Chapter 2

Bruce became aware he was lying in the middle of the hiking trail. His struggle with the Hive had taken so much of his attention that he had been completely unaware of his surroundings for the past half hour. Physically he felt fine but Bruce was now mentally exhausted with no further interest in continuing his way along the trail. Despite having gained control over the Hive AI, Bruce was still being influenced by it in many different, subtle ways. This was something that Bruce only came to realize after the passage of a considerable amount of time after becoming part of the Hive.

The hive AI was already monitoring Bruce mentally and physically and, detecting his lack of energy to continue any further, offered to transport Bruce to the Hive. Bruce was surprised to learn it was possible to teleport instantaneously directly to the Hive center and he quickly directed the AI to do the teleport.

Bruce found himself sitting in an empty room bare of any furniture or equipment, where Bruce just lay and rested for a few minutes. He ordered the AI to open access to the rest of the Hive and a door slid open in one of the walls. Bruce got up and cautiously walked to the door and peered out into the area beyond. Outside the room there was simply a white colored hallway with other closed doors along it.

Bruce stopped at the door and decided there wasn't any point in leaving the room yet since there wasn't any room in the whole facility which had any of the usual furniture or equipment used by people in daily life. In the other Hives on other star systems the facilities provided for the biological units tended to be Spartan and utilitarian. Bruce quickly discovered this when he queried the AI about a suitable space for him to live. He quickly decided that he wanted something more livable and more like what he was used to in his previous life.

Bruce pulled off the backpack he was wearing, set it on the floor, and then sat down on the floor beside it. The Hive possessed the industrial capacity to manufacture anything that Bruce might desire he discovered after some interaction with the AI. He spent a few minutes thinking about what he wanted for his first apartment in the Hive and then gave instructions to the AI on what to do. The AI informed Bruce it would be two hours before his apartment would be ready for him to occupy. He found this to be surprisingly fast for the amount of work that would need to be done.

With some time to kill Bruce decided to explore his link to the AI and learn more about the Hive. He discovered that the link with the AI was somehow able to give him a full two way audiovisual link with the AI and any other part of the Hive. He then received a synopsis of the history of the Hive and how it had come to Earth. At the end he was convinced it was very lucky for both Bruce as well as the entire rest of the planet that he had been able to win his struggle with the AI and gain control. Otherwise the Hive would have been well on its way already to assimilating the entire world.

Bruce also discovered that the AI had already hacked into both the Internet and the telephone network. Bruce amused himself by reading first his office and then his personal email which he found he was able to do after a little practice. Bruce spent a few minutes thinking about what he was going to do with his old life since now he had the entire resources of the Hive at his command.

A quick query with the AI told him the Hive could manufacture the paper currency of any nation on Earth easily; currency which would be indistinguishable from that of the nations themselves, even if analyzed down to the atomic level. So even in actual money he now had access to unlimited wealth.

At the moment Bruce was the only human in the Hive complex though there were many different types of mechanical units present, all of which were busy enlarging the domain of the Hive in some way. Bruce did not really want to remain the only human in the Hive so it would be necessary soon to bring others in to join. Any future humans brought into the Hive would be under the full control of the AI and thus Bruce, no rebellion or resistance would be possible once they had the nanobots inside their bodies. It was due to the influence of the Hive and AI that caused Bruce to believe this was now acceptable.

After thinking about it for a few minutes Bruce decided the first priority for new members to be incorporated into the Hive would be to gain some female companionship for him. Currently he did not have a girlfriend and he was thinking it would be good to change that. The Hive exerted its influence upon his thoughts to give him the idea that he could use the Hives incorporation drones to accomplish this for him. A bit of communication with the Hive AI resulted in new instructions going out to the incorporation drones which were currently hunting new humans for incorporation into the Hive.

As Bruce sat there waiting for his rooms to be completed he reflected that perhaps he didn't want to move to the Hive center full time. Perhaps it would be better for now to return to his former life and use the Hive to improve it. While it was inevitable the presence of the Hive on Earth would change things it would be good if those changes were not too big, too fast. So for now at least it was better if the activities of the Hive were low key and discreet.

The Hive AI already had drones exploring the Earth for any untapped mineral resources and the colony ship which was in cloaked orbit around the Sun also had similar space borne drones out on the same type of missions. This was part of the Hive establishment process and Bruce allowed these to continue, especially those in space. So far humanity had made little use of any resources not on the Earth except for a few pounds of moon rocks. With the advanced technology of the Hive transporting resources from space to the Earth was easy.

It would also be much easier now to establish colonies on other planets within the Solar System and this was already part of the Hive development plan. Bruce would only need to monitor how the plan was carried out and guide the AI to do things his way. The more he thought about it the more Bruce was coming to understand that it would only require relatively small changes to the original Hive plan to make some major improvement to the human condition. And because the changes to the plan were only minor there would be only a small effort required to get the Hive AI to implement them.

Bruce's musings were interrupted by the AI informing him his rooms had just been completed and were ready for his to occupy. Bruce got up, grabbed his backpack, slung it over his shoulder, and headed out the still open door to the room he had been in. He followed instructions from the AI on the path toward his new rooms and getting there took him about five minutes. When he arrived the door slid open and Bruce went inside.

Inside Bruce found himself inside a very comfortably furnished living room just as he had specified. There was a fully equipped kitchen off to one side and then a hallway led to three large bedrooms. Bruce walked over to the well padded couch, dropped his backpack on the floor, and sank down onto the couch with relief. It was good to rest after his recent ordeal and this room was much better than the bare one he had come into.

A few minutes later the AI informed Bruce that one of the incorporation drones had located a human female meeting the criteria Bruce had specified for incorporation into the Hive. Bruce ordered the AI to give him a view from the drone and suddenly he could see a woman who looked to be in her early twenties running along what appeared to be a park trail. The drone was following the woman as she ran along and Bruce could see she had brown hair tied in a ponytail and the view of her as she ran along was quite attractive. Bruce allowed the AI to fire the dart containing the Hive incorporation nannites into the woman's body.

The woman slowed her jog for a moment and slapped the spot where the dart had entered her body but upon finding no insect that could have bitten her, resumed her jog. The woman continued to jog along for a few minutes longer which spend the incorporation nannites throughout her body. Soon the woman slowed her jog and then came to a stop. The AI had started the process of taking control of her for incorporation into the Hive and this time there was no way to resist that fate.

Bruce had put some thought into what conditions he wanted for other humans who were incorporated into the Hive. The original plan with which the Hive had come to Earth would have left the human members with little free will or individual thought. Even though he liked the idea of his complete control of the Hive a lot, the idea of controlling a group of mindless drones had little appeal. So Bruce had decided to allow other humans in the Hive to retain their own thoughts and free will, but the AI and thus Bruce would always retain ultimate control.