The Bumblebee and the Berry by M. Bennardo (Analog, January-February 2022) takes place on hollowed-out asteroid, a generation starship which is making its fourth approach to a star system after missing on the first three attempts (over the previous twenty-seven years). While the ship gets closer to the planet they are aiming at, Axel, the governor of the colony, watches the local wildlife in their small biosphere—in particular a bumblebee that keeps trying to land on a bowl of blackberries. He wafts his hand nearby to disrupt the air currents, which causes it to fly away.
After this scene setting is complete the story closes with Axel getting an update from a woman called Raina about the approach. During this exchange she clumsily swats at the bumblebee; he shows her how to waft the nearby air instead. Axel (spoiler) then has an epiphany that the planet they are heading for may be occupied, and that they are the ones who are being kept away from what they want:
They would simply continue, as they had been. They would have no choice but to keep living as they were: making what room they could for the deer and the rabbits and the bumblebees, doing their best to avoid stepping on ants and wildflowers. Anything else would mean their own destruction. And who knew? Perhaps if they could prove they could do it. . . For a hundred years, or for a thousand. . . Then they might one day make another pass, and might one day be allowed to make starfall. They might no longer be brushed away. p. 95
Apart from the fact this piece is a notion or eco-lecture and not a story, I’m not convinced by the bumblebees making for the blackberries—wasps and butterflies maybe, but I’m pretty sure the bees in my garden always go for flowers and their pollen.
I’d also note the language used at the beginning of the story is unnecessarily confusing—they aren’t making “starfall”, they are making planetfall, i.e. they intend landing on a planet not a star. And what has the “heliopause” (a word I bounced off of) got to do with anything? More unnecessary Analog jargon.
* (Mediocre). 2,200 words.