“What you think, I run out on you, leave you talk to kif? I on that damn dock myself!”
“You weren’t in the zone that blew! That’s by the gods close timing, Jik!”
“I not do!”
“Didn’t you? I think you knew with Chur sick I wasn’t free to run for it. That it’d kill her and I wouldn’t move if I had a chance in your coldest hell. Goldtooth gave us that med unit—fine, so I could run. You gave me that gods-be packet back at Mkks before we knew we’d find him here—you gave it in case something happened to you, a packet we’d have to take to mahen authorities. And what does it talk about? People reneging on agreements, that’s what; it talks about contingencies, talks about supporting some candidacy—whose? Sikkukkut’s? What agreements?”
“Sikkukkut. Same. You know agreement.”
“You’re lying, Jik. By the gods, you show up at Kshshti and help me out of one mess, then you help me all the way here, deeper and deeper you helped me, you and your godsforsaken partner, you and your gods-be deals—”
“I come out on that dock save you damn neck!”
“Where were you planning to ditch us? Where, huh? Here? Or later, at Meetpoint? Where was it I was supposed to find this gods-be packet was the only currency I had, where was I supposed to go? Kshshti? Back through kif territory, get my ship and my crew shot up one more time, end up on mahen charity because there’s no gods-be help else when you’ve got through using me and mine for every gods-be gods-rotted piece of mahen politics you’ve got going? Or maybe I get to Meetpoint and find you’ll drop me to politic with the stsho to save them from the kif—some mahen squeeze play, throw one kif at them from Kefk, another from Kita and Kshshti, catch them between your ships and the humans and haul the whole gods-be Compact into your lap, with me and the han left the way you left us the last time, out in the cold with our ships shot up, our station in ruins, and nothing this time to do but come crawling to your gods-be charity! Is that the way your favors go? Am I what you think you’re buying with this little packet that tells your authorities how to deal with me?”
“I not do!” Jik fell back from a convulsive shout, breathing hard, and they stared at each other for a moment.
“Then who’s this Ghost? What’s the rest of it?”
Silence. Jik only stared and breathed.
“It’s another doublecross. Isn’t it? They’ve threatened my world, you hear me?”
He blinked. That was all.
“Gods rot you—” She snatched the paper from her pocket and waved it in his face. “What’s this thing mean? What’s this gods-be message worth if the humans doublecross you?” And when his mouth only clamped the tighter: “Jik—”
“My nose itch, Pyanfar.” Quietly. With full self-possession. And when she lost the breath to shout with: “Damn miserable, Pyanfar, damn ridic’lous situation, you and me. You come get me. Now what we do? What you think do?”
She took the paper and folded it, absorbed in that meticulous task.
“You got too good heart deal with kif,” Jik said.
“What’s our choice? What gods-be choice have we got? Your whole plan’s blown up, we’ve got the Compact coming apart around our ears—”
“Same you, me, a?” He made a grimace, blinked sweat and strained to see her. “What we do, a? How far we want go, you, me?”
“I don’t know.” She shoved the message into her pocket and leaned into his view, close, ears flat and a shaking in her knees. “How far do I go, huh, Jik? How far’d you go? This mess you put in motion is threatening to take my world out. We talk about friendship now? We talk about what you’d do in mahendo’sat interests? About two mahen bastards who’d doublecross every friend they got, all for the Personage?”
“You want try drug next?”
“Don’t push me.”
“What we got, huh? Damn Anuurn hani sit and wait, good friend? You longtime got mind like rock, Pyanfar, whole damn han got own interest, let mahendo’sat fight kif pirate, let mahe do, hani too damn busy make politic—”
“Why blame us? You created the han, take the poor hani bastards, teach ’em spaceflight, shove ’em into your own gods-rotted politics with the stsho, and to a mahen hell with the clans—”
“What you want? Sit on world, be sit there when politic in the Compact roll over you heads like wave in the sea? Be sit there when kif eat our heart and come find hani? Maybe all time you like sit on world, Pyanfar, maybe you get old, want go sit in damn dirt and wait for kif?”
“So what d’we get? The kif or you?”
“You got choice.”
“Gods blast you!”
“If we want you damn world, Pyanfar, we one time got, first time we land on Anuurn you got nothing but point’ sticks. You forget? You ask us leave, we go.”
“Sure, you went. You never turned loose of us. Manipulate our trade, shape our government, let us here and let us there and don’t let us get beyond ourselves—”
“Fine. You make fine deal. Maybe you like kif lot better. Wish you luck, Pyanfar. Or you got trust me—”
“Trust you!”
“Damn, you come, I crazy drunk, talk kif, you say; I do, I do, Pyanfar, I got so much trust in you, I do. All diff’rent, you say; got human louse things up, got bad trouble—’Talk, Jik: tell the kif what he want, I get you out—’ God! what kind fool I be with trust?”
“I should let you loose on my ship? Let you loose with my crew? Jik, I got you out of there. I did that for you. If you trusted me you’d tell me what’s in this paper, but you won’t do that. You can’t do that, and I know why, like you know why I don’t dare let you go. I’ve got to survive. I have to stay alive in this gods-rotted mess you handed me. I’ve got to hold a position where I can still do something. You understand me? I’m going to do something.”
“I tell you paper.” Jik’s voice came faintly, almost inaudible. “You know mahendo’sat—know I got power to make agreement for my Personage. I make now—with you. With hani.”
“Same as you make with Sikkukkut, huh? Same as you make with Akkhtimakt and set them at each other’s throats.”
“Same I keep. Same I give him Kefk, same I fight with. You same know mahendo’sat. I keep agreement. I don’t say Personage keep. But—” Jik blinked again and licked his lips, eyes lively as if he had already won his point. “—if you get this kif, we got deal with you fair, a?”
“Tell me the paper.”
“Let go first.”
“Oh, no, friend. You listen to me. You listen good. We’re going out of here, going to come kiting blind into whatever you set up over at Meetpoint, and Kesurinan’s going in there on my directions. It’s your ship. Your crew. I’d think you’d be a little concerned.”
“Damn kif heart, you got kif heart, Pyanfar.”
“I got a hani one, same as you’re working for your own.” She laid her hand on his shoulder, even knowing it was unwelcome. “Listen, you bastard, you and I had rather deal with each other. I take your agreement. I’ll sleep with your gods-be Personage if it gets us out of this, but the first thing I got to do is get us into Meetpoint in one piece. And I want those code names and I want every gods-rotted thing you’ve been holding out on me. Right up front, I want to know what’s in that message, and what kind of a deal you and Goldtooth have already made.”
He shut his eyes, blinked at the sweat. “Paper say—most this you got to know already: the stsho betray us; the human maybe ally; hani—hani not reliable; I make deal with Sikkukkut to make him hakkikt, I got also deal with tc’a—Pyanfar, you say this wrong ear, you blow Compact to hell.”
“That’s real fine. What of it we’ve got left. Keep talking.”
“Tc’a long time take knnn orders: why they change now. I don’t know. Got some crazy input from chi, damn lunatic chi got notion want go out from Chchchcho, want expand—”
“You mean the chi are pushing the knnn? Good gods, those—”
“Not sure. Maybe tc’a idea. Methane-breather be lot crazy. But knnn—w
e not be sure, think maybe knnn got eye on chi. Also human got lot planetaries, got lot thing knnn want, maybe; also got humanity, number one problem. Long time problem. Stir up kif. Stir up methane-folk. Big trouble. You not know.”
“The Akkukkak business?”
“Before Akkukkak.” Jik explored a cut on his lip with his tongue and drew a deep breath. “Old hakkiktun be small stuff; lot little hakkiktun be lousy neighbor, lot trouble, steal you cargo, do little pirate stuff, easy we keep lanes clear—few hunter-ship take care these bastard number one good. Then we get fellow name Afkkek, nasty lot trouble. He go down, we get ’nother, name Gotukkun. He got own authority, take what belong Afkkek too. After Gotukkun be Sakkfikktin. Kasotuk. Nifekekkin. Each more big.”
“Each adding his own followers to what he’d taken.”
“You got. Long time kif be fight at Akkht, lot internal stuff. Long time we know kif got more big and more big hakkikt. So we try—try push hakkiktun make difficulty with methane-folk. Sometime work good. Now—we got mistake. Big mistake. We been get human signal, longtime.”
“You asked them in? Gods blast—!”
“Not ask. We try take quiet look, see what be this kind. Lose ship. Lose two ship, we think be knnn, maybe kif take those ship. Maybe knnn same time got curiosity ’bout humanity. I think, me, I think Akkukkak set up trap, bring human, take. But we not know this: he be dead; maybe no one know.”
“Of course you didn’t share this information with anyone.”
“Who we tell? Stsho? Han? You got Tully. We don’t know what else you got. We don’t know what he tell you—I tell you, Pyanfar, you come mahen station, bring human—you trust us damn too much. ’Cept we be friend, a? We don’t tell you all thing we know. But we fight with you keep kif off Anuurn. Lot thing then we don’t know. We got find out. You know when Tully ’scape kif? Lot time kif operate at Meetpoint, make trade with stsho. They got Akkukkak, got couple kif be rival—lot trouble with kif. Ana try—not know what that ship got; he know one kif ship chase ’nother, Akkukkak come there ’cause he got no safe route else. Then he not be real happy find my partner Ana come in port. He ’fraid stay, got other kif; ’fraid go, ’fraid Ana get on his tail, he got tail in vise number one good. So he sit at dock. He so damn busy watch Ana he forget watch other kif. One kif inside ship make snatch Tully; Tully run like hell down dock—you got rest. Now Ana lot worry, not know what this be, not know if this be species we know about, or be something lot different. He try find Tully. Kif try find. Tully go you ship and start damn lot trouble. Now you got stsho go crazy, all scare’ ’bout knnn, scare’ ’bout humans come, damn mad ’bout you damage station— Mahendo’sat work hard, bribe lot stsho, make so hani come back to Meetpoint. We need hani. Need balance with kif, damn sure stsho no good, tc’a and knnn lot disturb. We get hani back to Meetpoint, go try make careful new contact with humanity, try find out what they be, how big, what they minds be like—find out what knnn want.”
“And the kif took offense at it.”
“Kif damn busy big fight on Akkht. We know we got worry ’nother hakkikt grow up; so we got make opposition, hit here, hit there, try make lot little hakkiktun. Then we got Sikkukkut. My mistake. Sikkukkut.”
“Who already had his hands into Akkhtimakt’s organization. He got that ring, Jik, that ring Tully has on his hand. He got it from a human prisoner in Akkhtimakt’s hands—Sikkukkut was already poised with his spies and his organization before we ever got to Kshshti, before you dealt with him at Mkks. This wasn’t a little provincial boss we were dealing with, this was a kif already on his way to being what he is. Sikkukkut knows humans. He was Akkukkak’s interrogator, he killed all of Tully’s crew except the one Tully killed himself, when it got that bad, Jik, and you know better than I do what it could get to. This is the gods-be kifish expert on humanity we’re dealing with, and if kif have anything like a security organization, I’m guessing some of Akkukkak’s old staff that got swept up into Akkhtimakt’s organization—never were Akkhtimakt’s. They were Sikkukkut’s partisans all along. Am I wrong?”
Jik stared at her. “You got damn good ears.”
“I’m an old trader and I know how to add. You knew this. You knew some of it; and you went right ahead and you promoted this kif of yours at every step. The wrong gods-be kif. I didn’t see it. You didn’t see it till Kefk. Jik, I could take this dock out. I could stop this one. And that still leaves Akkhtimakt—”
“Same damn bastard. I be right, Pyanfar, still be right ’bout that one. Akkhtimakt got no bottom. Swallow everything. Sikkukkut—want use everything. Ana—Ana got this idea he use human for break the kif. But if they got motive—”
“Tully’s got no reason to lie. They’re big, Jik. You’re not dealing with one human government. There’s their homeworld, but there’s two other powers. Tully’s from their homeworld. It’s fighting the other two and it wants to beat them—you tell me how. They’ve shot at the knnn. The knnn are putting up with it for reasons the gods and the knnn only know; we’ve got one human planet out there at odds with every other human in space, and there’s gods know how many worlds the other side of their homestar from us. Their homeworld is cut off, isolate, having bloodfeud with its own outposts—what in the gods’ name can you imagine we’re dealing with? What’s this lot after, when they’ve got a dozen worlds in the other direction and all of them are shooting at each other?”
“Tully say this?”
“By bits and pieces. Yes. That’s what he’s told me. We’ve just got the tail of the creature. When it turns around—”
“God.”
“If you and your earless Personage had told the same truth twice in a day we might not be in this mess. You understand me?”
“If we not got damn hani traitor, if we not got the han screw up—we both got damn fools, Pyanfar, both kind. We got be fools too? Let me go. You got one of you crew sick. You want damn good pilot, you want me sit boards, you got. You want chain me to damn chair, you got. Pyanfar. I don’t want lie down here in dark!”
She stood there on yea and nay, reached as far as the release and took her hand back. “Agreement?”
“You got.”
She pulled the first release; and the second.
And stood there remembering the power there was in a mahen arm. And the wit there was in this mahendo’sat, and all his twists and turns: make a simple move against her he would not—until it was profitable.
Fool, a small voice said, while Jik slowly lifted his hands to his face and wiped the sweat, while he groped for the edge of the table and gave every indication of weakness and disorientation. He looked apt to pitch onto his face. She made a grab for him and steadied him as he got his feet over the edge and sat there blinking and grimacing as if his head hurt considerably. He put a hand up to his brow, wiped his eyes and looked at her.
As well admit Skkukuk to the bridge during jump. Much rather admit Skkukuk—who was on their side.
Of all the things I’ve done, she thought to herself, staring into Jik’s alien eyes, this is the one I’ll deserve to die for. I know I’m making a mistake. I’m wrong. I’m going to foul up and the kif’ll launch that ship, that ship no one can stop and no one can catch, and there won’t be hani left except those of us who happen to be in space, that the kif will hunt down one by one. All because there’s this chance that we need him, and Tully, and that gods-be kif who thinks I’m his ticket to kifish glory; because I’m an old fool of a hani who’s been out in the dark too long and I can’t shake it off and think clear of it any longer.
“Pyanfar,” he said gently, “you be damn bastard.”
“Got you out, didn’t I?”
“You got.”
“You know you’re not sitting a post on this ship.”
“What you want?” He held out his hands together. “Chain to chair? Do! I want be on bridge. Want talk to my ship. Want hear my ship.”
“Hear them, I’ll give you.”
Fool, Pyanfar. This isn’t Anuurn. He isn’t hani
. Parole means nothing to him weighed against his orders.
And how do I treat him like this and trust him again, ever?
“Agreement, Jik. You put this one in my hands. You stay on the bridge, but you keep your mouth shut and you keep your hands off controls.”
He turned his hands, showed blunt mahen claws which nature had never made retractable, or fine enough for the smaller controls on hani boards; and they were broken and bloody, the fingertips swollen and coated with plasm from Tirun’s caretaking: it was sure the kif had done no good for them.
She felt a cold shiver inside, a sympathetic twitch of her own claws in their retractile sheaths. But she set her face all the same. “Is that all the answer I get? Or do you give me those codewords and give us some honest help?”
He looked at her straight from under his dark brow, a hard glitter in his eyes. “I do, Pyanfar. Now you got believe what I say, a?”
Chapter 4
I am writing this in haste at Mkks. Do not hold or compromise this courier. Present crisis compels me to clarify the actions which I have taken in support of Ismehanan-min, since his lines of operation have crossed mine. I trust his report has reached you, but have placed a duplicate in the care of the Personage at Kshshti should the courier have failed. Since Stle stles stlen is not holding to treaty agreements both Ismehanan-min and I are taking measures to support other candidates and to prevent replacement of mahen personnel with hani. Here at Mkks we have retrieved all hostages and have suffered no damage at present. We are requested by Sikkukkut to add support to his candidacy by moving on Kefk. I am not apprised of Ismehanan-min’s whereabouts and do not speculate. I advance on Meetpoint by that route. All reports from tc’a sources indicate that Stle stles stlen is proceeding as in the previous report, and reports from our contact inside stsho space are not encouraging. . . .
Tc’a contacts report knnn agitation in urgent terms. . . .
I have given Ehrran a false packet. Evidently this is a stsho agent and I dispense only disinformation into this outlet. Her willingness to participate I am certain is only a means to gather information on our activities which I am sure she has gained through stsho contacts of her own and which she has twice attempted to relay through furtive contact with stsho agents, some of which have eluded the net. Our movements are reported through an efficient system of couriers and I maintain a close watch over Ehrran’s transmissions.