Nimisha's Ship
- Автор: Маккефри Энн
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Nimisha's Ship». Краткое содержание книги:
When Nimisha takes an experimental ship on a solo test flight, something goes horribly awry, marooning her light-years from home on a planet as deadly as it is beautiful. Now the ruthless members of a rival branch of the Rondymense family are given the chance they've been waiting for: to reclaim the Ship Yards by any means necessary.
Only Nimisha's ingenious child, Cuiva, stands in their way. But for how long? For just when her daughter needs her most, Nimisha is in a precarious situation herself--and unable to help. But Nimisha has never given up in her life--and she's not about to start now . . .
Kendra joined Caleb in the pilot compartment, slipping into the second seat and netting in. Translations out of Interstellar Drive were not likely to be as rough as entering, but this was totally unknown space. There had been bets that Nimisha, discovering herself alone in a strange section of the galaxy, had taken the obvious out and gone into cold sleep. So the Fiver would be nearby. Knowing Nimisha better, Caleb wagered that she'd been exploring-if that had been an option-since she was not the sort of person to avoid a challenge. They'd soon know, and Caleb had Helm plot reentry well away from the beacon so that, if the Fiver were there, they'd not run into her.
Nine minutes can seem a long time. Kendra was tapping her fingers on the armrest by the final second countdown. By then, the entire crew had gathered in the main lounge in the couches that had security straps.
"Eight… seven… six," Helm's voice counted down, and then exactly on "one" they were out of the dark gray interspace and back into black space and a bewildering mass of unfamiliar stars. Helm went into instant evasive action, veering away from a tumbled mass of twisted metal.
"lasassssusss," Kendra said, tightening her hold on the armrests. "That can't be the Fiver!"
Caleb's heart had twisted violently at the fleeting view he'd had of the object, but a second's sober thought steadied his heartbeat. Nimisha had managed to send pulsed messages. So what was that tangled mess of wreckage?
"Messages are pouring in from the beacon, Commander, and analysis suggests that the debris is the remains of the Wormhunter Space Station, not the Fiver."
"What the hell would the space station be doing on this side of the fragging wormhole?" Caleb demanded.
"Latest messages first, Captain," Helm said. "From Captain Meterios-"
"Meterios?" Kendra's voice squeaked in dismay.
"-of the Acclarke courier stationed on the other side of the probable site of the wormhole."
"She shouldn't have been drawn into it," Caleb said. "Her position was a hundred thousand kilometres from Nimisha's beacon."
"How do we know that that wormhole has a stable point of entry?" lan Hadley asked. "The space station wouldn't have stood a snowball's chance in hell if the wormhole opened within even fifty thousand kilometres of it. Can Helm check to see if there are any pods in the wreckage?"
"Later, later," Caleb said. "Let's get the latest reports."
"1 shall screen the earlier ones in the lounge, sir," Helm said. "The Acclarke reports that it saved eleven out of twelve pods, chief astronomer Dr. Qualta having sustained the worst injuries."
"How did the Acclarke weather the passage?" Nazim asked excitedly. He had helped build the Fours that Vegan Fleet had ordered.
"Later, later," Caleb said again, shushing them. "Go on, Helm."
"Messages in the beacon indicate that the Acclarke proceeded immediately to the coordinates left by Lady Nimisha for the first of three M-type planets."
"Nimisha went exploring?" Caleb grinned, having won that bet.
"There are reports of her investigations, with Commander Jon Svangel, of the other two M-type planets relatively close to the initial one. She has named it Erehwon."
"Erehwon?" Kendra exclaimed.
"That's nowhere backward," Cherry Absin-Hadley said with a grin. "Appropriate."
"There is also an encrypted message for you, Commander, which I will forward to your cabin," Helm said. "Numerous pulsed messages have been sent back to Vega, sir. Including the latest from Captain Meterios, dated five days ago, Vegan time."
"What's she still doing here?" Caleb demanded in a rhetorical tone. "I know what orders the Acclarke was given. In the event the courier got drawn into the wormhole, she was to ascertain if Lady Nimisha was alive and then proceed with all possible speed back to Vega."
"She would first have had to deposit the space station survivors wherever Lady Nimisha is," Kendra remarked. "The Acclarke could not manage eleven more passengers."
"In cold sleep it could." Caleb said grimly. Because the entire complement of the Five B's crew was listening, he did not voice his private thought: Whatever had possessed anyone at Vegan Fleet Command to give Nesta Meterios a tour of duty on the Acclarke? He answered himself: It was possibly one of the few places in which she could do the least damage, excluding the sudden appearance of the wormhole, which it should have had the speed to outrun. The Acclarke Helm had been programmed to take command in any emergency, including the reappearance of the worm-hole. Nesta the Nothing would have been merely a passenger.
While Helm kept trying to present a coherent report, everyone had questions, especially about the world Erehwon. Caleb wished to know who this Commander Jonagren Svangel was. Mareena handed him hard copy access from Fleet files, and consequently he learned that Poolbeg had been the last known ship missing in this general area. Captain Panadus Querine had been captain of record, with Lt. Commander Jonagren Svangel listed as executive officer. The Poolbeg was an exploratory service vessel with a crew of ten. Caleb experienced intense relief that Nimisha had not been alone for nearly six years. Not that she wasn't capable of surviving by herself, but to have had company-and the Poolbeg had had a mixed crew-would have made her life there more agreeable.
"Captain," Kendra said suddenly, "they have made contact with aliens also shipwrecked."
"Aliens!"
Kendra grinned at the vehemence in his voice. "Sapient ones, too. since their ship crashed on Erehwon."
"Ship? Space-farers? How fascinating! Work for you, my sweet," lan said to his semantics-trained wife.
"Well, I never," was her astonished response, her green eyes sparkling with anticipation. "Oh, dear, I'd better see if I can locate the translators. I brought them along sort of as an afterthought. Never for one moment thought I'd need them."
"You signed Cuiva off on their use, too, you know," lan called after Cherry, who was running across the lounge. "We'll have plenty of time, honey…" He shrugged as she continued on her way to find the equipment.
"Pretty good detail on the pulsed reports," Gaitama called out, as she was the only one watching the screen in the lounge and the earliest reports. "Planet has some real nasty life-forms. Mareena, come take a look."
Mareena joined the biology ensign in the lounge and gulped when she saw the size of the avians and the immense shaggy creatures. Nimisha had added a human figure to the image to show comparative size.
"Nimisha found other wrecks, not as lucky as the Poolbeg," she added, rewinding the tape to show those.
"That's ancient," Nazim said. "Must have been First Diaspora."
"All right, crew. Helm has stripped the beacon of formal messages," Caleb said, half an eye on the screen as he delivered orders. "Helm's sending a pulse beam indicating our ETA at Erehwon. They've put up an operational comsat so they'll know we've made a safe translation. I'm assuming that the Acclarke has informed them of our imminent arrival."
"An operational comsat?" Kendra repeated with a respectful gleam in her eye. "Well done."
"Any crew member wishing to add a message to a pulse going back to Vega III should have it ready in twenty minutes," Caleb went on. "I don't intend to hang about here. We'll be resuming IS drive in twenty minutes."
"Hey, that's not long enough, Caleb," Nazim protested.
"Write your reams during IS drive, Nazim, and Helm will relay them when we reach Erehwon. Our first priority is to deliver our sleeping beauty to her mother as fast as possible."