The reason I gave my daughters all those simple names was because I didn't want to get too attached. But it was still sad to think about how quickly they would die, if not from danger, then from old age.
I could only try making the lives of their future sisters better and better.
With the improved food production and growing population, I could spare more bees from other duties.
I calculated how many bees I would need for border patrols against ants. Too bad there wasn't a map, but I knew Foragers didn't fly farther than half an hour away from the hive.
With their speed roughly estimated at 60 kilometers/per hour, it meant that the hive's "territory" was a circle around 30 kilometers in radius. The circumference of it was 188 kilometers… 3 hours of flight. 6 hours if the flight was slow enough to look out for ants and other threats, as well as take rest stops.
For every part of the territory border to be patrolled at least every 10 minutes during daytime, we'd need 35 patrols. 40 to be sure.
Each patrol could have just 10 bees—enough to deal with wasps and ants. Which meant I needed 200 Warrior Bees in total. Plus spares, so might make it 300.
'This is more doable than I thought.'
〔Border Patrols〕
Brainpower requirement: 7
Military: +0,1 per 1 thousand populace.
Allows establishing your territory.
Allows opening and closing borders.
〔〕〔〕〔〕
Cheered up even more by this, I went to organize everything.
My authority inside the hive has really grown together with the overall brainpower of the hive. The Foremen Bees I taught have taught respect toward me to their peers and younger generations…
It was nice. Although I still a little envied the instinctive deference that all bees had to their Queen.
First, I checked we had enough materials for hammers (Foragers that were given orders to bring sticks and rocks once never stopped doing it), and told my ten Craftsman Bees to keep making more hammers.
I temporarily removed 30 Foremen Bees from their duties and told them to train 300 other bees how to swing their hammers. For this sake, I picked the oldest of the first smart generation, which already became Foragers.
The hive could spare some Foragers thanks to our improved food production, and they had the best stats.
Just three days later, my appointed teachers reported their students could hit things with the right side of the hammer.
By this point, the Craftsman Bees made just enough hammers for the newly trained Warrior Bees. Unlike me, Craftsman Bees were hardworking, didn't get bored, and made hammers 10 hours a day.
The hardest part was to explain to the Warrior Bees what their new job was.
Bees had great spatial coordination and decent memory, especially considering their naturally low intelligence. If they saw their patrol route once, they could repeat it later easily.
But… someone had to show them.
***
The next morning, a great swarm of 50 bees flew out of the hive, led by me.
The clouds were so thick and gray in the sky that I could barely see the sun.
I pointed in that direction, and the swarm flew there at full speed, staying just above the treetops below.
We went over a couple of small lakes, and around a dozen pillar-shaped-mountains. Not even the usual predators like wasps dared to approach our swarm.
Only far in the sky, I saw triangular silhouettes of much bigger and more terrifying creatures. Their cries and roars made me jolt every time I heard one, but even they all.
My great stamina didn't end for the entire flight, but my daughters, who didn't have my newest superior genes, had to sit for a breather a few times.
After I decided we were far enough away, we stopped again. Even from this distance, I could still see the mountain that hosted my hive. It looked tiny from here, but would still serve as a landmark.
I also remembered a patch of purple flowers where we started the circle, to know when I will make a full circle.
The rest of the day was just a lot of flying, with occasional stops to snack on nectar from conveniently growing flowers and just give rest to our wings.
It quickly grew boring. We weren't even flying close enough to the ground to kill any ants. I was just showing my students the patrol route so they could become squad leaders and show it to their subordinates.
By this point, we were almost back at the start of the circle. I could see the purple flowers ahead.
As soon as the swarm reached them, I landed on one and sighed with relief.
Half a dozen Warrior Bees immediately landed near me, making the flower tree shake.
"Well, do you remember the route we took?" I asked the nearest Warrior Bee. "In the future, you might need to show it to other Warrior Bees-in-training."
"I have everything right here, Father!" The bee proudly patted her head. "I can even dance about it—right now!"
"No need. Rest a little and we will go back to the hive. I didn't even tell Ambrosia where I was going, so the sooner we get there, the—ouch! What's that?!"
Something cold, wet and hard enough to hurt splashed over my shoulder! I jumped to my feet and realized it was just water. But from where?
A globe of water hit the flower petal next to me, making it shake. The bees next to me jumped to their feet in alarm.
"This is not a normal rain…" I muttered.
Around me, more and more water was falling from the sky. Each droplet was at least the size of my fist!
"It's a storm!" a Warrior Bee shouted. "We must hide!"
A storm? More like some asshole god throwing water balls at us!
The sky has darkened a lot since this morning.
It would be impossible to fly when assaulted by all the water in those thick clouds at once. And staying in the trees would threaten to drown us, or freeze to death.
"Shit. Forget rest—we must find shelter before we are toast!"