The Hive

The second to last last thing Connor saw was an explosion. A bright bolt of blue lightning scorched the empty air across his right wing and slammed into the thrusters. The skimmer veered sharply off course as the blast thundered into the cockpit and threw him against the plastishield so hard his heads up display shattered in his face.

“He’s hit. He’s hit!” Sarge’s voice screamed into his earpiece.

Smell of rust. Taste of copper. Connor tried to focus. His mouth felt wet and sticky.

“Connor! Eject! Please!” A woman’s voice begged.

“Fucking alien cocksuckers.” Sarge’s voice grew distant. Tinny.

“I..”
He shook his head. Couldn’t see. Couldn’t process. It felt as if someone hit him with a baseball bat across the temple.

What were they saying?

“Connor honey-”
Who was that? Her voice was familiar.

Lily.

“-please pull the bar honey. You have to eject. You have to pull it Connor.”

A muffled thump rumbled up from below. The skimmer trembled, as if caught in a hurricane. Then it fell like a bird, shot in midair. Purple tinged air whistled into the cockpit, finding tiny finger holds in the cracks that spread like silver spiderwebs around him. The ground rushed upward. Faster. Nothing green. No grass. No trees in this alien landscape. Only broken black rock surrounding gaping maws in the earth from where they spewed.

“Oh Connor.” Connor! Sound of sobbing.

Darkness swallowed him whole.

---

He awoke with a start. Every part of his body hurt. Even his tongue lay in his mouth, heavy and unmoving. The floor vibrated gently. He tried to sit up. Pain sank red claws into his head.

What the fuck?

Then he remembered. Rangers located the hive from shallow orbit. Deep scans picked out heat signatures and intelligent design. Passages riddled the mountain, and plunged columns in the substructure, miles below the harsh landscape.
When alpha squadron broke orbit, the entire mountain erupted. Tiny disc shaped craft, spewed from the mountain sides like hornets, then vanished as they slipstreamed into attack velocity.

So many of them.

Alpha squadron was outnumbered and outgunned.

He looked around.
Bare walls glowed a dim phosphorescent green. Behind him, luminous walls opened into a corridor. He struggled to his feet. The pain in his head worsened. His eyes watered.
Probably a concussion. He felt the side of his head gingerly. His fingers came away wet and sticky.
Something moved in the corridor. Connor reached for his gun.

Thank God. Still there.

He drew the lightarm. Flicked the safety off. It hummed as it powered up. Sixty full powered blasts before he needed to change power cells. He’d shoot 59. Worst case scenario, one in reserve. Just in case.

A monster filled the doorway. Pulsing wet flesh oozed into the opening. Tentacles crawled around it, pale and white, the color of dead things below fallen trees.
Things on stalks bent toward him.

Eyes?

He pointed the gun.
It paused. From within the gelid mass, an opening formed. Noises. Clicks and hisses filled the air.
His head felt suspiciously light. Buzzing filled the room, filled his body, his head.
He pulled the trigger.

A blast of bright white light mushroomed from the weapon. Divided the distance between them in heartbeats. When it met the creature, it spread for a nanosecond across its inky lidless eyes. Some bent away. Some withdrew into the soggy flesh.
Then the laser melted a passage through the monstrosity.
The buzzing stopped even before the shuddering creature hit the floor. Smell of charred flesh caromed around the room. .

More movement.
He pointed the gun toward the doorway. His hand trembled.
Buzzing again. Louder. Clicks and hissing, as if a hive of bees the size of snakes filled the room. His head felt worse. The room seemed to shift beneath him. The walls leaned in.
The sound reached into his body, into his heart. He felt it slow. Each beat long and deep.
Two at the opening.
His hand trembled. Fingers refused to work, fumbled with the trigger.

So weak..

His hand fell to his side. The entire room turned. Just a little. He swayed.
They moved toward him. Faster than the first one. Tentacles the size of tree trunks wrapped around his hands. Around his arms.
Warmth from the tentacles as they climbed up his body with horrifying speed.
Around his neck. Over his face. The sound was a tsunami towering over him. He couldn’t think. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t move.

Darkness.

---

He awoke.
Could barely see. Couldn’t move his arms.They felt numb and useless. Not standing. Not lying on the ground; he sat. His feet were bare and lay on the warm floor. It vibrated gently in waves. A pulse, then a pause, as if it were -

Breathing.

-alive.
Another creature in the room. Buzzing filled the air. This time, not as loud. Not as dizzying.
It moved toward him slowly. One wet tentacle creeping along the floor followed by another.

The eyes.

One hundred of them. More. Watching him. Filling him with dread.

Oh god oh god oh god.

His bladder let go in a warm wet rush.
Connor barely noticed.
Closer. He could smell it. Scent of earth and slime and rotting things.
It reached up past his face. Beneath the surface of the tentacle, suckers ringed with tiny teeth clenched reflexively.
He closed his eyes. Tried to draw back.
The creature pulled something round, and wet and fleshy over his face.
Connor screamed. As loudly as he could. His own voice strange and alien to him. Tears filled his eyes.
He hoped death would be swift.

And then the sounds came.

Rain. Soft at first. Summer showers dusting a bright blue sky. Then heavier.
The sound of a thunderstorm. Crackle of lightning. Rumbling in the thunderheads.
Wind blowing through wheat fields. Golden twilight sun bathing nodding stalks, welcoming the night.

He didn’t notice when he stopped screaming.

Seagulls. Plaintive cries over blue waves. He could almost smell the surf. The susurrus of water crashing and receding on a sandy shore.
And then an immense swelling sound. A rumbling that shook the ground and trembled in the air, forming a word that pierced him. Filled him with awe. Filled his heart. His body. His mind.

Om…

He’d heard the word before. Lily dragged him to a yoga class before they deployed. The instructor, a pretty young woman in a purple leotard asked them to sit, legs folded and to chant with her, the same sound.

OM…

Only this time the sound was primal. The sound of God moving. Creating the universe. It shook him to tears, that one word, rising in volume and vibration until it became the world and everything in it. The breath of God, coalescing into atoms, molecules, places, and things. Him a part of it. One with creation.
Minutes became days became years. Time slowed to an eternity in the space between breaths.

When the creature removed the device, Connor’s eyes cried freely.
He stood up without restraint and wobbled for a moment.
A tentacle reached toward him to steady him. Connor shook his head.
He walked toward the creature and threw his arms around its body.
It wrapped itself around him.

Finally, he understood. They were one.
One with the universe.
One with God.
One with everything.
Harmless if humans let them be.
He just had to explain it to everyone on the drop ship.

He’d start with Lily.

---

Hi guys. So I couldn't sleep. I put on this meditation app, and well. Then I really couldn't sleep. Aliens? Meditating? This is what came out. Hope you enjoy.
Hugs.
Jhagi.
Source images as usual, courtesy Pixabay.

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