Taylor looked in her wallet. Almost expecting flies to fly out of it with how deep in the hole she was, all these years of medical expenses for her family having been shoved on her by their deaths. So now she was here, standing in front of the Entomorph breeding programs front doors, unemployed and in debt online she had heard that if you signed up here they would pay everything off in exchange for you choosing one of the groups to live with and help with the group's population. While the idea of kids wasn't exciting to her the idea of not having debt collectors on her ass for the first time in five years was. She fluffed up her purple sidecut before taking a deep breath and pushing the doors open. Being immediately met with a blond hair and purple-eyed woman walking out with a bee at the same time. 'Huh, don't I know her from the news? good for her.' She then walked up to the desk looking at the taller ant before sighing. "Hello... I signed up for an interview today, I'm Taylor Olson."
"Why yes, we have been expecting you, Taylor. My name is Zula, and from your file, you are hoping to get out of some debt more than a particular want for children. We can handle that, as long as you are willing." She grins "People tend to fear us because of being underground, and we can assure you that you will have plenty of resources to recover from your losses, and we have just the job you can do." She grins and holds out a hand "So Taylor, I will ask you, are you ready to help us so we may help you?"
Taylor grinned before taking the ant's hand and shaking it. "Oh absolutely." She snickered a bit her ripped denim vests pins bouncing and jingling lightly as they shook hands. "Honestly I'd do almost anything to get away from the debt that isn't even mine, and what's a few years in the grand scheme of things."
Zula nods "It will take time, but you will be cared for and have all your worries up here taken care of." She smiles and begins to lead Taylor outback. "I really like all the shiny stuff you are wearing!" She pulls Taylor close and pokes some of the buttons. "They clinkly clack!"
Taylor giggled a bit rubbing one of her pins that had a small cute character. "Yeah, I collected them as a kid because I thought they were cute. Having them on really became part of my style after a point." She then distanced herself slightly from Zula feeling a bit intimidated by the larger woman.
She grins and nods "That is really neat, while the spiders make high-quality clothes, the bees make above ground things and foods, while we do underground stuff, and have been finding ore easily to sell. Shiny is good, so shiny brings prosperity to the hive!"
Taylor chuckled a bit before nodding along with the ant. "Yeah if you want I can show you where to get some of these ordered from if you all have internet down there." She then continued following Zula for almost a mile into the woods before reaching what looked like a massive anthill above ground. Causing her to whistle.
She nods "The bees have been working more on adapting things like that, though some we have been getting going. When we need stuff like that we go to town." She pulls Taylor closer again "Stay close, you do not know our tunnel lines yet, you will learn though." She smiles and starts leading the way inside. As things got dark, there soon were glows as they passed other ants, showing sets of glowing mushrooms on the walls. "We find glowing crystals and bioluminescent mushrooms to act as light sources that we have been installing ever since the program started."
Taylor had to squint at first as she made her way down with Zula. Pressing against the ant while she tried not to trip over the uneven pathways. "Um... where are we actually headed, Zula. I can't really see much and this dark of halls... make me nervous and remind me of way worse times than I'd like to admit."
She nods "I am guiding you through the false tunnels, things get bigger once we get inside proper." She smiles and turns a corner, leading into a massive chamber with many simple houses made with packed earth and metals. "Here we are, welcome to the central hive."
Taylor looked astounded at how open this area was. "Wow... that's all I can really say, this is kinda badass." She grinned stepping into the open area looking at all the ants scurrying around. Noticing the lack of humanoids even in the area. "So do the humans generally just stay in their 'mates' homes for the pregnancy? Or are you all less popular than the other options?"
"We are much more communal than others, there is really not a one-to-one thing. That and we breed faster than the others too." She points towards the largest building "The queen lives there, and the guards watch over those in the program. There are many who also choose to transition to ants before their time here is up."
Taylor nodded as they approached the massive building. Looking over everything gold was implanted in almost every inch of the main building. "Oh, my gods is that really all gold? That's ridiculous, I assume you have so much you can just afford that but... wow." She was awestruck by the extravagance of everything, remembering the infection from when she was a kid. "How did you all deal with the infection though? It crippled the bees but you all look... fine."
"Because of our tunnel systems, the agents couldn't get all the way inside, they had to settle for infecting some lesser drones. They were discovered sick and quarantined right away. Two died in peace, but the rest survived as we discovered the cure for our own species." She nods to the center of the underground town "We have a statue to commemorate their efforts to keep the sickness from spreading to the rest of the hive."
Taylor nodded looking over at the left corner of the open area. Seeing the statue of 5 ants all just holding hands in a circle. "I'm glad it didn't hurt you all too badly. It was really a sickening situation even if I can only hazily remember it since I was a kid at the time."
Zula smiled "It is partially because of how we handle things that it didn't get as bad as it could have." She sighed "Our queens though are all aging and having difficulties making elates to be the next queens, that is part of why we entered the program on our end to help keep our number production up."
Taylor nodded holding Zula's hand as they approached the front gates of the castle. "So who am I going to work with for the duration of my stay?" Looking over at the pair of guards that protected the doors the amount of armor plating seemed almost excessive.
"Well, like I said earlier, we are much more communal than the others. We will start you off small with just myself and the queen making sure everything goes well, then once you are settled in we will bump it up to more." She nods to the guards who nod back, looking quite a bit bigger than the other ants. "Those are the supermajors, they guard the hive, and come out when we need extra muscle."
Taylor nodded as the guards pushed the doors open. Letting the pair into the building, almost immediately it became clear this was the most technologically advanced area of the community, a small amount of electricity both warming the area and running actual light bulbs. "So... how is the queen? I'm honestly a bit surprised I'm considered worth sending all the way up to them."
"Any female willing to give us a shot we go all out on their comfort just as we would our queen's comfort." She smiles "Then if they wish to join the hive properly, there is a conversion process that people can go through."
Taylor gave a pair of finger guns while they headed down the steel and rock hallways. Each time they passed a door Taylor would peak inside, surprised to see rooms flooded with the most expensive furnishings that she had seen in her entire life. Along with this, there were at least 3 or 4 ants in each room, just talking or playing tabletop games. "That's hella sweet of you guys."
She nods "Yeah, we have picked up a few human entertainment things. We have struck several deals for all the ore we find down here, and have even taken to smelting it ourselves to start selling to those that need it. Then the bees came up with some improvement ideas for reasonable housing for those in human society who struggle with...well survival. We have been contracted to help with foundational work there while the bees make the actual above-ground buildings."
Taylor smiled softly at this before tightly hugging Zula's side. "I know just how crippling homelessness can be. I think it's really sweet that you all are willing to help others so openly." After a moment she blushed hard, pulling back before continuing their walk towards a now seemingly infinitely growing pair of doors at the end of the hallway.
Zula stops and opens a door, leading to an empty room with a comfortable bed and a few other amenities "Here we go, we can get you all started in more private quarters before introducing you to the rest of the system so as to not overwhelm you."
Taylor smiled walking into the room and sitting down on the bed. Her hands gently brushing the silk blankets before allowing herself to flop down onto it. Happy to experience having a bed of her own for the first time in almost a year. "So... when do I actually start? Like I will admit I don't even know what an ant pregnancy would be like for me so any tidbits of information would help."
"Well, our eggs are smaller than a human infant but will grow to be about as big. They need warm moist environments where they can exist, which the womb fits perfectly. Ant drones and workers can produce eggs in a pinch, but the queen in her prime would just lay grown and ready eggs en mass. Now however they are losing their fertility, and so we implant eggs into willing hosts to care for them for a couple months before laying them to hatch, which as a bonus absorbs some of the host DNA to add extra diversity to our genetic pool in comparison. Then we do it over and over again. And if you are worried about stretch marks, we have developed a special lotion that enhances the elasticity of flesh, so any pain from the process will be lowered or negated, and your body will keep returning to be nice and just how you are."
Taylor rolled her eyes before chuckling lightly. "Trust me, stretch marks are the least of my worries." She yawned lightly before shaking her head. "Sorry... I am a bit drained. I had been up for about 2 days straight at this point. Walking my way to the program and all."
