Laria’s delight in having her sisters come was sufficient for her to be the one to open their personnel carrier in the dawn cool of Clarf. She hugged them both, introduced them and their ’Dinis to those doing the yard duty.

All of a sudden, Morag pulled out of her sister’s embrace and, her jaw working in astonishment, pointed skyward. “What’s sparkling up there? Or is it my imagination?” She squinted toward the distant but visible shining point. “Or do you have a morning star I didn’t know about?”

“Oh, that,” Laria said dismissively, without bothering to look up. “That’s a Hiver sphere!”

Kaltia’s eyes widened with some apprehension as she too peered at the sparkling spot.

“It’s empty, though occasionally Mrdinis go up to prowl around for the fun of it,” Laria said. “That’s the one Captain Klml brought back as a trophy for its color. Then every other ’Dini world had to hijack one to maintain the honor of their colors.”

Morag, eyes still on the sphere hanging like a malignant metal moon in the morning sky, shook her head. “Thing still looks dangerous.” Then she wiped the beads of perspiration that the relative cool of very early morning oozed out of her pores.

“Wouldn’t think that would have bothered you, Morag,” Laria said, somewhat concerned.

“It’s not the sphere that made me break out in sweat. It’s what you call climate here.”

“Why, it’s cool right now,” Laria replied.

“You call this cool?” Morag demanded.

“All is relative,” Laria said, grinning. “You’ll gradually get acclimated and I don’t expect you’ll want to go out much at first, but the Tower’s set to Iota temperatures. Don’t worry about the duffels. The ’Dinis’ll bring them in.”

Laria paused only long enough to ‘port the personnel carrier into the storage shed, where its interior wouldn’t heat up when the full sun appeared. Then she turned both girls, who were still staring up at the sphere, firmly toward the Tower as eight ’Dinis argued over who was to carry which duffel.

EACH OF YOU GRAB ONE END. THEN CART THEM TO ROOMS THREE AND FOUR, WILL YOU PLEASE? Laria told them so she could introduce her sisters to her Tower crew.

“You know Kincaid, of course,” she said, “Lionasha here is our expediter and Vanteer our engineer. And that’s all of us, bar the ’Dinis. We’ve got four off in hibernation—mine . and Kincaid’s—but they’re about due to come home.”

Lionasha hugged both girls, Van treated them to a bow and a kiss on their hands, grinning mischievously when Morag gave him a mock scowl and Kaltia pretended to swoon at such courtesy. Standing slightly to one side of the others, Kincaid appeared uncertain as to what form his greeting should take, but Morag dragged him down by the shoulder and kissed his cheek, laughing at his startled expression.

“Missed you hunting with us, Kincaid,” she said, winking at him.

Kaltia, less the hoyden, extended her hand, and when he took it, folded her other hand over for a closer contact. She grinned up at him.

“My sister hasn’t worked you to death then...”

“Not yet,” Kincaid replied with a mock grimace. “But your presence will make my demise much less likely. I couldn’t believe it when Laria said your mother had relented.”

“I thought it was Grandfather’s idea,” Morag said, looking from Kincaid to Laria..

“His idea, but Mother had to agree to parting with you,” Laria said, linking an arm about their shoulders and hugging them into her. “Oh, but it’s good to have family here. Now, are you hungry or do you want to settle in? You may, once you’ve got accustomed to Clarf, wish to take an apartment together in the Human Compound because there’s a lot more going on there than here. I’ve asked for another ground car since I know”—she cocked a finger at Morag—“that Dad passed you for driving years before he let me solo.”

“Had to,” Morag said with a grin.

“We can settle in later. We came here to work,” Kaltia said, rubbing her hands together with a roll of her eyes.

“You will,” Lionasha said, gesturing to the load of disks. “We’ve some heavy drone freighters to go...”

“Ah, piffle,” said Morag, with a toss of her heavy dark hair, the silvered lock that was the family’s trademark falling neatly down the center of her tresses. “We’ve done big-daddy ore drones until it’s second nature.”

“Why else do you think you’re here?” Vanteer remarked dryly, but he was grinning at the ebullience of the sisters, which had lightened the semigloom that had emanated from Laria since she’d ’ported the unwanted T-2 back to Blundell. Surprised as he had been at Laria’s precipitous removal of Yoshuk’s brother, he had been intensely grateful. Vanteer had just a touch of prescience in his Talent, and warning ripples had gone down his spine the moment the man entered the Tower. Morag and Kaltia, by their very presence, eagerness to work and delight in being able to help their sister, had dispelled the last of that unpleasantness. He knew that Kincaid had visited the Lyon home on Iota Aurigae, and both girls were obviously glad to renew the acquaintance. The nebulous worries that he recently sensed in the Tower dissipated in the giggles of two more Lyons. “Is there anyone left at home?” he added.

“Sure, Ewain and Petra,” Kaltia said, and dismissed them with a wave. “But they’re still too young, so Grandfather sent in a strong kinetic T-2 to help Mother and Dad.”

“Really?” Kincaid said, to break a stunned silence, since all the adults in the Tower had a good idea just who that T-2 could be.

“We had to leave but he’s supposed to have more than enough heft for the big daddies. And Mom and Dad will break him in property.”

“Yes,” Laria said, an odd look on her face, “I’m sure that they will.”

Lionasha suddenly started sorting disks, Vanteer retreated to the generators, and if Morag caught some undercurrent, Laria quickly urged them to follow her to their quarters.

“We won’t really have much time before the Tower’s busy, but as near as I can remember, you’d’ve left home at about nine-thirty?”

“On the nose, sis, or do we have to call you Prime?” Kaltia said.

“Have you ever called Mother Prime?” Laria retorted, chuckling.

“Only Grandmother,” Morag said pertly.

“Oh, but I am glad to have you here!” Laria repeated.

“And we’re glad to be allowed out,” Morag said, “but that sun is incredible!”

They all heard the unmistakable sound of generators turning over and speeding up.

“I don’t think you’ll have more than time to look into your rooms,” Laria said, sliding open a door on one side of the hall and pointing to the one just opposite it. “See which one your duffels are in, wash your faces or whatever, but come on back to the Tower. Today’ll be so easy.”

And it was, despite six hefty drones loaded with machinery and spare parts, two large passenger vehicles and the usual incoming shower of message tubes. That caused Morag the most astonishment.

“It’s raining tubes out there,” she cried, watching the canisters falling into and all around the cradle.

“We could use something else,” Kaltia said. “Like a big round bin. They’re too short to land in a cradle and too many to stack neatly.”

Bins are a great idea, Lionasha said. Why couldn’t we think of that?

Because we’ve been too busy catching, Laria said with a note of exasperation.

New brooms sweep clean, Kincaid said, grinning at the girls.

Or a ramp to slide them into a big enough enclosure so it doesn’t matter how many come in at once, Morag suggested, projecting the image of such a device.

Roll ’em in line like bowls in an alley, Vanteer said. Good notion. Let’s get the ’Dinis on it. They’ll know where to get the stuff we’d need.

And we thought the mining companies got lots of messages! Morag exclaimed, remaining in the Mind Merge but, at the same time ’porting loose message tubes into an orderly pile. How long’s this been going on?

Since Talavera, Laria said. We’ve one more crate ... Easy does it! It’s fragile.

The crate, the machinery inside it visible through the slats of its carrier, landed without so much as a bump.

What’s the waybill on that, Lio? Kincaid asked.

Well, let’s put it in the shed, out of the way, then, until FCR tells us it’s ready to receive it, Laria said. They’ll have to reschedule to take on repair work.

“That’s the lot for the morning,” Lionasha said. “Be right up.”

Morag stretched, arms above her head, toes pointing out, and Kaltia turned on her side and assumed a brief fetal position—each relaxing in a different fashion. Kincaid looked casually over at Laria. As deftly as he could as the next in line to Laria in the Mind Merge, he’d drawn more heavily on the vibrant young strength of the girls, knowing they’d have enough experience to ease some of the burden that fell to the Prime.

She turned her head slowly toward him and cocked her finger at him, letting him know that she was well aware of what he’d been doing. She was not, apparently, going to reprimand him.

“That was good work, kids,” she said as she heard Lionasha coming up the steps with the restorative beverages.

Kaltia took a long swallow, her eyes widening with pleasure at the taste. “Hey, where does this come from?”

“The ever tropical planet of Clarf,” Laria said. “There are some advantages to it and this is one of the nicest ways to drink replacement electrolytes. Of course, the ’Dinis prefer lemonade, but they’re not shifting tons about.”

“Do they grow citrus fruits on Clarf now?” Morag asked, licking her lips to be sure she’d got all the liquid.

“A varietal grows here but it’s Earth lemonade they adore,” Laria said. “Now, we all take a siesta at this time of day, especially newcomers.”

“Why? We haven’t been outside or anything,” Morag said.

“I’m conserving your energies for the afternoon session, which can be heavier,” Laria said, swinging her legs to the side of her couch before she finished her drink. “Besides, you should get settled into your rooms.”

Sliding from their couches, the girls went down the steps, where Morag halted, eyes widening at the stacks on Lionasha’s desk.

“Hey, I can help with that. I used to do it on Iota and you’ve far too many. May I?” she said, already finding a chair to draw up to the littered desk.

“I really would appreciate the help. It’s all those tubes!” The word came out with an emphasis short of resignation.

“Vanteer? Do you think we could rig some sort of a ramp to channel the tubes into stacks?” Kaltia said, stepping down into engineering as he began to drop generator power to idle.

He handed her a stylus and a pad. “Go to it, gal.”

“That’s what this Tower has needed,” Kincaid remarked, offering a hand to Laria. “Young eager blood! A transfusion for us weary weight lifters.”

“I’ve these sorted, Lio,” Morag was saying. “Now how do I contact the recipients?”

“That”—Lionasha took the pile from Morag—“is where our ’Dinis assist. Here’s another set. Fraggit, but I’m glad you read ’Dini that fast. I still have to puzzle. Fig, Sil, Nim and Dig...” She beckoned the ’Dinis over. “As soon as you’ve got these done, you can show Kev, Su, Dar and Sim how we arrange them for collection. Then you may take the girls’ ’Dinis out for a look round.”

GOOD, GOOD. WE DO FAST. Fig, who was organizing things in the absence of Tip and Nil, handed out the sorted files. The experienced ’Dinis picked up com units from the rack, and as they dialed the appropriate numbers, explained to the newcomers how distribution was handled. Fig was as good as its boast, and within half the time it usually took, thanks to Morag’s deft help with Lionasha, the ’Dinis went out of the Tower to rack the message tubes where they could be collected.

WE’RE DONE, WE’RE DONE. WE GO. BACK LATER, Sil announced, opening the door just wide enough to lean its head inside and deliver the message.

“Wow,” exclaimed Lionasha, looking with deep relief at the clear workspace. “No wonder Lyons are the Primes of choice,” she added, grinning at Morag.

“Well, we’re still learning, you know,” Morag said, with such modesty that Laria, overhearing, laughed. “Honest, sis. There’s a lot more in such a busy Tower as Clarf than there ever was at home, for all the big daddies we had to heave.”

“What do you think about a setup like this, Laria?” Vanteer asked, showing both the Prime and Kincaid the sketch pad. “This’d be easier to construct...” The stylus tapped the third drawing. “But this might be more efficient. And dead easy to put up. Could have one done by morning, I think. I know Lvlr can get us the materials and have them here by dark. Might even get it to give us the benefit of its expertise. Lev’s done some bits and pieces for us before now.”

“Then you’ll keep us?” Morag asked, eyes round and mocking.

“You just bet we will!” Laria and Lionasha chorused, and they all burst out laughing.

Aye, there’s the rub, Thian. There should be and there aren ’t. Yet that colony is by far the oldest, judging by the analysis of the sphere fragments—it should have sent off colonies in keeping with the currently understood Hiver patterns.

“Let us in on the joke, will you, Thian?” Admiral Ashiant asked dryly.

When Thian recited exactly what his grandfather had reported, Ashiant guffawed. “Well, frankly, I don’t see that we’d have any trouble absconding with a few specimens.”

The experts want several of each from different installations, Jeff Raven said, having been able to hear the Admiral’s response through the link with his grandson.

“Don’t want much, do they?” Ashiant said with a sniff. “I suppose the experts’ll want some of the queens’ attendants too, for comparison’s sake.”

“I shouldn’t indulge myself with whimsical remarks in your presence,” Ashiant said.

Who’s to know what risk is involved until we try it, Grandfather? Thian also vocalized that query. We will neutralize the smell of us, though, since odor does seem to get through their chitinous skulls.

Inform the Admiral that’s a splendid idea, to get queens’ attendants too, was Earth Prime’s response. And might prove a salient factor in figuring out this atypical situation. Thian obeyed.

“Humph,” said Ashiant, looking pleased. “It is an oddity, to be sure, but how that can help us reduce the threat of Hivers in general is beyond me. We’ll still need to identify any, and every, planet they occupy and somehow render them unable to colonize.”

Inform the Admiral that I could wish his view was more widely held. Again Thian relayed the message.

“Are the militant still asking for species annihilation?” Ashiant asked, his bushy eyebrows raised in dismay.

“As Admiral of the first Star League⁶ Fleet that managed to destroy an enemy without sustaining casualties of our own,“Ashiant replied when Thian conveyed that information, “I would prefer to keep that record. Going up against a planet of belligerent Hiver armies might ruin such a worthy aspiration.”

“If you’ll pardon my intrusion, Admiral,” Thian said, speaking for himself. “They didn’t even know we were in the queen’s inner Hive. How would they recognize a punitive force if they refuse to ‘see’ us when we are patently present? The only objects they appear to recognize as a threat are other spaceships. Even one of their own spheres, as Xh-33 proved to us.”

“Ah, but an attack launched on their installations would surely result in some reaction,” Ashiant said. “You identified a great quantity as well as variety of creatures in the underground Hives.”

“None of them armed with anything but farm tools and a lot of limbs,” Thian said.

It’s the sting-pzzt we’d have to endure that bothers me, Grandfather, Thian said, and gave a shudder at the thought of proximity to such a concentration of that uncomfortable Hiver emanation, despite the muffling the body armor provided. Eighteen Hives to visit? That first one had been enough.

Cheeky boy, was the retort, but Thian sensed only Jeff Raven’s amusement in his use of the Rowan’s favorite epithet.

As Thian suspected, far too many scientists back on Star League worlds and Mrdini home planets were eager to examine live specimens of the different Hiver workers.

Certainly not, Jeff replied. Both Gktmglnt and Admiral Mekturian reaffirmed the original orders. There may be other Hiver planets where more specimens can be gleaned... that is, if the militants calm down. Heinlein Base is out and another, less obvious destination is being considered. I’d limit those who know about this operation.

Even on the Washington? Thian was surprised.

Especially on the Washington. We have reason to believe that the militants managed to get a few aboard despite our precautions.

“How did that happen? I thought security checked everyone on board.”

“There’s been some scuttlebutt,” Rame said with a shrug. “Sleepers or those who were halfway in agreement anyhow.”

“After all we did?” Thian found himself appalled at such intransigence. He’d achieved far more than his original brief by removing eight spheres with no Fleet casualties.

Semirame gave him a sympathetic smile. “You remember the reaction we had at Phobos Base when we wanted to import the queen to show us how to start up a sphere? Well, Commander Baldwin may be an asshole, but he’s heading a long line of ’em. Then, too, Day heard some scuttlebutt she wasn’t too happy with. Couldn’t identify the speakers ’cause she was in the mess hall. About why didn’t we just use one of the little bombs in every installation and end the problem forever, and wasn’t that why the Washington was out here?”

“I think I’ll check everyone we do decide to use on this mission,” Thian said.

Clancy gave him a hard stare. Probing without the permission of the individual was one of the most stringent Talent prohibitions.

“Not when it’s for security purposes, Clancy. Even the Admiral would agree on those grounds,” Kloo said, siding with Thian. “Especially if the High Council finds this planet atypical. Looks pretty typical to me,” she added with a grin.

So, disliking the necessity, Thian did a quick probe of those on the list of possible team members that Kloo submitted. He deleted nine names, two of which Gravy had already had doubts about. One that he was happy to discover unbiased was a T-7 petty officer who had been along on the reconnaissance of the other installations. Hazur Adi had automatically taken soil readings that he said would be no trouble to duplicate, especially if they managed to grab some from each holding cavern to replicate the dominant odor.

“Mostly the right temperature is what keeps them dormant until the queen activates them,” Hazur said when he sat in on the second briefing session. “Love to know how she does that.”

“There has to be some communication between her and her workers,” Lea Day said, as she often did. “Even if it’s on no frequency we can hear or identify. One thing, Prime, I thought I’d better ask... if you’d planned to stash them on board until you know where they’re to be ’ported?”

Thian looked at her for a moment, snapped his fingers and dramatically slapped his hand against his forehead. “That damned sting-pzzt’ll be obvious to any one as low as T-9.” He groaned.

“There’s one place we could use that wouldn’t reach anyone,” Lea said with a broad grin on her face.

“You got me, Chief. Where?” Thian asked.

“Gee, sir, you surprise me,” the CPO said, savoring the moment for a beat. “On board that old sphere, a’course. As I remember the report, it wouldn’t be hard to repair one of the boat bays the Hivers use for their scout ships. Send over enough oxygen, park the carriers inside and no sting-pzzt to clue even a lamebrain T-9 to what we’re about. The critters’d be safe. More ways than one.”

Because it was her idea, Thian ordered Lea Day and Gravy, who was immediately brought into the project, as well as Hazur, who would do the environmental adaptations, to accompany him in space suits to the long-inoperative sphere that circled the atypical planet. Clancy and Semirame ’ported ahead the supplies. In the weightlessness of the aged sphere, it was relatively easy, if tedious, to seal the least damaged of the boat bays and pump in the necessary oxygen. Once the area was airtight and no loss of oxygen was visible in space from the Washington, the medium-sized drones which would accommodate the captive Hivers were ’ported in for Hazur to doctor to approximate the underground accommodations from which they’d be shanghaied. Three nights later, when Thian, Lea Day and Hazur Adi had recovered from that expedition and their other preparations were complete, Thian initiated the raids.

He kept each infiltration to the most effective minimum team so that Human odors would not alert the queens. They’d also been careful to eliminate any new-plastic stink from the body armor. They’d smeared their gear with dirt from the worn tracks that led underground. On two occasions they were able to make off with workers returning at twilight from cultivation duties. Though they did “remove” some of the varieties tending the queens, this set off an unexpected agitation in the queen so deprived. Since they had installed monitors in each of the queens’ quarters, they watched anxiously to see what would happen, ready to replace any or all of the variants rather than incite the queens to action. After a period in which Kloo said she was sure one queen counted up her attendants one by one, the queen extracted an egg from one of the tubes of embryos and evidently prepared the egg to replicate the missing attendant.

It took five nights to complete the project, which Thian code-named “Shanghai,” complete with soil and a replication of the food pellets found in the various underground caverns.

“They’ll never even know they’re not at home,” Hazur Adi said, with an understandable pride in having completed his part of “Shanghai.” Monitors within the drones indicated that all the captives remained in a passive state.

Heinlein Base was ringed by private yachts, orbiting just beyond the legal limit and obviously determined to prevent the landing of any of the “deadly” specimens. Another useless display of protest, since anyone who thought twice would have realized that Talent could ’port the objectionable creatures anywhere without alerting the sentinel craft.

Commander Baldwin had his revenge on the Talents on the Phobos Base project who had started up the intact sphere. He reminded them that the biggest danger came from Talents who were “minions” of the High Council and determined to subvert the will of the majority. Blundell’s answer was a calm restatement that they were apolitical and that it was impossible to subvert Talent to purposes other than those described in their Charter. That this happened to include the transportation of approved carriers of all types and telepathing of any messages, overt or covert, was not open for discussion or for intervention. Any attempt to interfere with the operation of FT&T would result in the closure of every Tower and the facilities on which all interstellar trade depended. Further, any attempt to interfere with Talents of any grade could result in stoppages in the locality of the interference.

There were, of course, renewals of the frequent accusations of the monopoly of FT&T. The response did remind the public in general and dissidents in particular that there were indeed other ways of transporting goods and messages, even if these methods required considerably more time and considerably more Human effort. Hence FT&T was not a monopoly, merely the best and most effective method currently available.

The Mrdinis, showing amusement at these demonstrations of Human intransigence, contacted Gktmglnt, who quietly informed Earth Prime that the best possible place to install the specimens would be in the various captured and intact spheres in geosynchronous orbits about the main ’Dini planets. Quarters and laboratories could be arranged to accommodate those Human scientists who wished to join the Mrdini specialists in the evaluation of the species.

So when can we ’port these dangerous, vicious creatures to an “unknown ” destination? Thian asked his grandfather.

“I’ll handle the security, Thian,” Admiral Ashiant said. “Major Gefferny has uncovered a ring of sympathizers—some of those we’d already suspected of militant tendencies. You’d best get on with Shanghai as unobtrusively as possible.”

“We’ve already ‘shanghaied,’ sir,” Thian said. He ignored his grandfather’s delighted guffaw.

“You have?” Ashiant blinked in astonishment. Thian also did not mention that Earth Prime was bellowing with laughter at his grandson’s efficiency.

“In fact, sir, if I may be bold enough to suggest it,” Thian went on, “it might put a stop to the unrest on board as well as those demonstrations if you leave this orbit and get on with the Search.”

Ashiant grumphed, jutted out his chin belligerently before replying. “What? And give those militants.the satisfaction of thinking they won this round?”

“Since they haven’t, sir” Thian replied with understandable amusement, “why not let them deceive themselves? It’d make it that much easier for the scientific work to proceed without interference.”

“They can’t be on board. Can they? Where that sting-pzzt you tell me about could be detected?”

“No sir,” Thian said, shaking his head, noticing that Gravy, Clancy and Semirame were having trouble stifling their amusement at having confounded the Admiral.

“Are you going to tell me, young Thian?”

“I’d’ve thought you’d figured that out, sir.” Thian turned his head slightly in the direction of the planet they were orbiting. The abandoned sphere was just in sight.

Ashiant began to nod his head. “In plain sight, so to speak. Well done, Prime Lyon. Well done, all.” He included Clancy, Gravy and Commander Kloo. Then he pounced. “How’d you manage transfers without it showing up on generator use?”

“Didn’t need to use gestalt, Admiral,” Thian said, “not with these three and the others we tagged for the job. We were very cautious too. By the way, Petty Officer Hazur Adi was of inestimable assistance and if you could see some way to give him a commendation...”

“I’ll speak to my flag captain ... without specifics.”

“Well, she’s safe,” Thian said, since he knew Captain Ailsah Vandermeer from his time aboard Ashiant’s first ship.

“She’d better be,” was Ashiant’s unequivocal reply. “Well done, people. Well done. Only ... when are they leaving ... Where they are?”

Jeff Raven then confided the coordinates of the ultimate destinations to Thian.

“Grandfather has informed me, sir, so we’ll just wait until we’re under way again, when the fluctuations of the generators will be less noticeable and the ’port can be effected with the least possibility of anyone noticing it.”

Ashiant chuckled all the way out of the Talents’ lounge until the door slid shut.

Then Gravy and Semirame could indulge in the howls of laughter they had been holding back. Clancy was grinning from ear to ear at their notable success.

“And Baldwin can go...” Semirame began, and then clamped her mouth shut, long habit interfering with her yearning to castigate a senior officer. Even one who richly deserved it.

“You know, after seeing that ring of yachts around Heinlein Base and some of the nastier militant demos, is there any chance some idiot might try to breach Blundell?” Clancy asked soberly.

“Sure, if they want to stop all interstellar transport.”

“I meant, more personally, against Jeff Raven?”

Thian seemed to consider this and then, so abruptly that he was a blur of motion, he launched himself at Clancy, who instantly ’ported himself aside. Thian spread both hands at the success of his demonstration and walked back to his seat.

“Unlikely. And Clancy’s just a T-2. With good instincts, I might add,” Thian said. “Grandfather’s guarded. So’s Callisto Base and every single Tower FT&T operating. Even if all the lower T’s became disaffected, some of it would leak to a higher rank and they’d be...”

“What do Talents do to those who transgress?” Gravy asked when Thian didn’t go on.

“I haven’t heard of any ... reprimands,” Thian said, “but in the early days of Talent, those who didn’t obey the tenets of Henry Darrow or subsequent Talent leaders got ... mind-locked.”

“They got their minds burned,” Clancy corrected coldly.

Gravy shuddered, hugging her arms. Semirame nodded her agreement with such a dire punishment apparent.

“That’s why it’s so imperative to find Talents young and train them up so they can’t be subverted,” Thian added with a sigh, looking out the porthole. “Well, we’re not the only ones who haven’t wasted time,” he said, pointing. The sphere was no longer visible and the view of the starscape was altering slowly.

Being nearer, Semirame flipped on the panel that showed the helm’s maneuvers.

“We are definitely leaving orbit,” she said with satisfaction. “How soon can we ’port the Hivers?”

“Show the engineering board, will you, Rame?” Thian asked, rising and going to his couch. “I’ll just warn Grandfather to tell the spheres to be ready for their new inmates.”

“Nine carriers are going to make some generator noise,” Clancy said, sliding onto his couch just as Semirame got to hers. Gravy stretched out in her lounge chair.

“Do ’em one at a time. Two a couple of times, Grandfather is telling me. Just merge with me. Three, two, one...”

The merge was completed with the ease of long practice. Semirame raised one hand, eyes on the engineering board.

We won’t need much push, Thian told the others in his mind. Here’s the first pair... Any variation, Rame?

No problem.

It took only ten minutes to dispatch the carriers, the last one the longest since the Washington was picking up speed with every passing moment.

“She’s one sweet ship,” Semirame remarked with a sigh of understandable pride.

Thian lay still on his couch much longer than the others and only seemed to rouse himself when Gravy brought him the restorative drink. She sat down beside him on space he instantly made for her slim self.

Probably. She was being candid since she had no reason to hide her thoughts from him.

What if they want specimens from every other Hiver planet? Thian let the others in on his quandary.

It’s likely they will, Semirame said, not at all concerned. We did it successfully this time. We can probably manage again.

Let’s worry about that when, as or if it happens, Thian, Semirame said.

We’ve given the experts enough to chew on ... Clancy hastily added, metaphorically speaking, of course.

Thian swung his legs over the couch, keeping as close to Gravy as his altered position allowed. I want us to check every Talent, major and minor, on this ship and see who’s disaffected by the militants. I want to be able to trust all of them, not just a few.

Semirame regarded him, her expression almost sad. We can’t check e. very Talent in the entire Fleet, Thian.

And what do we do to the ones we already know are suspect? Gravy asked, her expression blank.

I’d rather you did, Semirame said bluntly, even if Grandfather says you shouldn’t.

Raven would insist you told the Admiral, Thian, Clancy said, glaring at Semirame.

“Okay, okay, so I’m new at this,” she said, holding up both hands in surrender.

Ever regret we took advantage of your Talent, Rame? Clancy asked, quirking one eyebrow at her.

It sure gave me a chance to get off Phobos Base with my record still clean. She reached over and tousled Clancy’s neatly combed hair. Oh, hey, one last thought... to still the voice of the militant. We all know—she swung her finger in a circle to include them all—that the sphere down there ain’t going nowhere, not with the metal fatigue in its hull, much less all the holes. But if we were to ostentatiously plant one of your little packages, Thian, to blow it to kingdom come if any queen tried to bring the engines up ...

Those engines—Clancy snorted derisively—wouldn’t go... Oh, I see what you mean. Smart idea!

I sort of hate that we have to placate them, Gravy said, looking rebellious.

Not when it anticipates a possible demand they might think of, Clancy said with a malicious grin.

“I don’t know about anyone else,” Thian went on aloud, sliding off the couch and hauling Gravy after him, “but I’m starving of the hunger.”

“Considering how little you’ve had to do lately,” Gravy said, “I can’t imagine what’s been developing an appetite in you.”

“Whatever it is, it’s catching,” Clancy said, taking a comb from his hip pocket and giving a few swift, accurate passes over his messed hair. “Coming, Commander?”

“Now that you mention it, it is past my lunch break.”