Chanur's Venture cs-2

by Caroline J. Cherryh

  Jik had held out on Sikkukkut. And on her. It was certain that he had. He had been dead silent on that gibe about mahen ship capabilities.

  The archive in question blinked into Hilfy's reach.

  And they slipped closer and closer to dock.

  "Might have some lurker outsystem," Hilfy said. "I've been thinking about that. Might have a strike here most any time."

  "Cheerful," Geran said. That sounded almost normal, crew bickering and muttering from station to station.

  "Station's on," Hilfy said. "Docking calc."

  "That's got it," Haral said, and sucked them into nav. "Auto?"

  "Might as well. Nothing problematical here." Pyanfar sat and gnawed her mustaches, gnawed a hangnail on her third finger. Spat. "Hilfy: send to all hani at dock, hani-language, quote: The Pride of Chanur to all hani at dock: we are coming in at berths 27, 28, 29 consecutive.

  Salutations to all allies: by hearth and blood we take your parole to assure your security. Industry, salutations to your captain in Ruharun's name: we share an ancestor. Let's keep it quiet, shall we? End."

  "Got that," Hilfy said.

  Haral gave her a look steady and sober, ears back-canted. "Think the kif read poetry?"

  "Gods, I hope not."

  Five decades ago. Dayschool and literature. When she had ten times rather be at her math. Stand and recite, Pyanfar.

  "I hope to the gods this younger generation does."

  On a winter's eve came Ruharan to her gates beneath black flight of birds in snowy court. White scarf flutters in the wind, red feather the fletch of arrows standing still in posts about the yard and the holy shrine where stands among a hundred enemies her own lord, no prisoner but of her enemies foremost seeming.

  But Ruharun knew her husband a man with woman's wit and woman's staunchness.

  So she cast down her bow and spilled out the arrows, on blood-spattered snow cast down defense, bowed her head to enemies and to fortune.

  "Industry answers," Hilfy said. "Quote: We got that. 27, 28, 29. We have another kinswoman here in Munur Faha. Greetings from her. We are at your orders."

  "Gods look on them." Pyanfar drew a large breath. Message received, covered and tossed back again under kifish noses. Munur Faha of Starwind was kin to Chanur. But not to Harun. Harun had no ties of any kind.

  And Faha had a bloodfeud with Tahar of Moon Rising.

  A small chill went down her back. It was response to her own coded hail. It was just as likely subtle warning and question, singling out Faha for salutations: strange company you keep, Pyanfar Chanur, a mahen hunter, a kifish prince, and a pirate. The Faha-Tahar feud was famous and bitter.

  At your orders, smooth and silky. It was kifish subservience, never hani; it was humor, bleak and black and thoroughly spacer. Let's play the game, hani. You and your odd friends. Let's see where it leads.

  It took a mental shift, gods help her, to think hani-fashion again, and to know the motives of her own kind. Like crossing a gulf she had been on the other side of so long that hani were as strange as the stsho.

  "Reply: See you on my deck immediately."

  Grapples took. The Pride's G-sense shifted, readjusted itself. Other connections clanged and thumped into seal. They were not the first ship in. Ikkhoitr and Chakkuf crews were already on the docks. Harukk was in final. But no kif came to help non-kif ships dock. Pointedly, they handled their own and no others.

  They were Industry crewwomen risking their necks out there on the other side of that wall.

  "I've got business," Pyanfar said, and unclipped the safeties.

  "Aye," Haral said. "Routine shutdowns, captain. Go."

  She got out of the chair and saw worried looks come her way. Tully's pale face was thin-lipped and large about the eyes, the way it got in Situations.

  Thinking, O gods, yes, that this might be the end of his own journey, on a station where the kif had won everything that he had set out to take; and where humans were still a question of interest to Sikkukkut an'nikktukktin. He had reason to worry. The same as Jik did.

  Queries were coming in, com from Moon Rising as it docked, operational chatter. Aja Jin was a minute away from touch.

  Still playing the game, Kesurinan trusting that her captain was consenting to this long silence.

  "Stay to stations," she said to all and sundry. "Khym, monitor lowerdecks."

  "You going down there with him?" He looked at her with his ears down, the one with its brand new ring.

  She flattened her own. He turned around again without a word. "Tirun's down there," she said to his back and Tully's face and Skkukuk's earnest attention.

  I would go, hakt', that kifish stare said. Tear the throat out of this mahendo'sat, I would, most eagerly, mekt'hakt'.

  "Huh." She made sure of the gun in her pocket and walked on out, wobbly in the knees and still with the sensation that G was shifting. She felt down in her pocket, remembering a packet of concentrates, and drank it in the lift, downbound.

  The salty flood hit her stomach and gave it some comfort. Panic killed an appetite. Even when panic had gotten to be a lifestyle and a body was straight out of jump. She ate because the body said so. And tried not to think about the aftertaste.

  Or the ships around them, or the situation out there on the docks.

  Jik was on the bed, lying back with his head on his arms. He propped himself up as the door opened, his small ears flat, a scowl on his face.

  " 'Bout time."

  "I'm here to talk with you." She walked in and let the door close behind her. His ears flicked and he gathered himself up to sit on the edge of the bed, with a careful hitch at his kilt.

  "You been listening to ops?"

  "A." Stupid question. But an opening one. He drew a large breath. "You do damn fine job, Pyanfar. We sit at station, same like stsho. We got kif go blow Compact to hell. Now what do?''

  "What do you want? Run out of here? I got hani ships here, I got ten thousand kif on their way to Urtur, right where you wanted 'em, gods rot you."

  "Listen me. Better you listen me now."

  "Down the Kura corridor. Isn't that the idea?"

  "He be kif, not make connection you with these hani. They got be smart, save neck all themselves-Better you do own business. You don't panic, Pyanfar. Don't think like damn groundling! Don't risk you life save these hani. You get them killed, you make damn mess!"

  She laid her ears back. "I got kifish ships headed at my homeworld, Jik. What am I supposed to do, huh? Ignore that?"

  "Same me." Muscles stood out on Jik's shoulders, his fists clenched. "You let kif make you plan for you?

  They shove, you go predict-able direction? Damn stupid, damn stupid, Pyanfar! You lock me up, take kif advice now? You let be pushed where this bastard want?''

  "And where does that leave my world, huh? I got one world, Jik. I got one place where there's enough of my species to survive. Hani men don't go to space, they're all on Anuurn. What in a mahen hell am I supposed to do, play your side and lose my whole species? They got us, Jik, they got us cornered, don't talk to me about casualties, don't talk to me about any world and any lot of lives being equal, they're not.

  We're talking about my whole by the gods species, Jik, and if I had to blow every hani out there and three hundred thousand stsho to do something about it, I'd do it, and throw the mahendo'sat onto the pile while it burned, by the gods I would!"

  The whites showed at the corners of his eyes. Ears were still back, the hands still clenched.

  "Why you here?"

  "Because," she said, "two freighters and a hunter can't stop it. Because there's a chance I can turn Sikkukkut to do what I can't. Now you tell me about timetables. You tell me about it, Jik, and you tell me all of it, your ship caps included!"

  He sat silent a moment. "You got trust."

  "Trust. In a mahen hell, Jik. Tell me the truth. I'm out of trust."

  "I got interests I protect."

  "No." She walked closer, held up a forefinger and kept
the claw sheathed with greatest restraint. ' "This time you trust me. This time you give me everything you've got. You tell me. Everything."

  "Pyanfar. Kif going to take you 'board Harukk. They try question me, I don't talk. My gover'ment, they make fix-" He tapped the side of his head. "I can't talk. Can't be force'. You whole 'nother deal. They shred you fast. Know ever'thing. They know you got me 'board, a? Know you got chance make me talk.

  Maybe they give me to you for same reason- they can't, maybe Pyanfar can do, a? Maybe block don't work when you ask, I tell you ever'thing like damn fool."

  "Can you tell me? Can what they did to you, can what your Personage did to you-make you lie to me, even when you don't want to?"

  A visible shiver came over him. Hands jerked. "I ask not do."

  "Jik-you got to trust me. However they messed you up. Jik, if it kills you, I got to ask. What timetable?"

  The tremor went through all his limbs. He hugged his arms against himself as if the room had gone freezing. And stared her in the eyes. "Fourteen," he said past chattering teeth. "Eighteen. Twenty.

  Twenty-four-First. Seventh." Another spasm. "This month. Next. Next. We g-got maneuver-make jump coordinate with same."

  "You mean your moves are aimed at certain points at certain dates?"

  "Where got th-threat. Don't fight. Move back. Make 'nother jump-point on focus date."

  "So that somewhere, tracking the kif, your hunters are going to coincide and home in on them."

  "Co-in-cide. A." He made a gesture with shaking hands. "More complicate', Pyanfar. We push. We pull.

  We make kif fight kif. We make kif go toward Urtur, toward Kita."

  "Toward Anuurn!"

  "Got-got help go there. Back side. We not betray you, Pyanfar!"

  Her legs went weak. She sank down where she was, on her haunches, looking up at a shaken mahendo'sat on the edge of the bed. "You swear that."

  "God witness. Truth, Pyanfar. You got help." The hands clenched again. "Ana-me Aja Jin. He got chance. Got chance, damn! and he run out from this place, leave us in damn mess! Got 'nother plan. He got 'nother plan, got way push kif on kif, damn conservative."

  "Or he suspects deep down his human allies aren't to be trusted. What if he knows that? What would he do?"

  "He be damn worried. Same got worry with tc'a." Another convulsive shiver. Jik wiped his face, where it glistened with sweat. "He maybe listen to me too much. Take my advice. I come into his section of space. He damn surprise' see me at Kefk. I tell him-I tell him we got save this kif, make number one.

  True. He be confuse', he pull out." He slammed his hand onto the bed beside him. "I don't send code.

  You understand. I not on Aja Jin, I don't send code, he don't attack!"

  "Kesurinan doesn't know all this."

  "I not dead. She got file to read if I be dead, but I be on friendly ship, a? She take you instruction, she think I be on bridge-She not know. She don't send the damn code and Ana don't move on this kif!"

  There was sickness at her stomach all over again. She stared up at him. And have you told me the truth even yet, old friend, my true friend? Or have you only found a lie that' II keep me moving in the direction you want? Or are you giving me the only truth you've been brainwashed into believing? Would they do that to you, your own people?

  Would they stick at that, when they got into your mind to do other things?

  Gods save us, I almost trust the kif more.

  "The kif would have blown us, Jik, before we could help anybody. We could've lost it all. I don't think it would've worked. We still got a chance, don't we? Where's our next.rendezvous point? When?"

  "Kita. Eighteenth next month."

  "Can't make it. Give me the next we could reach. Or is it here? Is Goldtooth just waiting a signal?"

  "Two month. Twenty-fourth. Urtur. You got. Maybe be there. Maybe not. We got now six, seven ship go out from here."

  And a single incoming ship at extremely high V had a killing advantage. If it turned out to have position as well, its high velocity fire could rip slower ships to ribbons'.

  "When's Goldtooth come back?"

  "I not say he come back. Don't know what he do. Not get damn signal!"

  "Gods-be lie, Jik, you got to coordinate this somehow. You know what he's going to do. My information says he can short-jump and turn. That maybe all those ships can. Is it here, Jik? Is Meetpoint the place we have to be? Was that message he didn't get from Kesurinan-aimed to catch him a few days, a few hours out from this system, was that it?"

  Terror. Never before in Jik. Raw fear.

  "Scared I'll tell the hakkikt? Scared I guess too much?" She was sitting vulnerable and too close. She stood up and looked down at him, mindful of the gun in her pocket. "Scared they'll get it out of me?"

  "You damn fool."

  "I want your help. You want mine. You want to figure your chances without the hani? If it was you and nothing else, alone with the kif, with three human governments all doublecrossing each other, and the tc'a and the chi, gods help us, running lunatic? You refigure it, Jik, hear? You got some authority of your own.

  You got authority to take up a Situation and settle it, I got that figured. And I'm giving you a Situation. I'm giving you the fact we got this bastard going to take my species out, going to kill all of us, which loses you an ally, which loses you a major market, doesn't it, which loses you friends, about the time you need 'em most, you and your Personage. Humans aren't half your trouble. / am. The han is. And you don't give me orders. / got the influence, / got the thing in hand, and all of a sudden I'm dealing with a threat to my planet, Jik, which means I'll do any gods-be thing I got to and I'm not kiting off in any gods-be direction you want. I got one direction. And you got no choice but my choice, because I'll shoot you down before I let you do something that'll stop me. I love you like kin and I'll shoot you with my own hand, you hear me, mahe? Or you help me and give me the truth at all the right spots and maybe you still got an ally left."

  Muscles were still clenched. Hard. He took a long time. "Got," he said finally. "You open door, a?"

  "No deal. Not your terms, you hear?"

  He stood up, gave the kilt a hitch, and stared down at her. Made a sudden move of his hand, a strike.

  She skipped back, ears flat.

  "First thing," he said, "you got learn not trust ever' bastard got deal. You damn fine trader. But kif not be merchant.''

  "Neither are you. I'm proposing something else. I'm telling you you're not going to break my neck because you got more sense."

  "You got right," he said, and sniffed and drew a large breath. The fine wrinkles round his eyes drew and relaxed and drew again in an expression very like Tully's. "Love you like kin. Same. Got tell you you going to bleed." He touched his heart. "Same you win, same you lose. You number one fine woman. Got lot haoti-ma. Lot. I make deal, honest. You get me smoke, I give you whole timetable."

  "You gods-be lunatic."

  "Sikkukkut not only source. You got whole station. You got ask Aja Jin. Same bring."

  "Drug's scrambled your brains."

  A little light danced in his eyes. "You want me stay 'board, you got find me smoke. I be number one fine pilot. Same better when I got relax. You maybe need. You, Haral, you number one too. Not too many."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Same you." He gave another hitch at the kilt. He had lost weight. "You got deal." More wrinkles round the eyes, a grimace. "My Personage damn me to hell. Same be old territory for me. You want me, you got. Long as Sikkukkut not got us all. You got trade sharp, hani. Number one sharp. This be hard deal.

  Maybe he take me. Maybe take you: you got no knowledge. You want plan you got get me back. Safe."

  "He hasn't asked for you."

  "He do. You wait, see. Know this kif."

  "How's your nerves?"

  "You not forget get smoke, a? Same time you get me out."

  "Captain," Hilfy said over com. "Harukk's coming in right now. They're in
sisting to pick up all the captains. With appropriate escorts. They want Jik and Tully too."

  Jik lifted his brows. "See?"

  "Gods rot that kif." But she thought: He could strip every ship here of its senior command. Couldn't he?

  Me. Dur Tahar. That'd leave Haral Araun, but he doesn't know her that well.

  / need an escort. Not Haral. Gods, I can't take Haral off this ship.

  Not one of my crew. Just my translator.

  "Hilfy. Tell Skkukuk he's going with us. No other but the ones they asked for. Send my gear down here.

  Send an AP for Jik too. We got a point to prove."

  Gods send the rest of the captains have got some sense.

  Gods send they understand old epics.

  "Aye," Hilfy said after a second. "Captain. Tahar's here. We got others coming. Haral asks: let 'em through?"

  Not happy. No. Sikkukkut's not going to like this.

  And, no, niece, I'm not crazy.

  I just got no choice.

  The lift worked. That was Tully coming down. Or the kif. She walked along the corridor with Jik for company, spotted Tirun coming the other way about the time the lock cycled with its characteristic whine and thump and let someone into the ship.

  That and a cold lot of air with the smell of Meetpoint about it. Nostalgia hit, and left an ache after it. Old times and rotten ones, but that smell was familiar in a mundane way that made the present only worse by comparison.

  Tully and Skkukuk arrived together, Skkukuk a-clatter with weapons, his own and what he had gathered on Kefk dock: maybe, she reflected dourly, it was sentiment.

  Tully had her gun slung over his shoulder, and an AP at his hip: that took no claws to operate-shove in the shells and pull the trigger. He was steady and able to use it. He had proved that at Kefk.

  And from the airlock corridor, Dur Tahar arrived with Soje Kesurinan.

  Pyanfar drew in a large breath.

  So how stop her? If hani were going to hold a meeting under the hakkikt's nose, what stopped Kesurinan from joining it?

  And what stopped Jik now from joining her?

  "We got a problem here," she muttered. "Jik, don't you do it."

  "Lo," he said, "Soje. Shoshe-mi."