"He hasn't asked for you."
"He do. You wait, see. Know this kif."
"How's your nerves?"
"You not forget get smoke, a? Same time you get me out."
"Captain," Hilfy said over com. "Harukk's coming in right now. They're insisting to pick up all the captains. With appropriate escorts. They want Jik and Tully too."
Jik lifted his brows. "See?"
"Gods rot that kif." But she thought: He could strip every ship here of its senior command. Couldn't he? Me. Dur Tahar. That'd leave Haral Araun, but he doesn't know her that well.
/ need an escort. Not Haral. Gods, I can't take Haral off this ship.
Not one of my crew. Just my translator.
"Hilfy. Tell Skkukuk he's going with us. No other but the ones they asked for. Send my gear down here. Send an AP for Jik too. We got a point to prove."
Gods send the rest of the captains have got some sense.
Gods send they understand old epics.
"Aye," Hilfy said after a second. "Captain. Tahar's here. We got others coming. Haral asks: let 'em through?"
Not happy. No. Sikkukkut's not going to like this.
And, no, niece, I'm not crazy.
I just got no choice.
The lift worked. That was Tully coming down. Or the kif. She walked along the corridor with Jik for company, spotted Tirun coming the other way about the time the lock cycled with its characteristic whine and thump and let someone into the ship.
That and a cold lot of air with the smell of Meetpoint about it. Nostalgia hit, and left an ache after it. Old times and rotten ones, but that smell was familiar in a mundane way that made the present only worse by comparison.
Tully and Skkukuk arrived together, Skkukuk a-clatter with weapons, his own and what he had gathered on Kefk dock: maybe, she reflected dourly, it was sentiment.
Tully had her gun slung over his shoulder, and an AP at his hip: that took no claws to operate-shove in the shells and pull the trigger. He was steady and able to use it. He had proved that at Kefk.
And from the airlock corridor, Dur Tahar arrived with Soje Kesurinan.
Pyanfar drew in a large breath.
So how stop her? If hani were going to hold a meeting under the hakkikt's nose, what stopped Kesurinan from joining it?
And what stopped Jik now from joining her?
"We got a problem here," she muttered. "Jik, don't you do it."
"Lo," he said, "Soje. Shoshe-mi."
"Shoshe," Kesurinan said. And something else, in dialect.
While other figures came down the white corridor, several hani-bright and equipped with weapons. And one dark and tall-as a foreign kif walked right into The Pride's lowerdecks.
Countermove.
Do what, Pyanfar? Throw it out? This is a friendly conference we're going to, that's likely Ikkhoitr crew, and that bastard's one of Sikkukkut's own special pets.
Her heart set to beating doubletime. Fool. Twice a fool. Do what? Do what now?
"Gods be," Hilfy muttered, "we got Kesurinan and a kif past that lock. Gods rot! Haral-"
"I'm on it, I'm on it." Haral's voice rumbled with vexation. They were observing from the bridge. It was all they could do.
"I'll go down there," Khym said, a deeper, more ominous rumble.
"Easy, easy, stay put, the captain's handling this. Let's don't make it worse."
And from the com: "Pride of Chanur, this is Vrossaru's Outbounder, our captain should be arriving at your lock. Please confirm."
"Affirm that, Outbounder. No difficulties." With more confidence than she felt.
"I've got the lift under bridge control," Haral said. "We're sealed up here. They're not going to try anything on us, I don't think."
"Faha's going to be gnawing sticks with Tahar in reach," Hilfy said.
"At least they're not siding with Ehrran," Geran said.
"Spacers," Haral said. "You want to bet young black-breeches stopped to consult these crews before she kited on out of here? They've had their backsides to the fire here, and it's sure she didn't help their case."
It made sense. That the hani insystem had not fled meant that they had not had the chance; there was, gods knew, no profit in this crisis for a trader.
Now the resident hani had a further insanity to contemplate: kif in control of the station; and with those kif a mahen hunter-ship, and with them, Tahar and Chanur, who were blood enemies to each other.
But if these ships had been stuck at Meetpoint through all the troubles, they must be used to lunacies.
"Pride of Chanur," com said, "this is Faha's Starwind. Request explanation at your leisure. Standby signal for tight-beam."
Cagy old spacer, playing it very careful. Lifetime of experience with the kif. And taking a bigger risk than she knew.
"Starwind, this is The Pride, stand by your query." The board signaled acquisition of the impulse against The Pride's receptor-dish, and confirmed their own pulse sent back; all discreet and hope to the gods the kif did not pick up that furtive exchange. "Haral, we got a ship-to-ship-"
"Break it," Haral said, and Hilfy shut down at once, thwarting the contact. Then over a station-system relay Haral appropriated: "This is Haral Araun, duty officer, The Pride of Chanur: all com will go on station relay. The mekt-hakkikt Sikkukkut an'nikktukktin is an ally, and beyond that we aren't authorized to say anything-is that Junury I'm talking to?"
''Gods-be right it is. Haral, what in a mahen hell is going on between you and Ehrran? Can you at least answer me that one?"
"Bloodfeud, that's what's going on. Which is no part of anything going on in this system, excepting some deals with the stsho. Excepting deals in the han. I'll fill you in on it later. Junury, anyone else who's listening: we've been doubledealt in the han, every spacer clan's been done up inside and out by a few gods-be graynosed groundling bastards with full pockets. We had bloodfeud with Tahar; we paid that out; gods know Tahar's paid in blood. Right now I got a cousin lying gut-shot from back at Kshshti thanks to Ehrran and thanks to that bastard Akkhtimakt, and we got trouble loose that we got to settle-we got hani interests at stake, like we never had. And thank the gods you stayed, Junury. Thank the gods, is what I say: we can use the help, and I don't know if you'd have gotten through the way you were headed. Hear me?"
A long pause. / hear. I hear you, Haral Araun."
For Haral it was outright eloquence. Hilfy drew a long breath when Haral did; and tried to think whether Haral had shot any messages into it between the lines-nothing but caution, caution, caution, we're being monitored, was what she heard.
"Starwind," Transmission came from another source, "this is Moon Rising. Our captain's gone same as yours. We're under parole to Chanur. We'll stand trial. Araun's too polite. We're coming in for that. We haven't got a choice. So we surrendered. We're still armed and we're under Chanur's direction .End statement."