"We'll see you in the han, Ehrran."
The com-telltale went out.
The power came up, the undocking sequence initiated. Familiar sounds. There was a great cold in her gut and an ache in her side. A sequencing flicked up on number one screen. She keyed affirm, and it flicked off: flashed out to all the ships via Central.
Fortune and Light were going wide out on either side of their formation; her own group contained the ships she had come with: Industry and Shaurnurn's Hope, Starwind and Pauran's Lightweaver. And ships that had run with Fortune and those that adhered to Ayhar's Prosperity each to those captains' discretion-a great number to Prosperity, with more on the way. Ehrran's Vigilance took farthest sweep, nadir. Not the hottest spot. The catcher-point. The one to take the strays.
It was the second time for some of these crews, the second time they had ever uncapped the red switches on the few armaments a freighter carried. Two years ago. Or whatever year it was, currently. Gods. She had lost track. Four? More man that? Kohan's face flashed to mind, Kohan grayed and time-touched. The world changed. More of the people she had known in her youth onworld would have died. Of old age.
How old am I? How many years did we lose out there?
The month, two-month jumps added up to years fast, with so little dock time between. She suddenly tried to think what her son and her daughter might look like, Kara Mahn and Tahy, down there ruling Chanur land, sitting in the han, for the gods' sake, Tahy senior enough to sit in the han and talk for Mahn, and vote against Chanur interests. Of a sudden the baby faces leapt to adolescence, to adulthood, to broad-faced maturity, Kara's sullen, broadnosed face gone more sullen still, Tahy's furtive look gone to something pinched and unpleasant-a smallish teenager become a smallish, surly woman whose ears were always flicking about as if she suspected conspiracy. A mother's imagination painted these things and touched her children's manes' with gray. Kara's ears would be notched up right proper. Kohan had gotten the ears the first time Kara made a try for Chanur land: it was a good guess Kohan had gotten him again. In return for his own scars. Gods. So fast. Life's so fast. How much of it I've missed.
Grapples withdrew. Undocking jets eased them out, under Haral's careful hand. Com babble came to her, three operators at once, on their separate channels, each dealing with procedures some of which went to Tirun back there at the aux panel.
She used her own comp, sorting the data that sifted past Tirun. The Pride backed hard; and something black and furred and angry shrieked and scrabbled across the decking, crack! against the bottom of the panel. It squealed in rage and scrambled sideways under the acceleration.
"Gods and thunders." She kicked at it, hardly sparing attention for the little bastard. Figures were more important. What it had done to systems back aft, gods only knew. It escaped, off galleyward. "Have to purge the ship to hard vacuum to get rid of those things."
"I'm not sure," Haral muttered, "that that'd do it. Standby rollover."
The Pride rolled, G-shift and re-shift; and six of the mains cut in, a moral shock this close to Gaohn. Laws and regulations were fractured. But Gaohn was under disaster-rigging, population snugged to the inmost sections. They made speed.
They passed the zone where the aux-engines were permitted and slammed the mains in full.
They were free. Moving. Bound for the system rim.
Gods knew what was already out there, inbound.
''Communication from Mahaar's Favor,'' Chur said, ' 'bearing off Tyar. They're AOS on our earlier transmission and say they're holding position."
Standing nose to nose with the kif.
She cast a wary eye at scan, where a dot that was a kifish ship stood all too close to Gaohn with the lighter-ship in its gut.
Too gods-be close to Gaohn and Anuurn.
It's a mistake. I'm a fool. They'll kill Skkukuk, poor bastard. They'll take him apart and they're in position to take the station out.
Fire on 'em? Gods-be kif hunters bury their personnel sections deep inside, got twenty feet of stuff to blast through to get a hit on the things, godsforsaken missiles we got won't dent it that deep without us throwing 'em at V and we're near sitting still even yet. Fool, Pyanfar, fool.
While acceleration went on. There was a stuffiness about the air. An unpleasant taint, like chemicals. Like dust in the air. Ozone. Filters were out. They had a redlight condition on the lifesupport board. They ignored it.
She blinked her eyes. For a moment it was Harukk's dark gut, the flare of sodium light. Dark-robed kif and the smell of incense and ammonia.
Kifish ships at dock at Kefk, lean and wicked and massive-vaned, bristling with guns. Like that thing out there.
"Priority," Hilfy said, and froze her heart. "Captain, it's Nekkekt. They're asking instructions."
Gods, of course it won't turn now. Things are too uncertain. It's in crisis they kill their officers.
And their allies.
"Have 'em put Skkukuk on."
A pause. While the mains blasted away, squaring the V and bringing them at an angle to the kif. Kif could fire from any angle. The Pride and the rest of the freighters had their limits.
It's godsblessed suicide. Bluff from one end to the other.
"They're sending for him," Hilfy said. "Captain, there's a Situation over there. That was the captain who asked instructions, I think, by their comtech."
"I think you got it," she muttered. Push the bastard. Make him get your own skku to the mike. Gods. What're the han doing, what are they thinking, the ships out there? Chanur's talking to the kif, we got a kif right into Gaohn, we got kifish and human transmission going out of this ship. ..."
It's Harun and the rest they're watching. The ships that came with me. Spacers. That's what they're taking their cue from-they know Chanur could be crazy, but not Chanur and five other clans and the mahendo'sat. They're holding steady so far-gods, they know the kif, they know, this whole mess is unstable.
If they knew how much-
"Skkukuk to your com one," Haral said. A light blinked.
She punched it. "Skku of mine. We're taking Kura vector. See to it."
There was a pause. Is he on? Gods, let's not have a mistake.
"Chanur-hakkikt." In a voice cold and clear and clipped.
Skukkuk? Is that Skkukuk?
"Pukkukf on your enemies, hakkikt. / will give them to you."
"Skkukuk?"
A pause. "Of course, hakkikt-mekt. Skkukkuk." An edge to the voice. The tone was different. "Pukkukt' on all your enemies. Rely on me."
What in the gods' name is he up to? Is that him? What's going on with him?
Is this some gods-help-us kifish test?
Or a kif gone important?
"Get those gods-be ships into line and get it organized. First one makes a wrong move, take it out!"
"Yes."
The light went out. Like that. A little chill went down her back.
"What've we created? Migods, what've we created out, huh?"
Haral looked her way. Mirrorlike. "Mekt-hakkikt, was it?"
She blinked. The chill got no better. And no questions came through com from hani ships. Or station. Or the few mahendo'sat keeping their post out there with the kif Skkukuk had just appropriated.
Not a word from Sirany Tauran, sitting a duty post like crew.
It's out of control.
Crew's not talking. Stations are too quiet. What are they thinking, for godssakes?
Last run we make, and we know it, don't we? It's not what we used to be. None of us are that.
She coughed. "We got one of those gods-be black things loose somewhere up here, gods know where it'll land when we maneuver, just want you to know that."
"Gods," someone muttered. And it was as if the whole crew drew a collective breath and loosened collective muscles. "What say?" Tully asked plaintively, lost as usual. "What say?"
"Captain said-" Khym began.
"Movement on Nekkekt," Geran said monotone, deliberate monotone. As Haral p
rioritied scan up. No emergency. That was where it had to be.
"Transmission," Hilfy said. "Skkukuk's passing your orders to the kif. Ordering the clans and the mahendo'sat to clear out of their way."
"Confirm that to our allies."
A pause. A longer-than-one-breath pause. Then: "Aye." And compliance, rapid pushing of buttons.
"Captain." Chur's voice, quiet, very quiet. Strain was in it. "I got this idea-"
"Spill it.'
"The kif. They know their enemy. They turned round here. Akkhtimakt's ships-" The voice faded out, restored itself. "They knew it was sprung, the trap- They've been here-how long? Jik went on-but there's others-"
"Timetables. Gods. The mahendo'sat know there's a second wave, they knew it. Hilfy. Transmit: Hasano-ma. My gods, we've been sitting on that code program-Jik's letter. Run the coded parts through. Spit it on at them. Send it out on the Ajir vector. Put our wrap on it and get the mahendo'sat-
gods, gods, gods, the man gives us a key and a coder and we sit on it."
"That'll worry the kif some."
"Good! They love it. Jik. Jik, gods rot it-no, he hasn't gone on. He doesn't have to jump all the way to Ajir, b'gods, he can stop out there, stop, turn, and get back here, and the kif know it, they know it, that's why they're stalled. Akkhtimakt's run into a trap, and his ships saw it coming, by gods, he was already pinned here thanks to Ayhar-We came in and his ships panicked; and defected; and now they don't know what to do."
"Kill their captains," Haral said grimly. "That's what they're doing, you want to lay odds to it? One place they're not going is back to Akkhtimakt. That bastard's gone. Run to the deep for sure, and his crew will kill him and turn that ship around if they can stop fighting mahendo'sat long enough: they'll be out of there and back through here like a shot if they get half a chance."
"Tirun. What's the mahen AOS?"
"Good eight minutes."
She gnawed at her mustaches. A good hour Light to the nadir range. Maybe two out, if there was a mahen force out there lurking.
Gods blast you, Jik-throw the hani at it again, do you? Use us for a decoy. Set us up. Unless you're already on your way. And you won't be, will you? It's a trap the kif understand. The lurking kind. That's why the kif flinched, why I've got me a dozen kif out there trying to figure out whether to listen to me now and turn on me later-
They don't know what might come through out there first. Anything could. If it's Goldtooth they better have joined me. If it's Sikkukkut they better not have. Poor bastards. What's a kif to do but stall?
And Skkukuk, that gods-be conniving son is out there risking his neck because it's logical. He's mine. He senses I'm against the hakkikt and Sikkukkut's going to kill him right along with the rest of us, that's what's going on in that earless head of his-he's taking all he's got and charging the bastards headon with the widest bluff he can run-
Gods, can you call a kif brave?
"We got a-"
Priority!" Geran cried. "Blip's in, bearing zenith ten, twenty two, ten. ..."
The scan image flashed red-rimmed, flashed red on the newly arrived blip-
"Knnn!" Hilfy said. "That's knnn output-"
"Vector, vector-"
A line popped onto the course diagrams, the whole perspective shifted, rotated, showed it passing through system on a trajectory right past them, while the dopplered image flashed to yellow: "Going right through system fringes," Geran said, "passing within-Tyri orbit to nadir range."
"Gods, I don't like this." That was Sirany. Quietly.
"All sorts of strange fish," Pyanfar muttered. "Goldtooth. They ran right before Goldtooth at-"
''Priority, priority, we got another one-''
"It's here," Haral said. As the scan image acquired another blip that blinked and came ahead. The knnn kept dopplering, the image rotating to show relative position: comp had the hazard warning blinking all round the edges. "Same course."
"Not knnn," Pyanfar said. "That thing's might not be knnn, I go this terrible feeling-''
"Fake a knnn ID?"
"Who'd dare fire on it? Put the armaments on track. Warning to all ships: Hilfy."
"Aye."
"Armaments locked," Tirun said. "And tracking."
"It's just gone kifish; it's Harukk'
"Gods rot-To all ships. Inertial!"
"Slow him down?" Haral was mind-reading again. The Pride's mains cut out abruptly, an abrupt feeling that down was no longer aft, bodies were suddenly not lying flat on backs but attracted weakly seatward under the slight rotation-the whole board went blurred a moment in her eyes and a feeling of vertigo and panic came over her-
"We've got-got to play it step by step. Hope to gods Sikkukkut's being smart again, smart'll hang him-nobody understands the han." A screen flashed change. More kif were dropping into system. IDs multiplied. Harukk. Ikkhoitr. Others of the old association.
It was very quiet for a moment. Just ship after ship dropping out of hyperspace.
And hani ships biding in prudent silence. Even Ehrran. No moves but the cutting of thrust, instant and undisputed. Keep the formation. They were still ripping along at more speed than insystem navigation rules permitted.
Think, fool. That kif’s either fired or talked out there, the other side of Light. Do one or the other.
"Com to my board." The readylight flashed link to com one. Gods, they got our message wavefront out there, everything Chur's sent out, kifish and human: and they can't crack the human stuff. "Get scan relayed out there, give 'em everything we know. Fast." She punched the mike in. "Harukk, welcome to Anuurn: this is Pyanfar Chanur, aboard The Pride of Chanur. Akkhtimakt is defeated, his ships have defected, praise to the hakkikt. If enemies follow you we are ready."
"That's by the gods sure," Haral said under her breath, when she punched out. Haral's ears were flat. Pyanfar found her left hand clenched on the seat, claws right through the leather.
So what's he done? Fired or talked?
Farther and farther.
"They're dumping!" Geran yelled, and a yell and a collective breath and a gasp went through the bridge. "Thank gods," someone said. Tully muttered something humanist) and faint.
"Keep transmitting that message," Pyanfar ordered. "Repeat, repeat."
"We've got it going," Hilfy said.
Five ships. Five, six ships in the system now. Harukk and Ikkhoitr. And another one. Seven.
How many? Gods, how many? Did he get away free? Run early and save his ships?
He's got to have lost some. At Meetpoint. At Kura, if the mahendo'sat got there from Ajir. They've got to have done that. Run them through that gauntlet and peel a bit more flesh off them. Give us some help, for godssakes!
Eight now. Nine and ten, widely separated.
"Priority," Hilfy said, "from Harukk-com: gods, it's code, we got some kind of code, it's for those ships back there. ..."
"Keep our transmission going."
The ache grew around her heart, grew and grew. The blood pounded in her temples. Not a sound from the ships around them, nothing from the ships behind, yet ... yet. Light had a little lagtime for them.
"Nekekkt's answering," Hilfy said. "All code."
So what are you doing, Skkukuk? What are you up to? Who's in charge on that ship?
Twelve. Thirteen ships. Fourteen.
"Priority." Com came through direct to her earplug. "Instruction from the hakkikt, praise to him. Restore buoy output to our ships. Surrender this system and all its ships instantly. It will exist under the authority of my skku Pyanfar Chanur, whose orders come from me. Cease all hostilities. You are dealing with the mekt-hakkikt Sikkukkut an'nikktukktin, who allots the rule of this system and its adjuncts to his vassal Chanur.''
She let the breath hiss softly. Gods-be, what must they think now, Rhean and Anfy and Harun and Banny and the rest-what in a mahen hell do the kif back behind me think, and what kind of a move have I made with Skkukuk?
Then: Gods help me, I've got it, I'v
e got it all, everything in my hands to protect, my people, my allies. He's not shooting.
Now what do I do?
"Reply: Pyanfar Chanur to the mekt-hakkikt Sikkukkut an'nikktukktin, praise to his foresight, his enemies are under my hand."
Ambiguity. Gods save us all.
Haral had looked her way. And there was that little black thing slinking back from the galley, in a hurry, as if Tauran crew in there had done something violent.
"Smart is all we got," she said to Haral. "I remember what Goldtooth said. We get this situation calmed down a little and then I go for a little visit to Harukk. That's what. We take Goldtooth's suggestion. Snuggle up to this kif and get him."
"The two of us," Haral said.
"No. You got a ship to run. Get our V and Harukk'% matched, that's what we got to do. I'd hit him now if we had the angle and his V to use, but we can't break through those shields, slow as we are."
Haral kept looking at her. She was talking about suicide. Haral knew it. Haral also knew the other plain fact, that their armaments were nothing against hunter-ship armor-unless one or the other in the encounter had C-fractional velocity to add to the impact, virtually head-on. And Sikkukkut, praise to his wily kifish heart, was not obliging them.
" 'Bout the only thing we can do, don't, you think?"
"You mean just board and shoot him pointblank."
"Hey, they never have been too fussy about us carrying weapons. Kifish etiquette's on our side, isn't it?"
"Yeah," Haral said.
"He'll ask me aboard. You wait and see. I get my chance, and then you blow his vanes if you can. I don't have to tell you. You know what you're doing." A look aside at Haral. Old partner. Old friend. The one who just as well could have captained The Pride a long, long time ago. Who right now looked at her with that stolid calm behind which was a great deal of pain. "Long time."
"Yeah," Haral said again. "Watch out for Ikkhoitr, that's what I got to do. But that's not your job in there right now. No one but you's got the credentials, hear me?"
"Nobody else can get close to the gods-be kif-"
"He's going to be expecting a move like this. That's why no one else can get close to him. This is why it doesn't work for the kif. No percentage in it. You do it, Py, and we got ourselves a kif ball-up right here in the system."
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