Seats moved, restraints clicked open. Everyone was in motion, Haral as well. Pyanfar turned her own chair and stopped. Jik still sat in his place, staring at the screens. Tirun was beside him, keeping her station. And Tully, though Hilfy had him by the elbow, lingered with a confused and sorrowful look toward the boards. Toward-gods knew, his own people starting off in retreat with Goldtooth, leaving him behind, perhaps forever, who knew? It was not a time to say anything. Pyanfar stared their way till Hilfy prevailed and they went out the door.
“Haral,” she said. “Take the long break. Tirun, board to you, you go off when we get to final. Sorry about it.”
“Got it,” Tirun said hoarsely. ‘I’m fine, captain.”
That left Jik to deal with. Khym had lingered in the corridor. She saw him standing down near Chur’s door, looking back toward the bridge.
In case.
“Haral,” she said in deepest and most impenetrable hani: “You want to bring me up a sedative. Something our guest can take. If we have to do that.”
“Aye, captain,” Haral said.
“I’ll be in galley.”
She wanted to be clean. She wanted to go back to her cabin and run herself under the shower. The whole bridge smelled like ammonia and hani and human and mahen sweat, an aroma even the fans did not totally disperse. But there was no time for that. It was far from over.
Even on this deck.
“Get me up,” Chur said, with a move of an aching arm. “O gods, prop this gods-be bed up. I’m a mess.”
“That’s all right.” Geran sat down on the bedside and checked the implanted tubes with a quick glance, bit a hole in the packet she had brought and offered it to Chur. “Take this and you get the bed propped up.”
“Unnhhn.” The very thought hit her stomach and lay there indigestible. “Prop it first.”
“You promise.”
“Gods rot you, I’ll rip your ears.” Geran touched a control and the bed inclined upward. Chur flexed her legs and shifted her weight and grimaced in pain as the arm with the implants shifted down. But Geran, relentless, got an arm behind Chur’s head and held the packet where she could drink.
It hit her stomach the way she had feared. “Enough,” she said, “enough.” And Geran had the sense to quit and just let her lie there drifting a moment, in that place she had discovered where the pain was not so bad. “Where’s the shooting?” she asked finally.
“Hey, we ducked out of it.”
Chur lay there a moment adding that up and rolled her head over where she could look at her sister, one long stare. “Where’d we duck to? Huh?”
“Kif are about to chew each other to rags about fifteen minutes off. We’re headed to station for R & R. Maybe I’ll buy you a drink, huh?”
“We take damage?” She recalled a lurch, like the thrust of the mains from the wrong angle . . . impossible to happen. Recalled a long hard acceleration, till the machine put her out cold. “Geran, what’s the straight of it?”
“That is the straight of it. We’re in one piece, we’re going into station while the kif work it out. That’s all.” Too gods-be cheerful, Geran. Whole lot too cheerful. “Give me the truth,” Chur said. “That’s a gods-be dumb move. Sit at dock. Who knows what could come in? Huh? What’s going on?”
“You want to try something solid?”
“No,” she said flatly. And lay there breathing a moment, and turned her face toward Geran’s stricken silence. Gods, the pain in Geran’s face. “But I have to, don’t I?” Her stomach rebelled at the thought. “Bit of soup, maybe. Nothing heavy. Don’t push me, huh?”
“Sure,” Geran said. Her ears had pricked up at once. Her eyes shone like a grateful child’s. “You want the rest of this?”
O gods. Don’t let me be sick. “Soup,” she said, and clamped her jaws and tried not to think about it. “I rest, huh?”
“You rest,” Geran said.
She shut her eyes, turning it all off.
You’re still lying, Geran. But she did not have strength to face whatever it was Geran was lying about. She hoped not to discover. Her world limited itself to the pains in her joints and the misery of her arm and her back. The world could be right again if she could keep her stomach quiet and ease the pain a little. She just wanted not to throw up her guts again, and any problem more than that was more than she could carry.