Man-Kzin Wars IX, Larry Niven [leveled readers TXT] 📗

Ghrul-Captain quivered. "Yes, lord, but—but we won't only make our observations from afar, like the monkeys. We'll try—discreetly, yes, of course, lord—try to learn what they do discover and what they infer. I think we can beat them at their own game too, and show them what Heroes are."

"Do not take risks merely for the sake of that."

"No, lord, certainly not." It might be harder to curb his personnel than himself, but Ghrul-Captain felt confident. "However, as my proposal notes, we have a special craft available to us, the prototype of Sun Defier. My lord doubtless knows that that was the tug designed and built for Werlith-Commandant's mission to the ancient star, able to operate closer to it while keeping the crew alive than any other vessel in known space. It was lost in the debacle, but the engineering works has kept the preliminary model that tested the concept. This is much smaller, of course, less powerful, but unique. The humans have nothing like it. They prefer to orbit afar, send in robotic probes, and not hazard their own precious pelts. Lord, a live pilot might well observe and experience things that it would not occur to a stupid robot to try for. We may win a prize the monkeys never realize existed."

"Yes-s, that will be good, if feasible. You must decide on the spot." Narr-Souwa paused. "Return with whatever accomplishments are yours and give them to our judgment. Then we shall see what further you have proven yourself worthy of. We shall see."

2

"This has changed everything," said Peter Nordbo.

"Yah. Obviously," answered Robert Saxtorph. "Damn. God damn."

He had jumped from his chair on hearing the news. Now he sat back down, heavily in spite of the light gravity. For a moment his gaze went from the man behind the desk, outward, as if in search of help.

He found no more than beauty. The main office of Saxtorph & Nordbo lay near the top of a building which, although on the edge of town, rose tall. One window held sight of the roofs, towers, steeples, and traffic of Munchen. The other gave on green countryside, scattered homes and groves, a distant range of hills blue against a blue sky. Alpha Centauri A spilled morning radiance across it. B was not yet visible and, currently close to maximum separation, would shine only as the brightest of the stars. A flight of rosewings passed across a snowy cloud. Kind of like wild geese, he thought vaguely, but sunrise-colored. Not that I've ever seen wild geese, except on a screen. Yes, Wunderland's still a lovely world, as alive as Earth used to be before people screwed her up.

"It would not have been a particularly profitable charter for us," said Nordbo.

Saxtorph's burly frame swung around to confront the gray-bearded face. "No," he admitted harshly, "but Dorcas and me, how we lusted to go! What a bodacious spectacle! And the publicity would've been worth more than the money," to the single privately owned hyperdrive craft in known space, competing with the lines of half a dozen governments.

"That has become worse than worthless."

"How?"

"I've had time to think this over, you know." Saxtorph and his crew had been en route from Jinx with a load of organics cheaper to grow there and haul here than to synthesize. Centaurian industry hadn't fully recovered from the long kzin occupation. Maybe—his mind wandered again for a second—it never would, but concentrate instead on whole new kinds of enterprise. Which ought to leave room for Rover to ply her trade.

But he didn't want her always to be just a tramp freighter. She'd been more. He'd left with his head full of the wonderful discovery the astronomers had made, the fact that an expedition to go for a close look was being organized as fast as possible, and the near-promise that his ship would carry it. She'd proven she could survive pretty terrible surprises, she'd have no other commitments, and Nordbo was closing the deal. It helped that the headquarters of the Interworld Space Commission was handy, right in this same system; he'd gotten on friendly terms with key bureaucrats.

If only the engineers had miniaturized hyperwave transmitters enough that a ship could hold one, Saxtorph thought, not for the first time. Then: What'd have been the use? I'd've gotten the bad news sooner, that's all.

"In der Tat," Nordbo went on, briefly reverting to Wunderland's chief language, "I saw at once that the ISC would forbid you to go, and forestalled them by offering to cancel the contract myself. It was the responsible thing to do, anyway."

"Are you sure?" Saxtorph challenged almost involuntarily.

"Yes. You will be too, once you've swallowed your disappointment." Nordbo sighed. "Robert, we agreed when I became your partner, Rover will steer clear of any volume of space where there's a significant chance of your encountering kzinti. You destroyed their base at the ancient star and uncovered the secret that they now have the hyperdrive. You killed a naval crew of theirs at the black hole—"

"Self-defense," Saxtorph snapped. "Both times, it was them or us, and we didn't start the fracas. The second time, it was Tyra also."

"You needn't tell me."

Saxtorph's massive shoulders slumped a bit. "Sorry. I got carried away. . . . Yah. Aside from the few of them amongst us, probably every kzin alive would cheerfully die to collect my scalp." He straightened. "But, hey, do they have to know it's Rover? Change the ID code, disguise the body lines, give her a new paint job."

Nordbo smiled wryly. "Forever the optimist, aren't you? No, much too risky. We'd certainly lose our insurance."

"Uh-huh," Saxtorph must agree. "Seeing as how they'd be in a tiny danger of having to pay up."

"The danger would not be tiny, and it would be to you and yours, Robert."

Dorcas, Saxtorph thought. Her, and everything we've shared all these years, and the kids we still hope to have someday. Not to mention Kam, Carita, and Buck. And any passengers.

"The kzinti say their expedition will