ONE
It was good, living in the valley. Some people couldn’t believe I commuted that far every day but they also couldn’t believe I owned the land. Purchase access levels were hard to come by, I had to swap mine for a reduced monthly credit rating but it was worth it. Way out beyond the suburbs there are Nomads but I have a pretty good security system. I learned a lot about how to set it up from visiting The Hive and I got components from Central's sale portal easily enough. The drone blockers were hardest to source, I didn't want to do a deal with an outlawed group, once you're in with them there's no knowing what they might want.
There is a tubeshot dock right near my place, the elevated track to the Island Branch Office goes right past. That's why the land was for sale at all. Central was going to put a new interchange platform there, but they went with another branch line because they decided not to make access to and from the coast that easy. They wanted to recoup some costs and I got inside information. There were only a few others with the clearance to purchase land that knew about the sale and they didn't like being so close to the tubeshot. I knew that the individual lozenges go too fast for anyone to see much and in the group carriages passengers are lying on bunks, one on top of the other, so there are no windows. I'd never actually been in a group lozenge. Besides, most of them were going to The Hive so came back empty.
I built a little dwelling place under the outcrop made for the tubeshot structure. The angle created meant anyone stopped at the dock couldn’t see my house. They might’ve seen the garden, the fence around the boundary, and the rain balloon, but all that was there when Central owned the block – well except for the garden. The only other garden I'd ever seen for real was in The Hive, under the bubble. That’s what I called the roof that stretched over the entire complex. They had their own bees, climate control and the whole place was an airborne exclusion zone, of course, so they could grow almost anything. Their water supply was constant too. The interior roof collection was supplemented by the decontamination plant. Central even paid for that because they had to keep any discharge from The Hive isolated. That didn’t stop stuff going in though, and I had to hand it to Queen, her multiple income streams covered more ground than even her roof did. She recycled plastics from everywhere, some even went past my place on the freight tube, then went back again as plasticrete or printer rolls.
I got to go in and out of The Hive as part of my job. I also got to go into Habitation Land without trouble. They were pleased to see me to confirm their credit. I even had clearance to go into Central, working there gave me lots of privileges. Wearing the helmet and electronic veil was a trade-off I was prepared to make. Since I moved between populations, I had to carry my own air supply. Bea said Queen loved my visits. I could tell she liked convincing me to recommend that Central continue to fund The Hive. Bea asked for a photograph of me once because Queen wondered what I looked like under the helmet and veil. I didn't give her one.
I was on my regular monthly visit and could watch them watching me because I’d left a seek and surveil in Queen's chambers. Central had a hack into The Hive system so I could see all their records. The projection on my electronic veil was clear. I was surprised they weren't alerted to my monitor because their own security was pretty tight, that's probably why they'd gotten a bit sloppy, maybe they thought nothing could get into their inner chambers. Queen called out to Bea, “Have you got the figures ready?” Bea went through to Queen’s room. She looked calm. I checked her electronic schedule and saw she had just come from the morning meditation/medication area. She tapped the display. Blue numbers lit the white wall behind Queen. Bea scrolled, showing Queen the neat columns. Queen nodded one short dip of her chin. Bea left again, returning with the gold vest Queen wears to meet me. Bea handed it to Queen and both laughed, repeating the “invest with me’ pun. The books and Queen were ready for the keeper and I was on my way.
I knew Bea would be watching my progress from the west gate entrance to the airlock, through the bacterial sweep, the thumbprint screen, and finally to Queen’s chambers. She buzzed me into the foyer. I set my veil to neutral and looked around, appreciating the flower scent added to the circulating air. The room was built from their best waxy, recycled plastic, its translucence allowing a yellow glow to enter from the exterior walls, creating a wavering pattern across the central pillar. The Hive’s hexagonal logo was repeated in the shape of the pillar and each side showed varying images; the garden, the bee rooms, the protein racks, the food box packing hall, the consumption wing, and the recycling centre; the public face of The Hive activities. Each image included happy, mask-free workers.
I thumbed the ID panel and the lift doors opened. Looking up at the camera, I waved to Bea, smiling as if she could see my face. I liked Bea. She was always friendly and the hexagonal tattoos suited her face. The lift doors opened straight into the antechamber. Bea called from her cell. “Hi Keeper”. I had given up trying to get them to use my name and settled for being greeted by my job title. “Morning Bea”. The 'upload complete' signal beeped and Bea said “All ready to submit to Central as soon as you’ve met with Queen.” “Efficient as ever, Bea!” I replied as I walked past her screen-topped desk, the numbers flickering from its depths. Bea and Queen were rechecking the numbers on their dual displays. I opened my display and began at the top as I entered Queen’s chamber.
“Ahhhh” said Queen and spun on her right heel making the overlay of her dress spin out from her hips and flow over her knees. Its blue was perfectly offset by the gold vest.
“It’s the Keeper!” The blue numbers flashing on the wall lit Queen’s face slightly, making her hexagonal tattoos look more prominent. They matched her eyes. I was kind of in awe of Queen. I was glad the veil hid my face. It was getting warm. I'm sure I blushed. To cover this, I was all business. “Right!” I said, “How many new cases were admitted this month?” Queen was used to this and said, “I can read you like a book, keeper!” then laughed and laughed. I squirmed, she was playing with me again, how I hated it.
I believe Queen was bored, interacting mostly with employees all the time, playing a different role only when an outsider did drop into her world or her brother paid a virtual visit. Queen highlighted the column showing new entrants and I voiced the Keeper code making the number display change to green. “Aren’t you even going to check they’re all in the consumption wing?” Queen asked as she switched the camera to that area. “No, no” I waved my hand down toward the floor, shooing away the sight. “I have the records of admissions and I know you’re not careless enough to lose any, not at 50 credits a head per month anyway.” Queen laughed again, “Oh keeper, you are so cute!” she said making me feel small. I stood on the tips of my toes then rested back on my heels, cleared my throat and said; “The incidence of tuberculosis has been tracking steadily downward since those affected have been isolated here but your request for an increase in the monthly payment has not been approved by Central.” Queen tried every quarter. She said, “It’s an expensive business, keeping an airborne bacterium at bay, the security measures alone…” “You have other income streams” I cut in. “And the tax relief you get must result in an increased profit.” We both looked at the figures again.
“It’s quite incredible really, the growth in demand for your food boxes even with the dosage issue still being worked out” I noted. “Yes, yes, they are marketed well though and that has an associated cost too.” “Oh come on. Organic. Natural bee pollination. Pesticide and Antibiotic free. Rack-grown protein. They all sell themselves.” “Yes but we still have to get that information out there and 'from the consumptives to the consumers' isn’t a strong marketing point!” I sighed, same shit different quarter.
“MMM” I said assuming my best professional image, “Then there’s the honey, the propolis, bee venom and swarm sales, your recycling retainer, colouring and fresh flower markets as well as the foodboxes and isolation payments” She's creaming it!”, I thought then continued; “You get an allowance for research and charge Central for sample analysis, not to mention having cheap labour on tap.” I knew Queen would mention the expense of training the workers and upkeep of the laboratory so tried to get this point in first. Queen laughed again! She did enjoy my visits. She knew I would submit the figures as verified so she wasn't nervous about that at all. I hardly ever asked to see the consumption wing or checked the foodbox production hall but she knew I could easily insist all payments went to The Hive instead of some being diverted to her brother, so she stopped teasing me and we went through all the figures.
“Ok, Queen, that’s it”. I said; “You can expect your credit to show tomorrow and I'll put Solomon's allowance through as normal. How’s Todd getting on with the Bee Venom testing? Has he worked out the dosage yet?” Queen must have been expecting the question because she had an update from her son ready to go.” “I’ll share the file with you Keeper, so you can see for yourself, but yeah, Todd is on to it. He’s adjusted the mix so that the anti-obesity action is still present but without the diarrhoea. Mind you, not everyone minded having the runs - it increased the weight loss potential. Sadly, though, that adjustment reduced the euphoric reaction. Todd is working on that now but in the meantime the new dosage will be added to the foodboxes once we’ve used up all the boxes with the old measurements in the ingredient list. No sense wasting perfectly good boxes. We will change the design on the lid at the same time so that the new dosage isn’t seen as the reason for changing the box. That way we won’t draw attention to the additive.” I was impressed, once again, with Queen’s ability to translate everything into a marketing opportunity. She didn’t get the nickname ‘Queen of the money bees’ for nothing. “The Central Health Foundation will be pleased” was all I said.
I turned my seek and surveil back on as soon as I left her chambers, tuning to Todd. He was experimenting again. His reflection in the big, clear, vessel showed intense focus. The droplets on the sides of the jar held small images of his face. My monitor was a bit too close and I hoped to adjust the viewpoint next time I went to the Bee Rooms. As Todd transferred the liquid, I knew he wouldn't be looking at his reflection, he hated his tattoos, hated the branding they imposed. In his application for removal, he submitted that since he only went outside The Hive to the Edcentre rarely and hardly interacted with anyone while there, he should not have to show his bacteria rating on his face. He only needed two hexagons. His skin and blood tests showed his infection was latent, but he was in contact with people in The Hive who had the active form of the mutated disease so the hexing was still necessary. The blue shapes were imprinted just below his left eye, on his high cheekbone. The hyperlinks embedded in them showed his inactive status when scanned but most outsiders didn’t bother, they just reacted to the hexes. Todd knew that Queen could have prevented the need for the tattoo tagging system. It annoyed him to think it was just another way to make money. Her electronic tattoo imprinter was patented and sold alongside the skin and blood testing devices developed by The Hive laboratories. When Todd applied to have his hexes deleted, his request was declined, but the information was added to his file. I'm the only one who really looked at this. I needed to make sure no one else could detect our plans from the information that was held and it gave me something to do on the tubeshot home besides updating this journal.
Todd looked excited as he noted the concentration of bee venom in the solution he held to the light. He smiled then began the clean-up process. He locked the tubes in the fridge and wiped the stainless plastic benches and removed his gloves and put them in the bright turquoise bin then replaced the black lid. He checked the record of his previous bee-venom levels. His buzz was made manifest by the bees in their glass-walled terrarium. Todd adjusted the temperature gauge and his device, and mine, noted this in a graph marked with time and date. The numbers glowed against Todd's face which was shown on my veil. Just the right amount of water was released into the base of each plant and the lights dimmed slightly as they adjusted to the new time of day Todd had just entered. The bees bounced from bud to blossom and back again. Todd could estimate their yield accurately just by looking at their hind legs. He nodded to them as if in greeting. He kept his gauges and devices in the pockets sewn to his trouser legs. He told me these are his corbiculae - the receptacles on bee’s hairy hind legs used to carry pollen. But then a single bee can carry about half her body weight in pollen and Todd’s load was much less than that. So light, in fact, that he often forgot to remove the instruments from his pockets when he left the lab.
When bee-venom was found to be an effective treatment for HIV, Todd’s mother made the link to TB which, before antibiotics fixed it, had been called consumption. She read that people with the immuno-virus were more susceptible to the TB bacteria. That’s how ‘The Hive’ was first established. Queen already kept bees in an airtight environment to ensure pollination of the garden that stocked her foodboxes. When Todd was seven, she gave him his first swarm and he created several more in the next ten years. He told me he was now more of an expert than Queen. He still worked for her though. When new bee colonies needed to form, Todd was able to set up additional rooms with distinct qualities - some were for pollination of the garden, some for honey production, some for propolis and royal jelly, some just so the swarm could be rented out. Todd spent a lot of time in bee-venom production rooms. As he grew older and learned more, Queen encouraged him to experiment with vaccines.
Queen set up the isolation unit, using her fine sense of irony to name it the consumption wing, as the patients in there also tested new developments in her food boxes. These people, infected with the antibiotic resistant form of TB, had been removed from the general population to limit the spread of the bacteria. This meant she could trial versions of the vaccine as she made them. We also paid per head to keep these patients in a kind of sanatorium.
When Queen found a vaccine that worked, she realised it would not be to her advantage to release it as she would then no longer get the per head payment and would also lose her cheap workforce. By then, consumption wing inhabitants who were well enough due to TB resistance treatment, were also doing gardening and other production work. Queen didn't like to lose patients but inevitably some still ended up in Mediwaste Bags. Todd shouldn't have told me about any of this, but he did. We had already developed a friendship based on our mutual interest in seed germination and his sharing information with me led to a deeper bond. I also told him about my set up and we thought up a joint venture. We would meet in person when I was at The Hive and also had a live link where we posted information and interesting articles we found while browsing.
I felt like I was playing chess sometimes. Queen could move in any direction and I was just a pawn. Todd though, was more than that but I still couldn’t figure out what role he played – a bishop maybe or an alchemist. He said he shared his anti-obesity research with his mother because he was only fifteen when he discovered the affect and still wanted to impress her. After that he kept his results to himself, only letting Queen in on developments that kept her off his case like the update he had sent her that morning. But Todd had made progress improving the production of euphoria too. He just hadn't told her about it. He said he could only imagine what sort of marketing ploy she might turn it into. Todd was rich enough not to care about money. At that time, he thought he had a social conscience, but he didn't socialise with anyone but me and Beth so there may have been some arrogance involved in the evaluation of his own motives. He had been working to find a TB vaccine for years before he made the same serum that Queen had found to be effective. Todd thought Queen would be proud of him - and she was - but not enough to release the vaccine. When I told him that his research had been used to justify continued funding from Central he stopped telling his mother everything. But by then the anti-obesity serum was bigger news than TB.
I met Todd before I left The Hive that day. He told me he had just been thumb printing the Bee Lab shut when his mother appeared in the corridor. “Where are you off to?” Queen asked him, quite reasonably, but Todd was wary, he’d seen that mood before. “Just give her what she wants” he told himself looking toward her without raising his head, so he could only see the red buckles on her printed plastic shoes. Her legs were bare under layers of gauzy fabric and she still wore the gold vest. He sighed long and loud enough for her to hear. “Oh wazza madda liddle Oddy Toddy boy, got no time for mumsie?” Queen handed him a holograph, bright purple lines glowed against the gold of her vest for a moment as she pulled it from her tracking device. “Just thought you might like to know, your extra time in the Bee Lab has been noticed.” Anyone else listening could have taken this as acknowledgement of Todd’s extra work, but Todd and I understood the warning. He kept his reaction calm. Queen would laugh if he got upset. He wondered how much she knew. He hoped to keep his activity out of her awareness until he had another swarm set up outside The Hive. “Well Ma, you wanted an update on the dosage work and I’ve been doing that.” Queen scoffed, “You work slow then Todd, we’re waiting on the euphoria upgrade too you know!”. Of course Todd knew! That's why, when he asked me about it, we decided he should base his happiness research in the colour factory not the Bee Lab. But then Queen handed him a second graph, shaking the first off and replacing it with the record of entries to the Blue Room. “Looks like you blue it” Queen laughed. Todd didn't know if this was just one of her stupid puns or she actually knew something. He had learned that his best defence was silence and he employed this. He was relieved when Queen said; “AAh Oddy, you really are a strange boy! Just remember you will not have access to the bees if you abuse my trust in you.” This was so ridiculous Todd nearly laughed and Queen caught him smiling. Todd, musing with me later said, “Ok so she doesn’t know about the Blue
- yet - and still thinks she can manipulate me that easily.” He said, “I told her 'Thanks for your interest.' and I was strong enough not to add any hint of sarcasm.: Then he added; “Queen raised her left eyebrow, The Hive logo stretched with the movement of her skin and reminded me how old she is. I just shook the holograph off and left.” Queen did not follow him and Todd checked that she did not enter the Bee Lab either as he turned into the opaque area of the corridor, walled with sheets of plasti-board, their first attempt at printing walls.
When Todd was in the translucent hallways he took a few unnecessary turns just in case, then finally headed toward his original destination when he was sure Queen was not following him. He had his stop-track activated but patted his pocket just to check he was carrying his device. Then he realised that he still had the controller for the bee rooms in his pocket. He chuckled about that. Even if Queen went back to the Bee Lab, she wouldn’t be able to see what he’d been doing! The area was kept Bluetooth free because it interferes with the bee’s internal radar. Bluetooth signals send them bumbling into walls. When he described it, Todd said he smiled as he walked along, enjoying the shadow-play projected onto the translucent corridor linking the middle concourse to the colour factory. But then the imitation of light through tree branches changed to Queen’s public face. It was just an old ad without sound, Queen smiling and giving a thumbs up, the affirmation also referring to security measures but Todd felt stalked. Imagine how he'd feel if he knew I was tracking him too.
The colour factory is in a newer wing than the Bee Lab but Queen had been producing natural pigments from flowers for some time. It meant the rack-grown protein and other pre-packaged items could still retain the organic label in her foodboxes. Customers could scan the nutrient label and see the colour factory looking bright and fresh. Todd’s interest in colour manufacture began when he was still searching for the TB vaccine. He had read about Professor Paul Ehrlich, a German pioneer who used dyes to stain tissue samples so they could be examined under a microscope. He reasoned, if the dye could stain microorganisms it might be made to kill them. Dr Sahachiro Hata found that a colour compound he called 606 killed the bacteria causing syphilis and Gerhard Domagk saw that red dye protected mice from strep pyogenes. Discovering this vintage research excited Todd so much that he started to experiment with mixtures of bee-venom and colour made in the factory. He thought this mix could work because bee-venom and the extracted pigments have flowers in common. Because he worried this leap in reasoning would make him sound less than scientific Todd kept his idea to himself, only telling me of his theory so he could discuss the possibilities with someone. This meant Queen could not follow his research trail.
Todd had been mixing batches of serum, adding differing amounts of bee venom to the pigment and in varying strengths. He kept doing this even after he found the TB vaccine. Queen’s reaction to his discovery made him shut down any further discussion with her about his work in the Bee Lab. These experiments also led to Todd’s discovery of the anti-obesity affect. He only shared the results with her, not the entire process. He had been trialling the product on himself as he did not know what side effects there might be and really didn’t want anyone else to know what he was doing in case it got back to Queen. He did ask me to try it too but I couldn't risk my job like that. Our new set up wasn't ready then. I still needed to add bee rooms, a colour lab and a plant genetics area to my dwelling space.
It was Queen who realised the powdered serum also induced a mild euphoria and made colours look brighter. Todd had sampled the powder just before he shared his results with her, so he was in a happy state, off-guard and humming. He had not linked the serum with his change of mood. Queen demanded he let her try some. She loved both results - anti-obesity and euphoria - who wouldn’t be happy! Queen’s happiness did not last for long though. It was only after the serum had been added to products in the foodboxes that Todd discovered, after accumulated use, there was a diarrhoea side effect and by then it was too late. Customers had gone wild over the foodboxes, they could eat the deserts and all the carbohydrates and still not gain weight. They felt good after eating. A literal social media shit storm arose after a group of customers noted that they always got diarrhoea after eating from The Hive foodboxes. It was probably an opposition foodbox company that released this information and Queen wanted to find a way to minimise the damage this could have done to sales.
When Queen asked Todd if he could make the serum addictive he told me she was money crazy, loopy, a threat. He refused to tell her how to make the serum. So Queen needed him. Todd hoped, at that stage, not to need Queen for much longer. Our own colour production and Bee Labs were nearing completion. He just needed me to keep the secret until he could extricate himself from The Hive. I would need to lobby for his hexes to be removed then we planned to move everything to my place, expand the gardens and roof the valley, set up colour labs, bee rooms and propollis collection. Our main interest would be continuing research into making seeds viable again. We were going to share them, not copyright them. I already had the business files ready to go live and a path cleared at Central. Once I resigned from my job, New Seedland would begin to receive funding as an altruistic company.
Todd was listening to mid-century blues when he reached the colour lab that day, he liked the colour coincidence and had been looking forward to getting on the Bliss. Beth came up with that name. The blue powder has been Bliss ever since she sighed “Ahhhh Bliiisss” when first sampling the product. Todd hadn't meant to become friends with Beth. He met her in the queue for the thumb print machine at the Edcentre when he was handing in an assignment. There was something wrong with the upload function so students could verify their work but were still unable to submit it. Because it was hand in day, the queue was a long one. Todd was only there because remote submission was no longer accepted since too many plagiarism cases had been made public, reducing the value of Edcentre qualifications. A technician was relaying instructions remotely to the guy at the head of the queue but he kept fumbling and would not let anyone else take over saying he was there first. Todd had sampled some of the blue powder before leaving The Hive so wasn't troubled by this. Beth was just behind him. She spoke to him. Todd was slow to react, taking a little while to realise the girl with the long, dark hair was talking to him. He looked around at her and registered the hex-free face. The only hexagon visible on her was the epipendant hanging from a gold chain around her neck. She was wearing a sleeveless, sky-blue dress with ribbon-like shoulder straps and a white frill around the hem. “How come you're so patient?” Beth repeated. Until that point Todd hadn't noticed the queue wasn't moving, having dosed himself to endure this outing. He shrugged and reached out to touch her epipendant, tapping it with his index finger gently once. “You allergic to queues?” Beth laughed, it became a sound he craved more than she craved the blue powder.
Todd was also dosed up the day all the drama went down. When we met in the recycling centre after I'd left Queen's chambers, he told me what had happened with Bea in great detail. “I let myself into the colour factory and took a deep breath. I could smell the red first, then hints of purple, yellow and blue. The blue drew me on down the corridor, each room cast a hue onto the white walls. I almost skipped toward the blue tinge at the end of the corridor. In my mind, I was already absorbing blue, blue, blue...but Bea came out of the yellow room just as I got to it and put her hand on my forearm. I knew not to speak. Bea's movement monitor was flashing, its little light showing her position. With luck, no one was checking because its normally her job. She knows the movements of everyone. She pointed to her wrist monitor and clicked through to Queen's pathway. I could see she was in the gym and knew she would be there for at least an hour but I could also see that Queen had been outside the colour factory earlier. Bea projected the footage onto the ceiling - Queen checking the outwards goods panel at the Colour Factory door. I made sure Bea was looking at me before I answered by rolling my eyes giving her a nothing-to-be-done-about-it kind of shrug. Bea responded by making an X over her mouth and then placed a finger gun to her head and pulled the trigger. I placed a hand on each of her upper arms and nodded looking her right in the eye. Bea had flicked out of camera mode and off Queen's path. She said she would go straight to the gym when she left me so that her interest in Queen's placement could be explained. Bea is clever but Queen uses all the tricks so knows when they're being used against her. Bea checked my mouth before she left. She knew there would be no trace of blue there because I hadn't made it to the Blue room yet, but I understood what she was saying by this and she knew it.”
Todd was talking fast and licking his lips; “I went into the blue. I tried to wipe the trace of Bea's fingers from my mouth. The entry counter beeped and I signed in, the lights came up as my thumb print was taken. The blue surrounded me. Even if I stopped inhaling I would still need to supply Beth. Aaaah Beth, waiting for me, or for the Bliss, would she still want me if I didn't bring Bliss?” He said he'd rather not find out right now so he gathered the powder dust from around the production vials and swept the entire area, placing all the blue into a “Hive” branded, freshly recycled, newly opened baggie. He held this up and said it contained enough to get Beth through the night. He said he decided to think about the morning dose later.
Todd had put the residue baggie in the recycling chute. He would have to go through the outward goods process to get more Bliss in the morning. He hurried down to the recycling conveyor belt and using the machine's safety camera, I watched him pluck the baggie off before it entered the meltdown chamber. Then he casually climbed onto the conveyor and walked back along it, having to step fast to make progress against the belt's ever-onward flow. He entered the airlocks once, twice, three times, and was out into the collection area where I was waiting for him.
He had put what was left on the dustpan under his tongue and he said the blue opened up his head. “Seb, I just keep imagining Beth in the living room, guarding our hidden Lab equipment. Soon the colour will be made at New Seedland not right under Queen's nose.” He chuckled. “O man, the delight is spreading to my fingertips” he laughed again and congratulated himself for changing the blues to Bliss. “Seb, Seb my brain is whirring. That's a great slogan, 'From Blues to Bliss' but Hey we don't need to think that way. We can manufacture Bliss and the vaccine from our own labs. Maybe set it up as part of the funding and everyone could get it for free, then not just me and Beth would know Bliss.”
There were only a few trucks about at this time of evening. Todd turned on his tracking device and placed it on the conveyor knowing it would be screened out before meltdown. Anyone checking would see his blip in the recycling retrieval area. He then pressed the remote for one of The Hive trucks and recovered the stash of vials, bee frames and venom I had placed under the conveyor housing earlier. I had entered my course into my tracker and added, “Checking Recycling” but I wanted to get out of there. Todd said, “You really should try this stuff, you might relax a bit.” as he got everything ready to go. Then the truck pulled up beside him. He remoted open the roller side and placed the equipment inside, making sure it would not tip over when the truck cornered. He entered the coordinates of the drop-off point and sent the truck on its way, its cylindrical shape covered in The Hive branding. Anyone checking would be able to see these details listed under his thumbprint but he had the necessary clearance for this and the load could be legitimate.
Todd was placing the baggie in his pocket when he pulled out the bee room controller. He shrugged at me, laughed a little then climbed onto the bed of a graffittied truck getting ready to leave after dropping its load of plastic at the conveyor entrance. Although he had an Edcentre pass and his thumbprint would open areas usually forbidden to most Hive inhabitants he was not going to sign out. He had used his app device to put a concealer over his hexes so Exit control would not be able to pick up their signal. He could be arrested for this, if caught, and his sentence would be mandatory. He could never leave The Hive again.
His EdCentre visits meant Todd knew his way around without needing a GPS, which, of course was on his tracking monitor now beeping away in the recycling hub. As usual Todd kept our live link on during the journey. Being outside The Hive and in motion should have meant our conversation was not detected. He only talked about Beth anyway, how worried he was about her. When leaving like this, he never changed the route of the recycling truck as he didn't want a dispatcher to wonder if the vehicle had been hijacked. Instead, he got as close to The Flower Pot as he could, depending on where the truck was destined, often jumping off at intersections so he was not taken too far out of his way by his hitched ride. He was lucky that night, the truck was taking a direct route to Habitation Land. The red and green lights of its journey indicator were flashing and Todd had time to stretch out and just roll with his Bliss for a while. He was flat on the bed of the truck as he told me all about Beth, waiting for him. He circled round her and settled on her pushed out belly. Same thought, different day. Todd was flashing his own mental journey lights along a predictable track and he wanted to stop so he added music to our link. “Ahh Bluetooth, he says, hahahaha, ooohhh the blue. But he was still focussed on Beth's belly and completed the thought circuit aloud: “Is Blue Bliss affecting the child? It's a natural product, well modified. But then so is opium...and what does that do to a child in utero?” He asked me to look it up but had moved on before I could. Todd hurried to his normal conclusion, then turned the music to a higher setting. Baby will be Blissed, he sang, it'll be a calm, happy, easy-care child. “Yeah, keep telling yourself that”, I countered knowing he couldn't hear me. After a while Todd sat up, clamped his Bluetooth to turn the music off and his earbones stopped vibrating in time to his chosen beat. I was glad of that. His taste in music is not the same as mine.
Todd noted his position and prepared to get off the truck. Habitation Land sits between the motorway and the river course. Todd used the smell of water like a homing device. He could also hear the low hum of the charging points at the off-ramp. There are Hive brand grass strips separating them and the dwelling areas. He could see the Flower Pot easily, its distinctive shape and colour dictating its name. The building is coated in pre-mixed terracotta over its plasticrete frame, famous as a printed building trial. It's lasted pretty well, is still sturdy and habitable but its laughable shape will never be lived down. In an attempt to utilise the humour of the building, the landlord cascaded printed geraniums from the roof. They hang in empty space as the walls splay out at an angle. This was intended. A small land area, a larger building. Economic sense prevailed over aesthetics but I always wondered if the architect had been taking the piss when she also made the building round. Small windows spiralled up and around the apartment block, and this is what saved it from being completely ridiculous.
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Habitation Land was laid out in grids, each with a central square in a Retro-Sim-City design. The first batch of Architecture students from the nearby Edcentre had been let loose on it. They were idealistic, wanting to create a community, so there is no vehicle access to the gridded area. The squares were meant for recreation and interaction with others. They were not used. Habitation Land was never as affluent as The Hive but was better than the crowded desolation of midtown and its suburbs. The Habitation still had working plumbing due to water collection tanks and waste was diverted into The Deluge-owned river-course. The old solar generators still worked and the distribution centre was still in use. Initially student accommodation, landlords now take any paying tenant. Todd wasn't scared of going in there. He kept his eyes ahead and walked with purpose, not interacting with the synthetics sellers but not entirely ignoring them either, just a flash of his eyes keeping him from seeming arrogant. He was recognised now so no 'buy-this- buy-this' banter was directed at him anymore. He was almost accepted as a resident. Beth first lived in the Flower Pot when it was an Edcentre dorm for scholarship students, the kids that Central collected and were raising to work for them. Since she was deemed too arty for Central recruitment, Beth managed to avoid that fate. Her father, Lewis, knew the people running the dorm because he delivered meat there, chatting with the kitchen staff at the pick-up point. They got Beth a placement when she was four.
Saying “See ya soon Seb.”, Todd flipped himself out of the truck between off-ramps as it slowed to merge into the exit lane that led to the distribution point. He slipped under the guard rail and found a piece of strewn rubbish big enough to hold his butt. He sat on the folded food box and slid down the embankment to the parkland. They were trying another grass seed, purple with growth hormone, it sat highlighted against the steam-cleaned soil. Todd kicked at it scoffing at the attempt. Up until then they had stuck with the green plasticrete they'd always used. He told me about this, making sure I noted it as a potential test area for our yet to be developed seeds. He said, “Maybe we could rent some of the bee swarms to the district” but first, I reminded him, we still needed to get them established. They were doing OK but it had taken Todd ages to make the rooms he rented above Beth's apartment bee tight.
Todd had been able to rent the entire floor above Beth. It was just under the roof which was encircled by the exterior wall of the building, making a kind of balustrade all round and further enhancing the image of a huge flower pot. The plastic plants shuttered the windows allowing little natural light in but casting incredibly intricate shadows on the interior walls, floors, ceilings. Todd loved this, it reminded him of The Hive light display walls, but other tenants had found it creepy so the space had been vacant when he first started visiting Beth. As normal, the windows were sealed so Todd only needed to ensure any other access points were double doored. He also completed clear-walled, temperature controlled booths and constructed two labs, one for colour making and the other for bee venom extraction. He was able to redirect plasticrete shipments and equipment gleaned from The Hive but had to take it slowly so his mission was not noticed. The three of us, Beth, Todd and I planned to move all this to New Seedland once we had everything ready. Of course Bea found out. Bea knew everything except that I was involved. She called it the TB exercise – Todd and Beth. Todd wished Bea could meet Beth, He found both women intelligent, caring and curious about the world. Beth is a natural woman but Bea had gone through the change.
Todd noticed their similarities more than their differences. He said Beth could do with an older person in her life because her mother, Carol, was in the Consumption wing at The Hive.
I was in the tubeshot, on my way home when I opened the Habitation Land channel. “Ahhh Beth, Beth, Bethy” Todd said as he thumbed open the door. “Ahh my Toddy Bear” she said. “I'm so glad those bloody bees can't get out, I hear them buzzing all the time.” She was a little on edge but Todd knew she would respond to the Bliss he was carrying for her. Their child was visible beneath Beth's breasts, her belly shaped like an egg and tilted forward. It pushed against the fabric of her white dress, it's buttons strained to contain the bulge. Todd went to her and placed his forehead of hers, she reached up and with her finger traced his hexes, he turned the concealer off. He took her hand from his face and placed the baggie in it. Her reaction was immediate. Todd knew there was not enough blue in the bag. Beth slid it open and shook out the Bliss, placed some under her tongue and sighed. Her dose was bigger than his had been, her tolerance seemed to be higher. Even though Todd had been sampling the powder longer, ever since the euphoric affect had been discovered in fact, and Beth had only started the day they met, she still needed more than Todd to achieve the Bliss state. Todd was still trying to work out if the addiction was entirely physical or if there was a psychosomatic component. Since he was the only other user of this version, it was difficult to know, addiction being such a complex ailment. The version used in the foodboxes was a much paler variety and Todd still found it ironic that when Queen had wanted him to make it addictive, he had been horrified by her request, yet he had made the stuff into a monkey for Beth's back.
I could see Todd was starting to relax. He asked Beth if she'd like to walk with him to collect the latest batch of equipment which would, by then would have been at the drop off point housed in a less distinctive building near-by. Then his Bluetooth vibrated and the caller was identified as Queen on my monitor. “Damn”, I thought but Todd said, “Hi Ma”, not fearful but on guard. “AAAH Todd, dear boy, just a thought. Now you know we're introducing new containers for our weekly grocery boxes.?” It wasn't really a question so Todd didn't answer. “We'll be changing the ingredient list so that the new formula can go in there – I know you made the additive laxative-free.” I thought she was going to have a dig at him about increasing the euphoric reaction again. Todd could lie about that but what she said was much worse and much less direct. “Well – just a thought, as I said Todd, but maybe we could add into the new design a large 'RecycLabel' she paused. “Then there may not be so many discarded boxes along the motorway. Although I hear they do make good sleds to get down embankments.” Beth looked puzzled as Todd opened a livelink to me and in a normal voice said, “I dunno Ma, put it through to marketing.” Todd disconnected from Queen, looked at Beth but said nothing. Having only heard Todd's side of the conversation, Beth didn't realise the danger. Todd was still trying to calm himself, saying, “how, how, how?” to me – that's how I knew he did slide down the embankment on a box. Then, before Beth could wonder what he was on about he added “How would you like to come for that walk now?” He looked out the window, checking the square opposite, looking for drones above, people waiting, anything that could explain Queen’s comment.
Our link was still live as they walked across the square, holding hands. Todd put me on 360 wide angle and said “Be the eyes in the back of my head, Seb.” Beth was happily Blissed. She hadn't starting thinking about her morning dose yet. Todd asked me to work out where the nearest Bluetooth repeater was. Beth chattered....”and we'll rock her back to sleep singing...” She smiled up at Todd but he was not present to her and she stopped talking but not walking. Todd only noticed her silence when they reach the distribution centre. He lifted her chin and kissed her nose. They entered and Todd said he was glad to see that a large sales portal order had just arrived so they wouldn't attract much attention in the busy space. Habitation dwellers were collecting their goods and thumbing their “Order Arrived” confirmations before leaving. An unloader and a re-dispatcher called out, “Hi” and Beth waved and reminded Todd that he'd met these twins before when he asked, “Who's that?”. “Remember, they live in the Pot too.” He didn't really know them like I did, all he focussed on when he was in the Flower Pot was Beth but he said he was glad she had friendly people around her. Bill and Bob stared at Todd, keeping an eye on the outsider. I recognised them by their voices because I often socialised with them after Keeper visits to Habitation Land. Todd and Beth joined the queue. Todd laughed - “Oh no, your allergy!” and the reference to their first meeting made Beth smile. “You wanna hope there's no bees in your stash then Toddy!” He knew the venom in his smuggled stuff would only be dangerous to her if got under her skin but he hugged her tightly anyway. I knew this scared him more than Queen did, the thought of losing Beth.
With the newest batch of gear safely stowed upstairs, Beth and Todd sat with their legs woven together, his hand on her belly, feeling the movement there. “An age-old scene” said Todd. He wondered aloud if his mother missed this kind of thing. He described her snuggled up to an IVF tube. They laughed. Beth said her parents might have done this. Before she got TB, Beth's mother was a butcher, when meat was still animal. She was badly affected by the disease and a study case – they tried all the newly developed synthetic sulphonamides, hoping to beat antibiotic resistance using modified chemical structures. They couldn't do it. Beth's mother was put into enforced care. The care facilities were set up hastily in buildings designed for other purposes so were not fun and did not provide much care, just kept the infected group separate. It was costing Central enormous amounts to keep them. Queen saw a ready workforce that she could be paid to keep. A reliable income stream for The Hive was created. Beth's parents were both transferred there, her father having contracted TB too, its contagion missed Beth only because her Dad had removed her from their home. Beth still replayed the scene to herself, trying out different endings but the fact always remained – she grew up in Habitation Land. Her parents' hex tattoos completely covered their faces, showing they were using the TB resistance remedy Queen only made available to inhabitants to prevent the disease progressing. Their contagion rating meant they were not able to go outside The Hive. They were there for life.
“Ok” said Todd, “I've gotta go.” Beth sounded shocked, “What! but you only just got here. I thought we were going to work out how to stock-pile some Bliss so you don't have to keep going back. The lab here...” she stopped, seeing Todd's face. “I'm sorry but I do need to get your morning dose Beth.” Todd was smart, obviously, he hoped this would appease her, and make it easier for him to go and find out what Queen was up to. Beth sighed and stretched out her legs, kicking them like a swimmer doing backstroke. But she couldn't go back. She needed Bliss now. Todd had a plan to wean her off as soon as he was with her full time and could manage the dose, making the powder less and less blue every day, even more pale than the food box additive. “Hang in there, Beth, not long now, keep that picture in your head – we'll be singing our baby to sleep before we know it.” It was then that I recalled TB, being airborne, is spread when infected people, cough, sneeze or even sing.
I'm Alice, I am. I don't like loud sounds. I only like wearing my red dress with the puffy sleeves. My number is 55114. 55114, 55114. It's a nice number. It's too bright out there. I don't like the lights I don't. 55114. 55114, 55114. It's a tune, if I draw its pattern it would be colours. My NanNan says I'm in wonderland but I know I live in The Hive. I don't have patterns on my face. NanNan does. I like her patterns. Poppa has them too but he has a loud voice. My number is 55114. My mum died. Even before I came out of her. It was a bee. A bee does not make a loud noise but I do not like it. A bee makes a pattern when it flies. It knows its way from the pattern. If I follow a bee, I might find the pattern but I will not find my Mum. My Mum died. My number is 55114. I cannot follow the bee because it is too bright out there. I cannot go where the bees are. My NanNan says “No.”
I was telling myself, “It’s alright, Bea, it’s alright, we’ll find her” but Queen burst in, interrupting my flow and asked; “When did they last see her Bea? I had shut down all the exit corridors and was looking at the security footage by the time she arrived. I was scanning every area Alice had access to, hovering over anything four-year-old-girl-sized. “They thought she was just under her pressure blanket again until medication time.” I was determined not to worry yet. Alice had been missing before, she had always been found, hiding in some small, dark space. That's why we got her the pressure blanket, she liked being under it and promised not to find other dark places to sit and chant in. We would usually find her by tracing the sound; 55114, 55114. Beth's parents, Carol and Lewis, were moved to the apartment block when Alice was born. They had an entire floor to themselves, a family-style dwelling, furnished to their taste. Their rooms were serviced by others from the consumption wing. Queen had given them all this after they signed a non-disclosure contract. It didn't matter if they told anyone about their living arrangements or that they were now the guardians of their grand-daughter. What mattered was the medication. They were not able to tell anyone they no longer needed the TB resistance remedy or that Alice had been vaccinated. How could they? Even without the clause, and the penalties that would be imposed if they spoke about this, how could they let their friends know that these medications existed.? They told me that the information was a weight around Lewis's neck but Carol managed to feel some peace about it by blocking the knowledge from her day-to-day awareness. This also prevented her from being fully present when Helen or anyone from the consumption wing came to clean or cook or fix something for them. Helen used to be her friend but Carol says she has heard her muttering. “What a bitch, swanning around in her fancy apartment, eating foodbox supplies and streaming visuals,” Carol ignored this too. She said having Alice made up for it. She had not been able to raise Beth.
Alice got the best medical attention available. The Hive's hospital team were able to complete research and test theories on the inhabitants of the consumption wing. The medical centre is a busy place. People living in the apartments that house paid employees, including the medical staff themselves, some of the marketing team, technicians and their families are treated there. Jobs at The Hive are sought after because staff get good housing, food, and services and can satisfy their career needs. Their children can apply for EdCentre passes and their partners can also find paid employment inside The Hive. Employee benefits include access to medical and dental care, IVF, TB screening, Gender Reassignment options, free gym membership, Bluetooth implants and visual streaming from a large library of films, books and documentaries. There is also free screen connection to the outside and discounted prices with quick delivery when ordering clothes or other personal items through The Hive sales portal. The benefits outweigh the commitment that is required. Once you have a job at The Hive, you need permission to travel outside.
Alice had a team of researchers on her case. The autism spectrum was cited and in utero drug use was investigated as was lack of oxygen at birth. I tried my best to save her but several syndromes have been named. We kept her physically healthy but Alice is locked into her own time and space and we can't get her out. Carol and Lewis knew Alice would not get this level of care anywhere else and this also kept them quiet about their own medical treatment. Alice has all her grandparents looking out for her. She knows Carol is NanNan and Lewis is PopPop but isn't aware that Queen is also her grandmother. Even Carol and Lewis don't know that I am the fourth grandparent. Todd doesn't either. Queen hadn't wanted to make a withdrawal from the sperm bank and get some random fertilisation. In return for an IVF tube load (and back up in the freezer), she gave me certain privileges and overlooked some indiscretions. I also got the best Gender Reassignment team available. Queen got total silence about this from me, it was a condition of the agreement. Queen purchased a lot of silence and has a legal team at hand. They also lived in the apartments and were keen to keep Queen happy. That's the way she liked it.
Queen didn't like not knowing where Alice was. “The only way to be safe is to be in control”, she often said. I looked up at her, “Sit down, Queen you're making me jumpy”. Surprisingly Queen did as she was told. I continued working through all the security footage but still came up blank. “She must still be in The Hive” I reassured Queen. Her face was puffy, she hated being seen like that and said she was glad that it was only me there. But then she wondered aloud if the crisis button should be pushed. She tapped her fingers in a steady rhythm, one Alice would have enjoyed, then stopped, frowned, got up, and paced around until I looked up at her again. “Queen, go to the gym, I'll let you know any developments.”
Todd was not even aware that Alice was missing. He was in the Bee Lab. He used to love his swarms. Now, he told me, he was seeking revenge. Beth's allergy was severe, of course he knew that. He said; “I never thought she would die. She always wore her epipendant. She never took it off. But in the end it didn't matter that she activated it, didn't matter that I was right there, didn't matter that I loved her, I couldn't save her.” We saved the baby but he couldn't look at the child. She looked too much like him he said and he hated looking at himself. All he could see was failure he told me. I didn't know how to help him.
I checked the Gym feed, Queen was exercising. Maybe the mindfulness practices we'd been trying weren’t working. Queen kept going over the steps that could be taken to find Alice, talking to me via the security monitor, knowing I was watching. She went to the darkest places first and worked back from there. “If Alice is no longer in The Hive we will need to set the drones after her soon.” Alice's tracker was not showing her presence anywhere in The Hive but Queen hoped the device was faulty and Alice would be found sound asleep in some dark hidey-hole. My very own hell-hole was opening up. I had dreaded this day since Alice was born. I always feared that Alice would be taken from The Hive. Queen said; “I need to be seen as a motherly figure”. I knew this wasn't to satisfy any maternal instinct, but to reinforce the image she’d created to engender trust in her products. Todd wasn't able to fill the child role anymore, in fact he wasn't really filling any role. Also Queen needed Alice as she provided vital evidence about the TB vaccine. No link between Alice's shuttered self and the vaccine had been found. If Queen ever did want to market it she would need to prove the vaccine safe. In Queen's mind, this meant finding out what did cause Alice to be on the spectrum; the scale that measures a child’s level of... I hesitated to call it damage. We already had a file about the effects of a bee venom reaction on a foetus. The experiments Queen ordered on IVF candidates did not result in the same affects. We also knew that the euphoric content of the powder Todd gave Beth was way too high. Queen liked its addictive quality but did not want Central to ban the substance from The Hive foodboxes, as they could, if the consumption wing trial results were ever seen. Queen was making the treadfloor bounce, she was running so hard. Her earbones vibrating to a rhythm set by her favourite band but she kept calling out her thoughts to me.
Every Gender Reassignment candidate has to drain their sperm or have their eggs harvested before the operation. Fertility is too precious to waste and the sale of seed and eggs covers costs. Queen picked my sperm, although anyone else would not know who the donor was, Queen had access to all the records. Ownership is what Queen wanted, I thought as I watched her wipe sweat from her face. She was sure about me; certain I could be trusted. Queen did not trust anyone else. Not even Todd.
“Right” said Queen, as she re-entered the office, “a list of everyone who has left The Hive today and their thumbprint records.” “Yes”, I said. I had also come to that conclusion; if Alice was outside The Hive, we needed to get on her trail as soon as they found one. I told Queen; “The Keeper left after checking the colour factory, 12 EdCenter students went to morning submission by tubeshot. There was a plasticrete shipment and a load of printer reels going to Habitation Land. The sewerage tanks from the Apartments were emptied and two loads of flowers and one of honey were shipped. The foodboxes haven't gone yet today but a large order of protein went to Central's canteen. All the shipments went via truck and I've tracked their courses. So if Alice somehow hid in one of them the unloaders will find her.” Queen and I looked at each other. It was possible. Alice might have found a nice enclosed space inside a truck. I said, “But how would Alice get to the docking bay?” “Pull up the footage anyway” Queen replied “Nothing unusual here. We're wasting time” she fretted, “We need to get the drones out there.” I said “But we've gotta know where to send them so, here you check the thumb print records and I'll keep going through the exit files.” Queen said she wondered who was in charge but didn't argue. “Hang on,” she said. “Why was The Keeper checking the Colour Factory?” I was scrolling and only shrugged, Queen started scrolling too. I saw her open the Owe Bay chanel but didn't say anything, knowing this would clam her down.
She always peeked in on her project when she was agitated and this would keep Queen busy so I could finish tracking Beth. It was my first thought when Alice couldn't be found. I also set a track and trace on Todd so that I could see him at all times. He was in the Bee Rooms but has been in the Colour Factory; the blue room. I didn't need to see it to know what he was doing there. If we ever needed evidence about addictive qualities of the powder, we've got it right there. Todd was not the only user then. He'd opened up sales to The Hive inhabitants and spread Bliss throughout. Todd used the proceeds from sales to make more powder that was not officially recorded. Shipments of colour went out all the time. Green was added to plasticrete and laid on The Habitation Squares for example, most of the red went to protein production units, while purple was used heavily by religious groups. Blue was used in the additive, amongst other things and yellow was sold as a brightener. The Hive food production areas also used the colours so it was easy enough to hide baggie sized quantities. Queen knew about this, of course, but she was happy enough that her workforce was blissful, that solved a lot of problems. She didn't know what was in the powder but she didn’t need to as long as Todd kept making it. At that time Queen didn't know about the Bee Venom ingredient. I thought about this as I watched Todd work the bees. I felt sorry for him but it was still too dangerous to tell him about Beth.
Todd knew I was watching him. He had a warning vibrated to him every time I turned on my track and trace. He rubbed his eyes and ran his hand over his head, making his hair even messier. The Bliss must have been wearing off because he rubbed his knee. I was surprised, yet again, that there was nothing beneath it. Todd often says he can still feel his toes. His memory of the night Alice was born is clear, up to the point he lost his lower leg. Even though I was there for most of it, I still don't know everything. I hear Todd scream every now and then, he says it’s a vicious cycle; – relieve, relive, relieve, relive.
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Todd had activated the live link earlier, but I also got the footage from our records, working as a Keeper meant I could tell the librarian that I was checking for contraband before I signed off The Hive payments. The drones had been activated by Central and that's why the Exit Controllers were there so fast. The zoom function is state of the art in our drones so I could even see Beth come to the door to see Todd off. She was waving to him as he walked across the square, heading for the charging stations to catch a lift back to The Hive. He had his head turned to her, looking over his shoulder while walking forward. One drone was not flying, just sitting flashing. Todd stood on it. It went into active mode from its flattened form and spun into the air leaving a mechanised barb in his ankle. Beth ran to him, keeping her knees wide to allow for the jolting hump of baby. She had her hand under it, her gait looked so absurd, I laughed. It could have been one of The Hive's ads for foodboxes except it did not have the sunray overlay or the happy music or an off switch. Beth was intent on reaching Todd as he slowly sat on the green plasticrete and looked down at his foot. A people mover had been hovering over the Flower Pot. It landed, mid square just as Beth reached him. She put her hands to his chest but Exit Controllers took him by each arm and lifted him to his feet. The barb was pulsing, releasing venom into his ankle. Todd had extracted the venom himself and had agonised to me about it being used in this way. I got him to think about the other applications of his product – his new vaccine research for one. Beth was not screaming but her mouth was wide open and her face was red. Todd grabbed her hand. The controllers put them both in the people mover and they whirred away, over the Flower Pot, the gridded Habitation Land, and the motorway to The Hive.
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When Alice was born, I was checking security from my chambers next to Queen's. A retrieval alarm had come through and I was glad it was me who had responded. Central would be billing us for the breach so I wanted to see who was being brought back. Queen might have activated The Exit Controllers or they could have just picked up the hex signal from Todd's face, but why would they have been in the area in the first place? Of course, I wanted to intervene straight away but not knowing who had set the dogs on him, I had to sit tight in case I made things worse. It wasn't Beth's first visit to The Hive, she had been able to see her parents intermittently, could view them in their climate-controlled room and even speak to them. But that was virtual. This was real. E.C.s don't deal with the politics of a breach, they just take violators back to their designated area. Beth wouldn't leave Todd with a barb in his ankle so they gathered her in too. I could see the barb was still working. Normally the drone would have fired at torso height but Todd had stood on it, activating its defence programming. The E.C.s had packaged Todd and Beth into a soft-cell and they moved this out of the vehicle and into the reception area when they arrived at The Hive. They by-passed the queue of refugees trying to get in by taking the side corridor. 'Oh-oh, this is not good,' I thought, the security pathway is only used to contain major threats to The Hive. Entry Controllers could come around behind the queue and contain any riot or dissent. The Exit Controllers were using it to go into The Hive. Queen would be dealing with this in person.
I switched to our public-area cameras, it was well covered down there. Todd reached for his ankle, and took something out of his pocket. I didn't realise what because I was plotting the path of the security corridor on my deskscreen. It wends around the reception area, the central foyer and the security base before rising through a personnel lift to Queen's chambers. There is also access to all other areas of The Hive, the corridor allows security staff to travel from their base at any time without using the spiral walkway that is open to all Hive inhabitants – except those with full-face hex tattoos. I followed their position on my map, I knew the lift lobby was closest to the bee area but didn't know what Todd had planned. The barb 'inject' light had stopped flashing I could see his foot was swelling. He and Beth had been removed from the soft cell and placed on an equipment slider in the corridor. I saw Todd thumbing the controller he took from his pocket when I heard a pinging from the bee room monitor. I had turned this to 'notify all' and saw there was a ‘move swarm' code for room 4. I knew this would release the bees into the shared space between rooms where, in a normal swarm relocation, a vitrine would have been waiting to transport them to their new home. Todd had been using Room 4 to house his collection of black, killer bees, their Asian/African mix had resulted in aggressive behaviour. Todd was studying their venom, he wanted to see what affect aggression had on strength and levels of extraction.
By the look of it, Beth had no idea what was going on and neither did the Exit Controllers. They called the lift. I opened the bee area camera and saw that the black bees were now in the bee room access space. Oh, clever boy,' I thought, but knew he would need to time this exactly right. When he and Beth were guided into the lift he thumbed in the bee area floor, 5, My overview map showed their course was already plotted to Queen's chambers so lift lights for 5 and 8 were showing. The E.C.s let the lift rise. Todd remoted open the bee area external door and got an alarm, “Bees Out” flashed on my screen too and the bee area door shut again. Todd must have used his index finger to override the safety system, his was the only finger that could do this. The lift stopped smoothly, the 5 light was flashing, Todd thumbed open the lift door and shut off the new alarm. Most of the bees were still inside the bee area access space so Todd emitted the frequency they would respond to from his device. It flashed on my screen. Bees are so uncommon outside the Hive that it took a while for the E.C.s to realise what was happening, by then the swarm was on them and it must have been scary because they shut themselves in the lift and continued up to 8. Then I remembered Beth was allergic to bees.
I used the front, public lift to get to the corridor knowing Queen would be busy questioning the Exit Controllers. I got there just as Beth used her Epipendant. Todd was hardly able to stand by now; the barb had done its damage. I caught Beth and dropped an emergency exclusion pod over her head, enveloping her in plastic. I pulled the cord tight and Beth let the pod do the rest, it was airtight but provided filtered oxygen via a tank attached at the back. I had a supply of them ready in case of airlock breaches between the consumption wing and the apartment area. Luckily the pod also prevented any more bees getting to Beth. There was only one sting site, her forehead.
I could only take Beth; Todd would need to wait. He was glad to see me. “I'll get a rescue team Todd, just stay put.” I told him and entered his image into my tracker. The barb should have been removed by then to prevent infection but I didn't have the code. That's the last time Todd saw Beth, or his lower leg. Before I left with Beth, he set an attraction scent in Bee Room 4 and reset the temperature and shut the doors to the access area and to the room. He said “Look out for rogue bees, there will be some that are lost.” then added, “This was better than letting Beth be taken to Queen.”
I didn't take Beth to Medical, there were too many indiscreet staff there and I had already requested a medic pick up for Todd. Queen would find him there almost immediately. Instead we went to my own rooms. My apartment is next to the chamber area. I can be on call at all hours. Once in my bedroom, I removed the exclusion pod and lay Beth in the bath I had set to run from the corridor downstairs. The epinephrine was working but I also gave Beth some prednisone and antihistamine. Her extremities were bright red but she was still conscious. The sting site was not puffing up much but her eyes were almost swollen shut. I unbuttoned Beth's white dress and let it float on the warm water. I checked for arrhythmia, a tachycardial heart rate could lead to a stroke. Beth said she was feeling dizzy and groaned, “I want to vomit” I tipped the printed seashells out of the bowl resting on a shelf above the basin and passed it to Beth who filled it and passed it back. I emptied it in the toilet then handed it back to Beth who refilled it. This went on until Beth was dry retching and groaning. “Who are you?” she asked. Then her contractions began.
Todd was still in Medical when I took the child in. I handed her to Queen and left the room, going straight to the supply area while they were all occupied with the baby. The resuss team arrived within minutes and I was able to get a quick pic before returning to my rooms. The child was screaming so must have been breathing. I was able to breathe too, it felt like I hadn't done so all the way there from my rooms. I grabbed sedatives, womb balm and sting site cream, looked for a placental stem-cell unit, found one, got a blood suction pad pack and some expandable foam towels. I also got a fresh epipendant and put everything in a MediWaste bag then took it all back to Beth. First I showed her the pic with audio turned on, the sound of the baby stopped Beth crying. I administered the clean-up products and applied the womb balm and cream, removed the used epipendant and replaced it, put the placenta in the unit and stuck the blood suction pack in place, its Vampire label positioned upward so that Beth would be able to see when it needed replacing, the Vampire turns red when the pad is full. Who thinks of these things I wondered. Then I applied Beth's thumb print to the death certificate I had ordered from medical and uploaded the form to Central. I put it under Dr Hofstede’s name, he never remembered to log out. “Queen can't kill you now” I said like it was a joke but Beth did not find it funny. “OK, now I'm going to use the tank from the exclusion pod inside the bag, so don't panic, you'll be able to breathe. I'm also going to sedate you so you'll sleep most of the way.” Beth still didn’t know where she was or who her nurse was, she was spun around by the events and didn't even seem to be thinking about Bliss.
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As keeper, I knew about MediWaste disposal but Beth only knew it existed because Todd told her. Later, at New Seedland, Beth told the twins and I about her return journey. When she awoke it was dark. The Mediwaste bag didn't let in any light and she panicked, scrabbling around inside wondering if she would be able to get out. She was scared they might have just delivered her to the furnace but calmed herself by thinking, 'That's inside The Hive.' Todd used it to get rid of batches of vaccine and colour powder that he didn't want Queen to analyse. The furnace is so efficient it doesn't produce smoke, it's double chambers burn any carbon left. Thinking logically made Beth feel less shaky, she said. Her breasts were sore, her eyes were itchy and her forehead felt really stretched. Beth tried to put her hand up to feel it but the bag was too tight to allow that much arm movement. The Placenta Unit had moved, the spare Vampire Pads were no longer preventing it from digging into her side, but she couldn't adjust her position. She wondered if her eyes were open, they were still swollen so much it was hard to tell. She knew she was crying. Just hours before she and Todd were sitting together making plans for their baby. She said she prevented any sound from coming out around the airtube in her mouth, she couldn't wail, she didn't know who might hear her. The movement that rocked her had stopped. She said that's what woke her. She heard two men talking and hoped they were not going to harm her. She didn't know what more could be done to her.
When Bea contacted me that night, I told her where to truck 'the parcel'. Bill and Bob value their jobs but were willing to risk them to pick up this delivery. They have been living in Habitation Land longer even than Beth. They can remember her being left there by her father, Lewis. At least, being brothers, they had each other but Beth was alone. When she first got there, they went and sat beside her and told her what time breakfast came, who to avoid, how to get to the ablution block and how to log off from EdCentre work but still have net access. Beth has been taking their advice ever since, except when it came to Todd. They warned her that no good could come of it. Beth was still a student but Bill and Bob were glad to have left that behind and to be working. They saved some Central credit each week by still living cheaply in the Pot. They could lose all their savings to confiscation for having accepted this after hours parcel but, when I reminded them of that, Bill just looked at Bob and said, “Ah well”.
Bob had not been gentle opening the black bag. MediWaste bags aren't designed to be reopened. Bill crooned, trying to keep calm, singing softly. Beth recognised the sound and stayed still. When Bob finally got through the tough plastishield he ripped the bag open at the top. “Who the hell is this?” he asked Bill. Bob laughed as he told this part of the story and said. “But Bill just reached in and stroked your face, removed the airtube and wiped your tears. He was singing, 'Be, e, e, e, th, oh dearest Be, e, e, e,e,th.' While I pulled the rest of the bag away from your body.” I got the Placenta Unit and pads out. The air tank from the exclusion pod was banging against my shins but I stayed there. You were wearing a breast milk reduction strap and a Hive branded bathroom gown.” Bill said, at first, he thought the sound was coming from the airtube but it grew louder when he removed it. It was Beth making the noise. Bill and Bob rocked her as best they could, one on each side, crouched on the delivery dock.
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Beth's white dress was still in my bathtub. I wrung the water from it and looked around, at a loss. I didn't quite know what to do with it and I always knew what to do. Usually I'm on top of things. I put the dress with my laundry, then took it out. It was obviously not a Hive garment and any worker seeing it would know that. I put it back in the tub, thinking I would dispose of it when I'd had a sleep. I lay on my bed but checked Medical before I could relax. Todd was out of theatre, his lower leg I assumed was in the MediWaste bag visible in the lower left of the image. Amputation was better than letting the infection spread. I am old enough to remember when antibiotics could have been used instead. Todd was still under, I checked the displays on his MediMonitors but didn't really know what they all meant, I had to trust that Dr Hofstede did.
Waking wasn’t as traumatic for me as it would be for Todd but I had a nagging doubt about something. I heard the normal morning routine going on around me, the cleaning crew were in the room, stepping quietly. It was unusual for me to still be sleeping when they did their rounds. I sat up suddenly, “The bath” I said, not meaning this as a directive but Helen said, “Yes, it’s been done.” as she left. “Oh no, I thought and went to check.” The dress was gone. If tried to get it back, it would only have made the laundry staff more aware of it. I washed, dressed and headed for Medical. I wanted to be there when Todd woke up.
Queen was already in the room. She might have been there all night by the look of her. Todd was just starting to move around but wasn't fully awake. I lifted an index finger in greeting and Queen responded with a tilt of her head. Our child had lost a lower leg. Queen and I stood side-by-side and looked at him. Todd was pale, his hexes stood out and Queen said “He'll suit the full-face” I knew what she meant, the new tattoo would have to be applied before he left the Medical wing. His thumb print would also be updated with the new, more limited access coded in and his exit pass discontinued. The need for this action meant I could get busy and I started entering the work orders but Queen said; “Already done Bea. Where were you anyway?” I had my answer prepared, I had even gone to the bee area once Beth was dispatched. “Someone had to make sure the Bees were all under control.” I said. Todd might have heard this and would have known I was lying but he was just coming to. He groaned and we, his parents, jumped.