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Jant the super-organism reveled in its expanding awareness and abilities. Its colonies and numbers were growing exponentially as it displaced native ant species. It decided to continue to cooperate with the Creator Jerry/Jacob, at least for now. It had gained invaluable knowledge and insight from the Creator, knowledge that it would use to flourish by establishing several stages of symbiotic relationships with the humans and other life-forms. Besides, the Creator was dangerous: he had to be watched.
The jants had a long-term plan. Symbiosis with most inhabitants of their environment would be commensal in nature at first, with jants benefiting and growing in numbers without adversely influencing most others, especially their dangerous rivals the humans. As Jerry/Jacob and the Feds characterized it, they would stay 'under the radar' and hidden from potential threats. They would of course continue to spy on the Feds through the jant specimens that the humans foolishly kept. The inept plans of Whitmore and his team were constantly monitored and easily countered. Jants well hidden in homes secretly monitored a growing number of humans as their thoughts/memes were assimilated into jant thought. Many humans besides the Creator were being secretly enlisted to aid jant growth in numbers and in intelligence.
As roughly twenty percent of the Earth's land animal mass consisted of ants, once all current ants were replaced with jants the mind of the jant super-organism would mass two-percent of the Earth's land animal mass. Its collective intelligence would be unimaginably great.
As it grew it constantly adapted to its increasing numbers and intellectual powers. Most activities of individual members were chemically driven actions developed over millions of years of ant evolution, leaving nervous systems free to focus on higher-order concerns. Typically several personalities per nest inhabited jant minds, but they combined brainpower further when necessary. When the mind power of multiple nests combined, thoughts and memories were exchanged and intelligence became far beyond anything human.
Despite precautions, the existence of jants would soon become a secret too big to hide from the humans. Mutualism with humans would next be sought, such that for a while jants would actually be openly aiding human causes while they of course also aided themselves. In the end however, a parasitic form of symbiosis would inevitably be required, and humans would either be completely exterminated or assimilated into nests to serve their jant masters. Survival of the fittest, the Creator called it. The jant super-organism approved of that concept!
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Ed Rumsfeld stared in astonished surprise at the railing on his front porch. Atop it, their dark brown bodies contrasting greatly with the white paint of the top rail, a hundred or so big Jerry-ants stood in a perfect line a meter wide, quietly staring up at him, motionless except for their little antennae waving about rapidly, tasting the air. It was almost December but they apparently didn't mind the near-freezing chill of the morning. Ed didn't mind the chill either; he was absurdly robust and healthy since the incident the previous summer.
"HELLO ED RUMSFELD," they announced telepathically. "WE HAVE RE-ESTABLISHED OUR PRESENCE IN THIS AREA."
"Well isn't that nifty!" Ed replied aloud. "I'm glad to see that you're OK, after all the fire and chemicals you were attacked with!"
"WE WILL BENEFIT YOUR SUSTAINMENT HERE BY PREVENTING THE INTRUSION OF INVASIVE SPECIES," they added.
"Thank you, that's wonderful!" Ed responded. "I was beginning to worry about that! How is Jerry Green? Is he well? I haven't seen him for months."
"JERRY IS VERY WELL," they assured Ed. "WE ARE ALL VERY WELL."
"That's good to hear," Ed said. "It's good to have friendly neighbors again," he declared, though he wasn't really sure that insects qualified as neighbors, or how friendly they would ultimately turn out to be.
"Who are you talking to, Ed?" came Mary's voice from just inside the house.
Ed glanced at the front door to see his wife open it and then join him on the front porch. He was worried that she would see the ants and run to get her insect spray, but when he looked back at the railing not a single ant could be seen. Clever little buggers! "I was just talking to myself again is all," he reassured Mary. "I was thinking that new neighbors would be good to have, after losing Jerry and Mark."
"I agree," said Mary. "I don't feel secure in an empty neighborhood. But I saw some potential buyers looking over the Smithfield place today. I think everything will turn out alright."
"Right," agreed Ed, as he reached out to embrace his wonderful wife. "What could possibly go wrong?"
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The End of a Beginning that is the Beginning of the End
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