Several days passed, and the group worked double and even sometimes triple shifts to bring the defenses up to par and online. Tetra had packed a vast quantity of sensors, automated turrets, and even a few thousand land mines. What the hell she was going to use those for Grim could only guess.

However, Jim didn’t resurface, even with considerable searching for him. There were eighty injuries, some serious, from the incursion but no deaths. That made the attack both more worrisome and even more confusing to Grim. By now they should have had some word from whatever was in those woods. Axil was adamant that anyone sent to speak with them would approach openly. Either that or an army that they couldn’t hope to stop would swarm over them.

Either way something would happen soon.

Grim was standing in a makeshift classroom, something he never imagined himself doing, explaining the ins and out’s of having living armor as a tool. One of the many thoughts he had was to create an approximation of living armor for his lieutenants, combat troops, and eventually make it a mainstream requirement for everyone else. As usual Tetra was ahead of him.

The mad scientist had taken his idea and turned out a series of prototype tech items that this world was capable of producing but surpassed any tech he had yet to see in Elysium. The ARM, or Automated Response Material, was smart material that doubled as clothing and light armor. It also had built in communications, temperature regulation, and would let someone know if the wearer was incapacitated. But that wasn’t its biggest perk. No. The biggest perk was that each suit had a base level AI that grew with the user. While Grim deplored sentient AI of any kind, Tetra had gotten him to see sense in using non-sentient ones for day-to-day use.

There was a significant issue, however. The AI were dumb. Dumber than dirt. So incredibly inept that utilizing them without significant training and development on an individual basis was down right dangerous. But the benefits couldn’t be ignored.

Thus, it led him to where he was now. Teaching those how to utilize, communicate, and work with something they literally wore.

“So communication, constant communication, is key. Explain what you are doing and why, then ask for guidance. This should give your AI’s insight into what you are doing and why, and give them reason to ask questions,” he finished. Looking up he saw Stella standing by the door, a serious look on her face. “And that will be all for today. Go out, assist others in learning, and spread the knowledge that I have imparted here today. Dismissed.”

The group of eighty or so people stood up and began shuffling out the doors, light conversations breaking out about the content of the two-hour long lesson. Grim headed towards Stella. “What is it?”

“The diplomat you were expecting is here. He wandered in past the guards, found his way to my office, and was waiting for me there when I got back,” Stella said, annoyed.

Grim frowned, “Why didn’t anyone stop, hang on a second. Him?”

“Jim. Somehow those spider guys nabbed Jim, dragged him back to a very impressive nest, his words not mine, and learned the language. He was sent back as some kind of peace offering,” the succubus attempted to explain. “Honestly the entire thing is bizarre.”

Grim nodded and began heading towards Stella’s office. The entire thing was bizarre. What was even more strange was the fact that, once again, Jim was involved. Had survived something he shouldn’t have. Then made it home with information. There was something off-putting about that man, but Grim just couldn’t put his finger on it. He would continue to observe him until he slipped up or became useless.

Then Grim would end him. Unknown factors were not welcome.

“Where is he now?” he asked gruffly.

“Still in my office,” Stella replied without hesitation. “I need to warn you though… they did something to him, and I don’t know what. Nothing that Tetra could see is different. But he is different.”

Grim muttered a single word as they got close enough to open the door to her office. “Fuck.”

He had run into hive minds like the one he was about to talk to before. And talk to was the optimum word. Parasitic hive minds had the tendency to co-opt a host, modify them to an optimal state, then breed them to fill a caste roll. As he walked into the room and saw Jim sitting rigidly on the couch he knew he was one hundred percent right.

Grim sat down on the chair across from the man, taking note of his mottled white eyes. There was no iris, no pupil, nothing. It was as if his eyes had rolled into the back of his head and stayed there. Stella took up a position behind him, hands crossed in front of her, ready for anything that may happen.

“So, your idea of first contact was to attack us, hurt my people, kidnap my lieutenant’s assistant, and then return him as an infected convert?” Grim rattled off, annoyed. “You have a very funny idea of how to ring someone’s doorbell.”

The thing that was Jim cocked its head to one side, “Ah. Doorbell. A reference to an archaic calling device located on the front of buildings and dwelling units. An interesting and fascinating thought. Yes. My attempts were crude, violent, and offensive. However if I had shown up in a true vessel requesting one of your entourage to, as you so accurately put, convert so that we could converse? I doubt that would have gone any better.”

“Fuck you. I could rip your entire mind to shreds if I thought it would further my goals. Communication with you would have been child’s play,” the now furious Grim projected right into the hive minds slimy, multi-faceted thoughts.

Jim’s body recoiled as if struck, causing Stella to draw two handguns and point them at the creature. Grim waved her down, “I surprised it. That’s all. Consider it telepathic shenanigans, but I think my point was made?”

“Cl-clearly,” the Jim thing stuttered back to him. This hive mind, while developed enough for conversation, was clearly deeply and thoroughly shaken by their short telepathic interaction. “Please, forgive me. I meant no harm. Past interactions have shown this to be the best way to engage in relations with outside forces. Never before have I had someone show up and… project their mind.”

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

Grim smiled, the two wide of a maw that contained his teeth made Jim’s body instinctually shudder even as the hive mind controlling him tried to figure out why. “Well then, consider this negative interaction as being placed behind us. Now, what the fuck do you want?”

“I think the more accurate question to ask, Grim, is what do you want?” the being said back, steepling Jim’s fingers. “You came to an area near my home, began changing the environment around you with tools and technology I have never seen or even fathomed before, and not bothered to even-“

It was cut off as Grim held up a hand to stop the creature from speaking. “Stop. You’re pissing me off. I don’t care how offended you are at our lack of throwing a meat sack at you to occupy. Get over it. We are here to establish the foundations of a capital to take over the planet. Period. Now, why the fuck are you here? A hive mind like yourself has the capability to spread like fucking wildfire. Why haven’t you?”

“Peace,” the thing admitted. “I… acted as you described once. Spreading in all directions to sate my hunger. My curiosity. All I encountered was fighting, war, combat… death. I never created,” it explained. “I knew of things such as music. Invention. Science. Even the illogical thing known as magic. But never was I able to create such wonders. So, I staged my death, retreated here, and have been in contemplation for centuries. I have met many such creatures while here, or on my visits to the surface far below us. Axil is one such being.”

Grim growled, “Gonna rip his little antennae off for holding information back from me again.”

“Please do not. He did so at my request,” the hive mind pleaded. “I can see, clearly, that you are not a force to be fought with. We would, at the very worst, annihilate one another. But I wish for peace and exploration if possible. Not war.”

Stella, still pointing her weapons at Jim’s body, asked hotly, “Can you give Jim back? I liked him. He was a good assistant.”

“At any time. Safely I might add. All I ask is that you accept a replacement emissary so that I can continue my conversations with you. All I want is peace,” the thing readily assured them.

Grim considered this. Hive minds were, at the core of their beings, creatures who sought to expand and assimilate. There were many kinds, from AI driven machines to organic hive minds. He had met most of the ones he had learned about at some point in his life. But he had never met a pacifist hive mind.

“This place is a place of firsts,” he muttered, causing everyone to look at him oddly. “Fine. Return Jim, bring your emissary here, and we can talk more. Any more probing attacks though, and we will just go for the mutual annihilation bit. Fucking get me?”

The hive mind thought about that, then nodded. “Agreed. I should note, however, that Jim has no desire for carnal relations with you. He does highly desire one of the supers working for the demon Tetra however.”

With no warning, Jim crumpled into the couch. Stella ran forward but Grim grabbed her by the waist. “No. What part of parasitic hive mind escaped you? Let’s observe him for a bit, he’s still breathing and will be fine. I think. But just to be safe get Tetra in here with a containment unit. I am not about leaving this to chance.”

Stella got on her communicator and it didn’t take long for Tetra to show up with a team of people in hazmat suits and a large, human sized plastic box. The scientist really did think of damn near everything. As the group hauled the now Jim filled containment cell out of the office, the scientist sat down.

“So… that was weird Boss. A lot happened there in a very short amount of time. Good news? I got enough samples off the dead spiders to scan for hive mind infection. Bad news? We are so far from even remotely being able to treat infection its better to just kill anything that has come into contact with the thing,” she admitted.

Grim shook his head, “I was proven wrong here once, but my experience of these things has shown that once infected the host shouldn’t be able to be returned to a normal state. Either this is a different kind of hive mind entirely, or we may be looking at a Queen.”

The ladies in the room looked pensive. “What do you mean a Queen Master?” asked Stella, curious.

“A Queen is the first of its kind in any particular species of hive mind. They have the capability of procreating, creating more of themselves,” Grim explained grimly. “Its more than possible that this is the first of its kind, but that more of it may be floating around out there. Offshoots, independent minds, etc.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Tetra agreed. “But there aren’t any here now that we know of, and we got to meet royalty,” she squealed.

Grim shook his head as Stella looked at her with borderline disgust. “Does nothing slow you down? That thing could have infected all of us, ending our little campaign for world domination before it got anywhere,” she hissed.

The hyper intelligent demon only shrugged, “But it didn’t. No use in crying over spilled milk if the glass was full of water. It didn’t happen, so we need to re-focus, move forward, and ensure that your fears don’t come to fruition. My scanners are being installed on the outside of every building,” she said, reassuring Grim and Stella. “If it gets a positive hit the command center gets notified and the person will be tracked. We are being as cautious as we can for having a neighbor that can make turn anyone’s head into a vacation retreat.”

“Hive minds are not always bad, but I haven’t met a parasitic type that has been beneficial yet,” Grim admitted. “The precautions seem adequate for now. Let’s keep an eye on our new neighbor and see how this relationship builds out.”

Tetra stood and nodded her agreement, “I will keep a close watch on it. Between the scanners, the completed wall, and our start at gathering natural resources we are in a good position. I need to work out more of the AI issue, what we have now isn’t suitable for the clothing. But that’s an issue for the development team. Toodles!”

The scientist pranced out of his office like a schoolgirl even as Grim closed his eyes and rubbed his temples at the pun. Sometimes he borderline regretted converting Tetra. Other times he didn’t know what he would do without the super genius, insane as she was. Well, he could always just hint at quantum mechanics to really torture her a bit. He would hold onto that ace for now though.

He turned to Stella, who was watching him with an amused grin on her face. “What?”

Taking a quick look around the office, she walked over and closed the door before returning to sit opposite of him. “You care more than you let on,” she accused.

“I’m an evil, murdering bastard who takes what he wants in pursuit of goals that hardly anyone understands. I am not, contrary to popular belief, an asshole,” he pointed out while waving a finger in the air.

She nodded. “I have something I need to know, Master. We have spoke about this several times in the past. You never shied away from answering other questions… but what are you?”

Grim thought about that, taking his time to give an answer. Finally, he settled on one he knew his succubus lieutenant wouldn’t like. “I don’t know.”

She frowned, but he held up his hand. “There is context there that is needed, so be patient for fucks sake. Your question is complex at its simplest. My… biological father was a being that the man who raised me described only as the single most complex entity he had ever encountered. I don’t know anything about him really, just that he was far more powerful and violent than I am. I do know, however, that the man I consider my Father changed me. He altered me to use Infernal energy and trained me in its uses. So to answer your question… I don’t know.”

Stella was quiet for a bit before answering. “That’s annoying,” she finally replied.

“Yup. By the way, I have a question for you too,” he said, happy to change the subject. The succubus quirked an eyebrow, curious as to what he was going to ask.

“How the ever-loving fuck does Jim survive all this shit?”