Beowulf's Children

"The hell it wasn't. We had all the clues, explosions in the mines, and instead of coming over here to look for the real cause we wondered how the Pranksters could have done it."

"More my fault than yours, then," Sylvia said. "I'm the biologist. And I never guessed. Cadma

"Sure."

The comm card chirped.

"Cadma

"Amigo, we have it."

"The nest?"

"A nest, certainly."

"How big is it? How close are you?"

"I'm looking into a long valley," Carlos said. "I'd see more from a peak—Cassandra, that peak—Cad, the valley runs northeast from here, with a meadow down the center. The peak, call that Spyglass Hill for reference, is at the southeast end, forty-three kilometers distance bearing two-sixty-five degrees from Shangri-La. It's a long flat valley nestled in between ridges. There's a shallow stream. No indication of grendels. Let me say that again, no indication of grendels."

"There wasn't any indication of grendels at the lake up there either," Cadma

"I have not forgotten that. The nest is below the peak. It's the size of a hill, a lumpy hill with no sharp edges to it, ten meters at the tallest. It's big, I make it ninety meters by a hundred and eighty. I'll make my way to the top of Spyglass and get a better measure, but it's big. Cad, it might not be the only nest. We've all converged on this valley, six search parties following bees, and we all ended here."

"Compadre, that implies a lot of bees."

"You know it. Colonel."

"Okay, we'll come look." He glanced at Aaron... but Aaron didn't try to interrupt, and this wouldn't be Cadma

"No cyanide, but we do have some good insecticides," Aaron said. "You insisted. Remember? Do you think we will need them?"

"Probably not. Carlos, don't get too damn close to that nest. Bees protect their hives, and Avalon bees have a similar lifestyle."

"It's very likely they will," Sylvia said. "There would be strong evolutionary pressure to do that. Carlos, he's right, be careful."

"You know it."

"Here," Carlos called. "Follow the coffee smell."

Carlos had a full campfire going, with long sticks poking out of it, and a coffeepot braced on the sticks. Pouring, he said, "I thought I might want a torch right handy. Those bees are like little flying firecrackers, don't you think? Your people used to celebrate the Fourth of July that way, before the Green laws got so anal retentive."

Cadma

The bees were big enough to see as individuals, even from here, from a hundred and twenty meters away and uphill. There were thousands. The nest... hard to tell where it ended; the edges faded out into low bushes and tall swamp grass.

Magnify. "There are several varieties," Cadma

"Possibly soldiers," Sylvia said. "Terrestrial ants and termites develop lots of different forms. I never heard of bees doing that, but I don't suppose there's any reason they couldn't." She moved up beside him and adjusted her war specs. Then she shuddered. "They don't look dangerous."

"Even so, I would not care to go down there and dig up the nest," Carlos said.

Cadma

Aaron fished out his comm card. "Aaron here. Who's on duty?"

"Trish Chance."

"Trish, we need things to happen fast."

"Gotcha."

"There are a lot of these things here. They don't look dangerous, but how would we know? Look to the arsenal. Flamethrowers need to be charged up. Think about anything else we can use. And what skeeters do we have?" Aaron demanded.

"Three charged up. One out. It's been cloudy, and the batteries—"

"Right. Okay, hang on to one for equipment. Cassandra, what small mesh nets are available?"

"Four of the twenty-meter nets, one damaged. The others would not hold a creature of the size described."

"Thank you. Trish, get somebody to bring out those nets. Cassandra, please keep available a current display of nest locations as they are reported."

"Done. Ask for NESTMAP."

"Nestmap, please," Cadma

His war specs dimmed, and when he looked out into space he could now see a projection of the valley. A blinking net of bright lines surrounded an irregular mass that looked vaguely like an African termite nest. Dimmer lines indicated areas where more nests were suspected.

"Thank you. Enough."

The image faded. Aaron still asked questions and gave orders. Doing as well as I would, and he knows what's here. He'd have been a good officer back when we had wars.

Three skeeters rose from Shangri-La. A fourth, not yet in, would take off as soon as various factions could agree as to what should go aboard.

"I just want to be sure we learn everything we can from here," Cadma

"We have to take it to the bees sometime," Aaron said.

"I know. Cassandra, is there any way we can get an ultrasound map of the inside of that thing? Before we open it up?"

Carlos said, "Cad, I'll go off down the ridge if you'll give me the war specs. Give Cassandra a view from some other directions."

Cadma

"Have you got a flashlight?"

"I do," Katya said.

Sylvia said, "Want some company? Yes, Cad, I have a flashlight."

As the three receded, Aaron said, "They must find this stuff pretty dull."

They hate arguments, Cadma

"Pla

"I'd go in now."

"I wouldn't even try to take out a wasp's nest at night."

"They'll be torpid," Aaron said.

"We'll wait," Cadma

Unsettling shadows fell through the valley. To Cadma

Pterodons, much bigger, still wheeled in sunlight. "Those must stick to the heights," Aaron speculated.

Sylvia said, "And fall to the bees when they get old and sick." She shivered. Cadma

Bigger pterodons yet were converging above. These pterodons had never seen skeeters, and the sight gave them fits. One skeeter wheeled off and began to circle the valley. Three more followed each other down to Beehive Peak.

They unloaded tents and safety domes and crates of electronic gear, as well as tanks of insecticide. He watched a gri

He was a little alarmed to see someone as young as Carey Lou this close to danger, but he kept his mouth shut. He'd just have to try to ensure that danger was kept to a minimum.

"Everybody carries a safety sack!" he bawled, and there were no disagreements. If Carey Lou dropped his for even a second, he would tan his hide!

His comm card was talking: Trish. "Dammit, I say we attack it tonight.

They won't be as active."

"You heard Colonel Weyland," Carlos said. "We can't see well, we don't know what we're up against. It's insane not to wait for daylight—"

"All right. Let's say we wait for daylight," Evan Castaneda said reasonably. "What then? We don't have enough poison to take out one of those things. I think we should postpone the whole thing, go back and cook up about a hundred gallons of nerve gas—"

"We need to study them—"

"We'll study their corpses! These things killed Linda! And Joe—"

"Ah, I think—" Aaron tried to say.