Atticus sighed. “Maybe it’s a good thing that you were caught. Having to wear that bracelet will teach you not to take silly risks in future.”
I didn’t say a word. I didn’t believe that having to wear a child’s tracking bracelet for a month would be enough to cure Forge of taking risks. As soon as it was removed, he’d be asking me to let him use the inspection hatch in my room to go exploring the vent system again. Even worse, I’d probably find myself agreeing to let him do it.
Chapter Twenty-four
On the morning after Carnival, I walked to the nearest major transport corridor. It was vastly wider than any normal corridor, with slow, medium, and express belts running side-by-side. I didn’t step on to the belts myself, just went to stand with my back against the corridor wall.
There were only a couple of other teens there when I arrived, but gradually more of us arrived, until we formed a solid line along the corridor wall. We ranged in age from the fourteen-year-olds who had arrived on Teen Level just under a year ago, to the seventeen-year-olds like me.
We didn’t talk to each other, just patiently waited, our eyes on the belts. They’d normally be filled with passengers at this time of the morning, but today they were completely empty. I wasn’t sure why the custom had started, whether it was out of respect or superstition, but no younger teens ever rode the belt system on the first day of Lottery.
I’d been standing there for fifteen minutes, when I saw the first figure go by on the express belt. It was a girl with long black hair trailing down her back. She was followed by a second girl, a boy, and then a whole succession of different figures. All eighteen years old, all sitting on a bag, all with tense, distracted faces, they seemed totally unaware of the rest of us standing there watching them.
In previous years, I’d watched the eighteen-year-olds travelling to their Lottery test centres, and happily daydreamed of the day when I’d be heading to Lottery myself. I’d pictured myself being allocated my Hive level and occupation, being imprinted with all the knowledge I’d need to do my work, and starting my adult life. In those dreams, I was always high level, successful, triumphant.
Now everything was different. I was burningly aware that next year I’d be riding the belt system to a Lottery test centre myself. I was no longer picturing myself leaving Lottery and heading up the Hive in triumph. Since my trip to the medical facility on Level 93, I’d given up daydreams, and accepted the harsh reality. I wouldn’t be heading up the Hive but down.
I stood there for what seemed like hours, watching the eighteen-year-olds go by, and wondering what they were thinking. Finally, the express belt was empty. The candidates had all reached their assessment centres, and were beginning the test process that would decide their futures.
One by one, the teens around me turned and walked away, but I stood there alone, still watching the empty belt go past me. I was resigned to the fact that Lottery would definitely send me down the Hive. The important questions were exactly how far down, and what task it would assign me.
A year from now, I’d learn the answers to those questions. The mystery of my reaction to Forge would no longer matter, because I’d never see him or any of my other friends again. I would be starting a new life as an adult, but would I still be the same person after Lottery? Would I still be the untidy Amber who was scared of heights, or would having information imprinted on my brain change me forever?
I hadn’t been scared of the darkness during the power outage, but I did fear the terrifying black unknown that was my future. No lantern could help me see what lay ahead for me. The Lottery of 2532, unpredictable, merciless, implacable, would decide my destiny. I would be assessed, optimized, allocated and imprinted along with a million others.
Some new figures came into view on the express belt. The eighteen-year-olds were all in assessment centres, and none of us younger teens would ride the belt system today, but these were adults not teens. Four people in the blue uniforms of hasties, and the ominous grey-clad figure of a nosy.
I hastily turned and walked away. There was no way for me to avoid the judgement of Lottery, no way for me to appeal against its verdict, no way for me to avoid being imprinted. I just had to hope that the words I’d been taught all my life were true, and the Hive really did know best.
Message from Janet Edwards
Thank you for reading Perilous. This book is a prequel novella. Amber’s story continues in the full-length book series, Hive Mind. Please continue reading for a sample chapter of the first book, Telepath. You can also make sure you don’t miss future books in this and other series by signing up to get new release updates.
You may also be interested in my books set in the very different Portal Future universe, where humanity portals between hundreds of different colony worlds scattered across space. These books include the Earth Girl trilogy, the Exodus series, and related stories.
Please visit me online at my website to see the current full list of my books, including suggestions on the reading order.
I’d like to thank Andrew Angel and Juliet for Beta reading Perilous. Any remaining problems are entirely my fault.
Best wishes from Janet Edwards
Books by Janet Edwards
Set in the Hive Future
The Hive Mind series:-
PERILOUS: Hive Mind A Prequel Novella
TELEPATH
Set in the 25th Century of the Portal Future
The Exodus series:-
SCAVENGER ALLIANCE
Set in the 28th Century of the Portal Future
The prequel novellas:-
EARTH AND FIRE: An Earth Girl Novella
FRONTIER: An Epsilon Sector Novella
The Earth Girl trilogy:-
EARTH GIRL
EARTH STAR
EARTH FLIGHT
The Earth Girl prequel short story collection:-
EARTH 2788: The Earth Girl Short Stories
Other short stories:-
HERA 2781: A Military Short Story
Set in the Game Future
REAPER
Please visit https://janetedwards.com/books to see the current full list of books
You can also make sure you don’t miss the next book by signing up to get new release updates
About the Author
Janet Edwards lives in England. As a child, she read everything she could get her hands on, including a huge amount of science fiction and fantasy. She studied Maths at Oxford, and went on to suffer years of writing unbearably complicated technical documents before deciding to write something that was fun for a change. She has a husband, a son, a lot of books, and an aversion to housework.
Visit Janet at her website: www.janetedwards.com
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Preview of Telepath
Chapter One
Forge and Shanna led our group out of the lift into the forbidden territory of Level 1, the highest of the hundred accommodation levels in our Hive city. I stopped for a moment, dazzled by the splendour of the shopping area in front of us. The Level 1 shopping areas always had the finest decorations in the Hive, but this was the last day of Carnival, the annual Hive festival of light and life, so there were added gold and silver streamers everywhere.
Shanna glanced back at me. “Come on, Amber!”
I hurried to join the others under one of the giant overhead signs that said “Level 1”. We automatically formed into a circle with Forge and Shanna standing in the centre. Twenty-two of us, all wearing traditional gold and silver Carnival costumes, and carrying masks. Forge was the one exception, conspicuous for choosing a costume and mask in the red and black colours of Halloween, the ominous Hive festival of darkness and death. Forge had constantly been challenging Hive rules on Teen Level, and wearing a Halloween costume during Carnival was his final act of defi
ance.
I noticed that a couple of men dressed in the blue uniforms of Health and Safety were standing nearby and watching us. On any other day, the hasties would have been scolding us, telling us that a group of teens had no business in one of the shopping areas reserved for the most important people in the Hive, and sternly sending us back down to Teen Level 50.
This wasn’t any other day, because we were eighteen. Tomorrow the million eighteen-year-olds in the Hive would all enter Lottery. We would be assessed, be optimized, be allocated, be imprinted. The Lottery of 2532 would decide our future lives, what profession we would work at, and whether we would live in luxury on a high level of the Hive or in a cramped apartment somewhere in the depths.
Shanna smiled at the rest of us. “We aren’t going to be like all the other teens. We won’t split up from our friends after Lottery. Let’s promise that we’ll all meet up two weeks from today.”
There was a muttering of promises in reply, my own among them, but we all knew we were lying. We’d lived on the same corridor on Teen Level 50 for five years, and shared thousands of moments of laughter and arguments. Now the notoriously unpredictable verdict of Lottery would send some of us higher up the Hive and others further down, label some of us a success and others a failure.
Shanna had boundless confidence. She was sure she’d be one of the successes, even be among the elite who lived in the top ten accommodation levels of the Hive. The rest of us felt far more uncertain about what lay ahead. We wouldn’t want to meet up again if we were among the failures. I knew I couldn’t face the others if …
I fought back against the nightmare doubts. The verdicts of Lottery were unpredictable because of the sheer complexity of the automated decision process, but there was logic behind them. Everyone said I was bright and articulate, and I’d followed all the advice about spending my time on Teen Level doing preparation work. The Level 99 Sewage Technician, butt of all the jokes, couldn’t happen to me. Please, not to me.
“Good luck,” said Forge. “I hope all of you will be high up.”
This time the response was wholehearted. “High up, everyone!” we yelled in unison.
There was a second of silence, and then twin chiming sounds as the doors of the two nearest lifts opened. More groups of teens were arriving, and the watching hasties were waving at us to signal that we couldn’t linger here any longer. Forge put on the Halloween mask that transformed his handsome face into something demonic. Everyone else put on the joyful masks of Carnival, and followed him across to the moving stairs in the middle of the shopping area.
We jumped onto one of the handrails of the downway. Forge first, then Shanna, and then the rest of us in turn. Riding the handrail was the classic act of teen rebellion. The hasties usually intervened to stop it, telling us to travel sensibly and safely on the moving stairs instead.
They wouldn’t intervene today. This was our last day as teens, and Hive tradition gave us the right to one last act of rebellion, starting to ride the handrail on Level 1 itself and continuing on down as deep into the Hive as we could.
I caught a glimpse of us in the mirrored wall beside me. A proud line of twenty-two masked figures, spectacular in our glittering costumes. As the handrail plunged down from the Level 1 shopping area to the one on Level 2, Forge raised his right hand and shouted the ritual words.
“Ride the Hive!”
“Ride the Hive!” We yelled the words back to him.
The shoppers turned their heads to watch us go by, applauded, and called their good wishes to us. “High up to you.”
“Ride the Hive!” We yelled the words each time the moving stairs went down to the next level. We’d never be together again. We’d never be the same people again. Lottery would do more than assess our abilities, optimize our possible professions to give us the one most suitable for us and useful to the Hive, and allocate us our level. It would imprint our minds with all the information needed to do our assigned work.
All our lives we’d known and accepted our minds would be imprinted during Lottery. We’d discussed it dozens of times, eagerly looking forward to being given a wealth of knowledge. Over the last few weeks, the tone of those discussions had changed from joyful anticipation to nervous whispers about exactly what imprinting would do to our minds.
Now Lottery was upon us and we were terrified. The assessment stage lasted between three and five days. By this time next week, we’d all be imprinted and beginning our new adult lives. We’d no idea if we’d be high or low level. We didn’t know what profession we’d be given. We weren’t even sure that we’d be the same people after our minds were imprinted. We were facing the black unknown, and we screamed defiance to block out the fear.
I was fifth in line when we started on Level 1. Riding the rail was hard, so two of us had fallen before we even reached Level 5. As the overhead signs told us that we’d hit Level 18, I counted the figures reflected in the mirrored walls. We were down to fifteen now, and I was third in line. The ones who fell down from the handrail onto the moving stairs didn’t climb back on the handrail again. Custom decreed that the last ride was over when you fell.
I focused my eyes on the two figures still ahead of me. Tall, heavily muscled Forge, his black hair matching his red and black costume. Slender Shanna behind him, her fair hair cascading down the back of her silver dress. She was perfectly poised and elegant, looking as if she could ride the handrail forever, but then her foot slipped as the rail made the bend to reach Level 46.
Shanna flailed her arms, teetered wildly, and tumbled down onto the moving stairs next to her. She’d barely got time to stand up before the downway reached the Level 46 shopping area, where she stepped off and waved at the rest of us. I heard her final cry come from behind me.
“Go Forge! Go Amber! Ride the Hive!”
I daren’t look back as she called my name, but I held up my arm in salute and farewell, and blinked back tears from behind the fake smile of my Carnival mask. Shanna had been my best friend for all my years on Teen Level. I’d lived in her shadow, been alternately grateful to her for being my friend and jealous of her self-confidence, and now I’d never see her again.
There was a faint chance that one of my old friends would come out of Lottery as the same level as me and we could stay in touch, but I knew it wouldn’t be Shanna. She was bound to be rated far higher level than someone as ordinary as me.
I concentrated on the red of Forge’s shirt ahead of me, and the difficult job of keeping my balance as the rail flattened out, turned, and dived down again at each level change. We were below Level 60 now, I was shaking with the effort of the ride, and my legs stung from scratches as my silver sequinned skirt blew around them.
We were still descending through shopping areas, because all the accommodation levels of the Hive had their shops, but they were plainer here, selling more functional goods. There were no fancy mirrored walls now, but I caught a reflection of us in some glass on Level 63, and saw there were only four of us left. By Level 70, there was no one behind me, and at Level 72 Forge fell and I was left alone.
I kept riding the rail on down, all the way to Level 100 itself. There were no shops or people there, just dusty pipes to salute my triumph as I jumped to the ground, but I’d ridden the Hive.
I only felt the briefest moment of celebration before depression hit me. I’d ridden the Hive, I’d screamed defiance, but it hadn’t changed anything. Tomorrow morning, I would enter Lottery, because there was nowhere else I could go and nothing else I could do. There were one hundred and six other Hive cities in the world, but I wouldn’t have the right to ask to move to one of them until after I’d been through Lottery.
Even if I could ask for a Hive transfer right now, I wasn’t courageous enough, or foolish enough, to take that leap into a darkened lift shaft. I’d no idea what life was like in other Hives. Our Hive news sometimes mentioned their names, but never gave any details about them. The occasional malcontent claimed other Hives were far more luxurious plac
es to live than ours, but they obviously hadn’t had enough courage in their convictions to apply to move.
Moving Hive wouldn’t help me anyway. My problem wasn’t with my Hive, but with suffering the suspense of waiting helplessly while my profession, my level, my whole future life was decided for me. Every Hive would have its own equivalent of Lottery, and it was better to face it here than in an alien place.
I yanked off my mask, turned round, and stepped onto the upway. I stood there, weary and defeated, letting it carry me back towards my sliver of a room on Teen Level 50. It would have been much faster to take a lift, but it somehow seemed appropriate to go back the same way that I’d arrived.
I was on Level 56 when I heard the chanting ahead of me that warned a telepath was nearby. I was looking forward to changing out of the Carnival outfit that had been chosen by Shanna, and was far too spectacular and revealing for someone like me. I was thinking about packing my bag to take to Lottery. I was planning to have an early night so I’d be well rested tomorrow. There was nothing in my head that was incriminating, but I joined in the chanting just the same.
“Two ones are two.”
“Two twos are four.”
“Two threes are six.”
The upway reached Level 55, and the people in the shopping area here were shouting it.
“Two fours are eight.”
“Two fives are ten.”
“Two sixes are twelve.”
I saw the crowd of shoppers move aside to let through a figure dressed in grey and wearing a matching grey mask. That was the telepath, the nosy, with their escort of four blue-clad hasties following behind to guard him or her.