TLV IC Inbox

[falkeditupagain]

[It seems someone has decided to change his voicemail following graduation. Hes trying so hard to sound professional, business like, but Hanna's usual enthusiasm bleeds through easily.]

You have reached the mailbox of Hanna Cross. If you don't have an appointment, my secretary will follow up with a return message shortly. [a short pause.] meaning me. I'll get back to you, don't worry.

And if this is an emergency what are you doing on the phone? Cardio is your friend. byyyye!

Comments

[skitter]

That's my thinking.

I'll just, ah, suggest that he use it in other people's cabins.

[falkeditupagain]

That's fair. If you think he needs a babysitter I don't mind though, really.

It isn't like I'm not used to it. Besides, he seems less of a shit than Worth and he'd really not all that bad once you get to know him.

[skitter]

If I did drugs, you're who I'd want to babysit me. But whatever he needs is up to him.

[falkeditupagain]

Well thank you, TK, that's sweet of you. You know, most people don't look at me and think 'good babysitter', but I can be when given the chance.

I don't see you breaking your straight edge streak any time soon though, so. You'll have to take my word for it.

[skitter]

Happy to. I like my neurons in their usual patterns.

[falkeditupagain]

And I like mine slowing to a crawl. Or at least that's what it feels like they're doing. Did you ever see those 'your brain on drugs' commercials? I always thought the deflated person one actually looked like it'd be super comfy for your back...

[skitter]

Mm, no thanks. And I don't even want to know what would happen to the swarm. Or it might just tweak my power level.

[falkeditupagain]

Yeah, that might be a little odd...your brain on drugs, also a bunch of spiders and a thousand bees.

Not as fun.

[skitter]

[A muffled giggle.]

Wow, a thousand.

[falkeditupagain]

...Is that too many? Or not enough?

[skitter]

Bees alone, I have approximately two million on board. It's easy to ramp a hive up to three, four hundred thousand.

[falkeditupagain]

Oh shit- That's a lot of fucking bees.

[skitter]

Bees are great.

[falkeditupagain]

I mean, yes, they are. Just, that's so many. How long do bees live anyways?

[skitter]

Twenty-five, thirty days. Queens live up to three years, but I retire mine at one.

If I vanish off the Barge, I've got it all set up so the bees will very quickly reduce their own populations down to sustainable levels.

[falkeditupagain]

Huh...that's not very long at all. I guess that's why she's constantly popping them out, yeah? Crazy that you can get those kinds of numbers when their life span is that short.

[skitter]

[Welcome to honeybee 101]

The queen can lay up to two thousand eggs a day in her active season, and I have two queens in each of the greenhouse hives, and the two hives in my cabin have ten and twenty queens, respectively.

I'm over-producing, but there are three separate groups of people aboard making mead and almost a hundred passengers who won't have any other source of sugar if we run into another time we can't make supply runs. And I feed the excess larvae and all the waste to the mealworm farm.

In the meantime, they ensure the greenhouse and garden boxes produce every single calorie they can. I worked for years on figuring out a system for perfect pollination. And I sell spare queens whenever we make port somewhere good.

[falkeditupagain]

[Hanna might look a little horrified.]

Two thousand a day? Jesus christ. That poor lady.

Still, that's a super efficient system, I mean...It's gonna be a whole thing when you decide to leave, I suppose. Hope the Admiral finds a apiarist who's like, half as good in the meantime.

[skitter]

Iris is decent at it. And she can rehome the spare queens if she has to. But I do miss when the Shens were here - they both had my bug powers, since we were linked.