Nova War by Gary Gibson

himself for a moment, while thinking out loud. ‘Then your sister presumably does have something to offer them now?’
    ‘Correct, my dear Remembrance. The Queen of Immortal Light has been smuggling couriers into extremely distant areas of the galaxy not normally permitted to our species.’
    ‘And they managed that without the Shoal even becoming aware of it?’
    ‘As far as we know, yes, although, from what we gather, at least one of their envoys disappeared en route. My sister clearly has something unique to bargain with this time round. Something that’s hidden, I believe, within this very system.’
    Lust faded in the face of overwhelming curiosity. ‘Something hidden. What?’
    The Queen paused briefly. ‘The details will be ready for you before your departure. You have a new mission, Remembrance, one of the most vital urgency, and it requires you to return to Ironbloom at once.’
    ‘The peace between you and your sister is over, I fear.’
    ‘You are correct, Remembrance. Too much is at stake now to allow the filial bonds of sister Hives to interfere. One piece of vital information concerns two humans currently being held in the city of Darkwater. There is extremely good reason to believe they are closely involved with these matters, so they will be the focus of your next mission.’
    The vast, fleshy arm reached out once again and stroked Remembrance’s wings, making him shiver with delight. ‘We will need to transmute you,’ she murmured, ‘as Immortal Light know your current scent too well. You will have a new identity.’
    ‘I have a scent and name ready,’ Remembrance replied quickly, producing the bottle the Physician had given him. He opened the tiny flask and held it before his Queen.
    The Queen cocked her enormous head to one side and regarded him. ‘Let me guess, another human name?’
    ‘I know you disapprove, my Queen, but I cannot deny my fondness for certain of their arts.’
    ‘Yet their scents are so bland – if unusual in some respects,’ she murmured, favouring the open flask with a glance.
    ‘Precisely. Which means they are forced to express themselves in ways that supersede their sensory limitations, and to my tastes they do so most frequently through their arts.’
    ‘I sometimes fear I have made you altogether too human,’ the Queen replied, drawing closer to the edge of the platform – and therefore closer to Remembrance.
    ‘Perhaps, my Queen,’ Remembrance replied, growing glassy-eyed.
    It was true that his Queen’s attentions on previous occasions had made him sufficiently different from his own species that other Bandati now seemed strange to him. For all that Honeydew was a member of a rival Hive, Remembrance felt a curious kinship. They had both, after all, been made over by their respective Queens in order to communicate more easily with other species.
    Remembrance waited patiently as his Queen inclined her head to run her long tongue across his wings and back. He felt an icy coldness sinking rapidly into his flesh, triggering physiological changes at the most fundamental level. It was a process that – given only a little time – would alter his scent and even his Hive rank. A Bandati Queen was the only one equipped to do such a thing.
    ‘And your chosen spoken name is?’ she asked, her voice growing thick with desire.
    ‘“Days of Wine and Roses”,’ he told her.
    ‘What a strange name,’ she murmured, as long-chain molecules modelled after highly mutable infectious viruses continued to work their transformative magic on him. ‘It paints a picture without relying on scent, and yet it still somehow feels as typically human as your previous name. Where did you find it?’
    ‘I stumbled across it while engaging in cultural research before taking up my post as assistant economic adviser to your previous ambassador to Earth. The words are pleasing to my ear.’
    ‘As they are to mine,’ she concurred. ‘And now to me, my love,’ she added, reaching