Part 21 (1/2)

The Jotok trailed us well back from the tail. It wore a five-armhole vest with pockets. It used four limbs as legs. One it held stiff. I pictured a crippled Kzin buying a crippled Jotok . . . but Paradoxical had been agile enough climbing the ladder. I must have missed something.

The file on Jotoki said to call it they they, but that just felt wrong.

”Piracy,” the Kzin said, ”would explain why everything is on its side.”

”Yah. They burned out our thruster. The Captain had to spin us up with att.i.tude jets.”

”I don't know that weapon. Speak of the s.h.i.+p,” he said. ”One? Kzinti?”

”One s.h.i.+p popped up behind us and fired on us as it went past. It's a little smaller than Odysseus. Odysseus. Then a Kzin called us. Act of war, he said. Get the Captain to play that for you. He spoke Interworld . . . not as well as you.” Fly-By-Night talked like he'd grown up around humans. Maybe he was from Fafnir. ”The s.h.i.+p stopped twenty million miles distant and sent a boat. That's on its way here now. Our telescopes pick up markings in the Heroes' Tongue. We can't read them.” Then a Kzin called us. Act of war, he said. Get the Captain to play that for you. He spoke Interworld . . . not as well as you.” Fly-By-Night talked like he'd grown up around humans. Maybe he was from Fafnir. ”The s.h.i.+p stopped twenty million miles distant and sent a boat. That's on its way here now. Our telescopes pick up markings in the Heroes' Tongue. We can't read them.”

He said, ”If we were traveling faster than light, we could not be intercepted. Did your Captain consider that?”

”Better you should ask, why are we out out of hyperdrive? LE Fly-By-Night, there is an extensive star-building region between Fafnir and Home. Going through the Tao Gap in Einstein s.p.a.ce is easier than going around and gives us a of hyperdrive? LE Fly-By-Night, there is an extensive star-building region between Fafnir and Home. Going through the Tao Gap in Einstein s.p.a.ce is easier than going around and gives us a wonderful wonderful view, but we're view, but we're in in it now. Stuck. We can't send a hyperwave help call, we can't jump to hyperdrive, because there's too much ma.s.s around us.” it now. Stuck. We can't send a hyperwave help call, we can't jump to hyperdrive, because there's too much ma.s.s around us.”

”Odysseus has no weapons,” the Kzin said. has no weapons,” the Kzin said.

”I don't have actual rank aboard Odysseus Odysseus. I don't know what weapons we have.” And I wouldn't tell a Kzin.

He said, ”I learned that before I boarded. Odysseus Odysseus is a modular cargo s.h.i.+p. Some of the modules are pa.s.senger cabins. Outbound Enterprises could mount weapons modules, but they never have. None of their other commuter s.h.i.+ps are any better. The other s.h.i.+p, how is it armed?” is a modular cargo s.h.i.+p. Some of the modules are pa.s.senger cabins. Outbound Enterprises could mount weapons modules, but they never have. None of their other commuter s.h.i.+ps are any better. The other s.h.i.+p, how is it armed?”

”Looks like an archaic Kzinti wars.h.i.+p, dis disarmed. Gun ports slagged and polished flat. We haven't had a close look, but s.h.i.+ps like that are all over known s.p.a.ce since before I was born. Armed Kzinti wouldn't be allowed to land. Whatever took out our gravity motors isn't showing. It must be on the boat.”

”Why is this corridor so long?”

Odysseus was a fat disk with motors and tanks in the center, a corridor around the rim, slots outboard to moor staterooms and cargo modules. That shape makes it easy to spin up if something goes wrong with the motors . . . which was still common enough a century ago, when was a fat disk with motors and tanks in the center, a corridor around the rim, slots outboard to moor staterooms and cargo modules. That shape makes it easy to spin up if something goes wrong with the motors . . . which was still common enough a century ago, when Odysseus Odysseus was built. was built.

In the s.h.i.+p's map display I'd seen stateroom modules widely separated, so I'd hacked the pa.s.senger manifest. That led me to read up on Kzinti and Jotoki. The first secret to tourism is, read everything read everything.

I said, ”Some LE may have decided not to put a Kzin too close to human pa.s.sengers. They put you two in a four-pa.s.senger suite and mounted it all the way around clockwise. My single and two doubles and the crew quarters and an autodoc are all widders.h.i.+ns.” That put the aliens' module right next to the lobby, not far apart at all, but the same fool must have sealed off access from the aliens' suite. Despite the Covenants, some people don't like don't like giving civil rights to Kzinti. giving civil rights to Kzinti.

I'd best not say that that. ”We're the only other live pa.s.sengers. The modules between are cargo, so these,” I stamped on a door, ”don't currently open on anything.”

”If you are not a s.h.i.+p's officer,” the Kzin asked, ”what is your place on the bridge?”

I said, ”Outbound Enterprises was getting ready to freeze me. Shashter cops pulled me out. They had questions regarding a murder.”

”Have you killed?” His ears flicked out like little pink fans. I had his interest.

”I didn't kill Ander Smittarasheed. He took some cops down with him, and he'd killed an ARM agent. ARMs are-”

”United Nations police and war arm, Sol system, but their influence spreads throughout human s.p.a.ce.”

”Well, they couldn't question Smittarasheed, and I'd eaten dinner with him a few days earlier. I told them we met in Pacifica City at a water war game . . . anyway, I satisfied the law, they let me loose. I was just in time to board, and and I'd eaten dinner with him a few days earlier. I told them we met in Pacifica City at a water war game . . . anyway, I satisfied the law, they let me loose. I was just in time to board, and way way too late to get myself frozen and into a cargo module. Outbound Enterprises upgraded me. Very generous. too late to get myself frozen and into a cargo module. Outbound Enterprises upgraded me. Very generous.

”So Milcenta and Jenna-my mate and child are frozen in one of these,” I stamped on a door, ”and I'm up here, flying First Cla.s.s at Ice Cla.s.s expense. My cabin's a closet, so we must be expected to spend most of our time in the lobby. In here.” I pushed through.

This trip there were two human crew, five human pa.s.sengers and the aliens. The lobby would have been roomy for thrice that. Whorls of couches and tables covered a floor with considerable s.p.a.ce above it for free fall dancing. That feature didn't generally get much use.

An observation dome exposed half the sky. It opened now on a tremendous view of the Nursery Nebula.

Under spin gravity, several booths and the workstations had rolled up a wall. There was a big airlock. The workstations were two desk-and-couch modules in the middle.

Hans and Hilde Van Zild were in one of the booths. Homers coming back from Fafnir, they held hands tightly and didn't talk. Recent events had them extremely twitchy. They were both over two hundred years old. I've known people in whom that didn't show, but in these it did.

Their kids were hovering around the workstations watching the Captain and First Officer at work, asking questions that weren't being answered.

We'd been given vac packs. More were distributed around the lobby and along the corridor. Most s.h.i.+ps carry them. You wear it as a bulky f.a.n.n.y pack. If you pull a tab, or if it's armed and pressure drops to zero, it blows up into a refuge. Then you hope you can get into it and zip it shut before your blood boils.

Heidi Van Zild looked around. ”Oh, good! good! You brought them!” The little girl s.n.a.t.c.hed up two more vac packs, ran two steps toward us and froze. You brought them!” The little girl s.n.a.t.c.hed up two more vac packs, ran two steps toward us and froze.

The listing said Heidi was near forty. Her brother Nicolaus was thirty; the trip was his birthday present. Their parents must have had their development arrested. They looked the same age, ten years old or younger, bright smiles and sparkling eyes, hair cut identically in a golden c.o.c.katoo crest.

It's an att.i.tude, a lifestyle. You put off children until that second century is running out. Now they're precious. They'll live forever. Let them take their time growing up. Keep them awhile longer. Keep them pure pure. Give them a real real education. Any mistake you make as a parent, there will be time to correct that too. When you reverse the procedure and allow them to reach p.u.b.erty they'll be better at it. education. Any mistake you make as a parent, there will be time to correct that too. When you reverse the procedure and allow them to reach p.u.b.erty they'll be better at it.

I know people who do that to kittens.

Some of a child's rash courage is ignorance. By thirty it's gone. The little girl's smile was a rictus. Aliens were here for her entertainment; she would not willingly miss any part of the adventure, but she just couldn't make herself approach the Kzin or his octopus servant. The boy hadn't even tried.

First Officer Quickpony finished what she'd been doing. She stood in haste, took the vacuum packs from Heidi and handed them to the aliens. ”Fly-By-Night, thank you for coming. Thank you, Mart. You'd be Paradoxical?”

The woman's body language invited a handshake, but the Jotok didn't. ”Yes, we are Paradoxical, greatly pleased to meet you.”

The Kzin snarled a question in the Heroes' Tongue. Everybody's translators murmured in chorus, ”Is this this the bridge?” the bridge?”

Quickpony said, ”Bridge and lobby, they're the same s.p.a.ce. You didn't know? We wondered why you never came around.”

”I was not told of this option. There is merit in the posture that one species should not see another eat or mate or use the recycle port. But, LE Quickpony, your security is a joke! Bridge and pa.s.sengers and no barrier? When did you begin building s.h.i.+ps this way?”

Captain Preiss looked up. He said, ”Software flies us. I can override, but I can disable the override. Hijackers can't affect that.”

”What of your current problem? Did you record the Kzin's demand?”

The Captain spoke a command.

A ghostly head and shoulders popped up on the holostage, pale orange but for two narrow, lofty black eyebrows. ”I am Mee-rowreet Mee-rowreet. Call me Envoy. I speak for the Longest War.”

My translator murmured, ”Mee-rowreet, profession, manages livestock in a hunting park. Longest War Longest War, Kzin term for evolution.”

The recording spoke Interworld, but with a strong accent and flat grammar. ”We seek a fugitive. We have destroyed your gravity motors. We will board you following the Covenants sworn at Shasht at twenty-five naught five your dating. Obey, never interfere,” the ghost head and voice grew blurred, ”give us what we demand. You will all survive.”

”The signal was fuzzed out by distance,” Captain Preiss said. ”The s.h.i.+p came up from behind and pa.s.sed us at two hundred KPS relative, twenty minutes after we dropped out of hyperdrive. It's ahead of us by two light-minutes, decelerated to match our speed.”

I said, speaking low, ”Pleasemadam,” alerting my pocket computer, ”seek interstellar law, doc.u.ment Covenants of Shasht date twenty-five-oh-five. Run it.”

Fly-By-Night looked up into the dome. ”Your intruder?”