History of the Galaxy II

[geoschmo]

2400.2

The Colony ship was almost ready to go. The Last group of hosts headed for the new colony were taking off in orbital shuttles now. The hosts taking care of the assembly work in orbit were finishing up on the colony ship at the same time. Soon the engines would fire and the vessel would leave orbit and head for the nearest suitable planet in the system.

The ship was of a class that the hosts already had designed, but never built. They had not been able to cooperate long enough to do so, but that was not a problem anymore. The Hive had ended all such counterproductive squabbling.

The Hive had made some modifications to the engines however. The hosts had intended to use simple chemical fueled reaction rockets which were very slow. The ships would have taken several months to reach the planet, and extra space would have been required for fuel, meaning the colony would have required regular transport visits with manpower, goods and supplies for several years.

The theory behind ion engines the Hive designed had been known by the hosts for some time. But the Hive had concentrated the collective mental capacity of thousands of physicists and worked out the formulas needed in a matter of weeks. The extra power and decreased fuel requirements meant the ship could carry enough hosts and supplies that the new colony would be self sufficient as soon as it landed.

The Hive watched as the ship moved away from the planet. And after the ship was no longer visible from the planet, the Hive watched the planet recede into the distance from its vantage point inside the ship. Several hours into the trip however something unusual happened. The ship disappeared.

The Hive searched and searched its mind and could no longer sense the hosts inside the colony ship. For a moment the Hive thought there must have been some malfunction that had destroyed the ship. Although even that should have produced some momentary feeling of pain or confusion, as the Hive knew immediately when some accident happened to one of the host bodies on the planet. This time though it was as if a light switch had been turned out and instantly 34 million host minds were disconnected from the Hive.

Quickly the Hive directed some hosts to turn the telescopes from searching for approaching meteors to searching for the colony ship. Soon it was located, and fortunately did not appear to be damaged. In fact it appeared to be returning to the home planet under full power. Some time later the Hive could sense the minds on board again. Again it was as if a light switch had been flipped. One moment the minds were gone, the next they were there again. And the minds on board the ship described the exact same events from their perspective.

Over the next few days the Hive directed the colony ship to go out and back again several times. What it determined was that the loss of connection occurred at exactly the same distance from the home planet. It also did not matter which direction the colony ship traveled in.

The Hive searched its hosts memories for any clues to what could be occurring. It located some memories of the Last days before the Hive became self aware. Some host medical researchers struggling to stop the spread of the “contamination” had discovered the mental link between the hosts after they awoke from their sleep.

They had been unable to interfere with this link, but they had theorized that it may be possible to break the link if enough distance were put between hosts. The hosts doctors had been unable to test this theory, but the Hive had apparently proven it to be a fact.

For a time the Hive considered whether this would prevent the colonization of the other planets in the system. The hosts on the ship could function independently of the Hive, but this would make cooperation between the planets impossible.

The Hive searched it’s memories for possible solutions, and came up with one that did work, however imperfectly. Prior to being joined by the Hive, the hosts had communicated with each other by verbal communication. This was only effective for a few hundred meters, so they had devised technological methods for sending their voices over great distances by modulating them on very high frequency electromagnetic carrier waves. This technology they called “radio” had been in general use by the hosts. The Hive had not had a conscious knowledge of it before now because it was simply not needed on the planet itself.

As it turned out the Colony ship the Hive had already built already had these radio devices on board it. They had been built because they were in the design specifications, but the Hive had not bothered to learn what they were used for since they were apparently unnecessary for the operation of the ship.

The Hive instructed a host body on the ship, and later on the colony, and one on the home planet to remain in constant radio contact with each other and communicate verbally all the events going on of importance at either end. It was very inefficient, and slow. But the Hive adapted. And in a way it did not feel quite so alone any more. For in effect the Hive was now two Hives.