`Maybe Lieutenant Gander would know,’ Lin said helpfully, `he’s the morale officer.’ `You have seen a tape of the Queen’s emergence, haven’t you?’ `Queen? Didn’t know there were any left on Earth!
Or is it Procyon that has a royal family?’ `I’m referring to the Hiver Queen that was found alive in an escape pod.’ `You don’t say? A live Hive Queen? Oooh! Wouldn’t want to see that!’ `Actually, she’s quite beautifully coloured,’ Rojer said, speaking in the most diffident manner. This was a warship, chasing a Hiver vessel, and their attitude towards a Hiver Queen would be coloured by that. `They’ve put her in Heinlein Base on Earth’s moon.’ `Thought that installation was decommissioned decades ago.’ `It was, but it’s been reopened to accommodate the Queen. She can’t get out of there.’ `Who’d want to get in?’ Lin wanted to know.
ů`Your ship’s really been out of touch,’ Rojer said, shaking his head.
`Oh, we know what we need to know,’ Lin assured him affably.
`We’re more interested in what’s likely to happen than what has!
Here we are,’ he ůadded unnecessarily, for the smell of roasting meat wafted appetizingly along the corridor.
A meal was cheerfully set before him.
`A single zap and you’d never know it wasn’t freshly prepared,’ the cook’s mate said as he was served a piping hot plate. `We alius has something’ ůfor the watch. You really a Talent, kid?’ `So they tell me,’ Rojer said, grinning. He didn’t mind being called a `kid’ by a seaman so grizzled he was probably older than Grandfather Raven.
Then Rojer half-goggled at the multi-coloured pictures on the sailor’s massive forearms: tattoos, he thought they were called.
`Where’d you get them?’ he asked between attempts to cool his food enough to put it in his mouth. The plate had been well zapped.
`Ah, now these, me laddie buck, are the result of a wager. — ` Settling into the seat opposite Rojer and Lin the mate proceeded to embellish a tale almost as garish as his forearms.
`Mr Lyon here,’ Lin began when the tale was over and duly appreciated, `says they caught a Hiver Queen. Got her locked up on Heinlein Base.’ `Do they?’ and the mate was either sceptical or not easily impressed.
`She’s laid eggs,’ Rojer said, hoping to generate some interest.
`Well, laddie buck, in a month or two, we may see more eggs’n she’ll ever lay,’ the mate said, rising to his feet. `Aye, wouldn’t doubt we’d see more.
That’s a Hiver system we’re coming to. Knew we’d find one sometime. Glad I’ve lived to see the day.
I’m Denebian, you see, so vengeance is mine! Enjoy your meal.’ `Th … thanks, I am.’ Mentally Rojer was glad he’d kept his remarks neutral. He was amused, though, that all the startling events he had witnessed recently were unexceptional on the Genesee, and philosophically, resigned himself to the situation.
Mother, Father, Damia said, initiating a call to her parents, still at their breakfast on Callisto.
Yes, Damia? her mother replied. Something is the matter. Jeff I told you that yesterday when we exchanged Rojer’s capsule. And it’s … Zara?
There was gratifying surprise in the Rowan’s tone.
Whatever could be the matter with Zara? She’s the most pliable of your lot.
Not any more, Mother. And quickly Damia conveyed a summary of her daughter’s recent aberrant and capricious behaviour. I don’t know where she gets these notions about the Queen —Unusual that, the Rowan said. Especially across such distance, and with only a tape to stimulate the reaction – D’you mean – others have reacted the way Zara has?
Yes, indeed, Jeff put in. There’s a growing minority who feel the Alliance has been authoritarian, peremptory and high-handed. Which is muddleheaded thinking. After all, the creature was humanely rescued from sure death. There was no planet on which she could have landed before oxygen and food supplies ran out. She may be isolated but that’s as much for her own good. There’ve been two attempts to…
eradicate her from `human soil’ already.
We hadn’t heard about them Damia was indignant. The Queen was in responsible protective custody: by observation alone much could be learned from her about others of her species. She wouldn’t be released but, on the moon, she was certainly no threat to anyone.