"Jerry Pournelle - Houses of the Kzinti" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pournelle Jerry)

all carrion. As you will
soon be, unless you tell us why, of all the monkeys
on that ship, you were the
only one so specially protected."
Locklear moaned. This huge kzin's partial name and
his scars implied the kind of
warrior whose valor and honor forbade lies to a
captive. All dead but himself?
Locklear shrugged before he thought, and the shrug
sent a stab of agony across
his upper chest. "Sonofabitch," he gasped in agony.
The navigator kzin
translated. The larger one grinned, the kind of grin
that might fasten on his
throat.
Locklear said in Kzin, very fast, "Not you! I was
cursing the pain."
"A telepath could verify your meanings very quickly,"
said the smaller kzin.
"An excellent idea," said Locklear. "He will verify
that I am no spy, and not a
combatant, but only an ethologist from Earth. A kzin
acquaintance once told me
it was important to know your forms of address. I do
not wish to give offense."
"Call me Tzak-Navigator," said the smaller kzin
abruptly, and grasped Locklear
by the shoulder, talons sinking into the human flesh.
Locklear moaned again,
gritting his teeth. "You would attack? Good," the
navigator went on, mistaking
the grimace, maintaining his grip, the formidable
kzin body trembling with
intent.
"I cannot speak well with such pain," Locklear
managed to grunt. "Not as
well-protected as you think."
"We found you well-protected and sealed alone in that
ship," said the commander,
motioning for the navigator to slacken his hold. "I
warn you, we must rendezvous
the Raptor with another Ripping-Fang class cruiser to
pick up a full crew before
we hit the Eridani worlds. I have no time to waste on
such a scrawny monkey as
you, which we have caught nearer our home worlds than
to your own."
Locklear grasped his right elbow as support for that
aching collarbone. "I was
surveying life-forms on purely academic study-in