Chanur's Homecoming (48 page)

"Tirun. What's the mahen AOS?"

"Good eight minutes."

She gnawed at her mustaches. A good hour Light to the nadir range. Maybe two out, if there was a mahen force out there lurking.

Gods blast you, Jik-throw the hani at it again, do you? Use us for a decoy. Set us up. Unless you're already on your way. And you won't be, will you? It's a trap the kif understand. The lurking kind. That's why the kif flinched, why I've got me a dozen kif out there trying to figure out whether to listen to me now and turn on me later-

They don't know what might come through out there first. Anything could. If it's Goldtooth they better have joined me. If it's Sikkukkut they better not have. Poor bastards. What's a kif to do but stall?

And Skkukuk, that gods-be conniving son is out there risking his neck because it's logical. He's mine. He senses I'm against the hakkikt and Sikkukkut's going to kill him right along with the rest of us, that's what's going on in that earless head of his-he's taking all he's got and charging the bastards headon with the widest bluff he can run-

Gods, can you call a kif brave?

"We got a-"

Priority!" Geran cried. "Blip's in, bearing zenith ten, twenty two, ten. ..."

The scan image flashed red-rimmed, flashed red on the newly arrived blip-

"Knnn!" Hilfy said. "That's knnn output-"

"Vector, vector-"

A line popped onto the course diagrams, the whole perspective shifted, rotated, showed it passing through system on a trajectory right past them, while the dopplered image flashed to yellow: "Going right through system fringes," Geran said, "passing within-Tyri orbit to nadir range."

"Gods, I don't like this." That was Sirany. Quietly.

"All sorts of strange fish," Pyanfar muttered. "Goldtooth. They ran right before Goldtooth at-"

' 'Priority, priority, we got another one-''

"It's here," Haral said. As the scan image acquired another blip that blinked and came ahead. The knnn kept dopplering, the image rotating to show relative position: comp had the hazard warning blinking all round the edges. "Same course."

"Not knnn," Pyanfar said. "That thing's might not be knnn, I go this terrible feeling-''

"Fake a knnn ID?"

"Who'd dare fire on it? Put the armaments on track. Warning to all ships: Hilfy."

"Aye."

"Armaments locked," Tirun said. "And tracking."

"It's just gone kifish; it's Harukk'

"Gods rot-To all ships. Inertial!"

"Slow him down?" Haral was mind-reading again. The Pride's mains cut out abruptly, an abrupt feeling that down was no longer aft, bodies were suddenly not lying flat on backs but attracted weakly seatward under the slight rotation-the whole board went blurred a moment in her eyes and a feeling of vertigo and panic came over her-

"We've got-got to play it step by step. Hope to gods Sikkukkut's being smart again, smart'll hang him-nobody understands the han." A screen flashed change. More kif

were dropping into system. IDs multiplied. Harukk. Ikkhoitr. Others of the old association.

It was very quiet for a moment. Just ship after ship dropping out of hyperspace.

And hani ships biding in prudent silence. Even Ehrran. No moves but the cutting of thrust, instant and undisputed. Keep the formation. They were still ripping along at more speed than insystem navigation rules permitted.

Think, fool. That kif's either fired or talked out there, the other side of Light. Do one or the other.

"Com to my board." The readylight flashed link to com one. Gods, they got our message wavefront out there, everything Chur's sent out, kifish and human: and they can't crack the human stuff. "Get scan relayed out there, give 'em everything we know. Fast." She punched the mike in. "Harukk, welcome to Anuurn: this is Pyanfar Chanur, aboard The Pride of Chanur. Akkhtimakt is defeated, his ships have defected, praise to the hakkikt. If enemies follow you we are ready."

"That's by the gods sure," Haral said under her breath, when she punched out. Haral's ears were flat. Pyanfar found her left hand clenched on the seat, claws right through the leather.

So what's he done? Fired or talked?

Farther and farther.

"They're dumping!" Geran yelled, and a yell and a collective breath and a gasp went through the bridge. "Thank gods," someone said. Tully muttered something humanist) and faint.

"Keep transmitting that message," Pyanfar ordered. "Repeat, repeat."

"We've got it going," Hilfy said.

Five ships. Five, six ships in the system now. Harukk and Ikkhoitr. And another one. Seven.

How many? Gods, how many? Did he get away free? Run early and save his ships?

He's got to have lost some. At Meetpoint. At Kura, if the mahendo'sat got there from Ajir. They've got to have done that. Run them through that gauntlet and peel a bit more flesh off them. Give us some help, for godssakes!

Eight now. Nine and ten, widely separated.

"Priority," Hilfy said, "from Harukk-com: gods, it's code, we got some kind of code, it's for those ships back there. ..."

"Keep our transmission going."

The ache grew around her heart, grew and grew. The blood pounded in her temples. Not a sound from the ships around them, nothing from the ships behind, yet ... yet. Light had a little lagtime for them.

"Nekekkt's answering," Hilfy said. "All code."

So what are you doing, Skkukuk? What are you up to? Who's in charge on that ship?

Twelve. Thirteen ships. Fourteen.

"Priority." Com came through direct to her earplug. "Instruction from the hakkikt, praise to him. Restore buoy output to our ships. Surrender this system and all its ships instantly. It will exist under the authority of my skku Pyanfar Chanur, whose orders come from me. Cease all hostilities. You are dealing with the mekt-hakkikt Sikkukkut an'nikktukktin, who allots the rule of this system and its adjuncts to his vassal Chanur.''

She let the breath hiss softly. Gods-be, what must they think now, Rhean and Anfy and Harun and Banny and the rest-what in a mahen hell do the kif back behind me think, and what kind of a move have I made with Skkukuk?

Then: Gods help me, I've got it, I've got it all, everything in my hands to protect, my people, my allies. He's not shooting.

Now what do I do?

"Reply: Pyanfar Chanur to the mekt-hakkikt Sikkukkut an'nikktukktin, praise to his foresight, his enemies are under my hand."

Ambiguity. Gods save us all.

Haral had looked her way. And there was that little black thing slinking back from the galley, in a hurry, as if Tauran crew in there had done something violent.

"Smart is all we got," she said to Haral. "I remember what Goldtooth said. We get this situation calmed down a little and then I go for a little visit to Harukk. That's what. We take Goldtooth's suggestion. Snuggle up to this kif and get him."

"The two of us," Haral said.

"No. You got a ship to run. Get our V and Harukk'% matched, that's what we got to do. I'd hit him now if we had the angle and his V to use, but we can't break through those shields, slow as we are."

Haral kept looking at her. She was talking about suicide. Haral knew it. Haral also knew the other plain fact, that their armaments were nothing against hunter-ship armor-unless one or the other in the encounter had C-fractional velocity to add to the impact, virtually head-on. And Sikkukkut, praise to his wily kifish heart, was not obliging them.

" 'Bout the only thing we can do, don't, you think?"

"You mean just board and shoot him pointblank."

"Hey, they never have been too fussy about us carrying weapons. Kifish etiquette's on our side, isn't it?"

"Yeah," Haral said.

"He'll ask me aboard. You wait and see. I get my chance, and then you blow his vanes if you can. I don't have to tell you. You know what you're doing." A look aside at Haral. Old partner. Old friend. The one who just as well could have captained The Pride a long, long time ago. Who right now looked at her with that stolid calm behind which was a great deal of pain. "Long time."

"Yeah," Haral said again. "Watch out for Ikkhoitr, that's what I got to do. But that's not your job in there right now. No one but you's got the credentials, hear me?"

"Nobody else can get close to the gods-be kif-"

"He's going to be expecting a move like this. That's why no one else can get close to him. This is why it doesn't work for the kif. No percentage in it. You do it, Py, and we got ourselves a kif ball-up right here in the system."

"We just got to get me inside there, that's what we got."

"We got those mahendo'sat hanging off system. We still don't know where Goldtooth is-he could come tearing through here any minute, f godssakes, him and the whole clutch of humans. We got that message going out to the mahendo'sat. Jik's coming in here-don't do it. Don't throw yourself into that mess. We just stay tight here, we talk to that bastard as long as he wants to talk, we got to hold our nerve, captain,

that's what we got to do. We got to just bide our time and hope to-"

"Captain," Hilfy said. "We got a query from Vigilance. Query, query, query, quote. That's all they say."

"Gods rot that nest of lunatics. Tell 'em shut it down. My gods, they'll blow this up yet. Tell 'em-No. Tell 'em what I said. Shut it up. Next ship transmits out of turn I'll have some ears for it, say that. Tell Harukk again the system is stable and his enemies are in retreat. Say that we have a contingent of mahendo'sat insystem in support of Jik, who's gone on in pursuit of Akkhtimakt. Say that we're ready to meet and arrange things."

Eighteen ships in. The range out there was a confusion of ship IDs and colors as ships downshifted their V and others kept arriving.

"Aye," Hilfy said.

"Captain," Tully said. "Wrong. Ship wrong."

"Gods." Geran's voice. "No ID on that last ship. It's not outputting. We got an anomaly out there."

Her heart sped. "Track and target. Get me vector on it."

"Working," Sif said.

It was behind the others. The line popped up, projecting course right with the rest of the mass.

Chapter Fourteen

It kept coming, a ship on which ID squeal had malfunctioned.

But that kind of malfunction was a kifish trick.

A pirate trick.

"My gods. It's not theirs. It's not theirs, they know it- stand by, stand by armaments!" Pyanfar shoved her arm into the brace and gulped air in starkest panic. "Haral! Control to me!"

"Aye," Haral said on the instant, went over to switcher-one while Tirun busied herself with the tracking of the armaments.

"What is it?" Sirany wondered from her vantage.

"A stray," Pyanfar said. "It's a godsforsaken stray, Goldtooth's or-"

''Priority!'' Geran yelled, but it was already clear on the screen: the interloper had not dumped, and something else had come out from it: missile fire, projectiles launched C-fractional at ships that were relativistically stationary targets dead ahead of it.

"Priority!" Hilfy cried. "It's Tahar! That's Moon Rising! My gods, she's going to run right through them!"

"Track on Harukk!" Pyanfar yelled, and slammed the mains in. "All ships, fire at will-tell 'em that's an ally coming through!"

The armaments were tracking. Missiles launched with a thump and a shock against their own substance. Dead against Harukk, everything they owned to throw, hard as they could throw it.

"Ikkhoitr!" Pyanfar yelled over the whine of reloading. "Tirun, get their vanes. Never gods-be mind the others! Hilfy, give me output!"

"You got it," Haral said. "Tully, output! Talk to humans, got it?"

In the case there was anything back there to talk to. All kinds of com ready-lighted, human channel, mahendo'sat, kif, hani, while that dopplering ghost that was Tahar's Moon Rising came ahead pouring fire at a single target, savvy and deliberate.

"This is the mekt-hakkikt Pyanfar Chanur: Akkhtimakt is fallen and Sikkukkut has run here pursued by a thousand enemies who are my allies, hammered between mahen forces and the unity of han. In this pukkukkta I give you a chance, Chakkuf, Nekekkt! You've served us well on this voyage. You have my favor now! Hani ships and mahendo'sat, be sure of your targets! Harukk is your target, and any other ship which fires in our direction! Make no mistakes! Kifish ships, run from this system and my agents will hunt you down even to Akkht! Join us in this hunt and become among the first of my skkukun, all of you strong enough to maintain your place! Hani, fire your loads and scatter!"

This while The Pride belched out all the missiles and all the fire it had; while a deluge of fire converged from the ships in formation. Something came over com, overhead, general address: a hani voice, a familiar voice:

"Here's from us, you godsforsaken motherless son of a nightwalker! Hearth and blood! from me and my crew!"

"Tahar!" Pyanfar cried. "Gods rot you, I forgive you!"

A timelag off in messages. The kif had only limited fire-sweep aft, because of its own vanes, and it had to track a ship whose missiles were only scantly lagged behind its com-wave, the difference between realspace V and lightspeed. Tahar's missiles hit: others were still incoming from all points of the sphere.

"Chanur, mekt-hakkikt/" another voice came blasting into her ear. "/ am here, behind you, praise your foresight! Our ships are coming!''

"Whose in a mahen hell is that? Is that Skkukuk?"

"It's coming from Nekekkt," Hilfy said.

"Time to get out of here," Pyanfar cried, "transmit, hani ships: Scatter, scatter." She reached and rang the collision warning for the Tauran crew off in the galley, kicked The Pride bow-nadir and threw in the mains with all they had.

It was all they could do to evade return fire, some ships rising, some going wide, some diving systemwise, like the blooming of some vast flower, each as they finished their load of missiles and got down to the beam guns. Tirun kept the guns tracking as they dived, firing for all they were worth.

It was still forward motion they made; but it was angular, kiting along skewed and hurling all the energy the mains had to give to that slew toward nadir.