Nimisha's Ship by Anne McCaffrey Read Free Book Online

Navy for their experts to try to pick apart. Tionel did that, and I seem to have inherited the same courtesy they extended him. Anyway, he left us copious notes on how to proceed.” She gestured around her office to indicate the schematics and plans projected on the wall, all printed out from work down in the Design Room where she spent so much of her time.
    “You’d best show me the ship itself while I’m here,” her dam said, dismissing the plans that she couldn’t read for a virtual shape that she might have more chance of evaluating. “I knew I should have supervised you more closely but . . .” Rezalla’s shrug was as elegant as ever. Then she smiled up at her tall daughter. “His genes have done well by you. See that you do well by his legacy.”
    “I intend to, my mother.”
    “And, before you get too involved, I suggest that you have your body-heir.”
    Nimisha thought that suggestion over for a long moment. “Yes, that would be wise, since I intend to test the yacht myself.” At her mother’s startled gasp, she smiled reassuringly and touched her mother delicately on the forearm. “I’m a very good pilot, you know, but I have a duty to you and the Family. Have you any sire in mind for me?”
    “Thank you, m’dear. Lately you have been so limited in your contact with your peers that I wonder that you are interested in men at all . . .”
    “Oh, I am, Mother,” Nimisha said in such a warm tone that her mother became all the more anxious. But Nimisha did know about Family duty and would never involve herself, even in dalliance, with someone less than totally presentable.
    “Only those, I suspect,” Lady Rezalla said in a slightly acid tone, “who pretend to be interested in your fascination with parsecs and performance vehicles.”
    “There are some who have applied to me for recommendations on racing cars, my mother,” Nimisha replied, her expression droll. “Over lunches at fashionable eateries and even on weekend parties. I do not live a monastic life.”
    Lady Rezalla sniffed delicately. “I should hope not!” Nimisha shrugged and her mother went on. “Leave the matter of a suitable sire to me. I shall give you several choices. After all, a body-heir contract is short. And you might even enjoy it.”
    “Did you enjoy your contract with my sire, my mother?”
    Lady Rezalla raised her head, stiffened her back, and regarded her daughter for a long moment. At first, Nimisha wondered if she had broached too personal a matter.
    “Yes,” Lady Rezalla said, her eyes reflecting sadness, “I did. And he tried to extend it.”
    “I know,” Nimisha said with a moue of regret.
    “He was far too committed, even then, to . . . his business.” Rezalla rose from the desk to indicate that the subject was closed.
    The inspection of the ship—or rather of the skeleton, for the special petralloys that would be the hull plating had yet to be added—was duly conducted, and Lady Rezalla did not affect either specious approval or dismay. She was even allowed into the sacrosanct Design Room. She inhaled sharply when the lights went out, and then exhaled as the Designer displayed the yacht as she would look in finished form.
    “Impressive,” she said. “I wouldn’t have thought dear Ti was so inventive. Much better than his color schemes,” she added blandly, leaving the now-bare Design Room.
    Lady Rezalla also took note of the respect with which her daughter was treated by all the Rondymense personnel. So the tour ended with Lady Rezalla both pleased and reassured.
    As Nimisha conveyed her mother back to the surface of Vega III, she decided that she’d very deftly gotten her mother to take care of screening suitable sires so that she wouldn’t have to spend unnecessary time away from the Yard to attend to that family obligation. She had too much scheduled right now to spend time going through bloodlines and gene patterns. Her mother would enjoy the occupation far more than she would. And