Japanese Honey Bees
The Japanese honey bees are not as gullible as their European cousins.
When a giant hornet appears on their doorstep they back away into the nest – inviting him to enter. When he does, he is surrounded and smothered by about five hundred of them. They vibrate their wings, producing heat, creating a small convection oven, and when the temperature reaches 47° C, the hornet dies. The bees, however, can withstand temperatures up to 50° C, and so survive.
The hornet cannot release its pheromones to alert the others, and the bees remain undetected.
Dorrikk
Jerbbekk scrutinized his small room one last time. Satisfied, he looked outside, hoping to catch sight of Zumther, and almost opened the door into him.
‘Sorry, Zumther,’ he said to the old guard, carrying out his final pass of the J4 residential huddle – a mass of tiny living spaces for Jay workers.
‘Are you trying to shock me into an early grave?’ he replied. ‘Get inside and stay there, Jerbbekk, unless you want a caution.’
Jerbbekk cowered and retreated into his room, closing the door. He slipped a thin rubber wedge in between the two segments of the maglock just before the door closed, ensuring he wasn’t locked in. A short while later Brack entered, taking care to replace the wedge. When Dorrikk arrived, they bowed, and each took her hand, kissing the third talon.
Jerbbekk crawled into the robes closet and activated a secret panel, allowing access into the room beyond. His two friends followed. A small table with four chairs was set up in the centre of the room, with an unfinished game of Callebaut laid out. If the guards ever found this room, they would assume it was a gambling den and issue a harsh reprimand, but the friends’ real intentions carried a death sentence. Dorrikk moved the pieces of the game away while Brack activated hidden levers that released the wall panels, revealing walls crammed full of maps of their underground world.
The Luna meeting of the clandestine Varr Society was in session.