Aconie's Bees
ShortStory 2,471 words Recommended by 3 award/anthology sources
"A worker of the Megachile pluto tribe—insecta, hymenoptera, leaf-cutter, resin bee— rumbled heavily through the air. Biome morning: light stretched thin as a veil of citreous bio-skin on the stone of Aconie’s cliffside cave. The M. pluto, large as Aconie’s hand, burred and buzzed her wings, speaking of loss and darkness at the heart of things."
Quasar links out; the story lives on Analog, where the author gets the click.