The Kif Strike Back cs-3

by Caroline J. Cherryh

  A shake of the head. That was no. The eyes were wide and blue and anxious. "Not. Not know knnn thing. Py-anfar—I tell you, I tell you all thing. # # I don't lie to you."

  "Funny thing how that translator always spits on sentences I'd really like not to doubt."

  "I'm friend, I'm your friend, Pyanfar!"

  "Yeah. I know."

  "You think I lie."

  "Didn't say you lied. Just wish you'd tell the truth before things get hot, huh? I just don't like the feeling there's something still rattling round back of those pretty blue eyes of yours. Something's been there since a long while back." She raked his mane back from his face with a judicious claw—let the hand rest on his shoulder again, gently. "Look, Tully— you're not scared of me, are you?"

  "No."

  "Then why don't you tell me the truth? Why'd you keep things from me when we started this voyage?"

  "I tell."

  "About the ships, yes. You did try. Why not the rest of it?"

  "I try—try tell—You all time # busy not #—"

  "Knnn's a word would get my attention real fast, Tully. You ever talk about the knnn with Goldtooth, huh? You tell him about firing on the knnn?"

  A blink, a shake of the head, a shift of the eyes. Evasion.

  "Well, you've been real helpful to a lot of people, haven't you? You tell me the truth about him taking you off that courier ship?"

  "Truth."

  "He personally?"

  "Goldtooth."

  "Ever hear anything about another ship? Another hunter-ship out there—someone with the rest of the humans?"

  "No."

  "You mean these human ships are just careening about Compact space on their own. No charts, no guide? No one watching them? Come on, Tully. How many?"

  "I don't know."

  "Two. Ten?"

  "Not know. Ten. Maybe ten. Maybe more."

  "More."

  "I don't know!"

  "Where'd these ships come from, Tully? Who's bringing them? Who told them to? You know about that?"

  "Not know."

  "Goldtooth knew. Truth, Tully. What do you know about these other humans?''

  A darting of the eyes aside, elsewhere, back, away again.

  "Huh?" she asked. "What do you know, Tully?"

  "Come fight kif. They come fight kif."

  "Uhhnnn." She caught his stare and held it. His eyes darted and jerked and stayed centered, dilated wide in the bright light of the bridge. "How do they sort out which kif, huh, Tully? Who tells them?"

  "Kif is kif."

  "Think so? What kind of plan is that? Take on the whole by the gods kif species? You're crazy, Tully. No. The mahendo'sat don't deal with crazy people. And you're dealing with the mahendo'sat, aren't you?"

  "I ask go to bring you, bring you, Pyanfar, I don't # the mahendo'sat."

  "Say again."

  "Mahendo'sat don't speak all truth. I'm scared. I don't know what they do. I think maybe they want help us but I—//" He laid a hand on his chest and said it in hani, sending the translator into sputters. "I Tully—I scare, Py-anfar."

  "Of what? What scares you?"

  "I think the mahendo'sat more want help self. Maybe hani have want help self. I don't know. I don't understand too much. The translator makes wrong words. I scare—I don't know—''

  "You're talking real clear now. Tully. You understand me. And I don't want any more evasions. You don't tell me you don't understand, hear? You know what kind of mess we're in."

  "I don't understand."

  "Oh, yes, you do. Who's with the ships, Tully? What's the arrangement they made? Where are they going next?"

  "I don't understand."

  "I told you I don't want to hear that. I want to know what you know. Tell me this, Tully—what questions did Sikkukkut ask you? What did he ask you, all alone?"

  "Not—not—" His eyes widened. He twisted suddenly and looked behind him. Pyanfar glanced beyond, where Hilfy stood. Reflection and movement in the dead monitor screen. That had caught Tully's eye; and he seized on the chance.

  "Hilfy," Tully said, pleaded. "Hilfy—"

  "Something wrong?" Hilfy asked.

  "We're just talking," Pyanfar said. Gods rot the timing. "Go see how Chur's doing, huh?"

  "Geran's with her. Was just there." Blind to hints. Or ignoring them.

  "Fine. Go see about the filters. You want to walk through, walk."

  Hilfy's ears went down. She stood there.

  "I go help," Tully offered, making to get up.

  "You stay put." She shoved him back down on the chair? arm. "I'm not through with you. Hilfy. Get."

  "What's the matter? What's going on?"

  Fear. Human sweat. It was distinct and general in the air. The quiet on the bridge despite two stations working, the look on Tully's face—

  "We're discussing routes," Pyanfar said evenly, quietly, and laid a quiet hand on Tully's shoulder. He flinched from under it and glanced round in panic. "Discussing what things he may still know. What he might have told without realizing it, to the mahendo'sat. To the kif in particular."

  "I don't talk, Hilfy, I don't."

  "Didn't say you were a liar, Tully. I asked you what Sikkukkut asked you. I want to know what Sikkukkut wanted to know."

  "For godssakes, aunt—"

  There was sweat on Tully's face. His skin had gone white. He looked up at her.

  "Let him alone, gods rot it, aunt, he's had enough."

  "I know he's had enough. I know what he went through—"

  "You don't know! Keep your hands off him!"

  Panic. Killing rage. O gods. Gods, Hilfy. Whoever wore that look was not a child, had never been a child. "Tully. All right. Get." She gave him a shove to move him. "Go on, I'll talk to you later."

  "We send out ships," Tully said, suddenly, perversely clinging to his place. He poured the words out, clutched her wrist when she made a gesture of dismissal, and he looked from Hilfy to her, to Tirun and Haral and back, his alien eyes flickering and distracted. "It long time—long time—I try— They leave the Earth, understand. They make # self a #—" And when she shifted in the pain of his grip, he held the harder. "You listen, listen, Pyanfar, I tell you—"

  "Make sense, gods rot it, the translator's frying half you say."

  "We send ships—" He let go her bruised wrist to make a vague and desperate gesture of displacement,-of going away. "Ships go from Earth, from homeworld, they make # self # law, make # self # Compact. They don't like Earth. We fight # long with these human. Now we get no trade # be # to Earth. There be two human Compacts. They # want #. Want Earth. We want be free. We want make our # law. We want go—out in space—not the same direction like before. We find new direction, new trade. We find your Compact, find you. We want trade. This is the truth. If we get trade we make three Compact. Earth # be the third. Earth # be the # friend to hani, to mahendo'sat."

  "Two human compacts." Pyanfar blinked and wiped her mane back with a sore hand and looked at Hilfy, who looked confused.

  "Three," Tully said. "Also Earth. My homeworld. We got trouble # two humanities. We want trade. We the home of humanity we need this #. We want make way into Compact space, come and go # # #."

  "You know about this?" Pyanfar asked Hilfy.

  "No," Hilfy said, "No, I don't know what he's talking about."

  "# #. Human be three kind." Tully held up as many digits. " #. #. Earth. I be Earth-man."

  "Politics," Pyanfar muttered. "We got gods-be human politics, that's what. Well, who's telling the human ships where to go?"

  "Earth. Earth tell."

  "And what are you, Tully?"

  "I spacer."

  "You're so gods-be quick with that."

  "Aunt."

  "You want to ask him?"

  "Gods blast it, take it easy on him!"

  Pyanfar drew a deep breath. "Look, maybe he never talked to the kif. I'll take that on his say-so. Maybe he never spoke a word. But he doesn't lie real good. He never did."

&
nbsp; "Not to us."

  "He speaks the language, niece. Watch the eyes when you ask him questions, never mind the ears, watch the eyes. He's a lousy liar. He was alone with Sikkukkut. With drugs. With questions. All right, you know what and I don't. Even if he didn't talk—he may have spilled something he doesn't know he spilled. You think of that?"

  "You ever ask me what / gave them?"

  Pyanfar blinked in shock. Shook her head at the thought. "A cracked skull and nothing else," Hilfy said. "I didn't give them anything. And they tried, aunt, that precious kifish friend of yours did try. You take my word, take his. I know he didn't."

  "They had him quite a few hours to themselves, Hilfy. With all the pieces to this fractured mess starting to fit in Sikkukkut's brain, with us in port and leaving Sikkukkut a lust few precious hours to try for what he could get out of Tully— along with what he learned from other kif living at Mkks. So you want to be some help here and let Tully for godssakes answer for himself?''

  "He's told you. No! He didn't talk! I know him."

  "Sure you do," Pyanfar drawled, and the inside of Hilfy's ears went suddenly deep rose; and they folded. Eyes reacted. Everything shouted reaction and shame. It was not what she had meant. Pyanfar felt her own ears go hot; the flinch was unavoidable, the instantaneous glance aside from the matter they had skirted round and skirted round. She covered it with a cough and a wave of her hand. "Look, niece—"

  "I know him real well," Hilfy said with cold deliberation. "Maybe you take my word for something, huh, aunt? Maybe you trust I got out of there with my wits about me, huh? And I'm telling you how he was, and how he handled himself, and I'm telling you, he's not a boy and he's not the fool you take him for. Don't talk to him like that."

  Pyanfar looked at her. Saw no child, no petulance. "I never said he was a fool. I'm saying you and he may be a little out of your territory—and smart, niece, smart is knowing when you are. If you're not as clever as your enemy, you by the gods hope he's over-confident: you sure as rain falls don't need to make a mistake in that department. That kif's not a dockfront tough; that kif's smart enough to put the han's tail in a vise; and con Jik; and outwit Akkhtimakt down the line; and by all the gods near take over the Compact. You want to tell me he couldn't just ask you questions and watch your reactions? You don't want to remember that time. Fine. You don't want to think. All right. But that cripples you. And if you're number two in wit, you don't need another handicap. We're in it up to our noses. Remember what I said a while ago—what the stakes are right now? We've got a problem, Hilfy Chanur. I need a straight answer out of our friend here. I need to know what that gods-be kif s onto and what he's not; and I need to. know whether humans are going to be here or Meetpoint, which is what Sikkukkut would give a whole lot to learn right now. You think the Compact's a tangled mess of ambitions? I'm betting what drives humanity is the same thing—politics we don't understand. Three Compacts, good gods! I'll tell you something else. It's a good bet Tully doesn't know the answers I'd really want. You think they'd let him know everything and send him off with the mahendo'sat? No. That kind of thing gets known by long-toothed old women in high councils. Politics is politics, at least in the oxy-breathing kinds we can talk to. I don't take anything for granted. I think any thought that needs thinking. Like what deals Goldtooth's made. Or Jik. Or—" She looked at Tully. "—what Sikkukkut and you could have talked about in those few hours when he knew by the gods for certain you speak hani. What about it, Tully? What'd he ask? What'd he say?"

  Tully's pupils dilated and contracted and dilated again. He tried to speak and his voice failed him. "He say—say he know my friends die, he tell me—tell me # # # they #. Say I talk to him, what be human deal with mahendo'sat. What deal with you. Lot time ask. He want know route. Same you. He know human come. Not know where. # # #."

  "Lost that."

  Tully's lips trembled. "Lot time. Lot time. Hurt me. # #. You make deal # this kif?"

  "I'm not his friend, Tully." ,

  "/ know this kif."

  "Know him." Pyanfar looked from him to a sudden shift of Hilfy's stance.

  "Sikkukkut said—" Hilfy's voice was quiet, subdued. "Said he knew Tully from before."

  "On Akkukkak's ship."

  Tully nodded. Emphatic. His eyes focussed elsewhere, on something ugly. Came back to them. "He be Akkukkak # # #. Long time he ask me, my friend question."

  "Gods. Akkukkak's interrogator. Is that what? Is that where you know him from?"

  "He kill my friend," Tully said. "He kill my friend, Py-anfar. With his hands."

  "O good gods." She sat down against the counter edge, hands on knees. "Tully—"

  "Tully asked me when we got back," Hilfy said, "just how close you're friends with Sikkukkut. Now I know why."

  "Gods," Pyanfar said. "I'm not, Tully. I'm trying to save our lives, you understand me? Did you tell him anything, did you give him anything?"

  Tully shook his head. It was not the naive look, not the clear blue stare he generally had. It was a different Tully. Tully-inside, calm and cold and thinking. She knew it when she saw it, long as it had been. "I say nothing, don't look at him. I go far away. I wait. I not be. You say you come to get me. So I wait for you."

  Pyanfar let go a long, long breath. The silence stayed there a moment. "Politics," she said. "All politics. You understand politics, Tully? Kif aren't anyone's friends. Not mine. Not anyone's. But there's kif and there's worse kif. You know why I'm dealing with him? You understand? Can you understand?"

  "Politics," Tully said. Not naive, no. "I know you come take me from kif. That be your politics."

  "I'm not any friend of Sikkukkut's. Believe that."

  "Bad thing happen. I don't understand. You lot scare. Where we go? What we fight? We got enemy be friend, hani and stssts—"

  "Stsho."

  "—be enemy. You don't trust Goldtooth, don't trust Jik. Don't trust hani. Don't trust kif."

  "Goldtooth and Jik are friends. We just can't trust them much. Not where it crosses mahendo'sat interests."

  "Where be hani?"

  Pyanfar glanced Hilfy's way, felt Tirun's stare at her side. She slouched against the console. "Good question."

  "What I do?" Tully asked. "What I do, Py-anfar?"

  "What did you do? What are you going to do? I wish I had an answer for either one. Friend, Tully. That's all I can tell you. Same's Goldtooth's my friend; and yours. Gods know what it counts for. Wish I had an answer for you. Wish you had one for me."

  "I fight," he said. "I crewman on The Pride. You want fight #, hani, kif, I don't # to die with #."

  "Gods rot that translator. Do you understand me at all? Have we got it fouled up again?"

  Anything hani-like? Where was family, clan, House? What was he?

  He.

  Male. Houseless. Sisterless. Wifeless. Renegade. Nau hauruun.

  But not hani. There was no analogy in Tully to that kind of destructive orphan, who killed and stalked at random. Nau hauruun.

  Not Tully their friend. Tully no-name. Tully from distant Earth, of the ships and the strangers.

  "Captain," Tirun said quietly. "Captain—Ehrran's on. 'fraid they've been on hold a while. They're getting pretty hot."

  "Good," Pyanfar said flatly; and went and flung herself into her well-worn chair and powered it about to the boards.

  Mind on business, Pyanfar Chanur; Wake up. Smell the wind and watch the branches overhead. "I'll take it.—You got any movement out of Harukk on the Tahar business?"

  "Not a thing," Tirun said. "I keep calling; keep getting the same answer. Sikkukkut's still not available. Business, they say."

  "Gods-be sfik games. I begin to get the feel of it. And I don't like what's going on. Put that call through again as soon as I finish with Ehrran. Have them tell Sikkukkut I'm personally interested in the Tahar crew. Tell him we've got sfik involved here."

  That got a look from Haral, beside her. "Captain. Begging your pardon—"

  Haral left it unfinished. I
t was hani lives at stake, feud with Tahar or no feud. A miscalculation with the kif might touch something off and get the Tahar crew killed outright. Jik might even be working near to success on the matter. All these things she thought of, and thought of again under that worried glance from Haral, and a like one from Tirun past Haral's back. A twitch of many-ringed ears. A deep frown.

  "Send it," Pyanfar said. "Be tactful, that's all."

  "Tactful," Tirun muttered, and turned to execute the first order.

  "You be my friend. You. Hilfy. All. I die with you."

  "Gods, thanks," Pyanfar murmured bedazedly. A superstitious chill went down her spine. "Translator again. I hope." Hilfy's ears had flagged. "I sure hope you come up with a better idea."

  Perhaps he did not take the humor. His face stayed void of it. Of everything but anxiety.

  "Friend," he said.

  "You've got duties. Get. Hilfy. Get."

  "Aye," Hilfy said. And touched the seat-back. "Tully."

  He rose from the chair arm. At the other side Tirun had just turned attention to something from the com-plug in her ear and turned half about again with a flick of the ears and a tilt of the head. Some new difficulty. An incoming call. Pyanfar gave Tully room to get up, laid a hand on his back as; he passed, a slight pat of consolation. "Friend. Go help Hilfy, huh? She wanted you for something.—Uhhhnnn. Tully."

  He looked back at her, all unprepared and trying to collect t again.

  "Is there anything you know that we don't?"

  Flicker.

  "Uhhhn," she said again, eyes half-lidded.

  "Py-anfar—"

  "You think of something, huh, you come to me. You come and tell me. All right?"

  The kif had used shocks with him and got nothing. The mahendo'sat used wit; and achieved something. She stared him in the eyes without any mercy at all. And tried for a piece of him.

  "Don't trust," he said suddenly, miserably. "Don't trust humanity, Py-anfar." And he fled out the door—walked out, but it was flight, all the same. Hilfy delayed at his back with one anguished look toward her. And turned and went after him.

  Pyanfar was unamazed, except by Tully's unequivocal thoroughness. It was doublecross. Goldtooth's. Jik's. Hers. Humanity's. Everyone's but Tully's—who, along with Chanur, had just betrayed his own kind. Gods knew his reasons. What drove him?