He turned to Penny, who was sitting on the other side of him, doing something with her voxpod. As she used a stylus on the fold-down table, lines appeared, projected by the voxpod.
“What are you working on, Penny?”
“Just doing some drawing,” she replied absentmindedly, never taking her eyes from the little table where her sketchy lines were beginning to take shape.
Sid craned his neck to get a look at what she was drawing. “Really? I didn’t know you like to…wow, that’s great! It’s a honeybee, right? How come you don’t want to be an artist?”
“Scientists use art all the time to illustrate things so other people can understand them. You know, diagrams and restorations and stuff.”
“How’d you learn to draw like that?” Sid asked.
“Lots and lots of drawing. That’s the only way to get better. Everyone in my family is an artist of some type,” Penny sighed. “Mum’s a painter, my dad plays piano, my brother sculpts, and my sister wants to be an architect.”
“What do they think of you wanting to be a scientist?” Sid asked.
Penny clenched her jaw. “They don’t get it at all, actually. They think science has no soul, and they’re disappointed that I don’t want to be an artist. They were tolerant enough to let me attend Sci Hi, thank goodness. I just can’t explain to them what I like so much about science. I want to know things. Nothing against art and music, but they don’t deal with facts. Art is subjective. The same painting can mean totally different things to different people. Science is creative, too, but it’s all about facts backed up by evidence, and it can change when new information is discovered. I want to find answers to questions about the universe. And I like the idea of helping people through science. I mean, really, think about what we’re on our way to do. We’re going to be miniaturized and enter a beehive with live bees! We might be able to help the bees survive and save our crops. That’s amazing!” She shook her head. “What about you, Sid?”
“I just like taking things apart to see how they work. I guess I get that from my grandfather. He was an engineer for a toy company. One of the things he showed me was that you can understand how most things work by taking them apart. Once you understand how they work, you can make them work better, even things like buildings, and robots and spaceships. We took lots of things apart, not just toys, but bigger things like impulse ovens and micro refrigerator units when I was older. He was always able to rebuild stuff because he took his time and was careful about keeping things in order. I’ve gotten pretty good at taking things apart, but I’m not so good at the reassembly part yet.” He sighed, “My mom has always been awesome about not killing me when I’ve taken apart something important. She’s been great, really. I don’t think I ever told her that.”
They swapped stories about their families until the huge flying lab descended in a cloud of exhaust onto the makeshift landing pad of Tsushima Island. Dr. Sharp and the assistant instructors herded everyone off the jet to a camp where dome tents and long picnic tables had been set up for them.
After an informal dinner, Dr. Sharp quieted everyone for a briefing on what they would be doing over the next three days. “Welcome to Tsushima Island, everyone! Now, we know what our research is about. There has been a resurgence of colony collapse disorder in beehives around the world, and we’re looking for causes.
“We’re here in Japan because Japanese bees don’t succumb to CCD. The first question is why not? Is there a behavioral or a biological factor that allows Asian honeybees to fend off what is killing millions of other bees? Or is it something in the Asian bees’ environment that is helping them resist the various diseases and parasites we think contribute to CCD? Hopefully, we will be able to gather some hard evidence that shows how the Japanese bees are surviving when North American and European bees are dying off. That’s the best way to test the theories currently being discussed.
“We know honeybees are social insects—that is, they live together in large groups. Studies have shown that bees have sophisticated methods of communication. For example, they engage in the waggle dance to direct other bees to food sources. They may even resort to head-butting a dancing bee if they think their own food source is a better one.
“A single bee may not be very intelligent, but when they work together, the hive mind can accomplish remarkable things. Simple rules like ‘vibrate rapidly when threatened’ can produce complex behaviors. Bees can defend their territory, vote on where to live, figure out how many workers to send out to collect pollen, and repair a hive. No bee sees the whole picture. No bee tells the other bees what to do. Each bee simply reacts to what’s near it and follows the instincts that rule its behaviors.
“We may consider ourselves more intelligent than bees, but when provoked, we humans still react instinctively. We display our own version of swarming whenever an orderly crowd of people is transformed into an unruly mob. Humans use a lot more information than bees do to make decisions, but we’ve actually learned a lot from this form of swarm intelligence. In fact, the nanobots we use for construction projects are designed to use swarm intelligence. They are programmed with the specs of the project and provided with the raw materials. Each bot has certain rules it must follow, based on what other nearby nanobots are doing. The result is that the nanobots divide up the labor themselves and create the structure. In effect, they act as a sort of swarm.”
Sidney pictured the bridge being built near his house. Warm memories of Philly lingered as he listened to Dr. Sharp continue. “All right, everyone. That’s enough for tonight. Let’s get some sleep. We have a busy few days ahead of us!” Dr. Sharp finished by sending the kids to their cots for the night.
Dr. Sharp’s discussion left Sid’s head swarming with ideas. Bees were just little insects. How could they work together to build their hives, forage for food, and then tell the other bees where that food was all without being able to speak? It took Sidney hours to fall asleep. When he did, he dreamed he was flying, skimming effortlessly over the surface of a strange world covered in huge, crumbling buildings made of gray, cracked cement. Each building had small, dark windows. When he glided closer to inspect a building, he was startled as concrete arms reached out of the windows and grabbed him. He tried to veer away, but the arms followed, stretching to follow him as he shot upward into the sky. They caught hold of his feet, slowing him down. He could feel his feet turning to stone. Tendrils of cold stone climbed his legs. He could feel himself turning gray as it spread. A rapidly spinning globe of light appeared, hanging just out of reach. He somehow knew that if he reached the light, he could escape, but he was being steadily pulled back to the gray world waiting to gulp him down like quicksand. Just as he was about to hit the ground, he woke up.
Hari was shaking him awake.
“Sid, wake up. We have to get moving. Time to be a bee!”
CHAPTER 6
With the sun up, it was time to start exploring their first live hive. A small electric vehicle towed a portable miniaturizer from the flying lab out to the hive. Dr. Sharp and Verge, one of his assistants, went first. The students followed. Sid watched as the beam projector was fired and a cloud of mist enfolded Hari and Penny. He could just make out the shrinking forms of his two friends for a moment before they seemed to disappear. The mist cleared, and then he was next on the platform.
Sid barely had time to worry if he was ready when the technician fired up the miniaturizer. When the mist cleared, he was looking at the tech’s shoes, which were now the size of houses.
“Come along! Quickly! The miniaturizer platform must be cleared before the next students can be reduced.” Dr. Sharp was waving them toward the microshelter. Once all the students were inside, the professor made sure everyone was strapped to the padded floor. He then signaled they were ready to be moved by flashing a series of lights. At their tiny size, his voice couldn’t be heard by the assistants’ normal-sized ears. When the tech detected the tiny green lights flashing on the outside of the microshelter,
he gingerly lifted the box. To the microstudents inside, it felt as if the room were rocketing upward. They shrieked as the room tossed and turned. After a few brief seconds, the microshelter was fastened securely to the tree where the nest was located.
Dr. Sharp called out, “You may now unbuckle your safety harness and stand. We’re going to get right to work. The coolsuits and equipment have already been miniaturized. You’ll find them in the lockers against the wall. Put them on, and then Verge will spray you with a pheromone that will make you smell like a bee—well, at least to other bees. Smoke is being pumped into the hive, so the bees should be calm and docile. But don’t worry, it won’t have any lasting effect on the bees.”
Once they were dressed, the students lined up to be sprayed.
“How do you know this stuff works?” Sid asked Verge when it was his turn.
“We located the queen and took a sample of the chemicals she normally secretes into the hive,” Verge said. “Then, we mixed up a batch for ourselves. We’ll all be royalty today,” he said with a wink. He patted a cylinder standing beside him. “I tested it earlier, and the bees accepted it. Nothing to worry about. Okay, helmet on, please.”
Once Sid was sprayed, he joined the other students standing around the entrance to the hive.
“All right! Here we go. Take your time, and try not to make any sudden moves,” Dr. Sharp advised. “The bees you see will be in a somewhat sedated state, but try not to startle them. You have the shock prods so you can give the bees a mild shock if they get too curious. At this voltage, no harm will be done, but the bees will be startled enough to move away.” Dr. Sharp activated his shock prod. The small metal ball on the end lit up with a halo of static electricity. He climbed up into the hive. Verge went next.
The students stood watching uncertainly until Penny said, “I don’t know about you, but I’m dying to see what it’s like in there! We’ll be surrounded by thousands of live bees!” She ducked inside the hive and glanced back at Sid and Hari. “C’mon, don’t just stand there!”
Hari started toward the hive and pulled Sid along.
As Sid poked his head into the hive interior, his helmet light came on. Dozens of lights bounced in the shadows of the cells as the class spread out to explore. The dark silhouettes of the bees could be seen on the walls. Most were resting quietly in the haze of the smoke. Some were moving hesitantly.
One bee came near Sid, touching him briefly with its antenna as it moved past.
ANATOMY OF A HONEYBEE
CLASSIFICATION: APIS MELLIFERA
MAGNIFICATION: 20X
Startled, Sid jerked back, slamming into the wall of the hive. Expecting the bee to sting him, he grabbed the shock prod from his belt and activated it. But the bee only stopped for a moment, regarding him with its unreadable compound eyes before continuing on its way.
After that first relatively uneventful contact, Sid felt more at ease moving through the hive. The bees didn’t seem to take the slightest notice of him with his much smaller size and the queen’s familiar scent.
“Sid, what’s taking you so long?” Hari called from up ahead. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” he replied. “Right behind you.”
The cells built into the walls of the hive made for easy climbing. There were plenty of secure footholds.
This hive is amazing, Sid thought. How could they build something like this without plans? They can’t even talk to each other. After his sting when he was younger, Sidney had always been afraid of bees. But now that he could study them more closely, he was able to keep a lid on his fear and focus on how amazing and interesting the bees really were.
Sid looked up and saw he was approaching the ledge where Penny had stopped. She waved.
“Good to see you, slowpokes,” Penny said as Sid and Hari reached the ledge.
“Very funny,” Hari said. “Enough climbing for me.” He cast his helmet light into the dark.
“Me, too,” Sid panted. “I must be really out of shape.”
“Guess we can stop climbing and start exploring what’s right here,” Penny said. She set out along the ledge, starting a visual check of the bees that were hanging on to the walls. Hari and Sid followed her.
“I’m not seeing mites,” Hari said. “That seems kind of strange. We saw so many of them in the dead hive we studied in Sci Hi, remember?”
“Yeah. You’re right,” Sid said. He turned up the cooling system for his suit. Beads of sweat were rolling down his neck. He was breathing hard. It felt as if he were still climbing vertically, but now he was simply walking along a flat shelf jutting out from the hive wall. He glanced over at Hari, but he didn’t seem to be struggling.
“Hari, Sid, can you shine your lights inside this cell? I want to see if there are any mites on the larvae,” Penny asked.
“Sure,” Hari said as he joined her.
Sid started to move, too, but he was struck suddenly with a wave of dizziness. His stomach rolled unpleasantly. Struggling to keep his balance, he grabbed a cell in the wall and tried to stop himself from falling off the ledge. A red light started blinking inside his suit helmet, and the faceplate lit up with an infographic of the coolsuit’s systems. The breathing unit was failing!
Sid tried to call out to Hari and Penny, but he was panting too hard to get out the words.
He felt panic start to invade his mind. He knew he had to get outside and take the helmet off immediately. But when Sidney tried to move, he had trouble commanding his legs. Instead of walking, all he could do was sink down to his knees and lean back against the hive wall.
“Heh—heh— help….” he groaned weakly.
Penny watched him sink to the ground. “Sid, what is it? What’s wrong? Have you…have you been stung? Hari, help me! Something’s wrong with Sid!”
Sid couldn’t answer. He felt as if a curtain were closing across his mind. He was having trouble thinking straight. Suddenly, he felt a tug under his arms, and he was yanked off the ledge as Penny and Hari cranked up their gravity nullifiers and jumped. Within seconds, they were on the floor of the hive, where they found Dr. Sharp and Verge, who helped get Sid outside. They quickly removed his helmet.
The warm, fuzzy feeling in Sid’s head that had been getting worse was suddenly wiped away. His thoughts crystallized back into focus. He could breathe again.
“What…what happened?” he asked.
“Nothing to worry about, my boy,” Dr. Sharp said. “Although you gave us a bit of a scare for a moment there.”
“Something damaged your regulator,” Verge said. “Did something hit you in the back? The rebreather unit is dented.”
“No, I don’t think so. Wait. I did back into the hive wall when a bee came past me.”
“That might have done it. Well, your vitals are looking better now,” Verge said, looking at the small screen built into the left forearm of the coolsuit.
Dr. Sharp said, “Let’s not take any chances. I’ll beam these readings back to Dr. Pritchard to get her opinion. Verge, round up the students. I think we’ve been in the hive long enough for today. We’ll start our three-day excursion tomorrow.” Verge nodded as he fastened his helmet and strode toward the hive.
“How do you feel, Sidney?” Dr. Sharp asked.
Penny and Hari helped Sid sit up. “Okay, I guess,” he said cautiously.
“You certainly look better,” Penny said.
“You were turning blue when we got you out here,” Hari added.
“I don’t think I want to go through that ever again,” Sid said emphatically.
“I can imagine,” Dr. Sharp replied. “Let’s get you back to the shelter and out of that coolsuit. I’ll replace the rebreather unit after we eat.”
Hari and Penny helped Sid make it to the shelter. By the time they reached it, he was feeling back to normal.
During dinner, Dr. Sharp read off some of the statistical data the students had collected in the hive. Temperature and humidity were normal. The population of the h
ive was normal. The proportion of young to old workers was within normal limits. Their brief visit to the hive hadn’t yet uncovered any obvious reason why Japanese honeybees didn’t seem to suffer from colony collapse disorder.
After everyone had finished eating, the students were free to hang out in the microshelter lounge. They clustered by the windows, mesmerized by the now giant world outside. House-size mushrooms grew on tree bark that wrinkled and folded like a mountain range. A caterpillar the size of a tanker truck crawled over the microshelter while a hummingbird hummed like a helicopter as it darted past.
Penny could tell Sid was still shaken by his rebreather accident, so she tried to give him something a little less stressful to talk about.
“What would you be doing if you were back home?” Penny asked as she leaned against a giant cushion cut from a block of foam.
“It’s almost winter there, so I’d probably just be hibernating, watching movies, and looking for stuff to take apart. What about you, Penny? You’re from London, right?”
Penny nodded. “My favorite hangout is the Natural History Museum in London. It was the first of its kind in the world. I live near a lot of museums. What about you, Hari?”
“In the winter, I’d be drinking chai and telling stories with my family around the fire. In the summer, it gets really hot in Delhi—about forty-six degrees in July,” Hari said.
“That doesn’t sound hot to me,” Sid said.
Hari’s eyebrows shot up, and then he laughed. “Forty-six degrees Centigrade. That’s about one hundred and fifteen degrees Fahrenheit.”
Penny whistled. “That is a bit on the warm side.”
“So what is it you guys want to do, once you’re done with high school and college and everything?” Sid asked.
Hive Mind Page 5