It made sense.  Daphne had to admit to herself.  "Do your people
have any stories in your mythology or history of a mass abduction from
your homeworld?"  She thought perhaps approaching the mystery from
another direction might help.

Kit shook her head.  "No.  We ourrrsselvess arrre trrranssplantss to
Cait, put therrre by the Prrresserrverrss frrrom Kzinti sstock, although,
asss you can tell, we arrre nothing like the Kzinti.  But theirrr
fierrrcenesss rrrunss in ourrr blood.  The Mikan arrre the bessst
example.  They werrre the firrrsst clan on Cait, taking afterrr the
marrrtial waysss of the Kzinti.  But they developed a code of honorrr,
something the Kzinti clearrrly lack."  She sniffed disdainfully.
Caitians hated Kzinti, as evidenced by their suffering the greatest
casualties and receiving the most decorations in the Kzinti Conflict.
"But we have no rrrecorrdss orrr trrraditions of a losst people.  We
achieved ssspaceflight beforrre yourrr people, howeverrr, and like
humansss, lossst missssionss.  Ssseverrral jussst dissappearrred.  We
asssumed they had sssufferred a catassstrrrophic accident, and in thossse
daysss, without sssubsspace sscannerrrs, rrrradio communication wass
everrrything.  If a misssion went off the airrr, it wasss asss good asss
gone.  I think that'sss what happened herrrre.  Thessse animalsss arrre
not the prrroduct of a naturrral long-terrrm brrreeding prrrogrram.  They
have been genetically engineerrred, mossst likely overrr the courrrsse of
jussst a few hundrrrred yearrrs.  I think sssome of ourrr brrrave earrrly
ssspacefarrrerrs became the prrrogenitorrrs."  Tr'Lawsh's face was filled
with sadness and shame.  Like human astronauts and cosmonauts of the
beginnings of the space age, the Caitian Spaceflyers were considered
honored heroes.  The thought of any of them suffering such a fate was
painful."

Daphne had to admit that what she had just heard was a lot more than she had known about Caitians before it.  She felt bad that she did not know that information on her own.  She could not imagine what the horror that the heroes described by the Captain had gone through.  They were just simple explorers challenging the limitations of space when they were kidnappped.  It was a strong possibility to explain what had happened.  "Maybe once everything is sorted out, these felinids can be returned to Cait and reintegrated into society."
 
(Captain?)

AJ
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