“What’s going to be done with the rocket?” Jack asked. “That damned thing has been a pain in my backside since it was discovered.”
“Mine, too,” Ben added. “Ingermann was trying to use it to bring down the colonial government.”
“We’ll transport it back to Terra where a herd of scientists will go over it atom by atom and determine its origin,” Napier said. Clearly Victor Grego was keeping mum about the forgery being constructed, he thought, if Jack and Ben were still in the dark. In actual fact, the phony would go to Terra and the real rocket would be mothballed in a secret facility on an out-of-the-way planet.
“Since Science Division is through working with the fuzzy gigantus bones, why not put them in the Fuzzy museum?” Gerd said. “We don’t have any modern Fuzzy skeletons to display since the Fuzzies find it to be too morbid. They hate taxidermy, too.”
“I’m for it,” Grego agreed. “Juan, if you’re through with them, why not send a couple of sets to Gerd?”
Juan nodded. “I’ll have the two most complete skeletons delivered first thing tomorrow. The two most complete sets are of a male and a female, so you can do an Adam and Eve type display, maybe.”
“I don’t make those types of decisions. The staff will get together and vote on it or something. That reminds me,” Gerd said. “What happened to that recall vote business?”
Gus emptied his glass and accepted a refill of Freyan ale. “I had the petitions checked. They were full of graveyard signatures. Ingermann was padding the count using Old Chicago-style tactics. It only takes one phony John Hancock and the whole thing becomes invalid. There were at least three hundred dead citizens on that petition list. The colonial government is quite safe. I’m adding election fraud to the list of charges.”
“So that’s it, then? Life goes back to normal,” Ruth said.
“Pretty much,” Gus said. “Even the criminal underworld will eventually generate a new clutch of bosses to keep me and the police busy. Spike Heenan is going away, too.”
“No,” Jack said. “There’s one big difference. There are Fuzzies out there that neither need nor want Big Ones to take care of them. Fuzzies that don’t need extee-three to breed viable offspring. Fuzzies that have a future all their own independent of us Big Ones. That is a very big difference, don’t you think?”
That’s the most important thing, Jack concluded. With everything that had happened over the past few months; the duel, Gus’s abduction, the Fuzzy War—all that would be forgotten over time. But the Fuzzies would be around for a long time, maybe even after Terra was lost and forgotten by the race it spawned.
* * * * * * * * *
Little Fuzzy, Mama Fuzzy, Baby Fuzzy, Mike, Mitzy, Ko-ko and Cinderella talked among themselves in their new room. They discussed what Red Fur said and their own experiences with Pappy Jack and the other Big Ones. Much of what Red Fur said had made sense to them. Since meeting the Big Ones none of them were ever hungry or lonely or in danger from wild animals. The Fuzzies hunted if they felt like it or just ate the food the Big Ones provided. They could make arrows the way they were taught or just use the ones provided by Pappy Vic.
The names they used came from the Big Ones. They didn’t even use their old names with each other. In the last few years the Fuzzies had learned much, like what a Pappy really was. Pappy Jack was like their father. He was Morgan’s father. Morgan grew up to become a Big One that didn’t need Pappy Jack to take care of him. Would the Fuzzies ever become like the Big Ones, not needing their help?
Yet, the Big Ones also taught them much. When Little Fuzzy was lost in the wilderness, he was able to survive using what he had learned from Pappy Jack, Pappy Gerd, Pappy George and other Big Ones. And Pappy Jack came out to find him and bring him home. Little Fuzzy’s people could survive on their own, true, but they could survive better with what they had learned from the Big Ones. Maybe they would one day learn to work side-by-side with the Big Ones without being like children who needed to be watched and protected.
Little Fuzzy thought on that a long time before sleep took him.
The End
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Where to start? A lot of people provided help and encouragement for me to finish this and the previous book. John F. Carr pushed me (or nagged, if you prefer) to get both books out in a timely manner and was the driving force to get them both into your hands.
I have to say something about my mother, or the next family reunion will be very long and uncomfortable (kidding!). She edited, commented, nagged, and then told all of her friends that I wrote the first book. Look, Ma, no hands! (Typing with feet hurts.)
Sharon Masonis, a good friend of mine, encouraged me to start the first book. She simply couldn’t get enough of the Fuzzies and was thrilled at the idea that I would try to continue H. Beam Piper’s work. She must have liked the first one, because she pushed for the second one in a hurry.
I have to mention Aunt Patricia, who has been subjected to my earlier works and still wanted to read my first published novel. Besides, she’s a Texan and can probably out-shoot me, so I don’t want to make her mad.
I think a writer is only as good as his editing team, so I would like to mention Mike Robertson, Fred Patten, Victoria Alexander, Dennis Frank, Larry Hopkins and Jonigirl (she knows who she is.).
At the time of this writing I learned that we lost another writer from the Piperverse, Ardeth Mayhar, who authored Golden Dream: A Fuzzy Odyssey. Her book followed the alternative third book Fuzzy Bones by William Tuning, who also left us too soon. May they both rest in peace.
For anybody I failed to mention, and there are a few, my thanks for your help and support.
Wolfgang Diehr
CAVEAT FUZZY by Wolfgang Diehr is his sequel to Fuzzy Ergo Sum and the second new book continuing the Fuzzy series of novels first begun by H. Beam Piper Little Fuzzy was H. Beam Piper’s bestselling novel and was nominated for a Hugo award in 1963. The book’s popularity has not diminished since it was initially published and has been reprinted in numerous editions.
WOLFGANG DIEHR is a former US Army sergeant and Wayne State University alumnus. He has worked numerous jobs from ice cream truck sales to private security, assisted in the creation of the Devil Whiskey computer game and acted in several student films. He was bit by the writing bug while attending college. Wolfgang also moderates the Piper Worlds discussion group on Yahoo where fans of H. Beam Piper share ideas and discuss his body of work. He lives in the Thumb of Michigan with his dog, Curtys and two feral cats, Ares and Hermes. This is Wolfgang’s second novel.
ALAN GUTIERREZ is one of science fiction’s finest artists. For more information, visit his website at www.alansstudio.dragonsanime.com
This book is published by Pequod Press. For more information on H. Beam Piper-and/or Piper related Pequod titles, visit www.H-BeamPiper.com
Author Photo by Heather Newton
Pequod Press
ISBN No.: 978-0-937912-22-5
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
I
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
XXIV
XXV
XXVI
XXVI
XXVII
XXVIII
XXIX
XXX
XXXI
XXXII
XXXIII
XXXIV
XXXV
XXXVI
XXXVII
XXXVIII
XXXIX
XL
ACKOWLEDGEMENTS
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
I
&n
bsp; II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VIII
IX
X
XI
XII
XIII
XIV
XV
XVI
XVII
XVIII
XIX
XX
XXI
XXII
XXIII
XXIV
XXV
XXVI
XXVI
XXVII
XXVIII
XXIX
XXX
XXXI
XXXII
XXXIII
XXXIV
XXXV
XXXVI
XXXVII
XXXVIII
XXXIX
XL
ACKOWLEDGEMENTS
Caveat Fuzzy Page 36