Ringworld - Larry Niven Page 0,7
met a puppeteer who was not mad in the judgment of his own species. No alien has ever seen the puppeteer world, and no sane puppeteer would trust his very life to the fallible life-support system of a spacecraft, or the unknown and possibly deadly dangers of an alien world.”
“A mad puppeteer, a full grown kzin, and me. Our fourth crew member had better be a psychiatrist.”
“No, Louis, none of our candidates are psychiatrists.”
“Well, why not?”
“I did not select at random.” The puppeteer sucked at its bulb with one mouth and talked with the other. “First, there was myself. Our proposed voyage is intended to benefit my species; hence we must include a representative. Such a one should be mad enough to face an unknown world, yet sane enough to use his intellect to survive. I, as it happens, am just on the borderline.
“We had reason to include a kzin. Speaker-To-Animals, what I tell you now is secret. We have been observing your species for some considerable time. We knew of you even before you attacked humanity.”
“Well that you did not show yourselves,” rumbled the kzin.
“Doubtless. At first we deduced that the kzinti species was both useless and dangerous. Lines of research were initiated to determine whether your species could be exterminated in safety.”
“I will tie your necks in a bow knot.”
“You will commit no violence.”
The kzin stood up.
“He’s right,” said Louis. “Sit down, Speaker. You don’t stand to profit by murdering a puppeteer.”
The kzin sat down. Again his hassock did not collapse.
“The project was cancelled,” said Nessus. “We found that the Man-Kzin wars put sufficient restriction on kzinti expansion, made you less dangerous. We continued to watch.
“Six times over several centuries, you attacked the worlds of men. Six times you were defeated, having lost approximately two-thirds of your male population in each war. Need I comment on the level of intelligence displayed? No? In any case, you were never in real danger of extermination. Your nonsentient females were largely untouched by war, so that the next generation helped to replace the numbers lost. Still, you steadily lost an empire you had built up over thousands of years.
“It became apparent to us that the kzinti were evolving at a furious rate.”
“Evolving?”
Nessus snarled a word in the Hero’s Tongue. Louis jumped. He had not suspected that the puppeteer’s throats could do that.
“Yes,” said Speaker-To-Animals, “I thought that was what you said. But I do not understand the application.”
“Evolution depends on the survival of the fittest. For several hundred kzin years, the fittest of your species were those members with the wit or the forbearance to avoid fighting human beings. The results are apparent. For nearly two hundred kzin years there has been peace between man and kzin.”
“But there would be no point! We could not win a war!”
“That did not stop your ancestors.”
Speaker-To-Animals gulped at his hot bourbon. His tail, naked and pink and ratlike, lashed in turmoil.
“Your species has been decimated,” said the puppeteer. “All kzinti alive today are descended from those who avoided death in the Man-Kzin wars. Some among us speculate that the kzinti now have the intelligence or the empathy or the self-restraint necessary to deal with races alien to them.”
“And so you risk your life to travel with a kzin.”
“Yes,” said Nessus, and shivered all over. “My motivation is strong. It has been implied that if I can demonstrate the worth of my courage, by using it to perform a valuable service for my species, I will be allowed to breed.”
“Hardly a firm commitment,” said Louis.
“Then there is other reason to take a kzin. We will face strange environments hiding unknown dangers. Who will protect me? Who would be better equipped than a kzin?”
“To protect a puppeteer?”
“Does that sound insane?”
“It does,” said Speaker-To-Animals. “It also appeals to my sense of humor. What of this one, this Louis Wu?”
“For us there has been much profitable cooperation with men. Naturally we choose at least one human. Louis Gridley Wu is a proven survival type, in his casual, reckless way.”
“Casual he is, and reckless. He challenged me to single combat.”
“Would you have accepted, had not Hroth been present? Would you have harmed him?”
“To be sent home in disgrace, having caused a major interspecies incident? But that is not the point,” the kzin insisted. “Is it?”
“Perhaps it is. Louis is alive. You are now aware that you cannot dominate him through fear. Do you believe in results?”
Louis maintained a discreet silence. If the puppeteer wanted to give him credit for