[geoschmo]

The Hive had developed techniques and technologies that allowed it to keep in touch with the pieces of itself on the various ships and planets throughout the Laxes system. It was able to share information very quickly by radio transmission, but this was not enough. The Hive wished to be able to “connect” its pieces together even at great range. So it began to experiment with technology to allow this.

This research was not immediately successful, but the Hive did make a startling discovery in the process. The receiver it built to communicate with the planets turned up some surprising energy emissions coming from the edges of the Laxes system. The Hive sent a ship to explore the source of these emissions and discovered several stable wormholes leading out of the system.

The Hive searched its host’s memories but found no knowledge of these wormholes. The wormholes defied any theory of natural formation that the Hive could contemplate. Therefore it determined the only logical conclusion was they were artificial. And if the hosts were unaware of their existence, then obviously they were not responsible for creating them.

The Hive was not alone.

The Hive realized quickly that this was not necessarily true. The Hive knew that the universe was very old. The universe was much older than the existence of the hosts, even older than the Hive itself. The creators of the wormhole could have been a race of incredibly powerful beings that had created them for some purpose, and then ceased to exist for some reason.

Like any sentient being, the Hive was curious. It wished to know if the wormhole creators still existed. And if they did not, perhaps some others did. Some others like the Hive, that it could communicate with and learn from. The Hive had already colonized all the planets that could support the host’s bodies in this system, so the Hive decided it would use these wormholes and send pieces of itself wherever they might lead.