Star Dragon | Page 9

I saw the way she looked at you at the briefing."
Fisher raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.
"Now, I haven't shipped out with Fang before, but there's talk in the corporate fleets.
She's one of the real old-timers, three-hundred-years old or something they say. Don't
know what time-frame, but plenty old. Still into chain of command and protocol, thinks
sleeping with crew is inappropriate. It's silly for her to be like that, don't you think? What
with super-fast autobrains running the ship for the most part. The only real crew under
her is Henderson and myself. Devereaux's job description doesn't fall under ship
operations, but from what I hear, Fang isn't a dyke. Ergo, she'll grab you. Be pretty
discrete, maybe, but grab you she will. What do you think of that?"
"I think the captain's business is none of your business."
Stearn laughed. "On a ship with an all-seeing intelligence and five people cooped up
together for two years, no one's business is private."
"I don't really care," said Fisher, "as long as we get the dragon."
What a boring guy! Well, it was a long trip. Stearn was sure he'd loosen up eventually.
He had better, or it was going to be a very long trip.
"Do you think she will?" Fisher asked after a moment. "I mean, wouldn't it be more
reasonable for everyone to have their hormones adjusted for minimal libidos for the sake
of maximum efficiency?"
Stearn stifled a grin. "No one ever does that! I thought you'd been on long trips before,
Fish!"
"Don't call me Fish, please."
"Right. I'll try to remember that," Stearn said, taking good note. He looked forward to the
challenge of having fun every possible minute of this mission. The games were only
beginning.
The shuttle fired briefly to shed velocity and they descended into the maw of the

Karamojo.
#
Axelrod Henderson kept his tsk tsk to himself as the airlock sphincter irised open
revealing two of the greatest fashion disasters he had ever had the misfortune to witness
paired together. The Jack, Stearn, mindlessly followed the latest bod trends, none of
which had interested the biotech in at least a half century. The exobiologist was
marginally better, with the good looks of a Homo sapiens version 1.1, but he wore
ghastly black duradenim from head to streakers. The fabric was not supposed to wrinkle,
but it had.
"Good morning, Dr. Fisher," Henderson said, pointedly ignoring Stearn whom he had
already identified as an uninteresting boy. "The captain requested I give you a tour upon
your arrival."
The Jack floated through the lock slowly, propelling himself with those ridiculous ear
paraphernalia; Henderson imagined tiny Greek slaves chained to tiny oars sitting inside
Stearn's head, powering his body like a barge -- and probably thinking for him as well.
Behind him, Fisher nodded, and kicked forward in a manner showing some degree of
competency in microgravity. Neither appeared to be suffering ill effects from the freefall;
Henderson hoped that indicated their internal biologicals were good enough they
wouldn't harass him for repairs during the voyage.
"I have a lot of work to get started on. I'm sure I'll have plenty of time to get acquainted
with the Karamojo's features," said Fisher.
"The tour won't take long, I promise."
Fisher pressed his lips together, as if making a difficult decision, and said, "Okay."
"My biochip's loaded with the ship schematics," Stearn said. "I could give the tour."
"I'm sure, but the captain asked me to give the tour." Henderson spun and kicked off
down the curving tunnel, trusting them to follow. "The whole ship is made of stacked
rings. There's some flexibility built-in, and they can be made to rotate and twist
individually to shift between gravitational modes." Henderson turned into a tube and
floated past four rings. "These connect the rings. Now you know how to get from
anywhere to anywhere in the ship's front torus."
"What are these air fish we keep passing?" Fisher asked.
One of the blowfish-shaped creatures drifted by his head. Swatting it away Henderson
answered, "Mobile biorecyclers for our semi-closed system, effective in freefall or under
gravity -- you should watch where you step. The fish keep things clean. Most dust is
sloughed-off human skin, so that's their primary diet. The old or malfunctioning fish are
in turn eaten by the cats, so don't be disturbed if you catch sight of one of the sneaky
creatures slinking about."

Henderson kicked off around another quarter of the ring, and stopped in front of a large
fleshy portal.
"I know where we are," Stearn said.
"I'm sure you do." Henderson tapped a panel and the portal irised, sphincter-like, onto a
paradise. In the distance loomed a snow-covered mountain casting a long shadow across
a savanna, complete