Writing Soundtrack: It’s got my Name on it - Tommee Profitt
I sat in an empty room further down the hallway, having just gotten another report from the Hive-Mind about the status of the Prime. It had been some time since the battle and I had tried my best to make use of it, but the body I currently inhabited was slowly failing despite my best efforts to the contrary.
The Prime, it appeared, was recovering, if only ever so slowly. And that recovery had slowed even more recently, the consciousness was debating on what to do, our best guess was that he lacked the necessary biomass to fully recover.
I had delivered the biomass from the beast the Prime had slain to the body designated “Gamma”, but he was in no state to consume it, he still hadn’t woken up. So far I had been unable to find more biomass and if I couldn’t, neither the Prime, this body, nor the Hive would make a recovery.
It was a difficult situation and I was thoroughly out of my depth.
Despite my earlier determination to try and see things the way the Prime did I had to reconnect to the Hive to inquire of what I should do, although I tried to keep a certain authority, the Prime had designated this body as a diplomat of sorts after all.
The discussion took longer than I ever remembered us deliberating about something, as we were split between using some biomass on this body to keep it in workable shape, or to scrap it and hope for the Prime to recover enough to consume it and birth it anew.
We weren’t attached to any body in particular normally, but the Prime had given us a task and the recent fight had given this body quite a boost towards the next evolution, the issue being that it wasn’t quite yet enough and if we didn’t do something immediately it would fail outright anyways.
After more time with no solution being reached I decided to put my foot down, as alien as it felt, and cut myself off from the connection once more to find a way to repair this body enough to be usable.
It felt so strange, so alien, to cut myself off, being left alone in my head, to not have the constant support of the Hive, I wondered if the Prime was okay like this all the time.
But It had said he would be fine so with an effort of will I cut off that train of thought and began to search anew.
I could no longer even limp and had to crawl, my body lacking the strength to move otherwise. Either I found something now or I would reconnect to the Hive and let this body die.
Crawling down the hallways was slow, but I forced myself to continue despite everything screaming at me to give up. The pain had become unbearable by this point and my eyes had started leaking once more until they had nothing left to leak, I couldn’t suppress a constant whimper and a groan, internally wishing it all to be over, but I didn’t give up.
We are the Multitude, we are the Hive, and we will always endure.
I didn’t know how long it took but eventually I reached a bigger room, much bigger than before, although not as big as the one the construct we were born in was located in.
The pain was overwhelming and it took me a long moment to sort through the different sensory input, but eventually I realised there was biomass to be had here. A myriad of corpses lay around everywhere, similarly to the one the Prime told us not to consume.
That put me into a conundrum, the Prime had forbidden consumption, but if I didn’t who knew what would happen to him and the Hive. After deliberating that fact shortly I decided to go ahead anyways, I can live with later punishment, but I could not live with the Hive or the Prime dying.
It felt like an eternity before I arrived by the next corpse and bit into it, the body long since dead and with little of usable material on it, but I estimated that if I consumed them all I would be able to repair this body enough to be functional once more.
I didn’t think much while I consumed, my consciousness being rattled with pain and it took all my willpower not to give up. With my entire being I forced myself to carry on until something happened.
Alert: Cyberware connection established.
Alert: Connection to [ERROR] finalised.
Alert: Welcome, [Hexclaw Fighter] Alpha.
Alert: This subroutine has been designated to oversee your development.
Warning! New directive: To walk the Path of Loneliness.
Despite all odds stacked against you, you have not given up, determined to learn and understand your Prime to be of better help. Through this you have gained individuality and have received a chance to uplift yourself to stand side by side with the Prime to further the Hive. You have started to walk a long and lonely path, however, should you follow it until the end you shall learn everything you need to support both your Prime and your Hive to the best of your abilities.
Text flashed before my inner eye and I felt something in me shift as I consumed the next body. It took a moment to work through the implication of what all that meant and despite my best efforts I couldn’t quite parse it. I was just about to open the connection to the Hive once more when I realised it was… different now. And with that another piece of text appeared in front of me.
Alert: Connection to Hive-Mind has been limited by your actions.
Alert: You may still send and receive limited information, however, you are unable to fully rejoin the Hive.
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This time I panicked, dread running through me as I read. Unable to rejoin the Hive?! This was a nightmare and a mistake! I have made a terrible mistake!
Some part of me smarted at that revelation, curious as to this unknown feeling of panic. It felt bad but it was something new, something I wasn’t aware of. It appeared that the changes I had gone through were substantial.
I decided to voice my concerns to the text in front of me.
What should I do? If I cannot reconnect to the Hive, how can I help the Prime?
It only took a moment to receive a reply.
Alert: This unit can connect you to Orion-501, the AI companion of the Prime, for further assistance.
Alert: Establish connection to Orion-501?
Y / N
I did not know what AI meant, but if they were a companion of the Prime then I trusted them.
Yes.
I mentally assented and after a moment another voice rang in my mind. It felt similar to the presence of the Hive, but also different, as if it was… not alive. It was hard to describe.
“Hello Alpha. I am Orion-501, Administration and Fabrication Intelligence. I see that you have found a way to connect to me, although it escapes me how you managed that. I was unaware that the Hive-Mind was capable of communicating with me the same way my host is.”
It took me only a moment to figure out that Orion-501 meant the Prime when it mentioned the host. Why it chose such a weird way to address the Prime I didn’t know, and at that moment it was of no consequence, so I decided to ignore it.
Hello. The text told me I could connect to you, as I am unable to connect to the Hive fully, to ask for your assistance. I have found a limited amount of biomass and am currently consuming it to repair this body. Is the Prime awake yet? Did he give us any directives?
There was a moment of silence and I started to think that maybe Orion-501 didn’t hear me, when it spoke.
“Sadly, my host is still unconscious. As far as I am aware she has not given any further directives, therefore I am unable to help you in that regard. I am curious however, you spoke of text, what text in specific did you mean?”
I was once more confused for a moment, since the Prime had very obviously wanted to refer to himself as he, yet Orion-501 did otherwise. I was unsure of the significance of that difference, so I filed it away to inquire about it later, if it helped me have a better understanding of the Prime than that would be best. The text had mentioned I should strive towards that, after all.
The text in front of me. It kind of floats midair, I am unsure of what it is exactly, although if I am not entirely incorrect it is connected to the help that It had given the Prime prior to his first awakening. It said something about me achieving individuality and has given me a new directive as well. Do you know anything about directives and how to best follow them?
Once more there was a small pause. I continued eating, almost done by now, and I could already feel parts of my body starting to get to work to get the worst wounds patched up. It would take quite some time, but that was acceptable as long as I could get this body back into working order.
“To answer that question I would need to know more about the directive in question. I am confused, however, who exactly is this “It” and what kind of help did It give her? This is all quite beyond my original programming and I am having issues trying to work through it all.”
I wasn’t quite sure how to best respond to that, afterall It had said not to reveal anything regarding the tool It had provided and I may have already said too much if the Prime hadn’t informed Orion-501 of it beforehand.
I filled them in on the directive but didn’t answer their questions regarding their questions, deciding that for the moment it was best not to speak of it.
“Huh… That is… quite unusual. I suppose for the moment it would be best if you find whatever your kind needs to recover. Once my host is awake once more you can ask her. That is the easiest and surest way to follow your directive, I would say.”
Understood. Oh, and I meant to ask, why do you refer to the Prime as you do? I don’t understand the difference between he and she but as far as I know he refers to himself as he. And why do you call him your host?
I decided to inquire now that I had no other more pressing issues at hand.
“Ah. I was unaware. The difference is in biology and anatomy, although considering that most Hive-Minds are able to reproduce asexually I should not be surprised that you don’t know the difference. Most living species, at least the intelligent ones I know of, require sexual reproduction. That is the reason for the difference in pronouns, one refers to the male sex and the other to the female sex. What constitutes each is quite different depending on the race, so it can be quite confusing. I had referred to him as she as he displays visual similarity with what was considered a female in the species I was working with. As to why I call him my host, that is relatively simple: I am currently installed in his body. That being said I will need to shut down soon to preserve his energy, I wouldn’t want to make his condition any worse. If you have any pressing concerns you can contact me once more, just keep in mind that overuse of that might make things worse for him, so it’s best if you don’t rely on me too much.”
That alarmed me and I quickly assented. Had I known I wouldn’t have contacted Orion-501 in the first place, as it was contradicting my top priority at the moment.
By the time Orion-501 cut the connection I had finished consuming the last of the bodies and felt marginally better. It would still take quite some time before my body was back in full operation, but for the moment it was sufficient.
I looked around, trying to find anything usable. Only now I realised I should have asked Orion-501 about this “generator” when I had the chance, but contacting them again was out of the question. So, I decided to scout out the area and try to find as much as I could that could be of use to both the Hive and the Prime.
I had forgotten time while I was performing my task. After some time I had found the nest of some small animals, it would not be sufficient to function as sustainable biomass production, but it was enough to fill my reserves up and to have some excess to bring back. Another side effect had been that I finalised my evolution requirements. I was quite surprised when the text had appeared once more in the middle of my vision.
Alert: Requirements for [Hexclaw Hunter] met.
Hexclaw Hunter
A combat focused Evolution Path for the Hexclaw Swarm Intelligence. It excels in covert actions and ambush attacks, but is capable of normal melee combat. It boasts high physical strength and is capable of producing a number of paralysing poisons.
It had not been the one I had been striving towards, but it was better than what I had and would not prevent me from achieving the [Hexclaw Hive Princess] Evolution Path the Prime had directed me to obtain. I decided to return to the body designated “Gamma” and the Prime before I evolved.
While I was no longer able to fully rejoin the Hive I could still send them updates and so I informed them about what I had been up to, deciding to not inform them about my breaking the rules. That was a punishment I would need to bear alone, no need to drag the Hive into it. Especially since they had disagreed with my course of action in the first place.
It took quite some time to return. Once I arrived at the room that was our makeshift lair I could see Gamma stand next to the unconscious form of the Prime, whose continued unconsciousness troubled all of us greatly.
I put down the biomass next to the Prime before I sat down in one corner and prepared myself for my own evolution. The last thought I had before everything went black was that hopefully my actions today hadn’t condemned the Hive entirely.