Энн Маккефри - The Ship Who Won

«There, get warmed up,» she said sweetly. «I'm making hot drinks. Whether or not you've forgotten, you were still standing on top of a glacier with wet feet.»

Keff stepped out of his wet boots and went into his sleeping compartment. «Come on, Chaumel. I bet you wear the same size shoes I do. Everybody make themselves at home.»

Plennafrey kissed her hand lovingly to Keff. He kissed his fingers to her and winked.

«Oh, Plenna,» Carialle said with deceptive calm. «I've got some data I wanted to show you.» Keff's crash-couch swung out to her hospitably as the magiwoman approached. «Sit down. I think you need to see these.»

When Keff and Chaumel appeared a few minutes later, freshly shod, Plennafrey was sitting with her head in her hands. The Lady Fair «sat» sympathetically beside her, murmuring in a soothing voice.

«So you see,» Carialle was saying, «with the mutation in your DNA, I couldn't guarantee your safety during prolonged space travel. And Keff couldn't settle here. His job is his whole life.»

Plenna raised a tear-streaked face to the others.

«Oh, Keff, look!» The young woman pointed to the wall screen. «My DNA has changed over a thousand years, Carialle says. And my blood is too thin—I cannot go with you.»

Keff surveyed the DNA charts, trying to make sense of parallel spirals and the data which scrolled up beside them. «Cari, is it true?» he subvocalized.

«I wouldn't lie to her. No one can guarantee anyone's complete safety in space.»

«Thank you, lady dear, you're the soul of tact— How terrible,» he said out loud, kneeling at Plenna's feet. «I'm so sorry, Plenna, but you wouldn't have been happy in space. It's very boring most of the time—when it isn't dangerous. I couldn't ask you to endure a lifetime of it, and truthfully, I wouldn't be happy anywhere else.»

«I am glad this is the case,» Chaumel said, examining the charts and microscopic analysis on Carialle's main screen. From the look in the mage's eye, Keff guessed that perhaps he had been eavesdropping on their private channel. «You cannot take such a treasure as Magess Plennafrey off Ozran.»

Standing before the magiwoman, he took her hand and bowed over it. Plennafrey looked startled, then starry-eyed. She rose, looking up into his eyes tentatively, like an animal that might bolt at any moment. Chaumel spoke softly and put out a gentle hand to smooth the tears from her cheeks.

«I admire your pluck, my dear. You are brave and resourceful as well as beautiful.» He favored her with a most ardent look, and she blushed. «I would be greatly honored if you would agree to be my wife.»

«Your . . . your wife?» Plenna asked, her big, dark eyes going wide. «I'm honored, Chaumel. I . . . of course I will. Oh!» Chaumel raised the hand he was holding to his lips and kissed it. Keff got up off the floor.

«Listen up, sir knight. This fellow could give you some pointers,» Carialle said wickedly. Chaumel aimed a small smile toward Carialle's pillar and returned his entire attention to Plennafrey.

«We will share our power, and together we will teach our fellow Ozrans to adapt to our future. Our society will be reduced in influence, but it will be greater in number and scope. The Ancient Ones can teach us much of what we have forgotten.»

«And one day, perhaps, our children can go into space,» Plenna said, turning to Keff and smiling, «to meet yours.» Leaning over, she gave Keff a sisterly peck on the cheek and moved into the circle of Chaumel's arm.

Over the top of her head, Chaumel winked.

«And now, fair magess,» he said, «I will fly you home, since your own conveyance has come to grief.» Beaming, Plennafrey accompanied her intended down the ramp. He handed her delicately onto his own chariot, and mounted the edge of the back behind her.

«That man never misses a trick,» Carialle said through Keff's implant.

«Thank you, Cari,» Keff said. «Privately, in a comparison between Plenna and you as a lifelong companion, I'd choose you, every time.»

«Why, sir knight, I'm flattered.»

«You should be flattered,» Keff said with a smirk. «Plenna is intelligent, adaptable, beautiful, desirable, but she knows nothing about my interests, and in the long transits between missions we would drive one another crazy. This is the best possible solution.»

Chaumel's well-known gifts for diplomacy and the unexpected treat of the thunderstorm began to bear fruit within the next few days. Mages and magesses began to approach Keff and the globe-frogs in the cavern to ask if there was anything they could do to help speed the miracle to their parts of Ozran. Spy-eyes were everywhere, as everyone wanted to see how the repairs progressed.

The greatest difficulty the repair crew faced was the sheer age of the machinery. Keff and Tall rigged what they could to keep it running, but in the end the Frog Prince ordered a halt.

«We must study more,» Tall said. «Given time, and the printout you have made of the schematic drawings, we will be able to determine what else needs to be done to make all perfect. The repairs we have made will hold,» he added proudly. «There is no need to beg the homeworld for aid. I would sooner approach them as equals.»

«Good job!» Keff said. «We'll take our report home to the Central Worlds. As soon as we can, we'll come back to help you to finish the job. I expect that by the time we do, between you and the Noble Primitives, you'll teach the mages all there is to know about weather management and high-yield farming.»

«The fur-faces will show them how to till the land and take care of it. We do not retain that knowledge,» Tall said with creditable humility. «Brannel is our friend. We do need each other. Together, we can fulfill the hopes of all our ancestors. Others will take us up and back to the Core after this,» the Frog Prince assured them. «Many are protecting us at all times. You've done much in helping us to achieve the respect of the human beings.»

«No,» Keff said, «you did it. I couldn't convince them. You had to show them your expertise, and you did.»

Tall signaled polite disbelief. «Come back soon.»

Carialle and Keff delivered Tall and his companions back to Brannel's plain for the last time. The globe-frogs signed them a quick good-bye before disappearing into the brush. Five spy-eyes trailed behind them at a respectful distance.

Chaumel and Plennafrey arrived at the plain in time to see Keff and Carialle off.

«You've certainly stirred things up, strangers,» Chaumel said, shaking hands with Keff. «I agree there's nothing else you could have done. My small friends tell me that shortly Ozran would have suffered a catastrophic explosion, and we would all have died without knowing the cause. For that, we thank you.»

«We're happy to help,» Keff said. «In return, we take home data on a generation ship that was lost hundreds of years ago, and plenty of information on what's going to be one of the most fascinating blended civilizations in the galaxy. I'm looking forward to seeing how you prosper.»

«It will be interesting,» Chaumel acknowledged. «I am finding that the certain amount of power the Ancient Ones have agreed to leave in our hands will be used as much to protect us from disgruntled workers as it will be to help lead them into self-determination. Not all will be peaceful in this new world. Many of the farmers are afraid that their new memories are hallucinations. But,» he sighed, «we brought this on ourselves. We must solve our own problems. Your Brannel is proving to be a great help.»

Plennafrey came forward to give Keff a chaste kiss. «Farewell, Keff,» she said. «I'm sorry my dream to come with you couldn't come true, but I am happier it turned out this way.» She bent her head slightly to whisper in his ear. «I will always treasure the memory of what we had.»