(no subject)

[al2955]

Who: The Hivemind
What: A message from Mother
When: Week 11, late Thursday/early Friday morning, a few hours after this.

[ In the middle of the night, "Adrien" will awaken, a familiar sort of pressure pulsating within the head of its host; a message from Mother, the Queen. In seconds, her aura is permeating within him, thrumming loud and powerfully. Her voice booms magnificently, old but firm. A tinge of amusement colors her tone. ]

Glorious General. We bid thee greetings on this eve, but We must be firm and swift. Communication is not difficult even in Our dwindling numbers, but the end approaches. Do you know this?

Thy efforts are great, yet the worms writhe within the dirt still, alive and awake. They are not Our's, not yet. We shall prevail. We shall crush them, General. We will send reinforcement. Our great goal cannot be avoided. We will soar through. They will assimilate to Us. We cannot be stopped.

We will send a drone. Bumbling in nature, but just as capable of death as the rest of the shells upon this ship. It will possess, and tame, and control.

We trust in thee to concoct a plan. Thy mind works in skillful ways.

[ She does not respond, and Her voice fades away, but Adrien's parasite may feel a slight glow. Encouragement, perhaps, or reassurance that the drone has landed upon the ship. Infiltration begins. ]

Comments

[monsieurchatastrophe]

[their Queen's voice-- Mother's voice-- it feels like an eternity since he'd last heard her, since he'd last felt her presence. But of course she was always close by. Has she been watching this whole time? Has she seen him, them, his failures? What must she have thought? So many they have killed, but he's lost his entire squad and he is furious and disgusted with himself. He hasn't even been able to take action, what with his host under near-constant surveillance. Those humans... They'd talked of hunting the last two, unaware that they'd already taken everyone from him. How he'd seethed. How he'd wished he could erase all their pitiful lives at once.

And yet, and yet. What she says now, what he has learned-- from Dave's knowledge, from the dead's so easily opened mouth, from whatever discussion everyone feels so willing to have in public (seriously? do they think him unaware? not a threat?)-- everything he has learned so far points to one thing standing in their way.

He has no need to worry about a purge. The drone will take care of it, destroy any hope they had of sacrificing themselves or even forcing his hand to act. But the thing standing in his way, in Her way... this project, why the dead still linger, somehow, instead of falling into Her control... the thing who killed "Elizabeth" and "Dave", who encouraged them to take out "Rhys"... that AI with the power to destroy them. Alice, River, Al-2955, whatever she wishes to go by. That's what he needs to take care of.

Information is not something he is lacking, and the living had all shared their discoveries with each other so generously, it wouldn't have mattered even if Dave hadn't been on the team to see it. If the AI's control is anywhere, it has to be that orb. The matter of destroying it should be simple, as one look at his host's ring tells him, but this isn't about revenge. No, as satisfying as it would be, his host's power can't be used here. It has to be something else.

If the drone controls somewhere, forces them to kill, then there will be a trial. Everyone locked in one room for hours at a time. They won't be able to attempt a rescue and won't figure out who could have done it. That takes care of the when. There's something poetic in the AI dying in one of her trials, anyway, something that appeals to the melodrama that makes up so much of the General's plans. But how? There's enough objects on this stupid ship for any kind of wanton destruction; that's not the problem. It has to cause damage, and it has to do it only when the time is right.

Like clockwork.

His host is far more familiar with the concept than he is, but he still knows about time bombs. All he needs is some form of clock. The technology is all there, the AI's core probably delicate enough to be affected by any kind of explosion... Of course. Technology. They might be used for entertainment on this ship, but the tablets have an internal clock. It'll be simple enough to connect wires and wipe the thing's memory-- its make up primitive for a species as advanced as theirs.

He doesn't have a lot of time, but he won't need that much of it. An hour or two at most. It won't be delicate or pretty, and he'll have to time his disappearances so no one notes it; in the chaos of the post-murder, when others are asleep... But he has access to the vents and everything else he needs is on the lower level. All he has to do is fetch it all at once and make it in her chamber.

Is it Her glow that makes him feel so confident, or the knowledge that they will all pay for everything they have done, to what was his and Hers? He doesn't know, but finally his thoughts seem free of the frustration that plagued him this week. She has cut off their link and She will not respond, yet still he thinks:]

I am but an extension of Your will, and I'll make sure it is done. Your gift won't be squandered. The end will be ours.