The Hivers must also have been surprised by Mrdini resistance, though only the most determined attacks by Mrdini squadrons and fleet units had deterred the creatures.
Did other Hivers know of Mrdini resistance? If the Raven-Rowan merge had not sent the one survivor back to the Mother ship, would it have known that Deneb would resist?
His musings solved nothing and he could `hear’ his family returning from a very successful hunt. He left a note for Keylarion, the Tower’s T-6, to investigate recovering the couches and went back to the house to start dinner preparations.
Laria followed her father’s advice immediately and contacted Earth Prime Jeff Raven and told him that the T-2 was unable to tolerate the Mrdini, an essential requisite for duty at Clarf Tower. She had been about to add an apologetic note when her grandfather cut it short.
All we need is unhappy Mrdinis, Jeff said, but in such a genial tone that Laria began to relax and wonder why she’d delayed so long in broaching the problem. Nearly five months was a long enough period to allow Clanssia to integrate and the girl hadn’t. Laria did not mention some of the young woman’s other less admirable characteristics which had enraged Vanteer from time to time and certainly annoyed Lionasha.
I’ll have a word with Gollee Gren and see if he’s got any promising candidates. And stress `Dini adherents Of course, it would be best to have a `Din i-raised kid like you.
That solves most of the problem Clarissia posed.
How many `Dinis were paired out, Grandfather?
Gren’s got such figures. I seem to remember there were about a thousand in the first adoptions. Not all to talented families, of course, arid spread about the old Nine Star league worlds.
And then as many as the `Dinis could spare for placement.
There’ll be someone. And mind you, miss, you keep after me until a proper match’s been made. That’s more important than you may realize and it is certainly my function to make sure any Prime has the right support group. Hear me? You put up with Stierlman far longer than you had to. As my old mother used to say, if a shirt’s dirty, it’s dirty.
`vkaat?
And don’t tell me you’ve never heard how often your grandmother switched Callisto staff about until she latched on to your father!
All right then, I won’t. Laria giggled.
That’s better. Gollee’s already on it. As soon as he finds a likely suspect, I’ll ship it out and you can ship Clarissia back.
Oh, good heavens!
Sooner the better, pet.
Before Laria could start to temporize, Earth Prime was gone. As immensely relieved as she was not to have to put up with Clarissia much longer, Laria hoped that she’d have time enough to warn the girl. It wasn’t exactly Clarissia’s fault that she couldn’t abide `Dinis No, it was Clarissia’s fault because she’d made absolutely no attempt to see `good’ in the Mrdinis.
In fact, all latent sympathy Laria had for transferring the girl dispersed two minutes later when Clarissia contacted her.
There is a delegation of those creatures on its way across the field, Prime Clarissia’s tone reeked of distaste.
Laria looked out of her Tower window, though the Clarf `tower’ was no more than a four-sided plasglassed cupola, raised eight feet above the rest of the complex, and saw that the delegation contained the large form of Plrgtgl, two medium-sized assistants and six lesser, smaller `Dinis.
Vanteer, Lionasha, full honours. Clarissia, can you at least assemble the proper refreshments?
Yes, came so curt an acknowledgement that Laria could almost see the repugnance on the girl’s long face and the twitch of her slender hands, indications of the revulsion the young Talent felt at having to deal with the `creatures’ in any capacity. Another twinge of pity racked Laria for the girl had been so eager to be assigned away from her home world. Her xenophobia had not then been apparent to anyone, even Gollee Gren, but it developed speedily enough on Clari’ Vanteer, a stockily built mid-thirties native of Procyon IV, with the heavy bones of that planet’s human adaptation, and the dark-eyed, dark-haired, dark-complected Lionasha, the `lithe’ (which was Lana 5