Talker was a Formic worker who was modified from birth to be able to speak human languages.[1] It was first introduced in The Last Shadow.
History[]
Creation[]
Talker was the result of many years of trying to develop a Formic who could speak to humans, and understand human speech. The vocal apparatus was perfected a long time ago (as humans measure time) by the Queen, but the brain changes required for this it to understand and produce human speech took far longer. Talker was considered very valuable by the Queen, as it was the only one who could reproduce human speech.[1]
The Last Shadow[]
When Thulium Delphiki came near the cave entrance to the Formic city on Lusitania, Talker spoke to her and invited her to visit the Hive Queen of Shakespeare at a later date.[1]
Later, Peter Wiggin II, Jane, and Si Wang-mu accompanied Thulium to visit the colony again. As Thulium began to cross the river, Talker ran over and scooped her up to carry her as she was not tall enough to wade through. Afterward, Talker followed the group as they found their way down the tunnels to the Queen's dwelling place. As they entered the Queen's room, Talker spoke to Peter and confirmed what he thought the creatures in the room were. Speaking through Talker, the Queen explained its creation and how she allotted her mental bandwith between her workers. Talker continued to speak for the Queen the rest of the time the group was present.[1]
After the discovery that the planet Descoladora was named Nest and inhabited by sentient Keas and Ravens as well as a subspecies of humans called the Yachachiyruna and normal humans called The Folk, Talker was used as a translator as Jane, Peter, and Wang-mu approached the Queen to ask her perspective on the matter.[1]
When Jane brought Thulium over to be cured from the biological weapon of the Folk, the Queen left her city and walked out into the meadow, bringing Talker and two of the sluglike helpers that tended to the eggs in the hive house. The Queen lifted both slugs up onto Thulium's body, and they left small holes in Thulium's clothing, with the skin bleeding slightly under them, as a kind of Formic surgery. The Queen then pulled them off and attached them to her abdomen. She stood upright for a few moments, then bent and curled herself into a ball on the ground. Talker explained in her own words that the Queen was scanning the virus. The Queen created a substance in her body and put them into the slugs, but was exhausted and needed Jane and Sprout to carry the slugs onto Thulium. Once placed on her, the substance moved through Thulium's body killing or removing or disabling virus worms as they went. As dawn approached, Talker said that Thulium's state was very bad, and that if the Hive Queen had not helped, all the worms at once would have torn open every cell wall, becoming a pile of cellular garbage, and all the worms would dissolve into spores that would float away, ready to be inhaled by another host. The Queen said it was a deliberate creation, adapted from a lifeform found on Nest and changed into being lethal. The Queen, through Talker, said to bring the slugs to the Q-Bay to disinfect the others. Jane teleported the Queen and Talker back to the hive house.[1]