It was the second time for some of these crews, the second time they had ever uncapped the red switches on the few armaments a freighter carried. Two years ago. Or whatever year it was, currently. Gods. She had lost track. Four? More man that? Kohan's face flashed to mind, Kohan grayed and time-touched. The world changed. More of the people she had known in her youth onworld would have died. Of old age.
How old am I? How many years did we lose out there?
The month, two-month jumps added up to years fast, with so little dock time between. She suddenly tried to think what her son and her daughter might look like, Kara Mahn and Tahy, down there ruling Chanur land, sitting in the han, for the gods' sake, Tahy senior enough to sit in the han and talk for Mahn, and vote against Chanur interests. Of a sudden the baby faces leapt to adolescence, to adulthood, to broad-faced maturity, Kara's sullen, broadnosed face gone more sullen still, Tahy's furtive look gone to something pinched and unpleasant-a smallish teenager become a smallish, surly woman whose ears were always flicking about as if she suspected conspiracy. A mother's imagination painted these things and touched her children's manes' with gray. Kara's ears would be notched up right proper. Kohan had gotten the ears the first time Kara made a try for Chanur land: it was a good guess Kohan had gotten him again. In return for his own scars. Gods. So fast. Life's so fast. How much of it I've missed.
Grapples withdrew. Undocking jets eased them out, under Haral's careful hand. Com babble came to her, three operators at once, on their separate channels, each dealing with procedures some of which went to Tirun back there at the aux panel.
She used her own comp, sorting the data that sifted past Tirun. The Pride backed hard; and something black and furred and angry shrieked and scrabbled across the decking, crack! against the bottom of the panel. It squealed in rage and scrambled sideways under the acceleration.
"Gods and thunders." She kicked at it, hardly sparing attention for the little bastard. Figures were more important. What it had done to systems back aft, gods only knew. It escaped, off galleyward. "Have to purge the ship to hard vacuum to get rid of those things."
"I'm not sure," Haral muttered, "that that'd do it. Standby rollover."
The Pride rolled, G-shift and re-shift; and six of the mains cut in, a moral shock this close to Gaohn. Laws and regulations were fractured. But Gaohn was under disaster-rigging, population snugged to the inmost sections. They made speed.
They passed the zone where the aux-engines were permitted and slammed the mains in full.
They were free. Moving. Bound for the system rim.
Gods knew what was already out there, inbound.
''Communication from Mahaar's Favor,'' Chur said, ' 'bearing off Tyar. They're AOS on our earlier transmission and say they're holding position."
Standing nose to nose with the kif.
She cast a wary eye at scan, where a dot that was a kifish ship stood all too close to Gaohn with the lighter-ship in its gut.
Too gods-be close to Gaohn and Anuurn.
It's a mistake. I'm a fool. They'll kill Skkukuk, poor bastard. They'll take him apart and they're in position to take the station out.
Fire on 'em? Gods-be kif hunters bury their personnel sections deep inside, got twenty feet of stuff to blast through to get a hit on the things, godsforsaken missiles we got won't dent it that deep without us throwing 'em at V and we're near sitting still even yet. Fool, Pyanfar, fool.
While acceleration went on. There was a stuffiness about the air. An unpleasant taint, like chemicals. Like dust in the air. Ozone. Filters were out. They had a redlight condition on the lifesupport board. They ignored it.
She blinked her eyes. For a moment it was Harukk's dark gut, the flare of sodium light. Dark-robed kif and the smell of incense and ammonia.
Kifish ships at dock at Kefk, lean and wicked and massive-vaned, bristling with guns. Like that thing out there.
"Priority," Hilfy said, and froze her heart. "Captain, it's Nekkekt. They're asking instructions."
Gods, of course it won't turn now. Things are too uncertain. It's in crisis they kill their officers.
And their allies.
"Have 'em put Skkukuk on."
A pause. While the mains blasted away, squaring the V and bringing them at an angle to the kif. Kif could fire from any angle. The Pride and the rest of the freighters had their limits.
It's godsblessed suicide. Bluff from one end to the other.
"They're sending for him," Hilfy said. "Captain, there's a Situation over there. That was the captain who asked instructions, I think, by their comtech."
"I think you got it," she muttered. Push the bastard. Make him get your own skku to the mike. Gods. What're the han doing, what are they thinking, the ships out there? Chanur's talking to the kif, we got a kif right into Gaohn, we got kifish and human transmission going out of this ship. ..."
It's Harun and the rest they're watching. The ships that came with me. Spacers. That's what they're taking their cue from-they know Chanur could be crazy, but not Chanur and five other clans and the mahendo'sat. They're holding steady so far-gods, they know the kif, they know, this whole mess is unstable.
If they knew how much-
"Skkukuk to your com one," Haral said. A light blinked.
She punched it. "Skku of mine. We're taking Kura vector. See to it."
There was a pause. Is he on? Gods, let's not have a mistake.
"Chanur-hakkikt." In a voice cold and clear and clipped.
Skukkuk? Is that Skkukuk?
"Pukkukf on your enemies, hakkikt. / will give them to you."
"Skkukuk?"
A pause. "Of course, hakkikt-mekt. Skkukkuk." An edge to the voice. The tone was different. "Pukkukt' on all your enemies. Rely on me."
What in the gods' name is he up to? Is that him? What's going on with him?
Is this some gods-help-us kifish test?
Or a kif gone important?
"Get those gods-be ships into line and get it organized. First one makes a wrong move, take it out!"
"Yes."
The light went out. Like that. A little chill went down her back.
"What've we created? Migods, what've we created out, huh?"
Haral looked her way. Mirrorlike. "Mekt-hakkikt, was it?"
She blinked. The chill got no better. And no questions came through com from hani ships. Or station. Or the few mahendo'sat keeping their post out there with the kif Skkukuk had just appropriated.
Not a word from Sirany Tauran, sitting a duty post like crew.
It's out of control.
Crew's not talking. Stations are too quiet. What are they thinking, for godssakes?
Last run we make, and we know it, don't we? It's not what we used to be. None of us are that.
She coughed. "We got one of those gods-be black things loose somewhere up here, gods know where it'll land when we maneuver, just want you to know that."
"Gods," someone muttered. And it was as if the whole crew drew a collective breath and loosened collective muscles. "What say?" Tully asked plaintively, lost as usual. "What say?"