The Man-Kzin Wars 01 (34 page)

And kzin litters were almost all twins, one male. Like it or not, he was
doomed to deal with at least one kzintosh. The notion of killing the tiny
male forced itself forward. He quashed the idea instantly, and hoped it
would stay quashed. Yeah, and one of these days it'll weigh three times
as much as I do, and two of these randy
genial's
will be vying for
ma
ting
privileges. The return of the kzin ship, he decided, might be the least
of his troubles
.

That being so, the least of his troubles could kill him.

Puss and Boots proved far more help than hindrance. Locklear admitted it to Kit one night, lying in their small room off the "great hall," itself no larger than five meters by ten and already pungent with cooking smokes.
“
T
hose two hardly talk to me, but they thatch a roof like crazy. How well can they tunnel?
”

This amused her.
“
E
very pregnant
kzinrett
is an expert at tunneling, as you will soon see. Except that you will not see. When birthing time nears, a mother digs her secret birthing place. The father sometimes helps, but oftener not.

“
T
oo lazy?
”

She regarded him with eyes that reflected a dim flicker from the fire dying in the next room's hearth,
and sent a shiver through him.
“
T
oo likely to eat the newborn male," she said simply
.

“
G
ood God. Not among modem kzinti, I hope."

“
P
erhaps. Females become good workers; males become aggressive hunters likely to challenge for household mastery. Which would you value more?"
“
M
y choice is a matter of record," he joked, adding that they were certainly shaping the manor up fast. That, she said, was because they knew their places and their leaders. Soon they would be butchering and curing meat, making (something) from the milk of ruminants, cheese perhaps, and making ready for the kittens. Some of the released animals seemed already domesticated. A few vatach, she said, might be trapped and released nearby for convenience
.

He asked if the others would really fight the returning kzin warriors, and she insisted that they would, especially Puss.
“
S
he was a highly valued prret, but she hates males," Kit warned.
“
I
n some ways I think she wishes to be one.
”

“
T
hen why did she ask if I'd like to scratch her flanks with my
w
'tsai
," he asked
.

“
I
will claw her eyes out if you do, she growled.
“
S
he is only negotiating for status. Keep your blade in your belt," she said angrily, with a metaphor he could not miss
.

That blade reminded him (as he idly scratched her flanks with its dull tip to calm her) that the cave was now a treasury of materials. He must study the planting of the fast-growing vines which, according to Kit, would soon hide the roof thatching; those vines could also hide the cave entrance. He could scavenge enough steel for lances, more of the polarizers to build a whopping big airsloop, maybe even, He sat up, startling her.
“
M
eat storage!"

Kit did not understand. He wasn't sure he wanted
her to. He would need wire for remote switches, which might be recovered from polarizer toroids if he had the nerve to try it.
“
I
may have a way to keep meat fresh, Kit, but you must help me see that no one else touches my
magic’s
. They could be dangerous. " She said he was the boss, and he almost believed it.

Once the females began their escape tunnel, Locklear rigged a larger sail and completed his mapping chores, amassing several scrolls which seemed gibberish to the others. And each day he spent two hours at the cave. When vines died, he planted others to hide the entrance. He learned that polarizers and stasis units came in three sizes, and brought trapped vatach back in large cages he had separated from their gravity and stasis devices. Those clear cage tops made admirable windows, and the cage metal was then reworked by firelight in the main hall
.

Despite Kit's surly glances, he bade Puss sit beside him to learn metalwork, while Boots patiently wove mats and formed trays of clay to his specifications for papermaking. One day he might begin a journal. Meanwhile he needed awls, screwdrivers, pliers-and a longbow with arrows. He was all thumbs while shaping them
.

Boots became more shy as her pregnancy advanced. Locklear's new social problem became the casual nuances from Puss that, by now, he knew were sexual. She rarely spoke unless spoken to, but one day while resting in the sun with the big
kzinrett
he noticed her tailtip flicking near his leg, He had noticed previously that a moving rope or vine seemed to mesmerize a kzin; they probably thought it fascinated him as well
.

“P
uss, I
–
uh-sleep only with Kit. Sorry, but that's the way of it."
“
P
faugh. I am more skilled at ch'rowl than she, and I could make you a pillow of her fur if I liked." Her gaze was calm, challenging; to a male kzin, probably very sexy
.

“
W
e must all work together, Puss. As head of the household, I forbid you to make trouble.
”

“
M
y Lord," she said with a small nod, but her ear-flick was amused.
“
I
n that case, am I permitted to help in the birthing?
”

“
O
f course," he said, touched.
“
W
here is Boots, anyway?
”

“
P
reparing her birthing chamber. It cannot be long now," Puss added, setting off down the ravine
.

Locklear found Kit dragging a mat of dirt from the tunnel and asked her about the problems of birthing. The hardest part, she said, was the bower-and when males were near, the hiding. He asked why Puss would be needed at the birthing
.

“
A
h," said Kit.
“
I
t is symbolic, Rockear. You have agreed to let her play the mate role. it is not unheard-of, and the newborn male will be safe."

“
Y
ou mean, symbolic like our pairing?
”

“
N
ot quite that symbolic,
“
she replied with
sarcasm
as they distributed stone and earth outside. Prret are flexible."

Then he asked her what ch'rowl meant
.

Kit vented a tiny miaow Of pleasure, then realized suddenly that he did not know what he had said. Furiously:
“
S
he used that word to you? I will break her tail!
”

“
I
forbid it," he said.
“
S
he was angry because I told her I slept only with you." Pleased with this, Kit subsided as they moved into the tunnel again. Some kzin words, he learned, were triggers. At least one
seemed to be blatantly lascivious. He was deflected fro
m
this line of thought only when Kit, digging upward now, broke through to the surface.

They replanted shrubs at the exit before dark, and lounged before the hearthfire afterward. At last Locklear yawned; checked his wristcomp.
“
T
hey are very late," he said.

“
K
ittens are born at night," she replied, unworried
.

“
B
ut-I assumed she'd tell us when it was time.
”

“
S
he has not said eight-cubed of words to you. Why should she confide that to a male?
”

He shrugged at the fire. Perhaps they would always treat him like a kzintosh. He wondered for the hundredth time whether, when push came to shove, they would fight with him or against him.

In his mapping sorties, Locklear had skirted near enough to the force walls to see that Kzersatz was adjacent to four other compounds. One, of course, was the tantalizing Newduvai. Another was hidden in swirling mists; he dubbed it Limbo. The others held no charm for him; he named them Who Needs It, and No Thanks. He wondered what collections of life forms roamed those mysterious lands, or slept there in stasis. The planet might have scores of such zoo compounds
.

Meanwhile, he unwound a hundred meters of wire from a polarizer, and stole switches from others. One of his jury-rigs, outside the cave, was a catapult using a polarizer on a sturdy frame. He could stand fifty meters away and, with his remote switch, lob a heavy stone several hundred meters. Perhaps a series of the gravity polarizers would make a kind of mass driver-a true space drive! There was yet hope, he thought, of someday visiting Newduvai.

And then he transported some materials to the
manor where he installed a stasis device to keep meat fresh indefinitely; and late that same day, Puss returned. Even Kit, ignoring their rivalry, welcomed the big
kzinrett
.

“
T
hey are all well," Puss reported smugly, paternally. To Locklear's delighted question she replied in severe tones,
“
Y
ou cannot see them until their eyes open, Rockear.
“

“
I
t is tradition," Kit injected.
“
T
he mother will suckle them until then, and will hunt as she must.
”

“
I
am the hunter," Puss said.
“
W
hen we build our own manor, will your household help?
”

Kit looked quickly toward Locklear, who realized the implications. By God, they're really pairing off for another household, he thought. After a moment he said,
“
Y
es, but you must locate it nearby." He saw Kit relax and decided he'd made the right decision. To celebrate the new developments, Puss shooed Locklear and Kit outside to catch the late sun while she made them an early supper. They sat on their
rough
-hewn bench above the ravine to eat, Puss claiming she could return to the b
irth
ing bower in full darkness, and Locklear allowed himself to bask in a sense of well-being. It was not until Puss had headed back down the ravine with food for Boots, that Locklear realized she bad stolen several small items from his storage shelves
.

He could accept the loss of tools and a knife; Puss had, after -all, helped him make them. What caused his cold sweat was the fact that the tiny zzrou transmitter was missing. The zzrou prongs in his shoulder began to itch as be thought about it. Puss could not possibly know the importance of the transmitter to him; maybe she thought it was some magical tool
and maybe she would destroy it while studying it.
“
K
it," he said, trying to keep the tremor from his voice,
“
I
've got a problem and I need your help."

She seemed incensed, but not very surprised, to learn the function of the device that clung to his back. One thing was certain, he insisted: the birthing bower could not be more than a klick away. Because if Puss took the transmitter farther than that, he would die in agony. Could Kit lead him to the bower in darkness?
“
I
might find it, Rockear, but your presence there would provoke violence,
“
she said.
“
I
must go alone." She caressed his flank gently, then set off slowly down the ravine on all-fours, her nose close to the turf until she disappeared in darkness
.

Locklear stood for a time at the manor entrance, wondering what this night would bring, and then saw a long scrawl of light as it slowed to a stop and winked out, many miles above the plains of Kzersatz. Now he knew what the morning would bring, and knew that he had not one deadly problem, but two. He began to check his pathetic little armory by the glow of his memocomp, because that was better than giving way entirely to despair.

When he awoke, it was to the warmth of Kit's fur nestled against his backside. There was a time when she called this obscene, he thought with a smile
a
nd then he remembered everything, and lit the display of his memocomp.

Two hours until dawn. How long until death, he wondered, and woke her. She did not have the zzrou transmitter.
“
P
uss heard my calls, she said, "and warned me away. She will return this morning to barter tools for things she wants.
”