I discovered I was a liar. Over the next couple of days, dozens and dozens of patches of overturned dirt littered the forest, nearly reaching the riverbank. After the first failed experiments with an empty vessel, resulting in nothing more than expelled matter, and attempts to create a swarm vessel resulting in dead Linkers and drones, something had to be done. Rather than leave the bodies and vomit to rot out in the open, it seemed sensible to us to bury them as we went.
As for the experiments themselves, well, I had held little hope for them in the first place, and as I looked down at the misshapen blob of orange goop with an ugly black spot at the center, the ticking clock weighed on me. The empty vessel, which I had expected to be the more promising of the options, proved to be even more problematic than we expected. Thanks to the CBU, we could multi-task just fine, allowing it to calculate ways to make the swarm vessel work while we attempted to create an empty vessel. Without Mind, it proved impossible. The matter I regurgitated was nothing more than waste. Gross. Even better, Queen was of little help, considering whatever I was trying to do was basically a bizarre, stupid version of what her kind evolved to do.
We ultimately tried using Mind. A quick attempt at using the Ability to create an egg without a living bee inside, or even to create a ‘dead’ bee while omitting the egg, resulted in nothing happening. The Ability didn’t even activate. And when that failed, we knew the only way would be to create it manually. As for that process… I would describe it as an exercise in patience. One I frequently failed. Putting myself in the perspective of my old life, it would be like trying to create a functioning, living human body out of ground beef. Even if I had a perfect knowledge of human biology down to the composition of the cells, it would be an impossible task. It made absolutely no sense to me to make the empty vessel. Relying on Mind’s capability to defy the laws of reality was the only way I could think to find success, but even that was beyond me. An Ability could do it, sure, but pure Mind didn’t lend itself to the task. Even when I finally became adept enough to shape the matter into the form of a bee’s body, it proved fruitless. There was no Link to speak of for the CBU to enter the ‘body’, Linkers couldn’t connect to it, and to be honest, I doubted that a bee whose internal organs were replaced with misshapen globs of regurgitated honey would be suitable to live as.
Simultaneously, we attempted to create a swarm vessel, and to be honest? The more we tried, the more excited we became. If it worked, it would be a far more appealing option to any of the ones we had thought of before. Who knew how flexible we could be if an entire swarm of drones housed our Mind? Unfortunately, to make it work, we ended up sacrificing much. Our first attempts were simple: have the CBU split the B-box it would use for preparation so that they would be less impactful, and synchronize the process between several drones at once. The downside of the swarm vessel was that it was far less intuitive than any other option. Even in the case of the empty vessel, if it were to be completed, it would be as simple as inserting our Mind into a single body. But spreading our Mind across several bodies at once, ensuring that they all worked at the same time, wasn’t something we understood. And that was only the first problem. Even if we figured out how to get multiple bodies to work for a single Mind, the question of how many drones would be needed to host us still stood.
It took a day for the CBU to figure it out. During that time, I just kept vomiting matter hoping to create the empty vessel, and meanwhile, the CBU performed tests independently. It split the B-box it used for host preparation into smaller bits, resulting in the deaths of ten drones. We had tried to ignore the line of drones waiting their turn to be guinea pigs, turning our backs to them as the CBU did what it had to do. The results were… unfortunate. When the sun was setting on the horizon on that first day, it finally predicted that it would require over a hundred drones to host our Mind. And that assumed that the six B-boxes that made up the new portion of the CBU, in other words, the resources required to have a steady connection and transfer of Mind, would be consistent with what Yelah could handle. That was on top of assuming our Mind wouldn’t become more powerful over time, that we could actually figure out a way to have the swarm synchronized, how we would split up the required portion of the CBU, and a host of other issues.
Safe to say, I doubted we would figure that out in three - then two - days.
Regardless, we tried. Boy, did we try. The CBU was working in overdrive, trying to conceptualize ways to synchronize the hundred required drones, at the same time optimizing the splitting of the B-boxes and connecting the drones together, performing small-scale experiments with ten drones and a miniature version of the B-boxes. Meanwhile, I just kept throwing up.
A day and a half passed where we did nothing but toss shit at the wall and hoped it would stick. My current attempt was an egg, and it had seemed like something was working, but whatever it was, it definitely wasn’t a bee egg. I carefully cut the sac open to reach the black dot inside, and all I found was a hardened lump of what was presumably once honey, corrupted and changed in some way by my Mind. Another bust, and the third day was creeping up on us. If Enfla’s guess was anywhere near accurate, Yelah could kick the bucket in as little as a few hours. I turned to face my crimes and found ten drones buzzing calmly in the air. The CBU had been working on these guys for over five hours now, and they were still alive, which was promising. However, I could feel its frustration mounting. As far as I could tell, it was having issues figuring out a way to get the bodies to connect with each other. Which was odd to me. The Link was a connection, but as far as it could tell, having the Mind be separated between multiple different bodies at the same time wasn’t possible with our current knowledge. It was different in some way from putting one half of our two Minds into one body, which made sense in a way. But we were already putting a combined Mind into two separate bodies, so clearly we were missing something about the connection between Mind and body, as expected.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Abruptly, the ten drones shuddered, and they, along with the twenty other drones waiting in line, began flying back to the central hive. As it presented its findings, Queen buzzed in annoyance. As it turned out, the CBU had no idea how to get the swarm vessel to work. However, it had come to the conclusion that not only was it possible to do, it was an incredibly effective option that would one day not only allow Queen to become a force of nature on her own, but could become a technique that could be used for a number of other use cases.
In like 10 years.
Yeah, the CBU was thoroughly pissed off because there were too many obstacles preventing us from getting the swarm vessel from being a viable alternative anytime soon. At our current level of power and the CBU current allotted Mind and complexity, it believed that if it were to do nothing but calculate, conceptualize, and experiment for over ten years straight, it would eventually figure it out. Of course, if we dedicated the hive’s resources and intellectual power solely to this purpose, and I trained more heavily in Mind and learned more about the connection between Mind and body, then that timeline could be brought down by a lot. But for now…
“I suppose the time has come.”
A mental sigh escaped me as Yelah’s prone body sat up. The safest route to take would be to not delay any further - anything past the third day was exponentially more dangerous to wait. At this point, even I could tell the state Yelah’s Mind was truly in, and I couldn’t help but wonder if Enfla was actually too generous with her guess. If Yelah survived the night, I would have to consider it an incredible miracle.
My eyes were forcefully drawn to Yelah’s. On the surface, she looked no worse for wear. It was uncanny, as if she could suddenly jump up and lead a revolution against the hive if I stopped paying attention for a moment. It was her eyes that stung me. As if looking at people’s eyes wasn’t uncomfortable enough, hers genuinely scared me. Seeing a person walk around, move their facial muscles, tilt their head, as their eyes were nothing more than glassy, faded orbs instilled a primal fear in my body. And that was now. Her friends already avoided her gaze when I first began suppressing her Mind. Maybe that should’ve been a sign of things to come.
The CBU had a simple solution for Yelah’s Mind that would, theoretically, keep it alive: absorb it into the Combined Minds Ability. One day, if we learned enough about it, then maybe we could give her Mind back permanent control of her body, not needing the CBU’s intervention. Theoretically, since our Mind would also be in her body, her part of the Combined Mind could somehow stay in there or something when - or if - she managed to recover.
With a heavy heart, I buried the final experiment, the inert egg, but I did not despair. With the wealth of knowledge we gained from what could and couldn’t work when it came to our capabilities with and without Mind, we would surely one day take the next step in improving our bees. The sacrifices of the drones weren’t in vain either; eventually, we would get the swarm vessel to work and it would blow any human vessel out of the water. But for now, for the sake of Queen and the human that once nearly caused the destruction of the entire hive, it was time to combine some Minds.
“We still do not know what the final result will truly be like. It is possible that our minor test will not reflect the true outcome. Perhaps you will be left alone.”
Don’t try to talk me out of it now. This has all been for you. Don’t worry about me, Queen. If you disappear, I’ll manage somehow. Honestly, life would probably be so much easier. Always having you nagging me in the back of my thoughts. Maybe I’ll finally have some peace and quiet again!
“…”
Queen said nothing, and she didn’t need to. Or rather, she knew there was nothing she could say that would actually comfort me. For some reason, here, looking at Yelah’s dead eyes, it hit me I was possibly about to lose Queen for good. She said she wouldn’t leave me alone, but so much of it was out of our control. It wasn’t out of the question that she would prefer her own body so much that she decided to just abandon us.
Just as I hesitated, a push came from a wholly unlikely place. Of all things, the CBU started flooding my thoughts with memories, mixing bits of my old life and the new. Sitting in my room alone. A feast with the bees. My mother’s face as I walked out her door for the last time. Laying my first egg. The explosive end of my first - and last - relationship. Hugging the hive five. And then the backs of many people’s heads, looking away from me. My mother. My girlfriend. The first friend I ever had. Yelah. The bees. My coworkers. The fernen. And a distinct head, simultaneously bald and hairy, yet perfect all the same. A human so perfect it shouldn’t exist. The Human.
“I am ready whenever you are.”
Upon hearing Queen’s buzz inside my head, I steeled my heart. We had been forced together by incredible circumstances, mushed together against our will. There was no choice but to work together to survive, to grow, and to protect what we now held dear. Maybe it wasn’t the most normal of friendships, but Queen and I were one and the same. I knew her as well as she knew me, and I knew from the bottom of my Mind that she would never leave me to rot.
There were no bees around. The forest was quiet, the only discernible noises being Yelah’s shallow breath and the quiet hum of the electric crystal spires. What we were about to do defied the laws of this world, and it was all so my friend could give her kids a big ol’ hug. So worth it.
This time, I didn’t hold the CBU back. Instead of a single box, all six new boxes shot through the Link at once, working as quickly as they could. It rushed to contain Yelah’s Mind, doing everything in its power to prevent her death. Her shallow breathing became clipped, and her already hazy eyes glazed over. I felt my control slip and suddenly found myself unable to control her body. Her limbs contorted to odd angles, her neck snapped back and forth violently, dangerously, as her muscles spasmed uncontrollably. My Mind became engulfed in flame. Air caught in my throat. White blurred my vision. Yelah’s body fell to the floor. Dirt rubbed on my face. Our teeth ground painfully. Two heads throbbed.
Then, peace.