Man-Kzin Wars IX

by Larry Niven

  Meebrlee-Ritt popped up bigger than life and fourteen minutes early. He demanded, "Envoy, is the telepath well?"

  Fly-By-Night flinched, then cringed. "The telepath is healthy, Dominant One. I judge that he is not in his right mind."

  "The Jotok? Yourself? Where is Packer?"

  "The Jotok amuses themself with a computer. I will welcome medical attention. Packer . . . Dominant One . . . Packer looked on hyperspace."

  "He knew better!"

  "Envoy" recoiled, then visibly pulled himself together. "Soon or late, Dominant One, every Hero looks. Wealth and a name and the infinite future, if he has sisters and daughters, if he can stay sane. Packer did not. He hides in the waterfall when I let him. Set him in a hunting park soon or he will die."

  "That will not be our task. Leap For Life will be here soon. Transfer the boat to Leap For Life. Haste! No need to take Telepath out of his vacuum refuge. You will be relieved aboard Leap For Life."

  "Yes, Dominant One!"

  "Packer must guard the telepath. The telepath will attack now if ever."

  "Yes—"

  Meebrlee-Ritt was gone.

  "We have it!" Paradoxical projected what he was seeing against the cannon casing.

  Still distant, backlit by Apollo, Home's sun, a sphere nestled in a glowing arc of gamma ray shield, its black skin broken by holes and projections and tiny windows. Dots-and-commas script glowed brilliant orange. "We find heavy graviton wake. That ship is decelerating hard."

  "Built in this century," Fly-By-Night said.

  Sraff-Zisht dropped us free.

  This was not much of a puzzle. I spun the boat, aimed at Leap For Life and said, "Shoot."

  My hair stirred. Fly-By-Night's fur stood up and rippled. He said, "Done. Doc?"

  "The graviton wake is gone. You burned out its thrusters."

  I boosted us to put Sraff-Zisht between us and Leap For Life. Leap For Life had the weapons, after all. I set our gun on Sraff-Zisht and said, "Again."

  "Done. I burned out something."

  "Graviton flare," Paradoxical said, just as Sraff-Zisht vanished.

  "Meebrlee-Ritt must have tried to return to hyperspace," Fly-By-Night said. "We burned out the hyperdrive. But he still has thrusters!"

  I rotated the boat to focus the gun on the immobilized Leap For Life. "Projectiles. Shoot it to bits."

  Fly-By-Night punched something. We heard the weapon adjusting, but he didn't shoot. "Why?"

  I screamed, "They've got all the weapons, our shield has flown away—"

  "Stet." The boat's lone weapon roared. It was right in the middle of the cabin/cargo hold. The noise was amazing. The boat recoiled: cabin gravity lurched to compensate. Leap For Life jittered and came apart in shreds.

  "—And they don't have the hostages! And now it's one less tanj thing to worry about."

  "Stet, stet, I understand!"

  Paradoxical said, "We win."

  We looked at the Jotok. He said, "We may report all that has happened, now, via laser broadcast to Home. We fly the boat to Home with our proofs. The law of Home can arrange to retrieve Odysseus. With his hyperdrive burned out, Meebrlee-Ritt is trapped in Home system. In the full glare of publicity he must follow the Covenants. He may trade his hostages for some other consideration such as amnesty, but they must be returned. Stet?"

  "He's still got my family! But I think we can turn on the cabin futzy gravity now, if you don't mind—" I stopped because Meebrlee-Ritt, greatly magnified, was facing Fly-By-Night.

  "Some such consideration," he mimicked us. "You look stupid, Telepath, covered with food. Only one consideration can capture my interest! Read my mind if you doubt me. Release my entourage and surrender! The hostages for yourself!"

  Fly-By-Night's claw moved. No result showed except for Meebrlee-Ritt's widening eyes, but Fly-By-Night had given him a contracted view. He was seeing all of us.

  "Lies! You killed my Heroes? Eeeeerg!" A hair-lifting snarl as Fly-By-Night lifted Packer's ear into view.

  It seemed the right moment. I showed Envoy's surviving ear. "We had to use the other."

  "Martin Wallace Graynor, you may buy back your hostages and your life by putting the telepath into my hands!"

  It began to seem that Meebrlee-Ritt was mad. I asked, "Must I subdue him first?"

  A killing gape was my answer. I asked, "And where would you take him then, with no hyperdrive?"

  "Not your concern."

  "We're going to call for help now. Over the next few hours all of Home system is going to know you're here. A civilized solar system seethes with telescopes. If you have allies in the asteroids, you can't go to them. You'd only point them out to the Home Rule."

  "What if you never make that broadcast, LE Graynor? And I can . . . thaw . . . sss." He'd had a notion. He stepped out of range. Ducked back and fisheyed the view to show his whole cabin. The other Kzin, Tech, was at his workstation, watching.

  A wall slid away. Through an aperture ten yards wide I could see a much bigger cargo hold and all of Odysseus' cargo modules. Meebrlee-Ritt moved to one of them, opened a small panel and worked.

  Back he came. "I can reset the temperature on these machines. I thought you might wonder, but soon I will show you thawed fish. You cannot do to me what you did to Leap For Life without killing my hostages too. If you broadcast any message at all, I will set the third module thawing, and then I will show you thawed dead hostages."

  I was sweating.

  The Kzin aristocrat said, "Telepath . . . Fly-By-Night. I will give you a better name. Your prowess has earned a name even as an enemy. What is it we ask of you? Take a harem. Raise your sons. See your daughters grow up in the Patriarch's household. A life in luxury buys survival for sixty-four Human citizens.

  "Think, then. I can wait. A boat's life support is not the match for an interstellar spacecraft. Or else—"

  The mass of an interstellar spacecraft jumped into our faces. Meebrlee-Ritt was tiny in its window, huge in the hologram stage. He threw his head back, a prolonged screech, mouth gaping as wide as my head. Forced his mouth to close so he could ask, "Graynor, have you ever flown a spacecraft? Do you think you have the skill to keep me from ramming you?"

  I said, "Yes. Space is roomy, and the telepath is our hostage. Doc, can you give me a deep-radar view of yon privateer?"

  Paradoxical guessed what I meant. The mass outside our dome went transparent.

  I looked it over. Fuel . . . more fuel . . . a bulky hyperdrive design from the last century. Gravity and reaction motors were also big and bulky. Skimpy cargo space, smaller cabin, and that tiny box shape must be a waterfall room just like ours.

  I spun the boat. "You say I can't shoot?"

  Meebrlee-Ritt looked up. He must have been looking right into our gun. "Pitiful! Are all Humans natural liars?"

  Fine-tuning my aim, I said, "There is a thing you should know about us. If you eat prey that is infested . . . whasht-meery . . . you may be very sick, but it doesn't kill off your whole blood line. Shoot," I said to Fly-By-Night.

  The gun roared. Meebrlee-Ritt's image whirled around. The boat recoiled: gravity imbalances swirled through my belly. In our deep-radar view the waterfall room became a smudge.

  Then Sraff-Zisht was gone.

  "We track him," Paradoxical said. "Gravitons, heavily accelerating, there."

  A green circle on the sky marked nothing but stars, but I spun the boat to put cross hairs on it. "Electromagnetic," I shouted.

  "Am I a fool?" The gun grumbled, shifting from projectile mode.

  "Graviton wake has stopped."

  Fly-By-Night cried, "I have not fired!"

  I said, "He's got no hyperdrive—"

  Paradoxical said, "Gravitons again. He will ram."

  The room wobbled, my hair stood on end, Fly-By-Night fluffed out into a great orange puffball. "Graviton wake is gone," Paradoxical said.

  I moved us, thirty gee lateral, in case his aim was good.

  Sraff-Zisht, falling free, shot pa
st us by two miles. I chased it down. Whim made me zip in alongside the ship's main window. Grinning like a Kzin, I screamed, "Now wait us out!"

  In the hologram stage Meebrlee-Ritt hugged a stack of meteor patches while he pulled on the waterfall door. Vacuum inside would be holding the door shut. We could see Tech working his way into a pressure suit, but Meebrlee-Ritt hadn't thought of that yet. He turned to look at the camera, at us.

  He cringed. Down on his belly, face against the floor.

  Paradoxical set our com laser on Home. The lightspeed lag was several hours, so I just recorded a help call and sent it. Then, as we'd have to anyway, we three began recording the whole story. That too would arrive before we could—

  Tech stood above Meebrlee-Ritt, watching us. When Fly-By-Night looked at him he cringed, a formal crouch. "Dominant One, what must we do?"

  Fly-By-Night said, "Tend your cargo until you can be towed to Home. Meebrlee-Ritt also I place in your charge. Set your screamer and riding lights so you can be found. You may dream of betrayal but do not act on it. You know what I am. I know who you are. Your hostages' lives will buy back your blood line."

  He'd said he couldn't read minds. I still think he was bluffing.

  * * *

  A century ago the new settlers had towed a moonlet from elsewhere into geosynchronous orbit around Home. Home Base was where incoming ships arrived, and where they thawed incoming Ice Class passengers.

  The law had business with hijackers and kidnappers; we were their witnesses. We were the system's ongoing news item. Media and the law were waiting.

  I rapidly judged that anchorpersons and lawyers were my fate. The only way to hide myself was to sign with Home Information Megacorp and talk my head off until my public grew bored.

  If Carlos Wu tried to call me they'd be all over him too. I hoped he'd wait it out.

  Sraff-Zisht we had left falling free through Home system. Home Rule had to round up ships to bring it back. It took two of their own, four Belters acting for the bounty, and one shared by a media consortium, all added to the several they sent after Odysseus. It took them ten days to fetch Sraff-Zisht.

  For eight days I was questioned by Home and ARM law and by LE Wilyama Warbelow, the anchor from Home Information Megacorp. Wilyama was wired for multisensory recording. What she experienced became immortal.

  They'd wanted to do that to me too.

  The last two days were a lull: I was able to more or less relax, and even see a bit of the captured asteroid. Then Sraff-Zisht descended on tethers to Home Base, and everybody wanted Mart Graynor.

  The Covenant against sensory deprivation as torture has long since been interpreted as the right to immediate trial, not just for Kzinti but throughout human space, a right not to be evaded. I was to submit to questioning by Meebrlee-Ritt and Tech, by their lawyer and everyone else's, while two hundred Ice Class passengers were being thawed elsewhere.

  I screamed my head off. Cameras were on me. The law bent. When they thawed the hostages from Sraff-Zisht, I was there to watch.

  My wife and child weren't there.

  And we all trooped off to use the holo wall in the Outbound Enterprises Boardroom.

  The prisoners watched us from an unknown site. It didn't seem likely they'd burst through the holo wall and rip us apart. Meebrlee-Ritt's eyes glittered. Tech only watched.

  The court had restricted the factions to one advocate each. All I had for company were Sirhan, a police commissioner from Home Rule; Judge Anita Dee; Handel, an ARM lawyer; Barrister, a runty Kzin assigned as advocate to the prisoners; a hugely impressive peach-colored Kzin, Rasht-Myowr, representing the Patriarch; and anchorperson Wilyama Warbelow.

  Judge Dee told the prisoners, "You are each and together accused of violations of local law in two systems, and of the Covenants of 2505 at Fafnir. A jury will observe and decide your fate."

  LE Barrister spoke quickly. "You may not be compelled to speak nor to answer questions, and I advise against it. I am to speak for you. Your trial will take at least two days, as we must wait for other witnesses, but no more than four."

  Meebrlee-Ritt spoke in Interworld. "We have followed the Covenants. Where are my accusers?"

  They all looked at me. I said, "Gone."

  "Gone?"

  "Fly-By-Night and Paradoxical and I signed an exclusive contract with Home Information Megacorp for our stories. I got a room here at Home Base. They'll thaw my family here, after all." If they lived. "We gave LE Warbelow," I nodded; the anchor bowed, "an hour's interview, presumed to be the first of many. Fly-By-Night and Paradoxical transferred to a shuttle. The Patriarch's representative missed them by just under two hours. They disappeared on the way down."

  I've never doubted their destination. Fly-By-Night had come to Home for a reason, and he never told anyone who had arranged their transport to Fafnir.

  The law raised hell, as if it were my fault they were gone. Warbelow was more sensible. She paid for my room, a major expense that wasn't in our contract. With the aliens gone, I had become the only game in town.

  They got their money's worth. Mart Graynor emerged as a braggart with a Fafnir accent I'd practiced for two years. I played the same tune while various lawyers and law programs questioned me. I hoped nobody would see a resemblance to documentaries once made by Beowulf Shaeffer.

  Barrister reacted theatrically. "Gone! Then who is witness against my clients?"

  "We have LE Graynor, Your Honor," Sirhan said, speaking for Home Rule, "and the crew and passengers of Odysseus will be called. Odysseus had to be chased down in the Kuiper belt, the inner comets, and towed in. They'll be arriving tomorrow. Any of the passengers might press claims against the defendants."

  The judge said, "LE Handel?"

  The ARM rep said, "The Longest War threatens all of human space. We need what these Kzinti can tell us. They've violated the Covenants. There was clear intent to store humans as reserves of meat—"

  "This was a local act against Homer citizens!" Sirhan said.

  Judge Dee gestured at the big peach-colored Kzin, who said, "The Patriarch's claim is that Meebrlee-Ritt is no relative of his and has no claim to his name. I am to take possession—"

  Meebrlee-Ritt leapt at us, bounced back from the wall—or from a projection screen—and screamed something prolonged. "I flew outside the universe!" said my translator. "Who can do that? Only the -Ritt! In cowardice does the Patriarch disclaim my part in the Long War!" He changed to Interworld: "LE Graynor knows! Nine days through hyperspace, accurately to my rendezvous!"

  "I am to take possession and return him for trial, and his Heroes too. I must have Envoy's ear, Graynor, unless you can establish a kill. Nameless One, Kzinti elsewhere can fly hyperspace. Females of your line may have reached the -Ritt harem. What of it?"

  "My line descends from the Patriarch! I violated no Covenants!"

  The runty Kzin who was his advocate caught the judge's eye. He too spoke Interworld. "To properly represent the prisoners I must speak with them alone and encrypted to learn their wishes. I expect we will fight extradition. Rasht-Myowr," a prolonged howl in the Heroes' Tongue. The Patriarch's designate was trying to loom over him. My translator buzzed static. The runty Kzin waited, staring him down, until the big one stepped back and sheathed his claws.

  Barrister said, "Violation of the Covenants would hold my clients here in any case, but none of these claims has any force until we can interview the victims. Odysseus' crew and passengers will reach Home Base tomorrow. We have only LE Graynor's word for any of this."

  "He's telling the truth, though," I said.

  Meebrlee-Ritt barked his triumph. The ARM man said, "Futz, Graynor!"

  Judge Dee asked, "LE Graynor, are you familiar with the Covenants of 2505?"

  "As much as any law program. I've examined them half to death."

  "Did you see violations?"

  "No. I thought I had. I thought Packer must have shot out Odysseus' hyperdrive and hyperwave, putting Odysseus at unacceptable risk, but
it's clear he didn't. Hyperdrive got Odysseus into the Home comets, and they called ahead via hyperwave as soon as they were out of the Nursery Nebula."

  Rasht-Myowr's tail slashed across and back. "Your other claims fail! The false lord is mine, and his remaining Hero too!"

  I said, "Whatever these two learned about Fly-By-Night and his companions, taking them back to Kzin for trial gives that to the Patriarch. On that basis I'd keep them, if I was an ARM."

  "But you're testifying," the ARM said bitterly, "that they didn't violate the Covenants."

  "Yah."

  "Mine! And Envoy's ear," Rasht-Myowr said. "His one ear. Did you kill him?"

  "I killed them both. Do you need details? Fly-By-Night was trapped in his vac refuge. We'd just rounded Turnpoint Star and Envoy was flying the ship. Difficult work, took his full attention. Back turned, free fall, crash web holding him in his chair. I had Fly-By-Night's w'tsai." The police had already confiscated that. "He would have killed me if he'd released his crash web in time."

  "He would have killed you anyway! Why would you keep only one ear?"

  For an instant I couldn't speak at all. Then I barely remembered my accent. "I h-heated one for charcoal to paint Fly-By-Night. Packer was wrestling Fly-By-Night when I chopped him up, so Fly-By-Night got the ear. He chewed off the other one. They stole, you stole my wife and child and unborn, my harem, you whasht-meery son of a stray cat! I still haven't seen them alive. I memorized those whasht-meery Covenants. They only forbid my killing your relatives!"

  "Duel me then!" Meebrlee-Ritt shouted. "Back turned, crash web locked, free fall, my claws only, blunt them if you like—"

  "Barrister, you will silence your client or I will," the judge said.

  "—And you armed! Prove you can do this!"

  Meebrlee-Ritt, I decided, was trying to commit suicide. He didn't want to go with Rasht-Myowr. Let the Patriarch have him, I owed him nothing.

  Almost nothing.

  I said, "Judge Dee, if you'll let me ask a few questions, I may solve some problems here."

  "You came to be questioned, LE Graynor. What did you have in mind?"