Larry Niven - Man - Kzin Wars 06

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MAN-KZIN WARS VI

Created by

Larry Niven

with

Donald Kingsbury

Mark O Martin

and

GregoryBenford

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events

portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to

real people or incidents is purely coincidental.

or portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises

P.O. Box 1403

Riverdale, NY 10471

ISBN: 0-671-87607-4

Cover art by Stephen Hickman

First printing, July 1994

Distributed by Paramount Publishing 1230 Avenue of the Amerieas

New York, NY 10020

Printed in the Unihid States of America

CONTENTS

THE HEROIC MYTH OF LIEUTENANT

NORA ARGAMENTINE, Donald Kingsbury3

THE TROJAN CAT,

Mark o. Martin & Gregory Benford 257

THE HEROIC MYTH OF

LJEUTENANT NORA

ARGAMENTINE

Donald Kingsbury

Chapter 1

(2435-6 A.D.)

He was a five-year-old human boy without membranous ears or fur, or even

claws to defend himself, a boy severed from his family. For days in space

he had been segregated, inspected, prodded, pricked, scannecl, &camined,

and questioned by an unnerving assortment ofkzin. He endured these

strangers dumbly, fear having muted everyword ofhis Hero's slave patois.

Hushed, he recited his mothees name to himself again and again, as if the

inner sound of it would force her to stay alive. He didn't want her to be

dead. He called his mother by the kzin word for mommy, Fnt, the most

comfortable word he knew--having forgotten that she had once told him

fiercely never to forget her name, Nora. 'Tnt!- he ordered her in his head

like he sometimes did when she wasift paying attention. Often she didn't

pay attention.

But she only came to him in his dreams.

He was bewildered. Where had his colossal protector gone? Mellow

Yellowwould never desert them!'ftyliad their master turned funny and

started calling himself by the name of a lord, Grraf-Nig? Where had their

mother gone? Where had the babies and his five-armed jotold fiiends gone?

What land ofworld was this Wkkai place? But finally ai i officious orange

kzin corralled the whole family together, younger siblings and mother. The

room was gray but it shone with relief because s1w was there. Trit!" he

purred Her children were excited to see each

4 Man-Kzin Wars VI

other again. He was excited to see them again. The babies wailed. Their

k2an guardian glowered.

This enon-nous kzin with large nose and lips that never quite covered his

fangs was not like their kzin. He was too tall and he was a deep hue

ofor-ange with disfiguring black spots. He was foppishly dressed in an

unknown cut of gan-nent with lace. And he was mean. The boy watched him

with alert eyes. The boy had known only one kdn, the master, but he could

read every kzin gesture, every expression, every throb of a kzin's

hairless tail. This one was annoyed, a twitch of a grin on his lips. It

was not his pleasure to deal with human slaves. Danger.

Without warning, the kzin cuffed Prrt for not controlling the squalling

and squeals of her infants while he did his mcord-keeping. The boy flew

to protect her ... and bounced off a vicious backhand, thumping against

the wall. instantly, from the mother, an unspoken grimace of warning

passed to her eldest son-4reeze!---causing him to freeze into an unwanted

posture of obeisance. The large-nosed kzin did not notice the exchange

because he could not read human expressions. He merely noticed the

monkeys sudden calm, which probablysaved the boYs life in the minutes

before Hssin's lord Grraf-Nig arrived in a rage to hiss and spit his

offense at having his property malft~eated by a mere Record-Keeper

The slave name of the boy, given to him by master Grraf-Nig,

was,,Kz,eerkttt,- said with a glottal gnashing at the end to distinguish

it from Iceeerkt. " The tr~-' e-boun d kZeerkt, a quasi-primate native

to distant Kzin, featured in kzinti mythology as an animal of trickery

who will always best those who lack bravery and, afterwards, will

raucously advertise his joke from the trees -Kieerkttt (with the glottal

gnash) referred to the tricks themselves.The name is best translated as

Monkeyshine. His twin sister was Furlessface.

THE HERoic MYTH OF LT. NORA ARGAMENTINE 5

Monkeysl-dne had no memory of the human name his mother once whispered

so fondly in his ear when he was a baby. It seemed natural to him that

females like his mother and sisters spoke with emotion and expressions

and could not understand words, except the simplest words, even when

spoken loudly, firmly, and slowly. Not like his brother, Fastanimal, who

chattered with the agile jotold and teased old Mellow Yellow until he

told them stories. The third brother, the baby, was still practicing his

screams and grovAs with Monkeyshine's encouragement, butvus notyet able

to string them together to make sense.

Monkeyshine could chatter nonsense with the baby boy, he could make up

words with Fastanimal, hisses and sibillated snarls-shared secret words

for kzinsl-dt and farts---that no kzin could comprehend. But his sisters

never caught on. His twin, Furlessface, remained as silent as his mother.

The girls made noises, especially if they were provoked or teased, or

hungry or curious, but they never made much more sense than a baby

Monkeyshine's younger self (lid hold on to three sacred hurnan words

which he repeated to himself like a mantra dining both moments of peace

and of danger, words from a past life of unremembered tenderness:

"coolde," the name of a sweet food made in the stars; "Earth," the name

of a planet bigger than Hssin with better air; "centipede," the name of

a worm with 512 legs. Monkeyshine wasn't sure how big a centipede grew

but he was sure that it towered at least big enough to eat a kzin in one

bite.

After their ournev from Hssin, the revival from the hibernation bin, the

transfer from tiny ship to the bustling space station, the confusion and

the reprieve from doom, life settled into an easier and more exciting

routine. Mellow Yellow seemed, day by day, to be gaining in

6 Man-Kzin Wars VI

stature, and that was good because slaves rise with their masters. But it

was a strange new place, different, excitingly dangerous. Monkeyshine was

fluent in the slave language of the Jotold but he knew enough of the Hero's

Tongue to pickup pieces of the conversation around him. He wasn't sure he

liked the implications. This was no minor kzin outpost! Their station was

circling a major kzin world. Zillions of kzin down there! Surely not all of

them were to have master status!

once asplendidly dressed warrior had demanded an audience \AAth

Monkeyshine, inducing in Mellow Yellow an overwillingness to please. Such

a deportment of his master amazed the young human. A master making slave

gestures! Who was this Si-Kish? There was no time to contemplate such a

behavioral wonder; Monkeyshine was hastily presented to the Wkkai Hero with

a cautionary/ threatening admonition to be respectfiA. Intently, the boy

read the monster's emotions, his eyes scanning kzin ear posture, lip

tremors, muscle tension, tail position, and the erectness of hairs around

the neck.

-So here is the little man whose fleet blockades our star?- he said to the

five-year-old boy.

11-As elaborately beclothed kzin didn't seem to want an answer. He was

neither angry nor ready to attack. He just seemed to want to look, so

Monkeyshine, who was warily aftaid of the warrior, said nothing, letting

him stare.

With a vague sense of unease, Monkeyshine had deduced that they-4us mother

and his brothers and sisters--were not only slaves of the kzin, but that

they were enenzy. The slave part seemed natural, but the enemy part was

uncomfortable. In the following days his cautious questions about this were

unproductive, limited as his inquiries were by an immature mind which had

to twistaround the grammar of a slave language thatwas illsuited to

qLiestiorung Gn-af-Nigls loyalJotok, Long-Reach,

TqE HEROIC MY-rH OF LT. NORA ARCAMENTINE7

1-drItedwith several of his underann mouths that the boys morikeykind was

a race of warriors, that his mother was a ferocious warrior-but that was

absurd, a typically wild jotok fantasy. Bonded slaves did not know how to

make war. And his mother had neither the wits nor the sharp teeth to be

a Hero. She had the grinding molars of a vegetarian.

Sometimes his Prrt seemed to sense his confused astonishment, and ambled

over in the peculiar kind of gravity that the kzin maintained on their

ships of space where feet were heavier than heads. She combed her fingers

through his hair, then playfully bounced him in his sleeping constraints

until bewas having fun again. Once she puffed him past a kzin guard to

the viewport to look out over the vast moving orb of night-shrouded

Wkkai. He knew that she could stare at the lights of space with endless

patience, never losing her fascination. He wondered what her simple mind

could be thinking to hold her eyes so steady. The sight certainly didn't

frighten her. Did she even suspect that there were zillions of kzin down

there, each needing his ceremonial wtsai polished?

A crescent of light began to glow along the horizon. He'd never seen a

sunrise from space before, only sanguine Rhshssira rising huge in the

dusty atmosphere of Hssin. The view-port darkened in response to the new

sun. ltwassrnaUcomparedNith immense Whshssira! And bright! Even through

the darkening vievport it was too bright to look at. Didn't they freeze

with a sun that smal? Well, they had fur and maybe their sun made up in

dazzle what it lacked in size.

The daAm area of Wkkai grew as they watched, rolling like a surf of light

beneath them. The mottled blue and green smoothness would be sea. Their

massive space structure overtook a vessel that passed above them. He

found himself as fascinated as his mother.

8 Man-Kzin Wars W

Another change. They were shipped to the planefs surface. While floating

trucks bounced them through low hills to a distant destination,

Monkeysi-Ane had time to watch the sky and wonder where its supports were

hidden. At the homestead site they were set up in military prefabs. It was

worse than Hssin. There were bugs that crawled through the prefab doors and

flew noisily. The small ones bit. Things changed too fast to resent the

discomfort.

Little by Me the troop of refugees, kzin and slaves, were t;aking up a new

life. Mellow Yellow seemed to command vast wealth. Monkeyshine was awed to

see construction crews build a mansion for the mighty GrrafNig, surrounded

by an airy pal=o for his kzinrretti. Groomed, coy females came to the lord,

offered by fathers who sought favor. At each of the numerous wedding feasts

the boy competed with the ambling jotold to serve the live beasts, or run

errands on the hunts, proud in his new livery The elaborate celebration

tents gave way to more fon-nal affkrs within the partially completed

mansion. They had A risen to a level of importance. Once they bad been

servants ofa L,

grumpy kztn warnor who scrounged through the war ruins of

Hssin for bolt and copper wire. Now they served his females

milk in tooled platinum dishes within the corridors and feast

balls of a palace!

%C11-1apter 2

(2436 A.D.)

Major Yankee Clandeboye scowled at the travel orders onhisidcx)omp. Nowthat

was beinghatiled offto Gibraltar on prettyshort notice! Abrief

mnemonicexecutedbyquick fingers calledup Iiisalmanacof theAsteroids.

Hepunched in Egeria. and Gibraltar and zoomed. Atthe moment Egeria was 80

degrees out of phase with Gibraltar Base-so it would be a long trip in a

tiny can. If it was business that couldn'tbe oonductedover the network

itwas going to be trouble. Again. And for a man on disciplinary probation,

any kind of trouble was bad news.

Fhes in the cow dung!

He swore like a flatlander because he was a flatlander, though he had never

touched a cow or smelled dung in his life. Once he had pushed his cousin

Nora into a simspace manure pile when he was nine and she was three. His

parents believed ineducation for their children and had put 00 MaAnwUs Farm

in his hbrwy because they believed everyone should know something about

Earth's past. His cousin, who was from an Iowa farm city, had been lordi ng

it over him in his own sim-space; it was his farm, filled with his colors

and sounds and smellies and more pets than he'd ever want to own, his pets.

It was not her fann. So he had pushed her into the manure pile. The cows

scolded him. Usually they only sang with the pigs and the ducks and the

horse and the dancing geese.

What kind of scolding was it going to be this time?

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摘要：

MAN-KZINWARSVICreatedbyLarryNivenwithDonaldKingsburyMarkOMartinandGregoryBenfordThisisaworkoffiction.Allthecharactersandeventsportrayedinthisbookarefictional,andanyresemblancetorealpeopleorincidentsispurelycoincidental.Copyright01994byLarryNivenAllrightsreserved,includingtherighttoreproducethisbooko...

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Larry Niven - Man - Kzin Wars 06

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