A Larger Universe by James L Gillaspy Page B

Valin turned back to Tommy.  "The lords plan to use your
computers in this ship."
    "How?" Tommy asked.  "How could Earth's computers
be of use in a starship?"
    "You probably think the lords use computers throughout
this ship, and that they're more advanced than those of Earth?" Valin
asked.
    Tommy hadn't thought about it, but that did sound
reasonable.  How could the lords run a ship like this without computers everywhere? 
"Yes," he responded.
    "You would be mistaken.  This ship does have computers,
but the fastest one, the one used for navigation, is much slower and many times
larger than those we saw advertised on your television.  The lords use other,
even slower, computers to maintain the environment and for tracking objects
near the ship.  All are larger than any of the computers in this room."
    "How is that possible?"
    "That's a mystery I can't answer.  All we know is that
the computers on this ship are centuries old.  The lords were amazed at what
they found when we last arrived at Earth.  The progress you had made in just
five years astounded them.  One of them, Lord Ull, decided your technology
would be useful."
    "What about the landers that took me?  Don't they have
computers?  How could they evade radar and cloak themselves without
computers?"
    "The lords traded for that technology in my
grandfather's time," Feron said.  "We fix what's broken by replacing
with spare parts until it works again.  When the spare parts are gone, the
landers will be useless."
    "Couldn't the lords trade for more?"
    "They say not,” Feron replied.  “And before you ask,
it's dangerous to question the lords.  Better to do as they tell you and live
as if today is all you have.
    "When I went on the trading mission to get the
computers we saw on your television, Lord Ull told me I must also find the
means to repair them.  The books are a part of that; you're the other,"
Feron said.
    Tommy laughed.  "Well, if I hear you right, we're not
in trouble after all."
    "What do you mean?" Feron asked.
    "As my Dad says, everything is relative.  From what
you've told me, most of the computers in this room are more advanced than any
computer on this ship.  That sounds weird to me, but it means that most of this
is not junk.  I'm not sure how we'll connect any of this to your systems, but
it's not hopeless.  Besides, you tell me I don't have a choice except to make
these computers work.  Not much of a choice.  Do you think I want to go back to
work in the stables?  You have computers here!
    "I want to know one thing, though.  Do you ever have
problems with mice down here?  The biological kind?"
     
    #   #   #
     
    Tommy and Potter weren't able to move until the following
day, and that was hardly soon enough.  Wherever he went in the farmers' part of
the ship, people stared at him.  Farmer boys followed him at a distance and
turned away whenever he glanced at them.  And he found the girls' actions to be
incomprehensible.  One of several girls always blocked the door as he passed,
forcing him to brush past her.  In the beginning, the girl would just make arm
contact, always followed by a disconcerting giggle or a blank expression.  As
the day progressed and that got no response, the girl would force her hip or
chest into him as he walked through the door. 
    He realized, finally, that the girls were showing an
interest in him, but he didn't have the slightest idea how to react.  Maybe it
would have been different if he felt any attraction, but they just didn't seem
female to him.  They certainly didn't look anything like the girls in his
Atlanta school.  These girls were almost indistinguishable from the boys his
age on the ship and to their parents for that matter.  They had the same narrow
shoulders and tube shaped bodies.  Even the adult women had almost no breasts,
and the fifteen-year-old girls were as flat-chested as the boys.  Physically,
he and they could be different species.  Why the girls considered