The Man-Kzin Wars 01 (20 page)

Returning equipped, he said into the transmitter:
“
S
hep here. Spaceboat Shep calling kzin vessel. Hello, Kam. Don't blame yourself. They've got us. We'll leave this message replaying in case you're on the far side, and so you can zero in on us. Because you will have to, Listen, Kam. Tell that gonococcus of a captain that we can't lift. We came down on talus that slid beneath us and damaged a landing jack. We'd hit the side of the canyon where we are-it's narrow-if we tried to take off before the hydraulics have been repaired; and Dorcas and I can't finish that job for another several Earth-days, the two of us with what tools we've got aboard. The ground immediately downslope of us is safe. Or, if your captain is worried about his fat ass, he can wait till we're ready to come meet him. Please inform us. Give Art our love; and take it yourself, Kam.
”

The kzin skipper would want a direct machine translation of those words. They were calculated not to lash him into fury-he couldn't be such a fool
but to pique his honor. Moreover, the top brass back on Secunda must be almighty impatient. Kzinti weren't much good at biding their time. Before they closed their faceplates at the airlock, Saxtorph kissed his wife on the lips
.

-Shadows welled in the coulee and its ravines as the sun sank toward rim
rock. Interplay of light and dark was shifty behind the boat, where rubble now decked the floor. The humans had arranged that by radio detonation of two of the blasting sticks Dorcas smuggled along. It looked like more debris than it
was, made the story of the accident plausible, and guaranteed that the
kzinti would land in the short stretch between Shep and glacier. Man and woman regarded each other. Their spacesuits were behung with armament. She had the rifle and snub-nosed automatic, he the machine pistol; both carried potentially lethal prospector's gear. Wind skirled. The heights glowed under a sky deepening from- royal purple to black, where early stars quivered forth
.

“
W
ell," he said inanely into his throat mike, " we know our stations. Good hunting, kid.
”

“
A
nd to you, hotpants," she answered.
“
S
ee you on the far side of the monobloc.
”

“
L
ove you.
”

“
L
ove you right back." She whirled and hastened off. Under the conditions expected, drive units would have been a bad mistake, and she was hampered by a weight she was never bred to. Nonetheless she moved with a hint of her wonted gracefulness. Both their suits were first-chop, never mind what the cost had added to the mortgage under which Saxtorph Ventures labored. Full air and water recycle, telescopic option, power joints even in the gloves, selfseal throughout.... She rated no less, he believed, and she'd tossed the same remark at him. Thus they had a broad range of capabilities. He climbed to his chosen niche, on the side of the canyon opposite hers, and settled in. It was up a
boulderfields
gulch, plenty of cover, with a clear view downward. The ice cliff glimmered. He hoped that what was going to happen wouldn't cause damage yonder. That would be a scientific atrocity
.

But those beings had had their day. This was humankind's, unless it turned out to be kzinkind's. Or somebody else's? Who knew how many creatures of what sorts were prowling around the galaxy? Saxtorph hunkered into a different position. He missed his pipe. His heart slugged harder than it ought and he could smell himself in spite of the purifier. Better do a bit
of meditation. Nervousness would worsen his chances
.

His watch told him an hour had passed when the kzin boat arrived. The boat! Good. They might have kept her safe aloft and dispatched a squad on drive. But that would have been slow and tricky; as they descended, the members could have been picked Off, assuming the humans had firearms-which a kzin would assume; they'd have had no backup. The sun had trudged farther down, but Shep's nose still sheened above the blue dusk in the canyon, and the oncoming craft flared metallic red. He knew her type from his war years. Kam, stout kanaka, had passed on more information than the kzinti probably realized. A boat belonging to a Prowling Hunter normally carried six
–
captain, pilot, engineer, computerman, two fire-control officers; they shared various other duties, and could swap the main ones in an emergency. They weren't trained for groundside combat, but of course any kzin was pretty fair at that. Kam had mentioned two marines who did have the training. Then there were the humans. No wonder the complement did not include a telepath. He'd have been considered superfluous anyway, worth much more at the base. This mission was simply to collar three fugitives
.

Sonic thunders rolled, gave way to whirring, and the lean shape neared. It put down with a care that Saxtorph admired, came to rest, instantly swiveled a gun at the human boat 50 meters up the canyon. Saxtorph's pulse leaped. The enemy had landed ex
actly where he hoped. Not that he'd counted on that, or on anything else. His earphones received bland translator English; he could imagine the snarl behind.
“
A
re you prepared to yield?
”

How steady Laurinda's response was.
“
W
e yield on condition that our comrades are alive, safe. Bring them to us. " Quite a girl, Saxtorph thought. The kzinti wouldn't wonder about her; their females not being sapient, any active intelligence was, in their minds, male
.

“
D
o you dare this insolence? Your landing gear does not seem damaged as you claimed. Lift, and we fire.
“

“
W
e have no intention of lifting, supposing we could. Bring us our comrades, or come pry us out.
”

Saxtorph tautened. No telling how the kzin commander would react. Except that he'd not willingly blast Shep on the ground. Concussion, in this thick atmosphere, and radiation would endanger his own craft. He might decide to produce Art and Karn
Hope died. Battle plans never quite work. The main airlock opened; a downramp extruded; two kzinti in armor and three in regular spacesuits, equipped with rifl
es and cutting torches, came fi
rth. The smooth computer voice said,
“
Y
ou will admit this party. If you resist, you die." Laurinda kept silence. The kzinti started toward her
.

Saxtorph thumbed his detonator
.

In a well-chosen set of places under a bluff above a slope on his side, the remaining sticks blew. Dust and flinders heaved aloft. An instant later he heard the grumble of explosion and breaking. Under one
-
point-three-five Earth gravities, rocks hurtled, slid, tumbled to the bottom and across it. He couldn't foresee what would happen next, but had been sure it would be fancy. The kzinti were farther along than be preferred. They dodged leaping masses, escaped the landslide. But it crashed around their boat. She swayed, toppled, fell onto the pile of stone, which grew until it half buried her. The gun pointed helplessly at heaven. Dust swirled about before it settled
.

Dorcas was already shooting. She was a crack marksman. A kzin threw up his arms and flopped, another, another. The rest scattered. They hadn't thought to bring drive units. If they had, she could have bagged them all as they rose. Saxtorph bounded out and downslope, over the boulders. His machine pistol had less range than her rifle. It chattered in his hands. He zigzagged, bent low, squandering ammo, while she kept the opposition prone
.

Out of nowhere, a marine grabbed him by the ankle. He fell, rolled over, had the kzin on top of him. Fingers clamped on the wrist of the-arm holding his weapon. The kzin fumbled after a pistol of his own. Saxtorph's free hand pulled a crowbar from its sling. He got it behind the kzin's back, under the aircycler tank, and pried. Vapor gushed forth. His foe choked, went bug-eyed, scrabbled, and slumped. Saxtorph crawled from beneath
.

Dorcas covered his back, disposed of the last bandit, as he pounded toward the boat. The outer valve of the airlock gaped wide. Piece of luck, that, though he and she could have gotten through both with a certain amount of effort. He wedged a rock in place to make sure the survivors wouldn't shut it
.

She made her way to him. He helped her
scram
b
le
across the slide and over the curve of hull above, to the chamber. She spent her explosive rifle shells
breaking down the inner valve. As it sagged, she let him by
.

He stormed in. They had agreed to that, as part of what they had hammered out during hour after hour after hour of waiting. He had the more mass and muscle; and spraying bullets around in a confined space would likely kill their friends
.

An emergency airseal curtain brushed him and closed again. Breathable atmosphere leaked past it, a white smoke, but slowly. The last kzinti attacked. They didn't want ricochets either. Two had claws out
,
one set dripped red-and the third carried a power drill, whirling to pierce his suit and the flesh behind
.

Saxtorph went for him first. His geologist's hammer knocked the drill aside. From the left, his knife stabbed into the throat, and slashed. Clad as he was, what followed became butchery. He split a skull and opened a belly. Blood, brains, guts were everywhere. Two kzinti struggled and ululated in agony. Dorcas came into the tumult. Safely point-blank, her pistol administered mercy shots
.

Saxtorph leaned against a bulkhead. He began to shake
.

Dimly, he was aware of Kam Ryan stumbling forth. He opened his faceplate
–
oxygen inboard would stay adequate for maybe half an hour, though God, the stink of death!-and heard:
“
I
don't believe, I can't believe, but you did it, you're here, you've won, only first a ratcat, must've lost his temper, he ripped Art, Art's dead, well, he was hurting so, a release, I scuttled aft, but Art's dead, don't let Laurinda see, clean up first, please, I'll do it, we can take time to bury him, can't we, this is where his dreams were-" The man knelt, embraced Dorcas' legs regardless of the chill on them, and wept
.

They left Tregennis at the foot of the glacier, making a cairn for him where the ancients were entombed.
“
T
hat seems very right," Uurinda whispered. I hope the scientists who come in the future will
give him a proper grave-but leave him here.
”

Saxtorph made no remark about the odds against any such expedition. It would scarcely happen unless his people got home to tell the tale. The funeral was hasty. When they hadn't heard from their boat for a while, which would be a rather short while, the kzinti would send another, if not two or three. Humans had better be well out of the neighborhood before then
.

Saxtorph boosted Shep inward from Tertia.
“
W
e can get some screening in the vicinity of the sun, especially if we've got it between us and Secunda," he explained.
“
R
adiation out of that clinker is no particular hazard, except heat; we'll steer safely wide and not linger too long." Shedding unwanted heat was always a problem in space. The best array of thermistors gave only limited help
.

“
A
lso-" he began to add.
“
N
o, never mind. A vague notion. Something you mentioned, Kam. But let it wait till we've quizzed you dry.
”

That in turn waited upon simple, dazed sitting, followed by sleep, followed by gradual regaining of strength and alertness. You don't bounce straight back from tension, terror, rage, and grief
.

The sun swelled in view. Its flares were small and dim compared to Sol's, but their flame-flickers became visible to the naked eye, around the roiled ember disc. After he heard what Ryan knew about the asteroid tug, Saxtorph whistled.
“
C
hrist!" he murmured.
“
I
magine swinging that close. Damn near half the sky a boiling red glow, and you hear the steam roar in its conduits and you fly in a haze of it, and nevertheless I'll bet the cabin is a furnace you can barely endure, and if the least thing goes wrong
Yah, kzinti have courage, you must give them that. Markham's right-what you quoted, Kam-they'd make great partners for humans. Though he doesn't understand that we'll have to civilize them first."

Excitement grew in him as he learned more and his thoughts developed. But it was with a grim countenance that he presided over the meeting he called.
“
T
wo men, two women, an unarmed interplanetary boat, and the nearest help light-years off," he said.
“
A
fter what we've done, the enemy must be scouring the system for us. I daresay the warship's staying on guard at Secunda, but if I know kzin psychology, all her auxiliaries are now out on the hunt, and won't quit till we're either captured or dead. " Dorcas nodded.
“
W
e dealt them what was worse than a hurt, a humiliation," she confirmed.
“
H
onor calls for vengeance.
”