（外文电子版资料）John C. Wright - Guest Law.pdf

GUEST LAW by John C. Wright ____________________________ Copyright © 1997 by John C. Wright Reprinted in Years Best SF 3 HarperPrism ISBN 0-06-105901-3 eBook scanned proofed by binwiped 11-10-02 [v1.0] The night of deep space is endless and empty and dark. There is nothing behind which to hide. But ships can be silent, if they are slow. The noble ship Procrustes was silent as a ghost. She was black-hulled, and ran without beacons or lights. She was made of anti-radar alloys and smooth ceramics, shark-finned with panels meant to diffuse waste-heat slowly, and tiger-striped with electronic webs meant to guide certain frequen-cies around the hull without rebounding. If she ever were seen, a glance would show that she was meant to be slow. Her drive was fitted with baffle upon baf-fle, cooling the exhaust before it was expelled, a dark drive, non-radioactive, silent as sprayed mist. Low energy in the drive implied low thrust. Further, she had no centrifuge sec-tion, nor did she spin. This meant that her crew were lightweights, their blood and bones degenerated or adapted to microgravity, not the sort who could tolerate high boosts. This did not mean Procrustes was not a noble ship. Warships can be slow; only their missiles need speed. And so it was silently, slowly, that Procrustes ap-proached the strangers cold vessel. We are gathered, my gentlemen, to debate whether this new ship here viewed is noble, or whether she is unarmed; and, if so, whether and how the guest law applies. It pleases us to hear you employ the second level of speech; for this is a semi-informal occasion, and briefer honorifics we permit. The captain, as beautiful and terrifying as something from a childrens Earth-story, floated nude before the viewing well. The bridge was a cylinder of gloom, with only control-lights winking like constellations, the viewing well shining like a full moon. The captain made a gesture with her fan toward Smith and spoke: Engineer, y