Anne McCaffrey - Tower & Hive 5 - The Tower And The Hive

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Penguin Putnam Ins".

17T ! hidson Street

New York, NY 11)014

I have excellent reason to he particularly grateful to four experts in writ-

ing this conclusion of the Talent (aka The Tower and the Hive) series. Dr.

Jack Cohen of the University of Warwick and I discussed how I could solve

the problem of colonizing Hivers. So I had a structure to begin with. I was

dumbfounded to discover that my dictionary had only five lines about the

very complex subject of pheromones. The Web came to my assistance and

I asked for help, which was quick m coming from Jonathan Brecher and

Louis Culot of CambridgeSoft on their special expertise, both as generalists

and for specific knowledge about pheromones. We had some lively E-mail

exchanges, since Jonathan knew of Lyon's Pride when I approached him

for assistance. His colleague Louis Culot supplied additional details. I wish

also to thank Bibb Graves from Hewlett Packard Houston for a description

of gas chromatographs, which register the strength and composition of

pheromones. We extrapolated -- as is the function of science fiction -- that

the future would miniaturize what are actually large and cumbersome in-

was first started in 1990. I am indebted to my editor, Susan Allison, and her

staff of copyeditors, for their valuable comments and assistance overall.

is sent to occupy the Tower at lota Aungae's new mining planet." There she

encounters an intelligence on a distance spaceship, known as Sodan. He

tries to lure her into giving him directions to her planet. Her family become

suspicious of her enchantment with this "mind" and send her brothers

Larak and Afra to divert her. In the ensuing meeting of minds, Larak is

killed by a brutal telepathic bolt from Sodan, who is only a mind. Damia and

Afra are seriously injured too. While recuperating on Deneb, Damia and

Afra are contacted by the "dreams" of the Mrdini. An alien race, they have

been fighting the dread spheres of the Hiver queens, who were the invad-

ers which Jeff and the Rowan had thwarted.

The Mrdini are exceedingly impressed by the fact that Deneb was able

to defeat the attacking Hiver sphere without loss of life. They have been

fighting the Hivers for two centuries and only suicide squadrons are able to

penetrate and destroy the spheres.

In order to cement relations between the two species, Mrdini young are

placed with Human young and grow up learning each other's language and

culture. Damia's children/ starting with young Lana, each have a pair of

Mrdini young.

of Human and Mrdini continues to track down or resist the Hiver incursions.

Then three Hiver spheres penetrate League Space and three pursuit

squadrons of mixed Human and Mrdini ships are sent after each of the

Hiver ships, to track them to their separate destinations. Another group is

sent to trace their ion trails back to their planet of origin. In order to con-

tinue these searches most effectively, FT&T is asked to supply the flagship

of each group with a Prime, or sufficient lesser Talents, to keep m touch

with the League Rase and to "receive" additional supplies of food and ma-

terial on what could be long voyages.

Young Thian Raven, Laria s brother, is sent to the I/2z</zm, under the

command of Captain Ashiant, as he and the ships backtrack the fleeing

Hiver spheres. Thian himself comes under threat when the nova-blasted,

derelict Great Sphere of the Hivers is found in space. A jealous latent Tal-

ent attacks him while he is part of a team exploring the dead sphere, and

he is nearly killed. Damia assists him in identifying his

assailant.

thwarted.

The Mrdini are not convinced that the nova which had devastated the

Great Sphere has destroyed the Hivcr homework! and wish to have proof.

Thiun, bravely recovering from the attack, agrees to accompany the Mrdmi

ship the AJATL in its Search, thus making sure of supplies and contact

during what is possibly a yearlong trek. Hy doing so, he will

prevent any young Mrdinis from "going on the line"--a Mrdini euphemism

for self-sacrifice to feed their crewmates.

The League decides to try to salvage what they can of the Great Sphere

to learn more about Hiver space engineering.

Afra accompanies his second-born son, Rojer, to the Gf"fjff under Cap-

tain Etienne Osullivan, for special duty when a sphere is tracked to a Hiver-

occupied system identified on Mrdini maps as Xh-.?.3. Despite being of the

same species, the sphere is fired upon from the planet and its queens are

destroyed as they try to escape the bombardment of their ship in pods.

Despite orders from the High Council to maintain a watching brief," a

Mrdini ship's captain attempts to coerce Rojer into teleporting the ship's

missiles to destroy Hiver settlements on Xh-j J. Rojer's two 'Dini friends,

K.at and Gil, are killed defending him from the Mrdini captain. Rojer barely

escapes with his life. His mother, Damia, arrives to succor him and re-

moves him to his grandmother's quiet home on Deneb Five to recuperate

from the loss of his dear friends."

The Rowan, arriving on the (jfofjff in the Xh-jj system, helps Captain

Rtienne Osullivan execute a daring plan to "steal" the refugee sphere, and

to destroy the two Hiver vehicles in orbit about Xh-J S. She requires the

assistance of Thian, returned from his post on the Mrdini ship, and HI a via,

a T-l from the Rowan's native planet, Altai r. With the use of Talent, the

sphere is purloined from the system and sent

on its way to the League, thus giving the Alliance a relatively urn.lam-

aged Hiver spaceship for Mrdini and Human engineers to examine.

Teleported explosives Mow up any chance tor the Xh-jj Hiver population to

leave the surface. The smaller Hiver scout ships that emerge from an un-

derground hangar to tight hack arc also destroyed. The Alliance sets up on

facts. (Only Talents are affected by this phenomenon.)

While the Talented team is able to search the intricate labyrinth of a

Hiver ship, including the "bridge" apparently staffed by twelve queens, they

are unable to power it up. The Talents decide that the only recourse is to

teleport the Heinlcin Base queen mto the bridge and see how she activates

the ship. Lver watchful of his grandchildren, )eff Raven, Earth Prime, ap-

proves of this ploy and comes along to he sure the queen does not escape.

She shows the watching Primes the power-up sequence and is then deftly

'ported back to her prison.

Meanwhile, other squadrons are following a sphere designated Number

Three, which seems uninterested in many likely M-? worlds that it passes.

These are briefly investigated by Talents, in one instance by T-2 Kincaid

Dano, whose capacity is overtaxed by the scope of the mission. Before he

can be burned out, either by his duties and by the unfortunate struggle for

his attentions by officers on the ship, he is transferred to Laria's Tower on

Clarf with his TJinis, Nil and Plus. He insists, despite his fatigue, on con-

tacting Rarth Prime with a report that there arc more Hiver-occupicd worlds

than previously suspected: Hivcrs now occupy four of the twenty likely

planets he has probed.

is staffed to explore the four M-type worlds: Talavera, Waterloo, Marengo

and Ciudad Rodrigo. Prime Talent Flavia, Zara Lyon and Lieutenant Rhodri

Eagles, T-3 and incidentally cousin to the Lyon children, arc part of that

contingent.

Suddenly more spheres are identified, some uncomfortably close to the

Columbia while others speed to join or assist the Hiver that Captain Ashiant

is tracking. This unexpected development suggests that the Hivers do have

some form of communication. It would appear that this sphere is searching

for a star as near to their homeworld's primary as possible. But what are

the parameters? From records of earlier star maps in the general area of

the nova, the signature of the primary, before it was destroyed by its pri-

mary, is verified. Thus the searchers are able to discover exactly what sort

of primary the Hivers are looking for.

Following Number Three, the astrogators spot a primary with the requi-

site signature and Captain Ashiant engages some of the enemy spheres in

a space battle. At first the Human/Mrdini ships are overwhelmed, until

Thian realizes that Talent can end the battle by tele-porting explosives to

detonate the fuel tanks of the Hiver ships. As Talents are not supposed to

engage in defensive, or offensive, maneuvers, there is some criticism of

located during the chase. All of them must he identified, and since the

ethics or the Human/Mrdini Alliance do not include species genocide, how

can the Hivers be prevented from following their cyclic behavior of over-

populating their planets and looking tor new worlds to inhabit? How can

FT&T under Jeff Raven's capable management find enough suitable Tal-

ents to keep up with the ever-expanding demands for Primes?

D j

By noon ot the clay after the destruction of the Number Three

Hiver sphere, the newly promoted Admiral Ashiant was already giving or-

ders to elements of his Fleet to implement the second phase of their

five-year mission. They could now begin to identify and reconnoitre

all Hiver-occupied worlds in this quadrant ot space. They were to initi-

ate in-depth probes ot such planets, disable any orbiting spheres and

establish monitoring satellites to warn the Alliance of any further sus-

picious surface activity.

"They might as well," Admiral Ashiant told his Captain, Ailsah Vander-

meer, "since the chase to destroy the two remaining scouts has already

taken them halfway there. Rather tar out to consider an immediate coloni-

zation of ihose worlds, but who knows how hist the Alliance will spread

once the threat of Hivers is reduced? The Mrchni certainly need more

space."

"So they do," Ailsah agreed sympathetically.

"I suspect those habitable worlds closer in to our home systems, 'Dini

and Human, will receive the first mandates. However"--and he slapped his

desk top decisively--"no need for us to hang about. Captain Vandermeer, if

you will please initiate a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree turn of the Wash-

ington, we'll begin the long journey home."

"Aye, sir," Vandermeer said, giving him a crisp salute and a wry grin. "It

will, as you know, take us five full ship days to slow enough to execute the

maneuver."

"Long enough for Shepherd and Prim to do their probes and be halfway

back to us," Ashiant murmured.

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PenguinPutnamIns".17T!hidsonStreetNewYork,NY11)014Ihaveexcellentreasontoheparticularlygratefultofourexpertsinwrit-ingthisconclusionoftheTalent(akaTheTowerandtheHive)series.Dr.JackCohenoftheUniversityofWarwickandIdiscussedhowIcouldsolvetheproblemofcolonizingHivers.SoIhadastructuretobeginwith.Iwasdumb...

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Anne McCaffrey - Tower & Hive 5 - The Tower And The Hive

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