For the moment there wasn't too terribly much that you could do. A part of you was rather hungry, and while the spider wasn't the most appetizing thing that your human mind could think on, you had to accept that since you were the new Queen of a Divine Fire Ant colony and new that within your abdomen your eggs were developing and growing. At present there weren't many, as you'd only laid one egg so far, but something seemed to instinctively tell you that there would be many more before you'd need to mate again. It would just take time for all those eggs to fully form and thus for your abdomen to swell to its full size to contain the eggs developing within you. And the same instinct that told you you'd lay many more eggs also seemed to tell you that it'd take about an hour after laying the first egg to lay the second.
You looked over to the spot where your first egg lay. The two workers selected for "nursery duty" were tending to it and making sure that the area was as clean as possible. In this, you could see that the egg retained its pristine and clean white coloration as it lay on the floor of the chamber that the colony had opened up and was illuminated by the bioluminescent saliva that the others used to hold the colony walls firmly together. It was something that was surprising and you didn't think that any ant had that sort of ability, but before you'd gone for your walk, you didn't think that any ant had a venom that could turn you into an ant, and here you were, a Divine Fire Ant queen.
"My Queen..." Oscar said from beside you and you turned to him as he seemed to catch himself, "Christine... are you okay?"
"I'm fine, I suppose," you assured him, "Just looking around and observing... looking to my egg with knowledge that eventually my child will hatch and that it will have many siblings... but also knowing that that will all take time."
"Just about anything does," Hank agreed from the other side of you.
You nodded to that. It was one of the things that was a constant in the world. Just about anything worthwhile took time, and while you where starting to feel a great deal of personal joy for the love that you got from the colony as a whole and particularly from all the drones, not just Hank, there wasn't that much that you had to do. Just about everyone in the colony had a job to do and a role to perform, and that kept them busy. Surely you couldn't be limited to sitting still and laying an egg every hour.
As you looked out over the interior of the chamber, you could even observe that work going on. The workers were beginning to move about to begin further digging into the ground and create other chambers in the nest. It almost resembled a conveyor belt of ants as they walked to a portion of the wall, collected a "bite" with their mandibles and then took it out of the nest, going up the wall on the side closest to the river and then along the ceiling to the hole and going out. They would return shortly after and would return to the same spot they'd been digging at earlier. With all of the ants doing this, you could see real progress being made in enlarging the nest. Though, you also noticed that new chambers were being dug in a way that they would go away from the river and more to a side of the nest rather than going down. You supposed that made sense, given that since even your workers were massive when compared to other ants... or any insect species in the modern era, really, that if they dug down, they'd more likely run into issues with either areas where the ground water was high or that they'd hit something they couldn't tunnel through, like bedrock. Of course, you were neither an engineer nor a geologist, so you couldn't really contribute and felt it best to leave engineering the colony to your workers.
"I do wish I could do more though," you spoke after a few moments, "I mean... I can't just sit here and lay eggs to contribute to the colony."
"You contribute a lot, my Que... Christine," Martin spoke up and you felt his antennae caress one of your legs, "Not only do you lay eggs and keep the colony alive, but you lead and guide the colony's actions... even if you don't lead the nest. Be it what hunting parties are to search for or the specific actions in relation to Doctor Benjamin. The workers sent will follow your command and he will not be harmed."
"And so long as you live," Howard added, "the colony's hive mind lives... as we all live to serve you, our Queen. We wish to see you happy and protected. To see the colony thrive... and through you, it does."
"Wait... the "hive mind" only works while Christine is alive?" Hank asked. You noticed his movement and if an ant could blink, your prime drone surely would have blinked in surprise to what Howard had said. "I mean... it's an incredibly interesting thing... and nothing like what is noticed in all other social insects, including other ants, wasps, and bees... but it only functions while Christine is alive?"
"It reinforces the survival of the colony," Nathan commented, "without Christine, the colony has no purpose and will die. We can persist and guide some things... but without a queen to serve... there's no purpose."
If you could have blinked, you would have. It was a total surprise to hear that through your antennae.
"This goes beyond anything I could have even theorized on the Divine Fire Ant," Hank was soon typing away to record his notes.
"Nathan... do you mean to say that ALL of you were dying when you stung and transformed me?" you asked him.
"Not physically," Nathan clarified, "but without a queen to serve, the colony as a unit would break up... Go their own way in confusion, and thus vulnerable to predators. We would have lived, but without anything that would give us purpose."
You weren't a biologist, but that was in a way amazing. Before, you didn't think of ants as anything more than bus and that their stings/bites were painful. You knew about their basic colony structure, but with a high school biology education on the subject, you couldn't compete with Hank with regard knowledge on ant colonies and how they operated, but you did get the idea that other ant species didn't have that sort of ability or nature. Though, simply existing to hold the colony together might be a good purpose, there was still the issue of having something to do.
The workers continued their work, with some periodically stopping to eat from the giant dead spider in the middle of the chamber, and some even brought bits of the spider to you and the other drones. You accepted the offered morsels politely and watched as your drones soon returned to what they were working on prior being offered food, caring for you staying in a protective circle around you. All of this represented physical things to do, and things that you didn't have.
"Well... I'm glad to give you purpose," you said to Nathan, assuring him that he and the colony wasn't ignored, "but there's got to be something I can do besides sit here... I shouldn't need to lay my next egg for a while. I could help with the digging... or... something..."
"NO!" Nathan said quickly, "that would take you outside and where you'd be at risk! It may be a bit boring right now... but once the nest is fully established and hunting parties can be sent out to collect additional food stores, as well as arranging for getting water to drink, there will be a lot of coordination that will go across the hive mind... and through it you may provide guidance and leadership. It may not be much right now, but then, you only have small part of the colony away from the nest."
"Could I walk around the nest?" you asked, "get a closer look at what's being dug."
"Around the interior of the nest, yes," Harry spoke, "and we will walk with you... unless you have some other instruction."
"Not at the moment," you admitted, "Hank may have his notes to take for providing a study and information on our species, but... I'm sure we'll return here before he gets to a point where he'll have questions for you and so on."
And with that you took a step forward. A small walk inside the nest wouldn't be much, but at least it would be something to do while you waited for either a reply to your email to your parents or for a report from the team sent to bring Doctor Benjamin to the colony.