Hornets and Roses

Leiv heard the doorbell ring and left the kitchen. He looked at the front door for a moment, still trying to figure out how to unlock it. After accomplishing that task, he saw Markus standing on his porch.

"Leiv! Here, I picked this up for you."

Leiv saw a bottle of wine in his friend's hands.

"Great! We've got some food in the backyard already. We can open it right away."

"This house looks really nice."

"The backyard is even nicer."

They walked through the kitchen and out the back door. Genetically modified chestnut trees lined the edge of property. Several of their other friends had already arrived for the housewarming. There was acoustic music playing through speakers along a brick path powered by photovoltaic film on their tops. They could smell vegetables on the grill.

Clara moved through the guests, topping their glasses off from a bottle of local cider. She was a natural, charismatic host. When she saw Markus walk out, she eagerly came over and traded his bottle of wine for a flute glass of cider.

"Markus, it's great to have you. And thanks for much for the wine."

"Wow, you've got a nice place. It's really a Garden of Eden."

"I'm not quite there yet," she deflected. "Leiv is responsible for the interior, but the yard is my responsibility."

She led him over to the trellis that framed the view of the sun setting behind the neighbor's living roof.

"See those roses? They're a perfect gradient of colors, from a deep orange to a vibrant pink. They're so lush."

"You've done a good job already," Markus complimented.

"My grandmother was a genetic botanist, back when that was just a hobbyist. Her last decade was spent splicing roses and firefly genes so that the flowers can produce their own light. You'll see later at night."

Clara touched the petals softly. "They're her legacy," she said. Markus felt a bit uncomfortable at her vulnerability. He could appreciate the technical achievement, but the emotional attachment was a bit much for him.

While watching the flowers, he noticed something shift. He squinted harder and saw something moving in the trellis. As he realized what it was, Markus raised a trembling finger and let out a cry.

"Hornets!"

Hidden in the roof right above the rose trellis was a hornet's nest, a brutalist object that was a dull brown like dead leaves. Clara looked up too and could see a few of them passing in and out of the nest's gaping maw.

His shout drew the attention of the other partygoers. The fun vibe was quickly extinguished.

"Don't panic," Leiv called out from the grill, one of his eyes now fixed on the dark mark scarring his backyard. "We can come inside for a bit. I can... put in a call."

A neighbor had been watching from the other side of the trees and now made their appearance known.

"Leiv, that seems like a nasty nest. You should call Cassia. She's the ecologist in the Commons. She can set up a relocation to a better place. Maybe tomorrow or the day after."

Markus scoffed. He had been watching the nest carefully, analyzing it as a problem that had a very clear solution. To have to wait several days or a committee or an appointment felt overly complicated.

"Hey, Leiv, you don't need to bother her," he put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Why have this problem for a few more days? I can fix it in a few minutes. Direct action always works best. Let me go get something out of my trunk."

Leiv followed Markus through the house to the street, looking apprehensive the entire time. "Markus, let's pause for a second. The Commons has a process for this stuff. Cassia is the expert. We should just defer to her."

"Defer?" Markus popped the trunk of his Aptera EV, where a foam-lined case sat in the center. "Leiv, protocols are for those who are too tepid to make a choice. It's choices that other people make for you."

He lifted the device out of the case to show something that vaguely resembled a rifle. It was a long tool made from gray polymers and brushed aluminum. There was a focusing lens at the front and a holographic display near the stock.

"This is the Pest Ablation Unit," he declared.

"It's a gun?"

"No, it's not. It's safe," Markus slid a power cell into the base with a satisfying click. "It uses a high-frequency laser. When it hits those hornets, it will boil them from the inside. Instant, painless death. It's precise."

As the device powered on, the holographic display appeared showing the current temperature, the humidity, and the maximum power output.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?"

"Don't worry," Markus hurried towards the backyard.

As soon as Clara saw his not-rifle, her eyes went wide.

"Markus, what do you think you're doing?"

"Taking care of the problem," he answered.

"You're going to shoot the hornets?"

"It's a laser."

"Please don't. The roses are right under."

"I'll be careful," he said dismissively. "This is going to be a lot faster and more humane than trying to throw a ton of smoke up at them or whatever the committee is going to decide."

Rather than wait for more arguments, he raised the PAU to his shoulder and took aim. The other guests peered at the situtaion from the window with a morbid curiosity on their faces.

A tiny dot appeared on the surface of the hornet's nest. One crawled out into the open air and Markus's finger tightened on the trigger.

There wasn't a bang, or a burst. The hornet suddenly turned into a small puff of smoke. Another emerged and was dispatched just as fast. He picked them off one-by-one with a sharp precision.

"See? Now you don't see any others coming out," he boasted. "Now, it's time to hit the source."

He adjusted a dial on the side to increase its power output. Markus wanted to slice the nest cleanly off the eaves. He looked through the scope at the violet spot where he intended to cut.

Just before he pulled the trigger, a large hornet shot out and flew straight at him.

As Markus flinched, his aim shifted and the laser beam shot down. It struck the main stem of the rose at the top of the trellis.

There was a sickening sizzle. The chlorophyll and sap boiled from within. The blossoms, just beginning to glow, suddenly shriveled and turned gray. The decay spread to nearby roses, causing them to curl and turn black. An odor of burnt sugar filled the air.

Markus turned to see Clara. She didn't scream or sob. She just let out a small, choked whimper as she watched the last living legacy of her grandmother turn into ash.

Markus replayed that moment dozens of times in his head through the next week. That flinch. The hiss. A pile of ash. He regretted his moment of weakness, but still believed he had been right to take the action. The only problem was a material loss of the flowers and that was something that he could fix.

Lurking through local botany groups, he came across a local botanist who sold a hybrid rose with long, velvety petals. The data showed these were flawless flowers. They had even won an award. Clutching the bouquet, he drove his Aptera back to the Commons that Saturday. He felt remorseful, and had been developing an apology in his head.

As he got close to their house, he found the street crowded. He had to park on a back street and walk for a bit towards the backyard. He could hear laughter and acoustic music coming from the backyard. He peered through the trees and could see many of the same people from the week before. Another gathering?

"This sonic device draws out the queen harm-free," a woman was explaining a small metallic device that resembled a bell. He could hear a high-pitched humming. "It mimics the sounds of a rival swarm. That means she will evacuate along with her attendants. Then we catch her and relocate her and the rest to a rewilding field a few miles away from this development. No fuss."

"Thank you for explaining Cassia," Clara said with melancholy in her voice.

That was Cassia? They went with her option?

Markus continued staring until he was spotted by Leiv. With a big sigh, he passed off his glass to a neighbor and walked down the grass field to meet him.

"Markus," Leiv said in a low voice.

"What's going on here?" Markus asked. The bouquet suddenly felt heavy.

"This isn't a good time."

"I wanted to apologize to Clara. I got these for her. They're Gallberry Roses. They're just as good."

Leiv looked down at the roses and then back to Markus. "I appreciate the gesture, but..."

"But you're having a party without me."

"Not a party per-se... Clara wanted to do a get-together. The roses are nice, but it was not really about the flowers."

"I messed up, but I'm making up for it."

"It's not about messing up, it's how you did it. You just wanted to eliminate the problem. We wanted to manage it. You acted without asking. And now Clara can't even look at that corner of the yard."

Markus handed over the flowers without saying anything else and walked away. He had met Leiv and Clara in college. Since then they had grown in very different ways. His approach of quick, efficient actions were seen as destructive to them. Their relationship seemed to have been strained beyond repair. He hadn't been invited this time, and that stung, but it also signaled that their ways of life might not compatible anymore.