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St Augustine asked the right question: "Does freedom come from chance or choice?" And you uarantees chance
- Raja Flattery, The Book of Ship
USUALLY, MORGAN Oakes took out his nightside angers and frustrations in long strides down any corridor of the ship where his feet led him
Not this time! he told hilass of astringent wine Bitter, but it washed the taste of the ship’s foul joke froue The wine had come at his demand, a dees The first bottle froroundside when he ordered the wine iesture: Confusion to You, Ship!
The as too raw He put it aside
Oakes knew the figure he cut, sitting here tre in his cubby while he stared at the silent coht slightly
Oncedown The ship was getting senile He was the Chaplain/Psychiatrist and the ship tried to poison him! Others were fed from shiptits - not frequently and not much, but it happened Even he had been favored once, before he became Ceepee, and he still re It was a little like the stuff called "burst" which Lewis had developed groundside An attempt to duplicate elixir Costly stuff, burst Wasteful And not elixir - no, not elixir
He stared at the curved screen of the console beside hiht, heavy-shouldered ray in this light His features were strong: a thick chin, wide mouth, beaked nose and bushy eyebrows over dark eyes, a bit of silver at the teerated his feeling that he had been made small by Ship’s treatment of him His reflection showed him his own fear
I will not be tricked by a daht on another fit of treh that he understood this new e He had stopped with Jesus Lewis at a bank of corridor shiptits
Lewis had been as The ship won’t feed us"
This had angered Oakes "It’s et that!"
He had rolled up his sleeve and thrust his bare arm into the receptacle The sensor scratched as it adjusted to his arm He felt the stainless-steel nose sniff out a suitable vein There was the tingling prick of the test probe, then the release of the sensor
Some of the shiptits extruded plaz tubes to suck on, but this one was programmed to fill a container behind a locked panel - elixir, measured and mixed to his exact needs
The panel opened!
Oakes grinned at an astounded Lewis
"Well," Oakes re "The ship finally realizes who’s the boss here" With that, he drained the container
Horrible!
His body racked with voasps and sweat soaked his singlesuit
It was over as quickly as it began Lewis stood beside hi at the mess Oakes had made of the corridor and his boots
"You see," Oakes gasped "You see how the ship tried to kill an," Lewis said "It’s probably just a malfunction I’ll call a "
"I’ around me" Oakes held the fabric of his suit away froet you back to your cubby We should check you out an" Lewis broke off, looking suddenly over Oakes’ shoulder "Morgan, did you summon a repair unit?"
Oakes turned to see what had caught Lewis’ attention, saw one of the ship’s robox units, a one- tools clutched in its extensors It eaving drunkenly down the corridor toward the?" Lewis muttered
"I think it’s here to attack us," Oakes said He grabbed Lewis’ arm "Let’s back out of her slo"
They retreated fro the scanner eye of the robox and the waving appendages full of tools
"It’s not stopping" Oakes’ voice was low but cold with fear as the robox passed the shiptit station
"We’d better run for it," Lewis said He spun Oakes ahead of hieway to Medical Neither man looked back until they were safely battened inside Oakes’ cubby
Hah! Oakes thought, reroundside fast enough - to speed up construction of their Redoubt, the place which would insulate theroundside and make them independent of this damned machine
The ship’s controlled our lives too long!
Oakes still tasted bitterness at the back of his throat Noas inco frustrating
Dalanced around his shadowed quarters It was nightside on the orbiting ship and most of the crew drifted on the sea of sleep An occasional click and buzz of servosthe environ before Ship’s servos go mad?