Chapter 2, And His Motley Crew Summary

Louis goes back to his party with Nessus and Speaker, who make a splash. No one has ever seen a puppeteer. The kzin have a long history of bloody wars with humans, which left the kzin population depleted, but now Speaker is a novelty. Louis and the aliens have come to Louis's home to talk privately in Louis's office, which is protected from spy beams.

In the office, Louis questions why someone from a race of cowards would insult a Kzin in public, and Nessus confesses that his race considers him, and anyone willing to travel in a spaceship, mad. He tells Speaker that at first, the puppeteers considered wiping out the dangerous kzin, but after the Kzin-Man wars, the only survivors were those who were less war-like. The kzin evolved to be less dangerous...