Desolator: Book 2 (Stellar Conquest) (28 page)

Trissk set the meat animal onto the flaying table. “Klis,” he called, “Rick and his mate – his
wife
– called
Jill
, have invited us to socialize with them tomorrow evening. They want to show the fearsome Ryss to their kits.”

She laughed. “I would be happy to visit your friend and meet his
w
i
fe,
though I hate their monkey-warren cities with their huts piled atop each other.
Perhaps they can visit us in turn, here, where one can breathe.” Klis took a deep breath, as if to illustrate, and spread her paws wide.

“How soon you forget that you lived your whole life inside a cold ship little different from a Human city. Do not judge them for their species and proclivities. Do you know some of them keep an animal like a tiny moor-cat as a pet?” Trissk moved toward the outdoor shower, adjusting the controls.

“Then it is only right that we shall adopt a small primate.”

“Only if you want me to sleep outside.”

“As you wish. The bed is soft, and the ground is not, O hardened warrior.” She shrugged, insouciant, and then flounced inside.

Trissk snorted, and then stepped under the warm running water.

While drying off, he looked across the savannah toward the distant sprawling Human city of more than a million inhabitants. It was kind of them to allow Ryss to take of their flocks; perhaps sometime soon wild meat beasts would roam free nearby, and he could really
hunt
. For now, the sheep was enough.

A hundred hastily built cottages dotted the grassland around, in a loose group. In a few years, kits would play here, and the Ryss would build – rebuild – their civilization. With litters of three to five, it would not be too many generations before his people would outstrip even the fast-breeding Humans, not to mention the slow-growing Sekoi.

Trissk left the sheep and went to greet his
wife
properly; while the desperate urge to glorify was past, still he and Klis lay on their divan and basked in the summer sunlight that streamed through the south-facing window, marveling at warmth of the orange star. Soon enough he would see his kits born. Soon enough he would take his place alongside his new allies.

Soon enough, he would hunt Meme.