They had then given me a false memory of being saved by Nick a second time, so I would trust him that much more.
Nick and all of his comrades had been brainwashed also, although in a much less invasive fashion than I had been. They had first been influenced in their sleep, and then convinced of the Swarm’s lies by the same avalanche of compelling fake information I had reviewed. They truly believed there was a race they called the Benefactors, one who had generously provided them with tech—and a purpose. They had no idea they were really working with the Swarm.
Nick had told me that Brad was a good man, unknowingly serving the will of an evil, devious race. But it was just the opposite.
Nick had no idea that the Michelle encounter had been staged, actually believing she had been working for a Federation faction and that he really had saved my life. The captain was also told I had been successfully hypnotized to believe Tessa had tried to kill me on the island and that he had stopped her. Also that I had been injured, had taken a ride in one of their zip-craft, and had healed courtesy of nanites.
If he hadn’t been conditioned to trust the Benefactors implicitly, he would have asked how such elaborate hypnotism was possible, but he hadn’t. He had only been told that this had been done to help him recruit me to their noble purpose, and that he should play along once I awoke.
The Swarm’s plan had worked to perfection, leading me to think the very worst about the Zetas and making me vulnerable to further Swarm manipulations. So without knowing it, I had dutifully invited them in, the outcome they had been working toward with such single-minded focus. Only my feelings for Tessa had prevented me from going down the same road as the commander.
The Swarm had gone to the trouble of taking full control of Kussmann only recently, needing him to do and say things that couldn’t help but awaken him to the truth of their intentions, no matter how deeply conditioned he had become.
Prior to that he had been an unwitting prisoner in his own mind, so far gone he was easily fooled for over twenty years into thinking he was calling his own shots. So far gone that after the initial penetration, he could be managed with very little effort.
It was supposed to be the same with me. It was much better for the Swarm if I didn’t realize I was being controlled, which would greatly diminish the effort they’d need to expend.
The Swarm had read my mind after I was first knocked out on the island, and were shocked to learn of the presence of nanites, as their intel findings had indicated this wouldn’t be the case. Still, their AI had immediately taken this into account, using all of my memories to devise an implantable scene that would allow the Swarm to accomplish their goals.
They had also dramatically increased the mental resources they would use to control me, knowing the nanites would offer resistance.
But they had made a critical error. They had severely underestimated nanite capabilities, having had no experience with similar technology. They had no use for such augmentations, believing they were perfect already. They’d never think of using advanced technology to save or enhance mere drones, any more than we’d go to heroic efforts to prevent skin cells from flaking off our bodies, or immune cells from sacrificing themselves for the cause.
All of this knowledge had become a part of me, and I was able to absorb it with no noticeable pause. Still, it was time for me to resume my conversation with the enemy.
“My mind is presumably in an unconscious state at the moment,” I said to the Swarm. Well, I wasn’t really saying it, as I had no access to a mouth, but that’s how it seemed. “So how are either of us capable of having this conversation?”
“Our hope was that you could remain at the helm, never becoming aware that we were pulling strings in the background. But when you managed to overcome our wishes and yank the gun away, knocking yourself out in the process, we realized we needed to take total control. So we pushed your entire consciousness behind a quantum partition in your unconscious mind.
“As for us, our presence in your brain doesn’t rely on your mental wiring. The fact that you’re asleep doesn’t affect our conscious awareness at all. It does, unfortunately, still affect the connection between your mind and body, temporarily severing the strings we need for control. Still, this has no effect on us, the puppeteers. Once the strings are reconnected, we’ll have full control of your actions.”
I searched for additional background but drew a blank. Apparently, this time the nanites hadn’t managed to provide any supplemental information.
“So the plan that Nick laid out for me was your idea,” I said. “Did you really go to all this trouble just to hack a Federation computer?”
“There’s much more to it than that,” replied the Swarm, its mental voice thundering as always. “The depth of our intelligence, and thus our calculations, are far beyond the imaginings of such limited beings as yourselves. We can direct an intellect composed of billions or even trillions of separate conscious minds at once, dwarfing your puny individual intelligences. You’re only experiencing an infinitesimal fraction of our mental power, as we’re having to project ourselves out over a thousand trillion miles. You can’t hope to fathom our true immensity, no more so than an amoeba can fathom you. You’re simply a bacterial infection we need to scrub clean.”
“And yet you’re using nearly a third of your mental capacity just to control me.”
“Only because of the vast distances involved, as we just stated. And only until you’re no longer useful, which will be a mere instant in the cosmological scheme of things.”
“Pretend all you want, but I know better. The fact that you’re worried enough about us to go to these lengths tells me you aren’t nearly as sure of yourself as you claim.”
“We’re going to these lengths to be efficient, that’s all. Your species will be destroyed regardless. As we have destroyed all life in our path for uncountable ages.”