“Goodbye Toh! Have fun!” I shouted after the mercenary. Well, sort of. I was actually sitting in my chambers, puking out eggs. But telepathy waits for no one!
“Hmph.”
How rude! I send you off with a hug and a kiss and all I get is some grunting in return? Well, I guess he was still sore about being beaten and put under mind control, so I wouldn’t hold it against him. In fact, of all the humans I had captured, he was the most unruly of bunch. His two companions were pretty docile and just went along with him. Hell, even Yelah and Grehn barely seemed to care. Did my Link have a psychological effect that made the humans more willing?
Most likely. Honestly, for the Linker Bees to be the most pressing mystery in recent memory was somewhat silly.
But alas, I had a job to do. And that job was to vomit. The fact that I had gotten used to binge-eating then immediately regurgitating a honey substance was annoying. Maybe Queen had affected me like how our Link affected the humans.
“It does make sense. Considering how distasteful you seem to find many of our natural bee processes, it would not be surprising. In fact, I have been doing some digging into your past in my free time, and have caught a glimpse of your emotions. You changed drastically upon arriving here. If you were even close to the same person, you were back on Earth, you would have been unable to create eggs out of sheer discomfort, that I can assure you.”
Oh great. So this whole time I’ve actually been a different person?
“Is that really so strange to imagine? I am not the same as I was prior to your arrival, either. I know we can seem separate at times, but you cannot forget that we are, in truth, one and the same.”
But is that really the case? That would make creating a body for you to inhabit yourself sort of tough. Forget tough, it might be impossible.
“My introspection has been fruitful. I think it may be possible to create a form for me, so that I may interact with the world of my own volition. But it would likely not be the way you imagine. Think of it more like splitting our body in half. We would potentially be in control of a body each, yet still be present in both.”
Oh. That’s… weird. So two bodies, but I would have one I control, and you would have one you control. But I would still be in it. So it would be our current situation in reverse? You’ve thought about it a bit, so do you have a concrete way of doing it?
“Actually, no. However, we have met someone who gave me inspiration.”
Hm? Who…? OH! Yelah and Dip!
“Precisely. Their Ability began to give me some ideas. However, the primary issue would be creating a suitable host body or entity in which to perform the procedure.”
It was true, Yelah and Dip’s [Friendly Immersion] worked in a way that seemed to defy physics, and she wasn’t all that powerful. Surely I could replicate something like that to create a physical or mental body switch scenario.
I’d just have to add that to the list. Copying the Ability would probably be less difficult than the host body thing. Maybe it could be a robot or something? That would be awesome.
“Yes, the issue I have found is that the body would have to be soulless and Mindless. Using Yelah, for example, or heavens forbid one of our bees, would simply be unacceptable. Who knows what would happen? But I agree, it is something we should not focus on right now. Come in. Let us work on the B-boxes.”
And with that, I left the real world behind.
______
“Your Ma’s a real piece of work.”
“Silence, human.”
“I guess all you buggers are pieces of work.”
No response from the grumpy-looking bee. Or maybe it was serious? It was hard to tell from lookin’ at them. Though, this Link did some strange things to my brain. Somehow I could tell this bee was a female called ‘Beryl’ and get a general read of its - her - mood.
Of course, there was also the fact I could understand them.
Could I take this one on? It was clearly crippled, so maybe I could escape. Yeah, right. If you can hear these thoughts, I know ya got some watchers on me. Yup, I feel that gaze. I felt it before too, when I got captured. Even when I had turned invisible with my Ability and that little monster cleaned my clock, I felt those freaky eyes on me.
How had this happened? My Ability was very effective, in that I was confident. Only specialists like the royal knights or high-level mercenaries could see through it. Which meant that these bees were around their level? No, not quite. But they had individuals with extraordinary talent.
What a predicament. Ha! Yiwi’s screwed!
…Nope. Hard as I try, I can’t convince myself. A lowly human like me has gotta keep up hope, ya know? Try as I might, I still believe these bees will fail. Humanity always finds a way. Even so… All my thoughts and knowledge were now the property of that creature. Sorry, Jill. I messed up.
______
Wow. The B-boxes were looking good! I floated alongside Queen’s ghostly avatar high above a gigantic hexagon. Skeletal rather than solid, little bits of the shape occasionally floated around and swapped places, glowing a faint yellow. You’ve been busy, Queen.
“I only formed the general structure. Much of the system filled itself in. In all honesty… it is making me uncomfortable. The behavior of the boxes, their movement, their efficiency… they feel like drones.”
Huh. So you’re telling me it’s self sustaining now?
“Indeed. It can’t be stopped.”
Hm. Well, let’s see…
The hexagon was mostly divided into sections, with the majority taking up knowledge storage and processing. I could see nodes and strings flowing from seemingly nowhere into one particular portion, which is where the Link must be feeding into. Another portion nearby processed and efficiently cut up and stored information in order of importance, so I wasn’t overwhelmed by random garbage.
Of course, there was plenty of room for improvement. Queen, did you have any advice?
“Your goal. It is to better know things in the moment. I understand. You are concerned that knowledge must be retrieved consciously. You may know all the happenings of the hive and our controlled humans, but unless you specifically decide to think of it, it blends into the rest of the information.”
Yup. It’s just the same problem I was encountering before the B-boxes. Too much information. This time, though, the information wasn’t overwhelming or anything. I just wasn’t accessing it optimally.
So, I just made another box. This would have the task of retrieving information. And then I made more boxes.
The result was a more developed hexagon, with a few quirks. The first box I made now sat at the center, like a gigantic beating heart. Or maybe a brain? Either way, that box ended up being huge. I poured a pretty sizable amount of Mind into it, and its glow was noticeably brighter than the rest. Brighter than the ones it was attached to, even.
Speaking of, the other boxes were stuck to the sides of the massive central box, and those were connected to the most peculiar boxes I had made so far. The smaller exterior boxes were attached to thin bendy boxes that connected to the rest of the hexagon, like twisting wires. When all was said and done, I had just added more boxes on top of the already bustling network.
Those smaller boxes would be temporary storage. I already had a system like that in place, but this was meant to solve my problem. These boxes would store tons of information pertinent to the hive’s activity, with a whole box dedicated just to the humans. The central box would then constantly have this info on hand and process it in real time.
“This structure… A computer?”
Well, it would make sense that you know about that by now. But yeah. Computer, brain, it’s all the same. Just like with humans and bees, I could combine the structure and rigidity of computers with the flexibility of the human brain. Well, probably. Basically I had no idea how brains work, but computer structure made sense.
“…You just wanted to say your brain is like a computer. You realize nobody in this world would likely know what that means?”
You know what? I don’t care! It’s cool!
And besides, it was probably functional. Probably.
As Toh contemplated his fate, the hive bustled with activity. Belle’s underlings were hard at work following Beatrice’s strict rationing guidelines. Priority went to the newborns to ensure they would at least reach adulthood. Belle herself was under a mountain of stress. She required more workers, so she would ask Mother soon.
Bess was thriving. The smaller force of builders was a boon for her, as she now could become accustomed to commanding several bees without becoming overwhelmed. Although the process by which her forces were reduced was sad, she couldn’t help but feel thankful. Now, she could finish the base of the hive wall, and begin work on closing it off to the elements. The wind had begun to pick up, so best to prevent ashes from flying around the hive where Mom had to lay eggs.
Ben and his two cohorts, on the other hand, were having a blast. Dreaming about the human city’s sights and sounds and smells was enticing, and Ben had especially become increasingly excited about the idea of seeing something new. Momaroo’s plans would allow for them to have some fun in the city before the real madness started.
“…En…”
And the city wouldn’t know what hit it. Bella and the Linker Bees would soon arrive. She was excited to find those mysterious ‘flowers’ Mom knew about. Yelah and Grehn couldn’t stand the pace of Toh’s group. They kept joking around about Dip’s sudden reappearance, realizing they had been fooled. And yet they didn’t seem spiteful, though they were confused about Toh’s whereabouts. Toh had no idea about their-
“ENNO!”
A wave of nausea hit me- hit Enno- and I- Enno- leaped out of the B-box space into the real world. Rather than vomiting egg material, I- Enno- puked from pure sickness.
“Are you- was he- alright?! I- Queen- suddenly became overwhelmed with nausea, as you -Enno- did. Was it because of the new processing? But something wasn’t right.”
The nausea felt like an explosion of something that had been building up. Simultaneously, two other bees were experiencing symptoms of nausea. Was it a coincidence? No other bees laid eggs, so I -Enno - didn’t think it could be a simple coincidence. What could be happening?
“Goodbye Toh! Have fun!” I shouted after the mercenary. Well, sort of. I was actually sitting in my chambers, puking out eggs. But telepathy waits for no one!
“Hmph.”
How rude! I send you off with a hug and a kiss and all I get is some grunting in return? Well, I guess he was still sore about being beaten and put under mind control, so I wouldn’t hold it against him. In fact, of all the humans I had captured, he was the most unruly of bunch. His two companions were pretty docile and just went along with him. Hell, even Yelah and Grehn barely seemed to care. Did my Link have a psychological effect that made the humans more willing?
Most likely. Honestly, for the Linker Bees to be the most pressing mystery in recent memory was somewhat silly.
But alas, I had a job to do. And that job was to vomit. The fact that I had gotten used to binge-eating then immediately regurgitating a honey substance was annoying. Maybe Queen had affected me like how our Link affected the humans.
“It does make sense. Considering how distasteful you seem to find many of our natural bee processes, it would not be surprising. In fact, I have been doing some digging into your past in my free time, and have caught a glimpse of your emotions. You changed drastically upon arriving here. If you were even close to the same person, you were back on Earth, you would have been unable to create eggs out of sheer discomfort, that I can assure you.”
Oh great. So this whole time I’ve actually been a different person?
“Is that really so strange to imagine? I am not the same as I was prior to your arrival, either. I know we can seem separate at times, but you cannot forget that we are, in truth, one and the same.”
But is that really the case? That would make creating a body for you to inhabit yourself sort of tough. Forget tough, it might be impossible.
“My introspection has been fruitful. I think it may be possible to create a form for me, so that I may interact with the world of my own volition. But it would likely not be the way you imagine. Think of it more like splitting our body in half. We would potentially be in control of a body each, yet still be present in both.”
Oh. That’s… weird. So two bodies, but I would have one I control, and you would have one you control. But I would still be in it. So it would be our current situation in reverse? You’ve thought about it a bit, so do you have a concrete way of doing it?
“Actually, no. However, we have met someone who gave me inspiration.”
Hm? Who…? OH! Yelah and Dip!
“Precisely. Their Ability began to give me some ideas. However, the primary issue would be creating a suitable host body or entity in which to perform the procedure.”
It was true, Yelah and Dip’s [Friendly Immersion] worked in a way that seemed to defy physics, and she wasn’t all that powerful. Surely I could replicate something like that to create a physical or mental body switch scenario.
I’d just have to add that to the list. Copying the Ability would probably be less difficult than the host body thing. Maybe it could be a robot or something? That would be awesome.
“Yes, the issue I have found is that the body would have to be soulless and Mindless. Using Yelah, for example, or heavens forbid one of our bees, would simply be unacceptable. Who knows what would happen? But I agree, it is something we should not focus on right now. Come in. Let us work on the B-boxes.”
And with that, I left the real world behind.
______
“Your Ma’s a real piece of work.”
“Silence, human.”
“I guess all you buggers are pieces of work.”
No response from the grumpy-looking bee. Or maybe it was serious? It was hard to tell from lookin’ at them. Though, this Link did some strange things to my brain. Somehow I could tell this bee was a female called ‘Beryl’ and get a general read of its - her - mood.
Of course, there was also the fact I could understand them.
Could I take this one on? It was clearly crippled, so maybe I could escape. Yeah, right. If you can hear these thoughts, I know ya got some watchers on me. Yup, I feel that gaze. I felt it before too, when I got captured. Even when I had turned invisible with my Ability and that little monster cleaned my clock, I felt those freaky eyes on me.
How had this happened? My Ability was very effective, in that I was confident. Only specialists like the royal knights or high-level mercenaries could see through it. Which meant that these bees were around their level? No, not quite. But they had individuals with extraordinary talent.
What a predicament. Ha! Yiwi’s screwed!
…Nope. Hard as I try, I can’t convince myself. A lowly human like me has gotta keep up hope, ya know? Try as I might, I still believe these bees will fail. Humanity always finds a way. Even so… All my thoughts and knowledge were now the property of that creature. Sorry, Jill. I messed up.
______
Wow. The B-boxes were looking good! I floated alongside Queen’s ghostly avatar high above a gigantic hexagon. Skeletal rather than solid, little bits of the shape occasionally floated around and swapped places, glowing a faint yellow. You’ve been busy, Queen.
“I only formed the general structure. Much of the system filled itself in. In all honesty… it is making me uncomfortable. The behavior of the boxes, their movement, their efficiency… they feel like drones.”
Huh. So you’re telling me it’s self sustaining now?
“Indeed. It can’t be stopped.”
Hm. Well, let’s see…
The hexagon was mostly divided into sections, with the majority taking up knowledge storage and processing. I could see nodes and strings flowing from seemingly nowhere into one particular portion, which is where the Link must be feeding into. Another portion nearby processed and efficiently cut up and stored information in order of importance, so I wasn’t overwhelmed by random garbage.
Of course, there was plenty of room for improvement. Queen, did you have any advice?
“Your goal. It is to better know things in the moment. I understand. You are concerned that knowledge must be retrieved consciously. You may know all the happenings of the hive and our controlled humans, but unless you specifically decide to think of it, it blends into the rest of the information.”
Yup. It’s just the same problem I was encountering before the B-boxes. Too much information. This time, though, the information wasn’t overwhelming or anything. I just wasn’t accessing it optimally.
So, I just made another box. This would have the task of retrieving information. And then I made more boxes.
The result was a more developed hexagon, with a few quirks. The first box I made now sat at the center, like a gigantic beating heart. Or maybe a brain? Either way, that box ended up being huge. I poured a pretty sizable amount of Mind into it, and its glow was noticeably brighter than the rest. Brighter than the ones it was attached to, even.
Speaking of, the other boxes were stuck to the sides of the massive central box, and those were connected to the most peculiar boxes I had made so far. The smaller exterior boxes were attached to thin bendy boxes that connected to the rest of the hexagon, like twisting wires. When all was said and done, I had just added more boxes on top of the already bustling network.
Those smaller boxes would be temporary storage. I already had a system like that in place, but this was meant to solve my problem. These boxes would store tons of information pertinent to the hive’s activity, with a whole box dedicated just to the humans. The central box would then constantly have this info on hand and process it in real time.
“This structure… A computer?”
Well, it would make sense that you know about that by now. But yeah. Computer, brain, it’s all the same. Just like with humans and bees, I could combine the structure and rigidity of computers with the flexibility of the human brain. Well, probably. Basically I had no idea how brains work, but computer structure made sense.
“…You just wanted to say your brain is like a computer. You realize nobody in this world would likely know what that means?”
You know what? I don’t care! It’s cool!
And besides, it was probably functional. Probably.
As Toh contemplated his fate, the hive bustled with activity. Belle’s underlings were hard at work following Beatrice’s strict rationing guidelines. Priority went to the newborns to ensure they would at least reach adulthood. Belle herself was under a mountain of stress. She required more workers, so she would ask Mother soon.
Bess was thriving. The smaller force of builders was a boon for her, as she now could become accustomed to commanding several bees without becoming overwhelmed. Although the process by which her forces were reduced was sad, she couldn’t help but feel thankful. Now, she could finish the base of the hive wall, and begin work on closing it off to the elements. The wind had begun to pick up, so best to prevent ashes from flying around the hive where Mom had to lay eggs.
Ben and his two cohorts, on the other hand, were having a blast. Dreaming about the human city’s sights and sounds and smells was enticing, and Ben had especially become increasingly excited about the idea of seeing something new. Momaroo’s plans would allow for them to have some fun in the city before the real madness started.
“…En…”
And the city wouldn’t know what hit it. Bella and the Linker Bees would soon arrive. She was excited to find those mysterious ‘flowers’ Mom knew about. Yelah and Grehn couldn’t stand the pace of Toh’s group. They kept joking around about Dip’s sudden reappearance, realizing they had been fooled. And yet they didn’t seem spiteful, though they were confused about Toh’s whereabouts. Toh had no idea about their-
“ENNO!”
A wave of nausea hit me- hit Enno- and I- Enno- leaped out of the B-box space into the real world. Rather than vomiting egg material, I- Enno- puked from pure sickness.
“Are you- was he- alright?! I- Queen- suddenly became overwhelmed with nausea, as you -Enno- did. Was it because of the new processing? But something wasn’t right.”
The nausea felt like an explosion of something that had been building up. Simultaneously, two other bees were experiencing symptoms of nausea. Was it a coincidence? No other bees laid eggs, so I -Enno - didn’t think it could be a simple coincidence. What could be happening?
