Upon a Sea of Stars Read Online Free

Confederation.
    “Aren’t you going to open it?”
    “What’s the rush?” he grunted.
    But he picked up the paper knife from his desk—it had been the deadly horn of a Mellisan sea unicorn—and slit the envelope, pulling out the contents.
    He skipped the needlessly complicated legal language while, at the same time, getting the gist of it. As a result of talks between the President of the Rim Worlds Confederation and the Ambassador of the Interstellar Federation, it had been decided that the Confederation was to afford to the Federation’s Survey Service all possible assistance—at a price. One Commodore Grimes was empowered to negotiate directly with one Commander Verrill regarding the time charter of a suitable vessel and the employment of all necessary personnel. . . .
    Grimes read on—and then he came to the paragraph that caused him to raise his eyebrows in surprise.
    Commodore Grimes was granted indefinite leave of absence from his post of Astronautical Superintendent of Rim Runners, and was to arrange to hand over to Captain Farley as soon as possible. Commodore Grimes was to sail as Master of the vessel chartered by the Survey Service, and at all times was to further and protect the interests of the Rim Confederation. . . .
    Grimes grunted, looked up at the woman from under his heavy eyebrows. “Is this your doing, Sonya?”
    “Partly. But in large measure it’s due to the reluctance of your government to entrust one of its precious ships to an outsider.”
    “But why me?”
    She grinned again. “I said that if I were obliged to ship a Rim Confederation sailing master, I insisted on exercising some little control over the appointment. Then we all agreed that there was only one Master of sufficiently proven reliability to meet the requirements of all concerned . . .” She looked a little worried. “Aren’t you glad, John?”
    “It’s rather short notice,” he replied tersely and then, as he watched her expression, he smiled. “Frankly, Sonya, before you blew in aboard Star Roamer I’d decided that I was sick and tired of being a desk-borne Commodore. This crazy expedition of yours will be better than a holiday.”
    She snapped, “It’s not crazy.”
    His eyebrows went up. “No? An interstellar ghost hunt?”
    “Come off it, John. You know as well as I that the Rim Ghosts are objective phenomena. It’s a case of paranormal physics rather than paranormal psychology. It’s high time that somebody ran an investigation—and if you people are too tired to dedigitate, then somebody else will.”
    Grimes chuckled. “All right, all right, I’ve never seen a Rim Ghost myself, but the evidence is too—massive?—to laugh away. So, while Miss Willoughby starts getting my papers into something like order for Captain Farley—he’s on leave at present, so we won’t have long to wait for him—we’ll talk over the terms of the charter party.
    “To begin with, I assume that you’ll be wanting one of the lightjammers. Cutty Sark will be available very shortly.”
    She told him, “No. I don’t want a lightjammer.”
    “I would have thought that one would have been ideal for this . . . research.”
    “Yes. I know all about Captain Ralph Listowel and what happened to him and his crew on the maiden voyage of Aeriel . But there’s one big snag. When Aeriel ’s people switched Time Tracks, they also, to a large extent, switched personalities. When I visit the Universe next door I want to do it as me, not as a smudged carbon copy.”
    “Then what sort of ship do you want?”
    She looked out of the window. “I was hoping that your Faraway Quest would be available.”
    “As a matter of fact, she is.”
    “And she has more gear than most of your merchant shipping. A Mass Proximity Indicator, for example . . .”
    “Yes.”
    “Carlotti Communication and Direction Finding Equipment?”
    “Yes.”
    Then, “I know this is asking rather much—but could a sizeable hunk of that anti-matter iron be