weapon.
Nicolaus asked, 'Can you read minds?'
'No, child. Some of us are good at guessing, but we don't have the drug. Where was I?' Fly-By-Night said, 'They told me in the hospital after my first failed name quest. The universe had opened up-' He cut himself off as a furry face popped into hologram space in the workstation.
'I am Envoy. I speak for the Longest War. Terminate your spin. Open the airlock.'
Captain Preiss nodded to Quickpony. Reaction motors whispered, slowing us. Fly-By-Night spoke more rapidly. 'Boarding seems imminent. You cannot protect me. Give me to them. If you live long enough to speak to your people, tell them that three grown males left Sheathclaws on our name quests. Half our genes derive from Shadow, from a telepath. The Patriarch needs telepaths. Now he will learn of a world peopled by Gutting Claw's telepath, none of whom has felt the addiction to sthondat lymph in three hundred years.'
Gravity eased away until sideways thrust was all there was, and then that was gone too. Odysseus' outer airlock door opened.
The boat thumped into place against our hull. The older Van Zilds and I had our seat webs in place. The children floated, clinging to the arms of couches. 'They will have my genes. They will find Sheathclaws,' Fly-By- Night concluded. 'You will face my children in the next war, if they have their way.' Two big pressure-suit shapes left the boat on jet packs. One entered the lock. We heard it cycle. The other waited on the hull, to shoot the dome out if he saw resistance.
The inner door opened. The armored Kzin entered in a leap, up and into the dome where his companions could see him, a half turn to keep us in view. In his hand was a light that he aimed like a weapon. He was graceful as a fish. I squinted to save my vision. The light played over every part of the lobby and workstation. What he saw must have been reassuring.
Envoy said, 'We have demands. The Covenants will be followed where possible. All losses will be paid. Give us your passenger. He is in violation of our law. Fly-By-Night, is this Jotok your slave?'
'Yes.'
'Fly-By-Night, Jotok, you must enter your vacuum packs. Fly-By-Night, give your w'tsai to Packer.'
'W'tsai?' Fly-By-Night asked. 'This? My knife?'
'Carefully.'
Giving up his w'tsai was the ultimate surrender. If I knew that from my reading, surely a Kzin knew it. Three hundred years among humans… Had they lost the tradition?
But Fly-By-Night was offering a silver knife-prong-spoon ten inches long and dark with tarnish.
A spoony? We ate with those! They matched several shapes of digits and were oversized for human hands. Odysseus' kitchen melted the silver to kill bacteria, then squirted it into molds for the next meal.
Packer took it, stared at it, then showed it to Envoy's hologram. Envoy snarled in the Heroes' Tongue. He wasn't buying it.
Our passenger answered in Interworld. 'Yes, mine! See, here is my symbol,' the sign of Outbound Enterprises, a winged craft black against a crescent world. 'Fly by night!'
A laugh would be bad. I looked at the children. They looked solemn. Of Packer's weapon I saw only a glare of light. But he held it on Fly-By-Night as if it had to fire something deadly, and he snarled a command and lashed out with his tail. Under the minor impact Fly-By-Night spun slowly so that Packer could examine him for more weapons.
He snarled again. Fly-By-Night and Paradoxical pulled tabs on vacuum packs. The packs popped into double- walled spheres. Held open by higher pressure, the collar on each refuge inflated like a pair of fat lips.
Fly-By-Night had trouble wriggling through the collar. Once inside he had room. These vacuum refuges would have held the whole Van Zild family. Paradoxical looked quite lost in his.
Envoy spoke. 'Captain, you carry human passengers frozen in three cargo modules. Release these modules.'
The world went gray.
I began to breath deep and hard, to hyper-oxygenate, because I dared not faint. Captain Preiss' hands hadn't moved. That was brave, but it wouldn't save anyone. The elder Van Zilds buried their faces in each other's shoulders. The children were horrified and fascinated. They watched everything. Once I caught them looking at their parents in utter contempt.
Like them, I had been half enjoying the situation.
This would have been my last interstellar flight. Chance had me riding not as frozen cargo, but as a passenger, aware and entertained.
Flying the ship would have been more fun, of course.
Quickpony had suggested joining our cabins, as we were the obvious unpaired pair. I showed Quickpony videos displayed by the circuitry in my ring. Our lockstep ceremony. Jenna/Jeena just a year old. Sharrol/Milcenta not yet pregnant again; I should have updated while I could. We are lockstepped, see, here is our ring. Quickpony admired and dropped the subject.
And that left what for entertainment?
Kzinti hijackers!
I'd treated it like a game until Stealthy-Mating claimed my family. Bound into my couch by a crash web, I let my hand rest on the release while I considered what weapons I might have at hand.
Lips drawn back, fangs showing, Envoy's speech was turning mushy. 'Examine the Covenants, Captain Preiss. They were never altered. We take only hostages. They will be returned unharmed when our needs are satisfied. Compensation will be paid for every cost incurred.'
'What crime do you claim against Fly-By-Night?' Quickpony asked. 'His ancestor committed treason against his officers and the Patriarch. Penalties hold against his blood line forever. We may claim his life, but we will not. We value his blood line.'
'Has Fly-By-Night committed a crime?'
'False identity. Purchase of a Jotok without entitlement. Trivia.' Dumb and happy Mart Graynor wasn't the type to carry weapons aboard a spacecraft. The recorded Covenant of 2505 might be the only weapon I had. I let it play in one ear. The old diplomatic language was murky… Here it was. Hostages are to be returned in health if all conditions met, conditions not to be altered… costs to be assessed in time of peace at earliest…
Was I supposed to bet lives on this?
Heidi asked, 'Do you eat human meat?'
Packer and the hologram both turned to the girl. Envoy said, 'Hostages. I have said. The Covenants say. Kitten, we consider human meat to be… whasht-meery… unsafe. Captain Preiss, the modules we want are all addressed to Outbound on Home, yes? We will deliver them. Else we would face all the navies of human space.'
Preiss said, 'I have no such confidence.'
Packer kicked down from the dome. He set his huge hands on the girl's waist and looked into her face. He still hadn't spoken.
Nicolaus screamed and leapt. As he came at the armored Kzin, Packer reached out and wrapped both children against his armored chest. They looked up through the bubble helmet into a Kzin's smile.
Nicolaus bared his teeth.
Envoy said, 'Pause, Packer! Captain Preiss, think! Without gravity generators you must still fall around Turnpoint Star and into flat space. Hyperdrive will take you to the edge of Home system. Call for help to tow you the rest of the way. What other path have we? We might smash your hyperdrive and hyperwave and leave you to die here, silenced, but your absence at Home will set the law seeking us.
'This is the better risk, to violate no law unless we must. We take hostages. You must not call your authorities until you arrive near Home. We will transport our prisoner, then deliver your passengers.'
Packer's arms were full of children: hampered. Preiss and Quickpony were on a hair trigger. I was unarmed, but if they moved, I would.
'Wait,' Envoy said. Preiss still hadn't moved. 'You carry stock from Shasht? Sea life?'
'Yes.'
'I must speak with my leader. Lightspeed gap is two minutes each way. Do nothing threatening.'
We heard Envoy yowling into his communicator. Then nothing.
