Man-Kzin Wars IX Read online

  "Rasht-Myowr, if a violation of the Covenants can't be proved, then I take it these prisoners are yours—"

  Judge Dee interposed. "They may be assessed for substantial property violations, Graynor. Rescue costs. A passenger ship turned to junk!"

  "I will pay the costs," Rasht-Myowr said.

  I asked, "You'll take them back to your Patriarch?"

  "Yah."

  "They'll be tried publicly, of course."

  The peach-colored Kzin considered, then said, "Of course."

  "The court will have a telepath to question him? They always do."

  "Rrr. Your point?"

  "Would you let a telepath find out what Meebrlee-Ritt saw of the telepaths of Sheathclaws? And learn how they live? Really?"

  He didn't get it. I said, "Three hundred years living alongside Humans. Sharing their culture. Their schooling programs. Instead of theft and killing, hang gliding! Meebrlee-Ritt, tell him about Fly-By-Night."

  The prisoner looked at the Patriarch's voice. He said, "I crawled on my belly for him."

  Rasht-Myowr yowled. "With the -Ritt name on you? How dare you?"

  "I meant it."

  "Meant—?"

  "Do you think I was born with no pride, to take and defend a name like mine? I found I could fly the Outsider hyperdrive! I knew that I must be a -Ritt. Then fortune favored me again. A telepath lost on Shasht, healthy and arrogant, the genetic line that will give us the Longest War!

  "Even after questioning, crippled, Nazi Killer tore up one of my unwary Heroes so that we had to leave him. He knew things about me . . . but Nazi Killer was no threat. Frustrating that we had to kill him, but he'd told us how to retrieve another. It was Fly-By-Night and his slaves who stripped me of everything I am! He killed my Heroes. He became Envoy! Reduced my ship to a falling prison."

  Rasht-Myowr demanded, "Technical Officer, is your alpha officer mad?"

  Tech spoke simply; his dignity was still with him. "I followed the telepath's commands exactly. What he had done to us, to him I followed, how could I face him? With what weapons? But Fly-By-Night was not alone. Kzin and 'man and Jotok, they took our ears."

  I hoped then that there were unseen defenses, that nobody would have set fragile humans undefended among these Kzinti. Rasht-Myowr turned on me a gaping grin that would not let him speak. His alien stench was not that of any creature of Earth, but I knew it was his rage.

  "You can't take them back to the Patriarchy," I said to Rasht-Myowr. Because they had kept faith.

  * * ** * *

  Quickpony and the Van Zild children were with me when Outbound Enterprises thawed two modules of passengers taken from Odysseus. The way they were wrapped, I couldn't tell who was who until Jeena was wheeled out of the cooker. We clung to each other and waited. If Jeena was alive, so was her mother.

  We waited, ice in our veins, and she came.