Changeling by Steve Miller, Sharon Lee and Steve Miller Read Free Book Online Page B

the pillow, then lay down for a second time.
    He was asleep before the timer turned the
room lights off.
    * * *
    ON ITS FACE, THE case had
been simple enough: A catastrophe had overtaken two first class
pilots. First board was dead; second nearly so, and Guild law
required that such matters be reviewed and judged by a Master
Pilot. So the Guild had called upon Master Pilot Shan yos'Galan
Clan Korval, Master Trader and Captain of the tradeship Dutiful Passage .
    Shan had, he admitted to
himself, ridden the luck long enough, having several times during
the last three Standards been in precisely the wrong place to be
called upon to serve as Master of Judgment, though his name had
been next on the roster.
    This time he was the only
Master Pilot near, and in fact had already filed a flight plan
calling for him to be on , the planet on which the fatal
incident had occurred. Thus the Guild snared him at last, and
offered a budget should he need to study what was left of the ship,
or convene a board to do so.
    A budget was all very good, but it did
nothing to lessen Shan's dislike of this particular duty. Still, he
had read the file, reviewed the raw data from the flight box and,
finally, in a state of strong disbelief, flew the sim.
    Even in simulation, flying fatals
is--unpleasant. It was not unknown that Master Pilots emerged
weeping from such flights.
    Shan emerged from flying the Casia fatal in
an all-but-incandescent fury.
    First board was dead because she was a
fool--and so he stated in his report. More--she had allowed her
stupidity to endanger not only the fine and able pilot who had for
some reason found it necessary to sit second to her, but unnamed
and innocent civilians. That the ship had finally crashed in an
empty plain was due entirely to the skill of the pilot sitting
second board, who might have avoided the ground entirely, had only
the secondary back-up board required by Guild regulations been in
place.
    Shaking with rage, Shan pulled the ship's
maintenance records.
    The pilot-owner had not even seen fit to keep
to a regular schedule of routine maintenance. Several systems were
marked weak in the last recorded mechanic's review--three Standard
years past!--at which time it was also noted that the co-pilot's
back-up board was non-operational.
    Typing at white heat, Shan finished his
report with praise for the co-pilot, demanded an open hearing to be
held at Casiaport Guildhall within a day of his arrival on-Port,
and shunted the scalding entirety to the Tower to be pinbeamed to
Guild Headquarters, copy to Casiaport Guildmaster.
    He had then done his best
to put Casia out of his mind, though he'd noted the name of the
surviving pilot. Ren Zel dea'Judan Clan Obrelt. There was a pilot Korval might do
well to employ.
    * * *
    "REN ZEL, GET YOUR ass over here."
Christopher's voice was stern.
    Ren Zel checked, saw the flicker of anger on
his co-pilot's face and waved her on toward the gate. "Run system
checks. I will be with you quickly."
    "Yah," she said, grumpily. "Don't let Chris
push you around, Pilot."
    "The schedule is tight," Ren Zel returned,
which effectively clinched the argument and sent her striding
toward the gate. Ren Zel altered course for the counter and looked
up at the roster boss.
    "Christopher?"
    The big man crossed his arms on top his
computer and frowned down at him. "What'd I tell you when you first
signed on? Eh? About what I didn't want none of in this hall?"
    "You wished no vendettas, Balance or
whateverthehell I might do for fun to disturb the peace of the
hall," Ren Zel recited promptly, face betraying nothing of the
puzzlement he felt.
    An unwilling grin tugged at the edge of
Christopher's mouth. "Remember that, do you? Then you remember that
I said I'd throw you out if you brought anything like that
here."
    "Yes..." What was this? Ren Zel wondered.
Half-a-relumma he had been flying out of the Terran hall. And
now--
    "Guy come in here last night, looking for
you," the boss said now. "Fancy