United States or Tuvalu ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
"They had been transported to Ondrian more than ten thousand years ago by beings they called simply the Others, who had discovered the cloudcats' sun was about to go nova. The cats elected to stay in the same stellar neighborhood, but according to them the Others were preparing to embark on a racial expedition of their own, one of considerable magnitude.
Part of their bargain for certain human rights on their planet, Ondrian, was their right to travel on Imperial Navy ships any time. I suppose you could call them observers." "They intelligent are?" Tarlac could hear astonishment even in the original questioner's voice. "Of course. Didn't anyone tell you?" Then he realized they probably hadn't asked.
Among his other accomplishments, he was responsible for both the successful human-Irschchan settlement of Ondrian and the end of the Sandeman Incursion in Sector Five, which resulted in Subsector Sandeman's joining the Empire." "Which in turn led to a high percentage of their warriors in the Imperial military or serving as contract police forces on various worlds," Thark said.
Ranger Tarlac has told you of the Imperial policy regarding governments which already exist on inhabited planets, has he not?" "Yes, Your Majesty. The Irschchan system is still ruled by their White Order, and the cloudcats of Ondrian have kept their own ways. Those, however, are local governments. Our civilization, like yours, is interstellar in scope."
There was a soft murmur, this time sounding sympathetic, and the next question was on an entirely different subject. "The furred four-footers with two tongues what purpose serve they?" "Cloudcats? You must have captured some, yeah." Ondrian hadn't been involved in any of the fighting, but cloudcats roamed all through the Empire. "They don't serve a purpose.
The first Ondrian colonists had thought the cloudcats unintelligent predators; why shouldn't the Traiti have assumed the same thing, or maybe decided they were pets? "Yes, they're intelligent. They can't talk; they use their tongues for gestural communication, and to handle things. They're outstanding artists, too."
"And I would appreciate hearing about both with the information you have that Imperial newscasts probably left out because humans would take it as a given," Thark said. Kainor sighed, something a number of Irschchans had picked up since meeting humans. "Very well. The Ondrian situation, then.
The Ondrian affair, with his new friend Star-flower playing a large part, and a wry thought that he kept getting involved with cats in one form or another. The crisis in Sector Five when Sandeman erupted, conquering half that Sector before its Duke realized she couldn't handle them and called for Imperial help.
Without a Traiti's natural armor, he'd have to depend on luck and brains to avoid that fate. He couldn't help wishing he could turn a shipload of biologists loose on this planet. Irschcha and Ondrian were the homeworlds of the other two intelligent Imperial races, yet a Terran without specialized medical preparation beforehand would die within a few days, trying to survive in either's wilderness.
Word Of The Day