Chanur’s Homecoming by CJ Cherryh

Braking continued. Fighting diminished. There were still casualties. Solid mass became drifting clouds. Scan attempted to track misaimed projectile-fire and confused itself with the sheer magnitude of the problem till Geran gave it a Disregard on non-intersect-potentials.

They reached lower and lower V. “Take it,” Pyanfar said, and Haral slewed The Pride around to use the mains on acquisition in a new vector.

Headed for Anuurn.

Vid came up. Haral had been too busy for that till now. The homestar, Ahr, shone brilliant yellow. Lifebearer. Hearthfire to the species. And the paler, nearer light that was Anuurn.

Home again.

With a straggle of battered, stress-damaged merchant ships slewing about in disordered break out of the rigid formation they had kept so long and so far, Harun and little Faha, Pauran, and last and limping, Shaurnurn, reporting damages, talking to each other over com.

“This is Sirany Tauran.” Sirany had gotten herself an output channel. “Affirmative on the linkup, inquiry affirmative, all ships. They’re all right. Chanur’s clean and clear. Thank the gods.”

“Gods look on us all. Here and otherwise.” Harun was talking, Harun always the leader in that group.

“We’ve got that,” Faha said, and other acknowledgments came in.

While the slaughter went on, while a hard burn shoved at them and made breathing difficult, and a lightspeed message proliferated through ship relays.

“We’ve got contact with Gaohn,” Hilfy said. “They ask for a report.”

“They know by now,” Pyanfar muttered. “But answer them. Send: The Pride of Chanur to Gaohn. We claim navigational priority. Clan business. End message. Put a call through to Kohan. Ask him how things are down there.”

On Anuurn. At home. On that small shining sphere in all the wide dark.

It would take a long time. Question and answer went slow at this range. Conversations were all one-sided.

“Where in a mahen hell is Vigilance! Did we pick up Ehrran’s ID anywhere?”

“Affirmative. Affirmative,” Geran said, all business. “Five ships are putting out from Gaohn. We got a pickup on Ehrran. They’re moving now. Make that six ships. They’re not talking.”

“I’ll bet she’s not. Where’s Ayhar? Gods rot it, where’s Banny Ayhar and Prosperity!”

The burn stopped. Her vision cleared, her voice no longer had to force its way out of her throat. A wave of giddiness came on her. Depletion. Fight-flight reflexes let go and the body had dues to pay. She clamped her jaws against nausea and fumbled after a packet, dropped one and got another. Bit down on it and swallowed and swallowed, which was the only thing else she could do but retch. Going to faint. O gods. I don’t do this. “Haral-Sirany. I’m not-”

“Cap’n? Cap’n?”

She drifted. Lay still under a ceiling which was not the overhead of the bridge. Blinked at it and at Khym’s anxious face.

“You fainted,” he said.

“Gods rot.” She drew her hands up to locate her head, which seemed drifting loose and all fuzzed. “Who’s running the ship?”

Ker Sirany. We’re inbound for Gaohn. It’s all right, Py. We did it.”

“Jik. …”

“The kif jumped, such as could. A lot surrendered. They’ve attached to the other kif. To Chakkuf. Skkukuk’s been talking to them, telling them- Hilfy says-that they’ll do well to hold still.”

“Where’s Jik?” Fear set her heart to hammering. “Did he jump, gods rot it, did he jump out?”

“We aren’t tracking him. It got- pretty confused, Py. Not Geran’s fault. Sirany says so. We-lost some ships. His ID just cut out.”

“He’s lying. Gods-be, that bastard’s pulling another one.” There was an obstruction in her throat. She wanted to break something. Anything. There was dark around her vision, a pain all through her gut. ”We need him.” All quiet and hard to get past that knot. Oh, Jik, Jik. Another gods-be doublecross.

What do I do now? What am I going to do?

“Cap’n?”

It was not a voice she expected to hear. Not loose and wandering around in places like her cabin. She lifted her spinning head and looked at the worn, wan hani clinging to the doorframe. “Chur? F’godssakes-”

“I’m doing all right,” Chur said.

“Huh,” she said. “Huh.” And fell back into the pillows. It was all she could manage at the moment. The whole cabin was going into slow rotation. It felt like tricks with the G force, a little acceleration this way and that way, but if she asked was that going on she would look the fool. It was her head. Her equilibrium.

Pages: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184

Leave a Reply 0

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *