The Tower and the Hive Read Free Page A

and the rest of their team on the Washington, and they’d wound up the last details of their controversial participation in the battle to their own satisfaction. They were definitely looking forward to the exploration phase of their current assignment, studying the scanty probe reports of the first Hiver-occupied planet on the Fleet’s return heading.
    â€œWill we have to wait until the other ships rejoin the Fleet before we actually get to probe or land on the upcoming world?” Clancy asked, pacing up and down the lounge cabin.
    â€œDon’t see why we’d need to wait for Shepherd and Prlm,” Thian said. He was himself beginning to get restless, though the respite from frantic activity and precision teleportations had been welcome.
    â€œDon’t see why not if we get there first,” Clancy said.
    â€œSpeaking of getting anywhere, just when do I get transferred to the Columbia?” asked Prime Rojer, cocking his head and making his urgency plain to his older brother and team leader. “That was the deal for me, remember? I help demolish the Hiver spheres and then I get transferred to the Columbia— ”
    â€œAnd Cousin Asia,” Clancy put in, his expression carefully bland. Rojer shot him a dire look that Clancy ignored.
    â€œWhen you’ve helped me reprovision this squadron,” Thian answered, linking his fingers behind his head as he leaned back and stretched out his long legs.
    â€œThen you don’t think the conservatives are going to insist that FT&T stop assisting the Fleet?” Roj asked.
    Clancy’s scoffing laugh echoed Thian’s dismissal of that possibility.
    â€œLook, bro,” Thian said, sitting forward, elbows on his knees. “The FT&T was very carefully,” and he emphasized the syllables, “nurtured as an autonomous public service—”
    â€œAnd who can argue that getting rid of an implacable enemy isn’t a public service?” Clancy put in.
    â€œBack in the twenty-first century, when Henry Darrow was the manager of our budding organization, he determined to split it from any political group and to remain legally separate from any governmental agency until Earth became a united world. His successors studiously kept FT&T apolitical and also made certain that the facilities of the Towers were on a first-come-first-serve basis. It’s impossible to bribe a Talent, remember, not with Primes who can ‘read’ anyone’s mind. The guilty always give themselves away anyhow.” He grinned. “Of course, the present emergency with the greedy Hivers required FT&T to do a lot of kinetic transfers that would make the founders of our elite band spin in their graves. Nevertheless, it is still in our precious Charter that we Talents are required to teleport a lot of people and things that are repellent to our sensitive souls, though not illegal. Meanwhile we preserve the entity and integrity of FT&T ...”
    â€œAnd suborn Primes whenever they could be found...” Clancy added. “Like your grandmother on Altair.”
    â€œGranddad was the one who was really suborned. He had had no intention of leaving Deneb ... before he met Grandmother.” Thian’s grin was broad. “Had the Hivers but known they had met their match in Jeff Raven and Angharad Gwyn aka the Rowan as partners, they might have quit while they were ahead.”
    â€œNot while there were Hiver queens needing planets to colonize,” Clancy put in.
    â€œAnd that, of course, brought the entire FT&T organization in at the time of the Deneb Penetration with the Rowan as the focus for the Mind Merge that helped Jeff Raven dispatch the Hiver scouts trying to depopulate his homeworld,” said Rojer.
    â€œAnd why the Mrdinis decided to ask us, through Mother and Dad, to join forces and defeat the Hivers,” Thian said, “since we could take out a Hiver sphere without having to resort to suicide missions.” He