
their ships, and personnel from bizarre situations. Therefore, to Helva, the
problem that she couldn't open her mouth to sing, among other restrictions,
did not bother her. She would work out a method, bypassing her limitations,
whereby she could sing.
She approached the problem by investigating the methods of sound
reproduction through the centuries, human and instrumental. Her own sound
production equipment was essentially more instrumental than vocal. Breath
control and the proper enunciation of vowel sounds within the oral cavity
appeared to require the most development and practice. Shell-people did not,
strictly speaking, breathe. For their purposes, oxygen and other gases were
not drawn from the surrounding atmosphere through the medium of lungs but
sustained artificially by solution in their shells. After experimentation,
Helva discovered that she could manipulate her diaphragmic unit to sustain
tone. By relaxing the throat muscles and expanding the oral cavity well into
the frontal sinuses, she could direct the vowel sounds into the most
felicitous position for proper reproduction through her throat microphone. She
compared the results with tape recordings of modern singers and was not
unpleased, although her own tapes had a peculiar quality about them, not at
all unharmonious, merely unique. Acquiring a repertoire from the Laboratory
library was no problem to one trained to perfect recall. She found herself
able to sing any role and any song which struck her fancy. It would not have
occurred to her that it was curious for a female to sing bass, baritone,
tenor, mezzo, soprano, and coloratura as she pleased. It was, to Helva, only a
matter of the correct reproduction and diaphragmic control required by the
music attempted.
If the authorities remarked on her curious avocation, they did so among
themselves. Shell-people were encouraged to develop a hobby so long as they
maintained proficiency in their technical work.
On the anniversary of her 16th year, Helva was unconditionally graduated
and installed in her ship, the XH-834. Her permanent titanium shell was
recessed behind an even more indestructible barrier in the central shaft of
the scout ship. The neural, audio, visual, and sensory connections were made
and sealed. Her extendibles were diverted, connected or augmented and the
final, delicate-beyond-description brain taps were completed while Helva
remained anesthetically unaware of the proceedings. When she woke, she was the
ship. Her brain and intelligence controlled every function from navigation to
such loading as a scout ship of her class needed. She could take care of
herself, and her ambulatory half, in any situation already recorded in the
annals of Central Worlds and any situation its most fertile minds could
imagine.
Her first actual flight, for she and her kind had made mock flights on
dummy panels since she was 8, showed her to be a complete master of the
techniques of her profession. She was ready for her great adventures and the
arrival of her mobile partner.
There were nine qualified scouts sitting around collecting base pay the
day Helva reported for active duty. There were several missions that demanded
instant attention, but Helva had been of interest to several department heads
in Central for some tune and each bureau chief was determined to have her
assigned to his section. No one had remembered to introduce Helva to the
prospective partners. The ship always chose its own partner. Had there been
another brain ship at the base at the moment, Helva would have been guided to
make the first move. As it was, while Central wrangled among itself, Robert
Tanner sneaked out of the pilots' barracks, out to the field and over to
Helva's slim metal hull.