others who planned a kzin uprising.
'You say there are Heroes there too?' said Leonie.
'Few, not many, I think. The Heroes I saw young. Hot livers. Maybe brains loose like Henrietta-human and other.'
'Brains loose?'
'Kzin attack humans on Ka'ashi… on Wunderland, all kzin die. All kzinretti, all kittens. All. Vaemar die. Many humans die, too, I think. Then kzin and humans fight in space till all dead. 'Raargh young and Raargh say: 'Attack!' All dead is good if die on attack! But Raargh is old. Raargh think of dead kzinretti, dead kittens, Raargh remember ramscoop raid, think of Sire's tales, think of nukes. and relativity weapons on Homeworld. Raargh teach Vaemar to think. Raargh must think too. And there are monkeys who… who Raargh does want not should die.' He tried to cover this embarrassing admission. 'Dishonorable to kill chesss partners.'
'What can we do?' asked Leonie.
'How many humans here?'
'Just us, and a few students tidying up outside. Most went back to Munchen yesterday. We stayed because we thought if things were quieter some of the cryptic life-forms might come out.'
Morlocks came out. Raargh ate! Have you weapons?'
'Not many. We cleared a lot of old weapons out of the caves in the last few days, but the students took most of them back to the city. We found a few more yesterday after they'd gone and we have a few for personal security.'
'Need weapons. Need force. Go back through caves and eat crazy monkeys.'
'We'll have to call for help,' Leonie told him. 'This is too big for our claws. They must know you're gone by now, and they'll be waiting for an attack.'
'They not know Raargh go to humans,' Raargh replied. 'Not know about old battles with morlocks. Vaemar and Colonel-human let them think Raargh go to Arhus, return with Heroes.'
Nevertheless,' said Nils Rykermann, 'we must think carefully. Leonie is right. We cannot succeed in attacking them on our own. We have only ourselves here now and four young students,' he told Raargh. 'They're in the ROTC, of course, but I don't know if they're fully combat trained or experienced apart from young von Bibra, and I have no right to risk their lives. I am going to call Jocelyn van der Stratt.' He looked more closely at the old kzin. There were purple and orange bloodstains on his legs at the old wounds and round his neck and shoulders. There was blood on his head as well. Certain apparently fairly moderate head wounds could be fatal to kzinti. 'I have known Heroes before who were more badly hurt than they would admit,' he said. 'Lie down and let Leonie tend you.'
'I am a Hero,' said Raargh indignantly, 'And time is scarce.'
'Even if we summon help immediately, it cannot get here for some hours,' Rykermann said. 'I advise you to rest. We cannot charge back through the caves as we are.'
Raargh remembered his delusions in the caves. Certainly, it would be better if such things did not happen again. He knew there was not much the three of them could do by themselves, though had he been younger that might not have dissuaded him. 'Think before you leap!' Chuut-Riit had told them. And the pain in his wounds was extreme. He growled a reluctant 'Urrr' of assent.
The module's equipment included a large and versatile medical kit. He let Leonie apply a kzin-specific tranquilizer, pain killer and disinfectant and in a few moments-before he could ask Leonie for talcum powder-he was asleep on the floor of the module.
'We must start work early today,' Patrick Quickenden said. 'We've put in a good effort over the last few days, but this hospitality, not to mention seeing a beautiful new world… It could lull us into forgetting there's still a war on!'
'Something has developed,' said Jocelyn, 'that may be important. We'd like to take… er… Miss Moffet… to see something.'
'She's a key member of this group,' said Patrick. 'I don't want her put at any risk. In fact I insist!' Jocelyn looked at Arthur Guthlac. She sent him a silent directive.
'There's no danger,' Arthur told him. 'Come yourself. It's a fairly short flight in a fast car.'
I don't like it. There are still kzin on this planet. I've seen several already.'
I take your point,' said Arthur, 'but I'm still a Brigadier. I'll lay on an armed escort.'
I suppose you know what you're doing. But the rest of us will stay here and get started.'
'Poor old ratcat!' said Leonie. 'He's been through the mill. And even partial sensory deprivation is tougher on them than on us. It drives them crazy quicker.' The old kzin with his prostheses looked curiously vulnerable asleep, curled something like a house cat in a basket, but with his artificial arm jutting out at an awkward angle. 'It would have been more difficult for him than he'll ever admit to have gone so far through the dark and silence of the caves alone.'
'They never admit weakness,' said Nils Rykermann. 'Perhaps they're afraid it would make them seem too… human.' He paused and added suddenly: 'You've never hated them as I have.'
There's no danger of forgetting they're not human. And I tried to stop hating them after the cease-fire. It wasn't easy. If we'd had to live through the Occupation in the cities I don't think I could have even attempted it. And he helped, old Raargh. He had me at his mercy once, and here I am.'
Mercy is not a concept they understand,' he said.
'Maybe… and yet, here I am.'
'Anyway, I wanted him out for the count. That's why I encouraged him to let you treat him. And all my best brandy from the monastery! Do you think he's telling the truth?'
'I've never known one to tell an absolutely outright lie. But what's he got to lie about? Why else should he be running about in the caves alone and without equipment? And those injuries are certainly real enough.'
'But it's such an incredible story!'
'I'm not only your wife, I'm your chief research assistant, remember,' said Leonie. 'I've kept files. We know Henrietta was-is-probably the most hated of all the collaborators. It was an open secret among the Resistance that she was able to influence Chuut-Riit. There were even some Kzin who accused him of… of, well, you can guess. Perhaps she influenced him for good sometimes, but that wouldn't count. She was born and brought up under the Occupation and knew no life but that uniquely privileged one in a household of prominent collaborators, to whose headship she acceded. You know that after the Liberation there was a special price on her head. As for the atrocities committed against collaborators, we were lucky. We were in the hills and missed it all.'
'It didn't seem lucky at the time. We were at our last gasp. And I wanted vengeance on collabos and on the Kzin… I still do!' he burst out.
'That won't bring her back,' said Leonie quietly.
'It's the next best thing!' Nils Rykermann ground out. Then he bit the air and spun round to face her. He looked as if he had been struck a blow. 'You… you knew!' he whispered.
'I always knew. Wasn't it always obvious? I knew when I was your student that you were in love with her… and since then that you always have been.' She took his hand in both hers and kissed him. 'Don't you remember my hair? How I wore it in those days… with a pink headband?'
'Yes.'
'Why do you think I did that?'
'I never thought.'
'Because that was how she wore hers. Stupid of me, to try to compete with Dimity Carmody!'
I didn't know.'
'It didn't suit me, really. My hair's darker blond than hers was. My father always called me his little lion cub… I remember, I'd only been enrolled a few days, and I was sitting at one of the Lindenbaum's tables, with some of the other freshers. We were just getting to know each other and find our way around the class-rooms and time- tables, and suddenly we girls realized that all the boys were staring at this blonde two tables away… I'm sorry, I shouldn't go on.'
'Yes… yes. Please. Go on.'
'Who's she? I wondered. A Tridee-star? A fashion model a long way off her turf? Something dumb, anyway, I took for granted, with all my eighteen-year-old sophistication and judgment. The universe couldn't be so unfair as to give somebody looks like that and brains as well! I wasn't surprised when she ordered coffee in… in that funny
