KZIN6.TXT

A Kzin/Man Story - By SwampRat
(c) 1991 The Rishathran Society

After reading 'Man-Kzin Wars III' I got disgusted. It seems whenever a Kzin
gets to leaning to liberal tendencies.. He gets wiped out! So, I wrote this..
With a backhanded salute And a raspberry to Larry Nivin (Pbbbbt!).

Rhau watched the man nonchalantly make his way to the entrance. As patient as
any Warrior, he watched the person stroll down the path. The man passed the
cat, quickly making the "all-clear" sign. Was shadowed back to the secret
passage. There, they exchanged packages. Rhau felt the fingers linger on his
hand, but ignored it, as he always did. No matter how many times Teacher
explained 'Benders', it was still a hard concept to grasp. Males who mated with
other Males.. None-the-less, he leaned down and pressed his mouth against the
painted one. Growled softly as a manicured hand caressed his tail. It was a
small price to pay for the necessities. Rhau would hump a tree if it brought
in supplies.. The human sighed, continued on down the trail. "You did well.."
The Kzin came to a crouch, ready to grab-and-run or fight.. Then relaxed as a
pair of robed beings stood in the corridor. "Teachers," he greeted them,
growing warm in their praise. The human smiled. Rhau returned it, curling his
lips over his fangs. He brought in the knapsack, following the two beings.

As usual, the pair had taken no more than a few steps, than they started to
'discuss' matters. The Hero's head spun, listening the man argue finer points
of philosophy with the cat, who towered over him. Neither would have
entertained a thought of physically harming the other.. No matter that a good,
swift kick under the tail might have done wonders for loosening rusted mental
passages. Rhau grinned, watching them gesture. He had seen them fight verbally
to a stand-still, sure they would tear each other apart.. Just to re-join the
fray a few minutes later. The colony was much better for their bickering.. Cubs
gathered around him, wanting to see what the outside world brought. He looked
into the wide eyes, some with vertical pupils, some with rounded ones. All
cubs. All fostered by the colony. He suppressed a shudder, remembering his
flight from HomeWorld. There, females were little better than the animals they
raised. Humans were a commodity. And discussions were based on War, and
Weapons.. He tousled a youth's hair, smoothed the fur on another. His children.
Their children.

Kzin and human women chatted side-by-side in the fields, helping the males till
the soil, tend the animals, watch the children. He gazed over the peace..
Sighing. Knowing this was a temporary shelter. If any Outsider, Human or Kzin,
found out about them... He shut such thoughts out. Their's was the last hope.
He again sent a quiet prayer to the Gods for the Philanthropist who created
this place.. That one would be more than just castrated and outcast. His mate,
another Kzin, came out. Sniffed his hand.. "You have been unfaithful, Husband."
He grinned, as she wrinkled her nose. He could mate with any female in
Sanctuary.. But it amused his wife to scratch his hide sometimes. She helped
him remove the contents of the sack, cataloging them. He grinned, watching a
man wrestle with a stone. Others watched as well. If he asked, a dozen hands
would come to his aide.. But only if he asked. It was good to keep ones pride..
As long as it didn't endanger them. The loss of even one person was almost too
much. Especially when that one was the handiest with tools. Rhau swore John
could manufacture anything out of just stones.. But like too many, a bit hard-
headed.. 

"Father.." A boy stood in front of him. All males were Father, all females
Mother, Until the time of Passage.. Humans and Kzin intermixed freely, with no
results. Only the same species could make children.. That fact did not diminish
the creature's patronly feelings one iota. "Yes, Markham?" The child stood a
little taller, being called by name. "Why do we practice drills?" Rhau made a
mental note. This one was ready to start school. Unlike the external world,
each individual got as much learning as they could understand. Whenever they
wished it.. He was still a dullard compared to some of the beings who roamed
the compound. The Kzin leaned down. "We train so when the day to leave comes we
shall be ready." He waited to see if the answer would spark another question.
Instead, the youth bowed, thanked his teacher for the new information, and ran
off to play in the sun. "Exuberance.." Yaal finished her chore and patted her
husband's shoulder. "It is the way.. It is good." They made their way to the
training camp. Rhau said a not-so-silent prayer that the day would be closer..

Not that he hated living on Earth.. But it was Not HomeWorld. New Homeworld
would be a place where Man and Kzin could live together.  Where others of like
mind could go, and live as well. The Underground simply didn't have the
resources to save All the Persecuted Ones.. The drill was the same as it always
was. Move into the ship, do a practice run. Do another as if they had been
found.. Then came news. "Homeworld will be fully inhabitable in another month..
It could do Now, in a pinch. But, the more time we have to build, the better."
But as fate would have it, time was running out.. The A.R.M. had intercepted
the painted man, and made him vanish. Now they were trying to decide how best
to flush out this conspiracy which was going on under their noses.. The hardest
part was the Sanctuary lay on ground the ARM could not touch.. A patch of soil
set aside by someone very high up.. Not even The machines or the Gray
Organization could find Him.

They had already tried force.. Somewhat anyway. True force was still frowned on
strongly.. At every turn they had been thwarted by the one known only as The
Builder.. Of course had this been Earth, the tale might have been different.
But the satellite wasn't Earth.. Even though all inside the dome believed it
so. And of course, when the sphere exploded, their machines just happened to go
on the blink.. They stopped wondering when a tape showed up in an office that
Officially didn't exist. It was put in a slot. Garbled noise came from the
speaker. A sigh.. A button was hit. "Well?" "Not if we had a millennia.."
Another sigh. Tech said it was literally impossible to duplicate the small
viewer that had come in the mail. Or open it. Or scan it.. At a command, the
machine was brought up. "Greetings.." The being was clad in black, with a patch
covering one eye. "From an Ex-Member of the Triad. Although I am not 'The
Builder', I personally know him. I hope you are not too disappointed that we
could not allow our charges to fall in your still quite barbaric hands.."

He smiled, showing metallic teeth. "Yes, Barbaric... We are called Outlaws,
but We welcome Any who hunger after knowledge. You suppress it in the name of
good.. Just to keep your Powerbase secure. I was one of you not so long ago.. I
was used, then tossed aside. Of course, I did make quite a few contacts during
the wars.. And made some nice investments. This tape will be erased in a few
more moments, and the machine will turn into a pile of slag. Sleep well, but
remember.. I have more knowledge in a cube of Crystalline Storage than you have
in your Libraries.." The tape stopped.. And the viewer melted. 

The A.R.M. ripped up half the Galaxy trying to find somebody who knew a thing..
And found to little surprise, that mouths on the Edge stayed shut. And no
amount of prying could open them.. As it was they lost a Lab to a certain
'device' That put the asteroid it sat on in a new orbit. And on a set of
worlds that would support life, Cats, Humans, and everything in between
laughed, loved, hated and lived. Some took to the skies, following in the
pawpads of their ancestors. Others worked on gadgets, Ship designs, and
Languages. Colonies of interbred beings went forward with their lives.. And a
dark-robed male chuckled, watching all the efforts to snare him go for naught.

The End