Little Fuzzy Read online

  III

  He started awake, rubbed his eyes and looked at the clock. Past twenty-twohundred; now it really was time for a drink, and then to bed. He rosestiffly and went out to the kitchen, pouring the whisky and bringing it into the table desk, where he sat down and got out his diary. He was almostfinished with the day's entry when the little door behind him opened and asmall voice said, "Yeeek." He turned quickly.

  "Little Fuzzy?"

  The small sound was repeated, impatiently. Little Fuzzy was holding thedoor open, and there was an answer from outside. Then another Fuzzy camein, and another; four of them, one carrying a tiny, squirming ball ofwhite fur in her arms. They all had prawn-killers like the one in thedrawer, and they stopped just inside the room and gaped about them inbewilderment. Then, laying down his weapon, Little Fuzzy ran to him;stooping from the chair, he caught him and then sat down on the floor withhim.

  "So that's why you ran off and worried Pappy Jack? You wanted your familyhere, too!"

  The others piled the things they were carrying with Little Fuzzy's steelweapon and approached hesitantly. He talked to them, and so did LittleFuzzy--at least it sounded like that--and finally one came over andfingered his shirt, and then reached up and pulled his mustache. Soon allof them were climbing onto him, even the female with the baby. It wassmall enough to sit on his palm, but in a minute it had climbed to hisshoulder, and then it was sitting on his head.

  "You people want dinner?" he asked.

  Little Fuzzy yeeked emphatically; that was a word he recognized. He tookthem all into the kitchen and tried them on cold roast veldbeest andyummiyams and fried pool-ball fruit; while they were eating from a coupleof big pans, he went back to the living room to examine the things theyhad brought with them. Two of the prawn-killers were wood, like the oneLittle Fuzzy had discarded in the shed. A third was of horn, beautifullypolished, and the fourth looked as though it had been made from theshoulder bone of something like a zebralope. Then there was a small _coupde poing_ ax, rather low paleolithic, and a chipped implement of flint theshape of a slice of orange and about five inches along the straight edge.For a hand the size of his own, he would have called it a scraper. Hepuzzled over it for a while, noticed that the edge was serrated, anddecided that it was a saw. And there were three very good flake knives,and some shells, evidently drinking vessels.

  Mamma Fuzzy came in while he was finishing the examination. She seemedsuspicious, until she saw that none of the family property had been takenor damaged. Baby Fuzzy was clinging to her fur with one hand and holding aslice of pool-ball fruit, on which he was munching, with the other. Hecrammed what was left of the fruit into his mouth, climbed up on Jack andsat down on his head again. Have to do something to break him of that. Oneof these days, he'd be getting too big for it.

  In a few minutes, the rest of the family came in, chasing and pummelingeach other and yeeking happily. Mamma jumped off his lap and joined thefree-for-all, and then Baby took off from his head and landed on Mamma'sback. And he thought he'd lost his Little Fuzzy, and, gosh, here he hadfive Fuzzies and a Baby Fuzzy. When they were tired romping, he made bedsfor them in the living room, and brought out Little Fuzzy's bedding andhis treasures. One Little Fuzzy in the bedroom was just fine; five and aBaby Fuzzy were a little too much of a good thing.

  They were swarming over the bed, Baby and all, to waken him the nextmorning.

  * * * * *

  The next morning he made a steel chopper-digger for each of them, and halfa dozen extras for replacements in case more Fuzzies showed up. He alsomade a miniature ax with a hardwood handle, a handsaw out of a piece ofbroken power-saw blade and half a dozen little knives forged in one piecefrom quarter-inch coil-spring material. He had less trouble trading theFuzzies' own things away from them than he had expected. They had a verykeen property sense, but they knew a good deal when one was offered. Heput the wooden and horn and bone and stone artifacts away in the deskdrawer. Start of the Holloway Collection of Zarathustran Fuzzy Weapons andImplements. Maybe he'd will it to the Federation Institute ofXeno-Sciences.

  Of course, the family had to try out the new chopper-diggers onland-prawns, and he followed them around with the movie camera. Theykilled a dozen and a half that morning, and there was very little interestin lunch, though they did sit around nibbling, just to be doing what hewas doing. As soon as they finished, they all went in for a nap on hisbed. He spent the afternoon pottering about camp doing odd jobs that hehad been postponing for months. The Fuzzies all emerged in the lateafternoon for a romp in the grass outside.

  He was in the kitchen, getting dinner, when they all came pelting inthrough the little door into the living room, making an excited outcry.Little Fuzzy and one of the other males came into the kitchen. LittleFuzzy squatted, put one hand on his lower jaw, with thumb and littlefinger extended, and the other on his forehead, first finger upright. Thenhe thrust out his right arm stiffly and made a barking noise of a sort hehad never made before. He had to do it a second time before Jack got it.

  There was a large and unpleasant carnivore, called a damnthing--anotherexample of zoological nomenclature on uninhabited planets--which had asingle horn on its forehead and one on either side of the lower jaw. Itwas something for Fuzzies, and even for human-type people, to get excitedabout. He laid down the paring knife and the yummiyam he had been peeling,wiped his hands and went into the living room, taking a quick nose countand satisfying himself that none of the family were missing as he crossedto the gunrack.

  This time, instead of the 6-mm he had used on the harpy, he lifted down abig 12.7 double express, making sure that it was loaded and pocketing afew spare rounds. Little Fuzzy followed him outside, pointing around theliving hut to the left. The rest of the family stayed indoors.

  Stepping out about twenty feet, he started around counter-clockwise. Therewas no damnthing on the north side, and he was about to go around to theeast side when Little Fuzzy came dashing past him, pointing to the rear.He whirled, to see the damnthing charging him from behind, head down, andmiddle horn lowered. He should have thought of that; damnthings woulddouble and hunt their hunters.

  He lined the sights instinctively and squeezed. The big rifle roared andbanged his shoulder, and the bullet caught the damnthing and hurled allhalf-ton of it backward. The second shot caught it just below one of thefungoid-looking ears, and the beast gave a spasmodic all-over twitch andwas still. He reloaded mechanically, but there was no need for a thirdshot. The damnthing was as dead as he would have been except for LittleFuzzy's warning.

  He mentioned that to Little Fuzzy, who was calmly retrieving the emptycartridges. Then, rubbing his shoulder where the big rifle had poundedhim, he went in and returned the weapon to the rack. He used themanipulator to carry the damnthing away from the camp and drop it into atreetop, where it would furnish a welcome if puzzling treat for theharpies.

  * * * * *

  There was another alarm in the evening after dinner. The family had come infrom their sunset romp and were gathered in the living room, where LittleFuzzy was demonstrating the principle of things-that-screwed-onto-thingswith the wide-mouthed bottle and the bolt and nut, when something hugebegan hooting directly overhead. They all froze, looking up at the ceiling,and then ran over and got under the gunrack. This must be something farmore serious than a damnthing, and what Pappy Jack would do about it wouldbe nothing short of catastrophic. They were startled to see Pappy Jackmerely go to the door, open it and step outside. After all, none of themhad ever heard a Constabulary aircar klaxon before.

  The car settled onto the grass in front of the camp, gave a slight lurchand went off contragravity. Two men in uniform got out, and in themoonlight he recognized both of them: Lieutenant George Lunt and hisdriver, Ahmed Khadra. He called a greeting to them.

  "Anything wrong?" he asked.

  "No; just thought we'd drop in and see how you were making out," Lunt toldhim. "We don't get up this way often. Haven't had any
trouble lately, haveyou?"

  "Not since the last time." The last time had been a couple of woodstramps, out-of-work veldbeest herders from the south, who had heard aboutthe little bag he carried around his neck. All the Constabulary had neededto do was remove the bodies and write up a report. "Come on in and hang upyour guns awhile. I have something I want to show you."

  Little Fuzzy had come out and was pulling at his trouser leg; he stoopedand picked him up, setting him on his shoulder. The rest of the family,deciding that it must be safe, had come to the door and were looking out.

  "Hey! What the devil are those things?" Lunt asked, stopping short halfwayfrom the car.

  "Fuzzies. Mean to tell me you've never seen Fuzzies before?"

  "No, I haven't. What are they?"

  The two Constabulary men came closer, and Jack stepped back into thehouse, shooing the Fuzzies out of the way. Lunt and Khadra stopped insidethe door.

  "I just told you. They're Fuzzies. That's all the name I know for them."

  A couple of Fuzzies came over and looked up at Lieutenant Lunt; one ofthem said, "Yeek?"

  "They want to know what you are, so that makes it mutual."

  Lunt hesitated for a moment, then took off his belt and holster and hungit on one of the pegs inside the door, putting his beret over it. Khadrafollowed his example promptly. That meant that they considered themselvestemporarily off duty and would accept a drink if one were offered. A Fuzzywas pulling at Ahmed Khadra's trouser leg and asking to be noticed, andMamma Fuzzy was holding Baby up to show to Lunt. Khadra, ratherhesitantly, picked up the Fuzzy who was trying to attract his attention.

  "Never saw anything like them before, Jack," he said. "Where did theycome from?"

  "Ahmed; you don't know anything about those things," Lunt reproved.

  "They won't hurt me, Lieutenant; they haven't hurt Jack, have they?" Hesat down on the floor, and a couple more came to him. "Why don't you getacquainted with them? They're cute."

  George Lunt wouldn't let one of his men do anything he was afraid to do;he sat down on the floor, too, and Mamma brought her baby to him.Immediately, the baby jumped onto his shoulder and tried to get onto hishead.

  "Relax, George," Jack told him, "They're just Fuzzies; they want to makefriends with you."

  "I'm always worried about strange life forms," Lunt said. "You've beenaround enough to know some of the things that have happened--"

  "They are not a strange life form; they are Zarathustran mammals. The samelife form you've had for dinner every day since you came here. Theirbiochemistry's identical with ours. Think they'll give you the Polka-DotPlague, or something?" He put Little Fuzzy down on the floor with theothers. "We've been exploring this planet for twenty-five years, andnobody's found anything like that here."

  "You said it yourself, Lieutenant," Khadra put in. "Jack's been aroundenough to know."

  "Well.... They are cute little fellows." Lunt lifted Baby down off hishead and gave him back to Mamma. Little Fuzzy had gotten hold of the chainof his whistle and was trying to find out what was on the other end. "Betthey're a lot of company for you."

  "You just get acquainted with them. Make yourselves at home; I'll gorustle up some refreshments."

  While he was in the kitchen, filling a soda siphon and getting ice out ofthe refrigerator, a police whistle began shrilling in the living room. Hewas opening a bottle of whisky when Little Fuzzy came dashing out, blowingon it, a couple more of the family pursuing him and trying to get it awayfrom him. He opened a tin of Extee Three for the Fuzzies, as he did,another whistle in the living room began blowing.

  "We have a whole shoebox full of them at the post," Lunt yelled to himabove the din. "We'll just write these two off as expended in service."

  "Well, that's real nice of you, George. I want to tell you that theFuzzies appreciate that. Ahmed, suppose you do the bartending while I givethe kids their candy."

  By the time Khadra had the drinks mixed and he had distributed the ExteeThree to the Fuzzies, Lunt had gotten into the easy chair, and the Fuzzieswere sitting on the floor in front of him, still looking him overcuriously. At least the Extee Three had taken their minds off the whistlesfor a while.

  "What I want to know, Jack, is where they came from," Lunt said, takinghis drink. "I've been up here for five years, and I never saw anythinglike them before."

  "I've been here five years longer, and I never saw them before, either. Ithink they came down from the north, from the country between theCordilleras and the West Coast Range. Outside of an air survey at tenthousand feet and a few spot landings here and there, none of that countryhas been explored. For all anybody knows, it could be full of Fuzzies."

  He began with his first encounter with Little Fuzzy, and by the time hehad gotten as far as the wood chisel and the killing of the land-prawn,Lunt and Khadra were looking at each other in amazement.

  "That's it!" Khadra said. "I've found prawn-shells cracked open and themeat picked out, just the way you describe it. I always wondered what didthat. But they don't all have wood chisels. What do you suppose they usedordinarily?"

  "Ah!" He pulled the drawer open and began getting things out. "Here's theone Little Fuzzy discarded when he found my chisel. The rest of this stuffthe others brought in when they came."

  Lunt and Khadra rose and came over to look at the things. Lunt tried toargue that the Fuzzies couldn't have made that stuff. He wasn't even ableto convince himself. Having finished their Extee Three, the Fuzzies werelooking expectantly at the viewscreen, and it occurred to him that none ofthem except Little Fuzzy had ever seen it on. Then Little Fuzzy jumped upon the chair Lunt had vacated, reached over to the control-panel andswitched it on. What he got was an empty stretch of moonlit plain to thesouth, from a pickup on one of the steel towers the veldbeest herdersused. That wasn't very interesting; he twiddled the selector and finallygot a night soccer game at Mallorysport. That was just fine; he jumpeddown and joined the others in front of the screen.

  "I've seen Terran monkeys and Freyan Kholphs that liked to watch screensand could turn them on and work the selector," Lunt said. It sounded likethe token last salvo before the surrender.

  "Kholphs are smart," Khadra agreed. "They use tools."

  "Do they make tools? Or tools to make tools with, like that saw?" Therewas no argument on that. "No. Nobody does that except people like us andthe Fuzzies."

  It was the first time he had come right out and said that; the first timehe had even consciously thought it. He realized that he had been convincedof it all along, though. It startled the constabulary lieutenant andtrooper.

  "You mean you think--?" Lunt began.

  "They don't talk, and they don't build fires," Ahmed Khadra said, asthough that settled it.

  "Ahmed, you know better than that. That talk-and-build-a-fire rule isn'tany scientific test at all."

  "It's a legal test." Lunt supported his subordinate.

  "It's a rule-of-thumb that was set up so that settlers on new planetscouldn't get away with murdering and enslaving the natives by claimingthey thought they were only hunting and domesticating wild animals," hesaid. "Anything that talks and builds a fire is a sapient being, yes.That's the law. But that doesn't mean that anything that doesn't isn't. Ihaven't seen any of this gang building fires, and as I don't want to comehome sometime and find myself burned out, I'm not going to teach them. ButI'm sure they have means of communication among themselves."

  "Has Ben Rainsford seen them yet?" Lunt asked.

  "Ben's off on a trip somewhere. I called him as soon as Little Fuzzy, overthere, showed up here. He won't be back till Friday."

  "Yes, that's right; I did know that." Lunt was still looking dubiously atthe Fuzzies. "I'd like to hear what he thinks about them."

  If Ben said they were safe, Lunt would accept that. Ben was an expert, andLunt respected expert testimony. Until then, he wasn't sure. He'd probablyorder a medical check-up for himself and Khadra the first thing tomorrow,to make sure they hadn't picked up some kind o
f bug.