A Deepness in the Sky by Vernor Vinge Read Free Book Online

worthless. This time...maybe "Mama"had put her up to this. Kira Pen Lisolet's outlook had been formed very far away, about as far as you could get and still be in the Qeng Ho realm; maybe she thought a teenage apprentice could affect things just because he was from an owner's Family. Damn...
    The shift passed without further insight. He'd be off in fifteen hundred seconds. If he skipped lunch, he had time to change clothes...time to ask for an appointment with Captain Park. In the two years subjective that he'd been with the expedition, he had never presumed on his Family connections.And what good can I really do now? Could I really break a stalemate? He dithered around that worry through the end of the shift. He was still dithering as he chucked his bactry coveralls...and...called the Captain's Audience Secretary.
    Qiwi's grin was as insolent as ever. "Tell 'em straight, Vinh. This has to be an armsman operation."
    He waved her silent, then noticed that his call hadn't gone through. Blocked? For an instant, Ezr felt a pang of relief, then saw he was preempted by an incoming order...from Captain Park's office. "To appear at 5.20.00 at the Fleet Captain's planning room..." What was the ancient curse about getting one's wish? Ezr Vinh's thoughts were distinctly muddled as he climbed to the temp's taxi locks.
    Qiwi Lin Lisolet was no longer in evidence; what a wise little girl.

    The meeting was not with some staff officer. Ezr showed up at the Fleet Captain's planning room on the QHSPham Nuwen, and there was the Fleet Captain...and the expedition's Trading Committee. They did not look happy. Vinh got only a quick glimpse before coming to attention at the bracing pole. Out of the corner of his eyes he did a quick count. Yes, every one of them was here. They hung around the room's conference table, and their gaze did not seem friendly.
    Park acknowledged Ezr's brace with a brusque wave of his hand. "At ease, Apprentice." Three hundred years ago, when Ezr had been five, Captain Park had visited the Vinh Family temp in Canberra space. His parents had treated the fellow royally, even though he wasn't a senior ship's master. But Ezr remembered more the parkland gifts from what seemed a genuinely friendly fellow.
    At their next encounter, Vinh was a seventeen-year-old would-be apprentice and Park was outfitting a fleet to Triland. What a difference. They had spoken perhaps a hundred words since, and then only at formal expedition occasions. Ezr had been just as glad for the anonymity; what he wouldn't give for a return to it now.
    Captain Park looked as though he had swallowed something sour. He glanced around at the members of the Trading Committee, and Vinh suddenly wondered just whom he was angry at. "Young V—Apprentice Vinh. We have an...unusual...situation here. You know the delicacy of our situation now that the Emergents have arrived." The Captain didn't seem to be looking for an acknowledgment, and Ezr's "yessir" died before it reached his lips. "At this point we have several courses of action possible." Again a glance at the Committee members.
    And Ezr realized that Qiwi Lisolet hadn't been spouting complete nonsense. A Fleet Captain had absolute authority in tactical situations, and normally a veto vote on strategic issues. But for major changes in expedition goals, he was at the mercy of his Trading Committee. And something had gone wrong with the process. Not an ordinary tie; Fleet Captains had a deciding vote in cases such as that. No, this must be a deadlock verging on a mutiny of the management class. It was a situation the teachers always mumbled about in school, but if it ever happened, then just maybe a junior owner would become a factor in the decision process. Sort of a sacrificial goat.
    "First possibility," continued Park, oblivious of the unhappy conclusions rattling around in Vinh's head. "We play the game the Emergents propose. Joint operations. Joint control of all vehicles in this upcoming groundside