Mating Fever(11)

But the man within me was still in charge, barely, and I recognized that this was something extremely rare, and strange. Commander Karter would need to know what was happening here, what these things were.

“What are you?” My beast’s voice was barely more than a growl, but the Hive understood.

“We are Nexus 9.”

What the fuck was a Nexus? And why had he answered? My question had been rhetorical because they had no need to respond. They expected domination and then integration. Or, he replied because he didn’t expect me to survive long enough to do something with the answer.

An ion blast sounded from above, from inside the cave, and the beast’s patience snapped.

I moved in a blur, grabbing the strange Hive and twisting his neck until he went limp in my grasp, but not before his weapon fired. I dropped the dead weight to the rocks, already forgotten. The blast of his ionic weapon must have hit my armor. Heat from the shot burned my body once more, from my hip this time, but the pain was nothing more than a small sting.

Rarely did I use my beast’s full strength, but as I crouched low for my leap, power flowed through me, the power of the beast unleashed, and for once I was glad for it. We leapt to the mouth of the cave in one mighty thrust off the ground ready to defend her.





Chapter Four

Megan



The Nexus Unit leader took three steps into the cave before he realized his mistake.

I stood near the entrance, hidden from view by an outcropping of magnetite that blocked the Hive’s sensors, and all of his communication with the outside world—or, in his case—the universe. His home world. The Hive central mind.

The entire cave was lined with magnetically charged metals, this canyon an extreme anomaly that our unit had been assigned to use to lure this bastard right to us.

Now all I had to do was kill him, and steal the technology that linked his spinal cord to the helmet, and the helmet to Hive command on their home world.

This blue-skinned bastard was rare, his existence nothing more than a rumor among the intelligence gathering units of the Coalition Fleet…until now.

Outside, I heard an Atlan Beast, who had obviously followed me, roar. Seconds later, the Hive Nexus before me twitched and lost his footing as if racked by the pain of having a limb torn from his body—or another mind.

His two friends must be close enough to still be connected to him.

These fuckers were all connected to each other. We—those of us in the Core intelligence program—knew that already, what we didn’t understand was how. Not that it would matter for long. I had no doubt that soon the beast outside would take care of this Nexus leader’s two friends. The Atlans weren’t the most civilized of fighters, but neither were the Hive. Especially this one coming after me. This trio.

The Atlan beast would easily behead the two that remained below. I had no doubt of that. And then it would just be the blue bastard inside this cave…and me.

This creature was the key to solving the puzzle of the Hive central mind, to figuring out how to break their mental hold on their Scouts and Soldiers, and eliminating the threat to the veterans who still carried their technology in their bodies. These soldiers lived out their lives on the Colony for fear of being a danger to their home worlds should they dare return.

The Nexus stumbled forward, deeper into the cave and I knew I would have mere seconds before that great, hulking beast would show up and ruin everything.

I fired the neural disruptor weapon that Doctor Helion, the leader of the Core intelligence program, had given me and sighed with relief when the huge Nexus creature dropped to his knees. He raised his hands to his head instinctively out of something like pain—whatever it was these things felt—as I stepped out from my hiding place and approached, keeping the weapon aimed and my finger on the trigger.

He—no it—took off its helmet and turned its head toward me, despite the fact that I was sure I’d made no sound.

“Who are you?” His voice was calm, not a hint of nervous bravado or fear, as if we were two friends having lunch at the park. And the voice was his. I’d heard other Hive speak, their voices stilted and strange, referring to themselves as “we” instead of I. “Tell me your name. You are not one of us, yet I can sense you. I feel your softness inside my mind.”

The creature stared at me as if he were looking at a miracle, as if he—no it—found me desirable. His features were symmetrical, distinctly humanoid, except the odd color. He was a darker blue than the warriors I’d seen from Xerima, but if he hadn’t been Hive, I would have said he was actually handsome. Which was creepy. And wrong. So wrong.

And what the hell did he mean? I feel your softness inside my mind. That was just fucking creepy.