The Journal of BubbleLand Studies
Scented into wax by me, zzzzz'ZOE, the Royal First Cousin, on this day, Twenty-eight Pine, in the year 15910.KinterSylvania's Bee Queen zzzzz'Drom, in an effort to extend Total Queen Management, struck the human portion of the Archaeological party with a 50% Downsizing, sending the lethal Scorpion Bees to strike without warning.
Interviewing a Scorpion Bee, zzzzz'Zoe, the Queen's cousin, discovered for the first time that the Queen had similarly DownLengthened the lives of thousands of Humans in the rebellious enclaves, claiming, among other things, that lifespans beyond that of insects, were not a protected right, but an unjust special privilege.
Counted among the DownLengthened, was Mayor Reg, leader of the humans. His daughter, Sarah, was forced to watch his death throes from the Scorpion Bees' supposedly merciful and painless venom.
The mysterious Bee stranger, shadowy leader of the waxware engineer rebellion, contacted the Archaeological party with the news that he was coming to comfort Sarah, his friend, and that they would pick a new Queen at that time. zzzzz'Zoe, Queen zzzzz'Drom's cousin, openly declared that he, too, would join the rebel ranks, and pledge to a new Queen.
A New Queen
By
zzzzz'ZOE, For Queen Sarah I
Four thousand Bees somewhere in the ButterSnow IceFlow woods-- except for the few remaining humans, we are quite alone, now. No Bees were obligated to join me in the rebellion against Queen zzzzz'Drom's aberration of history, this Total Queen Management, this totalitarian brood larva of Government and the Bee Counters. All of the Archaeologists decided to join with me, disgusted as I by the recent DownSizing of the Human population at Capton Heights.
It is a hard time for us. Four thousand Bees is virtual solitude to a people used to millions. The blue skies seem stark and unfriendly now, without the cheerful browning and yellowing of the bustling masses. There hardly seems enough wings to hide the silence in precious noise, the drumming of Mother Hive we all are so familiar with.
The rebel waxware engineers are some comfort, when we encounter them, but they and their Wolves must continually move their tiny hives, so as to avoid the RoseMoth Infestation that destroyed the big Urban Hive, Meadows 15911. zz'Bic's Wolf back hive is the one most often seen, and he has kept a chamber for me there, but the tiny cells and cramped passages of these Internet Browsing hives are claustrophobic, and the constant tech chatter of the waxware engineers drives me to the silence of the out-of-hive, except for times such as now, when I am riding with them, using my chamber for Internet access.
In an IRC conference logged into by all of the Browser Hives, the New Republic of BubbleLand was formed. zz'Tain, the mysterious waxware engineer and friend of Mayor Reg, has been elected Prime Minister, while First Knighthood has been offered to the Wolf, Lu'Ulf, who is still weighing acceptance of the martial post. Wolves have long held second caste, below Bees, and it is proving hard for them to accept the new Queen.
Our new Queen is the Human girl, Sarah, old for a Bee Queen at age six, but chosen by Bee acclamation, in response to her father's assassination. All four thousand of the Archaeological Bees, along with the millions of the tiny waxware engineers, have given her their promise, the promise to die defending her. And for the first time in history, the promise of Bees was given not in person, but by means of the Earth Internet.
This fledgling BubbleLand Republic could all come to nought, however, if rebel Wolves do not accept Queen Sarah. They are essential as swift platforms for the Browser Hives, and their favor is essential.
And then, of course, there is still the problem of Queen zzzzz'Drom, primadonna in wickedness.
For all of our bravado and political symbolism, the rebel position is quite perilous. zzzzz'Drom has begun building her own mobile Hives, though not Browsing Hives, and can be expected to try, with her full military might, to DownSize the rebellion. The single advantage we have is that Browser Hive technology is still a rebel secret. zzzzz'Drom's movements, when discovered, are instantly known to all of us, while she is blind to ours.
zzzzz'Drom also suffers from a relative lack of mobility, due to the huge logistics requirements of her army. It is suspected that her military now relies on human gastric cavities for honey storage, a role whose refusal ignited the Humans to revolt in the first place. These bloated Humans, given Bee citizenship in exchange for a reprieval of Downsizing, follow the army by oxen back, and eliminate the necessity of large hives to support the army.
Vomiting forth honey and slogans like Bee larvae, in order to maintain their lives, they are an unknown factor in the coming war. We think that their size will limit their movements.
Our perils aside, the party is now in the ButterSnow Ice Flow, which was ice covered in the recent past by a glacier thought to have come from the ButterSnow Mountains. Rocks, where visible beneath the verdant forest growth, show all the marks of glacial abrasion, and the ice flow's edge, near Capton Heights, is marked by heaps of glacier cracked gravel.
A surprising report, however, comes to us from zz'Tain, who is a bit of a geologist, as well as a waxware engineer. He tells us that there is a northern flow edge, as well. It had always been assumed that territory north of the ice field had been covered with an even deeper sheet of ice.
Apparently, there may have been a huge island of ocean-warmed land, watered by the Round Salmon River, and isolated from civilization. As no Hives had been found in explorations of the Ice Flow wilderness, it was thought to be unpopulated. zz'Tain, however, promises to show us a cache of artifacts, ahead. The Prime Minister hints that his frequent travels have put him in contact with some of these Hiveless Bees, who could become allies, or foes.
zz'Tain's negotiations are stalled, and there are murmurings that we may be facing war both before and behind us.
In closing, I suppose I should say a few words about our new Queen, Sarah I. It may not have been wise to choose her, as she seems to be Queen of nothing but sorrows. We Bees have never before witnessed the effect of a Downsizing on those orphaned by one, but apparently Human offspring are not very well equipped for the destruction of their parents by Bee Counters.
They, like Sarah, appear joyful and independent until their parents' lifespans are DownLengthened, whereupon they go into a dark mood, their eyes ooze like a bear-crushed hive, and their voices continually call out for those they have lost, as if their minds were too feeble to remember their parents' destruction.
All of the little ones of our party have been orphaned by zzzzz'Drom's attack, and most of them are in griefs so despairing that it broke down the barrier between Child and Bee. By necessity we must rush our way in silence, staying ahead of zzzzz'Drom's pursuers.
But even in the forest silences, as fear of discovery stills Human lips, the little ones are not for a moment left uncomforted, for a continual stream of Bee penitents light in their ears to speak directly to them. The wonder of this miracle provides the children a comforting distraction while the hourglass buries their griefs in its steady sands. Many of the Bees do not wait for time to dry sorrows, but drink from their cheeks the ink of the Bee Counters, and of zzzzz'Drom, as if the tears of a child were the sweetest nectar they had tasted.
Such trickles have become the tides in all of our hearts. Bee Counters poorly served zzzzz'Drom, when they dazzled her with the love of Golden Honey, and let drain from the Hive the tears of children, which are Mead of the Gods themselves.
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19 June, 1996 -- Expedition Report -- 28 Pine, 15910
