Damia's Children (9 page)

“But they . . .” he began in self-defense.

It is what you do that concerns us and you may not retaliate in that fashion no matter what the provocation!

There could be no question in Thian's mind that his mother meant exactly what she said. Worse, he could feel his father's mind confirming the rebuke.

They didn't say anything when he began bringing in more game than either of his cousins could find: he studied up on the tactical games in which Roddie was said to excel and beat him consistently in all of them, and he kept his scholastic record higher than his obnoxious cousin's and Roddie was supposed to be the engineering brains in the family, taking after his famous namesake uncle. With quiet satisfaction, he saw that Roddie kept trying but he could never quite reach Thian's level and that was fine by Thian. There are many ways to outmaneuver an enemy and Thian was perfecting one.

He wasn't sure that he actually envied Laria, for she now was scheduled to do a final three months' training at Callisto Tower. Grandmother Rowan was known to be picky to work with, a perfectionist, endlessly demanding that all her Tower staff operate on the highest possible level. Especially now as there was so much traffic. But that was why Laria was recalled from her teaching assignment and given this intensive course. If she met the Rowan's high standard—which no one doubted—she'd return to Clarf as Tower Prime to help bring in the great assault ships, built of
Aurigaen ores in the satellite construction yards of Earth, Betelgeuse, Procyon, and the Mrdini worlds of Clarf, Sef, Ptu, Kif, and Tplu.

On quite a few occasions, while Thian had been standing a listening watch at the Tower, he had received important and secret messages. In point of fact, the first three times, he had been told to get either his mother or his father to accept the communication. Either his mother or father must have vouched for him, because after that, he'd been given the direct message. He never discussed them with either parent, and never knew if they were aware of these developments. But he treasured the trust shown in him, and tried to fit the substance of the messages into his overview of the Hive Pursuit.

He was cautious with those think-files and always erased any notes thoroughly before he left his room screen. Thian was aware that most of the Federation did NOT know that contact with the Hive Migration Ships had been made or that 'Dini and Human pursuit ships were attempting to find the Hive Home System.

Before he'd been born, before Laria had been born, the Mrdinis had made contact with his parents on Deneb where they were spending a well-deserved rest and relaxation leave. There was something else about that point in time Thian hadn't been told: he just sensed that there was more explanation due him. Probably when he was older and a Tower Prime himself. The Raven-Lyon children knew when, and when not, to probe for information.

At any rate, Damia and Afra had “dreamed” Mrdini and made contact with the alien race, discovering
that the enemy which had ravaged their worlds was the same menace that had attacked Deneb, Granddad's planet. The assault had been repulsed by the massed, merged Minds of every T rating on every planet in the Federation. The Many Mind of the sixteen queens on the Hive Ship had been overpowered and then the ship plunged, helpless, into Deneb's sun. But there was more than one Hive Ship and the Mrdini wanted Human help in preventing more worlds from falling under Hive domination. For the Hive species stripped any suitable world of all other life forms, propagated at an incredible rate, and then sent its excess population out into space to find yet more worlds where it could repeat the process.

While there were estimated to be millions of carbon-based planets in the galaxy, such uncontrolled expansion—to the detriment of other species—had to be limited.

At tremendous cost in personnel and materiel, the Mrdinis had struggled to keep their own worlds free. They had been overjoyed to find that Humans were also involved in, and capable of, their species' protection. They were fascinated by the special psionic Talents used by the Federation to reduce loss of life without diluting the effectiveness of the deterrent with which they had defeated the initial attempts of the Hive Ships to intrude on their spheres of influence.

With such vastly different species and for such a common purpose, unambiguous communications had to be established. This was being done through the young of both life forms who paired early in order to instill mutual respect and form a
basis for the mutual understanding required for the undertaking.

While this program was maturing, the military arms of each species were searching space in a joint operation. Though dissimilar in style and operation, the means to trace the Hive Ships' ion trails back to their point of origin had been available to both navies. And had finally been productive.

FT&T Primes had forwarded a squadron to a rendezvous with the Mrdini ships which had intercepted the Hive vessels' trails. Each of the 'Dini ships had several strong “dreamers” who could communicate on a basic level with Talents on board the Human ships. While following the ion trails back the way they had come might result in discovering the location of the Hive homeworld, the more pessimistic of both species recognized that the trails might dwindle to nothing—considering the period of time involved—and the effort would be wasted. But others argued that this was the best opportunity to at least
try,
and won. They'd be no worse off, and at least would have identified where the Hive was
not.

A second contingent, six fast ships from each fleet, had set out in pursuit of the marauding Hivers. It was as critical to know their destinations as to discover their origins. And possibly come to the assistance of whatever planet was the target of Hive attentions.

No one yet, of either species, had suggested the way to destroy the Hive culture. Or, at the least, contain it. Another ethical point on which Mrdini and Human were agreed: neither found it morally acceptable to undertake the total annihilation of
another sentient species, even one as inimical to both their life forms as the Hivers.

“That's because they haven't been physically threatened,” Jeff Raven had said grimly in the privacy of his mother's home on Deneb. “One can indulge in such moral stands at several removes.”

“There must be some humane way to remove the threat of Hive invasions,” his oldest son, Jeran, had replied.

“We're working on it, though I'll argue the point that ‘humane' applies to the Hivers. Seemingly they have only one method of colonizing and that's fatal to any other life form inhabiting the planet they choose.”

“It'd be very difficult to change the goals of a species you can't even talk to,” Isthia said.

“I don't even want to talk to them,” the Rowan had said, giving a shudder as she vividly remembered the moment she, as focus of the merged female Talents, had briefly touched the Many Mind of the Hive queens. “There was nothing
there
to talk
to!
” she added after a moment's thought.

“We could just pick off each ship that's found using the same methods, couldn't we?” Cera Raven-Hilk asked.

“We could,” Jeff replied. “But that would be a life's work in itself . . .”

“Besides tying up Primes and whole bunches of Talent, quite likely at the most inconvenient times,” the Rowan added, with a little sniff. “I certainly wouldn't like to have to keep doing it, time after time. The 'Dinis' estimate of how many Hive ships there could be is unnerving.”

“How many is that?” Jeran asked diffidently.

Classified,
said both parents at once.

Oh, well, you can't blame me for trying,
Jeran said.

“At least we do now have a great many more Talents to call on than we did when you had to execute the first one,” Cera said, placidly. Her parents gave her such a long look that she blinked, wondering why she had incurred their disapproval. “The Two-Level mass mind merges didn't
take
very long, after all.”

“It took more than you think,” the Rowan said, remembering that Cera had been affected
in utero
during that brief, but exceedingly intense, assault. Maybe that was why she came out with such peculiar sentiments.

*   *   *

The Human ships following the ion trail were now far beyond any friendly systems. The traces remained strong, indicating excesses of speed which made the ion trail so easy to follow. The Human flagship, the
Vadim,
and her consorts, the
Solidarity,
the
Reliant,
and the
Beijing,
were experiencing supply shortages which must be remedied if they were expected to continue. Captain Ashiant of the
Vadim
made it very plain that he and the other Human captains insisted on continuing on toward the Hive homeworld no matter how long it took. To transport such long distances, the Towers involved—Deneb and Callisto—were also going to need reinforcements. There was even the hint that a Prime Talent would be required on the pursuit flagship, to facilitate future transportations and communications over the immense distances now involved.

“All the old military commanders say it's wrong to have too long a supply line,” Thian said when the subject of Tower augmentations came up.

“This is the twenty-fourth century, Thian,” Roddie said, dismissing that concern. “We have skills and abilities those ancients never thought of. And,” he added pompously, “we haven't had a land war in generations.”

“Thian's point is well taken,” Afra said at his most mild and Roddie flushed, hearing the subtle rebuke. “Neither species has explored the areas through which they've been passing. There've been no yellow stars, which are systems the Hivers seek, or where our folk could land and replenish supplies from natural materials. Naval hydroponics can only supply so much to augment frozen, dried, and canned comestibles. Water's been recycled far too often for it to be potable. That's actually the main problem though fuel supplies are also dwindling and must be replenished.”

“Ice planet? Ice asteroids?” Roddie suggested.

“Requires detours from the course into a system with an expense of fuel that might not be justified by results,” Afra said. Roddie's face fell. “But it is an alternative that's being considered.”

“But that's not a viable one, is it?” Thian said thoughtfully. “If yellow stars generate the kind of planets that the Hive wants and we need to find drinkable water, there'd be the possibility of a confrontation.”

Afra nodded solemnly and Thian sighed at the complexity of it all.

“We'll think of something,” Roddie said proudly.

“The 'Dinis might beat us to it,” and Laria's grin was mischievous. “They're very clever.”

Roddie decided he had other things to do than argue with cousins.

“Is it being a Denebian that makes him like that, or being just a T-3?” Laria asked her brother in a low voice.

“Deneb does inculcate certain characteristics in its children,” Afra said, rising, “just as Aurigae instills others, not necessarily exemplary ones, in hers!”

“Whooops!” Laria said, grinning at the subtle rebuke. “A few years in a Tower and he'll probably turn into a quite bearable young man.”

At that both her father and brother laughed and moved off to mingle with other guests.

Several days later, Damia and Afra sent Thian a telepathic call to join them in the Tower room. Family matters were generally dealt with in the house, so Thian was instantly aware that this was an unusual summons. With some trepidation and a quick inventory of recent misdemeanors, Thian 'ported himself the short distance into the upper Chamber where his parents conducted all FT&T business.

He didn't dare probe his own parents but he could, and did, establish their mental tone: Damia was sad and worried, and his father seemed colored by regret and reluctance but was also containing pride, and more apprehensive than worried.

“Thian,” his mother began, pausing to fingercomb over her shoulder the silver tress that even her son knew misbehaved when she was upset, “we've had a request . . .” She glanced for assistance to Afra.

“Jeff Raven makes few,” Afra said, “and it
is
only a request which we three can examine, forget, or accept, as we decide.”

Thian mastered the impatience with this round about talk and waited. He couldn't even catch a hint of what this request was about.

“What does my grandfather want?” Thian said, rather pleased with his adroit phrasing. It might generate the sort of response he wanted. It did.

“Earth Prime,” and his mother corrected him firmly, “requires a T-1 to accompany the reinforcements to the rendezvous.”

“Wow! I was right about supply lines, wasn't I, dad!”

What are you talking about, Thian?
Damia asked, sharp with worries she tried to hide.

He made a point the other day and it's come to roost on his own shoulders,
his father said, grinning.
Going to honor it?

“You mean, Granddad's really considering me?” Thian couldn't believe his great good luck. Wait'll he told Roddie. His silly coz would be moldy with envy.

That remark doesn't become you,
Afra said in a very tight voice and Thian shook himself, sharpening his attention to the matter at hand.
That's better.

“You know how few T-1s there are . . .” Damia began, fiddling with the curl on the end of her silver tress which had found its way back over her shoulder. That automatic gesture reminded Thian that he often fiddled with the silver streak that was a genetic legacy from his mother. Even the baby Petra had a tuft of silver hairs at the temple, the cause of some amusement in the Denebian side of the family.

“There's nearly a hundred of us now,” Thian began in protest.