"But Sikkukkut had a spy with Akkhtimakt, gods know how or where. Undoubtedly he had some stsho on the take at Meetpoint. He knew about the courier-ship falling into Akkhtimakt's hands. He knew—I suspect from his spy with Akkhtimakt, the same way he probably got the ring—that Goldtooth had Tully aboard. And it wasn't too hard to figure Goldtooth had handed Tully to us at Meetpoint, when we showed up with our papers cleared with a gods-awful monstrous bribe from the mahendo'sat. Which we didn't know about. But Sikkukkut may have.
"Sikkukkut set us up, deliberately put us in a bind at Meetpoint. He snagged us into his reach, he snagged Ehrran, and Ayhar; and he steered us out of Akkhtimakt's trap at Kita. Steered us right for his own front yard, step by step. And snagged Jik by having us in his net, while he was at it. By that business at Kshshti he gathered himself enough sfik to take Mkks on his own; and now he's got Kefk. So all of a sudden momentum's on his side and deserting Akkhtimakt. Akkhtimakt's supporters are beginning to desert him. Fast. Kifish logic: shoot your former allies in the back and run for the winning side. Akkhtimakt's got to be worried.
"Part two: Jik. Jik's got this idea mahendo'sat are a lot better off with their old familiar neighbor from Mirkti as hakkikt over all the kif. And Jik got Ehrran in on it; and he got us. Never mind Mkks' safety. That wasn't all he was after in those negotiations at Mkks. And Ehrran's on a lot more than Tahar's track now if she's got half sense—she's up at the top of this little information pyramid. She's got access to highlevel strategy—and if she's not a total fool, and if she knows anything about this, it's a lot more than Tahar got her to come to Kefk. Treaty law, yes. Jik's got credentials clear from the top, I'm sure he has. And what he specifically said to her that got her out of Mkks and headed this way—gods know. I have an idea the whole urgency behind Ehrran's search for Tahar has a whole lot to do with the han's negotiations with the stsho and the fear of the kif getting a leader.I think they wanted Tahar dead. Wanted to eliminate any possibility of her advising and helping a hakkikt predict what hani would do. Xenophobia again. But in this case, xenophobia with a real good reason. I'm guessing Ehrran's real and immediate motive in going along with this lunatic expedition, because she knew she hadn't a spit in a hurricane of getting back to Meetpoint and hani lanes in one piece if she didn't stay close by Jik—and learn what he was up to. Meanwhile Akkhtimakt supposedly held Kita, remember."
"Supposedly?" Haral said.
"I think Jik gods-be knew where Goldtooth went when he left Meetpoint: straight for deep stsho-tc'a space; right for a rendez-vous with someone who was going to guide the humans in. And then he was supposed to go—probably from Tt'a'va'o (the tc'a connection again!) to Kefk—harassing Akkhtimakt, making him divide his efforts between holding Kita and trying to keep the Kefk lane open, while Goldtooth set himself to keep it shut. So Meetpoint's had a two-way stranglehold on it, trade cut off by the kif at Kita; and-by Goldtooth at Kefk. Goldtooth's plan was to bring Akkhtimakt down by weakening him—lessening his credibility—all the while playing another game designed to soften up this whole gods-be zone from Kefk to Meetpoint because he knew humans were going to come through in this vicinity. If he could link up a mahen-human traderoute right past kifish borders, he'd ruin Akkhtimakt's credibility once and for all. Devastate him.
"Meanwhile the kifish homeworld is in complete chaos with hunter-squads and assassinations, trying to handle Goldtooth and hunt humans and balance its attentions between two rival hakkiktun. And the kif get information what's going on at Kefk; and some of that information goes to Mkks ... to kif, but not to mahen authorities—unless the tc'a talked, and they may not have, to unauthorized mahendo'sat. No, Sikkukkut knew exactly where Goldtooth was all the time. But I'm not sure Jik did, when he accepted Sikkukkut's deal to move on Kefk. I don't think Jik even knew for sure whether Goldtooth was alive. So when he was offered a deal that might provide a hakkikt that mahendo'sat could deal with—he took it. It'd take him to Kefk. It would let him link up with Goldtooth, if Goldtooth was still alive. I think mahen information broke down at that one really critical point; and now Goldtooth's in danger—because I think Sikkukkut sees a lot more of Goldtooth's thinking than Goldtooth thinks he sees—a lot more even than Jik may be aware of. Sikkukkut's drawn Goldtooth into the open now. Sikkukkut's got him accessible; and Goldtooth's come in, on his own, real close to Sikkukkut. Not playing coy at all. You see?"
"We got trouble," Haral said. "Gods, we got trouble."
"Oh, it gets worse, cousin. Jik used some kind of credit at Mkks to get that tc'a to go with us. The knnn are definitely into it. They've already sent one message to Maing Tol—that packet that we sent on with Banny Ayhar, if you can believe Goldtooth that far. I don't know what else Jik did at Mkks but I'm betting he gave the tc'a stationmaster our navigation data and got a tc'a to run cover for us and make sure Kefk fell without a shot. The knnn may consent to it. Or the knnn may have taken exception to it. Gods-rotted sure they took the tc'a. We don't know how they think. Or what they want. But humanity, remember, is cutting real close to the knnn's territory in getting here, if they haven't cut right through it; gods know where the knnn think their zones extend—if they even understand borders. And Tully says humans have fired at knnn ships."
Eyes dilated all round the bridge. Ears flattened.
"So here we are," Pyanfar said. "We moved into Kefk and caught Kefk by surprise and a high dice roll, and Kefk did the kifish thing and bellied down to the deck fast as they could spit. Sikkukkut takes everything on the table.
"Except for one thing. Akkhtimakt's got one recourse. The stsho hire mahen guards for top security, right? The stsho don't trust hani for anything but the lowest level guard jobs, and they trust kif for bully jobs. But. But. Mahendo'sat are trying to get the humans into the Compact, same way they bullied the stsho into admitting hani once upon a time. Now we have a common border with mahendo'sat that kept us satisfied with trade in that direction for a long time; and we've got a natural barrier on the stsho side, with a gulf our ships can't jump. Hani haven't been bad neighbors for the stsho. It's a lot different with humanity. Humanity wants through stsho space. Wants through tc'a and knnn space. Through kif space, if it can't get the other routes. That's got the stsho worried. Real worried. And meanwhile, on Anuurn, we've got a division: we've got hani who took to space and we've got hani who're gods-be near as xenophobic as the stsho. Old-fashioned hani who don't know the stsho. They aren't capable of knowing the stsho—gods, they aren't capable of imagining the stsho. But stsho money gets to them and buys votes in the han. Sets up new hani authorities of a mindset the stsho approve. That takes care of one border problem. Hire hani guards, then. Displace the mahendo'sat from every security post they hold on stsho property. Get them out. That takes care of the in-office stuff and gets rid of the mahen stranglehold; and gets mahen fingers out of stsho lines of communication. But there's one more thing the stsho need to stop the humans, something the nonspacing faction of the han can't provide them and no stsho can possibly handle gtstself. Armed ships. In numbers."