I did not sleep well the night Miguel died. He had been one of our bunkmates since we were taken from the Mothers’ Hall over ten years ago. We had trained together, talked late into the night together, laughed at silly things together, and dreamed together of our futures. He never wanted to be anything but a Diver. Didn’t aspire to Queen’s Service, like I did. Miguel was a friend, and the empty corner where he usually slept echoed every breath I took.
My dinner of green soup and one of the bugs I’d harvested lay solid in my stomach.
We’d had empty corners before. Sometimes boys just disappeared. Men, too. On the rare occasion when someone disobeyed an order from a Master, or strayed into a forbidden area of the Hive, more often than not, they would just disappear. The Hive had no place for anyone that wasn’t a perfect part of our shared home. We never mourned those we lost like that. The Masters knew what was best, and how to keep us safe from Lowforms that couldn’t follow the rules.
“Hey, Noah, you awake?” Chen whispered from his place on the hard floor next to me.
“Yeah.”
“Are you okay?”
I thought about it. I knew he was asking because I had been the one to pull Miguel’s lifeless body from the water. It wasn’t the first time I had seen a dead body. There had been other Divers over the years that stayed down too long or came up too fast. They gurgled and screamed, doubled over in pain, clawing at the water’s surface. If we got to them in time, they usually died some days later. If we didn’t, they would sink beneath the waves, and eventually parts of them would wash up on shore, having provided meals for all the things that dwelled in the sea. We take from the ocean, and it demands payment from us. We knew the risk.
But this was Miguel. And that was the right word, wasn’t it? It WAS Miguel. He was no longer part of our present, or our future. Everything Miguel had been was now in the past. That transition was what ate at me that sleepless night.
“Yeah,” I replied to Chen. “I’m okay.”
Poor Miguel. He should never have ventured so far from the entry pool. If he hadn’t been so determined to do well in the Ranking, he would still be alive tonight.
With the Masters, there was no question of who did what. They were born for their tasks, and each one had the tools from the time they emerged from their pupal stage. Diggers had huge foreclaws for gouging out the deep tunnels that crisscrossed under the Hive. Builders had great, gaping mouths which they filled with dirt and wood from the forest, chewing the mass into a paste which hardened into the towering walls that protected us. Soldiers emerged with wicked sharp pincers on their forelegs, and the paralyzing, venomous tail spikes. Every Master knew what it was from the moment it popped out of its cocoon. Only Lowforms had to struggle so hard to learn our place. Miguel was right to give his all. I just wished I’d taken that tunnel. Maybe I could have found him in time.
In the morning we slurped down our breakfast and assembled in a corridor at the edge of the Lowforms’ permitted area
One by one, a Master took us into a room. Those of us left outside timed the one inside by the fading of a glowstone. Each boy got the same amount of time in the room, and when one was finished, the Master would send him away so that he couldn’t talk to the rest of us. We had no idea what was in the room. Our numbers dwindled until only a few of us were left in the dimming glow.
The Master clicked at me. “Now. You.”
I jumped up and followed it into the corridor. We made several turns, which I noted absently, trotting along behind the Master. This was one of the smaller Master Soldiers, more recently emerged and still in an immature molt. Its carapace would crack as it grew a new one inside, over and over until it achieved its final, massive size. For now, when it stood on its hind legs, its mouth was even with mine.
We arrived at the opening to a room. It was brightly lit with fresh stones, but I couldn’t see inside past the Master.
“Go. Build. Fast.”
The Master stepped back and I scuttled into the room, following the direction of its front leg gesture.
Build? Build what? We weren’t Builders. The Masters built the Hive. Female Lowforms wove baskets and clothing. What was I supposed to build?
The room’s floor was littered with unfamiliar objects. I glanced back at the Master, who stood in the doorway watching me. Build what?
I crouched down and examined the nearest piece. It was made of hard, smooth metal, a large round disk with a hole in the center. There were smaller holes around the edges. The same metal edged the huge vats of algae that made up our food, strong and dark, non-reflective. It made a flat sound when I tapped my fingernail against it.
The other objects were even stranger. There was a metal tube, as big as the soft, colorful tubes in the sea that had long, feathery gills to sweep the water but would retract if a Diver swam too close. When I held this heavy thing up in front of me, I could see a faint reflection in it, of my own puzzled face, and the expressionless Master behind me.
Build?
I looked back at the disk. The hole in the center looked about the same size as this tube. I experimented for a moment, pushing the two together, until I was rewarded with a satisfying click. The two pieces were joined into one, a disk with a tube sticking out the top. Had I done it? A glance back to the Master said no.
What else was there?
The next piece was large and flat, covered in some kind of cloth, with a thick weave and dull colors. The bottom of the piece was made of the same smooth metal as the disk, and it had a small hole in the middle. That hole clicked nicely into the tube on the disk. Put together and set upright, it made a small platform, with the woven side up.
There was another large piece, nearly identical to the cloth-covered platform I’d just put together, but longer. It had no hole in it, but on closer examination, I noticed a flat piece of metal sticking out the bottom with four tiny holes. Further searching revealed a pile of tiny metal tubes with spirals etched into their length, and a small, flat line on the wider top.
What were these things? Where had they come from? And how much time did I have left?
The Master in the doorway said nothing.
Three more pieces sat on the floor. Two were the same; cloth-covered and oblong, and one was different, a long metal stick with a hard yellow end that fit perfectly in my hand. The tip of the stick was flat.
Like the ends of the tiny, spiral tubes. Which would maybe fit in the little holes.
I looked all over the platform, searching for a place to put the tubes. On the underside of the platform, little holes matched up perfectly to the other pieces I had. I laid the platform on the side, and held the largest piece up to the holes that fit. The tiny tubes fit into the holes, and when I pushed the stick into the flat groove in the tube, it was obvious that it got tighter when I spun it in one direction.
How much time was left? Had I been in this room forever?
I matched up the other pieces on each side of the platform and attached them the same way. It looked funny like that, so I flipped it back up onto the circular base.
Of course. It was meant for a Lowform to sit on. After a quick glance at the Master, I tried it out. The strange cloth was surprisingly soft when I sat on it, and my arms rested naturally on the two side pieces. Who had made this amazing thing? Was this the only one? I’d never seen anything like it.
The Master in the doorway clicked at me. “No-build.” It meant for me to take it apart.
As I reached for the stick, I thought about the object, taking it apart piece by piece. Had I done it right? Was I the fastest to put it together? Would it be enough? I placed each piece back where I’d found it, setting the room for the next boy. If only I could tell Chen about it . . . give him an idea of what he was supposed to make. But he was smart. Probably smarter than me. He’d figure it out.
I followed the Master away from the chamber, and sat outside in the sun, waiting for the rest of the boys to finish the challenge.
In just a short while, we’d know.