“We got other word,” Haral said, and braced her back, setting her down with both hands. Held onto her. “Rhean sent on com-says Chanur’s fallen. Kohan’s exiled. Mahn’s got the estate. Rhean’s broken with the blockade out there. She and Anfy- coming in hard behind us with Fortune and Light. Pyruun-Pyrunn got Kohan to safety somewhere. They swear that. So it’s not all lost onworld, and we got help on the way if we just hold and wait. Sirany’s up there trying to keep the thing from blowing to a-”
“Mahn.” She shook her head, blinked. Tried to focus on it. “My godsrotted conniving son?”
“Our godsrotted conniving son,” Khym said at her back, his voice a low rumble. “And our twice conniving daughter.”
“With Ehrran!”
“With their own interests, Py, when were they ever anything wider?”
“Gods. Gods!” She flung off Haral’s hands and slapped Khym’s interference aside. Hit the floor with both feet wide and swayed there till she had shaken the fog out of her eyes. Then she headed for the door.
The corridor.
The bridge, where Tauran crew filled the seats.
“Give me com,” she snarled, coming up over Sif Tauran’s shoulder. Sif hesitated, throwing a startled glance her way.
“Captain-”
“Give it to her,” Sirany said. “Ker Pyanfar, I’ll give you your chair.”
“Keep it. We got troubles.” She slipped into the vacant post between Sif and Fiar. “Get me Gaohn station. Are armaments still live?”
“We’re shut down, captain.” Nasany Tauran, down at Tirun’s post. “Reactivate?”
“Do it.” The com light signaled available and she punched in on the frequency.
“Pride of Chanur hailing the station,” Sif was saying. Trying to raise a response. Another light was blinking, another channel active. Sif punched it in, on a momentary pause. “That’s a call from Vigilance, captain. They advise us we’re under arrest.”
“Tell Ehrran there’s a threat to Gaohn and we’re not it. Standby. That’s all.”
The message went.
“Gaohn station,” she said on her own. “This is Pyanfar Chanur, The Pride of Chanur. Stand by to record and relay.” Gaohn was hearing: that was beyond doubt: every official on that vulnerable and threatened station would be prioritied onto their transmissions. “Llun, you’ve just seen the first and smallest wave of our assault on Akkhtimakt’s ships. The next one is incoming. Naur, there’s no time for your politics. Your treaty with the stsho may have destroyed the whole species, hear me? Your relations with the mahendo’sat are tottering. Attack on our own world is possible and imminent. It is possible that no life will survive on Anuurn surface. I appeal
to you, I beg you, anyone who can get their menfolk offworld right now, do it, get us a chance, for the gods’ own sake, get to shuttles and get to shelters. There are still three large groups of ships unaccounted for and one of them has threatened attack on Anuurn itself.”
Static. Sputter. “Pyanfar Chanur, retreat from this course.”
“Is that Ehrran? Gods rot you, is that Rhif Ehrran?”
Static and squeal. “This is Rhif Ehrran, Chanur. Take your kif and go deal with your owner.”
“Is that what you’re going to tell the next attack that comes rolling in here? Are you going to arrest it? You absolute and total lunatic, get that ship out there on Kura-incoming where it can do some good and stay out of my way before I blow you out of space! Deny my crew medical attention! Turn tail and run at Kefk! What do you write in those gods-be reports of yours? By the gods nowhere near not the whole story, not the part where you take stsho bribes and connive with the kif against the han! Get that ship out where it belongs!”
No response. From anyone. Not Ehrran, not Gaohn Station. Not from Anuurn itself, while lagtime ran on.
“They’re Immune,” Sirany said, a low voice from her other side. “You’re challenging an Immune, Chanur.”
“Arm. Target.”
“Ker Pyanfar, they’re hani!”
“They’ve arrested Banny Ayhar. They’ve arrested the courier that just risked her by the gods neck and Ayhar clan’s whole livelihood getting word to the mahendo’sat and getting word back here again, bringing back the captains and the crews from Maing Tol all the way home-Where do you think those ships out there with the mahendo’sat came from? They’ve swept in out of mahen space, that’s where! With the mahendo’sat! We got the gods-be hakkikt coming in here, we got this blackbreeched prig quoting rules from Naur and all their godscursed pets downworld-“