Epic of Bee

We walked into the east gardens, and I could immediately see what the problem was. There were small black bugs everywhere, crawling all over the leaves and flowers.

"What are those?!" I asked as I frowned and walked over to one of the plants to get a closer look.

"We're not sure, but they appeared a few days ago and have been destroying everything in their path," Messia explained as she followed me. "We've tried pesticides, but they just don't seem to work."

Pixie flew down beside me and pointed at one of the bugs. "I think they might be immune to pesticides."

I looked closer, and they were small bugs with what looked to be Lichtar on them.

"Spray everything with nectar, and they will be fine. This is Trent's work, but the nectar will remove the Lichtar," I explained as I turned and walked out of the garden.

"Thank you, Ashia," Messia called after me as I made my way back to my room.

I just wanted to take a nap, but there was so much Bee-ing a Queen!

"Ashia! Gamble wants to see you down in his office!" Pixie called as she flew over Bee-side me.

"What does he want?" I asked as I continued to make my way toward my room.

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"He said it's about the meeting with the Queens today," she replied.

I sighed; I had forgotten about that. "Alright, tell him I'll be down in a bit."

Pixie nodded and flew off, and Miku popped out of the shadow with Rixie. The two ran over to me, but Miku didn't look happy.

"We have training, blegh, but you look like you have to do Queeny things anyways!" Miku said as she kissed me, and I chuckled.

"Yeah, I have to go meet with the Queens about what happened," I explained as we made our way to my room. "I'll see you later."

"Alright, bye, Ashia!" Rixie called as she and Miku ran off into a shadow and disappeared.

I sighed as I made my way into my room, where I changed into a nicer outfit before making my way down to Gamble's office. My body could now change itself, but I felt like I was getting closer to another evolution. I already felt pretty powerful, so I was curious as to what my next stage would Bee.

When I got down to Gamble's office, he was sitting behind his desk when I walked in, and he motioned for me to take a seat.

"What's going on?" I asked as I sat down across from him. Before he said a word, the door closed, and it was sealed off. A strange charge fell over the room, and my Queen System almost seemed like it went offline on me. I couldn't feel anything, but I wasn't worried.

"I am sorry about this, but after the Sky Folk, I am taking no chances. While the room is like this, we can talk freely without the worry of anyone listening in on us," Gamble explained, and I nodded.

"That's good. What did you want to talk about?" I asked.

"The meeting with the Queens today; what do you plan on doing?" He inquired, and I shrugged.

I hadn't really thought about it too much since I had been so Bee-sy, but now that he mentioned it, there were a few things that needed to Bee done. "That is a good question. I really am not sure what there is to Bee done about them. Do you have any ideas? You are the Bee Brain, and if you called me here, you must have some plan for the Wasp Queens, right?"

"Well, I thought that we could use them to our advantage. There are a lot of them, and they could help us with the overwhelming number of tasks that need to get done. Not to mention, they want to be let out into the world again," Gamble explained, and I nodded.

"That is a good idea," I said as I leaned back in my chair, but then I saw a thread in the air, and Gamble saw it at the same time. Both of us could read the Holistic Threads, and we both knew what this red one meant.

"So there is a chance that they will refuse, or it is almost a certainty. I thought about this, but I assumed you would be able to talk your way out of this. That doesn't seem to be the case, and now we are going to have to create a plan that doesn't involve them joining us. We know that will fail, so not trying will increase the likelihood of the next plan succeeding or at least us seeing its thread," Gamble explained as he looked over at me.

I never really got into the whole Holistic thing, but I knew the feeling the threads gave me and the flashes of things that could pass. I also knew that Gamble always saw the better picture. "Alright, so what do you propose we do?"

"Well," he said as he leaned back and steepled his fingers in front of him, "We know that they have their own agenda and that they want to leave this place. We can use that to our advantage."

I frowned; I wasn't sure where he was going with this. "How so?"

"Well, let's say we give them what they want and let them leave. We can even help them get to where they want to go. But in return, we need something from them," he explained as he leaned forward and clasped his hands together on the desk.

I frowned; I didn't like the sound of that at all. "What do you propose we get from them?"

"A Queen," Gamble replied simply as if it were nothing, but I could tell that he was dead serious by the tone of his voice.

"We have Helaina as my wife already," I said, but Gamble shook his head.

"No, we want a producing Queen like Moraine. She has not laid any eggs, but we don't have a male drone for her. That is something that needs to be done sooner than later as well. We are going to have to find a few drones that you can give access to the Gene Bank. That will allow us to create specific types of workers that we are going to need going forward if we plan to keep expanding. Now that we are all back, we are going to have to get moving with everything that has been put on pause," Gamble explained, and I frowned.

I never really liked the idea of taking a Queen by force, but this did seem like a good way to get what we wanted without much hassle or bloodshed. "Alright, so how do you propose we go about this?"

"Well, there is a meeting today with all the Queens. We can use that as an opportunity to talk with them about our deal," Gamble explained as he leaned back in his chair. "If they refuse, then we can just let them leave and not help them."

"That seems a bit aggressive, and we don't know how they will act now. Just Bee-cause we removed the virus doesn't instantly make them good people," I interjected, and Gamble put his hand to his chin.

"This is why it is good to work together on these things. I know that you are busy being Queen and all, but we do need to discuss things like this," Gamble explained, and I sighed.

"I know; I'm sorry. It's just a lot to Bee taking in," I admitted as I rubbed my forehead.

"I understand, but we really don't have any other choice in the matter now," Gamble said as he got up from his desk and began pacing the room. "We need to get moving if we want to stay ahead of Trent and his forces. We also need to find a way to get the Meccats over here from the other side of the world where you just were."

"That won't Bee a problem. When the time comes, they will just combine into a bunch of ships and come here. The problem is that I need to figure out what to do with them when they get here. 1,223,342 Meccat spread over seventy classes! That makes my head hurt just thinking about going through them! And that's just the Meccat, never mind the Goblins I have to deal with and integrate. There are fewer of them, but there are still over 10,000 from Tag and Sig's estimation," I said as I got up from my chair and began pacing as well.

"I see; well, that will have to Bee done eventually, but for now, we need to focus on one thing at a time," Gamble interjected as he stopped me and put his hands on my shoulders. "We need to find out what Trent is up to and stop him before he can do any more damage."

I nodded; he was right. We had been so focused on everything else that we hadn't even really considered what Trent might be up to. The attack with the bugs on my Crystal Flower Gardens was just a test, and I was sure we would be seeing more Lichtar victims in the future.

"We'll find out what he's up to, but for now, we need to focus on the Queens. We can't let them leave until we get what we want from them," Gamble said as he released me and walked back over to his desk.

I nodded in agreement; there was no way I was letting Trent get his hands on any more Queens. If he did, then it would only be a matter of time before he had an army of Lichtar at his disposal, and that was something I could not allow to happen.