Haniya stood anxiously waiting in the gateway room for some kind of confirmation that the girls had safely reached the grove, but none had come. It had been past the safety time already, and Queen Golden had even imposed a state of emergency in the hive, but they had not been able to contact Team Insaaf, no matter what they tried.
Commander Buzz was talking to Sir Jamun about any possible malfunction of the gateway, but everything seemed in order, which made the whole situation even worse. The HQ at the grove would usually contact them within an exact minute, but more than a minute had passed. And that meant a lot in terms of time. The crow twitched by his side; somehow he had missed flying into the gateway and following the team.
Haniya was at a loss for words; she had no idea how to approach the situation as everything was too alien for her.
Queen Golden who was also waiting for the news personally in the operations room, glided to her and stopped by her side.
"I am going to be honest; this has never happened before. Gateways have one of the most secure infrastructures in magical societies. So for something to happen to them while traveling is highly unlikely."
She continued, but in a more delicate tone, upon seeing Haniya's expressions.
"We think they lost the trajectory and landed somewhere around the grove. Since time moves differently, we're hopeful that in some seconds we may actually get a notification."
Soon, a small, chubby bee approached them and stood some distance away, bowing reverently to the Queen Golden. The queen looked at it and nodded. Then it proceeded and placed a tiny air bubble on Haniya's hand and started blowing into it. It gave its best, and felt very proud when the bubble changed into a big, ballonish glass in her palm.
Then it looked at Queen Golden, expecting her to speak on his behalf, and surprisingly, she did.
"Haniya, you might want to follow him. He's going to treat you to a special honey that only his team knows how to make, and between, they're very sensitive and protective about it. Even I get only a small gallon every month. Anyway, please follow him. He looks very excited."
Haniya was dumbstruck and, without saying a word, followed the small purple bee. It led her to a compartment in the wall, and she pulled it out by the knob. Then she took out a gallon of lilac-colored honey; it was infused with tiny sparkles and caught more than one lingering eye and some scoffs in the room.
The small purple bee then turned around, buzzed angrily at every worker who had stopped handling their operations and instead were gazing hungrily at the honey, and they started working again, embarrassed. Despite being smaller than all the other units, Shaitoots remained a very authoritative and proud unit. Queen Golden was amusedly looking at the whole scene.
Suddenly, the central antenna comm started buzzing; they had received a notification.
**********
#212 glided below a huge arch of white marbel that had hundreds of green vines climbing it up and twisting around each other. Small critters played among the leaves; they hopped from leaf to leaf and glowed under the sun.
The grove was magnificent. Huge trees of various colors rose high into the sky. Their scale even dwarfed #212 in comparison. Upon them were hundreds of vines that hung low from the branches and emitted an extremely pleasing odor. On more than one occasion, Isra had thought of lunging onto one in midflight. But #212 had, of course, stopped her before she even tried.
A calm breeze gently swayed the pasture of lush green grass on the surface. The grove was home to thousands of unique critters and creatures that the girls had never imagined before. But it was too hard to observe them properly while flying.
Soon they reached a circular opening between the trees, and there rested a magnificent bird with a tail so long that it moved and encircled various faraway stumps. The bird looked like a dragon but was much fluffier and harmless. It was sleeping, and in its sleep, it was singing a harmonious, low-sounding tone. The girls immediately felt sleepy upon hearing it.
A team of soldier-bees intercepted them, and #212 responded. One of them separated from the rest and flew around him, inspecting every wound carefully. After some moments, it turned around and said something to the team captain.
#212, and the girls were then led deeper into the grove. It was time to contact the hive and tell Queen Golden about everything that had occurred. They needed rest and help. Qatan was in danger, and the hive was sabotaged. This had been revealed to be the worst nightmare for the bees in a long time, and they had to do something about it quickly.