questions. Gods know. Tully said the delegation was vexed that Goldtooth
wouldn’t talk to them; just to him. And Goldtooth took him aboard alone, Ijir
went for Maing Tol, Goldtooth went gods know where, and meanwhile our papers
miraculously got cleared, when stsho had refused us for months, and Goldtooth
and we together ended up at Meetpoint.”
“So did the han,” Hilfy said, and Pyanfar looked her way and blinked. The
thought leapt to her mind too, two points connecting.
“Stle stles stlen.”
“The stationmaster?” Haral asked, hoarse and fatigued, but her ears pricked
sharp.
“Might well be. The han called for consultation; our papers bought back by one
side or the other — Someone wanted us in this. Feels like mahendo’sat. Feels
like Goldtooth himself. We’re his Known Quantity. But so’s Stle stles stlen.
Theoretically. I wouldn’t lay odds on anything right now. Someone got things
moving. Gods know the stsho took our money to clear those papers, but maybe they
took everyone’s, who knows?”
“Gods-rotted situation,” Haral muttered.
“Twice over if Ehrran’s in it,” Tirun said.
“Where’s Goldtooth headed?” Hilfy asked.
“I asked Tully that. He doesn’t know. He says. Likely he doesn’t.”
“He came through here,” Haral said. “Kura? Kita? — Kshshti-bound?”
“We think he came through here,” Tirun said. Her voice cracked. “I’d not lay
odds anything’s right-side up with that son.”
“Bait-and-switch,” Pyanfar said. “Gods-rotted mahe’s slippery as a kif. No, I
don’t swear that message wasn’t put in before he got to Meet-point. Or by some
outbound agent. Alarm’s being rung down from Meetpoint to Urtur to Kshshti,
that’s what, and we may just think we’re the wavefront.”
“That knnn at Meetpoint–” Tirun said. “Not forgetting that.”
“We can’t do anything about it. Except get out of here.”
“And stay in one piece,” Haral muttered. “Kshshti’s a long jump.”
“We can make it. Even if we blow that vane. Distance may blow it, but it’ll help
us too: we’ll come in with marginal V. We can stop, at worst. At best, it wasn’t
the Y unit and the vane will hold all the way.”
“It may and it may not,” Tirun said. “If it’s that. One of those goes ghosty,
gods, you don’t know whether you’ve got it or not. Ever. It could hold to
Kshshti and we could lose it at Maing Tol when we’ve got higher V.”
“One thing I want you to do. Put that whole vane over to backup from the board
up. In case we’ve got a ghost in another unit. Let’s just clear all the original
systems. Can you do that in four hours?”
“Can,” Tirun said.
“Not you. You get some sleep.”
“I’ll get it,” Haral said.
“We give up that Y-unit to third redundancy?” Tirun asked. “Could have damaged
it when that regulator went backup. If that’s sour it’ll sure take that linkage
out.”
She thought about it. Thought about going no-backup-at-all, which was how
desperate it was.
“No,” she said. “I’ll dice with the number two. What we’ve got aboard-if nothing
else-we can’t risk on that kind of throw. It’ll get us there with something
left. That’s all we dare try.”
“What have we got aboard?” Tirun asked.
“Message from humanity to Maing Tol and Iji. Translator. Message from Goldtooth
to his Personage. Gods know what that is. About the knnn — most likely.” She
drew a deep breath and considered the chance it involved the hem. Alliances.
Doublecrosses. “All systems to number two and we jump to Kshshti on schedule.
Tell Chur and Geran what we’re doing when they come on duty.”
“Not the menfolk?”
“Gods, don’t worry them. Tell them we fixed it all.”
“What–” Hilfy asked ever so quietly, “what about Tully if we go lame at
Kshshti? We’ll be stuck at dock. Gods know the kif–”
“What we do, imp — We get ourselves to Kshshti and whatever happens, by the
gods, we put him in mahen hands. Let them worry about him. Hear? They’ve got two
hunter-ships to their account. Let them take it.” She stood up again. “Get some
rest. All of you this time.”
“Aye,” Tirun murmured in what of a voice she had left. Hilfy stared at her