<b>From the back cover of the DAW first edition:</b> "When Padrec Morrissey and the crew of his Planetary Exploration ship crashlanded in Ibis 2, they realized quickly that they weren't the first human ship to have landed there. The native Ibisians were not only sentient but strangely human. However, unlike most of the early colonies, the denizens of Ibis deviated widely from the mammalian norm.
<p>The natives displayed a highly organized societal behavior like that of certain Terran insects. And their behavior was a mirror of their physiological changes. Like in a beehive, 95% of Ibisians were neuter - workers or warriors. Very few were truly male or female, and of those only the true females, the 'Queens', were intelligent.
<p>Padrec faced a triple problem. How to explain to his 'queen' captor that he was an individual; how to escape a future of mindless hive servitude; how to save his crewman's lives..."
