Free Survey Ship by Marion Zimmer Bradley Page A

here,” she said, looking with tender farewell at the exquisite delicacy of the sail shivering across the stars, “the sails are programmed to trim themselves; strictly speaking, we could leave the Bridge now and spend the next four years or so playing string quartets and making love in our cabins. Each of us ought to check in here on our instruments once every shift or so, but mostly that's busy-work. Once our course is set, that's it.” And she wondered why a faint, sick shiver went through her at the words; and she remembered her younger self, crying and refusing to step on a piece of playground equipment which, a few minutes later, cast several of her playmates, and one of her counselors, to the ground in screaming heaps. .. .
    Angrily, she dismissed the thought. I'm tired and sick and I think I have a touch of gravity sickness and I'm making up nightmares and calling it ESP! Because there had been times when her erratic wild talent had played her false, giving her a warning of trouble which never happened, especially when there was something
     she particularly wanted not to do.
    Ching, accustomed from early childhood to rely on computer-set certainties, nodded at Moira's words. She said, “Actually, we're just along for the ride. The computers run the ship.”
    “Actually, I was thinking that myself,” Teague said. “It seems that you and Moira are doing all the real work of the ship, and it might make more sense to put the four of us others into suspended animation. When we reached a planet, you could wake us up, we'd still be young and stronger than we would otherwise, and we could do the survey work on that planet...”
    “I don't know about you,” Moira said, “but I don't think I'd care to make a voyage of nine point something years to the T-5 cluster without more company than Ching. No offense intended, Ching, but it's a known psychological fact — Fontana, I'm right, aren't I? — that any two people alone together will drive each other crazy and murder each other.”
    Fontana chuckled. She said, “It has been known to happen. It's true; that's why the minimal crew for a Survey Ship has to be at least four people, and six is better. That gives everybody some privacy, and somebody new to talk to now and then. Even as it is, we're likely to get bored with each other's company.”
    Although Ching knew that Moira's words were not personally intended, she still felt somehow wounded. But at least, she thought, they know that I — and the computer — have set the major work of the Ship. Peake plotted the co-ordinates and the course, but it was the computer which gave it to him. The computer and I. Very precisely, intending to wound a little, she said, “I don't know about you, Moira, I can well understand that you might need a certain amount of diversion on
     a long voyage, but I think it would be interesting to experiment with a Survey Ship staffed by one human and one computer. I would gladly have volunteered for such a voyage. I'm not afraid of my own company, and I don't need to hide from it. With this computer — “ and only Moira saw, and understood, the affectionate touch of her fingers on the console, ” — I don't really think I would need anyone else on the voyage. After all, I went through the Academy as a loner, and I'm used to it.”
    Ravi looked at the immensity beyond the window and said, “We are all alone, fundamentally, with the universe — ” but he said it so softly that no one else heard.
    Moira stood up and went to Ching. She said, very gently, “But you weren't alone, and I think if you were really alone, with the computer, you'd go crazy. I know I would.”
    “I know you would, too,” Ching said, stiff against the friendly arm Moira slid around her waist, and Moira sighed and let her go. It was, after all, impossible to be friendly with Ching. She had tried it before, and been rebuffed in the same way, and here she was, stuck with her for the indefinite future.
    Ching, her