Anne McCaffrey - Ship 5 - The Ship Who Won

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a CHAPTER ONE
The ironbound door at the end of the narrow passage-
way creaked open. An ancient man peered out and
focused wrinkle-lapped eyes on Keff. Keff knew what the
old one saw: a mature man, not overly tall, whose wavy
brown hair, only just beginning to be shot with gray, was
arrayed above a mild yet bull-like brow and deep-set blue
eyes. A nose whose craggy shape suggested it may or may
not have been broken at some time in the past, and a
mouth framed by humor lines added to the impression of
one who was tough yet instinctively gentle. He was dressed
in a simple tunic but carried a sword at his side with the
easy air of someone who knew how to use it. The oldster
wore the shapeless garments of one who has ceased to care
for any attribute but warmth and convenience. They stud-
ied each other for a moment. Keff dipped his head slightly
in greeting.
"Is your master at home?"
"I have no master. Get ye gone to whence ye came," the
ancient spat, eyes blazing. Keff knew at once that this was
no serving man; he'd just insulted the High Wizard Zarelb
2
Anne McCaffrey 6- Joc^y Lynn Nye
himself! He straightened his shoulders, going on guard but
seeking to look friendly and non-threatening.
"Nay, sir," Keff said. "I must speak to you." Rats crept
out of the doorway only inches from his feet and skittered
away through the gutters along the walls. A disgusting
place, but Keff had his mission to think of.
"Get ye gone," the old man repeated. "I've nothing for
you." He tried to close the heavy, planked door. Keff
pushed his gaundeted forearm into the narrowing crack
and held it open. The old man backed away a pace, his
eyes showing fear.
"I know you have the Scroll ofAlmon," Keff said, keep-
ing his voice gentle. "I need it, good sir, to save the people
of Harimm. Please give it to me, sir. I will harm you not."
'Very well, young man," the wizard said. "Since you
threaten me, I will cede the scroll."
Keff relaxed slightly, with an inward grin. Then he
caught a gleam in the old mans eye, which focused over
Keffs shoulder. Spinning on his heel, Keff whipped his
narrow sword out of its scabbard. Its lighted point picked
out glints in the eyes and off the sword-blades of the three
ruffians who had stepped into the street behind him. He
was trapped.
One of the ruffians showed blackened stumps of teeth
in a broad grin. "Going somewhere, sonny?" he asked.
"I go where duty takes me," Keff said.
'Take him, boys!"
His sword on high, the ruffian charged. Keff immedi-
ately blocked the mans chop, and riposted, flinging the
mans heavy sword away with a clever twist of his slender
blade that left the mans chest unguarded and vulnerable.
He lunged, seeking his enemy's heart with his blade. Stum-
bling away with more haste than grace, the man spat,
gathered himself, and charged again, this time followed by
the other two. Keff turned into a whirlwind, parrying,
THE SHIP WHO WON 3
thrusting, and striking, holding the three men at bay. A
near strike by one of his opponents streaked along the wall
by his cheek. He jumped away and parried just before an
enemy skewered him.
"Yoicks!" he cried, dancing in again. "Have at you!"
He lunged, and the hot point of his epee struck the
middle of the chief thugs chest. The body sank to the
ground, and vanished.
There!" Keff shouted, flicking the sword back and
forth, leaving a Z etched in white light on the air. "You are
not invincible. Surrender or die!"
Keffs renewed energy seemed to confuse the two
remaining ruffians, who fought disjointedly, sometimes
getting in each others way while Keffs blade found its
mark again and again, sinking its light into arms, shoulders,
chests. In a lightning-fast sequence, first one, then the
other foe left his guard open a moment too long. With
groans, the villains sank to the ground, whereupon they too
vanished. Putting the epee back into his belt, Keff turned
to confront the ancient wizard, who stood watching the
proceedings with a neutral eye.
"In the name of the people of Harimm, I claim the
Scroll," Keff said grandly, extending a hand. "Unless you
have other surprises for me?"
"Nay, nay." The old man fumbled in the battered leather
scrip at his side. From it he took a roll of parchment, yel-
lowed and crackling with age. Keff stared at it with awe.
He bowed to the wizard, who gave him a grudging look of
respect.
The scroll lifted out of the wizards hand and floated
toward Keff. Hovering in the air, it unrolled slowly. Keff'
squinted at what was revealed within: spidery tracings in
fading brown ink, depicting mountains, roads, and rivers.
"A map!" he breathed.
"Hold it," the wizard said, his voice unaccountably
4
Anne McCaffrey ir Jody Lynn Nye
changing from a cracked baritone to a pleasant female alto.
"We're in range of the comsats." Door, rats, and aged fig-
ure vanished, leaving blank walls.
"Oh, spacedust," Keff said, unstrapping his belt and
laser epee and throwing himself into the crash seat at the
control console. "I was enjoying that. Whew! Good work-
out!" He pulled his sweaty tunic off over his head, and
mopped his face with the tails. The dark curls of hair on his
broad chest may have been shot through here and there
with white ones, but he was grinning like a boy.
"You nearly got yourself spitted back there," said the
disembodied voice ofCarialle, simultaneously sending and
acknowledging ID signals to the SSS-900. "Watch your
back better next time."
"What'd I get for that?" Keff asked.
"No points for unfinished tasks. Maps are always
unknowns. You'll have to follow it and see," Carialle said
coyly. The image of a gorgeous lady dressed in floating sky
blue chiffon and gauze and a pointed hennin appeared
briefly on a screen next to her titanium column. The lovely
rose-and-cream complected visage smiled down on Keff.
"Nice footwork, good sir knight," the Lady Fair said, and
vanished. "SSS-900, this is the CK-963 requesting permis-
sion to approach and dock-Hello, Simeon!"
"Carialle!" The voice of the station controller came
through the box. "Welcome back! Permission granted,
babe. And that's SSS-900-C, now, C for Channa. A lot's
happened in the year since you've been away. Keff, are you
there?"
Keff leaned in toward the pickup. "Right here, Simeon.
We're within half a billion klicks. Should be with you
soon.
"It'll be good to have you on board," Simeon said.
"We're a little disarrayed right now, to put it mildly, but you
didn't come to see me for my housekeeping."
THE SHIP WHO WON
5
"No, cookie, but you give such good decontam a girl can
hardly stay away," Carialle quipped with a naughty
chuckle.
"Dragons teeth, Simeon!" Keff suddenly exclaimed,
staring at his scopes. "What happened around here?"
"Well, if you really want to know..."
The scout ship threaded its way through an increasingly
cluttered maze of junk and debris as they neared the rotat-
ing dumbbell shape of Station SSS-900. After viewing
Keffs cause for alarm, Carialle put her repulsors on full to
avoid the very real possibility of intersecting with one of
the floating chunks of metal debris that shared a Trojan
point with the station. Skiffs and tugs moved amidst the
shattered parts of ships and satellites, scavenging. A pair of
battered tugs with scoops on the front, looking ridiculously
like gigantic vacuum cleaners, described regular rows as
they seived up microfine spacedust that could hole hulls
and vanes of passing ships without ever being detected by
the crews inside. The cleanup tugs sent hails as Carialle
passed them in a smooth arc, synchronizing herself to the
spin of the space station. The north docking ring was being
repaired, so with a flick of her controls, Carialle increased
thrust and caught up with the south end. Lights began to
chase around the lip of one of the docldng bays on the ring,
and she made for it.
"... so that was the last we saw of the pirate Belazir and
his bully boys," Simeon finished, sounding weary. "For
good, I hope. My shell has been put in a more damage
resistant casing and resealed in its pillar. We've spent the
last six months healing and picking up the pieces. Still
waiting for replacement parts. The insurance company is
being sticky and querying every fardling item on the list,
but no ones surprised about that. Fleet ships are remaining
6
Anne McCaffrey 6- Jody Lynn Nye
in the area. We've put in for a permanent patrol, maybe a
small garrison."
"You have had a hell of a time," Carialle said,
sympathetically.
"Now let's hear the good news," Simeon said, with a
sudden surge of energy in his voice. "Where ve you been
all this time?"
Carialle simulated a trumpet playing a fanfare.
"We're pleased to announce that star GZA-906-M has
two planets with oxygen-breathing life," Keffsaid.
"Congratulations, you two!" Simeon said, sending an
audio burst that sounded like thousands of people cheer-
ing. He paused, very briefly. "I'm sending a simultaneous
message to Xeno and Explorations. They're standing by for
a full report with samples and graphs, but me first! I want
to hear it all."
Carialle accessed her library files and tight-beamed the
star chart and xeno file to Simeons personal receiving fre-
quency. 'This is a precis of what we'll give to Xeno and the
benchmarkers," she said. "We'll spare you the boring
stuff."
"If there's any bad news," Keff began, "it's that there's
no sentient life on planet four, and planet three s is too far
down the tech scale to join Central Worlds as a trading
partner. But they were glad to see us."
"He thinks," Carialle interrupted, with a snort. "I really
never knew what the Beasts Blatisant thought." Keff shot
an exasperated glance at her pillar, which she ignored. She
clicked through the directory on the file and brought up
the profile on the natives oflricon III.
"Why do you call them the Beasts Blatisant?" Simeon
asked, scanning the video of the skinny, hairy hexapedal
beings, whose faces resembled those of intelligent grass-
hoppers.
"Listen to the audio," Carialle said, laughing. 'They use
THE SHIP WHO WON 7
a complex form of communication which we have a socio-
logical aversion to understanding. Keff thought I was
blowing smoke, so to speak."
'That's not true, Can," Keff protested. "My initial con-
clusion," he stressed to Simeon, "was that they had no
need for a complex spoken language. They live right in the
swamps," Keff said, narrating the video that played off the
datahedron. "As you can see, they travel either on all sixes
or upright on four with two manipulative limbs. There are
numerous predators that eat Beasts, among other things,
and the simple spoken language is sufficient to relay infor-
mation about them. Maintaining life is simple. You can see
that fruit and edible vegetables grow in abundance right
there in the swamp. The overlay shows which plants are
dangerous."
"Not too many," Simeon said, noting the international
symbols for poisonous and toxic compounds: a skull and
crossbones and a small round face with its tongue out.
"Of course the first berry tried by my knight errant, and
I especially stress the errant," Carialle said, "was those
raspberry red ones on the left, marked with Mr. Yucky
Face."
"Well, the natives were eating them, and their biology
isn't that unlike Terran reptiles." Keff grimaced as he
admitted, "but the berries gave me fierce stomach cramps.
I was rolling all over the place clutching my belly. The
Beasts thought it was funny." The video duly showed the
hexapods, hooting, standing over a prone and writhing
Keff.
"It was, a little," Carialle added, "once I got over being
worried that he hadn't eaten something lethal. I told him
to wait for the full analysis-"
'That would have taken hours," Keff interjected. "Our
social interaction was happening in realtime."
"Well, you certainly made an impression."
"Did you understand the Beasts Blatisant? How'd the
IT program go?" asked Simeon, changing;the subject.
IT stood for Intentional Translator, the universal
simultaneous language translation program that Keff had
started before he graduated from school. IT was in a
constant state of being perfected, adding referents and
standards from each new alien language recorded by
Central Worlds exploration teams. The brawn had more
faith in his invention than his brain partner, who never
relied on IT more than necessary. Carialle teased Keff
mightily over the mistakes the IT made, but all the
chaffing was affectionately meant. Brain and brawn had
been together fourteen years out of a twenty-five-year
mission, and were close and caring friends. For all the
badinage she tossed his way, Carialle never let anyone else
take the mickey out other partner within her hearing.
Now she sniffed. "Still flawed, since IT uses only the
symbology of alien life-forms already discpvered. Even
with the addition of the Blaize Modification for sign lan-
guage, I think that it still fails to anticipate. I mean, who
the hell knows what referents and standards new alien
races will use?"
"Sustained use of a symbol in context suggests that it has
meaning," Keff argued. 'That's the basis of the program."
"How do you tell the difference between a repeated
movement with meaning and one without?" Carialle
asked, reviving the old argument. "Supposing a jellyfish's
wiggle is sometimes for propulsion and sometimes for dis-
semination of information? Listen, Simeon, you be the
judge."
"All right," the station manager said, amused.
"What if members of a new race have mouths and talk,
but impart any information of real importance in some
other way? Say, with a couple of sharp poots out the
sphincter?"
"It was the berries," Keff said. 'Their diet caused the
repeating, er, repeats."
"Maybe that. . . habit. . . had some relevance in the
beginning of their civilization," Carialle said with acer-
bity. "However, Simeon, once Keff got the translator
working on their verbal language, we found that at first
they just parroted back to him anything he said, like a
primitive AI pattern, gradually forming sentences, using
words of their own and anything they heard him say. It
seemed useful at first. We thought they'd leam Standard
at light-speed, long before Keff could pick up on the
intricacies of their language, but that wasn't what
happened."
'They parroted the language right, but they didn't really
understand what I was saying," Keff said, alternating his
narrative automatically with Carialle's. "No true compre-
hension."
"In the meantime, the flatulence was bothering him, not
only because it seemed to be ubiquitous, but because it
seemed to be controllable."
"I didn't know if it was supposed to annoy me, or if it
meant something. Then we started studying them more
closely."
The video cut from one scene to another of the skinny,
hairy aliens diving for ichthyoids and eels, which they cap-
tured with their middle pair of limbs. More footage
showed them eating voraciously; teaching their young to
hunt; questing for smaller food animals and tiiding from
larger and more dangerous beasties. Not much of the land
was dry, and what vegetation grew there was sought after
by all the hungry species.
Early tapes showed that, at first, the Beasts seemed to
be afraid of Keff, behaving as if they thought he was going
to attack them. Over the course of a few days, as he
seemed to be neither aggressive nor helpless, they
10 Anne McCaffrey 6- Jody Lynn Nye
investigated him further. When they dined, he ate a meal
from his own supplies beside them.
'Then, keeping my distance, I started asking them
questions, putting a clear rising interrogative into my
tone of voice that I had heard their young use when ask-
ing for instruction. That seemed to please them, even
though they were puzzled why an obviously mature
being needed what seemed to be survival information.
Interspecies communication and cooperation was
unknown to them." Keff watched as Carialle skipped
through the data to another event. 'This was the pot-
latch. Before it really got started, the Beasts ate kilos of
those bean-berries."
"Keff had decided then that they couldn't be too intelli-
gent, doing something like that to themselves. Eating
foods that caused them obvious distress for pure cere-
mony's sake seemed downright dumb."
"I was disappointed. Then the IT started kicking back
patterns to me on the Beasts' noises. Then I felt downright
dumb." Keff had the good grace to grin at himself.
"And what happened, ah, in the end?" Simeon asked.
Keff grinned sheepishly. "Oh, Carialle was right, of
course. The red berries were the key to their formal com-
munication. I had to give points for repetition of, er, body
language. So, I programmed the IT to pick up what the
Blatisants meant, not just what they said, taking in all
movement or sounds to analyze for meaning. It didn't
always work right..."
"Hah!" Carialle interrupted, in triumph. "He admits it!"
"... but soon, I was getting the sense of what they were
really communicating. The verbal was little more than pro-
tective coloration. The Blatisants do have a natural gift for
mimicry. The IT worked fine-well, mostly. The systems
just going to require more testing, that's all."
"It always requires more testing," CariaUe remarked in a
THE SHIP WHO WON 11
long-suffering voice. "One day we're going to miss some-
thing we really need."
Keff was unperturbed. "Maybe IT needs an AI element
to test each set of physical movements or gestures for
meaning on the spot and relay it to the running glossary.
I'm going to use IT on humans next, see if I can refine the
quirks that way when I already know what a being is com-
municating."
"If it works," Simeon said, with rising interest, "and you
can read body language, it'll put you far beyond any means
of translation that's ever been done. They'll call you a
mind-reader. Softshells so seldom say what they mean-
but they do express it through their attitudes and gestures.
I can think of a thousand practical uses for IT right here in
Central Worlds."
"As for the Blatisants, there's no reason not to recom-
mend further investigation to award them ISS status, since
it's clear they are sentient and have an ongoing civilization,
however primitive," Keff said. "And that's what I'm going
to tell the Central Committee in my report. Iricon Ill's got
to go on the list."
T wish I could be a mouse in the wall," Simeon said,
chuckling with mischievous glee, "when an evaluation
team has to talk with your Beasts. The whole party's going
to sound like a raft of untuned engines. I know CenCom's
going to be happy to hear about another race ofsentients."
"I know," Keff said, a little sadly, "but it's not the race,
you know." To Keff and Carialle, the designation meant
that most elusive of holy grails, an alien race culturally and
technologically advanced enough to meet humanity on its
own terms, having independently achieved computer sci-
ence and space travel.
"If anyone's going to find the race, it's likely to be you
two," Simeon said with open sincerity.
Carialle closed the last kilometers to the docking bay and
12 Anne McCaffrey 6- Jody Lynn Nye
shut off her engines as the magnetic grapples pulled her
close, and the vacuum seal snugged around the atrlock.
"Home again," she sighed.
The lights on the board started flashing as Simeon
sent a burst requesting decontamination for the CK-963.
Keff pushed back from the monitor panels and went
back to his cabin to make certain everything personal
was locked down before the decontam crew came on
board.
"We're empty on everything, Simeon," Carialle said.
"Protein vats are at the low ebb, my nutrients are redlining,
fuel cells down. Fill 'er up."
"We're a bit short on some supplies at the moment,"
Simeon said, "but I'll give you what I can." There was a
brief pause, and his voice returned. "I've checked for mail.
Keff has two parcels. The manifests are for circuits, and for
a 'Rotoflex.'What's that?"
"Hah!" said Keff, pleased. "Exercise equipment. A
Rotoflex helps build chest and back muscles without strain
on the intercostals." He flattened his hands over his ribs
and breathed deeply to demonstrate.
"All we need is more clang-and-bump deadware on my
deck," Carialle said with the noise that served her for a
sigh.
"Where's your shipment, Carialle?" Keff asked inno-
cently. "I thought you were sending for a body from
Moto-Prosthetics."
"Well, you thought wrong," Carialle said, exasperated
that he was bringing up their old argument. "I'm happy in
my skin, thank you."
"You'd love being mobile, lady fair," Keff said. "All the
things you miss staying in one place! You can't imagine.
Tell her, Simeon."
"She travels more than I do. Sir Galahad. Forget it."
"Anyone else have messages for us?" Carialle asked.
THE SHIP WHO WON 13
"Not that I have on record, but I'll put out a query to
show you're in dock."
Keff picked his sodden tunic off the console and stood
up. ,
"I'd better go and let the medicals have their poke at
me," he said. "Will you take care of the rest of the com-
puter debriefing, my lady Cari, or do you want me to stay
and make sure they don't poke in anywhere you don't want
them?"
"Nay, good sir knight," Carialle responded, still playing
the game. "You have coursed long and far, and deserve
reward."
'The only rewards I want," Keff said wistfully, "are a
beer that hasn't been frozen for a year, and a little compan-
ionship-not that you aren't the perfect companion, lady
fair"-he kissed his hand to the titanium column-"but as
the prophet said, let there be spaces in your togethemess.
If you'll excuse me?"
"Well, don't space yourself too far," Carialle said. Keff
grinned. Carialle followed him on her internal cameras to
his cabin, where, in deference to those spaces he men-
tioned, she stopped. She heard the sonic-shower turn on
and off, and the hiss of his closet door. He came out of the
cabin pulling on a new, dry tunic, his curly hair tousled.
Ta-ta," Keff said. "I go to confess all and slay a beer or
two."
Before the airlock sealed, Carialle had opened up her
public memory banks to Simeon, transferring full copies of
their datafiles on the Iricon mission. Xeno were on line in
seconds, asking her for in-depth, eyewitness commentary
on their exploration. Keff, in Medical, was probably
answering some of the same questions. Xeno liked subjec-
tive accounts as well as mechanical recordings.
At the same time Carialle carried on her conversation
with Simeon, she oversaw the decontam crew and loading
14 Anne McCaffrey <h- Jody Lynn Nye
staff, and relaxed a little herself after what had been an
arduous journey. A few days here, and she'd feel ready to
go out and knit the galactic spiral into a sweater.
Keffs medical examination, under the capable stetho-
scope of Dr. Chaundra, took less than fifteen minutes, but
the interview with Xeno went on for hours. By the time he
had recited from memory everything he thought or
observed about the Beasts Blatisant he was wrung out and
dry.
"You know, Keff," Darvi, the xenologist, said, shutting
down his clipboard terminal on the Beast Blatisant file, "if
I didn't know you personally, I'd have to think you were a
little nuts, giving alien races silly names like that. Beasts
Blatisant. Sea Nymphs. Losels-that was the last one I
remember."
"Don't you ever play Myths and Legends, Darvi?" Keff
asked, eyes innocent.
摘要:

aCHAPTERONETheironbounddoorattheendofthenarrowpassage-waycreakedopen.Anancientmanpeeredoutandfocusedwrinkle-lappedeyesonKeff.Keffknewwhattheoldonesaw:amatureman,notoverlytall,whosewavybrownhair,onlyjustbeginningtobeshotwithgray,wasarrayedaboveamildyetbull-likebrowanddeep-setblueeyes.Anosewhosecraggy...

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