Werehunter (anthology)

not appeal to me.”

“Well then, I’ll order the boy to—”

“Sir, I am the Brightwing’s legal advisor—I hate to say this, but to order Dick to ground is a clear violation of his contract. He hasn’t got enough hours spacing yet to qualify him for a ground position.”

The Lacu’teveras had taken Vena aside, Dick saw, and was chattering at her at top speed, waving her bandaged hand in the air.

“Captain Singh,” she said, turning away from the Lacu’un and tugging at his sleeve, “the Lacu’teveras has figured out that something you said or did is upsetting the cat, and she’s not very happy with that—”

Captain Singh looked just about ready to swallow a bucket of heated nails. “Spacer, will you get that feline calmed down before they throw me in the local brig?”

“I’ll—try sir—”

Come on, old girl—they won’t take you away. Erica and the nice lady won’t let them, he coaxed. You’re making the nice lady unhappy, and that might hurt her kitten—

SKitty subsided, slowly, but continued to cling to Dick’s shoulder as if he was the only rock in a flood. :Not take Dick.:

Erica won’t let them.

:Nice Erica.:

A sudden thought occurred to him. SKitty-love, how long would it take before you had your new kittens trained to hunt?

She pondered the question. :From wean? Three heats,: she said finally.

About a year, then, from birth to full hunter. “Cap­tain, I may have a solution for you—”

“I would be overjoyed to hear one,” the Captain replied dryly.

“SKitty’s pregnant again—I’m sorry, sir, I just found out today and I didn’t have time to report it—but sir, this is going to be to our advantage! If the Lacu’un insisted, we could handle the whole trade deal, couldn’t we, Erica? And it should take something like a year to get everything negotiated and set up, shouldn’t it?”

“Up to a year and a half, standard, yes,” she con­firmed. “And basically, whatever the Lacu’un want, they get, so far as the Company is concerned.”

“Once the kittens are a year old, they’ll be hunters just as good as SKitty is—so if you could see your way clear to doing all the set up—and sort-of wait around for us to get done rearing the kittens—”

Captain Singh burst into laughter. “Boy, do you have any notion just how many credits handling the entire trade negotiations would put in Brightwing’s account? Do you have any idea what that would do for my status?”

“No sir,” he admitted.

“Suffice it to say I could retire if I chose. And—Spirits of Space—kittens? Kittens we could legally sell to the Lacu’un? I don’t suppose you have any notion of how many kittens we can expect this time?”

He sent an inquiring tendril of thought to SKitty. “Uh—I think four, sir.”

“Four! And they were offering us what for just her?” the Captain asked Vena.

“A more-than-considerable amount,” she said dryly. “Exclusive contract on the forcefield applications.”

“How would they feel about bargaining for four to be turned over in about a year?”

Vena turned to the rulers and translated. The excited answer she got left no doubts in anyone’s mind that the Lacu’un were overjoyed at the prospect.

“Basically, Captain, you’ve just convinced the Lacu’un that you hung the moon.”