“Don’t trust me?”
He thought about what Tiar had said. That he wouldn’t always understand her. But, Do you want a rescue? Tiar had asked; and he’d said no.
“All—“ he began.
“ Chihin. Report downside. Pull the white paneling out of storage—move it, we’re on short schedule.”Chihin scowled and said a word. “I was going to say all right,” he said desperately. But the captain said hurry and Chihin left.
“ Hallan, Report downside. We need some equipment moved. Be extremely quiet. Remember the passengers. “
If he ran he might make the lift.
Thehakkikt Vikktakkht an Nikkatu to captain Hilfy Chanur, the hani merchant , at dock at Kefk, by courier: Has the stsho survived in any use-fid way? Ships arriving from Meetpoint say that the stsho of Llyene are creating sedition and division. We must soon deal blood upon the leaders of this movement. Give us an estimated time of departure.
The hani ship, to the hakkikt Vikktakkht an Nikkatu, of Tiraskhti, at dock at Kefk: We are making modifications necessary for the transport of this person. We are finding more rapid recovery than we had thought. What is a holiness? We lack reference.
Thehakkikt Vikktakkht an Nikkatu by courier to captain Hilfy Chanur, the hani merchant , at dock at Kefk: A stsho incapable of the reproductive act. A holiness has no ability to make the alliance on which our mutual ally has placed all gtst expectation. The agents of the rival Personage will immediately take advantage and by information lately come to us, have already moved against the mekt-hakkikt. Advise us of your departure and we will delight to accompany you. Peace is advantageous. We will eat the hearts and eyes of the enemy.
… it shall be the reasonable obligation of the party accepting the contract to ascertain whether the person stipulated to in Subsection 3 Section 1 shall exist in Subsequent or in Consequent or in Postconsequent, however this clause shall in no wise be deemed to invalidate the claim of the person stipulated to in Subsection 3 Section 1 or 2, or in any clause thereunto appended, except if it shall be determined by the party accepting the contract to pertain to a person or Subsequent or Consequent identified and stipulated to by the provisions of Section5 …
Hilfy tapped a claw on the desk, glared at the monitor, and asked the library: Atli-lyen-tlas who is the recipient has become a holiness. What is the result to the terms of the contract?
It took an entire cup of gfi for the computer to run that request through translations, permutations, legal definitions, Compact law, stsho custom references, and the cursed subclauses.
Then it said: Answer to print? File? Both?
File,she said, having learned.
The answer, when it came up, said briefly: The person accepting the contract must designate a second recipient who exists as the nearest degree of consequence to the first named recipient; if, on the other hand, the party issuing this contract disapproves this recipient, the person accepting the contract is obligated to double indemnity and the return of the cargo.
Hilfy stared at it and stared at it, then got up and blazed a direct path down to gtst excellency’s white, expensive nest, signaled her presence and opened the door without waiting—there being little of Tlisi-tlas-tin or Dlimas-lyi she hadn’t seen.
“Your excellency, forgive a most hasty but necessary declaration! You must become the recipient!”
A tousled crest and wide moonstone eyes appeared from beneath the sheet.
“Of course,” said Tlisi-tlas-tin. “Of course. Was this not understood?”
It was white. It was clean. There was carpet over the deck tiles and they’d contrived a plastic frame and some bent struts to improvise a stsho bed; they’d made a mattress out of plastic sheeting Chihin said she hoped to the gods didn’t give way, but it held air, and it held water, and when they’d covered it in white drapery it would at least protect the old stsho, Hallan was sure it would. He crawled backward out of the pit with utmost care not to put a claw out and create a disaster.
Chihin gave him a hand on the escape, and sprawled, sitting, with a swipe of stiffened paint on her sore arm and plaster bits in her mane. She leaned against him, he leaned, they were all over with spatters and the way she looked at him, brow to brow and a little out of focus, said she was as tired and sore as he was.