Brain ships

The two novels continue the empowerment theme begun in The Ship Who Sang: through technological advances, children born with severe physical handicaps can be placed in mechanical shells, educated, and eventually implanted into the body of interstellar spaceships. Like Helva in the McCaffrey classic, these disabled humans can in essence become the ships. In The Ship Who Searched, young Hypatia Cade is a child prodigy. The seven-year-old daughter of exo-archaeologist parents, Tia is afflicted by a mysterious neurological disorder while helping her parents on a dig. In just a few weeks, Tia is almost entirely paralyzed. After neurological specialists examine her, the prognosis is not good. There is no cure. "A fairy trapped in a fist of metal," Tia gets a second chance at life -- and love -- when she becomes a brain ship. PartnerShip deals with Nancia, a naive brain ship who, after transporting five highly unethical businesspeople to a remote part of space, must figure out a way to honorably bring them to justice.