She took a moment to look around at the aliens, and for a moment Kevin thought she might be done, but then she kept going, jabbing her finger at the people around them.
Youre all standing there making decisions about us, but you havent even tried to understand us. Kevin hes been across our country trying to save our world. Hes gone into space because he was trying to stop the Hive. They only took him because he was trying to stop them. As for Ro, hes fought back against everything he has ever known. Hes a sign that the control of the Hive can be broken, and you want to what, kill him? Youll have to kill me if you want to do that!
She stood there glaring at them, and General sLara held up a hand for silence.
I will not speak on this, she said. My own thoughts are too conflicted. Logic demands one thing, emotion another. Yet I would ask, are we beings of pure logic? Are we like them? I dont know. It is time for us to divide.
She bowed her head, and above them, Kevin saw dancing lights buzz around as AIs talked and debated, presumably balancing the feelings of the Ilari with the needs of logic. To Kevin, they looked like swarms of angry bees moving around, shifting and splitting, then recombining in different combinations as the debate between them went on.
From down where he stood, Kevin couldnt begin to work out exactly which way the debate was going. He could catch snippets of it if he tried, but there were so many different fragments that even he couldnt begin to work out which way it was going.
Finally, something seemed to be happening. Kevin had the sense of the AIs shifting, moving into stacks, forming into groups as they made their decisions. Two blocks, one red and one blue, appeared on the surface around the edge of the room. The groups seemed close; so close that Kevin couldnt count them, and couldnt begin to guess which one was larger. He could see some AIs still buzzing around, reviewing the facts or discussing them with those they were connected with. Slowly, though, the count settled, and the groups stabilized.
Even then, Kevin couldnt guess at what the outcome was.
CHAPTER TWO
Kevin watched out of one of the ships windows as space passed by in a blur, stretched and bent to let the ship pass through by the power of its shields. He, Ro, and Chloe sat together in a room that was open and airy and almost empty. To his surprise, General sLara was there too.
Kevin flashed back, recalling General sLaras hand on his shoulder, after the trial.
We have made our decision. It seems it seems that you will all be permitted to stay among us. You will be taken to our outpost world, and together, we will seek a way to stop the Hive. I just hope that we can find a way to do it.
Kevin could not believe how close they had come to death. He snapped out of it and looked around.
Dont you need to I dont know, he said, be in charge of the ship?
As if my ship would let me tell it what to do, she said. We work with our AIs. We do not enslave them. That is Hive thinking.
Kevin and Ro arent the Hive, Chloe said, hotly, maybe a little too hotly.
I never said they were, General sLara said. She seemed to be watching Kevin and Ro carefully though.
Kevin thought he understood. Youre trying to learn more about the Hive, arent you?
The general hesitated, listening in that way that said she was in communication with her AI again.
Yes, she admitted. You and Purest sorry, Ro here have been a part of it. Youve had access to everything that it is. You can help us to understand it better. You might actually be able to help us beat them.
Im not sure they can be beaten, Ro said. Im sorry. I feel hopeless.
But you managed to break free, General sLara said.
With Chloes help, Ro replied.
Kevin nodded. Without Chloe, none of them would have been able to escape.
I still want to know as much as you can tell us, the general said. What is it like being a part of the Hive?
Kevin wasnt sure that he had the words to explain it. Even so, he wanted to try. Its like theres this web of connections, and every one is a living thing. Its being a part of something bigger, and feeling that nothing matters but that whole.
Its beautiful, Ro added. But we have no way to feel that beauty. We feel nothing. No conscience, no happiness. The Hive is everything.
Well, that means negotiating is out of the question, General sLara said. Still, maybe there will be something. Well be there soon.
Where? Kevin asked. He had no idea where they were heading; hadnt even considered that they had to be going somewhere.
She gestured, and one of the walls shifted, providing an image of a planet. It seemed small on the screen, but was a bright point of color in an otherwise black and white view of space. It was largely green, in a way that seemed strange compared to the blue of Earth.
This is Xarath, the general said, by way of explanation. Most of its water is underground, but the plant life comes up to the surface. We have a small base there. It was never intended to be a home for all of us, but we will have to make it one. Im told that it is beautiful.
How long until we reach it? Kevin asked. He had no real sense of how fast the ship was moving. Was it as fast as the Hive ships? Faster?
A few more minutes. We have been folding space to get closer for a while now, but most of the delay has been to try to lose the Hive forces tracking us. We will need to be some of the first onto the surface. Come with me, we should get to one of the landers.
For the second time, the general started to lead them through the inner workings of the ship. People turned to stare at them as they passed, and while some of them seemed to be waiting for orders from the general, others were definitely staring at Kevin, Chloe, and Ro. Not all of them seemed friendly.
Looks like not everyone agrees with the trial, Chloe said. She sounded to Kevin as though she was ready to fight off anyone who looked at them for too long, or in the wrong way. He could see her altered hand clenching as if ready to punch someone.
People get to disagree, General sLara said. We are not the Hive, where everyone must obey. They can think what they like, but we have made a decision the fairest way we can, and I doubt anyone will act against it.
She didnt seem entirely certain to Kevin, but then, he thought, how could she? She was right. Unless they controlled every mind there like the Hive, there would be no perfect harmony. Kevin would rather have people giving him odd looks than have to live without his own thoughts, his own choices.
He and the others followed the general to a hangar where a number of smaller ships sat, looking like darts waiting to be spat out by the giant mouth of the ship. General sLara led the way to one that was partly blackened by fire.
Here. My own craft. Ill show you the planet. Come on.
The inside of the ship was stranger than the outside. It looked as though it had been patched and rebuilt so many times that there was hardly anything of the original left.
I worked on this one myself, General sLara said, and then did the glancing away thing again. Yes, all right. We worked on it. Take a seat and well fly down.
There were chairs that looked more like armchairs than the kind of benches or flight seats that Kevin would have expected from a military craft. It seemed strange to have such comfort in a generals ship.