Kif Strike Back (12 page)

"It's gone. I'm sorry. I lost it out of records."

"What's one more bill?" Geran said.

Two crew down. Chur was not up to more work and Hilfy was R&R with Tully belowdecks, while the accessible universe wanted through the com system with individual complaints.

"We sue," was a frequent note.

"You gods-rotted optimist," Pyanfar yelled at one mahe more persistent than the rest. "Send your lawsuit to Maing Tol and I by the gods hope it gets through!"

Then she wished she had held her peace. Her hands shook and there was a hollow feeling at her gut that going hyper-ac after jump was guaranteed to do to a body. She ate concentrates, drank, and it did no good.

They had to sleep, no matter what; they all had to go off-shift and get some rest, and Jik's communications streamed in without letup.

"Gods-rotted mahe's got no nerves," she muttered. "He had a relief crew while he was inbound. Probably had a five-course dinner. What's he think we are?"

No one answered that.

And: "Gods," Geran muttered when the course plan and the Kefk information began to take shape. "That son's mean."

"That's before we even get there,"
 
Haral said.
 
"I'm betting there's more surprises in that system that kif doesn't want to show us."

"Not taking that bet," Geran said.

There was no jump-point on their way to Kefk, no point of mass where three ships up to no good could come in, go dead silent and rest and sleep a while. The route was just two stars in each other's gravitational influence; The Pride would ride its own jump field and Kefk's pull directly in with a vengeance. Three stars, counting Mkks and Kefk
 
and Kefk 2: Kefk was a close binary; and that made for difficult navigation at best.

"Six ships go in with Sikkukkut, Jik, and our friend Rhif," Tirun said. "We get the tailguard post."

"Alone with seven kif," Geran said. "Gods, what a party."

"Beats going first."

"How much interval we got?"

"Not by the gods enough." Haral took furious notes and Pyanfar's comp slot spat out a paper.

All she could think of was sleep, the chance to lay her aching bones on a mattress and let her mind go ... while they sat on a kifish dockside with a kifish strike force likely inbound at their backs from either of two enemies . . . kifish authorities at Harak or Akkhtimakt's ships off by Kshshti. They hoped Akkhtimakt was no closer than Kshshti.

Gods only knew. If an attack caught them like this, if Akkhtimakt came to Mkks before they left or got up to speed, they were sitting targets with their nose to station and no way to get up to V in time-the same thing they had done to Ihirukk and all its allies.

It took no mindreading to know the practical reason why Jik wanted out of Mkks in a hurry.

But other things occurred to her: like the chance Jik knew things he was not saying, about operations in progress elsewhere; the absolute surety that Sikkukkut did.

There is fire, hani. From Llyene to Akkt to Mkks. Even Anuurn..

Even Anuurn.

And Vigilance agreed to join in an act of unvarnished piracy.

I surmised correctly that you would follow me, hunter Pyanfar, as soon as your ship could move.

So why us? Gods and thunders, what have we got either side wants but Tully? And Sikkukkut gave him back. Jik could have laid claim to him. And Jik backed off.

Why did Sikkukkut want ms in this?

Kif in the washroom. Kif all about. Threatened lawsuits pouring in, because a hani merchant was easier to sue than a han deputy or a mahen hunter ship; and, gods knew, the kif.

"We just got a transmission from Vigilance," Haral said. "Official notice we got a complaint filed."

"Tell 'em eat it."

"Captain."

"No, don't tell them that. Acknowledge." She shifted her attention to another board where a systems check had just blinked clear. "Number two vane is clean." She verified Tirun's check, punched the test of number three and got back to the Kefk system data.

The schematic showed armed guard stations. Three of them at Kefk. And the robot navigation beacon in the jumprange gave no inner-lanes data to incoming ships until it got a ship ID; and if it disliked what it got, it would blank out entirely. That meant dumping speed early to avoid collision, and risking collision even at that reduced velocity. And without that incoming V they were sitting targets for anything those guard stations decided to throw at them. Gods, it was lunacy.

"It's sure something to run with clean equipment," Tirun said. "I'd gotten used to alarms."

"Huh." Pyanfar read an incoming schedule on screen two, blinked it clear, rubbed her right ear. The letters separated in a green haze and came back again. Not a complaint from the crew. A hani male sat over there bone-tired and working keys and grumbling in his throat in a kind of mindless reflex moan that occasionally became a mutter: poor Khym, too well-bred to swear like the rest of them, and doing a crewwoman's job with a woman's steady concentration, side by side with Geran. "Give me your information," his litany ran, impeccably delivered. "I'll get it to the appropriate officer."

And: "I'm sorry, that's not quite possible."

The lift worked-Pyanfar turned the chair half about to glance down the corridor, nervous reflex with a kif aboard and Ehrran crew on guard in The Pride's airlock.

Hilfy was coming bridgeward in some haste. Ears back.

Eyes dark, when she had gotten past the door.

"Aunt. What's this Kefk business?"

Pyanfar swung the chair all the way about in Hilfy's direction and leaned her head back on the cushions. Nobody came onto The Pride's bridge and used that tone to her. But Hilfy-Hilfy wanted latitude lately, Pyanfar gave it. "We're going there, yes. Got a bit of business to take care of."

"Kif business?"

Her own ears went down. She saw the fracture-lines in Hilfy, the unreason. And said nothing for a breath.

"Well, is it?"

"Jik's business. Look, we got a bill to pay, niece. A godsrotted big bill."

"To whom?"

"Jik, for one." In spite of herself her heart raced, her ears lay back, her claws jerked half out of sheaths and gouged the upholstery. "Jik. You think I got the influence to pull a mahen hunter-ship and a han deputy in here to help us bail you out without some tradeoff? You're expensive, niece."

That slapped young Hilfy in the face. The whites showed
 
her eyes' corners. Her nostrils dilated. "What do we do, then?"

"What we do-" Pyanfar's voice cracked, utter weariness. She waved a hand. Hilfy wavered there on her feet in no better condition. It was madness. All of them were that tired. "What we do, niece, is what we're set to do, whatever we're set to do. Yes, we go into Kefk. I don't see we have much
 
choice. Debts are being called in. We don't doublecross Jik. Even Ehrran's going on this one. Don't ask me why. To spy, that's gods-rotted sure. For us, it's what I said. Debts. We got you out. Best I could do."

"We've got a kif on this ship."

"Not my choice."

"What is, lately?"

She did not believe for a moment she had heard that; and then her muscles moved, one convulsion that took her from the chair. And Hilfy backed up, stood there with her ears flattened and dismay on her face, as if she did not believe she had said it either.

Khym climbed from his chair; his ears were back; and that was trouble on two feet.

"How much territory do I give you?" Pyanfar asked. "What are you due, huh?" Down the corridor the lift doors had opened again. Chur and-gods-Tully both were on their way to the bridge, faster than either of them ought; while all about the bridge there was a dire silence, whisper of leather as crew turned in their chairs. "You got some particular recommendation, niece?"

"No." The word got out, finally. Chur and Tully arrived on the bridge, all but carrying each other at the last.

"Maybe you better go back on break," Pyanfar said. "We've got work to do."

"Gods rot it, aunt-"

"I got you out! Gods and thunders, Hilfy Chanur, you want to argue method with me?"

Tully pushed off from the counter edge-feckless, fever-crazy, wandering between two mad hani. But he stopped there wobbling back and forth with panic in his eyes.

So she understood then; and had a look at the way things had been among the kif. So all the crew did. Further things she did not want to surmise. Hilfy took Tully by the shoulders and carefully set him to the vacant side, where Khym was not, back in Chur's keeping.

There was deathly silence after that, with only the beep and flash of unliving things.

"Hilfy," Pyanfar said, and sank into her chair. "Hilfy-" -hearing those beeps and the chatter of incoming printout. "We're all tired. We're not up to this. Other ships have got other shifts, crew to spare-Geran, put a call over to Jik. Tell him fry his gods-rotted schedule; we're going offline. Hilfy: when we picked up Jik, he'd had a skirmish with the kif somewhere. He'd twisted Akkhtimakt's tail, right well. We don't know where Akkhtimakt is right now, but he wants our hides, no question of it. Sikkukkut swears it was Akkhtimakt's agents blew Kshshti docks to blazes and made a grab for you and Tully-"

"Does it matter which gods-rotted kif-"

"Shut up and listen. Sikkukkut grabbed you instead, for his own reasons. And it doesn't call for gratitude. Just common sense. Akkhtimakt's agents ran from Kshshti. They'll have gotten back to him; and that means we've got precious little time. Chances are there's one of Akkhtimakt's spotters hovering about Kshshti system. It's hard to find those kind of things till they transmit. And if that's the case he'll find out where we went the minute he skims through Kshshti system, he'll get the whole story of what happened there before he dumps speed, and gods help them if he stays to settle things with them. We don't think he will. We think he'll come for us non-stop. But we can't bet on that. We also have a report that earless stsho that just ran out of here took the Kefk route home, to spill everything gtst knows in the process, don't doubt it. We've got problems here, niece."

"We're within a one-jump of Maing Tol or Idunspol, for the gods' own sakes! What happened to getting Tully there? Where did that priority go?"

"With Banny Ayhar, from Kshshti. Prosperity couriered Tully's packet on, with a human-language translation tape, updated. If Banny didn't run into something, that packet's already at Maing Tol. Or will be." Her mind had trouble with trans-light figures, tired as she was. "We're faster than we were. And think of this-if you're so concerned for Tully's welfare. If we do take him to the mahendo'sat at Maing Tol, they'll grab him sure. Why'd you think I wouldn't give him to Jik out there? They'd lock him up and go at him till he's spilled everything. You want that for him, huh? Maybe he still knows something. Maybe I'm crazy not to get him off my hands; but I'm not doing that to him. It'd kill him, after this. Hear? They'd never let him loose."

"You were ready enough to turn him over at Kshshti!" Hilfy yelled, and over at her side there was a constant drone from the translating corn-unit at Tully's side. His eyes were dark and wide.

"That was before," Pyanfar said, "gods rot it, before the thing blew up, before we-"

"-ended up in debt. Admit it. He's for sale. He's expendable if it gets us out of hock. That's what you're holding out for! A better gods-be deal!"

"Mind your mouth, whelp!"

"Well, isn't it the truth?"

"Gods and thunders, no, it's not. Not-"-since that hall, she thought. Not since she went into a kifish stronghold after him. And had a look at how it was. "Not any more, it isn't."

"So we ally with them? Risk all our lives when we're within a one-jump of mahen space?"

"We got a debt. Like you said. And it's mahen space. Under mahen law. Mahen politics. You want to walk into it, throw ourselves on their charity? You want to gamble everything you got on someone else's priorities?"

"I thought we were falling-down grateful to our allies here. I thought it was debt. Them to us. Now it's something else."

"Maybe if I gods-be knew what it was, niece, I wouldn't be going along with this. Mahendo'sat go on status. You want Jik killed, do you? Want him to go-and what happens to his Personage then, and what happens to his friends, like Goldtooth and like us? We got interests in this. And they don't call for blind trust."

"We're not a warship, aunt!"

"No," she said. Her gut hurt. Missed meal? Missed sleep? Raw fear? "We're a trading ship without a cargo, in debt up to our noses, and the han deputy's got enough in her files to ruin us, the stsho at Meetpoint are bound to send their own complaint back to the han-I don't trust that bastard Stle stles stlen further than I can see him; and we got a kif loose who's got us down as number one target in the whole gods-forsaken universe. Akkhtimakt wants to be head kif over all the kif, and if he makes it you can make your own guess what our personal chances are. So you want to know why I take alliance with the mahendo'sat?"

"You don't think they'll let us have fair chance at any human trade. They'll double-deal us, they will, all our precious allies, first chance."