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near-occupation by
Master System. Some of them might well cherish the idea of really helping
embarrass the bastards-if they didn't know the theft was for real. Any chance
of doing it the easy way? Cutting in the C.A., for example?"
"Dubious. Any chance we might have had left when Master System placed its own
personnel down there. The chief administrator is first and foremost a survivor
with self-interest paramount. No, we will have to steal it, and that brings up
the first and certainly not the last of the nasty problems we will face."
Hawks sighed. "You have a plan and personnel in mind?"
"I have both, but let me work on it further. I will also need supplementary
information for Vulture. Make no mistake, though. There is no getting around
the fact that we will require at least some of our people as Janipurians if we
are to get close enough to this to even have a crack at it. Others, with their
own innate abilities, might not need anything drastic, but will require more
than
Vulture's help to get where they are needed. It appears clear now that the
late
Arnold Nagy provided us with the ones best equipped for this particular job. I
am merely building off his obvious intent with others he did not anticipate."
"I know. Damn it, it shouldn't be now, not for them. Later, perhaps-you are
sure that full transmutation is the only way?"
"Hawks, think of it from the basis of what you know. Back at North American
Center, what would be the chance of, say, the Kaotan crew sneaking in, looking
over and examining Security areas in detail, inside and out, while they were
open, then breaking in, stealing something, and getting out and away? Even if
they had a senior Security official on their side? Now add ten precent Master
System forces-and you can bet a Val is somewhere around to call the shots-and
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you see the problem."
The leader of the pirate band sighed again and nodded. "You're right. And in
that case some excuse could be made for an open colonial visit-and they still
wouldn't be able to do it because they would be watched like, well, hawks
around the chickens."
"We are stuck. They were obviously provided to help solve this particular
problem. We may try it without them, but we would be crippled if we did."
"I agree. I'll start easing into discussing it with them. In the meantime, do
you have anything visual on what these Janipurians look like? I think I'd
better know what I'm asking before I ask it."
"Come up to the bridge. I haven't any such data from Vulture, but I have some
recordings from Indrus's files."
He went on up and found several members of the various crews there working at
some of the consoles, and Raven, cigar stuck in the side of his mouth, trying
to
look as if he were busy too. But when Star Eagle put up a picture of a
Janipurian, all turned and stared.
"What the hell is that?" Raven asked.
The creature was more animal than human, yet it had some very human gestures.
The face, light tan in coloration, was large and humanoid, although the nose
had flap-covered nostrils, was too large and wide, and its porous skin
glistened with dampness like many animal noses; the mouth seemed too wide and
the chin too small, giving the face a blocky shape. The pointed ears were
upright and seemed to be on a swivellike socket, able to turn in any
direction. Most inhuman were the eyes, which were large, round bulges.
The whole body was covered in very short but thick hair. The torso was
tapered, thinner near the thick neck than at the rear and shaped more like
that of a four-footed animal than a bipedal human. The arms, too, were more
like forelegs, and the hands, on incredibly thick wrists, were enormous, the
fingers and thumb long and pointed and looking deceptively boneless. And from
the back of each hand grew an enormous, thick prominence that looked hard as
steel. The creature was standing more or less erect on its two feet, although
it gave the appearance of being slightly bent over, as if ready to launch into
a four-footed run.
Arms and legs looked to be of equal length, and the feet had huge, splayed
toes with deep, curved nails that seemed to dig into the ground. Again, on the
back of the ankles there was that same steellike growth. Some kind of brief
protective bit of clothing was draped above the thick, animalistic thighs, but
there was no hiding the fact that the creature was a male.
"If that thing can walk like that, I'll eat it," Raven mumbled.
A young woman, one of the crew from the Indrus, laughed. "They do not walk
like that, you are right," she said. "The hands and balancing feet curl up,
leaving the hooves for moving and running. They are quite fast, in fact. They
do get around upright when inside, though, if they have something to hold on
to or the distance to go is very short. Do not let it fool you, though. The
hands are quite dexterous, and the people are excellent artisans. Those claws
can also rip someone open with one try, and they can wield weapons with deadly
accuracy.
They do not see very well at all at night, but always their sense of smell and
their hearing is far better than ours."
Hawks shivered. What am I asking someone to do? he couldn't help thinking. Do
I
have the right to even ask!
"You said 'weapons,'" Raven noted, not encumbered by such a duty. "Do they
hunt or have prey?"
"Oh, no. They are vegetarians, strictly. Their mouths move more side to side,
and their teeth are flat and big. Their design is based primarily on the fact
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that they came from a culture that was highly vegetarian to begin with-
although not all-and this world developed warm as mostly grasslands, desert,
and mountains. The grasslands can support a large population, but there are
limits, so the system added some rather nasty predators once native to their
old region-such as tigers-to maintain a balance in the early days. Today,
however, most of the predators are strictly controlled and only occasionally
escape from royal preserves. Much of the central grasslands is intensively
farmed now, you see-those claws can also till soil. They have some domestic
animals to aid them, but their tools are basically wood and stone. Useful
metal is rare and prized there, and we traded a fair amount of it."
Hawks tried to put his more personal concerns from his mind and concentrate on
the problem at hand. If Cochin Center was anything like North American Center,
and he thought it probably was, its floors would be of smooth, hard
synthetics.
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