Chanur’s Homecoming by CJ Cherryh

“Fancy stuff,” Sirany said, still sitting., “Mahen-make. Real fancy. That comp’s a wonder.”

What’d you pay for it, Chanur? What buys equipment like this, state of the art, class one stuff, when Chanur’s broke and bankrupt and all space knows it?

What’s this we hear about you and mahendo’sat and the Meetpoint stsho?

Before we go to sleep again-what kind of ship are we on?

“We got our tail shot up. Emergency patch at Kshshti. The mahendo’sat wanted us out of there real bad. It’s this passenger of ours.”

“The kif or the human or the mahendo’sat?”

Pushing hard now. Her pulse hammered and her ears flattened as Sirany turned in her seat to look up at her.

Out in the dark places too long, maybe, Chanur?

“I’ll argue that in the han,” Pyanfar said. “But our records are unlocked. Had a look, have you?”

“I’ve been busy,” Sirany said. “Real busy.” Her ears were flat. “Interesting stuff. But the important thing’s still to get home, isn’t it? We do it your way. Your rules. You want that kif in on com, that’s fine. We got two more jumps to go. You want us to bed down with the gods-be kif, if you want to vouch for his manners, I’ll take your word on it.”

“Listen. I mean this. Don’t expect him to be hani. He’ll take your hand off if he thinks you’re pushing me. Tully’s quieter, but he’s scared of you and he’s got troubles youdon’t know about; let him be. And my husband-let me tell you, ker Sirany, since you’ve said not a word on it, let me tell you: my husband’s steady as anybody at the boards, and gods help him, you won’t shock him, not after this trip, he knows what ship life is; he knows how to take orders, and you don’t have to worry about him. Or Tully. They work together in galley. No problem with tempers. They like each other.”

Sirany’s ears went down and struggled bravely erect. “I saw the ring.”

“Didn’t win it in a fight. Won it sitting the boards doing his job while Haral Araun had her finger on a destruct button. And he’ll take your orders, or mine, or any senior’s. That’s how it is. I want your help, ker Sirany. It’s good we’ve got someone aboard who doubts us. And every word in that log is true. You understand me?”

Sirany’s ears went half-flat. White showed at the corners of her eyes and her jaw was hard. Then the ears came up. “We’ll worry about that when we’re through this alive.”

“I’m fighting for the han. They’ll call me a traitor. They’ll put that on my tomb if I get one. You understand me yet? It’s one thing to be a gods-be hero. If we get through this alive, I want someone, I want one hani else to know this crew’s not what they’ll say we are.”

Fear showed in Sirany’s face. Undisguised. “What do you want, company?”

“I want your influence. We got two fights. One’s in space. The other’s with that fool Ehrran and all her ilk. The han tucks its collective head down and the kif have got the axe hanging over it. You hear me, Tauran? I’ll do whatever I have to. If you see what I see, you’ll be with me. Whatever else you think about me.”

“You’re a lunatic!”

“I’m doing something. What in a mahen hell has the han done right lately? What has anybody done about it?” A claw popped through the seat-leather as her hand clenched tighter. A second. “Tauran, how long do you think we can sit still while the Compact’s blown to a mahen hell? Humanity’s coming in on us. Mahendo’sat’ve done something stupid, they’ve done something that’s touched off humans and got something started that they don’t understand and I’m not sure the humans do: Tully’s witness to that, and he warned us. Jik’s tried to do something to save us all, and it’s cost him. He at least knows his people’ve been fools. Like the stsho. Like hani. And the kif. And maybe the tc’a, gods save us. And even the humans may know by now. Most of ’em are fools by doing something. Ehrran just got us a brand-new treaty with the stsho, did you know that? And look where they are. Look what we’re into. The kif just took ’em. We got kif backing into hani space. We got Kura not answering here. We got Akkhtimakt in such a mess that hani space is the only thing left he can get to, because ^Sikkukkut’s sent out ships to every jump-point in reach and blocked his other routes. Meanwhile there’s a major mahendo’sat push coming down out of Kshshti, which if Akkhtimakt’s spies are worth anything, he knows and Sikkukkut doesn’t-he’s been at Kita and up by Kshshti. That bastard’s going to let Sikkukkut take the hit from the mahendo’sat while he pulls off into hani space and conies up again at the mahen underbelly, straight up at Iji. You know the mahendo’sat, you know they’ll fragment if the Personage goes out. They won’t have a defense. And humanity’s going to be right in the middle of mahen territory with a whole lot of ships, ships that can jump short, just like our friends the mahendo’sat and just like the kif, ships that can shorten the time between strikes like nothing we want to imagine. But we won’t worry about it. We’ll be lucky to have a world left. And we’ll belong to whoever wins. With nothing to say about it. If we survive at nil. We got one of our men in space. One, and you know how safe this ship is, with half the kif in the universe hunting us and the other half about to. The whole rest of our species is on Anuurn. And it takes one big rock, Sirany Tauran, one C-charged rock, and we’re all widows and brotherless. Forever. You hear me? You know what I’m saying?”

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