"Depends on what you mean by protective" he answered. "Do we ensure their safety in the event of a crisis? Yes, they are among the first, should the hive become unstable, to be evacuated. Do we carry them about and coddle them? No."

When Cody first came to the hive, Todd suspected he might be his sire, he was just old enough to be after all. But that was quickly dispelled when he found out Cody-who'd transferred from another more populated hive in the alliance-had lived his whole life on that hive, and the one Todd's queen had been on had been destroyed some years ago.

In the end, while it was a nice boost to the ego to know your offspring had grown successful and all that, finding out who was related to who on board a hive was only necessary when it came to the queen to avoid inbreeding.