Upping the Ante (Chrysalis, #2)

by RinoZ

I flee rapidly from the effusive praise and get to work checking on the old boundary as I circle around and overwrite it. It appears as though Enid was telling the truth after all. With that job done, I call Tiny up to help me and leave Crinis on defence duty under the queen’s chamber before marking out the new boundary in a straight line roughly two kilometres long between the settlement and the nest. With Tiny helping, it’s fairly easy to clear out trees. After surveying a little, we choose an area a hundred metres from the stream and several hundred from the settlement. Using my Infused Savage Mandibles I cut the trees close to the ground and Tiny carries them over his huge shoulder back to the humans where he dumps them on the ground. Once we’ve hauled a few trees over, I get digging and Tiny helps me lever out the stumps, leaving behind deep holes that the humans will need to deal with. After a day’s work, we manage to clear almost fifty trees and skirt the edges of the human camp on our way back to the nest. It’s a hive of activity in there. The people are bustling everywhere, talking back and forth, hauling the logs about and readying the tools they have on hand. Looks like they’ll be busy enough with that for some time. So long as they don’t come and bother me, it’s worth it.

If the Humans and Ants work to build a society together, they could easily dominate the entire world. Consider the possibilities of human knights astride soldier ants wearing metal barding. Also consider ants assisting the humans' agriculture and industry; a few worker ants on a treadmill could power a small factories worth of machinery. Of course, intelligent ants could accomplish the same feats alone, but it would happen much faster with the two species working together. Especially since the new Crafter Ants won't need to reinvent the technologies which humans have already mastered.