The Winds of Altair by Ben Bova Read Free Book Online Page B

already started back toward wherever they had come from. Crown snarled his anger and frustration, then resumed his pace across the grass, away from the other wolfcats.
    They're territorial animals. He won't be able to hunt for food wherever there are other wolfcats.
    Then he'll have to find a territory where there are no other wolfcats. Or establish himself as the head of a family.
    That's easier said than done. A lot easier.
    There wasn't much meat on the little furry thing. Crown was still ravenous when he resumed his march across the rolling grassland.
    A storm began to darken the sky as he paced onward. The sky became black with low clouds, the wind began shrieking in earnest, bringing scents of other wolfcat families to Crown's sensitive nostrils.
    On his hill, when it rained Crown would slink under a rock outcropping or into a cave. In his forest there were plenty of trees and thick bushes to keep off the worst of the storm. But here in the open grasslands there was no shelter. Nothing except a sea of grass, whipped into a frenzy now by the furious wind.
    A streak of lightning broke the sky in half and as its thunderclap exploded overhead the rain began to pour down so thick and heavy that Crown could barely see past his muzzle.
    Lightning again! He had never seen the jagged tongue of lightning so close, so blindingly bright. Down! Lie down or you'll draw the lightning onto yourself. With a muttered snarl of sheer misery, Crown hunkered down into the wet clinging matted grass and mud. The rain pelted him mercilessly.
    It wasn't merely rain. Stinging stones of ice peppered him, rattled off the thick bone of his skull armor, even cut him through his heavy fur. Crown winced and growled as the hailstones stung him like ten thousand needles. He dug his muzzle deeper into the grass, into the ground-turned-mud, trying to get away from the hail.
    It may have been only minutes, but it seemed like hours. At last the hail stopped, and then gradually the rain tapered off and finally ceased altogether. The clouds lingered, though, scudding along dark and menacing, hurrying as if they had somewhere important to go.
    Through the long gray afternoon Crown trekked across the endless grassland, staying out of sight of other wolfcat families, avoiding every other animal, choking down the gnawing hunger that echoed in his stomach. By nightfall he was wearily climbing a range of low, rolling hills. Water gurgled nearby. He scented a good-sized antelope and then saw it—brown and white, with wicked-looking horns and fleet, slim legs—as it edged toward the splashing brook for a drink. Crown dashed at it, chased it when it sprang away, caught it and killed it in one blindingly fast motion.
    He had eaten only a small portion of his kill when the other wolfcats showed up. In the swiftly gathering darkness of twilight he could make out their menacing shapes and heard their growls of warning.
    Crown growled back. I'm hungry! This is my kill.
    They paced slowly toward him. Crown quickly crammed as much of the kill into his craw as he could manage, then splashed across the brook and slinked farther up into the wooded hillside's slopes.
    Still achingly hungry, he slept at the base of a tree. He dreamed of his hilltop, his forest, as soon as he fell asleep.

    "He's really sleeping," Amanda said in a surprised whisper.
    "He's had a very long day," Carbo said. "But we can't leave the animal in those hills for too long. We've got too much invested in him to lose him now."
    Amanda peered through the control room window at Jeff's slumbering body. "You can't expect him to . . . "
    Carbo waved her silent. "We have to do it. We can keep him asleep as long as the animal sleeps. Use the electronic tranquilizer. He'll get more actual rest than he would in his mother's arms. You can feed him intravenously and use the massage units to keep up his muscle tone. He must be here and alert when the animal wakes up." The urgency in his normally soft voice made it