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7
RHIANNON
I hadn't been prepared for Nikathy to tell me that the Patrol was back. I'd never known them to attack a whole city. But then, I didn't know much about them, after all. I had merely been a captive aboard one of their research vessels. It's not like they shared their plans with us. Earlier, all I had wanted was to be free of this room, to be safe in some sterile hospital with plain white walls and no moody aliens. But now, I couldn't imagine being anywhere else, not knowing what was headed my way.
There was one thing I couldn't get out of my mind. Nikathy had looked shaken. It was not a good color on him. I'd barely known him for a day, and already I was used to him stomping around and commanding the place like a spoiled child, but all of that had gone away when he asked me for my help. He was scared, and that meant I should be, too.
I picked up page after page, scanning endless lines of illegible handwriting, trying to make sense of any of it. Most of the pages were receipts and memos, little more than the day-to-day happenings of the estate. But near the bottom of the stack, I came across something that gave me pause.
I turned the page sideways, tilting my head as I tried to discern the meaning of the shapes and lines that were scrawled there. Peering closer, I read the notes in the margins. If my reading was correct, this was a preliminary sketch of a perimeter fence line, probably for the estate itself. The tiny numbers and letters scratched along the edges of the page indicated the amount of power running through the perimeter, presumably powering some kind of embedded turrets at the corners.
I pulled that page out and went to the next one. It was another memo, but two words stood out to me: The Hive. Whatever it was, there were records of it here. I was almost through reading the note when Nikathy came plowing back into the room, burdened with another ungainly pile of loose papers. This time, he dropped them on the floor beside me and stopped to catch his breath.
"Found anything?" he asked, hopeful.
"Actually, yes," I answered proudly, holding out the two pages that I had singled out.
"What is this?"
He was holding up the paper with the sketch on it, scratching his head and yawning. For a moment, he looked oddly human, worn down after a long day. But when the moment passed, his eyes refocused and he had the same intensity as before. This was his city, and he was going to save it.
"You tell me. It looks like some kind of perimeter fence, complete with guns. Does it belong to this estate?"
He thought it over for a moment and then seemed to recognize the outline. "Yes. That must be it."
"Well, that's a good start," I said with some relief. At least we could look out for ourselves, even if we didn't have a way to keep the whole city safe, yet. "See if that other memo makes sense. It mentions the Hive, but I couldn't figure it out."
He read the page over several times, pacing the room and mumbling to himself. But when he stopped and looked up at me, he only shook his head. "No idea. The man who delivered the warning said it came from the Hive. And this seems to suggest that they have some kind of base or something? I'm not sure. When the others arrive, we'll get more answers. For now, we need to keep going."
To my surprise, he slumped on the floor, resting his back against the side of my bed, and started sifting through papers himself. I went back to work, scanning the pages in my lap and asking for another stack whenever I ran out. The work was tedious, and my eyes burned from the strain of reading the disastrous handwriting, but just having him there beside me was enough to keep me going. In fact, I found his quiet presence oddly comforting, and I caught myself stealing glances down at him as he studied the pages one by one. When he wasn't being an asshole, he could be rather handsome.And I was still more than a little curious about what he had hiding beneath that coat of his.
We made it through the first two stacks of paper, and Nikathy rose, stretching his arms and his back, and I forced myself to avert my eyes when his shirt shifted and the skin of his lower abs peeked out from above the belt that held his weapons.
"I'm going to get another stack. And something to drink. Would you like anything?"
It was the kindest thing he had ever said to me, and for a moment, I let myself get caught up in the way he watched me before saying, "Yes, please. Something to keep me awake would be good."
He trudged out of the room, having lost all of the bravado and arrogance that he wielded earlier in the day, and I let out a sigh. It was going to be a long night, and it didn't look like any of us were going to get sleep. After finding those first two hints, I hadn't seen another word about the Hive, nor had there been anymore helpful schematics to go off of. Nikathy said there were thousands of pages to be sorted through, but I was really hoping we could find some answers before we reached the bottom of those stacks.
I laid back on the pillows, waiting for him to return, and allowed myself a moment to close my eyes. I was going to take any chance I could to rest. Who knew how long it would be before I could get a good night's sleep again. I was just starting to doze when the sound of footsteps coming down the hall roused me and a small delegation of strangers came into the room with Nikathy, Cosma trailing them with a tray of drinks in her hand. She handed me one and then went around the room, offering them to all the men before excusing herself.
"I hope you don't mind," Nikathy said, coming to stand beside my bed. "I thought you'd want to hear this."
