'Oh, that explains the corks! Fly-By-Night's fingers are too big for the keyboard, so he puts corks on his nails!'
The Jotok said, 'You are Beowulf Shaeffer.'
I spasmed like an electrocuted frog, then turned to gawk at him. 'How can you possibly…?'
How can you possibly think that a seven foot tall albino has lost fourteen inches of height and got himself curly black hair and a tan?
Hair dye and tannin secretion pills, and futz that, we had real trouble. I asked, 'Have you spent three hours researching me?'
'You are the only ally at hand. I need to understand you better. You are wanted by the ARM for conspiracy abduction, four counts.'
'Four?'
'Sharrol Janss, Carlos Wu, and two children. Feather Filip is your suspect coconspirator. ARM interest seems to lie in the lost genes of Carlos Wu, but Sharrol Janss is alleged to be a flat phobe, hence would never have left Earth willingly.'
'We all ran away together.'
'My interest lies in your abilities, not your crimes. You were a civilian spacecraft pilot. Were you trained for agility in free fall?'
'Yes. Any emergency in a spacecraft, gravity is the first thing that goes.' 'You're agile if you've escaped the ARM thus far. What has your reading gained you?'
'We have to live. We have to win.'
'These would be good ideas-'
'No, you don't get it.' The Jotok had to understand. 'The Covenants of 2505 permit taking of hostages. They only put restrictions on their treatment. I've played those futzy documents three times through. Odysseus is hostages-in-a-box, live and frozen. They won't starve. Envoy can take Fly-By-Night anywhere he likes, however long it takes, then come back and release Odysseus. It's all in the Covenants.'
'If anything goes wrong,' Paradoxical said, 'they would never come.' 'No, it's worse than that! If everything goes right for them, there's no good reason to go back unless it's to fill the food lockers! The Covenants only apply when you're caught. My family is one hundred percent dead if we can't change that.'
'Envoy's word may be good. No! Bad gamble. We should study the pot odds. Beowulf, have you evolved a plan?'
'I don't know enough.'
The three crew were awake now, watching us as we watched them, though mostly they watched Fly-By- Night.
Paradoxical's talker burst to life. My translator said, 'Tell us of the fight that injured you.'
Fly-By-Night was slow to answer. 'Sheathclaws folk are fond of hang gliding. We make much bigger hang gliders for Kzinti, and not so many of us fly. I was near grown, seeking a name. My intent was to fly from Blood Park to Touchdown, three hundred klicks along rocky shore and then inland, at night. Land in Offcentral Park. Startle humans into fits.'
Packer snarled, 'Startling humans is no fit way to earn a name!' and the unnamed Kzin asked, 'Wouldn't the thermals be different at night?'
Fly-By-Night said, 'Very different.'
'Your second naming quest brought you here,' Envoy stated.
'Yes. I hoped that a scarred Kzin might pass among other Kzinti. Challenge would be less likely. Any lapse in knowledge might be due to head injury. I might pass more easily on a world part Kzin and part human, like Shasht-Fafnir.' 'You dance lightly over an important matter. Who lifted you from your world?' 'Where would be my honor if I told you that?'
'Smugglers? Bandits? What species? You will give us that too, Nameless.' We heard the click: communication severed.
One of the Kzinti stood up. Another slashed the vacuum, a mere wrist gesture, but the first sat down again. The stars wheeled… and something that was not a star came into view, brilliant in pure laser colors: Stealthy- Mating's riding lights.
I said, 'We're about to dock. If anything happens, you keep the needle sprayer, I want the blade. Closing the zipper turns on the air, so don't lose that.' 'No fear,' said Paradoxical.
Gravity went away. We floated. The ships danced about each other. I would have docked less recklessly. I'm not a Kzin.
'They know too much about us,' I said.
Paradoxical asked, 'In what context?'
'They knew our manifest. They knew our position-'
'Finding another ship in interstellar space is not a thing they could plan, Beowulf.'
'LE Graynor to you. Look at it this way,' I said. 'The only way to get here, falling through the Tao Gap in Einstein space, is to be going from Fafnir to Home. Stealthy-Mating got our route somehow. They started later with a faster ship. They might catch us approaching Home during deceleration… track our graviton wake… or snatch you and Fly-By-Night after you got through Customs. They could not possibly have expected to find Odysseus here. Catching us here was a fluke, an opportunity. They grabbed it.'
'As you say.'
'I like it.'
Paradoxical stared. 'Do you? Why?'
'Clients, overlords, allies, any kind of support would have to be told that Stealthy-Mating is en route to Home. Any rendezvous with Stealthy-Mating is at Home. When could they change that? They're still headed for Home!' 'Very speculative.'
'I know.'
Stealthy-Mating's cargo bay was bigger than the boat's, under doors that opened like wings.
The boat released the cargo modules. Two Kzinti went out and began moving them. Envoy stayed behind. He watched the action in space, ignoring us. 'Not yet,' Paradoxical said. I nodded. Fly-By-Night floated half curled up. He seemed to be asleep, but his ears kept flicking open like little fans. I ate my handmeal. Paradoxical averted its eyes.
Packer and the nameless third crewperson set the modules moving one by one, and juggled them as they approached Stealthy-Mating. Waldo arms reached up to pull them into the bay and lock them. It seemed to take forever, but I'd have moved those masses one at a time. They were in a hurry. Rounding a point mass would scatter this loose stuff all across the sky.
Turnpoint Star must be near.
The cargo doors closed. Stealthy-Mating rotated, and the boat was pulled down against the hull. Now we were all one mass.
The hatch in the floor opened. Three Kzinti came through in pressure suits to join Envoy. The newcomer's chest and back showed a Kzinti snarl done in gaudy orange dots-and-commas. He spared a glance for me and Paradoxical, then turned to Fly-By-Night.
My translator said, 'I am Meebrlee-Riit.'
'Futz!' Fly-By-Night exclaimed in Interworld.
'Your concern is noted. Yes, I am of the Patriarch's line. Your First Sire was Gutting Claw's Telepath, who betrayed the Patriarch Rrowrreet-Riit and showed prey how to destroy his own ship!'
'And he never even went back for the ears. Then again, they were inside a hot plasma,' Fly-By-Night said.
To Envoy Meebrlee-Riit said, 'This one was to be tamed.'
Envoy cringed, ears flat. Even I could hear the change in his voice, the whine. 'Dominant One, this fool crippled himself for a failed joke, and that joke was his name quest! A lesser male he must be, never mated. His arrogance is bluff or insanity, or else life among humans has made him quite alien! But let Tech give us air pressure, release the telepath, and the stench of your rage will cow him soon enough!'
'Let us expend less effort than that.' Meebrlee-Riit turned back to Fly-By-Night. 'Telepath, your life may be taken by any who happen upon you.' 'Did you need my consent for this?'
