The Sculpted Ship

  Dodato opened his eyes.

  “Ah ha!” He shot upright. “At last, an inspiration worthy of my talents!” He began prowling around the table, eyes moving between the Dove and Anailu. “Not just some moving box with an outsized name, but art, undoubtedly brought to me here on this backwater by Art itself!” He stopped close beside Anailu, looking up at her.

  Finally, she'd found the right view, of a standard Dove.

  “Actually, that isn't my exact ship. My ship is actually more like this –” and she transferred the view of a white Dove to the holo.

  Dodato glanced at it, then looked intently at her. She was more than a little disconcerted.

  “Sit!” he commanded, pointing at a chair behind Anailu. She sat. When you were paying for custom designed clothing, weren't they supposed to be nice to you?

  Dodato stared at her face, then turned and touched the holo control, reverting to the previous image.

  “And yet you named your white ship the Silver Queen, eh? Intriguing. And then I must consider you, as well. This grey hair and skin; is it some affectation, religious requirement, cosmetic modification? What?”

  “It's my natural color, sir. I was orphaned and found as a child, and I've never found anyone like me in the Empire, or its records. I don't know what I am, except that it's not a mere cosmetic modification. There's differences in my biochemistry, too.”

  “So perhaps the captain is more unusual than the ship. Excellent.” He began to pace around the room, full of energy, apparently talking to himself. “At last, a worthy commission. Not one of those fools was willing to make a sacrifice for Art, so Art itself has answered my call and brought me true inspiration. I shall give this work my fullest effort.” He stopped suddenly and turned to her. “I must have a sample of your hair, and make a close survey of your face.” For the first, he held several strands of Anailu's hair with tweezers, clipped them with ornate silver scissors, and placed them in a test tube. For the second, he brought up an ornate device to her face, at which point Anailu could see it was just a simple portable micro-scanner in an ornate case. Dodato passed it over Anailu's face. It would record microscopic details about her face, including hairs, pores, skin condition, precise color and reflectivity, for every millimeter of her face.

  “And now, I must request your personal view. There are facilities here...” He waved off toward the main area of Tombes & Tollas.

  Anailu was prepared for this request. When she had initially set up the appointment, though they hadn't mentioned the need for a view of the ship, she had been politely informed of the requirement for a naked 3D view of her body. She didn't need to use the scanner at Tombes & Tollas, though. The laundry facility of the Dove actually included a high quality personal scanner, so she had made the scan there and brought it along on a secure data chip. She handed the chip to Dodato. As she handed it to him, she touched one side with her thumb. As she did, he touched the opposite side with his thumb. That gave him access to the data.

  He took the chip in both hands, almost reverently. “I will guard this with my life, on my honor as a servant of Art.” He took the chip, the hair, and a chip containing the microscan data to a safe attached to the wall, placed them all inside, and locked it. He came back to where Anailu was still seated by the holotable. “And now, my lady captain, for this work, I must see your Silver Queen in person before I may truly begin.”

  He called for Tombes & Tollas' limo, and they flew to the University pad where the Queen rested. Dodato blanked the external windows of the limo, so Anailu couldn't even see out while they flew. Dodato sat across from her, with his eyes closed. When she started to speak to him, he raised his hand and stopped her, saying, “Say nothing unnecessary. It might cloud my view of the Art.”

  They arrived at the pad and landed next to the Queen. They both got out of the limo. Dodato walked around the ship while Anailu stood by the ramp. When he returned, he gestured toward the ramp, so she led the way aboard. She took him forward to the cargo bays first. At the sealed cargo door between Bay 2 and Bay 3, he pointed insistently. She considered that the professor had said nothing about people seeing it, just that it needed to be secure. Well, she supposed she'd stop Dodato if he made a run at the professor's equipment. She opened the door. He stood there a moment, looking forward at Bay 1 and 2. Then he nodded and turned around. She closed and sealed the cargo door, and they continued the silent tour aft. He looked into every compartment, though he only looked for a moment and then continued to the next. After they toured the empty vehicle bay at the stern, they continued the tour on the upper deck, following the same pattern.

  When that was done, he asked, “Is that all the interior compartments?”

  She nodded.

  “Then I wish to go 'topside.'”

  She took him back to the primary lift and then set it to go “all the way to the top,” up through the hull, so that it opened out on the upper surface of the Queen. He proceeded to walk around on the hull. This time, he actually took several minutes, first walking aft, then forward, to the extreme bow. She was a little worried he might fall off, but at least the winds were calm. She hoped he knew what he was doing. Finally he wandered back to her. “I have experienced all I needed here; we may return to my studio.”

  They took the lift back down, but this time they went “all the way to the bottom,” extending the pod down to the ground. They exited the pod, returned to the limo, and rode silently back to Tombes & Tollas. When they arrived and debarked, he turned to her and took her hands. “Thank you, my dear captain, for respecting the needs of my Art. I shall contact you when your uniform is ready. It shall be wonderful.” With that, he turned away without a farewell, without even waiting for her to respond. He went inside, leaving Anailu standing alone – and a little confused – on the landing platform. The shop's valet system lifted her car to the platform just as the limo was departing to the shop's garage. Well, she wasn't sure if she was supposed to do anything else here, but it seemed like someone thought she was ready to depart.

  She'd never dealt with a designer before. Maybe this is just the way it's done?

  Chapter 11: A Good Week

  She still had the rest of the list to take care of, so she started with the next big item: the comm suite. She checked online and then visited all the dealers that seemed like good prospects. By the end of the day, she was pretty sure that only two dealers actually had hardware in stock that met Mr. Torrell's requirements. She also did research on the specific models each had in stock. One model had a reputation for being flaky, failing with no explanation and pretty often, which explained why its price was so reasonable. The other suite, a top-of-the-line StellaSystem 100, was so expensive she couldn't afford it. She did find a used StellaSystem 100 being sold as-is, but it looked like someone had burned out the core modules – and replacing all those parts would still require ordering replacements, which she didn't have time for.

  Maybe, maybe, if she got the pay for the professor's first day of charter, and she was able to get good deals on the other things she needed, then she might be able to afford the StellaSystem model. The only good news was that a comm suite was easy to install, as long as the antennae, wiring, and mounts were already in place, and you knew what you were doing. The Queen had all those still in place, just not the actual comm system itself, and Anailu knew what she was doing – well, kinda. She decided to wait until the end of next week before making a final decision. She could install it that weekend and still be ready for the safari on Monday.

  Maybe Mr. Torrell will let me hold off on buying the comm suite until after this first trip?

  Even if she couldn't afford a quality comm suite right now, she would be able to afford it once she started getting paid for the University contract. She still wanted to be seen as someone who could get things done, not someone who got things half-done, so she pushed away any more thought of plans that didn't involve being 100% ready on time.

  She also got a call from Angela. She'd talked wi
th the University, they'd hammered out the contract, and Angela expected them to reply to Anailu's offer by the next day.

  The next item was bedding. She looked at the various shipfitters, but none of them stocked quality equal to what the Queen already had. They could order it, but they listed a month as the estimated delivery time.

  On a hunch, she looked at the recipes included in the ship's laundry. On any ship, the laundry could clean clothes. On most ships, it could make or repair clothes with a couple materials at a time. Mostly, this meant making or repairing the crew's shipsuits. On the Queen, the laundry was a sophisticated system that make clothing from a wide selection of materials – if you had any loaded. Early on, she'd checked the materials storage of her laundry and found nothing there – not one bolt of cloth or spool of thread.

  The recipe system did have the patterns (or “recipes”) for all the bedding on the ship, with color codes and various compatible options for each material. She took that list, matched it against the materials available here on Doran, picked the least expensive match, and sent that list of materials off to Mrs. Torrell for her approval.

  For the dinnerware, she just checked the online catalogs of local shipfitters. Everything she chose was plain, but all fine quality, including silverware made of actual silver. Any kind of dining-ware for a ship was designed so that if a plate or a glass broke, it would not have sharp edges. That was not likely to happen, but it was tempting fate to go cheap. Before she actually ordered, she had to send her choices to Chef Cabirla for approval, since he was also responsible for the presentation of the food he made.

  The next morning, all she had to do was wait to hear back from Mrs. Torrell, her chef, and the University. In the meantime, she studied more etiquette. It promised to be a long morning.

  Mrs. Torrell got back to her first with her approval of the bedding. As soon as he did, Anailu ordered the materials, in quantities specified by the recipes, with enough for the staterooms, the crew cabins, and sufficient replacements. It was scheduled for delivery that afternoon.

  The chef got back to her later in the morning, with his OK. She placed the order, and her dinnerware was also scheduled for delivery that afternoon.

  She wanted to order basic utilitarian ship dining-ware for the use of the researchers, but she decided to hold off on that until she knew how much the rest of her list was going to cost. If necessary, she could keep using the cheap disposables for now, but buying basic dining-ware would be cheaper in the long run, especially if the research assistants made regular use of her autoprep.

  Finally, finally, the University got back to Angela, and Angela called Anailu right at lunch time. Untsala had accepted her offer. Angela explained the terms. They'd gotten the clauses they wanted, and the University hadn't asked for anything unexpected. Pay would be monthly, with payment within 24 hours of the end of each period. Angela explained that the university was actually paying upfront, month-by-month, but the monies were going into an escrow account with the Shipmaster's Association. When Anailu got paid at the end of the month, it was really those monies being released from the escrow account. By leaving the money in the account for a whole month, neither party had to pay a fee for the escrow. Angela said it was a common arrangement.

  Anailu understood that plan was good in the long run, but it meant she wasn't going to get an immediate cash infusion before the Torrells' safari.

  She also got a notification from Untsala that he wanted to start working the very next day. She didn't have a problem with that, so she confirmed his request.

  That afternoon, the dining-ware order was the first to arrive. She stowed the fine dinnerware in the galley, where it would be safe until the safari. It was not for the researchers. The bedding material also arrived, so she loaded it into the laundry and set it to work making the bedding.

  The only good thing about spending so much time studying etiquette was that it kept Anailu from worrying about the comm system and the uniform. At least she was ahead of schedule with studying.

  Anailu had mentioned to Angela how much she'd disliked the professor's crazy early start. None of the work had to be done at a specific time, so Angela had included a clause that allowed Anailu some control of the schedule for each day's work, including the option of calling for meal breaks for the crew (which was just Anailu). The contract did say that Anailu would have to be available for 40 hours of operations each week, as long as the ship was operational. If she had to work for the Torrells on weekdays, those days would be subtracted from her weekly time requirement. Anailu could also earn a bonus if they worked more than 40 hours in a week. In the initial discussion with the University, Angela had learned the professor didn't know how many locations would have to be scanned, so there was no real estimate of how long the entire project would require. However, Anailu would still get paid for the full contract period if they were able to finish the project early.

  Anailu herself wanted to finish the University contract as soon as possible so she could spend more time searching for the keystone parts. Anailu figured that before the parts were removed, her Dove might have landed anywhere on Doran. Just like she was doing, they could have then flown the ship on CG to Doran City. She knew Orym had focused his search locally, because he believed the ship had been disabled at the starport. Anailu wanted to extend her search across the entire planet. That would require more time than mere weekends would provide.

  If she couldn't track down the keystone parts here on Doran, Plan B would require saving up a lot of money. It would be time-consuming to take passage to the Core Worlds, and it would no doubt be expensive to purchase the parts there, even if she could find them.

  When Anailu confirmed the next day's schedule, she had set the launch time for 9 AM. At 8, the first three assistants arrived, pushing the same carts of parts and tools they'd brought aboard previously. They'd left the W.A.S. uncalibrated after their return, two days before, so all three of them immediately set to work.

  By 8:45, Anailu had taken care of absolutely everything she needed to do on the bridge, so she came down to the boarding compartment to wait on the professor, who still hadn't arrived. The calibration was almost complete. More assistants had arrived, but only four of them were currently working. By 9 AM, they were done. The last of the grad students came racing up the ramp to heckling by the rest of the group, who were sitting in the fold-down seats around the boarding compartment, drinking Anailu's coffee and waiting. Once the latecomer was aboard, Petro, the professor's chief assistant, said, “OK, that's everyone. We're ready to go.”

  Anailu looked outside, then, confused, looked back to Petro. “Everyone? Where's the professor?”

  Petro facepalmed, then looked apologetically at Anailu. “I'm sorry. I should have guessed he wouldn't mention that. For regular scanning trips, the professor doesn't come along. He trusts us to take care of things out in the field.”

  She sighed in annoyance, then she realized it was a good thing. “So how often do you think we'll see him?”

  “Oh, I doubt we'll see him at all, unless we find an anomalous reading, or we make a change to the Beast that he wants to test personally.”

  Anailu smiled slowly. “Then it's time we were on our way.” She went up to the bridge and launched.

  No Untsala and clear skies? What a wonderful day!

  Such a beautiful morning meant it was time for some speed, so as soon as they were clear of the city's flight control zone, she took the Queen up to her maximum licensed altitude to make a straight fast run to the first scan point. If her gaskets weren't so leaky, she could have gone higher, and flown even faster. Soon, she was calling “Final Approach” on the intercom. On the internal camera, she could see the assistants look around with surprise, then move to check their equipment.

  Concerned, Anailu asked, “Any problems?”

  After checking the equipment, they looked up and smiled. “Nope, more stable than sitting on the ground.”

  This time, they had provided the locati
on data with precise altitude information as well, so she slid the Queen the exact position they wanted, setting the ship to hover just over the ground. The Queen held the chosen position as solidly as if she were planted there. Anailu opened the cargo doors and the assistants went to work.

  The rest of the day followed the same pattern: fly to a scan point, hover for the scan, fly to the next spot.

  Near lunchtime, she consulted with Petro; and since they were well ahead of schedule, she stopped halfway to the next scan point for lunch, hovering next to a snowy mountain, with the lounge window facing a beautiful view of the snowy slopes and the rest of the range marching off into the distance. Everyone came to the lounge to eat and talk. It was the most noise she'd had aboard since the naming party. It was strange to think she was only a few years older than they were. She was a captain on her own ship, while they were still students.

  When she found out they were as poorly paid as they were treated, she was shocked. She asked why they didn't just go get good paying jobs as scan techs? Why did they put up with it?

  Petro answered, “We want to research and study scanning science, not just use the equipment, and Dr. Untsala is the leading expert on scanners. I know he's difficult to get along with, but he's also a genius. Every one of us has learned a great deal from him, and … it's exciting to work with him. I've known him for a while, since I was already doing post-doc work with him at Turval University. When he put out the call for assistants for a long-term project here on Doran, we got applicants from all over.” He gestured at the assistants around the lounge. “The ones we selected are some of the smartest people in the Empire.”

  What the hell do you say to that?

  She waved. “Hello, smartest people in the Empire.”

  They laughed.

  She also asked what they were looking for. Petro explained the whole project was just scanning research, looking deeper and with higher resolution. The “Beast” was their nickname for the W.A.S., though not around Dr. Untsala – he didn't like them giving it nicknames. Petro explained that the Beast was one of a kind, more a research tool than scanning instrument. They were actually doing other sensor-related research at the University. If those projects progressed far enough, they would add more sensors to the Beast, or replace some of those on it. Petro explained the research was only happening on Doran because the world was sufficiently civilized and fully habitable, yet much of the surface was untouched by development.