How do you define "Human"? (Reflections of Hope Write-Off)

She was born a thing and as such would be condemned if she failed to pass the encephalograph test required of all newborn babies. There was always the possibility that though the limbs were twisted, the mind was not, and though the ears would hear only dimly, the eyes see vaguely, the mind behind them was receptive and alert.

The electroencephalograph was entirely favorable, unexpectedly so, and the news was brought to the waiting, grieving parents. There was a final, harsh decision: to give their child euthanasia or permit it to become an encapsulated “brain”, a guiding mechanism in any one of a number of curious professions. As such, their offspring would suffer no pain, live a comfortable existence in a metal shell for a number of centuries, performing unusual service to Central Worlds.

She lived and was given a name, Helva. … Instead of kicking feet, Helva’s neural responses started her wheels; instead of grabbing with hands, she manipulated mechanical extensions. As she matured, more and more neural synapses would be adjusted to operate other mechanisms that went into the maintenance and running of a space ship. For Helva was destined to be the “brain” half of a scout ship, partnered with a man or woman, whichever she chose, as the mobile half. She would be among the elite of her kind.

When author Anne McCaffrey wrote those words in 1961, it was a different world for the handicapped. There were no wheelchair ramps or books in Braille at my school, or any other school in America, except those “special ones” for the handicapped. “Those people” were never seen on television. Stephen Hawking wasn’t talking to us with a synthetic voice; Marlee Matlin and Christopher Reeve would never have been considered for a part in a movie. With the exception of Robert A. Heinlein’s Waldo, there were few handicapped people in books, either. To be deaf, blind, or wheelchair-bound was to be invisible.

I fell instantly in love with Helva, and waited impatiently for the next installment of her story to appear in the pulp science fiction magazines. In 1970, Anne McCaffrey put together 6 of the “Helva” stories and published them as a book called The Ship Who Sang. I still have the Ballantine paperback, a first edition. It cost 95 cents.

This section reveals some elements of the plot.
The six stories in the book are:

The Ship Who Sang
Helva grows up as a “shell person”. At the age of 17, she gets her ship – the XH-834, and goes on her first mission. Helva likes to hum to herself when she is working, and becomes known as “the ship who sings.”

The Ship Who Mourned
Sometimes when traumatic events happen to brainships, they go rogue and disappear. Central Worlds, which owns Helva’s contract until she pays it off, fears its prize ship may go rogue after losing someone she loves. They send her on a humanitarian mission, hoping to distract her from her loss.

The Ship Who Killed
Helva is assigned a new partner (her third) named Kira. Together they are given a mission to transport human embryos to a planet where radiation has sterilized the population. Kira is a peculiar choice, since she is unable to have children herself; and is a failed suicide. When Central Worlds unknowingly steers them to a world ruled by a Death Cult, it is Kira’s dream and Helva’s nightmare come to life. It is up to Helva to save both Kira and the shipment of embryos.

Dramatic Mission
On the sixth planet of Beta Corvi, Central Worlds has discovered sentient life. Living in a methane-ammonia atmosphere, the Beta Corvici look like little balloons full of gas. They have a lot of technology that the humans want, but what do they want in return? The truly oddball answer is “Shakespearean Plays”! The idea of drama (expending of energy for no purpose but pleasure) is a new concept to them, and they want to learn more about it. Helva finds herself in charge of transporting a troop of actors to Beta Corvi, where Earth’s greatest actor will face his greatest challenge, and his strangest audience – if he lives long enough.

The Ship Who Dissembled
Brainships have been disappearing, so Helva and her new partner Teron are sent to investigate. They find the missing brainships the hard way: by being kidnapped. Helva must face the greatest nightmare of a shell person- being disconnected from all sensors. Left deaf and blind inside their shells for any time, the shell people will go insane. Helva and the other captured brainships are facing just that, unless she can figure a way out for all of them.

The Partnered Ship
At the age of 27, Helva pays off her contract to Central Worlds and becomes a free agent. One of the great perks for Helva is the ability to chose her own partner, and her own mission. Central Worlds wants Helva to return to Beta Corvi to talk to the actors left there, but she will only go if given the partner of her choice – one that surprises even Helva herself.

Who would like this book?
This book is short and easy to read. It is great, if somewhat juvenile, science fiction that naturally appeals to teenaged girls. That doesn’t mean that older folks won’t like it, or that men will not be able to relate! Just keep in mind that in the brainship/partner relationship, it is the brainship that is dominant, and this brainship is a young female.

So this is just light, juvenile science fiction?
You can read it that way, but there is a bit more depth to it. Helva is handicapped, and she faces all of the prejudice, blatant and subtle, faced by handicapped people everywhere.

Helva’s civilization was not without busy, do-good associations, exploring possible inhumanities to terrestrial as well as extraterrestrial citizens. One such group – Society for the Preservation of the Rights of Intelligent Minorities – got all incensed over shelled “children” when Helva was just turning 14. When they were forced to, Central Worlds shrugged its shoulders, arranged a tour of the Laboratory Schools and set the tour off to a big start by showing the members case histories, complete with photographs. Very few committees ever looked past the first few photos. Most of their original objections about “shells” were overridden by the relief that these hideous (to them) bodies were mercifully concealed.

And you get conversations like this one, which must sound all too familiar to anyone deaf, blind, or in a wheelchair:

”And he’s got to have the very best there is. It’s got to be perfect…”
[Helva:] “Because it’s the end for him?”
Kurla seemed to crumple in on herself and sagged against the bulkhead, unbidden tears in her eyes.
“God spare me a woman’s tears,” Helva said, angry and annoyed. “So it’s his swan song and you’ve decided I’m the ship to sing it?”
“Please … if you have a gram of humanity in you …!” Kurla covered her tactless mouth with both hands, her eyes wide.
“Actually, about 22 kilos of me is very human, Kurla…”
“Oh, Helva, I’m so sorry,” she stammered. “I’m so sorry.’

Helva is variously treated as a freak, a computer, or a thing to be pitied; and she takes it all in stride and with general good humor. She sometimes even uses these prejudices to her advantage, since people tend to underestimate her intelligence and abilities (to their detriment!) Helva, who can be stubborn, irritating, short-tempered, and generally obnoxious at times - is far from perfect, as her partners can attest.

The character of Helva is so vividly drawn - it comes as a shock to realize that we have never “seen” her. We do not know the color of the eyes or hair inside the titanium shell; only the shape of her character and the power of her mind. There was no Internet when Anne McCaffrey created Helva, but the parallels should be obvious.

Anne McCaffrey wrote several more books about the “shell people”, including The City Who Fought and The Ship Who Searched. She is the author of the popular Pern series as well as a host of others. When asked in an interview which was the favorite of all her books, she said ”THE SHIP WHO SANG remains my favorite story possibly because I put much of myself into it.”

So what does this book mean to me and why did I chose it to signify HOPE?

Warning! Warning! Sappy, Sentimental Stuff Ahead! Proceed With Caution!

A few years ago I broke a knee joint and was in a series of casts and braces for several months. Getting around on crutches was a new world of barriers I had never noticed before. Most people I encountered were helpful- opening doors for me and accepting my slowness with patience. Of course, there’s always that 10 percent! One member of the 10 percent knocked me off my crutches and into a store display. She cursed, mumbled something about “the %4#@* people who block aisles”, and stalked away. Had I been able to untangle myself from the aspirin bottles and cold medication in time, I would have found an appropriate place in her skinny backside to place the tip of a crutch. (Being handicapped, even temporarily, hadn’t made me a Better Person – obviously. It just made me mad as hell.) I was knocked off my feet (or rather – foot) twice more, but those two people at least stopped long enough to apologize.

What really bothered me more was being invisible. I had the eerie feeling that I could run around naked with my hair dyed purple, and people would just say “How did you end up in that cast?” (Alas, being in the middle of winter, I didn’t have the fortitude to test that theory.) I was off the crutches a few weeks later, with a slightly better idea of what being "handicapped" meant.

So here’s a little mental check. Think back to the last time you encountered someone in a wheelchair. Can you describe the person, or did you just see the wheelchair and move out of the way? When you pass someone with a seeing-eye dog; who can you describe better; the person or the dog? Point taken?

This review was written for inclusion in the Reflections of Hope Write-Off, hosted by GinaHill and
Angelabar. Please take time to visit the other participant’s reviews which can be found here:
http://www.pronetisp.net/~anjuliz/hope.html, a special webpage designed by Angelabar for this
write-off. You might want to keep this page in your favorites as there are other Write-Off pages created
by Angelabar - for past, present and future Write-Offs.

The other participants include: 29th_Candidate, Angelabar, danni_d, darkmistress, debbie26,
Dr_Steph, Ed_Grover, ezreka, fallyn96, fjbpab, flamepillar, fragglemom, ginahill, hawgwyld, jankp,
jkkelley, jo.com, khahn86351, kittyokc, mellkinwa, missy32, murasaki, nwinston, phineaskc, roark_8,
Sordid-1, Sloucho, SurgRN911, Sumo_Rhino, Westerbear,