The Kif Strike Back

VII

It was chaos, in the bridgeward corridor as Pyanfar headed out of the lift. Tully was there with Hilfy, doing final latch-check on doors, which meant Khym was busy somewhere and not doing that. Tirun came running to catch the lift door with a covered bowl in either hand.

"Hurry it," Pyanfar yelled as Tirun darted past.

"Aye," Tirun said.

"And don't go in with it!"

The door shut. Upship, Chur was at her cabin door, with Geran; she had a new and tightly wrapped bandage round her middle. There was a crash from lowerdecks, another seal in place. "You sure about this," Pyanfar said in passing.

"Absolutely," said Chur.

"Captain," Geran said in courtesy, and Pyanfar left them both behind, headed bridgeward in long strides.

Haral was at her post, the only one as yet, but Chur and Geran were trailing in at Pyanfar's back. The boards were Sit and The Pride's initial systems were all up, with ready-lights on the rest. Pyanfar threw herself into her own chair and powered it about.

"Captain." Haral acknowledged the command transfer with a dip of her many-ringed ears, never a turn of her head or a missed beat in the routine switch-flicking of power-up. Pyanfar shoved the com plug into her own left ear and leaned, fished the microfiche packet out of her pocket and shoved it in the security bin.

"That it?" Haral said.

"That's the latest bit of trouble. Gods, I'm tired of mail-carrying. Gods give that Ehrran—"

Khym showed up, from the galleyward-corridor, his hands full of food-packets, his face all cheerful.

—sons, the ancient curse went. Pyanfar swallowed it and listened to the com. The voice out of central was mahendo'sat, likewise the docking chief talking to them on the outside line. One could believe the universe safe and sane; and then a kif spoke up from down the row, giving them its outbound time.

Khym reached past her to clip the concentrates at her elbow. Three packets, one of water. 'Thanks," Pyanfar muttered. And to Haral: "You mark what Jik's trying?"

"Uhhhn."

"That's not on the plan. Something recent. Real recent. Didn't want to use that system in front of the kif, that's what, and Sikkukkut wasn't going to use his—eggs'II get pearls Harukk's got that equipment too and Sikkukkut won't use it."

"That where Jik was, you think? Push-and-shove with the kif? Trying to get them to—"

"Might've been. Gods know. Gods know if Ehrran knows what he's up to."

"He's got to fill her in. If she comes in alone with the kif—"

Clang-thunk! The accessway was loose. Crash! The grapples from Mkks station retracted. They had their own grip on Mkks and they were against the docking boom: that was all that held them now.

"He didn't want to tell us," Pyanfar said. "He wasn't going to. You get all that business down there on tape?"

"Hhhuun, yes. Want it logged?"

Pyanfar gnawed her mustaches. "It's enough to give Ehrran our skins. No. But don't erase it either." She looked across the dividing console, met Haral's gold-eyed hani stare. Different than Jik's. Uncomplex in honor and greatly complex in loyalties. "Stow it in my personal file, huh? You don't need to be part of it."

Haral's ears went back. Offended. "Aye. If you want it that way."

"I do. Who heard?"

"Me."

"Huh." Pyanfar looked to the controls and brought her board up. A seat hissed under weight. She half-turned and saw Tully settle in next to Chur. "Tully r"

"Captain?" Tully turned his head, not using com and the translator.

"You crew, huh?"

"I—" Tully misunderstood the question and fished up a small syringe from the chairside pocket. "I sleep at jump, wake at Kefk. I work."

It sounded chancy. Gods made humans and stsho that way, that jump made them crazy. So they ran ships in and out of jump unconscious. Lunatics. "No fear, huh?"

A primate grin, quickly compressed to a hani smile. "I scared."

"Huh. Us too."

"Hurry it up!" Haral said over shipwide com. The voice echoed through the bridge and corridors. "Tirun, move it."

"Vigilance lodge a protest?" Pyanfar asked, swinging round.

"Aye," Haral said, and wrinkled her nose and laid her ears back. "I'd give this voyage's profits to've been in range of one of that pair in that lock."

"Huh." Profits. She laughed. But humor died. "It was a stupid thing. Stupid, that's what it was. Like a gods-rotted—"

Khym was on the bridge and Pyanfar swallowed that ancient comparison down too. Called up the outbound schedule, "Log that Ehrran business. Right down to the exit from the lock."

A hesitation. A key pushed. "I already had it separated."

"I'll lay it out for the rest of us—Put Geran wise to it, huh?"

(Gods, Khym back there, coming and going in all this business between her and Haral, between mahendo'sat in the lower corridor, and not a question out of him, not a What's going on? or a Why? The world was out of shape. But she and Khym had both said a lot of things in the dark. Last watch.)

She glanced aside. Khym settled into observer one, between Hilfy's as yet vacant post and Geran's seat, flicking switches. He brought com live there, backup now to Hilfy. Geran would sit Chur's post at scan one; Tully observer two; Chur moved to second scan; and Tirun, with below-decks cargo ops and second-bridge shut down, was left observer three, when she got to it, as auxiliary switcher, comp operator, engineer, and if things went amiss, backup at armaments. When she got to it.

Pyanfar punched in lowerdeck monitoring. "Tirun. You all right down there?"

"I'm coming," said a breathless, moving source. The sound of running feet in main corridor below. Pyanfar broke the contact. Hilfy took her post. Pyanfar caught the reflection in the monitor, against the light from Khym's boards.

Back in place. Home again. A ready light came on her board from Hilfy.

A mahen voice sputtered in her ear: "Clear when ready. You got clear, Pride of Chanur."

Hilfy acknowledged the station communication Khym had brought through, taking over. "Thank you, Mkks." Routine and cool. Thank you, Mkks. Pyanfar's blood went cold.

Aft, the lift worked. That would be Tirun.

"Geran," Haral said, "put Vigilance on the guard-it list right along with the kif."

A moment's silence. "You serious, huh?"

"Real serious. Jik says."

"Uhhhhn." No further comment. That got done. Their scan operators were onto it.

"Aja Jin to Pride, you got number one depart, go, go."

Running footsteps in the topside corridor behind. "Gods rot," Haral said into the mike, "sister, we're going, move, move, move!"

Footsteps reached the bridge, a body dropped into a chair and Haral hit the ungrapple program.

Clank-bang. They were under power then, a little queasiness as The Pride came off station and gave herself that little bit of thrust that got her outbound.

Nothing showy. The Pride could move. It was not a fact they cared to advertise to the kif or to any other watchers at Mkks. Haral brought The Pride about at leisure and took her time. They might have been hauling eggshells.

"We got an update on the entry projections," Pyanfar said. "Jik's got a—"

Then: "Priority," said Hilfy, that dreadful word from a post with bad news. . '

It got switched. "—same advise you," from Mkks Central’s ice-clear voice, "we got tc’a go outbound. Navigation caution."

"Gods rot!" Pyanfar exclaimed.

"—Tell it power down and wait," Hilfy was saying over com. "Mkks station,—"

Com transcripting was all over second monitor, kif protests, protests from Jik and Vigilance. . . .

"Got a blip," said Geran. "Confirm something outbound from the methane-sector—"

"That's a kif away," Haral said, overriding. "Scan two. Comp, get that tc'a figured."

"I'm on it," Tirun said. "Stand by, Geran." Pyanfar gnawed her mustaches and snatched helm function to her board while Haral sorted priorities. Thank gods for full crew: com was babble from three prime sources and a dozen unauthorized outputs; Geran was on station scan output and Chur tried to sort out blips exploding off Mkks station about them like seeds from a pod.

Pyanfar kicked the rotation in, for The Pride's internal G and rolled them up in a move that got to the pre-set course the hard way. Gods, they were on a hair-breadth schedule out to that jump-point, they had everything calculated down to the instant for that tandem jump, and the situation behind them looked like feathers in a windstorm.

"Schedule's blown to a mahen hell," Haral said. "Gods blast that split-brained fool! We got a lunatic mess back there!"

"Hilfy—" From Khym, urgently.

"Priority," Hilfy said. "Station transmission, general to all ships."

Image turned up on second monitor. Violet light: a writhing serpent-shape, gold-mottled, that dipped and wove before the lens.

Methane-sector was talking to them: methane traffic control on visual output. The yellow, sticklike form of a chi raced up and down the tc'a's uplifted back, darted about its head in frenetic attentions to its— whatever a tc'a was to a chi: master; comrade; friend or pet. The tc'a wailed, the multipart harmonics of its segmented brain and speech apparatus, multiple minds, multiple viewpoints in matrix translated at the bottom of the screen.

Tc'a tc'a hani hani mahe kif kif

Mkks Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk

give go go go go go go

tell chi go go go go go

chi tc'a go go go go go

knnn knnn knnn knnn knnn knnn knnn

A cold wind went up Pyanfar's back. "Hilfy: get comp on that. Tirun, go to com one."

"Aye," Hilfy said.

Not a word of criticism. No outcry from the crew. The tc'a ship was out ahead of them, likely to foul their schedule; a tc'a official onstation was talking about knnn, and no one sane wanted them involved. No one could talk to knnn but tc'a; and tc'a talked like that, in matrices that had to be read in all directions at once. It spoke of two tc'a presences, one at Mkks, going, perhaps—(give a chi?)—to tc'a at Kefk; while knnn were involved all across everyone's motivations, and of two kinds of kif (Kefk-bound?) and two kinds of hani (gods, did it pick that schism up?) only one lot of kif was going to fight?

"... abort this lunacy!" a hani voice said, Rhif Ehrran from Vigilance, fairly yelling over com. "Aja Jin, pull us back!''

"You want what," Jik's answer came back. "Give time Kefk know we come? Sure thing they blow us to hell, Vigilance. You stay on course, stay on course, you hear?"

"Khoihktkt mane kefkefkti—"—from the kif: The mahe's agreeing with us.

"Aunt, comp's got nothing better. The tc'a's talking about notifying knnn and says that tc'a's going with us to Kefk. Comp's not sure about the rest, but it's got a conjecture—"

"Vigilance is on," Geran said, "wanting the captain direct."

"Refuse," said Haral.

"Call on three," Khym said. "It's Harukk. Their com wants the captain."

"Refuse: get Jik."

"Belay that," Pyanfar said, biting her mustaches and reading comp's conjectures on the tc'a, not far off her own. "Jik'II talk when he can. Give me output. Compose a message to the tc'a and tell it we go and it waits."

"Aye." From Hilfy, tautly. No ship talked to methane-breathers without filling out abundant official queries afterward. There were reasons. Like methane-breather logic, which could take something fatally amiss. They were different. Very. And went berserk very easily. Tc'a were the peaceful lot.

Knnn—were something else.

"Aunt—here's the set-up; approve it before it goes."

hani hani mahe kif kit tc'a t'ca

ship ship ship ship ship Mkks ship

go go go go go Mkks wait

danger danger danger danger danger danger danger

"Makes sense to me," Pyanfar muttered as it came up on the screen. "Log and send it. Send to Aja Jin: quote: We're on schedule and proceeding. We've advised the tc'a of navigation hazard."

"Jik's on already," Geran said. "He's saying go with it. Still go."

"Fine." It was not the answer she had rather have had, but it was the one she expected. Go with it. Go ahead. Take the chance.

Jump with a tc'a in their midst. Tc'a navigated like snakes. They were snakes. Come in at Kefk blind with a tc'a liable to pop out of hyperspace any gods-rotten-where off-mark and the faster hunter-ships plotting to overjump them in hyper-space. ... It was asking for disaster. Collision.

"We'll shine bright enough for Anuurn to see, if we kink this one," Pyanfar said. "Someone want to calculate the size of the fireball?"

"Gods-rotted bright one," Haral said.

"Vigilance advises us," said Khym, "she's filing a—"

Hysterical laughter broke out in sneezes, short and wild. They were hair-triggered. Hani. Hell-bent on course for kifish zones.

"What's that Ehrran think she is?" Hilfy cried over it all, as if there had never been kif, never been those awful days. Hilfy: youth and outrage. "What's been going on?"

"Welcome back, kid," Haral said dryly, never turning around. "You want a list?"

"Chanur's got trouble," Geran said, from Hilfy's right. "Ehrran's the name of it. She's after our hide. Any way she can get it. We don't cross her bows. That's the word on it. We take this jump, we thank the gods this time we're coming in a little slower than that ship of Ehrran's. She'll be in front of us at Kefk. Don't want her on our tail, no thanks."

"Prefer the kif instead, huh?"

A small shiver in the air.

"Gods-rotted safer," Tirun said. "Temporarily."

Silence then.

"Niece," said Pyanfar. "We don't forget either."

Silence still.

"What after Kefk?" Hilfy asked then, finally, in a normal voice. "Where do we go? You got an idea—captain?" Respectfully. "Have I been left out of briefings?"

Pyanfar flexed her fingers on controls, worked her elbow

in the stress-brace. Drew a whole breath. "Some. You want it in a capsule? That engine-pack back there, this fancy new rig—nothing's free, is it? We're in hock, Hilfy Chanur. Nothing money pays for. And that Ehrran business—''

Lines trued up. They were on, headed for their mark. The tc'a was out in front of them now, having gotten up to its speed: no more turns now, even for it. Nothing but a knnn played games with physics.

"Gods-rotted tc'a's going to be in front all the way," Pyanfar said. "Gods only know where it'll be after jump. I can tell you this. Jik's got an idea he's going to fake an ID signal at Kefk—break through there a shade ahead of the rest and get that scan for us before it shuts down."

"Gods," Tirun said. "How much ahead?"

"He didn't say. No schema. Nothing. I tell you this, if he doesn't make it, we got trouble. Real trouble. We got a nest of kif for one thing. We got some other things too. What are we getting on com? We got some quiet out there?"

"Nothing worth listening to," Haral said. "Lot of kif stuff."

"Vigilance has stopped transmitting," Geran said.

"So's Aja Jin," Hilfy said.

"All right. Geran, I want you com backup right now; take number one scan after jump."

"Got it."

"Hilfy."

"Aunt?"

"You asked about Ehrran. I'll tell you what I've guessed so far in this business. Our troubles aren't just bad luck. They've been coordinated."

"Ehrran?"

"Oh, higher than that, imp. We settled that dustup at Gaohn, we busted our hani enemies out of Kohan's way, drove Tahar clan into near collapse,-pushed Moon Rising into exile—We brought mahendo'sat to the homeworld, we brought humans and we brought knnn, which sets off the isolationists back home right proper, doesn't it? Naur. Her bunch. Llun clan got chewed up helping us at Gaohn; so'd others of our friends. Tahar, enemy that they were— we broke them and broke their power over their allies; and that left vacuum, and that let some other clans move up in the han."

"Naur and Jimun and Schunan," Haral muttered. "Ehrran's precious patrons."

"That's precisely the shape of it. We were better off with Tahar for enemies. They were bastards, but they were spacing bastards. What we got left is the worldbound old eggsuckers like Naur; and those fat old women'd just as soon see us all back in kilts and sofhyn."

"It's me," Khym said. "

Swallow it, Khym."

"Look, if I'd stayed downworld—"

"If not that, some other thing. We brought outworlders into Anuurn system—"

"—and got a male offworld."

"So we got every bigot in the han stirred up. The spacing clans got chewed up bad at Gaohn; among the Immunes, our Llun friends lost too gods-rotted many good women; and Ehrran's been itching after a piece of their rumps for years. Sure, Ehrran'll kiss-foot for the Naur; they got themselves that shiny ship, got themselves big ears and notebooks, and the stsho—those fluttering bastards have got their fingers in the stew. The mahendo'sat leaned on the stsho to get our papers reinstated because Goldtooth suddenly wanted our help—wanted spacing hani on his side. So the stsho bent, they always will—but straightway they ran and got Ehrran's ear and sucked that fool right in. Ehrran was out at Meetpoint hunting down Tahar and doing any other bit of business the han wanted with the stsho—like secret negotiations, maybe, for a whole lot of things—and then the stsho up and offered them our hides for a bonus." "Stle stles stlen," said Hilfy.

"Stsho got humanity coming in at their backs. They waffled on Goldtooth at Meetpoint. Gods know what they spilled to Ehrran; and I think if Stle stles stlen were less corrupt and less scared of Goldtooth the old bastard would have sold Tully to the kif right off. But we were there, and Ehrran didn't bribe them, iron-spined fool that she is. Rotted stsho xenophobes are climbing all over each other, thinking about humans coming in at their backs and straight up against stsho territory. But Ehrran played politics and got outbid—I'm guessing. Stle sties stlen lost his nerve about doublecrossing Goldtooth when we turned up with a virtual blank check and high-level mahen authorizations. But I wouldn't be surprised if old Stle stles stlen worries a lot nowadays about the mahen guards at his door at night. And I've got to tell you something else. Something you'd better hear. Haral—you got that tape from down in the corridor?"

"Aye."

"Run it. That and the one with Sikkukkut.-—We've been getting a lot of offers, cousins. On all sides."

It was a long, long silence on the bridge, except for that thread of sound. Operations interrupted it. Pyanfar listened with one ear and winced now and again, kept The Pride running, tried not to think what Hilfy was going to say. Or what the translator was doing with it in Tully's ear.

Tc'a. Tc'a. Methane-breathers were upset, Jik had said.

Jik had been out in the station at large. In secret. Conniving with gods knew what agencies; and tc'a were high on the list of possibilities.

Right along with Sikkukkut.

The tape finished. There was silence after, too.

"I've got us into a mess," Pyanfar said. "One gods-be mess. I thought you'd like to know just what kind."

"Sounds like—" Tirun said, "sounds like Jik's right. We were born involved. Being Chanur. When we get home—I'm betting we won't find the han what we left."

"I'm betting we won't," Pyanfar said. "But what is, nowadays?"

Another long silence.

"Well, I'm with you," Tirun said.

"Same," Chur said; and: "Same," her sister said.

"Aunt, I—"

"Maybe you want to think about it, niece."

The beep and tick of instruments went on. Tc'a matrix came up as comp sorted it, but it was all the same.

"Tully," Pyanfar said, "you understand even half of it?"

"I hear some."

Pyanfar could not see his face, saw only a shadowy reflection in a monitor, one un-hani silhouette.

"I hani," he said. "I hani."

She blinked, thinking that through. But it made a warm spot all the same. "Khym," she said.

"My opinion?" he said. A great sigh gusted into com, a low rumbling. "Pity Ehrran's Immune."

"But they are," Hilfy said. "They'll go at father. They'll go for him at home. We may not have Chanur any more."

"I figure," said Pyanfar, "I figure Kohan Chanur's still no easy mark, niece. My brother and your father's no fool. Neither's any of our sisters, to let the bastards maneuver them out of the house. They'll be holding on. Long as we're in space, long as there's Chanur ships loose to worry about— Naur and her pets'll use some caution about dirty tricks. Kohan can still take anything that I know about, if the fight's fair."

And she thought of Khym when she said it, and felt an old pang of guilt: If I'd been home when Kara challenged him, if I'd been there to prevent hangers-on from interfering—

Khym might still be lord in Mahn if she had been home—if she had come blasting in for him the way Chanur clan had rallied for Kohan Chanur against her son Kara Mahn. Khym might not be in exile now if she had been there—even alone. Even when the rest of his wives and sisters and daughters deserted him. She might have stood by him against their son and their blackguard daughter. Chanur might then have had its best ally intact, in Khym lord Mahn. And the likes of Ehrran would not have risen and the world would not have changed.

"Nav fix positive," said Haral.

"Wonder if that tc'a up there understands the flight plan," Tirun said.

"We'll find out, I guess," said Geran. "Want to lay bets against, na Khym?"

"She's cheating again," Tirun said. "She always collects."

"We got formation behind us," Haral said. "The kif are making mark. Looks like we're really going."

"Looks like," Pyanfar said. Her nerves tingled. Her forearm shed fur on the panel-edge. Sheer terror. Doubtless the rest of them were flutter-nerved as well.

"I'm with you," Hilfy said hoarsely.

"Thanks, niece.—Stand by, everybody. We're coming up on jump. Tully. You better use the drugs. Help him, Chur. Make sure he's out."

"Aye," Chur said.

She punched in all-ship. "Kif—Skkukuk. Get ready: we're going for jump."

''I offer you your enemies.

"Fine, that's real fine, kif." She broke the contact quickly. A vague guilt still gnawed at her. For a kif.

As well talk to the walls. It talked good hani; they talked good hani back to it; and nothing intelligible got said to either mind.

/ offer you your enemies.

There was stress in its voice. Maybe it was scared, alone on a hani ship. Maybe it was trying to bargain.

Maybe it would starve, helpless and unattended in that washroom. Or break its bones in maneuver.

It was, gods knew, as trapped in its fortunes as they were—their good luck talisman; or their personal jinx.

"Jump plus ninety," Haral said. "Fixed on Kefk."

"Get it in your heads," Pyanfar said, because the other side of jump, things fuzzed and habits took over. "Jik might not make it. If he doesn't, we've got to move fast: get position first. Locate Harukk next. Remember that, hear? We're going in with G. We'll make it that easy on ourselves. If it goes real sour we've got a few options. The second we come out, we lock reference on Tt’a’va’o; we run for Meetpoint if we have to. That's not Jik's plan; it's mine. We've got those three guardstations to keep track of at Kefk. We've got heavy debris in that system, it's a close binary stirring that stuff up, and kif made our map. Even if Jik gets us one. Remember that. Remember it, all the time."

"We got those numbers," Tirun said, "I got 'em up. Gods send Jik's anywhere along his entry line and we'll track him.''

"Nasty place," Chur said. "Real nasty."

"Set systems," Haral said in calm, cold tones, and switch-flicking went on apace, systems-check, line-up. Pyanfar coordinated with her, shed the anxieties and called up the computer prompt program, comparing plan against tc'a-problems and Jik's intentions. Shifted a priority in the prompts. Re-ran it. Fed it in with the press of a key. Other stations were doing similar things. Haral was running master-check, making sure all jobs were sequenced.

There was most need of locating themselves on the passive-scan; getting absolute position to start with.

Then find Jik, find Harukk and Vigilance and ride down their trail to Kefk's heart.

"Sure one lunatic way to run a starsystem," Tirun said.

"We can try telling them that."

The numbers ticked away.

"There goes the tc'a," Geran said.

"Gods help us," Haral said.

"Tully?" Pyanfar asked.

"He's under," Chur said.

"Minus five," Haral said.

Gods, a tc'a loose in their pattern.

And Jik had been out of pocket before undock. Talking about methane-breathers and visiting spies—

Could Jik bribe a tc'a? Was that what he had been up to, in his furtive sortie onto Mkks station docks just before they left?

Navigation help? Precision?

Was that what Jik had been after—a way to cut it fine enough to keep Harukk on his tail—using tc'a computers and tc'a charts to get one critical spacetime calculation—

—on a kifish system?—against Harukk's wishes and beyond what Harukk wanted to provide them? My gods—

"Minus one."

They were gone.

—there again. —falling—

—material and solid. Lights were blinking, the dopplered instruments gathering input and reading it—

"Kefk," Haral said. "Spectrum-match."

"Mark, where's our mark?"

"Searching," Geran said. "It's—gods rot—That's—in tolerance."

"Unnnh." The mind wanted to wander off at tangents and seek its former nowhere. The lights danced, hypnotic, led the eye in patterns: there was the sunlight on the hills—

—home.

"Aunt Pyanfar," the little girl cried, running breakneck down the hill, ears laid back and small limbs pumping with all their might, "aunt Pyanfar! you're home!"

Wide eyes and all ears, was Hilfy Chanur, her father's darling daughter, her aunt's surrogate for her own faithless Tahy—

—Chanur's yard at night: "Aunt Pyanfar, name me that star—"

"—That's Kjohi; it's a white, much, much too far and too hot anyway. We don't go there.—See that little one below? That's a yellow. That's Tt'a'va'o."

"Have you been there?"

"No hani has, yet. That's a tc'a star. Tc'a have a whole hand of brains; they sing when they talk; they have seven voices all at once. I knew one once. Its name was So'o'ai'-na'a'o."

Hilfy laughed. "Say that again—"

—"Where's that gods-be tc'a? Geran! Chur! where's our own schema, we got any position on anybody?"

"Negative, negative, I got the other map integrated almost— got it, got it, got it—It's coming through. ..."

The image turned up on Pyanfar's board. Kefk-system schematic, adjusted to their entry-point. Sikkukkut's best current map—at least of things like major rocks that could be long-term mapped and tracked in their chaotic orbits through Kefk system.

A huge starstation—gods, she knew it must be big. The kif's only legitimate outlet to Compact trade, after all. Fifty ships in port and miner-craft scattered like red stars among the yellow ones of asteroids; and no one of those ships where a ship was indicated. It was only a for-instance of a map. Beware, hani: ships might exist. And they do.

It showed kif and tc'a and chi in port. Likely. Again a for-instance. Gods knew what else.

"Stand by dump. Haral, double-check me."

"Aye."

—Use the wits, remember, wake up. Aja Jin out front by now—gods, where? Harukk and half the kif and Vigilance, with more kif due in at any instant.

—Down again.

—"Aunt Pyanfar—teach me the stars—"

Her own daughter, Tahy Mahn: "You're never here. You always come back too late. It's all over now. Kara's gone. / sent him to Hermitage—" Son and daughter gone. Each in different ways—

"So. I've got things to do, Tahy. I'm sorry."

"You'll always have them. You don't live in this world. It's that ship! It's that ship! I don't know you, I never

will—"

—And up.

Back to realspace. Pyanfar's eyes rolled and centered on the lights, her fingers scantly aware of the controls; her elbow ached.

"Third dump. Come on, line us up, look alive back there—"

"Got it—we got Jik, he's out there!"

—"Pyanfar," Kohan said, his broad face, his golden eyes gone all gentle, unlike the scowl he wore for show. "Sister— for the gods' own sake—be careful this time."

—She was selfish. He was not. He omitted to mention the real reason for his worry. Khym. Her private madness. His own public embarrassment. They had talked about it once.

—"They'll go for you," Kohan said. "All our enemies. They'll be trying."

—"Law out there's different, brother of mine. Safer. Folk accept what's strange."

—"I hope so," Kohan said. "I do hope so."

—And he walked away.

—"We're on, we're all right. Got signal, got signal—He's got us a beacon-image, he got it!"

"Star-fix, get that star-fix, Haral."

"Affirmative. Tt'a'va'o. We've acquired."

"Uhhhnnn." She felt the drain of strength, the wobble in her hand. They were inertial. G pushed her decidedly down, not back. The arm ached in the brace. She freed it and pulled loose one of the concentrate packets from its clip, bit a hole in it and drank. The stuff hit bottom in her stomach and lay there like lead.

Gods, gods—Figures ripped past like lunacy. And coincided.

"We're on," Haral said. "By the gods, we did it twice, and blind; and Jik and all of 'em—"

"I'll believe it when we find that tc'a," Geran said. "Where is that lunatic? GOOD GODS!"

Scan broke up. Lights went red. The siren howled. ''Haaaa!'' from Khym; and for a moment there was a nausea like dumpdown; but not—

" V check," Pyanfar yelled into the mike. "Gods blast—"

—dump, this time, with a sluggish awful nausea.

The tc'a had come in close. Ripped past and dumped speed with two rapid flares of its field. And it was there, a large lump on scan matched with them in V.

"We just found the tc'a," Tirun said.

"Gods and thunders," said Pyanfar. Her blood ran hot and cold, her joints went weak; the concentrate fought to come up again. Someone was throwing up. On scan there were sane blips again, but one was far too close.

Human babble. Tully had come to.

"V plus point zero eight," Haral said. "That bastard gave us V!"

"Let it ride; we burn it off later." Pyanfar swallowed hard and blinked her eyes and tried not to listen to the retching off over at com. "We got—while yet before Jik's AOS on Kefk—gods-rotted tc'a: it saying anything?"

Someone over at com managed to get transmission to her screen.

tc'a chi hani kif kif kif kif

Mkks Mkks Mkks Mkks Mkks Mkks Kefk

Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk

"It's saying, I think—" Hilfy said hoarsely, "it's come from Mkks to Kefk with a hani and lots of kif. Hello."

"They won't shoot," Pyanfar said, as the thought got through. Jik. That earless bastard, Jik's called in another debt and snagged us a tc'a. It knows our flight plan. It must. "Gods, that son's riding us close out there—they won't shoot. Kif wouldn't dare." She leaned back, turned her head. "Chur. You all right?"

"Fine." The voice sounded weak. "I'm on-duty."

"Khym?"

He was the sick one. She had thought so. No answer but a moan.

"We're nominal on equipment," Tirun said.

"We still got the kif back there," Geran said. "Got another ship just blipped in behind us. Ikkiktk ... I think . . . right on mark, five minutes Light."

Everywhere about them the tick and blip of instruments went on, The Pride's ordinary functions, unflappable mechanical processes.

"Tully?" Chur said. "Tully, you all right?"

"What that?" A slurred, faint voice on com. "What?"

"Tc'a got friendly. Gods-rotted closest we ever came to collision. Closest I ever want to hear about." "That's blip two: second kif in."

"We just got a message from the lead kif back there," Hilfy said. "It's confirming it's behind us, that's all."

"Acknowledge," Pyanfar said. Their realscan showed their own little packet of space; their passive-signal pickup, half a roundtrip quicker than bounce-signal scan, showed them the stars and the things that reflected light, and the lead ships' recent emission-trails. A lot of them.

"We've got time-calc on that image," Tirun said. "Jik's doing fine. Jik, Ehrran, Sikkukkut and a flock of the hakkikt's best. Haaa—we got Harukk scan now—Clear, clear, clear!"

"Good luck to 'em," Haral muttered. "Even the gods-be kif."

"Hope those earless bastards at Kefk haven't moved any rocks," Geran said.

"We're running into old chatter," Hilfy said. "Kefk isn't aware yet of anything, on this timeline. Geran, I'm going to feed you sequencing on this stuff. See if you can do a locator on it, get an update on these positions."

"Lot of scatter," Geran said. "Chur, take scan one." Down the time line again, racing their own incoming wave-front to Kefk station. Waiting for the message to come back. But this time they had shed a lot of speed. Kif talked behind them and in another time-reference, station-kif talked, and that clicking chatter occupied com. More kif dropped in behind them. And the tc'a glided along beside.

"We're getting reaction now," Hilfy said. "That's a guard-station talking, I think. They're challenging. That's minus twelve Light."

Two guardstations, one at Kefk I nadir, to stop escapees; one at Kefk zenith, not so far away. The third off in Kefk 2's ecliptic. And Kefk station itself was armed, by Sikkukkut's admission, which violated more Compact laws.

"Harukk just answered," Hilfy said. "Harukk ordered Kefk system to surrender. Challenge goes on. ... I can't make out if they've launched anything. Translator, Khym; help; gods-be—"

"Is that it?"

"—Back it up. Geran."

"Sorry," Khym said. "I'm sorry—"

"I got it," Geran said. "That's affirmative on launch. Two interceptors away from Kefk on Jik's contact-moment."

"Intercept vector for Jik," Hilfy said. "Kif behind us report—" Khym said, "they just heard that defense-engage."

Pyanfar bit her mustaches, watched the steady rotation of images Haral shunted past her screens. "Unchanged," Hilfy said.

"Tc'a's unchanged," Chur said. "Still by us."

"Let's hope it stays put," Haral said.

"Unchanged," Hilfy droned on. Then: "Wait, we're beginning to get some comment out of station now. They're real disturbed and they're speaking pidgin as well as main-kifish. We won't get the guardstation transmission to station or to Jik's bunch at their angle."

"What's it doing?" Khym's first out-of-line question, in a careful, quiet voice. "What the godssakes is it up to?"

"Easy." Haral's voice. "We're not skinned yet."

"Kif," Tully said sharply.

"Tully's right," Chur said from scan. "Another one of our party just came in."

"Huh," Geran said, "By the gods all and sundry, we may just make it."

"That's a hakkikt, five kif hunter ships, Aja Jin and a han deputy telling them there's a tc'a inbound at their tail," Tirun muttered. "And they don't know what more or how many. You think that won't shake them up? If I was kif with my nose to station or a desk-sitter in central I'd be real upset just now. They'll fold. Sikkukkut's not half crazy."

"Huh," Pyanfar muttered. Crew talked themselves to confidence. Her stomach fought her again and she fought it back. Comp asked a question, offered choices. She kept her eyes focussed, read comp's suggestion, scanned two other monitors and punched confirm.

Another desperate swallow. Her hand shook, terror catching up to her in a chill when the moment was long past. The tc'a could have hit them. Gods. How much closer? How much closer before they got pulled apart? Or before they made one ball of fire, hani, tc'a and kif together?

"They friend?" Tully asked and no one had time.

"Tc'a insystem are upset," Hilfy said. "We're starting to get chatter out of our own tc'a. It identifies itself and us. They're sixteen minutes down the timeline."

Camera image came up on the screens: Haral had gotten them image ... at this range, a bright orange sun washing out the stars. There was a red dwarf companion, Kefk 2, invisible or inconspicuous. Everything else was still too far. Heavy debris orbited Kefk, by Sikkukkut's outdated charts.

And four stations all told, with a lot of disturbed kif.

"Transmission," Hilfy said. "It's them!"—forgetting protocols. "It's Jik!"

"—Hold course," the message reached Pyanfar via Haral's switching. "You hold course. We go ahead in. Got no trouble yet—"

"They know the guard ships are on their track?" Khym wondered.

"Can't tell," Haral said. "They ought to. That's—ten minutes Light. We're still getting output . . . just chatter. Jik's bunch isn't upset, and they're further into the timeline than we are."

"Looking good," Geran said.

Pyanfar let out a breath. A chill went up her back. To cut it that fine, to do it, by the gods, to come in blind like that and pick up signal on the mark, with all the kif behind them.

Navigation like that was a hunter-ship trick. Not for honest merchant-folk. But they did it.

They had done it.

They were alive so far.

"Haral," Hilfy exclaimed, "we just got beacon!"

Image flashed up on monitor. Full current system composite: it showed Sikkukkut's cluster of ships inbound for the main station; showed a skein of ships inbound where they themselves ought to be ... the kif, the tc'a, The Pride. And , the interceptors.

Three guardstations; a belt full of miners; an outbound ship; a schema of the main station that show forty-six ships in dock, origin indeterminate. Same as Jik's initial snatch of image before beacon shut down.

Give or take their own presence. And the interceptors.

"We believe that thing?" Tirun asked.

"Kefk's talking," Hilfy said. "It's a guardstation, I think. It's—welcoming us in."

"Gods," Haral said. "Now it's really working I don't like it."

Pyanfar gnawed her mustaches. "I don't either. Message. Relay Jik what it sent and put our wrap around it."

"Aye."

"Kif are talking," Khym said. Haral switched it. "Behind us."

"—kkthos fikkthi kthtokkuri ktokkt Harukkur shokkuin."

"They're querying Harukk," Pyanfar translated. "Sounds like they're confused as we are."

"That's good news," Haral muttered.

"Our tc'a's transmitting too," said Hilfy. "Same stuff as before. 'I'm coming in with hani and kif.' "

"That's the reason for our welcome," Geran said. "That lunatic tc'a. They can't shoot."

"Yet," said Pyanfar, and chewed her mustache-ends. She reached for another packet and drank it in one forced series of gulps. Put her head back and contemplated the situation while The Pride hurtled at C-residual V toward a kifish stronghold that wanted to let them in. Past a doubtless armed guard-station.

Get them onto the docks, she could imagine the counsels in that chunk of fragile metal up ahead. We outnumber them. Lure them out of their ships if possible. Send poison through their ventilation tubes if not. Let the tc'a dock peacefully in the methane-sector and then destroy the intruders on the oxy side.

"We brought our own private kif along, didn't we?" Pyanfar said: "Tirun. Khym. We've got a little time inertial. I want you two to go down, get some flex, and bring our guest in the washroom up here. His name's Skkukuk. Be polite. Tell him I sent for him."

"Aye," Tirun said.

A moment later. "Aye," said Khym.

Kif on The Pride's bridge. The other side of Mkks, she would have sooner died