"I don't know," she said. "Go."
"You don't put me off, Py."
She gave him one long burning look.
"Chanur property," he said. "I do forget."
"What do you want, Khym? I'll tell you what I want. I want that gods-rotted vane fixed. I want us out of here. Are you helping?"
He drew a long, long breath and cast a look over his shoulder in Tully's direction. "Pet?"
"Shut it up. Right there."
The ears that had half-lifted sank again. "All right. That was low. But for the gods' sake, Py, what have you got yourself into? You can't make deals outside the han. They'll have your hide. That Ehrran ship"
"Noticed that, did you?"
"Gods, Py!"
"Hush."
He coughed. Caught his breath. "Chanur property. Right."
"Did you expect different?" She jabbed him hard. It took a lot to get through a male's skin when he had that look in his eyes. "Are they right?"
"Who's right?"
"The stsho in that bar."
His nostrils dilated, closed, dilated, and his nose went pale round the edges. "I don't see what that has to do with it."
"Hilfy back there. You hear a question out of her?"
He looked over his shoulder, where Hilfy was closing cabinet latches, click, slam, click, one after the other; and Tully was folding the table up. He looked round again and his ears were flat.
"Go help Tirun," she said.
"I asked a question."
"No. You questioned, and by the gods that's different. You want Haral's rights, you by the gods earn them."
He brushed past her and stalked off bridge-ward. And stopped, about half a dozen paces on — faced her, to her relief and her dismay. At least he had not retreated to his cabin. And gods, not more argument.
He stood there. Cold, deliberate protocol.
"Help Tirun and Haral," she said. "The rest of us haven't got a death-wish. That vane's got to be fixed."
That was the way, mention the word. Dead, dead. Death. Hit him between the ears with it. Her stomach churned.
"Fine," he said, bowed, turned and talked off, a massive shadow against the lights of the bridge beyond.
She spun on her own heel and walked back into the galley proper, to Tully and Hilfy, who stood idle. "Out," she said to Hilfy, and Hilfy scrambled past her. Footsteps pelted bridgeward.
Tully stood trapped against the cabinets, leaned there with elbows on the counter behind him.
"All right," she said, "Tully, I want the truth."
"Maing Tol."
"I scare you, huh? Maing Tol, Maing Tol. Listen to me. You don't play stupid. You gods-rotted well understand me. You wanted to talk. You wouldn't give me peace of it. So talk. And keep talking."
Maybe the translator garbled that. He had that look.
"Talk, Tully. You want to be friends, by the gods you deal straight with me."
"I sit," he said, and ebbed down onto the mess table bench as if his legs would no longer hold him.
"Truth." She came closer in his silence, leaned both hands on the table and glared into his face.
"Now, hear?"
He flinched. He smelled of fear and human sweat, like when she had held him, when his heart had beat so hard she could feel it like hammer-strokes. She reached out pitilessly and pinned his arm with claws out. "You risk my crew, Tully. You risk Chanur. By the gods you don't lie to me. Where you come from, huh?"
"Friend," he said.
"You want I rattle your brain?"
He drew several rapid breaths. "Maing Tol. Go Maing Tol."
She stared, at arm's length from his face, stared a good, long while. "You come find me.
Need, you say. Need what? You talk, now you talk, Tully. Need what? Number one fool? Where you been, Tully?"
"Human space. Want come. Want, Pyanfar."
"So you come to the mahendo'sat."
"Mahe come human space."
"Goldtooth?"
"Name Ino. Ijir."
She drew a long, long breath. "Double-crossing bastard." Meaning Goldtooth, mahen trade and a towering great lie.
"Say again." Blue eyes looked at her with vast worry.
She lifted her hand from his arm and patted his face ever so gently, claws pulled. "Keep talking. More. How did this Ijir come into the business, huh? Was it trading in human space."
"Human ship-" He made diagrams on the tabletop. "Human. Kif. Mahe. Not good go so- kif.
Three human ship. Gone. Not see. Not come home. Try go stsho. Mahe come-go." He drew route-pictures, mahen traders reaching human space. "Ijir come. Say want bring human come talk mahe. Want I come. I, Tully." His mouth twisted in a strange expression. "I small, Pyanfar. Human lot mad. They same send me. I small. Mahe think me big. Want. Take. Human think me make trouble. Shut up, Tully. What you know?" Another intersecting line as Ijir moved out of human space toward the Compact. "Gold-tooth come. Lot talk, Ino, Goldtooth. Goldtooth want talk me, not talk lot other human, other human lot mad." He drew a great breath, looked up at her as if to see whether she understood his babble, and there was pain in his expression.
"Politics," she said. "And protocols. Same there, huh?"
He blinked, confused.
"Go on."
"Goldtooth want talk me. Want me go Goldtooth ship. I say go find you, you friend, good friend. Not know Goldtooth. Want help. Want you talk these mahe."
"That bastard."
Another blink of skyblue eyes.
"So," she muttered, "the mahe wanted you, huh? And set up a rendezvous. Wanted you.
Someone they could talk to. Someone who would talk, huh? What about that paper? What's in it? Why Maing Tol?"
"I spacer." Tully's mouth trembled in that way he had when he was upset. "I never say I #, Pyanfar."
"What about the paper, Tully? Whose is it? What's in it?"
"Ijir meet Goldtooth, he say make paper — same paper human on Ijir got-"
"Copy the paper, you mean."
His head bobbed vehemently. "Same. Yes. Say he take me go find you, go talk stsho, go bring paper Maing Tol, help human-" He held up the hand that bore the ring. "Kif got them. Kif got Ijir, got paper same you got-"
"How long time?"
He shook his head. "I don't know." His look grew desperate. "I ask come hani, ask, ask many time. Goldtooth friend? He friend, Pyanfar?"
"Good question," she said, and puzzled him.
She reached and patted his shoulder, tapped him with a clawtip. "Safe, understand. Tell me.
Why Maing Tol? And why me?"
He shivered, palpably, and reached across the table to grip her retreating hand, ignoring the reflexive jerk of claws. "Big trouble. Lot human ship, lot go Maing Tol soon."
"Across kif space? There's knnn out there! How many ship, huh, how many human ships are you talking about? Three? Four? More than that?"
"Paper say — we make stop kif come human space, take human ship. But Goldtooth say me-
Goldtooth say- think now maybe not kif got human ship. Maybe knnn."
"O good gods." The heart sank in her. If there had been a bench under her she would have sat down. As it was she just stared.
"Goldtooth say message got go Maing Tol make stop mahe, make stop kif, go fight-"
"Fight? Gods-rotted humanity can't tell knnn from kif?"
"Not."
"Well, for the gods' sake you know knnn.' Did you teJI them, did you telJ them the difference?"
"Who I? They don't hear. Shut up, Tully. I'm small person, small, not #, Pyanfar!"
"Gods and thunders."
"Pyanfar-"
"Lunatics!"
"Goldtooth friend?" he asked again. "I do good?"
She stared at him a long, long time and he just looked scared. Scared and on the other side of a half-functioning translator. And the gulf of other minds.