The work camp was built like a miniature beehive. Safely hidden inside its cave from roaming kaijus, it hosted 10000 bees inside.
Foren Bees and Forager Bees flew in and out with their hauls of nectar and pollen, Builder Bees maintained the structure, Cleaning Bees cleaned it…
But most of the bees, which were drafted from Foren and Forager Bees, were swarming with their digging sticks near the future channel side. Their leader in this place, Chief Foreman B9381, was hovering in the air next to .
We looked toward the spanning river. It had sloping, grassy banks, and it was hard to tell where the water ended and solid ground began.
'I bet this river floods terribly after every storm,' I thought.
"We are ready to dig, Father! But where from and to?" she asked .
"We will start… A safe distance away from this river." I pointed past it, toward a nearby pillar mountain. "There! Let's put sticks into the ground to draw the edges of the channel."
Soon, the Worker Bees under my command made a rough outline of a 10-ters wide channel. Its depth was going to be "two bees tall", or around 3 ters.
Its estimated length was going to be three kiloters. The final asuring sticks were put right in front of the yellow adow ants' anthill. They still didn't care about bees until they stepped too close to them.
A colossal project, especially for workers with only stone tools.
'This will take a while… A couple weeks *at least*, I bet. But that's alright, I will *definitely* pull the lifespan gene at the next developnt level. And I only have 65 points left to go.'
"Alright-y! Get to work, everybody! Raise your sticks and BRING THEM DOWN!" Chief Foreman shouted. She had iron lungs—her voice carried all over.
Bees echoed her words like a chant.
"Bring them down! BRING! THEM! DOWN!"
Thousands of bees spread across the marked ground. There were so many of them that they covered five hundred ters of length at once, even standing side by side. It was a line of bees that stretched into the horizon!
They all dug into the ground, bringing up clumps of grass, dirt, and rocks, and throwing them to the sides of the channel. 8000 workers…
The construction progressed with incredible speed! It was like the ground was lting under the endless blows of the digging sticks!
I stood, gaping, while Chief Foreman B9381 flew from one part of the digging site to another, shouting encouragent and looking out for predators.
But what predator would attack 8000 bees? No one was so suicidal.
The noise of bees' voices and actions spooked away everyone before they could even see the bees themselves!
'Perhaps this won't take as much ti as I feared. Uh… Maybe just a week of work?'
***
Three days later, Chief Foreman B9381 found at the hive.
"Father, we've finished digging! As you instructed, we didn't dig directly toward the river, but we are ready to do this whenever you command! It won't take more than a few hours."
My jaw fell.
"Two days?.. Girls, you are incredible. We must prepare Commando Bees for the raid on the yellow adow ants imdiately!"
"Imdiately" turned into a day of preparations. Even Ambrosia and Pollenia ca to watch, although I felt like neither was very interested in the happenings outside the hive.
On the morning of the 'Project Great Flood', they even ca to send off.
"Stay away from large hunters, Nectus," Ambrosia said. "At least there will be a lot of bees to protect you."
"Even Mother says that it's weird that you always fly outside instead of staying ho…" Pollenia said. Today, she was sulking. "When I have my own Drones, I won't *ever* let them leave the hive!"
I grinned and aggressively rubbed her hair.
"Well, when you do, then you can tell all about it, Polly! But you won't fly anywhere until we make animal husbandry."
Pollenia bowed her head and raised her shoulders, but didn't fly away.
"Faaaaaather… And when this happens? I thought I should've left the hive as soon as possible."
"You don't even know all the math and words that I do, Pollenia," Ambrosia said. "Be patient. You will need knowledge in your hive."
I nodded eagerly and gave Ambrosia a twin thumbs-up.
"Yeah, you can say that again, Amby! Now… See you again, girls—this evening, if things go well, or maybe tomorrow. Bye!"
I gave Ambrosia a goodbye kiss and flew off.
***
"Raise your digging sticks! BRING THEM DOWN!"
"BRING THEM DOWN!"
"Mind the water!" I added.
"MIND THE WATER!" Chief Foreman B9381 echoed.
Before , 8000 bees gathered to dig the last ters left toward the river. Behind them was the freshly dug channel.
It appeared as if by magic. Magic of lots of workers working really hard!
They ate these ters of dirt like they were nothing. In no ti at all, the first digging stick hit the wet soil.
The first rivulets of water flowed from the water toward the channel.
"Get away!" I shouted at the workers still digging near the river. "Don't drown!"
My bees flew up. From above, we all watched the water pour into our channel. The more water flew, the more it washed down the remaining dirt walls between the channel and the river, and the wider the flow beca.
Soon, murky water was flowing freely toward the yellow adow ants' anthill! The channel's shores were rapidly washed down by the flow of water, but it was still deep enough to carry water forth.
Reviews
All reviews (0)