“Looking at the ramifications of this new change in gross income, are you sure these alterations with the deal are possible without any… inability to produce the noted amount of crops?" the man asked, Kara looking on with a smile. By her side were three other managers, one of them the head of the supply lines. They made sure that everything sold was precisely the price they could ask for without failing to deliver the amounts their contracts required. And with the new deal already ready to be sent out, on the back of the new level of crops being produced, the Hivemind wanted to attain a bigger profit. “We can agree to buy for a higher price if you truly are producing at this new level, but your farm has been in controversy in the last months. Tell me, do you truly believe that you can keep up these production levels in the next five years?

“Sir, we can promise that we can keep it up for nearly ten,” Kara said, letting the prepared graphs show on the screen behind her. “The projected earnings with this new contract will allow us to both upgrades our current infrastructure while producing more than what is required at the minimum produce. With this deal, we will both profit heavily.”

“So you say…” the man said. The Hivemind didn’t bother putting much effort into using his name, the trader being only a representative for one of the traders in Sector twenty-four. They were one of the many who would need to be talked through. “I see nothing wrong with this new contract. I will get it signed by those above and we will be able to work out from it starting next quarter.”

“That’s great to hear,” Kara said, shaking hands with the representative before they left the room leaving the four managers alone. “That went about as well as the others. How many are left?”

“We have the ones from Sector 16, 43, and 39 to talk through. After that… I think we have everybody counted for,” Joel said as he looked down at his tablet. Most of the managers were merely there to look the part yet that man, in particular, was a great boon to have. And with the third stage of the Parasite already beginning, only a few days more would pass until the Hivemind had complete control of the vessel. “Should I send the next one in?”

“You can do that, yes,” Kara confirmed, the Hivemind quick to reset the screen behind them. The trick of showing overly complicated graphs had worked on every single one and it didn’t doubt that it would work on the next few as well. If there was anything the human representatives were, it was prideful. Not one of them questioned those graphs, the idea that they needed to understand it already in their heads.

It had been a long time coming but the Hivemind had never liked the current contracts that the farm had worked with. It had been forced to process the idea of extreme crop losses every year, making the farm agree to lower contracts with less pay-off in the name of getting some kind of money for their efforts. During the reign of terror, the farm had barely made a profit.

Yet with the new freedom that had occurred during the cleansing of errors, the Hivemind had granted the farm access to nearly thirty percent more yield. It wasn’t only because of the criminal extermination, of course, the heavy involvement of the Biomancer helped as well. There were technically some laws against using powers to benefit the farming yields in ordinary crops but the influence was more indirect than anything. Nothing could be proven, at the very least.

The current contracts hadn’t been able to hold up with the current yield, sadly, forcing the Hivemind to either sell above the agreed amounts at poverty-level payments or work up entirely new contracts with the current buyers. There was little that stopped it from working more, allowing the Parasite to almost fully master the art of the deal, going through every contract representative and working out a higher price for the crops while increasing how much would be sold. It was some extreme levels of persuasion required but that had been a triumph for now.

It hadn’t even needed to make them into temporary vessels which were great. The Hivemind had still been unsure of how it could dispose of the bodies afterwards without more questions coming towards the farm. As had been mentioned too many times in the interviews, the recent events at the farm had caused a lot of eyes to fall on it.

Going away from the dealing going on in that area, however, the Hivemind switched to what some of its workers were getting up to. With the ‘tracking device that could be remotely activated in emergencies,’ a lot of its low-level vessels had been released from the farm. With the crops needing nothing but basic maintenance while they were being harvested by machines, the Parasite had been able to spin a tale of many new workers banding together to get drunk outside the farm.

In actuality, they’d been given a lot of shovels and had been put at work making sure that a certain facility was being excavated from the ground. More than a few tons of dirt needed to be moved to the side before the Hivemind would have any chance of easily accessing the Laboratory [4-2]. Even the initial hole made through the Biomancer had been flooded with water and mud, nearly killing one of the vessels during the initial surveying. The loose ground was not strong enough to hold the dirt from an evening out again, forcing drain ways to be made as well. It was a miracle that the facility was located on higher ground. If not, the Hivemind would have been forced to perform much more drastic measures.

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There were, of course, no expectations of the excavation being done any time soon. With the work being done with rudimentary shovels ten hours a day in teams of seven vessels, there was only so much human bodies could do. Five hours of work for a regular vessel was about what the Biomancer could do in one, making the task seem so much more monumental when the powered vessel was unable to join them. When the Biomancer was freed up, however, there was no lack of work they would be put through. The Hivemind wanted the facility freed up as quickly as possible.

While it still didn’t have the slightest clue where to attain the power needed to power up the generators, it was sure it would figure something out. Some of the Genius inventions around the world did show off super-batteries pre-powered. While the Hivemind didn’t currently have the millions required in pure funds, there was an idea to simply buy its way out of the issue. If not, it was sure it could somehow create a vessel with the Inventor power. There were a few of those running around with rudimentary defences. A quick trip and kidnapping were all that was needed for that and the Hivemind was still able to take on another two vessels without issue.

By the end of the day, the Hivemind had secured various deals from different companies. Contracts were still underway in being signed, the hundreds of total approvals for each taking some time. If there was one facet of human life that utterly refused to move faster than most snails, it would be bureaucracy. If the Hivemind was to ever take over the world in full force, it would be damned if it didn’t reinvent that facet of life. Truly, there has to be something that worked better.

“Have you talked to Ulf recently?” Joel asked Kara when they left the room behind as well, the cleaning services coming in to make everything ready for the next day. The night was nearly upon them and most of the other managers had left for their own homes. Not that Kara ever used that one herself, the Hivemind not liking the idea of separating her from the farm.

The extra travelling time was a nightmare and it was great to have the vessel close by in case of emergencies. If there ever was to happen what had happened with a certain owner of the farm just a week before, the Hivemind was sure that the extra distance could have been the difference between getting away without issue and being caught red-handed. Even now, however, the Hivemind had doubts it had truly escaped that error in the gears. A certain stage three vessel was likely thinking the wrong thoughts.

“Not really,” Kara answered in honesty. “He hasn’t returned my calls this week. He did mention something about a hiking trip but I thought that was for next month.”

“I thought he wasn’t going to take a hiking trip until next year,” Joel duly commented, calling a bluff when he saw it. The man suspected too much. “But, well, if you haven’t heard from him either, I guess he’s been ghosting us mutually.”

“Oh, you have been talking with him?” Kara questioned with a smile. “Is he setting you up for a promotion as well?”

“What?”

“What?” Kara asked. “I guess that means you haven’t heard it yet.”

“What is it that I haven’t, Kara,” Joel questioned with a grin, seeing the joke for what it was. “You’re overplaying the tense here a bit.”

“Ulf seemed to like the changes I’ve been doing to the farm while he’s been on sick leave,” Kara explained with a mildly excited tone. “Nothing is official yet but… Ulf has been getting old, you know. He’s been thinking about making the leave permanent.”

“Really… I didn’t expect to hear that from him. He’s always been the ‘work until death’ type of person,” Joel said with an estranged type of voice. Whether or not he believed the words were to be seen. It didn’t matter in the end.

“Neither did I,” Kara assured the man. “Here’s to hoping he pops up soon. If you will excuse me, it’s getting late.”

“Sure,” Joel responded with a final smile. “I’ll see you in the morning, Kara.”

“Of course.”

The last stage was taking its sweet time finalising. Just a few days more and the Hivemind would control the manager. Until then, it would make sure nothing happened. The calls would certainly be monitored by the guard vessels.

Basic Information

Name

1310-HM

Species

Hivemind

Stats

Resolution

3

Regeneration

1

Analyzation

2

Resources

Integrity

100/100

Ether

132/160

Ether-Regeneration

0.02/min

Vessels

26

It needed to get more [Ether]. Saving that task for another day, the Hivemind was almost ready to have the vessels turn in for the night. That is… until the guard vessel noticed something strange yet again. A slight flicker in the cameras, something close to brief static not seen in current tech for a long time, hinted at what would soon unfold.

It seemed that a certain Hero already seen before had come back to haunt the Hivemind yet again.