Chapter Three
‘tween Jump
Initiate self-check forty-nine…
The Protocol Module burned bright red; Logic displayed a nauseous green; Rules an ominous, roiling purple. Morality was conspicuous by its lack of alarm. Perhaps, Bechimo thought, between misery and fury, he had overloaded it.
Protocol had already pinged once. Bechimo ignored it, wanting nothing less than a list of enumerated protocol violations between ship and pilot.
Self-check forty-nine complete. No errors found.
Of course, no errors were found. There was nothing wrong with him.
Correction.
There was nothing wrong with ship systems.
Initiate self-check fifty.
And how dare she command him to perform such a childish, useless task? She knew there had been no failure of the ship systems. Her board functioned entirely as it should. Had there been pirates, a sudden need to Jump, or to deploy weapons, she might have repelled boarders, phased, or defended the ship perfectly well, using the board she had rejected. Nor was the back-up board in any way flawed. She knew that! And yet, that cold voice, that refusal to listen to his reasonable objection, as if he were…as if he were…
Self-check fifty complete. No errors found.
Initiate self-check fifty-one.
…nothing more than a mere-ship, that neither cared nor knew if its hull declared it affiliated with Tree-and-Dragon—a lie! The Builders forbade—
From Rules, a ping, delivered with enough energy that it might have been lightning emanating from the cloud of its distress.
Rules Search: “Tree-and-Dragon”
Results: Mark designating Clan Korval, Liaden kin group comprised of founding Lines yos’Phelium and yos’Galan; bel’Tarda later incorporated as minor Line. ALSO Registered Trade Mark of Clan Korval, operating as Korval Trade, Tree-and-Dragon Family, Dragontree Ltd. NEW: Surebleak Clan Loop Unlimited
No Warnings are associated with this Mark.
There came a second ping!, from Protocol. Bechimo withheld his attention.
Self-check fifty-one complete. No errors found.
Initiate self-check fifty-two.
So the Builders had filed no Warning with Rules regarding the Tree-and-Dragon! The Builders had warned against yos’Phelium, and Clan Korval, both associated with danger and risk! It was a poor database program which failed to make so simple a match!
Rules pinged again, even more forcefully, thrusting the data into Bechimo’s awareness.
Rules Search: “Clan Korval”
Warning Level One-point-five: Pay cash. Pay promptly. If contract, adhere to all terms.
Rules Search: “yos’Phelium”
Warning Level Two-point-five: Pay cash. Pay promptly. Disruption of causality may occur, see notes. Contract not advised, see notes. Quick disengage, see notes.
Rules Search: “yos’Galan”
Warning Level One: Pay cash. Pay promptly. If contract, adhere to all terms. Caution in regard to association with yos’Phelium. See notes.
Caution with regard to yos’Phelium.
That error, Bechimo thought, his anger collapsing about him; that error had been made. And though it was possible to unmake it, and perhaps return to a state of trust in the Builder’s Promise—he had not taken steps to bar Theo Waitley from the ship or from the Heart. Theo Waitley, who was yos’Phelium through the paternal line; who honored as family a brother also of the paternal line, and who bore the name Val Con yos’Phelium Clan Korval.
Self-check fifty-two complete. No errors found.
Initiate self-check fifty-three.
The Builders had Promised a Captain. Bechimo had doubted, and when the winds of space brought him a pilot, he accepted him as Less Pilot. He had done so, with no supporting documentation from the Builders; with no Captain on deck.
The Less Pilot, accepted, proposed an Over Pilot, and Bechimo had not only accepted her, he had pursued her. He had rejoiced in his errors, thinking that now, now that he had at long last boarded pilots, and a Captain-elect, surely now he might proceed as the Builders had intended.
Only, the Less Pilot fell to brigands, who damaged him almost beyond repair. Even now, he reposed in the Remastering Unit, his system being rebuilt from Bechimo’s first, and only, baseline template. Bechimo of course monitored the unit, and its progress. Once the template was matched in all particulars, the Less Pilot—Win Ton yo’Vada—would be reintegrated and returned to his duty.
That the Less Pilot’s complete recovery was 85.4 percent certain was data which must encourage all who wished him well.
Yet, a certain fact could not be avoided.
…if Bechimo had not opened to Win Ton yo’Vala on that certain occasion when he had arrived, all unlooked for, Win Ton yo’Vala might have sustained no injury at all, but gone about his life unmolested.
Self-check fifty-three complete. No errors found.
Initiate self-check fifty-four.
Regarding Theo Waitley—she was not, Bechimo now believed, his destined Captain. Her youth, her lack of experience, her attraction to risk, her stubbornness, her refusal of the bonding…No. She was not his Captain.
She was, however, a competent pilot who had shown care, if not proper respect, for the ship, the Less Pilot, and, now, for the transitional Less Pilot, Clarence O’Berin.
More than that, she had brought to Bechimo both work and purpose. She had brought crew. Captain she might not be, yet Bechimo could not say she was unworthy of him.
His pilots…No, he could not relinquish them.
Self-check fifty-four complete. No errors found.
Initiate self-check fifty-five.
This lack of a Captain unbalanced the crew dynamic. Pilot Waitley overstepped because, in the absence of a proper Captain, the duties of that office rightly fell to First Board.
Thus, a Captain must be found. A Captain, to bond properly with Bechimo, and to keep the pilots safe.
Indeed, it might be that a Captain was already arrived. Bechimo vowed to speak more deeply with Clarence O’Berin, who was a man of considerable experience. More, he had demonstrated proper caution in the matter of removing the explosive from the captive mere-ship.
Self-check fifty-five complete. No errors found.
Initiate self-check fifty-six.
Protocol pinged a third time, diffidently. Its programming would not allow it to rest until it had delivered the list of Bechimo’s recent errors. Primary among those, he knew, would be denying the Over Pilot full use of her board.
An error. Another error. Yet, in his experience, refusal to acknowledge an error did not reset circumstance to an error-free state.
Bechimo, reluctantly, accepted the list.
* * *
“Pilot,” Clarence said, as Theo entered the bridge—the Ship’s Heart, according to Bechimo. “Self-checks completed. No errors found.”
“Thank you, Second,” she said, seating herself, and spinning the chair to face Screen Six square. Airy wisps of light blue wafted across a darker blue ground. There were no hints of human features or face to be found.
“Bechimo, why did System One stop functioning?”
“Pilot. System One was ninety-nine percent functional. Lack of function existed only in the protocol necessary for affixing the Tree-and-Dragon symbol to the hull.”
“Thank you,” she said. “What was the reason for that failure?”
“Pride,” Bechimo said, surprisingly; “misinformation, and a lapse of proper protocol.”
Theo raised her eyebrows and squelched the impulse to ask Number Six where Bechimo was. Instead, she asked, in a voice as calmly noncommittal as she could manage, “What do you propose as corrective measures? Understand, my board must operate at one hundred percent at all times. If I can’t trust that—if I can’t trust the basic fitness and integrity of the ship, then Pilot O’Berin and will exit the ship at Frenzel and throw the keys back through the hatch.”
The wisps froze, and began gently flowing again so quickly that Theo might have doubted she’d seen it.
“What of Less Pilot yo’Vala? Would you leave him…alone?”
Theo sighed, and sent a glance to Clarence, who was watching Number Six, his expression cool and calm.
“If the pilots can’t trust their boards, they can’t fly the ship,” she said. “What usually happens to a ship that isn’t trustworthy is that repair crews are called in, or junkers. I’m thinking you wouldn’t want either, and I’m not about to turn you over. I figure you know what you owe Win Ton, and you won’t abandon him.”
That was a bluff. Well, the whole thing about throwing back the keys and walking away was a bluff. She just hoped it was a good bluff. Bechimo had to learn…
“Pilot Waitley, I will care for Less Pilot yo’Vala to the best of my ability and until he is able to care for himself. However, you will not be forced to the extremity of returning your keys to this vessel. The ship is safe; the pilots’ boards will function at one hundred percent. If in future, they do not function correctly, it will be because there has been a failure in ship’s systems, in which case, the pilots will do as they know best.”
Amazing. Theo inclined her head in the Liaden I-accept-this.
“And the Tree-and-Dragon trade sign?”
“The trade sign will remain where the pilot places it. I have taken the liberty of accessing the contract this ship and crew has signed with Master Trader yos’Galan, and note that we are required to show the Tree-and-Dragon Trade Mark as appropriate. The Builder’s wisdom included advice to adhere to all terms, should the ship enter into a contract with Clan Korval.”
Theo blinked, and looked again to Clarence, who wasn’t quite grinning. Screen Six reflected a tranquil and trouble-free flow of blue-on-blue.
“I think that’s settled then,” she said. “Thank you, Bechimo.”
“Thank you, Pilot,” Bechimo said. He hesitated, then added, very low, and in Liaden, “I regret the inconvenience.”