Someone over at com managed to get transmission to her screen.
tc'a chi hani kif kif kif kif
Mkks Mkks Mkks Mkks Mkks Mkks Kefk
Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk Kefk
"It's saying, I think—" Hilfy said hoarsely, "it's come from Mkks to Kefk with a hani and lots of kif. Hello."
"They won't shoot," Pyanfar said, as the thought got through. Jik. That earless bastard, Jik's called in another debt and snagged us a tc'a. It knows our flight plan. It must. "Gods, that son's riding us close out there—they won't shoot. Kif wouldn't dare." She leaned back, turned her head. "Chur. You all right?"
"Fine." The voice sounded weak. "I'm on-duty."
"Khym?"
He was the sick one. She had thought so. No answer but a moan.
"We're nominal on equipment," Tirun said.
"We still got the kif back there," Geran said. "Got another ship just blipped in behind us. Ikkiktk ... I think . . . right on mark, five minutes Light."
Everywhere about them the tick and blip of instruments went on, The Pride's ordinary functions, unflappable mechanical processes.
"Tully?" Chur said. "Tully, you all right?"
"What that?" A slurred, faint voice on com. "What?"
"Tc'a got friendly. Gods-rotted closest we ever came to collision. Closest I ever want to hear about." "That's blip two: second kif in."
"We just got a message from the lead kif back there," Hilfy said. "It's confirming it's behind us, that's all."
"Acknowledge," Pyanfar said. Their realscan showed their own little packet of space; their passive-signal pickup, half a roundtrip quicker than bounce-signal scan, showed them the stars and the things that reflected light, and the lead ships' recent emission-trails. A lot of them.
"We've got time-calc on that image," Tirun said. "Jik's doing fine. Jik, Ehrran, Sikkukkut and a flock of the hakkikt's best. Haaa—we got Harukk scan now—Clear, clear, clear!"
"Good luck to 'em," Haral muttered. "Even the gods-be kif."
"Hope those earless bastards at Kefk haven't moved any rocks," Geran said.
"We're running into old chatter," Hilfy said. "Kefk isn't aware yet of anything, on this timeline. Geran, I'm going to feed you sequencing on this stuff. See if you can do a locator on it, get an update on these positions."
"Lot of scatter," Geran said. "Chur, take scan one." Down the time line again, racing their own incoming wave-front to Kefk station. Waiting for the message to come back. But this time they had shed a lot of speed. Kif talked behind them and in another time-reference, station-kif talked, and that clicking chatter occupied com. More kif dropped in behind them. And the tc'a glided along beside.
"We're getting reaction now," Hilfy said. "That's a guard-station talking, I think. They're challenging. That's minus twelve Light."
Two guardstations, one at Kefk I nadir, to stop escapees; one at Kefk zenith, not so far away. The third off in Kefk 2's ecliptic. And Kefk station itself was armed, by Sikkukkut's admission, which violated more Compact laws.
"Harukk just answered," Hilfy said. "Harukk ordered Kefk system to surrender. Challenge goes on. ... I can't make out if they've launched anything. Translator, Khym; help; gods-be—"
"Is that it?"
"—Back it up. Geran."
"Sorry," Khym said. "I'm sorry—"
"I got it," Geran said. "That's affirmative on launch. Two interceptors away from Kefk on Jik's contact-moment."
"Intercept vector for Jik," Hilfy said. "Kif behind us report—" Khym said, "they just heard that defense-engage."
Pyanfar bit her mustaches, watched the steady rotation of images Haral shunted past her screens. "Unchanged," Hilfy said.
"Tc'a's unchanged," Chur said. "Still by us."
"Let's hope it stays put," Haral said.
"Unchanged," Hilfy droned on. Then: "Wait, we're beginning to get some comment out of station now. They're real disturbed and they're speaking pidgin as well as main-kifish. We won't get the guardstation transmission to station or to Jik's bunch at their angle."
"What's it doing?" Khym's first out-of-line question, in a careful, quiet voice. "What the godssakes is it up to?"
"Easy." Haral's voice. "We're not skinned yet."
"Kif," Tully said sharply.
"Tully's right," Chur said from scan. "Another one of our party just came in."
"Huh," Geran said, "By the gods all and sundry, we may just make it."
"That's a hakkikt, five kif hunter ships, Aja Jin and a han deputy telling them there's a tc'a inbound at their tail," Tirun muttered. "And they don't know what more or how many. You think that won't shake them up? If I was kif with my nose to station or a desk-sitter in central I'd be real upset just now. They'll fold. Sikkukkut's not half crazy."
"Huh," Pyanfar muttered. Crew talked themselves to confidence. Her stomach fought her again and she fought it back. Comp asked a question, offered choices. She kept her eyes focussed, read comp's suggestion, scanned two other monitors and punched confirm.
Another desperate swallow. Her hand shook, terror catching up to her in a chill when the moment was long past. The tc'a could have hit them. Gods. How much closer? How much closer before they got pulled apart? Or before they made one ball of fire, hani, tc'a and kif together?
"They friend?" Tully asked and no one had time.
"Tc'a insystem are upset," Hilfy said. "We're starting to get chatter out of our own tc'a. It identifies itself and us. They're sixteen minutes down the timeline."
Camera image came up on the screens: Haral had gotten them image ... at this range, a bright orange sun washing out the stars. There was a red dwarf companion, Kefk 2, invisible or inconspicuous. Everything else was still too far. Heavy debris orbited Kefk, by Sikkukkut's outdated charts.
And four stations all told, with a lot of disturbed kif.
"Transmission," Hilfy said. "It's them!"—forgetting protocols. "It's Jik!"
"—Hold course," the message reached Pyanfar via Haral's switching. "You hold course. We go ahead in. Got no trouble yet—"
"They know the guard ships are on their track?" Khym wondered.
"Can't tell," Haral said. "They ought to. That's—ten minutes Light. We're still getting output . . . just chatter. Jik's bunch isn't upset, and they're further into the timeline than we are."
"Looking good," Geran said.
Pyanfar let out a breath. A chill went up her back. To cut it that fine, to do it, by the gods, to come in blind like that and pick up signal on the mark, with all the kif behind them.
Navigation like that was a hunter-ship trick. Not for honest merchant-folk. But they did it.
They had done it.
They were alive so far.
"Haral," Hilfy exclaimed, "we just got beacon!"
Image flashed up on monitor. Full current system composite: it showed Sikkukkut's cluster of ships inbound for the main station; showed a skein of ships inbound where they themselves ought to be ... the kif, the tc'a, The Pride. And , the interceptors.
Three guardstations; a belt full of miners; an outbound ship; a schema of the main station that show forty-six ships in dock, origin indeterminate. Same as Jik's initial snatch of image before beacon shut down.