Tuesday 4 August 2020

Two Extrasolar Species Of Intelligent Predators

On Earth, we can be attacked by a wild animal or by a human being. These are different experiences. The human being lacks fangs or claws but is intelligent and might be armed. Two future histories invite us to imagine attack by intelligent beings that retain the physical attributes of their carnivore predator ancestors.

When giant ornithoids gather and circle, one member of an exploratory team deduces that they are intelligent and are about to attack. See Poul Anderson, "Wings of Victory" IN Anderson, The Van Rijn Method (Riverdale, NY, 2009) , pp. 75-102 AT p. 99.

When bandits attack a convoy:

"The response of the two kzin was not surprising at all; they went over the heads of their human companions and up the hillside in a series of bounding leaps, then vanished into cover with an appalling suddenness."
-"The Hall of the Mountain King," CHAPTER NINE, p. 74.

"Another scream, this time one of kzin triumph, inhumanly loud and fierce; instincts that remembered tiger and sabertooth raised hairs under the sweat-wet fabric of his jacket." (p. 75)

Ythrian intelligence has to be deduced. The kzin's intelligence is known but its scream still raises a man's hair.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

In practically all cases a hostile man is far more dangerous than any animals (bears and sharks excepted).

And one thought I had was that if Kzinti were trained to fight without wasting time and energy on screaming, they would be even more dangerous!

Ad astra! Sean