Authors Note: The adult warning as it is, is for the fact that insect reproduction, while typically male/female does not go same way as any vertebrate's methods of reproduction.
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"You know the colony will defend you and will not allow anyone to take your children from you," Hank said softly to you.
"I know," you answered nervously, rubbing your antennae to Hank's, "but you've even said that human scientists will want study our species more when they learn that we can create new Queens and Drones by stinging vertebrates..."
"Yes, and probably also in trying to figure out why the Amazon is not crowded with giant ants," Hank nodded, "which I would think is the result of the intelligence of our new species and how well they actually know what their venom does..."
"The colony has told me they rarely sting and felt their jaws strong enough," you told him.
"As I'd already noticed," Hank nodded, "but that isn't common knowledge. Few even know the Divine Fire Ant exists as a species."
You looked over to the dead body of the beetle that had been hunted, stung, and then grew to massive size. It was big enough that you and the colony would feed quite well on it for quite a while. Hank was true there. Before you had been stung... before you became a queen ant, you had little interest in bugs of any kind. Now, you felt you needed to know and learn as much as you could, if only to protect yourself. You wondered what humanity would do with the revelation of what Divine Fire Ant venom did to vertebrates, or at least to humans, and what it did to invertebrates as you looked at the body of the beetle.
"And telling the truth would get Dr. Benjamin to calm down?" you asked after a moment, knowing that the intimidate problem was Benjamin's decision to reveal what had happened to you.
"Yes," Hank nodded, "He is a good man, and has made his fear that we will eat everything, and by revealing you.. we have no choice but to reveal everything... especially if he wants proof... but once calmed, he will be supportive. Right now... he's only afraid and nervous."
That made you sigh again, and you looked from Hank to the beetle and then to the colony. The colony that had adopted you as their new queen was working furiously to get your nest built. You had started the work with Hank, and with good reason. Within your abdomen were developing the eggs that would truly be YOUR colony, and you couldn't lay your eggs above ground. While no invertebrate would be a threat to you with your present size and thick armor, other ants and predatory invertebrates might prey on your eggs and neither you or your colony could do much above ground. Some vertebrate might even be swift enough to run in grab an egg and run off with it. You needed to be below ground where your colony would be safe, and from what you could see, your colony was working very quickly.
"Okay then Hank," you said to the man who had become your drone, "let him know what our venom does to invertebrates and a general indication of where we presently are. If he wants proof, we can give him more detailed description later."
Hank nodded. He then moved to where his bag of things presently was. One of your workers had placed it far enough away from where the work on the nest was going that it was easily accessible. You, meanwhile, returned to monitoring the construction of the nest and the related works that would need to go along with it. You could sense what Hank was doing as you approached where the other five drones in your colony were. They were presently waiting their turn to go down into the colony.
"How goes the work?" you asked.
The drones all looked to you as you spoke.
"We believe the initial chamber is nearly done," the first drone commented, "the colony is working quickly and working hard to make sure you'll be safe."
"And that is good," you told them, "because Dr. Benjamin is presently too afraid of us to be trusted."
You could feel some surprise and distress from the drones as they responded to what you said, and you quickly spoke again to try and calm them.
"Hank and I have agreed that we will have to reveal more about what we are to assure him that we won't eat the Amazon and that he will come around," you told him, "but until he calms down... our colony will need to grow by more than what is growing within me already."
"We're at your service my Queen," a second drone spoke, and you felt you could detect a somewhat lustful tone in his telepathic voice. As much as you would have been resistant to it at one point, your mind felt quite fine with their devotion and you could feel yourself becoming wet.
"Good," you replied, half surprised by the lustful tone your own telepathic voice took on as the drones looked to you, moving their antennae about, "but it will have to wait until we can all move underground."
All five drones nodded. You could begin to detect mating pheromones being produced both from your own abdomen and in theirs. Hank was your prime drone, but you had rapidly begun to accept many of the ant instincts that you'd gained or were developing. Protecting humanity and possibly even working with them was still there, but you were becoming quite content with being an ant queen. And as a queen ant, you needed think of your own survival and the survival of Hank and all your drones.
After a few short moments, one of the workers came out and reported you and the present drones.
"My Queen," the worker reported, "The initial chamber is ready, shall we begin moving the beetle in?"
"No, for now the beetle will be kept out here and should you be hungry, you'll need to eat it out here," you told the drone, "In the meantime, you may begin fully completing the nest with chambers to store food, chambers for my eggs and my larva, chambers for you to rest, and chambers to serve as a royal chamber and a chamber where our venom traps will be so that we may grow all the little bugs to feed the colony."
"Of course, my Queen," the worker bowed her antennae.
You then nodded and turned your head to Hank, where he was presently using his antennae to operate the touchscreen on his phone. He moved slowly with it as while his antennae were small enough to deal with the individual buttons, it was only just so and if he moved quickly, he would have accidentally pushed buttons he didn't want to push.
"Hank, the initial chamber is ready," you called to him, "I'm moving into my nest. When you're done getting the email or text message to your partner finished, bring your things and join me and the other drones inside."
"Of course, my Queen," Hank answered and returned to his typing.
You then looked up towards the sky for a moment. It was mostly obscured by the leaves of the trees above you, but you could very vaguely see patches of sky blue. It had been beautiful, but you were a Divine Fire Ant queen, you were pregnant with Hank's eggs, and you would soon mate with the other drones and you would be carrying their eggs as well. You needed to be below ground.
"Goodbye sky," you said to no one and then began your descent into your nest
The descent was quiet and various other workers carrying out loads of dirt in their mandibles went on the other side of you. You eventually made it into the chamber that you and the colony had begun. Getting to the floor required walking on its ceiling for a little bit, but that gave your six limbs no trouble. The chamber, despite seeing several workers already beginning to carry out the orders you gave to the worker before you made your descent into the nest, you could easily the ground taking on a low level glow from the saliva that the workers had used to harden the soil in the chamber. It illuminated the chamber and allowed you to see around it easily. The chamber was easily twice as long as you were and its width was nearly as long as you and a drone standing end to end. It made for a relatively large chamber.
"This could become our transformation chamber," you commented as you settled into a region near the middle of the chamber, "insects are brought in and fed our venom here where they'll grow big enough to feed us."
"Yes, my Queen," the first drone spoke as he moved toward the end of your abdomen, where your fluids were beginning to collect around the opening in your armor.
"Hank is working to get Dr. Benjamin to calm down, but we cannot know how long it will take," you spoke slowly, "until then, we will need the strength of numbers to keep unwanted humans away from my nest. No one is to be hurt or stung, but kept at a distance..."
"Of course my Queen," the drones answered.
"Hank has already sired roughly three thousand eggs to allow for this," you continued.
"Which is good," the drones replied.
"But I must lay more," you spoke, feeling a reproductive need go through you, and knew you were producing even more pheromones, "I must lay more eggs. Drones... mate with your Queen!"
"At once, my Queen," the first drone answered.
You immediately began to feel him climb up onto your abdomen. The pheromones that betrayed his arousal was great and your antennae could pick them up. You glanced behind you to watch as he curled his abdomen down and toward the end of your own. And then you felt it, the same pleasurable connection that occurred when you and Hank mated. Like Hank, the drone's sting was modified heavily to pump semen into you and as it moved into your sexual opening, which for insects was an ovipostor, though you didn't know that. And like before, the feeling of drone inside you was pleasurable and that triggered a tingling sensation inside your abdomen, signaling that you were ovulating again.
"Fill me," you commanded, pleasure filling your voice.
The drone gave a soft grunt and you began to feel more semen being pumped into you.
"Thank you my loving drone," you said to him, a great feeling of contentment going through you.
"You're welcome," the drone answered as he pumped more and more semen into you, "my loving Queen."
You ended up mating with the other four drones as well, which went in much the same way you mated with the first drone. As the last drone climbed off of your abdomen, you felt quite content and instinctively knowing that you would be laying around eighteen thousand eggs, which mentally made you feel secure for the future with regard to the long term. Now, all you needed was for Dr. Benjamin to honestly agree to leave your colony alone. They had done much for you and you had done much for them.