Chapter 3

Bruce woke up next to the girl nearly nine hours later, with the girl still sleeping. For a moment he was puzzled about where he was since he was in a strange bed with a strange girl in it with him. Then the strange events of yesterday came rushing back to him and he relaxed and let himself enjoy the pleasant situation he found himself in now. He could also feel now the link to the Hive AI at the back of his mind, waiting for his next wish, command, or communication.

With the Hive now a big part of his life Bruce wanted to think for a bit about his direction and what he wanted to do from now on. The Hive seemed to promise an almost unlimited material prosperity for Bruce and anyone else who was incorporated into the Hive. Any woman he wanted could now be his once she became part of the Hive. Bruce found himself thinking that was a lot of power that had just been dumped in his lap and he had to be careful it didn't cause problems for him. He decided he needed to think carefully about what he wanted to do before he did anything.

The Hive AI was continuing with expanding the tunnel complex and in the process had discovered deposits of several useful minerals. These deposits were immediately exploited to add to the materials available for construction within the Hive complex. Bruce instructed the Hive AI to segregate any unused gold, silver, or other precious metals that might be found during the processing of materials. A deposit of copper was already being exploited which was also providing a small supply of precious metals as a byproduct of refining the copper.

A quick inquiry with the AI told Bruce that he could easily communicate with the Hive from anywhere on Earth, or from anywhere within the solar system for that matter. The matter transportation system also had the capability to send people or materials to any location in that same area. With this knowledge came the realization that there was no need for Bruce to remain in the Hive complex itself, he could easily come and go as he pleased and Carol could do the same if he allowed her to. This would allow Bruce to continue with his previous lifestyle if he wanted to and return to the Hive complex quickly and easily whenever he wanted or needed to.

Bruce gently got out of bed and without even bothering to get dressed had himself transported to the living room of his apartment. He felt a flash of surprise when his familiar living room appeared around him but he settled down quickly. Bruce quickly confirmed that he could communicate with the Hive AI just as easily from his apartment as he could from the Hive facility. He then had himself transported back into the same bedroom inside the Hive where Carol still slept, confirming his ability to easily return. Just this ability to have himself transported anywhere he wanted to go was more power than anyone else on Earth had.

Looking down upon the still sleeping form of the girl Bruce decided he should allow her to return home if she wanted to, with the same ability to come and go inside the Hive facility, or anywhere else she wanted to go. Bruce could find or meet her in an instant if he wanted to; there wasn't any need at this point to keep her there if she wanted to go home. When Bruce wanted her company he would enjoy it more if she retained most of her free will he decided, though the Hive AI would not allow her to actually resist doing anything he really wanted her to do.

The Hive AI did not resist any of this; it considered the whole of the solar system to be its domain and there wasn't any need at that point for the human members of the Hive to do any work in it. Most of the AI's attention was upon extending and improving the Hive facility and locating mineral resources deep underground using the robotic units constructed for that purpose.

Bruce put on his clothes, grabbed his backpack, and had the Hive return him to his car. He didn't immediately realize that he could have just had the Hive transport both him and his car back to his apartment, but the drive back home did give him the opportunity to think about what had happened the past few hours. A lot had happen and there was a lot to take in and think about.

It was inevitable, Bruce realized, that eventually everyone on Earth would become a member of the Hive sooner or latter, there was no avoiding it. But there wasn't really any need for that to happen right away and in fact hurrying the process of incorporating the world population into the Hive could cause a lot of problems. Many would likely choose to resist incorporation if they learned of what was happening before it reached them, that resistance could cause a lot of wasteful death and destruction. There wasn't any need for that, instead Bruce would just take his time and bring in people as they were needed or wanted.

Thinking further it came to Bruce that there was a lot of space in the solar system available at the technological level possessed by the Hive. Robotic units could be transported to all of the inner planets and the moons of the outer ones which would then dig in and start constructing underground habitats. This was already built into the Hive AI's operational plans, but perhaps it would be better to accelerate the space portion. Bruce decided to have the first unit constructed and dispatched to the far side of the Moon as soon as possible and he relayed this to the AI. Bruce was pleased to learn the first exploration drone would be dispatched to the Moon within the hour.

Bruce ordered the first colony to be established on the far side of the moon which would provide more privacy while the facility was being established. Bruce was informed by the Hive AI that placing the facility on the far side would not cause any problem for the communications and transport systems, which were somehow able to penetrate the entire body of the moon to reach the far side. The physical principals these were based upon were beyond Bruce's understanding at that point but he knew from experience they worked.

Once the exploration drones found a suitable location with useful resources on the moon they would begin excavating the initial Hive facility on the moon and start manufacturing other automated equipment using local resources with hard to find elements initially transported from Earth. The exploration drones contained enough manufacturing capability to replicate themselves and other autonomous Hive mechanical units. Bruce was assured by the Hive AI that the facility on the moon would be ready for small scale human occupation within the week.

Once the moon base was a going concern it could be used as a base for expansion of the Hive beyond notice of the rest of humanity on Earth. Those humans that Bruce decided he wanted to be brought into the hive would be incorporated whenever appropriate. But while the Hive was building more facilities the number of humans incorporated into the Hive would be limited to those needed or wanted by Bruce.

Bruce got into his car and drove back to his apartment. It seemed a little strange to be back in his own living room again after his experience in the Hive, but mostly he felt a comfortable sense of normality returning once again. Only the continuing link to the Hive AI mind continued to remind him of how things had really changed. It would only take a quick thought for Bruce to have himself transported back into the Hive facility or indeed anywhere else in the world he wanted go.

A quick check with the Hive told Bruce that both the Internet and the telephone system had been penetrated by the Hive Artificial Intelligence and he now had access to both of those resources via his link to the Hive. The net result of this was that it was possible for Bruce or anyone else who was a member of the Hive to make telephone calls or surf the net using their link to the Hive mind, without any need for any human made computer or telephone.