. Being in a life or death situation has a way of making you feel tired and sad.

You know something? I don’t think I fully disagreed with what Anima said when she was evil. Not the humans needing to be in darkness forever, but the part where she said I didn’t know humans very well. I’d only ever met about...

Gosh, I really haven't met many at all, have I? Most of my knowledge came from shows, books, and video games.

It really made me want to go to the surface world even more. Once I got there, I could meet all sorts of people, probably both good and bad. But I think it would be a while since the lockdown was in effect. And I needed to grow up more first.

Oh well. No sense in worrying about it now, I was tired.

~☆☆☆~

Some sleep did me wonders. The next day I felt refreshed, but still a little bit out of it. I decided to take my mind off of things and do something fun.

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Unfortunately for me, everything was super boring for some reason. Maybe I didn't have a whole lot of motivation, but fun things weren't making me happy.

I tried video games, but that didn’t work. TV, but no dice. My books weren’t helping either.

This stinks.

Out of sheer boredom, I twisted my ear to pop up my head antenna. I twisted it back and it went back down. I did that a few times until I heard something weird…

“Danny, did you forget to clean your room again?”

“No mum, I swear!”

After that, all I heard was static.

“What was that?” I raised my brow.

I think that was a radio broadcast between a kid and his mom…but where was it from?

-…-

Oh, it looked like it was something from The Hive. But who was Danny? I’d never heard of him before, was he a bee?

No…you know what that must have been? That must have been a broadcast from the surface! I’d known The Hive would collect all sorts of data from the surface, but I think that was a real time broadcast being amplified down here.

I set up my antenna and started listening in. Sadly, all I heard was static.

With a little luck, I noticed that the single was being jammed now. Go figure. Uncle must have realized I could tap into it and wanted to stop me.

“I wanna’ listen in…” I pouted.

Things were looking hopeless, but then I remembered I could use my radio antenna to counter jam and tap into different broadcasts. And if I could incorporate my new hacking ability, I could discover a whole new level of excitement hidden in the air waves!

I started counter jamming, then I heard broadcasts again. It worked!

“How did you feel when you got back home?” One voice said.

“I felt empty. Seeing my comrades fall, hoping I’d make it home myself…I couldn't sleep for weeks. My dreams were haunted by…”

This was making me feel icky. Just being in my own life or death situation was really making this hard to listen to.

Luckily I was able to change the station by twisting my right ear.

Oh! I found music! It was poppy music, which made me want to dance.

Samael didn't like it though. He put his head into my hair trying to block out the sound.

"You don't like it, huh?" I pet him a little, then turned down the music. "Okay, we don't have to listen to it right now."

"Ssssss…" he hissed.

I kept playing with the radio until I just got bored with it. The rest of the stations I was getting were either music in another language or boring sports stuff.

Uncle came flying in the room in his bee form, then zapped me with his laser eyes. Then he disabled my radio antenna! It automatically went back into my head.

"Hey, what gives?!"

"This is a violation of safety protocol,” He said. “Please don't abuse your abilities, Young Mistress. It’s for your own good.” He flew out of the room.

No fun! I swear, I wasn't allowed any fun!

Oh well. I had dolls, maybe it was time to play with them for a little while.

Did I mention this was just the first day of lockdown? It felt like it'd been ages...but it was actually only a few hours. And to make it worse, it was just a day after my birthday!

I didn’t even get a present…or cake. Uncle was right, life could be unfair.

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