Anne McCaffrey - Ship 5 - The Ship Who Won

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.

Anne McCaffrey - Ship 5 - The Ship Who Won

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