Runaway Drone

Drones of the Hive that slipped out through the rift: each carries on a hind leg a scrap of the wax seal with the number of its cell. They circle in swarms around the flying combs and build with wax on whatever they can reach. On a slow ship they settle as stowaways and, while they ride, patch its plating with wax out of sheer habit; at the next combs they fly off.