The Tower and the Hive Read Free

Rather far out to consider an immediate colonization of those worlds, but who knows how fast the Alliance will spread once the threat of Hivers is reduced? The Mrdini certainly need more space.”
    â€œSo they do,” Ailsah agreed sympathetically.
    â€œI suspect those habitable worlds closer in to our home systems, ’Dini and Human, will receive the first mandates. However”—and he slapped his desk top decisively—“no need for us to hang about. Captain Vandermeer, if you will please initiate a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn of the Washington, we’ll begin the long journey home.”
    â€œAye, sir,” Vandermeer said, giving him a crisp salute and a wry grin. “It will, as you know, take us five full ship days to slow enough to execute the maneuver.”
    â€œLong enough for Shepherd and Prlm to do their probes and be halfway back to us,” Ashiant murmured.
    â€œShould be an interesting cruise, sir.”
    â€œIndeed,” Admiral Ashiant said, lightly fingering the circle of tiny stars that was his new rank. Hastily withdrawing his hand, he cleared his throat.
    â€œAnything else, sir?” Vandermeer asked, pretending not to see that gesture.
    â€œNo, Captain, that’ll be all. Good day.”
    Â 
    When news of those orders reached the Primes relaxing in the FT&T lounge, there was both excitement and regret.
    â€œI wish one of us had been able to go with Captain Shepherd,” said the recently promoted Lieutenant T-2 Clancy Sparrow in a wistful tone. “It’d be interesting to see what Hivers consider ‘perfect worlds.’ ”
    â€œThey seem to have found sixteen planets near enough perfect to eliminate any other life-forms, including Deneb,” Prime Talent Thian remarked in a droll tone. “And seemingly about one in five of other M-type worlds we marked on our way while pursuing Number Three.”
    He still couldn’t believe that he and his fellow Talents had managed to defeat the Hiver sphere: a process in which, after the first skirmish, only the enemy had died. It had been incumbent on the Alliance—somehow—to keep the Hivers from establishing a new home system to replace the original world that had been consumed by their sun’s nova. If Prime Talent Thian had thought of a way to reduce loss of life among Human and Mrdini, surely he should not be criticized for devising what was now known as the Genesee ploy. That fact that he was Talent was the point of dispute, for Talent should not be involved in combat, however tenuous the connection. The pacifist element of Humankind had been appalled and the FT&T organization had received considerable criticism, despite the success of the Genesee ploy. The success was almost irrelevant in the storm of display and rebuke. However, the majority of the Alliance had been relieved that the problem had resulted in few losses. After all, the Prime Talents had only delivered what the Navy explosive experts had prepared. “Teleportation” was a main FT&T function. The explosive packages, carefully placed on the Hiver fuel tanks, had been actually detonated by naval personnel with the sanction of the High Council and on the orders of Admiral Ashiant, so the Talent involvement had been a quite legitimate duty.
    The old argument about a gun not being dangerous until it is loaded and aimed at a target was revised and adjusted to the FT&T. So, as the delivery agent, like a gun delivering a bullet, were the Talents guilty because they had sent a lethal package where it could destroy the acknowledged enemy of the Alliance? Or were those who gave the command for the substance to explode the guilty ones? That the resultant combination of “Talents” and “naval specialists” had caused the enemy ships to disintegrate offered much fuel to the point where the satisfactory outcome was nearly irrelevant.
    A good night’s sleep had restored energy to the Primes