Read Online Heaven's Reach by David Brin - Free Book Online Page A

their situation. But after all the narrow escapes of the last few days, Dwer found continued life and health cause for surprised pleasure, not spiteful complaint.
    Of course, Rety had her own, unique way of looking at things. Her young life had been a lot harder than his, after all.
    â€œi sniff every corner of this old boat,”
a small voice piped, speaking Anglic with a hissing accent and a note of triumph.
“no sign of metal monsters, none! we scare them off!”
    The speaker trotted across the control room on four miniature hooves—a quadruped with two slim centauroid arms and an agile, snakelike neck. Holding his head up proudly, little yee clattered over to Rety and slipped into her belt pouch. The two called each other “husband and wife,” an interspecies union that made some sense to another Jijoan but would have stunned any citizen of the Civilization of Five Galaxies. The verbose urrish male and an unbathed, prepubescent human female made quite a pairing.
    Dwer shook his head.
    â€œThose robots didn’t leave on account of our fierce looks. We were hiding in a closet, scared out of our wits, remember?” He shrugged. “I bet they didn’t search the ship because they saw it for an empty shell right away.”
    Almost a hundred ancient derelict ships had been resurrected from the subsea graveyard by Hannes Suessi and his clever dolphin engineers in order to help mask
Streaker
’s breakout, giving the Earthlings a slim chanceagainst the overpowering Jophur dreadnought. Dwer’s presence aboard one of the decoys resulted from a series of rude accidents. (Right now he was supposed to be landing a hot-air balloon in Jijo’s Gray Hills, fulfilling an old obligation, not plummeting into the blackness away from the wilderness he knew best.)
    But Rety had planned to be here! A scheme to hijack her very own starship must have been stewing in that devious brain for weeks, Dwer now realized.
    â€œThe sap-rings cut us loose so they can go dolphin hunting somewhere else! I knew this’d happen,” Rety exulted. “Now all we gotta do is head for the Five Galaxies. Make it to someplace with a lot of traffic, flag down some passing trading ship, an’ strike a deal. This old hulk oughta be worth something. You watch, Dwer. Meetin’ me was the best thing that ever happened to you! You’ll thank me when you’re a star god, livin’ high for three hunnerd years.”
    Her enthusiasm forced him to smile. How easily Rety looked past their immediate problems! Such as the fact that all three of them were primitive Jijoans. Learning to pilot a space vessel would have been a daunting task for Dwer’s brilliant siblings—Lark or Sara—who were junior sages of the Commons of Six Races.
But I’m just a simple forester! How is skill at tracking beasts going to help us navigate from star to star?
    As for Rety, brought up by a savage band of exile sooners, she could not even read until a few months ago, when she began picking up the skill.
    â€œHey, teacher!” Rety called. “Show us where we are!”
    Four gray boxes lay bolted to the floor, linked by cable to an ancient control pillar. Three had been left by the dolphins, programmed to guide this vessel through the now completed breakout maneuver. Last was a portable “advisor”—a talking machine—given to Rety by the
Streaker
crew. She had shown Dwer her toy earlier, before the Jophur robots came.
    â€œPassive sensors are operating at just seven percent efficiency,”
the unit answered.
“Active sensors are disabled. For those reasons, this representation will be commensurately imprecise.”
    A picture suddenly erupted between Rety and Dwer … one of those magical holo images that moved and had the texture of solidity. It showed a fiery ball in one low corner—
Great Izmunuti
, Dwer realized with a superstitious shiver. A yellow dot in the exact