The Ship Who Won by Anne McCaffrey, Jody Lynn Nye

hands together in a
    thunderclap. "All... all," he said, getting up and drawing a
    circle in the air around an adult male, an adult female, and
    three children. He pantomimed beating the male, and
    shoved the food bowls away from the female and children
    with his foot. Most of the fur-faced humanoids shuddered
    and one of the children burst into tears.
    "All punished for one person s curiosity? But why?" Keff
    demanded. "By whom?"
    For answer Brannel aimed his three-fingered hand at
    the mountains, with a scornful expression that plainly said
    that Keff should already know that. Keff peered up at the
    distant heights.
    "Huh?" Carialle said. "Did I miss something?"
    "Punishment from the mountains? Is it a sacred tradition associated with the mountains?" Keff asked. "By his
    body language Brannel holds whatever comes from there
    in healthy respect, but he doesn't like it."
    'Typical of religions," Carialle sniffed. She focused her
    cameras on the mountain peak in the direction Keff faced
    and zoomed in for a closer look. "Say, there are structures
    up there, Keff. They're blended in so well I didn't detect
    them on initial sweep. What are they? Temples? Shrines?
    Who built them?"
    Keff pointed, and turned to Brannel.
    "What are . . . ?" he began. His question was abruptly
    interrupted when a beam of hot light shot from the peak of
    the tallest mountain in the range to strike directly at Keffs
    feet. Hot light engulfed him. "Wha--?" he mouthed. His
    hand dropped to his side, slamming into his leg with the
    force of a wrecking ball. The air turned fiery in his throat,
    drying his mouth and turning his tongue to leather. Humming filled his ears. The image of Brannel's face, agape,
    swam before his eyes, faded to a black shadow on his reti-nas, then flew upward into a cloudless sly blacker than
    space.
    The bright bolt of light overpowered the aperture of the
    tiny contact-button camera, but Carialle's external cameras
    recorded the whole thing. Keff stood rigid for a moment
    after the beam struck, then slowly, slowly keeled over and
    slumped to the ground in a heap. His vital-sign monitor
    shrieked as all activity flatlined. To all appearances he was
    dead.
    "Keff!" Carialle screamed. Her system demanded
    adrenaline. She fought it, forcing serotonin and endorphins into her bloodstream for calm. It took only
    milliseconds until she was in control of herself again. She
    had to be, for Keffs sake.
    In the next few milliseconds, her circuits raced through
    a diagnostic, checking the implants to be sure there was no
    system failure. All showed green.
    "Keff," she said, raising the volume in his implant. "Can
    you hear me?" He gave no answer.
    Carialle sent her circuits through a diagnostic, checking
    the implants to be sure there was no system failure. All
    showed green except the video of the contact camera,
    which gradually cleared. Before Carialle could panic further, the contacts began sending again. Keffs vitals
    returned, thready but true. He was alive! Carialle was
    overjoyed. But Keff was in danger. Whatever caused that
    burst of power to strike at his feet like a well-aimed thunderbolt might recur. She had to get him out of there. A
    bolt like that couldn't be natural, but further analysis must
    wait. Keff was hurt and needed attention. That was her
    primary concern. How could she get him back?
    The small servos in her ship might be able to pick him
    up, but were intended for transit over relatively level
    floors. Fully loaded they wouldn't be able to transport
    Keffs weight across the rough terrain. For the first time,
    she wished she had gotten a Moto-Prosthetic body as Keff
    had been nagging her to do. She longed for two legs and
    two strong arms.
    Hold it! A body was available to her: that of the only
    intelligent man on the planet. When the bolt had struck,
    Brannel, with admirably quick reflexes, had flung himself
    out of the way, rolling over the stony ground to a sheltered
    place beneath the rise. The other villagers