Legends of Amacia: Mysteries of Tiamat
The Giant’s Garden

The group split up, going aboutthe various tasks Hannibal had assigned to them. It so happened that Selina andMary had to go to the cafeteria first to do their job, so Hannibal accompaniedthem there to have some breakfast with Selina. Mary promptly went into thekitchen, meeting with Cynthia to discuss how the supplies were holding up.

Mary andCynthia approached the table and sat down as Hannibal and Selina finishedeating. “How’re the supplies holding out, Cynthia?” Hannibal asked.

“We havemore than enough food for now,” Cynthia answered. “With what you brought, inthe last shipment, we have enough here to feed everyone for two years.”

Just as shefinished speaking, Dan and Jerry ran up carrying a large pack with something init. Their faces bubbled with excitement. “It’s incredible!” Dan crowed. “Jerryand Chris found something that you must see.”

“Yes,”Jerry agreed. “We’ll never have to worry about running out of food ever again.”

“What doyou mean?” Hannibal asked pointedly. “What did you replace?”

Dan gentlysat the pack on the table and opened it. He reached in, pulled out a tomato thesize of a coconut, and gently sat it in front of Hannibal. The eyes of everyoneat the table grew round as they gasped at the size of the tomato. Hanniballooked at Dan, and then the tomato. “That’s one big tomato. Get me a bigknife,” Hannibal ordered. Within seconds, Mary retrieved a butcher knife andhanded it to Hannibal. He held the tomato, cutting it in two, and then slicingat little piece off. Hannibal carefully smelled it and then tasted it. Hechewed on it and said, “It’s a tomato all right.” He suddenly feigned as if hewas choking and everyone except Selina grew concerned that it was poison. Afterseveral seconds, he laughed aloud and said, “I had you going, didn’t I?”

Cynthiascowled, slapping Hannibal on the shoulder. “That wasn’t very funny, Hannibal,”she hissed. Everyone else agreed with her.

“I’msorry,” Hannibal apologized. “I just couldn’t help myself. Where did you replacethis amazing tomato? It’s the sweetest tomato I’ve ever tasted.” He proceededto slice the giant tomato and hand the pieces of it to everyone, who carefullytasted them.

“We foundthem in sector 839 in a closed off chamber that we discovered a few days ago,”Dan said. “We only gained access this morning.”

“How far isit?” Hannibal asked.

“Two milesfrom here near the edge of the machine area to the southwest. You have to comeand see,” Jerry pleaded. “It’s so amazing I can’t even begin to describe it.”

“Allright…let’s go. Cynthia, Mary, Selina…would you care to accompany us being thatyou may end up using this new possible food source?” Hannibal asked. Theyagreed to come and within a half hour, they all stood in the entrance to a vastcavern almost four miles in diameter and a good two thousand feet in height.The floor consisted of a road running straight across the chamber. To eitherside of the road, the floor changed to the lushest, blackest, most fertiletopsoil ever seen. Row upon row of giant vegetable plants and citrus trees ofevery sort stretched out for as far as the eye could see. The dome-shapedchamber consisted of a combination of crystal, electronium, and granite. A warmbreeze blew through the chamber and clouds floated by. A simulated sun shownfrom the top of the dome and mirrored exactly the movements of the real sunoutside the Temple. Everyone looked in utter stupefaction and wonder. Cynthiaand Mary rubbed their eyes and looked again. The breeze caused the scent offlowering plants to waif by. Bees buzzed amongst the plant, busily pollinatingthe flowers.

“I wasn’tlying, was I?” Dan crowed as they slowly began to walk down the path, observingthe plants and their fruit.

“Wonder ofwonders…the Giant’s garden!” Hannibal breathed as he staggered forward inastonishment. His instincts led him off the road into the fields to the left ofthe road. The spongy black soil felt like a marshmallow beneath his feet. Hedodged tomato plants that stood ten feet without the need of a cage and hadfruit the size of coconuts hanging on them. Selina followed with everyone else.Hannibal stopped and stooped down, looking at the soft, spongy soil under hisfeet, scooping a handful up and closely examining it, and then dropping it. Heimmediately noticed weeds were nonexistent. Walking on a little farther,Hannibal stopped by what appeared to be a squash plant six feet in height andfifteen feet across with squash the size of footballs on it. Everyone gatheredaround as he picked a squash. He looked at it intensely and tested the rindwith his thumbnail. It was smooth, soft, and tender. Pulling out a pocketknife,Hannibal cut the squash in two and looked at the inside of the squash afterputting away the knife. It appeared to be just like the normal squash, onlymuch bigger.

“This isincredible. Cynthia…this is useable, isn’t it?” Hannibal asked as he handed thepieces to Cynthia. She examined it, and then nibbled at it, replaceing it veryflavorful.

“Yes, itis,” Cynthia chimed. “I’ve never seen squash this size before. On a normalsquash plant, a squash is perfect for eating when it is six inches long orless. When they get big, they get tough and uneatable. But this is a wonder.It’s just right and exploding with flavor.”

While shewas speaking, Mary had made her way around the plant and saw a giant squash hidamong the leaves. “Look at this,” she called out after picking a squash thealmost the size of a five gallon bucket. She struggled to heave it up soeveryone could see.

Jerryrushed to assist her. “Man…that is one huge squash!” he exclaimed as everyonegathered around.

Cynthiaexamined the squash and said with authority, “This one is too big. Just look atthe rind and how rough it is.”

Hanniballooked closely at it and unsuccessfully tried to score the overripe squash withhis fingernail. “You’re right. It’s way too big,” he agreed as he began to lookaround at where he was. “This is unbelievable. This Giant’s garden is theperfect garden: an Eden. We’ll never have to go anywhere else for food everagain. This place has enough food to last us several lifetimes.”

“I have aquestion. How come all these plants are alive down here? We haven’t seen plantlife anywhere else,” Mary asked.

“I suspectthat the people who made this place created this place to act as some kind ofsuper-greenhouse,” Hannibal suggested, his tone betraying his amazement. “Theymust have used the machinery of this place to create a biosphere, right down tocreating weather to water and nourish these amazing plants. Just look at theclouds and the simulated sun. The people who did this have created the idealconditions for these plants to survive and flourish.”

As hespoke, Selina wander off a short distance, and then returned with astrange-looking flower. “Look at this. I’ve never seen a flower like thisbefore,” she said. “It’s absolutely beautiful.” Everyone looked at it andagreed. As they stood around, they noticed the insect activity around theflowering portion of the vegetables.

“Hey…lookat this,” Dan called out as he isolated several bees pollinating the flower ona nearby tomato plant. Everyone gathered around the plant to observe the bees.The bees looked like the common honeybee except for the fact that it was thesize of a large hornet and didn’t seemed to be disturbed in the least by thepeople who have gathered around. They busied themselves gathering the nectarout of the flowers, buzzing among the flowers as they worked.

“Holy cow!”Hannibal exclaimed. “These bees are the size of bell hornets but they look andact like honey bees. I’ve never seen honeybees this size anywhere.” The beessuddenly moved on, leaving everyone standing there in astonishment.

“Thischamber is full of these bees,” Selina said. “Listen closely and you can hearthem.” Everyone listened carefully in silence. At first, they only heard abreeze. Then as the breeze died down, they heard a strange droning, like thebuzzing of millions of bees. It echoes throughout the chamber.

“You’reright,” Mary said. “They’re everywhere.” They began to looks around closely ateverything around them and immediately saw the strange honeybees crawling andbuzzing everywhere. Another thing they noticed was the bees were very docileand not aggressive in any manner.

“If we havebees, then there must be a hive somewhere. Let’s see if we can replace it,”Hannibal ordered. “Spread out and don’t be aggressive toward the bees. They’relarge enough to cause you some damage if they decided to attack. If anyonereplaces the hive, do not approach it but call for the others on yourcommunicators.” The group split up and searched. They walked amongst every kindof vegetable and fruit plants imaginable. Cynthia encountered what appeared tobe giant potato plants nearly seven feet high. Hannibal wandered into a sectionwhere enormous pepper plants of every type grew. The plants stood nearly tenfeet with six-inch stalks. Dan found twenty-foot okra trees and Jerry sawpumpkin plants that were five feet high, covering acres of ground with pumpkinsaveraging five to six feet in diameter. Selina’s path took her into an areawhere all manner of herbs and spices grew in abundance. She waded through theherb field that came up to her waist. The smells were very pungent and pleasantat times. As they searched, the bees kept going about their business, notshowing any aggression at all to the intruders in their domain. Hannibal andhis team searched for an hour and a half. On occasion, Hannibal picked and atesome of the smaller items. He passed through great orchards of every type ofcitrus fruit. He picked a ripe orange from a low-lying limb that was twice thesize of a grapefruit and began to eat it.

Hannibal’scommunicator abruptly chimed. “Hey. I’ve found the hive,” Jerry announced.“Follow my signal to my position.”

Hannibalpulled his communicator and asked, “You found it?”

“Yes, but Iseem to have gotten lost in doing it. Wherever I am, it’s near the wall,” Jerryanswered.

“Don’tmove; we’ll come to you,” Hannibal ordered. “And don’t go near the hive.”

“Don’tworry. I won’t. The hive is the size of a locomotive. I have no intention ofgoing anywhere near it,” Jerry assured him. “There must be a zillion bees init.”

“Good. I’llbe there in a minute,” Hannibal said into his communicator. “Everyone shouldconverge on Jerry’s signal; got it?” The rest of the team responded to the calland converged on Jerry’s position in a matter of ten minutes. Hannibal reachedJerry’s position first, replaceing him sitting beneath a massive walnut tree in agrove of nut trees looking toward the hive seventy feet away built into thechamber wall. When Hannibal showed up, he gasped in amazement upon seeing thehive. The hive appeared artificial, being drum-shaped about forty feet high,twelve to fifteen feet across, and seven feet deep with its bottom hanging fourfeet off the floor. Odd-looking faucets sat spaced equally around the perimeterof the base. The bulk of the structure seemed to be covered with nest paper thebees use in their hive. Several openings big enough for a man to put his fistin were scattered across the surface of the hive where bees constantly came andwent from the nest. The bees crawled and swarmed over the surface of the hive,making it a formidable fortress. “My God…that’s the largest bee nest I’ve everseen. It’s got to be a world record,” Hannibal breathed, staring at the nest.“It seems that everything about this place is big, even the bees.” As he spoke,Selina and Dan showed up and they too gawked at the vastness of the nest.

“How manydo you suppose there is?” Dan asked.

“Probablyhundreds of millions of them judging from the size of the hive; however, only asmall portion of them ever come out of the hive to harvest nectar,” Hannibalstated. As he spoke, one of the bees approached and hovered about six feet awayin front of him. He didn’t know what to make of it. The bee then slowlyapproached to within two feet of him and once again hovered. Hannibal looked atthe bee with growing curiosity, but remained docile.

“Hold outyour hand,” Selina suggested and he did so. The bee slowly landed on the palmof his hand and sat there, cleaning its wings.

Suddenly,the bee rammed its stinger into his hand and Hannibal flinched and cried out aspain ran up his arm to his head. Selina flinched as well, feeling the sting.But Hannibal refused to destroy the bee. As the bee sat there with its stingerin his hand, Hannibal and Selina realized what was happening: the bee wastrying to communicate. In an instant, they became aware of the entire colony:its structure, and purpose. The bee then pulled its stinger out and took off,flying back to the nest. Hannibal grasped his hand in pain. Blood oozed fromthe puncture and his hand began to swell slightly. Hannibal and Selina lookedat each other, knowing what had happened.

“Why didn’tyou kill it?” Dan asked as Cynthia and Mary showed up.

“There’smore to this hive than just giant bees,” Hannibal explained. “These are veryspecial bees. They have an intelligence of a sort.”

“What doyou mean ‘intelligence’?” Jerry asked as Selina cleaned the wound in Hannibal’shand.

“These beeshave been engineered to service this area specifically. They’re also itsguardians. The bee that just stung me was acting as a link between my mind andthe hive mind. It’s a special type of guard bee engineered to do just that inorder to ascertain whether we were a threat to the hive. Apparently, the hiveascertained that we’re not a threat to them or this area, therefore we can comeand go freely around the garden and gather whatever we want, including whatthey have gathered,” Hannibal replied, his hand throbbing from the sting.

“You meanthey’re intelligent?” Dan asked.

“Yes,”Hannibal answered. “They’re very intelligent and highly protective. The onlyreason we weren’t killed the moment we came in here is we did nothing todisrupt the balance of things in here. Had we come in here and commenced todestroy the plant life in here, they would have fallen on us immediately todrive us away. I don’t pretend to understand how and why they’re like this. Ijust know that they have been engineered for this purpose. They determined justnow whether we were a threat. Thank God they decided that we were friendly.”

“Now I’veseen everything,” Jerry commented, “an intelligent bee.”

“Shall Iprove it? All of you come with me,” Hannibal said pointedly as he began to walktoward the hive.

“No, Ithink we’ll stay here,” Dan said.

“Suityourself,” Hannibal sighed, “But just pay attention. As long as you act benignand do nothing to upset the apple cart in here, you’ll be all right.” Selinafell in beside him as he walked toward the hive. Dan, Jerry, Cynthia, and Marywatched from a distance as they pushed right up to the hive without beingharassed by the guards of the hive. The bees parted and buzzed around them amere eighteen inches away from them, but not approaching them. Hannibal andSelina reached the hive and examined the faucets. Everyone watched in awe asHannibal cracked open one of the faucets and a substance oozed out of it.Hannibal put his finger in the substance as it dribbled, and then cut off thevalve. He smelled it, and then tasted it, announcing, “It’s honey…the purestsweetest honey I’ve ever tasted.” Selina tasted the honey as well and agreedwith Hannibal’s conclusions.

“Come onover. They won’t hurt you,” Hannibal ordered and everyone slowly made their wayto the hive. Their fears slowly abated as they approached the hive once theysaw the bees didn’t attack. Each came to the faucet and Hannibal let them havea little taste of the honey. They all agreed it was the finest quality honeythey had ever tasted. A few moments later, they were walking back through thegarden heading toward the path. “Now when anyone comes in here, do not beaggressive toward the bees or toward the plant life. We’re going to have towork within their framework in order to get along in here,” Hannibalinstructed.

They soonfound the path and within a half hour, they were out of the chamber, headingback to the cafeteria. Another half hour later, they dropped Selina, Mary, andCynthia at the cafeteria. Hannibal went to the nearest healing chamber to treatthe bee sting before he, Dan, and Jerry found Chris in the Library working.From there, Hannibal took the trio to the main control room in the core.

Once in the control room, Hannibal showed them how touse the control panel to engage the Temple’s defensive systems, how to engagethe self-destruct mechanism if the unthinkable were to occur with the Templebeing utterly compromised by enemy forces. He warned them explicitly not totouch or mess around with any of the core’s primary functions. They swore withan oath to do as he ordered.