Brain Ships

The Ship Who Sang (1970) .
	"Helva had been born human ...but only her brain had been saved - saved to be schooled, programmed, and implanted in the sleek titanium body of an intergalactic scout ship. But first she had to choose a human partner - male or female - to share her exhilarating escapades 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 virually indestructable, Helva XH-834 anticipated at sublime immortality. Then one day she fell in love!"

Partnership (and Margaret Ball) (1992) .
	"Nancia is her name, NX-934 her designation. A brand new member of the elite Courier Service of the Central Worlds, she's the "brains" within one of the most advanced interstellar ships around. But Nancia's services will not always be utilized by people of her own high moral integrity. Her innocent vision of human nature shattered on her first voyage, the last thing she needed was a "brawn" partner like Forister. But idealistic Nancia and worldly-wise Forister might just save the galaxy..."

The Ship Who Searched (and Mercedes Lackey) (1992) .
	"Tia, a bright and precocious seven-year-old, becomes afflicted by a paralysing alien virus while accompanying her archaeologist parents on a dig. Too proud to bother them, she hides the progressing symptoms until it is too late - until she can be given no life at all outside a mechanical support system. But Tai won't be satisfied to glide through life like a ghost in a glorified wheelchair. She would rather strap on a spaceship. And Tia has a special mission: to seek out whatever it was that laid her low, to understand and then eliminate it, to make sure that no other young girl will suffer the fate of The Ship Who Searched."

The City Who Fought (and S. M. Stirling) (1993) .
	"Simeon was bored with his life. It wasn't being a shellperson that bothered him, he rather pitied the 'softshells' with their short lives and their laughably limited senses - but the routine of running the mining and processing station that made up his 'body' was getting him down. So, the excitement generated by the arrival of an out-of-control refugee was more than welcome - even if it did interrupt his latest wargame. The refugees told of an attack by space barbarians who were headed Simeon's way, and it soon became apparent that if anyone was to survive, Simeon had to translate his skills at wargaming into the real thing and become - The City Who Fought."

The Ship Who Won (and Jody Lynn Nye) (1994) .
	"Like Helva, The Ship Who Sang (and Nancia from Partnership, Tia from The Ship Who Searched, and Simeon, who runs The City Who Fought), Carialle was born so physically disadvantaged that her only chance for life was as a shellperson. And again like those others, Carialle decided she would strap on a spaceship. Her brawn is a guy named Keff. Their mission: to search the galaxy for intelligent beings. Alas, intelligent life is this on the galactic ground, so when Carialle and Keff arrive on a very nice little world with very nice little aliens, fuzzy and polite, and eager to please, they are overjoyed. But their joy does not last. The aliens aren't aliens at all but some sort of developed human, virtual slaves to a race of sorcerers who (as Keff discovers when he crosses them) really do seem to possess magical powers of frightening potency. But nothing is as it seems on Ozran. That "magic is power" turns out to be true not just in the metaphorical but also in the literal sense, and while there may not be any real magic, there are real aliens, aliens who are neither fuzzy, not polite, not the least but eager to please…"

The Ship Errant by Jody Lynn Nye (1996) .
	"Carialle and Keff were the brainship and brawn crew who were lucky enough and smart enough to discover intelligent life on the planet Ozran, the first such discovery in years. Amazingly enough, they survived to tell the story. But that's not enough for Inspector General Sennet Maxwell-Corey. Screwball teams like Carialle & Keff don't fill in the forms right. Worse, they named a new alien race "globe-frogs"! (Well, they looked like frogs and they traveled in globes.) A sense of humor has no place in Maxwell-Corey's universe. Moreover, the Inspector General has it in for Carialle; he is sure that she was hopelessly damaged in her very first mission when her Brawn was killed by a planted bomb and she was left derelict in space for weeks suffering the special nightmare for a brainship: total sensory deprivation. During her time so very alone, Carialle became convinced that someone was trying to dismantle her, salvage bits and pieces off the wreck. To a brainship, that's like being vivisected, but there was never any proof of this, and its just another clip in the file as far as the Inspector General is concerned-more evidence if any were needed that Carialle ought to be sidelined. But with Keff's loving help, Maxwell-Corey has been foiled for now and she's gotten over the trauma. Until, that is, she and Keff serve as couriers for the globe-frogs, good friends now, taking them back to their home planet, which just happens to be in the same sector as Carialle's early trauma. Now a message device illegally implanted on Carialle has informed the Inspector General of a momentary, but disabling anxiety attack Carialle suffered on learning of her destination. Keff is furious. He wants to get the slime who caused Carialle such pain in the first place. There's only one problem: that slime may well have been those very globe-frogs he's just become friends with…"

Ship Avenged by S.M. Stirling (1999) .
	"The City Who Fought by Anne McCaffrey and S.M. Stirling was a national bestseller. Now, S.M. Stirling carries the story forward with a blockbuster sequel authorized and approved by Anne McCaffrey In The City Who Fought, ten-year-old Joat did not fight like a child, nor like an adult-she fought like a techno demon. Ten years later, Joat is an adult and one of the youngest commercial ship owners in space, who sometimes handles "special assignments." When Central Worlds Security recruited Joat she had two old scores to settle: with the Kolnari who ruthlessly invaded and nearly destroyed her home station a decade ago, and with Nomik Ciety, the uncle who long ago put her up as collateral in a card game with perverts-and lost. But Belazir of the Kolnari has his own vehicle for revenge: a "breakout" disease that leaves its victims a mindless husk. He needs a carrier ship for the infection-and the carrier his agent Ciety has chosen in Joat, who is about to receive a cargo that could destroy civilization by killing a hundred trillion people!"

Short Story

The Ship That Returned (1999) .
	"Eleven Masters of Science Fiction. Eleven extraordinary new stories. Far Horizons is a reading experience not to be missed. Edited by one of SF's outrstanding writers and critics, Far Horizons contains new works by eleven of the most acclaimed authors in the field, set in their best-known worlds and each with an introduction by the author. This volume is a showcase of breathtaking imagination, challenging ideas, compelling storytelling and the sense of wonder inspired by science fiction at its very best." (Includes The Ship That Returned by Anne McCaffrey)

Omnibuses

Brain Ships (Partnership and The Ship Who Searched) (with Mercedes Lackey and Margaret Ball) (2003) .
	"The Ship Who Sang is Not Alone! Victim of a catastrophic prenatal accident that left nothing but her brain functioning, Helva wanted to be more than a body in a box, drifting through life like a ghost in a machine. If she couldn't be somebody, she'd be something. So instead of spending her days in a glorified wheelchair, she strapped on a spaceship. She became Helva, The Ship Who Sang. And captured the hearts of a generation of science fiction readers. Now, The Ship Who Sang is not alone. The Ship Who Searched The Ship Who Searched tells the story of a shellperson and her search for an ancient civilization, a vanished star-faring race whose artifacts are scattered throughout the galaxy. Tia, a bright and spunky seven-year old accompanying her exo-archaeologist parents on an Eskay dig, was afflicted by a mysterious neural disorder whose progressing symptoms finally permit her no life at all outside of a mechanical support system. But, live Helva, The Ship Who Sang, Tia won't be satisfied to glide through life in a glorified wheelchair; like Helva, Tia is going to strap on a spaceship. But Tia has also set herself a special mission: to seek out whatever it was on the Eskay planet that laid her low, to come to understand and then eliminate it-so that no other little girl will ever suffer the fate of The Ship Who Searched. Partnership Nancia is her name. NX-928 her designation. A brand new member of the elite Courier Service of the Central Worlds, she's a "brain" within one of the most advanced interstellar ships around. But Nancia's services will not always be utilized by people of her own high moral integrity. Her innocent vision of human nature shattered on her first voyage, the last thing she needed was a "brawn" partner like Forister; they invented "cynical" to describe him. But idealistic Nancia and worldly-wise Forister together just might save the galaxy."

The Ship Who Saved the Worlds (The Ship Who Won and The Ship Errant) (with Jody Lynn Nye) (2003) .
	"The Ship Who Won Like Helva, The Ship Who Sang (and Nancia from Partnership, Tia from The Ship Who Searched, and Simeon, who runs The City Who Fought), Carialle was born so physically disadvantaged that her only chance for life was as a shellperson. And, again like those others, Carialle decided she would strap on a spaceship. Her brawn is a guy named Keff. Their mission: to search the galaxy for intelligent beings, to travel where no shellperson and her brawn have gone before… Alas, intelligent life is thin on the galactic ground, so when Carialle and Keff arrive on a very nice little world with very nice little aliens, fuzzy and polite and eager to please, they are overjoyed. But their joy does not last: their fuzzy friends turn out to be virtual slaves to a race of sorcerers, sorcerers who really do seem to possess magical powers of frightening potency, and who are neither fuzzy, polite, nor the least bit eager to please. The Ship Errant Carialle and Keff were the brainship and brawn crew who 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. But to get there, they must transit a sector where Carialle experienced a trauma so intense it nearly destroyed her mind. And now all the evidence is indicating that the slime who caused Carialle such pain in the first place may be the very globe-frogs she and Keff have just become friends with…"

The City and the Ship (The City Who Fought and The Ship Avenged) (with S. M. Stirling) (2004) .
	"The City Who Fought Simeon was a shell-person - the brain who ran Space Station SSS-900, on the fringes of human space. But things hadn't been going too well lately, and he was more than a little discontented. Though normally he enjoyed his work, these days it seemed boring. To make matters worse, his long-time partner had just retired and he was having a hard time adjusting to his newly assigned brawn - a strong-willed woman named Channa Hap, who seemed to feel it her duty to keep him in line. Simeon's love of wargaming would find unexpected uses when the brutal Kolnari attack the nearby colony planet, Bethel. Sheltering the colony's refugee's brought "the city" an invitation to serious trouble with Kolnari pirates. The Ship Avenged Planet Bethel bigwig Amos ben Sierra Nueva and his daughter Soamosa are kidnapped by the evil mutant, Belazair of Kolnar, in revenge for a previous defeat; Belazair plans to infect Amos with a contagious brain-destroying virus and then send him back to Bethel. So, after some arm-twisting by secret agent Bros Sperin, spaceship Wyal (brain: Rand; brawn: Joat Simeon-Hap) speeds to the rescue, though Joat and Rand don't yet know about the virus. But then Belazair's kindly son, Karak, refuses to torture Soamosa; instead he falls in love and escapes with her. Joat, meanwhile, discovers that one of Belazair's key associates is the drug-ruined uncle who, when she was a small girl, sold her into slavery in settlement of a gambling debt."