Part 30 (2/2)
”Persuade me. I have taken command of Needle.”
Chmeee's hands moved. The floor surged savagely. Louis grabbed at a chair back and rode it out. A glance at the board told him that Needle's descent had stopped. The rain of projectiles had stopped too, though a dozen aircraft still circled beyond the windows. The fortress was half a mile below.
Chmeee asked, ”How did you arrange that?”
”I made slag out of the hyperdrive motor.”
The kzin moved incredibly fast. Before Louis could do more than flinch, he was wrapped in orange fur. The kzin was pulling Louis against his chest with one arm while the other held four claws against Louis's eyebrows.
”Shrewd,” said Louis. ”Very shrewd. Where do your plans carry you from here?”
The kzin didn't move. Blood trickled past Louis's eyes. He felt that his back was breaking. Louis said, ”It seems I've had to rescue you again.”
The kzin released him and stepped back carefully, as if afraid to move on impulse. He asked, ”Have you doomed us all? Or do you have some notion of moving the entire Ringworld back into position?”
”The latter.”
”How?”
”A couple of hours ago I could have told you. Now we'll have to find another answer.”
”Why did you do it?”
”I wanted to save the Ringworld. There was just one way to get the Hindmost's cooperation. His life's at stake now. How do I go about getting your cooperation?”
”You fool. I fully intend to learn how to move the Ringworld, if only to save my children. Your problem is to persuade me that I need you.”
”The Pak who built the Ringworld were my ancestors. We're trying to think like them, aren't we? What did they build in that would do the job? Aside from that, I've got two City Builder librarians with a good knowledge of Ringworld history. They wouldn't cooperate with you. They already see you as monstrous, and you haven't even killed me yet.”
Chmeee thought it over. ”If they fear me they will obey. Their world is at stake. Their ancestors were Pak too.”
The lander's temperature had become uncomfortably cool for a naked man, but Louis was sweating again. ”I've already located the Repair Center.”
”Where?”
Louis considered withholding that information, briefly. ”The Map of Mars.”
Chmeee sat down. ”Now, that is most impressive. These displaced kzinti learned a good deal about the Map of Mars during their age of exploration, but they never learned that.”
”I'll bet some s.h.i.+ps disappeared around the Map of Mars.”
”The aircraft pilot told me that many s.h.i.+ps disappeared, and nothing of value was ever taken from the Map of Mars. The explorers brought home wealth from a Map further to spinward, but they never brought as much wealth as they put into making the s.h.i.+ps. Do you need the autodoc?”
Louis wiped blood from his face with his falling Jumper. ”Not just yet. That Map to spinward sounds like Earth. So it wasn't defended after all.”
”It seems not. But there is a Map to port, and s.h.i.+ps that went there never returned. Could the Repair Center be there?”
”No, that's the Map of Down. They met Grogs.” Louis swabbed at his face again. The claws hadn't cut deep, he thought, but a facial cut bleeds a long time. ”Let's do something about your pregnant females. How many?”
”I don't know. Six were in their mating period.”
”Well, we don't have room for them. They'll have to stay in the castle. Unless you think the local lord will kill them?”
”No, but he may very well kill my male children. Another danger ... Well, I can deal with that.” Chmeee turned to the controls. ”The most powerful civilization is built around one of the old exploration s.h.i.+ps, the Behemoth. If they track me here, there might be war against the fortress.”
The aircraft burned like torches as they fell. Chmeee tested the sky with radar, deep-radar, and infrared. Empty. ”Louis, were there more? Did any land?”
”I don't think so. If they did, they ran out of fuel, and there aren't any runways ... Roads? Scan the roads. You can't let them radio the big s.h.i.+p.” Radio would be line of sight, and the Ringworld atmosphere probably had a Heaviside layer.
There was one road, and tanj few straight patches on it. There were flat fields ... It was some minutes before Chmeee was satisfied. The aircraft were dead, all of them.
”Next step,” said Louis. ”You can't just wipe out everyone in the fortress. I gather kzinti females can't take care of themselves.”
”No ... Louis, it's odd. The females of the castle are much more intelligent than those of the Patriarchy.”
”As intelligent as you?”
”No! But they even have a small vocabulary.”
”Is it possible that your own people have been breeding your females for docility? Refusing to mate with the intelligent ones for hundreds of thousands of years? After all, you cull the slave species.”
Chmeee s.h.i.+fted restlessly. ”It may be. The males here are different too. I tried to deal with the rulers of the exploration s.h.i.+p. I showed my power, then waited for them to attempt to negotiate. They attempted no such thing. They behaved as if there was nothing to do but fight until they or I were destroyed. I had to mock Chjarrl, to insult his pride in his ancestry, before he would tell me anything.”
But puppeteers never bred these kzinti for docility, Louis thought. ”Well, if you can't take the females out of the fortress and you can't kill off the males, then you'll tanj well have to deal with them. G.o.d Gambit?”
”Perhaps. Let us do it this way ...”
Well above arrow range, just above the range of the cannon on the intruder's vehicle, the lander hovered. Its shadow covered the ashes of the fire in the courtyard. Louis listened to the voices from Chmeee's translator, and waited for Chmeee's signal.
Chmeee inviting archers to fire at him. Chmeee threatening, promising, threatening. Staccato thunder from a laser beam cutting rock, followed by a crash. Hissing, snarling, spitting.
No mention of Chmeee's really dangerous master.
Four hours he was down there. Then Chmeee stepped from one of the narrow windows and floated upward. Louis waited till he was aboard, then lifted.
Presently Chmeee appeared behind him, minus flying belt and impact armor. Louis said, ”You never signaled for the G.o.d Gambit.”
”Are you offended?”
”No, of course not.”
”It would have gone badly. And ... I could not have done it. This is my own species. I could not threaten them with a man.”
”Okay.”
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