The Hive would have the same relentless need to march as the army ant. And it would only care about its own needs, its own gratification. Anything outside of itself was for it to do with as it pleased. The hallmark of psychopathy.
In normals the words chair and torture would light up different areas of the brain; they were seen as being qualitatively distinct. But not to psychopaths. Similarly, to normal sentient species, sentient life and nonsentient life would be seen as being distinct. But not to a hive-mind.
“It seems to me that the Hive isn’t just psychopathic,” said Erin. “It’s the ultimate psychopath. The ultimate, violent, rampaging psychopath.”
“Right,” said Fermi. “Although none of the Seventeen had any concept of this condition, being the sheep that we are.”
“It doesn’t bother you to call yourself sheep?” said Erin.
“No. Maybe that’s what makes us sheep. We know that many humans would be irate if they were called this. But we know who we are. In the spectrum of societies, this is a fair analogy. And as I’ve said, wolves tear themselves to pieces before they become space-faring. Sheep don’t.”
Erin nodded. “Go on,” she said.
“Given all that we knew,” continued Fermi, “we resigned ourselves to our fate when the Hive arrived. We would be quickly exterminated.” His demeanor brightened. “But then we discovered you. It was a miracle. You fit the exact scenario we were long hoping for. We wanted to save a species like you from itself, and groom you to lead us. So we wouldn’t go extinct after millions of years of stagnation. But now this imperative had become far more urgent. So the four of us were chosen for the most important mission undertaken in the history of the Seventeen. To protect you so you could lead us against the Hive when they arrived. So we might have a chance of survival.”
Erin shook her head. “But our science and technology are thousands of years behind yours. And it sounds as though you’re thousands of years behind the Hive. I’m afraid we’ll be just as helpless as you are. We might be wolves, but wolves going up against tanks become just as dead as sheep.”
“No,” said the alien firmly. “The progress you’ve made just since your first signals reached us is ridiculous. Breathtaking. Your first radio broadcasts took place only about a hundred years ago, using vacuum tubes, and in a cosmological blink you’ve managed relativity, quantum mechanics, genetic engineering, cell phones, supersonic jets, and baby steps toward quantum computers. We were the fastest of the Seventeen to climb the technology ladder, and it took us four thousand years to make the progress you’ve made in a hundred. And your progress is accelerating. You have an insatiable curiosity. An endless drive. An itch you can never scratch. If you have a billion dollars you want a billion more. You’re never satisfied. If we can help you through this critical period, you may well be a threat even to the Hive. Even if you only had a thousand years to prepare instead of thirty-two thousand.”
There was silence in the room while Erin considered this. So the mission these four Wraps had been sent on had profound implications, not only for the future of their individual race, but for the future of the entire galaxy.
“So how were the four of you chosen to come here?” she asked Fermi. “You must have been pretty special.”
Fermi smiled. “Yes, but ironically, in a way that made us stand out in a negative way on Suran. After extensive testing, we four were found to be the most aggressive, competitive, and driven members of our species. The least sheep-like among the sheep. We’re still far to the left of the most pacifistic vegan on Earth, but we were rare individuals who might be able to handle the kind of onslaught of brutality we were sure to find here.”
Erin couldn’t help but smile. “No kidding?”
“No kidding,” repeated Fermi.
“Getting back on topic,” said Steve Fuller, “the Wraps only shared this information about the Hive with us recently. They didn’t want to spring such a wild story until they had earned our trust. And they have. The world will never know just how critical their contributions have been. But once they did disclose this situation, we began putting our minds to the best strategic steps to take going forward. A sheep, and even a sheep’s computer, can’t possibly strategize like a wolf.” Fuller raised his eyebrows. “This is where you enter the picture.”
“I have to say that I haven’t connected the dots to me yet at all.”
“We decided we had to accelerate the process,” said Fuller. “Add more humans to the team. Brainstorm. Analyze the enemy, starting now. The Wraps are nervous about giving us technology, so we don’t play with fire and burn ourselves.”
“We probably would, you know,” said Erin. “Not wise to give a loaded gun to the crazed teenage version of your future savior.”
“Regardless of whether it’s wise or not,” replied Fuller, “even without their technology, we can find better ways to accelerate our own development. My view is that if everyone knew the history of the galaxy and the Seventeen, and the leadership role we will be expected to play in this galactic community, along with the threat from the Hive in thirty-two thousand years, humanity would pull together. At least better than we are now.” He sighed. “But that’s a debate for another time. For now, we’re in a position to help the Seventeen understand the coming enemy. Their computer contains all the intel ever gathered on the Hive. When we realized that it behaved in many ways like the rare, Hannibal Lecter–type psychopathic killer, it occurred to us that an expert on psychopathy might come in handy.”
Of course, thought Erin. How could she have missed it?
“I saw the Wall Street Journal piece and did some background checks,” continued Fuller. “You were just what we were looking for. Brilliant. Single-minded in your goal of understanding psychopathy. Young. And your idea of finding remote ways to detect psychopathy could be helpful in what we’re trying to do to stop the most dangerous people here on Earth.”
“At last, your recruiting call begins to make sense,” noted Erin.
“The more I learned about you, the more perfect I thought you were for this job. I saw you as forming the nucleus of a team that would try to get inside the heads of our enemy. At least better than the Seventeen possibly could. Analyze everything known about Hive behavior.” He paused. “The larger team we plan to build will have exobiologists, of course. But we hoped you would be willing to lead a team of what we expect to call exopsychologists.”
Erin had to admit such a role sounded amazing. Challenging and important. Not as much fun as going into a prison every day …
“And as I mentioned,” continued Fuller. “I’m arguing that we should consider the possible effects of full disclosure to the world. Study if this is something we should do in five or ten years. So we would want top psychologists and psychiatrists to predict how people would handle learning of this. Would it bring our species closer together? Create widespread panic? Would this knowledge increase our resolve? Even though the enemy won’t be on the playing field for thirty thousand years?” He stared at Erin. “And I wanted you to be a part of this as well.”
Erin nodded. “It all suddenly makes sense. But to even begin to recruit me for this effort, you knew I needed to meet a Wrap. So I would believe what you told me. So you decided to fly me to your headquarters to initiate me.”
“Exactly. And we continued to vet you. Gather intel on you. We monitored your phone.” Fuller shook his head. “Unfortunately, I didn’t get the chance to listen to the recordings of your conversations until the day after I had set up the meeting with you. But you can’t even begin to imagine how startled I was when I did play the recordings and I heard Drake’s voice on the line.”