The hivemind is conquering for me?

”Coming! I’m coming!”

I yelled out loud and began running down the stairs. I was in the middle of showering with Janine and Orchid, who had decided to participate in todays ritual as I wasn’t using scented soaps, and then, someone began banging at the front door.

Opening the door, a man was standing there wearing military garb. His eyes glanced across my body for a moment, as he wasn’t expecting a naked body, before his long years of uncomfortable communal shower instincts took over and he looked up.

”Apollo Lambdason?”

”Yes? Can I help you?” I asked, leaning against the frame of my door. Some neighbours were walking past and I gave them a quick wave for their nosiness.

”Sir, I have come to inform you that the College has fast tracked the equipment you asked for. For your lab and it has arrived. I have been instructed to inform you the equipment is there and a group of students have offered their services in helping setting up the lab.”

Jubilance! Spiffing! Top notch! What news to be greeted with in the morning! The day after we arrived, I visited the lab and it was bare empty, just basic science appliances. Nothing useful for my work.

Now, I couldn’t use hive equipment. It was too fleshy and clearly alien for it to be in a human lab. So I had to improvise, adapt and overcome the obstacles that came with foreign tech, but after reading through a large catalogue of expensive science doohickies and gizmos, I had managed to supply a basic laboratory.

I couldn’t do anything super outlandish there, like gene splicing. It took too much computing and I would need an incredible amount of sexy processing power for that. So unless the humans had a hivemind on standby that I could flirt my way into being my sugar momma, I had to go with the basics. Which for my current projects were fine.

”Sweet, let’s go buddy!” I said and walked outside, only for the guy to shout. ”Wait!” Causing me to frown. ”Dude, right in my ear. At least keep the pitch down if you are going to scream like that.”

The guy gulped before pointing down. ”Sir, are you forgetting something?” I cocked my head to the side before looking down in confusion. ”Oh.” I stated upon realising my body was slick with water and very clearly exposed.

Looking around, I realised I had attracted a group from the pedestrians coming and going and a small group had surrounded a Sepiida that had seemed to fall unconscious with a nosebleed.

I thanked my lucky stars that this place was for adult education and would likely only get a smack on the wrists if someone reported me for public indecency and stated. ”My bad, I’ll be there in five... Better make it ten minutes, if I leave those girls in the shower without reciprocating the wash, it would leave me feeling bad.” I then turned around and shut the door.

The man who had just had to endure that closed his eyes trying to recover from what just happened before shaking his head. ”Great, now I’ve got penis on the brain...” He accidentally said out loud, causing some of the nearby shameless gawkers to give him a peculiar look before he walked away.

...

Twenty minutes later, I was fully dressed with my space wizards robes equipped and had arrived at the restricted building that my lab resided inside. Standing outside the entrance of the building were two armed figures who gave me the shivers.

They were powerful Psionically as a start, but that wasn’t the issue. It was what they were wearing. The armour and weaponry they had, while not Anti Psionic, still gave me a bad feeling, an itch in the back of my mind telling me something was not quite right with them and to be careful.

One of them had a clipboard wrapped around their neck and upon my approach checked the board. He then nodded to his partner and opened the door after typing in an extremely long security code.

Once I was let inside, I gave a quick thank you nod to the guards and walked down a long white hallway. Clearly sterile, but all I could think about was how annoying cleaning the place must be.

Before turning left at the end of the hallway, the entrance to my lab, I heard a screaming altercation coming from within. ’This can’t be good.’ I mused before making my way inside.

Upon entering, I immediately got a sense of Deja-vu. A small crowd had formed around Yeller A and Yeller B. The same yellers from the line while waiting for enrolment. I was going to speak up and address them all, as this was my lab, but my eyes caught on to all the goodies in their boxes!

’I should probably get a start on those tanks. Once I fill them up with fluids, they are going to be a bitch to move around.’

...

Meanwhile

”Althea, will you just listen to me for fuck sake!” Jason yelled. He was an attractive young man in his early twenties with pure white, shaggy hair and piercing blue eyes. His patience had run thin. He had been trying to talk with Althea since enrolment, but the woman was just too hostile at the moment.

”No! He was your best friend, you fuck! And your family poisoned him! You deserve to die! Just die already! DIE!” Althea screamed in his face, tears running down her cheeks. She couldn’t bear to look at her former friend. All she saw was the traitor who was the cause of her brother’s perpetual agony.

Jason’s power surged. All he saw was a gigantic red haze around Althea. Rage. Anger. Grief. Betrayal. He understood why she was feeling that way, but it wasn’t his fault! He just wanted to explain, but she was giving him no room to speak.

He looked around the room. Everyone who was present was giving him a grey aura. Mild disgust at what they heard. Uncomfortableness at all the shouting. However, he didn’t expect to see any yellow. Indifference. All the way in the back of the room.

He would try talking to her again later, it was pointless arguing with Althea when she was in this mood, he knew better. They have been friends since they were children, he knew her stubbornness was almost endless. ”Hey, buddy. We are supposed to wait for... oh?”

He recognised the face and the purple hair the moment he turned around. He was the one with all the scary women with the black murderous auras. As well as the blank, unreadable, Praetorian.

His calling out to the third party worked wonders as everyone turned their attention away from him and towards Apollo.

”Hey!” A blonde girl suddenly ran forward towards the man with a frowny face. ”We are supposed to wait for the lab leader to come in! We are not supposed to touch the stuff! *Gasp* Where is your visitor pass! If you are seen without it and the teacher notices you can get expelled. Is that what you want, Freshman? To be kicked out before classes start properly? And put that down before you somehow blow us all up! You don’t know what that is or does, do you?”

...

’What’s the deal with this chipmunk?’ I couldn’t help but think as the small blonde woman looked up at me, her cheeks puffed out in a scolding manner. ”Um. Inside of this is a large liquid tank that just stores fluid. It’s got nothing inside of it that can blow up? And as for a visitor badge? The guards didn’t give me one? They just let me in.”

The blonde woman then audibly guffawed. ”They just let you in? That is just insubordination if that’s the case. The only way they would let someone into this building without a visitors badge is if... Oh.”

The woman’s skin turned violently pink upon realising who she had just scolded...

Seeing her look of realisation was brilliant. Absolute cinema. I couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle.

”Ok Everyone. I am not good at public speaking so I will keep this to the point. My name is Apollo Lambdason, I am eighteen years old. The College has granted me dispensation to legally work on Genetic science. I am not sure how long for, but I plan to make the most of it. Now as I understand it, you eight are my lab assistants, so I take it you are all interested in this field and what it entails also?”

The group nodded their heads all together. ”Ok. good. Now before anything actually happens. I am going to make it known that I am not really a good teacher, but this field of science and Psionics is my bread and butter. So if you stick with me, I am sure you will learn something.”

The group stayed silent. Much better than the last time I spoke aloud with the awkward mumbling and the obvious excited clapping of the cultists.

”Great. I haven’t scared you off. Now, since we are such a small group, I am most likely going to remember your names. So let’s introduce ourselves to one another. You, chipmunk. You go first.”