An insectoid species artifically adapted from baseline humanity. Commonly found throughout Terran space, but especially in less heavily developed provinces where automation is less ubiquitous.
Basic Information
Anatomy
Cexpiz Bees are, much like other colonial species, recognisably human in body type but for animalistic distinguishing features, primarily an oval-shaped insect's abdomen a little smaller than the torso. The abdomen is punctuated with a sturdy, hollow-tipped stinger that curves slightly forward, and mainly serves as a detour for the Bee's extended digestive tract as well as for generating caustic honey-like poisons for the stinger. The arms and legs have a tough, slightly flexible exoskeleton starting just after the hips and shoulders, and which progresses down to slim three-fingered hands and narrow, birdlike clawed feet capable of finding purchase on most surfaces.
The interface between human-like (if slightly waxy) skin and the exoskeleton is marked by a ruff of soft, downy hairs that also cover all of the abdomen. Ruffs are also found on the wrists and ankles. The ruff hairs are generally a paler hue of the primary exoskeletal markings, and have a remarkable ability to trap moisture and particulates. Two pairs of large, tough and flexible gossamer wings grant flight for short-medium periods, or shorter hops when tired or heavily burdened. The wings are sheltered by short cape-like chitinous casings that also serve a function in transmitting the Consensus.
The abdomen and limbs are mostly a dull black with usually yellow stripes, but ethnicities with black/red and grey/white colours are known. Some Terrans have been known to feed their Bees metallic residues which give their chitin an iridescent sheen, usually at the cost of their lifespan. Hair follows the yellow, red or white tone of the markings but is usually a few shades darker. Skin follows the same general range of melonin-based range of tones found in conventional humans, with darker skin tones being found around darker skin markings.
At first glance the Bee's head may appear fully human, albeit with large, liquid all-black eyes. A set of bent, responsive antennae just out from the upper forehead which are highlyt sensitive to infrasonic vibrations. Bee ethnicities also vary in where the antennae are positioned, some growing from the temples and bent down either side of the face and others jutting forward above the eyes - there appears to be no serious difference in sensitivity between either.Bees also have no incisors, their teeth all specialised for either cutting or grinding.
Genetics and Reproduction
As a nomially eusocial species, Cexpiz Bees are latent hermaphrodites and are in almost all cases asexual. If a hive finds itself without a queen for whatever reason, a Bee is elected to become the new queen and by exposure to a carefully managed pheromonal cocktail will permanently develop the necessary organs. The queen is much less physically active and capable for obvious reasons, and will not leave her home except in the rarest and most dire of circumstances.
'Prince' bees are not elected but instead are chosen by the queen with the advice and recommendation of her caretakers, who together deliver a specifically targeted pheromonal cocktail (or in modern settings, a safer and more controllable intravenous distillate). The subject Bee then develops the necessary organs, albeit on a temporary and completely reversible basis - a single queen may if she chooses select a different 'father' for each clutch of eggs.
As a diplomatic gesture, and as a means to broaden the gene pool, hives may exchange selected Princes for a brief time. The Prince usually has the secondary role of entering the new hive's Consensus as a diplomat and spy, once she has learned the new dialect. For Princes selected within a hive, the queen may choose for fitness, reward notable members of the hive with the temporary promotion, or might simply choose for love. Human perceptions of soulmates, and of consumating an intense platonic affection, are both highly regarded by Bees.
No language native to the Cexpiz Bees recognises gender in any capacity, and when learning foreign tongues they tend to be exclusively known as female, even the Princes.
Dietary Needs and Habits
Cexpiz Bees are obligate herbivores, able to digest a range of fruits, vegetables and other soft plant matter. They are better able to extract nutrients from cooked foods, but most animal products (especially meats) contain certain complex proteins a Bee simply cannot digest.
Owing to their genetic heritage, Bees are attracted to pollens and nectars which may have a calming, narcotic or otherwise mood-altering effect - the precise effect depends on the flower in question. Natively, the Bees use this to create carefully selected bouquets that have more in common with poetry or symphonic music than anything else. Terran authorities have been known to manufacture artificial versions of these pollens as an airbourne sedatives to better control Cexpiz Bee populations.
Additional Information
Domestication
In Terran service, Bees see primary use in farming communities. With an inherent interest of their own to better manage crops, there is very little need for Terran authorities to force them to do anything in particular - the hive rents agricultural equipment, tends to and sells produce, and through a system of tarriffs pays for their continued sufferance to operate. The constant presence of Cexpiz Bees in the agri sector has led to a perception of the work as beneath full-fledged humans and a dishonorable line of work.
Bees may also be brought into service as household servants, much like the reptilian Atri but with more human proportions and less of a reputation for knocking over priceless heirlooms. Imperial middle-class and minor aristocracy families will often employ a number of the asexual Bees as maids and chaperones for their daughters (and by extension, their children and female relations altogether) - a Bee in this career is usually allowed to retain access to their Consensus specifically to learn on etiquette from their absent sisters, and often enough an elegant miniature radio collar is a core part of the uniforms.
Finally, a Bee day labourer might seek out all kinds of tasks that involve working at height - being able to fly lets a Bee reach much higher than any unassisted human, and they are much cheaper than either scaffolding or UAVs. Window cleaning, routine checkups or maintenance for ducting, basic rooftop engineering tasks and billboard servicing might all be performed by the occasional Bee whose hive faces a lean harvest and is desperate for a little extra cash.
Uses, Products & Exploitation
Though shunned by more sympathetic Terrans, decoding, jamming and artificial generation of infrasonic Consensus signals allows a Bee to be controlled by suppresing its thoughts. An individual Bee will always strive to serve its hive despite its better judgement, on the basis that any Bee in the hive will take her sisters' wellbeing into account while making judgements and assigning tasks. In ths way, a direct order layered over itself enough times becomes a literally irresistable force.
From the Bee's perspective, she is utterly, extistentially alone in a way she has never experienced in her life, and standing alone before the impossible orders of a million uncaring gods.
The technical term for this state of manually controlled Bee is the Cexpiz See - though other terms such as drone, thrall, and zombee are all in use. A See rarely survives the experience of being controlled in this way, whether by starving and exhausting itself in the process of carrying out orders or by the sheer trauma suffered along the way. The few Bees who escaped or were released are universally withdrawn, no longer contributing or trusting the Consensus - even after rescue, to the hive they are still the living dead.
The actual use of Sees for suicidally dangerous menial tasks or totally loyal servants is entirely up to the inhumanity of the Terran or pirate who makes them. While authorities are constantly battling to deny the existence of Sees or to whitewash the harm they cause the drone, mainly in an effort to save face, ews and rumours always leak out even through the flood of Terran propaganda. Even in the shadiest of criminal networks, handling Sees is considered uncomfortably cruel.
Perception and Sensory Capabilities
Referred to by Cexpiz Bees as thier Consensus, the hive maintains access to and communication with one another by a blend of infrasonic and pheromonal signals that rapidly spread infomation between individuals. The pheromones contain additional carrier information that the infrasound does not, meaning a Bee cannot immediately tell the source of infrasonic information except by recognising vioce or turn of phrase.
By sharing infomation in this way, a hive-family of Bees can share infomation apparently wordlessly and on first inspecton will seem to be anonymous drones serving a gestalt hive-mind. In reality, the individual Bee is merely giving and recieving information among her fellows in forms unaugmented humans cannot percieve. There is no 'cloud' in which infomation is stored, the Bees simply ask whoever in their hive is the relative expert. One of the most consequential technologies developed by native Bees was the radio, which allowed them to transmit their Concensus along very long ranges by open broadcast.
As no one 'voice' is stronger in the Consensus, even that of their breeding 'queen', Bees tend to be democratc in outlook and will often seek a majority approval before making important decisions. The queen is often respected as a decision maker, since her usually sedentary life at the heart of the Consensus leaves her with not much to do but listen and coordinate as best she can, but her word is not law by any means and even the slighest majority is enough to overturn the queen's word.
Every Bee might also act as ambassador for her hive, an often odious task that involves parsing ongoing debates amongst their hive and advocating for the alien they are wordlessly standing before. More expeienced (and accomodating) bees will simultaneously talk both in the Consensus and out loud, letting all parties follow what is going on.
Civilization and Culture
Naming Traditions
Their culture wholly subsumed and supplanted by that of the Terrans over the millenia, Cexpiz Bees generally take human names or invent short, simple monikers for themselves for interacting with humans. The names of their hives might be equally simple, as little more than a surname for paperwork's sake, or might become long storied descritions of lineages or marketable brand names for the hive's services. There is precious little standardisation in this regard.
Unusually, the languages of the Consensus almost never have the capacity for names, with Bees rarely referring to one another as indivduals through it unless the situations demands it - and even then 'that particular sister' with the right tonal inflections suffices to pick out an individual with all the accuracy an actual naming system might require. They therefore switch between English (or the local tongue of their masters) and infrasonic communication at will to better participate in a debate.
To a trusted outside observer, a discussion between multiple Bees might consist of wordless staring, with shaking wings and twitching antenna, punctuated at random intervals by shouts, cries of joy or hurled insults in an unusually fluent human tongue.
History
What is notable about Bees, in comparison with other gene-crafted posthuman species, is that docmentary evidence of their adaptation from baseline humanity was available almost from the start.
A damaged emergency signal buoy dating back to their homeworld's initial colonisation provided Terran first contact teams with information on the colony ship Chrysanthemum and its payload, designated "Colonial Experiment 12", originally mistaken for CEXP.IZ and forming an initial working race designation. The voyage of the colony ship was traced back to an Earth-based organisation of considerable means but very little concrete evidence of its dealings, which appeared to have planned for the 'emergency' gene-editing of the passengers long in advance.
The limited information uncovered, in part due to a botched expunging of a set of emergency backups found in a disused basement on Io, provided plans for a vast colony ship to conveniently fall off the grid before gene-altering and depositing its cargo in a healthy but technology-deprived form. The expectation seems to have been that the changes would create a society accustomed to the use fo their hive mind, which could be studied from orbit and eventually, a practical use found for them. The company considered future enslavement a simple return on their original investment.
The existence of this report, and the superficial similarities between the Cexpiz colony ship and those of races such as the Fennecs , Kitsunes , Harpies of Aquaruber and more, have led to uncomfortable questions in some circles about their own origins. To the Terrans, however, it presents a convenient story of manifest destiny - as for the Bees, so shall all wayward colonies of monsters be brought back into the care and patronage of the genetically pure motherland...
Origin/Ancestry
A Human Colonial Variant species
Conservation Status
When living free, Bees form small, semi-eusocial communities that forage and maintain meadows and farmland, with enough of a technological basis to support their particular needs. Terrans tend to either allow such settlements to remain in exchange for a supply of volunteer workers, or take the hive over and manage it on the behalf of the 'lesser' race.
Geographic Distribution
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