Free Damia's Children by Anne McCaffrey Page B

he wouldn’t have to put up with cousins Roddie and Megan, who were only T-3’s and shouldn’t take on the airs and poses they did. The one time he had tried to take the windout of their sails, his parents had jumped on him with all four feet and threatened to put him into Coventry if he ever pulled another stunt like that.
    â€œBut 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 ofAurigaen 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, discoveringthat 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