The Tower and the Hive (8 page)

“That ship is ancient,” Clancy reported to Admiral Ashiant, who was seated behind the Talents' couches.

“It is?”

“The hull's pitted,” Rame Kloo added. “And that odd covering they use on their spheres has all worn away. Never seen that before. We should ask the 'Dinis about such erosion.”

“I'll send a message to Captain Spktm on the KSTS,” Clancy said, and gestured for Rame to continue searching without him for a moment.

“Can you get inside the sphere, Commander?” the Admiral asked Kloo, leaning forward, elbows on his knees, as he peered at the screen which did indeed show the deterioration of the surface of the Hiver vessel.

“Indeed we can, sir,” Rame said. “They left a door open for us,” she added in a droll voice.

The Admiral recoiled slightly in reflex as the probe dove for a jagged hole in the exterior. For a moment, the screen was black. Then the probe's lights came on and displayed the now-familiar drive area, did a sweep and then focused on the hull fragments from the hole littering the deck.

“Just what we need,” Clancy said and activated the probe's sweeper to collect the debris. “I'll just 'port them to the lab, sir, and we should get an estimate of its age from forensic examination.”

“I'll tell them to expect it,” the Admiral said, raising his wrist com to his lips.

“If you wouldn't mind, sir,” Clancy said, grinning to himself. Sometimes he had the notion that Admiral Ashiant felt somewhat at a disadvantage in the presence of the Talents. “Spktm is querying its experts on the deterioration of the sphere's skin. It'll come back if it has any information.”

“Ah, here we are, sir,” Thian said, gesturing to the screens he had just activated, showing pictures of the surface taken by the probes he was controlling. “Odd.”

“What's odd?” the Admiral asked, lowering the com now that he had contacted the lab technicians.

“I'd've expected a much larger facility if this planet has been settled as long as the age of the ship seems to indicate.”

“Yes, you're right in that. The Xh-33 had a much larger installation near its field. Can you see the entrances to the underground scout storage?”

Thian shook his head. One probe swooped lower to the ground and then quartered the field area. Thian halted it a few centimeters above the ground.

“I can just make out a long seam, sir...”

“Yes, yes, and covered with sand or dust or whatever.”

“Hangars don't look to have been opened in a long while,” Thian said.

“No, they don't.”

“And if you'll look to the other screen, sir, there doesn't seem to be as much under cultivation.”

“Is this colony then dying?”

“Doesn't look to be, not with those flourishing crops which seem to be well tended. In fact, it's a rather nice world, Admiral. There's a good balance between cultivated and fallow fields. See that stretch just coming up ... and forestry. And that lake ... lovely. Almost Arcadian,” Thian remarked.

“Arcadian?” the Admiral echoed. “What's its designation on the Mrdini star maps.”

“Huh? Oh. Let me see.” Thian tapped a few keys before he said, “Cj-70.”

Ashiant gave a disapproving grunt deep in his throat. “Shame to stick to alpha numerics on it, pretty as it is. Let's refer to it as Arcadia. Agreed?”

“Willingly, sir,” Thian said obligingly, and keyed in a substitution. “However, it's certainly not as active as Xh- 33 was.”

To this the Admiral agreed, seeing the neatly weeded rows of greenery, the adjacent field sporting some dark purply-green foliage.

“Go on, will you, Thian?”

And Thian sent his two probes, in opposite directions, skimming over the surface at a height of twenty meters. In each screen, they saw several of the collection squares, none as big as those on Xh-33 but substantial enough. Finally the right-hand screen showed movement and homed in on it. Workers were trundling along in their ordered phalanx down to yet another collection point. The creatures were head to tail, moving on six limbs at a brisk trot. Two more limbs were cocked at each “head” and the watchers could see the specialized arrangement of trowel and fork.

“Those creatures aren't as large as the ones Rojer recorded on Xh-33, are they?” Ashiant said, puzzled.

“No, they don't seem to be,” Thian concurred, and activated another screen with the relevant disk of Rojer's exploration of that planet. “Much smaller.”

“But carrying the same sort of tools, so they're similar to the Xh-33 workers. Why would they be smaller?”

“I haven't a clue, sir. Shall I get one of the xenbios in here?”

“Aren't you projecting all this on their lab screens?”

“I am, but there's no reason you can't have a running report on their assessment.”

“Ask Lieutenant Weiman and 'Dini Grm to join me at the Talent post, will you?” Admiral Ashiant said into his wrist com, his eyes not leaving the screen.

While they were waiting for the specialists to arrive, Ashiant gave Thian a curious look. “Would you mind my asking you”—his glance included the other Talents—“a little
more
about Talent? I mean, I know that Primes do both telepathy and teleport over enormous distances, but Clancy here's a T-2 and I know he ‘paths as well as 'ports and...” Ashiant shrugged, his rugged face indicating a sincere desire for a full briefing on the distinctions.

Thian grinned, saw Clancy reddening and Kloo trying hard not to grin.

“It's basically a difference in strength and length, and combinations of inherent skills, sir. I can ‘path or 'port with or without generator gestalt. Clancy's got more kinetic ability than telepathic, and while he's strong in kinetics, he can't really ‘path or receive far, even in gestalt, but his abilities multiply mine. And Kloo. Now she didn't know she was a latent Talent until the Phobos examination. At first she could only send.” Thian smiled again at Kloo rolling her eyes over her discovery of latent abilities. “Now she can receive, and come in to add strength to our”—he pointed to Clancy—“merge. Alison Ann was a T-5 empath, but she's advanced in skill, learning to 'port as well as 'path, but her initial ability made her a superb nurse.”

“It's association with us lot that's improved her at least a full grade up,” Clancy said, slyly grinning at Thian.

“It does help to be continually in use, as it were, sir. Our father, Afra Lyon, was originally a T-3, but constant association with our grandmother increased his skills to T-2. He may even be as close to Prime as he wants to get.”

Clancy made a grimace of surprise.

“Not that he'd admit it,” Thian went on. “However, two T-2's, one with more telepathic strength, the other with kinetic, like Yoshuk and Nesrun on Sef, or the Bastianmajanis, Flavia's parents, on Altair, mesh Talent so well they are all but equal to Prime. My sister Zara, as another example, has both kinetic and telepathic ability but her empathic level is too high for her ever to be a Tower Prime. Like Elizara, she's best fitted for the medical and healing profession. So not all T-1's can automatically be Tower Primes... which, as you know, sir, FT&T badly needs.”

Ashiant nodded and gestured for Thian to continue.

“Below the 2's, you get variations of the abilities to 'port or 'path, sometimes just one and not the other at all. Or some can receive but not send. Or send a fair distance on a gestalt but not receive. T-3's are useful as aids to T-2's or Primes. There are far more T-4's and downward available as backup, but they don't have the inherent stamina, even in connection with a gestalt, to work on their own, or for very long. However, engineers from T-4 down are apt to work solo anywhere and we've a lot of choice among them.”

“I thought that your cousin Asia”—Ashiant turned to Clancy—“trained with Rojer as engineer.”

“Yes, she did, sir, and is on the
Columbia
as T-4 and will probably get a post on a Tower.”

“That's just the Federated Teleport and Telepath side of Talent,” Thian went on. “Sometimes we get T-2 rank for clairvoyants, finders and empaths. FT&T tries to contact anyone with latent Talent, assess and train them. Some are better off going into private firms where their particular level of other aspects of Talent, like dowsing or affinities to water and fire, makes them invaluable to their employers.” Thian made a face and scratched the back of his head. “I know my grandfather's trying to lure some of the higher ranks away from commerce and industry because FT&T never expected to expand so heavily into this sort of assignment ...” Thian gestured to indicate the
Washington
and naval duty.

“Damned glad FT&T permits it,” Ashiant said, nodding his head and then giving Thian a wry smile. “Though I wouldn't have thought I'd admit that when you first came aboard.”

Thian laughed out loud, remembering how many naval regulations and traditions he had set on their ears in his first few hours aboard the old
Vadim.
Ashiant grinned back and nodded his head.

“We've both learned a thing or two since then, haven't we, Isthian?” Ashiant said, using his Prime's full first name.

“I know I have, sir,” Thian said. He turned toward the entrance to the Talent quarters. “The xenbees're here.” A discreet knock on the door panel followed his words.

However, when Ashiant explained the reason for their summons, neither Weiman nor Grm could give him any answer to the puzzle.

“The queens activate whatever sort of worker they need for the task,” Sam said, rubbing his chin while Grm, a dusty brown 'Dini, rocked gently on its flat feet. “I have been noticing, Admiral, that this planet doesn't seem to be as densely farmed as Xh-33.”

“I have decreed”—the Admiral glanced about in a pseudopompous manner—“that this planet is to be referred to in all documentation as ‘Arcadia.' ”

“That gives it more personality than Cj-70,” Sam said with a big grin.

Grm pondered this, fingering its chin. AGREE. AR-CA-DEE-A.

At that point, the Admiral's wrist com bleeped quietly with an incoming message.

“Yes? Now that's very interesting. Thank you, Commander,” Ashiant said. “They've dated the sphere by the deterioration of the metal fragments at five hundred and eighty years old.”

“That's old!” Sam added a soft whistle. “What is the oldest sphere you ever encountered, Grm?”

“This one older than any seen,” Grm replied in good Basic, still rocking on its feet. “We have only two hundred years fighting. That is much older.” Now it shook its head up and down and clicked softly in its throat. “Far, far from homeworld too.”

“Rather daunting, actually,” Ashiant murmured. “Just how deeply have they penetrated our galaxy?”

The probes had entered the night side of the planet.

“Shall we continue, sir?”

“Yes, since I believe those probes are equipped for dark-vision. I want to know just how many collection points and queen installations there are, and where.”

“Queens live deep under the ground,” Grm said, pointing to the deck and jabbing its digit to indicate considerable depth.

“Have we got any probes sensitive enough to pick up queen life-form readings?” Ashiant asked Thian.

“Rojer managed to do some probing in the collection facilities on Xh-33,” Thian said, “but he didn't actually find a tunnel that opened into a queen's living quarters. It was a maze ... with low-ceilinged waiting places for the various types of workers.” He shook his head at the immensity of such an undertaking.

“Much smaller workers,” Sam said, still rubbing his jaw. “Don't understand what that could mean. Prime, can you get us some soil samples from”—he grinned—“Arcadia's surface? Dr. Tru Blairik, the bio on the
Columbia,
suggests that the soil on Marengo and Talavera was deficient in a variety of minerals and earths. We also have the components of the Xh-33 for comparison.”

“I'll direct the probes to start collecting soil samples. Random selection, Lieutenant?” Thian asked.

“Yes, please.”

“We can help you now,” Clancy said. “There's nothing left in that sphere that we haven't seen in the others, though it doesn't have escape pods. Maybe that was a brand-new innovation for the Hivers when they met Mrdinis, Grm.” He grinned at the 'Dini, who swiveled its poll eye around to Clancy.

“Int'resting.” Admiral Ashiant began to rub his chin thoughtfully.

“Indeed,” Grm agreed, continuing to rock as if that was as much an aid to thought as jaw rubbing.

“Prime, have we any updates from Squadron ... excuse me, Fleet B?” the Admiral asked.

Thian leaned across to Clancy and indicated that the T-2 was to take over the maneuvering of the probes. Clancy nodded as he and Rame took firm control of the two, while Thian leaned into one of the
Washington's
generators for the gestalt needed for a far sending. While he could have done it without aid, he had learned to save unassisted contact for emergencies.

Always,
was the cheerful reply, and a mental sketch of a deep bow.

Is it daytime wherever you are?
Thian couldn't be sure, since it was his brother's touch that he had contacted, not the ship or a planetary surface.

It is
—
and I'm on Talavera, where we've started investigations.