She looked him up and down., this lank solitary mahe with enough gaud in his dress to turn a hani envious. "Jik." It seemed half the troubles in the universe fell off her shoulders. "O gods. About time.
"About gods-rotted time, hear me?"
He flung up his hands again, pleading for quiet. She grabbed him by the arm and pulled him back toward the lift. "Come in here like this," she muttered, fishing up the key. She stuck it in. "Dressed like that." The lift doors hissed wide. "Get in." She snatched him inside, this mahe a third again her size.
He leaned against the lift wall as it shot them up topside and the door shot open.
Khym was in the hall. His mouth fell open at the sight.
"Jik," Pyanfar identified him. "My husband, Khym. Old friend. Goldtooth's partner. Come on, Jik."
Chapter Ten
Nomesteturjai was his name: captain Keia Nomesteturjai. Jik to tongue-bound hani, this thin, anxious-looking mahe. "Sit," Pyanfar said and, spinning the com-post chair about, backed Jik into it. She leaned on the counter and one chair arm with not an arm's length between their noses. "Where's Goldtooth?"
"Not know sure."
"What, not know?"
Jik's dark eyes shifted uncomfortably at that range. "Think near Kefk."
"Kefk!"
"Not know sure." The eyes shifted back and forth, bloodshot-rimmed. "Not good make guess."
"Gods and thunders, what are we in?"
"You go Mkks?"
She stood back. "Khym. Get him a hot drink, huh?" Gods. Him. A weary twitch went through her nerves, a panic rage at biology.
But: "Aye," Khym said and went. Pyanfar sat down on the counter edge. Haral settled one hip on the console near her station, to keep an eye to things, Tirun slouched onto the padded arm of observer two.
"We talk," Pyanfar said. "Real slow. You understand me."
"Not sleep," Jik said, wiping a lank, blunt-clawed hand over his face. His shoulders slumped.
"God, lousy course change Urtur system."
"It took us out," Pyanfar said. "Come on, Jik. What's going on out there? Hilfy and Tully are headed for Mkks, Chur's in hospital, they're dicing up my ship, the Personage says he's sorry and don't discuss the knnn I've had on my tail."
The arm went stiff in mid-motion, eyes fixed on hers. "Knnn."
"Out of Meetpoint. Maybe to here. I don't know. Kshshti stationmasters are nervous as stsho.
What's going on?"
"Got kif take human ship. Human lot upset."
"Knnn take human ship, gods rot you, tell it straight! And I've got other news. Ship named Ijir. The other courier with other humans. Kif got it."
"God." He leaned back against the leather seat, arms on either rest, and looked at her. "How you know?"
"Message from Sikkukkut an'nikktukktin. Same as got Tully and Hilfy."
"He got Ijir?"
"Don't know."
Jik let go a deep long breath. His reddened eyes traveled up again as Khym padded in with a tray. Khym offered him the first, stiffly courteous, and Jik took it without a flinch. "We not meet. Both Gaohn station."
"Huh," Khym breathed, a grinding in his throat. But his ears came up with interest. He passed cups around, kept one for himself and settled, silent — gods, decorous — on the arm of the com-station seat, empty tray aside on the counter, quiet as Haral, as Tirun.
"Hunter ship," Pyanfar said for Khym's benefit, while Jik drank gfi and wrinkled his nose, shuddering as he drank. Gfi was not a mahen favorite, but it was substance and Jik seemed to need that.
The strength looked to have drained out of him as if he had run a long, long time. "Best pilot in mahen space," Pyanfar said, not lying. "You talk to the stationmaster, Jik?"
Weary eyes lifted, guileless. "Go station center, talk." Another sip of gfi, another small shudder and grimace at the taste. "Got ask you — Pyanfar. Where packet?"
She drew in a long, long sip of her own cup. "What packet?"
Jik swallowed hard. The gfi was hot and tears sprang to his eyes, which acquired a heat of their own and a hard glitter of thought. "Bastard," he said. "No game."
"It isn't. When they get my tail back working, huh? You know, it occurs to me with Aia Jin in port they might take me off priority. They got hunter ship, huh? Not need hani now."
"Fix."
"Sure, they will."
He sat there a moment, breathing in and out and a good deal more rapid going on behind his eyes. "You got packet, huh? Kif got Tully, you got packet and you go Mkks. What want? Give both to kif?"
"Maybe trade."
The least uncertainty crept into his expression. "No. You no do." It became fear. "You got too much smart, Pyanfar."
"No," she said, gazing deep into his eyes. "I got friends. Don't I, Jik?"
He drew a breath, "You give packet. Damn, hani! You try hold this thing, Kshshti authority board and take!"
"Stationmaster doesn't know it exists. Does he? Not Eseteno, not Tt'om'm'mu, not our pink-slippered cutthroat Stle stles stlen. But you know. And the fewer know it exists, the better. Don't you think?" She jabbed a claw at him, "How'd the kif know to move that quick, to set up an ambush on the docks? How'd we get set up, huh?"
"You say Stationmaster?"
"You say kif make lucky guess?"
"I know this Eseteno. No. No, Pyanfar. Not. He honest, long time got post. Trust him."
"All right. That's one. But how far down the line does honest go? How much does it take? Kif got some security agent's relatives, make deal, huh?"
Jik's dark face was very sober, ears down. "All time possible."
"Maybe same got agent repair crew, huh?"
"Kif want you go Mkks. Want blow ship there got lot chance. Not need sabotage."
It made sense. It was the cheerfullest reassurance she had had since the docks blew up. She drew her mustache down, thinking on the odds.
"Give packet," Jik said. "Got go Maing Tol, this packet. I ask. Number one important."
"Goldtooth's observations, is it? His report — what's going on out there in kif space. Knnn stuff too."
Jik's small ears went back. "You got no profit make guess, Pyanfar."
"I make deal. I trust my honest mahe friend.
That repair crew stays on the job and my engineer gets specs on those parts number one quick."
"Got."
"Got authority, do you? Lot of authority, same as Goldtooth."
Jik's ears twitched. "Some thing yes."
"Some thing, huh? You want this packet, you go with me to Mkks."
"Hani, I guard you tail at Gaohn!"
"Guard it at Mkks and you get the packet."
Gently: "You bastard, Pyanfar."
"You same kind bastard. You say, you do. I know this."
"I go Mkks," he said.
"Get the packet, Haral."
Haral moved. Jik leaned back into the leather cushion and watched, bestirred himself to take it when it came, this largish several-times crushed envelope with a dark stain at one corner. "All here?" Jik asked.
"Everything they sent me. What are you going to do with it?"
"Try find honest captain."
"In this port? Stay away from the hani."
"A?" He looked her in the eyes and the ears sank slowly before they came up again. The face had no fool's look, not now. "Trouble, huh?"
"Lot trouble."
"You come."
"Come where?"
"Come with. We talk these hani."
"No."
Jik stood up. "I go. Sure thing we talk. Want share?"
"Gods rot — Gods rot it, I've got enough trouble! Leave my name out of it!"
"They got jealous, huh?"
"Look, look, you earless lunatic, there's laws, there's regulations I already break- The han's after my hide, you understand me? Chanur's got troubles! You want to hand them proof, huh?