"So did the han," Hilfy said, and Pyanfar looked her way and blinked. The thought leapt to her mind too, two points connecting.
"Stle stles stlen."
"The stationmaster?" Haral asked, hoarse and fatigued, but her ears pricked sharp.
"Might well be. The han called for consultation; our papers bought back by one side or the other — Someone wanted us in this. Feels like mahendo'sat. Feels like Goldtooth himself. We're his Known Quantity. But so's Stle stles stlen. Theoretically. I wouldn't lay odds on anything right now.
Someone got things moving. Gods know the stsho took our money to clear those papers, but maybe they took everyone's, who knows?"
"Gods-rotted situation," Haral muttered.
"Twice over if Ehrran's in it," Tirun said.
"Where's Goldtooth headed?" Hilfy asked.
"I asked Tully that. He doesn't know. He says. Likely he doesn't."
"He came through here," Haral said. "Kura? Kita? — Kshshti-bound?"
"We think he came through here," Tirun said. Her voice cracked. "I'd not lay odds anything's right-side up with that son."
"Bait-and-switch," Pyanfar said. "Gods-rotted mahe's slippery as a kif. No, I don't swear that message wasn't put in before he got to Meet-point. Or by some outbound agent. Alarm's being rung down from Meetpoint to Urtur to Kshshti, that's what, and we may just think we're the wavefront."
"That knnn at Meetpoint-" Tirun said. "Not forgetting that."
"We can't do anything about it. Except get out of here."
"And stay in one piece," Haral muttered. "Kshshti's a long jump."
"We can make it. Even if we blow that vane. Distance may blow it, but it'll help us too: we'll come in with marginal V. We can stop, at worst. At best, it wasn't the Y unit and the vane will hold all the way."
"It may and it may not," Tirun said. "If it's that. One of those goes ghosty, gods, you don't know whether you've got it or not. Ever. It could hold to Kshshti and we could lose it at Maing Tol when we've got higher V."
"One thing I want you to do. Put that whole vane over to backup from the board up. In case we've got a ghost in another unit. Let's just clear all the original systems. Can you do that in four hours?"
"Can," Tirun said.
"Not you. You get some sleep."
"I'll get it," Haral said.
"We give up that Y-unit to third redundancy?" Tirun asked. "Could have damaged it when that regulator went backup. If that's sour it'll sure take that linkage out."
She thought about it. Thought about going no-backup-at-all, which was how desperate it was.
"No," she said. "I'll dice with the number two. What we've got aboard-if nothing else-we can't risk on that kind of throw. It'll get us there with something left. That's all we dare try."
"What have we got aboard?" Tirun asked.
"Message from humanity to Maing Tol and Iji. Translator. Message from Goldtooth to his Personage. Gods know what that is. About the knnn — most likely." She drew a deep breath and considered the chance it involved the hem. Alliances. Doublecrosses. "All systems to number two and we jump to Kshshti on schedule. Tell Chur and Geran what we're doing when they come on duty."
"Not the menfolk?"
"Gods, don't worry them. Tell them we fixed it all."
"What-" Hilfy asked ever so quietly, "what about Tully if we go lame at Kshshti? We'll be stuck at dock. Gods know the kif-"
"What we do, imp — We get ourselves to Kshshti and whatever happens, by the gods, we put him in mahen hands. Let them worry about him. Hear? They've got two hunter-ships to their account.
Let them take it." She stood up again. "Get some rest. All of you this time."
"Aye," Tirun murmured in what of a voice she had left. Hilfy stared at her open-mouthed.
"Nothing else to do," Pyanfar said to her. "Nothing else. He's worth too much to take chances with. That message is. Understand? We've had it. That vane's got us."
"We go in like this we could be down a week!"
"So we take our damage. We can cover the bill. We've got that. We're done, imp. Finished."
"I could make it," Hilfy said, "up that column and we'd have that unit replaced."
"Wrong. Chur would have to do it. She's smallest. And she's not fool enough."
There was silence but for that. That and the dust.
She got up and walked away, staggered a little as she reached the corridor and The Pride corrected course again.
She had another, chilling thought and turned, pointed at Haral. "No way this kid tries it. You sit on her. Someone goes up that column I'll space her. Hear?"
"Aye," Haral said.
No one followed her. Presumably they were clearing up the paper. Closing down. Her eyes blurred with exhaustion and she refrained from rubbing at them as she passed Khym's cabin.
She thought of going to him. She had not — not since Hoas. It was not her time; had not been, then. Such niceties went by the board with them as they had in her world-visits. But sleep would not come easy with the dust, the small shifts of G that went on constantly: and he might be asleep; and there would be questions if she waked him.
Did you fix it, Py?
She opened her own door and walked in, sat down at the desk and methodically cleared the clutter of her own work away.
Course-plottings. Calculations every way she could make them in hopes of getting another dump-and-turn that would turn them off toward Kura and hani space, without breaking them down at Urtur and stranding themselves here with the kif.
None were feasible. And if they were — if they were, knnn notice fell on hani thereafter.
Goldtooth, you mahen bastard. Seeing to the safety of his own, that was sure.
So she handed the package back again: Here, fool mahe, you take it. Good luck. Run fast.
And Tully-
She rested her head against her hands. Gods, gods, gods.
Knnn.
And the failsafe that was Ijir, whatever else it had been, with its humanity aboard, and just gone backup.
Kif had it, gods help them. Kif would take them apart, mahe, humans, everyone. Tully knew, who had spent time in kifish hands, who had gone to hani for help because he heard them laugh once, across Meetpoint docks.
Gods rot Sikkukkut and all kifish gifts.
They were out of it, that was all. Whatever gain or loss there was yet to be made, The Pride had gone her limit. So they should be glad to be out of it. A vane down. They could not jump The Pride again. They rolled the dice for Kshshti. That was gambling all their lives. At Maing Tol the odds went up, that it would not hold for braking.
Hero's a short-term job, kid.
So what was stung, that they had to give up and lay back and let others do what hani failed at?
And hand Tully on alone to mahendo'sat?
"All secure," Haral said, beside her, at her post. "I take her, captain?"
"I'll take this one," Pyanfar said, and reached and settled her arm into the brace. She glanced up at the reflection of the rest of the bridge, crew in place, Khym in his observer's post.
Fixed, they had told him. And his face had lightened, trusting them.
Fixed, they had told Tully, who was harder to lie to, being spacer himself. And he had drugged himself into a haze by now, as his kind had to do.
"Starfix positive, Maing Tol," Haral said.
The dust whined over the hull, constant but thinner now. "Going to dust up Kshshti a bit," she said. "Can't be helped."
Haral rolled a glance in her direction, a stark, stark stare. "Can't be helped," she said.
Sudden silence then, as the jump field began to build and the shields came up.
They rode their luck this time.
Color-shifts multiplied on the scan.
"Gods," Pyanfar muttered, and put in the general take-hold. Alarm rang up and down the corridors. In case. "Message to our partners: hold steady, keep course; Khym, advisement to Chur: Take precautions, we got kif moving gods know where. Tirun, feed scan dow
n to Jik's monitor; tell him we're all right, we're still on course, we just got something going here."
Acknowledgments came back.
"Captain," Haral said, "Hilfy's got this idea-"
"Tahar acknowledges," Hilfy said. "They're on our lead. Aye-we got that, Aja Jin. Thanks-"
"— Akkhtimakt's got bad troubles," Haral said. "I think we got 'em too."
She waited. Waited till she heard Tirun report all personnel accounted for; Tirun had made it onto the bridge. A last safety snicked into place.
They were secure for running. If they had to.
On the screens the flares continued as the doppler recept sorted it out and got information trued again.
And one and another of Sikkukkut's ships flaring green and going into maneuvers.
Not all on the same vector. They were headed out like thistledown scattering from a pod. Everywhere.
In every direction open to them, mahen space and hani and stsho and tc'a.
"They go," Jik exclaimed over the open com. And something else profane in mahensi. He was monitoring the situation, down there in his sealed cabin. "Damn, they go, they go-"
To every star within reach. To strafe every station and every system where there might be a hostile presence.
"Priority, priority," Hilfy said, overriding something Geran was saying: ''Harukk-com says: Pride of Chanur, proceed on course."
"They go hit ever' damn target in Compact," Jik cried. There was the sound of explosion. Or of a mahen fist hitting something. "Damn! Let me out!"
"She was right," Haral muttered. "Gods-be right. They're going to do it anyhow and we got kif every which way. Captain, they're going to push Akkhtimakt right down that open corridor, to Anuurn, captain, by the gods they are."
"We got problems," Pyanfar muttered.
While a stream of mahen profanity warred with Chur's insistent question on the com.
"Kkkkt." From a forgotten source behind them.
And station was ahead. Meetpoint, with three hundred thousand stsho and a handful of hani citizens.
With kif closing in on them with declared intent to dock.
"Transmit: " Pyanfar said. "The Pride of Chanur to all hani on station: prepare to assist in docking for incoming ships. Join us. This is your greatest hope of immediate safety."
Offer a hani an overlord, a master, a foreign hegemony-
They would spit in Sikkukkut's face. And die for it. That, beyond doubt.
But if they heard the reservation in that message, if they keyed on the nuances of safe-shelter-in-storm and all the baggage that went with it-even if the kif did, it was no more than kif expected, even if it was something no kif dared say: until we find a better.
"Repeat?" Hilfy queried.
"Repeat."
"Still braking," Geran said.
And the brightness on the amber lines that was their own position crept closer and closer to their own brake-point for station approach.
"Harun's Industry; responds," Hilfy said, "quote: We take your offer enthusiastically."
It took awhile, for ships to reduce V.
It took awhile for outbound kifish ships to go their way, leaping out into the dark, toward Hoas Point and Urtur System, toward Kshshti and Kefk and Tt'a'va'o and V'n'n'u and Nsthen. Seven ships, to follow right down Akkhtimakt's tail in a second strike after the first one; and right down the throats of Goldtooth and humans and mahendo'sat and whoever else might be coming in if they could find them.
It was, Pyanfar reckoned bleakly, both ruthless and effective.
"Kkkkt," was Skkukuk's comment. "Kkkkt."
"Kkkt," said Skkukuk. "He is challenging you all. Kkkkt. But his throat is unprotected. You are here. He thinks to daunt you. Surprise him, hakt'."
She spun her chair about to face the kif who sat at the aft of the bridge. And there was not a hair on her unbristled. "What has he in mind for us?"
"You are part of his sfik. You increase him. Kkkkt. His move is very good. He has penned you all in with his main force. Any attempt to exit toward your territories of resource are blocked first by his enemy and then by his own ships, whose capacities you do not know. It is a fine move, hakt'. But I have faith in you."
"Faith."
"Inappropriate word? Sgotkkis."
"Call it faith." She laid her ears back and stared at her private curse with coldest, clearest threat. "Since you don't have an idea in a mahen hell what I'm likely to do about it. But / am still here. And my resources have not diminished."
"Kkkkt, kkkt, skthot skku-nak'haktu."
Your slave, captain.
"Captain," Hilfy said. "Communication from Harukk. Quote: You have made a proposal to hani ships.
You will gather these captains for my inspection on-station. End message."
Second move. It's going too fast. 0 gods.
"Acknowledge," she said, cold as routine. While they slogged their way at a sedate pace through a system laced with kif, toward a station which was going to be under kifish occupation. "Sikkukkut's going into dock. Cocky son's going to bring that ship in."
If Goldtooth and the humans have stopped short and the kif pass them by in hyperspace, we could get hit here.
Hilfy and Haral have got it figured. All of us do.
If Akkhtimakt's set up to dive in here again-an attack could be poised at system's edge right now. Or already inbound. Not saying whether the kif are onto that trick of stopping a jump. They could well have it. Maybe and maybe. It's not saying all their ships can do it.
"Transmit," she said. "Honor to the hakkikt: beware system edges. I fear more than spotters."
"Done," Hilfy said.
We help the bastard we're with. While we're with him.
We take whatever they want to do. And maintain our options. Ehrran's lost all hers. We got hani on that station and gods know how many fluttering stsho. Keep a cool head, Pyanfar Chanur. It's by the gods all the chance you've got.
"We're getting docking instructions," Hilfy murmured finally. They turned up on screen, where kifish ships were already well toward touch with station.
And from Chur, plaintively over com:
"What in a mahen hell's going on?"
"Easy," Geran said. "It's all all right."
"Got crew falling on their noses tired," Pyanfar muttered. "Haral, keep it steady, standard dock. Tirun, get yourself below, take the rest of your break."
"Aye," Tirun said. Old spacer. And falling-down tired. A belt snicked. Tirun went away in silence, to food, sleep, anything she could get.
"Jik's requesting to be out," Khym said. So that voice had vanished off com. Khym had silenced him. A mahen hunter captain, locked in a lowerdecks cabin and probably trying to think how to shortcircuit the latch or take the door apart.
"Jik," she said, cutting in on that blinking light on her com section. "We're all right. F'godssakes, be patient, get some rest, we've got our hands full, you got our scan image. We're moving in on dock and that's all that's going on for a while."
"Pyanfar." The voice was calm, quiet, reasoning. "/ understand. I make problem, a? You got protect you crew. I make 'pology. I lot embarrass', Pyanfar. Long time with kif make me crazy. Now I got time think-I know what you do. We be long time ally. We befriends, Pyanfar. Same interest. You unlock door, a?"
"I tell you there's nothing you can do up here. You got awhile to rest, Jik. Take it. You may need it."
"Pyanfar." Thump. Impact of a hand near the pickup. Hard. So much for patience. "You in damn deep water. Hear? Deep water!''
"We got another expression." She flattened her ears, lifted them again. "Told you. After we dock. We got enough troubles, friend. I want your advice, but I got enough to deal with right now."
"It be war," Jik said, and sent a chill up her back. War was a groundling word. "Fool hani! The ships go, they go ever' damn place, not got stop, not got stop!"
"F'godssake, this is open space! This is the Compact, we're not talking about some backwater land-quarrel!"
'No. N
o hanis. New kind thing. Not with rule. We talk 'bout make fight all kif, all hani, all mahendo'sat, make ally, make strike here, strike there. This new kind word. Not like clan and clan. Not like go council. Here we got no council. War, Pyanfar, all devils in hell got no word this thing I see."
Colder and colder.
"I see it too. So what are the mahendo'sat going to do about it? What have they done about it? Play games with the kif til we got 'em all at each others' throats? Shove Akkhtimakt off toward hani space?
My world? How'm I supposed to be worried about you and yours, rot your conniving hide, when you doublecrossed my whole species! You doublecrossed the stsho, f'godssakes, and that takes fast dealing!
You double-crossed the tc'a, gods help us, you doublecrossed them and the chi and maybe the knnn!"
"We got humans. We got humans, Pyanfar. Same got hunter-ships, got way shove these bastard back from out hani territory, you got listen, Pyanfar. Pyanfar, I got timetable!"
Her finger was on the cutoff, claw half-extruded. She retracted it.
"Do you? Way I hear, you got something else too. Like a fancy new maneuver your ships do, just like humans." Silence from belowdecks then. Profound silence. Then: "Open this door, Pyanfar.''
"At dock."
"Soshethi-sa! Soshethi-ma hase mafeu!"
Thump.
She cut him off. Looked Haral's way. Haral studiously lowered her ears. "Not too happy," Haral said.
"Timetable. What's he mean?"
"By the gods I bet there's one. At our expense. Mahen gifts. 'Got a present for you.' Jik, turning up at Kshshti. Us, miraculously getting our papers cleared so we could turn up back here."
"I'd sure like to know what was in that packet Banny took on, I tell you that."
"Eggs to pearls that Jik slipped something into it. Goldtooth's version, I got a copy on. The stuff that didn't take a translator to dupe, at least. Which won't be the sensitive stuff. But anything might be helpful.
Downgrade the nav functions: we'll run that packet of his with the decoder."
"I'll start it," Hilfy said. "My four."
She keyed the access up and sent the packet over, while The Pride started freeing up computer space.
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