Taming the Hive Mind (Leviathan)

"Taming the Hive Mind" is the fourth episode of the third season of Leviathan: Distant Stars and the twenty-seventh episode in total.

## Summary

### Shopping on Duranga

On Duranga, Rachel gets a new armor. She gets a 15 AC armor for G300, not a great deal. She also gets a false tooth (a crown) with poison. Back on the Bat'leth, she evades questions she doesn't like and stuff starts flying around her. She also heals Conrad for as long as necessary.

Theea, who goes by Neea there, goes out heavily disguised.

Kika needs a new Toolie. In a scene that involves Kika playing a child and Theea her adoptive mother, Kika gets a plastic screwdriver from a store owner and is kept away from the real tools, Kika does a lot of flailing, thus smacking Thea in the face for 2 damage. Theea, in turn, knocks the tools from the counter and steals a Toolie 3 in the ensuing chaos. Beside that, Theea practices throwing Kika.

The fake account ^D4T3 helped set up allows them to acquire a lifeboat for the Bat'leth. With it, the ship has enough escape pods.

### Talks

Theea gets Hexie's room. It had already been cleaned up to host slaves, only something glittery remains from its former occupant.

Kika uses the pretence that she needs him as a ladder to have a conversation with Conrad about his behavior on Maera: they are all happy he is back, he underestimated what they could do and acted selfishly because *Some of us weren't ready for you to die* but he did save them physically. Kika also gives him a course on human physiology, hormones and pheromones, and advice on his relationship with Theea: Conrad thanks her for the advice he doesn't think is good.

On his way to Theea's new room, Conrad is told by Oxana that they are all living inside of her. Oxana is trying to make him as uncomfortable as Kika just did.

The rooms are soundproofed, Conrad and Theea can have a private conversation after she lets him in. Conrad apologizes for Maera and justifies his choice there. Theea is angry for that, but also because she thinks he may do that again:

> *So, you just thought 'Hey, I don't need to live, I'll just do this really great thing'; that's what was going through your brain? Not, oh, self-survival. Maybe nobody else in the world is gonna care if I live or die, so I should maybe care about that every once in a while.*
>
>

The dialogue continues, as Conrad explains what it's like to grow up in the military, that

> *We're all just pawns in this, on this chessboard.*
>
>

> Theea: *So, why play the game?*
>
>

> Conrad: *Because I care about the other pawns.*
>
>

> Theea: *You're just telling me, like, 'I'm doing this because that's the way I was taught. [...] There are a lot of really good people that die that way, that just are gone forever and always and if that's, you know, what you're gonna do, you live your life or die your life [...] but I'm gonna keep trying to live'.*
>
>

 Conrad the confirms Theea's suspicion that he *would die in a second if that's what it took to save the galaxy from these creatures*; he *would die a hundred times over.*
After Xe'anna broadcasts a message about getting ready to depart, Theea adds:

> *I think at some point you gotta also think for yourself, you know, you gotta look out for yourself.*
>
>

And:

> *I don't really understand you, but on some weird level I'm glad you're back and not dead, even if honestly that's what you deserve after pulling a stunt like that.*
>
>

Conrad reveals that he didn't have an easy month, that he was not sure they would ever be reunited, and that he has sent a dozen messages in total, not just the one they got on the Andartan ship.

Theea apologizes after getting defensive one last time; Conrad accepts her offer to sit down and ... Lauren fades to black.

### Rachel's message

After making sure that Conrad is no longer in Theea's room, Rachel goes knock on Theea's door: could Theea send a delayed message for her, but wait after until they leave? Yes, she could, for a price: *Come on, you gotta know by now.* And yes, Rachel is fine, *just the same way Theea is always fine.* That's when Theea remembers Rachel gave her a laser pistol she had no use for.

### The train set from Maera

Conrad asks Kika about his stuff, which leads to a discussion about what he calls a pretty standard-dimensioned Copulation Cube, and to Conrad retrieving a G2 model train set he had bought on Maera for Kika, because *I had seen her eye it*. Kika enthusiastically puts all the pieces in a bag of Conrad's she calls *My train bag*. At this time, Conrad is *vital, viral and able and very uncomfortable*, and ready to pilot the Bat'leth to their destination.

### An unexpected message

Before they leave, they receive a recording from the surface: Lt. Wendy Santiago has a message for Xe'anna, who must be mourning Conrad. The lieutenant congratulates them for their viral transmission, something unseen since the Edge Wars, which has made motions and waves in ICA, so that ICA is split over sending a force against the Raze or withdrawing. Lt. Santiago believes it is not good for ICA, she will support Xe'anna if she can get anything to her.

Theea is upset by Santiago's change of mind toward them, because she *was really looking forward to tearing her apart*, but realizes she'll have time to do it after saving the universe. Once again, Conrad defends his ICA rival in the face of Theea's wrath.

### A new crew member, confirmed

When Conrad asks if they are going to drop Rachel, who has been crying and drinking and singing really badly since her return from Duranga, somewhere, Theea answers that:

> *She basically took over my room and she's definitely staying with us for a little while. She has a good head on her shoulders but she's really bossy, so watch out for that*.
>
>

Kika discusses the purring engines with Oxana. Their conversation takes a weird turn when Kika rolls her new train set over a pipe, Oxana wonders why Kika put sensors there and Oxana asks that Kika remove the sensors if she continues riding a train on her.

### Back on Tsarin

Nothing else happens until they are back on Tsarin and Ary calls a group meeting. Ary is not optimistic about what could be a one-way trip but will placate the others and say, using the translator they built, what they would like to hear. That's the moment Conrad chooses to formally introduce himself to Rachel by reminding her that *You shot me*, not to blame her but to help her place him.

Ary proceeds to explain that Tsarin will need to refuel, that is extract tritium (3H) from nebulas, en route to the lab where Tsarin was created and other research to stop the Raze was conducted, in the Pramissan sector; and that they will use the map they got on the Raze ship.

### The Hive Mind

Conrad congratulates Rachel for choosing to not surrender her individuality to *the hive mind*. This causes stir among the group, Ary is so upset she storms out: Conrad has insulted her entire existence in one sentence. The discussion continues; Conrad insists they wouldn't know it if they had been subjugated by this force; Kika likens him to her problematic son; Rachel counters that if Theea's free will had been compromised she wouldn't be so difficult; Theea is not happy. Rachel presses on: *How much of you is the you you were yesterday? How much of you will be left tomorrow?;* to which Kika answers: *If you were dead, zero*.

Conrad *always knew who I was before I underwent this process*. In response, Xe'anna blurts out: *Kenny!*

Rachel elaborates on her choice; due to her long history with psionics, *I didn't wish to have anyone in my head, not even them.* She asks whether Conrad could turn *it* off, which brings attention first to his arm and the mark that looks like the KFC logo on his shoulder, then to the arm the spirates gave him and Conrad's lack of control on it.

Back to the purple areas on Conrad's body: they extend beyond his arm, so that removing his affected arm would not be enough. Anyway, all Conrad would have to do to sever his bound with Tsarin is to stay far enough for long enough. Conrad did stay away for some time, but as he was subjugated by other telepathic effects at the time, he may not have noticed the deterioration of his bond.

Kika proposes to fix Conrad's spirate arm. She won't paint it because *It's a work of art, it's already signed.*

### Rachel's garden

Rachel will talk to Ary, who respects her choice regarding the bond, to get reacclimatized with Tsarin when she feels sick again. To supplement the food they brought with them, Rachel finds an unused section on Tsarin where she can try her hand and gardening. She manages to grow mushrooms after finding that there are no seeds to salvage from food such as powdered Second Fruit. The "garden" area, which was meant for use by the larger crew Tsarin never had, and remained dark for lack of use, progressively comes online and starts responding to Rachel's "healing". Rachel justifies her new occupation thus: you can only shoot things so much before you need to recharge batteries ... the gun's batteries.

Meanwhile, Kika starts on her secret project in the hallway of the Bat'leth she strips poles off, rearranges them to create a frame at the end nearest Engineering.

Kika doesn't however abandon her other project: fixing Conrad's spirate arm. She is wholly unqualified to work on the portions of that piece of cyberware that connect with organic material, but she can find its ISBN and look it up in the Bat'leth's internal database, the only one she can access while in thread space. She has little success, she has no idea what the arm is made from, it is not constructed like a standard piece of machinery. So much for Kika's plan to fix (read: remove) this arm.

Conrad apologizes to Ary about his *hive mind* comment. They have a long conversation about psionics, free will and connection. For Ary, it comes down to this:

> *Being part of a crew is an honor for my people. Not [...] all of us are chosen. Being a Voice is even more so. Very, very few of us can even be one. We are not a hive mind; the ship doesn't subjugate you to its will. That is what the Hollow do; that is what the Hollow are. The Raze will take you and destroy every ounce of who you are and I watched my entire people destroyed by that. So, when you call me a hive mind, that's what you have just called me.*
>
>

She thanks him for the apology nonetheless.

It will take days for Ary to accept Conrad's offer to hep her pilot the ship. In the meantime, Rachel shows Ary a mushroom she grew on Tsarin: *Look!* Ary is excited, though that that portion of the ship was dead. The mushroom is even edible. This leads to a discussion of the various creatures living on Tsarin and performing various functions, such as the skittering *living Roombas* that do the cleaning ... *blah blah blah!*

### Slurpee

Conrad sits down near the helm and starts "befriending" one of the cleaners with lots of petting and meat-o-stik'ko giving, and talking. This little *Slurpee* jut does its job and slurps away all the thrash Conrad throws at it, like a Roomba following a trail of dirt. Conrad justifies his behavior to Theea, as readjusting after a rough time. When he doubts that she is fine herself, she replies: *You got a friend now. That's cool. That's great, that's good*. Also, he's got a big heart and that's gonna get him killed. Kika, in contrast, *is not gonna try to kill herself ... often*.

Conrad thinks Theea is still mad at him, starts talking about their relationship:

> *You were there for me and that meant a lot [...] What we had probably wasn't the heallthiest relationship but I'm grateful that you were there for me.*
>
>

> Theea: *I've been there, so I get it. Kika is my family-ish now.*
>
>

> Conrad: *All that time, we never really talked at all.*
>
>

> Theea: *Wasn't really the point ... other stuff to do*.
>
>

And when Conrad offers to be her friend, she adds:

> *Look, you ... you're gonna be who you are and I get that and I'm here if you ever wanna do something casual**, but I'm not gonna lose ...*
>
>

Conrad feels he was using her; Theea retorts *I* *was using you*; Conrad concedes that they were using each other.

### The dimensional spike

This is when Tsarin abruptly falls out of thread space with a deep rumble, about one week into the first leg of their journey, before any scheduled refuelling stop. After they've all recovered from their surprise and Rachel has got up from the mossy mushrooms into which she landed face first, they make their way to the bridge with only a small amount of bioluminescence left to guide them and join a shaken Ary: *We were thrown out. There was some sort of dimensional spike.* Conrad, who is still in the process of having a chemical shower from Slurpee whom he's put on his shoulder, books it to a console to get a diagnostic.

Ary proceeds to explain that *our life-support system has gone down, it's going haywire.* Tsarin, whose own life-support system is separate from the crew's, was hurt and is now confused. They should all be OK if they can get life-support back online but *unfortunately that seems to be somewhat randomizing the activation of [...] purge protocols*, which have to be convinced the crew aren't foreign entities that need to be purged.

While Conrad tries to establish something akin to eye contact with eyeless Slurpee and vows *I'll protect you*, Theea worries that Slurpee may be one of the organisms that could turn aggressive toward organic matter. Ary reassures her but fails to convince Conrad there is no way he can ever train Slurpee.

### Splitting the party to fix Tsarin

Ary detected two damaged areas that need repairs. She also points out they may require their vacsuits. Kika and Rachel can help fix or heal them, each in their own way. Rachel soon starts power-walking toward the area that's further inward and closer to her hydroponic garden, and Conrad follows her, because their may be evil versions of Slurpee out there: he dubs them Burpees. That's when Conrad leaves Slurpee in Ary's care. Of course she will take care of it, she says before setting it down.

Meanwhile, Theea says she's *gonna take care of Kika*.

Rachel and Conrad find themselves blocked by a sphincter-like door Rachel massages open but can't prevent from shutting behind them.

On *Mechanical Team*, Theea has a lot to tell Kika about Slurpee and piña-colada-flavored meat-o-stik'kos. The two are blocked by a door; choose to go further down through small tunnels and are blocked by something in the way. After they fail to catch it with a claw Theea extends from her hand, Kika makes herself into a missile and has Theea push her down, which, after a failed roll, turns into a kick in Kika's face, that is a boot on her snout.

Kika lands one and a half level below on whatever tentacle-y thing it was that was below her. It's one of the critters that were repairing these tunnels. It was damaged even before Kika squashed. It moves a little, *twitches and then curls up on top of Kika, like bugs when they're a little dead.*

Theea frantically shimmies down, very worried about Kika:

> *Don't die! If you fucking die before I get there, I will bring you back to life and kill you myself*.
>
>

She doesn't land on Kika and soon knives the totally harmless, very dead critter away from Kika, who then smears her bloody nose on her wing in front of the guilty-looking Theea.

### Danger!

With Rachel and Conrad trapped between two doors in a corridors that starts getting warmer and Kika and Rachel hearing the loud, deep rumble of the docking bay doors opening, Ary lets out a brief warning:

> *Uh oh, I think they've activated.*
>
>

## Notes

1. ↑ Pronounced Toolie *Trois*, at the GM's insistence. *NftE*: Which makes this Frenchman happy.
2. ↑ Chapter 1 of Kika's biology book is: *Your new companion is human, what does that mean for you?*
3. ↑ Played by Lauren.
4. ↑ And, yes, the GM made it official that ICA has regimental copulation cubes. *NftE*: Right, Lauren?
5. ↑ Here, Bluejay helpfully clarifies for the audience: *Sex, she means sex*.
6. ↑ The s-word prompted a flurry of comments, making at least one person on set visibly uncomfortable. Dan exercised a lot of restraint; Bluejay did not.
To defuse the situation, Lauren explained that: *Your iris is a sphincter it is a ring of muscle that expands and contracts, that's all it is.*
7. ↑ That was a *success with complication* after a failed roll.
8. ↑ Pronounced pina-colada.