Brain Ships - Anne McCaffrey [0]
Anne McCaffrey
Mercedes Lackey
Margaret Ball
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2003 by Bill Fawcett & Associates. The Ship Who Searched © 1992 by Bill Fawcett & Associates; PartnerShip © 1992 by Bill Fawcett & Associates.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form.
A Baen Books Original
Baen Publishing Enterprises
P.O. Box 1403
Riverdale, NY 10471
www.baen.com
ISBN: 0-7434-7166-0
Cover art by Tom Kidd
First printing in this format, November 2003
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
1230 Avenue of the Americas
New York, NY 10020
Production by Windhaven Press, Auburn, NH
Printed in the United States of America
Baen Books by Anne McCaffrey
The Planet Pirate Series:
Sassinak (with Elizabeth Moon)
The Death of Sleep (with Jody Lynn Nye)
Generation Warriors (with Elizabeth Moon)
Also available in a one-volume book:
The Planet Pirates
The "Brainship" Series:
The Ship Who Searched (with Mercedes Lackey)
Partnership (with Margaret Ball)
(available in one volume as Brain Ships)
The City Who Fought (with S.M. Stirling)
The Ship Who Won (with Jody Lynn Nye)
The Ship Errant by Jody Lynn Nye
The Ship Avenged by S.M. Stirling
Baen Books by Mercedes Lackey
BARDIC VOICES
The Lark & the Wren
The Robin & the Kestrel
The Eagle & the Nightingales
The Free Bards (omnibus)
Four & Twenty Blackbirds
Bardic Choices:
A Cast of Corbies
(with Josepha Sherman)
The Fire Rose
Fiddler Fair
Werehunter
Wing Commander:
Freedom Flight
(with Ellen Guon)
Lammas Night
(ed. by Josepha Sherman)
URBAN FANTASIES
Bedlam's Bard
(omnibus with Ellen Guon)
Beyond World's End
(with Rosemary Edghill)
Spirits White as Lightning
(with Rosemary Edghill)
Mad Maudlin
(with Rosemary Edghill)
The SERRAted Edge:
Chrome Circle (with Larry Dixon)
The Chrome Borne
(omnibus with Larry Dixon)
The Otherworld
(omnibus with Mark Shepherd
& Holly Lisle)
THE BARD'S TALE NOVELS
Castle of Deception
(with Josepha Sherman)
Fortress of Frost & Fire
(with Ru Emerson)
Prison of Souls
(with Mark Shepherd)
THE SHIP WHO SEARCHED
Anne McCaffrey & Mercedes Lackey
CHAPTER ONE
The ruby light on the com unit was blinking when Hypatia Cade emerged from beneath the tutor's hood, with quadratic equations dancing before her seven-year-old eyes. Not the steady blink that meant a recorded message, nor the triple-beat that meant Mum or Dad had left her a note, but the double blink with a pause between each pair that meant there was someone Upstairs, waiting for her to open the channel.
Someone Upstairs meant an unscheduled ship—Tia knew very well when all the scheduled visits were; they were on the family calendar and were the first things reported by the AI when they all had breakfast. That made it Important for her to answer, quickly, and not take the time to suit up and run to the dig for Mum or Dad. It must not have been an emergency, though, or the AI would have interrupted her lesson.
She rubbed her eyes to rid them of the dancing variables, and pushed her stool over to the com-console so she could reach all the touch-pads when she stood on it. She would never have been able to reach things sitting in a chair, of course. With brisk efficiency that someone three times her age might have envied, she cleared the board, warmed up the relay, and opened the line.
"Exploratory Team Cee-One-Two-One," she enunciated carefully, for the microphone was old, and often lost anything not spoken clearly. "Exploratory Team Cee-One-Two-One, receiving. Come in, please. Over."
She counted out the four-second lag to orbit and back, nervously. One-hypotenuse, Two-hypotenuse, Three-hypotenuse, Four-hypotenuse. Who could it be? They didn't get unscheduled ships very often, and it meant bad news as often as not. Planet pirates, plague, or slavers. Trouble with some of the colony-planets. Or worse—artifact thieves in the