McCaffrey, Anne - Ship 05 - The Ship Who Won

445 Pages·2016·0.99 MB·English

by  McCaffrey Anne

a CHAPTER ONE

The ironbound door at the end of the narrow passageway 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 studied 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
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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, keeping 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 immediately 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. Stumbling 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, yellowed 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
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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 figure 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 workout!" 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 permission 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
but no ones surprised about that. Fleet ships are remaining
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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
Carialle accessed her library files and tight-beamed the star chart and xeno file to
Simeons personal receiving frequency. '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
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a complex form of communication which we have a sociological aversion to
understanding. Keff thought I was blowing smoke, so to speak."

'That's not true, Can," Keff protested. "My initial conclusion," 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