The Man-Kzin Wars 01 (2 page)

She gasped. Steve flinched before the horror in her face.
“
W
hat-what put that idea in your head?
”

“
I
'm sorry I shocked you, Sue.
”

“
O
h, don't worry about that, but why? Did-shh.
”

Jim Davis had come into view. The Angel's Pencil had left Earth when he was twenty-seven; now he was a slightly paunchy thirty-eight, the oldest man on board, an amiable man with abnormally long, delicate fingers. His grandfather, with the same hands, had been a world-famous surgeon. Nowadays surgery was normally done by autodocs, and the arachnodactyls were to Davis merely an affliction. He bounced by, walking on magnetic sandals, looking like a comedian as he bobbed about the magnetic plates
.

“
H
i, group," he called as he went by
.

“
H
ello, Jim." Sue's voice was strained. She waited until he was out of sight before she spoke again
.

Hoarsely she whispered,
“
D
id you fight in the Belt?" She didn't really believe it; it was merely the worst thing she could think of. Vehemently Steve snapped,
“
N
o!" Then, reluctantly, he added,
“
B
ut it did happen occasionally." Quickly he tried to explain.
“
T
he trouble was that all the doctors- including the psychists, were at the big bases, like Ceres. It was the only way they could help the people who needed them-be where the miners could find them. But all the danger was out in the rock~
.

“
Y
ou noticed a habit of mine once. I never make gestures. All Belters have that trait. It's because on a small mining ship you could hit something waving your arms around. Something like the airlock button."
“
S
ometimes it's almost eerie. You don't move for minutes at a time."
“
T
here's always tension out in the rocks. Sometimes a miner would see too much danger and boredom and frustration, too much cramping inside and too much room outside, and he wouldn't get to a psychist in time. He'd pick a fight in a bar. I saw it happen once. The guy was using his hands like mallets.
“

Steve had been looking far into the past. Now he turned bac
k
to Sue. She looked white and sick, like a novice nurse standing up to her first really bad case. His ears began to turn red.
“
S
orry," he said miserably. She felt like running; she was as embarrassed as he was. Instead she said, and tried to mean it,
“
I
t
doesn't matter. So you think the people in the other ship might want to, uh, make war?
”

He nodded
.

“
D
id you have history-of-Earth courses?
”

He smiled ruefully.
“
N
o, I couldn't qualify. Sometimes I wonder how many people do.
”

“
A
bout one in twelve.
”

“
T
hat's not many.
”

“
P
eople in general have trouble assimilating the facts of life about their ancestors. You probably know that there used to be wars before hmmm-three hundred years ago, but do you know what war is? Can you visualize one? Can you see a fusion electric point deliberately built to explode in the middle of the city? Do you know what a concentration camp is? A limited action? You probably think murder ended with war. Well, it didn't. The last murder occurred in twenty-one something, just a hundred and sixty years ago.
“
A
nyone who says human nature can't be changed is out of his head. To make it stick, he's got to define human nature-and he can't. Three things gave us our present peaceful civilization, and each one was a technological change." Sue's voice had taken on a dry, remote lecture-hall tone, like the voice on a teacher tape.
“
O
ne was the development of psychistry beyond the alchemist stage. Another was the full development of land for food production. The third was the Fertility Restriction Laws and the annual contraceptive shots. They gave us room to breathe. Maybe Belt mining and the stellar colonies had something to do with it, too; they gave us an inanimate enemy. Even the historians argue about that one
.

“
H
ere's the delicate point I'm trying to nail down." Sue rapped on the window.
“
L
ook at that spacecraft. It has enough power to move it around like a mail
missile and enough fuel to move it up to our point eight light-right?
”

“
R
ight.
”

“
-with plenty of power left for maneuvering. It's a better ship than ours. If they've had time to learn how to build a ship like that, they've had time to build up their own versions of psychistry, modern food production, contraception, economic theory, everything they need to abolish war. See?
”

Steve had to smile at her earnestness.
“
S
ure, Sue, it makes sense. But that guy in the bar came from our culture, and he was hostile enough. If we can't understand how he thinks, how can we guess about the mind of something whose very chemical makeup we can't guess at yet?
”

“
I
t's sentient. It builds tools.
”

“
R
ight.
“

“
A
nd if Jim hears you talking like this, you'll be in psychistry treatment.
“

“
T
hat's the best argument you've given me," Steve grinned, and stroked her under the ear with two fingertips. He felt her go suddenly stiff, saw the pain in her face; and at the same time his own pain struck, a real tiger of a headache, as if his brain were trying to swell beyond his skull.

“
I
've got them, sir," the Telepath said blurrily.
“
A
sk me anything." The Captain hurried, knowing that the Telepath couldn't stand this for long.
“
H
ow do they power their ship?
”

“
I
t's a light-pressure drive powered by incomplete hydrogen fusion. They use an electromagnetic ramscoop to get their own hydrogen from space."

“
C
lever
...
Can they get away from us?
”

“
N
o. Their drive is on idle, ready to go, but it won't help them. It's pitifully weak."

“
W
hat kind of weapons do-they have?
”

The Telepath remained silent for a long time. The others waited patiently for his answer. There was sound in the control dome, but it was the kind of sound one learns not to hear: the whine of heavy current, the muted purr of voices from below, the strange sound like continuously ripping cloth which came from the gravity motors
.

“
N
one at all, sir." The Kzin's voice became clearer; his hypnotic relaxation was broken by muscle twitches. He twisted as if in a nightmare.
“
N
othing aboard ship, not even a knife or a club. Wait, they've got cooking knives. But that's all they use them for. They don't fight."

“
T
hey don't fight?
”

“
N
o, sir. They don't expect us to fight, either. The idea has occurred to three of them, and each has dismissed it from his mind."
“
B
ut why?" the Captain asked, knowing the question was irrelevant, unable to hold it back
.

I don't know, sir. It's a science they use, or a religion. I don't understand," the Telepath whimpered. I don't understand at all." Which must be tough on him, the Captain thought. Completely alien thoughts .
“
W
hat are they doing now?
”

“
W
aiting for us to talk to them. They tried to talk to us, and they think we must be trying just as hard.
“

“
B
ut why?-never mind, it's not important. Can they be killed by heat?"

“
Y
es, sir.
”

“
B
reak contact.
”

The Telepath shook his head violently. He looked
like he'd been in a washing machine. The Captain touched a sensitized surface and bellowed,
“
W
eapons Officer!
”

“
H
ere.
”

“
U
se the inductors on the enemy ship.
”

“
B
ut, si
r
t
hey're so slow! What if the alien attacks?"

“
D
on't argue with me, you-" Snarling, the Captain delivered an impassioned monologue on the virtues of unquestioning obedience. When he switched off, the Alien Technologies Officer was back at the viewer and the Telepath had gone to sleep
.

The Captain purred happily, wishing that they were all this easy. When the occupants had been killed by heat he would take the ship. He could tell everything he needed to know about their planet by examining their life-support
system
. He could locate it by traci
n
g the ship's trajectory. Probably they hadn't even taken evasive action! If they came from a Kzin-like world it would become a Kzin world. And he, as Conquest Leader, would command one percent of its wealth for the rest of his life! Truly, the future looked rich. No longer would he be called by his profession. He would bear a nante ..
.

“
I
ncidental information," said the A-T Officer.
“
T
he ship was generating one and twelve sixty-fourth gee before it stopped rotating."
“
L
ittle heavy," the Captain mused.
“
M
ight be too much air, but it should be easy to Kzinform it. A-T, we find the strangest life forms. Remember the Chunquen?"

“
B
oth sexes were sentient. They fought constantly.
”

“
A
nd that funny religion on Altair One. They thought they could travel in time.
”

“
Y
es, sir. When we landed the infantry they were all gone.
”

“
T
hey must have all committed suicide with disintegrators. But why? They knew we only wanted slaves. And I'm still trying to figure out how they got rid of the disintegrators afterward.
”

“
S
ome beings," said the A-T Officer,
“
will do anything to keep their beliefs."

Eleven years beyond Pluto, eight years from her destination, the fourth colony ship to We Made It fell between the stars. Before her the stars were green-white and blue-white, blazing points against nascent black. Behind they were sparse, dying red embers. To the sides the constellations were strangely flattened. The universe was shorter than it had been. For awhile Jim Davis was very busy. Everyone, including himself, had a throbbing blinding headache. To each patient, Dr. Davis handed a tiny pink pill from the dispenser slot of the huge autodoc which covered the back wall of the infirmary. They milled outside the door waiting for the pills to take effect
''looking like a full-fledged mob in the narrow corridor; and then someone thought it would be a good idea to go to the lounge, and everyone followed him. It was an unusually silent mob. Nobody felt like talking while the pain was with them. Even the sound of magnetic sandals was lost in the plastic pile rug
.

Steve saw Jim Davis behind him.
“
H
ey, Doc," he called softly.
“
H
ow long before the pain stops?
”

“
M
ine's gone away. You got your pills a little after I did, right?"

“
R
ight. Thanks, Doc."

They didn't take pain well, these people. They were unused to it. In single file they walked or floated into the lounge. Low-pitched conversations started. People took couches, using the sticky plastic strips on their falling jumpers. Others stood or floated near walls. The lounge was big enough to hold them all in comfort
.