The Tower and the Hive (33 page)

“Are we expected to go right back to Iota, Lar?” Morag asked, her expression anxious. “I've met this real neat guy...” Over Morag's head, Laria caught Lionasha's approving nod. “Vince Studebaker, and there's a fancy dress ball next Sixth Day ...”

“You'll be stuck here awhile longer, girls,” Laria said. “I might even have to send one of you to help Yoshuk and Nesrun at Sef Tower with all that has to go to that latest planet that's been released. Jeff routed quite a bit of heavy stuff through Iota rather than overload you.”

“Overload us! Why, the nerve of Grandfather,” Morag said, outraged.

Laria laughed, hugging her sister. “You tell him. I won't. Now, fill us in, will you, girls, Lio, and where's Vanteer?”

“He'll be along at real dawn, Laria. He's been more help than you could possibly imagine.” Lionasha's straight face was belied by the gleam in her eyes.

“Kept all the no-no's from dancing with us, even Perutz!”

Laria's expression froze and she stared at Lionasha. “If that man got...”

“Not with Van acting chaperone, he didn't,” Lionasha said, grinning.

Laria's eyebrows went up in surprise. “Turned over a new leaf, has our Van?”

“Not likely.” Lio gave a snort and then smiled. “But he was damned sure he wasn't going to be blamed for any incidents. As far as the Human society of Clarf is concerned, your sisters were here to learn the lower grades of Tower management.”

“Well done, kids,” Laria said, hugging her sisters once more.

“Hey, you two look a lot better,” Lionasha said. “Like you got enough sleep or had a vacation.”

“We had both, actually,” Laria said. “Mother and Dad wouldn't let us near the Tower ...”

“Not with Beliakin there, I'll bet.” Lionasha said in an acid tone.

Laria grinned. “We never saw him once. He had to report to Blundell about that wretched Clarissia. He cleared himself of any suspicion.” She paused, with a little smile on her face. “I wouldn't be surprised at all if Mom and Dad didn't sort of ... well ... adjust his general attitude.”

“That couldn't hurt,” Lionasha said, glancing over at Kincaid, who grinned back.

“Somehow I don't think he'll stay long, now he's had such good experience at Iota.” Laria smothered a grin. “But you know how valuable strong T-2's are right now. Grandfather's sure to put him in some crucial position. Not that their replacement will be anywhere near the kinetic Beliakin seems to be. Mother said Gollee's description of him is ‘very young and so eager to learn he's almost pathetic.' Kobold von something or other. Well, if Mom can trim down Beliakin's amazing ego, maybe she can build this little fellow's up.”

“Kobold von Gruy? So he developed, did he? He comes from my city,” Kincaid said with an odd smile, “so he'd have to overcome the odd ideas about Talent prevalent where we come from.”

Laria gave Kincaid a quick look and laid her hand briefly on his arm. Lionasha had trouble repressing the questions those brief, and intimate, gestures provoked. She turned away to go get breakfast started.

“He'll do fine with Mother and Dad to sort of ease him into Tower work,” Laria said.

“Didja hunt much?” Kaltia asked, so eagerly that it was obvious she missed that task.

“Indeed we did. In fact, I think that between us Kincaid and I finally hunted out that valley of mine.”

“Can't be done,” Kaltia argued.

“Kincaid here”—once again Laria touched the T-2's arm—“gets full honors for bagging the most every time we went out, wherever we went. Ewain was disgusted.”

“He would be,” Kaltia said with a snort. “But when do you get your 'Dinis back?”

I'll
tell you what
I
can later, Laria said.

“Zara's still at Iota?” Morag asked, though she already knew the answer.

Laria nodded. “And likely to be for some time. She's done great work and pulled our 'Dinis round.” Then her face lost all expression. “Did we lose many we know?”

Returning with a tray of hot drinks, Lionasha nodded sadly. “I knew twenty, and Van knew another half-dozen. Some eighty of Huf's main house died and thirty of Tip's.”

“Morag and Kaltia made appropriate visits to the color houses, since their own 'Dinis wished to express condolence.”

“We will too, of course,” Laria said. “It was all so needless.” Abruptly, she took a sip of the hot drink and then stepped over to Lionasha's workstation. “Have we much for the morning? You two”—she pointed at her sisters—“have the day off.”

“That's fine by us,” Morag said, “because there were some real neat fashions shipped in from Earth that should be on display and I need something new to wear. We didn't bring half enough good things with us. You coming too, Kaltia?”

Laria looked queringly at Lionasha and was reassured by Lio's dismissive wave.

“That pair know Clarf from hither to thither, Laria. Don't worry about them,” Lionasha said. “Now, I don't want you to lose all the good the holiday did you, so if the girls'll stay long enough to help 'port in the heavy machinery, it'd ease you back into the routine.”

“Shops don't open until late morning,” Morag said.

“Sure, don't want to lose my touch,” was Kaltia's reaction.

“That's most unlikely,” Laria said, 'pathing her pride in her sisters.

Lyon's Pride,
Kincaid added, mischief twinkling in his eyes.

An excited Sam Weiman and Grm begged a moment of Thian's time as the
Washington
and the fleet she led made their way toward the next suspect system.

“I know this may sound absolutely ridiculous,” Sam began, with Grm bouncing up and down on its flippers beside him. “But I've been thinking about pheromones, our odors”—he tapped his chest—“and theirs.” He pointed astern, meaning Arcadia or system Cj-70, which was now a good week behind them. “I think smell has a lot more to do with Hivers than we may have adequately investigated. When we had Operation Shanghai under way, I automatically took samples of the air as we went from place to place—sort of a headspace analysis, the sort we'd do with alien insects—in each collection point. I believe that the Hivers have been classified as basically insectoids. I also had Commander Kloo add gas chromatography to the remotes to keep track of any pheromone alterations. At any rate, Grm here and I have discovered that these pheromones are distinct, identifiable chemical compounds, especially when the queen made replacements for the attendants we took from her quarters.”

“Really?” Thian raised his eyebrows in surprise. “More than interesting,” he went on, “since Earth Prime forwarded me in his latest report of the general situation at Blundell news that my sister Zara is working on the Mrdini hibernatory problem.” He turned to Grm and spoke in Mrdini with a quick but respectful bow. YOU MAY NOT HAVE HEARD THAT THE MRDINI FRIENDS OF CLARF'S PRIME AND T-2 DANO WERE PART OF THE TRAGEDY AT CLARF'S MAIN HIBERNATORY. MRDINI HAD GRACIOUSLY REQUESTED ZARA AS PRIME MEDICAL HUMAN TO HELP REVIVE AND HEAL THE VICTIMS.

Grm, however, bowed, its poll eye covered slightly by its lids in deference to the sad incident. DID HEAR. AS XENBEE, THIS ONE KNOWS THAT SPECIAL PHEROMONES ARE USED IN HIBERNATORIES. BUT NOT WHICH ONES. Grm nodded but indicated for Thian to continue. DEEPEST, MOST SACRED INFORMATION KNOWN ONLY TO KEEPERS WHO ARE TRAINED TO MANAGE HIBERNATORIES. It gave a little shudder.

“I wonder what sort of smells we exuded on our first visit to that queen's quarters. She sure aired the place out in a hurry.”

“The point is,” Sam went on, giving Grm another apologetic bow, “that if we knew what pheromones the queen produces under which circumstances, we might find a way of ... of sort of replacing certain pheromones and thus producing a more pacific attitude. Reducing their size and aggressiveness: making them more like the Arcadians. Has anyone done a ‘headspace analysis' of the Heinlein queen?”

“I can certainly find out,” Thian said at his most cooperative. “Wouldn't it be ironic if pheromones were the key to the Hiver problem as well as the Mrdinis'?
We've been too busy,
he thought to himself,
having to eliminate the Hivers to discover how to contain them. But that difference in size between Arcadia's workers and those at Xh-33 and by the Heinlein queen's must be significant.

 

Once Vagrian Beliakin got back from rather intensive sessions with Gollee Gren and with the team investigating the abortive assassination attempt over his one interview with that dreadful Capellan female, he settled back into Iota Aurigae's routine with great relief. He learned that he had missed a visit home by Laria and Kincaid Dano. He couldn't figure out if the call to Blundell had been to keep him out of their way, but he was just as glad that he had been absent. He had even had a final quarter hour with Earth Prime himself and felt he'd made a good impression on Jeff Raven, though the man had kept to two topics: the horses currently at Iota and the hunting that Vagrian had done with his youngest grandchildren. Although Beliakin felt that Raven's geniality had to mask some other devious purpose, he sensed no mental intrusion during their spoken conversation.

Back at Iota, and genuinely glad to be there, he saw little enough of Zara—she rarely even slept at the Tower House right now, trying to save the victims of the Clarf hibernatory's breakdown. He hunted with Petra and Ewain, careful to keep up an easy relationship with them and their parents. He had no trouble finding female companionship of the type he preferred in Iota Aurigae City.

Two days later, they had just finished shifting another six big daddies, when Earth Prime asked for a few words with Vagrian.

Damia grinned and gestured for Vagrian to answer while she and Afra left the Tower ... just as if, Vagrian thought very carefully, they couldn't have “heard” whatever Jeff Raven said if they wished. He doubted they would stoop to listening, since both were scrupulous in Talent protocol and traditions and Afra was a methody Capellan.

Beg pardon?
Vagrian gripped the armrests of his couch in surprise.

I hardly know what to say, sir
, Beliakin replied, swallowing figuratively and literally,
but I'll certainly do my best to prove my abilities.

Vagrian was still so stunned at his unexpected good fortune that he said the first thing that came to mind.

Won't take me long at all, sir. And he was out of his
couch and descending three steps at a time, the clatter causing Keylarion to stare at him. Then he also realized that Xexo hadn't come up out of his engineering pit and the generators hadn't been turned off.

“I'm going to a new Tower,” Vagrian cried as he passed the two. “I've got to pack. I'll have my own Tower.” He caught at the doorframe with both hands to stop his reckless forward momentum since Damia and Afra were in the little lounge, grinning at him.

“Take all the time you need to pack, Vagrian,” Damia said cheerfully. “And congratulations. We didn't think we'd have you long. Not with your kinetic strength.”

“I won't take long,” he promised, and stifled the urge to teleport to his room. He did, however, use his kinetic Talent to start gathering up his belongings in the house onto the bed, and was rolling his disks into shirts and sweaters before he was out of sight of the Lyons. Then he 'ported to his room and speeded up the process of packing. Since he'd seen Damia 'port his things into her house, he had no qualms about 'porting them back to the Tower yard by the personnel carrier that was always racked in one of the side cradles.

Damia and Afra were coming down the Tower steps as he jogged up from the house. He said all that was suitable for a leave-taking, grinned at their repeated congratulations, waved a farewell and thanks to Xexo and Keylarion, who came out of the Tower to see him off.

Afra closed the cover with one last smile. Of course, Vagrian didn't feel the transfer, not one being done by the Iota Aurigae Tower. He did hear a male voice accept transfer : Got 'im,
Damia.
Thanks. Greetings, Beliakin. Perry
here.
Then he heard a great deal of exterior noise as his personnel carrier settled into its destination cradle.
We'll
meet later,
Beliakin.
Do get into the Tower as soon as possible. We're quite busy.