The Tower and the Hive (40 page)

Once inside the structure...

“Ooops. GC is picking up a high concentration of selenoaldehydes and selenoketones, sir.”

Rojer reported that to Flavia.

“Night visor on,” the major ordered needlessly. Everyone had already adjusted their helmets to see in the underground darkness.

“The workers would have dumped their loads down a ramp directly in front of us, and the moving belts are still taking the stuff wherever it needs to go,” Rojer said. “The tunnel to the queen's quarters should be to our left.” He felt a vague sensation of uneasiness, yet with Thian's report to reassure him, he couldn't imagine what he need worry about.

The major grunted and signaled for advance scouts to go left.

“Tall narrow tunnels all right enough, sir,” was the report.

“D'you think we could have a look at where the workers went?” Yakamasura asked wistfully.

“Is that necessary?” Keiser-Tau asked.

“Well, if this report is to be as complete as Prime Thian's was, then we should,” he replied in his most conciliatory manner.

“Corporal, take four men and Dr. Yakamasura...”

“Me too, please,” Mialla said, putting up her hand.

“And Dr. Evshenk...” The major's sigh was audible over the com.

When they had come to the end of the long narrow tunnel which Rojer described as well as he could—his apprehension still keen—their emergence into the queen's lair was almost anticlimactic. In fact, it was almost a duplicate of Thian's visuals. Scuttling things were running around on the floor, and the queen, sitting among the attendants who were busy stroking and cleaning her many limbs, had her black eyes on the quivering, changing wall screen.

I've been here before,
Rojer said to Asia, who squeezed his hand and, ever so slightly, pulled him back the way they had just come.
Nothing new or any different.

“We need GC readings, Prime,” the major said, and held out something to Rojer. “And this remote is to be placed...”

Rojer took the remote, removed the strip from the adhesive on the back of it and 'ported it into place, exactly where Thian had positioned his.

Now, let's get out of here,
Asia said.
Something is butting into me.

“Could we be under attack, sir?” the sergeant asked, shifting his weight and lifting first one leg and then the other, trying to look all around him at the same time. Rounded beetles were buffeting him.

“Same thing happened to my brother, Sergeant,” Rojer said, with as much reassurance as he could. “Just more of the queen attendants.”

I'll say one thing.
There was an odd touch of pride in Rhodri Eagles's voice.
She isn't as big as
my
queen at Heinlein Base.

“We'll need to find scraps, fragments, something metallic, Major, for carbon dating of this facility,” Rojer said.

“Sabin, can you find any metallic refuse in the workers' garage?” Major Keiser-Tau said over the com, but he spoke softly, as if he too was impressed by being in the presence of the queen.

“Yes sir. Some sort of tool. Some broken bits just scattered about.”

“That may suffice. Now let's get out of here before they begin to smell us,” the security officer said.

If he had cautiously led the specialists to the chamber, he now rapidly led them all out again and into the wide-open spaces. There were many sighs of relief heard over the connected coms.

How many of these do we have to go into, Rojer?
Asia asked.

Oh, we have to do a fair number to make a valid report, honey...
He felt the least bit of a reluctance she was trying to hide from him.
But you don't have to go to another, if you don't want
to.

Asia stood up as tall as she could, which was not quite to Rojer's shoulder.
Where you go, I go. But it is spooky down there.

No. Asia brought her hands up to her suit, startled by his observation.
We don't. Trust you to remember that.

I kept waiting for it,
Rojer said, only just realizing that that was what he had been anticipating.

Fooled me too,
Roddie admitted with a sheepish grin he allowed only the two Talents to see.

They felt the sting-pzzt, though, the moment they opened their helmets back in the shuttle. Sabin had draped a lumpy sack over his feet from which emanated the unique Hiver pheromones. The return ‘portation took seconds, and the moment the deck officer opened the shuttle door, the three Talents 'ported themselves to the lounge.

“What on earth ...” Flavia began when she saw all three lifting an arm and smelling it.

“Well, it didn't stick to us,” Rojer said with an exaggerated sigh of relief.

“What didn't stick?”

Rojer explained on his way to his bedroom, Asia on his heels, both peeling down the hazmat suits as they walked.

“The sting-pzzt, for one thing,” Rojer said.

“Sweat and dust for another,” Asia said, and waggled her fingers at Flavia before she palmed the door shut.

 

For comparisons—of which there weren't many, Rojer, Asia and Rhodri all agreed—they sampled twenty Hives on the major landmasses.

“There's still room for more Hives.” Yakamasura agreed with Mialla Evshenk.

“But it would be better if there were fewer, rather than more, queens,” she said, giving a satisfied punch to the key that finished her personal evaluation of their efforts. “So where do we go from here?”

“Doubtless, we'll be asked to accept a message tube with that information,” Roddie said, yawning hugely and settling his frame more comfortably on the couch.

A rap on the door from the bridge startled everyone just as an eerie chuckle touched the minds of the Talented.

“Come in, Captain,” Flavia called, having checked who was knocking. “New orders seem to be on their way.”

You guessed it, Flavia,
said Earth Prime.
Message tube coming in, and if the captain has her resupply list...

Warn her. The flimsies in Captain Soligen's hand suddenly disappeared.

“How did that happen?” She looked around the room, glaring at Roddie.

“Earth Prime effected immediate acceptance of your supply list, Vestapia,” Flavia said, managing to keep a straight face. “I didn't have time to warn you. And here...” She held out her hands, cocking one eyebrow briefly, as she 'ported a pillow into them. A message tube landed square on the pillow. “... are our orders, ma'am,” she added with a flourish of her hand.

Vestapia looked down at her right hand, fingers still in a gripping position, then at the message tube, and slowly walked over to it.

“I suppose just about the time I get used to the vagaries of Talent, I'll lose you.” She poked at the tube and jumped back when Rojer, using kinesis, opened it and the tightly packed data disks spilled onto the carpet.

“Not anytime soon, I hope,” Rojer said, meaning it.

Vestapia picked up the packet with the Admiralty seal on it and broke it open, scanning the contents. “Famous last words,” she said, clicking her tongue, and looked at Rojer. “Earth Prime needs you, and Asia, to help with Operation Switch.”

“Operation Switch?” Rojer asked, confused.

Roddie, craning his head around to the data disks on the floor, read the titles and flipped one into Rojer's hand. “Operation Switch! All the data you need for background on the new and spectacular Xh-33 real estate program.” He clasped his hands behind his head and stretched out again. “Better you than me.”

“I don't know about that,” Vestapia said ambiguously, and returned to the bridge.

 

Zara, any progress to report?
Elizara said, tapping lightly into the hospital generators for her contact with her name-sake on Iota Aurigae.

Zara's tone brightened immediately.
I do.
She chuckled.
Using the principle that the last place you look is the right one, I started at Ward Nineteen.
She chuckled again.
There was considerable wagering...

That's also why I was going to call you.
Zara's tone turned grim.
The very honorable Gktmglnt is going to have to convince the older keepers that they must depart from tradition, by eliminating the valeric acid analog and reducing the phenol content, to regulate reproduction. The younger ones, and I am blessed by having only one old fart flapping about in dismay over interrupting “creation,” see the sense of the process. They're quite willing to go along with it, although lota Aurigae must be the only world where we could use all the 'Dinis that can be created—at least while mining is in an intensive stage to supply more
Washington
class ships. Pass the word along to Grandfather and Gollee Gren. They'll see that those who need to know will be informed. I'm tubing the formal stuff directly to you, Elizara.

Thanks!
Elizara was aware of Zara's pride in having achieved such a notable success.

My 'Dinis are real pleased too. They helped me every step of the way, arguing with the old fart—its name is Frtlmp, so that word fits it perfectly.
Elizara had no trouble imaging a malicious expression on Zara's face as she said that, and the medical Prime laughed out
loud. It wouldn't know what I meant even if I spoke its nickname out loud.

Pal and Dis would,
Elizara said, still chuckling.

Especially on those,
Elizara
said. Furthermore, it would be easier to explain the noncreation in the Fleets.

Thanks, dear,
Elizara said as she heard the message tube rattle into the basket behind her.
Again, you've done very well.

Thank you.
And if Elizara thought that Zara had responded in an unusually modest tone, she was right. Her experience in the hibernatory, especially curing the victims of the Clarf disaster, had matured her as a healer and as a person.
We will have to do more field tests, as it were, to be sure it works on all 'Dini color groups.

The acuity of Pierre Laney's nose had never been put to such unusual usage. His infallible organ caught the subtle nuances of each queen's pheromone output, the minor variations of the quarters, so that when the details were replicated in the hundred different sites that had been made available on the Main Continent, the queens were undisturbed. That is, until workers were sent out to cultivate the fields that had been left behind and found only raw turned earth instead of ready-to-harvest crops.

“We will add just a
soupçon,”
Pierre told Captain Osullivan, pinching thumb and forefinger together, “of the essence so unique to the world Prime Thian explored. This ingredient may, in the long term, be what is needed to neutralize the aggressive ones and turn our... belligerent queens into tame pussy cats, like yours.” He warily eyed the captain's tricolor barque cat, Tabitha, asleep on her pillow in the comer of Osullivan's ready room.

Osullivan snorted. “You have only seen her asleep, Pierre,” he said.

“Which is what we want our queens to be, asleep. If my
soupçon
is successful, use it as a spray, dropping as a gentle rain upon the place below.” He smiled beatifically at Osullivan, who tried to remember the source of what was obviously a quote.

“Indeed,” he said ambiguously and gestured for Pierre to go on.

“And it can be applied anytime to the surface. And renewed as necessary. We will infect all Hiver-occupied worlds with the serenity of the most ancient Hive in this part of the galaxy!” His vibrant voice roused Tab, who looked sleepily at him for a moment, and then resumed her nap. His upraised hands indicated his exultation in discovering an answer to the vital question of how to keep the queens where they were.