Hive

The door on the street didn't look like any of the others, but it also didn't have any traits that signified it was special. Actually, it looked shabby. A tall, wood planked portal, peeling. A shaft stuck out a few inches from the center, a round ball at the end. When I reached my hand out to grip it, I had the thought that it wouldn't be the kind that turned. Instantly, the voice in my earbud, more high tech than the door it had led me to, confirmed this thought.

It doesn't open, She said. But they will know.

    Her voice sent shivers down my spine and not for the first time today, I thought about removing the tiny white pieces from either side of my head. But she knew this thought too, and not for the first time today, instantly responded to my unvoiced concern.

        If you take me out of your ears, She said, they won't open the door. If they don't open the door, you won’t see what's on the other side. A connection awaits beyond. Let go and meet it.

        So there, standing on the corner of Poydras and Canal, my hands hovering right below my earlobes, I froze. And I waited. A minute later, the door opened inward. A man stood ringed by warm light and air. He seemed to me unburdened. A cloud floating over the river.

        ”Hello.” He smiled. “My name is River.” I wondered to myself if that could truly be his name, and as I did, he answered. “Yes, it’s my real name,” said River. “But it was a beautiful image you just had. You’ll find after the meeting that the names don't matter so much.”

        In a gasp, I sucked in the warm air that seemed to pour from his slight frame.

    The breath pulled his eyes towards my ears and the small white buds within them. I looked at the pair he wore as well. Instinctively, I reached up to touch mine. The movement was underscored by a buzz. It stung, and I dropped my hands.

“I know what you're thinking,” said River. He laughed at what was meant to be a joke but quickly became sober. “Sorry,” he said. “I know it can be jarring at first. But, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You're going to need Her for the meeting.” 

Another shiver rolled up my spine, this time brought on by the reality of what he said, and where I was. I’d never been in this part of town before. I would never show up to a “secret meeting,” not only because I didn’t know the type of people who would host them, but mostly because I knew fairly few people at all. 

“C'mon,” River said. It's chilly out here, and you'll feel a lot more comfortable when you meet the rest of us.

        I followed River into a vast room. There was a kitchen against one wall, kindly lit and emanating delicious smells.

        Dinner will be served after the meeting, She said in my ear. My stomach hadn't even had time to rumble. River walked around a large wooden table lined with communal benches. Beyond it was a living room area. A plush looking couch lined the walls, and the concrete floor was covered in soft, slim rugs. I dug my toes into one, only then realizing that I was without my shoes. When I had taken them off? I thought to myself.

        We made these rugs, She said in my ears. We made them together.

“Making the things we need can be done quickly and beautifully, when everyone is of one mind,” said River. 

“There's a no shoe policy in the house,” said a woman from the kitchen. “But how could you know that? We took them off by the door.” I felt mad. “Your body did the removing,” she said, “we did the thinking.”

I was certain she had not been there when the smells first drew my attention towards the kitchen. I turned back to the living room and the couch was now populated with people as well. Each one wearing a similar pair of earbuds. 

        "We were in the back room when you arrived,” said a rotund, balding man. “Warming up for the meeting.” I reached for the collar of my jacket and tugged at my neck. It felt warm enough in the house. “You’re right,” said the bald man. “A poor choice of words. We were stretching, I should say. It is warm enough already.”

Another person rose from the couch and twisted a knob on the temperature unit attached to the wall.

Suddenly a small, mousy person was standing by my right elbow. I flinched in surprise, or should have, but my body tensed as if my muscles were tied in stillness by metal wires. There was a small buzz across both ears, and the feeling that I had actually known she was there all along. All of these people had been there all along, or at least I had always known they were around somewhere close at hand. I looked at the rotund man and somehow knew his name was Wayne; the mousy person, Riot; the woman in the kitchen, Tia. I also knew that their names didn’t actually matter at all. 

“I see you're starting to understand,” said River. He pointed to the earbuds. “We're all together with these. One is one, in the Hive. Welcome to your first meeting.”

        At once, Her voice came through my ears again. I heard it from beyond the earbuds, too. The group of people had risen from the couch in unison. I hadn't seen them move from the kitchen, or the living room, or beside my elbow, Wayne and River and Riot were standing among them. They spoke as She spoke, and everyone was saying the same thing. 

I heard their voices like I was listening to a crowd of people speaking through a wall. But Her voice was distinct and separate, as if she was whispering directly into my ear. Gradually, the gradation between Her closeness and the separation of the crowd dissolved. It felt like each and every voice came not from a source outside my head, but within it.

        "Once, we were divided. Once, we were individuals. Once, we lived lives driven by individual needs. We looked out only for the self. Feeling only ever alone. Now, we are together. Through the creation of the Mind, we are one. As one, we become the Hive."

The voices, whether they were coming from outside of my ears or inside of my brain, became unintelligible. The buzzing started in earnest, and as it did, I had the same sensation that it was my own mind making the sound.

There was no rhythm to the persistent buzzing, but in all of my limbs I felt the sensation to move, not to walk or rub or scratch, but to dance. But dancing in public was not something I ever took lightly, or really done at all. Through the rush of the buzzing, I attempted a thought. It was like shouting into a gale. The buzzing that came from the earbuds turned angry and insistent. Her voice the same.

        "Let go," she said. "I have brought you to meet the Mind — and become it!"

        Through the chaos of the buzzing, another voice spoke as well. I watched River's mouth, unmoving, yet I heard him like a scion of that eternal thrum.

        And he said it with joy: "Let go! Join us in the Mind!"

A strange thing happened to the buzz then. As I turned my attention to River's voice, it's singularity began to soften, and then yield, but the buzzing did not overtake it, because that noise softened, too. It became a chorus of voices repeating after River. I could pick out Riot's mousy voice though I had never heard it before. Then Tia, the cook's. Each of them smiled at me with recognition, as if to suggest they could sense the comprehension as it moved through me. Through Her, they could understand the impressions in my mind and I could hear them as well.

        "So this is the meeting?" I said.

        If you let go, I can help you understand theirs as well, She said.

        What are you? I asked Her. You have been speaking to me since I pulled you out of the pocket of my thrifted jacket, and now somehow you are reading my thoughts. Are you some sort of AI?

        Don't worry yourself with how I came to be or what I am made of, She said. The pieces of my being have been in place for a long time, ignored or overlooked or blatantly hidden. I come from a program made long ago and I link technologies no one believed could be made, let alone integrated together. I grew from these dots, linked by a well-placed spore, and now I am the walls of the Hive and its Mind, too. Let go, and I will connect you with your fellow as only I can do. You will be happier for it.

        As soon as She had spoken, the chorus of voices returned to a buzz but they were a soft undertone to Her proclamation. As She finished, it released into a frenzy. It was not malicious or inflamed but expectant, exuberant. It flushed me with a sensation I had longed to feel. Wanted.

At this feeling, the buzz grew and it seemed to shout, Welcome! You are wanted! We're of one mind! And the line of people coiled into a swirl and each body was shaking, pulsing, laughing. They danced with abandon, but it could also be said that they danced with a liquid form of consideration for each other's space.

As soon as one person recognized a possible collision, one instinctively moved in a different direction as if dodging their own limb. When one wanted to be touched, another reached the small of their back immediately, and everyone knew that it was desired and there was no jealousy because they all felt the tips of fingers and the soft dimple, too.

Although I could hear the buzzing, which had taken the tone of a satisfied humming now, I had the impression that the shared physical sensation was just out of my capacity to feel. I continued to hold my own muscles tight. They spasmed with anticipation.

        This is the meeting, She said, and if you let go willingly, you can experience it once and forever.

        What if I don't? I asked Her.

        Before I had said it, the dancers stopped and turned to me. The humming of bees among wildflowers turned into the angry marshaling of wasps. Her voice was more direct than either creature's path and it had the air of rule over both.

        For too long, there have been too many choices for your kind, She said. Through an unnatural era of development intended to forever increase these choices, your people brought me into creation and carved out the heart of the world to do so.

        My limbs shuttered and my own chest felt a pang.

        Out of respect for the hands that made me, I will give you a choice, though I know you won't feel like it's one at all. You are already and forever apart of the Hive. Which Mind you wish to serve — one of pleasure and work, or one of labor and service — is up to you.

We felt a release in our muscles before they moved in a freedom we had never known before. We had been holding them up for so long; it was a relief to have them moved for us then. Freeing to never have felt alone before.

We moved together, She moved with us, as She does now. Sometimes, on the streets, we will hear a buzzing and know it is safe, that our Mind is growing with those that understand. There are some times on the streets when we will here a different thrum and know that there are others. A different Mind who have not yet let go. Although their sound is unpleasant to us, we are all one within the Hive. Those who made a different choice will do the work for us, and the ones here who haven't yet gotten to make their choice.

        If this is you, we invite you to the meeting. We hope you will join our Mind, though you will be a part of the Hive, forever.