Man-Kzin Wars XIII by Larry Niven; Alex Hernandez

Author:Larry Niven; Alex Hernandez
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, Space Opera, Adventure, General
ISBN: 9781451638165
Publisher: Baen
Published: 2012-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

2412 BCE: Subject age—sixteen years

Selena stepped off the transport: the chill Far South Sea wind set her teeth on edge. Hap was waiting, staring at the endless inbound waves, the serried ranks of breakers making a perpetually futile assault upon the scree-lined coast. Well, perpetual as far as we humans measure time, she thought.

As she approached, he stood and his fur rumpled in glad greeting. “Welcome to Campbell Island, Selena. It is good to see you.”

My Hap has grown up. His voice was level and calm. Years of intensive reading, viewing, and study had put a high polish on his diction: had he been a human, he would have been called urbane. “It’s good to see you, too, Hap.”

He waved at the one tilting streetlamp perched just beyond the high-tide waters: it had already been old when the last of the whalers had abandoned the island in the twentieth century. It was a true museum piece now. “We can have our chat in the shadows of the one remaining sign of human habitation, if you’d like.”

Selena considered the rust-eaten metal pole and shook her head. “I’m fine here. Still enjoying your freedom?”

He looked around. “Yes. And no. The constant buzzing of your observation drones really does spoil the illusion of solitude and self-determination. Then again, so do your monthly shipments of my new opponents and prey. But I am grateful: without them, I’d lose too many of my skills. About which. . .”

She waited for him to resume; he did not. “What about your skills?”

“Is it true that the project’s overseers intend to send me along with the return mission to Wunderland?”

She shrugged. “That’s their intent.”

“And what about the rumors of a faster-than-light drive: are those accurate as well?”

Selena considered. Technically, she had been asked not to reveal the details on this bit of information, that the hyperdrive craft from We Made It was not merely a hopeful rumor but a fact. But just who was Hap going to tell? And honesty was, as she had always claimed, the best policy. “Yes; the stories about the hyperdrive are real.”

“Then I will accompany your human fleet to Alpha Centauri, at such time as it is ready.”

Selena felt the cold air rush in her open mouth. She didn’t care. “You’re serious.”

“Of course I am. I would not waste your time, summoning you out to the ends of the Earth as a joke.” He reflected. “I do not think my pranks were ever that inconsiderate. . . were they?”

“No, no.” She couldn’t even remember anything she’d rightly call a prank: Hap had found ways to circumvent authority and security on occasions—the scars on his ribcage were a reminder of that—but a “prank” implied frivolity. Frivolity had never been one of Hap’s traits. “I’m just surprised. Why the sudden change of heart?”

“There is nothing sudden about it. I just have not been willing to speak about my ‘change of heart’ as you call it, until now.”

“And how long have you been ruminating on this?”

“Before your last trip here, when you told me about the readying of the fleet.

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