The Tower and the Hive by Anne McCaffrey Read Free Book Online Page A

“even if I have to work all night.”
    Lionasha looked from Laria to Kincaid and rolled her tawny eyes.
    Keep a lid on it, Lio, Laria said, aiming the thought at the Tower expediter, whose eyes matched her hair, set off by a skin that took Clarf’s sun well.
    Kincaid gave a low snort. Likes to rub it in, doesn’t he!
    You too, Dano. Laria glared at the T-2.
    Lionasha returned to her desk, shaking her head, and began checking the next day’s schedule on her screen.
    We’re a good team. Let’s never forget that, Laria said. “I’m going swimming.”
    â€œYou’ll fry,” both Lionasha and Kincaid told her.
    She held up sun-browned arms, as dark as acorn hulls, and laughed. “I’ve sunblock. I need the exercise.”
    WE COME TOO, cried her ’Dinis, just entering the Tower from the landing field.
    Kincaid stretched, yawned. “I’m for a nap, frankly.” His ’Dinis, who arrived on Laria’s heels, vehemently agreed, all three sauntering down the cool hall to their quarters.
    She went to her room and changed into her swim togs, struggled into the long caftan that would also be a protection against Clarf’s late-afternoon sun. Tip and Huf rummaged to find pads to lie on and the umbrella that Laria wisely carried to shield herself from the sun at the swim place.
    â€œHave fun,” Lionasha said as she watched the three of them file out the door.
    Halfway there in her ground car, her caftan clinging to her sweating body, Laria wondered why under any sun she was doing this now. She could have waited until sunset, when the air was less humid and Clarf’s primary was not shining directly in her eyes, as it was now that she was heading west. If Vanteer was going to work on the generator, she couldn’t remain in the Tower premises, especially after Kincaid’s remarks.
    She knew Van had acquired another girlfriend: a chemical analyst just in from Betelgeuse on a three-month assignment. That was a long enough stay for most Humans who came from colder Human planets. They might exude joy over a world that rarely had any rain; when they had to endure the constant heat and humidity night and day, the novelty soon wore off. An unlucky minority would prove to be allergic to the harsh rays and have to be transferred, to the annoyance of their contractors, Human or ’Dini. Meanwhile, there was no point in trying to get Van’s attention: this Marjolee Hess-Tukin monopolized him. Laria had seen her at the very party where Van first met her: a pretty little woman, Laria admitted impartially, with long eyelashes, which she used to good effect on any male. Ironically, it was because Vanteer was Talented and part of the Clarf Tower staff that he was such a conquest for Marjolee. Doubtless one of the other, less tactful females who had also been wooed by Vanteer would warn the girl of his fickle nature. Laria had come to the reluctant conclusion that Van couldn’t resist the challenge of a new female to be courted and won. He required diversity. And the way he kept up with the demands made on him by his other women—he had once sworn to Laria that he loved her to the exclusion of any other woman he’d ever known—astounded his colleagues in the Tower.
    â€œHow does he do it?” Lionasha often remarked when Van had lured yet another girl into his bed.
    â€œI know plenty of men who’d like to know,” Kincaid had replied, grinning. “Of both inclinations,” he’d added with a droll smile.
    Whatever, Laria needed to get out of the Tower. She thought wistfully of cool, dark-sun Iota Aurigae and home: with the wild wind and the mountains, and riding Saki to hunt scurriers and avians. But now was not the time to ask for home leave.
    One of the four planets that Kincaid had discovered of those he had probed on his unhappy stint in Squadron D on the Galaxy-class Valparaiso had been named Talavera, following the