INCONSTANT STAR     101

 dawn of sympathy, "Then the hyperdrive armada arrived and she was
 vindicated. Were you not glad?"
  "Of course," Markham said. "We jubilated, my comrades and 1, after we were
  through weeping for the joy and glory of it. That was a short-lived happi-
  ness. We had work to do. At first it was clean. The fighting had caused
  destruction. The navy from Sol could spare few units; it must go on to
  subdue the kzinti elsewhere. On the men of the resistance fell the tasks of
  rescue and relief.
  "Men as we returned to our homes on Wunderland -1 and many others for the
  first time in our lives----%Ve found that the world for whose liberation we
  had fought, the world of our vision and hope, was gone, long gone.
  Everywhere was turmoil. Mobs stormed manor after manor of the
  'collaborationist' aristocrats, lynched, raped, looted, burned---as if
  those same proles had not groveled befbre the kzinti and kept war
  production going for theml Lunatic political factions rioted against each
  other or did actual armed combat. Chaos brought breakdown, want, misery,
  death.
  "My mother took a lead in calling for a restoration of law. We did it, we
  soldiers from space. What we did was often harsh, but necessary. A
  caretaker government was established. We thought that we could finally get
  on with our private lives-though 1, for one, busied myself in the effort to
  build up Centaurian defense forces, so that never again could my people be
  overrun.
  "In the years that my back was turned, they, my people, were betrayed."
  Markham choked on his bitterness.
  "Do you mean the new constitution, the democratic movement in general?"
  Tregennis prompted.
  Markham recovered and nodded. "No one denied that reform, reorganization
  was desirable. I will concede, if only because our time to talk now is
  limited, most of the reformers meant well. They did not
 102      Poul Anderson

 foresee the consequences of what they enacted. I admit I did not myself.
 But I was busy, often away for long periods of time. My mother, on our
 estates, saw what was happening, and piece by piece made it clear to me."
  "Your estates. You kept them, then. I gather most noble families kept a
  substantial part of their former holdings; and Wunderland's House of
  Patricians is the upper chamber of its parliament. Surely you don't think
  you have come under a ... mobocracy."
  "But I do! At least, that is the way it is tending. That is the way it
  will go, to completion, to destruction, if it is not stopped. A political
  Gresham's Law prevails; the bad drives out the good. Look at me, for
  example. I have one vote, by hereditary right, in the Patricians, and it
  is limited to federal matters. To take a meaningful role in restoring a
  proper societythrough enactment of proper laws-a role which it is my
  hereditary duty to take-I must begin by being elected a consul of my
  state, Braefell. That would give me a voice in choosing who goes to the
  House of Delegates- No matter details. I went into politics."
 "Holding your well-bred nose," Ryan murmured.
  Markham flushed again. "I am for the people. The honest, decent,
  hard-working, sensible common people, who know in their hearts that
  society is tradition and order and reverence, not a series of cheap bar-
  gains between selfish interests. One still finds them in the countryside.
  It is in the cities that the maggots are, the mobs, the criminals, the
  parasites, the ... politicians. "
  For the first time, Ryan smiled a little. "Can't say I admire the
  political process either. But I will say the cure is not to domesticate
  the lower class. How about letting everybody see to his own business,
  with a few cops and courts to keep things from getting too hairy?"
  "I heard that argument often enough. It is stupid. It assumes the obvious
  falsehood that an individual
           INCONSTANT STAR     103

 can function in isolation like an atom. Oh, I did my share of toadying, I
 shook the clammy hands and said the clammy words, but it was hypocritical
 ritual, a sugar coating over the cynicism and corruption-"
 "In short, you lost."
 I learned better than to try."
  Ryan started to respond but checked himself. Markham smiled like a death's
  head. "Thereupon I decided to call back the kzinti, is that what you wish
  to say?" he gibed. Seriously: "No, it was not that simple at all. I had had
  dealings with them throughout my war career, negotiations, exchanges,
  interrogation and care of prisoners, the sort of relationships one always
  has with an opponent. They came to fascinate me and I learned everything
  about them that I could. The more I knew, the more effective a freedom
  fighter I would be, not so?
  "After the ... liberation, my knowledge and my reputation caused me to have
  still more to do with them. There were mutual repatriations to arrange.
  There were kzinti who had good cause to stay behind. Some had been born in
  the Centaurian System; the second and later fleets carried females. Others
  came to join such kinfolk, or on their own, as fugitives, because their
  society too was in upheaval and many of them actually admired us, now that
  we had fought successfully. Remember, most of those newcomers arrived on
  human hyperdrive ships. This was official policy, in the hope of earning
  goodwill, of learning more about kzinti in general, and offi-ankly-having
  possible hostages. Even so, they were often subject to cruel discrimination
  or outright persecution. What could I do but intervene in their behalf?
  They, or their brothers, had been brave and honorable enemies. It was time
  to become friends."
  "That was certainly a worthy feeling," Tregennis admitted.
  Markham made a chopping gesture. "Meanwhile I not only grew more and more
  aware of the rot in
 104      Pout Anderson

 Wunderland, I discovered how much I had been bed to. The kzinti were never
 monsters, as propaganda had claimed. They were relentless at first and
 strict afterward, yes. They imposed their will. But it was a dynamic will
 serving a splendid vision. They were not wantonly cruel, nor extortionate,
 nor even pettily thievish. Humans who obeyed kzin law enjoyed its
 protection, its order, and its justice. Their lives went on peacefully,
 industriously, with old folkways respected-by the commoners and the kzinti.
 Most hardly ever saw a kzin. The Great Houses of Wunderland were the
 intermediaries, and woe betide the human lord who abused the people in his
 care. Oh, no matter his rank, he must defer to the lowliest kzin. But he
 received due honor for what he was, and could look forward to his sons
 rising higher, his grandsons to actual partnership."
 "In the conquest of the galaxy," Ryan said.
  "Well, the kzinti have their faults, but they are not like the Slavers that
  archaeologists have found traces of, from a billion years ago or however
  long it was. Men who fought the kzinti and men who served them were more
  ftilly men than ever befbre or since. My mother first said this to me,
  years afterward, my mother whose word had been 'No Surrender.' "
  Markham glanced at his watch. "We must leave soon," he reminded. I didn't
  mean to go on at such length. I don't expect you to agree with me. I do
  urge you to think, think hard, and meanwhile cooperate. "
  Regardless, Tregennis asked in his disarming fashion, "Did you actually
  decide to work for a kzin restoration? Isn't that the sort of radicalism
  you oppose?"
  "My decision did not come overnight either," Markham replied, "nor do I
  want kzin rule again over my people. It would be better than what they have
  now, but manliness of their own is better still. Earth is the real enemy,
  rich fat Earth, its bankers and hucksters
           INCONSTANT STAR     105

 and political panderers, its vulgarity and whorishness that poison our young
 everywhere--on your world too, Professor. A strong planet Kzin will
 challenge humans to strengthen themselves. Those who do not purge out the
 corruption will die. The rest, clean, will make a new peace, a brotherhood,
 and go on to take possession of the universe."
 "Together with the kzinti," Ryan said.
  Markham nodded. "And perhaps other worthy races. We shall see."
 "I don't imagine anybody ever promised you this."
  "Not in so many words. You are shrewd, Quartermaster. But shrewdness is not
  enough. There is such a thing as intuition, the sense of destiny."
  Markham waved a hand. "Not that I had a religious experience. I began by
  entrusting harmless, perfectly sincere messages to kzinti going home, mes-
  sages for their authorities. 'Please suggest how our two species can reach
  mutual understanding. What can I do to help bring a d6tente?' Things like
  that. A few kzinti do still travel in and out, you know, on human ships, by
  prearrangement. They generally come to consult or debate about what matters
  of mutual concern our species have these days, diplomatic, commercial,
  safety-related. Some do other things, clandestinely. We haven't cut off the
  traffic on that account. It is slight-and, after all, the exchange helps us
  plant our spies in their space.
  "The responses I got were encouraging. They led to personal meetings, even
  occasionally to coded hyperwave communications; we have a few relays in
  kzin space, you know, by agreement. The first requests I got were
  legitimate by anyone's measure. The kzinti asked for specific information,
  no state secrets, merely data they could not readily obtain. I felt that by
  aiding them toward a better knowledge of us I was doing my race a valuable
  service. But of course I could not reveal it."
 "No, you had your own little foreign policy," Ryan
 106      Poul Anderson

 scoffed. "And one thing led to another, also inside your head, till you were
 sending stuff on the theory and practice of hyperdrive which gave them a
 ten- or, twenty-year leg up on their R and D. "
  Markham's tone was patient. "They would inevitably have gotten it. Only by
  taking part in events can we hope to exercise any influence."
  Again he consulted his watch. "We had better 901" he said. "They will bring
  us to their base. You will be meeting the commandant. Perhaps what I have
  told will be of help to you."
  "How about Rover?" Ryan inquired. I hope you've explained to them she isn't
  meant for planetfall. "
  "That was not necessary," Markham said, irritated. "They know space
  architecture as well as we do-possibly better than you do, Quartermaster.
  We will go down in a boat from the warship. They will put our ship on the
  moon."
 "What? Why not just in parking orbit?"
  "I'll explain later. We must report now for debarkation. Have no fears. The
  kzinti won't willingly damage Rover. If they can-if we think of some way to
  prevent future human expeditions here that does not involve returning
  her-we'll keep her. The hyperdrive makes her precious. Otherwise Kzarr-
  Siu-Vengeful Slasher, the warship-is the only vessel currently in this
  system which has been so outfitted. They'll put Rover on the moon fbr
  safety's sake. Secunda orbits have become too crowded. The moon's gravity
  is low enough that it won't harm a freightship like this. Now come."
  Markham rose and strode forth. Ryan and Tregennis followed. The Hawaiian
  nudged the Plateaunian and made little circling motions with his forefinger
  near his temple. Unwontedly bleak of countenance, the astronomer nodded,
  then whispered, "Be careful. I have read history. All too often, his kind
  is successful."
               17

  Kzinti did not use their gravity polarizers to maintain a constant,
  comfortable weight within spacecraftunless accelerations got too high even
  for them to tolerate. The boat left with a roar of power. Humans sagged in
  their seats. Tregennis whitened. The thin flesh seemed to pull back over
  the bones of his face, the beaky nose stood out like a crag and blood
  trickled from it. "Hey, easy, boy," Ryan gasped. "Do you want to lose this
  man . . . already?"
  Markham spoke to Hraou-Captain, who made a contemptuous noise but then
  yowled at the pilot. Weightlessness came as an abrupt benediction. For a
  minute silence prevailed, except fbr the heavy breathing of the
  Wunderlander and the Hawaiian, the rattling in and out of the old
  Plateaunian's.
  Harnessed beside Tregennis, Ryan examined him as well as he could before
  muttering, "I guess he'll be all right in a while, if that snotbrain will
  take a little care." Raising his eyes, he looked past the other, out the
  port. "What's that?"
               107
 108      Poul Anderson

  Close by, a kilometer or two, a small spacecraftthe size and lines
  indicated a ground-to-orbit shuttle
 was docked at a framework which had been assembled around a curiously
 spheroidal dark mass, a couple of hundred meters in diameter. The framework
 secured and supported machinery which was carrying out operations under the
 direction of suited kzinti who flitted about with drive units on their
 backs. Stars peered through the lattice. In the distance passed a glimpse of
 Rover, moon-bound, and the warship.
  The boat glided by. A new approach curve computed, the pilot applied
  thrust, this time about a single g's worth. Hraou-Captain registered
  impatience at the added waiting aboard. Markham did not venture to address
  him again. It must have taken courage to do so at all, when he wasn't
  supposed to defile the language with his mouth.
  Instead the Wunderlander said to Ryan, on a note of awe, "That is doubtless
  one of their iron sources. Recently arrived, I would guess, and cooled down
  enough for work to commence on it. From what I have heard, a body that size
  will quickly be reduced."
  Ryan stared at him, forgetting hostility in surprise. "Iron? I thought
  there was hardly any in this system. What it has ought to be at the center
  of the planets. Don't the kzinti import their metals for construction?"
  Markham shook his head. "No, that would be quite impractical. They have few
  hyperdrive ships as yet-I told you Vengeful Slasher alone is so outfitted
  here, at present. Once the transports had brought personnel and the basic
  equipment, they went back for duty closer to home. Currently a warship
  calls about twice a year to bring fresh workers and needful items. It
  relieves the one on guard, which carries back kzinti being rotated. A
  reason for choosing this sun was precisely that humans won't suspect
  anything important can ever be done at it." He hesitated. "Except pure
  science. The kzinti did overlook that."
 "Well, where do they get their metals? oh, the
           INCONSTANT STAR     109

 lightest ones, aluminum, uh, beryllium, magnesium, . . . manganese?-I
 suppose those exist in ordinary ores. But I don't imagine those ores are
 anything but scarce and low-grade. And iron-"
  "The asteroid belt. The planet that came too close to the sun. Disruption
  exposed its core. The metal content is low compared to what it would be in
  a later-generation world, but when you have a whole planet, you get an
  abundance. They have had to bring in certain elements from outside, nickel,
  cobalt, copper, et cetera, but mostly to make alloys. Small quantities
  suffice."
  Tregennis had evidently not fainted. His eyelids fluttered open. "Hold," he
  whispered. "Those asteroids ... orbit within ... less than half a million
  kilometers ... of the sun surface." He panted feebly before adding, "It may
  be a ... very late type M . . . but nevertheless, the effective temperature
 His voice trailed off.
 The awe returned to Markham's. "They have built
  special tug."
 "What sort?" Ryan asked.
 "In principle, like the kind we know. Having found
  desirable body, it lays hold with a grapnel field. I think this vessel
 uses a gravity polarizer system rather than electromagnetics. The kzinti
 originated that technology, remember. The tug draws the object into the
 desired orbit and releases it to go to its destination. The tug is immensely
 powerful. It can handle not simply large rocks like what you saw, but whole
 asteroids of reasonable size. As they near Secunda
 tangential paths, of course-it works them into planetary orbit. That's why
 local space is too crowded for the kzinti to leave Rover in it unmanned.
 Besides ferrous masses on hand, two or three new ones are usually en route,
 and not all the tailings of workedout old ones get swept away."
  "But the heat near the sun," Ryan objected. "The crew would roast alive. I
  don't see how they can
 110      Poul Anderson

 trust robotics alone. If nothing else, let the circuits get too hot and-"
  "The tug has a live crew," Markham said. "It's built double-hulled and
  mirror-bright, with plenty of radiating surfaces. But mainly it's ship
  size, not boat size, because it loads up with water ice before each
  mission. There is plenty of that around the big planets, you know,
  chilled well below minus a hundred degrees. Heated, melted, evaporated,
  vented, it maintains an endurable interior until it has been spent."
 "I thought we . . . found traces of water and OH
  . in a ring around the sun," Tregennis breathed. 'Could it actually be
  ?"
  "I don't know how much ice the project has consumed to date," Markham
  said, "but you must agree it is grandly conceived. That is a crew of
  heroes. They suffer, they dare death each time, but their will prevails.
  "
  Ryan rubbed his chin. "I suppose otherwise the only spacecraft are
  shuttles. And the warcraft and her boats."
  "They are building more. " Markham sounded proud. "And weapons and
  support machinery. This will be an industrial as well as a naval base."
  "For the next war-" Tregennis seemed close to tears. Ryan patted his
  hand. Silence took over.
  The boat entered atmosphere, which whined as she decelerated around the
  globe. A dawn storm, grit and ice, obscured the base, but the humans made
  out that it was in the great crater, presumably because the moonfall had
  brought down valuable ores and caused more to spurt up from beneath.
  Interconnected buildings made a web across several kilometers, with a
  black central spider. Doubtless much lay underground. An enterprise like
  this was large-scale or it was worthless. True, it had to start small,
  precariously-the first camp, the assembling of life support systems and
  food production facilities and a hospital for victims of disasters such
  as were
           INCONSTANT STAR     Ill

 inevitable when you drove hard ahead with your work on a strange world-but
 demonic energy had joined the exponential-increase powers of automated
 machines to bring forth this city of warriors.
  No, Ryan thought, a city of workers in the service of future warriors. Thus
  far few professional fighters would be present except the crew of Vengeful
  Slasher. They weren't needed ... yet. The warship was on hand against
  unlikely contingencies. Well, in this case kzin paranoia had paid off.
  The pilot made an instrument landing into a cradle. Ryan spied more such
  units, three of them holding shuttles. The field on which they stood,
  though paved, must often be treacherous because of drifted dust. Secunda
  had no unfrozen water to cleanse its air; and the air was a chill wisp.
  Most of the universe is barren. Hawaii seemed infinitely far away.
  A gang tube snaked from a ziggurat-like terminal building. Airlocks linked.
  An armed kzin entered and saluted. Hraou-Captain gestured at the humans and
  snarled an imperative before he went out. Markham unharnessed. I am to
  fbIlow him," he said. "You go with this guard. Quarters are prepared.
  Behave yourselves and ... I will do my best for you.
  Ryan rose. Two-thirds Earth weight felt good. He collected his and
  Tregennis' bags in his right hand and gave the astronomer his left arm for
  support. Kzinti throughout a cavernous main room stared as the captives
  appeared. They didn't goggle like humans, they watched like cats. Several
  naked tails switched to and fro. An effort had been made to brighten the
  surroundings, a huge mural of some hero in hand-to-hand combat with a
  monster; the blood jetted glaring bright.
  The guard led his charges down corridors which pulsed with the sounds of
  construction. At last he opened a door, waved them through, and closed it
  behind them. They heard a lock click shut.
 112      Poul Anderson

  The room held a bed and a disposal unit, meant for kzinti but usable by
  humans; the bed was ample for two, and by dint of balancing and clinging
  you could take care of sanitation. I better help you till you feel better,
  Prof," Ryan offered. "Meanwhile, why don't you lie down? I'll unpack." The
  bags and floor must furnish storage space. Kzinti seldom went in for
  clothes or for carrying personal possessions around.
  They did hate sensory deprivation, still more than humans do. There was no
  screen, but a port showed the spacefield. The terminator storm was dying
  out as the sun rose higher, and the view cleared fitst. Under a pale red
  sky, the naval complex came to an end some distance off. Tawny sand reached
  onward, strewn with boulders. In places, wind had swept clear the fused
  crater floor. It wasn't like lava, more like dark glass. Huge though the
  bowl was, Secundamuch less dense than Earth, but significantly largerhad a
  wide enough horizon that the nearer wall jutted above it in the west, a
  murky palisade.
  Tregennis took Ryan's advice and stretched himself out. The quartermaster
  smiled and came to remove his shoes for him. "Might as well be
  comfortable," Ryan said, "or as nearly as we can without beer."
  "And without knowledge of our fates," the Plateaunian said low. "Worse, the
  fates of our friends."
 "At least they are out of Markham's filthy hands."
  "Kamehameha, please. Watch yourself. We shall have to deal with him. And
  he-I think he too is feeling shocked and lonely. He didn't expect this
  either. His orders were merely to hamper exploration beyond the limits of
  human space. He wants to spare us. Give him the chance."
  "Ha! I'd rather give a shark that kind of chance. It's less murderous."
 'Oh, now, really."
  Ryan thumped fist on wall. "Who do you suppose put that kzin up to
  attacking Bob Saxtorph back in
           INCONSTANT STAR     113

 Tiamat? it has to have been Markham, when his earlier efforts failed.
 Nothing else makes sense. And this, mind you, this was when he had no
 particular reason to believe our expedition mattered as far as the kzinti
 were concerned. They hadn't trusted him with any real information. But he
 went ahead anyway and tried to get a man killed to stop us. That shows you
 what value he puts on human life."
  Well, maybe ... maybe he is deranged," Tregennis sighed. "Would you bring
  me a tablet, please? I see a water tap and bowl over there."
  "Sure. Heart, huh? Take it easy. You shouldn't've come along, you know."
  Tregennis smiled. "Medical science has kept me functional far longer than
  I deserve.
  'But fill me with the old familiar Juice, 'Methinks I might recover
  by-and-by!'
  Ryan lifted the white head and brought the bowl, from which a kzin would
  have lapped, carefully close to the lips. "You've got more heart than a lot
  of young bucks I could name," he said.
 Time crept past.
 The door opened. "Hey, food?" Ryan asked.
  Markham confronted them, an armed kzin at his back. He was again pallid and
  stiff of countenance. "Come," he said harshly.
  Rested, Tregennis walked steady-footed beside Ryan. They went through a
  maze of featureless passages with shut doors, coldly lighted, throbbing or
  buzzing. When they encountered other kzinti they felt the carnivore stares
  follow them.
  After a long while they stopped at a larger door. This part of the warren
  looked like officer country, though Ryan couldn't be sure when practically
  everything he saw was altogether foreign to him. The guard let them in and
  followed. .
  The chamber beyond was windowless, its sole ornamentation a screen on which
  a computer projected colored patterns. Kzin-type seats, desk, and elec-
   114      Paul Anderson

 tronics suggested an office, but big and mostly empty. In one comer a
 plastic tub had been placed, about three meters square. Within stood some
 apparatus, and a warrior beside, and the drug-dazed telepath huddled at
 his feet.
  The prisoners' attention went to Hraou-Captain and another-lean and
  grizzled by comparison-seated at the desk. "Show respect," Markham
  directed. "You meet Werlith-Commandant. "
 Tregennis bowed, Ryan slopped a soft salute.
  The head honcho spat and rumbled. Markham turned to the men. "Listen,"
  he said. "I have been in ... conference, and am instructed to tell you
  ... Fido has been found."
  Tregennis made a tiny noise of pain. Ryan hunched his shoulders and said,
  "That's what they told you."
  "It is true," Markham insisted. "The boat went to Prima. The
  interrogation aboard Rover led to a suspicion that the escapers might try
  that maneuver. Ya-Nar-K.sshinn-cal1 it Sun Defter, the asteroid tug, it
  was prospecting. The commandant ordered it to Prima, since it could get
  there very fast. By then Fido was trapped on the surface. Fenger and
  Yoshii broadcast a call for help, so Sun Defier located them. just
  lately, Fido has made a new broadcast which the kzinti picked up. You
  will listen to the recording."
  Werlith-Commandant condescended to touch a control. From the desk
  communicator, wavery through a seething of radio interference, Juan
  Yoshii's voice came forth.
 Hello, Bob, Dorcas, Lau-laurinda-Kam, Arthur, . Ulf, if you hear-hello
 from Carita and me. We'll set this to repeat on diflerent bands, hoping
 you'll happen to tune it in somewhere along the line. It's likely
 goodbye."
  "No," said Carita's voice, "it's 'good luck.'To you. Godspeed. "
  "Right," Yoshii agreed. "Before we let you know what the situation is,
  we want to beg you, don't ever
           INCONSTANT STAR     115

 blame yourselves. There was absolutely no way to foresee it. And the
 universe is full of much worse Larms we could have bought.
  "However-" UnemOtiOnally, now and then aided by his companion, he described
  things as they were. "We'll hang on till the end, of course," he finished.
 Soon we'll see what we can rig to keep us alive. After the hull collapses
 altogether, we'll flit off in search of bare rock to sit on, if any exists.
 Do not, repeat do not risk yourselves in some crazy rescue attempt. Maybe
 you could figure out a safe way to do it if you had the time and no kzinti
 on your necks. Or maybe you could talk them into doing it. But neither one
 is in the cards, eh? You concentrate on getting the word home."
 "We mean that," Carita said.
  .. Laurinda, I love you," Yoshii said fast. "Farewell, fiLre always well,
  darling. What really hurts is knowing you may not make it back. But if you
  do, you have your life before you. Be happy."
  "We aren't glum." Carita barked a laugh. I might wish Juan weren't quite so
  noble, Laurinda, dear. But it's no big thing either way, is it? Not any
  more. Good luck to all of you."
  The recording ended. Tregennis gazed beyond the room-at this new miracle of
  nature? Ryan stood swallowing tears, his fists knotted.
  "You see what Saxtorph's recklessness has caused," Markham said.
  "Nol" Ryan shouted. "The kzinti could lift them offl But they-tell his
  excellency yonder they're afraid tol"
  "I will not. You must be out of your mind. Besides, Sun Defter cannot land
  on a planet, and carries no auxiliary."
 "A shuttle No. But a boat from the warship.
  "Why? What have Yoshii and Fenger done to merit saving, at hazard to the
  kzinti fbr whom they only want to make trouble? Let them be an object
  lesson,
 116      Poul Anderson

 gentlemen. If you have any care whatsoever for the rest of your party, help
 us retrieve them before it is too late."
  "I don't know where they are. Not on P-prima, for sure.
 "rhey must be found."
 "Well, send that damned tug."
  Markham shook his head. "It has better uses. It was about ready to return
  anyway. It will take Secunda orbit and wait for an asteroid that is due in
  shortly." He spoke like a man using irrelevancies to stave off the moment
  when he must utter his real meaning.
 "Okay, the warship."
  "It too has other duties. I've told them about Saxtorph's babbling of
  kamikaze tactics. Hraou-Captain must keep his vessel prepared to blow that
  boat out of the sky if it comes near-until Saxtorph's gang is under arrest,
  or dead. He will detach his auxiliaries to search."
  "Let him," Ryan jeered. "Bob's got this whole system to skulk around in."
 "Tertia is the first place to try."
 "Go ahead. That old fox is good at finding burrows.
  Werlith-Commandant growled. Markham grew paler yet, bowed, turned on Ryan
  and said in a rush: "Don't waste more time. The master wants to resolve
  this business as soon as possible. He wants Saxtorph and company preferably
  alive, dead will do, but disposed of, so we can get on with the business of
  explaining away at Wunderland what happened to Rover. You will cooperate."
 Sweat studded Ryan's face. I Will?"
  "Yes. You shall accompany the search party. Broadcast your message in
  Hawaiian. Persuade them to give themselves up."
 Ryan relieved himself of several obscenities.
 "Be reasonable," Markham almost pleaded. "Mink
           INCONSTANT STAR     117

 what has happened with Fido. The rest can only die in worse ways, unless
 you bring them to their senses."
  Ryan shifted his feet wide apart, thrust his head forward, and spat, "No
  surrender."
 Markham took a backward step. "What?"
  "Your mother's motto, ratcat-lover. Have you forgotten? How proud of you
  she's going to be when she hears."
  Markham closed his eyes. His lips moved. He looked forth again and said
  in a string of whiperacks: "You will obey. Werlith-Commandant orders it.
  Look yonder. Do you see what is in the comer? He expected stubbornness."
  Ryan and Tregennis peered. They recognized frame and straps, pincers and
  electrodes; certain items were less identifiable. The telepath slumped
  at the feet of the torturer.
  "Hastily improvised," Markham said, "but the database has a full account
  of human physiology, and I made some suggestions as well. The subject
  will not die under interrogation as often happened in the past. "
  Ryan's chest heaved. "If that thing can read my mind, he knows-"
  Markham sighed. "We had better get to work." He glanced at the kzin
  officers. They both made a gesture. The guard sprang to seize Ryan from
  behind. The Hawaiian yelled and struggled, but that grip was unbreakable
  by a human.
 The torturer advanced. He laid hands on Tregennis.
  "Watch, Ryan," Markham said raggedly. "Let us know when you have had
  enough."
  The torturer half dragged, half marched Tregennis across the room, held
  him against the wall, and, claws out on the free hand, ripped the clothes
  from his scrawniness.
  "That's your idea, Markhaml" Ryan bellowed. "You unspeakable "
 118      Poul Anderson

                 11
  "Hold fast, Kamehameha, Tregennis called in his thin voice. "Don't
  yield."
 "Art, oh, Art--
  The kzin secured the man to the frame. He picked up the electrodes and
  applied them. Tregennis screamed. Yet he modulated it: "Pain has a
  saturation point, Kamehameha. Hold fast!"
 The business proceeded.
 "You win, you Judas, okay, you win," Ryan wept.
  Tregennis could no longer make words, merely noises.
  Markham inquired of the officers before he told Ryan, "This will continue
  a few minutes more, to drive the lesson home. Given proper care and pre-
  cautions, he should still be alive to accompany the search party. "
  Markham breathed hard. "To make sure of your cooperation, do you hear?
  This is your faultl" he shrieked.
               18

  "No," Saxtorph had said, I think we'd better stay put for the time
  being."
  Dorcas had looked at him across the shoulder of Laurinda, whom she held
  close, Laurinda who had just heard her man say farewell. The cramped com-
  mand section was full of the girl's struggles not to cry. "If they
  thought to check Prima immediately, they will be at Tertia before long,"
  the captain's wife had stated.
  Saxtorph had nodded. "Yah, sure. But they'll have a lot more trouble
  finding us where we are than if we were in space, even free-falling with
  a cold generator. We could only boost a short ways, you see, else they'd
  acquire our drive-spoor if they've gotten anywhere near. They'd have a
  fiLirly small volume for their radars to sweep."
 "But to sit passivel What use?"
  "I didn't mean that. Thought you knew me better. Got an idea I suspect
  you can improve on."
 Laurinda had lifted her head and sobbed, "Couldn't
               119
 120      Poul Anderson

 we ... in-make terms? If we surrender to them ... they rescue Juan and,
 and Carita?"
  " Traid not, honey," Saxtorph had rumbled. Anguish plowed furrows down
  his face. "Once we call I em, they'll have a fix on us, and what's left
  to dicker with? Either we give in real nice or they lob a shell. They'd
  doubtless like to have us for purposes of faking a story, but we aren't
  essential-they hold three as is-and they've written Fido's people off.
  I'm sorry."
  Laurinda had freed herself from the mate's embrace, stood straight,
  swallowed hard. "You must be right," she had said in a voice taking on
  an edge. "What can we do? Thank you, Dorcas, dear, but 1, I'm ready now
  ... for whatever you need."
  "Good lass." The older woman had squeezed her hand before asking the
  captain: "If we don't want to be found, shouldn't we fetch back the relay
  from above?"
  Saxtorph had considered. The same sensitivity which had received,
  reconstructed, and given to the boat a radio whisper from across more
  than two hundred million kilometers, could betray his folk. After a
  moment: "No, leave it. A small object, after all, which we've camouflaged
  pretty well, and its emission blends into the sun's radio background. If
  the kzinti get close enough to detect it, they'll be onto us anyway.
 "You don't imagine we can hide here forever."
  "Certainly not. They can locate us in two-three weeks at most if they
  work hard. However, meanwhile they won't know for sure we are on Tertia.
  They'll spread themselves thin looking elsewhere, too, or they'll worry.
  Never give the enemy a free ride."
  "But you say you have something better in mind than simply distracting
  them for a while."
  " Well, I have a sort of a notion. It's loony as it stands, but maybe you
  can help me refine it. At best, we'll probably get ourselves killed, but
  plain to see,
           INCONSTANT STAR     121

 Markham's effort to cut a deal has not worked out, and-we can hope for
 some revenge."
 Laurinda's albino eyes had flared.
 -"Aloha, hoapilina.-"
  Crouched over the communicator, Saxtorph heard the Hawaiian through.
  English followed, the dragging tone of a broken man:
  "Well, that was to show you this is honest, Bob, if you're listening. The
  kzinti don't have a telepath along, because they know they don't need the
  poor creature. They do require me to go on in a language their translator
  can handle. Anyway, I don't suppose you remember much Polynesian.
  "We're orbiting Tertia in a boat from the Prowling Hunter warship. 'We'
  are her crew, plus a couple of marines, plus Arthur Tregennis and myself.
  Markham stayed on Secunda. He's a kzin agent. Maybe you've gotten the
  message from Fido. I'm afraid the game's played out, Bob. I tried to
  resist, but they tortured-not me-poor Art. I soon couldn't take it. He's
  alive, sort of. They give you three hours to call them. That's in case
  you've scrammed to the far ends of the system and may not be tuned in
  right now. You'll've noticed this is a powerful planar'cast. They think
  they're being generous. If they haven't heard in three hours, they'll
  torture Art some more. Please don't let that happen!" Ryan howled through
  the wail that Laurinda tried to stifle. "Please call back!"
  Saxtorph waited a while, but there was nothing further, only the hiss of
  the red sun. He took his finger from the transmission key, which he had
  not pressed, and twisted about to look at his companions. Light streaming
  wanly through the westside port found Dorcas' features frozen. Laurinda's
  writhed; her mouth was stretched out of shape.
  " so, " he said. "Three hours. Dark by then, as it happens. "
  "They hurt him," Laurinda gasped. "That good old man, they took him and
  hurt him."
 122      Poul Anderson

  Dorcas peeled lips back from teeth. "Shrewd," she said. "Markham in kzin
  pay? I'm not totally surprised. I don't know how it was arranged, but I'm
  not too surprised. He suggested this, I think. The kzinti probably don't
  understand us that well."
  "We can't let them go on ... with the professor," Laurinda shrilled. "We
  can't, no matter what."
  "He's been like a second father to you, hasn't he?" Dorcas asked almost
  absently. Unspoken: But your young man is down on Prima, and the enemy
  will let him die there.
  "No argument," Saxtorph said. "We won't. We've got a few choices, though.
  Kzinti aren't sadistic. Merciless, but not sadistic the way too many
  humans are, They don't torture for fun, or even spite. They won't if we
  surrender. Or if we die. No point in it then."
  Dorcas grinned in a rather horrible fashion. "The chances are we'll die
  if we do surrender, she re sponded. "Not immediately, I suppose. Not till
  they need our corpses, or till they see no reason to keep us alive.
  Again, quite impersonal."
 I don't feel impersonal," Saxtorph grunted.
  Laurinda lifted her hands. The fingers were crooked like talons. "We made
  other preparations against them. Let's do what we planned."
 Dorcas nodded. "Aye."
  "That makes it unanimous," Saxtorph said. "Go for broke. Now, look at the
  sun. Within three hours, nightfall. The kzinti could land in the dark,
  but if I were their captain I'd wait for morning. He won't be in such a
  hurry he'll care to take the extra risk. Meanwhile we sit cooped for
  20-odd hours losing our nerve. Let's not. Let's begin right away."
 Willingness blazed from the women.
  Saxtorph hauled his bulk from the chair. "Okay, first Dorcas and I suit
  up."
  "Are you sure I can't join you?" Laurinda wellnigh beseeched.
 Saxtorph shook his head. "Sorry. You aren't trained
           INCONSTANT STAR     123

 for that kind of thing. And the gravity weights you down still worse than
 it does Dorcas, even if she is a Belter. Besides, we want you to free us
 from having to think about communications. You stay inboard and handle the
 hardest part." He chucked her under the chin. "If we fail, which we well
 may, you'll get your chance to die like a soldier." He stooped, kissed her
 hand, and went out.
  Returning equipped, he said into the transmitter: "Shep here. Spaceboat
  Shep calling kzin vessel. Hello, Kam. Don't blame yourself. They've got
  us. We'll leave this message replaying in case you're on the far side,
  and so you can zero in on us. Because you will have to. Listen, Kam. Tell
  that gonococcus of a captain that we can't lift. We came down on talus
  that slid beneath us and damaged a landing jack. We'd hit the side of the
  canyon where we are-it's narrow-if we tried to take off before the
  hydraulics have been repaired; and Dorcas and I can't finish that job for
  another several Earth-days, the two of us with what tools we've got
  aboard. The ground immediately downslope of us is safe. Or, if your
  captain is worried about his fat ass, he can wait till we're ready to
  come meet him. Please inform us. Give Art our love; and take it yourself,
  Kam."
  The kzin skipper would want a direct machine translation of those words.
  They were calculated not to lash him into fury~-he couldn't be such a
  foolbut to pique his honor. Moreover, the top brass back on Secunda must
  be almighty impatient. Kzinti weren't much good at biding their time.
  Before they closed their fiteeplates at the airlock, Saxtorph kissed his
  wife on the lips.
  -Shadows welled in the coulee and its ravines as the sun sank toward
  rimrock. Interplay of light and dark was shifty behind the boat, where
  rubble now decked the floor. The humans had arranged that by radio
  detonation of two of the blasting sticks Dorcas smuggled along. It looked
  like more debris than it
 124      Poul Anderson

 was, made the story of the accident plausible, and guaranteed that the
 kzinti would land in the short stretch between Shep and glacier.
  Man and woman regarded each other. Their spacesuits were behung with
  armament. She had the rifle and snub-nosed automatic, he the machine
  pistol; both carried potentially lethal prospector's gear. Wind skirled.
  The heights glowed under a sky deepening from royal purple to black,
  where early stars quivered forth.
  "Well he said inanely into his throat mike, "we know our stations. Good
  hunting, kid."
  "And to you, hotpants," she answered. "See you on the far side of the
  monobloc."
 "Love you."
  "Love you right back." She whirled and hastened off. Under the conditions
  expected, drive units would have been a bad mistake, and she was hampered
  by a weight she was never bred to. Nonetheless she moved with a hint of
  her wonted gracefulness. Both their suits were first-chop, never mind
  what the cost had added to the mortgage under which Saxtorph Ventures
  labored. Full air and water recycle, telescopic option, power joints even
  in the gloves, selfseal throughout.... She rated no less, he believed,
  and she'd tossed the same remark at him. Thus they had a broad range of
  capabilities.
  He climbed to his chosen niche, on the side of the canyon opposite hers,
  and settled in. It was up a boulderful gulch, plenty of cover, with a
  clear view downward. The ice cliff glimmered. He hoped that what was
  going to happen wouldn't cause damage yonder. That would be a scientific
  atrocity.
  But those beings had had their day. This was humankind's, unless it
  turned out to be kzinkind's. Or somebody else's? Who knew how many
  creatures of what sorts were prowling around the galaxy? Saxtorph
  hunkered into a different position. He missed his pipe. His heart slugged
  harder than it ought and
           INCONSTANT STAR     125

 he could smell himself in spite of the purifier. Better do a bit of
 meditation. Nervousness would worsen his chances.
  His watch told him an hour had passed when the kzin boat arrived. The boatl
  Good. They might have kept her safe aloft and dispatched a squad on drive.
  But that would have been slow and tricky; as they descended, the members
  could have been picked off, assuming the humans had firearms-which a kzin
  would assume; they'd have had no backup.
  The sun had trudged farther down, but Shep's nose still sheened above the
  blue dusk in the canyon, and the oncoming craft flared metallic red. He
  knew her type from his war years. Kam, stout kanaka, had passed on more
  information than the kzinti probably realized. A boat belonging to a
  Prowling Hunter normally carried six---captain, pilot, engineer, com-
  puterman, two fire-control officers; they shared various other duties, and
  could swap the main ones in an emergency. They weren't trained for
  groundside combat, but of course any kzin was pretty fair at that. Kam had
  mentioned two marines who did have the training. Then there were the
  humans. No wonder the complement did not include a telepath. He'd have been
  considered superfluous anyway, worth much more at the base. This mission
  was simply to collar three fugitives.
  Sonic thunders rolled, gave way to whirring, and the lean shape neared. It
  put down with a care that Saxtorph admired, came to rest, instantly
  swiveled a gun at the human boat 50 meters up the canyon. Saxtorph's pulse
  leaped. The enemy had landed exactly where he hoped. Not that he'd counted
  on that, or on anything else.
  His earphones received bland translator English; he could imagine the snarl
  behind. "Are you prepared to yield?"
  How steady Laurinda's response was. "We yield on condition that our
  comrades are alive, safe. Bring
 126      Poul Anderson

 them to us. " Quite a girl, Saxtorph thought. The kzinti wouldn't wonder
 about her; their females not being sapient, any active intelligence was,
 in their minds, male.
  "Do you dare this insolence? Your landing gear does not seem damaged as
  you claimed. Lift, land we fire. "
  "We have no intention of lifting, supposing we could. Bring us our
  comrades, or come pry us out."
  Saxtorph tautened. No telling how the kzin commander would react. Except
  that he'd not willingly blast Shep on the ground. Concussion, in this
  thick atmosphere, and radiation would endanger his own craft. He might
  decide to produce Art and Kam-
  Hope died. Battle plans never quite work. The main airlock opened; a
  downramp extruded; two kzinti in armor and three in regular spacesuits,
  equipped with rifles and cutting torches, came forth. The smooth computer
  voice said, "You will admit this party. If you resist, you die."
  Laurinda kept silence. The kzinti started toward her.
 Saxtorph thumbed his detonator.
  In a well-chosen set of places under a bluff above a slope on his side,
  the remaining sticks blew. Dust and flinders heaved aloft. An instant
  later he heard the grumble of explosion and breaking. Under one-
  point-three-five Earth gravities, rocks hurtled, slid, tumbled to the
  bottom and across it.
  He couldn't foresee what would happen next, but had been sure it would
  be fitncy. The kzinti were fitrther along than he preferred. They dodged
  leaping masses, escaped the landslide. But it crashed around their boat.
  She swayed, toppled, fell onto the pile Of stone, which grew until it
  half buried her. The gun pointed helplessly at heaven. Dust swirled about
  before it settled.
  Dorcas was already shooting. She was a crack marksman. A kzin threw up
  his arms and flopped, another,
           INCONSTANT STAR     127

 another. The rest scattered. They hadn't thought to bring drive units. If
 they had, she could have bagged them all as they rose. Saxtorph bounded out
 and downslope, over the boulders. His machine pistol had less range than her
 rifle. It chattered in his hands. He zigzagged, bent low, squandering ammo,
 while she kept the opposition prone.
  Out of nowhere, a marine grabbed him by the ankle. He fell, rolled over,
  had the kzin on top of him. Fingers clamped on the wrist of the arm holding
  his weapon. The kzin fumbled after a pistol of his own. Saxtorph's free
  hand pulled a crowbar from its sling. He got it behind the kzin's back,
  under the aircycler tank, and pried. Vapor gushed forth. His foe choked,
  went bug-eyed, scrabbled, and slumped. Saxtorph crawled from beneath.
  Dorcas covered his back, disposed of the last bandit, as he pounded toward
  the boat. The outer valve of the airlock gaped wide. Piece of luck, that,
  though he and she could have gotten through both with a certain amount of
  effort. He wedged a rock in place to make sure the survivors wouldn't shut
  it.
  She made her way to him. He helped her scramble across the slide and over
  the curve of hull above, to the chamber. She spent her explosive rifle
  shells breaking down the inner valve. As it sagged, she let him by.
  He stormed in. They had agreed to that, as part of what they had hammered
  out during hour after hour after hour of waiting. He had the more mass and
  muscle; and spraying bullets around in a confined space would likely kill
  their friends.
  An emergency airseal curtain brushed him and closed again. Breathable
  atmosphere leaked past it, a white smoke, but slowly. The last kzinti
  attacked. They didn't want ricochets either. Two had claws out-one set
  dripped red-and the third carried a power drill, whirling to pierce his
  suit and the flesh behind.
 128      Pout Anderson

  Saxtorph went for him first. His geologist's hammer knocked the drill
  aside. From the left, his knife stabbed into the throat, and slashed.
  Clad as he was, what followed became butchery. He split a skull and
  opened a belly. Blood, brains, guts were everywhere. Two kzinti struggled
  and ululated in agony. Dorcas came into the tumult. Safely point-blank,
  her pistol administered mercy shots.
  Saxtorph leaned against a bulkhead. He began to shake.
  Dimly, he was aware of Kam Ryan stumbling forth. He opened his faceplate
  xygen inboard would stay adequate for maybe half an hour, though God, the
  stink of death!-and heard:
  "I don't believe, I can't believe, but you did it, you're here, you've
  won, only first a ratcat, must've lost his temper, he ripped Art, Art's
  dead, well, he was hurting so, a release, I scuttled aft, but Art's dead,
  don't let Laurinda see, clean up first, please, I'll do it, we can take
  time to bury him, can't we, this is where his dreams were " The man
  knelt, embraced Dorcas' legs regardless of the chill on them, and wept.
               19

  They left Tregennis at the foot of the glacier, making a cairn for him
  where the ancients were entombed. "That seems very right," Laurinda
  whispered. "I hope the scientists who come in the future will-give him a
  proper grave-but leave him here. "
  Saxtorph made no remark about the odds against any such expedition. It
  would scarcely happen unless his people got home to tell the tale.
  The funeral was hasty. When they hadn't heard from their boat for a while,
  which would be a rather short while, the kzinti would send another, if not
  two or three. Humans had better be well out of the neighborhood before
  then.
  Saxtorph boosted Shep inward from Tertia. "We can get some screening in the
  vicinity of the sun, especially if we've got it between us and Secunda," be
  explained. "Radiation out of that clinker is no particular hazard, except
  heat; we'll steer safely wide and not linger too long." Shedding unwanted
  heat
               129
 130      Paul Anderson

 was always a problem in space. The best array of thermistors gave only
 limited help.
  "Also,-!' he began to add. "No, never mind. A vague notion. Something you
  mentioned, Kam. But let it wait till we've quizzed you dry."
  That in turn waited upon simple, dazed sitting, followed by sleep,
  followed by gradual regaining of strength and alertness. You don't bounce
  straight back from tension, terror, rage, and grief
  The sun swelled in view. Its flares were small and dim compared to Sol's,
  but their flame-flickers became visible to the naked eye, around the
  roiled ember disc. After he heard what Ryan knew about the asteroid tug,
  Saxtorph whistled. "Christl" he murmured. "Imagine swinging that close.
  Damn near half the sky a boiling red glow, and you hear the steam roar
  in its conduits and you fly in a haze of it, and nevertheless I'll bet
  the cabin is a furnace you can barely endure, and if the least thing goes
  wrongYah, kzinti have courage, you must give them that. Markham's
  right-what you quoted, Kam-they'd make great partners for humans. Though
  he doesn't understand that we'll have to civilize them first."
  Excitement grew in him as he learned more and his thoughts developed. But
  it was with a grim countenance that he presided over the meeting he
  called.
  "TWO men, two women, an unarmed interplanetary boat, and the nearest help
  light-years off," he said. "After what we've done, the enemy must be
  scouring the system for us. I daresay the warship's staying on guard at
  Secunda, but if I know kzin psychology, all her auxiliaries are now out
  on the hunt, and won't quit till we're either captured or dead."
  Dorcas nodded. "We dealt them what was worse than a hurt, a humiliation,"
  she confirmed. "Honor calls for vengeance."
 Laurinda clenched her fists. "It does," she hissed.
           INCONSTANT STAR     131

 Ryan glanced at her in surprise; he hadn't expected that from her.
  "Well, they do have losses to mourn, like us," Dorcas said. "As fiery as
  they are by nature, they'll press the chase in hopes of dealing with us
  personally. However, they know our foodstocks are limited." Little had been
  taken from the naval lockers. It was unpalatable, and stowage space was
  almost Bed already. "If we're still missing after some months, they can
  reckon us dead. Contrary to Bob, I suppose they'll return to base before
  then."
  "Not necessarily," Ryan replied. "It gives them something to do. That's the
  question every military command has to answer, how to keep the troops busy
  between combat operations." For the first time since that hour on Secunda,
  he grinned. "The traditional human solutions have been either (a) a lot of
  drill or (b) a lot of paperwork; but you can't force much of either on
  kzinti.-
  "Back to business," Saxtorph snapped. "I've been trying to reason like, uh,
  Werlith-Commandant. What does he expect? I think he sees us choosing one of
  three courses. First, we might stay on the run, hoping against hope that
  there will be a human follow-up expedition and we can warn it in time. But
  he's got Markham to help him prevent that. Second, we might turn ourselves
  in, hoping against hope our lives will be spared. Third, we might attempt
  a suicide dash, hoping against hope we'll die doing him a little harm. The
  warship will be on the lookout for that, and in spite of certain brave
  words earlier, I honestly don't give us a tax collector's chance at
  Paradise of getting through the kind of barrage she can throw.
 "Can anybody think of any more possibilities?"
  "No," sighed Dorcas. "Of course, they aren't mutually exclusive. Forget
  surrender. But we can stay on the run till we're close to starvation and
  then try to strike a blow."
 Laurinda's eyes closed. Juan, her lips formed.
 132      Poul Anderson

 "We can try a lot sooner," Saxtorph declared.
 Breaths went sibilant in between teeth. .
  "What Kam's told us has given me an idea that I'll bet has not occurred
  to any kzin," the captain went on. "I'll grant you it's hairy-brained.
  It may very well get us killed. But it gives us the single possibility
  I see of getting killed while accomplishing something real. And we might,
  we just barely might do better than that. You see, it involves a way to
  sneak close to Secunda, undetected, unsuspected. After that, we'll decide
  what, if anything, we can do. I have a notion there as well, but first
  we need hard information. If things look impossible, we can probably flit
  off for outer space, the kzinti never the wiser." A certain vibrancy came
  into his voice. "But time crammed inside this hull is scarcely lifetime,
  is it? I'd rather go out fighting. A short life but a merry one."
  His tone dropped. "Granted, the whole scheme depends on parameters being
  right. But if we're careful, we shouldn't lose much by investigating. At
  worst, we'll be disappointed."
  "You do like to lay a long-winded foundation, Bob," Ryan said.
  "And you like to mix metaphors, Kam," Dorcas responded.
  Saxtorph laughed. Laurinda looked from face to face, bemused.
  "Okay," Saxtorph said. "Our basic objective is to recapture Rover,
  agreed? Without her, we're nothing but a bunch of maroons, and the most
  we can do is take a few kzinti along when we die. With her-ah, no need
  to spell it out.
  "She's on Secunda's moon, Kam heard. The kdnti know full well we'd like
  to get her back. I doubt they keep a live guard aboard against the remote
  contingency. They've trouble enough as is with personnel growing bored
  and quarrelsome. But they'll've planted detectors, which will sound a
  radio alarm if anybody comes near. Then the warship can land an armed
           INCONSTANT STAR     133

 party or, if necessary, throw a nuke. The warship also has the duty of
 protecting the planetside base. if I were in charge--and I'm pretty sure
 What's-hisscreech-Captain thinks the same-I'd keep her in orbit about
 halfway between planet and moon. Wide field for radars, optics, every kind
 of gadget; quick access to either body. Kam heard as how that space is
 cluttered with industrial stuff and junk, but she'll follow a reasonably
 clear path and keep ready to dodge or deflect whatever may be on a
 collision course.
  "Now. The kzinti mine the asteroid belt for metals, mainly iron. They do
  that by shifting the bodies into eccentric orbits osculating Secunda's,
  then wangling them into planetary orbit at the far end. Kam heard as how
  an asteroid is about due in, and the tug was taking station to meet it
  and nudge it into place. To my mind, 'asteroid' implies a fair-sized
  object, not just a rock.
  "But the tug was prospecting, Kam heard, when she was ordered to Prima.
  Afterward she didn't go back to prospecting, because the time before
  she'd be needed at Secunda had gotten too short to make that worthwhile.
  However, since she was in fact called from the sun, my guess is that the
  asteroid's not in need of attention right away. In other words, the tug's
  waiting.
  "Again, if I were in charge, I wouldn't keep a crew idle aboard. I'd just
  leave her in Secunda orbit till she's wanted. That needs to be a safe
  orbit, though, and inner space isn't for an empty vessel. So the tug's
  circling wide around the planet, or maybe the moon. Unless she sits on
  the moon, too."
  "She isn't able to land anywhere," Ryan reminded. "Those cooling fins,
  if nothing else. I suppose the kzinti put Rover down, on the
  planet-fitcing side, the easier to keep an eye on her. She's a lure for
  us, after all. "
 Saxtorph nodded. "Thanks," he said. "Given that
 134      Poul Anderson

 the asteroid was diverted from close-in solar orbit, and is approaching
 Secunda, we can make a pretty good estimate of where it is and what the
 vectors are. How'bout it, Laurinda?
  "The kzinti are expecting the asteroid. Their instruments will
  register it. They'll say, 'Ah, yes,' and go on about their business,
  which includes hunting for us-and never suppose that we've glided to
  it and are trailing along behind."
 Dorcas let out a war-whoop.
               On
               1"V

  The thing was still molten. That much mass would remain so for a long
  while in space, unless the kzinti had ways to speed its cooling.
  Doubtless they did. Instead of venting enormous quantities of water to
  maintain herself near the sun, the tug could spray them forth. "What a
  show!" Saxtorph had said. "Pity we'll miss it."
  The asteroid glowed ruddy, streaked with slag, like a lesser sun
  trundling between planets. Its diameter was ample to conceal Shep.
  Secunda gleamed ahead, a perceptible tawny disc. From time to time the
  humans had ventured to slip their boat past her shield for a quick
  instrumental peek. They knew approximately the rounds which VengeM
  Slasher and Sun Defier paced. Soon the tug must come to make rendezvous
  and steer the iron into its destination path. Gigantic though her
  strength was, she could shift millions of tonnes, moving at kilometers
  per second, only slowly. Before this began, the raiders must raid.
               135
 136      Poul Anderson

  Saxtorph made a final despairing effort: "Damn it to chaos, darling, I
  can't let you go. I can't."
  "Hush," Dorcas said low, and laid her hand across his mouth. They floated
  weightless in semi-darkness, the bunk which they shared curtained off.
  Their shipmates had, unspokenly, gone forward from the cubbyhole where
  everyone slept by turns, to leave them alone.
  "One of us has to go, one stay," she whispered redundantly, but into his
  ear. "Nobody else would have a prayer of conning the tug, and Kam and
  IAurinda could scarcely bring Rover home, which is the object of the game.
  So you and I have to divide the labor, and for this part I'm better
  qualified."
  "Brains, not brawn, huh?" he growled half resentfully.
  "Well, I did work on translation during the war. I can read kzin a little,
  which is what's going to count. Put down your machismo." She drew him close
  and fluttered eyelids against his. "As for brawn, fellow, you do have
  qualifications I lack, and this may be our last chance ... for a spell."
 "Oh, love you, you-"
  Thus their dispute was resolved. They had been through it more than once.
  Afterward there wasn't time to continue it. Dorcas had to prepare herself.
  Spacesuited, loaded like a Christmas tree with equipment, she couldn't
  properly embrace her husband at the airlock. She settled for an awkward
  kiss and a wave at the others, then closed her faceplate and cycled
  through.
  Outside, she streaked Off, around the asteroid. Its warmth beat briefly at
  her. She left the lump behind and deployed her diriscope, got a fix on the
  planet ahead, compared the reading with the computed coordinates that
  gleamed on a databoard, worked the calculator strapped to her left wrist,
  made certain of what the displays on her drive unit meters said-
             INCONSTANT STAR     137

 right forearm-and set the thrust controls for maximum. Acceleration
 tugged. She was on her way.
  It would be a long haul. You couldn't eat distance in a spacesuit at
  anything like the rate you could in a boat. Its motor lacked the
  capacity~-not to speak of the protections and cushionings possible within
  a hull. In fact, a large part of her load was energy boxes. To accomplish
  her mission in time, she must needs drain them beyond rechargeability,
  discard and replace them. That hurt; they could have been ferried down
  to Prima for the saving of Carita and Juan. Now too few would be left,
  back aboard Shep. But under present conditions rescue would be mean-
  ingless anyway.
  She settled down for the hours. Her insignificant size and radiation
  meant she would scarcely show on kzin detectors. Occasionally she sipped
  from the water tube or pushed a foodbar through the chow1ock. Her suit
  took care of additional needs. As for comfort, she had the stars, Milky
  Way, nebulae, sister galaxies, glory upon glory.
  Often she rechecked her bearings and adjusted her vectors. Eventually,
  decelerating, she activated a miniature radar such as asteroid miners
  employ and got a lock on her objective. By then Secunda had swollen
  larger in her eyes than Luna over Earth. From her angle of view it was
  a scarred dun crescent against a circle of darkness faintly rimmed with
  light diffused through dusty air. The moon, where Rover lay, was not
  visible to her.
  Saxtorph's guess had been right. Well, it was an informed guess. The
  warship orbited the planet at about 100,000 klicks. The supertug circled
  beyond the moon, twice as far out. She registered dark and cool on what
  instruments Dorcas carried; nobody aboard. Terminating deceleration, the
  woman approached.
  What a sight! A vast, brilliant spheroid with flanges like convulsed
  meridians; drive units projecting within
 138      Poul Anderson

 a shielding sheath; no ports, but receptors from which visuals were
 transmitted inboard; recesses for instruments; circular hatches which must
 cover steam vents; larger doors to receive crushed ice- How did you get
 in? Dorcas flitted in search. She could do it almost as smoothly as if she
 were flying a manwing through atmosphere.
  There-an unmistakable airlock- She was prepared to cut her way in, but
  when she had identified the controls, the valves opened and shut for her.
  Who worries about burglars in space? To the kzinti, Rover was the bait
  that might draw humans.
  The interior was dark. Diffiision of her flashbeam, as well as a gauge
  on her left knee, showed full pressure was maintained. Hers wasn't quite
  identical; she equalized before shoving back her faceplate. The air was
  cold and smelled musty. Pumps muttered.
  Afloat in weightlessness, she began her exploration. She'd never been in
  a kzin ship before. But she had studied descriptions; and the laws of
  nature are the same everywhere, and man and kzin aren't terribly
  unlike-they can actually eat each other; and she could decipher most
  labels; so she could piecemeal trace things out, figure how they worked,
  even in a vessel as unusual as this.
  She denied herself haste. If the crew arrived before she was done, she'd
  try ambushing them. There was no point in this job unless it was done
  right. As need arose she ate, rested, napped, adrift amidst machinery.
  Once she began to get a solid idea of the layout, she stripped it.
  Supplies, motors, black boxes, whatever she didn't think she would
  require, she unpacked, unbolted, torched loose, and carried outside.
  There the grapnel field, the same force that hauled on cosmic stones,
  low-power now, clasped them behind the hull.
  Alone though she was, the ransacking didn't actually take long. She was
  efficient. A hundred hours sufficed for everything.
           INCONSTANT STAR     139

  "Very well," she said at last; and she took a pill and accepted ten hours
  of REM sleep, dreams which had been deferred. Awake again, refreshed, she
  nourished herself sparingly, exercised, scribbled a cross in the air and
  murmured, "Into Your hands-" for unlike her husband, she believed the
  universe was more than an accident.
  Next came the really tricky part. Of course Bob had wanted to handle it
  himself. Poor dear, he must be in absolute torment, knowing everything
  that could go wrong. She was luckier, Dorcas thought. too busy to be
  afraid.
  Shep's flickering radar peeks had gotten fair-tomiddling readings on an
  object that must be the kzin warship. Its orbit was only approximately
  known, and subject both to perturbation and deliberate change. Dorcas
  needed exact knowledge. She must operate indicators and computers of
  nonhuman workmanship so delicately that Hraou-Captain had no idea he was
  under surveillance. Thereafter she must guess what her best tactics might
  be, calculate the maneuvers, and follow through.
  When the results were in: "Here goes," she said into the hollowness
  around. "For you, Arthur-" and thought briefly that if the astronomer
  could have roused in his grave on Tertia, he would have reproved her, in
  his gentle fashion, for being melodramatic.
 Sun Defter plunged.
  Unburdened by tonnes of water, she made nothing of ten g's, 20, 30, you
  name it. Her kzin crew must often have used the polarizer to keep from
  being crushed, as Dorcas did. "Hai-ai-ai!" she screamed, and rode her
  comet past the moon, amidst the stars, to battle.
  She never knew whether the beings aboard the warship saw her coming.
  Things happened so fast. If the kzinti did become aware of what was
  bearing down on them, they had scant time to react. Their
 140      Poul Anderson

 computers surely told them that Sun Defter was no threat, would pass close
 by but not collide. Some malfunction? The kzinti would not gladly
 annihilate their iron gatherer.
  When the precalculated instant flashed onto a screen before her, Dorcas
  punched for a sidewise thrust as great as the hull could survive. It
  shuddered and groaned around her. An instant later, the program that she
  had written cut off the grapnel field.
  Those masses she had painstakingly lugged outside -they now had
  interception vectors, and at a distance too small for evasion. Sun Defter
  passed within 50 kilometers while objects sleeted through Vengeful
  Slasher.
  The warship burst. Armor peeled back, white-hot, from holes punched by
  monstrous velocity. Missiles floated out of shattered bays. Briefly, a
  frost-cloud betokened air rushing forth into vacuum. The wreck tumbled
  among fragments of itself. Starlight glinted off the ruins. Doubtless
  crew remained alive in this or that sealed compartment; but Vengeful
  Slasher wasn't going anywhere out of orbit, ever again.
  Sun Defier swooped past Secunda. Dorcas commenced braking operations, for
  eventual rendezvous with her fellow humans.
               21

  The moon was a waste of rock, low hills, boulderfields, empty plains,
  here and there a crater not quite eroded away. Darkling in this light,
  under Sol it would have been brighter than Luna, powdered with yellow
  which at the bottoms of slopes had collected to form streaks or blotches.
  The sun threw long shadows from the West.
  Against them, Rover shone like a beacon. Saxtorph cheered. As expected,
  the kzinti had left her on the hemisphere that always faced Secunda. The
  location was, however, not central but close to the north pole and the
  western edge. He wondered why. He'd spotted many locations that looked
  as good or better, when you had to bring down undamaged a vessel not
  really meant to land on anything this size.
  He couldn't afford the time to worry about it. By now the warboats had
  surely learned of the disaster to their mother ship and were headed back
  at top boost. Kzinti might or might not suspect what the cause had been
  of their supertug running amok, but

               141
 142      Poul Anderson

 they would know when Rover took off-in fact, would probably know when he
 reached the ship. Their shuttles, designed for strictly orbital work, were
 no threat. Their gunboats were. If Rover didn't get to hyperspacing
 distance before those overtook her, she and her crew would be ganz kaput.
  Saxtorph passed low overhead, ascended, and played back the pictures his
  scanners had taken in passing. As large as she was, the ship had no
  landing jacks. She lay sidelong on her lateral docking grapples. That
  stressed her, but not too badly in a gravity less than Luna's. To
  compound the trickiness of descent, she had been placed just under a
  particularly high and steep hill. He could only set down on the opposite
  side. Beyond the narrow strip of flat ground on which she lay, a blotch
  extended several meters across the valley floor. Otherwise that floor was
  strewn with rocks and somewhat downward sloping toward the hill. Maybe
  the kzinti had chosen this site precisely because it was a bitch for him
  to settle on.
  "I can do it, though," Saxtorph decided. He pointed at the screen. "See,
  a reasonably clear area about 500 meters off."
  Laurinda nodded. With the boat falling free again, the white hair rippled
  around her delicate features.
  Saxtorph applied retrothrust. For thrumming minutes he backed toward his
  goal. Sweat studded his face and darkened his tunic under the arms. Smell
  like a billy goat, I do, he thought fleetingly. When we come home, I'm
  going to spend a week in a Japanese hot bath. Dorcas can bring me sushi.
  She prefers showers, cold. -He gave himself entirely back to his work.
  Contact shivered. The deck tilted. Saxtorph adjusted the jacks to level
  Shep. When he cut the engine, silence fell like a thunderclap.
  He drew a long breath, unharnessed, and rose. I can suit up faster if you
  help me," he told the Crashlander.
           INCONSTANT STAR     143

  "of course," she replied. "Not that I have much experience.
  Never mind modesty. It had been impossible to maintain without occasional
  failures, by four people crammed inside this little hull. Laurinda had
  blushed all over, charmingly, when she happened to emerge from the shower
  cubicle as Saxtorph and Ryan came by. The quartermaster had only a pair of
  shorts on, which didn't hide the gallant reflex. Yet nobody ever did or
  said anything improper, and the girl overcame her shyness. Now a part of
  Saxtorph enjoyed the touch of her spidery fingers, but most of him stayed
  focused on the business at hand.
  "Forgive me for repeating what you've heard a dozen times," he said. "You
  are new to this kind of situation, and could forget the necessity of
  abiding by orders. Your job is to bring this boat back to Dorcas and Kam.
  That's it. Nothing else whatsoever. When I tell you to, you throw the main
  switch, and the program we've put in the autopilot will take over. I'd've
  automated that bit also, except rigging it would've taken time we can ill
  afford, and anyway, we do want some flexibility, some judgment in the
  control loop." Sternly: "If anything goes wrong for me, or you think
  anything has, whether or not I've called in, you go. Thethree of you must
  have Shep. The tug's fast but clumsy, impossible to make planetfall with,
  and only barely provisioned. Your duty is to Shep. Understood?"
  "Yes," she said mutedly, her gaze on the task she was doing. "Besides, we
  have to have the boat to rescue Juan and Carita."
  A sigh wrenched from Saxtorph. I told you-" After Dorcas' flight, too few
  energy boxes remained to lift either of them into orbit. Shep could hover
  on her drive at low altitude while they flitted up, but she wasn't built
  for planetary rescue work, the thrusters weren't heavily enough shielded
  externally, at such a boost their radiation would be lethal.
 144      Poul Anderson

  Neither meek nor defiant, Laurinda replied, -I know. But after we've taken
  Rover to the right distance, why can't she wait, ready to flee, till the
  boat comes back from Prima?"
 "Because the boat never would."
 "The kzinti can land safely."
  "More or less safely. They don't like to, remember. Sure, I can tell you
  how they do it. Obvious. They put detachable footpads on their jacks. The
  stickum may or may not be able to grab hold of, say, fluorosilicone, but if
  it does, it'll take a while to eat its way through. When the boat's ready
  to leave, she sheds those footpads."
  "Of course. I've been racking my brain to comprehend why we can't do the
  same for Shep."
  The pain in her voice and in himself brought anger into his. "God damn it,
  we're spacers, not sorcerersl Groundsiders think a spacecraft is a hunk of
  metal you can cobble anything onto, like a car. She isn't. She's about as
  complex and interconnected as your body is. A few milligrams of blood clot
  or of the wrong chemical will bring your body to a permanent halt. A
  spacecraft's equally vulnerable. I am not going to tinker with ours,
  light-years from any proper workshop. I am not. That's final!"
  Her face bent downward from his. He heard her breath quiver.
  I'm sorry, dear," he added, softly once more. "I'm sorrier than you
  believe, maybe sorrier than you can imagine. Those are my crewfolk down and
  doomed. oh, if we had time to plan and experiment and carefully test, sure,
  I'd try it. What should the footpads be made of? What size? How closely ma-
  chined? How detached---explosive bolts, maybe? We'd have to wire those
  and-Laurinda, we won't have the time. If I lift Rover off within the next
  hour or two, we can pick up Dorcas and Kam, boost, and fly dark. If we're
  lucky, the kzin warboats won't detect us. But our margin is razor thin. We
  don't have the
           INCONSTANT STAR     145

 days or weeks your idea needs. Fido's people don't either; their own time
 has gotten short. I'm sorry, dear. "
  She looked up. He saw tears in the ruby eyes, down the snowy cheeks. But
  she spoke still more quietly than he, with the briefest of little smiles.
  "No harm in asking, was there? I understand. You've told me what I was
  trying to deny I knew. You are a good man, Robert. "
  "Aw," he mumbled, and reached to rumple her hair.
  The suiting completed, he took her hands between his gloves for a moment,
  secured a toolpack between his shoulders where the drive unit usually was,
  and cycled out.
  The land gloomed silent around him. Nearing the horizon, the red sun looked
  bigger than it was. So did the planet, low to the southeast, waxing close
  to half phase. He could make out a dust storm as a deeper-brown blot on the
  fulvous crescent. Away from either luminous body, stars were visible-and
  yonder brilliancy must be Quarta. How joyously they bad sailed past it.
  Saxtorph started for his ship, in long low-gravity bounds. He didn't want
  to fly. The kzinti might have planted a boobytrap, such as an automatic gun
  that would lock on, track, and fire if you didn't radio the password.
  Afoot, he was less of a target.
  The ground lightened as he advanced, for the yellow dust lay thicker. No,
  he saw, it was not actually dust in the sense of small solid particles, but
  more like spatters or films of liquid. Evidently it didn't cling to things,
  like that horrible stuff on Prima. A ghostly rain from space, it would slip
  from higher to lower places; in the course of gigayears, even cosmic rays
  would give some slight stirring to help it along downhill. It might be
  fairly deep near the ship, where its surface was like a blot. He'd better
  ap-
   146      Poul Anderson

 proach with care. Maybe it would prove necessary to fetch a drive unit and
 flit across.
  Saxtorph's feet went out from under him. He fell slowly, landed on his
  butt. With an oath he started to get up. His soles wouldn't grip. His
  hands skidded on slickness. He sprawled over onto his back. And he was
  gliding down the slope of the valley floor, gliding down toward the
  amber-colored blot.
  He flailed, kicked up dust, but couldn't stop. The damned ground had no
  friction, none. He passed a boulder and managed to throw an arm around.
  For an instant he was checked, then it rolled and began to descend with
  him.
  "Laurinda, I have a problem," he managed to say into his radio. "Sit
  tight. Watch close. If this turns out to be serious, obey your orders."
  He reached the blot. It gave way. He sank into its depths.
  He had hoped it was a layer of just a few centimeters, but it closed over
  his head and still he sank. A pit where the stuff had collected from the
  heightsmaybe the kzinti, taking due care, had dumped some extra in,
  gathered across a wide area-yes, this was very likely their boobytrap,
  and if they had ghosts, Hraou-Captain's must be yowling laughter. Odd how
  that name came back to him as he tumbled.
  Bottom. He lay in blindness, fighting to curb his breath and heartbeat.
  How far down? Three meters, four? Enough to bury him fbr the next several
  billion years, unless- "Hello, Shep. Uurinda, do you read me? Do you read
  me?"
  His earphones hummed. The wavelength he was using should have expanded
  its front from the top of the pit, but the material around him must be
  screening it. Silence outside his suit was as thick as the blackness.
  Let's see if he could climb out. The side wasn't vertical. The stuff
  resisted his movements less than water would. He felt arms and legs
  scrabble to no
           INCONSTANT STAIR    147

 avail. He could feel irregularities in the stone but he could not get a
 purchase on any. Well, could he swim? He tried. No. He couldn't rise off
 the bottom. Too high a mean density compared to the medium; and it didn't
 allow him even as much traction as water, it yielded to every motion, he
 might as well have tried to swim in air.
  If he'd brought his drive unit, maybe it could have lifted him out. He
  wasn't sure. It was for use in space. This fluid might clog it or ooze
  into circuitry that there had never been any reason to seal tight.
  Irrelevant anyway, when he'd left it behind.
  "My boy," he said, "it looks like you've had the course.
  That was a mistake. The sound seemed to flap around in the cage of his
  helmet. If he was trapped, he shouldn't dwell on it. That way lay
  screaming panic.
  He forced himself to lie quiet and think. How long till Laurinda took
  off? By rights, she should have already. If he did escape the pit, he'd
  be alone on the moon. Naturally, he'd try to get at Rover in some
  different fashion, such as coming around on the hillside. But meanwhile
  Dorcas would return in Shep, doubtless with the other two. She was
  incapable of cutting and running, off into ftitility. Chances were,
  though, that by the time she got here a kzin auxiliary or two would have
  arrived. The odds against her would be long indeed.
  So if Saxtorph found a way to return topside and repossess Rover--soon-he
  wouldn't likely find his wife at the asteroid. And he couldn't very well
  turn back and try to make contact, because of those warboats and because
  of his overriding obligation to carry the warning home. He'd have to corm
  the ship all by himself, leaving Dorcas behind for the kzinti.
  The thought was strangling. Tears stung. That was a relief, in the
  nullity everywhere around. Something he could feel, and taste the salt
  of on his lips.
 148      Poul Anderson

 Was the tomb blackness thickening? No, couldn't be. How long had he lain
 buried? He brought his timepiece to his faceplate, but the hell-stuff
 blocked off luminosity. The blood in his ears hammered against a wall of
 stillness. Had a whine begun to modulate the rasping of his breath? Was
 he going crazy? Sensory deprivation did bring on illusions, weirdnesses,
 but he wouldn't have expected it this soon.
  He made himself remember-sunlight, stars, Dorcas, a sail above blue
  water, fellowship among men, Dorcas, the tang of a cold beer, Dorcas,
  their plans fbr children-they'd banked gametes against the day they'd be
  ready for domesticity but maybe a little too old and battered in the DNA
  for direct begetting to be advisable
  Contact ripped him out of his dreams. He reached wildly and felt his
  gloves close on a solid object. They slid along it, along humanlike
  lineaments, a spacesuit, no, couldn't bel
  Laurinda. slithered across him till she brought faceplate to faceplate.
  Through the black he recognized the voice that conduction carried:
  "Robert, thank God, I'd begun to be afraid I'd never find you, are you
  all right?"
  "What the, the devil are you doing here?" he gasped.
  Laughter crackled. "Fetching you. Yes, mutiny. Court-martial me later."
  Soberness followed: I have a cable around my waist, with the end free for
  you. Feel around till you find it. There's a lump at the end, a knot I
  made beforehand and covered with solder so the buckyballs can't get in
  and make it work loose. You can use that to make a hitch that will hold
  for yourself, can't you? Then I'll need your help. I have two geologist's
  hammers with me. Secured them by cords so they can't be lost. Wrapped
  tape around the handles in thick bands, to give a grip in spite of no
  friction. Used the pick ends to chip notches in the rock, and
           INCONSTANT STAR     149

 hauled myself along. But I'm exhausted now, and it's an uphill pull, even
 though gravity is weak. Take the hammers. Drag me along behind you. You
 have the strength. "
  "The strength--oh, my God, you talk about my strength?" he cried.
  -The cable was actually heavy-gauge wire from the electrical parts
  locker, lengths of it spliced together till they reached. The far end was
  fitstened around a great boulder beyond the treacherous part of the
  slope. Slipperiness had helped as well as hindered the ascent, but when
  he reached safety, Saxtorph allowed himself to collapse for a short
  spell.
  He returned to lAurindds earnest tones: "I can't tell you how sorry I am.
  I should have guessed. But it didn't occur to me--such quantities
  gathered together like this-I simply thought 'nebular dust,' without
  stopping to estimate what substance would become dominant over many
  billions of years-"
  He sat straight to look at her. In the level red light, her face was
  palely rosy, her eyes afire. "Why, how could you have foreseen, lass?"
  he answered. "I'd hate to tell you how often something in space has taken
  me by surprise, and that was in fitmiliar parts. You did realize what the
  problem was, and figured out a solution. We needn't worry about your
  breaking orders. If you'd fitiled, you'd have been insubordinate; but you
  succeeded, so by definition you showed initiative."
  "Thank you." Eagerness blazed. "And listen, I've had another idea-"
  He lifted a palm. "Whoal Look, in a couple of minutes we'd better hike
  back to Shep, you take your station again, I get a drive unit and fly
  across to Rover. But first will you please, please tell me what the mess
  was that I got myself into?"
  "Buckyballs," she said. "Or, formally, buckminsterfallerene. I didn't
  think the pitful of that you'd slid down into could be very deep or the
  bottom very
 150      Poul Anderson

 large. Its walls would surely slope inward. It's really just a ... pothole,
 though surely the formation process was different, possibly it's a small
 astroblem- " She giggled. "My, the academic in me is really taking over, isn
 I t it? Well, essentially, the material is frictionless. It will puddle in
 any hole, no matter how tiny, and it has just enough cohesion that a number
 of such puddles close together will form a film over the entire surface. But
 that film is only a few molecules thick, and you can't walk on it or
 anything. In this slight gravity, though--and the metalpoor rock is
 friable-I could strike the sharp end of a hammerhead in with a single blow
 to act as a kind of ... piton, is that the word?"
  "Okay. Splendid. Dorcas had better look to her standing as the most
  formidable woman in known space. Now tell me what the-the hell buckyballs
  are.
  " They're produced in the vicinity of supernovae. Carbon atoms link
  together and form a faceted spherical molecule around a single metal atom.
  Sixty carbons around one lanthanum is common, galactically speaking, but
  there are other forms, too. And with the molecule closed in on itself the
  way it is, it acts in the aggregate like a fluid. In fact, it's virtually
  a perfect lubricant, and if we didn't have things easier to use you'd see
  synthetic buckyballs on sale everywhere." A vision rose in those ruby eyes.
  "It's thought they may have a basic role in the origin of life on
  planets---7
  " Damn near did the opposite number today," Saxtorph said. "But you saved
  my ass, and the rest of me as well. I don't suppose I can ever repay you.
  11
  She got to her knees before him and seized his hands. "You can, Robert. You
  can fetch me back my man.
               22
               4W,Q

  Ponderously, Rover closed velocities with the iron asteroid. She couldn't
  quite match, because it was under boost, but thus far the acceleration
  was low.
  Ominously aglow, the molten mass dwarfed the spacecraft that toiled
  meters ahead of it; yet Sun Defter, harnessed by her own forcefield, was
  a plowhorse dragging it bit by bit from its former path; and the dwarf
  sun was at work, and Secunda's gravity was beginning to have a real
  effect....
  Arrived a little before the ship, the boat drifted at some distance, a
  needle in a haystack of stars. Laurinda was stiff aboard. The tug had no
  place to receive Shep, nor had the girl the skill to cross safely by
  herself in a spacesuit even though relative speeds were small. The
  autopilot kept her accompanying the others.
  In Rovees command center, Saxtorph asked the image of Dorcas, more
  shakily than he had expected to, "How are you? How's everything?"
 She was haggard with weariness, but triumph rang:
               151
 152      Poul Anderson

 "Kam's got our gear packed to transfer over to you, and I-I've worked the
 bugs out of the program. Compatibility with kzin hardware was a stumbling
 block, but-Well, it's been operating smoothly for the past several hours,
 and I've no reason to doubt it will continue doing what it's supposed to."
  He whistled. "Hey, quite a feat, lady! I really didn't think it would be
  possible, at least in the time available, when I put you up to trying it.
  What're you going to do next-square the circle, invent the perpetual motion
  machine, reform the tax laws, or what?"
  Her voice grew steely. I was motivated." She regarded his face in her own
  screen. "How are you? Laurinda said something about your running into
  danger on the moon. Were you hurt?"
  " Only in my pride. She can tell you all about it later. Right now we're in
  a hurry.." Saxtorph became intent. "Listen, there's been a change of plan.
  You and Kam both flit over to Shep. But don't you bring her in; lay her
  alongside. Kam can help Laurinda aboard Rover before he moves your stuff.
  I'd like you to join me in a job around Shep. Simple thing and shouldn't
  take but a couple hours, given the two of us working together. Though I'll
  bet even money you'll have a useful suggestion or three. Then you can line
  out for deep space."
  She sat a moment silent, her expression bleakened, before she said, "You're
  taking the boat to Prima while the rest of us ferry Rover away."
 :'You catch on quick, sweetheart."
 'To rescue Juan and Carita."
  "what else? Laurinda's hatched a scheme I think could do the trick.
  Naturally, we'll agree in advance where you'll wait, and Shep will come
  join you there. If we don't dawdle, the odds are pretty good that the
  kzinti won't locate you first and force you to go hyperspatial. "
 "What about them locating you?"
           INCONSTANT STAR     153

  "Why should they expect anybody to go to Prima? They'll buzz around
  Secunda like angry hornets. They may well be engaged for a while in
  evacuating survivors from the warship; I suspect the shuttles aren't
  terribly efficient at that sort of thing. Afterward they'll have to work
  out a search doctrine, when Rover can have skitted in any old direction.
  And sometime along about then, they should have their minds taken off us.
  The kzinti will notice a nice big surprise bound their way, about which
  it is then too late to do anything whatsoever."
 "But you- How plausible is this idea of yours?"
  "Plausible enough. Look, don't sit like that. Get cracking. I'll explain
  when we meet."
 "I can take Shep. I'm as good a pilot as you are."
  Saxtorph shook his head. "Sorry, no. One of us has to be in charge of
  Rover, of course. I hereby pull rank and appoint you. I am the captain."
               23

  The asteroid concealed the ship's initial boost from any possible observers
  around Secunda. She applied her mightiest vector to give southward motion,
  out of the ecliptic plane; but the thrust had an extra component, randomly
  chosen, to baffle hunter analysts who would fain reduce the volume of space
  wherein she might reasonably be sought. That volume would grow fast, become
  literally astronomical, as she flew free, generator cold, batteries main-
  taining life support on a minimum energy level. Having thus cometed for a
  time, she could with fair safety apply power again to bring herself to her
  destination.
  Saxtorpb let her make ample distance before he accelerated Shep, also using
  the iron to conceal his start. However, he ran at top drive the whole way.
  It wasn't likely that a detector would pick his little craft up. As he told
  Dorcas, the kzinti wouldn't suppose a human would make for Prima. It hurt
  them less, losing friends, provided the friends died bravely; and

               154
           INCONSTANT STAIR    155

 few of them had mastered the art of putting oneself in the head of an
 enemy.
  Mainly, though, Carita and Juan didn't have much time left them.
  Ever circling, the planets had changed configuration since Rover arrived.
  The navigation system allowed for that, but could do nothing to shorten
  a run of 30-odd hours. Saxtorph tried to compose his soul in peace. He
  played a lot of solitaire after he found he was losing most of the
  computer games, and smoked a lot of pipes. Books and shows were poor
  distraction, but music helped him relax and enjoy his memories. Whatever
  happened next, he'd have had a better life than 90 percent of his
  species-99 percent if you counted in everybody who lived and died before
  humankind went spacefaring.
  Prima swelled in his view, sallow and faceless. The recorded broadcast
  came through clear from the night side, over and over. Saxtorph got his
  fix. Fido wasn't too far from the lethal dawn. He established a threehour
  orbit and put a curt message of his own on the player. It ended with
  "Acknowledge."
  Time passed. Heaviness grew within him. Were they dead? He rounded
  dayside and came back across darkness.
  The voice leaped at him: "Bob, is that you? Juan here. We'd abandoned
  hope, we were asleep. Standing by now. Bob, is that you? Juan her&--:'
  joy surged. "Who else but me?" Saxtorph said. "How're you doing, you
  two?"
  "Hanging on. Living in our spacesuits this past-I don't know how long.
  The boat's a rotted, crumbling shell. But we're hanging on."
 "Good. Your drive units in working orderF'
  "Yes. But we haven't the lift to get onto a trajectory which you can
  match long enough for us to come aboard." Unspoken: It would be easy in
  atmosphere, or in free space, given a pilot like you. But what a vessel
  can do above an airless planet, at
 156      Poul Anderson

 suborbital speed, without coming to grief, is sharply limited.
  "That's all right," Saxtorph said, as long as you can go outside, sit in a
  lock chamber or on top of the wreck, and keep watch, without danger of
  slipping off into the muck. You can?. . . Okay, prepare yourselves. I'll
  land in view of you and open the main
 personnel lock."                    Ir
  "Hadn't we better all find an area free of the material?"
  "I'm not sure any exists big enough and flat enough for me. Anyhow, looking
  for one would take more time than we can afford. No, I'm coming straight
  down."
  Carita cut in. She sounded wrung out. Saxtorph suspected her physical
  strength was what had preserved both. He imagined her manhandling pieces of
  metal and plastic, often wrenched from the weakened structure, to improvise
  braces, platforms, whatever would give some added hours of refuge. "Bob, is
  this wise?" she asked. "Do you know what you're getting into? The molecule
  might bind you fast immediately, even if you avoid shining light on it. The
  decay here is going quicker all the while. I think the molecule is ...
  learning. Don't risk your life."
  "Don't you give your captain orders," Saxtorph replied. "I'll be down in,
  m-m, about an hour. Then get to me as fast as you prudently can. Every
  minute we spend on the surface does add to the danger. But I've put bandits
  on the jacks."
 "What?"
  "Footpads," he laughed childishly. "Okay, no more conversation till we're
  back in space. I've got my reconnoitering to do."
  Starlight was brilliant but didn't illuminate an unknown terrain very well.
  His landing field would be minute and hemmed in. For help he had optical
  amplifiers, radar, data-analysis programs which projected visuals as well
  as numbers. He had his skill.
           INCONSTANT STAR     157

 Fear shunted from his mind, he became one with the boat.
  Location ... identification ... positioning; you don't float around in
  airlessness the way you can in atmosphere ... site picked, much closer
  to Fido than he liked but he could manage . . . coordinates established
  ... down, down, nurse her down to touchdown ....
  It was as soft a landing as he had ever achieved. it needed to be.
  For a pulsebeat he stared across the hollow at the other boat. She was
  a ghastly sight indeed, a halfhull pocked, ragged, riddled, the pale
  devourer well up the side of what was left. Good thing he was insured;
  though multi-billionaire Stefan Brozik would be grateful, and presumably
  human governments-
  Saxtorph grinned at his own inanity and hastened to go operate the
  airlock. Or was it stupid to think about money at an hour like this? To
  hell with heroics. He and Dorcas had their living to make.
  Descent with the outer valve already open would have given him an
  imbalance: slight, but he had plenty else to contend with. He cracked it
  now without stopping to evacuate the chamber. Time was more precious than
  a few cubic meters of air. A light flashed green. His crewfolk were in.
  He closed the valve at once. A measure of pressure equalization was
  required before he admitted them into the hull proper. He did so the
  instant it was possible. A wind gusted by. His ears popped. Juan and
  Carita stumbled through. Frost formed on their spacesuits.
  He hand-signalled: Grab hold. We're boosting right away.
 He could be gentle about that, as well as quick.
  Or need he have hastened? Afterward he inspected things at length and
  found Laurinda~s idea had worked as well as could have been hoped, or
  maybe a little better.
 Buckyballs scooped from that sink on the moon.
 158      Poul Anderson

 (An open container at the end of a line; he could throw it far in the low
 gravity.) Bags fashioned out of thick plastic, heat-sealed together,
 filled with buckyballs, placed around the bottom of each landing jack,
 superglued fast at the necks. That was all.
  The molecule had only eaten through one of them while Shep stood on
  Prima. Perhaps the other jacks rested on sections where most of the
  chemical bonds were saturated, less readily catalyzed. It didn't matter,
  except scientifically, because after the single bag gave way, the
  wonderful stuff had done its job. A layer of it was beneath the metal,
  a heap of it around. The devourer could not quickly incorporate atoms so
  strongly interlinked. As it did, more flowed in to fill the gaps. Shep
  could have stayed for hours.
  But she had no call to. Lifting, the tension abruptly off him, Saxtorph
  exploded into tuneless song. It wasn't a hymn or anthem, though it was
  traditionaL "The Bastard King of England." Somehow it felt right.
               24

 Rover drove though hyperspace, homeward bound. Man and wife sat together
 in their cabin, easing off. They were flesh, they would need days to get
 back the strength they had spent. The ship throbbed and whispered. A
 screen gave views of Hawaii, heights, greennesses, incredible colors on
 the sea. Beethoven's Fifth lilted in the background. He had a mug of beer,
 she a glass of white wine.
  "Honeymoon cruise, 11 she said with a wry smile. "Laurinda and Juan.
  Carita and Kam."
 "You and me, for that matter," he replied drowsily.
  "But when will we get any proper work done? The interior is a mess."
  "Oh, we've time aplenty before we reach port. And if we aren't quite
  holystoned-perfect, who's going to care?"
  "Yes, we'll be the sensation of the day." She grew somber. "How many will
  remember Arthur Tregennis?"
 Saxtorph roused. "Our kind of people will. He was

               159
 160      Poul Anderson

 ... a Moses. He brought us to a scientific Promised Land, and ... I think
 there'll be more explorations into the far deeps from now on."
  "Yes. Markham's out of the way." Dorcas sighed. "His poor family."
  The tug, rushing off too fast for recovery after it released the asteroid
  to hurtle toward Secunda-if all went as planned, straight at the base
  Horror, a scramble to flee, desperate courage, and then the apparition
  in heaven, the flaming trail, Thor's hammer smites, the cloud of
  destruction engulfs everything and rises on high and spreads to darken
  the planet, nothing remains but a doubled crater plated with iron. It was
  unlikely that any kzinti who escaped would still be alive when their next
  starship came.
 At the end, did Markham cry for his mother?
  "And of course humans will be alerted to the situation," Saxtorph
  observed superfluously.
  It was, in fact, unlikely that there would be more kzin ships to the red
  sun. Nothing was left for them, and they would get no chance to rebuild.
  Earth would have sent an armed fleet for a look-around. Maybe it would
  come soon enough to save what beings were left.
 Dorcas frowned. "What will they do about it?"
  11,why, uh, rebuild our navies. Defense has been grossly neglected."
  " Well, we can hope for that much. We're certainly doing a service,
  bringing in the news that the kzinti have the hyperdrive." Dorcas shook
  her head. "But everybody knew they would, sooner or later. And this whole
  episode, it's no casus belli. No law forbade them to establish themselves
  in an unclaimed system. We should be legally safe, ourselves-self-
  defense--but the peace groups will say the kzinti were only being
  defensive, after Earth's planet grab following the war, and in fact this
  crew provoked
           INCONSTANT STAR     161

 them into overreacting, There may be talk of reparations due the pathetic
 put-upon kzinti."
  "Yah, you're probably right. I share your faith in the infinite capacity
  of our species for wishful thinking." Saxtorph shrugged. "But we also
  have a capacity for muddling through. And you and 1, sweetheart, have
  some mighty good years ahead of us. Lefs talk about what to do with
  them."
  Her mood eased. She snuggled close. The ship fared onward.
INCONSTANT
STAR
                                                   1

  A hunter's wind blew down off the Mooncatcher Mountains and across the
  Rungn Valley. Night filled with the sounds of it, rustling forest, remote
  animal cries, and with odors of soil, growth, beast. The wish that it
  roused, to be yonder, to stalk and pounce and slay and devour, grew in
  Weoch-Captain until he trembled. The fur stood up on him. Claws slid out of
  their sheaths; fingers bent into the same saber curves. He had long been
  deprived.
  Nonetheless he walked steadily onward from the guard point. When
  Ress-Chiuu, High Admiral of Kzin, summoned, one came. That was not in
  servility but in hope, fatal though laggardness would be. Something great
  was surely afoot. it might even prove warlike.
  Eastward stretched rangeland, wan beneath the stars. Westward, ahead, the
  woods loomed darkling, the game preserve part of Ress-Chiuu's vast domain.
  Far and high beyond glimmered snowpeaks. The chill that the wind also bore
  chastened bit by bit the

               165
 166      Pout Anderson

 lust in Weoch-Captain. Reason fought its way back. He reached the
 Admiral's lair with the turmoil no more than a drumbeat in his blood.
  The castle remembered axes, arrows, and spears. Later generations had
  made their changes and additions but kept it true to itself, a stony mass
  baring battlements at heaven. After an electronic gate identified and
  admitted him, the portal through which he passed was a tunnel wherein he
  moved blind. Primitive instincts whispered, "Beware!" He ignored them.
  Guided by echoes and subtle tactile sensations, his pace never slackened.
  Ress-Chiuu always tested a visitor, one way or another.
  Was it a harder test that waited in the courtyard? No kzin received
  Weoch-Captain. Instead hulked a kdatlyno slave. It made the clumsy
  gesture that was as close as the species could come to a prostration.
  However, then it turned and lumbered toward the main keep. Obviously he
  was expected to follow.
  Rage blazed in him. Almost, he attacked. He choked emotion down and
  stalked after his guide, though lips remained pulled off fangs.
  Echoes whispered. Corridors and rooms lay deserted. Night or no,
  personnel should have been in evidence. What did it portend? Alertness
  heightened, wariness, combat readiness.
  A door slid aside. The kdatlyno groveled again and departed.
  Weoch-Captain went in. The door closed behind him.
  The room was polished granite, austerely furnished. A window stood open
  to the wind. Ress-Chiuu reclined on a slashtooth skin draped over a
  couch. Weoch-Captain came to attention and presented himself. "At ease,"
  the High Admiral said. "You may sit, stand, or pace as you wish. I expect
  you will, from time to time, pace."
  Weoch-Captain decided to stay on his feet for the nonce.
 Ress-Chiuu's deceptively soft tones went on: "Re-           INCONSTANT STAR     167

 alize that I have offered you no insult. You were met by a slave because,
 at least for the present, extreme confidentiality is necessary.
 Furthermore, I require not only a Hero--they are many-but one who pos-
 sesses an unusual measure of self-control and forethoughtfulness. I had
 reason to believe you do. You have shown I was right. Praise and honor be
 yours."
  The accolade calmed Weoch-Captain's pride. It also focused his mind the
  more sharply. (Doubtless that was intended, said a part of his mind with
  a wryness rare in kzinti.) His ears rose and unfolded. "I have delegated
  my current duties and am instantly available for the High Admiral's
  orders," he reported.
  Shadows dappled fur as the blocky head nodded approval. "We go straight
  to the spoor, then. You know of Werlith-Commandant's mission on the op-
  posite side of human-hegemony space." It was not a question. "III
  tidings: lately a human crew stumbled upon the base that was under
  construction there. They came to investigate the sun, which appears to
  be unique in several ways."
  Monkey curiosity, thought Weoch-Captain. He was slightly too young to
  have fbught in the war, but he had spent his life hearing about it,
  studying it, dreaming of the next one. His knowledge included terms of
  scorn evolved among kzinti who had learned random things about the planet
  where the enemy originated.
  Ress-Chiuu's level words smote him: "Worse, much worse. Incredibly, they
  seem to have destroyed the installations. Certain is that they inflicted
  heavy casualties, disabled our spacecraft, and went home nearly
  unscathed. You perceive what this means. They conveyed the information
  that we have developed the hyperdrive ourselves. All chance of springing
  a surprise is gone." Sarcasm harshened the voice. "No doubt the
  Patriarchy will soon receive 'representations' from Earth about this
  'unfbrtunate incident.' "
  Over the hyperwave, said Weoch-Captain's mind bleakly. Those few black
  boxes that the peace treaty
 168      Poul Anderson

 provided for, left among us, engineered to self-destruct at the least
 tampering.
  Well did he know. Such an explosion had killed a brother of his.
  Understanding leaped. If the humans had not yet communicated
  officially~'May I ask how the Patriarchs learned?"
  "We have our means. I will consider what to tell you." Ress-Chiuu's calm
  was giving way ever so little. His tail lashed his thighs, a pink whip.
  "We must find out exactly what happened. Or, if nothing else, we must
  establish what the situation is, whether anything of our base remains,
  what the Earth Navy is doing there. Survivors should be rescued. If this
  is impossible, perhaps they can be eliminated by rays or missiles before
  they fall into human grasp."
 "Heroes-"
  "Would never betray our secrets. Yes, yes. But can you catalogue every
  trick those creatures may possess?" Ress-Chiuu lifted head and shoulders.
  His eyes locked with Weoch-Captain's. "You will command our ship to that
  sun."
 Disaster or no, eagerness flamed. "Sire!"
  11 Slow, slow," the older kzin growled. "We require an officer
  intelligent as well as bold, capable of agreeing that the destiny of the
  race transcends his own, and indeed, to put it bluntly~" he paused-"one
  who is not afraid to cut and run, should the alternative be valiant
  failure. Are you prepared for this?"
  Weoch-Captain relaxed from his battle crouch and, inwardly, tautened
  further. "The High Admiral has bestowed a trust on me," he said. "I
  accept."
 "It is well. Come, sit. This will be a long night."
  They talked, and ransacked databases, and ran tentative plans through the
  computers, until dawn whitened the east. Finally, almost jovially,
  Ress-Chiuu asked, "Are you exhausted?"
  "On the contrary, sire, I think I have never been more fightworthy."
           INCONSTANT STAR     169

  "You need to work that off and get some rest. Besides, you have earned a
  pleasure. You may go into my forest and make a bare-handed kill."
  When Weoch-Captain came back out at noontide, jaws still dripping red, he
  felt tranquil, happy, and, once he had slept, ready to conquer a cosmos.
                2

  The sun was an hour down and lights had come aglow along streets, but at
  this time of these years Alpha Centauri B was still aloft. Low in the
  west, like thousands of evening stars melted into one, it cast shadows
  the length of Karl-Jorge Avenue and set the steel steeple of St.
  Joachim's ashimmer against an eastern sky purpling into dusk. Vehicles
  and pedestrians alike were sparse, the city's pulsebeat quieted to a
  murmur through mild summer air---day's work ended, night's pleasures just
  getting started. Munchen had changed more in the past decade or two than
  most places on Wunderland. Commercial and cultural as well as political
  center, it was bound to draw an undue share of outworlders and their
  influence. Yet it still lived largely by the rhythms of the planet.
  Robert Saxtorph doubted that that would continue through his lifetime.
  Let him enjoy it while it lasted. Traditions gave more color to existence
  than did any succession of flashy fashions.
               170
           INCONSTANT STAR     171

  He honored one by tipping his cap to the Liberation Memorial as he
  crossed the Silberplatz. Though the sculpture wasn't old and the events
  had taken place scarcely a generation ago, they stood in history with
  Marathon and Yorktown. Leaving the square, he sauntered up the street
  past a variety of shop windows. His destination, Harold's Terran Bar, had
  a certain venerability, too. And he was bound there to meet a beautiful
  woman with something mysterious to tell him. Another tradition, of sorts?
  At the entrance, he paused. His grin going sour, he well-nigh said to
  hell with it and turned around. Tyra Nordbo should not have made him
  promise to keep this secret even from his wife, before she set the
  rendezvous. Nor should she have picked Harold's. He hadn't cared to
  patronize it since visit before last. Now the very sign that floated
  luminous before the brown brick wall had been expurgated. A World On Its
  Own remained below the name, but hunwns only was gone. Mustn't offend
  potential customers or, God forbid, local idealists.
  In Saxtorph's book, courtesy was due everyone who hadn't forfeited the
  right. However, under the kzinti occupation that motto had been a tiny
  gesture of defiance. Since the war, no sophont that could pay was denied
  admittance. But onward with the bulldozer of blandness.
  He shrugged. Having come this far, let him proceed. Time enough to leave
  if la Nordbo turned out to be a celebrity hunter or a vibrobrain. The
  fact was that she had spoken calmly, and about money. Besides, he'd
  enjoyed watching her image. He went on in. Nowadays the door opened for
  anybody.
  As always, a large black man occupied the vestibule, wearing white coat
  and bow tie. What had once made some sense had now become mere costume.
  His eyes widened at the sight of the newcomer, as big as him, with the
  craggy features and thinning reddish hair. "Why, Captain Saxtorphl" he
 172      Poul Anderson

 exclaimed in fluent English. "Welcome, sir. No, for you, no entry fee."
  They had never met. "I'm on private business," Saxtorph warned.
  I understand, sir. If somebody bothers you, give me the high sign and I'll
  take care of them." Maybe the doorman could, overawing by sheer size if
  nothing else, or maybe his toughness was another part of the show. It
  wasn't a quality much in demand any more.
  "Thanks." Saxtorph slipped him a tip and passed through a beaded curtain
  which might complicate signaling for the promised help, into the main room.
  It was dimly lit and little smoke hung about. Customers thus fitr were few,
  and most in the rear room gambling. Nevertheless a fellow at an obsolete
  model of musicomp was playing something ancient. Saxtorph went around the
  deserted sunken dance floor to the bar, chose a stool, and ordered draft
  Solborg from a live servitor.
  He had swallowed a single mouthful of the half liter when he heard, at his
  left, "What, no akvavit with, and you a Dane?" The voice was husky and
  female; the words, English, bore a lilting accent and a hint of laughter.
  He turned his head and was startled. The phone at his hotel had shown him
  this fitce, strong-boned, blunt-nosed, flaxen hair in a pageboy cut. That
  she was tall, easily 180 centimeters, gave no surprise; she was a
  Wunderlander. But she lacked the ordinary low-gravity lankiness. Robust and
  full-bosomed, she looked and moved as if she had grown up on Earth, nearly
  two-thirds again as heavy as here. That meant rigorous training and
  vigorous sports throughout her life. And the changeable sea-blue of her
  slacksuit matched her eyes....
  "American, really. My family moved from Denmark when I was small. And I'd
  better keep a clear head, right?" His tongue was speaking for him. An-
             INCONSTANT STAR     173

 gry at himself, he took control back. "How do you do." He offered his hand.
 Her clasp was firm, cool, brief At least she wasn't playing sultry or
 exotic. "Uh, care for a drink?"
  I have one yonder. Please to follow." She must have arrived early and
  waited for him. He picked up his beer and accompanied her to a
  privacy-screened table. Murky though the comer was, he could make out fine
  lines at the corners of her eyes and lips; and that fair skin had known
  much weather. She wasn't quite young, then. Ute thirties, Earth calendar,
  he guessed.
  They settled down. Her glass held white wine. She had barely sipped of it.
  "Thank you for that you came, she said. I realize this is peculiar."
  Well, shucks, he resisted admitting, I may be seven or eight years older
  than you and solidly married, but any wench this sightly rates a chance to
  make sense. "It is an odd place to meet," he countered.
 She smiled. "I thought it would be appropriate."
 He declined the joke. "Over-appropriate."
 "Ja, saa?" The blond brows lifted. "How so?"
  I never did like staginess," he blurted. His hand waved around. I knew this
  joint when it was a raffish den full of memories from the occupation and
  the tag-end of wartime afterward. But each time I called at Wunderland and
  dropped in, it'd become more of a tourist trap."
  "Well, those old memories are romantic; and, yes, some of mine live here,
  too," she murmured. Turning straightforward again: "But it has an
  advantage, exactly because of what it now is. Few of its patrons will have
  heard about you. They are, as you say, mostly tourists. News like your
  deeds at that distant star is sensational but it takes a while to cross
  interstellar space and hit hard in public awareness on planets where the
  societies are different from yours or mine. Here, at this hour of the day,
  you have a
 174      Poul Anderson

 good chance of not being recognized and pestered. Also, because people here
 often make assignations, it is the custom to ignore other couples."
  Saxtorph felt his cheeks heat up. What the devil! The schoolboy he had once
  been lay long and deeply buried. Or so he'd supposed. It would be a ghost
  he could well do without. "Is that why you didn't want my wife along?" he
  asked roughly.
  She nodded. "You two together are especially conspicuous, no? I found that
  yesterday evening she would be away, and thought you would not. Then I
  tried calling you."
  He couldn't repress a chuckle. "Yah, you guessed right. Poor Dorcas, she
  had no escape from addressing a meeting of the Weibliche Astroverein." He'd
  looked forward to several peaceful hours alone. But when the phone showed
  this face, he'd accepted the call, which he probably would not have done
  otherwise. "After she got back, I took her down to the bar for a stiff
  drink. " But he'd kept his promise not to mention the conversation. Half
  ashamed, he harshened his tone. "Why'd you do no more than talk me into a,
  uh, an appointment?" He hadn't liked telling Dorcas that he meant to go for
  a walk, might stop in at some pub, and if he found company he enjoyedmale,
  she'd taken for granted-would maybe return late. But he'd done it. "Could
  you not have gone directly to the point? The line wasn't tapped, was it?"
  "I did not expect so," Tyra answered. "Yet it was possible. Perhaps a
  government official who is snoopish. You have legal and diplomatic
  complications left over, from what happened at the dwarf star."
 Don't I know it, Saxtorph sighed to himself.
  "There could even be undiscovered kzinti agents like Markham, trying for
  extra information that will help them or their masters," she continued.
  "You are marked, Captain. And in a way, that I am also."
  "Why the secrecy?" he persisted. "Understand, I am not interested in
  anything illegal."
           INCONSTANT STAR     175

  "This is not." She laid hold of her glass. Fingers grew white-nailed. on
  its stem, and trembled the least bit. "It is, well, extraordinary.
  Perhaps dangerous.
  "Then my wife and crew have got to know before we decide."
  "Of course. First I ask you. If you say no, that is an end of the matter
  for you, and I must try elsewhere. I will have small hope. But if you
  agree, and your shipmates do, best that we hold secret. Otherwise certain
  parties-they will not want this mission, or they will want it carried out
  in a way that gives my cause no help. We present them a fait accompli.
  Do you see?"
  Likewise tense, he gulped at his beer. "Uh, mind if I smoke?"
  "Do." The edges of her mouth dimpled. "That pipe of yours has become
  famous like you."
  "Or infamous." He fumbled briar, pouch, and lighter out of their pockets.
  Anxious to slack things off. "The vice is disapproved of again on Earth,
  did you know? As if cancer and emphysema and the rest still existed. I
  think puritanism runs in cycles. One periodicity for tobacco, one for
  alcohol, one for-Ah, hell, I'm babbling."
  "I believe men smoke much on Wunderland because it is a symbol," she
  said. "From the occupation era. Kzinti do not smoke. They dislike the
  smell and seldom allowed it in their presence. I grew up used to it on
  men." She laughed. "See, I can babble, too." Lifting her glass: "Skaal."
  He touched his mug to it, repeating the word before remembering, in
  surprise: "Wait, you people generally say, Trosit,' don't you?"
  "They were mostly Scandinavians who settled in Skogarna," Tyra explained.
  "We have our own dialect. Some call it a patois."
  "Really? I'd hardly imagine that was possible in this day and age."
 176      Poul Anderson

  "We were always rather isolated, there in the North. Under the occupation,
  more than ever. Kzinti, or the collaborationist government, monitored all
  traffic and communications. Few people had wide contacts, and those were
  very guarded. They drew into their neighborhoods. Keeping language and
  customs alive, that was one way they reminded themselves that humans were
  not everywhere and forever slaves of the ratcats. " Speaking, Tyra had let
  somberness come upon her. "This isolation is a root of the story I must
  tell you."
  Saxtorph wanted irrationally much to lighten her mood. "Well, shall we get
  to it? You'd like to charter the Rover, you said, for a fairly short trip.
  But that's all you said, except for not blanching when I gave you a cost
  estimate. Which, by itself, immediately got me mighty interested."
  Her laugh gladdened him. "I'm in luck. is that your American folk-word?
  Exactly when I need a hyperdrive ship, here you come with the only one in
  known space that is privately owned, and you admit you are broke. I confess
  I am puzzled. You took damage on your expedition-" Her voice grew soft and
  serious. "Besides that poor man the kzinti killed. But the harm was not
  else too bad, was it? And surely you have insurance, and I should think
  that super-rich gentleman on We Made It, Brozik, is grateful that you
  brought his daughter back safe."
  Saxtorph tamped his pipe. "Sure. Still, losing a boat is fairly expensive.
  We haven't replaced Fido yet. Plus lesser repairs we needed, plus certain
  new equipment and refitting we decided have become necessary, plus the fact
  that insurance companies have never in history been prompt and in-full
  about anything except collecting their premiums. Brozik's paid us a
  generous bonus on the charter, yes, but we can't expect him to underwrite
  a marginal business like ours. His gratefiilness has reasonable limits. Af-
  ter all, we were saving our own bides as well as
           INCONSTANT STAR     177

 Laurinda's, and she had considerable to do with it herself We aren't
 really broke, but we have gone through a big sum, on top of normal
 overhead expenses, and meanwhile haven't had a chance to scare up any
 fresh trade." He set fire to tobacco and rolled smoke across his palate.
 "See, I'm being completely frank with you." As he doubtless would not have
 been, this soon, were she homely or a man.
  Again she nodded, thoughtfully. "Yes, it must be difficult, operating a
  tramp freighter. You compete with government lines for a market that
  is-marginal, you said. When each planetary system contains ample raw
  materials, and it is cheapest to synthesize or recycle almost everything
  else, what actual tonnage goes between the stars?"
  "Damn little, aside from passengers, and we lack talent for catering to
  them." Saxtorph smiled. "Oh, it might be fun to carry nonhumans, but
  outfitting for it would be a huge investment, and then we'd be locked
  into those rounds."
  "You wish to travel freely, widely. Freighting is your way to make it
  possible." Tyra straightened. Her voice rang. "Well, I offer you a voyage
  like none ever before!"
  Caution awoke. He'd hate to think her dishonest. But she might be
  foolish-no, already he could dismiss that idea h might be dl-infbrmed.
  Planetsiders seldom had any notion of the complications in spacefaring.
  Physical requirements and hazards were merely the obvious ones. In
  addition, you had to make your nut, and avoid running afoul of several
  admiralty offices and countless bureaucrats, and keep every hatch
  battened through which the insurers might slither. "That's what we're
  here to talk about,:: Saxtorph said. "Only talk. Any promises come later.
  The high spirits that evidently were normal to her sank back down. They
  must have been struggling against something stark. She raised her glass
  for a drink, gulp rather than swallow, and stared into the
 178      Poul Anderson

 wine. "My name means nothing to you, I gather," she began, hardly louder
 than the music. I thought you would know. You have told how you are often in
 this system. "
  "Not that often, and I never paid much attention to your politics. I've got
  a hunch that that's what this is about." Her fingers strained together.
  "Yah. Politics, a disease of our species. Maybe someday they'll develop a
  vaccine against it. Grind politicians up and centrifuge the brains. Tbough
  you'd need an awful lot of politicians per gram of brains."
  A smile spooked momentarily over her lips. "But you must have heard a great
  deal lately. You are now in politics yourself."
  "And working free as fast as we can, which involves declining to get into
  arguments. Look, we came to Alpha Centauri originally because this is where
  the Interworld Space Commission keeps headquarters, with warehouses ffill
  of stuff we'd need for Professor Tregennis' expedition. We returned from
  there to here because Commissioner Markham had revealed himself to be a
  kzinti spy and we figured we should take that news first to the top. It
  plunked us into a monstrous kettle of hullaballoo. Seeing as how we
  couldn't leave before the investigations and depositions and
  what-Godhelpus-not else were finished, we got the work on our ship done
  meanwhile at Tiamat. At last they've reluctantly agreed we didn't break any
  laws except justifiably, and given us leave to go. In between wading
  through that swamp of glue and all the mostly unwanted distractions that
  notoriety brought us, we kept hoping our brokers could arrange a cargo for
  whenever we'd be able to haul out. Understandably, no luck. We were pretty
  much resigned to returning empty to Sol, when youWell, you can see why we
  discouraged anything, even conversation, that might possibly have gotten us
  mired deeper."
           INCONSTANT STAR     179

  "Yes." She tensed. "I shall explain. The Nordbos; belonged to the
  Freuchen clan."
 "Hm? You mean you're of the Nineteen Families?"
  'We tmre," she said in a rush, overriding the pain he heard. "Oh, of
  course today the special rights and obligations are mostly gone, the
  titles are mostly honorary, but the honor does remain. After the lib-
  eration, a court stripped his from my father and confiscated everything
  but his personal estate. He was not there to defend himself. The best we
  were able, my brother and I and a handful of loyal friends, was to save
  our mother from being tried for treasonable collaboration. We resigned
  membership in the clan before it could meet to expel her."
  Saxtorph drew hard on his pipe. "You believe your father was innocent?"
  I swear he was!" Her breath went ragged. "At last I have evidence-no, a
  clue A spaceship must go where he went and find the proof. Civilian
  hyperdrive craft are committed to their routes, and their governments
  control them in any case, except for yours. Our navy- My brother is an
  officer. He has made quiet inquiries. He actually got a naval astronomer
  to check that part of the sky, as a personal favor, not saying why.
  Nothing was found. He tells me the Navy would not dispatch a ship on the
  strength of a few notes that are partial at best."
  And that could well have been forged by a person crazy-desperate for
  vindication, Saxtorph thought. She admits the instrumental search drew
  a blank.
  Tyra had won to a steely calm. "Furthermore, thinking about it, I
  realized that if the Navy should go, it would be entirely in hopes of
  discovering something worthwhile. They would not care about the honor of
  Peter Nordbo, who was condemned as a traitor and is most likely long
  dead."
  "But you have your own reputation to rescue," Saxtorph said gently.
 The fair head shook. 'That doesn't matter. Neither
 180      Poul Anderson

 ib, my brother, nor I was accused of anything. In fitct, at the
 liberation, he was among those who tried to storm the Ritterhaus where the
 kzinti were holding out, and was wounded. I told you, he has since become
 a naval officer. And I ... helped the underground earlier, in a very small
 way, for I was very young then, and during the street fighting here I
 worked at a first aid station. Ach, the court said how they sympathized
 with us. We must have been one reason why they never formally charged my
 mother. That much justice got we, for she was innocent, too. She could not
 help what happened. But except for those few real friends, only Ib and I
 ever again called on her, at that lonely house on Korsness."
  The musicomp man set his instrument to violin mode with orchestral
  backing and played a tune that Saxtorph recognized. Antique indeed, from
  Earth before spaceflight, sugary sentimental, yet timeless, "Du kannst
  nicht treu sein." You can't be true.
  Tyra's gaze met his. "Yes, certainly we wish to rejoin the Freuchens, not
  as a favor but by birthright. And that would mean restoring us the hold-
  ings, or compensation for them; a modest fortune. But it doesn't matter,
  I say. What does is my father's good name, his honor. He was a wonderful
  man." Her voice deepened. "Or is? He could maybe be alive still,
  somewhere yonder, after all these years. Or if not, we could-maybe avenge
  him."
  The wings of her pageboy bob stirred. He realized that she had laid her
  ears back, like a wolf before a foe, and she was in truth of the old
  stock that conquered this planet for humankind.
  "Easy, there," he said hastily. "Rovers civilian, remember. Unarmed."
  "She should carry weapons. Since you discovered the kzinti have the
  hyperdrive--2'
  "Yah. Agreed. I wanted some armament installed, during this overhaul.
  Permission was denied, flat. Against policy. Bad enough, a hyperdrive
  ship oper-
             INCONSTAW STAR      181

 ating as a free enterprise at all. Besides, I was reminded, it's twenty
 years since the kzinti were driven from Alpha Centauri, ten years since
 the war ended, and they've learned their lesson and are good little
 kitties now, and it was nasty of us to smash their base on that planet and
 do in so many of them. If they threatened our lives, why, 'Mightn't we
 have provoked them? In any event, the proper thing for us to have done was
 to file a complaint with the proper authorities--:' Saxtorph broke off.
 "Sorry. I feel kind of strongly about it."
  He avoided describing the new equipment that was aboard. Perfectly
  lawful, stuff for salvage work or prospecting or various other jobs that
  might come Rover~s way. He hoped never to need it for anything else. But
  he and his shipmates had chosen it longsightedly, and made certain
  modifications. just in case. Moreover, a spacecraft by herself carried
  awesome destructive potentialities. The commissioners were right to worry
  about one falling into irresponsible hands. He simply felt that the
  historical record showed governments as being, on the whole, much less
  responsible than humans.
  "Anyway," he said, "under no circumstances would we go looking for a
  fight. I've seen enough combat to last me for several incarnations."
 "But you are serious about goingl" she cried.
  He lifted a palm. "Whoa, please. First describe the situation. Uh, your
  brother's in the Navy, you said, but may I ask what you do?"
  Her tone leveled. I write. When liberation came, I had started to study
  literature at the university here. Afterward I worked some years for a
  news service, but when I had sold a few things of my own, I became a
  free-lance."
  "What do you write? I'm afraid I don't recognize your byline."
  "That is natural. Hyperdrive and hyperwave have not been available so
  long that there goes much
 182      Poul Anderson

 exchange of culture between systems, especially when the societies went
 separate ways while ships were limited by light speed. I make different
 things. Books, articles, scripts. Travel stuff; I like to travel, the same
 as you, and this has gotten me to three other stars so far. Other
 nonfiction. Short stories and plays. Two novels. Four books for young
 children."
 I want to read some . . . whatever happens.
 Saxtorph forbore to ask how she proposed to pay him on a writer's income.
 He couldn't afford a wild gamble that she might regain the family lands.
 Let the question wait.
  Pride spoke: "Therefore you see, Captain, Ib and I are independent. My
  aim-his, if I can persuade him-is for our father's honor. Even about
  that, I admit, nothing is guaranteed. But we must try, must we not? We
  might become what the Nordbos used to be. Or we might become far more
  rich, because whatever it is out yonder is undoubtedly something strange
  and mighty. But such things, if they happen, will be incidental."
  Or we might come to grief, maybe permanently, Saxtorph thought.
  Nonetheless he intended to hear her out. "Okay," he said. "Shall we stop
  maneuvering and get down to the bones of the matter?"
  Her look sought past him, beyond this tavern and this night. Her muted
  monotone flowed on beneath the music. I give you the background first,
  for by themselves my father's notes that I have found are meaningless.
  Peter Nordbo was twelve years old, Earth reckoning, when the kzinti
  appeared. He was the only son of the house, by all accounts a bright and
  adventurous boy. Surely the conquest was a still crueler blow to him than
  to most dwellers on Wunderland.
  "But folk were less touched by it, in that far-off northern district,
  than elsewhere. Travel restrictions, growing shortages of machines and
  supplies, everything forced them into themselves, their own re-
             INCONSTANT STAR     183

 sources. It became almost a ... manorial system, is that the word? Or
 feudal? Children got instruction from what teachers and computer programs
 there were, and from their parents and from life. My father was a gifted
 pupil, but he was also much for sports, and he roamed the wilderness,
 hunted, took his sailboat out to sea
  "Mainly, from such thinly peopled outlying regions, the kzinti required
  tribute. The Landholders must collect this and arrange that it was
  delivered, but they generally did their best to lighten the burden on the
  tenants, who generally understood. Kzinti seldom visited Gerning, our
  part of Skogarna, and then just to hunt in the forests, so little if any
  open conflict happened. When my father reached an age for higher
  education, the family could send him to Munchen, the university.
  "That was a quiet time also here. The humans who resisted had been hunted
  down, and the will to fight was not yet reborn in the younger generation.
  My father passed his student days peaceffilly, except, I suppose, for the
  usual carousals, and no doubt kzincursing behind closed doors. His study
  was astrophysics. He loved the stars. His dream was to go to space, but
  that was out of the question. Unless as slaves for special kzinti
  purposes, no Wunderlanders went any longer. The only Centaurian humans
  in space were Belters, subjugated like us, and Resistance fighters. And
  we never got real news of the fighters, you know. They were dim,
  half-real, mythic gods and heroes. Or, to the collaborationists and the
  quietists, dangerous enemies.
  "Well. My father was ... twenty-five, I think, Earth calendar ... when
  my grandfather died a widower and Peter Nordbo inherited the Landholder-
  ship of Gerning. Dutiful, he put his scientific career aside and returned
  home to take up the load. Presently he married. They were happy together,
  if not otherwise.
 184      Poul Anderson

  "The position grew more and more difficult, you see. First, poverty
  worsened as machinery wore out and could not be replaced. Folk must work
  harder than ever before to stay alive, while the kzinti lessened their
  demands not a bit, which he must enforce. Resentment often went out over
  him. Then later the kzinti established a base in Gerning. It was fairly
  small, mainly a detector station against raids from space, for both the
  Resistance and the Solarians were growing bolder. And it was off in the
  woods, so that personnel could readily go hunting in their loose time. But
  it was there, and it made demands of its own, and now folk met kzinti quite
  commonly, one way or another.
  "That led to humans being killed, some of them horribly. Do you understand
  that my father must put a stop to it? He must deal with the ratcats, make
  agreements, be useful enough that he would have a little influence and be
  granted an occasional favor. Surely he hated it. I was just eight years old
  on your calendar when he left us, but I remember, and from others I have
  heard. He began to drink heavily. He became a bad man to cross, who had
  been so fairminded, and this made him more enemies. He worked off a part of
  the sorrow in physical activity, which might be wildly reckless,
  steeplechasing, hunting tigripards with a spear, sailing or skindiving
  among the skerries. And yet at home he was always kind, always loving-the
  big, handy, strong, sympathetic man, with his songs and jokes and stories,
  who never hurt his children but got much from them because he awaited they
  would give much."
  Saxtorph was smoking too hard; his mouth felt scorched. He soothed it with
  beer. Tyra proceeded:
  "I think he turned a blind eye on whatever underground activities arose in
  Gerning, or that he got wind of elsewhere. He could not risk joining them
  himself. He was all that stood between his folk and the kzinti that could
  devour them. Instead, he must
           INCONSTANT STAR     185

 be the subservient servant, and never scream at the devils gnawing in his
 soul.
  "But I believe the worst devil, because half an angel, was the
  relationship that developed between him and Yiao-Captain. This was the
  space operations officer at the defense base in Gerning. Father found he
  could talk to him, bargain, persuade, better than with any other kzin.
  Naturally, then, Yiao-Captain became the one he often saw and . . .
  cultivated. I am not sure what it was about him that pleased
  Yiao-Captain, although I can guess. But Ib remembers hearing Father
  remark to Mother, more than once, that they were no longer quite master
  and slave, those two, or predator and prey, but almost friends.
  "Of course folk noticed. They wondered. 1, small girl at home, was not
  aware of anything wrong, but later I learned of the suspicions that
  Father had changed from reluctant go-between to active collaborationist.
  It was in the testimony against him, after liberation. "
  Tyra fell silent. The long talk had hoarsened her. She drank deep. Still
  she looked at what Saxtorph had never beheld.
  Gone uneasy, he shifted his weight about, minor though it was on this
  planet, and sought his stein. The beer was as cool and strong as her
  handshake had been. He found words. "What do you think that pair had in
  common?" he asked.
  She shook herself and came back to him. "Astrophysics," she answered.
  "Father's abiding interest, you know. It turned into one of his
  consolations. He built himself an observatory. Piece by piece, year by
  year, he improvised equipment." Humor flickered. "Or scrounged it. Is
  that your American word? Scientists under the occupation were as expert
  scroungers as everybody else." Once more gravely: "He spent much time at
  his instruments. When he had gotten that relationship with
  Yiao-Captain-remember,
 186      Poul Anderson

 he mostly used it to help his tenants, shield them-he arranged for a link
 to a satellite observatory the kzinti maintained. It had military
 purposes, but those involved deep scanning of the heavens, and Father was
 allowed a little time-sharing. " Her voice went slightly shrill. "Was this
 collaboration?"
  "I wouldn't say so," replied Saxtorph, "but I'm not a fanatic. " Nor was
  I here, enduring the ghastlinesses. I was an officer in the UN Navy,
  which was by no means a bad thing to be during the last war years. We
  managed quite a few jolly times.
  With a renewed steadiness that he sensed was hard-held, Tyra continued:
  "It seems clear to me that Yiao-Captain shared Father's interest in
  astrophysics. As far as a kzin would be able to. They are not really
  capable of disinterested curiosity, are they? But Yiao-Captain could not
  have foreseen any important result. I think he gave his petty help and
  encouragement---easy to do in his position-for the sake of the search
  itself.
  "And Father did make a discovery. It was important enough that
  Yiao-Captain arranged for a ship so he could go take a look. Father went
  along. They were never seen again. That was thirty Earth years ago.
  By sheer coincidence, the musician changed to a different tune, brasses
  and an undertone of drums. Saxtorph knew it also. It too was ancient. The
  hair stood up on his arms. "Ich hat' einen kameraten." I had a comrade.
  The army song of mourning.
  "He did not tell us why," Tyra said. The tears would no longer stay
  captive. "He was forbidden. He could only say he must go, and be gone a
  long time, but would always love us. We can only guess what happened."
               3

  The air was rank with kzin smell. The whole compound was, but in this
  room Yiao-Captain's excitement made it overwhelming, practically to choke
  on. He half leaned across his desk, claws out, as if it were an animal
  he had slain and was about to rip asunder. Sunlight through a window
  gleamed off eyes and wet fangs. Orange fur and naked tail stiffened
  erect. The sight terrified those human instincts that remembered the
  tiger and the sabertooth. Although Peter Nordbo had met it before and
  knew that no attack impended-probably---he must summon his courage. He
  was big and muscular, Yiao-Captain was short and slender, yet the kzin
  topped the man by fifteen centimeters, with a third again the bulk and
  twice the weight.
  Words hissed, spat, snarled. "ActionI Adventurel Getting away from this
  wretched outpost. Achievement, honor, a full name. Power gained, maybe,
  to end this dragged-on war at last. And afterwardafterward-- The words
  faded off in an exultant growl.

               187
 188      Poul Anderson

  When he thought he saw a measure of calm, Nordbo dared say, in
  Wunderlander, I don't quite understand, sir. A very interesting
  astronomical phenomenon, which should be studied intensively. I came to
  request your help in getting me authorization toBut that is all. Isn't it,
  sir?" While he knew the Hero's Tongue, he was not allowed to defile it by
  use, especially since his vocal organs inevitably gave it a grotesque
  accent. When he must communicate with a kzin ignorant of his language, he
  used a translator or, absent that, wrote his replies.
  Yiao-Captain sat down again and indicated that Nordbo could do likewise.
  "No, humans are slow to perceive such possibilities," he said. With
  characteristic rapid mood shift, he went patronizing. "I supposed you
  might. You are bold for a monkey. Well, think as best you can. A mysterious
  source of tremendous energy. Study of the stars deepened knowledge of the
  atom, and thus became a key to the development of nuclear weapons. What now
  have you come upon?"
  Nordbo shook his head. His mouth bent upward ruefully in the bushy brown
  beard that was starting to grizzle, below the hook nose. "Scarcely an un-
  known law of nature in operation, sir. What it may be I'd rather not try to
  guess before we have much more data. It does suggest- No, how could it have
  appeared so suddenly, if it were what has crossed my mind? In any case, not
  every scientific discovery finds military applications. Most don't. I can't
  imagine how this one could, five light-years off."
 "You cannot. We shall see."
  "Well, sir, if I get the kind of support I need for further research-"
  Nordbo stopped. Appalled, he stared at the possibility that his eagerness
  had camouflaged from him. Might this really mean a weapon to turn on his
  folk? No. It must not. Please, God, make it impossible.
           INCONSTANT STAR     189

  "You will have better than that," Yiao-Captain purred. "We shall go
  there."
  Have I misheard? Nordbo thought. Even for a kzin, it is crazy. "What?"
  "Yes." Yiao-Captain rose again. His tail switched, his bat's-wing ears
  folded and lay back. He gazed out the window into the sky. "If nothing
  else, maybe that energy source can be transported. Maybe we can fling it
  at the enemy. They may have noticed, too. If they have, they are bound
  to send an expedition sometime. Their peering, prying curiosity- But
  Alpha Centauri is closer to it than Sol by ... three light-years, is that
  a good guess? We shall forestall. I can readily persuade the governor,
  given the information you have brought. And I will be in command."
  Nordbo had risen, too, less out of deference, for he realized that at
  present the kzin wouldn't notice or care, than because he couldn't endure
  being towered over by those devils. It struck him, not for the first
  time, that the reason few households on Wunderland kept cats any longer
  was that their faces were too much like a kzin's. Well, that was far from
  being the only happy thing the conquest had ruined.
 1, 1 wish you would reconsider, sir," he said.
  "Never." The bass voice grew muted. "Our ancestors tamed their planet and
  went to the stars because they had learned that knowledge brings might.
  Shall we dishonor their ghosts?"
  Nordbo moistened his lips. "I mean you personally, sir. We will ... miss
  you. "
  It twisted in him: The damnable part is that that is true. Yiao-Captain
  has never been gratuitously cruel, nor let others be when he had any
  control over them. By his lights, he is kindly. He has helped us directly
  or intervened on our behalf when I showed him the need was dire and there
  would be no loss to his side. He has received me as hospitably as a Hero
  can receive a monkey, and, yes, we have had some fascinating talks, where
  he listened to what I said
 190      Pout Anderson

 and thought about it and gave answers that approached being fair. Why, he
 got me to teach him chess, and if he loses he doesn't fly into a murderous
 rage, only curses and goes outside to work it off in hand-tohand combat
 practice. He likes me, after his fashion, and, confess it, I like him in a
 crooked sort of way, and-what will happen to us in Gerning if he leaves us?
  Yiao-Captain turned his head. Something akin to mirth rasped through his
  words. "Lament not. You are coming along."
  Nordbo took a step backward. The horror was too vast for him to grasp
  immediately. He felt as if he were in a cold maelstrom, whirling down and
  down. His hands lifted. "No," he implored. "Oh, no, no."
  Yiao-Captain refrained from slashing him for presuming to contradict a
  kzin. "Assuredly. You will keep total silence about this, of course." Lest
  a rival, rather than an enemy spy, learn, and move to get the coveted task
  himself. "Hr-r, you may return home, tell your household that you are going
  on a lengthy voyage, and pack what you need for your personal use. Then
  report back here for sequestration until we leave. I want your scientific
  skills." Laughter was a human thing, but a gruff noise vibrated. "And how
  can I do without my chess partner?"
  Nordbo sagged against the wall. He seldom wept, never like this.
  "What, you are reluctant?" Yiao-Captain teased. "You care nothing for
  struggle, gjory, or your very curiosity? Take heart. Your time away shall
  be minimal. I am sure all arrangements can be completed within days."
 A kzin's way of challenge is to scream and leap.
                4

  Tyra wiped furiously at her eyes. "I am, am sorry," she stammered. "I did
  not plan to cry at you."
  No more than a few drops had glistened along those cheekbones. Saxtorph
  half reached to take her hand. No. She might resent that; and after
  snapping once or twice for air, she had regained her balance. Best stay
  prosy. "You think the kzin honcho forced your father to go," he deduced.
  She shrugged, not quite spastically. "Or ordered him. What was the
  difference? He could not tell us anything. If he had, and the kzinti had
  found out-"
  Uh-huh, Saxtorph knew. Children for dinner at the officers' mess. Mother
  to a hunting preserve, unless they didn't reckon she'd make good sport
  and decided on a worse death as a public example. "Ms implies the ratcats
  considered the object important," he said. "Even more does the item that
  it involved an interstellar journey, in those days before hyperdrive and
  with a war under way. It was interstellar, wasn't it?"
               191
 192      Poul Anderson
  "Yes. Father spoke of long years. Also, after the war, investigators got
  two or three eyewitness accounts by humans who worked for the kzinti. They
  had only seen requisition orders, that sort of thing, but it did establish
  that Yiao-Captain and a small crew left for some unrevealed destination in
  a vessel of the Swift Hunter class. Hardly anything else was learned. "
  Saxtorph laid his pipe on the ashtaker rack and rubbed his chin. "You're
  right, kzinti don't do science for the sake of pure knowledge, the way hu-
  mans sometimes do. They want it to help them cope with a universe they see
  as fundamentally hostile, or to win them power. In this case, surely, they
  thought of military potential."
  Tyra nodded. "That is clear." She braced herself. "Father had been excited,
  almost happy. He spoke to several people of a marvelous discovery he had
  made from his observatory. I do not remember that, but I was little, and
  maybe I did not happen to be there. Mother was not interested in science
  and did not understand what he talked of, nor recall it afterward well
  enough to be of any use. Likewise for what servants or tenants heard. Ib
  was at school, he says. Everybody agrees that Father said he must see Yiao-
  Captain about having a thorough study made; the kzinti had the powerful
  instruments and computers, of course. He came home from that and-1 have
  told you." She bit her lip. "The accusation later was that he deliberately
  put the kzinti on the trail of something that might have led them to a new
  weapon, and accompanied them to investigate closer, in hopes of wealth and
  favors."
  "Forgive me," Saxtorph said softly, "but I've got to ask this. Could it
  possibly be true?"
  "No! We, his family, knew him. Year by year we had heard as much of his
  pain as he dared utter, and felt the rest. He loved us. Would he
  free-willingly have left us, for years stretching into decades, what-
             INCONSTANT STAR     193

 ever the payment? No, he simply never thought in terms of helping the
 kzinti in their war, until they did and it was too late for him. But the
 hysteria immediately after liberation-there had been many real
 collaborators, you know. And there were people who paid off grudges by
 accusing other people, andIt was what I think you call a witch hunt.
  "The fact that Peter Nordbo had cooperated, that was not in itself to be
  held against him. Most Landholders did. Taking to the bush was maybe more
  gallant, but then you could not be a thin, battered shield for your folk.
  just the same, this was part of the reason why the new constitution took
  away the special status of the Nineteen Families. And in retrospect, that
  Peter Nordbo gave knowledge to the kzinti and fiLred off with them, that
  was made to make his earlier cooperation look willing, and like more than
  it actually was." Tyra's grip on the table edge drove the blood from her
  fingertips. "Yes, it is conceivable that in his heart he was on their
  side. Impossible, but conceivable. What I want you to find for me,
  Captain Saxtorph, is the truth. I am not afraid of it."
  After a moment, shakily: "Please to excuse me. I should be more
  businesslike." She finished her wine.
  Saxtorph knocked back his beer and rose. "Let me get us refills," he
  suggested. "Care for something stronger?"
  "Thank you. A double Scotch. Water chaser." She managed a smile. "You may
  take you an akvavit this time. I have not much left to tell."
  When he brought the drinks back, she was entirely self-possessed. "Ask
  whatever you want," she invited. "Be frank. I believed my wounds were
  long ago scarred over. What made them hurt again tonight was hope."
  "Don't get yours too high," he advised. "This looks mighty dicey to me.
  And, like your dad, I've got other people to think about before I agree
  to anything."
 194      Poul Anderson

  "Naturally. I would not have approached you if the story of your adventures
  had not proved you are conscientious. "
  He attempted a laugh. "Please. Call 'em my experiences. Adventures are what
  happen to the incompetent. " He sent caraway pungency down his throat and
  a dollop of brew in pursuit. "Okay, let's get cracking again. I gather no
  details about that expedition ever came out." '
  "They were suppressed, obliterated. When the human hyperdrive armada
  arrived and it became clear that the kzinti would lose Alpha Centauri, they
  destroyed all their records and installations that they could, before going
  forth to die in battle. Prisoners and surviving human witnesses had little
  information. About Yiao-Captain's mission, nobody had any, except what I
  mentioned to you. It was secret from the beginning; very few kzinti,
  either, ever knew about it."
  "No report to the home world till success was assured. Nor when Wunderland
  was fidling. They were smart bastards; they foresaw our new craft would
  hunt for every such beam, overtake it, read it, and jam it beyond
  recovery."
  I know. Ib has described to me the effect of fitster-than-light travel on
  intelligence operations."
  Her grasp of practical things was akin to Dorcas', Saxtorph thought. "When
  did the ship leave?" he asked.
  "It was--- Now I am forgetting your calendar. it was ten Earth-years before
  liberation."
  "And whatever messages she'd sent back were wiped fi-om the databases at
  that time, and whatever kzinti knew the content died fighting. She never
  returned, and after the liberation no word came fi-om her."
  "The general explanation was---is--that it and the crew perished." In
  bitterness, Tyra added, "Fortunately, they say."
 "But if she did not, then she probably got news of
           INCONSTANT STAR     195

 the defeat. A beam cycled through the volume of her possible trajectories
 could be read across several lightyears, and wasn't in a direction humans
 would likely search. What then would her captain do?" Saxto addressed his
 beer. "Never mind for now. I'd speculating far in advance of the facts.
 You say you have come upon some new ones?"
  "Old ones." Her voice dropped low. "Thirty years old. "
 He waited.
  She folded her hands on the table, looked at him straight across it, and
  said, "A few months ago, Mother died. She was never well since Father
  left. As surrogate Landholder, she was not really able to cope with the
  dreadful task. She did her best, I grew up seeing how she struggled, but
  she had not his skills, or his special relationship with a ranking kzin,
  or just his physical strength. So she ... yielded ... more than he had
  done. This caused her to be called a collaborator, when the kzinti were
  safely gone, and retrospectively it blackened Father's name worse,
  but-she was let go, to live out her life on what property the court had
  no legal right to take away from us. It is productive, and Ib found a
  good supervisor, so she was not in poverty. Nor wealthy. But how alonel
  We did what we could, Ib and I and her true fiiends, but it was not much,
  and never could we restore Father to her. She was brave, kept busy, and
  ... dwindled. Her death was peacefid. I closed her eyes. The physician's
  verdict was general debility leading to cardiac failure.
  "Ib has his duties, while I can set my own working hours. Therefore it
  was I who remained at Korsness, to make arrangements and put things in
  order. I went through the database, the papers, the remembrances, and at
  the bottom of a drawer, under layers of his clothes that she had kept,
  I found Father's last notebook from the observatory."
 Air whistled in between Saxtorph's teeth. "Includ- 196      Poul Anderson

 ing the data on that thing? jesu Kristil Didn't he know how dangerous it was
 for his family to have?"
  "He may have fbrgotten, in his emotional storm. I think likelier, however,
  he hid it there himself. No human would have reason to go through that
  drawer for many years. He knew Mother would not empty it. 11

  "M-M, yah. And if nothing made them suspicious, the kzinti wouldn't search
  the house. Beneath their dignity, pawing through monkey stuff. And they
  never have managed to understand how humans feel about their families. Yah.
  Nordbo, your dad, he may very well have left those notes as a kind Of
  heritage; because if you've given me a proper account of him, and I believe
  you have, then he had not given up the hope of freedom at last fbr his
  people."
  A couple of fresh tears trembled on her lashes but went no farther. "You
  understand," she whispered.
  Enthusiasm leaped in him. "Well, what did the book say?"
  I did not know at once. It took reviewing of science from school days. I
  dared not ask anybody else. It could be-undesirable."
  Okay, Saxtorph thought, if he turned out to have been a traitor after all,
  why not suppress the information? What harm, at this late date? I don't
  suppose it'd have changed your love of him and his memory. You're that kind
  of person.
  ., What he found," Tyra said, "was a radiation source in Tigripardus." Most
  constellations bear the same names at Alpha Centauri as at Sol-4bur and a
  third light-years being a distance minuscule in the enormousness of the
  galaxy-but certain changes around the line between them have been
  inevitable. "It was faint, requiring a sensitive detector, and would have
  gone unnoticed had he not happened to study that exact part of the sky.
  This was in the course of a systematic, years-long search for small
  anomalies. They might indicate stray monopoles, or antimatter
           INCONSTANT STAR     197

 concentrations, or other such peculiarities, which in turn might give
 clues about the evolution of the wholem But I explain too much, no?
  "The radiation seemed to be from a point source. It consisted of
  extremely high-energy gamma rays. The spectrum suggested particles were
  being formed and annihilated. This indicated an extraordinary energy
  density. With access to the automated monitors the kdnti kept throughout
  this system, Father quickly got the parallax. The object was about five
  light-years away. That meant the radiation at the source was
  fantastically intense. I can show you the figures later, if you wish."
 "I do," Saxtorph breathed. "Oh, I do."
  "He checked through the astronomical databases, too," she went on.
  "Archival material from Sol, and studies made here before the war, showed
  nothing. This was a new thing, a few years old at most."
 "And since then, evidently, it's turned off."
  "Yes. As I told you, Ib got a Navy observer to look at the area, on a
  pretext. Nothing unusual."
  "Curiouser and curiouser. Any idea what it might be, or have been?"
 "I am a layman. My guesses are worthless."
  "Don't be humble. I'm not. Hm-m-m ... No, this is premature, at least
  till I've seen those numbers. Clearly, Yiao-Captain guessed at
  potentialities that made it worth taking a close look, and persuaded his
  superiors. "
  Saxtorph clutched the handle of his mug and stared down as if it were an
  oracular well. "Ten years plus, either way," he muttered. "That's what
  I'd estimate trip time as, from what I recall of the Swift Hunter class
  and know about kzinti style. Sparing even a single ship and crew for
  twenty-odd years, when every attack on Sol was ending in expensive defeat
  and we'd begun making our own raids--uh-huh. A gamble, but maybe for
  almighty big stakes."
 "And the ship never came back," Tyra reminded
 198      Pout Anderson

 him. "A ten-year crossing, do you reckon? It should have reached the goal
 about when the hyperdrive armada got here to set us free. Surely the kzinti
 sent it word of that. The news would have been received five years later.
 Sooner, if the ship was en route home." Or not at all if the ship was dead,
 Saxtorph thought. "Then what? I cannot imagine a kzin commander staying on
 course, to surrender at journey's end. He might have tried to arrive
 unexpectedly and crash his ship on Wunderland, a last act of terrible
 vengeance, but that would have happened already."
  "More speculation," Saxtorph said. "What's needed is facts."
 A sword being drawn could have spoken her "Yes."
  "Who've you told about this, besides your brother and me?" Saxtorph asked.
  "Nobody, and I swore him to secrecy. If nothing else, we must think first,
  undisturbed, he and 1. He sounded out high officers, and decided they would
  not believe our father's notes are genuine, when their observatory
  contradicts."
  "M-m, I dunno. They know the kzinti went after something. "
 "It can have been something quite different."
  "still, these days a five-light-year jaunt is no great shakes. Include it
  in a training cruise or whatever."
  "And as for finding out the truth about our fitther, which is Ib's and my
  real purpose-they would not care.
 "Again, I wonder. I want to talk with 1b."
  'Of course, if you are serious. But can you not see, if we give this matter
  over to the authorities, it goes entirely out of our hands? They will never
  allow us to do anything more."
 "That is fairly plausible."
  "If you, though, an independent observer, if you verify that this is real
  and important, then we cannot be denied. The public will insist on a
  complete investigation.
           INCONSTANT STAR     199

  A decent cause, and a decent chunk of muchneeded money. Too many loose
  ends. However, Saxtorph flattered himself that he could recognize a genuine
  human being when he met one. "I'll have to know a lot more, and ring in my
  partners, et cetera, et cetera," he declared. "Right now, I can just say
  I'll be glad to do so."
  "It is a plentyl" Her tone rejoiced. "Thank you, Captain, a thousand
  thanks. Skaall" When they had clinked rims, she tossed off an astonishing
  draught.
  It didn't make her drunk. Perhaps it helped bring ease, and a return of
  vivacity. "I had my special reason for meeting you like this, she said. Her
  smile challenged. "Before entrusting you with my dream, I wanted we should
  be face to face, alone, and I get the measure of you."
  Yes, occasionally he had made critical decisions in which his personal
  impression of somebody was a major factor.
  "We shall hold further discussion, and you bring your wife-your whole crew,
  if you wish," Tyra said. "Tonight, I think, we have talked enough. About
  this. But must you leave at once?"
  "Well, no," he answered, more awkwardly than was his wont.
  They conversed, and listened to the music that most of humankind had
  forgotten, and swapped private memories, and drank, and she was a sure and
  supple dancer. Nothing wrong took place. Still, it was a good thing for
  Saxtorph that when he got back to his hotel, Dorcas was awake and in the
  mood.
               5

  Swordbeak emerged from hyperspace and accelerated toward the Father Sun. A
  warcraft of the Raptor class, lately modified to accommodate a superluminal
  drive, it moved fitster than most, agilely responsive to the thrust of its
  gravity polarizers. Watchers in space saw laser turrets and missile
  launchers silhouetted against the Milky Way, sleek as the plumage of its
  namesake, overwhelmingly deadlier than the talons. It identified itself to
  their satisfaction and passed onward. Messages flew to and fro. When the
  vessel reached Kzin, a priority orbit around the planet was preassigned it.
  Weoch-Captain took a boat straight down to Defiant Warrior Base. Thence he
  proceeded immediately to the lair of Ress-Chiuu. A proper escort waited
  there.
  The High Admiral received him in the same room as before. Now, however, a
  table had been set with silver goblets of drink and golden braziers of
  sweet, mildly psychotropic incense. In the blood trough at the middle a
  live zianya lay bound. Its muzzle had
               200