Prologue
The first incursion of the Nine Star League by the Hive entities occurred at Deneb where Jeff Raven, and the undeveloped Talents of his planet, staved off a vicious attack by three alien scout ships orbiting Deneb IV Calling for assistance from the Earth Teleportation and Telepathy Prime, Peter Reidinger, Jeff Raven encounters the Rowan, Callisto’s Prime. In a mind merge, two of the three invaders are destroyed and the third sent back, as a warning, whence it had come.
Three years later the Mother Hive ship, a spherical leviathan, appears at Deneb heliopause. The Talents once again merge to defend the planet: the Rowan, pregnant with her second child, Cera, is the focus for the feminine minds which then imobilize the Many Female Mind that governs the Hive ship. The male merge, with Jeff Raven as focus, then teleport the Hive ship into Deneb’s primary.
Nineteen years later, while recuperating on Deneb, Damia Gwyn-Raven, another T-1 Talent and the daughter of the Rowan and Jeff Raven, and Afra Lyon, a Capellan T-2, have `dreams’ which they realize are being implanted by the alien figures which appear in these dreams.
Contact is made with these visitors who call themselves the Mrdini.
Through dreams, the Mrdini explain that they have been defending themselves and their colony worlds against the incursions of the Hive for centuries. They had followed the Hive ship to Deneb and been fascinated by its destruction without loss of life on the part of the defenders. They offer an alliance.
In order to establish meaningful relationships, young `Dinis are placed with human children, in the sound belief that early exposure to another species facilitates understanding. Among those selected for this experiment are the children of Afra and Damia, now Tower Prime for Iota Aurigae, a mining world. Their eight children all have `Dini pairs.
At sixteen, the eldest daughter, Laria, is sent to the `Dini home world of Clarf to teach `Dini human language and to expand her own understanding of the adult vocabulary. At about this time, Mrdini scouts observe three Hive ships which separate before the `Dini can catch up. But the ion trails left by the three are strong and can be followed on their disparate ways.
The Alliance of Mrdini and Nine Star Leaguers decide on a four-pronged expedition: the first element of six ships is to backtrack to see if they can locate the elusive home world of the Hivers. The other three elements are to follow the Hive ships to their destinations, preferably to destroy them if at all possible before they can colonize another world by first sterilizing all existing lifeforms.
thian Lyon, Laria’s next brother, is seconded by Federation Teleportation and Telepath (FT&T) to the AS Vadim to act as Prime with the tracking mission of four ships, two human, two Mrdini. It is his job to improve communications and relations between the Allies, and to receive supplies to keep the ships moving towards their objective.
Thian has always been interested in naval matters so he is well suited to the assignment. Thian is accompanied by his `Dini pair, Mrg and Dpl (Mur and Dip).
When the Vadim encounters a lifeless stationary derelict, it is identified as a Hive ship, though larger by another third than any previously encountered. It appears to have been destroyed by the heat of an expanding nova. Three escape pods seem to have been used, though others were destroyed in situ. An exploration detail of both `Dini and human is to examine the wreck. Encountering hostility from a crewman, Thian is nearly killed on the Hive ship where he discovers undamaged Hiver eggs. These are sent to be studied by the Alliance xenobiologists. Recovering from his injury, Thian elects to continue with the Mrdini ship, the KLTL, as the Mrdinis insist on being certain that a nova has destroyed the Hive homeworld.
Two of the ships in Thian’s element are required to start the derelict on its way to a point at which both Mrdini and human specialists can examine it thoroughly. The remaining three ships decided to track down the three escape pods. It is essential to capture the pods for just one queen is sufficient to establish a new colony.