If that wasn’t enough, I was certainly in range of their main laser array. It was designed to punch messages across light years, but was equally suited to vaporizing unwanted visitors.
I took another sip of warm flat water and got to work. The singleship computer quickly gave me a fix on the transmitter they were using. Standard five-meter mica dish setup, tucked into the back third of the slowboat. Snug in its prowbay, a phased array. The modulated laserlink was standard too, at 420 nanometers. I tweaked my signal laser frequency to that wavelength and targeted the dish in the crosshairs. I thumbed on the data handshake subroutine. My own signal laser hunted a bit, then settled on the dish array. Lock-and I was still alive.
Communications data flashed across the main screens, and a low tone sounded. Transmission datalink belted in.
It was time to move to the next act.
I thumbed the channel open. Weak color, jittery fuzz all over. But it showed a youngish man with the idiotic asymmetric beard worn by Herrenmann dandies back in Munchen on Wunderland. Either he had been in coldsleep for most of the trip or he had carried along a supply of very expensive anti-aging drugs.
After all, they had been en route for over thirty-five years. His face was immobile with the typical arrogant expression of the ruling class, the Nineteen Families. Prunefaced and straight backed in his crashcouch. That asshole expression was no longer common in Munchen, even on collaborationist faces. Things had changed, courtesy of our kzin masters.
Come on. Can’t let any of that show. A lot is riding on this. I forced my expression into a friendly smile. The hybrid Germanic tongue of Wunderland nobility sliding easily across my lips. “Guten Gross-Tag, Herrenmann. Ich heissen…”
“There is no cause,” he interrupted, “to speak Wunderlander.” His eyes were hard and proud and suspicious. No trace of an accent in his clipped voice. “You are clearly a Serpent Swarmer, and should not put on airs to which you are not entitled. Speak Belter Standard, if you please.”
“As you wish.” I smiled. Arrogant fool. How would he like his children to become hunt-toys for some kzin noble’s young sons? “I was merely going to introduce myself in a polite fashion.”
I paused and waited for my haughty little friend to gesture me to continue. “My name is Karl Friedrich Hochte. I bring you good news.”
Fake, of course. My real name would have surprised him, made him instantly suspicious. So I had selected another good noble name to reassure the Herrenmann crew of the Feynman. An extended member of the Nineteen Families, by the sound of it. Just the kind of purse-mouthed dandy who’d use his middle name when introducing himself A convincing little touch, that. Maybe.
He was good, I had to give him that much. No hint of curiosity as to how I had arrived at his slowboat, only a little over half a light-year from Sol. Even his long Herrenmann ears did not twitch.
“My name is Klaus Bergen,” he replied, still expressionless. “You were mentioning news? I remind you that we do have defenses.”
I leaned forward. Earnest expression, enthusiastic. “Klaus, my friend, we beat them.”
“Impossible.”
Okay, so he wasn’t profoundly stupid. “We were lucky Most of them left-we still aren’t sure why-and we took the garrison force they left behind. And most of us died. But we did it, drove them out of Wunderlander space.”
Now Bergen’s ears twitched with interest. He raised a haughty eyebrow in disbelief. Might as well stick to the prepared story I figured. Don’t improvise more than you have to. “And we follow them all the way, flaming their rat tails as we go, I can assure you.”
“You exaggerate, surely.” His eyes were flat and hard.
“It’s true,” I insisted. “I have come out to Feynman on behalf of the rest of Wunderland. We cracked the secret of the ratcat gravitic polarizer drive, and the Serpent Swarm Resistance” -I paused and patted my control console affectionately- “learned to build warcraft of our own to match the tabbies. There were a lot more of us than of them, after all.”
There was a long pause. Here was the worst point, if he didn’t buy it…
Bergen stared, still without expression other than a cocked eyebrow He looked to one side, out of range of his camera eye, and listened intently. He nodded once and turned back to me.
“You will understand our suspicions.” The same clipped, up-yours tone, but a hint of excitement got through. Good. “I presume that you have proofs for our inspection.”
I grinned harmlessly, gesturing behind me at the cramped lifebubble. “Herr Bergen, you can see that Victrix is unarmed, and I am the sole occupant. Even now I am at your mercy, my friend. A larger ship waits farther out to install a gravitic drive and make other modifications to Feynman. We felt that Victrix would be less threatening, so I came to you as an emissary”
I held back a grimace at the way the words tasted. There was at least a kernel of truth in what I said.
The Herrenmann said nothing. I was getting worried. “After all,” I continued, “you’re poking along. Once Feynman is retrofitted, you can be at Sol in a matter of weeks.”
He blinked. It must be pretty foul in there. The prospect of reaching Earth’s opulence so soon… That’s what I had working for me. Herrenmannen will be Herrenmannen.
I changed the subject “As for bonafides, I would think that Victrix’s own gravitic polarizer would be proof enough. But I do have holos and datadisks for your inspection, sir. They detail our victories against the ratcats.”
“I would like to see them,” replied my arrogant little friend across the empty kilometers. He did not sound convinced.
Time to play my trump card.
As if on sudden impulse I laid it down. “I do have one further piece of evidence you may find more persuasive,” I said in a carefully cheerful tone, reaching into the clear organiform bag I had kept clipped next to my crashcouch. “Or, more accurately, pieces of evidence.”
Smiling into the camera eye, I held up the engraved metal ring. Dozens of mummified kzinti ears swung gently in the slight breeze from the airplant ventilator gull. I selected one ear in particular, stretching it like an old fashioned Chinese parasol, displaying the crimson tattoos scrawled across the dried white tissue.
“Hen-Bergen, my friend, you are familiar the tabby rank? This particular ear was taken from a fleet captain, as you can see from the tattoo pattern.” I paused, flicking the edge of the ear with a finger for emphasis. “He did not approve of its removal, but I was indifferent to his remonstrations.”
Again, I had not lied.
Bergen’s voice was hoarse, and no longer haughty “How many do you have on that trophy ring?”
I could see many emotions in his eyes, thawing of Herrenmann reserve. They had not left the dried ears.
“Thirty-one. And your unspoken guess is quite correct, as well. It’s a kzin trophy ring.”
“How could you possibly-”
“Taken from yet another ratcat captain. Again against his will. Many of us in the Free Wunderland Space Navy have taken similar souvenirs. I thought that my own small trophy was an appropriate item for its present purpose, nicht wahr?”
The Wunderlander once more looked off camera for a moment, then squared his jaw. “I confess I find your evidence persuasive. And anyway, a ratcat warship would not bother with such a shadow play. They would hull us from outside our fields and have done.” His eyes became once again hard, making his asymmetric beard look still more ludicrous. “Herr Hochte, you may now negotiate through the ramscoop field lines to our main airlock-”
“Viel dank.” it is always best to let the customer draw the desired conclusions.
“-where you will be met. We remind you that you are being watched most carefully, and we have… resources… with which Feynman can be protected.”
Try to look concerned. “You still harbor suspicions, then?” I got it out calmly, with the slightest trace of sarcasm flavoring my words.