Man-Kzin Wars XIV (9 page)

“Judge, I have found some strangers. They came by aircar, it is outside the wall. The Hero wants to talk to the town, for reasons I know nothing of. You must explain it to me later.” The judge looked up at them. He was sitting on a rocking chair on the porch of his house and smoking a pungent cigar.

“Lord Vaemar-Riit, as I live and breathe! And of course you are the abbot. I have never met you, but I have heard a lot about you. I knew your predecessor. I owed him a debt.”

“But you have met Vaemar before?” the abbot inquired.

“Indeed I have, although under embarrassing circumstances, and with luck he does not recall me.” The Judge was grave, so Vaemar decided not to recognize him formally, although it was not hard to recall the circumstances. Vaemar had been a mere kit at the time, but the events had been, ah,
memorable
.

“I have been selected as the conservative candidate for the Grossgeister electorate,” Vaemar explained. “I would like to tell your people why it is important to vote for me. It seems a very vulgar thing to do, but I am assured that it is proper.”

“Hey, you’re going into politics? That’s wonderful! Some of the men are out hunting or farming, but they’ll all be back later. Can you wait two hours? We can have the whole town lined up for you by then. Not a whole lot of folk, of course, less than two hundred all up, but we are growing at the expense of some of the other villages further out. We can thank Ruat for that. He found gold and precious stones near here, which means we’re rich now, and the word gets out.”

“You have prospered,” said Vaemar, as the villagers assembled.

“Indeed.” It was obvious to the judge that Vaemar recognized him, despite the years that had passed. “And the sergeant . . . Rarrgh?”

“He heads my household . . . my palace staff.

“You have a palace? Times have indeed changed, O’ Vaemar-Ritt!”

“Only a small one. But I find it is big enough. It is not on the scale of my Honored Sire’s, but I find it is big enough for contentment.”

“Then you are fortunate, as I have been.”

Vaemar didn’t need a soap box to stand on, had such a thing been available and strong enough to bear his weight. He checked with the abbot, who nodded.

“People, Heroes and humans, I am Vaemar-Riit. If you will vote for me next week, then I will represent you. My duty is to do what I can to help you help yourselves. I will do this if I am elected, whether you vote for me or not.

“I will have a say in the making of the laws. I will try to pass laws which I think are good for all this world. I shall exercise my best judgement.”

There were six, no, seven kzin standing at the back, with men and women among them.

“If you want to ask me questions, I will try to answer them. Thank you.”

It was probably the shortest campaign speech on record. It seemed to work. A kzin called out: “What is this voting? I have heard of it, but it meant nothing to me.”

“You will be given a piece of paper with some names on it. There are little spaces after the names. To vote for me, you make a mark with a stylus after my name. If enough of you do this, I will become your representative.”

“And if we have some trouble, we may come and ask your help?” a kzinrett asked.

“Yes.” Vaemar was firm. “It will be my duty to give you help if I can.”

The crowd digested this. “Will you favor the kzin? They are your kind,” a human voice pointed out.

“No, I will do justice. I will be representing all of you, not just the kzin.”

The crowd started discussing this with each other. Vaemar looked at the abbot, who nodded.

“Did I do that properly?” Vaemar asked the abbot on the way back.

“Looked pretty good to me,” Boniface told him comfortably. “Think of it as practice for the rest of the speeches. Some may be a little longer when you’re closer to Grossgeister. Tell them about the swamp.”

“That will be good,” Vaemar agreed. “I thought perhaps I could have spoken more, but could think of nothing to say.”

“Doesn’t stop most politicians,” the abbot said drily. “I found it very refreshing.”

“Ain’t for me t’ tell you how t’ vote, Bill.” The judge yawned.

“But you are gonna vote fer a
kzin
? I don’t know I want to stay in this town, we got kzin all over the place, and I hate them. I hate them all.”

“That’s your right as a free man an’ a fool, Bill Braun. How you can have strong feelins about a whole bunch of people you never even met is beyond me; I can only hate people I know pretty well, m’self.”

“There you go, callin’ them
people
. They ain’t people, they’s
kzin
.”

“Way I see it, if you can have a talk to it, it’s people. Don’t much care about the shape or size or color,” the judge told him. “Ruat is definitely people. He went into the river to fish out that kid was drowning last week, and he don’t like water much at all. Would you still hate him if it had been one of your kids?”

Bill Braun glared at the judge. “We should have a human sheriff, not some goddam ratcat.”

“No human sheriff could have heard the kid from that distance and moved so quickly. A human sheriff, and the kid would have drowned. ’Course, it’s so much better to be fished out dead by a human than alive by a kzin, ain’t it?”

Bill Braun couldn’t think of an answer to that. He wanted to move out. He would have moved out. But his wife had told him that if he went, he went on his own. Damned women were more trouble than the kzin. And you couldn’t beat them these days, even when they were sassy. Last time he’d threatened her, she’d screamed and that damned Ruat had been at his door in two seconds flat. Hadn’t done anything. Just looked and asked if everything was alright. Had then explained that violence was against the Judge’s Law. Except when it was required, as part of the law, of course. That, Ruat had explained, was
his
job.

The election day came. Vaemar and his mate Karan went around to every public place they could. They took Orlando and Tabitha, who were now nearly four years old, and were zooming around, mostly on all fours but occasionally toddling, and well behaved, all things considered; They also took their brand new kits, Orion and Arwen, who had opened their blue eyes but were still dazed by the world. Children came up to stroke them, because they looked so adorable.

After the count, the abbot could barely contain himself.

“Those two cute little fluff-bundles helped win you the election, Vaemar. You got fifty percent better numbers than your predecessor. The liberal was nowhere. And ten kzinti voted, which is a first. Next stop, the Bundestag.”

Fifteen horses galloped east. The twelve riders carried rifles and side guns and were all in serious need of a shave. It was the better part of a day’s journey to the village, and they had started late in the morning, so it would be nightfall when they got there. The three pack animals were roped to the horse of the last rider, who would have been recognized by the trader as a man who’d do anything to get money except work for it.

“The member for Grossgeister,” intoned the speaker. Vaemar rose. This was his maiden speech, and he hoped it was going to work. The government looked up at him from the front benches, most of them with their mouths open.

“Madam Speaker, ladies and gentlemen. I stand before you as the first kzin member of this house, and as a sign that our two peoples can share this world under the rule of Law.” There were a few “Hear, hear” sounds from behind him. The public gallery was packed, with several massive kzin standing among them. Journalists filled the press gallery.

“It would be possible for me to disburse platitudes about the fact that I, a kzin, should accept the role of this house, and that in doing so I might encourage other kzinti to engage with the political process, but to do so would be stating the obvious.”

The chancellor turned to the man on his left. “We’re going to have to get one of those damned ratcats in on our side of the house, or we’re buggered,” he whispered savagely. “If all kzinti decide to vote conservative because this one is, we’ll lose everywhere. See to it, fast as you can. I don’t care who he is, or what his politics are. We need a ratcat.” The man nodded and scurried away. This was urgent. Vaemar had won a bye-election, but a general election was not too far off.

“Instead, I want to turn to the last finding of the finance committee. It is chaired by Senator von Höhenheim, who is, of course, of the upper house, and not answerable directly to this house. It is, however, this house which must ultimately determine proper priorities. And there is something which I find most unsatisfactory in this latest report. I hope to persuade both sides of this house that two grievous errors have occurred and that we must put them right.”

Vaemar remembered to take a sip from a glass of water. Timing, proper pauses and the right buildup. Rhetoric was a weapon.

“First, there is the plan to drain Grossgeister Swamp. It is hard to understand how the government side of the house could possibly support this. The region is a complex wetland with a delicate ecology comprised of a huge number of species. That was where we found the Jotok, intelligent beings when developed, and there may yet be many others in their early stages. The dolphins breed there. To drain the swamp would be murder.” That caused a buzz among some who remembered the Occupation. “I could enlarge on the damage which can be done when ecologies are disturbed, damage extending far beyond the immediate locality. If anyone doubts this, then listen to any competent ecologist. I have here some relevant papers which I shall table, and which demonstrate forcefully the serious risk of unexpected and malign consequences following meddling with a system as complex as an ecology.”

Vaemar paused again after brandishing more documents than a human being could carry, and slapping them down on the table. (The
thud
made the government front bench jump.) The kzin sounded civilized; his soft, mellow voice carried not a hint of violence, but the sheer size of the creature was intimidating. The public gallery was absorbed, the press gallery appreciative and safely distant from the big animal. The front bench was not. Somewhere in their hindbrains, ancient terrors were triggered.

“And yet many millions of thalers were to be spent on this project, and no committee has been set up to consider the consequences. That surely cannot be allowed to go through. It would be irresponsible in the extreme; this house would be derelict in its duty if it did not set up a committee to review the plan to drain the swamp, and I am confident that any such committee would reject the plan as monstrous.” Vaemar took another sip of water. So far, so good.

“Yet the examination of the
Valiant
has been stopped in its tracks. It might be thought that
I
would be the one opposed to an investigation which would likely bring opprobrium on the kzin. After all, by far the most likely explanation is that a kzin warship hit it and thought it destroyed. But truth must be faced down, no matter how fearful.” Vaemar’s voice rose in power and pitch: “We must learn to live together, and to trust each other. It is perhaps the most important thing for the future of our world that we do this. And trust must be based on plain speaking and on knowing the truth. Therefore I call upon this house to set up the investigation of the downing of the
Valiant
as most exigent business affecting our common future. My own most trusted servant, Rarrgh, has volunteered to go to provide security at no cost to the public treasury.

“I therefore move that the matter of draining the swamp be referred to a committee of all parties and that the house authorize an investigation of the
Valiant
.” Vaemar bowed politely and returned to his seat, which had been greatly enlarged, strengthened and modified, but was still damnably uncomfortable. He must see about getting a
footch
installed. Several, in fact. That would be symbolically important, too. The house clapped for him, with wild enthusiasm from the conservative opposition, and more restrained graciousness from the government benches. The vestigial representation of the old Herrenmanner and the Progressive Democrats were pleased they had not been omitted. The public gallery mostly clapped, except for the kzinti, who made noises of approval. As maiden speeches went, it had the merit of brevity and the serious flaw of actually saying something. The chancellor would have scowled, but the press gallery had him in their camera sights. So he gave a benevolent smile instead.

The men arived at the village in darkness. Lights showed through the palings of the palisade that encircled the village; generators had been purchased and put to interesting uses. Eleven of the men dismounted, and some broke their breach-loading rifled muskets, loading them from bandoliers, while eyes watched them from the dark. The eleven crept up to the gate. The last man at the back sat and watched them, the three pack horses behind him sniffing the air nervously. His gun was already loaded.

There was a young man at the gate. Hearing the bandits, he opened the gate cautiously and peered out, shining a torch at them. Had they been marauding lesslocks, he’d have slammed the gate shut and given the alarm by blowing on the whistle he kept on a chain around his neck. Seeing humans, he called out to them:

“Hi, guys, who are you, then?” The lead bandit shot him, but did not kill him. The sound split the night more than the whistle would have done. The young man fell back, raised his own gun and shot the bandit stone dead, but it was too late. Inside the gate, the bandits shouted in triumph and fired into the air.

Outside the stockade, the horses were beginning to panic. One of the pack animals screamed, reared, broke the lead which tied him to the last man’s horse and turned to run. There was a chorus of howls and the horse was submerged under a horde of lesslocks. The man caught the red eyes of the brutes and fired at them.

Lesslocks were so called because the species was clearly related to the Morlocks, but were smaller and squatter. They were less intelligent than the baboons they somewhat resembled, but were stronger and much more aggressive; they hunted in big packs of several hundred. They surged towards the man, who reloaded quickly and fired again before he went under a snarling mob.