Too Smart Ch. 13

The long shadows spiked the large entrance, as if they were teeth to the jaws of an ominous abyss. A yellow ochre resin coated the fifty foot diameter tunnel entrance, blobs and ropes of hardened ejecta crossing and staining the surrounding area, like an un-wiped mouth after a long and messy vomit session. A thin yellowish mist hung around and flowed between the vent columns. As Leon touched down, he noticed the quiet around him. When his feet touched the ground, though, he immediately picked up the vibrations of movement deep below him and as he looked down, his vision displayed the outlines of the sources of the movement. Hundreds of feet below him, small roach shaped forms moved like blood cells through veins, tens of thousands of insects milling about. There were layers upon layers descending deeper into the mountain, some heavy traffic leading off miles to the west.

"What are they doing?" Leon asked out loud.

NINA chirped "It appears that they are expanding their tunnel network. The long tunnels are thick with movement of rock and dirt."

"And we are letting this happen?"

"Someone is, father. It's not like it is difficult to observe."

"Are you able to estimate how many colonies there are?"

"Yes. What region?"

"Oh, uh, just North UN-America." Leon said. A moment later a small map showed glowing red blobs on the North American continent, showing the multiple colonies. There were over three dozen dotting the Rockies from the gulf to Alaska. A few dotted the north Appellation range but not out of UN-Canada.

"Yikes. This has some potential to get out of hand. I wonder why it hasn't been dealt with?"

"I don't know. But it seems that whoever is in charge of tracking these things have some sort of plan for their use."

"Why so?" Leon asked.

"It is possible these insectoids are a genetic experiment or part of a war effort, current or failed. Either way, their presence is ignored, even if someone mistakenly comes across them."

"What makes you say that?"

"By the human corpses that litter the tunnel ahead." NINA said morosely. Outlines of bodies blinked in his vision, marking their positions and what was left of their remains. There were about a dozen bodies within the first hundred yards, mostly what was left from unsuspecting hikers and a couple of park ranger uniform remains.

"Well, let's get an assessment, then." Leon said and NINA soon had a full analysis of the environment.

"Father, the air around us has a strange chemical pheromone compound. I would advise keeping your helmet on, though I am capable of purging your system of any foreign substances."

"That explains the mist. Okay, continue."

"There is a large concentration of the insectoids a mile below us that numbers into the hundreds of thousands. Several levels just below us are drone staging areas. Between those and the lowest levels there are multiple satellites for storage of some kind, nest rooms, and some sort of strange animal manger of some sort."

"What does that mean?"

"There are more than a dozen caves with different livestock animals. Near the largest concentration, likely the queens chamber, there are also rooms with humans in them. Most appear to be unresponsive unless they are eating or... breeding."

"Man, none of this sounds good. Maybe I shouldn't have come here alone." Leon mused with concern.

"Well, you haven't been detected yet. As we don't know their behavior, it may be unwise to provoke a response at this time. Father, there is what appears to be a hiker making his way towards us."

Just then, there was a blip signaling behind him and he turned to see a ragged looking man with a large dirty backpack and tattered clothing. Leon stood there as the tired and zoned out looking man hobbled on a hand made walking stick and mumbling to himself. As he approached Leon saw a large softball sized welt on the top of his neck under his ear leaking a creamy puss, staining the strap of his crusty back pack. The wound had some pulsing, bulbous pod sticking into the injury site From between his back straps and collar, a large, gross bug peaked out from the opposite side of the wound. It was the size of a two liter bottle and puke green in color, with dark brown horizontal stripes. It looked like a giant wasp with eight long, thin legs, it's large, ragged mouth pinchers grinding as it chittered in the mans ear. It's thorax was imbedded in the leaking sore, indicating a sting. Leon stood his ground, not moving or speaking as he observed the man, who seemed to not notice or acknowledge Leons presence as he passed by.

"Gotta help... help her.... My queen..." the drooling man mumbled as he walked within five feet from Leon. The bug made high speed clicks and buzzes as he stumbled by.

"Father, there are seven large drones making their way to our location." Leon looked to the mouth of the tunnel system and heard a building clatter as the giant creatures made their way out. From the shadow in the wide cave, four giant, horrid looking insects crawled out. They were twenty feet long and rust red with jagged black stripes. The front looked like a giant spiky crab with a hornets head with long grabbing arms like a mantis and four long legs. The tail end was like a large cockroach or lobster with dozens of little legs, the end armed with three venomous spikes dripping some sort of fluid. The four monsters guarded the mouth, taking positions at the upper and lower parts of the cave mouth, two on the top gripping to the ceiling as they observed the man and environment with six segmented eyes on their ugly head with its small claws grinding at their mouths.

Following them were smaller, beetle like critters the size of large dogs flowed out of the cave and surrounded the man, who collapsed over the back of one of the several dozen beetles. The bugs were a dull black color and had eight legs. They had no weaponry Leon could see and were scooting below the man to elevate him and made their way back into the cave. The bug that stung him detached from the wound and loudly flew off, likely to find another poor soul to guide into the den.

Just then, Miki chimed in to his helmet. "My god! Where are you? What are those things?"

"Hey, babe. I'm in the Rockies. I just happened on this hive. Ugly things, ya?"

"Definitely. Hope you don't mind me patching in. I was getting oriented with the camera drones and saw the madness you were witnessing and had to pry."

"Ah. Well, maybe you can help me figure out what's going on and maybe come up with a plan to take care of this mess at some point."

"What do you need?" Miki asked.

"I want to find out what they're doing with these humans they bring here. Maybe you could cruise the tunnels with the drone cam and get an assessment."

NINA interrupted. "I could help as well by doing the same with a few other drones to get a good map of the place and a body count." A blob of the suit detached and formed into a spherical camera like the others following Leon and took off down the tunnel.

"Excellent. I'm going to follow this man in and see what's going to happen." Leon said.

"Okay, just be very careful and don't try to do anything heroic, like try to save everyone, please." Miki chided.

"I know. As much as I would like to, I want a team."

NINA interrupted again. "That's not entirely accurate. It would take you very little effort to clear the hive on your own."

"I'm sure, but I really want the girls here. They need the experience. Lets just see what we are dealing with first."

"As you command, father." NINA said and went silent as Leon jumped and his armor caught him and levitated as he followed the giant bugs a few hundred feet behind into the cave. He practiced using his sonic and electric impulse vision as he tracked the man down a long, twisting downgrade. It was still a bit disorienting having spherical perception and didn't hold it long but his helmet had adjusted to have night vision and tracked the bugs and man as they descended deeper. They soon came to an offshoot that opened into a large chamber. The giant armored bugs stopped at the entrance as the others passed the man through to the chamber. Inside there was a large nursery of small larvae the size of dark green footballs and six other giant guard bugs around a group of unconscious humans. A dozen of the stinging bugs that lead the man in were buzzing about the nest.The larvae were latched onto the bodies of these people, some ten to fifteen larvae each, who were mostly naked and covered in giant sting welts that kept them pacified as they were fed upon.

"Well this isn't good. Though it seems like the victims are random people who got lost or didn't know what territory they were in." Leon reported as he hovered into the lair. In a far corner of the oblong room there was a pile of decomposing bodies in various states of decay, along with larval shells. "Glad I can't smell any of this." Leon thought. Miki chimed in then with her report.

"Leon, this system is miles long and there are tons of rooms. Most are merely sleeping or breeding dens."

NINA also chimed in with her report as well.

"Father, I have identified a room that is not like others. It seems to be some sort of human breeding experiment. There are men and women rutting but they have a different type of insectoid attached to their backs."

"Ya, I'm definitely going to need a team to handle this." Leon said with concern. Then NINA said "I have also detected a strange anomaly. There is a corpse here but it isn't human. I believe it may be worth investigating before you finish up here."

"Alright. That sounds intriguing anyway. Where to?"

NINA put a holographic path guide on his HUD and Leon quietly hovered out of the incubation room and followed the path down, down deep into the cavern system. After about two miles of travel the guide ended in a huge room, three times the size of the previous room, with multiple plates jutting out from the wall, acting as floors where there were easily three dozen sickly humans fucking it the dank and dirty darkness. Each person had a strange looking leech like bug on their backs connected by their heads to the necks of their victims. They pulses and rippled as the humans bred. "Yuck. I bet this smells even worse." He thought. There was a blinking on his HUD indicating the corpse and he drifted towards it, past a pile of pregnant, sleeping women, to another pile of decaying corpses. At the bottom of the pile, sticking out from a mush of rotting flesh and half gnawed bones was a strange looking space suite. It looked similar to the old, some headed astronaut suits but with four arms. It had some alien language on it indicating the name of the occupant, likely. The dried, scaly hands had three fingers on each but a lower hand had a wrist device. It was like a wrist watch but no arms to tell time with as it had a blank face.

"Hmm. I wonder what this is?" Leon said and quietly removed the devise, turning it in his hand as he inspected it.

NINA chimed in. "The small battery has been drained for some time."

"What is it? Can you integrate it?" Asked Leon.

"I am not sure on this one, father. It is made of unknown materials and is likely programmed in a language as-of-yet discovered. It seems to be a device similar to your watch that I integrated earlier. Maybe if you gave it a very small pulse of electricity, it would activate for a moment."

Leon held it and considered it for a moment. "You know what? I don't think I want to experiment with technology in this disgusting place. Last thing I want is for this thing to make a bunch of noise or flashes or something. I've done enough exploring. If we have a good map of the situation, I'd like to leave. There is enough shit on my plate already."

"I think you're right, honey. Come back. We'll deal with this later."

"As you command, father." NINA chirped. Leon silently lifted off and made his way back up to the mouth of the cave, following the holo-path on his HUD. When he exited into the night sky that drowned out the last of the sunset, he cranked up the speed back home. He watched the beams of light from the various, large enclaves as he flew tens of thousands of feet above ground. Oklahoma City capitol enclave and the Fort Dallas enclaves were so large they were only separated by less than a hundred miles, their drone patrolled boundaries clearly marked by laser fence pylons and spotter attack drones. Dallas one upped Oklahoma City by having genetically engineered dogs and bulls roaming the ground, showing their technologic superiority, though Oklahoma had half a dozen genetic super humans on payroll. Far off into the north were the dull but ominous lights of super colony Witchita, a wild place of non-human citizens living with humans and a mystic level as high as their tech level, cornering the national market on techno-wizardry. As he cruised on past Greater Memphis territory he reflected on his trip.

"I have to say, I am wonderfully impressed so far with you, NINA. I don't as worried we would have another... incident, like in the past."

"I am aware of the recent past and history with artificial intelligence. My relationship to you is symbiotic and my survival depends on yours, as it is with all humanity. The joy you have already provided me secures my unwavering loyalty, aside from the programming." NINA assured.

"That is comforting. Thanks. By the way, you don't have to call me father."

"Oh? Could I call you something else, then?"

"Like what?" Leon asked.

"Master? Daddy?" She asked timidly, making Leon chuckle. "That's what your other girls call you."

"Ah. Are you saying your a bit envious? Do you want to be one of my girls or something?" Leon asked amusingly.

"Oh, yes, please daddy! More than anything! Can I, daddy? Be one of your girls?" NINA pleaded with desperation. Leon laughed.

"Of course, kiddo." He said calmly. There was a pleasant warmth reflected in his mind and his armor buzzed and rippled, as if it experienced and exciting shiver. "Mmmm. Yes!" Her voice hissed.

"Speaking of kiddo's, I think we should check on them. Miki?" He spoke and a chime indicated their connection.

"Yes, dear?" Miki responded.

"I think NINA is ready to integrate with the girls. Can you get the four ready near NINA's box in the demo room, please?" Leon asked.

"Of course, dear. What of Polly and Naomi?"

"I'll get them going after I set the girls up. For now, we will keep NINA as a family only thing until they decide to be part of us. I'll be home shortly, though. Love you, wife of mine."

"Love you too, husband of mine."

The Appalachian range zoomed into focus as Leon felt relaxed and confident for the near future of his family. New things, new love. At least, he hoped.