'Please, gather together—I call you for a Council session, although I will be there telepathically. We must think ahead and prepare ground for the future conquest of humans!'
'Ah, Father! Weren't you sick? Weren't you supposed to be resting, no?' Things-Things thought in response. 'Does Mother-Queen know about this? Is she near him?'
'I'm feeling better, and I have good news to share,' I telepathically ssaged the Advisers, carefully avoiding the topic of Amby's health. 'How about we all talk in half an hour?'
Half an hour later, I told the Council about my latest gene upgrade, then moved to details of my grand plan.
'With the increase of activity from all living creatures in sight, it's even more important that we develop quickly. And conquest is a sure way to develop quickly. But conquering humans is hard because of the sheer scale of their existence. This scale is hard to reach with our tiny bee hands. However, with humans and dragons as our subordinates, we can travel and conquer farther than we could before. Starting with gathering intelligence.'
My plan was simple enough for now: we will ask the village head, Anad Shach, to send soone from his village to another human settlent. A group of Beehounds will travel with this person, using humans' superior speed of travel over long distances to their advantage.
In other settlents, where people were unaware of the existence of "forest spirits", these Beehounds will easily be able to travel on the backs of humans and gather information about their numbers, locations and so on.
Their journey back with this information would be harder, but they could still use humans as transport. Besides, with the increased flight speed, they might even fly back on their own within a reasonable ti.
And in another month, there will be Beehounds with a telepathy gene, who could not just look at humans, but also listen to them.
'Humans are very secretive with each other. Being able to read their thoughts might let us conquer them easily if we use their secrets right,' I concluded. 'But first, I need to know what we are even conquering.'
***
With Tabletina's cures, by evening, Ambrosia really felt better. Well enough that we could exchange our microbes, bodily fluids and share genes.
(To my hidden relief, the photosynthesis gene didn't turn her skin green after I passed it to her.)
By the next morning, our improved immunity did us good. Our fever broke, and I felt almost completely alive.
However, the sa couldn't be said for everybody. From Tabletina's report, I found that twenty-four other bees in Hive Supremo were found with the sa symptoms I had.
Whether it was the sa strain of sickness or a similar one, they went down badly with it. Tabletina put them into quarantine imdiately, but this didn't an nobody else was sick.
"If this is a type of illness that becos contagious before it becos noticeable, we might have a much larger outbreak on our hands," I told her, shaking my head in frustration. "What is their prognosis, at least, Tabletina?"
"I couldn't say, Father. Not so soon. Perhaps they will overco the sickness, perhaps not." Tabletina frowned, then quickly added, "Don't bleed yourself for their sake, Father! You haven't fully recovered yet—any new wound might easily make your sickness worse."
She was reading my thoughts. And like her, I knew I couldn't lose any more blood until I recovered fully.
I could do nothing but to hope these bees recovered. And make sure everybody who needed to, stayed quarantined in the hospital.
***
Ambrosia and I fully recovered from our sickness in three more days, but at the sa ti, thirty more people got sick. It might've sounded like a relatively large number, but it was still tiny on the scale of Hive Supremo.
"The statistics show this outbreak wasn't notably more dangerous than the other ones, Father," Tabletina told after checking my and Ambrosia's health. "It's worst part was that you caught this sickness, too—but I start to think it was your bad luck. And blood loss. My recomndation is that you refrain from sharing blood in the sa amounts from now on."
I groaned.
"But I have genes to share with my daughters again! I hate to leave them genetically behind like that. Entire generations will be born with fewer improvents than they could have!"
Next to , Ambrosia, who was watching my examination, smiled.
"It's inevitable that soone will be left behind. Just accept it. I know your granddaughters won't be sad about being born slightly weaker than others. Their mothers might complain, but… They understand, too. We taught them that not everybody can get everything alongside working with their sisters instead of stinging them."
"Ah, the wonderful life lessons," I smiled nostalgically and nodded. "All are true."
"I have more good news, Father," Tabletina added, attracting my attention again. "I gathered reports about outbreaks of illnesses in the Empire for the last two months and told Researchers analyze them. They say that although originally the amount of ill bees shot up rapidly, now it barely grows at all. But it doesn't fall, either."
"So you want to say things beca stable, Tabletina?"
"Yes, Father. As if our dicine and other abilities that can prevent sickness reached the balance with powers of these bacteria—except it shouldn't have, right? You said that they keep evolving, after all."
I humd thoughtfully and rubbed my chin.
"That's right. I thought it would be a race between us and them. Things were going to get worse, not better. Is this just a temporary break for us, or a trap of so sort? I don't like it…"
"Us and them," Amby echoed slowly. "But bees aren't the only creatures that can beco sick. Is this really only about us?"
I blinked. Such a simple thought, but… As soon as Ambrosia voiced it, the entire puzzle clicked into place.
"Amby, you are a genius! Yes, that's right—things have reached a balance."
"Hm? Father, please explain!"
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