"While we were watching for the larva to hide, I reached out for thoughts of creatures within my own telepathic range. And what I found there were dozens of thought-sounds like those of this larva. Dozens of tal-eaters, and that’s just within a kiloter!"
I couldn’t tell where they were all coming from, of course. I suspected they were too deep underground to be found by soone without ’Telepathy X’. But its range was too large for convenient triangulation, anyway.
Destroyer’s eyes widened in alarm.
"The intruders have infected the Empire so deeply already? After all the effort of my sisters fighting in the borders?"
"Despicable," another bodyguard spoke up in disgust. Similar sentint was written plainly on the faces of the entire squad.
I nodded. This was really alarming and offending. It felt like opening a bag of wool for knitting that you inherited from your beloved grandma, only to find that it was infested with worms of clothes moths!
Not only disgusting but also insulting!
"We will dig them all out, my daughters," I promised, hitting my chest with my fist. "Starting with this one. Muchlook, get it out!"
"Yes, Father!"
Muchlook and her squad imdiately pulled out their iron camping shovels from their belts. The shovels were a part of standard Commando uniform—they were a necessity for making a good, safe camp.
The Commandos used them swiftly and expertly. Although the camping shovels were small, within minutes, the dozen bees dug a pit that was a ter deep.
The tal-eater was wriggling inside. It let out a pathetic squeal when it realized that there was no escape from the bees.
"Don’t kill it!" I warned before the shovels could be used by Commandos as weapons. "Let’s bag it up. I want to use it as a teaching example for everybody else who will be fighting them later. It will be much easier to show other bees its thought signature than to explain it."
"Understood," Muchlook said, putting away the shovel. "Rope, here. And drag the tal-eater out."
One of her subordinates got a long coil of rope from her belt, and the group had dragged the squirming tal-eater out of the rope. Together, acting with synchrony brought by great experience in working together, they tied the creature up until it couldn’t even drool acid on anyone or its ropes.
Finally, Muchlook stepped on its head, while the rest of her team gathered together as if posing for a picture, and stared at , waiting for orders.
I grinned and clapped.
"Perfect. Outstanding work! Ti to return to Hive Supremo and then cleanse our land!"
***
Upon return to Hive Supremo, I imdiately called Bloodhero and Undecided and we began charting plans for the search. Although the amount of available Commandos to do it was limited, Undecided’s predictions gave at least so idea about where to search for the tal-eaters.
I and Bloodhero made a plan for our latest-generations Commandos—which were more nurous among the available forces—to scout these areas first, searching for the signatures. They couldn’t triangulate them well, but they could mark the spots for searchers with ’Telepathy V’.
"And this is where we can use Beemarines instead of Commandos. We have more of them available, too. There are so reserves that we can pull from the borders," I said, feeling incredibly pleased with myself and at how this was turning out. "Beemarines have ’Telepathy V’, and since they can’t search for the tal-eaters by scent, they don’t need other genes that Beehounds have. Also, although the Beemarines are mostly Warriors, they all go through the basic course of Commando training."
"Yes, they will be a perfect fit, Father!" Bloodhero nodded sharply. Her eyes flashed with zeal of fury; a mont later, this enthusiasm dimd a little. "But what about the tal-eaters that are too deep for Beemarines to find?"
"Beehounds will have to coordinate between themselves to triangulate their exact positions, although it won’t be easy. Or..."
I narrowed my eyes, thinking.
"Bloodhero, until now we’ve only been using the young dodos for their blood, but they are very obedient beasts thanks to being imprinted on their tars. They are also large and can dig pretty well with their claws. We can send them to dig in the approximate direction of the tal-eaters. Assuming there’s nothing too precious around that they might destroy by doing this."
Bloodhero blinked in confusion.
"Dodos? Aren’t they precious and to be carefully guarded, Father? We can use chas for digging or do it by hand." She glanced at Undecided. "What if a dodo gets in an accident?"
Undecided shook her head.
"What? No! Dodos are very safe from tal-eaters. There were no words about accidents with dodos caused by tal-eaters! Though... I didn’t really search... I probably should look more into the dreams of dodos before I speak with so much surety..."
I raised my palm to stop her.
"No, no. Undecided is right, and I can tell you why, Bloodhero. tal-eaters eat tal and other small things. They are too tiny to be of danger to dodos, especially with how tough dodos are! And there aren’t any large beasts that can be of danger to dodos in the entire Bee Empire."
Bees made sure of it. Even the large predators like badgers, bears, wolves and tigers were driven away by bee stings eventually, just so our ta feathered lizards and pet dragons felt better in the Bee Empire.
Nowadays, these animals were on the decline anyway because of the insects and plagues killing them alive. I even heard stories about beasts being sucked dry by massive clouds of mosquitoes from so scouts that explored the farther reaches of the continent.
Though, in my world, mosquitoes sotis did the sa even without being evolved...
Of course, there were no mosquitoes left alive in the Bee Empire, too. They were all killed with fire.
"In short," I added, "Dalmanrach said that they will be useful not only because of their immunizing blood, but in other ways. And I think it’s ti to make this true."
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