Ascent. Морган Райс

the world was. It made the idea sound as obvious and natural as water being wet, or as the sun being hot. There was nothing natural about the tentacled things that Purest Xan held in its hands, though.

      “So, what?” Kevin demanded, mostly because every moment he could delay this felt like a good idea. “You’re going to make me into one of the Purest like you? Do I get to lose all of my hair and have freaky eyes?”

      Maybe if Kevin could annoy the alien enough, he could distract it from what it was about to do. Of course, it might then decide to do a whole host of things that were even worse, but right then, Kevin couldn’t think of anything worse than being changed into one of them.

      “You are not of the Purest,” Purest Xan said. “But you can be made of the Hive. You will become our emissary, one of our chosen. You should welcome the honor.”

      “You think it’s some kind of honor for Kevin to have his brain invaded?” Chloe demanded.

      “It will not be an invasion,” Purest Xan said. “Kevin will welcome us. He will agree to become one of us.”

      “Why do I have to agree?” Kevin demanded. “Why don’t you just do it if you’re going to, instead of playing games?”

      The alien looked almost offended by that, although Kevin doubted that it could feel that emotion either. He doubted that it could feel anything.

      “We do not play games,” it said. “Your species’ brains are delicate, though, and we require yours intact for the tasks that the Hive has for you. If you fight too much during the process, there is the potential that you could be… damaged.”

      “I’ll fight you,” Kevin promised. “I’ll die rather than do anything to help you.”

      The alien stood there staring at him, apparently not comprehending what he had just said. It frowned at Kevin slightly, tilting its head to one side as though listening to something only it could hear. Kevin got the feeling that it was trying to make sense of him, and trying to work out what to do while it did so.

      “Your statement is foolish,” Purest Xan said. “Yielding is to your advantage. You get to continue to exist.”

      “I’m dying anyway,” Kevin said, thinking about the moment when the doctor had diagnosed him with his illness, had told him just how little time he had left to live. “Do you think I care about threats?”

      The alien stared at him for another moment or two, and again, Kevin had the sense of it getting advice from the others of its kind.

      “We can save you,” it said, dropping the words there like lead weights.

      The shock of that ran through Kevin like ice water. The best scientists Earth had to offer had tried and failed to help him. Now here the aliens were, offering to make him well as if it were nothing.

      “You’re lying,” he said. He had to believe that they were lying. “You already lied about so much, do you think I’m going to believe this?”

      He thought about all the ways they’d lied to get him to help with their invasion of the Earth. They’d told him that they were refugees seeking the safety of another planet. They’d told him that they were the ones fleeing destruction, rather than causing it.

      “You have seen what we can do,” Purest Xan said. “We can manipulate flesh in ways your human mind cannot imagine. The Purest of the Hive are preserved almost indefinitely. We have every reason to want you alive. We could heal you, if you were of the Hive.”

      What could Kevin say to that kind of temptation? It was everything he had wanted from the moment the doctor had told him what was happening. When he’d been at the NASA institute, he’d secretly hoped that one of the scientists there might find some way to help him, to make all the shaking and the pain stop. He’d thought that he would give almost anything to be well again. It took almost everything Kevin had to shake his head.

      “If I have to die to stop you getting what you want, then that’s what I’ll do,” Kevin said. He meant it. He wanted to live, he’d hoped for a cure, but by now, he’d had plenty of time to accept what was going to happen to him. If dying could help to stop the aliens… well, he didn’t want to, but he would.

      “And what about the other things the Hive can offer?” Purest Xan said. “We are told that your species values parents and friends. As one of us, you could decide what was done with those we controlled.”

      Kevin swallowed, thinking of his mother, thinking of Luna. There were so many people he knew back on Earth, so far away that it was no longer visible on the screen. If he could help them… no, if the aliens wanted something from him, that wouldn’t help them at all.

      “Then there is the question of your friend here,” Purest Xan said. “As this one has said, as one of the Hive, you could determine what happens to her. If you do not do this, the female will be experimented on while you watch.”

      Kevin froze, looking from the alien to Chloe and back.

      “No, Kevin. Don’t do it,” Chloe said. Kevin could hear the desperation there. “Let them kill me. Do whatever it takes!”

      Kevin could hear the sincerity in her voice, but… he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t stand there and watch while Chloe died. He knew that they would do it. There was something about the cold, emotionless way Xan made its threat that made it something else. Not a threat exactly, more a simple statement of what would happen.

      “We will change you anyway,” Purest Xan said. “It is simply a question of how much you fight, and how much it hurts. Make your decision, Kevin McKenzie.”

      “Fight them, Kevin,” Chloe said. “Don’t give in!”

      Kevin looked at her, trying not to think of all the things the aliens might do to her. It was impossible, though, to do anything but picture what might happen once they started to experiment on her. Could he really stand by and watch if they started to take her apart to see how she worked, or started to transform her into something that wasn’t human? Could he do that, when all it would mean was that they would transform him by force?

      He couldn’t, and he knew it.

      “Okay,” he said, hating every moment while he did it. “Do it.”

      “We were always going to,” Purest Xan assured him. “This will hurt more, the more you struggle.”

      “Kevin,” Chloe said. “Please fight it. You have to stay yourself. You have to stay strong.”

      That, Kevin guessed, was the only hope here. They couldn’t break free. They couldn’t fight back physically. The only chance was to join with the Hive, and somehow hope to retain enough of himself…

      He didn’t even finish that thought before Purest Xan applied the tentacles to his skull, and the Hive lanced invisibly into his brain.

      Kevin cried out with the pain, swift and sudden, like an icicle being stabbed into the depths of his mind. He’d thought that he was used to pain; with his illness, he’d thought he’d known what pain was, but now he realized that it was nothing compared to what was happening now. He could feel the tentacles questing through his thoughts and his memories, the unpleasant sensation far too familiar from when the aliens had first probed his mind.

      This was different, though, because the aliens weren’t just looking this time.

      Kevin could feel the Hive inside his thoughts, mind upon mind, interlinked and powerful. It was hot and cold and painful all at the same time. It felt like ground glass being worked through his thoughts. He could feel the wash of the controlled on the far fringes, not even a true part of the whole. He could feel the sharp-edged minds of things bred for war, and the softer, slower thoughts of beasts of burden. Then there were the Purest and their servants, shining strands against the web of the rest.

      Come to us, they urged, the voices deep and seductive. Become us.

      Kevin tried to pull away, and the effort hurt more than he could have imagined. He heard himself scream, but the sound seemed to come to him from far away. It was