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 . . .
"Aye, aye, sir," was Nazim's prompt reply, and he bolted down the corridor to his own cabin.
"Twenty minutes, Nazim," Caleb called after him.
"Helm, is there anything worth saving from that space station?" Caleb asked.
"The metal and perhaps smaller objects," Helm replied.
"I shot a warning and light beacon over to it, Captain," Kendra said, "to ward off any possible collision."
"Good idea," Caleb said, as he netted in for translation. "Though why Meterios neglected to do so is something I shall have a word with her about. I suspect there'll be more traffic rather than less if Nimisha's planet has aliens. Just like her to find some."
"Some people do have a knack of turning disaster into triumph," Kendra said with a mischievous grin.
"Nimisha certainly does," he agreed, and gave her hand on the armrest an affectionate squeeze.
Her ability to maintain a light touch was one of the qualities about her that Caleb particularly enjoyed in their relationship. He'd never been quite sure when Nimisha was being humorous or subtly sarcastic; being able to relax with Kendra had been an especial boon on this long voyage. She was also assiduous in separating their personal life from their professional.
"Fifteen minutes," Caleb said over the com. "Sent your pulse, Kennie?"
"First in," she said.
"If you'll be good enough to send the official pulse to Fleet Headquarters. I'll have time to send Lady Rezalla reassurance."
She nodded and began to key in the obligatory notice while Caleb, pausing to word his note carefully, sent a privately encrypted message to the Boynton House. He discreetly commented that Lady Cuiva was enjoying excellent health, had completed all the lessons and tutorials sent for her instruction, and was looking forward eagerly to rejoining her mother.
"Translation in thirty seconds," Helm announced and in the main lounge, Caleb and Kendra heard the scurry of people making for secure seating.
"I don't know what it is, Karpla," Doc said, and Nimisha had an image of Lord Naves stroking his chin and shaking his head in perplexity as he regarded the state of Brad Karpla's naked body under the plastic canopy. She could see the dust that oozed in little gouts from the pustules.
He had been complaining of a skin irritation for several days and, although he had seen the Acclarke medic, when the irritation began to spread with alarming speed to cover even the soles of his feet, Captain Meterios had insisted that he consult the more sophisticated system. They had been a ludicrous pair on their entry, the smaller captain supporting the taller, heavier gunnery officer up the steps and to the diagnostic unit. Traces of the gray powder that the irritation exuded clung to her uniform, and she had asked permission to use the Fiver's facilities to wash and brush it off.
"Use the farthest cabin, Captain," Nimisha said. "The children are presently asleep in the two closer ones."
"Where have you been, Karpla?" Doc went on, his extendibles busy brushing the powder onto slides, disclosing the odd boil-like pustules covering Karpla's body.
"Hunting," Karpla said, squirming on the couch in an attempt to ease the intolerable itching on his back. "Took a gang of the Sh'im kids-with permission, sir," he added, craning his neck around to address Jon, "to hunt in the mountains."
"Did they warn you about any of the vegetation?" Doc asked.
"Well, I guess they did, but it was much quicker to go through the thickets. We'd spotted a covey of a-alli and you know what good eating they are. 'Sides, these coveralls are pretty impervious to most of the thorns and prickers this planet grows. Would you for mercy's sake stop the fraggin' itching, Doc?" The gunnery officer's plea came out as a nearly hysterical invocation.
"I've already given you a broad antihistamine, Karpla. It should be working," Doc said. "Let me get some idea of what causes it, and I'll knock you out until we come up with a remedy. You'll skin yourself if you keep on doing that." Karpla was writhing violently.
Jon could now see how Karpla had scratched all over himself in an effort to ease the discomfort. His fingernails were bloody and broken, with the gray powder caked under them.
"That fragging thicket caused it. Nothing else on this fragging planet's bothered me. Has to be that."
"Describe the plant?"
"lasssus, will you stop the itching!"
"I must be sure no one else is caught out as you've been."
Karpla wailed in anxiety.
"I suspect the Sh'im tried to make Karpla avoid the bushes. Surely you've enough for analysis now, haven't you?" Jon didn't have much use for the dedicated hunter, but the man's suffering need not be prolonged.
"Pullease." Karpla was patently in anguish.
Jon didn't see the hypospray, but abruptly Karpla's arching body relaxed, eyes fluttering shut in the next instant.
"Don't come any nearer, Jon." The extendibles within the diagnostic unit were spreading a sheet over Karpla's inert body right up to his ears. The pustules, which had crept up his throat to his face, had stopped on his chin, giving him a vile gray lumpy "beard" along the jawline.
Suddenly the air circulatory system came on full blast, plastering Jon's coverall to him.
"Nimisha, stand near Jon and let the vents clear any possible spores that might have reached you, too," Doc said. "I suspect the powder is airborne. Whether it's infectious or contagious, I haven't yet decided. But you don't want to run the risk."
"The children?" Nimisha realised she'd sent the captain down the passageway past the doors to their cabins.
"Good tight seal on those doors, and Helm's already ordered a complete vacuuming."
"But what is it?" Nimisha asked, hand on her throat in her anxiety. Jon started to put a comforting arm about her and cancelled the action.
"Should we shower?" he asked.
"I'd advise it, and I'm preparing a thoroughly stinky but quite effective gel to use."
"How do you know it's stinky?" Nimisha asked, irritable with anxiety. "You have no olfactory organs."
"Because my program tells me the components stink."
"Oh."
"Go shower."
Quite a breeze whipped through the ship since Doc had Helm open the garage hatch and all doors but those on the children's cabins.
"What is going on?" Captain Meterios demanded, leaning into the wind as she returned. It abated just as she reached one end of the medical unit. A quick peek proved to her that Karpla's body was now decently covered.
"Clearing the air, Captain," Doc said.
"What's the matter with Karpla? You've sedated him?"
"The irritation was quite unbearable, Captain. If you will call a stretcher team, he can be returned to his own quarters on the Acclarke."
"Your diagnosis?" Meterios stood hands behind her back, looking quite provoked.
"An extreme allergic reaction to vegetation. I have found no comparison for either the dust or the pustules in my exotic disease data banks. An empirical treatment to relieve his extreme discomfort was necessitated."
"Allergy?"
"Karpla, on his most recent hunting expedition, apparently ploughed through bushes which the Sh'im avoided. I suspect he would have been wiser to follow their example," Doc said at his mildest.
Meterios was severely irritated as she spoke into her wrist com and ordered a stretcher team on the double. "How long is he likely to be afflicted with this… this local allergy?"
"I am running tests on it at this moment, Captain, and will forward the results to you at the Acclarke."
"I shall have to set up a watch on him, I suppose."
"That won't be necessary, Captain. I've put him in cold sleep."