Day Five
She had played until the early hours of the morning before her body had shut down on her and she had collapsed into a deep, dreaming sleep. She had originally thought that she was tired enough to sleep like the dead, so she was surprised to find herself swaying side to side, her body in gentle motion.
Confused, she looked away from the laptop sitting in front of her, orange fingers pausing as her mind caught up to the new dreamscape. She was sitting in the jump seat of a nondescript van, hidden away in a small nook. The laptop in front of her displayed various video feeds, shots of the exterior of the van.
From her angle, it was hard to see, but every so often she could catch glimpses of the driver. The drone moved robotically as she maneuvered the vehicle in response to unspoken commands from her headset, a yellow dronesuit hidden underneath an inconspicuous company uniform.
An adjustable chair was mounted in the center of the van, banks of computers and metallic arms hanging from the ceiling. Further back, two benches lined the sides, currently occupied by six shiny, black female figures, their shady forms indistinguishable from each other. Helmets hid their heads, and unlike Suzy's orange outfit, no logos adorned their bodies.
Satisfied that the arrangements were suitable, Suzy clicked her tongue stud against her front teeth, studying the camera feeds on the laptop. Information about the mission began to crowd into her mind.
Hive was always on the hunt for new employees, and sometimes their recruitment wasn't always sufficient. It would be easy for Hive to increase salaries until their offices were flooded with new drones, but that might draw too much attention from their competition.
Hive always strove to operate above board, innocent looking as it drew more and more clueless people into its inescapable clutches. Recruiting people off the street risked raising their profile higher than Hive would tolerate. Once the resistance of their captives was replaced by obedience to the song of Hive, however, the new employees could actively help to mitigate any problems that might arise.
The van roamed the streets of the city, the cameras on the roof and branding on the exterior looking similar to that of several popular online mapping companies. It didn't take long for Suzy to locate a new target, the equipment's automatic acquisition algorithms highlighting several possible alternatives.
She tapped on the screen, focusing on a young redhead walking by herself near an alley. Her attire was dated, and she was far enough away from other pedestrians that they might not notice her abduction.
"Prepare for new hire protocol," Suzy whispered into her headset. "Acquire participant number five zero one three two, the redhead near the alley."
"Affirmative," whispered back the rest of her crew, their synchronicity of speech eerie in the enclosed space.
Thrilled at the prospect of a new intern to train, she rested in the happy glow of Hive for a few beats as the van pulled up next to the unsuspecting woman. Purple eyes locked onto the screen, Suzy hissed
"Now!"
The six soldiers in the back of the van worked like a well-oiled machine. As soon as they stopped, the two nearest the rear cracked open the doors, jumping out into the street.
The next two crouched next to the door, waiting their turn. Before their target could detect their presence, the liquid black forms had grabbed her off the sidewalk and shoved her into the van.
The two waiting drones grabbed her struggling body and forced her into the reclined chair, while the two outside leaped back inside and slammed the doors.
It had taken them under four seconds to grab the girl and get back underway, barely enough time for their victim to let out a short, muffled yelp. The soldiers held her down with an iron grip as she screamed bloody murder, the sound absorbed by the padded sound proof walls of the van.
The rest of the soldiers assisted, snapping restraints around the captive's arms, legs, waist, and neck. Slipping behind the melee, Suzy pulled a hanging mask down from the top of the van, forcing it over the victim's mouth.
Gas hissed from the mask, causing the victim to choke and inhale vast amounts of the sopoforic. Soon, her struggles calmed, her body jiggling less violently. Suzy held the mask in place until her body became supple, then she let it float back up to the ceiling.
Underneath, the new recruit had become docile, a dopey grin replacing her panicked shouts. "Wha... was that stuffs?" she slurred, giggling uncontrollably. "It's
sooooo
good!"
"Strip!" Suzy ordered, ignoring the woman's delirious comments.
The soldiers did as she commanded without any audible acknowledgement. The gratitude of Hive was acknowledgement enough.
Undoing the restraints on their logy victim, they removed her clothing without ceremony, each piece dumped into a pile near the rear of the van. "It's c-c-cold!" complained the woman, relaxing in complete nudity.
"Where am I?" she asked, a small spark of awareness slowly returning to her eyes. "And why are you an orange?"
"Irrelevant," stated Suzy. "I am a slave recruitment trainer, and you are a new Hive slave, employee number five zero one three two. You will learn Hive truths, and become Hive body. Prepare yourself."
Before the woman could react, Suzy slipped a needle into the new slave's inner elbow, an IV hanging from the roof dispensing drugs directly into her bloodstream. The soldiers held her down as a precaution for several moments until her eyes glazed over, then they returned to their sitting positions.
With the new recruit sedated by the drugs, Suzy took her time retrieving a second apparatus. It was a shiny, domed helmet with goggles and integrated breathing tube. She lowered it into position, locking it onto her victim's skull.
Unseen bellows forced more gas into the captive's lungs, pretty patterns dazzling her eyes. To complete the ensemble, Suzy folded down a set of headphones, clicking on the song of Hive to keep the new slave company.
With everything prepared, she glanced over the brain readout on her laptop display. Everything was nominal, as expected. The woman's brain was adapting to Hive's pattern, internal heart rate pounding in time with the song. The respirator forced a hypnotizing gas mixture into her, lungs inhaling the music of slavery.
Satisfied, Suzy took a little time for herself, shivering in ecstasy at the birth of a new Hive drone. It was hard to tell during the initial abduction, but it seemed likely that this one would be converted and ready to help with new recruitment drives before the week was out.
Her nipples sizzled with excitement. Obeying Hive was better than any other feeling she had ever experienced!
"Are you pleased with yourself?" asked the purple lady standing next to her. "Does making new slaves for Hive turn you on?"
Surprised at her familiar form, Suzy scooted back, biting her lip. Wait a minute, this wasn't
her
. She wasn't an instructor drone for Hive! What had she been doing?
Detached from the scene in front of her, she watched as the training drone adjusted the feeds on the new slave, making sure that its brain was properly following the music of Hive.
"Hello? Anyone in there? Where are those vaunted smarts you like to think you possess?" The purple rubber lady clacked her pierced tongue and put a hand on her hip, watching Suzy's dream spirit with amusement.
Suzy blinked a few times to regain a semblance of individuality, focusing on the new guest. Standing next to her was the latex lady from before, a frilly purple skirt layered over her undergarments. The woman's entire body was clad in smooth latex, bereft of any identifying marks, the perfect masked apparition.
"You? Why are
you
here?"
"Yes, it's me!" the doppelganger said cheerfully, balancing on her extreme heels. "I'm not sure you're taking the danger you're in seriously. Are you the one in charge, or the one being taken charge of? Have you figured it out yet? You're running out of time."
She applied bright red lipstick to her curved smile, peering at an antique mirror. Grabbing it, she turned it around to face Suzy. "Don't we look lovely?"
Suzy brushed the impertinent question aside. "Why is this always about time? Why can't I make my own time? Why do I always have to follow someone else's schedule?"
"Life simply isn't fair, my dear," replied not-Suzy, snapping the lid of the mirror shut. "You're already a corporate drone, living day by day, chained to your desk, slowly hypnotized by spreadsheets. This was true even before you started working for Rankotech. It was never about
you
, Hive is bigger than that. It's stronger, more powerful than any individual in this world. Even a Hive queen is not truly in control, as her needs are subservient to the greater collective."
Smiling wide, her lips gleamed. "You're acting as though you could give your two weeks' notice tomorrow and nip off to the spa, forgetting about our little world of drones and slavery. How droll! But I tire of this - if you decide to become
me
, you'll end up knowing all this anyway."
The fetish figure tucked the mirror and lipstick away, the objects vanishing into thin air. This seemed perfectly normal in the dream atmosphere.
"I would
never
become someone as annoying as you," said Suzy, scrunching up her nose. The know-it-all attitude of the apparition was starting to get on her nerves.
"Oh, wouldn't you?" the lady replied benignly. "If not, what will you choose? There isn't really a scenario here where you go free. Unless, of course, you consider letting go a form of freedom. Control.
Controlled
. Will control. Enslave.
Enslaved
. Will enslave. They're all equally possible. I'm quite interested in seeing which course of action you take. Of course, once you do, I won't really exist any more, but at least this won't be so confusing for both of us. I won't have to be a shadowy reflection of you, doomed to wander dreams and provide expository advice."
Her figure became ill-defined, fading like an afternoon shadow. "It shouldn't be a particularly difficult decision. It wasn't for
me
