Chapter 580: A solution?
We didn’t just lay down our hands and accept our fate, of course.
At the very least, we had to manage our resources better.
For this sake, I gathered the Empire Council and together with my girls thought through ways to better use the resources we already had.
Bees already weren’t wasteful creatures, but the Bee Empire was a massive bureaucratic machine with countless chains and corners in which something could fall and disappear.
These things were inevitable when any bureaucratic system became large enough. In the Bee Empire, there were allowances and safeguards for the cases of unavoidable bee errors, but they weren’t perfect.
The Empire Council ordered an extra inventory across the sub-hives and human settlements in the Central Region and its neighbours. There were also other measures.
For example, bees now had to write on paper with pencils instead of ink whenever possible, so the paper could be reused later. The more permanent notes that were supposed to go to archives would have to be written on wax and put on paper later.
Soldiers would now use more defensive tactics against various hostile creatures, which would allow them to safely use their other weapons against them instead of rifles. The downside of this was that the combat patrols couldn’t control all the territory they were protecting before, and some wilder areas in the Bee Empire, where even now our control was less full than I’d like, were going to be a breeding ground for various wild insects.
"All in all... We will have to be more sparing with most things, girls," I concluded. "Especially art. This takes a lot of paper..."
Worriesgone nodded sadly.
"Yes... But it’s alright, Father. We can use wax or clay... Oh, but I don’t want to use clay that’s saved for more important things. Well, there are still many pieces of art that need repairs after the quake."
"That’s right, sister!" Things-Things nodded eagerly and cheerfully raised her fist in the air. "We haven’t done all the repairs yet! Good thing that we still have the materials for those at least, yes-yes!"
I smiled at her enthusiasm.
"Maybe in a couple more weeks the ash cloud will dissipate at last. The reports of scouts and the calculations of Researchers show that it’s not infinite. Hmm. Alright, I think we went over all the most in-demand supplies and didn’t miss anything—"
"Father, there will be medical shortages, too."
I closed my eyes for a moment, trying not to wince. Because of course...
"Shortages of what exactly?" I asked, turning to her. "We aren’t using herbal medicines anymore, so what else? Bandages? We did go over needles..."
We had plenty of dodos to give immunising shots to anyone who needed them, and these helped against anything herbs could be useful for. And herbs themselves were more likely to be poisonous than helpful now.
"We went through sewing needles. Surgical needles are different," Tabletina pointed out. "We will have enough of them, though. They are rarely broken, because all Physicians are already much more careful when sewing than any seamstress."
Things-Things opened her mouth to protest, but I shushed her with a glance.
"Girls, don’t bully each other," I said in my dad voice. "Tabletina, what is in demand, then?"
"Cleaning alcohol. Especially if we are to reuse bandages... There’s been almost no new supplies of it since the quake. I was told all the distilleries were heavily damaged." Tabletina glanced at Workharder.
Workharder nodded.
"So they were. They have a lot of glass in them! We couldn’t even start repairing them until the electrical glass kilns had power again. Don’t you have enough in your stores? I thought that thanks to the dodo blood, we don’t need to even clean our wounds with anything but water."
Tabletina nodded, but she was still frowning.
"In theory. But even the power of the dodo blood isn’t limitless. My studies discovered that the effect of the dodo blood weakens each time the immunised creature comes into contact with various pathogens. This increases the demand for dodo blood, since people need new immunising injections. I assume that dodos are more valuable than alcohol, since unlike dodos, it can be distilled even from usnea fruits."
"This is the case in which we can spare some extra dodo blood, Tabletina," I said. "We still have enough of them. Even if some extra die, nothing terrible will happen."
"I understand, Father," Tabletina said.
I noticed that for the last fifteen minutes, Researchina was conversing telepathically with someone. A hive mind, from what I could feel.
When Researchina noticed my eyes on her, she perked up and looked at me, although I still heard echoes of her conversation. I could’ve listened to it in more detail, but instead preferred to wait.
This had to be important for her to get so distracted.
So I nodded to her and continued to finalise the plans with the rest of the Council for a few more minutes until Researchina called out.
"Father!" The next part of her message was telepathic. ’Hive mind Precio-Us say that they have another small breakthrough in their project, and that they can use it to clear the ash cloud away from us. They are eager to do it with your permission.’
I blinked rapidly.
’What? Only a dozen days have passed since their last breakthrough! Did they really advance so fast?’
’Not exactly. They tried to apply their existing knowledge to a problem that’s...’ Researchina covered her smile with a palm. ’Hanging over our heads. They say that the solution is more about applying power correctly, and that it would require some strategic planting and cutting of usnea trees.’
I rubbed my chin, doubting. The Empire Council waited for me, looking clueless—Researchina must’ve not even sent them this conversation, but they understood that it was about The Secret Project.
A magical solution to a lot of our problems... If we could start our heavy machinery in the Central Region, we won’t have to deal with spiralling production.
But what were the risks?