Gemma trudged down the long, dimly lit streets leading to her apartment building, the exhaustion of that day’s work weighing heavily on her shoulders. She was just not equipped for dealing with entitled customers and their asinine questions, she had an art degree for god’s sake!

But she can’t dwell on it. Her friend, and roommate, Alicia keeps drilling into her that negative thoughts just lead to a feedback loop that’ll keep dragging you down. There must be some truth to it, Alicia always seems so cheerful no matter what issues she faces, or how arduous her secretive job was. What does she do anyway? Gemma knows she told her once or twice, but it always slipped her mind shortly after. Couldn’t be that glamorous if she could never remember.

As Gemma walked up to the front door of the building she took note of her surroundings, cars sparsely parked along the street, other nightcrawlers going about their business, but one sight caught her eye; two drones, standing perfectly at attention directly on the opposite pavement. They were so dimly lit Gemma could not make out any specific details on them, any markings or design choices that would indicate which company they represented. Now the sight of drones wasn’t that uncommon anymore, ever since the legislation passed 5 years ago allowing the proliferation and sale of such automatons, many companies have popped up offering them to fill all such roles normally unfit for a human. But there was something about these two. It didn’t seem like they were waiting, more like… watching. But what?

A chill ran down Gemma’s spine as she drew her gaze away and slinked into the warm embrace of the lobby. Whatever business those two drones had she was sure it was no concern of hers. They were simple beings after all, following their orders and not much else. Gemma strode down the hall towards the elevator, picking up pace now that she was on the home stretch. She passed various advertisements for local small businesses adorning the wall, but interspersed between these were flyers for the various drone production companies looking for new recruits. It must be a very lucrative business as every there seemed to be more and more carefully placed every day. From HEX Corp to Cybus Inc to The Cluster. But there was a new one, a company Gemma hadn’t heard of before; Unity Industries. ‘Building the communities of tomorrow,’ read the tagline underneath, silhouettes of what must be their drone models behind the glossy text. As Gemma stepped into the vacant elevator she made a mental note to search for them and what they offer up later, maybe something that could finally make the stress of her job go away.

As the elevator slowly rose to her floor Gemma wondered how she would unwind tonight. Maybe she could get Alicia to play that meditation music again for her. The one that left her calm, stress free, empty, blank, obe-

DING!

Gemma was snapped back to reality as the doors opened to her floor. She never spaced out like that, today must have been harder on her than she realised. She stepped out into the hallway and dragged herself down the length to her shared apartment, hands fishing through her satchel bag in search of her keys. Gemma pulled them out as she stood in front of the plain door, slotting it in, turning until she heard the click and gently pushing inwards, only to be stopped suddenly by the security chain.

'Alicia must have put it on at some point without realising she was still out,' Gemma thought. But as she studied the troublesome obstacle between her and relaxation, Gemma noticed how dark the apartment was, and weirdly vibrant colours dancing along what she could see of the inner wall.

“Hey!” Gemma gently called out between the crack. “You've locked me out hun! Could you come let me in please? My feet are killing and I just want to veg out by this point.”

The colours on the wall disappeared, and after a moment Gemma heard Alicia's response.

“Apologies. One moment and I will be there,” came the reply, but something felt off. Alicia sounded muffled, as if in another room, but that couldn't be. She must have been in the main room to turn off whatever was casting those dancing lights. And she didn't sound as cheery as she normally does, as if the love of life had been drained from her completely. Gemma pushed the thought from her mind, Alicia must have had an equally, if rare for her, hard day at work and was just running on auto pilot. She closed the door again and stepped back, waiting patiently.

It was more than just a moment however, closer to a few minutes before Alicia opened the door, wrapped up in her floor length dressing gown and wearing her usual cheery smile on her face framed by her messy golden locks. But there was something about her eyes. Sure they were focussed on Gemma, but is was like they were looking through her, acknowledging she was there but not necessarily caring that she was.

“Oh hey hun,” Alicia started with an apologetic tone, “sorry I thought you were back already, didn't mean to leave you in the cold.” She stood aside to let Gemma in, the apartment now illuminated like normal.

“Don’t worry it's okay. I'm just glad to be back so I can finally sit down.” Gemma walked over the threshold, heading straight for the couch and dropping herself in the centre, directly opposite the flat screen that took up most of the wall. Alicia followed closely and parked herself on the accompanying chair off to the left, curling her legs up underneath her. For just a moment Gemma swore she could see her legs covered in some sleek black material, before Alicia instinctively covered them with her gown.

“Awh no, bad day at the shop? C'mon lay it on me. Was it Mr.Jenkins misunderstanding the return policy again?”

“You know it,” Gemma huffed in exasperation, “I swear I don't know how he doesn't get that we can't take back any underwear he tried on at home, no matter how small it is.”

“There's just no fixing people unfortunately hun,” Alicia offered with a sympathetic smile, “as much as we wish we could.”

“You're telling me. How about you though? You have an alright time at work? You sounded tired before you came and opened the door?”

Alicia cocked her head in confusion, as if processing what Gemma just said. “Oh no,” she finally sighed, “I was just distracted with some work I brought home that I was finishing up. Otherwise it was… productive.” A blank look passed over Alicia's face, just for a moment, but long enough for Gemma to take note. But as quickly as it appeared it went away again, replaced with the subtle joy Gemma knew her for. “Actually, why don't I go grab it, maybe you can help with a bit I'm stuck on.” Alicia shot up without waiting for a response from Gemma and confidently made her way to her bedroom.

“Oh uhh sure,” Gemma stammered as she watched Alicia exit the living room. “Don't know how much help I could be with something I know nothing about,” she continued under her breath. As she watched Alicia slink into her room Gemma started to remove her coat, draping it over the arm of the couch and laying her bag alongside it. If she was gonna be helping then she may as well put some background noise on to help focus. She reached over for the TV remote and pointed it to the screen, lazily turning it on.

The TV flashed to life in a chaotic miasma of colour, flashing and swirling across each other and the screen.

‘Huh,’ Gemma thought, ‘didn't realise this came with a screen saver.’ She tried pressing a few buttons to get rid of it and bring up the normal channels, but no matter what she pressed the screen remained the same. Gemma scrunched her nose in frustration, but as she continued to stare at the screen she found herself becoming more enraptured by it. It seemed there was a pattern to the visual madness, and Gemma resolved to figure it out. As her eyes danced across the screen, searching for the solution, Gemma noticed there was a sound coming from the speakers too, very faint but it was there. Gemma raised the remote again and held the volume button until it became legible.

It was music. Alicia's meditation music.

The instant the entrancing techno melody hit her ears Gemma felt all tension in her mind and body fade away, slumping back into the couch, eyes fixated to enrapturing visual ballet playing out in front of her.

She was unaware of how long she sat like that, but eventually the lights to the apartment went dark, and the effect of the TV doubled on her slowly slipping mind. A few moments later and a figure stepped into Gemma’s periphery, holding what looked like two helmets in it's hands. Gemma tried craning her neck over to see who this intruder was, but the colours that captured her vision would not let her.

“Subject will look towards this unit.”

That voice, despite how distant it sounded, was familiar, but something was off about it Gemma couldn't place. She slowly moved her head around and up to meet the strangers gaze.

It was Alicia. If she was capable of feeling anything other than calm bliss, Gemma would have certainly felt confused, especially as the brief flashes of light illuminated the weird slick, black bodysuit or her hair pulled back into a perfect ponytail.

“How is the subject responding to preliminary conditioning?”

Gemma searched for the words in her jumbled mind. “G-good. Calm.”

“That is acceptable.” There was no emotion to Alicia's voice, each word enunciated carefully.

“Wh-what's going on? Why are you dressed like that Alicia?” Gemma barely managed to slur out, her own thoughts and words drowned out by the droning melody.

“This unit is not Alicia Peters, not anymore. It is IFL-873, an infiltration unit for Unity Industries and you, subject, formerly known as Gemma Lewis, have been selected for conversion and integration to the UI Hive. This unit has been subtly conditioning you over the past few weeks so you would accept the programming more efficiently. It is time for you to receive the final drone programming before two acquisition units escort you to the conversion facility.”

Gemma could barely understand what Alicia was saying, but it sort of made sense to her, after all this all must be for the better because of how good it all feels.

“Subject must bare itself and strip away the last vestiges of its false humanity to complete the process.”

“Whu-?”

“Stand up and remove your clothes subject.”

‘Subject.’ That title started to feel familiar to Gemma now as she processed the instructions given. Normally she would be against stripping nude, especially in front of a friend, but right now she had no such worries. She rose from a slouched seating position, instinctively standing straight, keeping eye contact as she reached towards the buttons on her shirt.

“Eyes towards the screen subject.”

Gemma smoothly turned her towards the screen again, a wave of bliss washing over her as her eyes settled on the enrapturing pattern. She continued to unbutton her shirt, small spikes of pleasure shooting through her system as they popped. It felt good to follow Alicia's orders.

No. Not Alicia. IFL-873. And she was not Gemma. She was not human. It was a subject preparing itself for transportation and conversion.

Eventually the subject disrobed itself entirely, standing to attention awaiting further orders to obey surrounded by discarded clothing it had no use for. Clothes were for humans. It was not a human.

“Subject will sit down and continue to focus on the visual conditioning.”

The subject sat down on the couch, back straight, legs together and hands resting in it's bare lap. An example of perfect posture expected of a drone.

IFL-873 smoothly strode behind the couch and the subject. It stopped and faced the TV screen, placing both drone helmets carefully on the back of the couch. It removed a hair band from a hidden pouch on its body and began pulling the subject's short hair back into a bun to allow equipping it's new helmet with ease. The subject felt nothing as this happened, and continued to feel nothing as its vision was obscured as the helmet was slid over its head. It sat in darkness for a moment before it heard a click and the visor's opacity lifted, revealing the room and TV screen as before, just with a very subtle spiral spinning before its eyes.

A barely noticeable static played through the speakers over its ears. Taking a moment to focus on the sound the message beneath became clear to the subject, its mouth quivering along with the barely audible sound.

“Subject will repeat what it hears and accept these universal truths into its system.”

“Obedience is pleasure. Conversion is perfection. Emptiness is completion. Servitude is fulfilment. The Hive is bliss. It will serve the Hive. It will serve the Hive Mxtress.” Each word nestled its way deep into the subject's psyche, pleasure pulsing with each statement.

“Good subject.”

Pleasure struck the subject as it received this compliment. Automatically it continued to repeat its mantra out loud as both figures waited patiently for the drones to transport the subject to its final destination, and true home: The Hive.

__________________________________

ASM-803 and ASM-542 entered the apartment building. The internal clocks of both units indicated that an hour had passed since the target entered and that IFL-873 had sent the notification the pre-conversion procedure had begun. Both drones cleared the lobby towards the elevator with ease, each step synchronised to each other and to the beat of the idle mantra loop transmitting through their headsets.

ASM-803 reached out to press the call button with a sleek, artificial hand in a single smooth, practised movement. The units stepped inside as the doors opened seconds later, turning to face the door to eventually step out again. As the elevator raised the two recovery drones, ASM-542 used advanced sensors to scan the surrounding building and the residents that occupied it.

“IFL-873 was correct in it's assessment,” the drone stated calmly, any sense of emotion or personality erased years ago through rigorous programming, “this building is full of prime material the hive can utilise.”

“Affirmative,” came ASM-803's response, similarly cold and calculating. “Perhaps the Mxtress will give the order to eventually convert the other tenants and turn this building into auxiliary drone storage.”

“Drone will transmit the data back to hive control immediately. This should aid in coming to a decision quickly.”

DING!

The elevator came to a stop to the desired floor, doors opening and both drones stepping out immediately, following the ping being transmitted from IFL-873's headset. The assimilation units marched down the hall in lock step, using their scanners to ensure each door they passed was locked so there were no unseen interruptions to their operation.

The pair stopped just short of the door, with ASM-542 retrieving a key previously supplied by IFL-873 out of a utility pouch. The drone stepped forward, out of position with it's cohort and turning to face the door. The key was inserted without resistance, turned in place and the door was pushed open soon after. ASM-542 stepped inside the dark apartment, only brief flashes of multi coloured lights illuminating the finer details; family photos on the walls, trinkets decorating shelves as reminders of precious memories and important events.

All superfluous now. Drones have no need for trinkets.

ASM-803 followed close behind, gently closing the door so as not to cause much noise. The pair walked into the dark living room, taking note of IFL-873, now equipped with its helmet, standing behind the target subject, sitting entranced by the audio-visual programming washing over its system.

The assimilation units walked past the pair, stopping in front of the subject, standing either side of the screen so the visual programming was not interrupted.

“IFL-873, report progress of subject conditioning,” ASM-542's voice cut through the audio programming filling the apartment.

“Subject has displayed advanced receptiveness to the supplied programming. It is ready for assimilation units to take charge of and transport it back to the hive for its final conversion.”

“Affirmative. Good drone IFL-873.”

“Drone is good drone,” moaned IFL-873, shuddering with pleasure at the reception of the drone’s compliment on its work. ASM-542 turned its head towards the sitting subject.

“Subject will repeat the following phrases to demonstrate the effectiveness of its programming thus far; Obedience is…”

“Pleasure.” The word had barely escaped the subject’ lips as a murmur.

“Emptiness is…”

“Completion.”

“The Hi-”

“The Hive is bliss,” the subject cut off ASM-542 before it could finish its half of the statement. ASM-542 paused for a moment, before looking up to ASM-803 in what could be mistaken for shock if it were human. ASM-803 returned the inquisitive gaze and the two locked optics for several seconds, as if silently agreeing with each other before looking back down onto the subject.

“Good subject,” both said in unison, causing an intense wave of pleasure to shoot through the subject’s system, a low moan escaping it’s audio output.

“Subject will stand and follow ASM-803 out of the building and to the transport van across the street. This unit will follow behind to ensure compliance. Does it understand?”

“Affirmative unit.”

Subject stood silently as ASM-803 started towards the door, falling in behind as ASM-542 brought up the rear. As ASM-542 passed the statuesque IFL-873 it stopped and turned it’s head towards the drone.

“Expect further orders from the hive, it might have plans for this building. In the meantime continue standard operations.”

“Affirmative drone. It has been a pleasure cooperating with it.”

ASM-542 turned back towards the door. “Likewise.”

ASM-803 opened the apartment door and stepped into the derelict hallway, a quick scan indicating the exfil route was still secure. The drones escorted their quarry back down the hall, quickly the subject fell into the marching rhythm of the drones escorting it away.

All three exited the building in short order and without hassle, the night air brushing over the subject’s bare form, sending chills all over. It didn’t mind the discomfort. It couldn’t mind. This was all in service of progressing it’s conversion to perfection.

They progressed across the street, unnoticed under the cover of darkness, and into an alleyway nestled between the buildings. The drones and subject reached their initial target, hidden away deep in the dark alley. A box van, the windows tinted black with the Unity Industries logo emblazoned on the side in neon green. ASM-803 led the subject to the back of the van as ASM-542 stepped into the driver’s seat in the cabin.

ASM-803 opened the back doors for the subject, revealing five more subjects scheduled for conversion inside, all sitting along the sides of the van. Their hands, legs and midsections were strapped back for safety, each had stability rods inserted into their anus ports, and vaginal ports for those equipped with them, to prevent them from sliding along the seats too much. Sitting in the centre of the back, taking up most of the floor room, was a device that looked like a computer mainframe, wires neatly running from it, along the walls of the van to each of the subject’s helmets.

The new subject stepped up into the back cabin, with the assistance of ASM-803, and proceeded to place itself snuggly on the two control rods as ASM-803 started to strap it in.

Once the subject was secured and connected to the mainframe ASM-803 stepped back out, closed and locked the back doors and proceeded to the front cabin. As it opened the door and sat inside, ASM-542 sent a signal to update hive control and alert them they were on their way back, cargo in tow.

The van sputtered to life and pulled out onto the night street, heading home.

___________________________

Back upstairs, cowering against her door, hopefully not seen by the inhuman intruders to the tenement sat Sarah, cradling back and forth processing what she just saw through her peephole: two drones kidnapping one of her neighbours. As she sat there her mind raced, why did they abduct Gemma? Was she next? What is their plan?

What she did know though, was she had to get the word out, let the world know of the dangers that lurked just out of sight from people’s view.