Search Worlds Without End

Hugo and Nebula Award nominated novella. It originally appeared in Analog Science Fiction/Science Fact, June 1969. There are no other known publications but the story was later incorporated in the fixup novel The Ship Who Sang (1969).

Helva had been born human, but only her brain had been saved--saved to be schooled, programmed, and implanted into the sleek titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a human partner--male or female--to share her exhilirating excapades in space!

Her life was to be rich and rewarding... resplendent with daring adventures and endless excitement, beyond the wildest dreams of mere mortals.

Gifted with the voice of an angel and being virtually indestructable, Helva XH-834 antipitated a sublime immortality.

Then one day she fell in love!

Nancia, a new member of the elite Courier Service of the Central Worlds and the brain of one of the most advanced stellar ships, finds her innocent vision of human nature shattered when she is paired up with brutish partner Forister.

A young woman becomes paralyzed and must become a brainship--and find her Brawn, her human soul mate, so that she can discover a cure for her illness.

Tia Cade is a headstrong, smart, and very normal girl until she contracts a terrible illness that leaves her with the bare semblance of life. Tia's only hope: to become the oldest person ever to train to be one of the legendary star travelers, the brainships. But now that Tia is free of her ravaged body, there still remains the task of finding the right partner to be her Brawn, the human element every brainship requires. And when the disease that debilitated Tia threatens thousands more, selecting a Brawn who is her true soul mate may allow Tia to find the origin of the terrible plague--and perhaps even a cure.

Simeon was the "brain" running a peaceful space station--but when the invaders arrived, his only hope of protecting his crew was to become "the city who fought". Previous titles in this bestselling series include "The Ship Who Searched, The Ship Who Won", and "PartnerShip".

Like Helva, the Ship Who Sang (and Nancia from PartnerShip and Tia from The Ship Who Searched), Carialle was born so physically disadvantaged that her only chance for life was as a shellperson. And like those others, Carialle decided she would strap on a spaceship. Now she is on a mission to search the galaxy for intelligent beings.

Carialle and Keff were the ones who had discovered intelligent life on the planet Ozran. Now she and Keff are serving as couriers for the "globe-frogs", to return them from whence they came. And now all the evidence is indicating that the dirty rats who caused Carialle such pain in the first place may be the very globe-frogs with whom she and Keff have just become friends.

It's ten years later, and Joat, the eleven year old techno-demon from "The Ship Avenged," is an adult herself, and by hook, crook, and blackmail (with an assist from Rand, her very own Artificial Intelligence), she's become one of the youngest commercial ship owners in human space.

Using the good ship WYAL (for While You Ain't Looking) for various motley "transport" jobs, she has quickly gained a reputation as a trustworthy courier with a flexible approach to the rules. Which is why Centrals Worlds Security haas recruited Joat and the WYAL to determine the present whereabouts of the Kolnari space raiders, with whom Joat has an old score to settle.

But Belazair of the Kolnari has his own plans for revenge through an incurable and highly infectious disease that quickly destroys the higher brain functions, leaving the body a mindless husk. Belazair needs to find a carrier ship to spread the infection - and the carrier he has hired is Joat, who is completely unaware that she is receiving a deadly cargo which could destroy civilization throughout the galaxy!