I looked away.

When I dared to look up again, Hypatia was red-faced. She’d wiped tears from her eyes. “Hive, I don’t know how you did that, but—”

“I usedWrath’sGrasp Drive to pluck her off the surface and pull her aboard,” he said. “I’m still in something of a superposition between Hive Mind and Hive, but once I’ve spilled my seed, I’ll just be Hive.”

“Why is everything with you Khetar about yourdingdongs and your seed? Chef asked, smiling wide and wiping tears for her face.

“You wouldn’t understand, lesbian,” Kaav said.

Chef shook her head. “I’m glad I don’t understand.”

“What is a Grasp Drive?” Ophelia asked. “Can all the Khetar teleport people?”

“It’s not teleportation,” Hive said. “Our packships can distort the fabric of spacetime. I experimented with teleportation a few million years ago, but I could never find a way to keep consciousness intact when reassembling a biological body atom by atom.”

“You’re over a million years old?” Ophelia asked, raising an eyebrow.

“He’s the Hive Mind,” Hypatia said. “I’ll explain it all to you later. I’ll take you to my quarters, and…”

Hypatia trailed off and blushed.

“Speaking of quarters,” Hive said, “I demand that we are given suitable quarters. I will not remain in the airlock.”

Who exactly waswe? My stomach fluttered and my heart raced when I thought of being alone in a room with just Kaav and Hive. I needed to fix my head. I reminded myself—not for the first time—that the glistening, muscular, big-dingdonged silver body no longer belonged to Kaav. It was another Khetar entirely. Kaav certainly seemed to have bad blood with Hive for stealing his body from him, which further complicated things.

“High Command isn’t going to like that,” Hypatia said.

“I can grasp Ophelia back to Eden,” Hive said.

Ophelia’S eyes widened, and she grabbed Chef Hypatia by the arm and started whispering into her ear. I knew Chef well enough by this point to see in her face that she was giving up the fight as Ophelia spoke to her and stroked her fingers across Hypatia’s forearm.

“They’re not going to like it,” Hypatia said, voice softer, “but they also have no way of stopping me.”

“High Command wanted ten Khetar on this ship,” Kaav said. “Did they intend to keep all of us in the airlock?”

Chef waved a hand. “High Command was trying to figure out some plan to gradually taint all the women on theRib.They wanted to use it as some kind of controlled experiment in phased tainting. It would have been a useful data point, but—”

Hive raised his silver, calloused hand, and his air of commanding authority silenced Chef at once. “There’s no time for controlled experiments. The moment the ships begin to fail, there will be chaos. You need to taint all the women aboard so that they can still work alongside Khetar. You saw what happened to Airlock, Emissary, and Weapons when they first encountered Thuliak. Do you want this to happen to your crew suddenly in the field?”

“You said the packships wouldn’t start failing until you spilled your seed,” Chef said.

Hive grinned wide, and he looked merightin the eyes. “Yes, so you don’t have much time left, Crew Chief.”

Kaav growled and stepped forward, but Hive raised his hand. “Escort us to a private room. I have some important things to discuss with my fellowInseminatorand his mate.”

I saw the patience visibly drain from Chef’s face in the for of an exasperated sigh. She threw up both hands. “Whatever you want, but I want one thing in exchange.” She pointed down at Kaav’s dingdong. “I want those thingscoveredthe next time I see you two.”

Her eyes flickered as she accessed her implants. “Let’s go get this tainting over with then.”

She gestured for us to follow her down the corridor and spoke as we walked. “I ordered all crew women to gather in the mess hall. Is there any particular way you want to do this?”

It occurred to me then that Hive might very well choose a mate from among the crew. I tried to remind myself that it was a good thing if that happened. For one, I didn’t like the idea of every woman on the ship getting tainted and desperately wanting a Khetar, only to see me havingtwoall to myself. I’d felt that jealousy toward Airlock, and imagining all the women on theRibfocusing that hatred onto me was not a pleasant thought.

Even less pleasant though was the thought of Hive with another woman. Kaav had said it always takes two to breed properly, and now that he’d lost the silver body to Hive, we’d need a third anyway, right?

Kaav had insisted on tainting the whole crew though. Maybe he was wanting to see all the women together so that he could take his pick?

I kept these thoughts to myself. Above all I wanted to be with Kaav, and I didn’t know how he felt about Hive. I wouldn’t ask him to bring Hive in as our Third if Kaav hated him for stealing his body.