Chapter 572: When it rains, it pours
Amby gasped, holding onto the back of the couch for dear life with two hands and onto my arm with two others.
"What is this?!"
The walls around us were shaking. I jumped off my seat on the couch, lifting Amby with me, and fluttered my wings in reflex, about to start flying if the floor crumbled underneath me—but it held. Instead, various knick-knacks began falling off the shelves and tables in the room: decorative figurines, well-wishes on wax tablets, Amby’s cup of unfinished tea...
The entire hive was feeling it. The thoughts and shouts full of shock and alarm reverberated over it, blasting me with a brief migraine. Trying to catch a single thought in this was a complicated task, but I tried.
There were more bees than on any battlefield, and they were more frantic than on any battlefield, but I had to locate the key people, establish the line of orders, calm—
A long, keening sound blasted through my mind with ten times more power than the chaotic mess of thoughts before. While it was in my head, all I could focus on was it, and I had no awareness of my body whatsoever. But even this I realised only when it stopped.
How much time had passed while I listened to this sound? I wasn’t sure, but by what I saw—only a second or a few, at most.
I was still in my and Amby’s living room, the Hive Supremo was still rumbling around us, but not terribly much, and from the expression on my wife’s face, I knew one thing immediately.
She also heard this sound just now!
And so, I realised, the entire hive must’ve heard it too. The shouts, both telepathic and ordinary ones, from earlier went quieter. Instead, people’s thoughts were more dazed.
This let me reach farther with telepathy and realise that the sound was heard not only in the Hive Supremo, but in its surroundings, too! I couldn’t tell how far away, though.
By this point, I realised what this sound was. It was familiar when I heard it, and its effect was impossible to mistake with anything—this was the "mysterious sound" that Precio-Us were researching.
"Shit!" I cursed.
If this was connected to the earthquake... Were we found by some wrathful god? No... In this case, I’d already be dead.
"Necty? Necty, you know what just happened?" Ambrosia asked demandingly, moving closer to me. "Please, tell me!"
I let out a long breath and focused on the most important thing—my wife. To my relief, besides being incredibly worried, she didn’t look affected by the brain-blast.
’I think this was caused by the secret project of Precio-Us,’ I told her telepathically. ’But they weren’t even working in the Hive Supremo anymore. Listen, somebody must make sure things don’t fall apart in the next ten minutes, at least. I need to check on Precio-Us really quickly, and then I will be back.’
Ambrosia’s face grew serious and determined. She nodded and patted me on the shoulder.
"Alright. I will deal with our daughters. But please, be back soon—we all need you."
At this moment, several Attendants and bodyguards burst into the room at once.
"Father, Mother! Are you alright?!"
"The hive is shaking, we must escape outside!"
"Tell us what to do!"
I raised my hands, attracting the attention of the gathered bees. The walls around us were shaking much less than before, and I could only hope that the hive-quake from earlier was a one-time event.
"Girls, I must send away my astral projection to check something. What happened was an unfortunate incident, but you must not panic. Instead, deal with it like with any other unfortunate incident... And follow Amby’s orders for the next while."
She nodded.
"Destroyer, get someone to keep watch over Nectus’ body. Attendants—we must make sure that the hive is structurally sound and see if there were victims affected by the shaking. Find the Grand Commander Nurse and tell her to send squads to check on all the brood cells..."
I was half-listening as Amby gave order by order. She was so cool when commanding like that... Although I felt bad pushing all this on her right now, I couldn’t stop thinking that these were some of her sexiest moments.
The half-panicked bees around were already calming down thanks to her pheromones. But I couldn’t watch the rest of it—my astral projection already left my body in the hands of my bodyguards and flew away.
I teleported to a work camp three hours of flight (at max speed) away toward the mountains, where hive mind Precio-Us was working alongside some Researchers and Oracles to develop the "mysterious" sound.
The location was chosen because Precio-Us wanted to be closer to the Champion Tree, and because there was a large breeding ground for dodos not far away. Precio-Us were using dodos grown for meat and blood to test the effects of the sound on the minds of beasts.
And finally, this was just in case something explodes...
If I was correct in my assumptions, the precautions didn’t help.
When I entered the small hive, I saw that it was still standing, which already was like a mountain off my shoulders. Most of the bees inside were buzzing in as much panic and alarm as anywhere else, while others were part of Precio-Us.
They didn’t panic. Instead, they were sitting or standing wherever the incident caught them—mostly in their living cells. When I flew past them, I felt the hive mind locating me and reacting with joy.
’Father, Father! We made a breakthrough!’ they chanted at me.
I stopped my astral projection in the centre of the hive, and several bees from it immediately fluttered around me, smiling and even giggling sometimes. All in unison, of course.
’A breakthrough... Girls, are you even alright?! There was an earthquake! Or something.’
’The side-effects! The sound holds too much power. We couldn’t keep thinking about it for too long... We need more people, Father! More minds!’
’What you need, girls, is to calm down and then calm down your sisters...’