Chapter 587: A connection to the Ashida continent
In all this time, all I knew about things that were happening on the Ashida continent was that things were stable there. At least the last time a message came through.
The last arriving report told me that things were even better than stable!
Not only were the runways for planes built, but the bees on the Ashida continent have founded dozens of sub-hives and conquered countless acres of land.
Malevolence was still the leader there, although after my first reinforcements arrived, she had a wide array of experienced specialists to advise her. Some humans, as I’ve been told, also had good thoughts on occasion.
Together, they choked the native life by spreading usnea trees from the mountains and mountain rivers all over the continent. Local dragons unwittingly helped in this by eating usnea fruits.
By now, a third of the Ashida continent was covered in a layer of snowy usnea tree groves. Bees and humans cleared patches of this frozen land and built their infrastructure there. It already became developed enough for its first manufactures.
The report said that Malevolence already had plans in motion to build several hydroelectric power plants, and in a few months, the Bee Empire colony on the Ashida continent will have full access to electricity and all other boons of civilisation we had.
But I knew that this would happen much sooner if we sent more specialists their way. At the same time, the Ashida continent could be a source of some resources that our continent was lacking, like certain rare mineral deposits.
For a start, I just wanted to exchange messages faster.
We already had flight-ready planes in the Bee Empire, and they were kept safe from the tsunami, the ash cloud. They even avoided the quake, since their hangars were too far from Precio-Us when she caused it.
Therefore, I could immediately give orders to prepare one of them for a test flight. Although we have spent a lot of gasoline stoking the fires in The Fields Region earlier, more was still produced daily. A region or a few might’ve run out of gasoline to fuel their mechas, but there was certainly enough for one flight.
Even a flight as large as this one would require dozens of tons of liquid fuel.
Things weren’t without complications, though.
The largest plane that we had built (and the one most suited for a long trans-oceanic flight, as Researchina assured me) was named Dragon-Bee. (Bees named all their machines and their ships... They saw no reason not to name something like a plane.)
It could carry 460 tons of weight, including its crew and fuel, but for a flight this long, almost all of this capacity would have to be taken by fuel!
Fuel was heavy, and for a long trip like that, there would have to be a lot of it. 400 tons "lot"... Even more if we wanted to be sure that the plane would reach its destination even in poor weather.
...Our engines were ineffective as shit.
Then add to this the weight of the crew and essential supplies for them, and there will be barely a few dozen tons of useful weight. In the scale of a growing colony, this was too little. But at least people and the most essential things like complicated electronics could be carried to the Ashida continent.
However, this wasn’t the end of it!
There weren’t any oil refineries on the Ashida continent. If it had oil at all, too little of it was discovered and excavated by local humans for bees to find it. All the machines built and working there, including a few mechas that were sent with the first reinforcements, had to use coal or ethanol as fuel.
This meant that any planes going there would have no fuel to return. They couldn’t even carry their own fuel with them—it was too heavy.
"So... you want to tell me that any plane we send there will be essentially lost to us for an unknown time, Researchina? Even smaller planes, not built for cargo, can’t carry their own fuel for a trip back?" I asked.
"No, Father. But this doesn’t mean that the planes will become one-use, not at all. They could be carried back to our continents on ships... Or fuel could be carried to them on ships." Researchina replied coolly. "The logistical chain can still be built, as I promised. It simply will be less... effective than you wished it to be. The work is already ongoing to make more fuel-efficient plane engines."
I could only sigh under the weight of my crushed expectations. In the end, Researchina was right—things were still achievable.
I ordered to prepare the Dragon-Bee and to fill her with only the things and people most required by the Ashida continent. Then I ordered to send as much fuel as possible with the next shipment of goods that would travel to the Ashida continent.
An Empire Council also gathered to compile a list of advice for the Ashida continent’s colony and how to build it. Malevolence was doing well, but we knew better, of course! That was why every time her people came to pass a message to Hive Supremo, there were dozens of questions about "how will it be better to do this?" or "was it a good choice to do that?".
There was also another thing.
"Malevolence was sent to Ashida as a military leader. Her competence is in crusading, not in building things in conquered territories or even in managing crusades. Perhaps a new leader must be chosen and placed on the Ashida continent colony," I said to my Advisers.
Bloodhero immediately huffed. "For a crusader, she got very comfortable where she is, in her own sub-hive. She even directs Jellybee Queens where they should go."
I nodded enthusiastically.
"That’s why I said ’perhaps’! Girls, you have the most experience with taking roles that, perhaps, weren’t where you imagined to end up in life..." I threw a meaningful look at Tabletina. "I want to ask you—do you think Malevolence should stay a ruler of the Ashida Region?"