Strata

had forgotten something. How could they? Venus and Adonis, a moon almost as big as Lunar, had always dominated Earth’s dawn or sunset sky. Why leave out the moon in the disc universe? A mystery.
    ‘One could write a filmy on astronomy and sociology,’ said Silver. ‘For example, I have always felt that humans were the first into spacebecause of the continual reminder that in our universe everything orbits something.
    ‘You always had that other double world system in your sky to hint that not everything revolves around the Earth. Whereas we had the Twin, and the kung couldn’t see the sky at all. Had your sister world not had her moon, I doubt if your history would have been quite so uncomplicated.’
    Together they sat and watched the moonless world sink in solitude in the faintly-glowing sky. Kin snuggled against Silver’s fur, and wondered whether the dumbwaiter would be safe. Probably. The men had a healthy respect for Marco.
    Silver was thinking about the same thing, because she said, ‘Kin? Are you awake?’
    ‘Unk.’
    ‘If the dumbwaiter misfunctions, you must promise me you will stun me and allow Marco to put me to death.’
    Kin sat up, grimacing in the darkness. ‘Certainly not. Anyway, how could we stun you?’
    ‘You have a palm stunner on you at this moment. I have noticed it on several occasions,’ said Silver. ‘I was taught to observe. You will kill me, for fear of what I will become. My fear.’
    Kin grunted non-committally and lay back, thinking about shandi.
    They couldn’t take kung or human proteins. Before the dumbwaiters were common, it meantthat shandi could only go offworld with a personal deep-freeze.
    There had been a time when a human ship had been ferrying four shandi ambassadors to Greater Earth and the freezer malfunctioned. The ambassadors were civilized. Usually, when a shand was deprived of food, it turned into a ravening animal within two days. A million years of evolution was drowned in a wash of saliva.
    With the ambassadors, it took fifty-six hours.
    None survived. The last one took her life after awakening from a bloated sleep and seeing what lay around her in the cabin. The average shand wouldn’t have done so, but the average shand was not an ambassador trained to think in cosmospolitan ways.
    The plain truth was that the shandi liked eating shand. Can you fit ritual cannibalism into a civilization? They did.
    There was a Game. The rules were ancient, venerated and simple. Two shandi would enter, from opposite sides, a stretch of tundra or forest set aside for the purpose. There were special rules about weapons. The winner ate well.
    Curiosity overwhelmed Kin.
    ‘Did you ever play the Game, Silver?’ she asked softly.
    ‘Why, yes. Three times, when the urge was strong in my mouth,’ said the shand. ‘Twice at home, and once illegally elsewhere. My opponentin the latter case was the Regius Professor of Linguistics at the University of Gelt. Much of her stocks my freezer at home even now. I grieve that her death may largely have been in vain.’
    ‘But you’ve got dumbwaiters now. There’s no need for the Game.’
    Silver shrugged. ‘Now it is a tradition,’ she said. ‘What we did out of need we do for … sport, I think it would be called, although there are elements of bravado, identification with our ancient past, the affirming of our shandness. You think this is barbaric.’
    It was a statement, not a question. Kin shook her head anyway.
    ‘Some humans have taken part in the Game,’ said Silver. ‘They pay highly for the chance to prove their … what? Machismo? If they win, all they get is the head of their victim to hang on the wall. That is barbaric.’
    ‘Uh, what happens if the shand wins?’
    ‘She gets two convicted criminals.’
    Kin thought: this is what shandi do on their home world, and none of your business. You can’t apply humans’ values to aliens. But you keep trying.
    The train of thought was derailed by a scream from the big hall. A man burst out into the starlight and tumbled over on the grass, clutching at his side.
    Kin landed running, snatching the stunnerfrom her belt. She heard the heavy crash on the shingle as Silver landed behind her.
    The hall was full of dark fighting shapes. Kin jerked aside as a leather-clad man ran out, followed by a tall man hefting an axe. She pointed the stunner and fired.
    The effect was not immediate. The two kept on running. Then their legs collapsed under them in slow motion, and they