The Tower and the Hive Read Online Free PDF

replied. The Council now has other, more pressing worries.
    Then the estimated ratio of Hiver-occupied planets has gone up? Afra asked.
    Unconfirmed. Probably down, since some of those probed show dead installations. But that doesn’t reduce the threat the species poses. The results of Kincaid’s report while on search with Squadron D have to be revised if four of the twenty probed are either ecologically nonviable or prove to be failed colonies.
    Those were all farther out from the original homeworld, said Afra pensively.
    True, so we’ve just begun to search. The humorous note in Jeff’s voice as he paraphrased an old adage showed his incredible resilience in the face of constant attacks and criticisms from the various factions of the two allies, Human and Mrdini. I’m only the messenger, he added, as if he had perceived Afra’s thought. The two knew each other to their fundamental conscious levels.
    For which we are all eternally grateful, said the Rowan crisply.
    What’s being reported for the other side of the galaxy? Afra asked.
    I’m waiting to hear. Perry’s the Prime with the Fourth Fleet. I should have told Thian that Admiral Ashiant’s squadron is to be called First Fleet from now on.
    My, we are getting fancy, the Rowan said.
    I’m so glad you got Perry and Morgelle away from old . David, Damia said at the same time.
    Yes, their Talent was being wasted, Jeff replied, especially since David is now willing to train up Xahra and that youngling Prime he just discovered in his own back-yard. I’ll have to reassign Morgelle from Second Fleet shortly but she’s learned enough, Flavia said, to run a Tower. You provoked him, you know, Damia, with all your brood...
    Not all my brood, Dad, and you leave the babies alone. I don’t want them to have to grow up fast like Thian and Rojer did.
    That’s a low blow, Damia, said her mother and her husband almost in the same thought.
    No one can regret the attack on Thian or Prtglm’s outrageous wasting of Gil and Kat and its effect on Rojer more than I. There was such deep remorse in her father’s voice that Damia was immediately contrite, laving him with affection and apology.
    They did mature from those experiences, Damia, said the Rowan in a neutral tone ... and Damia was further rueful when she knew her mother obliquely referred to her brother Larak, dead these many years, lost in the necessity of countering the mental entity Sodan. She had been the designated focus, but Larak had gone in first and Sodan’s mental strike, aimed at her, had killed her T-2 brother. And we are all exceedingly proud of them.
    Which David would like a little of, please, for his children, Jeff continued, getting over that sad reminder quickly. You’ll be happy to know that Gollee Gren’s found a half-dozen new potential high Talents. One who had a near-death accident bringing out latent kinetic Talent. He’s testing well at the Two Level.
    Is he? That’s very good news. Damia meant that sincerely. So I get to keep my younglings awhile longer?
    We’ll see how they develop, her father said in a teasing tone, as if he didn’t expect much from the four younger Lyons.
    Dad!
    Jeff chuckled. You do leave yourself wide open for a tease, you know, dear heart. To business—when’s the next ore shipment?
    Miner Mexalgo has four big daddies but wants to wait till he has the full half-dozen. To make our effort worthwhile. Another hull from the mines of Iota Aurigae? Damia’s tone held pride for her world’s ability to supply the raw materials that would become elements of the expanding Allied Fleet. I’ll let you know. It shouldn’t be too long at the rate they’re working: Humans and Mrdini. She chuckled and heard her father echo that.
    Iota Aurigae had as many Mrdini settlers now as it had Human. The ’Dinis missed their hot fierce primaries, but in a mine, who sees the sun? They had