by Larry Niven
"I know it's an insulting question, and forgive me, but isn't that dangerous?"
"They would call me—to put it politely—a strange kind of kzin if they knew all about me, but I am a kzin for all that, Perpetua. Danger doesn't enter into it. For that matter I'm looking forward to the hunt. You'll never breed that reflex out of us!"
"I'm not one who would want to. I've got to admit life on Wunderland would be duller if some of you furballs hadn't joined us and kept some of your little ways. But, it's partly my own fear I speak from. I don't want you dead on the end of a kz’eerkti spear. Who wishes a friend to face danger alone?"
"Cheer up! Naturally I shall take my tame monkey with me, as bait and interpreter. I won't be facing it alone!"
"Thanks, furball!"
"Quiet your trembling heart, tree-swinger! This time we will be taking full body armor, sense enhancers and modern weapons. Even Hunt Master could hardly call me a coward for that, venturing deep into kz’eerkti territory with only my own ape in tow! And we'll be flying, not walking."
"And as another ape once said, 'This is another fine mess you've gotten us into!' I'd be better off going in alone."
"Hunt Master would never stand for it. Nor would Warrgh-Churrg. If he found out, I'd probably be dueled for letting a monkey go loose without permission; and you'd find a very hungry reception committee when and if you returned."
"You won't tell Warrgh-Churrg you're going?"
"I think that is probably not necessary. We'll make it a quick look in and out."
"Won't he be offended?"
"Hard to see exactly why he should be. He's not the only landowner and the kz’eerkti lands are unoccupied. And I did pay him gold for the hire of the car.
"Anyway, you can learn some of the language. I had Hunt Master teach me all the local kz’eerkti words he's picked up, and you'll be learning them tonight."
"What's their word for 'sword'?"
Ginger's vocal cords did something difficult. Without microsurgery in his youth it would have been impossible.
"Gladius," said Perpetua. "The Latin hasn't changed much. It's a useful language, though the numeration system is hopeless. It should be possible for us to improve on Hunt Master's vocabulary."
"You recognize it?"
"An old Earth language. English and Wunderlander are full of traces of it. You said that Hunt Master called one by a name?" Perpetua found herself suddenly a little shy of saying such a thing to a kzin. But another feeling was stronger than embarrassment.
"Yes, Marrrkusarrg-tuss."
"Could it have been 'Marcus Augustus'?"
"I suppose so." He passed her a disk and sleeper's headset, standard equipment for absorbing a new language quickly. "But here's the dictionary. Learn."
"Thanks. And you'd better do the same. But I do know some of the words already... I wonder what could have happened?"
V
Their car crossed on low power to the scrub woods on the southern side of the river.
Once out of sight of the kzinti on the northern bank they halted and reconnoitered. The land about seemed still and empty, and they picked no body-heat signatures from large live animals. They waited for a time without result at the scene of the recent fight.
Perpetua changed into the robes which the car's machine shop had made the previous night, worn over light formfitting body armor. Ginger, this time also in armor with modern sense enhancers, scanned the area ceaselessly. Insects buzzed and the air smelled strongly of recent death close by. The kzinti kits' bodies they found had been stripped of gear and lacked ears but were otherwise more or less whole. Now in daylight, they saw many bones old and new littering the area, making it look like the kzinti hunting preserve it was. They closed the car's hatch with relief.
"They haven't been too mutilated," said Perpetua.
"No, that would be too much of a provocation. Grounds for a war of extermination." They flew on over taller trees.
"Look there!" There was a stirring in the vegetation below. A heat sensor began flashing.
"Probably kz’eerkti. What do you think we should do?"
"Ignore them for the time being. Let them see we're aware of them but not attacking."
"We could drop them food. Show them we're friendly?"
"They'd think it was poisoned. Kzinti aren't friendly."
They flew round the vegetation, seeing movement, slow to the kzin's eyes, fast and fleeting to the human's. Then the car headed south.
There was no obvious or sudden change in the landscape below, and an hour later they were still flying over green-looking country, quite well-grown with trees, even if these were more widely spread.
"I'm surprised the kzinti haven't taken this for themselves," said Perpetua. "It looks fertile enough."
"I'm not so sure," said Ginger. "Or rather I'm sure it isn't. According to the map the coastal hills south of the delta make a rain shadow, and even without them the rainfall would be poor anyway. Those plants that don't have spiny leaves have shiny ones, and they are keeping them turned edge-on to the sun. I'd say they'll have every kind of moisture-conservation mechanism you can imagine, and this is a green desert with perhaps an occasional cloudburst. Look there." He pointed to something Perpetua could barely see. "Dust devils blowing about. Land here and I'd say you'll find that grass is hard dry spines, growing out of dust. And have you seen any surface water since we left the river?"
"I can't say I have."
"Or large animals?"
"No. Blurred signs on the sensor that suggest burrowing life-forms. But the kz’eerkti live here."
"The kz’eerkti aren't native," said Ginger. "And, as my species found to our cost, they are the most adaptable creatures known in space. I'd say all the native animals in these parts are small, also highly adapted to moisture-conservation. In fact, they are quite plentiful and I've seen a few already, even if you haven't. But not much meat or sport for kzinti. But in any event, have you seen any kz’eerkti?
"No. Where are they anyway?"
"Hiding, I suppose. Hills coming up. Notice anything else about those dust devils?"
"Like what?"
"The color."
"They're red. So is the soil that I can see."
"Yes, red and dusty. Filled with iron, I'd guess. This is old country. The mountains are eroded here, though they're sharp enough further south, where the tectonic plates collided more recently."
"Is that significant?"
"Perhaps not in terms of our mission. But it does mean the country could be rich in minerals. Especially in the vicinity of the rivers. These are the roots of mountains we are flying over, exposed anticlines and synclines. I can see granite in those outcrops, quartz and limestone. Traces of other minerals, too—jasper, copper, and more than traces of gold. This planet is bigger than Earth but has a much smaller core. I speculate that core formation hasn't progressed as far, taking fewer heavy elements out of the crust.
"You might have kzinti mines here if the local moons weren't so mineral-rich," he went on. "In fact I'd say they have mined it sometime in the past—see those low mounds? They look to me like the spoil of mining dumps, but somebody's spread them out as if to hide them. I desire that we had our own ship, with its deep-radar."
They flew on. A cloud of dust below resolved itself into a group of fleeing animals, vaguely caninoid, certainly carnivorous.
"Pack raiders," said Ginger. "There must be prey for them."
"And there's a river," said Perpetua. "See that line of darker trees?"
"I saw it ten minutes ago. But as we get closer you'll see its bed is dry sand. Dig in it and you probably will find water eventually. I'd guess that, apart from the aftermath of the occasional cloudburst, the rivers in this country flow underground."
"There's a big hole."
"And there are others—see, they are in a line. I'd say it's a series of roof collapses in a big cave system. Mines and caves—they probably join up... I would expect more vegetation. It seems to be concent
rated around the riverbeds. Perhaps they divert water from outlying areas with underground tunnels, to grow heavier cover?"
"Maybe that's another reason we don't see kz’eerkti. They'd use the cave lines for travel, too."
"How far would cave lines reach? I suppose that's like asking: How long is a river? But when you look there are a lot of sinkholes, and they do seem to follow lines. Still, collapsed tunnels would transport water."
"Yes. And the lines don't look entirely natural. There are a lot of odd things about this planet."
"Want to land and investigate?"
"Not yet, thanks! We'd better get the big picture first."
Ginger crouched forward, ears spreading and knotting, tail rigid. "Let's get a bit of height well before we reach those hills," he said after a time. "There's something about them..."
"What do you mean?"
"I'm getting something from my ziirgrah now. It's hard to define...but there's a lot more than one pair of eyes looking at us. They're in those hills."
"They can hardly hurt a car like this with bows and arrows."
"They are an unknown," said Ginger. "Don't you think unknown means danger, on a kzinti world to boot? We're going up."
"All right. And I have suspicions of my own." The horizon widened dramatically as the car climbed. Perpetua pointed. "See there!"
"By the Fanged God! Stone walls!"
"And see there! Real mining dumps!"
"Warrgh-Churrg hass been falsse with uss. Why did he not tell uss of thesse thingss? Urrrgh!"
"Careful, Ginger!" The hissing in her companion's accent was a danger sign to Perpetua. Outright lying between kzinti was a mortal insult, and, unlike some other mortal offenses, such as open taunts and mockery, the worse because it was rare. "If he has been economical with truth, so have we... Calm, my friend."
"S-sorry. But he must have known. Satellitess would have shown. And these have been here long."
"There's no point in hanging about up here. We'll have to go down," said Perpetua after they had examined the scene for a while.
"They'll see it's a kzinti car."
"But if a human gets out of it? And a human female should look especially harmless."
"It's a risk for you."
"We're paid to take risks. Should we take her down slowly? Give them a chance to get out of the way?"
"Or a chance to prepare some really nasty surprise for us?"
"We've detected nothing on the instruments. But descending slowly might show we mean no harm."
"If you were fighting the kzinti on a kzinti planet," said Ginger, "and you saw a kzinti craft descending, fast or slow, would you think it meant no harm?"
"I take your point. But look at that!"
"A statue! Of a kzin!"
"Not just a kzin. See the length of the fangs?"
"Does that mean anything?"
"It might. The God has such fangs. I don't understand... Perhaps we could broadcast an audio signal to them," said Ginger. "Tell them we come in peace. If the translator knows enough of the language yet."
"I think I know more of the language than the translator."
The car descended, its bullhorn shouting a message. Perpetua, in a white robe with narrow gold edging, which covered her body armor, alighted. The car rose and remained hovering above her, beyond the reach of primitive weapons. One hand upraised in a peculiar gesture, Perpetua walked toward the dark, rectangular apertures in the stone wall.
At first everything seemed deserted. Then, cautiously, a small group of men appeared. Ginger, watching from above, saw them exchange a complex pattern of arm movements, and, gathered round Perpetua, move back into the structure. He waited. In ancient reflex his fur rose and fell to compensate for the movement of his breathing. Then Perpetua's face appeared on the communicator.
"Come down," she said. "Their leaders are here, and I think I've convinced them you're foederati—an ally. They seem prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt for the moment. Bring no weapons but your w'tsai. They expect that. Keep your communicator on. Tread carefully. We are being met by none other than Marcus Augustus himself."
VI
They were led by two humans, one introduced as Marcus Augustus, in white robes bordered with purple strips. Others followed, carrying long knives, and other things, hidden under clothes, that were plainly weapons. "What is that?" Ginger asked Marcus Augustus, pointing at the statue.
"Why, your Feline god of course. We promised to give him worship in our Pantheon in return for certain favors."
"Fair enough," Ginger mused. "There are kdaptists who have become Christians. And did he actually grant those favors?"
"Obviously. We are here and alive."
"How did you know the Fanged God looked like that?"
"Some of our slaves make statues of him for kzinti nobles."
"I see... I think," said Ginger, "that perhaps I am beginning to understand a little more."
Marcus Augustus nodded and moved ahead.
"I see at least three classes of humans here," said Ginger to Perpetua.
"Classes?"
"Yes. A concept we got to know fairly well on Wunderland. We haven't exactly been top dogs—top cats?—the whole time, you know. You get to recognize these things. The humans in white and purple are the bosses, of course. The ones with the checkered trousers and the funny hair seem an intermediate class. And there are slaves."
"Slaves?"
They were led out the far side of the building, which proved startlingly small. Now they were moving though a mass of closely spaced trees, the needle foliage obscuring the sky. It was a tight fit for Ginger in spots.
"Yes. Look at their clothes. More importantly, look at their gait. I may know more about some aspects of human society than you, and I would say this is not one of your democracies. And if they're fighting a war against modern kzinti with the odd patchwork of technology we've seen so far, I'm not surprised. You don't fight a species war with majority resolutions.
"But slave societies are always looking for more slaves," he continued. "They may see us in that category. Not me, perhaps. If they know anything about kzinti they'd know we don't make slaves. But you...who knows? And by human standards of beauty you are attractive. A good prize. Keep your weapon handy."
"By human standards of beauty? I suppose that's a compliment?"
"Personally I like long whiskers, and fur with a pleasing alternation of orange and yellow stripes, among other things. Four nicely shaped teats help, too, and muscular haunches, not to mention the right smell. But be alert."
Marcus Augustus halted them, glanced at the sky, took a step to the side, and disappeared.
Ginger's ears opened like Chinese parasols. The man had walked inside a tree.
No; a colony of trees, grown together.
It was a really tight fit getting in. Warrgh-Churrg very likely didn't know about this; an uninvited kzin entering here would not be seen again, except possibly as a rug.
"We kept records," Marcus Augustus said, "and the Jotoki gave us better books than scrolls and wooden boards for writing on. Our ancestors were the Ninth Legion, the Hispania. You don't seem surprised."
"I guessed it might be that," said Perpetua. "The legion that marched north into Scotland—ah, Caledonia—from Hadrian's Wall and was never seen again."
"You know that!" Marcus Augustus jumped forward, clasping Perpetua's arms with both hands. "But...with time-dilation effects...from Earth's point of view...I'm not sure, but it must have been thousands of years ago!"
"About two thousand five hundred years, almost."
"Then—Does Rome still stand? Our battles were not in vain? We led the felines away?"
"She is still a great city, but much has changed."
"Was Rome conquered?"
"Not by the kzinti. Only by other humans. And the Human Empire in space that defeated the kzinti is the heir of the empire of Rome. You see I know your language."
"I suppose Earth has got old."
&n
bsp; "Old enough to build spaceships of her own. We come from a colony at Earth's nearest star."
"That is good to hear. And the felines?"
"We fought long wars. We won. Now some, like my companion here, are foederati. Didn't your people recruit Germans? But you spoke of time dilation. You know how time is related to the speed of light?"
"Of course. The Jotoki taught our ancestors... How could you have traveled so far?"
"We travel faster than light."
"It cannot be done!"
"It is how we beat the kzinti. They were a great empire when the leading edge of their wave of conquest reached Earth and its colony worlds and attacked them. We almost perished. Then the hyperdrive came to us."
"I cannot think you are lying. If you were but a kzinti puppet you would not know so much about us."
"So what happened?"
"Do you wish to hear the story firsthand?"
"Firsthand?"
"I told you. We—and the Jotoki—have good records."
He led them to another room in the underground complex, inviting Perpetua to recline on a human-sized couch. Other couches were pushed together for Ginger. Somehow well-used libraries have something of the same atmosphere in every culture. He touched a panel and a screen came to life.
"Behold Maximus Gaius Pontus of senatorial rank, strategos of the Hispania."
A man with an aquiline nose, a peculiar mark burnt between his eyebrows, sat in a carved wooden chair, speaking into a camera.
VII
This record is for posterity. Wherever that may be. At least I need not fuss with scribe and scroll, or fear that mouse or termite shall devour this disk. I will begin when I traveled north with a bulla of authority to take over the Ninth Legion at Hadrian's Wall.
It was, I thought, a remote (Ha! Remote!) and desolate place, though I traveled north toward Caledonia in some comfort. I had campaigned in far worse conditions. There were towns at first, with stone buildings. Then villages, then straggling huts, and finally just the carven milestones and tombstones beside the road. A draft of replacements, specialists, and some civilians accompanied me and my escort.