McCaffrey, Anne - BB Ship 5 & 6 - Ship Who Saved the Worlds - with jody Nye.pdf - Anne McCaffrey - aro164

The Ship Who Saved the Worlds

Cover

The Ship Who Saved the Worlds

Anne McCaffrey

& Jody Lynn Nye

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.

form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403

Riverdale, NY 10471

www.baen.com

ISBN: 0-7434-7171-7

Cover art by Carol Heyer

First Megabooks hardcover printing, December 2003

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

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

by Anne McCaffrey & Mercedes Lackey

The City Who Fought

by Anne McCaffrey & S.M. Stirling

(Also available in one volume: Brain Ships)

The Ship Who Won

by Anne McCaffrey & Jody Lynn Nye

The Ship Errant

by Jody Lynn Nye

(Also available in one volume:

The Ship Who Saved the Worlds)

The Ship Avenged

by S.M. Stirling

Baen Books by Jody Lynn Nye

Waking In Dreamland

School of Light

The Grand Tour

Don't Forget Your Spacesuit, Dear (editor)

The Ship Who Won

Chapter One

The ironbound door at the end of the narrow passageway creaked open. An ancient man

peered out and focused wrinkle-lapped eyes on Keff. Keff knew what the old one saw: a ma-

ture man, not overly tall, whose wavy brown hair, only just beginning to be shot with gray, was

arrayed above a mild yet bull-like brow and deep-set blue eyes. A nose whose craggy shape

suggested it may or may not have been broken at some time in the past, and a mouth framed

by humor lines added to the impression of one who was tough yet instinctively gentle. He was

dressed in a simple tunic but carried a sword at his side with the easy air of someone who

knew how to use it. The oldster wore the shapeless garments of one who has ceased to care

for any attribute but warmth and convenience. They studied each other for a moment. Keff

dipped his head slightly in greeting.

"Is your master at home?"

"I have no master. Get ye gone to whence ye came," the ancient spat, eyes blazing. Keff

knew at once that this was no serving man; he'd just insulted the High Wizard Zarelb himself!

He straightened his shoulders, going on guard but seeking to look friendly and non-

threatening.

"Nay, sir," Keff said. "I must speak to you." Rats crept out of the doorway only inches from

his feet and skittered away through the gutters along the walls. A disgusting place, but Keff

had his mission to think of.

"Get ye gone," the old man repeated. "I've nothing for you." He tried to close the heavy,

planked door. Keff pushed his gauntleted forearm into the narrowing crack and held it open.

The old man backed away a pace, his eyes showing fear.

"I know you have the Scroll of Almon," Keff said, keeping his voice gentle. "I need it, good

sir, to save the people of Harimm. Please give it to me, sir. I will harm you not."

"Very well, young man," the wizard said. "Since you threaten me, I will cede the scroll."

Keff relaxed slightly, with an inward grin. Then he caught a gleam in the old man's eye,

which focused over Keff's shoulder. Spinning on his heel, Keff whipped his narrow sword out

of its scabbard. Its lighted point picked out glints in the eyes and off the sword-blades of the

three ruffians who had stepped into the street behind him. He was trapped.

One of the ruffians showed blackened stumps of teeth in a broad grin. "Going somewhere,

sonny?" he asked.

"I go where duty takes me," Keff said

"Take him, boys!"

His sword on high, the ruffian charged. Keff immediately blocked the man's chop, and ri-

posted, flinging the man's heavy sword away with a clever twist of his slender blade that left

the man's chest unguarded and vulnerable. He lunged, seeking his enemy's heart with his

blade. Stumbling away with more haste than grace, the man spat, gathered himself, and

charged again, this time followed by the other two. Keff turned into a whirlwind, parrying,

thrusting, and striking, holding the three men at bay. A near strike by one of his opponents

streaked along the wall by his cheek. He jumped away and parried just before an enemy

skewered him.

"Yoicks!" he cried, dancing in again. "Have at you!"

He lunged, and the hot point of his epee struck the middle of the chief thug's chest. The

body sank to the ground, and vanished.

"There!" Keff shouted, flicking the sword back and forth, leaving a Z etched in white light

on the air. "You are not invincible. Surrender or die!"

Keff's renewed energy seemed to confuse the two remaining ruffians, who fought disjoin-

tedly, sometimes getting in each other's way while Keff's blade found its mark again and

again, sinking its light into arms, shoulders, chests. In a lightning-fast sequence, first one,

then the other foe left his guard open a moment too long. With groans, the villains sank to the

ground, whereupon they too vanished. Putting the epee back into his belt, Keff turned to con-

front the ancient wizard, who stood watching the proceedings with a neutral eye.

"In the name of the people of Harimm, I claim the Scroll," Keff said grandly, extending a

hand. "Unless you have other surprises for me?'

"Nay, nay." The old man fumbled in the battered leather scrip at his side. From it he took a

roll of parchment, yellowed and crackling with age. Keff stared at it with awe. He bowed to the

wizard, who gave him a grudging look of respect.

The scroll lifted out of the wizard's hand and floated toward Keff. Hovering in the air, it un-

rolled slowly. Keff squinted at what was revealed within: spidery tracings in fading brown ink,

depicting mountains, roads, and rivers. "A map!" he breathed.

"Hold it," the wizard said, his voice unaccountably changing from a cracked baritone to a

pleasant female alto. "We're in range of the comsats." Door, rats, and aged figure vanished,

leaving blank walls.

"Oh, spacedust," Keff said, unstrapping his belt and laser epee and throwing himself into

the crash seat at the control console. "I was enjoying that. Whew! Good workout!" He pulled

his sweaty tunic off over his head, and mopped his face with the tails. The dark curls of hair

on his broad chest may have been shot through here and there with white ones, but he was

grinning like a boy.

"You nearly got yourself spitted back there," said the disembodied voice of Carialle, simul-

taneously sending and acknowledging ID signals to the SSS-900. "Watch your back better

next time."

"What'd I get for that?" Keff asked.

"No points for unfinished tasks. Maps are always unknowns. You'll have to follow it and

see," Carialle said coyly. The image of a gorgeous lady dressed in floating sky blue chiffon

and gauze and a pointed hennin appeared briefly on a screen next to her titanium column.

The lovely rose-and-cream complected visage smiled down on Keff. "Nice footwork, good sir

knight," the Lady Fair said, and vanished. "SSS-900, this is the CK-963 requesting permission

to approach and dock—Hello, Simeon!"

"Carialle!" The voice of the station controller came through the box. "Welcome back! Per-

mission granted, babe. And that's SSS-900-C, now, C for Channa. A lot's happened in the

year since you've been away. Keff, are you there?"

Keff leaned in toward the pickup. "Right here, Simeon. We're within half a billion klicks.

Should be with you soon."

"It'll be good to have you on board," Simeon said. "We're a little disarrayed right now, to

put it mildly, but you didn't come to see me for my housekeeping."

"No, cookie, but you give such good decontam a girl can hardly stay away," Carialle

quipped with a naughty chuckle.

* * *

"Dragon's teeth, Simeon!" Keff suddenly exclaimed, staring at his scopes. "What

happened around here?"

"Well, if you really want to know . . ."

* * *

The scout ship threaded its way through an increasingly cluttered maze of junk and debris

as they neared the rotating dumbbell shape of Station SSS-900. After viewing Keff's cause for

alarm, Carialle put her repulsors on full to avoid the very real possibility of intersecting with

one of the floating chunks of metal debris that shared a Trojan point with the station. Skiffs

and tugs moved amidst the shattered parts of ships and satellites, scavenging. A pair of

battered tugs with scoops on the front, looking ridiculously like gigantic vacuum cleaners, de-

scribed regular rows as they sieved up microfine spacedust that could hole hulls and vanes of

passing ships without ever being detected by the crews inside. The cleanup tugs sent hails as

Carialle passed them in a smooth arc, synchronizing herself to the spin of the space station.

The north docking ring was being repaired, so with a flick of her controls, Carialle increased

thrust and caught up with the south end. Lights began to chase around the lip of one of the

docking bays on the ring, and she made for it.

* * *

" . . . so that was the last we saw of the pirate Belazir and his bully boys," Simeon finished,

sounding weary. "For good, I hope. My shell has been put in a more damage resistant casing

and resealed in its pillar. We've spent the last six months healing and picking up the pieces.

Still waiting for replacement parts. The insurance company is being sticky and querying every

fardling item on the list, but no one's surprised about that. Fleet ships are remaining in the

area. We've put in for a permanent patrol, maybe a small garrison."

"You have had a hell of a time," Carialle said, sympathetically.

"Now let's hear the good news," Simeon said, with a sudden surge of energy in his voice.

"Where've you been all this time?"

Carialle simulated a trumpet playing a fanfare.

"We're pleased to announce that star GZA-906-M has two planets with oxygen-breathing

life," Keff said.

"Congratulations, you two!" Simeon said, sending an audio burst that sounded like thou-

sands of people cheering. He paused, very briefly. "I'm sending a simultaneous message to

Xeno and Explorations. They're standing by for a full report with samples and graphs, but me

first! I want to hear it all."

Carialle accessed her library files and tight-beamed the star chart and xeno file to

Simeon's personal receiving frequency. "This is a precis of what we'll give to Xeno and the

McCaffrey, Anne - BB Ship 5 & 6 - Ship Who Saved the Worlds - with jody Nye.pdf

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