An air of competency, of hauteur, of willingness to take extreme action … with the firepower to back it up: those were assets; while generosity was the gesture of a superior to a servant; kindness fell in the same category; and loyalty lasted as long as a leader had sfik intact.
Courage? Fierceness in a fight was a plus. But so was deviousness. Self-preservation was the highest virtue, and risking one’s neck could be self-preservation—if it demonstrated an arrogant competency to potential rivals.
A whole other universe, Hilfy thought to herself, a very solitary, dark, and aggressive universe. You could do anything you could carry off with style—or at least with sufficient firepower on your side. That counted.
Come to Kefk, Vikktakkht had insisted, certainly aware that she had been a prisoner among his kind, and perhaps, as many kif were surprisingly educated, aware that hani minds, prone to emotional might-have-beens and what-ifs entirely alien to his species, might come adrift from what was, and wander into delusion …
Vikktakkht might hope for that.
But there was a benefit to fluency in other languages. She could think in kifish: see things from kifish perspective—and, so doing, feel the shift in her heartbeat, the change from twice a month hunter to hair-triggered, hard-wired round the clock predator.
If they expected her to have balked at corning here— not likely.
To panic at being here—she had yet to reach that state.
Here I am, na kif. What am I thinking? What will I do? Do you know me that well?
You made me half crazy. If I’m here alone, I must be one tough bastard of a hani.
And you know I don’t like you much. So you’re taking the chance, na kif. You’d better pay off.
Because by your rules—if you cross me, I can only start a war by not blowing you to hell.
“They’re going to fuel us,” Fala said. “They say they want payment transferred at the same moment they start pumping.”
“That’s fine. We’ll transfer it bit by bit. They reach an eighth of our load, they get an eighth of the payment. In international trading certificates, and they can run courier and check the authenticity. No computer links to their bank. And we’re not talking to Vikktakkht or anybody of his ilk until those tanks are full.” Gods, did she know this routine! In her sleep, along with the nightmares. “—Tarras, get a bid on the data dump. We’re still traders, that’s what we’re here for, let’s not give them any other ideas. And everything in cash.”
Hallan, quietly: “There’s some sort of light keeps blinking on com.”
“That’s the incoming mail,” Chihin said. “It’s au-toed. Com incoming isn’t feeding to any computer that’s connected to anything; it’s deloused before it’s available to read and it won’t store. Don’t worry.”
Hilfy keyed up the file list, wondering what in all reason messages could be waiting for the Legacy at Kefk.
Pyanfar’s mail.
Of course it was.
Chapter Sixteen
The hoses coupled on, the pumps started their heartbeat thumping. Are we safe to do that? Hallan wondered nervously, as he’d begun to worry about every contact with this station. But the crew was busy, there were probably safeguards engaged he didn’t know about, and if the ship had to refuel, it had to, for them ever to get out of this port; and there was no use asking stupid questions in that department.
NaVikktakkht had invoked his name again, and meant to talk to the captain through him, and he didn’t know why. Maybe it was something to do with the incident on Meetpoint. Maybe they just wanted to get him off the ship where they could arrest him, after which … after which he had heard very gruesome stories about kifish habits.
But maybe he wasn’t as scared of that as he ought to be. And maybe he shouldn’t be upset about what Tarras had said about Chihin. Chihin wasn’t upset. She explained things to him where he was ignorant. She acted as if everything was all right. Fala was still ignoring him, but Fala was too busy to pursue a feud, and he didn’t know whether she was madder at him or at Chihin. Fala was somebody who wanted anybody; that was the way he read her, fair or not. While Chihin didn’t need anybody, Chihin didn’t expect favors, either, she just did what came into her head and she was honest, it didn’t matter that he wasn’t the most important thing that had ever happened to her, he was just— out of his gods-cursed head when he thought about her being beside him; and he didn’t know why, or what the logic was. It was certain enough she could live without him, he never doubted that. It was—