Chanur's Homecoming

Chapter Eleven

"Hani ships!" Hilfy cried. "Waiting-O gods, someone got 'em the word! They're coming in on our escorts' wavefront!"

"Ayhar," Pyanfar said. Her heart again. It was a good hurt. As if the universe itself were not large enough to hold it. "Gods look on her, Banny Ayhar got through!"

While The Pride hammered down its V and Akkhtimakt's kif picked theirs up, faster and faster shifts. Comp subtracted their V-drop out of that relative V increase and still came up with a plus. "The bastards are running!" Haral exclaimed. "They're getting out of here; they got Ajir for an outbound-''

"They got Jik on their tail," Tirun exclaimed. While on com, Sif was trying to explain it all to the crew in the galley. A cheer racketed out of that section, weak and wobbly in the strain of decel, but a cheer all the same.

"They are lost!" Skkukuk cried, and a string of something else in kifish.

His former associates. Akkhtimakt and all his minions, and Skkukuk was not with them in their debacle, but in the lead ship of the winning side. It was surely a sweet moment to a kif, all his maneuvers justified. He chittered and hissed and all but chortled. "Give me a channel," he cried. "Hakt, give me a channel, praise to my captain, mekt-hakt', they will not turn, they dare not turn, give me a channel!"

"Affirm," she said. It seemed little enough to keep a kif content. And having gotten it he sent out a steady burst of clicking main-kifish.

Fools, was the burden of it. Join my captain, join us in success, turn and rend the doomed and hapless fools who lead you!

"Com," Hilfy said. "Harun's Industry says their compliments and they're wanting instructions."

"Come about and stay after them and for the gods' sweet sake let the comp do the shooting, we got too many allies out there that look like the other side."

"Kifish signal," Hilfy snapped. "Skkukuk."

"Notiktkt has begun to fire on its fellows!" Skkukuk cried. "It signals its loyalty, mekt-hakt'!"

O my gods.

She stared, appalled, listened as Skkukuk rattled off more and more names. As kif hindmost in the whole retreating force began to add their fire to the attack on their own forces, and hani ships swept in like a wave, hammering at the ships that were attempting to flee.

Hammer and anvil. More and more kifish defections, and the Ajir vector, the only way out at their velocity and on that heading-barriered suddenly with yet another wave.

"My gods, what's that?"

More breakout of plague on the com, this time nadir, ships lying emissions-silent suddenly having picked up velocity and started to run.

Howling out mahen IDs.

"My gods, we got "em," Haral yelled. And laughed aloud and pounded the console. "You hear that? That's the mahendo'sat! We got the kif between us, Akkhtimakt's forces are defecting right and left, they're chewing each other to bloody rags!"

Pyanfar stared at it with her mouth open. With bits and pieces of things sorting themselves into vague order, as they had been ordered for longer than she had wanted to look at them.

She did not cheer. There was an obscenity in what was happening in front of them. And yet not obscene or unfit. No more than the little vermin that had multiplied and succeeded against all odds.

It was kif out there, surviving again.

Doing the best they knew to do.

Murder is possible here. Ours, committed against kif innocent by their own lights.

In one stroke, I can order it, clear our system of kifish ships till we can get organized in defense. Wipe the aliens out of home system.

It's prudent to do. It's only prudent.

But gods help me, I'm not a butcher.

"Send: The Pride of Chanur to all ships. Cease fire, cease fire on all kifish IDs that signal surrender."

Then com reached her down the other vector, backflung from Jik.

Requesting that same message that she had anticipated and just sent.

Braking continued. Fighting diminished. There were still casualties. Solid mass became drifting clouds. Scan attempted to track misaimed projectile-fire and confused itself with the sheer magnitude of the problem till Geran gave it a Disregard on non-intersect-potentials.

They reached lower and lower V. "Take it," Pyanfar said, and Haral slewed The Pride around to use the mains on acquisition in a new vector.

Headed for Anuurn.

Vid came up. Haral had been too busy for that till now. The homestar, Ahr, shone brilliant yellow. Lifebearer. Hearthfire to the species. And the paler, nearer light that was Anuurn.

Home again.

With a straggle of battered, stress-damaged merchant ships slewing about in disordered break out of the rigid formation they had kept so long and so far, Harun and little Faha, Pauran, and last and limping, Shaurnurn, reporting damages, talking to each other over com.

"This is Sirany Tauran." Sirany had gotten herself an output channel. "Affirmative on the linkup, inquiry affirmative, all ships. They're all right. Chanur's clean and clear. Thank the gods.''

"Gods look on us all. Here and otherwise." Harun was talking, Harun always the leader in that group.

"We've got that," Faha said, and other acknowledgments came in.

While the slaughter went on, while a hard burn shoved at them and made breathing difficult, and a lightspeed message proliferated through ship relays.

"We've got contact with Gaohn," Hilfy said. "They ask for a report."

"They know by now," Pyanfar muttered. "But answer them. Send: The Pride of Chanur to Gaohn. We claim navigational priority. Clan business. End message. Put a call through to Kohan. Ask him how things are down there."

On Anuurn. At home. On that small shining sphere in all the wide dark.

It would take a long time. Question and answer went slow at this range. Conversations were all one-sided.

"Where in a mahen hell is Vigilance! Did we pick up Ehrran's ID anywhere?"

"Affirmative. Affirmative," Geran said, all business. "Five ships are putting out from Gaohn. We got a pickup on Ehrran. They're moving now. Make that six ships. They're not talking.''

"I'll bet she's not. Where's Ayhar? Gods rot it, where's Banny Ayhar and Prosperity!"

The burn stopped. Her vision cleared, her voice no longer had to force its way out of her throat. A wave of giddiness came on her. Depletion. Fight-flight reflexes let go and the body had dues to pay. She clamped her jaws against nausea and fumbled after a packet, dropped one and got another. Bit down on it and swallowed and swallowed, which was the only thing else she could do but retch. Going to faint. O gods. I don't do this. "Haral-Sirany. I'm not-"

"Cap'n? Cap'n?"

She drifted. Lay still under a ceiling which was not the overhead of the bridge. Blinked at it and at Khym's anxious face.

"You fainted," he said.

"Gods rot." She drew her hands up to locate her head, which seemed drifting loose and all fuzzed. "Who's running the ship?"

Ker Sirany. We're inbound for Gaohn. It's all right, Py. We did it."

"Jik. ..."

"The kif jumped, such as could. A lot surrendered. They've attached to the other kif. To Chakkuf. Skkukuk's been talking to them, telling them- Hilfy says-that they'll do well to hold still."

"Where's Jik?" Fear set her heart to hammering. "Did he jump, gods rot it, did he jump out?"

"We aren't tracking him. It got- pretty confused, Py. Not Geran's fault. Sirany says so. We-lost some ships. His ID just cut out."

"He's lying. Gods-be, that bastard's pulling another one." There was an obstruction in her throat. She wanted to break something. Anything. There was dark around her vision, a pain all through her gut. ''We need him.'' All quiet and hard to get past that knot. Oh, Jik, Jik. Another gods-be doublecross.

What do I do now? What am I going to do?

"Cap'n?"

It was not a voice she expected to hear. Not loose and wandering around in places like her cabin. She lifted her spinning head and looked at the worn, wan hani clinging to the doorframe. "Chur? F'godssakes-"

"I'm doing all right," Chur said.

"Huh," she said. "Huh." And fell back into the pillows. It was all she could manage at the moment. The whole cabin was going into slow rotation. It felt like tricks with the G force, a little acceleration this way and that way, but if she asked was that going on she would look the fool. It was her head. Her equilibrium.

Gods. Sikkukkut. Where? When?

A weight depressed the end of her bed. A hand touched her leg. "Cap'n." Haral's voice, ragged with fatigue. "We got a little rest now. Ker Sirany's arguing with Gaohn, telling 'em we got right of way and they can by the gods quit quibbling. She's all right, captain. Swear she is. Never shot at anything in her life, her and her crew, I think they're a little shook. Us-we're falling-down and gone away. Whole crew. Thank gods for the Tauran, thank gods, I say."

"I say too," she murmured. Felt a touch across her brow, her ears. Khym's hand. She opened her eyes and stared at the uninformative ceiling. "Was that Chur in here?"

"Not walking too good, but she's put on weight. Turned a corner somewhen and started storing it up instead of burning it. Skkukuk's having lunch-"

"O gods." Her stomach heaved.

"We got to get those things cleared out somehow. Skkukuk says Chur got to the bridge in jump, went into some kind of hyperdrive, started telling the Tauran what to do when they came out, got us all waked up- Cap'n, somebody threw a bunch of relays on manual, got us over on backup systems, or we wouldn't have made it: those gods-be black devils had got into the works, chewed stuff up good. And somebody aimed the guns. Chur doesn't remember, but I got my guess who did it. Or we'd be on the long trip for sure."

She blinked and absorbed that. Remembered bailing out of bed and running the corridor. Was not too clear on how she had gotten into her own seat. Or how anything had happened. The mind did not function well on the trailing edge of jump.

Did not function well after too many jumps, either.

"Call to home," she remembered. "We on response-time yet?"

"Gaohn refuses to relay."

"Gods and thunders, politics, politics and we got a system full of kif-"

"They've got Ayhar under arrest, cap'n. We're still on course. We got Vigilance in our way and we got three other big freighters just hanging off and not doing anything. They'll have fire position on us if we keep coming. They warned us. Have to ask you what you want to do."

She lay there and breathed quietly a moment, ran that situation through her aching skull once and twice and a third time.

Vigilance positioning itself where it could go head on with them or strike at their tail if they docked.

You gods-be fool, / got thirty, forty kif out there!

Bring kif against the han? O my gods, my gods. That fool's going to call bets and I can't bluff, those kif back there don't know where to stop and I can't hold them else. I can't bluff, Ehrran! Don't try to call it.

"Mahendo'sat. Where are they?"

"They're braking. Holding steady relative to the kif. Keeping an eye on 'em."

"And no sign of Jik." That pain was back again. It hurt to blinding. "Gods rot the luck." He's got to be alive. Out there somewhere. Preserving his options. Saving his own people. He has no choice. And I did it, I, I gave it to him. "Ayhar arrested."

"Aye, cap'n. We inquired. We got a communication from Llun, onstation. They're real sorry, they got no choice."

Old friends, the keepers of Gaohn station. Old allies. Under a lot of pressure. "That all they said?"

"Says plenty, doesn't it, cap'n?"

There was a time they were Py and Hal and Tirun. Across every accessible dock in the Compact. Here they were, gray nosed and at wits' end and Haral was sticking by formalities. Haral had held that line ever since the day she got set upstairs, command post, being heir to Chanur; and Haral, equally qualified, being sub-sept, got the second seat. It was the System.

"Captain?"

"Yeah. It says plenty. It says every godsrotted thing wrong with us." She shoved herself up on her hand and an elbow, flung her feet for the side of the bed. Blood was moving in her veins again. Her vision cleared. "I'll have Ehrran's ears, b'gods if I don't. My own hands. In the condition I'm in, I could take that blackbreeched prig! I'll kill her!"

"We got other word," Haral said, and braced her back, setting her down with both hands. Held onto her. "Rhean sent on com-says Chanur's fallen. Kohan's exiled. Mahn's got the estate. Rhean's broken with the blockade out there. She and Anfy- coming in hard behind us with Fortune and Light. Pyruun-Pyrunn got Kohan to safety somewhere. They swear that. So it's not all lost onworld, and we got help on the way if we just hold and wait. Sirany's up there trying to keep the thing from blowing to a-"

"Mahn." She shook her head, blinked. Tried to focus on it. "My godsrotted conniving son?"

"Our godsrotted conniving son," Khym said at her back, his voice a low rumble. "And our twice conniving daughter."

"With Ehrran!"

"With their own interests, Py, when were they ever anything wider?"

"Gods. Gods!" She flung off Haral's hands and slapped Khym's interference aside. Hit the floor with both feet wide and swayed there till she had shaken the fog out of her eyes. Then she headed for the door.

The corridor.

The bridge, where Tauran crew filled the seats.

"Give me com," she snarled, coming up over Sif Tauran's shoulder. Sif hesitated, throwing a startled glance her way.

"Captain-"

"Give it to her," Sirany said. "Ker Pyanfar, I'll give you your chair."

"Keep it. We got troubles." She slipped into the vacant post between Sif and Fiar. "Get me Gaohn station. Are armaments still live?"

"We're shut down, captain." Nasany Tauran, down at Tirun's post. "Reactivate?"

"Do it." The com light signaled available and she punched in on the frequency.

"Pride of Chanur hailing the station," Sif was saying. Trying to raise a response. Another light was blinking, another channel active. Sif punched it in, on a momentary pause. "That's a call from Vigilance, captain. They advise us we're under arrest."

"Tell Ehrran there's a threat to Gaohn and we're not it. Standby. That's all."

The message went.

"Gaohn station," she said on her own. "This is Pyanfar Chanur, The Pride of Chanur. Stand by to record and relay." Gaohn was hearing: that was beyond doubt: every official on that vulnerable and threatened station would be prioritied onto their transmissions. "Llun, you've just seen the first and smallest wave of our assault on Akkhtimakt's ships. The next one is incoming. Naur, there's no time for your politics. Your treaty with the stsho may have destroyed the whole species, hear me? Your relations with the mahendo'sat are tottering. Attack on our own world is possible and imminent. It is possible that no life will survive on Anuurn surface. I appeal to you, I beg you, anyone who can get their menfolk offworld right now, do it, get us a chance, for the gods' own sake, get to shuttles and get to shelters. There are still three large groups of ships unaccounted for and one of them has threatened attack on Anuurn itself."

Static. Sputter. "Pyanfar Chanur, retreat from this course."

"Is that Ehrran? Gods rot you, is that Rhif Ehrran?"

Static and squeal. "This is Rhif Ehrran, Chanur. Take your kif and go deal with your owner."

"Is that what you're going to tell the next attack that comes rolling in here? Are you going to arrest it? You absolute and total lunatic, get that ship out there on Kura-incoming where it can do some good and stay out of my way before I blow you out of space! Deny my crew medical attention! Turn tail and run at Kefk! What do you write in those gods-be reports of yours? By the gods nowhere near not the whole story, not the part where you take stsho bribes and connive with the kif against the han! Get that ship out where it belongs!''

No response. From anyone. Not Ehrran, not Gaohn Station. Not from Anuurn itself, while lagtime ran on.

"They're Immune," Sirany said, a low voice from her other side. "You're challenging an Immune, Chanur."

"Arm. Target."

"Ker Pyanfar, they're hani!"

"They've arrested Banny Ayhar. They've arrested the courier that just risked her by the gods neck and Ayhar clan's whole livelihood getting word to the mahendo'sat and getting word back here again, bringing back the captains and the crews from Maing Tol all the way home-Where do you think those ships out there with the mahendo'sat came from? They've swept in out of mahen space, that's where! With the mahendo'sat! We got the gods-be hakkikt coming in here, we got this blackbreeched prig quoting rules from Naur and all their godscursed pets downworld-"

Sirany spun the command chair about, facing her. "I said I'd surrender this. I'll do it. I don't agree with what they're doing. But let me talk to Harun. Give Ehrran a chance to back up, for godssakes, Chanur, back off! Give 'em time to react, they have to have a way to save something!"

She clenched her hands on the leather of the chair arm, hit the control and turned it to face Sirany. No. Muscle reaction jerked her mouth. Stopped breath. Put a black ring around Sirany's taut figure. Time, for the gods' sakes, the godscursed fool, the fatherforsaking bastard-Pride, pride above the han, Ehrran's precious face- A breath then. A sane breath. "All right." Another. "All right. Let's talk to the spacing clans. Let's talk to Harun and Pauran and Shaurnurn and my sisters out of Chanur, and all the ships back there. They've arrested Banny Ayhar. The ships back there-they know what got them home. Tell them about Ayhar, tell them the rest of it, b'gods, we got it for them, the whole gods-be thing!" She spun the chair about, activated comp at that station and exhumed a log record. Accurately, first try. No one on The Pride was going to forget that date, that hour, that time.

Kshshti station: Ehrran trying to take Tully by force, kifish attack coming from two sides on the station docks, Akkhtimakt and Sikkukkut, Banny Ayhar's dispatch to Maing Tol carrying a message from a threesided conference: herself, Jik, Rhif Ehrran.

Ehrran agreeing to go with them into kifish territory.

Second log segment: another date, another moment: exchange between The Pride and Ehrran's Vigilance, kin-request for medical aid, denied, made contingent on surrender of Tahar crew from Chanur sanctuary. Granted when they logged a false emergency and got in touch with Aja Jin.

"Capsule it," she told Sif. "Every hani ship out here. Then capsule the whole gods-be log and shoot it over to Gaohn hard afterward. Tell them beam it down to Anuurn archives. File petition for Ayhar's release. Let's see if for once, one time, the han can understand what's going on out here. Put our wrap on that log transmission. There's a lot we can't say in front of kifish witnesses, but there's by the gods enough there to hang that fool. Brake to standby reply."

"B'gods there is," Sirany said. "Sif. Send: Industry and all the rest. Slow to standby. Transmission follows."

Alarm rang. The take-hold. The Pride prepared itself for braking. Other bodies hit the seats, Chanur crew, Haral and Khym and Geran, on upper decks and close enough to make

it to vacancies. Blind-tired. Gods, yes. Her own head was too heavy to hold up. Her hands shook on the boards. There was not a critical control she would trust herself to handle.

Thank gods for Tauran.

"Captain." Tirun from the com, voice strained by the decel. "Give us a window, we'll get up there."

"Negative, negative, stay down there. You want scan on monitor down there you got it. I want you rested. Hear?"

"Captain-"

"Do it, Tirun. Don't fight me. Trank out if you got to. I need you later, hear me?"

Delay.

"Trank. I mean it, Tirun. I got to come down there?"

"No, cap'n. Loud and clear. We don't need the trank, though. Can I ask-"

"Gods help me." Her voice faded and breath all but failed her. "Get off the com, f'godssakes, cousin, give me a rest."

"Out, cap'n." Short and quiet and off the com. Instantly.

She ducked her head into her hands. Was I short? I didn't mean to be short. Call 'em back. Tell 'em-O gods. Tell 'em what?

Brain won't work. That's all. I can't think. Call 'em back, they'll know I'm off.

That'd make 'em rest real easy, wouldn't it, Pyanfar?

Professionals down below there. Not kids. Not stationsiders. Tirun knows what I mean. She'll trank if she has to. Professional.

Got to sit on Hilfy and Tully. My young fools. My devoted young fools.

Where's Chur? Where's Chur in this shaking-about?

"Geran, is somebody with Chur?"

Dip of the ears. "They took her downside. Crew quarters."

Safe, then, and not alone. One detail not on my shoulders.

Then:

"Transmission from Vigilance," Sif murmured. Data flowed onto her number one screen. Wordage abundant.

It was what she expected. Selected log entries. Two ships firing log segments back and forth like beamfire. Truth and counter-truth. "Gods-be fool," she murmured. Some of it was potentially explosive with the kif.

"We got that interview with Sikkukkut," Haral said.

"Save it," she said. "We got kifish ears out there. If Sikkukkut loses face here, we may have troubles we can't handle."

"Sfik," Khym said. "It's Chakkuf we have to worry about, isn't it? That's the leader."

"You got it." A chill and a warmth went through her. Her husband, on target and calm and having picked up more on the way than she gave him credit for, the way he always did. On the bridge, in a seat beside Tauran crew, and no Tauran twitching an ear at it. Do you know what you're hearing. Tauran? It's change. It's power tilting and sliding. And there's one way in all the universe I can out-do that bastard over there commanding Chakkuf. Take and hold. Grab with both hands.

A kif well understands this exchange of messages.

A kif understands what I'm asking the spacer clans to do, and he understands Ehrran's position, that it's eroding, fast. The kif aren't meddling in this, thank the gods, they know this is a situation they can foul up if they lay a hand on it and they don't want to do anything. They're waiting for me. Of course they're waiting for me. Thanks, husband.

"Message: priority." Data leapt from Sif's monitoring to monitor one, a flood of mahen log output, off a ship named Hasene.

Mahendo'sat. My gods. They're affirming Ayhar's story.

"Priority, priority."

Color-shift had begun on certain ships on far-scan, positions relayed and matrixed via continuous dopplered interlink from ships in position to pick them up. Certain ships were disentangling themselves from that welter of dots out there where the kif-kif-hani battle had wound down to stasis.

Stasis no longer.

"Priority."

Six of the spacing clans were moving. Coming in behind Chanur's Fortune and Chanur's Light. Faha kin and Harun clan were among them.

"Inbound," Haral murmured. "Gods hope they're on our side."

"Stand by armaments. We don't know what that lunatic Ehrran's going to do."

"That's spacers at Ehrran's back," Haral muttered. "Those five ships out from station behind her. I'd worry, in Ehrran's place. I'd worry right fast."

"Priority! That's a burn, Ehrran's maneuvering-"

Unmistakable on the passive-scan, the little flicker of the directionals; then mains cutting in, a deluge of energy from Vigilance, while the ships behind her stayed still.

Ehrran kept on with the burn, accelerating on an insystem vector, while information continued to shoot this way and that through the system. Then Ehrran shut down to inertial: they were leaving, but not at any great pace. Vigilance still had plenty of option to turn around. Or roll and fire.

"Bastard," Geran hissed. Still dangerous. Very.

Sudden, heart-stopping flares showed from one of Ehrran's backers. But that was rollover, turning nose toward Gaohn and home, the same direction as the incoming ships.

"That's Raurn's Ascendant," the Tauran First said.

Flares from the others, one and the other, and the next and the next. Rollover in each case.

Pyanfar clenched her hands and flexed the claws and gnawed her mustaches. / haven't got the strength to stay on the bridge. I can't do this. I can't last it. My gods, what am I going to do?

When it was most critical. When hani existence rode on it.

"Medkit," she said, fighting down a wave of nausea. "Fiar. Get me the medkit. Stimulant. I'd better have it."

"Captain," Haral said hoarsely, in hardly better shape.

"Don't. Don't. Get me the stuff, get me a sandwich. I got to, Hal."

"You got it," Haral said. While Fiar was off at the cabinet getting the kit.

"I'll get the sandwich," Khym said, "Gfi. Whatever you want."

His cooking. Gods. Not the tofi. She turned a dull and helpless glance his way. "Thanks. Hold the gods-be sweet stuff, huh? Just make it fast and simple."

"Fast and simple." He got out of his seat, grabbed the seat back for balance and headed up toward the galley, about the time Fiar came back with the kit, laid it out on the counter and pulled a syringe out.

She held out an arm. Held it there while the needle went in, while Sirany's voice whispered out of the distance, talking to other ships.

"You can't do this twice," Haral was saying. "Hear me. I'll put you out, cap'n."

She gave Haral a bleak stare. It was an honest threat, meant to save her life. The stimulant hit with a wave of giddiness, sending her heart thudding. For a moment her own pulse was all she could hear, and if she moved she would drift free off the floor, disoriented.

Harder and harder pulse. She drew a great breath. A second. "I'm all right," she said. And knew she had better not get up. The bridge spun and swung as if ship rotation had gone totally erratic.

Food arrived. Sandwich first. Cup of water. Fiar ran courier. The water went down best. She forced a single bite of the sandwich.

"Worse shape than Chur," Haral muttered at her side. "Gods, go off, we got running time, take it."

"Get some food yourselves. You. Geran. Get. We got everything covered. Get, hear. Want a tour with the kif?"

Haral's ears flattened. Old threat. Old joke. Not a joke, nowadays. She cleared the chair and took hold of Geran's arm when Geran got up and staggered. Both of them were out on their feet.

And leagues and leagues to go for Anuurn’s sake.

It was a knifing pain when she let her mind shift to home, and Kohan, and a refuge which did not exist any longer. The bright blue world was there. Chanur was not. Dissolved. The estate legally in the hands of her son Kara Mahn.

And her son firmly under the influence of her daughter Tahy, who was groundling to the depths of her short-sighted, narrow heart.

/ never knew you! Tahy's voice, Tahy's face, nose wrinkled in anger. That ship, always that ship-

And Kara, big lad, inheriting height from both Khym and herself.

And brains from neither.

The gfi arrived, in Fiar's careful hand. She sipped it. It was overstrong. It hit her stomach like acid. But the warmth comforted. That much.

"Send to Gaohn," she said. "Pyanfar Chanur to the Llun. We call on Gaohn station to release the Ayhar ship and crew. The ships out here constitute sufficient of the han to make a temporary quorum. You have that authority. Officers of the han will respect this order or deliver themselves to the protection of Llun Immunity. We take possession of the station in the name of the han. End message. List the clans out here. Put all of them signatory to it."

It was a drunken, arrogant move. It was also fast, and it gave the down world han no time to organize or decree.

"Good bet the han's in session," Sirany said. "Down there."

"They would be. Yes. Let 'em debate what to do. Let 'em debate till the sun freezes. Dither and stew and argue. We've got an emergency out here. Send my apologies to the other ships for using them on signature, we got no time for transmission lag. We're operating under stress out here. Ask them to send a confirm and back me. Tell them we've got to get into Gaohn and get Banny Ayhar out of there.

"We're already getting confirms on that quorum call," Sif said.

It hit slowly. Like a wave of cold and heat. My gods, it's going to work. What do I do?

Jik! gods rot you, Jik, what do I do?

"Call the clans in front of us. Ask them would they return to Gaohn and secure Ayhar's safe release."

"Aye," Sif said. "Sending." And a moment later: "Llun responds. Ayhar crew is in process of release already. Prosperity is being serviced. Llun sends its compliments, ker Pyanfar, and asks what about the kif, quote, What are we facing? End quote."

The relief was giddy. She probed it a moment, replayed the statement that echoed in her skull, whether it was real or stim-induced hallucination. Good news, my gods, it's still working."

"We're coming in. Tell them that. Tell them I'm coming in for conference and if any of the han downworld want to get themselves up on the next shuttle, they're welcome. Tell them no danger from forces with me, repeat, with me. End message. Just that way, ker Sifeny."

"Understood. Re-request on order to the ships in front of us?"

"Tell them stand by. Does Llun need help onstation? Query them that while you're at it." I'm muddling. Not thinking of things. I'm dangerous up here. "Ker Sirany. I'm resigning operationals. Policy I'll handle. Refer to yourself and the other captains- all other-" She gave a desperate wave of her hand. "-stuff." And fumbled after the belt and tried to stand up.

"Help, cap'n?" Sif reached and grabbed her arm. "Ker Haral!"

I'm doing quite all right, thank you.

And the whole bridge went gray and dark.

Operations chatter. Quiet stuff. She got to her feet hanging onto the chair and held to the back of it.

All in gray. Dark a moment. And the blood rushing in her cars.

Someone got to her. Someone held onto her. "You want to walk," Haral said.

"I'm walking." Legs insensate as dead meat. Equilibrium gone. Haral had one side, Khym had the other.

It was a long, long walk to her quarters. The corridor lights writhed like the spine of a glowing snake.

"Just gone too far," Haral said. "Knew her like this once at Ajir."

Liar. I was drunk then. I'm scared, Hal. I haven't got anything left and they need me.

"I got her." When the whole universe did a sharp and sudden tilt. Khym hauled her along with an arm about her. Might as well have been flying, upside down and sideways.

Bed then. Mattress. Sheets. Pillow.

"Chur's room," Geran's voice said, hoarse and panting und utterly exhausted. "Haral, tell 'em. We can fall in there."

A body landed beside her. Thump. The safety restraint hummed and clicked.

Dark then.

Till the gravity shifted and she came awake with a reflexive clench of the claws into what was not mattress, but her I husband; he hissed and shifted and jerked as he came awake weighing less than he ought and with gravity not where it' ought to be.

"Uuuh!"

"Docking. It's all right, it's all right, we're at Gaohn." Mumble. Even that was not sufficient goad to get the body moving. The brain dimmed down again, with too great a load to push. More G-shifts. Clang and thump. Not safe to stand, in the condition she was. Prudent just to lie there and catch the few extra moments of drowse she could. Before the clangs and thumps of contact told her the grapples were secure. Then was time to get on her feet and clean up.

Safety hummed into retraction. It was Fiar standing over them, with a tray in her hands and an ears-back worried look on her face. The ship was miraculously stable and quiet. "Captain. M'lord. You want to try to eat something?"

We aborted dock? Backed off?

I slept through the grapple-noise? The connects? Gods, we're not on rotation.

She levered herself up on her arms. Khym stayed uncon­scious beside her. The place smelled. They did. Everything did. Her eyes were sticky and her mouth felt awful. "Situa­tion," she said.

"We're in, captain. Berth thirteen. Got a solid line of our ships out there beyond us. Just everybody sitting, except us, except our lot-Harun and Pauran and Faha and all, we're in dock right together. So's ker Rhean and Chanur's Fortune. Ehrran too. Anfy Chanur held 'em under her guns on the way to dock, she's still got Light standing out right nearby, but Ehrran's still talking for Naur and them, but spacers are mad, captain, they're not having any of it. They want to see you. We told 'em you were in no fit condition. But my captain asks, she says maybe you should get Up there and see 'em soon as you can, captain-we got a whole lot of kif and a whole lot of hani eyeball-on out there around Tyar; but she wants you to have a breakfast and take it slow, her word, captain."

"Gods." She shut her eyes with force and opened them again, trying to focus. Fiar looked exhausted, ears flagging in a curious, lopsided way that made her look younger than she was. Stable at dock. Other ships having had time to make it in. Anfy and Ehrran in standoff. She reached and took the offered cup. Biggest they had. Full of savory soup, steam going up like a wish to the gods. "Unnnhh." She took a sip. Blinked the kid back into focus. "Ayhar. Where in a mahen hell's Ayhar?"

The ears sank. "They still got them hostage, captain."

"Where?"

"Up in station. Ker Rhean and Harun and my captain, they're working on it, but there's some holdup, and they got fighting at the shuttleports downworld, some on our side and some on theirs, and they can't launch, except a couple got away-The Llun are mediating that, captain says, trying to get the shuttles clear to launch, and some of the Immunes onworld, they're trying to negotiate-"

"A mahen hell with that."

"Meanwhile your crew is coming on, captain said they should take their orders from ker Haral, and ker Haral said-"

"The kif. Where's the kif?"

"They're just staying out there. That kif Skkukuk wanted to talk to them. My captain said no. Ker Haral said no."

"No," she said, and took a careful mouthful of soup as Khym moaned and rolled over and lifted himself on his elbows. "Food," she said. "Khym." The soup was hot as Ahr's fires. Instant stuff. Wonderful stuff. They were still alive and the cabin was staying still and the worst things were far from as bad as they might be. No major confrontations. Kif staying where they belonged. Everybody where they belonged. Excepting Ehrran and a set-to at the shuttle-dock. And Ayhar; and gods knew where Sikkukkut was. Alarm bells kept going off all down her nerves. That bastard Sikkukkut pulled a surprise arrival at Meetpoint. Does he need originality? She shivered convulsively, blinked and guarded herself as Khym shook the mattress getting himself propped up. "Here." She gave him her cup and took the other, the tray more convenient for her, then glanced up at Fiar's anxious, dutiful lace. "Llun's fending rocks, is she?"

"Lots of rocks," Fiar said. And dipped her ears in nervous respect. Embarrassed, now that Khym was awake. She was young. "But my captain told them on station lines, about the* kif, about the methane-breather we saw. About all those stations shut down. About the humans and the mahendo'sat. Everything. Figuring they might not have had time to sort the log out, they better know."

"Good. Thank her. I'll be there fast as I can."

"Yes, captain. You want anything-"

"You want to turn that monitor there on, on your way?"

"Aye, captain." Fiar hugged her tray under her arm, flipped the switch on the wall monitor mounted next the bath and dived out again. The door shut.

"Uhhhn," Khym moaned around a swallow of soup.

The system schema on the monitor showed what the young spacer had said: a lot of hani ships within spit of Gaohn station and a lot of kif and hani and a scatter of mahendo'sat staring at each other farther out on the fringes. All at relative stop.

No Jik. Not showing himself. He wouldn't.

Not dead, not dead, gods rot it. He jumped and got himself after those bastards or he's out there calling the moves and waiting for Sikkukkut. Has to be. We got too many mahendo'sat in this system just sitting there cooperating. He's going to use my whole by the gods solar system for a mahen battlezone.

She reached to the console and punched the com. The tick and chatter of bridge operations invaded the cabin. Quiet talk. Reassuring in its monotony. Llun clan was in charge of the station, fair and sane: trouble in the corridors, but Llun had central, and sanity was making progress out there. Against Ehrran's best efforts.

"We're all right," she said.

All right. My gods, Pyanfar. Where's Kohan? What's hap­pening out on dock, onworld, what are we going to do?

"Uhhn," Khym said again. Drinking soup in constant little sips as if it was going straight to the veins, direct transfusion. They had both shed all over the sheets. Fright. Exhaustion. Depletion.

"Bath," she said. It was the thing she wanted most, more than food, more than sleep. She set the cup down on the table console, crawled out of bed and left her breeches on the floor on her way.

Straight into the shower cabinet and on with the water and the soap. Lots of soap. A deluge of soap and hot water.

A shadow showed up against the transparent door, tall and wide and hani. She opened the door and let him in.

Both of them then, soaked, soaped, and by the gods clean, just standing propped against each other under the warm water jets until she found her eyes shut. Falling asleep again. "Gods. We got to go, husband."

"Uhhhn." Like mornings downworld. Incoherent for half an hour at best.

She got out, cleaned her teeth, dodging sore spots, dried halfheartedly with a towel and hunted up the last pair of clean breeches in the drawer.

And the pocket pistol. Gods, yes, that.

Out into the chill of the corridor still tying the cords, the deck cold under her feet.

"Captain," she said.

Sirany was still at her post, on a mostly deserted bridge, just herself and her First. The place smelled of unwashed hani. And Sirany's face as she swung the chair about, was marked with fatigue and strain. "Ker Pyanfar." The voice was hoarse. "We're doing all right, but we have a lot of questions backed up. Whole lot of people want to talk to you. / want to talk to you. What do we expect?"

"We expect another wave of kif in here. Meanwhile I'm wondering where in a mahen hell a certain pair of mahen hunter ships have got to and where we misplaced about half a hundred human ships that are doubtless armed and meaning things we don't want to think about."

It was maybe more than Sirany wanted to think about. Her face had that kind of look.

"Yeah," she said. "I've been wondering these things. Maybe I've been hoping you didn't. But in a way I wish you did."

"Different truth once we got to dock, once we threw Akkhtimakt on to the mahen side of the line?"

"I don't mean I thought you were lying." Ears lowered in apology and rolled flatter as the jaw took on a harder line. "That's a lie. I still don't know. But I don't think so. I'm betting everything on it. But what choice have I got? There

aren't any sure things out here. I tell you something, ker Pyanfar. They tell all kinds of stories about you. Since Gaohn. Since you took out the way you did and kept-" Ear-twitch. "-kept na Khym and all. And wouldn't lickfoot to the han. I heard a lot more stories on Meetpoint, while we were stuck there. Stsho are scared of you. They call you changeable, the stsho do."

"They'll call me worse than that. I figured a crew that had the nerve to come aboard this ship had the nerve to handle the boards under fire. Way we'll have to yet, maybe. Even against hani, if you had to. I'm telling you the truth now. I'm working only our side. The mahendo'sat have doublecrossed us so many times you need a chart to track it. But they're the best allies we've got all the same, and I'm hoping that conniving friend of mine is still alive out there beyond system edge."

"Waiting for the rest of the kif?"

"I think b'gods sure he is. That ship's equipped. Lots of com equipment. I've never been onto that bridge, but I got the idea it's not a small place. Lot of crew and techs. Ability to short-jump. Goldtooth's Mahijiru has a lot more facilities, but I don't think it gives much to Aja Jin in abilities. We lost track of more than one ship in that flurry out there, and I'm not sure any of 'em are dead. Kif have this concept. Pukkukkta. Revenge. Destruction. That kif Sikkukkut has launched ships down all the lanes. Into all sorts of space. He's prepared to take civilization out. He says. He gives the impression it's no use to him. I think otherwise and I think he knows it, but I don't want to put it to the proof. We've lost track of kifish ships too and it worries me. I want a count if anyone can get it."

"Maybe they met each other out there. Maybe that's where Aja Jin is."

"If we were lucky." She tightened her mouth. Headache still bothered her. "If we were real lucky. But whatever happens we've got to handle what's coming in from Meetpoint, whoever survived that set-to back there. If it's the kif we're dealing with it's got to be one voice talking here. One."

"I understand you." Sirany's hand trembled on the arm of

the chair, jerked in a small tic. She gripped the chair arm till the tendons stood out.

"You want to bring the captains aboard?"

"We got no room in dock. Have to stack 'em in lower main. No. I'm going outside and hope to all the gods I live through this. I'd be expensive to lose. Real expensive. / can talk to that kif. My kif can talk to those bastards out there. Where is he?"

"Lowerdecks. Well-fed, I might add. I wonder he can move."

"Gods." She walked over to the com console and punched in the number. "Skkukuk. What's this you want to tell those kif out there?"

"Is this you, hakt'?'

Hani voices. Different voices. "Godsrotted sure it is, skku of mine."

"Kkkkt! I am delighted!"

"Worried about me, were you?" Gods, a change of cap­tains aboard, possibility of mutiny in the air, the kif like a lit fuse and she had never picked it up. "I told you hani are a peculiar lot. You asked contact with the kif out there. What were you going to do, in particular?"

"Call them in, hakt', to take this ship."

Gods, gods, and gods. Perfectly logical. Her own crew exhausted, in his eyes perhaps acquiescing to this threatening change of authority on the bridge. Ships were moving and threatening everywhere. And here was one little constant light of kifish loyalty, a kif who knew no other hani would tolerate him and who planned to serve her interests through his.

"I'm in command here. No problems. What do you think ought to be done, regarding those kif out there?"

"Kkkt. Put me in command over them. That is your best action, hakt'. I am a formidable ally."

"Skkukuk. What rank did you hold? Is it proper to ask that?"

"Kkkkt. Kkkkt."

"Not proper. All right. Let me point out something to you, Skkukuk. Sikkukkut is a bastard, a real bastard, with a sense of humor. I think if he ever did get his hands on you again you might never get out with a whole hide. Despite your

cleverness. He's too clever not to know you're clever. Do you understand me?"

"Hakt, you are completely correct. What will you do?"

"Why, I'm going to give you all those kifish ships out there, and a treaty with the mahendo'sat and the hani, skku of mine, and tell you that if you will take my orders very closely you may fare very well. But first you have to take those ships and hold them."

"You will see, you will see, mekt-hakt'."

She leaned over the First's panel and unlocked doors. "There you are. You can just go down to ops, down to the auxiliary command right down the corridor to your left, and you can use com in there. You call yourself one of those ships for transport, and you pack up your Dinner and any weapons you think you need, and you get yourself out there and remember how far you are from kifish territory, and who your friends are. Hear me?"

"Kkkkt. Kkkkt. I will give you Sikkukkut's heart!"

"You take orders! Hear me?"

"What you will, what you will, Chanur-hakkikt."

Promoted, by the gods.

There was a deep, gnawing cold at her gut. Raw terror.

Just made my will and testament. To Sikkukkut, should some fool stationer pick me off out there. To my beloved enemy: a new and kifish problem.

Enjoy it, bastard.

She looked at Sirany, who was staring at her in dismay. "One thing about the kif. When they're on your side they're on it. And they're on it as long as they're profiting by it. That's a real happy kif down there."

"I hope to the gods you know what you're doing."

"I'll tell you. If something happens to me, if you have to take charge of this mess, rely on my crew and threaten Skkukuk within fear of death, then turn him loose. Best insurance in the world. He'll respect you for it.'' She had an impulse toward the weapons locker, for one of the APs, remembered it was Gaohn out there, civilized, home; and then went and did it anyway, pulled the heavy piece out and belted it on. "Tell my crew meet me belowdecks. Tell the captains I'll see them in dock offices."

Off the open docks, out of the way of snipers. She had gotten wary in her new profession. Learned the hard way, like any fool. "Khym stays aboard. So does Chur. You can tell them that in the appropriate quarters, too. Tell 'em it's an order. Skkukuk's calling a kifish ship in. We don't want any more hani ships sitting at dock than we can help."

"Relay that," Sirany said to her First. And glanced back again. "Take care, for godssakes."

"Huh." She leaned over the com console, punched in on station. "Llun. Want to talk to you."

"Chanur. Pyanfar." The station-Immune's voice was calm and quiet. "It's a trap, Pyanfar, it's a-".

Something hit the mike at the other end. And silence, then.

Sirany rose from her seat. The First turned in hers.

She stood there paralyzed a moment, then turned and started punching codes. "Rhean! Fortune, are you hearing me?"

"Com's dead," the First said; she could see that, the telltale not lit: the dockside com relay was cut off. Pyanfar half-knelt in the seat, reached and put in the ship-to-ship as her incoming com board lit and the First started taking calls. Other ships had gotten that sudden cutoff. "Pride of Chanur to Chanur's Fortune, Chanur's Light, Harun's Industry-all ships relay: trouble in central com, we've got troubles-"

"Pyanfar!" A familiar voice, her own sister's, out of two years' absence. "This is Rhean, they got somebody into central, that's what they've done, they've cut Llun off-"

"I know that! Bail out of there! Get 'em out!"

And in the same heartbeat: Gods, the kif. Pull off, Pyanfar, let the station stew in its own troubles, deal with it later, we got kif incoming.

No, gods, no, if there's no control here, Sikkukkut will take it himself, he'll come in shooting. We've got to get Gaohn in hand, get our ships repositioned if we can.

"Pyanfar." It was another voice, coming from the speak­ers, deep enough to shake the speakers. A male voice. Off Chanur's Fortune.

"Kohan? My gods! Is that Kohan?"

"Pyruun sent me. Llun just called Immune Sanction, did she not? I distinctly heard it."

Hani answers. Hani matters. From a voice she had never looked to hear again.

"My gods."

"Pyanfar?"

"Immune Sanction. Yes. By gods, yes. Tell Rhean I'll see her out there."

"Ehrran," said Tauran's First, impeccably and crisis-wise serene at her post, "has just called Sanction from her side against Chanur and taken possession of the station in the name of the han. She says we are all under arrest. They have taken Llun clan under Ehrran protection."

"In a mahen hell they have! Message: transmit: Spacer-clans! Get to the docks and get to central! Arm and out!"

Acknowledgments came back, some mere static sputter. Gods knew how many were following. Or who would.

"Pyanfar," came another voice, clear and familiar and cold. "Anfy, on the Light: we're positioning ourselves over station zenith: any ship fires, we'll blow it to blazes. Go for "em!"

"We're going!" she said back, and grabbed Tauran's First by the shoulder, cast a desperate look at Sirany Tauran's dazed face. "Take care of my ship, hear me!" And dazed and aching as she was, she ran for it.