Stretching my Mind, huh? I wonder how my bees were planning to achieve that. It wasn’t exactly something I had considered, but maybe that was my self-centered, individualistic human side talking. Maybe I really should start leaving some of these things to my bees. But I couldn’t, there was just no way. If I didn’t solve at least a few of our problems myself, I wouldn’t feel safe.
“Perhaps if we each ‘grab’ a portion of her Mind and pull with all our might, as a human would pull their limbs, we may succeed in achieving this Mind stretch.”
Case in point. Beatrice’s idea got some support before I quietly shut it down and told her to rein it back; I didn’t want them to pull my Mind apart! Whatever happened to being careful with my poor head?
Hm, what about the CBU? It’s not working at full capacity, but it was working. Maybe it has some ideas.
It did, apparently. For one thing, the other bees could do as Beatrice suggested, but far less intensely. After all, it was the most literal interpretation of what Beryl originally suggested. Otherwise, it introduced the concept of offloading. As in, using the Kin Link to make the bees take on some of my Mind’s processes. While that option seemed attractive, it was the least fleshed-out of the bunch. The CBU had come up with the idea, but hadn’t decided how to do it. That was unlike another idea, which was to disable several Locks. A simple enough concept, but one I hesitated to enact. After all, we weren’t sure what would happen if I disabled the Kin Link for the bees. And disconnecting the Linkers? Noooo way. Not happening.
The idea behind the last plan was based on the same concept as the rest: relieving pressure. The only thing I could confidently disable would be the water filtration, since the fernen had (apparently) already been commanded to stop poisoning the river. So in what, a couple hours? In just a couple hours, the last of the poison would flow into the filtration system and I’d be able to stop that Lock. And I would be saving an absolutely mind-boggling 0.1875% of Mind! Simply incredible.
Yeah, the last option wasn’t ideal. It was the easiest, but also the least appealing. So there was the unappealing but easy option, the appealing but insane option, and the option that involved my brain getting stretched.
“Everyone, here’s an idea. Remember the buddy system we had to put on hold? We should create an extension of that, or even take it further. You all have impressive Minds, and I’m sure you can handle some extra work. Who knows what can be achieved with the Link? When I allot more Mind to your individual Link, you obtain a pretty significant boost in power. So what about the other direction?”
Beatrice thought for a moment, but when she began speaking, it was shockingly excited. “A reverse Link…. Yes, yes of course! How has this not been implemented already?! We can commandeer the concepts of the humans’ bizarre ‘tax’ system in order to benefit the Queen, and in turn, benefit the hive. Beck! How feasible would this be?”
Beck hummed a response quickly, describing the way the humans’ Yiwi tax worked. Essentially, they had implemented a system where each resident of Yiwi contributed a small percentage of their Mind to a Lock, dedicated solely to turning the giant Rotor. We knew, thanks to knowledge obtained and studied through the City Lord, that this system allowed Yiwi to survive without a monetary tax, resulting in fantastic wealth and opportunity for the residents of the city. We also knew this was bullshit. At the very least, I knew that whatever functions the Rotor possessed, even if it was some sort of miracle machine, couldn’t make up the city’s need for money. Presumably, ‘donations’ from the mercenary companies and merchants sustained the city, but that wasn’t all. The city was hoarding wealth through another avenue, one not under the purview of the merchants. I knew what the largest merchant companies knew. Unfortunately, even the City Lord didn’t have all the details on this mysterious source of money, which was sort of mind-blowing when I found out. But the Rotor served some other purpose, a purpose which led to sizable checks written to the city in the name of various aliases. What exactly did this mean, besides the fact that whoever wrote those checks was probably royally pissed off thanks to its sudden disappearance? I had no idea.
But most of that was irrelevant for now. The important thing to note was that the Yiwi Mind tax required only a little bit of Mind allotted to a simple Lock to reap grand rewards. Unfortunately, it wasn’t directly helpful to us. The Yiwi tax was actually a mechanical system, no different from making the residents come in and turn a crank for a while every day. Our proposed use case was using Mind to affect Mind. We needed to know whether a Mind-boosting Lock could be created to alleviate the constant usage of my Mind without requiring releasing the Kin Link.
And according to Beck’s humming, the results were… inconclusive. They did think creating the Lock was possible, but they weren’t positive as to the effects the Lock would ultimately have. Would it work by draining the unused Mind of a bee? What would it do to the Link? Would it require a significant amount of Mind allotted to work? Beck had no idea, and frankly wasn’t confident that the Lock would work as intended. They tried to apologize, but I stopped them; they had been busy with overseeing Yiwi, after all. Ensuring the humans couldn’t break out of the Link, understanding the parameters the Linkers worked under, that was all tough work. The Link was still something of a mystery, and there simply hadn’t been enough time to study it in more depth.
I decided to take a bit more charge in the meeting. Who was the queen of this hive, am I right? “I say we go with the idea to offload Mind process to other bees. It’s far more appealing than the other options; plenty of benefits with minimal risk. If anyone has an argument for the other two options, I’d like to hear them.”
“Very well. We will move forward with the offload option,” Beatrice said immediately. Classic. Surely, one of the other bees had some idea or feedback.
… Nothing. All the others were in complete agreement. Should I really have expected anything different? Well, I could understand where they were coming from. The stretching option wasn’t something any of them even wanted to think about, and the Lock deletion option was simply out of the question. The offloading idea wasn’t only appealing to me, either. Beck, in particular, was humming with uncharacteristic excitement. Poor Beck. I had been making them focus on Yiwi and humans for so long that they were desperate for some good old Mind shenaniganry.
“Alright then, let’s get cracking. Fixing this Mind Collapse issue as quickly as possible is mandatory for me to keep laying eggs.”
If they weren’t excited before, the bees present (and even some who weren’t around) got real starry-eyed when I mentioned laying eggs. Beatrice especially immediately got to work, directing different bees to think about solutions and laying out parameters for the Lock. She then floated over and leaned on the wall just outside my window. Was she cool now? Or did she think she was super cool for her stunt with the fernen? She did know how risky that whole business had been, right? We only barely knew about the Battle of Minds stuff they were so into thanks to knowledgeable people Linked in Yiwi; it was never a surefire thing that was going to work.
“Mother, I’d like to discuss this ‘reverse Link’ with you in more depth. In truth, I have actually been working on something similar behind the scenes, ever since we learned about the Yiwi Mind tax. I’m sure you know of my theories; they have resulted in failure on all fronts. It cannot exist at the same time as the regular Kin Link, as it creates some sort of unbearable feedback. It would only become possible if the bee is removed from your Kin Link Lock.”
Whew. Beatrice sure was scary. Sure, I had vaguely known she thought of a sort of reverse Link a while ago, but nothing really came of it. In fact, she marked the idea as something to never explore again. Actually, I had forgotten all about that when I proposed it just now.
Hey wait. Was she just being nice when she praised the idea?! Since when was she such a great actor?
“However, I didn’t act all nice to spare your feelings when you proposed the idea. I knew you must have accounted for my failures and have either figured out a solution or are willing to do something drastic.”
“I must admit, even I am having trouble coping with her. Didn’t you once suggest that she should take over the hive’s operations? I discounted the idea before, but maybe it has more merit than I gave it credit.”
“Oh shut up- er, not you, Beatrice, sorry. I actually haven’t accounted for everything. You must know that by now.”
Beatrice didn’t move. Oh god, she’s going to rip into me, isn’t she? “Hm. In truth, I didn’t expect you to account for everything, but I was certain you would have figured out something I hadn’t about the feasibility of the reverse Link. Beck, I know you were hesitant. What do you think about creating a reverse Kin Link after being removed from the Link?”
I had thought this was a ‘private’ conversation, but Beck’s humming became thoughtful. They thought it wasn’t just possible, but the best possible approach. However, they made it clear that the concept would need to be extensively tested before a mass change was made.
“Hold on, are you guys saying that the bees should basically make their own Kin Link? And replace mine?” Was my voice whiny? Sad? Weird.
“Not at all, Mother. However, we need to solve this Mind Collapse situation, and fast. There are too many moving parts in the hive right now for you to be out of commission for several days. And risking permanent damage to your Mind would be catastrophic. Taking into account the fernen, the Linked humans, the possibility of merchant company branches coming to Yiwi, and the strange new mercenary company which suddenly popped up in the city, I would say the hive will collapse if you are not healed within the day.”
I took a peek outside and saw the sun nearing the horizon. It was late afternoon at best. Did Beatrice really think my Mind Collapse could be healed today? Even with medication developed by modern science, Vlugh’s condition took around a day to heal.
My aide continued, pushing up her antennae glasses as she was wont to do. I could feel the gears in her head turning, and knew she had already come up with several ideas even as she was talking. “Offsetting the cost of your Mind will allow you to heal faster, but I hold no illusions about the effects of Mind Collapse. It will likely not be fully healed today, but I feel the negative effects can be lessened. I believe, at least, that we will need to adopt a hybrid approach. Some bees will need to be removed from the Link entirely, so that they can activate a reverse Link to improve your Mind’s health. Others will not. Instead, they will take on a different burden: acting a relay. We already know it is possible for a bee to act as a relay for Linker bees, allowing them to act as a sort of extension to the connection. However, we have not yet experimented with making that relay a full connection to, essentially, disconnect the Linker from your Mind, as you have theorized is possible. If this can be done, it will remove that Linker and the individual they have Linked from the cost to your Mind, and therefore ‘lighten your load.’
“However, I believe this can be taken further. A Linker is a ‘Drone type’ bee, possessing no conscious mind to speak of. They are incapable of creating their own Locks or Abilities, and have Mind enough solely to complete their task. However, we have not considered extending this relay concept to other drones. Bees like Bess already control contingents of worker drones, and who is to say that there will not be warrior drones in the future? I believe that drone managers such as Bess or Bella should become relays, and all drones should be removed from your Link entirely. If they cannot directly benefit you, you should not maintain them. Instead, they will be maintained by the Minds of other bees. These managers will be the only bees that continue to benefit from your Link, while all others will serve you by forming the reverse Link. If you consider it as a reverse Link being a pull against your Mind, perhaps we could call it a form of stretching.”
She turned to look me in my bug-eyed bug eyes and seemed to smile. “Of course, we could still try a more intense stretching of your Mind if you’re not willing to let us go.”
Stretching my Mind, huh? I wonder how my bees were planning to achieve that. It wasn’t exactly something I had considered, but maybe that was my self-centered, individualistic human side talking. Maybe I really should start leaving some of these things to my bees. But I couldn’t, there was just no way. If I didn’t solve at least a few of our problems myself, I wouldn’t feel safe.
“Perhaps if we each ‘grab’ a portion of her Mind and pull with all our might, as a human would pull their limbs, we may succeed in achieving this Mind stretch.”
Case in point. Beatrice’s idea got some support before I quietly shut it down and told her to rein it back; I didn’t want them to pull my Mind apart! Whatever happened to being careful with my poor head?
Hm, what about the CBU? It’s not working at full capacity, but it was working. Maybe it has some ideas.
It did, apparently. For one thing, the other bees could do as Beatrice suggested, but far less intensely. After all, it was the most literal interpretation of what Beryl originally suggested. Otherwise, it introduced the concept of offloading. As in, using the Kin Link to make the bees take on some of my Mind’s processes. While that option seemed attractive, it was the least fleshed-out of the bunch. The CBU had come up with the idea, but hadn’t decided how to do it. That was unlike another idea, which was to disable several Locks. A simple enough concept, but one I hesitated to enact. After all, we weren’t sure what would happen if I disabled the Kin Link for the bees. And disconnecting the Linkers? Noooo way. Not happening.
The idea behind the last plan was based on the same concept as the rest: relieving pressure. The only thing I could confidently disable would be the water filtration, since the fernen had (apparently) already been commanded to stop poisoning the river. So in what, a couple hours? In just a couple hours, the last of the poison would flow into the filtration system and I’d be able to stop that Lock. And I would be saving an absolutely mind-boggling 0.1875% of Mind! Simply incredible.
Yeah, the last option wasn’t ideal. It was the easiest, but also the least appealing. So there was the unappealing but easy option, the appealing but insane option, and the option that involved my brain getting stretched.
“Everyone, here’s an idea. Remember the buddy system we had to put on hold? We should create an extension of that, or even take it further. You all have impressive Minds, and I’m sure you can handle some extra work. Who knows what can be achieved with the Link? When I allot more Mind to your individual Link, you obtain a pretty significant boost in power. So what about the other direction?”
Beatrice thought for a moment, but when she began speaking, it was shockingly excited. “A reverse Link…. Yes, yes of course! How has this not been implemented already?! We can commandeer the concepts of the humans’ bizarre ‘tax’ system in order to benefit the Queen, and in turn, benefit the hive. Beck! How feasible would this be?”
Beck hummed a response quickly, describing the way the humans’ Yiwi tax worked. Essentially, they had implemented a system where each resident of Yiwi contributed a small percentage of their Mind to a Lock, dedicated solely to turning the giant Rotor. We knew, thanks to knowledge obtained and studied through the City Lord, that this system allowed Yiwi to survive without a monetary tax, resulting in fantastic wealth and opportunity for the residents of the city. We also knew this was bullshit. At the very least, I knew that whatever functions the Rotor possessed, even if it was some sort of miracle machine, couldn’t make up the city’s need for money. Presumably, ‘donations’ from the mercenary companies and merchants sustained the city, but that wasn’t all. The city was hoarding wealth through another avenue, one not under the purview of the merchants. I knew what the largest merchant companies knew. Unfortunately, even the City Lord didn’t have all the details on this mysterious source of money, which was sort of mind-blowing when I found out. But the Rotor served some other purpose, a purpose which led to sizable checks written to the city in the name of various aliases. What exactly did this mean, besides the fact that whoever wrote those checks was probably royally pissed off thanks to its sudden disappearance? I had no idea.
But most of that was irrelevant for now. The important thing to note was that the Yiwi Mind tax required only a little bit of Mind allotted to a simple Lock to reap grand rewards. Unfortunately, it wasn’t directly helpful to us. The Yiwi tax was actually a mechanical system, no different from making the residents come in and turn a crank for a while every day. Our proposed use case was using Mind to affect Mind. We needed to know whether a Mind-boosting Lock could be created to alleviate the constant usage of my Mind without requiring releasing the Kin Link.
And according to Beck’s humming, the results were… inconclusive. They did think creating the Lock was possible, but they weren’t positive as to the effects the Lock would ultimately have. Would it work by draining the unused Mind of a bee? What would it do to the Link? Would it require a significant amount of Mind allotted to work? Beck had no idea, and frankly wasn’t confident that the Lock would work as intended. They tried to apologize, but I stopped them; they had been busy with overseeing Yiwi, after all. Ensuring the humans couldn’t break out of the Link, understanding the parameters the Linkers worked under, that was all tough work. The Link was still something of a mystery, and there simply hadn’t been enough time to study it in more depth.
I decided to take a bit more charge in the meeting. Who was the queen of this hive, am I right? “I say we go with the idea to offload Mind process to other bees. It’s far more appealing than the other options; plenty of benefits with minimal risk. If anyone has an argument for the other two options, I’d like to hear them.”
“Very well. We will move forward with the offload option,” Beatrice said immediately. Classic. Surely, one of the other bees had some idea or feedback.
… Nothing. All the others were in complete agreement. Should I really have expected anything different? Well, I could understand where they were coming from. The stretching option wasn’t something any of them even wanted to think about, and the Lock deletion option was simply out of the question. The offloading idea wasn’t only appealing to me, either. Beck, in particular, was humming with uncharacteristic excitement. Poor Beck. I had been making them focus on Yiwi and humans for so long that they were desperate for some good old Mind shenaniganry.
“Alright then, let’s get cracking. Fixing this Mind Collapse issue as quickly as possible is mandatory for me to keep laying eggs.”
If they weren’t excited before, the bees present (and even some who weren’t around) got real starry-eyed when I mentioned laying eggs. Beatrice especially immediately got to work, directing different bees to think about solutions and laying out parameters for the Lock. She then floated over and leaned on the wall just outside my window. Was she cool now? Or did she think she was super cool for her stunt with the fernen? She did know how risky that whole business had been, right? We only barely knew about the Battle of Minds stuff they were so into thanks to knowledgeable people Linked in Yiwi; it was never a surefire thing that was going to work.
“Mother, I’d like to discuss this ‘reverse Link’ with you in more depth. In truth, I have actually been working on something similar behind the scenes, ever since we learned about the Yiwi Mind tax. I’m sure you know of my theories; they have resulted in failure on all fronts. It cannot exist at the same time as the regular Kin Link, as it creates some sort of unbearable feedback. It would only become possible if the bee is removed from your Kin Link Lock.”
Whew. Beatrice sure was scary. Sure, I had vaguely known she thought of a sort of reverse Link a while ago, but nothing really came of it. In fact, she marked the idea as something to never explore again. Actually, I had forgotten all about that when I proposed it just now.
Hey wait. Was she just being nice when she praised the idea?! Since when was she such a great actor?
“However, I didn’t act all nice to spare your feelings when you proposed the idea. I knew you must have accounted for my failures and have either figured out a solution or are willing to do something drastic.”
“I must admit, even I am having trouble coping with her. Didn’t you once suggest that she should take over the hive’s operations? I discounted the idea before, but maybe it has more merit than I gave it credit.”
“Oh shut up- er, not you, Beatrice, sorry. I actually haven’t accounted for everything. You must know that by now.”
Beatrice didn’t move. Oh god, she’s going to rip into me, isn’t she? “Hm. In truth, I didn’t expect you to account for everything, but I was certain you would have figured out something I hadn’t about the feasibility of the reverse Link. Beck, I know you were hesitant. What do you think about creating a reverse Kin Link after being removed from the Link?”
I had thought this was a ‘private’ conversation, but Beck’s humming became thoughtful. They thought it wasn’t just possible, but the best possible approach. However, they made it clear that the concept would need to be extensively tested before a mass change was made.
“Hold on, are you guys saying that the bees should basically make their own Kin Link? And replace mine?” Was my voice whiny? Sad? Weird.
“Not at all, Mother. However, we need to solve this Mind Collapse situation, and fast. There are too many moving parts in the hive right now for you to be out of commission for several days. And risking permanent damage to your Mind would be catastrophic. Taking into account the fernen, the Linked humans, the possibility of merchant company branches coming to Yiwi, and the strange new mercenary company which suddenly popped up in the city, I would say the hive will collapse if you are not healed within the day.”
I took a peek outside and saw the sun nearing the horizon. It was late afternoon at best. Did Beatrice really think my Mind Collapse could be healed today? Even with medication developed by modern science, Vlugh’s condition took around a day to heal.
My aide continued, pushing up her antennae glasses as she was wont to do. I could feel the gears in her head turning, and knew she had already come up with several ideas even as she was talking. “Offsetting the cost of your Mind will allow you to heal faster, but I hold no illusions about the effects of Mind Collapse. It will likely not be fully healed today, but I feel the negative effects can be lessened. I believe, at least, that we will need to adopt a hybrid approach. Some bees will need to be removed from the Link entirely, so that they can activate a reverse Link to improve your Mind’s health. Others will not. Instead, they will take on a different burden: acting a relay. We already know it is possible for a bee to act as a relay for Linker bees, allowing them to act as a sort of extension to the connection. However, we have not yet experimented with making that relay a full connection to, essentially, disconnect the Linker from your Mind, as you have theorized is possible. If this can be done, it will remove that Linker and the individual they have Linked from the cost to your Mind, and therefore ‘lighten your load.’
“However, I believe this can be taken further. A Linker is a ‘Drone type’ bee, possessing no conscious mind to speak of. They are incapable of creating their own Locks or Abilities, and have Mind enough solely to complete their task. However, we have not considered extending this relay concept to other drones. Bees like Bess already control contingents of worker drones, and who is to say that there will not be warrior drones in the future? I believe that drone managers such as Bess or Bella should become relays, and all drones should be removed from your Link entirely. If they cannot directly benefit you, you should not maintain them. Instead, they will be maintained by the Minds of other bees. These managers will be the only bees that continue to benefit from your Link, while all others will serve you by forming the reverse Link. If you consider it as a reverse Link being a pull against your Mind, perhaps we could call it a form of stretching.”
She turned to look me in my bug-eyed bug eyes and seemed to smile. “Of course, we could still try a more intense stretching of your Mind if you’re not willing to let us go.”
