Survey Ship Read Online Free PDF Page A

see the hardware itself. See how it looks in situ.” Nevertheless, she slid gracefully into the contour seat, her hands hovering over, but not touching the console.
    “Where are we going? Which way?”
    Peake realized, with shock, that nobody knew. “I guess it depends on who's the chief navigator,” he said. “It was my second specialty, so I suppose I'll be navigator's assistant.”
    Ravi looked up at him, eyes raised in a quizzical grin. “I thought you'd be first navigator. My second specialty was navigation, too. What do we do — toss a coin for it?”
    Peake looked around the spherical chamber. One half of it was an opaqued wall of glass looking out on the universe. The DeMag was turned high enough so that they could sit at their seats, without floating away in
     free-fall. Before him a multitude of blinking lights, coded yellow, red, green, blue, flashed quietly, and he had the sensation that they were waiting. Moira touched a control, and the glass wall which reflected the blinking lights, suddenly became clear. In spite of the DeMag units giving them an “up” and “down” orientation, they all gasped and clutched at the nearest support; outside was only the vastness of space, white with stars, so thick that there was no sign of constellations. They could have read small print by that light. Against the blaze of stars Peake could still see the faint reflections of blue, red, yellow, green control lights, imposing their own order on the chaos outside.
    Ravi was still looking at him expectantly. Ching said, “Which one of you had the highest grades in navigation?”
    “Not enough difference to matter, over three years,” Peake said, “and I'm a doctor, not a navigator. Does one of us have to be above the other? I'd rather share navigation on a time basis, not a rank basis — we're a fairly healthy crew or we wouldn't be here.”
    Ravi shrugged. “Okay; I'll toss you for day or night watch, if you want to do it that way, or until we see it isn't working. The one whose shift it is makes any necessary decision. Fair enough?”
    “I don't think that makes much sense,” Ching said. “There has to be one person with the responsibility for decisions — the commander, captain, whatever. I thought chief navigator was usually in that spot. Who's going to be making major decisions?”
    “I don't think it ought to be who, but how,” Moira said, swinging the seat around to face them. “Consensus decisions, I'd say, for anything major. Small decisions, whoever's running the special machinery involved.”
    Ching said, “I don't agree. Someone has to decide —”
    “I had more than enough of structured decisions in the Academy,” Peake said. “I'm ready to try sharing decisions on a group basis. If that doesn't work, there'll be time enough to try something else.”
    Ching shook her head. She said, “We could come up against something serious, so serious there wouldn't be time for a consensus, and there ought to be one person in charge —”
    “What's your specialty, Ching?” Fontana asked with a smile, “group dynamics and sociology?”
    Ching said stiffly, “I wouldn't dignify that by the name of a science at all. I am a computer technician and biochemist, with meteorology and oceanography as planet-based specialties. But as part of this group I do feel I have a vested interest in designating competent leadership for making decisions.”
    “There's a lot of logic to that,” Fontana said, reflecting that it was probably the first time she had agreed with anything Ching said, “but I think we should check out the rest of the Ship before we start arguing about it. It looks as if you will be in charge of the computer, Ching. It's through there — shall we take a look at it? Though the central computer console seems to be in here, with navigation and drive consoles —”
    Ching smiled. She slid into the seat past Moira's, and it seemed to Fontana that the small, rigid body relaxed slightly as she