"Mercedes Lackey - A Better Mousetrap" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lackey Mercedes)

For the Lacu'un, this was nothing short of a miracle, the end of a scourge
that had been with them since the beginning of their civilization. After that
moment, there was no question of anyone else getting most-favored trading
status with the Lacu'un, ever.

CatsEye got the plum contract, SKitty's kittens-to-be got immediate homes, and
Dick White's life became incredibly complicated.

Since then, he was no longer just an apprentice supercargo and Designated
Shipscat Handler on a small Free Trader ship. He'd been imprisoned by Company
goons, stalked and beaten within an inch of his life by cold-blooded murderous
hijackers, and had to face the Patrol itself to bargain for SCat's freedom.
He'd had enough adventure in two short Standard-years to last most people for
the rest of their lives.

But all that was in the past. Or so he hoped.

For a while, anyway, it would be nice if the most difficult decision I had to
make would be which of the Lacu'un nobles get SKitty-babies and which have to
make do with shipscat washouts.

Those "washouts" were mature cats that for one reason or another couldn't
adapt to ship life. Gengineering wasn't perfect, even now; there were cats
that couldn't handle freefall, cats that were claustrophobes, cats that were
shy or anti-social. Those had the opportunity to come here, to join the
vermin-hunting crew. Thus far, thirty had made the trip, some to become mates
for the first litter, others to take up solitary residence with a noble
family. There were other washouts, who didn't pass the intelligence tests, but
those were never offered to the Lacu'unтАФthey already filled a steady need for
companions in children's hospitals and retirement homes, where the high
shipscat intelligence wasn't needed, just a loving friend smart enough to
understand what not to do around someone sick or in pain.

There were still far more Lacu'un who urgently craved the boon of a cat than
there were cats to fill the need. Thus far, none of SKitty's female offspring
had carried that rare gene for fertilityтАФwhen one did, that one would go back
to BioTech, to be treated like the precious object she was, pampered and
amused, asked to breed only so often as she chose. There was always a
trade-off in any gengineering effort; lack of fertility was a small price to
pay in a species as notoriously prolific as cats.

Meanwhile, the proud parents were in the last stages of educating their
current offspring. There was a pile of the dead vermin just in front of Vena's
desk; every so often, one of the half-grown kittens would bring another to add
to the pile, then sit politely and wait for his parents to approve. Sometimes,
when the pest was particularly large, SCat would descend from Dick's lap with
immense dignity, inspect the kill, and bestow a rough lick by way of special
reward.