Larry Niven - Man - Kzin Wars 02

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MAN-KZIN WARS II

Larry Niven

with

Dean Ing,

Jerry Pournelle,

and

M. Stirling

MAN-KZIN WARS II

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.

portions thereof in any form.

A Baen Books Original

Baen Publishing Enterprises

260 Fifth Avenue

New York, N.Y. 10001

ISBN: 0-671-69833-8

Cover art by Steve Hickman

First printing, August 1989

Distributed by

SIMON & SCHUSTER

1230 Avenue of the Americas

New York, N.Y. 10020

Printed in the United States of America

CONTENTS

Introduction, Larry Niven vii

BRIAR PATCH, Dean Ing 1

THE CHILDREN'S HOUR, Jerry Pournelle

& S.M. Stirling 133

Introduction

The franchise universe lives!

When I first began sneaking into the playgrounds of other authors, I had my

doubts. Still, Phil Farmer seemed to be having a lovely time reshaping the

worlds he'd played in as a child. So I wrote a Dunsany story and an

extrapolation of Lovecraft and an attempt at a Black Cat detective story

and a study of Superman's sex life.

Fred Saberhagen invited me to write a Berserker story, and I found it

indecently easy.

MEDEA: Harlan's World was a collaboration universe. Slow to become a book,

it ultimately became a classic study of how creative minds may build and

populate a solar system.

So Jim Baen and I invited selected authors to write stories set 14,000

years ago, when magic still worked. We filled two books with tales of the

Warlock's era. (We also drove Niven half nuts. The idea was for Jim to do

all the work and me to take all the credit. But Jim parted company with Ace

Books, and I had to learn more than I ever wanted to know about being an

editorl)

vii

viii Larry Niven

I entered a universe infested with lizard-like pirateslavers, because of

David Drake's urging, and because of a notion I found irresistable: the

murder of Halley's Comet. When Susan Shwartz asked several of us to write

new tales of the Thousand and One Nights, I rapidly realized that

Scheherazade had overlooked a serious threat. I stayed out of Thieves

World-too busy-but I was tempted.

Still, would readers and the publishing industry continue to support this

kind of thing? It seemed like too much fun.

And now DC Comics has me reworking the background universe of Green

Lanteml Green Lantern is almost as old as I am I But his mythos will be

mine, for the next few years at least.

I'm having a wonderful time. I've got to say, being paid for this stuff

feels like cheating.

What began with "The Warriors" has evolved further than my own ambitions

would have carried it.

Jim Baen and I decided to open up the Man-Kzin Wars period of known

space, because I don't have the background to tell war stories. Still,

I had my doubts. I have friends who can write of war; but any writer good

enough to be invited to play in my universe will have demonstrated that

he can make his own. Would anyone accept my offer? I worried also that

intruders might mess up the playground, by violating my background

assumptions.

But the kzinti have been well treated, and I'm learning more about them

than I ever expected. You too will be charmed and fiLscinated by kzinti

family life as shown in "The Children's Hour," not to mention Pournelle's

and Stirlines innovative use of stasis

INTRODUCTION ix

fields. Likewise there is Dean Ing's look at intelligent stone-age kzinti

females: Ing finished his story for the first volume, then just kept

writing. Now Pournelle and Stirling are talking about doing the same.

I too have found that known space stories keep getting longer. It's a fun

universe, easier to enter than to leave.

One thing I hoped for when I opened up the Warlock's universe to other

writers. I had run out of ideas. I hoped to be re-inspired. My wish was

granted, and I have written several Warlock's-era stories since.

If the same doesn't hold for the era of the ManKzin Wars, it won't be the

fault of the authors represented here. I'm having a wonderful time reading

known space stories that I didn't have to write. If I do find myself

re-inspired, these stories will have done it.

-Larry Niven

BRiAR PATCH

Dean Ing

If Locklear had been thinking straight, he never would have stayed in the

god business. But when a man has been thrust into the Fourth Man-Kzin War,

won peace with honor from the tigerlike Kzinti on a synthetic zoo planet,

and released long-stored specimens so that his vast prison compound resem-

bles the Kzin homeworld, it's hard for that man to keep his sense of

mortality.

It's hard, that is, until someone decides to kill him. His first mistake

was lust, impure and simple. A week after he paroled Scarface, the one

surviving Kzin warrior, Locklear admitted his problem during supper. "All

that caterwauling in the ravine," he said, refilling his bowl from the

hearth stewpot, "is driving me nuts. Good thing you haven't let the rest of

those Kzinti out of stasis; the racket would be unbelievablel"

Scarface Ariped his muzzle with a brawny forearm and handed his own bowl to

Kit, his new mate. The

4 Man-Kzin Wars 1I

darkness of the huge Kzersatz region was tempered only by coals, but

Locklear saw those coals flicker in Scarface's cat eyes. "A condition of

my surrender was that you release Kit to me," the big Kzin growled. "And

besides; do humans mate so quietly?"

Because they were speaking Kzin, the word Scarface had used was actually

"ch'rowl"-itself a sexual goad. Kit, who was refilling the bowl, let slip

a tiny mew of surprise and pleasure. "Please, milord," she said, offering

the bowl to Scarface. "Poor Rockear is already overstimulated. Is it not

so?" Her huge eyes flicked to Locklear, whom she had grown to know quite

well after Locklear waked her from age-long sleep.

"Dead right," Locklear agreed with a morose glance. "Not by the word; by

the goddamn deedl"

"She is mine," Scarface grinned; a Kzin grin, the kind with big fangs and

no amusement.

"Calm down. I may have been an animal psychologist, but I only have

letches for human females," Locklear gloomed toward his Kzin companions.

"And every night when I hear you two flattening the grass out there," he

nodded past the half-built walls of the hut, I get, uh, . . ." He did not

know how to translate "horny" into Kzin.

"You get the urge to travel", Scarface finished, making it not quite a

suggestion. The massive Kzin stared into darkness as if peering across

the force walls surrounding Kzersatz. Those towering invisible walls

separated the air, and lifeforms, of Kzersatz from other synthetic

compounds of this incredible planet, Zoo. I can see the treetops in the

next compound as easily as you, Locklear. But I see no monkeys in them."

BRIAR PATCH 5

Befbre his defeat, Scarface had been "Tzak-Commander. " The same strict

Kzin honor that bound him to his surrender, forbade him to curse his captor

as a monkey. But he could still sharpen the barb of his wit. Kit, with real

affection for Locklear, did not approve. "Be nice," she hissed to her mate.

"Forget it," Locklear told her, stabbing with his Kzin wtsai blade for a

hunk of meat in his stew. "Kit, he's stuck with his military code, and it

won't let him insist that his captor get the hell out of here. But he's

right. I still don't know if that next compound I call Newduvai is really

Earthlike." He smiled at Scarface, remembering not to show his teeth, and

added, "Or whether it has my kind of monkey."

"And we must not try to find out until your war wounds have completely

healed," Kit replied.

The eyes of man and Kzin warrior met. "Whoa," Locklear said quickly,

sparing Scarface the trouble. "We won't be scouting over there; I will, but

you won't. I'm an ethologist," he went on, holding up a hand to bar Kit's

interruption. "If Newduvai is as completely stocked as Kzersatz,

somebody-maybe the Outsiders, maybe not, but damn' certain a long time

ago-somebody intended all these compounds to be kept separate. Now, I won't

say I haven't played god here a little . . . "

"And intend to play it over there a lot," said Kit, who had never yet

surrendered to anyone.

"Hear me out. I'm not going to start mixing species from Kzersatz and

Newduvai any more than I already have, and that's final." He pried

experimentally at the scab running down his knife arm. "But I'm pretty much

healed, thanks to your medkit, Scarface. And I meant it when I said you'd

have free

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摘要：

MAN-KZINWARSIIbyLarryNivenwithDeanIng,JerryPournelle,andM.StirlingMAN-KZINWARSIIThisisaworkoffiction.Allthecharactersandeventsportrayedinthisbookarefictional,andanyresemblancetorealpeopleorincidentsispurelycoincidental.Copyright01989byLarryNivenAllrightsreserved,includingtherighttoreproducethisbooko...

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