The hivemind is conquering for me? Chapter 964: ’Why Are You Here?’

Ronnie was transfixed as I told him the general rundown of what I had done since we last saw each other. His entire body was telling a story of shock and awe as I spoke.

Every time I said something funny, he pelted out laughter, every time I mentioned myself getting hurt, he growled in anger. It was like he was living the story I was telling in his mind. Becoming one with it.

"And then we flew over here this morning. Valerica and I then ran into Sigismund then we met up and yeah, that about sums it up."

"Wow..." Ronnie mumbled. "Apollo, that was incredible. Your life is like a real saga!"

"Oh stop, you are going to make me blush. It’s not that interesting... Though that being said, they were making a film about the events that happened on Decima... Hmm, I wonder what is happening with that? Anyway, do you have any questions you want answered? I have enjoyed venting everything to you Ronnie."

"And I am honoured to be able to bring you enjoyment Apollo. If it’s not a bother, I do have one question?" He asked and I gestured with my hand for him to go ahead. Ronnie then opened his mouth to speak, but before he could.

*Knock Knock Knock*

Ronnie swiftly turned to the door. "It’s teacher. That’s how she knocks."

’It is?’ I thought. It sounded like a normal knock to me.

I then stood up and walked towards the door, opening it.

On the other side was Jocasta. "Apollo, hello. It’s been quite some time since you two got to talking. Ronnie is still required for some technical jobs I need doing. You don’t mind me stealing back my apprentice from you, do you?"

I chuckled. "Of course not. Thank you for indulging me for as long as you have. I really appreciate it. I love this kid so it was great to catch up with him." I said wrapping my arm around him in a bro hug.

Jocasta watched as Ronnie became all smiles at the comment. "Hmm. I see. Come along then Ronnie, you can catch up with Apollo later at the party, you have the night off. If your performance the rest of the day is above optimal, I might allow you to have a few drinks with Apollo."

Jocasta then turned to me before Ronnie could exclaim his delight and pointed all her mechanical tendrils at me. "But you and the King will not give him a drop of Psionic beverage, do you understand? He has work tomorrow and if he has that stuff, he will not be fit for work... Or he might die. The math indicates it could go either way."

"Yeah, I wouldn’t roll the dice with his life, don’t worry. See you two later, I’m going to go on a walkabout till I am needed." I said, but Jocasta raised an arm in front of me.

"Hold on a moment, take this with you." Her arm suddenly split open and a small data pad emerged and she gave it to me. "The king wants you to say something during the speech, just learn what’s on there within the hour and we will be good. So see you soon."

"Bye Apollo, see you soon!" Ronnie said and followed Jocasta who had already begun to walk.

"Yeah, Bye..." I muttered looking at the data pad in my hands. I had just escaped hell. I survived the gauntlet of cameras and now, just when I was out, they were pulling me back in. Not only in front of camera’s, but now in front of the entire empire...

"Fuck me..."

...

Jewel looked out into the vastness of space through her second body. Her vast mind was thinking about one thing.

The same thing she was always thinking about.

Her Mate.

According to the prey with the unique foresight, Apollo should have had enough time to fix the damage to his timestream due to his exposure to anti Psionics.

She missed him so much. It ached. In her entire existence, this year had seemingly stretched for centuries in her past view of the flow of time.

She wanted to see him. She wanted to feel him against her body. But all she could do was look into space. She knew where he was, roughly. It was taking a great deal of impulse not to use all her power to force the universe to collapse the space between them so she could finally see him again.

But the energy required would weaken her significantly, she would be forced to give up an incalculable amount of her limbs. A worthwhile sacrifice to her, but her mate would be angry at her, he didn’t like it when she was injured.

It was something she didn’t understand. She lost trillions and made trillions of bio forms every moment, no different to the way his body sheds dead skin cells. But she didn’t care about the way he thought.

She loved it. He was so unique. So uniquely hers.

Nearby her, some warriors that were awakened from torpor by her presence began to tap excitedly due to her ’personal’ emotions fluctuating out through the rest of her mind.

She drew in the Psionic energy amassing in abundance from her simply existing in this place, calming herself in the process.

All she had to do was wait. Not long now. The prey told her after this day, it would be no longer than 5256000 seconds. Two months, perhaps even quicker if things went well.

She wasn’t sure what ’well’ meant.

The reason for Apollo’s absence now confused her. Going to an alien race for ’peace talks’ Thinking that sentence confused her. There was only strong and weak. Hunter and prey. Peace was still hard for her to grasp.

The closest she could think was like her agreement with Apollo.

Holding off from eating prey now, but still plan on eating them later.

She was starting to get a headache just thinking about it, quite an accomplishment for a mere thought, so she ceased before it affected more than just her individual self.

She then smiled. She was excited about all the surprises she had for Apollo once he was back. All the little things she had for him to do. The ’science’ they could work on together. The experiment with his mark and the effect it has on her bio forms.

Then there were the baser desires. Hunting and mating.

She wanted to hunt with him again. She loved hunting with him. Sharing her biological imperative to consume and adding his love into the mix. Mating on the food she would then consume...

She began salivating and the Whole planet of Apollo-minor followed her. She attempted to compose herself again, lest she release her pheromones without him even being here. That would be an embarrassing thing to tell him she had done.

That being said, it was hard to get the thought out of her mind, no matter how hard she tried. That was until she spotted and felt something enter this star system.

Her mates star System...

Something had decelerated out of faster than light travel.

Looking with her many limbs, she spotted what she thought she spotted.

A ship.

Her self became the hive without thought.

It began swarming towards the ship with its thousands of its own.

The prey ship was using technology. Cloaking technology. It took not even a moment for the hive to recognise the type of ship it was due to this cloaking technology. It was an ancient design, unexpected, but irrelevant. Trivially destroyable on its own.

The Gauss weaponry would require Wing rippers to act as living protection for the larger ships. Freethinker Variant # 986182564219124 was then given permission to lead the first dive while the rest of the hive continued manoeuvres.

The Freethinker approached accompanied by a small amount of wing rippers, It and the hundred rippers under its command, which were all carrying multiple other bio forms on their body raced through the void towards the ship.

There was slight confusion felt by the Freethinker at the lack of attack from the prey ship, but that was it. It still closed the distance and would reach it within seconds.

However, just as it was about to make its first attack, something strange happened.

The drones carried by the wing rippers immediately lost connection with the hive. Though they were not destroyed. They began to do the unthinkable and began biting into the flesh of the rippers carrying them, their bodies began to violently mutate, but before they could, they all burst into a gore of biomass.

Jewel emerged back into her singularity and began pulling her bio forms away from the ship. After jumping from the planet, leaving a crater behind as she did. She calculated perfectly and arrived where the ship that just turned her own bio forms against her was.

The moment she arrived, the door to the ship opened.

Jewel entered and allowed the ship to engage whatever it needed to do and decided not to destroy it. Not yet anyway...

The moment the inner door of the ship opened after repressuring, she looked at the figure before her showing signs of submission. She didn’t care. She spoke in Apollo’s language to the figure as it was not connected to the hive’s link.

"Onyx. Why are you here and not protecting our mate?"