Ringworld

The puppeteer's heads reared like snakes to show his astonishment. His voice was without inflection, as usual. "What are you talking about?"

"The First War with Men. Starseed lures. The Outsider hyperdrive shunt."

A triangular head dipped out of sight. Louis watched a silver flycycle drop out of formation, and knew it was Nessus.

He was not terribly worried. The other two flycycles looked like silver midges, so far away were they, and so far apart. If the fight had taken place on the ground, someone could have been seriously hurt. Up here, what could happen? The puppeteer's flycycle had to be faster than Speaker's. Nessus would have seen to that. He would have made certain he could outrun a kzin when necessary.

Except that the puppeteer wasn't fleeing. He was looping around at Speaker's 'cycle.

"I do not wish to kill you," said Speaker-To-Animals. "If you intend to attack from the air, you should remember that the range of your tasp may be less than the range of the Slaver digging beam. SNARL!"

The kzinti killing yell was blood-freezing. Louis's muscles locked in position, as with tetanus. He was only dimly aware of the silver dot that looped away from Speaker's cycle.

But he did notice Teela's look of open-mouthed admiration.

"I do not intend to kill you," Speaker-To-Animal add more calmly. "But I will have answers, Nessus. We know that your race can guide starseeds."

"Yes," said Nessus. His 'cycle was receding to port at improbable speed. The feral calm of the aliens was an illusion. It existed only because Louis Wu could not read expression in an alien face, and because the aliens could not put human expression into the Interworld language.

Nessus was fleeing for his life, but the kzin had not left his place in formation. He said, "I will have answers, Nessus."

"You have guessed correctly," said the puppeteer. "Our investigation of safe methods to exterminate the vicious, carnivorous kzinti showed that your species has a high potential, that you could conceivably be of use to us. We took steps to evolve you to the point where you could deal peaceably with races alien to you. Our methods were indirect, and very safe."

"Very. Nessus, I am not happy."

"Neither am I," said Louis Wu.

He had not missed the fact that both aliens were still speaking Interworld. They could have had privacy by using the Hero's Tongue. They had preferred to include the humans — and quite rightly, for it was Louis Wu's quarrel, too.

"You used us," he said. "You used us just as thoroughly as you used the kzinti."

"But to our detriment," Speaker objected.

"A number of men were killed in the Man-Kzin Wars."

"Louis, get off his back!" Teela Brown entered the lists of battle. "Tanjit, if it hadn't been for the puppeteers, we'd all be kzinti slaves! They kept the kzinti from destroying civilization!"

Speaker smiled and said, "We had a civilization, too."

The puppeteer was a silent, ghostly image, a one-eyed python poised to strike. Presumably the other mouth was steering his 'cycle, which by now was a good distance away.

"The puppeteers used us," said Louis Wu. "They used us as a tool, a tool to evolve the kzinti."

"But it worked!" Teela insisted.

The sound was almost a snore, a low and ominous snarl. By now nobody could have mistaken Speaker's expression for a smile.

"It did work!" Teela flared. "You're a peaceful race now, Speaker. You can get along with -"

"Be silent, man!"

"With your equals," she finished generously. "You haven't attacked another species in -"

The kzin produced the modified Slaver digging tool and held it before the intercom so that Teela could see it. She stopped talking suddenly.

"It could have been us," said Louis.

He had their attention. "It could have been us," he repeated. "If the puppeteers had wanted to breed humans for some trait …" He stopped. "Oh," he said. "Teela. Sure."

The puppeteer did not react.

Teela shifted under Louis's stare. "What's the matter, Louis? Louis!"

"Sorry. Something just occurred to me … Nessus, speak to us. Speak to us of the Fertility Laws."

"Louis, have you gone crazy?"

"Uurrr," said Speaker-to-Animals. "I would have thought of that myself, given time. Nessus?"

"Yes," said Nessus.

The puppeteees 'cycle was a silver mote, still dwindling to port. It was almost lost against a larger, vaguer bright point ahead, somewhat more distant from the fleet than any two points can be on Earth. The puppeteees intercom image wore the unchanging, unreadable silly face produced by a flat triangular skull and loose, prehensile lips. He could not look dangerous, this one.

"You meddled with the Fertility Laws of Earth."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"We like humans. We trust humans. We have dealt profitably with humans. It is to our advantage to encourage humans, since they will certainly reach the Lesser Cloud before we do."

"Wonderful. You like us. So?"

"We sought to improve you genetically. But what should we improve? Not your intelligence. Intelligence is not your great strength. Nor is your sense of self-preservation, nor your durability, nor your fighting talents."

"So you decided to make us lucky," said Louis. And he began to laugh.

Teela got it then. Her eyes went round and horrified. She tried to say something, but it came out as a squeak.

"Of course," said Nessus. "Please stop laughing, Louis. The decision was sensible. Your species has been incredibly lucky. Your history reads like a series of hair-breath escapes, from intraspecies atomic war, from pollution of your planet with industrial wastes, from ecological upsets, from dangerously massive asteroids, from the vagaries of your mildly variable sun, and even from the Core explosion, which you discovered only by the merost accident. Louis, why are you still laughing?"

Louis was still laughing because he was looking at Teela. Teela was blushing furiously. Her eyes shifted as if seeking a place to hide. It is not pleasant to realize that one is part of a genetics experiment.

"And so we changed the Fertility Laws of Earth. It was surprisingly easy. Our withdrawal from known space caused a stock market crash. Economic manipulation ruined several members of the Fertility Board. We bribed some of these, blackmailed others with the threat of debtor's prison, then used corruption in the Fertility Board as publicity to force a change. It was a hideously expensive undertaking, but quite safe, and partially successful. We were able to introduce the Birthright Lotteries. We hoped to produce a strain of unusually lucky humans."

"Monster!" Teela shouted. "Monster!"

Speaker had sheathed his Slaver digging tool. He said, "Teela, you did not complain when you learned that the puppeteers had manipulated the heredity of my race. They sought to produce a docde kzin To that end they bred us as a biologist breeds stheets, killing the defectives, keeping others. You gloated that this crime was to the benefit of your species. Now you complain. Why?"

Teela, weeping with rage, cut herself out of the intercom.

"A docile kzin," Speaker repeated. "You sought to produce a docile kzin, Nessus. If you think you have produced a docile kzin, come and rejoin us."

The puppeteer did not answer. Somewhere far ahead of the fleet, the silver point of his 'cycle had become too small to see.

"You do not wish to rejoin our fleet? But how can I protect you from this unknown land unless you rejoin the fleet? But I do not blame you. You do well to be wary," said the kzin. His claws were showing, needle-sharp and slightly curved. "Your attempt to produce a lucky human was also a failure."

"No," said Nessus via intercom. "We produced lucky humans. I could not contact them for this ill-fated expedition. They were too lucky."