are come to, I notice," the creature said, employing a raspingblurred form of English. "I am Shir K'han, of the people of Tegur,detailed to interpret your meager tongue, oh frozen primate."
"You're not human ... but at least you're intelligent," Dollardsnorted. "Where am I?"
"On board a vessel of the Tegurian fleet, bound for the home planet."
"Which one do you call 'home'?"
For reply, Shir K'han gestured towards a bulkhead paneling at the farend of the room. Dollard's eyes focussed on a trimensional photo-muralof Terra. In the representation, the continental outlines of theplanet were the same; but if the colors were reproduced accurately,then the earth had lost the bulk of its polar cap and become atropical world. The Sahara was a verdant green, while a great portionof the Amazon valley was inundated by bluish seas.
* * * * *
Dollard attempted to sit up; the struggle was what first caused him tonotice his nude body was strapped by polished steel clamps to a longflat porcelain table. Rolling his head to one side, he discovered thatthe table's rim contained a long shallow trough which had not beenscoured too clean. Deepening stains remained of whosever blood it wasthat had been contributed from the last autopsy performed on thesurface of the table.
"Why'm I tied up?" Dollard demanded.
"A temporary precaution," Shir K'han replied, soothingly. The growl ofhis voice had now reduced itself to a monotonous purr, which remindedDollard of nothing so much as a ... but then, he shook his head: No!that couldn't be. Mankind replaced by a thinking species of bipedfelines--descended from a race of giant jungle cats. The developmentwas fantastic.
"Precaution?" Dollard repeated.
"You might have become violent, primate. Only a few anthropoids areextant, now. And They are scraggly skulkers, hiding out in the brushof the second planet--the world you knew as Venus. But even so, manyof them have been known to react quite viciously when captured."
"Then, there are humans left?"
"I see you recognize the difference between our race and yours atonce." Shir K'han stiffened with pride. "The gap is quite great."
Dollard noticed a very faint striped pattern could be traced in thefuzzy growth on Shir K'han's bared arms.
"Yes, some members of the previous culture do survive," the felinecontinued. "Puny specimens. We have been forced to hunt them down.Unfortunately, they breed slowly."
"I claim no kinship with them," said Dollard. "If you're sniffingaround in an effort to find out my sentiments about that, you can stopright now. As a man from the past, I'm strictly for myself." Hewinked. "What's more, I never did believe that monkey business. Youknow, about the human race being the only kind of life having souls orintelligence."
"Strange words ... from a primate."
"That's what I say. You look good enough to me. You have an adequateIQ--that's the only test you need to pass with me. Now, how aboutgetting these clamps off of me?"
Dollard's renewed request incited no action. The feline interpreter'spointed features were impassive; only the pricked attitude of histufted ears indicated he was listening.
"Let's go," Dollard cajoled. "You've revived me--and I think I'veproved I'm not dangerous."
"You still do not seem to understand. Your animation from the frozensleep was undertaken solely because it was a challenge to our sciencethat we could not over-look."
"And a bang-up job you did of it. Followed my directions perfectly."
"We used our own methods," Shir K'han corrected.
"The idea was mine."
"True, but had you known it, there did exist a mathematical solutionto your problem of escaping from the fixed orbit your ship adopted.Apparently, to your misfortune, your training failed to include aknowledge of five-body equations ... so you never arrived at theproper heading you needed to take."
"Naturally, not," the revived industrialist snapped in answer. "Butthat couldn't be helped. I never professed to be a super-competentastrogator. In my world, in my time, I was a leader of my race--abuilder of factories and machines."
"Our archeologists have dug into the ruins of yourcivilization--without, however, a great deal of curiosity," said ShirK'han coldly. "We found little in it to interest us. We havetranslated your language--but even so, we uncovered nothing to equaleven the barest rudiments of our own science. Our zoologists dismissyou as extra-clever primates--possessed of some knacks, but nowhere ona reasoning, perspicuous level."
"But that's absurd--"
"From our point of view, no. In fact, we still debate whether youprimates could have been intelligent enough to have founded yourculture without the aid of some early Tegurians. We Tegurians havebeen superior to the anthropoids as far back as our own history goes,which is to the days of the Great Impetus--the epoch when our race wasgifted with great powers and the primates degenerated."
"Nonsense," scoffed Edwin Dollard. "Get me off this sadistictable--and I'll demonstrate how smart I am." He squinted, studying thefeline's high-domed head and furry chin.
"Now, I've got you pegged," he went on. "You're just a specimen ofwhat a jacked-up tiger would turn out to be, burned under a fewmillion volts of hard radiation. You may be civilized, you and yourpeople--but I bet it took you a million years of high-speed evolutionto do it. If it hadn't been for mankind's work with mutable bacteria,you'd still be chasing your tails under the palm trees--"
* * * * *
Shir K'han interrupted him, remarking: "The art of vituperation andscolding always was a characteristic of the various simian species. Wehave an apt axiom among the people of Tegur. It might be translated:'Chattering man, empty brain pan'."
At that moment, it occurred to Dollard he was pressing his initialluck too far. No use antagonizing present company.
"All right. I know when I'm bucking the system too hard," he repliedcagily. "What _do_ you intend to do with me?"
For answer, the interpreter turned to the second Tegurian in the room,a creature who had stood motionless near the only exit, and uttered aflow of guttural syllables, climaxed by a high-pitched questioningnote. The reply was forthcoming almost immediately, spoken inweightier, more deliberate tones.
"The commander says you are to be presented to the leaders of ourcivilization," Shir K'han reported. "That'll take place when we dockat the home planet in a few hours. In the meanwhile, you may have therun of the ship."
The feline pushed down a knobbed lever and the steel clamps slid fromDollard's trussed form. His relief matched only by his quickenedawareness of the need for caution in dealing further with hisrescuers, Dollard took advantage of his release to stretch his achingmuscles.
Standing erect caused him a moment's dizziness, which he could notaccount for until he recalled that the alcohol he had drunk thousands(or was it millions?) of years previously still remained in hisbloodstream.
Although the interior of the Tegurian ship was suffocatingly warm, yetDollard felt the lack of clothing with what amounted to discomfort. Hedescribed his feeling to Shir K'han who told him his apparel had alsobeen found in the circling space yacht. Equally well-preserved by thecold of interplanetary space, the clothes would be brought to himimmediately.
After garbing himself, Dollard strolled about the Tegurian vessel. Itsalien constructure seemed to defy all the architectural principlesfamiliar to a human's primate mind. Catwalks, especially, lived upfully to their name, appearing as mere unsupported ribbons thatstretched across banks of throbbing molecular engines. Mechanicstraversed these walks over fuel pits with graceful skill, despite thelack of handholds. Everywhere, Dollard noticed that members of thecrew, when relieved of their tasks, immediately dropped off to slumberwithout need of intervening recreation.
Slightly less than six hours after he was awakened, Edwin Dollardheard whistles scream through the length of the vessel announcingplanetfall would take place in only a few minutes.
Shir K'han padded up to his side and informed him that he would haveto rest in a padded cell wh
ile the landing took place. The muscles ofhis human body would not be up to the shock of deceleration--amagnified strain to which feline muscles had long been accustomed.
Dollard obeyed. By now he was weary of his confinement aboard. He wasanxious to get aground where he should meet the true leaders of Tegur.He could impress _them_ with his superior abilities. Of course, itwould seem strange to find Terra ruled by another species, but afterall that was a contingency he had fully considered when he voluntarilyundertook the deepfreeze. Little by little, the first shock ofencountering