"Where's that shiplist?" she asked of Hilfy. "I want names, imp."
"I'm still trying," Hilfy said. "Station says they've got computer trouble."
"Sure they do. Like the board at Meetpoint."
"Beg pardon, aunt?"
"Gods-rotted lot of malfunctions lately. Get that list. Tell them read it off by voice and cut the nonsense."
"Don't know what we can do," Haral muttered beside her. And that was truth. The vane systems boards flickered steady disaster under Tirun's probes. It was all down. Everything.
"We'll manage," she said, "something-" but her gut was knotted up in one unceasing panic.
She fished the repair authorization out of safekeeping and shifted to put that in her pocket, braced for arguments with mahen officials. There would be outcries, howls, delays if she could not face them down.
And if there was no ship for Tully, if there were the wrong kif, and no help — Not leaving here real quick, no.
"List is in," Hilfy said.
"To your one," Haral said and put it to the screen.
14 Iniri-tai: Maing Tol
9 Pasunsai: Idunspol
7 Nji-no: Maing Tol
30 Canoshato: Kshshti: insystem
29 Nisatsi-to: Kshshti: insystem
2 Ispuhen: Maing Toclass="underline" repair
32 Sphii'i'o: V'n'n'u
34 T'T'Tmmmi: N'i'i
40 A'ohu'uuu: Tt'a'va'o
49 knnn
50 knnn
51 knnn
52 knnn
10 Ginamu: Rlen Nle
20 Kekkikkt: Kefk
21 Harukk: Akkt
22 Inikktukkt: Ukkur
8 Ehrran's Vigilance: Anuurn
15 Ayhar's Prosperity: Anuurn
3 The Pride of Chanur: Anuurn: enroute
"Gods," Haral muttered.
"Party, huh?" She drew down her mouth as at a bad taste.
"Kekkikkt. Remember that one?"
"Couldn't forget. A whole list of good news, isn't it?"
"Got help." She scanned the mahen section again. "Insystemers and short-hoppers. Ever hear of Iniri-tai?"
"No."
"Pasunsai?"
"No. Neither of them."
"Gods rot, there's supposed to be a hunter ship here."
"Got Vigilance," Haral said dryly.
"Huh." She rose to the humor, but there was ice at her stomach.
"What do we tell them?"
She remembered what she had told them at Meetpoint, the final message. Kif on our trail.
No explanation possible. "Something inventive. We'd better."
"Ayhar," Tirun muttered between her teeth. And that was the second good question.
"That scrapheap never beat us here on the Urtur route, that's sure."
"How'd they know?"
"Want to guess?"
Haral made a sound in her throat, not a pleasant one.
"Rhif Ehrran's got a lap pet."
"What do we do?"
"Huh. I'm thinking about it." Meaning she did not know. Meaning there was nothing they could do but bluff and Haral already knew that much. Vigilance had gathered itself a witness, that was what — footed the bill to divert a merchant carrier like Prosperity off its normal run. They had dumped cargo at Meetpoint, same as themselves.
And knew where to intercept them. Same as Harukk had known.
Gods, were they the only ones running blind in this business?
"Stsho? Stle stles stlen?
Gtst knew Goldtooth's plans.
If gtst had talked-
"Captain," Hilfy said. "Tully's asking to come up."
More questions. Pointed ones. She drew a deep breath and downed the panic. "Tell him yes.
Tell him-" — watch his step. But he knew how to move in a ship underway. He had felt the uncertainty in their dump, had understood more surely than Khym had that they were in trouble, and what kind they were in — that they had escaped dying outright. But they were lame — at Kshshti. With the kif.
Now what, now what we do, huh, Py-an-far?
Tully did not take long about it. Pyanfar turned her chair from his reflection overhead to the solidity standing in the doorway.
He looked worried. He glanced about him, scanned the monitors with an eye that knew what it was looking for, that could read more off the graphics than he could understand in words.
"Safe," she said to him. "We're safe in Kshshti. Got help here. Big hani ship."
He nodded. He did hope. That was in the look he gave her. But something else was in the slump of his shoulders as he turned and sought the seat Hilfy offered him, observer, beside her post.
Quiet, thank the gods..She was ashamed of herself, remembering that he never did go to masculine extremes. Professional. It was hard to remember that, that Tully, whatever else he was, was not prone to hysterics. There, she thought, Khym. That's how. That's how it's done. You can do it-
The way she had believed it once, having voyaged with Tully, so that she hoped-
Khym was looking at her now, one hard, unforgiving stare.
Sure, Khym. It's fixed.
Tully, perhaps, had never fallen for that lie in the first place.
And Khym had, perhaps, just seen that shiplist.
She turned back to controls. Blinking lights and mahen chatter had no accusations.
The metal speck that was Kshshti became a star, a globe, resolved itself into torus shape in the vid; became an aggregate of plates and flashing lights as The Pride moved in and fell into rotating pattern with the wheel. "In lane," Haral said. "Autos on."
"Take her in." Of a sudden the hours mounted up like leaden weight. She spun about and faced the bridge as a whole, saw Khym sitting there with his elbows on the console facing the scan.
Tully's pose was much the same. But he turned to face her, with that haunted look he had worn for days.
"We'll get that repair done here," she said. "Kshshti can handle it."
Hilfy looked her way. So did Khym. And Khym's stare was dark.
Another lie? she read the backslant of one ear, the flare of nostrils.
Her own pulse raced. She held herself in place, silent, with nothing to say to either of them.
Lies and lies and lies.
"When we get in," she said to Hilfy, looking straight at her, "I want a mahen courier in here. I don't care who it is. Dock manager will do. Don't shake things up, but get us someone who can get us someone else. Shouldn't be hard. Suggest we've got a cargo difficulty."
Khym sat there. It occurred to her that in his life he had never told a witting lie. . being downworld hani, dealing with hani and believing in the han. And it had never occurred to her that in dealings off-Annum she had had many faces — one for stsho, one for mahendo'sat. She was more hani with the kif.
"It isn't Annum," she said across the bridge in a low, hard voice. "Nothing's Anuurn but Anuurn itself, crewman, and we aren't home."
Maybe he understood that much. She saw a slight flicker in the eyes.
"Pyanfar," Tully said. "Maing Tol. Go Maing Tol."
She put the com plug into her ear. "I understand," she said. He was scared. Terrified. "Quiet, hear? We got you. We'll work it out. Fix, understand?"