Table of Contents ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CATS The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith Mouse by Fredric Brown Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber Schrödinger's Cat by Ursula K. Le Guin Tales of a Starship's Cat by Judith R. Conly Who's There? by Arthur C. Clarke Bullhead by David Drake Ordeal in Space by Robert A. Heinlein Space-Time for Springers by Fritz Leiber The Tail by M.J. Engh Well Worth the Money by Jody Lynn Nye ALIENCATS Chanur's Homecoming by C.J. Cherryh Duty Calls by Anne McCaffrey Black Destroyer by A.E. Van Vogt The Pride by Todd Hamilton and P.J. Beese The Ballad of Lost C'mell by Cordwainer Smith The Man Who Would Be Kzin by Greg Bear and S.M. Stirling CATS IN SPACE And Other Places Edited by BILL FAWCETT Cats in Space and Other Places Edited by Bill Fawcett Space. The Feline Frontier. It has been said (by Mark Twain) that “If man could be crossed with the cat it would improve man, but it would deteriorate the cat.” In this volume we explore the many and manifest reasons why humans should voluntarily accord first place in space to their feline brethren. From Robert A. Heinlein’s “Ordeal in Space” in which the merest kitten confers the gift of courage on his human, to Cordwainer Smith’s “Ballad of Lost C’mell,” which answers the very question of what would be the outcome of the melding of human and cat, we offer here sixteen reasons why cats are Number One in our book. CATS IN SPACE This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. Copyright © 1992 by Bill Fawcett & Associates All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form. A Baen Books Original Baen Publishing Enterprises P.O. Box 1403 Riverdale, N.Y. 10471 ISBN: 0-671-72118-6 Cover art by Dean Morrissey First printing, May 1992 Distributed by SIMON & SCHUSTER 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, N.Y. 10020 Printed in the United States of America eISBN: 978-1-62579-539-7 Electronic Version by Baen Books www.baen.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The Game of Rat and Dragon by Cordwainer Smith, copyright © 1955 by Galaxy Publishing Corp, for Galaxy Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10022. Mouse by Fredric Brown, reprinted from Thrilling Wonder Stories, copyright 1949, by Standard Magazines Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10022. Ship of Shadows by Fritz Leiber, copyright © 1969 Mercury Press, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agent, Richard Curtis Associates. Schrödinger's Cat by Ursula Le Guin, copyright © 1974, 1982 Ursula K. Le Guin. From Universe 5, (Random House). Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agent, Virginia Kidd. Tales of a Starship's Cat by Judith R. Conly, copyright 1991 Judith R. Conly Who's There? by Arthur C. Clarke, copyright © 1958 by United Newspapers Magazine Corporation. Reprinted by permission of the author. Bullhead by David Drake, copyright © 1991 David Drake Ordeal in Space by Robert A. Heinlein, copyright 1948. Reprinted by permission of the author's estate and the author's agent. Spectrum Literary Agency. Space-Time for Springers by Fritz Leiber, copyright © 1958 by Ballantine Books, Inc. First published in Star Science Fiction Stories No. 4 (Ballantine). Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agent, Richard Curtis Associates. The Tail by M.J. Engh, copyright © 1988 M.J. Engh. First appeared MosConx program book. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agent, Virginia Kidd. Well Worth the Money by Jody Lynn Nye, copyright © 1991 Jody Lynn Nye Chanur's Homecoming by C.J. Cherryh, originally appeared as chapter twelve of the novel Chanur's Homecoming published by DAW Books, copyright © 1986 C.J. Cherryh. Duty Calls by Anne McCaffrey, first appeared in The Fleet, edited by David Drake and Bill Fawcett, copyright © 1988 Anne McCaffrey. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agent, Virginia Kidd. Black Destroyer by A.E. Van Vogt, copyright 1939 by Street and Smith Publications Inc., renewed 1967; reprinted by permission of Agent Forrest J Ackerman, 2495 Glendower Ave., Hollywood, CA 90027. The Pride by Todd Hamilton and P.J. Beese, copyright © 1989 Todd Hamilton and P.J. Beese The Ballad of Lost C'mell by Cordwainer Smith, copyright © 1962 by Galaxy Publishing Corp, for Galaxy Science Fiction. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author's agents, Scott Meredith Literary Agency, Inc., 845 Third Avenue, New York, New York 10022. The Man Who Would Be Kzin by Greg Bear and S.M. Stirling, originally appeared in Man-Kzin Wars IV, copyright © 1991 Greg Bear and S.M. Stirling CATS The Game of Rat and Dragon Cordwainer Smith 1. The Table Pinlighting is a hell of a way to earn a living. Underhill was furious as he closed the door behind himself. It didn't make much sense to wear a uniform and look like a soldier if people didn't appreciate what you did. He sat down in his chair, laid his head back in the headrest, and pulled the helmet down over his forehead. As he waited for the pin-set to warm up, he remembered the girl in the outer corridor. She had looked at it, then looked at him scornfully. "Meow." That was all she had said. Yet it had cut him like a knife. What did she think he was—a fool, a loafer, a uniformed nonentity? Didn't she know that for every half-hour of pinlighting, he got a minimum of two months' recuperation in the hospital? By now the set was warm, He felt the squares of space around him, sensed himself at the middle of an immense grid, a cubic grid, full of nothing. Out in that nothingness, he could sense the hollow aching horror of space itself and could feel the terrible anxiety which his mind encountered whenever it met the faintest trace of inert dust. As he relaxed, the comforting solidity of the
