The Conspirators

Something had gone wrong.
White based 'The Conspirators' upon A. Bertram Chandler's 'Giant Killer' (Astounding, October 1945), about mutated rats attempting to take over a generation starship.  He was no mere copycat, however, despite the presence of Felix (the ship's feline Mascot).  For some unexplained/inexplicable reason, all Shipboard animals have not only become super-intelligent but conveniently telepathic.  Felix "felt awed as he thought of Whitey in Bio-lab Three . . . surrounded by Big Ones, and the Small Ones who weren't on relay duties, and all of them working on Escape."  (Whitey is a laboratory mouse endowed with leadership skills.)  It reads a bit like Animal (Hydroponics) Farm, but the conclusion is light-years removed from both Orwellian cynicism and Campbell's increasingly hawkish Astounding

Synopsis by graham Andrews

• S-F ADVENTURES IN MUTATION, Ed Groff Conklin, Vanguard, New York, January 1956
• MIND TO MIND, Ed Robert Silverberg, Thomas Nelson, New York,  1971
• SUPERNATURAL CATS, Ed Claire Necker,  Doubleday, March 1973
• STRANGE UNIVERSE, Blackie, 1975
• MIND TO MIND, Ed Robert Silverberg, paperback, February 1974

• .FICTION No 213, September 1971 as Les Conspirateurs
• HISTOIRES DE CREATURES, Livre des Poche, No 3787, 1984