"They should wake up tomorrow at worst, according to Researchina's data," I said, smiling again. "It's all thanks to a medicinal plant Researchers found during the tests! Plant sample number 1947 or something—they didn't come up with a name for it yet."
"Ah, yes, I understand. The 'medicinal plants' thing, yes? I didn't know they could even put people to sleep."
"Most can't—but this one can. And we have plenty for everyone, my little princess!"
The plant's juice had a soporific effect, even in small doses. But yesterday, I ordered my bees to gather as much of it as possible and infuse lots of food with its juice!
Now, all the bees who ate "humanitarian aid" brought by us today fell asleep, and we could cleanse them without having to break any bones.
(I just hoped the plant had no deadly side-effects that weren't found during the initial testing…)
I turned to my subordinates.
"Alright, Lovehammer! Give your girls the order—scour this hive quickly and move to the next one!"
"Yes, Father!" Lovehammer saluted to me with her hammer and waved at the dozen Lieutenant Foremen that hovered behind her. "You heard him, sisters! Get your wings moving! Spread out and start with the mite picking!"
I cringed from the deafening shout blast as the Lieutenant Foremen flew to shout at the Sergeant Foremen and so on.
In a few minutes, the entire swarm of my daughters flew toward the sleeping bees. With expert, practiced movements, they patted a bee's tail for mites, crushed any they found, and cut the top of bee's hair with their knives to mark them as "clean".
A nasty measure… But effective.
These bees will be half-bald, but at least they will be mite-free!
I flew closer to watch the procedure. From above, it looked as if a brigade of sheep shearers was going through a herd: hair and dead mites were everywhere!
Pat-pat, hack-hack—and a bee went to the next patient. The smoothness and coordination of this operation, interrupted only by hundreds of shouts from Foremen Bees, was akin to a clockwork!
I could only applaud.
Which I did when, maybe only an hour later, the procedure was almost done.
"Amazing job, Lovehammer! You did this so fast—no wonder the purge of Hives Supremo and Hornet's Nest was so quick, too. Are your people still ready to work?"
"They can rest when all the mites are gone! We will have a snack, and will be able to move out again, Father!" Lovehammer lifted a small jar of honey from her belt. "Do you need any, Father?"
Since bees couldn't fly far without energy, everybody who wanted to leave the hive carried at least a bit of food with them.
"No, thanks, I have my own!" And it was cooked meat, instead of honey. Yum-yum. "Alright, Lovehammer, call for a break after you finish here—and we will deal with the second hive."
Half an hour later, we left Rulia's hive behind and moved to the second one. The bees there were already mostly asleep, so the Great Purge progressed there without interruptions.
I watched my bees crush the mites and couldn't help but grin.
'18 more hives to go… Too bad Tabletina's team is too busy to go in right now. Dealing with pupae will take longer—but 300 bees are not 3000 and not 30000. Tabletina's Physicians could enter the hive after some shouting from the local Queen. It worked out like that with the support teams I've sent to these hives earlier.'
The Warriors, the Foremen, the Hunters… There were a few dozen bees in each support team, and now they've fully integrated into their new hives.
By late evening, good news was waiting for me in the Council Chamber.
"Welcome back, Father. All the pupae in Hive Supremo were purged while you were out. Hive Supremo is fully cleansed! As for the eggs we gathered—Queen Ambrosia ordered that are cooked for today's evening meal," Tabletina reported.
"What? Really? But it's disgusting!"
Tabletina turned to Writingdown, who was standing nearby.
"You wrote that down, didn't you?"
"Yes, Lieutenant Tabletina. We told her about your reluctance earlier, but she said you were just acting irrational again."
Writingdown frowned and searched for a wax tablet in a stack she carried under her elbow.
"Ah, there. She said, quote, 'These eggs aren't different from eggs of other insects we eat, and we need all the food supplies we might get at the moment. Just mix them with other eggs before cooking, and even Nectus himself won't know the difference,' end of quote. Then she went to make sure the broods were properly tended for after the Purge."
I couldn't even argue with Ambrosia's arguments. A few hundred or even a few thousand mite eggs won't do much for our food supplies, but every bit helped.
'Got it, I just won't eat *any* eggs until the Great Purge is over! Oh, why does all the food have to be so disgusting in one way or another? Honey? Bee vomit. Honeydew? Aphids… tail secretions. Eggs? They probably came out of ugly lovecraftian gnomites!'
I shook my head and focused on the present.
In the present, I was incredibly proud of the good work of my daughters.
"I'm incredibly proud of you all for working so fast. Tomorrow, you will have even more work! There are pupae in Hive Hornet's Nest, not to mention all the subjugated hives—you need to teach other bees how to do these operations and spread out."
"Teach other Researchers?"
I shook my head. The Empire didn't need that many Physicians yet.
"No. You will teach…" The work would better fit someone agile… Someone good with knives… "Commando Bees!"
Tabletina raised her eyebrows.
"Teach these knifeheads? Huh…" A moment later, she suddenly grinned at me. "What a brilliant idea, Father! I'm sure they will have a lot to teach me, too!"
Uh, maybe bringing an amateur maniac to professional maniacs wasn't such a great idea…
Was it too late to change my mind?