Chanur's Homecoming cs-4

by Caroline J. Cherryh

  Humans, migods, humans drug themselves senseless. We got doped-up pilots out there. Robotics. Gods know what.

  They have to stop with the mahendo'sat. Stop and get their bearings. Or plan to blow the system to a mahen hell.

  They wouldn't. Couldn't. Gods save us. They have to take Goldtooth's lead till they figure things out.

  It's not over.

  She drew a shaky breath. "We're going stable," she said on bridgecom. "Free to move about, arrange your own covers, five minutes, maybe longer: maybe ten, fifteen gods-be days out here, I dunno." She lifted shaking hands to her face, just shut out the sight of things if not the sound, and rested. Quietly some of the crew saw to themselves. "I'm all right," she heard Khym's low complaint. "Gods rot it, I can get to the gods-be head."

  From her husband. Who had a hole in his leg and a plasm patch, a deep wound that had to be swollen and hurting if it was not worse than that. She wanted a trip to the head. Desperately. She decided to take the chance and unbuckled.

  "Captain," Hilfy said. "Nekkekt: stand by replay."

  "Uhhhhn." It starts. Kif have sorted out. Who am I deal­ing with?

  And from the earplug. "Mekt-hakkikt, I have all these ships in my hand, praise to you. We will strike at your order."

  "Who am I talking to?"

  "Mekt-hakkikt, to your faithful Skkukuk. I have carried out all your orders. I will deal with all your enemies. Name them to me."

  "Right now, Skkukuk, I'm just real glad to hear from you. You keep those ships of yours under control and you don't make a move without my direct order. Hear me?"

  "/ will give you your enemies' heads and hearts."

  "I'm real fond of you too, Skkukuk. Just do what I said. You get your com linked up to mine and you stay in constant touch. Anyone twitches, I want to know about it. These hani with me are allies. They won't cause any trouble."

  "And these mahendo'sat and these invaders?"

  "Wait for my orders. That's all." She punched the contact out. She was trembling. She set her elbows on the counter and dropped her head a second time into her hands, wiped her mane back. Haral was still by her. Someone else was moving about. It was all distant. She had no wish to talk to anyone.

  "Captain." It was Sifeny Tauran holding out a sandwich and a container of something liquid with a null-cap. The sight of it turned her stomach and attracted her shaking hand. Gfi. She took a sip of it, and felt another urge unbearably strong.

  "I got to take a break," she said to Haral. "We got the gods-be kif, don't we?"

  "Go," Haral said.

  She spun the chair about and took her own way to the galley corridor and the head. The air everywhere seemed stagnant. Three days and we'll have the whole gods-be lifesupport in a mess. We can't go that long. Crew's got to get that system up.

  She passed Tauran crew in the galley, one with wrapped ribs, sitting white-nosed at the table, the other capping up food as fast as she could. "We got a while stable. Get the slinkers out of the godsforsaken filters, get that lifesupport up."

  "Aye," the Tauran said, a distracted, exhausted look till she realized who was talking to her. Then the ears came up. "Aye, cap'n."

  She made the trip, into the closet of a head, came out and shouldered past Tirun on the same mission.

  "Captain," sounded in the com-plug in her ear. "We got Mahijiru. They're indicating that they want us to pull back to Gaohn. They're waiting for reply."

  "In a mahen hell," she muttered, and went through the galley, down the corridor with a hand to either wall, onto the bridge where she had sight of Hilfy and the rest. "Tell them hold that perimeter. We'll accept Mahijiru only. That ship can come in for conference, and we'll draw back to Gaohn. We're not having any others."

  "Aye," Hilfy said. "We've got query from Vigilance" Sirany said. "Ayhar is telling them shut it down."

  It was one more thing than she wanted to know. She hand-over-handed herself back to her own post, fell into it and sat drinking at the gfi in minute sips that did not agitate her stomach.

  It was a long wait for messages. Goldtooth and the humans were a long distance out.

  She drank. She wiped her blurring eyes and leaned back against the seat in as much relaxation as she could take. While The Pride slewed on, inertial. The hani formation was spreading itself around the kif. Vigilance was far to nadir now and out of her way. Ayhar was considerably off to sunward and beginning to take some of the way off. So were others of the merchants, trimming up. Kifish ships were in hard decel, those going in both directions until they could take the speed off and achieve a coherent pattern.

  But The Pride was going where it belonged. Out into the open. Where it formed no part of any group.

  One of the calls Chur had handled, listed on monitor three: from Rhean: Do you need assistance? Reply: Negative: fully operational; thanks.

  Another, from Ehrran: Query, query, query. Reply from Fiar: All queries deferred. Your patience appreciated.

  One more, from Ehrran: Protest lodged. Reply from Hilfy: Sink it in your own datafile; advise you kifish allies are monitoring your transmissions and misunderstandings are possible. For your own safety and safety of those near you maintain com silence.

  Tully's, through the translator: This is # # Tully # # # call # # # # do not # # this is # # hani # # with # #. . . . No reply listed.

  From Shanan's Glory, far to the rear of the combat: Shall we come in or hold position? From Banny Ayhar, monitored: Hold relative position. Maintain full-sphere surveillance.

  From Gaohn Station: This is Gaohn Central: general inquiry. From Banny Ayhar, monitored: Firing has stopped. Situation uncertain but improved. Harun's Industry will be making return to Gaohn with casualties for medical assistance and will courier details. Possibility of strike in your vicinity still exists but is less probable. Reserve other inquiry for Industry. Chanur remains in contact with various allied ships. Ayhar is directing hani ships in the zone of contact. . . .

  From Ayhar: We have computed trajectory on missing ships. All vessels along these lines be alert to evade or assist as needed. . . .

  "Captain," Hilfy said. "Message from Mahijiru."

  It had already hit the screen: Ana Ismehanan-min advise you we got talk number one urgent.

  "Reply: Quote: Mahijiru is welcome alone. All other mahen and foreign ships must hold position. We will not support violation of our system borders by any agency however friendly. The approach of Mahijiru is clear and velocity should not

  exceed normal limits. Please convey to all your ships our thanks for their support, and proceed without escort to a point where we may conference without appreciable timelag. There is no urgency. I repeat the earlier advisement: few ships passed our system borders and there were more than adequate mahen forces on the outgoing vector to have handled the problem. Akkhtimakt is finished. Sikkukkut likewise. End. Repeat that at five till acknowledgment."

  "Aye," Hilfy said.

  She rested a moment then. Just rested, eyes shut, head against the seat back. It was all the rest they were going to get.

  While around her, crew moved carefully about on neces­sary errands or took a chance to stretch. Chur Anify and Khym went offshift to the galley, their two walking wounded, while a pair of exhausted Tauran risked their necks trying to clean the lifesupport filters. Fans went on, highspeed, shut down again. Went on yet again, with a decided ozone smell in the air.

  "Mahijiru's moving," Tirun said finally, on cover for Geran. "Priority, priority, we've got a general movement all along their formation."

  It was already on monitor, a sudden and ominous blinking all along the mahen front that sent her heart speeding. "Mes­sage? Gods rot it, is he saying anything?"-while crew, away from seats, in the galley, wherever they had strayed to, came scrambling unordered: in-ear coms, and a fine sense of disaster when it started.

  "Negative. He's just started to move. All of them-We got-got an inquiry from Nekkekt, quote: Shall we attack? Advisories-"

  Other crew hit the seats, lo
w murmur of exchanged infor­mation, the passing of duties, briefings in two words and a key punch that logged in: Geran, Hilfy. Others were already there. "I tell human stop," Tully protested. "Give com."

  "General output," Pyanfar snapped, as Haral hit the seat beside her and logged on. "Hold steady. Message to Mahijiru: Hold position. Keep your ships back. We will not be bluffed. Reply to query at once and brake. Endit and repeat. What's our lagtime?"

  "Fourteen nine," Tirun said; and a hani message turned up on channel two. "Chanur, this is Ayhar. What in a mahen hell is going on?"

  "Ayhar. Hold firm. Hold firm."

  ' 'Hold firm! We got a half a hundred ships gone stark lunatic! What do they think they're doing?"

  "They think they're getting through, they're pushing us, that's what they think they're doing. Those are human ships out there. Stand firm-"

  "Mahijiru," a voice broke in on her into her left ear. "Same Goldtooth. H'lo, Pyanfar, old friend!" Cheerful as any dockside. "Good hear you voice, same good find you one piece. Long time chase, damn good job stop these bas­tard. Got you number one message, good news. You number one fine, a? Same. Plenty ship. Same you tell these fine kif they stand by, we make deal bout how they get home."

  "Mekt-hakkikt!" Into the right ear. "We are tracking this advance. Give us the order! We are your allies! This mahendo'sat is a devious and a ruthless liar! Take him!"

  "Goldtooth, I got a real anxious kif here. Now it's seven-odd minutes ago, and if I don't see those ships of yours start braking in thirty seconds from the time you get this, I'm going to take some serious measures. I'll clip you good, friend. Your ship. Now you stop, and you get ready to talk this out, you don't push your way here. You want an inci­dent, you want trouble that's going to echo all the way to Iji, I got to serve you notice these hani ships aren't moving. I'm timing this real close. I know you, old friend. If I call your bluff like this, you'll shoot if I don't. So you better be doing what I say by now, because if you aren't, you got a fight coming. Endit. No repeat. Time that bastard. Skkukuk! You keep those ships of yours in line."

  "Yes."

  "Jik!" Hilfy's voice, between two beats of a panicked heart. "Jik's transmitting, incoming-"

  "Negative scan," Geran said.

  Lightspeed wavefront, inbound, the buoys not reporting and no one in position to pick him up.

  "Pyanfar-" the thin voice reached her. "We follow you fast we can, damn, you not engage, not engage-"

  He was talking about the kif. She realized that finally. He was that far away. Hours out.

  Hours ago, when he had fired off that message, he had known Sikkukkut incoming and that a few fool hani were in a lot of trouble.

  About his own partner, he could not know.

  Nor could Goldtooth know that he was there. For seven more minutes.

  "Goldtooth. I'm in contact with your partner now. Ismehanan-min. My friend. There's a lot of data you don't have. Critical information. It's Iji at stake. It's your border. We've got a kifish hakkikt here willing to talk borders. What we've got left at Meetpoint you know and I don't. But I've got a passenger, an old mutual acquaintance, who has some real important information. And I'm not talking to a fool, Goldtooth. I want a face to face meeting. You, me, a few old friends."

  "One minute," Tirun said, timekeeping.

  "At Gaohn. Dockside."

  Chapter Fifteen

  The docks at Gaohn were deserted, with the profound chill that came of seals cutting off the air circulation, the deckplates so cold they burned the feet; and Pyanfar limped a bit-had been limping since she rolled out of bed stiff and sore and knowing what there was yet to face.

  There had been a little leisure, on the way back to Gaohn, a little time for The Pride to run at a decent, safe rate; for aching crew to tend their own needs and the ship's, and to catch a nap and a hot meal.

  She went in spacer's blues. It was all she had left, and that was borrowed. She went with her own crew about her, and left The Pride in Sirany's capable hands.

  Another lostling had turned up. Dur Tahar had quietly showed up on-scope, blinking in with an ID signal and turning out not to be a piece of hurtling wreckage. "Friggin' hell," Tahar had said when they got her on com: "you don't think I'm going to run my ID, us, while we got you standing off half the Compact and most every hani ship out here ready to blow us to dust and gone. I'm not coming in yet, Chanur. I'll meet with you or one of your ships, I'll let Vrossaru and her crew off, but I'm not going to go in to dock ... not this old hunter. I'll just watch awhile."

  "You running with Goldtooth? Or Sikkukkut?"

  "Me? Gods upside down, Chanur, you got an exaggerated idea how fast we are. I got out on your tail, been following your emissions trail like a highway clear from Meetpoint, firing like hell to catch you up, but I blew two more systems making that gods-be Urtur shift: sorry if you had any fondness for that kif. Me, I owed him. Plenty." 5 "You godsforsaken lunatic! You could have blown us all."

  This during two hours of timelagged exchange. And after a longer than usual pause, in which she had thought Tahar might have quit talking: "Chanur, if you ever trusted that kif, you got something yet to learn. He made you too powerful, haven't you got it yet? So did the mahendo'sat. Do I have to tell you?"

  She had sat there then, after Dur Tahar had in fact quit talking, a decisive signoff. She sat there receiving the infor­mation from Gaohn that a half dozen little light-armed freight­ers had scattered down the Ajir route with a precious cargo of hani lives, the men and children of the Syrsyn clans.

  Seeds on a stellar wind.

  And she looked Khym's way, her husband sitting backup duty at a quieter time on the bridge, taking his time at scan while exhausted senior crew took theirs at washup and rest. He did not notice that glance: his face, dyed with the light from the scope, was intent on business.

  Whatever we lose here, she had thought then. For all we failed in, one thing we did.

  There was one other man there on the bridge. And he did look her way. She thought she had seen every expression Tully's alien face had to offer. But this, that all the life seemed to have left him, no more of fight, as if something in him had broken and died. Except that the eyes lighted a moment, glistened that way they did in profoundest sorrow; and looked-O gods-straight at her. While Hilfy, leaving the bridge, paused to put her hand on his shoulder. For comfort. For-

  ''Come on," Hilfy had said. ''Tully.''

  You know, don't you? Pyanfar had thought then. You know she'll leave you now. Her own kind, Tully. She's Chanur now. The Chanur. And you're ours; even when you go back, your people won't forget that, will they? Ever.

  Gods help you, Tully. Whatever your name really is. What­ever you think you are and wherever you go now.

  Like Tahar. They don't ever quite forget.

  I'm no fool, that look of his said back to her. Neither of us are. We're friends.

  And perhaps some other human, unfathomably complicated strangeness she could not puzzle out.

  Tully came with them onto the docks this time. It was the second time for him onto Gaohn station, among staring and mistrustful hani, in a confrontation where he was a show­piece, an exhibit, a pawn. They gave him weapons. The same as themselves. So he would know another important thing in a way the sputtering translator could not relay.

  Last of all she had caught hold of him in the airlock, taken him by the arm and made sure he was listening: "Tully. You can go with the human ships. You're free, you understand that. You know free?"

  "I know free," he had said. And just looked at her with that gentle, too-wise expression of his.

  Down the docks where a line of grim-looking Llun had set the perimeters of this meeting, the towering section seals in place on either end of this dock. There were stationer clanswomen, spacer clans. And a delegation from the han had come thundering up from the world, only just arrived. There were weapons enough. And Llun guards enough to discourage anything some hani lunatic might try.

  The Llun marshals were no
protection against the hunter-ships which had come in, snugged their deadly sleek noses up into Gaohn's vulnerable docking facilities, and disgorged their own guards and their own very different personnel. Three mahendo'sat, a human ship, and a trio of kif: besides The Pride and Harun's Industry: that was the final agree­ment. Aja Jin, Mahijiru, then one other mahen ship named Pasarimu, that had come in after Jik; Nekkekt, Chakkuf, Maktakkt, and finally something unpronounceable that Tully said for them three times and they still could not manage. The Human Ship, they called it by default.

  The gathering on the dock was very quiet, and all too careful. Even Jik, who had on a dark cloak and kilt so unlike

  his usual gaud it took a second look to know it was Jik. Only a single collar, a solitary bracelet. An AP on his hip and a knife beside it. That was usual. Soje Kesurinan was there, brighter-dressed and no less armed. And with them some Personage walked with the captain of Pasarimi, complete with Voice, with all the appropriate badges. Official, yes. Indisputably.

  There was Goldtooth, in the same dark formality. And his own escort. Not a flicker of communication passed between him and his partner.

  Harun and Llun, a tired crew in spacer-blues, with Kauryfy herself in green and the Llun all in Immune black.

  Another lot came in black: a mass of Shadow drifted out from the perimeters, all alike in their robes, their hoods, their utter sameness to hani eyes, all bristling with weapons. One of them would be Skkukuk, but she could not find him by the clues she knew, the gait, the small gestures. There was a tall kif evidently in charge, one the others evidently gave place to.

  Who is that? Is it my kif?

  She feared it was altogether another. In one sense or another.

  And the humans, from whatever-it-was. She had seen the like once before: different kinds of humans; different shapes; any species had that. But these varied wildly, some handsome in a Tully-way; some just strange. They all wore dark gray, all glittered with silver and plastics, body-fitting, skin-covering suits: even the hands covered. Not one was armed with anything that looked like a weapon. Com equipment. Plenty of that. They remained an enigma. And stopped, at about the distance everyone else had stopped, like points of a star.