Nimisha's Ship

By Anne McCaffrey

Synopsis:

Parts of Nimisha's Ship are reminiscent of the melodramatic intrigue and romance among lords and ladies in Anne McCaffrey's first SF novel, Reestoree (1967). Here, though, danger and drama are downplayed while the course of true love--plus the joy of friendship--moves to center stage. Nimisha, heir to her mother's wealth and high status, tomboyishly prefers the spaceship yards of her absentee father. She sneaks off to work with him and emerges as a gifted ship designer. One day, testing a splendid new space-yacht, she falls through a wormhole to a far-off region of the galaxy. This contains a planet of unfriendly beasties--mostly leathery-winged avians, easily shot down by Nimisha's yacht AI--and stranded wormhole victims: a haggard human party easily put right by medical treatment, and midget aliens who are easily befriended. Romance soon blooms for Nimisha, and she settles down to have the nicest human castaway's babies (twins, then triplets). Meanwhile, rescue missions are on the way, one by the long, slow route and one by accidental wormhole encounter. Happy family reunions follow, with a certain twinkly charm but no real suspense or surprise. It's a comforting, unthreatening read: McCaffrey addicts will love it, but newcomers may prefer to start with her tougher, grittier SF adventures like the classic Dragonflight.

To a courageous and generous young woman for the greatest gift one woman can give another

Acknowledgments

Once again I am thankful to my first readers who keep me from making egregious errors or mistakes.

For Nimisha's ship, I owe harry alm in his capacity of naval architect and my son, todd j. McCaffrey, for their input, timely additions and corrections. Marilyn alm, lea day, and mary jean holmes have all read and made suggestions for which I am truly grateful. To j. R. Holmes, a special thanks for his valuable contribution of panspermia.

An unknown number of online folks have inadvertently helped me name my characters. Syrona gave me permission to use her name as a main character and I ruthlessly borrowed others. And, as always, my gratitude to vaughne hansen in virginia kidd's office and especially to my editor, shelly shapiro.

Chapter 1

Lady Rezalla Boynton-Chonderlee was often bemused and puzzled by her body-heir, Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense, as the child began to develop a personality. She was, indeed, all and more that a womb-mother could wish in her body-heir: beautiful, gentianeyed, intelligent, healthy, and obedient in almost every matter. Lady Rezalla considered the infrequent displays of temper and minor rebellions against necessary protocol only to be expected in the very young. Nimisha was certainly not as wayward or overindulged as some of the children of her contemporaries.

However, as Nimisha grew past the nursery stage and started the formal tutorial lessons, she showed decided preferences that were unexpected. She loved to take first mechanical and then robotic units apart, a hobby that struck her womb-mother as unusual.

Lady Rezalla consoled herself that at least Nimisha showed an aptitude for something that kept her occupied for hours. Lady Rezalla knew that some of her social peers had difficult children with tendencies to be violent or abusive as the very young often were. Even in the best families. She privately admitted to some anxiety that Nimisha's mechanical avocation might be considered "quaint" for someone in the most prestigious social level of acclarke city on vega 111. On the positive side, the boynton-chonderleerondymense connection was sufficiently powerful to permit much that might have been censured or condemned in a lesser family.

"it's in the genes she inherited from me, rezella," lord tionel rondymense-erhardt remarked on one of his visits to see the daughter he had contracted to provide lady Rezalla. Though he would have been perfectly willing to have had a much longer contract with the elegant Rezalla, she had never given him the least bit of encouragement for an extension. This disinterest both annoyed and intrigued him since he was much in demand as a sire in the best acclarkian circles. Still, he enjoyed her company and excruciatingly accurate remarks about their society and peers. She was not averse to his visits since she felt that her body-heir by him was quite the best of the lot he had so far sired. She was less sanguine about the way he encouraged Nimisha in her whimsical bent, happily answering her questions or giving her a pointer when she seemed at a standstill in reassembling what she had taken apart.

"It has obviously escaped your attention, my dear Rezalla," he remarked one day after explaining to Nimisha the function of the tiny chips she had spread out on the floor, "that she invariably improves the design and function of whatever she's tinkering with. I find that most ingenious of her. Most ingenious, if she continues to develop this aptitude, why I might just leave her my ship yard. No one else I've sired shows the least bit of interest in spaceship design Much less doing any work of any description. I have grave concern that what nine generations have built up in the rondymense ship yard might decline and disappear in the next one."

"My body-heir," lady Rezalla replied, rather more dismayed than pleased by lord tionel's remarks, "will have no need for unsuitable bequests, lord tionel."

"You were happy enough to find ten thousand shares of rondymense stock in her birth-gift portfolio," he remarked. Then he went on in his softest, most persuasive voice, his blue eyes dancing, though his face had assumed a properly repentant expression.

"Don't be angry with me, rezie. There's nothing unsuitable about a firm that has been designing spaceships and in profit for over two hundred years. Surely the financier in you appreciates that!"

the point was well taken, lady Rezalla had to admit in all fairness She herself had increased her holdings and wealth due to a nearly infallible instinct for the profitability of new businesses.

Tionel was not given to casual remarks. She knew very well that his body-heir, vestrin, a decade older than her Nimisha, was a disgrace to his sire. He seemed to have no interest in anything that wasn't "thrilling, exciting, or totally new," which included dangerous hunts and rather nasty jokes on those who might be considered "close" friends. Tionel could do worse than sign the rondymense yard over to his girl child if he wished it to continue. Nimisha need not do anything in such a well-run establishment. Rezalla didn't know how much tionel did in the administrative end of the business, but she was quite capable of instructing her daughter in the financial aspects sufficiently to keep the yard in profit. Especially as many contracts from the admiralty were awarded to rondymense ship yard. It was always good to be "in" with the admiralty, especially as she had recently acquired the controlling interest in a small freighter company.

"I have never faulted you on your business acumen, ti," she replied, relenting as they both watched Nimisha's careful reassembly of a robotic toy, the gift of her great uncle dahmison.

While expressing appreciation for the gift, lady Rezalla wondered if uncle knew which sex the child was. But it was certainly the sort of thing uncle would give: it made the most appalling noise. Children liked noise; Rezalla didn't. "You've always been lucky with your designers."

"My designers?" lord tionel looked insulted and gestured at Nimisha. "I'm my designer. I am responsible for all the innovations at the yard. And half of what the vegan fleet uses."

It was lady Rezalla's turn to be surprised, and despite her many years of schooling her expression to show only what she wished an audience to see, it was a full minute before she could respond with cool dignity.

"You never mentioned that, tionel." it was as near a reprimand as she could bring herself to make. Members of the first families had to set good examples to everyone, even their peers, but they delegated duties; they didn't do them.

I thought everyone knew," tionel replied with a properly cool indifference and a shrug of one shoulder. "Ah, very nice, nimi," he said as his six-year-old offspring presented him with the repaired toy. He set it on the floor and pressed the activating stud. It began its series of acrobatics, making nimi clap her hands. "What did you alter in its circuitry?"

"She's made it quiet!" lady Rezalla said, her voice echoing her delight.

So Nimisha had noticed her distaste for the sound it had made. "Such a dear child." "Well done, nimi, well done!" lord tionel clapped his hands and, without a glance at his former contractual spouse, held his arms out to the child. She promptly climbed into his lap and put her arms about his neck, a show of affection that caused lady Rezalla to regard lord tionel with dismay. He noticed. "Nonsense, rezie. I am her father and I like to cuddle my children." "How ... how exceedingly ... old-fashioned of you," lady Rezalla said, seething with a variety of emotions, the most dominant being envy.

Nimisha would never have dared to climb onto her mother's lap. But then, Rezalla had never indicated that such a display would have been acceptable. Lady Rezalla did not like her exquisite self handled. What with Nimisha's preoccupation with mechanical things, her fingers and hands were rarely as clean as they should be, though nurse did the best she could. Oddly enough, Nimisha did not have even a smudge of dirt on her clothing.

If tionel wished to have his fashionable tunic and trousers marred by dirty fingers, that was his choice. He had always been a tactile person. If she had once found this trait of his charming, she did not think unessential personal contact dignified. Certainly not in their social sphere. At least Nimisha was still very much a child, so such a display could be condoned. She and her sire seemed to have established a bond that was not entirely due to the child's interest in taking things apart. It did the child no harm to receive paternal caresses-if not carried too far. Lady Rezalla was fairminded She thought she and Nimisha had an excellent relationship ; certainly she enjoyed her daughter's company whenever she chose to take her anywhere. For the first time, lady Rezalla realized how odd her own behavior might look to others. Very few of her social friends bothered to have their child-heirs accompany them as much as lady Rezalla did. But she genuinely liked the child and thought her occasional observations clever. Rezalla also thought herself quite broadminded in rearing Nimisha. The child's only flaw, as her mother saw it, was this fascination with dismantling and reassembling mechanical and chippy things.

She did remonstrate with tionel when he started presenting Nimisha with birthday gifts of a construction nature; things to assemble even down to schematic drawings and instructions. To offset tionel's influence, lady Rezalla subtly began to emphasize the feminine instruction that all girls of their social level had to acquire and display suitably in acclarkian society. She was quite successful in such tuition. By the time Nimisha was eight, she insisted on choosing her own apparel. As she displayed an innate good taste, as well as a sense of color and design, lady Rezalla stopped fretting about her child's quaint preference for mucking about with greasy gears and engines and the chips she so enjoyed fooling with. What only Nimisha's nurse knew was that her charge knew how to strike a balance that permitted her time to do what she really wanted-to examine things mechanical and improve them and time to satisfy a mother whom she genuinely loved and respected, at least in matters of dress and deportment.

,actually, good design is good design anywhere," Nimisha told nurse after a shopping session with her mother. "And choosing clothing isn't much different from choosing the right chassis for a sleek skimmer." such a remark merely proved to nurse that her charge was cleverer than lady Rezalla realized, a fact that nurse proudly ascribed to her own careful nurturing of her charge.

Because Nimisha's sire did show a marked interest in her and the guidance counselors admitted that a friendly paternal regard generally contributed to the stability of a child, male or female lady Rezalla permitted lord tionel to take Nimisha on trips to the rondymense ship yard. Since nurse was agoraphobic and bluntly refused to leave the solid surface of vega in even for Nimisha's sake, lady Rezalla sent to the employment agency she patronized for a suitable female attendant who had experience in space travel.

Five candidates were offered by the agency, and their prospective employer subjected each to a long and searching interrogation, lady Rezalla settled on twenty-one-year-old jeska mlan because of her family's long and illustrious record as military and naval personnel. Mlan had trained and applied for service as well, but sadly she was one centimeter too short and a half kilo too light to be eligible. So she had registered as a bodyguard. All her credentials were in order, her intelligence was above average, her manner pleasant, and her accent that of an educated acclarkian (acceptable in any social circle). It was important that Nimisha did not pick up any "common habits." lady Rezalla deplored the latest fad in her society-of using certain terms or resorting to archaic language and expletives that mystified her.

The young woman certainly didn't look like a bodyguard. Though not traditionally pretty, jeska was attractive, her face showing good character, and she knew enough about dressing herself to enhance her appearance. She would look well in lady Rezalla's stylish personal livery. But the telling factor was jeska's interest in things mechanical.

"My father and brothers taught me how to keep a skimmer serviced , lady Rezalla," she said, and then added with a slight smile, "and other equipment that I hope I shall not have to use." "Then you are familiar with stunners?" I have been checked out by the acclarkian peace guardians on hand weapons and carry permits for personal defense implements ," jeska replied.

"Do you have a current valid permit with the apg? "Not at the moment, ma'am, but my training has been registered with them." I shall apply for the necessary permit immediately. Do you generally carry two knives, mlan?" "Yes, my'lady," jeska said without apology. The security arch on the main entrance had disclosed that the girl carried one sheathed between her shoulders and another in her right boot, a slender blade that the residence manager termed a "stiletto." lady Rezalla could approve of the quiet dignity of that response: consonant with her training, certainly, and a basic precaution for an attractive young female. There were parts of acclarke where personal weapons would undoubtedly be required, though mlan's address was not in one of those insalubrious areas.

While jeska's primary duty was to accompany Nimisha on any excursions outside the boynton-chonderlee compound, she was also enjoined by lady Rezalla to keep the girl physically fit. Mlan's resume had included a list of the awards that she had received for gymnastic events. Rezalla herself used daily dance and an aerobics routine to keep supple, in addition to weekly sessions with a trainer. So many of her contemporaries resorted to surgical methods to maintain their figures, a practice that Rezalla found abhorrent and which she intended to eschew. Though one of her close personal friends, lord naves, specialized in body sculpture, she did not intend to use his skills. Good physical habits in childhood would result in a firm adult body that would need no surgical interference.

"So many children these days are content to have everything done for them," lady Rezalla said, leading her new employee to meet her daughter. I do not care to see my daughter become languorous and ineffectual. You will see that she is kept in top physical condition." as lady Rezalla did not specify what physical fitness program she wished her daughter to learn, jeska passed on more of what she herself had been taught by older brothers and sisters in the services Gymnastics provided a solid base from which to start.

When jeska saw how beautiful her young charge was, she included general self-defense moves in the exercise program. As Nimisha grew in height, weight, and strength, jeska added offensive tactics, including the use of daggers, stunners, and hunting weapons, and how to turn seemingly innocuous objects into weapons in an emergency.

While jeska knew that many members of the first families were ardent hunters and enjoyed pursuing very dangerous prey on those preserves set aside for such sport, Nimisha was uncharacteristically for her social rank-devoid of any interest in the hunt. She ignored those of her peers who boasted of killing this animal or that predatory avian and waved aside details of such prowess. She was vitally interested in how the flitters, skimmers, and ground vehicles worked. And how to improve their performance-an interest that jeska was certainly delighted to foster.

Like most scions in her rank of society, Nimisha was tutored at home, her mother deciding what subjects she should study. Languages, of course, and mathematics featured very early on, as well as a foundation in economics. She was also tutored at the appropriate age in astrography, galactic history, various branches of the physical sciences, the workings of the vegan civic administrational structure, and basic legal precepts.

"Which means when to put in a hurry-up call to the family legal advisers," Nimisha said to jeska with a droll grin. At ten she was far more aware of civic responsibilities than jeska had ever been.

Jeska was quite willing to improve her own education, especially in useful areas like mathematics, legal codes, and statutes. So, since she had no duties during the morning tutorial sessions, she took to sitting quietly in the back of the room, acquiring knowledge that had not been available in the general curriculum of her school. Like any member of a serving family, she had learned phrases and words of many different languages, but not necessarily those appropriate for the ears of a first family scion, so she was pleased to become acquainted with more socially correct usage.

She was delighted when Nimisha emphasized more and more engineering concepts with the science tutor who was only hired to give her a basic general understanding of the profession.

Nimisha regretted that the schoolroom computer system did not have a tri-d display device sophisticated enough to allow her to design something more satisfying than gowns or interior decorations or the other programs available to a first family scion of the female sex. However, her tutor did find a manual for a professional design unit and privately sighed over its seemingly unlimited virtual display factors. Although lady Rezalla allowed her body-heir a great deal of leeway, Nimisha knew when discretion was required.

It was enough to have jeska permitted to join the lessons.

"It's much easier to review lessons with someone," Nimisha had confided in jeska. "I'm glad you're not bored." "That's highly unlikely in your company, Nimisha," jeska replied with a grin. She had quickly grown fond of the bright, cheerful child in her care, and if she bent a few rules for Nimisha, the girl did the same for her.

As Nimisha grew older, she was invited on more frequent excursions with her sire, and these jeska enjoyed almost as much as her charge.

The rondymense ship yard occupied an area on the outskirts of the primary vegan fleet space yard, where new vessels were built and older ones underwent maintenance and refitting.

While lord tionel never said anything to the point, jeska mlan was quick to realize that rondymense was in such proximity to the big fleet installation because it supplied the fleet with a great many of its improvements, most of which originated in lord tionel's fertile mind. Jeska was thrilled: she might not have made the service, but she became privy to a lot that her serving relatives would never know. Since discretion had been a facet of her early childhood training in an active service family, she had no trouble keeping what she saw and heard to herself. On her infrequent visits home, she often had occasion to smile quietly as she listened to her siblings raving about this or that improvement to the vegan spaceship 7890b, or the brand-new vss 8650c-innovations she had watched from the design stage onward. She was also alert to the fact that Nimisha was equally discreet, though lord tionel had frequently discussed technical aspects that jeska knew to be very top secret. But discretion was subtly inbred in any child of the first families. it didn't take lord tionel long to realize that his daughter's bodyguard was as eager to learn as Nimisha. So he equipped them both with tools and gave them projects to complete, all deftly geared to augment the larger educational program he now had in mind for Nimisha. When she appeared to have stopped growing, he had them both measured for space suits so they could accompany him and his crews on exterior investigations. Of course, they knew as well as he did that lady Rezalla would have instantly curtailed these visits had she known that they'd accompanied lord tionel into the vacuum of space. But he had undertaken their instruction himself, been satisfied that they appreciated the risks and would adhere to the precautions. They were always safely linked to experienced eva personnel.

Early on, lord tionel tested jeska's piloting skills in a space skimmer as well as a ground vehicle and rated her competence equal to that of many pilots. He also taught Nimisha how to drive, preferring to be certain she was capable long before lady Rezalla allowed her body-heir a personal ground vehicle.

I may be usurping some of her birth-mother's prerogatives," he told jeska one day without a trace of guilt, "but I prefer to oversee her education in such matters. I've no doubt lady Rezalla instructs her as efficiently in the purely feminine skills in which she herself excels." jeska nodded, understanding completely what he had not said.

"I am very appreciative, lord tionel, of the benefits I have received while in lady Nimisha's company." "You've an aptitude worth cultivating, my girl," he replied honestly "When Nimisha no longer requires your companionship, this yard would consider you an asset." he smiled in his beguiling fashion, rubbing his hands together as if already anticipating the moment when he could make good on his offer.

"Small wonder you succeed so well with the fleet types, lord tionel," she said, grinning impudently up at him. The current high admiral of the fleet was an attractive and highly efficient woman.

jeska knew he spent considerable time with her and her design teams.

His smile broadened and he accorded her a slight bow. "I like to encourage talent wherever I encounter it. Now," he continued in a brisker tone, "what trinket would please my daughter when she receives her necklace four weeks from now?" "A skimmer, sir," jeska replied promptly, sober-faced, though she couldn't keep the glint of mischief out of her eyes.

"A skimmer?" the uplift of his voice in surprised repetition made her grin.

"Even lady Rezalla will agree that lady nimi, at fourteen, should have her own transport. Especially as she will promise to service it herself." jeska paused, rather pleased that she had been able to astonish lord tionel. "That way no one but she and I will know the engine capacity, the optimum cruising range, or the versatility of the vehicle." "Ah!" lord tionel's eyes lit up. He gave jeska's back such an approving thump that only the girl's superb natural reflexes kept her from bouncing off the work table in front of her. "Oh, sorry about that, jeska. Caught me by surprise, you did. Excellent. Excellent." and he went off, chuckling to himself. "Capital idea! Just the thing."

since jeska had been Nimisha's companion for six years, she was permitted to attend the important necklace ceremony, traditional in first family circles. She stood well behind those who were related by blood, of course, but she was there when Nimisha celebrated her minor majority, colloquially known as the double m.

The adult majority was four years hence, but body-heirs were expected from the moment of their necklacing to act in an adult fashion and leave childish practices and manners behind them.

Beside jeska, nurse was sniffling, since this ceremony marked the end of her employment. That she was being munificently rewarded by lady Rezalla and need never work another day in her life did not seem to compensate for leaving Nimisha. Since jeska was fonder of Nimisha than she was of any of her own siblings, she quite understood nurse's sorrow. She would continue in her duties to the body-heir of boynton-chonderlee house, but she and nurse had been of one mind in keeping certain aspects of Nimisha's daily routines from lady Rezalla. Once necklaced, Nimisha was guaranteed more freedom from constant supervision. indeed, during the festivities, other servants would be moving Nimisha's belongings out of the nursery and into private quarters in the west wing of the house.

Before relatives from both sides of the bloodline, as well as lady Rezalla's particular friends and confidants, Nimisha was led in by her dam's mother, the lady astatine boynton-tatanovic, a formidable woman who had never approved of her own body-heir's friends or her deplorable tendency to dabble in "finance." but lady astatine knew what was owed to family despite the fact that she deplored Nimisha's height, among other things that were beyond the girl's control.

"You make me look like a midget, young woman. Most inconsiderate ," was the grandam's complaint. "Don't bruise my fingers.

Girls are supposed to be delicate, not have the grip of a man. Did not your dam teach you any feminine arts?" "Your couturier made my gown, grandam," Nimisha murmured She might not have gone through the ceremony officially allowing her to speak out to an elder, but she would not allow anyone to fault her birth-mother. Especially her grandam.

"That much Rezalla learned from me," was the haughty reply.

"Who the most original designers are." "And learned well, grandam." a muffled throaty growl greeted that courteous reply. Then lady astatine passed Nimisha's hand to lady Rezalla for the rest of the ceremony and stepped back, deftly kicking the train of her elegant and fabulously expensive gown out of her way.

Nimisha was handed by her mother onto the three-level podium set in place for the ceremony, so that she was clearly visible to the assembled. Lady Rezalla, her eyes bright with tears of pride, advanced with lord tionel, equally bright-eyed and grinning widely with delight in his part of the ceremony. He held the case in which Nimisha's necklace reposed. He had insisted on sharing the cost so, when he turned to display the magnificent jewelry, there were muted gasps and astonished oh's of approval.

the family of rionel rondymense-erhardt was just fractionally older and more exclusive than the boynton-chonderlee, so the necklace intricately displayed the families' identification patterns, the same ones that had been indelibly tattooed on Nimisha's neck shortly after her birth. With the counliest of bows, lord tionel presented the case to his former contractual spouse. Lady Rezalla lifted the glittering ornament by its ends and, standing on the highest level of the podium, deftly encircled her body-heir's neck and fastened the clasp. Using one finger, she gave a minute adjustment to the left-hand side to cover the tattoo beneath. Then she tapped Nimisha. Nimisha turned and her mother accorded her the six embraces required by the ceremony, the accolades of approaching adulthood. And for once the kisses were genuine touches of lip to cheek and lip to lip.

Moving gracefully, and as deftly as her grandmother with the train of her splendid gown, Nimisha then accepted the salutes from her sire, her grandam, and the relatives awaiting to applaud her entry into society. She did a smooth and gracious circling, though she could have done without great uncle dahmison's sloppy kisses.

She wasn't the only one of the younger relatives in the auxiliary lines who disliked his tendency to slobber.

Then she made her way to nurse and embraced her warmly, giving her the four kisses of extreme favor. She gave jeska the two proper embraces allowed and squeezed her hands tight, covertly promising that they'd both try out the new skimmer that was parked behind the house. They might have to sneak out of the house at night to do so, but fortunately her necklacing party would not be as prolonged as the one to celebrate her adult majority. That was four years away and there would be so much to do to reach that exalted state. Especially now that Nimisha would have more control over her daily activities.

The music started-since this was a boynton-chonderlee house affair, the musicians were humans, not mechanicals-and her sire requested the first dance, as was his right. Lady Rezalla watched, not quite beaming with pride at the elegant way father and daughter danced, but as close to such an expression as she allowed herself. She sighed once, rather pleased that she had picked tionel to sire her body-heir. He had done well by her and was doing far more than most sires did for their offspring. Certainly more than he did for the oaf who was his body-heir. She spared a sideways glance at vestrin. He was as tall as his sire and with the same nose and ears, but after that he resembled his dam, the insidious lady vescuya, far too closely. Fortunately lady vescuya was not among the invited : she had a previous engagement she could not cancel, for which lady Rezalla was grateful, since she had as little use for vescuya as did almost everyone else of the first families.

When lady astatine brusquely waved off tionel's offer to dance, as etiquette required of him, he more gladly took his former spouse onto the floor. At the end of that dance, everyone paired off to enjoy the music and the rest of the celebration.

Lord vestrin did the obligatory dance with his blood-half-sister and spent the next hour, lady Rezalla noted, on the sidelines criticizing the guests to great uncle dahmison, whose hearing was minimal anyway. Then vestrin abruptly departed, making the barest of bows to his hostess and birth-father.

When the last guests were well gone, Nimisha and jeska slipped down the stairs, dressed in clothing appropriate for an early morning spin in a newly acquired skimmer. Nimisha spoke the security passwords into the estate system, and the two walked quickly to the garage area.

Jeska had her knife out a second before Nimisha did when a shadow detached itself from the corner of the first parking slot.

"If you two thought you'd try it out on your own, you thought wrong," lord tionel said, holding his arms widespread as he emerged.

"Scare the life out of me, you would," jeska said, sheathing her knife. I could have skewered you, lord tionel." she didn't sound the least bit repentant.

"I know your reflexes by now, mlan, so I was in no danger," tionel said, chuckling.

"I could have sworn I saw you drive away, sir," Nimisha said, after taking a deep enough breath to calm a fast-beating heart.

"Oh, I did, and doubled back around before the security net was activated. I brought suitable clothing. And I can be tionel, or ti, as you wish, m'dear, now you're double m." don't you have any faith in your training of me, tionel?" Nimisha asked, quick to accept his offer.

I do, but you haven't driven something as powerful as this one, and neither has jeska. In this test run, you'll drive with me until I'm sure you both have the measure of these engines. Get in." as this was a two-seater skimmer, suitable for city and country travel-or so lady Rezalla would think-there were only two bucket seats. However, behind them, there was a little space and a ledge across the back, just adequate for someone as slender as jeska, if she sat sideways with her knees bent.

The skimmer purred into activity when Nimisha thumbed on the engine.

"Slowly, my girl. Those engines could wake even your dam from a sound sleep," tionel said, raising one hand in warning.

"I can feel the power in them," Nimisha agreed, smiling. "You're such a good father, tionel."

Tionel sighed and Nimisha wished she'd phrased that some other way, for she knew how disappointed he was in his own bodyheir And really, she couldn't blame him. Vestrin was useless and he needn't have been. Once again Nimisha had cause to thank her mother for her upbringing and nurture. Vestrin's dam might have been the acknowledged beauty of her debut year, but that, seemingly, had been her one achievement. She had, however, presented four notable lords with body-heirs, never once losing her elegant figure in the process and increasing her personal wealth each time.

Three of them were as indolent as vestrin. Only the fourth, young lord haricore, showed signs of being interesting, and he was such an active child that he required a full squad of bodyguards.

more to rescue the victims of his never-ending pranks than to keep him safe.

Nimisha lifted the skimmer slowly, turning the lever to port once she was above the low garages and heading out the main entrance , which opened at the use of her password. There was no sense of movement, though the ground passed swiftly beneath them.

"Lights. " her sire gave her a grin, for her finger was already depressing the appropriate panel.

"Light is more likely to wake my mother than noise," she said coolly. "I read the operating manual three times. So did jeska." "The manual and the operation are distinctly separated by hands-on experience," tionel said. "Take us to the lakeside. I've cleared it with traffic control that I'm testing a new vehicle. There won't be any repercussions when we let this sleek motor out." the two in the front heard jeska's throaty chuckle. "You think of everything, don't you, lord tionel?" "Well, that was an obvious precaution." they reached the lake within minutes.

"Take it down to the end at whatever speed you feel you can handle to reach that destination," he said, sitting back and folding his arms.

Jeska took a firm hold of the conveniently placed seat tabs and willed herself heavier as she felt Nimisha increase the forward motion. The girl was cautious, possibly because it was so obvious that the skimmer possessed a very high-powered engine and she needed to get the feel of it. Nimisha executed a neat u-turn at the base of the lake. The geographical feature was actually an earth fault, one hundred and two kilometers in length and forty in width, that had been dammed to make a water-sports facility convenient to acclarke.

Nimisha headed down the moonlit ribbon of water and began to increase the power, slowly at first, getting the feel of the controls and then speeding up.

"What's holding you back, Nimisha?" her sire asked teasingly.

"The engine has been well broken in, you know." I will go as fast as I want to, tionel rondymense, and I'll thank you not to taunt me.

Tionel threw back his head and laughed. "Impudent scut!" jeska sighed with relief, but she really ought not to have doubted Nimisha's common sense. She did crane her neck to see what speed was being achieved and saw the gauge holding steady at three hundred kilometers. She saw the cliffs that bordered the north side of the long lake zipping by and then kept her eyes straight ahead.

Moments later Nimisha eased back on the stick and, when it came time to execute a turn, the skimmer was doing a sedate speed of one hundred klicks.

Now, let me see you handle a few basic maneuvers, nimi," her father said. "The controls, as you will have noticed, are light to the touch. And you have no doubt noticed where the ejection controls are." he turned his head around. "There's one for the rear ledge, too, mlan." felt no need to look for it, milord," jeska said in an amiable drawl.

When Nimisha had performed the aerobatics her father requested , she landed and looked back to jeska. "Your turn," she said and, inserting herself between the two bucket seats, managed to cram herself into one corner while jeska went forward.

With no desire to show off, jeska did the length of the lake at the same speed that Nimisha had used.

"I'm disappointed in you, jeska," lord tionel said, clicking his tongue.

"What's suitable for lady Nimisha is so for me, too, sir," jeska said dryly.

I am reprimanded," lord tionel replied, one hand on his heart as he executed a bow in her direction. "Which of you will take the skimmer home?" "I will, sir," jeska replied promptly. "This has been an exciting day for lady nimi and she must not appear hollow-eyed from fatigue tomorrow or, rather, later this morning, when she's formally allowed to take possession of her double day gift from you." "Well answered," was his comment.

"Thanks, jes," came from the back. "It's such a comfortable vehicle I'm nearly asleep." what neither young woman ever publicly admitted was that this particular skimmer was also spaceworthy, which made it much easier for them both to go to the ship yard. There they spent a great deal of time with the trainers that lord tionel had employed to teach his daughter the engineering skills she expressly wished to learn. Since these included advanced mathematics, she could honestly reply to her mother that she was applying herself to lessons that would be useful in her adult life. Having jeska to work with her on the lessons made them more fun and provided a competition that had them both vying to be the best.

On their first trip to the rondymense ship yard in the new skimmer, lord tionel celebrated by taking them into the design section and introducing them to the methods by which he achieved exactly the right design for the ship that he wanted to construct.

It was a big empty room, which surprised both girls. Lord tionel grinned and motioned them to the side.

"Lights off. Designer on," he said.

The lights obediently went off. "Designer on," a quiet voice said.

"We are to design an interstellar freighter, displacement tonnage thirty thousand, cargo tonnage eighteen thousand, cargo space to be sectioned off into freezer units, liquid or bulk." "Did you want to start with an existing design?" "No." "Accepted. Do you have a basic shape in mind?" "Yes, I'd like to see an ellipsoid." an elliptical shape appeared in the room, lighting the darkness, along with lines that denoted scale. "Like this?" lord tionel considered. "Mmm, no, let's go with a deltoid pumpkin-seed shape." the shape changed. "This is similar to the starstream hull in my database; would you like to use that instead?" tionel shook his head. "No, for the kind of freighter the client wants, this is a better starting point. Now, I want to push a new star drive through the back of the hull, taking up no more than five percent of the rear volume, to give the most cargo space." a portion of the rear of the image changed color. "Like this?" "Yes." lord tionel stroked his chin. "Now," and he pointed, though he needn't have with a voice-operated designer, "extrude that through the hull for one percent of its length and flatten the new face." the colored image bulged through the pumpkin seed. "Like this "exactly. Now, put in a standard ten-g star drive in that space, add tankage and plumbing, and tell me how it performs at top interstellar drive." "fully loaded?" "Of course." "Such a shape, fully loaded at maximum speed, would exceed the performance of the starstream hull by two percent." "Not good enough. Let's see what changes we can make with our pumpkin to improve performance." "What about making it a plumper pumpkin, ti?" Nimisha suggested. "After all, it's cargo space you want, isn't it? If she carries more than the starstream hull and still exceeds performance without other modifications, you've already achieved an improvement." "Designer, let's see a plumper pumpkin," lord tionel ordered with a chuckle.

None of the three in the design facility realized that they had spent nearly eight hours working on a variety of modifications until jim marroo, who was night supervisor, buzzed through on the comunit. Lord tionel frowned angrily, for they were about to solve a major difficulty in the drive coefficient.

"No one is supposed to interrupt me here," he said in a growl and then looked at his wrist chrono. "Lady Rezalla, or my name's not tionel rondymense-erhardt." "Lord tionel, it's lady Rezalla, or you may be sure I would not-" "in this case, an interruption is quite in order, jim. Tell lady Rezalla I've had the girls helping me ... helping me ... " he turned to Nimisha and jeska for assistance.

"Choose the color scheme for your new yacht," Nimisha said quickly. The information was repeated and lord tionel breathed an exaggerated sigh of relief.

"Designer, save the entire session under the password decor.

Lights on, and open door," he added. He ushered the girls out quickly. "I'd no idea we'd been in there so long." "It was a lot more fun than I've had since the day you gave me my skimmer, ti' Nimisha said.

"you've got a definite gift for design, nim, and I won't have it wasted on decoration. Which reminds me: you'll have to think of a color scheme on our way home so your dam won't know what we have been up to." "I'm sure we could have worked out that problem in just a few more moments," Nimisha went on dismally, shaking her head with disappointment.

"I've no doubt about it," lord tionel said, and then turned to jeska. "And you, young woman, have the good sense to see when enthusiasm needs to be reined in for practical matters. We've lost a good forty tonnes of cargo space if we'd kept on with a main tunnel for all conduits." "Besides being difficult to access," Nimisha said. "What's your favorite color, ti?" "Green, of course," he said as they arrived at the dock of his private vehicle.

A complete color scheme, including fabrics, rug, and a wellknown furnishings establishment to custom-design sketches, was figured out by the two girls on the short trip home. Nimisha casually left them on the hall table when the residence manager opened the door to the girls. The fact that the rm. said nothing at all to lord tionel, closing the house door almost on his nose, was indicative of the disgrace he was in.

Such a miscalculation in time did not occur again because lord tionel installed an automatic cut off within the design room, to save the work and give the girls ample time to reach home in Nimisha's very fast skimmer. So lady Rezalla had no further opportunity to complain that her birth-father monopolized his daughter.

Having these fascinating and instructive sessions cut short to deceive her mother did not sit well with Nimisha. She knew what she wanted to do with her life, which was far more than most of her peer group did. Especially as she enjoyed none of their so-called diversions whatsoever. She and jeska kept trying to figure out ways in which to achieve their objective of placating lady Rezalla sufficiently to really dig into their engineering studies. Circumstance, as it so often does, gave Nimisha the perfect opportunity. And she promptly seized it.

Three weeks after the installation of the alarm that would allow the girls to be home when lady Rezalla expected them, the breakfast vidcast was full of replays, interviews, and stern statements by high-ranking acclarkian peace guardians concerning the antics of certain young scions who had already received warnings about reckless behavior. The fact that the main culprit was lord vestrin rondymense-waleska, lord tionel's body-heir, was the only reason lady Rezalla would have continued to view the matter.

On a bet to see who could maneuver his skimmer fastest through the rush-hour traffic in a crowded industrial complex, young vestrin had lost control of his vehicle and had crashed into a public transport killing nine craftsmen.

"He had no business in that area at that hour," lady Rezalla said indignantly. "If he must drive at dangerous speeds, let him at least do so at the lake and drown himself instead of killing people And then to send a minor solicitor to offer the most paltry compensation for the deaths of hardworking and decent folk! Mere craftsmen they may have been, but they were supporting their families and educating their children to be useful citizens, which is more than I can say vescuya ever did with vestrin. In fact, they're far more worthy of extreme consideration than that young, heartless lout. How such a total disaster of a man can be lord tionel's body-heir is beyond me. First families have obligations above and beyond the fact that they were the first, and most successful, of the colonists to land on a planet. They endured much to carve out the homes, fields, businesses, space stations, cities, and the amenities of which we are now so proud. That young man needs to be sent where his attitudes can be professionally altered.

In fact, he should be made to earn a living as the craftsmen he killed. He must learn to appreciate what his ancestors endured to give him the advantages he has and doesn't seem at all able to understand and appreciate, much less improve. I shall inform the residence manager that lord vestrin is no longer received by this house." "I did so myself, six weeks ago, my mother, when he-" Nimisha stopped, because lord vestrin's message had been a blatant threat for her to stop visiting his father so often.

"When he what, Nimisha?" lady Rezalla demanded, tapping her fingers with displeasure.

"When he made improper advances at me, lady Rezalla," jeska said, managing a flush. "Lady Nimisha interfered and told the rm lord vestrin was not to be admitted to the grounds." "As indeed he should have. Why was I not told of that affront, jeska? You are in my employ and I will not have my people subjected to such embarrassments. Even by kin to lord tionel." lady Rezalla turned to Nimisha. "Your sire "is above reproach, my mother, as you certainly know. You have, yourself, remarked on how lady vescuya seems to delight in vestrin's excesses. I know that lord tionel does not and will certainly discipline his body-heir over this latest horrific escapade." "Indeed he will have to," lady Rezalla said with a sniff. "The peace guardians may upon occasion turn a blind eye to an innocent lark by high-spirited young men and women, but they take a different view entirely when deaths are involved. A period in a rehabilitation center is most certainly on the agenda. And community service. Hopefully on a difficult and primitive planet.

"Furthermore, I don't see how lord tionel could possibly allow the ship yard to be handed over to such a want-wit as that young man. Why, the business would be defunct in half a decade, you know how hard lord tionel works and how often the fleet contracts for him to build their special designs." "I do, my mother," Nimisha said almost humbly, "which is why I regret, for lord tionel's sake, that vestrin has no interest at all in the yard." she did not need to add "except for the credit it earns." lady Rezalla's eyebrow rose sufficiently to have mentally appended that clause. "I have always known how fortunate I am to be your body-heir, my mother, and appreciative of the care you have lavished on my upbringing and education." "You're a boynton, after all," lady Rezalla said at her haughtiest.

"And proud to be, my mother. I would like to utilize my advantages to the fullest extent possible and prove that the privilege I enjoy as a first family scion is not wasted on stupid pastimes but turned to the best possible effect for my family name and my community." even at breakfast, lady Rezalla was far from slow. She gave her daughter a long, thoughtful look. "I believe we have come round to your fascination with design again, have we not, Nimisha?" "Yes, my mother." "And you wish to spend more time at lord tionel's ship yard?" "Yes, my mother." lady Rezalla poured herself another cup of coffee, added the dollop of cream she liked, stirred it, and took a sip.

"I could have wished you shared my interest in investment and how to recognize the potential of one business over another, but I can scarcely fault you for wishing to achieve." she paused, her lips tight. "As the antithesis of wanton acts born of irresponsibility and lack of purpose." "Then I may ask lord tionel if I may learn more about running the yard?" lady Rezalla had never quite forgotten lord tionel's casual remark about leaving Nimisha the rondymense yard. It surfaced propitiously.

"Learning how to manage a reputable firm that produces spaceships is certainly preferable to plowing through public transport vehicles. I shall inquire if lord tionel would be willing to instruct you in managerial duties." oddly enough the "managerial duties" lord tionel graciously told lady Rezalla he was willing to teach her body-heir happened to include "managing" the designer and helping him complete the freighter they had started together. That was only the first of the projects they, and jeska mlan, worked on together over the next few years, during which time lord tionel outlined for them a ruthless course of academic studies, laboratory experiments, and special use of the smaller design room where they could examine and improve on the myriad components of the modern spaceworthy craft. Using his influence, he arranged for them to sit the same engineering examinations that would qualify them for full employment in his, or any other, ship yard.

As for his reckless body-heir, lord tionel sent him to the most reputable rehabilitation center available, ignoring the pleas of lady vescuya and not informing her in which center her darling son had been placed. Once the center was satisfied with his moral improvement and an acceptable level of responsibility for his own actions, he was to spend a year on a struggling colonial planet to learn what being a first family scion actually meant. Lord tionel increased the compensation to all the families of that fatal crash and took a quiet, personal interest in the education and promotion of the surviving siblings.

Chapter 2

Five days after lady Nimisha reached her full majority of eighteen years, her sire was killed in a freak accident at the rondymense ship yard. She and jeska were in the office, studying lord tionel's latest and revolutionary design for a spaceship capable of intergalactic distances; his private design code for this yacht was gold plate. Having kept a keen eye on her sire's innovative schemes, Nimisha had already delighted him by making minor, but significant contributions to his special private project.

When the alarm alerted the entire yard to a major emergency, the two young women suited up and joined the search party. A space tug had gone out of control, shearing through the shell of a battle cruiser, propelling structural parts off at speed in all directions. One of them had lanced through tionel's pinnace as he was returning from a meeting with admiral narasharim, head of the fleet design committee. On such a short, routine journey, he had not been wearing a space suit. Nor had the little ship sufficient shielding to protect its passenger from the steel beam that lanced through the single compartment.

When Nimisha and jeska learned the cause and the extent of the disaster, Nimisha paused long enough to calculate the trajectory of lord tionel's route between the navy yard and his office.

Knowing the usual velocity of his trip, the vector of the structural member that had hit his craft, and the approximate point of impact, she calculated the likely course of the pinnace after the collision.

Then, after both she and jeska donned eva garb, Nimisha commandeered a skiff, speeding to the exact location of the collision.

She then followed the calculated path until she overtook the wreckage. They found battered human remains and identified the corpse as lord tionel's from his wrist com and what clothing was still attached to his body. Although the yard personnel as well as the fleet rescue teams would have given anything to spare the two girls such a ghastly task, they brought his remains in a body bag back to yard headquarters while other teams were still looking for him. Nimisha and jeska insisted on accompanying his body back to acclarke.

When informed first of lord tionel's death and then of her daughter's actions, lady Rezalla fainted for the first time in her life. She had revived by the time Nimisha and jeska returned from the mortuary. At the sight of the two, lady Rezalla lost her renowned calm and demanded to know how a gently reared child of the boynton-chonderlee family could possibly have undertaken the retrieval.

"He was my birth-sire and he deserved whatever final service his blood-kin, could provide. The thought of him, lost in space, spinning further and further away from where he could be most easily recovered, was too painful to bear," Nimisha informed her mother, her face pale and rigid.

Lady Rezalla regarded her body-heir with conflicting emotions, pride and approval vying with-jeska said later to Nimisha-a tinge of jealousy mixed with anger that Nimisha had endangered herself when there were plenty of others to find him.

"Jeska, pour me a drink, one for yourself and-what will you have, my mother?" Nimisha said, stiffly walking to the nearest chair and collapsing in it with an abruptness that lady Rezalla would, under other conditions, have criticized as too graceless for a young woman of her upbringing.

"But you went out into space," lady Rezalla said, nodding gratitude as jeska handed her a strong stimulant.

"In a skiff and in eva gear." "In eva gear?" lady Rezalla's eyes bulged, her hand went to her heart, and jeska guided her glass to her lips for a restorative sip.

"We were well instructed, lady Rezalla," jeska. said, with a worried glance at Nimisha, who was silent with shock. "Part of our managerial training, my lady. In case there should be a major disaster and total evacuation of the premises was required." "Then what was today's horrid tragedy considered? A minor hiccup in normal procedures?" lady Rezalla demanded, clearly recovering more quickly than Nimisha was.

"A terrible accident, lady Rezalla," jeska said, and she managed to get a handkerchief from a wrist pocket to blot her eyes of tears. "I understand that admiral narasharim herself is conducting the inquiry into how the tug was allowed to function without a proper spaceworthy certificate. She will be wishing to call on you, my lady, since neither lord vestrin nor lady vescuya are presently on acclarke and someone must-" jeska's voice broke.

"Take charge. Yes, of course, someone must take charge," lady Rezalla said, sitting straighter. "We were once contracted.

We have a mutual child, my body-heir, and I have no doubt she will comport herself in a far more reverent and seemly fashion than that appalling young man who will now succeed him." lady Rezalla gave a shudder of dismay and repugnance. "Not that he has the talent to emulate his sire." she took another long sip of the brandy. "Nimisha, drink that at once. You're dead white with shock and you must recover your composure immediately. The boynton in you requires that. And at least the worlds will know that one rondymense scion carries the name with honor and credit." Nimisha downed the entire glass and then threw it into a corner of the wall.

Lady Rezalla blinked, but firmly pressed her lips together at the pleading look on jeska's face.

"Yes, the rondymense name will be honored as fully as I honor yours, my mother," Nimisha said, clinging to the chair as she struggled to rise. "He will never be shamed by his daughter." and she ran from the room weeping.

"But you're my body-heir," lady Rezalla murmured, confused and a bit indignant. "Go with her, jeska, and comfort her as best you can," she added, whisking the girl out of the door.

As jeska turned back before the automatic door slid into place, she saw lady Rezalla, hands covering her face, shoulders heaving as she, too, wept for lord tionel.

He had indeed left the entire rondymense ship yard with all its assets, designs, and resources to lady Nimisha boyntonrondymense-a bequest that lord vestrin rondymense-waleska instantly instructed his legal advisors to have reversed. He petitioned to be returned to acclarke, having endured three years of his exile. His mother petitioned, as well, and had the advantage of being able to return to acclarke city from the colony where, once she had learned where her son was being incarcerated, she had attempted to supply a few of the elegancies of life for her son. She pursued the claim with all possible vigour. Not that lord vestrin had been deprived in any way, for he inherited a considerable estate from his sire: funds so secured that the young heir would be unable to break the trust management and control the sizable principal, but an allowance that would let him maintain a suitable lifestyle.

"He's the vindictive sort," lady Rezalla said, "which characteristic he must have inherited from his dam's bloodline.

Rehabilitation can only do so much--since body-heirs are not permitted by law to undergo the more drastic psychiatric treatments. Her other children display such pettiness from time to time. We've all noticed it." she then dismissed them as beneath her notice.

Lady Rezalla's attorneys were the acknowledged masters of their profession and instantly joined with lord tionel's to prove that the bequest was of long standing. In fact, when lady Rezalla thought back over the years, she placed the transfer of the property to the very week in which lord tionel had made his casual remark about leaving his business to his blood-daughter. The acclarkian courts refused to hear lord vestrin's appeal. He had been granted a substantial fortune as befit a body-heir. Since lord rondymense's bequest of his ship yard went to a blood relative, there was nothing to contend.

Lady vescuya ranted and raved on about such iniquity to the point where she became a social liability to those who had once professed friendship for her. Certainly no hostess would commit the solecism of inviting both vescuya and Rezalla to the same function. When a new scandal rocked acclarke city's first families, the untimely death of lord tionel and its subsequent problems were forgotten.

It wasn't until admiral narasharim herself called at the boyntonchonderlee house to see lady Nimisha that lady Rezalla began to appreciate exactly how much "managerial" instruction lord tionel had given his blood-daughter.

While lady Nimisha was being summoned, lady Rezalla offered hospitality and tried to discover why an admiral would need to seek out her daughter.

"Lady Nimisha has finished the latest calculations on the femtosecond processor and, since I have meetings on the surface myself, I thought to spare her an unnecessary trip to headquarters." "The ferntosecond processor?" lady Rezalla asked, trying to sound as if she knew what the admiral was talking about.

"Yes, she's been experimenting with storage fibers and she's come up with exactly the right composite to handle almost any credible electron transfers. Of course, having the latest josephson junctions has been of inestimable assistance in solving that problem." "Yes, it would, wouldn't it," lady Rezalla said, smiling graciously.

A brief knock was followed by Nimisha's entrance into the room.

"Here you are, admiral," and she passed over several of the tiny round disks that generally held quantities of information lady Rezalla thought were quite remarkable. "I do apologize, my mother.

But this is very important," she said.

"We have a little time in hand for you to complete your toilette before we leave," lady Rezalla said with only the slightest hint of reprimand.

The admiral was on her feet, shaking Nimisha's hand and grinning . "I'll see you tomorrow with the test results, shall I?" "I wouldn't miss it, ma'am," Nimisha said, and guided the admiral to the door, which the rm opened with a deep, respectful bow.

"It won't take me long, my mother," Nimisha said gaily as she shot up the stairs to her room.

"You must tell me more about these ... seconds lady Rezalla began when they were settled in Nimisha's skimmer and on their way to the ballet that was the evening's occasion.

"It's just business, my mother," Nimisha said with a shrug.

"A business that an admiral comes in person to collect is not just business, Nimisha." "It is, however, fleet business, my mother, and I may not discuss it, even though I know you to be the soul of discretion.

However, I would like to prevail on your financial acumen to take a look at the ship yard records. I may know a nanosecond from a ferntosecond, but achieving trial balances and projections of what percentage our profits are above last year's is totally beyond me."

I should be delighted to look them over, my daughter.

When had you in mind?" "Would the day after tomorrow be convenient?" lady Rezalla had no real need to consult her delicate wrist pad, but she did. "Quite suitable." showing good sense as well as filial respect, Nimisha brought her mother in to her executive office to peruse the rondymense ship yard financial records while she busied herself with minor but necessary executive tasks. Halfway through the inspection, lady Rezalla closed the file she was studying and sat back in the chair.

"Tionel knew very well what he was doing. And so do you, my dear girl, in spite of that famo-neto-second gibberish you gave me the other day. I shall leave your fleet discretions and secrets, since you're in them as deeply as dear ti was. Obviously he trained you to take his place and so you must, restoring the name rondymense to the honor it deserves." neither remarked on the fact that lord vestrin had finally returned to acclarke but was keeping a very low profile, generally taking himself off-planet to hunt with those of his acquaintance who did nothing but divert themselves with whatever foible or folly took their wayward interests.

I don't believe that I had any idea of exactly the scale of dear ti's yard, nor how much construction is currently under way. How can you possibly find time to do little tasks for the fleet? Much less spend so much time completing that yacht he was enamored with." lady Rezalla's final tone bordered on the critical despite the good impression the extent of rondymense's enterprises had given her.

" He trained jeska mlan at the same time he trained me." "He did?" that startled her mother, who hastily reviewed that young woman's behavior but could find not the least trace of unbecoming or pushy manners.

Nimisha laughed. "I used to say that jeska had the ninetynine percent of perspiration it takes to invent something new and I'd supply the one percent genius that shot us into a new dimension. Actually, we're a very good team. I always have jeska check my calculations. She's accurate to the exact limits of the data. I might be right in my guesstimate most times, but she makes sure it's substantiated by hard figures." "Really," lady Rezalla said faintly, in a mild state of shock.

"Actually, we do more design than administration anyway, since tionel has always had excellent executives like jim marroo, efrarn dottlesheim, and ferman miles-zynker. You met them at the obsequies and I remember you commenting on how impressed you were with their dignity and genuine grief." "That is true. I was impressed." lady Rezalla had been, but for reasons other than those quoted by her daughter. She had learned all she could about the men who were-nominally, it now appeared-in charge of her body-heir's inheritance. She would ruthlessly have dismissed any that had not met her high standards, but they all had. Which made dear ti's dreadful body-heir all the more a tragedy.

"I have no qualms at allowing them to continue in their current responsibilities," Nimisha told her mother, smiling, "doing the bread-and-butter work that supports the icing on the particular piece of cake ti wanted so to finish. It's mine now, and I'm continuing the work in progress. Some of it, I spin off to the navy for their experts to try to pick apart. Tionel did that, and I seem to have inherited the same courtesy they extended him. Anyway, he left us copious notes on how to proceed." she gestured around her office to indicate the schematics and plans projected on the wall, all printed out from work down in the design room where she spent so much of her time.

"You'd best show me the ship itself while I'm here," her dam said, dismissing the plans that she couldn't read for a virtual shape that she might have more chance of evaluating. I knew I should have supervised you more closely but." Rezalla's shrug was as elegant as ever. Then she smiled up at her tall daughter. "His genes have done well by you. See that you do well by his legacy." "I intend to, my mother." "And, before you get too involved, I suggest that you have your body-heir." Nimisha thought that suggestion over for a long moment.

"Yes, that would be wise, since I intend to test the yacht myself." at her mother's startled gasp, she smiled reassuringly and touched her mother delicately on the forearm. "I'm a very good pilot, you know, but I have a duty to you and the family. Have you any sire in mind for me?" "Thank you, m'dear. Lately you have been so limited in your contact with your peers that I wonder that you are interested in men at all." "oh, I am, mother," Nimisha said in such a warm tone that her mother became all the more anxious. But Nimisha did know about family duty and would never involve herself, even in dalliance, with someone less than totally presentable.

"Only those, I suspect," lady Rezalla said in a slightly acid tone, "who pretend to be interested in your fascination with parsecs and performance vehicles." "There are some who have applied to me for recommendations on racing cars, my mother," Nimisha replied, her expression droll.

"Over lunches at fashionable eateries and even on weekend parties . I do not live a monastic life." lady Rezalla sniffed delicately. I should hope not!" Nimisha shrugged and her mother went on. "Leave the matter of a suitable sire to me. I shall give you several choices. After all, a body-heir contract is short. And you might even enjoy it."

"Did you enjoy your contract with my sire, my mother?" lady Rezalla raised her head, stiffened her back, and regarded her daughter for a long moment. At first, Nimisha wondered if she had broached too personal a matter.

"Yes," lady Rezalla said, her eyes reflecting sadness, "I did, and he tried to extend it." I know," Nimisha said with a nod of regret.

"He was far too committed, even then, to his business." Rezalla rose from the desk to indicate that the subject was closed.

The inspection of the ship-or rather of the skeleton, for the special petralloys that would be the hull plating had yet to be added-was duly conducted, and lady Rezalla did not affect either specious approval or dismay. She was even allowed into the sacrosanct design room. She inhaled sharply when the lights went out, and then exhaled as the designer displayed the yacht as she would look in finished form.

"Impressive," she said. "I wouldn't have thought dear ti was so inventive. Much better than his color schemes," she added blandly, leaving the now-bare design room.

Lady Rezalla also took note of the respect with which her daughter was treated by all the rondymense personnel. So the tour ended with lady Rezalla both pleased and reassured.

As Nimisha conveyed her mother back to the surface of vega in, she decided that she'd very deftly gotten her mother to take care of screening suitable sires so that she wouldn't have to spend unnecessary time away from the yard to attend to that family obligation.

She had too much scheduled right now to spend time going through bloodlines and gene patterns. Her mother would enjoy the occupation far more than she would. And probably choose a far more suitable alliance. Nimisha's current bedmate would not meet her mother's high social standard, but then, what her mother didn't know wouldn't offend her.

Two weeks later her mother handed her a list of suitable men.

Of the lot, Nimisha decided that lord rhidian farquahar-hayakawa was the most acceptable to her. She was, of course, acquainted with the man. He was an ardent hunter of alien monsters, charming and handsome, though she deplored his hobby as much as he probably disapproved of her professional involvement. But he was known to be an excellent companion on a hunt, never complaining about the dirt or discomfort, and had often caused her to howl with laughter at his sly and clever jokes. She had never once heard him belittle anyone. He had blue eyes, too, so that feature would be perpetuated. When approached by Nimisha for his service, he was surprised but recovered smoothly.

"You're only eighteen, nimi," he'd remarked. "Surely you don't need to rush into maternity yet." "I might as well get it over with so I can concentrate on what interests me. I've the yard to manage, you know." "How's that new long-distance yacht of yours coming along?

I hear it's going to reduce travel time phenomenally," he said.

"Could I make it from demeathorn to canopus iv in time to attend both hunting seasons?" "Only if you learn to handle a spaceship better than you do hunting vehicles," she replied, obliquely reminding him of a near fatal accident while hunting raptors on canopus iv.

"Will you do a shake down cruise with me when the yacht's ready?" "I need the body-heir contract now, rhid, but I'll see what I can do when the yacht is ready for trial runs." "Fair enough," he replied, and then he was willing to discuss the contract for a body-heir. He surprised her by asking for rondymense ship yard stock and added mining concessions from his family holdings as his half of the child's birthright. The agreement was signed, the begetting of an heir was conducted with grace, skill, and such fervor that Nimisha was quite pleased. And just a little disappointed when she became pregnant a scant two months later. Rhidian did not cease his visits, for the contract stipulated a live, healthy child. She didn't object to his company during her pregnancy, since he usually arrived after she had returned from the ship yard. He did once mention that he felt she should suspend her operations at the yard in the last trimester of her pregnancy.

"Why? All I'm doing now is programming the al's on board and that takes very little physical effort on my part. Still, it's nice of you to be concerned, rhidian." "I know you're healthy, and all that, and carrying easily, nimi.

It's just that accidents can-and have ..." he paused, wondering if he should have obliquely mentioned the tragic circumstance of her sire's death. happened at the ship yard and I should not like to see you miscarry. Of course, if you did, I would naturally honor the contract, which requires the successful birth, not merely the pregnancy," he said, his expression hopeful.

"That's most considerate of you, rhidian, but I don't foresee any problems, and no one at the yard lets me overextend myself. I could probably do a lot more than jeska and my other department heads allow." rhidian gave a reluctant shrug. "Well, if jeska's always with you..

"Always," Nimisha said.

When her daughter was born, Nimisha was overwhelmed with a totally unanticipated rush of maternal devotion that put the half finished yacht into second place in her life. Lady Rezalla couldn't believe how the birth altered her daughter, nor could jeska. Fortunately both approved.

"Having a baby is not at all like designing a spaceship, is it?" Nimisha said, smiling fatuously at the dainty girl that her body had produced.

"I should hope not," lady Rezalla said sharply, but her expression softened instantly. She, too, was quite besotted with her grandchild.

Lady astatine was the only relative who retained critical objectivity. "It's well enough," she said. "If it lives and has its health." lady Rezalla's suddenly revived hope that Nimisha would dispense with spaceship design and yard supervision was ruthlessly shattered. Although a registered wet nurse was hired to tend the baby's needs, Nimisha set up an office suite in her domicile, adding vid screens showing the nursery rooms so she could enjoy her daughter's antics whenever she chose. In fact, as cuiva advanced from crawling to an unsteady walk, only jeska knew how often Nimisha totally ignored other pressing professional matters.

Lord rhidian was so beguiled by his firstborn that he continued his visits, even missing an important trophy hunt when cuiva first walked. Although Nimisha had not initially intended to take so much time away from the yard to supervise her body-heir's nurturing and development, she found time spent with her daughter a source of relaxation from a long day of programming. She was setting up what she knew would be a revolutionary ferntosecond control system for the yacht. That such a system also required a whole new generation of central processing units-as well as a staggering cost-meant little to her in her search for perfection.

When the mark 2 was completed, she did the test runs, her first major absence from her daughter since cuiva's birth. Rhidian was one of those permitted to come along "for the ride." jeska was another along with an "interested" observer from the fleet design department. That had been a compliment to lord tionel's good standing with the department, though Nimisha had the feeling that commander modesittin was present more as a goodwill representative. While he asked few but pertinent questions, he had evidently been sufficiently impressed; a more thorough investigation of the mark 2's performance resulted in sales of four of this prototype for scout vessels. Nimisha and jeska had found a way around the cost of the necessary c.p.us, so that the navy could also afford to buy the mark 2.

Several of the patents she had registered for improvements in minor control devices were also purchased in quantity and installed wherever they would update existing systems. It was obvious that the fleet was now as interested in her as a naval designer as they had been in lord tionel. She had several very complimentary interviews with admiral levertim gollanch, who had succeeded to admiral narasharim's position after the older woman's retirement.

There was no harm, Nimisha thought, in cooperating with the fleet.

She was amused to be invited to a formal dinner by admiral golanch shortly after the interviews.

"More likely to pick my brains than to entertain me," Nimisha remarked to jeska, who complained when she accepted the invitation.

When lady Rezalla heard about it, she considered such interest only right and just and wondered why it had taken them so long to realize that lady Nimisha was a fit successor to lord tionel.

"They had to be sure of that, my mother," Nimisha said. "They have, after all, continued to buy rondymense units. But I designed some of the systems that tionel never got around to making." "So you've informed me," was her dam's droll reply.

So Nimisha attended a very formal dinner at vega's fleet headquarters in the supreme admiral's quarters. She was the celebrity of the evening. The other guests, gaudily attired in formal uniforms, displaying medals for a variety of achievements, ranged from young to ancient, male and female, and were almost all naval. Two other civilians had been included and she knew both-naval architects, each good in his specialty. But, she reminded herself, not as good as she was.

Well, service to one's federation was part of the duty of a good family, but if she had to have a naval officer or other "observer" checking up on her, she would choose with care. After narrowing down the candidates to a short list and conducting a round of private investigations, she made an appointment to see admiral gollanch. She'd have lieutenant senior grade caleb rustin, she told the admiral, as her fleet spy.

Gollanch pretended astonishment. "Fleet spy?" "That is certainly what last week's dinner was all about, wasn't it?" Nimisha responded, sitting totally at her ease in his impressive office. The wood panelling was supposedly resurrected from the wreck of some ancient and honorable oceangoing vessel. The decor was certainly all naval, including the curious instruments by which ancient mariners had been able to deduce their location and make course corrections. "Let us be honest with each other, admiral." "You have the forthrightness of your dam." I do not. She'd never say anything so direct. My biological father might have." gollanch hid a smile behind his hand but his eyes twinkled. I feel that it is quite likely that we can deal with you as equably as we did with lord tionel." "His understanding was with your predecessor, admiral narasharim." I can only hope that ours-" he paused to make her a half bow. "-will be as productive." "Productive in what way? My sire never spoke of his arrangement with fleet. I knew that there was one, not what it entailed." "This office has watched your handling of his yard with interest and respect. I wish to be more fully briefed on your projects in case we may collaborate." "on my long-distance yacht?" she cocked her head a little to one side.

"The mark two vessels have performed well above the most optimistic criteria and yet you have a new design on the gantries." "There is always room for improvement, admiral." "If there is, this department is very interested. I do not intend to interfere in any way with a civilian installation.

"Then that isn't why rondymense is situated so conveniently at one edge of your main facility?" "Happenstance. The rondymense yard predates the fleet's veigan base by nearly a hundred years, you know." when she nodded because she did know, he went on. "It would please me personally, not as admiral in charge of fleet design, if you would duly consider recommendations and suggestions from my representative. Since young rustin is your choice, I shall put him on detached service to the rondymense ship yard." "He should get a promotion for accepting hazardous duty," she said with a smile. "And another one if our mutual efforts produce n, results." "Are you well acquainted with caleb rustin?" "Never met him before the other evening. But he has an impressive record---good engineering aptitude, cleverly displayed when he did that mid-space repair to the comcomplex a meteor sheared off the old aegean sea. What he jury-rigged that day had been translated into standard equipment to prevent any similar accidents. And he's obviously being monitored for further promotions.

At least in the design division." somewhat startled by her knowledge of the lieutenant's record, fie covered his surprise with a sly smile. "I'd've lost my bet then," he said.

Oh?" Nimisha raised both eyebrows in amusement, encouraging an explanation by curving her mouth in a delicate one-sided smile that fascinated the admiral. He was by no means immune to the charismatic charm of the young woman with such striking gentian-blue eyes.

"Yes," gollanch said, steepling his fingers and rhythmically bouncing his fingertips together, a reflective habit of his.

"Let me guess," Nimisha said, leaning forward and grinning as shrewdly as he had. "That marcusi captain." "How did you arrive at that conclusion?" gollanch did not yet care to admit how accurate her assessment was.

She leaned back. "He was doing his best-adroitly," she said, raising her hand not to denigrate the captain's performance. "He also seemed exceedingly well informed about my, present design plans." "Hmmm gollanch made a mental note to find out how the captain had been able to access that information. Not even the fleet had the right to invade a family's private enterprise without due invitation. I shall check into that."." "Don't bother. There's nothing I do not intend to share with the fleet when I have perfected what will improve your ships." she dismissed that problem with a flick of her hand. It was an unusually callused hand for a family scion, with a wide strong palm, deft fingers and trimmed nails, unlike the usual elegantly tapered fingers with artificial extensions almost as long again as the finger-a fad that impeded any use of humankind's greatest advantage over most animals. "How can you fault captain marcusl for wanting to succeed? He's really very good at it." "In that case." gollanch ended the subject with a shrug of his shoulders.

" Good, especially as I made my own"-her delightful grin enlivened fine features that tended, in repose, to be sober, if not aloof- "discreet inquiries, since it was obvious my operation is of interest to the fleet. So it is very good of you, really, to be so ... so ..." "accommodating?" gollanch suggested. On consideration, rustin was a very good choice, a better match for this woman than captain marcusi, who had great ambitions for himself-in which he would probably succeed, bar a bad command decision.

Rustin was far more interested in achieving the best results from a project than in making certain everyone knew he had had a hand in it.

The lad had good ideas and, as the lady Nimisha had noted, excellent engineering credentials. Then, without trying to appear rushed, though the admiral had a full day's appointments-a few of them not as pleasant as this one-he smiled at her. "How soon can I send lieutenant commander rustin to rondymense ship yard?" Nimisha rose. "He's waiting at my skimmer. I promised him a tour of the yard at dinner the other night. As soon as I could arrange it." she reached her hand across the table and gollanch shook it with both of his, noticing the workmanlike strength of her grasp. Again that almost gamine grin and the twinkle of her gentian-blue eyes. "He was the only one who didn't hint.

He also was the first to ask me to dance and converse on suitable subjects." "Ah! I will recommend such tactics should similar strategy be needed." "You are a dear, admiral," she said, releasing her hand and making her way to the door. There she stopped, considered momentarily and then gracefully looked back over her shoulder at him. "Lieutenant commander rustin may never know all I have in mind as design features, but he will be privy to what would improve the performance of the vegan fleet vessels." at such an outrageous remark, gollanch let out a roar of laughter that brought the officer at the worktop in the anteroom to his feet in surprise. "Such condescension is more than we hoped for, lady Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense." "Certainly it's more than you deserve," was her parting shot.

it took lady Nimisha some twenty minutes to reach her skimmer, where caleb rustin was standing, looking bewildered. The long planes of his face were slightly oriental, often giving him a vexingly unreadable expression. He was regarding his wrist com as if it had extruded fangs and bitten him. When he heard her steps she was wearing her usual work apparel, including calf-high boots with reinforced toes and soles-he smiled a little hesitantly. His bemusement was still apparent in his light gray eyes, a contrast to the sallow skin and thick black hair. He swallowed.

"Admiral gollanch's office has just contacted me, lady Nimisha ," he said. And blinked. "I've received a promotion, and I'm not due one yet." "Ah, but you certainly couldn't be the naval attache at rondymense ship yard as a mere senior lieutenant," she replied.

"I'm the naval attache" there was little inscrutability left in the genuine delight and amazement of his expression.

"Yes, you'll suit me ever so much better than that pushy captain marcusi." "Mar-" caleb tilted his head and let out a roar similar to the admiral's, though she did not mention the similarity. She noticed the discreet design of his body-heir tattoo, not common in the navy; she supposed his family had been awarded prize money, possibly in the last pirate attacks. First families had started the convention of tattooing several hundred years before to prevent the kidnapping of heirs.

"What occasions such mirth?" she asked.

"Because marcusi fancies himself as adroit, devious, and charismatic." "He is. Those tactics are useful for a line officer on the fast track to command, but they don't work quite so well on family." "May we speak candidly, lady?" he asked, his expression serious. When she nodded, he went on. "Why me? There were many candidates for you to choose from, some who've had commands and more experience." "You ..." she said, pointing her finger at him, "asked me to dance."

Caleb let a small smile pull at his lips while his eyes met hers with equal candor. "That was only because I didn't know what else to do to get you away from the others." "Ah, but you conversed with me, too." "What else does one do when one dances?" he seemed surprised.

She chuckled. The ingenuous reply did him no harm at all. A man who had the right priorities, training, and certainly some breeding though his tattoo was neither complex nor colorful. She gestured toward her skimmer, indicating they could now leave.

"How does a body-heir become a fleet officer?" she asked.

"When that body-heir's sire is also a fleet officer," he replied.

As they rounded the little spacecraft, the guard came to immediate attention. He wore the gray and silver of Nimisha's yard livery. Now he gave a smart salute to the freshly promoted commander, as if he somehow knew rustin was no longer a mere lieutenant.

"Worrick, this is lieutenant commander caleb rustin, who has recently been appointed naval attache to our yard. He is to be treated with all due courtesies, naval and yard. Secure the hatch for takeoff. We'll just go forward and inform control of our imminent departure. Thank you." as she gave the new attache the promised guided tour of the rondymense facility, she also put him through some general paces, including a short eva. There did happen to be a suit that could have been measured for him, since the eva ready room was equipped with quite a range of sizes in spaceworthy gear.

"put your name on that one when we come back in," she said when they had returned from the inspection of the fiver. At the moment the ship was a skeleton of petralloy rings, tapering to the bow and blunt at the stern: her latest attempt to design the perfect long-distance spacecraft. He seemed totally at ease, automatically clipping on to safety rings with his suit harness and unclipping as they pushed about the skeleton.

His chuckle came over the helmet com. "This fits me better than my navy issue ever did." "You should investigate the other prerequisites that come with an attachs position while you're at it." "Ah, now I wouldn't have thought of that." "Speak sharply to admin," she said. "You'll require specialty pay and an extra uniform allowance." "Should I ask how you know what perks are available to an attache" "I looked them up." she hadn't anticipated a sly sense of humor from him, but it did him no harm. "But you have to sign the authorization." "True.

She activated the airlock controls, and as the lock rolled back, they reentered the yard proper. That was the beginning of their stimulating and inclusive association.

Caleb lent his knowledge and naval expertise to Nimisha's often intuitive ideas. He came to appreciate jeska's precision and practicality. Indeed, he encouraged them to include some of the more radical changes, reveling in their grasp of efficient spaceship design. It was a change for him to work with minds that were not hedged in by bureaucratic shibboleths and antiquated thinking, not to mention fleet budgetary restrictions. Nimisha had the resources to build a squadron of her versatile long-distance yachts if it so pleased her, and jeska kept her to what was possible, effortlessly taking over most of the less spectacular management duties.

It was inevitable that Nimisha and caleb enjoyed some intimacies , the result of long hours of intense, cerebral work that had ended in rather special, to him, interludes. He knew she hadn't taken these incidents seriously: no doubt she dismissed them as the needs of the moment, enjoyed them for that moment, and then forgot them in the face of more pressing concerns as she returned to her overriding desire to perfect an intergalactic spaceship. He had schooled himself to do so as well, fascinated more by her personality and her dedication to design improvement than by her beauty-not that he ever became accustomed to having such a beauty as a companion. With selective breeding and gene control now four centuries in use, no one in her stratum of society could ever be considered ugly; some were simply more beautiful than others. Indeed, beauty was hardly limited to her class, since antenatal gene repair and intelligent nutrition produced handsome folk in every walk of life. Lately, elements of bizarre styles of "beauty" had been introduced, not in the major families, of course, who were more conservative, but in those lesser families who delighted to shock. Some of the variants had been spectacular-but artificial in ways that did not quite come off as something the owner would be likely to bequeath to his or her successor.

Lady Rezalla actually approved of it. Commander rustin, despite his rather modest body-heir tattoo, especially after she discovered from admiral gollanch that he was due for further promotions in his position as attache. She could consider a possible admiral appropriate for any long-term association her daughter might make.

When not even a "friendly contract" ensued after several week long absences with rustin, Rezalla was almost disappointed.

Nimisha did know what was due her family. And to her daughter.

Obviously, Nimisha's passion for naval design far outweighed the need for any legal companionship. The best of all possible worlds, lady Rezalla thought, for she had long practiced the art of "to have and have not" as far as males were concerned. At least, if Nimisha insisted on such an unusual career, she had chosen one of the most prestigious.

Commander rustin was an acceptable escort, so lady Rezalla included him on her special guest list, an honor on which he never presumed.

The mark 3 was built, tested, and put into production over the next three years but, after many severe tests, the perfection Nimisha wanted of it had still not been attained. Candidly caleb rustin agreed with her. Jeska, who spent more and more of her time in her managerial capacity, still attended their design room sessions and felt that the mark 3, sleek and compact, could become claustrophobic for the light-year distances it was intended to traverse.

"Why not go back to the ellipsoid shape and keep it pure in that shape?" she suggested. "There's really no need, especially if you plan to have this a surface lander, to have all the bulges and bumps to contain the necessary storage spaces. We've gone a little too far in the opposite direction. Simplicity, especially with the ferntosecond al's now available, might be the way to go." and so Nimisha called up the shape, dragging in the basic units from other successful designs.

Caleb added a new water-purification system that the fleet had been perfecting, as well as a top-quality catering system, designed to convert pure protein and complex carbohydrate substances into food that not only tasted exactly as the diner wished but provided the necessary nutrients for the maximum efficiency of the human body. Repair units had to operate autonomously should the ship be damaged in any one of the hundreds of scenarios that had to be programmed into the memory banks from those the fleet generously opened for the project.

Civilians-like lord rhidian, who bought the test mark 3 from her and effusively praised it-found it more than comfortable and certainly fast enough to meet their requirements. The rondymense Yard expanded and jeska became executive director, freeing Nimisha to pursue the elusive ideal with caleb. The fleet was attempting to come up with a more economical version, which she and caleb privately referred to as the faulty four, while she refined the satisfactory units of the mark 3 and started from the beginning to conceive further innovations that would make the mark 5 nearer to her ideal. She and caleb spent hours in the design room, dragging and drawing, redesigning, reorganizing components, until the day they asked the all-important questions: would the performance of this design equal Nimisha's optimum? How much would it cost to build? And how long would it take to complete?

"A projection of its performance capability is twelve percent higher than the mark four" the designer replied. "It would take no longer to build than the four, since much of the same basic design has been refined and can now be utilized. Based on current prices for top-grade materials." have I ever economized on them yet, designer?" the cost would take precisely sixty-two percent of the credit currently on deposit." caleb whistled.

"I'd've expected a higher cost, considering the complexity of the AI units you've specified and the other refinements on our mark four designs," jeska said, knowing how much Nimisha depended on her opinions. "But I have new contracts just in that will recoup thirty-one percent of that credit within the next two years.

Plus the usual maintenance contracts that come in regularly-and I suspect the zynker-deltoid shippers intend to accept our tender for their fleet additions. In short, it's doable," she finished, "without you having to invest much of your own money." "That's a lot better than I thought," Nimisha said, surprised.

"And lady Rezalla will be pleased that I don't have to touch my capital."

"So, do we build?" caleb asked, aware he'd been holding his breath.

"We sure do," Nimisha said. "Designer, let's have one more look at those main ai circuits. They have to be in the most shielded part of the hull."

meanwhile, cuiva grew from a toddler to a graceful young girl who obediently did ballet training with her grandmother and was every bit as handy with a soldering tool or construction fastener as her mother had been at the same age.

"How many generations -is that wretched yard going to consume ?" lady Rezalla demanded when she found cuiva about to set off in the space skimmer when she had planned to take the girl to a new anti-grav ballet that had been sold out for weeks. She had had trouble enough obtaining tickets and was exasperated to find her treat preempted. Cuiva might be content enough to keep her grandam company when her mother was busy, but Nimisha had first call on the child's loyalties.

"Tionel's family had it for nine generations, so cuiva's only the second for us," Nimisha said.

"Which would you-" lady Rezalla began, bending down to the child.

"Mother!" Nimisha interrupted, so abruptly that lady Rezalla stared at her body-heir in amazement. Nimisha forced a smile as she dropped into old terran language that cuiva ought not yet understand. "Let us not descend to competition for her preference.

I apologize if I neglected to inform you that I was taking her with me today and for your disappointment. Perhaps you can exchange the tickets." lady Rezalla confined her response to a curt nod and, pivoting on one heel, walked stiffly to where her driver awaited her at her skimmer's door.

Nimisha never told her dam that today she, caleb, and jeska were taking cuiva on her first space walk. Nimisha had had a special suit constructed, and cuiva was going to be able to go over the exterior of the now petralloy-clad nlark 5. Nimisha had promised the child that treat for her scholastic achievements. Cuiva was a better mathematician than Nimisha. leska. or caleb. She was therefore also a better programmer. Nimisha wondered how long she would have to wait until cuiva was old enough to work on the artificial intelligence programs that would manage the elusive ideal she was herself chasing.

The four of them had a marvellous time and cuiva showed no problem at all with inner ear dysfunction in the vacuum of space.

She obeyed every order explicitly and the naval eva trainer who attended the sessions remarked that some of his novices did not show as much confidence as the child did.

"we must see that she doesn't become overconfident," Nimisha said.

"Oh, next tine she's lip, we'll give her a little problem to solve," caleb suggested. "Nothing to frighten her, nimi, but certainly something to remind her of the dangers inherent in an eva." "Cuiva's sensible," Nimisha said firmly.

"Of course she is," caleb agreed, wondering if perhaps he had been out of line. But he was as fond of cuiva as if she'd been his own offspring, and she, in turn, was certainly at ease in his company. "She's your body-heir, and lord rhidian is a fine hunter but not a chance-taker like lord vestrin is." lord tionel's body-heir had had a shattering accident in a hunt ffjei stampede. Body sculpting would be needed, and even with the recent strides in the replication of body organs and bone replacements he would not be active for a while. Meanwhile he lived in seclusion with his dam, lady vescuya, who attempted to amuse him during the process of revision.

"By the way, nimi," caleb said, as much to change the subject as to seize an opportunity to remind Nimisha that she'd promised to think the matter over, "have you decided on rejuv?" Nimisha glanced at him out of the corner of her eye so that he could not see her expression. "Rejuv would not have saved vestrin when he insisted on being a carpet for a whole herd of altairian antelopes," she remarked. "But I've made the appointment.

One reason why I've spent the day with cuiva." then she gave an exaggerated sigh. "All these delays in getting what I want make me think in the long-term." caleb laughed. I don't think it's going to take that long for you to get the long-journey yacht you're aiming for. Design's estimate is proving accurate from the work-reviews jeska keeps filing." he paused and then grinned roguishly. "Of course, I did rejuv long ago." "You never told me." "Admiral gollanch required it. That's where I spent my last leave." "What? You weren't dancing and dallying with tropical beauties as I so fondly thought?" caleb appeared to think. "Well, there was one..

Cuiva approached them just then, waiting like the well-bred youngster she was until there was a pause in adult conversation.

"Yes, cuiva?" he said, seizing her presence to leave the fuller answer dangling.

"Is ballet fun, mother?" cuiva asked.

"Ah, I see your grandmother will keep you from missing me," Nimisha said, giving her daughter a hug and a kiss.

"And," cuiva went on, clinging shyly to caleb's hand, "would it be possible for you to take belac and me out together, too?" "If lady Rezalla permits." Nimisha knew how well cuiva and caleb's son got on despite a three-year age difference. She also was aware that one of the reasons caleb liked his present assignment was the extra time it allowed him to spend with belac. "I'll make sure of that," she said.

Nimisha went for the week long rejuv procedure of which lady Rezalla approved. She'd been trying to get Nimisha to take it, if only to protect cuiva. The ballet was but one of the many activities she had planned, but it was the one that cuiva enjoyed the most.

The child was delightfully appreciative and talked quite excitedly about the various scenes she had particularly enjoyed. All that week she applied herself to her morning exercises and even reviewed vids from her grandam's extensive ballet library. But the moment Nimisha returned, she was once again the center of the child's universe. Cuiva greeted her mother as ecstatically as if she'd been gone far longer. And lady Rezalla sighed with regret. It wasn't as if the little girl hadn't been given all sorts of toys to play with from the very feminine to the same scaled-down toolkit her grandsire had given Nimisha. Nor had Nimisha influenced the child in any obvious way, except by her own example of dedication to her chosen profession.

Therefore, lady Rezalla was more pleased than concerned when Nimisha said she was going to solo her new mark 5 prototype for an extended test run. Her absence meant cuiva, now a charming eleven-year-old, would be available to her grandam for the duration of the six weeks' trial run. All three were satisfied with that arrangement.

it was a great day for the rondymense ship yard when the mark 5 prototype was freed from the last gantry umbilical and moored at the naval base station. While the fiver looked small in the company of the battle cruisers, even destroyers, she had the sleekness of a stellar racer combined with the toughness of a military craft.

"Dangerous," lady Rezalla said, with a delicate shudder. "Why can't spacecraft be ... pretty ... like oceangoing yachts?"

"She is," chorused Nimisha, caleb, and cuiva, who was considered old enough to take part in the celebration.

Cuiva never told her grandam just how well she knew the fiver, inside and out. She did have to try very hard not to hang on to her mother, but she maneuvered to stay close behind Nimisha as the designer did the rounds of the invited guests and accepted official, and personal, congratulations on her achievement.

"Let's not be too optimistic," Nimisha said, dismissing the more ardent comments. "I'll be more sanguine when I've seen the results of the shakedown cruise." the naval contingent nodded sagely at that remark. Caleb tried hard not to look smug, because he had no doubts himself that the fiver would pass with flying colors. Then it came time for Nimisha to say farewell to her dam, to jeska who would capably deal with problems during her absence, and to her beloved cuiva.

Despite the number of people surrounding them, Nimisha raised her bodyheir into her arms, hugged her tightly, and kissed her six times before giving her into lady Rezalla's keeping. She waved to them all until the hatch of the fiver closed.

A week later, Nimisha brought the fiver out of warp space at precisely the coordinates she had designated in the delta quadrant.

She was pleased but not surprised. If she'd been a degree, off, she would have been upset.

"Run diagnostics on all systems," she told the artificial intelligence that managed ship functions.

"Aye, ma'am," said the tenor voice she had programmed into the AI her early years as a test pilot on long and lonely runs had taught her that it was psychologically reassuring to hear another human voice-and the AI, helm, was the state-of-the-art in that regard even to making independent queries and initiating standard procedure actions without direct command. She had another ai in the compact infirmary, doc, and a less broadly programmed one in the galley who responded to "cater." she flipped open the safety harness that she had fastened at the sound of the warning bell of reentry and rose in a single graceful movement. "I'll be in the galley." a needless comment but part of the routine she had established with her AI units. This initial run should shake out the glitches that had escaped the gruelling routines to which she subjected each part of a new ship. Responses from the AI's were very much a part of a ship that she wished to produce and sell to both the federated sentient planet space authority and private buyers among the wealthy of her acquaintance. Many of them enjoyed flitting about the star system. Many of them preferred to have little, if any, crew and some of them were not competent enough to be permitted to travel alone.

Most needed as much backup and assistance as could be crammed into a compact vessel. And a fleet ship with a single scouting pilot would need the "company," spurious as it was.

the large "day" room was spacious enough to hold large parties in. That would be a boon to those who wished to entertain at their ports of call. It could also be separated into four sections with privacy shields for discreet conferences. The galley was located on the long starboard wall, and the panels on either side of it enclosed additional dispenser units to accommodate an increase in guests.

The main airlock was on the port side of the cabin. On either side of the galley facility were the passageways to the six private cabins, far more spacious and well appointed than a naval vessel could permit. A circular staircase on one side gave access to the lower level, which included a well-equipped gymnasium, one of the several hydroponics units, and additional storage space. On the other side, a quick descent pole reached the lower deck, closer to the escape pods. On the main deck, beyond the private cabins, were the main storage units and the larger hydroponics. Through a safety hatch, there was the skiff secured in its own garage, and, through an additional safety hatch, the engineering section and the ship's propulsion system.

The medical unit was directly to the port side of the bridge: compact enough to hold state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment, a life-suspension facility, and an AI programmed to deal with any esoteric disease so far discovered-or any condition a human could be reduced to, including being flattened by the stampede of quadrupeds. The AI medic was a baritone. Nimisha had borrowed his mellifluous voice from lord physician naves, a long time friend of her dam's. In fact, she'd nearly asked him to sire her heir. Not that she wasn't totally satisfied with rhidian's performance; his genes had abetted hers in producing beauty, intelligence, and character.

She wouldn't have had rhidian as a long-term partner-hunting bored her and stimulated him-though he had a wry sense of humor that she liked. And he seemed to be rather proud of his biological daughter, evoking lord tionel's continued interest in Nimisha.

But rhidian had never understood Nimisha's fascination with space or her propensity to do hands-on work with machinery of all kinds.

Which was why cuiva's early childhood interest in "tinkering" was such a delightful surprise. Obviously the rondymense genes had dominated.

Nimisha had no intention of pushing the child into her own profession since there were many options for an intelligent, well trained mind. She was, however, gratified that cuiva was so happy to play with building blocks and stick-togethers while she was busy at her design screen.

Nimisha's thoughts right now were more on something to fill her empty stomach than on her heir.

"I'll have a mixed fruit juice, a green salad, and mercassian bread," Nimisha said as she strode across the carpeted deck. A single chair and table emerged from the wall just as the dispenser chimed the arrival of the order. So Nimisha settled immediately to her meal with a pleasant thank-you.

"You're quite welcome. Let me know if you wish anything else," said the dulcet dispenser AI it spoke in a lilting tone and, while Nimisha didn't need to respond, much less express appreciation the habit of courtesy had been so ingrained in her that she was unable to break it. Some of her friends found it amusing but then, few of them traveled the distances she did and could appreciate the companionship of other voices, AI or human. And Nimisha had been well drilled by her womb-mother: courtesy was the mark of true nobility and aided the instillation of loyalty. And no one of any rue breeding assumed service.

She grinned, wondering how often she had heard that litany, as she tucked into the salad-crisply green with odd crunchy seasoned bits, just as she liked it. She remembered the day that she had auditioned voices. She'd had half a mind to use her mother's sultry one. But lady Rezalla would not have considered it in any way a compliment, nor were her mother's highbred tones and elegant diction suitable for any AI on this ship.

Nimisha had listened to voices on tri-d, selected those she liked and felt she could bear hearing constantly, and contacted an agency to act for her. The contralto was a young actress, determined to break into big time tri-d, who dutifully read through the material supplied, enunciating culinary words and displaying no curiosity as to the limitation of the audition. She had certainly been grateful for the credit lodged to her account when she finished the day's reading.

The man she had chosen for helm's voice had been an entirely different matter: he was a well-known compeer, and he had agreed only after haggling with both her and his agent as to price.

Once that was finally settled, he had rattled off the required pages of dialogue and vocabulary in a professional manner, but he was curious as to the usage.

"Do I have to be ... only ..." and he had leaned toward her, his eyes and manner seductive.

"Dear man, how would I survive listening to your voice thousands of systems away from your presence if we were to indulge - -." she paused, smiling as she ran a delicate finger down his strongly modeled jawline. " ... in an intimacy? I know-" and again she paused, this time in compliment. "-your reputation." when he leaned forward across the worktop that separated them, Nimisha rose from her chair in a graceful whirl toward the door and waved her hand across the control panel. "That'll be all, pet," she said, using her "business" voice, a tone guaranteed to reduce ardor.

With a rueful smile, he tipped her a saucy wave as he exited.

"You may be sorry," he murmured. Annoyed, she pressed the fast close stud of the door controls and just missed his left heel.

Her mother's long-term friend, lord physician naves, had started his medical career as a diagnostician but was now more in demand as a body-sculptor. He had assisted in the massive sculpting necessary to put young lord vestrin back together into the handsome figure he had once been before his accident. He had been charmed by her request to use his voice.

"Not that I'm expecting any trouble," she assured lord physician naves, "but when you roll off those unpronounceable diseases and suggest procedures in that gorgeous voice, one is instantly comforted and feels safe." the older man, who had let his hair go silver-a contrast to his young and vigorous countenance-preened slightly. He was very fond of lady Rezalla's body-heir and thought her most original to have struck out for herself in a profession of her own: so different from the languorous women and men whom he was called upon to body-sculpt. He smiled and winked at her.

"I've always considered my voice a professional asset. For you, nimi, I'll be happy to lend my vocal support." then he went on, repeating a familiar concern of his. "Far too many financiers, bankers, and entrepreneurs in our line. We need some diversity, some other role models for the next generation, or no one will be able to speak in anything except debentures, compound interest, and multiple mergers." he effected a shudder. "There is, after all, only so much you can say about those." "And infinite queries for you to answer for those of us who think we've contracted something lethal in our travels." "Precisely." he put both hands on her shoulders, giving her a little shake and sternly eyeing her. "But, of course, I shall be only an emergency feature? You'll be careful?" "I always am," Nimisha said, having no need to remind him that she had had only very minor scrapes in her career as a test pilot-nothing more than a sprain and bruises. As the saying went, any landing you walk away from is a good one. "Oh, how is lord vestrin progressing?" lord naves's expression became very solemn. "That young man feels the world owes him something. Which I assure you it doesn't. His.. ah ... reconstruction is almost complete and indeed there were some improvements he insisted on in the facial reconstruction. Symmetry is just not natural. It is, indeed, those minor flaws that give the whole countenance its character. Of course, character is a lack that body sculpting cannot repair. Nor can lady vescuya's devotion to her son be considered an asset." he paused, a fleeting look of dismay crossing his handsome and definitely asymmetrical features. "But she has been devoted." "So he'll be more handsome than ever?" lord naves gave her an odd look. "Illusory, of course," he said, flicking his fingers to dismiss this topic of conversation. "Good luck, my dear," and lord naves had given her four tenderly fond embraces. "At least the essence of me will be at your command. I feel much more confident about that." this shakedown flight was no more than routine, she thought, tearing off a chunk of the mercassian bread and using it to sop up some of the salad dressing.

One second she was eating, the next, some subtle instinct had her on her feet and running to the bridge, swaying with the erratic motion of a ship gone unstable and yelling "report!" at the top of her voice.

"Instruments indicate emergence of wormhole-" "there isn't a wormhole in this sector." "Ship's library confirms wormhole phenomena..

She caught sight of the boiling white pout of disturbance that could be nothing other than a wormhole plugging open the space directly in front of her.

"Helm to starboard! Hard!" if they were lucky, they might just slip under the edge of the yawning maw that seemed to be sucking the ship in. From this angle the hole looked far larger than it might actually be, for after all it wasn't supposed to exist at these particular coordinates in the deltaquadrant. She'd chosen this area, off main shipping routes, so she could let out the fiver's engines without running any other vessel down. The seventy meters of her ship were no more than a splinter at its perimeter, yet she might just be able to skim past.

Fighting against the bucking of the deck beneath her feet, she pushed herself into the pilot's chair, fingers flying to program and release a mayday beacon, propelling it well astern of her ship., with her left arm, she fumbled into the safety harness but had no time to fasten the belt when the ship juddered and inexorably yawed to port, unable to execute the starboard maneuver though she could hear both thrusters and engines roaring to comply. The wormhole had got her and the ship was slipping over its thick lip and down into the brilliant, roiling interior of the tunnel it made. A tunnel to where? She clung to the right armrest, struggling to secure herself in the harness.

"We are in the wormhole, ma'am," said the AI. "What procedures are recommended?" Nimisha swallowed a totally inappropriate and useless expletive.

"Shut down the drive. Use thrusters to keep us as steady as possible, helm," she replied, firmly quelling the fright she could not quite suppress. To her immense chagrin, she realized that she had forgotten to program wormhole protocol. Now, in the incredible gullet of the hole, it was too late! Furthermore, she'd never been in one. Stable wormholes were relatively uncommon, and no one in their right mind entered one that hadn't been thoroughly probed.

Was the passage through a hole supposed to be this rough? If helm's reflexes hadn't been ferntosecond fast, they'd be mashed against the sides, the hull scored if not penetrated by the protuberances that she saw more as retinal afterimages they passed by so fast. Petralloy was considered the best possible material to clad spacecraft and she had used the most advanced composition for the fiver, but it could be dented and scraped. She could lose the exterior modules and sensors. Was she being sucked into a one way route to nowhere? Still attempting to fit the harness about her for whatever protection that would afford her, she leaned to port to get her right arm through the straps just as a savage downward plunge brought her forehead against the armrest with sufficient force to render her unconscious.

Ma'am? Ma'am?" the calm voice of her pilot asked, "your vital signs are showing distress. You should report immediately to the infirmary." when there was no reply, the advice was repeated with an additional query: "orders are required. No preprogrammed orders conform to the current emergency. Orders are requested.

Ma'am?" then, as the wormhole spat them out into starlit space, helm added, "without formal orders, will comply with standard operating procedures."

Chapter 3

The pulses from the mayday beacon were omnidirectional and would connect with any sensor capable of receiving the message, including planetary or lunar satellites or other spaceships.

The first comunit to catch it was on a small intersystem freighter, five light-hours away.

"Hey, cap'n," the sailor on watch yelled to the dozing master of the vessel, "distress call." "Where?" when the sailor told him, the captain snorted. "Like we could do anything about it this month." "It's got a navy tag and one from the rondymense ship yard down vega way. We gotta at least forward it." "Rondymense?" the captain struggled to a sitting position.

"And navy? Label it 'flash override." we can't get there, but we can sure pulse a tight beam to the nearest naval base. Look up the coordinates and the frequency." the nearest naval unit, a destroyer on a routine mission, caught another of the pulses and the two warnings reached the naval base at dalonaga.

"Send those coordinates to the plot," the officer of the watch said, wasting no time to get to the transparent three-dimensional sphere that was used during maneuvers. The sphere could be adjusted to any given area of space and display it three-dimensionally.

It also pinpointed the present position of every naval unit in that area. Of which there were currently none when the appropriate section appeared on the sector and with it the position of the buoy, a tiny blinking red asterisk.

"The gods wept!" cried the jig. "We had a routine signal about a trial run for a rondymense yacht out that way. What could have happened? I'll have to bother the captain with this." "I'd've killed you if you hadn't," was the response as the captain swung onto the bridge, his cheek bearing crease marks from his interrupted sleep. "Crappit! The id's for that long-distance yacht vegan fleet's keen on. Now what the frag could have happened to it? What have we got that's fast enough to get out there and see, addison?" he asked the duty officer.

"Sir, there's nothing close enough, sir," addison replied, depressed. Then he brightened as he added, "the base at coyne III has one of the mark twos that came out of the rondymense yard." "Send a flash override to coyne iii's base commander, requiring him to send the mark two with all possible speed to these coordinates." the captain's finger was shaking just a little as he tapped the plot and the winking light. "The mark two can be net control and do a standard search pattern until we can get more units out there to help. No one's going to hang about when they see who sent that mayday." rubbing his face as if that would assist clearer insight into the emergency, the captain increased the magnification of the targeted zone and began to scratch his skull in perplexity. It was a sparsely occupied area, which is why it was used for testing new ships, and occasionally for naval maneuvers. Could the rondymense ship have blundered into a missile left over from the last games? He shook his head at that unlikely hood. If the test ship were an advance on the design of the mark 2, it would have sensors capable of detecting a missile. After all, the pilot had had time to shoot off a mayday beacon, so he hadn't landed on the missile to set it off. For el which mischance the odds would be in gigabytes.

The mark 2 from coyne in was the first to arrive, its captain having had the distinct pleasure of an excuse to redline the engines. It was joined by half a dozen other vessels, four naval, one commercial and one luxury yacht that had altered course from a hunting preserve to answer what might be a much more exciting adventure for its first family occupants. All participated in the standard 3-d search pattern, with the mark 2, swallow, acting as netcos.

The swallow, commanded by a senior lieutenant on his first assignment had followed all the recommended search procedures, starting with a long-range scan for a life pod, for debris, for traces of an ion trail. He did find that. Or, rather, traces of the ship's reentry into normal space.

The emissions were clean enough, what one would expect of a brand-new ship. But there wasn't so much as a cinder of debris or a pellet of melted metal to be found. Hailed by the incoming naval ships, one with an admiral aboard, swallow handed over the netcos to the flagship while he continued on his search pattern. By now all the ships had moved well beyond the beacon. The one thing he should have tried to find was any discontinuity in the space near the beacon, but at that point in time no one had thought to check for a wormhole.

Fretting during the long sleepless days it took caleb rustin to reach the beacon, even redlining the mark 4 he "borrowed" from the rondymense ship yard, he had time to check for reports on any anomalies, of any kind, reported in that sector of space.

He groaned as the report divulged that eighteen ships had been reported "last heard from" in this general area. The latest one had been fifteen standard years previously, an exploration ship, the pootheg, fsps 9k66e, ten aboard, captain panados querine commanding. The ship and crew had been deemed officially lost in space seven years ago. The other ships listed as missing ranged back through the nearly two hundred and fifty years of space history.

no debris of any of the missing ships had ever been found, even at the moon base of the notorious ebevyr pirates who had terrorized commercial shipping for three decades over a hundred years before. However, many previously "missing" ships, or fragments thereof, including descendants of crews and passengers reduced to slavery by the pirates, were found and accounted for.

When caleb reported his findings to admiral gollanch on his flagship, the admiral immediately set the more powerful search units of his database to sift possibilities.

"Wormhole?" caleb suggested, wincing.

The admiral looked pensive. "None ever reported at those coordinates rustin." "possibly why this particular area is one of the more deserted sectors?" "Having eaten any nearby stars and their planets?" if an admiral : chose to be facetious, he could, but caleb gritted his teeth. it was Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense who was the victim, not some totally unknown unfortunate. "What the astrographer says about wormholes is that they seem to appear in less tenanted space. The few that have been regular occurrences suggest that there are far more of these phenomena than we have documented." "If lady Nimisha had seen a wormhole, she'd've included it in the mayday," caleb said staunchly.

"If she had seen it in time, commander," the admiral said. "I seem to be arguing against my wishes," he added with a rueful twist to his lips. "I'd like nothing better than to find her. and that prototype. Did you redline the four all the way out there?" "Yes, sir," caleb replied without a trace of regret. "Drive and ship performed very well at maximum thrust." "No problems?" "I'm preparing a full performance report, sir. You'll have it shortly on a pulsed beam."

"Did well, did it? Then why in name of holy icons was Nimisha dissatisfied with the four?" "Lady Nimisha ..." caleb had to close his eyes a moment, having managed to keep desire under control. By mentioning her name, he was robbed of his calm for a second, but he continued with a firm emphasis on the verb, "is a perfectionist, and I must admit that she had already proved to me that the fiver's drive tested out 12.25 percent more efficient before and after installation." hmmm, really?" the admiral pulled at his lower lip.

"Then we shall spare no effort to retrieve the prodigal and her efficient vessel." "Especially as she made the final adjustments and additions with jeska's help and not mine," caleb said ruefully.

By the time caleb rustin arrived at the beacon, the swallow and the other vessels that had answered the mayday were widening their search pattern for debris or any other traces. It was now three days and fifteen hours since the beacon had first begun to pulse.

Admiral gollanch had sent on to caleb in his faster comsystem science reports on wormhole tracings, but whatever might have been present before the mark 2 had begun its search pattern had been overlaid by its own ion trail.

The swallow's captain was horrified speechless and then babbled on and on about how he had followed standard search procedures as outlined in regulations and ... until caleb had to cut off the sound and look away from the screen. He got his emotions under control and held up one hand to stem the flow from the penitent junior before he flipped back on the sound.

"You did exactly as you should, fermassy, no fault to you," caleb said, and had to repeat it several more times until the young captain could be sufficiently reassured.

"What can we do now, commander? We must do something," Fermassy insisted. "Lady Nimisha must be found! She's first family, sir! " "we are all exceedingly aware of that, fermassy, I assure you.

It is my devout hope that the more sensitive equipment on board admiral gollanch's ship may find traces we cannot." "But both our ships are rondymense-made, sir! " the young captain exclaimed.

"Which is why we made it here so fast. Ah, and what have we aleb noticed ships arriving from three directions coming in now?" and welcomed the diversion from fermassy's self-castigation.

He was not quite as pleased to discover that the luxury yacht that had diverted from its original destination to a hunting preserve was occupied by friends of lord vestrin. How the man would enjoy knowing that his half-sister had gone missing in such a dramatic fashion. Caleb sent a pulsed priority message directly to rondymense ship yard and another to lady Rezalla. Vestrin's dam would like nothing better than to get the yard back into her hands under a default condition, since the yard had been left to Nimisha, not to Nimisha and her body-heir.

But Nimisha is not dead, caleb told himself at the top of his mental voice, denying, denying, denying.

There had been the fiver's ion trail in normal space, ending some ten thousand kilometers from the beacon. Caleb figured she might well have propelled it as far from the wormhole as possible to be sure it would escape and send its vital mayday. She was in the most advanced and sophisticated ship in the known galaxy, built of the best materials, all basic ship functions had proved out in the earlier models and no debris was evident. Malfunction was marginally possible. But he denied malfunction. He denied her death. But how could they find a wormhole that had never been seen? How could they even prove that it had been a wormhole that 1: had snatched her out of this part of space?

Despite the most sensitive and sophisticated of instruments, some of which bore Nimisha Boynton-Rondymense's patent registrations , no further trace was found. Machinists and programmers on the admiral's big cruiser made alterations to existing sensors and the original beacon was shortly anchored to a highly specialized satellite. It was programmed to launch a piggyback double probe into whatever wormhole or other spatial anomaly might appear at these coordinates, simultaneously pulsing a broadcast to the nearest drone monitor. When the double probe reached the other end of the wormhole, the piggyback, with the most powerful single thruster in the fleet's possession, would be immediately released and return with whatever information it could glean in a nanosecond's view of the exit space. Similar units would be constructed and scattered within this relatively unoccupied sector, so that no wormhole could poke its white snout through the fabric of space without instant detection. During the next month, a special station was hauled to the edge of the sector and positioned there, with a mark 4 on detached assignment, probably the fastest ship that could be scrambled to reach a wormhole.

"We hope," was admiral gollanch's remark as he initialed the necessary orders. "I'll make this a three-month duty station, high risk compensation, partnered crews so they'll have something to do while they wait ..." is ma'am? Ma'am?" "Lady Nimisha? Please answer, lady Nimisha. Do you wish more to eat?" "Nimi, get to your feet and get over to the unit. I can't treat you from here." the sentences, each in a different but recognizable tone from patient repetition to anxiety to command, gradually penetrated nimi's fogged mind.

She struggled to sit up, rolling her eyes at the pain in her head, trying to remember what had hit her.

"Orders, please, ma'am. I am on standby." "Standby?" nimi repeated and forced her eyes open, one hand at her temple so that she felt the dried blood that had congealed there. "Oh." she shed the half of harness she had managed to get on and tried to stand. "Helm, report!" she made a second and successful attempt to get to her feet and made her way to the medical station. Wove her way, she amended. She'd had quite a crack.

"Doc, how long have I been unconscious?" "Three hours, twenty minutes, six seconds and-" "thank you, helm," she cut off the hundredths. I asked the doc." "helm needs to hear your voice, nimi," the medic said in lord naves's soothing baritone. "Now lie down before you fall." the change in position made her head throb, but the infirmary unit's extensions had snaked out of their niches to clamp on her body for readings.

"Shaken but nothing stirred," the doc said reassuringly. "We'll just relieve the symptoms and clean up that cut. A spurt of nu-skin will close it neatly." nimi grimaced as a swab made her aware of how tender the spot was, but the sudden coolness on her arm from a hypospray meant that the discomfort would soon disappear.

"All systems functioning normally," helm said. "No damage reported in any section despite the turbulence of the wormhole. The hull has been scraped on both sides but has not lost integrity." "Wormhole!" Nimisha would have shot upright if she hadn't been entangled with extendables, which were still checking her over.

"Let's just keep our cool," doc said.

"We were drawn into a wormhole, ma'am, and you were rendered unconscious by the buffeting," was helm's contribution.

Somehow she got the distinct impression from helm's voice that it was her puny human fault that she was vulnerable and he was sorry for her. Hmmm ... maybe she should reprogram helm when she got back to the yard. That actor had embroidered on the script with some emotional content that was not to her liking.

Damn him.

"What is our position?" there was a long pause, during which she was given another injection "for shock," the doc said.

"I'm waiting, helm." "Working, ma'am, on establishing our present position with star identification program." helm was almost a misnomer for the functions handled by that AI it was not only guidance, but engineering communications, navigation, defense, and science, as well as commissary for all the supplies on board the fiver which were not for human consumption. And it ordered those in from the lists supplied by cater.

Nimi craned her neck to get a glimpse of the main screen.

"You'll have time enough to look at it when you've been cleared by me, nimi, and have had something to bring your blood sugar up to normal. Cater, prepare a sweetened and restorative drink, high protein, full trace elements." "Yes, indeed. My pleasure." Nimisha wondered if she actually heard a note of relief in cater's voice. The manipulative arms of the infirmary withdrew.

"Move slowly now," doc advised. "No permanent damage, but you gave yourself quite a crack." "I'll have to see to the armrest design. Pad it better," Nimisha muttered. "Take note please, helm," she added as she walked slowly toward the dispenser and the cup of steamy liquid awaiting her. Judiciously sampling it, though it was at just the right temperature to be ingested immediately, she thanked cater and got a fervent "you're very welcome, lady Nimisha," as she returned to the pilot console.

"It shouldn't take you this long to match spectroanalyses, helm. What's the problem?" "I can find no matches, ma'am." Nimisha blinked. "You're programmed with every single data cube available to the fleet on every single star system. You mean, that wormhole took us outside the delta quadrant?" "That would be a correct assessment of an inability to identify any of the primaries visible. We are substantially closer to the magellanic clouds, so we must be nearer the southern celestial pole. I believe I can identify the constellation doradus, but it is the only familiar starscape." Nimisha looked out, not precisely doubting helm but unwilling to concede that she, and her ship, were lost in space. She knew what configuration of stars she should have seen from the fiver at the position where the wormhole sucked her in. There were no comfortingly familiar star-patterns visible, but she was still in a in populous area, to judge by the multitude of primaries shining all around her.

"Well, if my brains were scrambled, at least yours can't be, helm." "No, ma'am." "What about that double star? Surely it's unusual enough to have turned up somewhere on fleet explorations?" "It does not match within the necessary parameters for any double stars on file." Nimisha eased herself into the pilot's chair and sipped at her beverage. It had a minty flavor and something else, more exotic, but she could feel its restorative rush.

"Interesting," she said, matching a tone her mother would use when faced with some unusual situation.

"Shall I log it in?" "might as well. Do the whole panorama," Nimisha added with a sweep of her free arm. "Might be useful sometime. No answer to our mayday, I suppose?" "No, ma'am." at least helm didn't sound worried. No, the worry was all hers.

"Helm, have we moved from where that wormhole spat us out?" "No, ma'am. I awaited your orders." "Yes, of course, since you weren't programmed for the standard operating procedure on exiting wormholes." "No, ma'am." for that matter, she didn't know what that would be either, but she could wish he had less need for so many negatives. Had she been conscious, her first action on being spat out would have been to send a probe back through the hole with the present star patterns. However, she hadn't been awake and she couldn't fault helm for not knowing what action to take in such a situation.

"Then please prepare a new beacon, giving our registration and com-pulse configurations, the spectroanalysis of the stars in our spatial vicinity, and repeat our request for contact with any fleet or civilian vessel." "Aye ma'am." an affirmative was a nice change.

"Beacon away," helm said a few moments later.

That was one advantage in having AI units managing the ship. They didn't have to take breaks or eat or go to the head at awkward moments, and they worked with great speed and efficiency.

She sighed and drained the cup.

"That did the trick, cater, doc." I recommend some rest, nimi, while you're awaiting a response.,, "aren't you the optimist?" she replied with a snort. But the idea of getting horizontal and sleeping was a good one. She'd be able to think better when the headache, as well as the medication that had reduced it, was gone. "You have the conn, helm." "I have the conn, ma'am." she slept her normal six hours and woke refreshed. After a quick shower in water that her purifying system kept fresh enough to allow such a luxury, she dressed and, leaving her quarters, gave cater orders for her breakfast.

"Good morning, helm. Any report?" nothing to report, ma'am." "Good morning, doc." "You sound perfectly normal," doc said cheerfully.

"Thank you. And thank you, cater, for breakfast." she asked for music since she liked it in the background when she was thinking hard. Indeed, she had no idea at all of what to do next, apart from waiting beside the beacon, hoping its pulse would alert someone. Her meal finished, she resumed the pilot's chair, staring out at unfamiliar constellations. Why, that band of stars in the grouping to the upper right vaguely resembled orion's belt, but the rest of the constellation did not match.

"Helm, has your inspection of the immediate vicinity turned up any m-type planets nearby?" "Three, ma'am." a red light briefly circled the three primaries.

That many?" "Yes, ma'am." "Well, when I find myself twiddling my thumbs, we can always go take a look-see. Might as well." action was preferable to sitting like-who was it on her tuffet? "I'll give it another three days. That would give time for our initial pulse to reach main shipping lanes." "Or the curious of this quadrant," doc added.

"A search of the records of ships missing in the general vicinity of that wormhole has proved fruitful," helm suddenly volunteered.

"Oh?"

"Eighteen ships in the two hundred and fifty years of recorded space exploration." "Oh!" she paused, smiling ironically. "Make that nineteen, helm, since we've just joined that elite group." "Yes, ma'am." "When was the last one reported to fleet?" she held her breath for his reply.

"Fifteen years ago, exploratory vessel fsps 9k66e, the pootheg, was reported missing. Her last report came from this general area." "Fifteen?" well, she was not going to miss cuiva's necklacing.

Somehow she'd find a way home before that auspicious event in her daughter's life three and a half years from now.

Three days later there had been not so much as a peep from the pulse. As it had been sent out in all directions, she was obviously far from any responder, even those discreet fleet "ears" that caleb had told her dotted known space. However, that did not mean that there wouldn't be a response. Nimisha was not constitutionally patient. She required action. If she'd been traveling to a destination, there would have been other matters to involve her. Hanging motionless in space-even though she programmed a day full of the various activities she had for diversion-exercise in the gymnasium playing interactive games, and an immense library of tri-d and tapes-was not the same thing as having a destination.

She also spent time with helm in gathering a file of spectroanalyses of all the primaries in their present starscape. These were inserted into the beacon's data file.

"Helm?" she began firmly after her breakfast on the fourth morning "how much time does it take a pulse to get from one side of delta quadrant to the other?" "Nine full ship days with the strength of the unit on board." slowly she came to the bridge and looked out at the uninformative and strange starscape.

"We shall remain in position then, to allow any searchers time to reach us," she said. "I shall make use of the suspended animation facility, doc." "Always ready to comply, nimi." "Helm, you will monitor any incoming pulses. You will have doc revive me instantly if you have received any response. If, however the wormhole reappears-" she paused, wondering if using that escape from her present position was sensible considering the erratic behavior of unprobed wormholes. "-you will immediately enter it, deploying a second beacon stating the time of this reentry.

Doc, if helm takes us into the wormhole, revive me." "Is this advisable, lady Nimisha?" helm and doc asked in chorus.

I can't be more lost than I am now, she replied. "At least I can leave behind proof that I was here and am still very much alive." "There are three primaries with habitable planets, lady Nimisha. Why not investigate the possibility of establishing a planetary base?" helm suggested.

"A good idea," she said, rubbing her chin thoughtfully as helm red-circled the three prospects again. "But there is every possibility that the wormhole would return us to our starting point, and that would be the best solution." "Shall you stay in suspended animation until that time?" doc asked. "If there is no response to the pulse message?" "A good point. Who knows when that wretched hole will reappear. All right, let's set a limit of a year to this day for revival if neither a message arrives nor the wormhole appears. I don't want to stay away any longer than necessary." "No, of course not, nimi," doc said, his tone approving.

To herself she put the question: which way would I have to go to get back home? Helm had registered no directional bend in which the wormhole had bridged the space from there to here.

once again she thought how, if she had only been conscious when they reached the end of the wormhole, she could have launched a probe with her current starscape back through the hole before it closed. Though what good that would have done was moot when there were no recognizable primaries at this exit point to guide a rescue party. Eventually, the beacon would guide in a rescue vessel. Eventually! Helm repeated the orders.

"I am also to be roused if anything ... extraordinary ... should occur in our current spatial neighborhood." "Anything not covered by standard operating procedures, ma'am?" "You got it, helm." Nimisha rose, walking with stiff steps to the infirmary unit. She didn't like this expedient but it was better than waiting around and fretting herself over her inability to take action. She'd had several short spells of suspended animation and was none the worse for them. She did dislike not being present, but she could trust helm and doc to rouse her if anything untoward happened.

"Whenever you're ready, doc," she began but wasn't sure how much of the sentence in her mind she actually spoke aloud, because the walls around the medical couch rose and snapped shut over her head, the sleep gas already hissing into the enclosed space.

"Lady Nimisha has only been gone five months, cal," admiral gollanch remarked to commander rustin, who was pacing up and down in front of the desk. He sighed. I know it seems a lot longer but you cannot deny that we have done everything possible, impossible , probable, and improbable to locate her. Finishing up the second fiver would be a good idea. Especially, if putting her through a shake-down cruise will give us any clues as to what happened to Lady Nimisha's ship. And you tell me that jeska mlan, who is the yard's executive director, agrees. So what's the problem?" "We can't find the final specs to complete it." "Hmmm, yes, well, she did warn me that she did not intend to give the fleet all her, secrets. But surely you ..." and admiral gollanch extended his hand invitingly toward rustin.

1?" the commander grinned ruefully. "She trusted everyone up to a point. I, perhaps, further than her yard supervisors-equally, I believe, as much as she trusts jeska mlan. But she finished some units by herself, in her private machine shop." he paused a moment and amended that statement. "She usually had her special mechanic, jeska, on hand, but she won't say anything. Not even if there were additional specs that lady Nimisha kept someplace else." gollanch sighed. "She wouldn't have left without storing the final plans somewhere. Would she?" I was hoping that she had left them with you, sir." "With me?" the admiral was surprised enough to jerk a thumb at his chest and cleared his throat. "I'd've said you would be the logical recipient. You seemed to have no trouble working closely together during the fiver's construction. Surely she confided in you?" up to a point-the point at which we are now stymied in completing the second mark five. Oh, we can fly her and she'd be an asset to the fleet as a long-distance scout. She could be sold as a yacht, but she's not yet a replica of the fiver that lady Nimisha took out on that run." "Ah, I see," the admiral remarked, steepling his fingers and bouncing the tips together.

"Sir?" the admiral eadroll chuckle. "She did warn me.""she also wouldn't leave, even on what should have been a routine shakedown cruise, without leaving such vital information in a safe place. She was too precise and careful a designer not to leave a backup." "I concur. Would she have left them in her residence?" I dislike intruding on lady Rezalla ..." rustin said, shaking his head.

"So would i" the admiral replied with much feeling in his voice, "but the concern is not frivolous. And you have been welcomed at the boynton-chonderlee house, have you not? Even since lady Nimisha's disappearance?" "No problem there ..." this was true enough, even if he had rarely seen lady Rezalla. It was cuiva whose company he sought, taking the girl on outings with belac, who had similar interests in "designing things." he always made a point of asking the residence manager to convey his respects to lady Rezalla and usually brought some small token for her-a delicate blossom, a rare fruit, or the sweets of which lady Rezalla was inordinately fond. There was always a brief note of thanks for him at his next visit, handwritten in an unusually bold forward stroke. A penned note was such a treasure that he kept them all, filed in a lacquered box, as examples of a lost art. However, asking could he find a secreted file in the boynton family residence was another matter entirely. "I could ask." "That is all you can do, commander," the admiral said with a snort, understanding both the etiquette and the audacious course of action he was asking his subordinate to undertake. He wouldn't have dared, but he was not on such terms with the family as rustin was. And he very much wanted to commission this prototype for fleet use-once it had proved itself on trial runs. To have stumbled into a wormhole was a wretched piece of misfortune and not to be considered the fault of the pilot, much less the vessel.

Trying very hard not to show how ill at ease he was, Commander caleb rustin appeared at the door to the boyntin-chonderlee house, a baroque creation of outstanding elegance and beauty in the old quarter of acclarke city, at precisely one minute before the appointment received from lady Rezalla.

It wasn't, however, the residence manager (one of the latest classmai's) but lady cuiva herself who opened the door.

"I heard grandam say you were coming today," she said, slipping outside.

Caleb smiled down at the girl's anxious expression, and since they were not in a public spot, he gave her a quick hug. That's when he realized that she had both hands clasped behind her back.

"You don't happen to have news about my mother?" she asked so plaintively that caleb wanted more than ever to have good news for her.

He shook his head, stroking the silky hair that hung loose down her back. Nimi's hair ... he broke off that thought.

"Jeska says they can't go any further with the mark five; you need to find my mother." her tone was interrogatory as she tilted her head up at him.

He took two steps downward so they were at eye-level. "That's enough. I'm here to..

true her hands came from behind her back and, with one, she seized his much bigger hand and closed his fingers around what she put in the palm.

My birth-mother would want you to have these now, then." she"stepped back, holding her lips closed, but her eyes watered.

Rustin closed his fingers about the round circles: six of them, a full stack and exactly what he had come about.

"You had them?" he whispered in astonishment.

She nodded and then, with a lift to her chin and in a louder voice, said, "my grandam is expecting you, commander rustin. If you will be pleased to enter ...

"Mimicking the rm is not done, lady cuiva," he said, grinning as he followed her into the impressive foyer with its ancient terran marble floor in alternating black and white squares. There were fine statues in the many niches, all artfully restored to the condition in which they had left their sculptors' yards. The flowery acaderillus shrub filled the room with a delicate odor. It was the only indigenous vegan object in the residence entrance hall.

Cuiva slipped over to the stationary rm and flicked it back on.

"That's all right, rm," she said. "Commander rustin is expected. You may conduct him to my grandam." with that and a saucy wink at caleb, she glided over to the door into her quarters and was gone.

"I will conduct you to lady Rezalla directly, commander." the rm turned and started up the left-hand side of the double staircase , also of priceless terran marble. It moved with the dignity befitting its occupation. Rustin followed, wishing he could have followed cuiva instead as he slipped the data circles into his tunic pocket.

With his errand accomplished, what excuse could he give lady Rezalla as the purpose for this visit? And how like Nimisha to have entrusted the data files to her daughter, rather than her mother! Who would have thought it? Well, he should have. But one simply didn't go about asking underage children if they just happened to have been entrusted with irreplaceable documents. What to say to lady Rezalla? She must be thinking he was the bearer of tidings.

He could be! His hand brushed the data disks. He could well be. The fleet already had permission of lady Rezalla to take the finished hull out of the yard. Yes, that was why he was requesting this interview. To inform her that the removal would occur shortly as soon as he had added to the ship the special adjustments he now had deposited safely in a uniform pocket.

Though lady Rezalla's quick and piercing glance begged for news of another kind, she did not refer to her missing daughter when caleb explained the purpose of his visit. He deeply wished he could relieve her fears with some sort of reassurance. No news was still, in its own way, good news.

"And you feel safe," she asked, pausing on the word, "taking out the prototype five, commander?" "It has passed every single test the fleet can give it, lady Rezalla ' " he said quite truthfully. "I have no hesitation at all in putting it through the most gruelling maneuvers." "Except those that would take you down the maw of a wormhole I trust," she said drolly.

"Indeed, lady Rezalla. I shall avoid them as I would a black hole.,, "do." and she inclined her head graciously.

As a little present for her courtesy in receiving him, he presented her with the latest "book" of scents-fine sheets of paper, no longer than the palm of his hand, each impregnated with a different aroma-from the perfumes of the outer city, famed for their exquisite fragrances.

"How charming," she said with a delighted smile. "You are much too good to me, commander." "Nothing can be too good for a lady of your charm and eminence ," he replied in words formulaic but delivered sincerely.

She opened the first sheet, inhaling delicately. "Oh, like roses.

Terran roses. Attar made from them was supposed to be the most seductive fragrance of all." she passed the tiny sheet to him and he inhaled obediently without informing her that his nose was woefully inept at distinguishing "pleasant" smells. The funk of recycled air he knew; florals, he did not.

"Elegant. Truly elegant." "I'd term it dainty, commander, but then"-she smiled winsomely at him, cocking her head in such a way that he wished she was neither a first family lady nor related to the woman he did love his scent was contrived for feminine, not masculine, tastes."

"Indeed." he inclined his head, smiling in such a way as to thank her for her discreet flirtatiousness. "I would also like your permission to bring lady cuiva to see how we are progressing with her mother's design." lady Rezalla gave him a long, almost acid look. Then she made a graceful gesture with her lovely hand. "Forgive me, but I could wish that my granddaughter was not quite so fascinated by her mother's profession." caleb made a small bow of comprehension. "She has lately insisted that she be tutored in space navigation ... and doubtless the anomalies that are ... hazards." her mouth closed firmly for a moment as she took a deep breath before continuing. "However, the child's loyalty and dedication must be considered. I shall not have it said that I denied her." "Never, lady Rezalla," caleb protested.

The long hand was lifted again, forestalling further reassurances . "You may have heard rumours about the machinations of that young ... young ... " a proper term seemed to escape her.

"Scut, milady?" she gave him a stern look but her eyes twinkled. "That will do until I can think of something more thoroughly derogatory. That scut vestrin." "He can't still be pursuing a court action on the grounds that his father made the bequest to lady Nimisha?" she nodded, smiling with a wicked and determined glare in her gentian-blue eyes-so like her daughter's. "As well we were forewarned by you, commander, for, of course, my body-heir had made a will prior to her departure and, in it, bequeaths all her estate and assets to lady cuiva. You will shortly meet perdimia, who will accompany lady cuiva wherever she may go." "Oh! Yes, I see. Sensible precaution. But surely not even lord vestrin would attempt to ... harm a child. A first family child wearing such a prestigious tattoo." "Cuiva is not yet necklaced in her minor majority, commander.

I would not put anything past that-no, 'scut' is not appropriate.

He may not be a bastard"-lady Rezalla spat the epithet-"but roue he most certainly is. I would put nothing past a creature of so little honor and such great greed. He has laughed ... laughed..

she paused again, "at public functions over my body-heir's disappearance." she drew in a deep breath, her nostrils pinched by her wrath.

"You may be sure that I would protect lady cuiva with my life," caleb said, bowing again and feeling almost sick with a combination of anxiety for the child and animosity toward lord vestrin.

I know that, commander, but you will double whatever precautions you have previously used in any excursions on which she accompanies you." now she rose, extending her hand in gracious dismissal.

I shall keep you informed of the progress. You will attend the commissioning?" caleb asked, hastily adding, "a formality which you, as owner-representative, should attend-if you can fit such an engagement in your calendar?" I wouldn't miss that for the world," she said, again in a droll tone. She always managed to astonish him, despite her adherence to the conventions of family.

He bowed over her hand and was honored when her fingers pressed his with far more strength than he would have expected from her. But then, cuiva often mentioned that she took physical exercise every morning with her grandmother. Lord vestrin would not get past lady Rezalla if he made an attempt on cuiva in the older woman's presence.

Rezalla accompanied him to the door, and when it opened for them, she turned to the waiting rm. "Escort the commander to lady cuiva's apartment. You may tender your invitation personally.

She has missed your company. You may make whatever arrangements for the visit that are required."

Caleb said all that was suitable for such gracious condescension and then, pivoting smartly, followed the rm. In the hall, and unobserved, he patted the disks in his pocket. He would have preferred racing back to the yard to see what they contained, but he was concerned enough about cuiva to want a word with her-to bawl her out for stepping outside the front door without this new bodyguard. What had she been thinking about?

Although the rm opened the door, a woman quickly inserted herself between caleb and the room.

"This is commander caleb rustin, Miz perdimia," the residence manager said with just the slightest hint of remonstrance, as if the woman should have known who he was.

She stepped back. She was short in stature but wide in body, as if her legs did not balance her torso in length. Her hazel eyes were keen, and from the way she stood, caleb had no doubts of alertness even with the rm presenting him to cuiva's door. He also noticed and saw that she caught his swift glance over her person, the knife sheaths in her boot and on her left forearm, and the strap of the one that probably hung down her back as jeska's had.

"I'd like a word with lady cuiva, miz perdimia. Lady Rezalla said I should invite her myself." "Cal?" cuiva. cried, hearing his voice and rushing into the room.

"Lady cuiva ... what have we been talking about just this morning?" perdimia's face was expressionless as she turned to the girl.

Cuiva went from a dead run to a solemn walk between steps.

Her face reflected that she did indeed remember what had been said "just this morning." "Not rushing here and there," she murmured and then brightened as caleb stepped past the bodyguard and held out his hand to her. She went up on the balls of her feet to rush to him and, sighing came forward at a sedate pace, but she clung to his hand with both of hers. He could feel her trembling, and when her fingers squeezed, he knew that he wouldn't say anything about their clandestine meeting on the front steps. Not in front of perdimia and certainly not after a recent schooling on the same peril.

"Indeed, my young friend," caleb said, shaking her hands to make her contact his eyes. "How will you ever learn the decorum a necklaced minor major must have if you don't start practicing ... right now!" he stared at her to emphasize the final two words and she flushed, but then recovered her ebullience and swung on his arm, nearly pulling him off balance. "I have your grandam's permission to show you the fiver we've been completing." he looked squarely at perdimia. "I invite you, miz perdimia, in your own right as well as in your role as lady cuiva's companion." "Sir, that's real nice of you." perdimia's face relaxed.

He had a good notion that she quite probably came from a service family and, like jeska, had not measured up to the height requirement. She had the required background and was making good use of it. More important, she took her job seriously, which reassured caleb in light of what lady Rezalla had confided to him.

"When? When, cal, when?" cuiva said, swinging on his arm.

She saw perdimia's expression. "Oh, cal doesn't mind, perdimia.

We're old friends," she went on, standing upright again and affecting a very mature stance, obviously copied from her grandam.

I used to go out to the yard all the time with my mother and we even-" it was cal's turn to raise eyebrows at her effusiveness.

"Ooops," she said, covering her mouth with her hand and squinching down, grinning wickedly as she knew she should not mention the things her mother had allowed her to do. "His son said I could. He comes with us sometimes, doesn't he, commander?" caleb and perdimia exchanged glances over cuiva's head as she went from child to an echo of her grandam in the space of a second. Perdimia gave a shrug and a shake of her head. But she also smiled.

"Imp!" she said affectionately. "When had you in mind, commander ? I check all engagements with lady Rezalla." caleb let his hand pause at the pocket that held the disks-a pause that sharp-eyed cuiva caught and made her giggle. Then she became adult again and watched as he took out his touchpad and turned it on.

"A week from today? At about this hour? Would that be convenient?" perdimia had her touchpad strapped to her right wrist, which confirmed his notion that she was left-handed. "That day is free after the eleventh hour." "Oh, no, make it earlier, perdimia," cuiva said, hanging on to the woman's arm. "I can do a double session of studying the day before or the day after." the two adults again exchanged looks, and perdimia yielded.

"Excellent," caleb said, tapping in the time and date as perdimia made a note. "I shall speed up the work in train-" again he paused his hand at the pocket before letting it fall to his side. "-and look forward to the company of you two ladies. I'll collect you, lady cuiva, miz perdimia, at the appointed hour in the yard skiff." he bowed to both. "I must return to my duties, if you will be good enough to excuse me now, lady cuiva?" the girl elegantly dismissed him with a wave of her hand as he backed three steps before turning for the door. He heard her giggle and allowed her to hear his chuckle as he closed the door behind him.

He took the skimmer back to the yard as fast as possible, only just clearing the old quarter before he opened the thrusters and poured on the power. He landed at the lock closest to Nimisha's private machine workshop and cycled through it, pausing only to remove his formal tunic in the dressing room. He took the precious disks out of his pocket and jingled them in his hand as he walked himself a leg at a time, into his heavy shop coverall, stumbling a bit as he shrugged it over his shoulders and sealed the fastenings. He strode to Nimisha's desk. Two disks clattered out of his hands in his haste to insert the number one in the slot of the reader. And there it was: the menu of final details that would make all the difference to the incomplete mark 5 still in its production gantry.

The comunit burped authoritatively. He switched on the visual, one hand resting on the little disks that were so bloody important.

"Oh, it's you, commander," the guard said, swallowing. "For a moment-" "my apologies, ferron, I should have checked in." "That's all right, sir. It's just that-" "I know. Lady Nimisha preferred to use the private entrance." "Yes, sir, that's it, sir. And, sir, still no word?" "Still no word." "Will you be staying long?" possibly all night, ferron, so log me in officially. Want to check over some details. We'll be working overtime to finish the five b from now on." will we, sir? That's good to know, sir." ferron disconnected.

Caleb let out a sigh of relief. He should have checked in himself , but his little lapse only proved how alert security in the yard was. Most of the workforce had already gone home now that the five b was so near completion and three shifts were no longer needed. He made a quick note to have jeska double-check those on the day shift when cuiva and her bodyguard visited.

Then he whistled at what was scrolling across the screen.

By all the lords of space and time, she had left the best for last, hadn't she? He skimmed quickly. Some were minor adjustments , mere tunings. Others were guidance chips with subtle differences to the standard ones, if he read them right: just the sort of tinkering that distinguished rondymense programs from naval. He ran a quick pricing on labor and materials and decided the cost was a fractional increase, if any. And the minor alterations-losing a circuit here, increasing the strength of that one there-made so much sense. He sighed. Some people simply stuck loyally to what worked well enough. What was the old adage? "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Well, here was proof that sometimes what isn't broken should be fixed.

By morning, when the first shift arrived, he had reviewed all nimi's little improvements, organized a schedule for their manufacture and insertion, and put out a call for nimi's favorite mechanic.

Hiska would be invaluable in constructing nimi's improvements.

She'd worked with Nimisha on the fiver, and caleb hoped she'd assist him now that he was in possession of nimi's disks. He and hiska would do the six boards of Nimisha's unique design. He could do them himself but hiska was the professional and might, now, reveal what else Nimisha had kept up her sleeve.

Might, caleb amended wryly. Hiska was as much a law unto herself as Nimisha was. The two women, from socially opposite spheres, rarely needed to converse as they worked. In fact, one might hand the other a tool without a word spoken. Hiska tended to issue sounds rather than words, though caleb had heard the mechanic chew out a subordinate in a fashion that would have made a tough petty officer blush with envy. A grunt or a monosyllable was often all she needed with Nimisha, though nimi would add a please or thankyou as the occasion warranted.

Caleb shook his head, fatigued by the night's concentrations and grieving anew: this particular part of the ship yard was more bereft of Nimisha's presence than anywhere else in the yard, even her executive office.

The door to the outer corridor opened and banged against the wall as hiska came hurrying in, the lioness ready to protect her lair.

"Good morning, hiska," he said as if delighted to see her despite the obvious anger that powered her steps as she strode across to the worktop.

Seeing the little stack of info-disks, she came to a total halt.

Her eyes met his again, the most urgent question easily read.

"No, no word from nimi, but lady cuiva felt I should have these now." he let the stack slip through his fingers and then straightened them into a neat column. "I don't think any of us want the second fiver to go out less than her best." hiska growled and made the rest of the way to him in a less aggressive manner, her attention focused on the disks. She was a compact little woman with mousy hair cropped to her skull. Her round face had no lines whatsoever-not surprising, since she rarely exhibited emotions of any kind that would encourage wrinkles. Her grunts, snorts, humphs, ohs, and ahs did service for whatever she might be feeling. She had penetrating eyes deep-set under thick brows of the same mousy shade hair. Her hands were oddly much like Nimisha's, square palms with short, clever fingers and incredible strength when she put her body behind her grasp. Nimisha had taken her as her private mechanic years before on the advice of jim marroo, then yard manager, who had recognized an unusual aptitude in the silent person. There was no question of her ill dedication to lady Nimisha and her almost zealous proprietary control of this machine shop.

"If we are to have the best possible chance of finding lady Nimisha, we need this fiver in the same condition as the one she went out in. Lady cuiva gave me the disks yesterday afternoon. I didn't know she had them. I thought lady Rezalla would have been the custodian," caleb said bluntly. He was rewarded with as noncommittal a humph as he'd ever heard out of hiska.

"Next r'[ week lady cuiva's coming up to see how we're getting along. I'd like her to see the ship finished now that we have these." he gestured to the disks. "I'd like you to be especially on your guard, Hiska, as we have information that suggests lord vestrin might be vindictive enough to try to harm lady cuiva. You spot any face you don't know, you report it immediately to security!" hiska stared at him, her gaze intensifying with outrage, her eyes going so round that he wondered if they'd pop out of their sockets. Then her jaw muscles tightened and her hands became blunt fists, banging into her thighs. She inhaled deeply and then exhaled so fiercely that caleb knew no one would get into this workshop or past hiska to harm lady cuiva.

Having settled that problem, he handed across to the mechanic the clipboard with his listing of what needed to be completed.

"If you'd be willing to assist me in translating these specs, hiska, I'll know there will be no errors in the finished designs." with more courtesy than she'd ever accorded him before, she took the clipboard from him. She scanned it quickly and gave one emphatic nod. She returned the board to him and went to unlock Nimisha's supply closet. Nimisha would keep on hand supplies of any sort that she might need in her designs. Caleb doubted that there'd be any shortage of exactly what they'd need to make the spare parts or upgrade the boards.

"Need anything at the dispenser?" caleb called as he went for a stimulant. He'd see how long he could keep up with hiska before he took a rest. One needed clear eyes and steady hands for some of the delicate assemblies they were about to undertake. If he started to fumble, hiska would insist on his taking a break.

They'd completed two of the six boards when he broke a delicate connection. Hiska drew her breath in a hiss of concern.

Pursing her lips, she reached over and took the tool from his hand, jerking her head at the small office. Her invitation for him to rest needed no elaboration.

"Wake me in two hours," he said.

"Humph," was her answer, and he wondered if she would obey.

She didn't. He was asleep for four hours before she judged him sufficiently rested to continue. And she'd been right. She had completed one more board and several of the finicky alterations on parts she had brought in from the fiver.

They finished, and installed, all the boards by the time fatigue again overtook caleb. He slept aboard the ship while hiska occupied the cot in Nimisha's office when the second shift quit.

Chapter 4

"Lady Nimisha?" said a familiar voice as the fog of sleep lifted from her mind. The medical couch was open and not so much as a whiff of the sleep gas remained.

"A full standard year has passed, ma'am," added helm's tenor voice.

"And no response?" "No, ma'am." she felt the coolness of hyposprays penetrating both arms.

"Sit up slowly, nimi, but I think you'll find you're in excellent shape after that nice long nap," doc said.

"May I fix you something to eat, lady Nimisha?" cater asked.

Nimisha's stomach rumbled.

"Indeed you may," she said, following doc's advice about movement . She was stiff with disuse. "Helm, plot a course to the nearest of the primaries with an m-type planet. I'm tired of hanging about in space. Let's see what mischief we can get into out there." I am programmed to remind you, lady Nimisha," helm said, sounding as close to repressive as the ai could get, "that we are constrained to avoid contact with emerging species. It is against fsp policy to interfere with normal evolution when the indigenous population has reached either toolmaking or settled agricultural base level." "That is, if there is an indigenous and sapient population," she said with a grin.

"Yes, ma'am," was helm's not at all contrite response.

Nimisha smiled as she collected the usual post-sleep liquid meal.

"This at least tastes appetizing, cater. Thanks," she said after the first tentative sip. The gruel for the revived that was offered on naval ships was so bland it was difficult to swallow. That was another of her little improvements for long-distance traveling: savory comestibles.

"And, helm," she added, "leave an update on that beacon to indicate our new destination." "Already programmed, ma'am." she shrugged. She really was almost superfluous.

"Estimated arrival time?" she asked.

"At interstellar speed three, we will reach the heliopause in two days." "So be it, helm. We will decelerate and record all data on our way into the third planet. It is the third planet, isn't it?" "Yes, ma'am." "Standard almost, isn't it?" she murmured.

"Yes, ma'am." Nimisha made a facial grimace. Oh, well, "yes" was more encouraging than another spate of "no's" from helm.

She felt the thrum through the deck plates as the fiver moved forward, gradually increasing speed sufficient to is. enter drive. She watched the stars in the view screen begin to blur, counted down to herself to the translation into the is speed mode, and braced herself just as the fiver slid forward. She had become inured to the insertion nausea but was still pleased when it passed as they settled into warp drive.

"Report on insertion and performance, please?" after all, this was still a trial run.

"All systems functioning at normal levels and efficiency." that was certainly as it should be.

She opened her log and made the necessary entry. Helm would have kept the ship's log updated on a daily basis; she would have to update hers.

The fact that she now had a destination made all the difference to her morale. She felt alive, keen, wondering just what this world would be like. Of course, if there were any signs of civilization, she'd have to veer off. She could almost wish there were a society of some sort to visit. As the first emissary of federated sentient planets.

Damn. Had she put the universal translator on board? Yes, she must have. She remembered having hiska install the unit. The woman had given her a shocked and surprised look. But she'd done it.

"Helm, is the universal translator activated?" "Yes, ma'am. Shall I put it online?" "No, but I'm glad it's there." "Yes, ma'am." "Always prepared for the unexpected, aren't you, nimi?" doc commented.

She gave him an ironic laugh. "Except for a wormhole, doc." "well, yes, but you had cleared your course with the fleet, and they had no records of a phenomenon in that sector, had they?" "No, they didn't. It's mostly used for their navy maneuvers and testing since it's rather barren of stars and planets." "Is that so?" "it is!" she was certain that there had been intensive searches for her while she had slept. Caleb rustin, not to mention her mother and cuiva, would never give up until they either heard the ship's death knell or found her. That was comforting, but she did want to make it back before cuiva was necklaced. She looked forward to that day: she'd be able to take her daughter more fully into her confidence and to examine cuiva's natural aptitudes. No reason for the girl to be one of those gilded-or misshapen fashion dilettantes.

Useless creatures. Her mother might have been traditional in every aspect of social behavior and a devil for propriety, but she had never been vapid, stupid, or shallow. Boynton women had always been achievers.

The system, which Nimisha whimsically named primero, adding its coordinates within the present sphere of the galaxy, was so close to "normal" that it was exactly what any exploration team would give all left arms to encounter. There were ten planets, the coldest, outermost few were frozen; then there was another giant, and while there was no asteroid belt between the gas planet and the fourth, the third was in the proper astrophysical position close enough to its primary to be habitable. it had three moons, the largest farther out, with two inner ones seeming to chase each other. Must wreak havoc with the tidal system. She decided to call the third planet erehwon, partly after an old dystopic novel she'd once read and partly because it was "nowhere" backward and that certainly was her present situation. She hovered by the large moon to do the usual basic investigative tests, sending down an exploratory probe and waiting for its reports.

No holes in the ozone layer, the usual mix of atmospheric gases, sufficient seas, and nine continents, three with archipelagoes reaching out like broken fingers to the larger landmasses. Helm, in the al's science officer capacity, agreed that the planet looked to be eminently habitable.

"Let's orbit and see what else we can discover," Nimisha said, toggling the log to include that order. She'd had the usual space traveler's briefing from fsp about not infecting indigenous sapients with too abrupt a contact with a space-faring race and what to do if-by any remote chance-she met other space-farers. So far the universe seemed very full of sentient species incapable of ever attaining that freedom.

"Shorter day, I see," Nimisha mentioned as they completed one orbit. "And no sign of what we tend to term 'civilization' either." "No, ma'am," helm replied. "No artificial satellites. No pulses, no sonar or radar transmissions. Not even radio." "Let's go in," she said.

The ship continued its inward spiral, quartering the planets surface as it went. Daylight shone on a land teeming with small and large life-forms, jungles, forests, plains, and mountain ranges of considerable height and depth running like twisted spines suggesting their savage upthrust from basement rock materials. The nightside did not show any fires or the use of fossil fuels. The planet did have ore deposits that would certainly interest developers back in her native portion of the galaxy. That is, if they could establish that there were no sapient inhabitants. Further circling brought her over portions of the continents, helm assiduously mapping though Nimisha had turned off that screen, she tried viewing the surface at high magnification to be able to make out details, but it gave her a headache to see surface features speeding by that quickly. So she reduced the magnification and trusted helm to call her attention to any anomalies. On the fourth lap, helm spoke.

"Sensors read an unusual metallic mass on the plateau directly ahead." Nimisha turned up the magnification, but they were too far out to determine what the anomaly was, other than something that perhaps ought not to be there.

"Mark it, helm. Definitely needs to be seen." on the seventh lap, another anomaly was discovered.

"Now that's ridiculous. We haven't seen so much as a band of humanoid nomads, but those two metallic blips are not indigenous to this planet. I'll bet my necklace on it."

"Rash of you, dear nimi," doc said with an audible ripple in his voice.

"You know me, doc," she agreed.

"Let's home in on the first anomaly, helm. I think we've ascertained that this indigenous population is mainly composed of beasts, unlikely to be evolutionarily compromised by our presence." "There is a third metallic anomaly, ma'am, and I am now reading a fourth." I "we'll have a dekko at those, too." it was out of the bounds of possibility that all eighteen missing ships had landed on erehwon, though that would have been a logical course of action, given its suitability for humans. This could be rather a fun adventure. Of course, the downside was that if they all had been stuck here-since they were still listed as missing-then she might be, too. Well, maybe some marooned male would be possible. Lady Rezalla would be furious when she learned of her daughter making any sort of an improper alliance. But celibate life was not a prospect Nimisha could contemplate with any joy! As helm obeyed her instructions and they cruised across the plateau to the first object of interest, the grazers didn't so much as raise their heads from their industrious eating. Great shaggy brown and black creatures, they moved steadily across the grassy savannah heads swaying back and forth as they ate. She did notice that the young of this species were kept behind a formidable wall of their elders. So there were predators of some sort.

"We are closing, ma'am. Shall I magnify?" helm asked.

"By all means." she gasped as the sharply defined image filled the screen. "Undeniably a spaceship," she said. "A match on our files?" "A fair big mouthful for that wormhole to trap," doc remarked.

Nimisha gave a bark of laughter. "Trap? That's a good description of a wormhole. Well, well. This ship's very old. Maybe we're number twenty, not nineteen. Can you decipher anything of the ship's original id markings, helm?"

"wind, sun, and time have scoured the hull, which was badly damaged." "In the wormhole?" "That is a distinct possibility given the turbulence the fiver experienced. The tube of the hole did not have a regular shape.

it was difficult to avoid contact with the walls." "Which proves the merit of having an AI at the helm, when femtosecond reactions are required," Nimisha said approvingly.

"Perhaps when we are closer, some traces will be legible enough to identify the craft," helm said, unaffected by either praise or blame.

"An id might give a clue to the frequency of the wormhole on the fsp side of it," doc said.

"My very thought, doc. But it's not very well designed, is it?" she commented, scanning the vessel. "Cumbersome, to say the least." "No match, ma'am, on available files." "That old?" asked doc.

"Not disparaging the files of our navy, are you, doc?" "Even their files do not contain some of the early independent efforts of humankind to probe space for habitable planets." "That's true enough, doc," Nimisha agreed, rubbing her chin and trying to figure out what sort of propulsion the ship used with that stern configuration, dented and mangled as it was. She shook her head and gave a sigh.

By now, they were closing with the object, and helm automatically switched to normal screen.

The ship hadn't been landed with any great skill, for its prow had plowed a long furrow across the plateau to where a high ridge out-thrust from the foothills had finally halted its forward momentum. The furrow was clearly visible from the air, along with the heavy vegetation that had grown up in it. She could distinguish the bleached white skeletons of the giant grazers that had been bowled out of the way of this minor leviathan until it had come to a grinding halt.

"It's been there a long time," she murmured as they closed with the wreck. "How could anyone survive such a crash?" "The ship was not designed for landing," helm said. "It is also not equipped with either thrusters or vanes for atmospheric maneuvering." "Any life signs?" asked doc.

Nimisha laughed at such optimism. "Hardly, if such dense vegetation has grown up on the avenue it plowed. Probably from the first diaspora. Imagine being brave enough to go into space in that sort of contraption," she added with some admiration. "Please land, helm, near the center of the ship. I see some sort of airlock in its side." she dressed in appropriate skintight protective gear for a first walkabout. As the air had tested pure, she didn't require a breathing apparatus. Pure enough to breathe, but slightly tainted with an unfamiliar smell, she thought as she stepped out of the fiver and onto the thick grassoid surface covering. Three steps into it, she was glad of the impregnability of her suit, for the "grass" was sawtoothed and managed to leave scratches on the tough material.

What digestive equipment those shaggy creatures must have to graze on this, she reflected. She took samples of the obvious varieties growing about her and had to use the vibro blade to sever the blades and stems.

She tripped over the first skeleton, partially hidden in the vegetation and by the remains of its apparel.

"Human skeleton, clad in exceedingly durable clothing," she reported to helm.

"Bring me a swatch of the material and a bone and I'll do a forensic and carbon-date it," doc suggested. The longest finger bone was added to her pouch, along with a piece of the material, now so old it tore like paper.

"They must have set up some sort of a camp," she said.

There was a clearing of sorts, evidently made by melting the ground into a semi-glaze that defied the grassoid's attempts at succession.

There were oddments of metal scattered about, poking up from the dirt that had blown over them. The larger items she unearthed were crushed as if the grazers had put their big clumsy feet on them.

"Analysis suggests this ship was of a design used in the first diaspora, with chemical fuel engines of the type typical of that period for planetary landing and takeoff," helm informed her. I have been able to distinguish sufficient of the faded insignia on the bow to determine that it belonged to a federation known as the united nations of earth. We are the twentieth ship to come through the wormhole." "Thank you for that update on our position, helm," she said with gentle irony. She had not programmed any humor into helm, but sometimes he was inadvertently funny. Then she looked at the timeworn spaceship. "Poor guys," she said, shaking her head.

Gaining entrance to the ship was not a problem. A ramp or steps of some kind must originally have been used, but the centuries had allowed a build up of windblown dirt and debris that reached to the lower lip of the hatch. There were exterior controls where any sensible designer would have put them, and since she was an even more sophisticated designer, it took only moments to open the airlock. She climbed in. The inner lock stood open, and as she neared it, she heard some sort of ventilation system begin to circulate the air inside.

"Not bad," she said. "Some power remains." "Solar panels have been detected," helm said.

"Why would they use solar panels if this wasn't a landing type craft?" "There were many attempts at achieving the optimum use of many power sources-chemical, nuclear fusion, and solar power, both from generator panels and light sails-on early spacecraft," Helm said in the pedantic tone he assumed for his "science officer " role.

"Well, they did that right." nevertheless the air was stale and still had an acrid stink that left a taste at the back of her throat of metals, old foodstuffs, human perspiration, and hydrocarbon hydraulic and lubricant fluids.

"One does have to air the place out every now and then," she said in her best imitation of her womb-mother.

"Repeat?" helm asked, mystified.

"Don't bother," doc said. "I'll explain it to him." she went forward to where she expected to find the bridge. And did, though it was dark, since the forward screen had crashed right into the rock of the hillside and was now shards on the deck. She used her wrist light and found the appropriate toggle. She pushed it and faint illumination resulted-enough to see that the bridge was empty. She hadn't expected to see any bodies. The establishment of some sort of a base camp indicated there had been crash survivors enough to have suitably interred their dead. The big question was if any had survived long enough to establish a colony.

She tried to access the bridge log, but evidently the small source of power that circulated the air did not spark the computer systems into action.

She toured the ship and its cramped crew quarters with bunks stripped to the metal frames. Lockers had been emptied; dust had sifted in through the vents over the centuries that the ship had lain here. The galley, when she entered it, was also tidy, apart from dust. Again all usable items had been taken. The same could be said of any other transportable item or equipment that such a vessel would have carried. Well, if one were shipwrecked on an alien planet, one would certainly use whatever equipment was on hand.

Only where had it-and its porters--gone? Would she find the descendants somewhere else? Had they regressed to a primitive state in the meantime? Certainly she had seen neither fires nor fossil fuel smoke to indicate any human settlement ... so far, that is. The climate of the plateau and its position on the continent made it part of a temperate zone. Considering the new growth she had noticed on trees and shrubs, she had landed in this planet's vernal period.

Part of the shagginess of the grazers might be due to shedding winter fur.

Time after time, she had to shake her head at the clumsiness of design in the spaceship, the heaviness of the building materials.

"I shouldn't criticize. Fsp didn't even have petralloy until two centuries ago," she remarked. "Easy for me to find their design attempts awkward and inefficient. They got this far with what they had. Give them credit." "Most creditable," helm agreed.

"Definitely first wave of the diaspora," doc said, having finished the analyses.

"Is this ship among the eighteen cited?" Nimisha asked.

"No, ma'am." she checked all storage areas and found them empty. And dusty. An orderly withdrawal from the ship. But where to? She returned striding in her own footprints in the dust, wondering if this would add to the mystery of the ship for future explorers. The whimsy made her grin.

She was glad to be outside in the fresher air. She closed the outer air lock to preserve what power remained. She might want to come back and investigate. There were other metallic anomalies to be examined. If there were actually four ships already marooned on this planet, had the groups joined forces? But if they had joined up, why had they not made use of even such basic requirements as fire, for heating, cooking, and lighting? And built shelters of some description? Or used caves? A rudimentary necessity, or at least a comfort. She had fireplaces in rooms that were heated by cheap and nonpolluting substances. She'd even had one at the yard in her private office for those late night sessions with her subordinates. And tete-a-tetes with caleb. Oh, dear, better not think of him, she thought in dismay.

She prowled around the rusting ship and found the little graveyard sited in the churned up soil of the landing, above and to one side of the ship's resting place. Nine metal shafts were etched with the names of the dead: three women and six men. So it had been a mixed crew. The dates were four hundred years ago.

How many generations would that be? Nimisha wondered. If there had been any.

"What was the last registered disappearance that might have been a wormhole eating a ship, helm?" "Say again, ma'am?" helm liked his commands and queries crisp and uncluttered by personal opinion.

"What is the date the last ship disappeared?" "Sixteen years ago, ma'am." well, that was much better than four hundred years, she thought, firmly banishing the sinking feeling of utter despair. She'd already slept away one of that sum.

"Is there any significant interval between disappearances?" there was a definite pause as helm worked on the answer. "A regular pattern cannot be established by the disappearances of ships." "That could be accounted for," doc put in, "by the fact that the disappearances themselves took time to be registered." even sixteen years-and then the problem of catching the wormhole as it opened at this end. But she'd miss so much of cuiva ... her darling daughter ... she gave herself an admonitory shake.

"I've seen all I need to here," she told her ship. "I'm coming back aboard. Helm, please lay in a course for the second anomaly.

We'll fly at a low enough altitude to see if we can spot any abandoned settlement these people may have built." the second blip proved to be the pootheg fsps 9k66e. It had landed circumspectly near a small stream. It, too, showed that it had had a rough passage through the wormhole, with gashes that in one place had damaged the hull integrity.

"She'd have had ten as crew, from the type she is," Nimisha said. "Any word on her?" "She is listed as lost in space, ma'am, sixteen years ago." "We know that. What other information have we on the pootheg ? Can you get a response from the ship?" "I have already been calling and received no answer. I am accessing the comunit. Shall I display the result?" just the last entry now, please, helm." on her screen was the entry, dated fourteen standard years before.

This is lieutenant commander jonagren svangel, acting captain of the pootheg. As we have sustained damage to our drive and cannot make the repairs required, we have voted to leave the ship to explore our immediate surroundings in the shuttle. We hope to make a base camp in the foothills ... a map was inserted, showing the projected goal ... and live off the land. Our botanist says there are enough nontoxic edibles to supply us with a fair diet and we have plenty of additives to supplement what we can gather or hunt. Some of the indigenous animals are ferocious, but they can be avoided. We will try to get back and update this log at regular intervals.

"And didn't, poor wretches," Nimisha murmured.

"Shall I spool back, ma'am?" "No, but copy to our files and for the material we're storing in the beacon."

"Did you intend a physical examination of the ship or its environs ?" helm asked.

"Yes, and break out sidearms for me. I want something that's powerful enough to stop 'ferocious indigenous animals' in their tracks. Obviously the captain of the pootheg met with a disaster," Nimisha said.

:"how do you construe that?" doc asked.

"because an acting captain is making the entry," Nimisha said curtly, on her way to the airlock where she donned the heaviest of her coveralls and attached the repeller harness. "Besides which I can see two graves from here. They were down to eight crew when they left the pootheg." she slid the stunner on to its belt hook and completed her exit apparel with a full-face helmet that had a neck protector. She wouldn't be able to turn her head as easily, but the protection might prove a wise precaution.

She paused briefly by the grave sites, pointing the recorder at the markers. Then she stood at attention for a moment, hand on her heart to salute the service dead. They had died on the same day, two weeks before svangel's final log entry. She wondered where the others had met their ends, since no one had returned to the pootheg to make updates. She detoured slightly to get a sample of the water. The shallow stream burbled down a rocky channel.

Winter run off, if this were the spring of erehwon's year? The water was cold and clear in the sample tube.

The pootheg had been left as shipshape and neat as the older vessel. It had not been stripped of quite as many of its fittings, nor had all the supplies been taken with the marooned. Sixteen years would reduce the supplies the fiver carried to crumbs. And the pootheg was new enough that whatever it had dispensed by way of comestibles could be used by the fiver's catering unit.

However, she could come back when she needed more, if she couldn't find local substitutes.

In fact, since they hadn't taken the small captain's gig, she decided she'd use that for an aerial reconnaissance of their proposed base campsite. And so she informed helm.

"It's got full power. Why waste mine when this is available?" she said in an unarguable reply to helm's polite but negative response to her idea.

"I'll run basic checks on it, but initial readings indicate all systems are go. It's designed, you know," she added with some heat, "to remain in full working order for years, considering the distances exploratory ships have to go. I know the model. It's still in service and I've flown one. It is also supplied with missiles, which my skiff isn't." another oversight on her part: that she hadn't thought to load her skiffs weaponry for the shakedown cruise. Then she added a final rebuttal. "Besides, if there are survivors, they'd recognize it and that would establish my bona fides." on her way, she spotted examples of what anyone would call "ferocious animals." they were the size of trees, and even if someone had stunned one-as the dead captain may have-sheer momentum would have kept them moving forward. The largest one was close to ten meters from ground to undulating shoulder, or what she thought was a shoulder, since the creature did not have definite sections that could be easily labeled "legs" or "body" or "head" or "tail." it was a lump that moved by contracting and expanding its muscular frame along the ground. Nimisha wondered if it was as agile on uneven surfaces as it was on the more or less level one it was now traversing. The front part seemed to swoop down into the grassoid, raising to give her the sight of the appendages of some smaller creature disappearing from view. She didn't see a mouth, as such, or eyes, when the giant creatures raised up their front ends to investigate the gig. She increased her altitude to well above their full length.

That they were aware of her presence could not be denied.

She had patched the gig's comunit into the fiver's to allow helm to make a record of her progress.

"Is there any chance that that life-form can spring from the ground?" helm asked.

"I'm at one hundred meters. I doubt it. But I won't risk the possibility. This is a very alien world. They definitely know I'm above them. Whoops!" several wet and slimy looking rope like objects were hurled at her from the two largest of those raised up from the ground. Neither made contact with the gig.

"Tongues?" Nimisha asked, more of herself than expecting an answer.

"There is nothing remotely similar to this life-form recorded in the xenobiological encyclopedia," helm said "rule out 'tongues," since they have now detached from their primary source." the thick strings fell back to sear the grassoid where they had fallen. Steam rose.

"Whatever you do," helm suddenly said, tone urgent, "do not shoot at them!" "Not that I was going to, but do tell me why?" Nimisha asked.

"On reviewing the tapes, I have ascertained that the captain tried to use a projectile weapon and the segment that he hit dispersed into fragments. He was covered by the substance, which is extremely toxic, and died before anyone could assist him.

Lieutenant senior grade barbra weleda tried to resuscitate him and the toxic material ... transferred itself to her body.

According to the report, there wasn't much left of either to be buried in the graves you honored." "I see," Nimisha said after swallowing against nausea. "I wonder that any of the crew has survived if this is the sort of welcoming committee they met." she flipped on the toggle for the sensors, setting one to find metals and another to locate the polymers used when the pootheg was built. "We'll just see. I'm following their proposed route. They would have been wary of these ... slime slugs."

"An earlier entry by the acting captain indicates that they used the shuttle to make an aerial reconnaissance of considerable depth before they departed to establish a base," helm said.

"They hadn't run out of intelligence, just good luck," she said as she aimed the gig at a narrow gap in the foothills. She left behind the feeding territory of the slime slugs for a winding hilly pass that was strewn with boulders and such debris that slugs could not have writhed through. "Seismic activity?" she asked helm.

"It does not appear to be a very old world, and seismic activity has been noted in the archipelagoes. That debris, however, is more consistent with land or mudslides." "Yes, I think I would agree," she said, looking from one of the steep sides to the other and judging the deposits on the floor of the pass. "No vegetation to attract the hungry. Or bind soil with its root systems." and the rocky path kept those slugs from getting through.

She came out of the pass-there were thirteen bends in all into hilly country, the valleys dotted with many lakes as far as she could see in either direction.

"Definitely glacial formations," helm said, echoing her own thoughts.

"I agree. Rather pretty," she said and then saw more of the big buffalo types grazing. There were other species as well, smaller, and each kept their distance from the other as they ate.

"Over fly one of the lakes, would you please, ma'am? I'd like a reading on any aquatic life, "I should get a sample of the water, too. I'd love to take a full bath," Nimisha said. "The stream by the pootheg isn't deep enough." "When I have checked the denizens of the desired bathing place," helm said sternly.

"Of course, helm." so she hovered over the nearest of the lakes, a brilliant blue reflecting the clear skies above, and sent down a sample tube. She could perceive flowing figures in the water. While the explored galaxy had provided many, many different forms on land, water dwellers seemed to follow basic designs: the bottom feeders, the middle swimmers, and the upper-level insect catchers.

"Bottoms out at thirty meters, along a crest. The shallows support reed and water grasses," Nimisha said. "I'm testing the water." the results followed on her words. "Well, definitely drinkable, with only trace minerals and nothing toxic. I shan't, however, go fishing quite yet." "Nor bathing," helm added repressively.

"That's right." "Alert!" helm's voice reverberated through the speakers in the cabin.

"Whatever for?" "To your port and high up, a flying object of considerable size." Nimisha swung the bow of the gig accordingly.

"Considerable size," she agreed indeed, it was probably larger than the gig.

She reached the toggle to arm the forward missiles.

"It has seen you and is diving," helm warned. I am too far away to be of assistance." "Good thing I took the pootheg's gig then, isn't it?" she said, gaining altitude and setting her sensors to magnify the oncoming menace. " 'ods blood!" she exclaimed, an archaic epithet that one of her more effete acquaintances had resurrected and used for many occasions. "It's twice my size." "More than twice, ma'am. My advice is to fire now." "It's better to wait until I can see the whites of its eyes. If it has any." the gig answered her touch on its control plates with more height and speed. The distance closed between predator and intended victim-she didn't think anything with a head that crammed with teeth and already salivating at the thought of a tasty morsel half its size had friendly intentions. She bracketed her target and sent off two clusters of missiles: one at the blunt skull of the massive avian, and a second to take off one wing. Its body was long and narrow and not a good target yet. If she missed killing it, she had a chance to veer off and come up under to get the belly-if that should happen to be its vulnerable spot.

The first cluster took off the head; the second sheared the left wing, and pieces of the creature rained down to the ground, some of the carcass landing partially in one of the larger lakes. She definitely deserved her rating as crack marksperson, she mused. As she passed over it, the corpse was slightly twitching. She swung around for a second, closer look.

"Sounds!" she exclaimed, swallowing.

"That is phenomenal," doc remarked, evidently accessing her screens.

"I'm beginning to think that the pootheg's crew might have succumbed too, if this is what they had to contend with," she said ruefully as she watched the amazing amount and variety of scavengers that swarmed over the dead flier. They oozed out of the lake and from holes in the hillside; using many varying kinds of propulsion from feet to flippers to a smaller variety of the slime slug mobility they began to feed. "Recording, helm? We'll need to register as many types as possible. All of them carnivorous." " Omnivorous might be the more exact classification," doc remarked.

She turned away from the gorging, rippling mass beneath her and aimed for the foothills.

"If you don't hurry, you'll be late for the party," she said as she saw still more creatures gathering to partake of the feast. Did erehwon give life to anything that wasn't dangerous? What would have happened to her if she had taken a swim in the first of the tempting blue lakes? She shuddered. She would get enough water from the stream by the pootheg to bathe in safety in the fiver.

it was sunset on erehwon when she reached the point indicated on the map as the pootheg's base.

They had chosen well: high up on an isolated plateau, backed against a precipice down which fell a graceful cataract, so they'd had fresh water in easy reach. They had even started to build dwellings out of rock. There was no sign of the larger shuttle they'd used to transport themselves. No sign of discarded equipment either. She landed the gig as close as she could to the half-finished dwellings. No, correction: the shelters had been finished.

The roofs had collapsed inward. Could the avian she had just dispatched or more of its kind, have dive-bombed the houses? She found no corpses, but she did find pots and eating utensils in one, messed up with the debris of the roof. She found scatterings of other possessions and a graveyard containing five larger and six smaller graves. She could see where markers had been hammered in, but no inscriptions remained. As she stood in the evening wind, watching erehwon's sun go down, she rather thought that winter winds could have blown away anything short of a stone slab. Had the winds blown in the roofs? Had the camp been untenable in the i winter season? They would have had the weapons to defend themselves against aerial dive-bombers. Or had such forays continued until their weapons had been emptied? Where had they gone?

"It is respectfully recommended that you return to the fiver, ma am," helm said after a longish pause.

I think you're absolutely right. I'll be with you shortly." and she was, dead tired, and quite ready to eat seconds of the delicious meal cater prepared for her.

"May I respectfully request that further aerial reconnaissance be done by the fiver? The bow is equipped with asteroid defense missiles ," helm said the next morning as she entered the bridge in full protective gear.

"A good notion. I can follow in the gig. It's already been exceedingly useful so far, and I don't think it will fit on the fiver even if I were to remove the skiff." the small skiff, suitable for either planetary use or short hops to a space station or between ships, would have to be abandoned in order to shoehorn the gig into the garage space. She didn't wish to lose any equipment even if the skiff was unarmed and possibly too frail to withstand an attack by the aerial menaces erehwon had spawned.

I recommend a high-altitude search, ma'am." "I concur," she said. "Patch it into the gig." she hoisted the supplies she had collected-food, water, and some heavier weapons and exited the fiver to the gig.

At three thousand meters, they leveled off and retraced her flight to the ruined base camp. She paused briefly at the lake, magnifying the site where the avian had fallen. There wasn't a shred left to show her kill. This was a hungry world, as well as omnivorous. When they reached the base camp, they hovered to take aerial records of the deserted buildings.

"If I were being attacked from under and over, I'd go somewhere no one could reach me," she said. "Lets continue to the mountain range. There may be caves that are suitable." humankind started off in caves, and they were still useful natural refuges on many worlds. Especially when colonists were starting off with only elementary tools with which to create new homes and societies. She had no idea what sort of equipment an exploratory vessel carried as standard supplies. They crossed another high plateau to the rough-toothed crags of the mountain range.

1, metallic object to starboard, ma'am," helm told her as they traversed another deep valley. This one was covered with vegetation that resembled the terran-type forests planted on vega varieties that had adapted to slightly different soils. A robust river followed the course of least resistance toward a distant sea, foaming rapids and flowing into pools that did not tempt her to bathe in them just yet.

The shuttle was visible on the ground. And suddenly a flare lanced into the sky.

"Someone's alive," Nimisha said with a tremendous feeling of relief.

"Three ... no, four humans, one young," helm confirmed.

I think that river meadow will accommodate both of us," Nimisha said. "I'll go in first and explain why I've purloined their gig." I doubt they'll mind," doc said. "I'll want to check them over as soon as possible. This world breeds a lot of peculiar things." "It does indeed," Nimisha heartily agreed. As she swung down and circled to land, she saw that the roof of the shuttle was scarred and dented. She wondered which denizens had been able to leave combat marks on a petralloy hull.

Two men, one of them with the child in his arms, and one woman came racing to the edge of the meadow, shielding their eyes from the glare of the sun. They wore uniforms and coverings of what must be local fur hides. The temperature outside registered as twelve degrees celsius ... cool. The woman wore a long tunic of the most beautiful gray-blue fur. The child was dressed in leather with a fur coat.

"Ma'am, are we glad to see you!" cried the man who reached her first. The other was encumbered with the child and the woman had a noticeable limp. All three were grinning from ear to ear. The child burrowed its head into the man's neck, suddenly shy in the presence of an unknown person.

"Jonagren svangel, ma'am," said the man in the lead, reaching out his hand to grasp hers. "Lieutenant commander and acting captain of the pootheg." "Well done, commander.. she started to say and then saw the ineffable sadness in his face. She was filled with an unexpected desire to see that sadness dispelled.

"There're only the three of us left-and tim, of course," he said as the others arrived. "This is jig casper ontell and ensign syrona lester-pitt." they shook hands amid a babble of greetings until jonagren held up his hand. "You're not the rescue party, are you?" he said, his tanned and weather-beaten face losing the exultation of being found.

"No, in fact, I'm trapped, too," she said. "I'm Nimisha boyntonrondymense. I was doing a shakedown cruise on my ship, there, when it was captured by that damned wormhole. Come, the fiver's landing and I'm sure you'd like a change from whatever rations you might have left." "We've been pretty much living off what we could find," casper said, spreading an arm in the direction of the meadow, river, and forest behind them. "Not everything is toxic." he grimaced.

"Just most," syrona said shyly.

"I've a medical unit, syrona," Nimisha said, leading the way to where the fiver had touched down as delicately as a fashionable lady not wishing to sully her footwear on soil.

"How many in your crew? Were you able to launch a beacon back through the wormhole?" jonagren asked eagerly.

"As I said, I was doing a trial run on my ship - -." all three adults stopped as they took in the sleek lines of the fiver and her scratched hull.

"No, I didn't escape entirely without some damage," she said, seeing them focus on the scrapes. "But nothing that breached hull integrity." "You were lucky," jonagren said ruefully.

"I've no other crew aboard. I use al's for helm, doc, and cater," Nimisha went on and wondered at jonagren's intense look of disappointment. She noticed that it was casper, still holding the child, who took syrona's arm to assist her up the ramp.

"Permission to come aboard," jonagren said at the hatch in the traditional request. His eyes glinted with just a hint of humor. A very likable man, was this jonagren svangel, Nimisha decided.

"Permission most certainly granted," helm said, startling all four new comers.

"Oh!" there was a very professional glare in jonagren's eye.