Empire Of The Ants by Werber Bernard

Author:Werber, Bernard [Werber, Bernard]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Transworld
Published: 2012-12-30T13:00:00+00:00

THREE JOURNEYS

56TH HAD AT last found the ideal place to build her city. It was a round hill. When she climbed to the top, she could see the easternmost cities, Zoubi-zoubi-kan and Gloubi-diu-kan. If all went well, it should not be too difficult to link up with the rest of the Federation.

She examined her surroundings. The ground was quite hard and grey in colour. The new queen looked for a soft spot but it was hard all over. When she stuck her mandible in to try and dig her first nuptial chamber, she felt a strange little tremor, reminiscent of an earthquake but far too localized to be one. She stabbed the ground once more and the trembling began again except that this time it was worse. The whole hill rose up and slid to the left.

In living memory the ants had seen a great many things but never a hill that was alive. This one was now moving along at a good pace, cleaving through the tall grass and crushing the undergrowth.

56th had still not got over her surprise when she saw a second hill approaching as if by magic. She did not have time to get off and was carried away into a parade of amorous hills. It was bad enough when they pawed each other shamelessly but 56th’s hill was female and another hill climbed slowly on top of her. A stony head gradually emerged and this dreadful gargoyle opened its mouth.

It was too much for the young queen and she gave up the idea of founding her city in the area. Rolling to the bottom of the headland, she realized the full extent of the peril she had escaped. The hills not only had heads but also four clawed feet and small triangular tails.

It was her first sight of tortoises.

THE TIME OF CONSPIRATORS: The most widespread system of organization among human beings is a complex hierarchy of ‘administrators’, powerful men and women, who supervise, or rather manage, smaller ‘creative’ groups, whose work is then appropriated by ‘commercial’ personnel in the name of distribution. The administrative, creative and commercial personnel make up the three castes which nowadays correspond to ant workers, soldiers and reproductive forms.

The struggle between Stalin and Trotsky, two early twentieth-century Russian leaders, is a marvellous illustration of the change from a system favouring the ‘creative’ group to a system favouring the administrators. Trotsky, the mathematician and inventor of the Red Army, was ousted by Stalin, the conspirator. A page had been turned.

It is quicker and easier to get ahead in society by exercising charm, uniting assassins and putting out disinformation than by producing new ideas and things.

Edmond Wells

Encyclopedia of Relative and Absolute Knowledge

4,000th and 103,683rd had set off again on the scent trail leading to the termite hill of the east. On the way, they met beetles pushing along balls of humus and explorer ants of a species so small they were hard to see and others so big the two soldiers could hardly make themselves seen.

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