Chanur's Homecoming

Chapter Three

There was stark silence in the hall.

"Cycle the vanes," Sikkukkut repeated, and rested his hands on the legs of the insect-chair. "That would be a curiously futile gesture for them."

"What should I care," Pyanfar said, "if I were dead? But never doubt that my crew is prepared to do that."

"Martyr," Jik said in his hoarse voice, and hauled himself by his arms on the chair to face Sikkukkut: he rested there leaning on the upraised arch of the chair legs, head on forearms and a grin on his face. "She hani. She tell crew blow us all to hell, they do it. You deal with damn fine hani crew. Same be lot brave for you. You got use right."

More profound silence. Then Sikkukkut lifted his cup and lapped at it delicately. "Bravery. This is another of those words which sounds kifish until one looks more deeply at the mindset. I distrust it. I distrust it profoundly."

"Just consider it," said Pyanfar, "a longrange survival plan. But don't consider it." She waved her hand. "What I'm truly interested in, what I'm sure we're all interested in, is what we do about Meetpoint, hakkikt. You want Jik's cooperation: I can get it for you."

"I remind you that you failed miserably with Goldtooth. We assume that you failed there. In certain moments I wonder.''

"In certain moments / wonder, hakkikt; and I still don't know what he's up to. I'm more concerned what the humans are up to; and I can tell you plainly-" she held up a forefinger, claw extended,-"Tully doesn't know. I've questioned him closely on it, and I know when that son is lying and when he isn't. He was a courier who didn't know his own message; Goldtooth used him and dumped him, which is a little habit of Goldtooth's that I want to talk to him about. Goldtooth doublecrossed Tully, doublecrossed Jik. Double-crossed me. And to confuse it all he gave me help, in the form of medical supplies we needed. / don't know how to read his signals. I'm being perfectly frank with you. I can tell you that Ehrran and I aren't friendly; and she's dealing with the stsho, which I trust even less. That's where I stand. I want Jik back. Under my command, hakkikt.'"

"Damn," Jik said. "Hani-"

"He's honest," Pyanfar said. "If you do that favor to him, at my request, he'll be caught in a moral tangle his government won't like at all. But we don't need to tell them that, do we? And we don't need to leave Goldtooth alone to represent the mahendo'sat. Jik supports your side. And if you lose him, hakkikt, you'll have no chance in a mahen hell of getting the mahendo'sat to make any treaty. Give him to me. I can handle him."

"Prove it now. Get the truth from him. Have him say where the humans are going, what Ismehanan-min said to him before he left, and what agreements he knows of with the methane-folk."

Pyanfar let go her breath slowly. Her laboring heart found a new level of panic.

Fool. Now you get what you bargained for. Don't you, Pyanfar?

But what else is there to do? How do we win anything without this kif?

She looked toward Jik as he shifted his hold on the chair to face her direction. A fine dew of perspiration had broken out around his eyes, running down into his black fur; his eyes glittered in the orange light and the darkness, and there were lines about them she was not accustomed to see there. "Jik," she said. "You heard him. You know what he wants."

"I know," Jik said, with no intimation he was going to say a thing.

"Listen." She reached out and took hold of his arm where it rested on the chair; she smelled the sweat and there was the stink of drugs in it; drugs and raw terror. "Jik. I need you. Hear? Hear me?"

Jik's face twisted, showed teeth, settled again in exhaustion. His eyes shut and he got them open again. "Get hell out. Hear?" And he meant more than get out of Harukk: she read that plainly.

"If the hakkikt fails," she said, "what does that leave us with? Jik. Jik-" There's a reason I can't tell you. She tried to send that with her eyes, with the sudden force of her hand; and with her thumb-claw, dug in so hard he winced.

"Damn!" he cried, jerking back; she held on.

"Listen to me. If the hakkikt fails, where are we? That bastard Akkhtimakt-" She tensed the thumb-claw again. J-i-k. In the blink-code. "Do you hear me? Do you hear?"

He no longer pulled back. His hand twitched. "I hear," he said in a hoarse, distracted voice. "But-"

"You'll take my orders. Hear?" And: h-u-m-a-n-t-r-e-a-c-h-e-r-y she spelled into his flesh. The sweat ran in rivulets past his eyes, in the thin areas of his facial hair. "Jik. Tell him everything."

A long moment he hesitated. She felt the tremor of muscles in his arm. The fear-smell grew stronger. The look on his face was a thing to haunt the sleep: he poured all his questions into it, and there was nothing she knew how to send back-let one kif note that hidden move of her thumb on the underside of his hand and they were both in it. But:

T-r-u-s-t, she signaled him. D-o.

He broke away from her eyes. He leaned himself on the other side of the chair, facing Sikkukkut. "Ana say-humans come Meetpoint. Truth. They go fight Akkhtimakt. Gather hani, make fight 'gainst kif. Then got-" His voice broke. "Got-hani, stsho, human, mahendo'sat, all fight kif."

"And it's your task," Sikkukkut said quietly, "to see that I reach Meetpoint to engage my rival Akkhtimakt-all while being attacked by all the others. Is that what your partner told you to do?"

Prolonged silence.

"Answer," Sikkukkut said.

"He not tell me what he do. He say-say I got go Meetpoint, wait orders."

"To turn on me at the opportune moment. Kkkkt. And now what will you do?"

"I think he damn fool, hakkikt." Again Jik's voice cracked. "I think I first time got better idea, help you take out Akkhtimakt."

"And then to turn on me."

"Not. Not. I think Ana got wrong. I damn scared, hakkikt, he got number one bad mistake. I don't think he do what he do, damn, I come on dock, try get Pyanfar out lousy mess, I don't know my damn partner going to blow the damn dock, I don't know he going outsystem, I don't know he got deal with Ehrran and the damn stsho-What happen? I get shoot at, I get caught, I get lousy drug and beat up, you think I be damn fool, hakkikt, come outside if I know what he do? Hell, no. Maybe Ana same time got smart idea, but he don't know I be out there, I don't know he be going to leave the dock- lousy mess. Ehrran be the one break dock, she be the one kill you people; I don't think he know what she do."

"They met. They talked. We know this."

Jik's head dropped, his shoulders slumped. He looked up again, leaning on his arms. "I think they talk stsho deal. I think Ana not know, not know what she do-He just got move fast. He plan go, yes. Not then. No so fast. He think got time. Ehrran make him move. Maybe he think I be dead, I don't know; maybe he think we all be on that dock, maybe he think The Pride crew be gone, maybe think ever'thing be gone to hell-I don't know, hakkikt. I don't know."

"You contradict yourself."

"Not lie. Don't know. I don't know."

"And the methane-folk? What dealings with them?"

Jik's head dropped again onto his arms. For a moment he was utterly still, and a kif moved closer at his side. Pyanfar sat quietly, forcing a calm over her nerves from the outside in, till it got to the depth of her mind.

We're talking about the whole gods-be Compact going up in smoke.

We can take him, at any time, we can take this kif bastard, if we're willing to die-and we're both dead now, Jik and I.

It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter that he's in pain, it's nothing, nothing in the balance, nothing that really matters. I'm sorry, Jik; I can't care, can't afford to care, can't stink of fear, I daren't. Not if we've got a chance. And I'll take it wide and high, Jik, if I have to. You're a professional, you know what I'm doing, you know I can't do anything else, drug-drunk as you are. We can settle it later.

"Answer him, Jik." And gods, come up with a good one.

I need you, Jik.

I can't play this throw alone.

He moved. He lifted his head again. "Tc'a," he said thickly.

"What about the tc'a?" Sikkukkut asked.

"I talk with. Lot scare'." His hands slipped. He caught himself and lifted his head with an effort. "Knnn lot disturb. Humans come through knnn space. Maybe shoot at knnn ship."

"Kkkkt."

"Damn fool. Tc'a want keep knnn quiet. They want mahendo'sat make all quiet, quick. Tc'a lot mad with Ana. Talk me-talk me-want make knnn be quiet. I say tc'a- tc'a, you got help Sikkukkut. Fine fellow, Sikkukkut. So tc'a come with us to Kefk. But knnn-"

"The knnn took it."

"Took. Don't know why. Maybe want ask why come with us. Maybe want ask what we do. Knnn lot crazy. No know knnn mind. I tell Ana-he be crazy want talk to knnn. Make quiet, I tell Ana, you got make quiet. Knnn be disturb, I don't know, don't know, don't know-"

Both hands went. He hit the arch of the chairlegs and hung there.

Pyanfar carefully took up her cup and sipped at it. Don't think, don't react, he's not in pain now. Be cold and careful and don't care. There's no guarantee what the bastard's going to do with either of us now he has what he wants. "That, I think, was the truth. It jibes with other things he's said. Mahendo'sat have their own ways. And it's very likely that Goldtooth is pursuing some contrary course, giving his Personage a second option. Unfortunately that course seems to involve helping Ehrran ruin me-friendship is worth something, hakkikt, but species-interest in Goldtooth's case is a great deal more potent. He'll be sorry to see me ruined and my influence broken-I was useful to him once; we even had a personal debt. But sorry is as far as it goes. Ehrran seems to him to have what he wants right now: influence in the han. Jik is pursuing a totally different course for the Personage they both serve-so Goldtooth wouldn't work directly against Jik, in the interest of giving the Personage that double choice; but he'll by the gods cut Jik's throat when he thinks it's come to crisis. And it will be crisis at Meetpoint, when we all go in there. That's how Goldtooth will deal with the methane-folk: kill Jik and remove the one person who can deal with the tc'a-because Jik does work with them." She took a second sip. "You told me back at Meetpoint, that one day I'd want revenge on my enemies. Pukkukkta. I had to look that word up. I know now what you offered me. You said at the same time that if I didn't want it then, I'd want it later. That was before I knew my enemy was a bastard of a hani who was out to get me from the start. I'll give you a hani word. Haura. Bloodfeud. Ehrran's got that now, with me, with Chanur, with Geran and Chur Anify; and Haral and Tirun Araun have a grudge or two themselves. And I'll get Rhif Ehrran if I have to go through Goldtooth and the stsho and the mahendo'sat and the humans to do it. Pukkukkta's a cold emotion; haura's a hot one; but that doesn't mean it can't last years. Am I making clear sense? However long it takes, I'll get her."

"You make sense, hunter Pyanfar."

"Tahar also has a bloodfeud with Ehrran. And Tahar interests are linked to mine. I'm her only hope of recovering her reputation. And her power."

"That also makes sense."

"I also have a certain matter to settle with Goldtooth. A personal matter. And Jik is the best leverage on that. That's why I want him."

"No kif would be as forward."

"No kif can offer you what I do."

There was a soft clicking about her, a stirring; and the guns were still live.

"What do you offer?"

"An alliance with non-kif."

"Kkkt." Sikkukkut placed his hands on the chair, lifting his jaw. "Where is it?"

"Lying in that chair; and sitting in this one. And neither's inconsequential. Neither's without ties that go far beyond one ship and a small authority. Give me Jik and give me Aja Jin, and I'll use him to settle with Goldtooth and Rhif Ehrran. A weapon in my hand is a weapon in yours."

"Is it?"

"Since we have common interests. A hani is very easy to understand. Look for clan interest. And Rhif Ehrran is out to destroy my clan, with Goldtooth's help. I told you I'd go through all the others to get her. And that's exactly what I'll do."

Sikkukkut leaned his long chin on his fist, the silver-bordered sleeve fallen back from a thin and muscular arm, the light gleaming on his eyes. "I well tell you, hunter Pyanfar, you will have the chance to make good what you say." The forefinger lifted. "You will have everything you ask."

O gods, the thought hit her then. Too easy. Too fast. Too complete.

"You will take Aja Jin and Moon Rising and you will take Meetpoint.''

"Hakkikt-"

"You claim a great deal for yourself. Can you deliver more than words? Or perhaps-will you defect to my enemies?''

"To Ehrran?" Her ears went flat. It took no acting at all. "No."

"You encourage me." A second finger lifted beside the first. "So I will give you Keia. On condition."

"That being, hakkikt?"

"He will go aboard The Pride. In your charge."

"He's the best pilot-"

"I know his skill. I know Kesurinan's, which is considerable. But she has less recklessness. I tell you how I will arrange things and you will accept them for your own good, hunter Pyanfar. Keia would betray your interests, left free to follow those he serves. Instead I give him to you, and you will use him wherever it profits you, but most of all where it profits me. I insist on this point. Do you understand me?"

Her ears twitched again, and it was not acting either. "You're very clear. And you may be absolutely right. I agree."

"I may be right. How generous of you. Is that the word-generous?''

"I'm taking your orders. Those who know me would be shocked to hear that. I'm a bastard, hakkikt, and a graynosed old bastard at that, and I'm not in the habit of taking orders, but I'm taking yours." You don't back me up, son. You don't treat me like one of your rag-eared lot. "You impress me and your opinions make absolute sense to me. You give me Jik here, I'll keep Kesurinan in line. And him. I know what you're saying, and yes, you're right. You want me to take Meetpoint, I can't do that. Even with Jik for a wedge. But if you're coming in behind me and want the stsho all dithered--" Which is what you plan, isn't it, you son? "-I can by the gods keep them busy."

Sikkukkut sipped at his drink. "You'll have to be more than that, skku of mine. I have a ship to spare. Do you know what a single hunter-ship can do to an inhabited world?"

O my gods.

"No warning would travel faster than that ship. It would strike and go. And hani would be removed from the question. The power I give you would be removed, skku of mine. Always remember I can take it away. I can remove Anuurn from consideration as an inhabited world. Do you understand me?"

"Entirely." Bastard. Thanks for the warning. Haura, bastard. You know how long Akkht itself would survive a move like that? Let's talk about life in the Compact. Let's talk about wiping out species. "When do I go?"

"I have a packet for you. You'll have it. With the person of my friend Keia. Treat him gently." Sikkukkut's nose twitched. "And under no circumstances set him free. I have uses for him myself: he's a loan, not a gift." Another lap at the cup. And a wave of Sikkukkut's hand, at which several kif near him stirred forth from the shadows, passing in front of one of the lights and casting long shadow over the table.

The shadow enveloped her, enveloped Jik as they laid hands on him and gathered him up with soft clickings and chatter among themselves. Jik lolled limp, in a way that said he was not shamming: his arm swung down, his head fell back when they lifted him, and there was no muscle tone in the arm they grasped-kifish fingers bit deep when they swung him up to carry him.

"Your leave," Pyanfar murmured, set her drink down, and stood up. She bowed, as carefully and formally as ever before the leadership in the han. She kept her ears up and her face calm as she glanced aside to their handling of Jik, and looked again to Sikkukkut for instruction.

He waved his hand again. A second time she bowed, and walked out the door, into the dim corridor outside, into the presence of lesser kif who gave way to someone of her evident status, who edged out of her path, lowered their faces and made themselves shadows against the walls and the conduits.

Her knees were going to be weak. The ammonia smell dizzied her: she had not sneezed, thank the gods, she had snuffled once or twice and covered it; but of a sudden her stomach felt queasy and her heart which had exhausted itself in terror, labored away in slow, painful beats.

The nightmare was not going away. They were bringing Jik, she had to pick up her three companions, mahe, hani, and kif, on her way out; and she had to get down that dock and observe whatever the kif sent her in the way of instructions.

Had to.

"I got him," she said curtly to Kesurinan when the kif brought her companions to her in the exit corridor. "He's staying in my custody."

And it hurt, somewhere dimly and at the bottom of her soul where she had put all her sensibilities-the quick lift of Kesurinan's ears, the dismay, the instant smothering of all reaction, because Kesurinan was not a fool, and knew where they were and who was listening, and then that they would have to do everything the kif insisted on to get her captain out of Harukk. Kesurinan thought she was talking to an ally.

Sikkukkut was absolutely right: the mahendo'sat would be an ally right down to the point their own species-interest took over. And then Jik would save his own kind.

So, she discovered, would she.

They made slow progress down the unstable docks-a gang of kifish skkukun carrying a stretcher with Jik strapped tightly to it; Jik's First Officer walking along by him, anger and concern in every line of her back: and with a gun on her hip. Pyanfar walked to the side and a little behind, with Dur Tahar on her right and Skkukuk at her left, Tahar inscrutable as Tahar had become in her life among kif, while Skkukuk gave few signals either-except in squared shoulders, except in less nervousness than he had ever shown; except in every subtle move that said here was a kif whose status was no longer that of an outright slave, a kif whose captain had just dealt with the hakkikt and won. He carried a weapon beneath his outer robes and gods knew what ambitions in his narrow skull. If ever a kif was pleased, this one positively basked in his change of fortunes, inhaled the chance in the air, savored the sight of the hakkikt’s slaughtered enemies, his dreadful signposts-and the sight of his captain rising in that service.

Cold in all the warm places and fever-warm in all the cold ones, gods, a hundred eighty degrees skewed. Alien. The kif are that thing in doubles and triples.

Stay cold, Pyanfar Chanur. Save it. Jik's a piece of meat. Tahar an ally-of-fortune, Kesurinan's potential trouble, and this gods-be son of a kif is a convenience.

Kesurinan's not going to make trouble, not yet. She'll let us take Jik aboard.

Gods, don't let Jik come to out here.

Slowly, slowly they walked up the dock past the section seal, into that area where there were no pedestrians. Where there was no traffic at all but themselves.

And there was The Pride's berth ahead, still flashing with those warning lights. She took her pocket com out, within range of the pickup now: "This is the captain. I'm coming in."

"Aye," Haral's voice came back to her, thin with static: that formality she had used was warning, and Haral took it: I've got company, Haral; don't get easy with me.

Another eternity, walking that fragile dock: and gods help them, Tahar and Kesurinan had farther still to go. "Skkukuk," Pyanfar said, and the kif beside her was all attention. "Tell the skkukun-hakkiktu I want Tahar escorted to her ship by the quickest and safest route. Through the central corridors if they can."

"Hakt'," Skkukuk said, acknowledging the order; and walked up with the litter-bearers and gave that instruction with all the kifish modulations of a superior's relayed instructions and his own high status with that superior. Then he fell back a step or two and lifted his face in satisfaction.

She said not a word to Tahar, and Tahar offered not a word to her; that was the way of things.

Toward The Pride's open accessway, then. "Wait here," Pyanfar said to Tahar and Kesurinan, and with a special coldness in Kesurinan's direction, when they reached that gateway: her flesh crawled in that earnest look of Kesurinan's scar-crossed face. "Aye, captain," Kesurinan said, all unknowing.

And betrayed her own captain into foreign hands.

"Chanur-hakto," the foremost kif said, when they had deposited Jik on his litter in The Pride's airlock. That kif took a packet from within his robes and offered it.

Skkukuk intercepted it in one smooth move. And waved his hand, dismissing the other kif out the airlock.

"Seal us up," Pyanfar said to the air and the crew watching on monitor.

The lock shot closed, hissed and thumped into electronic seal.

"Power down," Pyanfar said.

"Aye," Haral's voice came to her. All business, even yet. Pyanfar took the packet Skkukuk offered her officiously, with the stretcher lying on its supports at her feet. Now the shivers wanted to come, but she kept her ears up and looked her own kif in his watery, red-rimmed eyes.

"Good job," she said to Skkukuk.

"Kkkkt," the kif said. "You need me, hakt'. Who else of your crew has manners?"

Her gorge rose. She swallowed and tucked the small packet into her pocket, squatted down by Jik's stretcher and patted his face gently. It was cold and there was no reaction.

"This is an ally?" Skkukuk asked.

"This is a complicated situation," she said, trying to tell a kif the truth; and then a second thought ruffled the hair down her back. Gods, this is a killer I'm talking to. With hairtrigger reflexes. "Yes. An ally." She moved her hand down to Jik's neck and felt the pulse there. "Haral. Get Khym down here. We got Jik to move. He's still out."

"On his way, captain. You all right?"

"Fine. I'm fine. We got out in good shape. Open that door." She patted Jik's face again. "Hey. Friend. Come out of it. You hear me? You're all right." Friend.

He was under. Deep. She heard the lift work: Khym had either been on his way or he had run that topside corridor. And The Pride was proceeding with power-down, a series of subtle noises that her ear knew in every nuance. "Skkukuk. You'll help Khym. You'll do what he says."

"Kkkt. This is your mate."

She stood up and looked flat-eared at Skkukuk, with the ammonia-stink in her nostrils and the antiallergents drying her mouth. Something about the asking crawled along her nerves. This alien, this unutterable alien, was feeling out who was to consider among the crew, who he could displace, who he could get around and who not.

That's one job you can't work your way into, you slithering earless bastard. You keep your mouth off my husband's name. You better figure that, fast.

A thousand thousands of years of hani instinct ran up her spine. And Skkukuk read that look and took on one of his own. Caution.

Footsteps in the lowerdecks corridor. Rapid ones, more than one set.

Don't run, Khym. Dignity, Khym. In front of the kif, gods rot it, Khym.

She was still standing squared off with Skkukuk when Khym showed up in the doorway with Tully close behind.

"You're all right," Khym said.

"I'm just fine. Take Jik to sickbay. Get Tirun onto it. Skkukuk-"

The kif was still waiting. Armed. Their ex-prisoner, possessing a gun that could blow a hole in armor plate. And expecting in his aggressive little kifish soul that he had just won his freedom.

"You're offduty," she told Skkukuk. "You'll keep that gun in your quarters. You've got a lowerdecks clearance. You understand me."

"Kkkt. Absolutely."

"Move."

Everyone moved. Skkukuk got himself out of her sight, correctly reading her temper. Khym and Tully got to either end of the stretcher, got it lifted with its not inconsiderable dead weight of tall mahendo'sat, and maneuvered it out the hatch.

"Tirun's on her way to sickbay, captain." That from her niece. While the powerdown proceeded.

"Understood," Pyanfar said calmly. And stood there a moment staring at the wall. With a kif's orders in her pocket. She fished them out and broke open the brittle seal to look at the written portion.

"Departure at 2315," was the center of that detail. It was, at the moment, all she was interested in. The kif gave them time enough to get organized. Barely. With precise course instructions, aborting one that they had laid in.

"Hilfy."

"Aye," the subdued voice reached her.

"Message to Kesurinan and Tahar: stand by departure; they'll have a bit over six hours. So will we."

A pause. "Aye."

Silence after. The Pride was at rest again. The crew on the bridge could see her, where she stood. The camera was live. She looked up at it. "Things could be worse," she said glumly. "I can think of one way right off. But we got Jik in our custody, we got Tahar and Aja Jin with us, and we've got the hakkikt's orders: it's Meetpoint. His way."

A longer pause.

"Aye," Haral said simply, as if she had given a routine order.

The largest space station in the Compact.

And a forewarned one.

"Clear the boards, stand offduty; I got Jik to see to."

"Aye, captain."

She walked out of the airlock. And only then it occurred to her, like the ghost of an old habit that no longer meant anything, that she had just packed her husband and another crewman off to tend another man, knowing beyond the last twitch of instinct, if it was ever instinct, that Jik was safe with them, safe as that kif was safe to send down the corridor in the other direction, because even the kif was a rational mind and sane and sensible, while the universe quaked and tottered on al! sides of them.

She walked down the corridor and into the open door of sickbay, their little closet of a facility. Tirun had beaten her there. Khym and Tully were taking Jif off the stretcher and laying him on the table.

"He'll have some bruises," Pyanfar said. "You'd better run a scan on him. He may have more than that." She went to the med cabinet, keyed the lock with a button-sequence and sorted through a tray of bottles- hani-specific; hani drugs did strange things with some mahendo'sat. No telling what the kif had given him even if she ran a query into Library, and it was better to stick to the simple things. She pulled out an old-fashioned bottle of ammonia salts and brought that over to hold under Jik's nose.

Not a twitch.

"Gods-be." She capped the stinking bottle and slapped Jik's chill face. "Wake up. Hear me?"

"What did they give him?" Tirun asked, lifting Jik's eyelid, peering close. "He smells like a dopeden."

"He's a hunter-captain, gods rot it, his own precious government's got him mind-blocked, gods know how far down he's gone." She turned around, shoved her way past Khym and got to the intercom. "Bridge! Get Harukk on, tell 'em I want to know what they dosed Jik with, fast."

"Aye," Haral's voice came back.

Tirun was counting pulsebeats. And frowning.

"Gods, he doesn't know where he is." Pyanfar crossed the deck again, shoving roughly past both the men, to grab at Jik's shoulders. "Jik, gods fry you, it's Pyanfar, Pyanfar Chanur, you hear me? Emergency, Jik, wake up?"

Jik's mouth opened. His chest moved in a larger breath.

"Come on, Jik-for the gods' sake, wake up!" She yelled it into his ear. She shook at him.''Jik! Help!''

Tension began to come back to his musculature. His face acquired familiar lines. "Come on," she said. "It's me, it's Pyanfar."

Help, she said. And the great fool came back to her. He hauled himself out of whatever mental pit his own people had prepared for him, the way he had run out onto that dock to fight for her and her crew, when an absolute species-loyalty had dictated he save himself. Help. More strangers handled him, dumped him from stretcher to table, gods, not unlike what the kif must have done to him, and he went away from them, deeper and deeper, only knowing at some far level that he was being touched.

Knowing now that there was a hani cursing him deaf in one ear and asking something of him, but nothing more than that.

O gods. Gods, Jik.

His eyes slitted open. He was still far away.

"Hey," she said. "You're all right. You're on The Pride. I got you out. Kesurinan's gone back to Aja Jin, you hear me, Jik, you're not with the kif anymore. You're on my ship."

He blinked. His mouth worked, the movement of a dry tongue. He heard her, she thought, at some level. He was exploring consciousness and trying to decide if he wanted it.

"It's me," she said again. "Jik," She patted his arm and stooped with a sick feeling at the gut when he flinched from her touch. '' Friend.''

"Where?" he said, at least it sounded like that.

"On The Pride. You're safe. You understand me?"

"Understand," he said. His lids drifted down over the pupils. He was gone again, but not so deeply gone. She hesitated a moment, then turned in a blind rage at two fool men who had not sense enough to clear out of sickbay's narrow space and give them room to work.

She found herself staring eye to eye with Tully-with Tully who had been twice where Jik had been, and whose face was stsho-white and his eyes white round the edges. She had been about to shout. The look on Tully's face strangled the sound in her throat.

"Out," she said, and choked on the word. "Clear out of here, you're not doing anything useful."

Khym flattened his ears, thrust out an arm and herded Tully away; Tully went without seeming to notice it was Khym who had touched him. The human was a shaken man.

So was she, shaken. The hair was standing up all down her back.

"Captain," Haral's voice came, "it's sothosi. Library's sending to labcomp right now."

"We're on it."

Tirun was on it, a quick move for the comp unit; a glance at the screen and a dive for the medicine cabinet. She broke open a packet, grabbed an ampule and art astringent pad and made herself a clean spot on Jik's arm.

The stimulant went in. In another moment Jik made another gasp after air, and another, a healthier darkness returning to his nose and lips. "There we go," Tirun said, monitoring his heartbeat. "There we go."

Pyanfar found herself a chair and sat down, before her knees went. She bent over and raked her hands through her mane, conscious of the uncomfortable weight of the AP at her hip and the prodding of the gun in her opposite pocket. She stank. She wanted a bath.

She wanted not to have done what she had done. Not to have made the mistakes she had made. Not to be Pyanfar Chanur at all, who was responsible for too much and too many mistakes. And who had now to think the unthinkable.

"You all right?" Tirun asked.

She looked up at her cousin, her old friend. At a crewwoman who had been with her from her youth. "Tirun." She lapsed into a provincial hani language and kept her voice down. "He'll stay here. I want this room safed, I want him left under restraint-"

She tried to keep the cold distance she had had on Harukk. It was hard when she looked into an old friend's eyes and saw that natural reaction, that dropping of Tirun's ears.

"Tirun," she said, though she had meant to justify nothing; she found herself pleading, found a shiver going through her limbs. "We got a problem. I'll talk about it later. Do it. Can you? Stay with him till he wakes up and make sure he's breathing all right. And for godssakes leave those restraints on him. Can you do that?"

"Yes," Tirun said. No doubt. No question, from an honest hani who handed her captain every scruple she had and expected her captain was going to explain it all. Eventually.

"Tell him I'm going to come back down. Tell him it's because we've got a few hours, I want him to rest and I can't think of any other way to make sure he does." She still spoke in chaura, a language no mahendo'sat was going to understand; and that was statement enough how much truth she was handing out. Tirun stared at her and asked no questions. Not even with a flick of her ears. Lock up a friend who had saved their lives and come back in this condition from doing it. Lie to him.

If she could knock him cold again without risking his life she would do that too.

She got up and walked out, raked a hand through her mane and felt the stinging pain of exhaustion between her shoulders, the burn of cold decking on her feet. Kif-stink was still in her nostrils.

She flung the kifish packet onto the counter by her own station on the bridge.

No one had left post; or if Geran had left to check on Chur she had come back again in a hurry. Solemn faces stared at her: Hilfy, Geran, Khym and Tully; Haral kept operations going.

"Leave it, Haral," Pyanfar said.

Haral swung her chair about, same as the others.

"You know the way we came in here," Pyanfar said, "and took Kefk. We got orders to do it again. At Meetpoint."

Ears sank. Tully sat there, the human question, hearing what he could pick up on his own and what garbled version whispered to him over the translator plug he kept in one ear.

"You've heard bits and pieces of it," she said, and sat down on the armrest of her own cushion, facing all of them. "We've got to follow orders the way they're given. Or we've got to blow ourselves to particles here at dock. And that takes out only one kif faction. It leaves the other one the undisputed winner. And by the gods, I'd rather they chewed on each other a while and gave the Compact a chance. That's one consideration. But there's another one. Sikkukkut's threatened Anuurn."

"How-threatened?" Haral asked.

"Just that. One ship-if he thinks we're getting out of line. He's not talking about an attack at Gaohn. Nothing like it. He means an attack directly on the world. That's the kind of kif we're dealing with. One large C-charged rock, hitting Anuurn, before Anuurn can see it coming, gods know. It was a threat. I hope it was a remote threat. We're dealing with a kif who knows too gods-be much about hani and too gods-be little: he was a fool to tell me that and maybe he doesn't imagine what we'd do to stop him-before or after the event. But I don't think he's the only kif who'd think of it. I hope they chew each other to bloody rags. We arrange that if we can-but we've got to do what we're told right now or we find ourselves looking the wrong way at one of Sikkukkut's guns, und we don't get the chance to warn anybody, or work our way around this, or save a gods-be thing."

"Captain," Haral said, "we got a kif up there at zenith. He's got position on us."

"I know about it. We're not going to take 'em on. We just get out of here. We've got six hours, we're dropping into a Situation at Meetpoint, and the Compact may not survive it in any form we understand it. That's what we've got. That's what we're up against. I don't know what we're going to find at Meetpoint. Tully-are you following this? Do you understand me?"

"I understand," he said in a faint voice. "I crew, captain."

"Are you? Will you be, at Meetpoint?"

"You want me sit with Hilfy at com, speak human if humans be there." His voice grew steadier. "Yes. I do."

With all he could and could not understand. She gazed on him in a paralysis of will, as if putting off deciding anything at all could stop time and give them choices they did not have.

Jik, they had locked up below. A kif and a human were loose among them. The human sat in their most critical councils.

But Tully had given them the warning she had passed to Jik, a warning blurted out in one overcharged moment that Tully had stood between her and Hilfy and she had questioned his motives.

Don't trust humans, Pyanfar.

On one sentence, one frightened, treasonous sentence in mangled hani, they bet everything.

Gods, risk my world on him? Billions of lives? My whole people? My gods, what right have I got?

"I'll think on it," she said. "I haven't got any answers." She picked up the packet and flung it down again. "We've got our instructions. We've got Tahar with us. We've got Jik's ship. And we've got orders to keep Jik with us and keep that ship of his under tight watch."

"There's something else," Hilfy said. And took up a piece of paper and got up and brought it to her. It trembled in Hilfy's hand. "Comp broke the code. Maybe he meant us to break it. I don't know."

She hesitated in the dim doorway of sickbay, with that paper in her pocket; Jik was awake, Tirun had said.

He was. She saw the slitted glitter of Jik's eyes, saw them open full as she walked in, quiet as she was. She went and laid her hand on his shoulder, above the restraint webbing. Tirun had put a pillow under his head and a blanket over his lower body.

His eyes tracked on her quite clearly now, gazed up at her sane and lucid. "Come let me go, a? Damn stubborn, you crew."

But she did not hear the edge of annoyance that might have been there. It was all too quiet for Jik, too wary, too washed of strength. It was-gods knew what it was.

Apprehension, comprehension-that he might not be among friends?

That for some reason she might be truly siding with the kif-or that she was operating under some other driving motive, in which they were no longer allies?

He had for one moment, in that kifish place, drugged and on the fading edge of his resources, answered questions he had held out against for days, answered because she got through his defenses with a warning his mind had been in no

shape to deal with, and because she had signaled him that he had to do this.

Now he was clear-headed. Now he knew where he was, and perhaps he recalled, too late, what he had done. That was what came through that faint voice, that failing attempt at humor.

"Hey," she said, and tightened her hand. "You got nowhere to go, do you?"

"Aja Jin."

"Told you about that. Kif'll shoot your head off. We're clear. Got it all patched up with Sikkukkut. You passed out on me. Missed the good part. I need to talk to you."

"I got talk to my ship."

"That can wait. You'll fall on your nose if you try to get up. Don't want you trying it, hear? Tirun fill you in?"

"Not say."

"Your ship's fine; the dock's patched; I got you clear and got everything fixed up with Sikkukkut: he's a gods-be bastard, but he does listen. He's still suspicious, but he's put you aboard The Pride, says you've got to ride out the next move aboard my ship and let Kesurinan handle Aja Jin. That was all I could get. We've got to live with that."

"I got damn itch on nose, Pyanfar."

She reached and rubbed the bridge of it. "Got it?"

"Let me go. I walk fine."

"Haven't got time. We're moving. Going to Meetpoint. You're going to have to ride it out where you are. I'm sorry about that, but we haven't got another cabin we can reach till we undock. And then things are going to go pretty fast."

He was quiet a heartbeat or two. Then: "Pyanfar-"

"I got a question for you. I want to know what we're headed into. What did Goldtooth tell you before he left us, huh?"

A silent panic crept into his eyes. He lifted his head and let it fall back against the pillow, still staring at her. "Not funny."

"/ need to know, friend. For your sake, for that ship of yours, gods know, for mine. What are we headed for? What's he doing?"

"We talk on bridge."

Bluff called, she stared at him and he at her and there was a knot at her gut. "You know how it is," she said.

"A," he said. "Sure."

"I got this thing to ask you. I want to know the truth. You understand me."

He ran his tongue over his lips. "What this deal with humans?"

"Tully told me-told me flatly not to trust them. You know Tully; he's not too clear. But what he said, the way he said it-I think they're going to doublecross your partner. I think they're not the fools Goldtooth thinks they are. And they're not taking his orders."

"Maybe you do better talk to Tully."

"I have. We've got a problem. Sikkukkut wants Meetpoint. He wants us three to go in first, The Pride, Aja Jin, and Moon Rising. You see how much he trusts us. He wants us to go in there and shake things up and crack Meetpoint so he can walk right in easy."

"Akkhtimakt maybe be there."

"So's everyone else. Aren't they? I got one more question. What about the methane-folk? What's the real truth?"

"Lot-lot mad." Another pass of Jik's tongue across his lips. "I try talk to tc'a. They want keep like before. Knnn- different question. Goldtooth said-said got maybe trouble."

"Who's Ghost?"

Jik blinked. His eyes locked on hers, pupils dilated.

"When you were in trouble," Pyanfar said, "I hauled out that little packet you gave me at Mkks and started it through comp. We got a number one good linguistics rig. The best. Mahen make, a? Why'd you ever give me that packet, huh?-to carry on for you. In case something happened here at Kefk? So I could get through to Kshshti or Meetpoint? Gods-be careless job of encoding if we could break it-but then, then it might have had to go to a mahen ship way out from your Personage, mightn't it? Someone like Goldtooth, maybe? And the real code's in the language- isn't it?"

"Maybe same-want you to have."

"You knew gods-be well we'd have to go to mahen authority to read it? You by the gods knew we'd have to run to your side when it got hot-we'd be held to being your courier again, that's what you knew, that's what you set us up for, rot your conniving, doublecrossing hide?"

He lay there and blinked at her.

"Was it because you thought something might happen to you, Jik? Or did you already plan to do what Goldtooth did for you here at Kefk? Blow the docks and run and leave me to get anywhere I gods-blessed could, with your confounded message? Was it you who gave Goldtooth the orders to break dock?"

"Hani, you got damn nasty mind."

"I'm dead serious, Jik."

"You crazy." He gave a wrench at the restraints. "Damn, Pyanfar?! walk fine."

"Answer me."

"What you think, I run out on you, leave you talk to kif? / on that damn dock myself!''

"You weren't in the zone that blew! That's by the gods close timing, Jik!"

"I not do!"

"Didn't you? I think you knew with Chur sick I wasn't free to run for it. That it'd kill her and I wouldn't move if I had a chance in your coldest hell. Goldtooth gave us that med unit-fine, so I could run. You gave me that gods-be packet back at Mkks before we knew we'd find him here-you gave it in case something happened to you, a packet we'd have to take to mahen authorities. And what does it talk about? People reneging on agreements, that's what; it talks about contingencies, talks about supporting some candidacy-whose? Sikkukkut's? What agreements?"

"Sikkukkut. Same. You know agreement."

"You're lying, Jik. By the gods, you show up at Kshshti and help me out of one mess, then you help me all the way here, deeper and deeper you helped me, you and your godsforsaken partner, you and your gods-be deals-"

''I come out on that dock save you damn neck!''

"Where were you planning to ditch us? Where, huh? Here? Or later, at Meetpoint? Where was it I was supposed to find this gods-be packet was the only currency I had, where was I supposed to go? Kshshti? Back through kif territory, get my ship and my crew shot up one more time, end up on mahen-charity because there's no gods-be help else when you've got through using me and mine for every gods-be gods-rotted piece of mahen politics you've got going? Or maybe I get to Meetpoint and find you'll drop me to politic with the stsho to save them from the kif-some mahen squeeze play, throw one kif at them from Kefk, another from Kita and Kshshti, catch them between your ships and the humans and haul the whole gods-be Compact into your lap, with me and the han left the way you left us the last time, out in the cold with our ships shot up, our station in ruins, and nothing this time to do but come crawling to your gods-be charity! Is that the way your favors go? Am I what you think you're buying with this little packet that tells your authorities how to deal with me?"

''I not do!'' Jik fell back from a convulsive shout, breathing hard, and they stared at each other for a moment.

"Then who's this Ghost? What's the rest of it?"

Silence. Jik only stared and breathed.

"It's another doublecross. Isn't it? They've threatened my world, you hear me?''

He blinked. That was all.

"Gods rot you-" She snatched the paper from her pocket and waved it in his face. "What's this thing mean? What's this gods-be message worth if the humans doublecross you?" And when his mouth only clamped the tighter: "Jik-"

"My nose itch, Pyanfar." Quietly. With full self-possession. And when she lost the breath to shout with: "Damn miserable, Pyanfar, damn ridic'lous situation, you and me. You come get me. Now what we do? What you think do?"

She took the paper and folded it, absorbed in that meticulous task.

"You got too good heart deal with kif," Jik said.

"What's our choice? What gods-be choice have we got? Your whole plan's blown up, we've got the Compact coming apart around our ears-"

"Same you, me, a?" He made a grimace, blinked sweat and strained to see her. "What we do, a? How far we want go, you, me?"

"I don't know." She shoved the message into her pocket and leaned into his view, close, ears flat and a shaking in her knees. "How far do I go, huh, Jik? How far'd you go? This

mess you put in motion is threatening to take my world out. We talk about friendship now? We talk about what you'd do in mahendo'sat interests? About two mahen bastards who'd doublecross every friend they got, all for the Personage?"

"You want try drug next?"

"Don't push me."

"What we got, huh? Damn Anuurn hani sit and wait, good friend? You longtime got mind like rock, Pyanfar, whole damn han got own interest, let mahendo'sat fight kif pirate, let mane do, hani too damn busy make politic-"

"Why blame us? You created the han, take the poor hani bastards, teach 'em spaceflight, shove 'em into your own gods-rotted politics with the stsho, and to a mahen hell with the clans-"

"What you want? Sit on world, be sit there when politic in the Compact roll over you heads like wave in the sea? Be sit there when kif eat our heart and come find hani? Maybe all time you like sit on world, Pyanfar, maybe you get old, want go sit in damn dirt and wait for kif?"

"So what d'we get? The kif or you?"

"You got choice."

"Gods blast you!"

"If we want you damn world, Pyanfar, we one time got, first time we land on Anuurn you got nothing but point' sticks. You forget? You ask us leave, we go."

"Sure, you went. You never turned loose of us. Manipulate our trade, shape our government, let us here and let us there and don't let us get beyond ourselves-"

"Fine. You make fine deal. Maybe you like kif lot better. Wish you luck, Pyanfar. Or you got trust me-"

"Trust you!"

"Damn, you come, I crazy drunk, talk kif, you say; I do, I do, Pyanfar, I got so much trust in you, I do. All diff rent, you say; got human louse things up, got bad trouble-'Talk, Jik: tell the kif what he want, I get you out-' God! what kind fool I be with trust?"

"I should let you loose on my ship? Let you loose with my crew? Jik, I got you out of there. I did that for you. If you trusted me you'd tell me what's in this paper, but you won't do that. You can't do that, and I know why, like you know why I don't dare let you go. I've got to survive. I have to stay alive in this gods-rotted mess you handed me. I've got to hold a position where I can still do something. You understand me? I'm going to do something."

"I tell you paper." Jik's voice came faintly, almost inaudible. "You know mahendo'sat-know I got power to make agreement for my Personage. I make now-with you. With hani."

"Same as you make with Sikkukkut, huh? Same as you make with Akkhtimakt and set them at each other's throats."

"Same I keep. Same I give him Kefk, same I fight with. You same know mahendo'sat. I keep agreement. I don't say Personage keep. But-" Jik blinked again and licked his lips, eyes lively as if he had already won his point. "-if. you get this kif, we got deal with you fair, a?"

"Tell me the paper."

"Let go first."

"Oh, no, friend. You listen to me. You listen good. We're going out of here, going to come kiting blind into whatever you set up over at Meetpoint, and Kesurinan's going in there on my directions. It's your ship. Your crew. I'd think you'd be a little concerned."

"Damn kif heart, you got kif heart, Pyanfar."

"I got a hani one, same as you're working for your own." She laid her hand on his shoulder, even knowing it was unwelcome. "Listen, you bastard, you and I had rather deal with each other. I take your agreement. I'll sleep with your gods-be Personage if it gets us out of this, but the first thing I got to do is get us into Meetpoint in one piece. And I want those code names and I want every godsrotted thing you've been holding out on me. Right up front, I want to know what's in that message, and what kind of a deal you and Goldtooth have already made."

He shut his eyes, blinked at the sweat. "Paper say-most this you got to know already: the stsho betray us; the human maybe ally; hani-hani not reliable; I make deal with Sikkukkut to make him hakkikt, I got also deal with tc'a-Pyanfar, you say this wrong ear, you blow Compact to hell."

"That's real fine. What of it we've got left. Keep talking."

"Tc'a long time take knnn orders: why they change now, I don't know. Got some crazy input from chi, damn lunatic chi got notion want go out from Chchchcho, want expand-"

"You mean the chi are pushing the knnn? Good gods, those-"

"Not sure. Maybe tc'a idea. Methane-breather be lot crazy. But knnn-we not be sure, think maybe knnn got eye on chi. Also human got lot planetaries, got lot thing knnn want, maybe; also got human-ity, number one problem. Long time problem. Stir up kif. Stir up methane-folk. Big trouble. You not know."

"The Akkukkak business?"

"Before Akkukkak." Jik explored a cut on his lip with his tongue and drew a deep breath. "Old hakkikktun be small stuff; lot little hakkikktun be lousy neighbor, lot trouble, steal you cargo, do little pirate stuff, easy we keep lanes clear-few hunter-ship take care these bastard number one good. Then we get fellow name Afkkek, nasty lot trouble. He go down, we get 'nother, name Gotukkun. He got own authority, take what belong Afkkek too. After Gotukkun be Sakkfikktin. Kasotuk. Nifekekkin. Each more big."

"Each adding his own followers to what he'd taken."

"You got. Long time kif be fight at Akkht, lot internal stuff. Long time we know kif got more big and more big hakkikt. So we try-try push hakkikktun make difficulty with methane-folk. Sometime work good. Now-we got mistake. Big mistake. We been get human signal, longtime."

"You asked them in? Gods blast-!"

"Not ask. We try take quiet look, see what be this kind. Lose ship. Lose two ship, we think be knnn, maybe kif take those ship. Maybe knnn same time got curiosity 'bout humanity. I think, me, I think Akkukkak set up trap, bring human, take. But we not know this: he be dead; maybe no one know."

"Of course you didn't share this information with anyone."

"Who we tell? Stsho? Hani You got Tully. We don't know what else you got. We don't know what he tell you-I tell you, Pyanfar, you come mahen station, bring human- you trust us damn too much. 'Cept we be friend, a? We don't tell you all thing we know. But we fight with you keep kif off Anuurn. Lot thing then we don't know. We got find out. You

know when Tully 'scape kif? Lot time kif operate at Meetpoint, make trade with stsho. They got Akkukkak, got couple kif be rival-lot trouble with kif. Ana try-not know what that ship got; he know one kif ship chase 'nother, Akkukkak come there 'cause he got no safe route else. Then he not be real happy find my partner Ana come in port. He 'fraid stay, got other kif; 'fraid go, 'fraid Ana get on his tail, he got tail in vise number one good. So he sit at dock. He so damn busy watch Ana he forget watch other kif. One kif inside ship make snatch Tully; Tully run like hell down dock-you got rest. Now Ana lot worry, not know what this be, not know if this be species we know about, or be something lot different. He try find Tully. Kif try find. Tully go you ship and start damn lot trouble. Now you got stsho go crazy, all scare' 'bout knnn, scare' 'bout humans come, damn mad 'bout you damage station-Mahendo'sat work hard, bribe lot stsho, make so hani come back to Meetpoint. We need hani. Need balance with kif, damn sure stsho no good, tc'a and knnn lot disturb. We get hani back to Meetpoint, go try make careful new contact with humanity, try find out what they be, how big, what they minds be like-find out what knnn want."

"And the kif took offense at it."

"Kif damn busy big fight on Akkht. We know we got worry 'nother hakkikt grow up; so we got make opposition, hit here, hit there, try make lot little hakkikktun. Then we got Sikkukkut. My mistake. Sikkukkut."

"Who already had his hands into Akkhtimakt's organization. He got that ring, Jik, that ring Tully has on his hand. He got it from a human prisoner in Akkhtimakt's hands-Sikkukkut was already poised with his spies and his organization before we ever got to Kshshti, before you dealt with him at Mkks. This wasn't a little provincial boss we were dealing with, this was a kif already on his way to being what he is. Sikkukkut knows humans. He was Akkukkak's interrogator, he killed all of Tully's crew except the one Tully killed himself, when it got that bad, Jik, and you know better than I do what it could get to. This is the gods-be kifish expert on humanity we're dealing with, and if kif have anything like a security organization, I'm guessing some of Akkukkak's old staff that got swept up into Akkhtimakt's organization-never were Akkhtimakt’s. They were Sikkukkut's partisans all along. Am I wrong?"

Jik stared at her. "You got damn good ears."

"I'm an old trader and I know how to add. You knew this. You knew some of it; and you went right ahead and you promoted this kif of yours at every step. The wrong gods-be kif. I didn't see it. You didn't see it till Kefk. Jik, I could lake this dock out. I could stop this one. And that still leaves Akkhtimakt-"

"Same damn bastard. I be right, Pyanfar, still be right 'bout that one. Akkhtimakt got no bottom. Swallow everything. Sikkukkut want use everything. Ana-Ana got this idea he use human for break the kif. But if they got motive-''

"Tully's got no reason to lie. They're big, Jik. You're not dealing with one human government. There's their homeworld, but there's two other powers. Tully's from their homeworld. It's fighting the other two and it wants to beat them-you tell me how. They've shot at the knnn. The knnn are putting up with it for reasons the gods and the knnn only know; we've got one human planet out there at odds with every other human in space, and there's gods know how many worlds the other side of their homestar from us. Their homeworld is cut off, isolate, having bloodfeud with its own outposts-what in the gods' name can you imagine we're dealing with? What's this lot after, when they've got a dozen worlds in the other direction and all of them are shooting at each other?"

"Tully say this?"

"By bits and pieces. Yes. That's what he's told me. We've just got the tail of the creature. When it turns around-"

"God."

"If you and your earless Personage had told the same truth twice in a day we might not be in this mess. You understand me?"

"If we not got damn hani traitor, if we not got the han screw up-we both got damn fools, Pyanfar, both kind. We got be fools too? Let me go. You got one of you crew sick. You want damn good pilot, you want me sit boards, you got. You want chain me to damn chair, you got. Pyanfar. I don't want lie down here in dark!"

She stood there on yea and nay, reached as far as the release and took her hand back. "Agreement?"

"You got."

She pulled the first release; and the second.

And stood there remembering the power there was in a mahen arm. And the wit there was in this mahendo'sat, and all his twists and turns: make a simple move against her he would not-until it was profitable.

Fool, a small voice said, while Jik slowly lifted his hands to his face and wiped the sweat, while he groped for the edge of the table and gave every indication of weakness and disorientation. He looked apt to pitch onto his face. She made a grab for him and steadied him as he got his feet over the edge and sat there blinking and grimacing as if his head hurt considerably. He put a hand up to his brow, wiped his eyes and looked at her.

As well admit Skkukuk to the bridge during jump. Much rather admit Skkukuk-who was on their side.

Of all the things I've done, she thought to herself, staring into Jik's alien eyes, this is the one I'll deserve to die for. I know I'm making a mistake. I'm wrong. I'm going to foul up and the kif’ll launch that ship, that ship no one can stop and no one can catch, and there won't be hani left except those of us who happen to be in space, that the kif will hunt down one by one. All because there's this chance that we need him, and Tully, and that gods-be kif who thinks I'm his ticket to kifish glory; because I'm an old fool of a hani who's been out in the dark too long and I can't shake if off and think clear of it any longer.

"Pyanfar," he said gently, "you be damn bastard."

"Got you out, didn't I?"

"You got."

"You know you're not sitting a post on this ship."

"What you want?" He held out his hands together. "Chain to chair? Do! I want be on bridge. Want talk to my ship. Want hear my ship."

"Hear them, I'll give you."

Fool, Pyanfar. This isn't Anuurn. He isn't hani. Parole means nothing to him weighed against his orders.

And how do I treat him like this and trust him again, ever?

"Agreement, Jik. You put this one in my hands. You stay on the bridge, but you keep your mouth shut and you keep your hands off controls."

He turned his hands, showed blunt mahen claws which nature had never made retractable, or fine enough for the smaller controls on hani boards; and they were broken and bloody, the fingertips swollen and coated with plasm from Tirun's caretaking: it was sure the kif had done no good for them.

She felt a cold shiver inside, a sympathetic twitch of her own claws in their retractile sheaths. But she set her face all the same. "Is that all the answer I get? Or do you give me those codewords and give us some honest help?"

He looked at her straight from under his dark brow, a hard glitter in his eyes. "I do, Pyanfar. Now you got believe what I say, a?"