Kif Strike Back (13 page)

"I expect they'll try. They're good at that. But right now they're all the credit we've got. You want to go to Maing Tol, try to limp the long way back to Meetpoint to bail out our cargo-what with, niece? Go back to Anuurn and try to argue away all the charges in the han? When this gets back, your father's going to have challenges; every whelp with ambitions is going to try him, Ehrran's going to make double-sure of that-and Kohan's getting old, imp. He can't take everyone. That's the way it is."

"So we risk The Pride?"

"That's the way I choose."

No one moved. Hilfy stood there trying to catch her breath. There was a persistent beep from com.

"What we do," Pyanfar said, "we take the rest we're due. We back up this lunatic mission of Jik's and we guard the deputy's blackbreeched backside. And we hope to all the gods Goldtooth's in reach. The best we can do is keep the mahendo'sat well-disposed. Sikkukkut's only normal crazy. You got out alive. What I hear about Akkhtimakt I don't half like. That kif's got a real grudge against us. Sikkukkut's only half mean- that's the truth, niece. Listen to me. You want Akkhtimakt to be the great hakkikt, the one that unites the worlds, the leader the kif have been waiting for since they discovered piracy? Or you want Sikkukkut, who at least has limits? Maybe we have got a personal stake in this kif fight, huh?"

"So we let Sikkukkut into bed?"

The coarseness set her ears back. "We don't let the bastard anywhere. Yes, we made a deal. It benefits both sides."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I've had that bastard's hands on me, I've had drugs and shocks and every lousy trick that kif could think of-gods know what all they did to Tully: he couldn't even tell me-You want me to approve this deal?"

"No. I don't. I didn't ask." She rested her head back. "I
 
just tried to let you know what happened. You want to ride this one out in quarters, go on. You're due the rest. I don't recommend you get off here at Mkks. It's going to be real hot here in a little while. Real hot, about the time the word gets Id Maing Tol and to Akkt. We're talking about the mahendo'sat losing a star station, hear? Or the kif taking one. And no one's just real happy. You're not alone in troubles. Gods know what the mahendo'sat will do or how good Jik's credit still is back home. We've lost any backing we might have had from the han. All we've got is Jik. And Goldtooth. And if they go, we've got nothing. Nothing. Chances are they'll double-deal us just the way you say. But if they go-chances are the Personage they work for goes down; and there'll be a new Personage. New deal. New policies. I'm not sure we'd like that. I'm not sure even Ehrran would."

Hilfy's shoulders fell. She had a look of pain. The beep from com went on. It was her station. She waved a hand in defeat and went over and picked up the earplug, pushed the button. "Pride of Chanur," she said to someone. "Com officer speaking."

Hilfy sat down. Back turned. Got to work.

"Tully," Pyanfar said. She held out her hand and he came over to her chair. He gave her that blue-eyed, thinking stare. But he took her hand gently as he had learned; and she curled her claws round his hand, not enough to prick his soft skin. "Go below. Go rest. It's all right. It's all right, Tully. It's just a discussion. It's just talk. Go on below and rest."

"I'm crew. Scan tech. I work,"

"You're mincemeat; and you can't read our boards, let alone work our controls without a probe. You want to work? Go get some sleep. You work later. Go." She freed her hand and gave him a swat on the rump to send him off, but Tully failed to move. Khym was standing there watching all of this. It set her teeth on edge. Her husband. This male. And an adolescent with a gut-deep hurt and gods knew what notions acquired in a kifish cell. "We all go off duty and get some rest. Sleep. Food. AH right?" A second swat, clawtips out. He did move, startled-like, and looked back at her in shock. "Get," she said in a no-nonsense way, ears back; and he backed up.

"Aunt," Hilfy said. Business voice, sane and sensible. "It's Aja Jin. Captain's compliments and he's got a problem. He says he's got to talk to you direct. He won't take no. You want to talk to him?"

"I'll take it." Anything-anything-to maintain Hilfy's quiet. "I can guess." She swung her chair about. "Tully; Khym; Chur, Geran; get out of here, get fed, get to bed. Now. Move it. Hilfy. You too.-One other thing, Hilfy."

"Aye?" Defensively..

"Kif says Tahar's friendly with Akkhtimakt."

"Moon Rising?" Hilfy's eyes widened.

"Since Gaohn. Makes sense, doesn't it? She played close with Akkukkak; after Gaohn, where else could she go? Vigilance is real interested. Thought you'd like to know."

"Gods rot. Aunt-"

"Mind that language. You're back in civilization, niece." She punched the contact in as Haral switched it, a solid stream of mahen exigency in her ear. "Gods-be, Jik-"

"-time. You got take comp feed. What you want, wait Akkhtimakt, wait Harak kif?"

"What you want, my crew loses it in jump?"

"Got no damn time this rest. I got same station authority my neck, got same want board ship. I got explain kif you want sleep, a?"

 
She raked her mane back and flicked her ears. Rings chimed, light and constant. "Then I'll explain to the hakkikt, friend. You want that?"

A moment of silence from the other end. "I talk hakkikt. Damn."

"Thanks."

"Before sign off, maybe get comp feed through. Deal, a?"

"No! My crew's gone the limit, understand? No more!"

"We got stsho run go Kefk."

"We can't do it, Jik."

"I send crew."

"Not on my deck, you don't. No way."

"You want I come over there explain? We got stationer trouble, got urgent request we clear dock, got big fear, Pyanfar. Got kif trouble. What I say to kif? Sorry, hani got take nap?"

"Explain all you like. I got fall on my face, bastard. I'm out, through; whole crew's going offshift."

"Got finish comp feed."

"Twelve hours. Then we do it."

"Nine."

"Eleven."

"Damn, hani, this not merchant deal. Nine. Nine all we possible got. We cover you tail that long. Listen."

"Nine," she muttered. "Nine." She punched the contact out, turned the chair and got up.

Hilfy and Chur had gone. Khym and Geran. But Tully lingered, alone against the bulkhead door frame, hands behind him.

Looking at her.

"Scared you, huh?"

"Pyanfar."

"I'm not mad at you. I give you an order, na Tully, you move, hear? Did I say get?"

"Pyanfar." He stood his ground. His mouth was set, his eyes showed panic. But he stood away from his wall and came as far as the observer seat-came further suddenly and flung his arms about her. She hated that. But it spoke more than Tully could. She patted his head, pushed him back and looked at him.

Trust. Gods knew he had no reason.

"You're a gods-be fool, Tully."

"Hilfy say you come."

"Hilfy's another." But it touched her all the same. And what had he thought when she left him with Sikkukkut? What had he believed then-not being hani, not being kin or anything but trouble to them? "You go rest, huh? We take care of you."

"I don't go kif."

"No. You don't go to the kif. Not to anybody. We keep you with us." She thought things over and poked him with a foreclaw to get his attention. "We got a kif aboard. Hilfy tell you that?"

"Kif-on The Pride?"

"Prisoner. Name's Skkukuk. Know him?"

A shake of his head. "No. # # prisoner?"

"Missed some of that. Sikkukkut gave him to us. That's where we got him. You don't be afraid, huh?"

A second shake of his head. "Hilfy-Hilfy-want # say- she # kif."

"Missed that too. She's not happy. I know that. But we take care of her."

"She's good. Good."

"I know that too." She cuffed him gently on the arm. "They get some food for you?"

"Not want."

"Not want. Come on." She took Tully by the arm and led him across the bridge. Stopped and looked at Haral and Tirun, whose eyes wept dark streams from exhaustion. Her own watered. She wiped at them. "Get-off duty."

"You," Haral said.

"Me," she said. "I am." She held Tully by the wrist and headed up the gentle curve to the galley. Behind them, chairs hummed and there were sounds of switches thrown.

There was activity in the galley: Geran and Khym had gone that way, and gods, she ought to have flinched at dragging Tully in there with Khym, but she was beyond it all. "Sit down," she said to Tully, and he did that, in the nearest spot, took the cup Geran put into his hands-Geran's own. He drank. "Going to have to take some food down to Hilfy," she said. "And Chur."

"I will," Geran said, and dumped more into the brewer as Haral and Tirun showed up and went over to haunt the counter and rummage the supplies.

"Here. You need it." Khym shoved a cup into Pyanfar's hands. "Sit down yourself."

"Huh." She subsided onto the bench and drank the steaming cup from both hands, set it down and wiped her mane back from her face.

Com beeped. .
     

"Gods rot," Haral said, and took it from pocket com. "Pride of Chanur: you got our recording; we're on shutdown. Is this an emergency?"

"I have a personal message from the hakkikt. I am waiting at your dockside."

"Gods and thunders," Pyanfar moaned. "Kif."

"Don't go," Khym said. "Send it away."

"You can end up regretting a thing like that." She swallowed a massive gulp of gfi. "Tell it come up. Tell Ehrran's guards let it pass. I'll deal with it below."

"Kif," Tully said softly. His alien eyes shifted this way and that in evident alarm. "Kif come-"

Pyanfar signed for quiet. Haral relayed the message.

"It's coming up," Haral said. And with a lifting of her jaw. "You know those gods-be Ehrran are going to report this business.

"I know." Pyanfar stood up. "You coming?"

"I'll come," Khym said.

"No sense all of us going. Just monitor from up .here. Wouldn't want to give the impression we were worried, would we?"

"Maybe Sikkukkut's sent to get that kif back," Haral said, when they were riding the lift to lowerdeck.

"It would solve a problem. I'd give it with ribbons on. But I don't have any hope."

The door whisked open. They walked out.

The kif was already in the corridor, a dark shadow against the lights, arms tucked out of sight in its capacious sleeves.

So was Pyanfar's hand in her pocket, finger curled about the trigger of her pistol. Haral's too, she reckoned.

The kif bowed as they approached. She neglected the courtesy.

"Well?"

Dark, thin hands came empty from the sleeves. It was a tall one, impressively tall. A silver medal glinted on its chest, multifaceted.

"You come from the hakkikt?"

"Hunter Pyanfar, you will never learn to tell us one from the other."

She looked more sharply. "Sikkukkut?"

The hakkikt spread his hands, palm outward. "Messengers are not to be trusted in this, hunter Pyanfar. And doubtless they would miss nuances. There will be a computer feed; are you getting it?"

"Relayed from Aja Jin. Yes."

Sikkukkut lifted his head to stare down a long, soft-skinned snout. Veins stood out about it. The eyes were bright. "You have confidence in your allies."

"Let's say our interests coincide."

"You have too much sfik to coincide with their interests."

"Is this a deal of some kind?"

"I have offered gold."

"Doesn't interest me."

"And you a merchant."

"Not in every kind of goods."

"Your human would not speak for me. Not a word."

"Huh." She drew a deep breath, ignoring the ammonia smell.

"I didn't try too hard. But doubtless his comrades on Ijir talked to Akkhtimakt when he took that ship. And what would they tell? That humans are determined on trade links . . . which will destroy the Compact? Annoy the methane breathers? Distress the stsho? Do you see the forces ranged against you, ker Pyanfar? Your own han is against you. You ally yourselves with mahendo'sat, and you know their motives."

"Tell me them."

"To diminish us. To bring in yet another species at our backs as they brought hani to shield their left Hand. On Ninan Hoi there are listening posts. Mahendo'sat turn their ears to space beyond Ninan Hoi; they send out probes constantly hoping for some other contact they might use. They have their hands in everything. Like my old friend Keia."

"Friend, huh?"

"Our interests coincide. He wants me to defeat Akkhtimakt, disliking Akkhtimakt's immediate objectives. I want the same, of course. So should you."

"Maybe I do."

Sikkukkut's snout wrinkled and unwrinkled. "Kkkt. Let us assume we are allies. Remember this at Kefk. Should things no amiss, come to me."