The Ant
Unfinished short story by Kangzeroo
There is an alien civilization of intelligent Ants in a hivemind. It is believed only the Queen ant in the Capital City could give birth. none of the worker ants knew how. The worker ants were born from the queen, but no one knew where the queen came from.
Our story’s protagonist is a soldier ant that got lost after a successful raid, far in the frontiers of the Red Ant Empire. It wakes up alone and far from its warband. No chemical pheromones tell him what the group wants him to do. He sees dead larva everywhere.. except one surviving.
His normal instinct as a soldier ant was to kill every larva, but at that moment he did not feel compelled. He gets attached to this little larva, deciding to stay with it… Not really sure why. a few days later, it hatches.
This awakens a deep internal response from his chemical brain. Over time his hermaphrodite nature changes him to a female ant. And within 2 weeks, she was a young queen.
She finds her way back at a remote outpost of her colony. A few male ants from her colony start following her. She has no idea why.
….
In the Capital City, The Real Red Queen takes count. 10,356,673 ants in her colony this week. +455,020 birthed. -295,590 died. 23% from natural causes. 77% died from war. Net 159,430. Up 1.54% this week. The monthly census was complete.
She could send 100,000 soldiers to the South and try to finish off the Green Ants, or use that same 100,000 to fortify her outposts. The Green Ants were a bigger threat, so war it is.
…..
Far away, our soldier ant turned Young Red Queen was starting to notice something was different. Before, she was just a statistic. But now… She knew statistics.
She knew she had 4,890 ants under her command.
If she sent out 100 ants to help bring some food for her adopted larvae, they will have a 95% chance of success if they tried 3 times. Not bad, go forth men.
Then one night, she fucked one of her male ants. Didn’t know why, but it felt right.
She finally realized where Queens come from. All this time she thought Queens were born, but actually it was a behavioral chemical response. Every ant could be a Queen, if they spent enough time with a larvae.
And a few days later, she births her first larvae. Then her 100th. Then starts castrating all the male ants who care for her larvae.
All was well, she was learning how to Queen quite fast. A lot of ants were coming in from the Capital City for trade or scouting… But they never returned back. The stayed with the Young Queen. Awaiting instructions.
Her colony was now at 41,680. Up 753%, not bad.
But on that day, a warband of colony ants from the Capital arrived to take the monthly census.
……..
The Old Red Queen is outraged that there is a new rogue Queen from her own colony.
Her soldier ants failed to follow protocol. Kill every enemy, kill every larvae, and kill any wounded ant of any side. No survivors.
And yet here was a survivor ant from her own Red Colony, and a survivor larvae from her enemy Black Colony. The two bonded and created a new Queen… Something she took all measure to prevent.
This wasn’t suppose to happen… but statistically it would have eventually.
She regreted sending those 100,000 soldiers to attack the Green Ants instead of reinforcing the outposts. But no problem, she had 4,700,000 spare soldiers to call upon. 100x more ants than the Young Queen. But she couldn’t use all of them, or else her enemies Green or Black would attack the capital.
So she sent 470,000 soldiers. 10 to 1, those were pretty good odds. And so they marched to war.
…….
But by the time the red Capital soldiers arrive, the Young Red Queen had 436,580 ants. Almost the same amount as the enemy force.
So she did the smart thing Queens do in the art of war. She ordered a retreat. 10% stayed behind to slow down the enemy.
90% went with her to convert the other red colonies to her side. She had an optimal path, and calculated with a 10% attrition rate and 800 antmiles to cover, she needed just 17 days to convert another 3,000,000 fellow red ants to her side. As a traveling Queen, she had an advantage.
And so the Young Red Queen and her army began the long March. The motto was not to kill any fellow red ants if she could instead convert them to her side. The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
But shit, she had no idea the Red ants were at war with Green too! And that’s when she faced her first real battle. Her 793,670 Red ants, versus a roaming warband of 1,250,000 Green ants.
As a smart young queen, she ordered a retreat. Onwards to the Red Capital! With 1,250,000 enemy Green ants behind her.
If she played her cards right, in an epic strategic gamble she could convert all 6,000,000 ants in the Red Capital to her side via a patriotic defensive war. Or… cripple her Red civilization and doom them to invasion from all sides.
Thats the problem with Queens — they’re greedy. And greed blurs statistics. The odds were not in the Young Queens favor.
……
