Prologue
Nose in the air. Narrow eyes. Slowly scan from left to right. Pause to scrutinise possibly important details. Gytha oozed imperious majesty as she surveyed the craft. Or at least she tried to.
In reality, she had very little idea what she was supposed to be looking for.
The Hive had designed the craft. It had access to all of humanity’s learning. It had access to all of the Hive’s learning.
Her family held a substantive share in the Hive, but she had no neural connection to it. She was one of the few who were legally permitted to be unbound. She was privileged.
Gytha fought to keep the smirk from her face. What the Hive had designed was… amusing.
She followed the lines again, reading the notes that the Hive had provided about it. She had demanded that the Hive print them on paper, an affectation that she hoped it found irksome.
Dear Gytha Aethling,
May we present to Your Exalted Hereditary Authority the frontier ship, HSS Goldrakus,
The mobile command deck or bridge is mounted at the head of a sleek tapered hull. A long, flexible tail mounted with fins extends behind it for modulating direction and stabilising flight. Ingenious retractable angular wings provide manoeuvrability, the tips serving as supports when the craft is grounded.
Men were no longer permitted to be unbound, but their influence on the creation of the Hive was plain for all to see.
It’s a chuffing great big dragon, Gytha thought, unable to suppress a grin.
She continued reading.
The ship is skinned with Heliotherm tiles, each one a hyper-specialised photovoltaic-thermal composite designed to absorb radiation, generate power and insulate the superstructure beneath.
With shiny scales, she nodded.
Auto-expanding xeno-stores are attached to the hull for the storage and transport of quarantined goods.
Her grin vanished, quickly replaced with a frown of regal disdain.
She glanced at the base of the hull and her eyebrows rose involuntarily. The gangway had been lowered between those two huge, grey, spherical xeno-stores.
Tut, tut. Honestly, boys, she thought as she climbed it.
Welcome, Commander. Your Hive hopes you like it.
She screwed up the paper, letting it drop on the gangway behind her.
She gave the merest nod. Not of appreciation, just of acceptance. A nod that said it will do. No need to give the Hive the satisfaction.
