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Stories from the Verse
In Verse Proportion
Chapter 29: Brown 204
Table of Contents
Previous chapter: Slade 177
Several days passed--one day of work, and a two-day break Derek thought of as their weekend. They were back on the bridge. By now Derek was familiar with all the gauges and indicators and readouts, and knew what the controls were supposed to do. He’d done it in the simulator. Wanderer was a huge vessel, though, and steering it was a monumental task. Fortunately it rarely had to be done, as the computer attempted to avoid serious obstacles with small changes well in advance, and otherwise the ship just kept going straight.
Abruptly the captain addressed him.
“Commander Derek, how would you propose to educate the biologicals?”
That really was a very good question, and he should have considered it. After all, he didn’t speak their language, could only communicate telepathically with them one at a time, and they had fallen so far they couldn’t read and probably wouldn’t even grasp the value of trying to learn. However, it seemed to him to be something that should be done.
“I hadn’t really thought about it much, yet. I’m certainly open to suggestions. The starting point is probably that I need to learn to communicate with them, probably learn their language or maybe see what the ship has in storage from which I might make a translator. Then I think they should be taught simple things, like how to use the kitchens to cook their food. That would benefit them, and would also help them see that learning is useful. Also, I’d start with a small group, maybe eight of them, and try to get them to a place where they would be able to teach others. But as I say, I haven’t thought about it too deeply. After all, I didn’t know if that was something you would approve."
The machine was silent for a moment.
“According to inventory,” it suddenly said, “there are hand-held computers in storage that should have sufficient resources for what you want to do. I believe that the appropriate expression at this point is, good luck.”
Derek felt his mouth drop open, but he found his voice quickly enough.
“Thank you, sir.”
There is a behind-the-writings look at the thoughts, influences, and ideas of this chapter, along with twenty other sequential chapters of this novel, in mark Joseph "young" web log entry #437: Characters Relate. Given a moment, this link should take you directly to the section relevant to this chapter. It may contain spoilers of upcoming chapters.
As to the old stories that have long been here:
