“That son’s going to jump with us, I knew it. Tell him we copy. Gods-rotted payback for our dock at Kefk.”
Surely not for that, Hallan thought. It was dangerous. Even kif cared about their own lives.
“Tarras, Tarras, do you copy?” That was Tiar talking to Tarras, who was down below doing something the captain had sent her after. “You’re clear to move.”
“Aye,”the answer came back, and in a moment more the lift worked and opened; and Tarras came stringing hand-line, clipping it into recessed rings along the way. So they could move if they had to, Hallan thought, without g or against acceleration. It wasn’t something the Sun had ever done. It was a scary contemplation. And when Tarras got into her station, the captain ordered the arms board brought up to ready.
“NaHallan?” the captain said, startling him, and he was ready for the usual Be careful and keep your hands off things. ‘Na Hallan, config to scan, Chihin, take a stand-down and trank out, I want you on-line when we come out.”
“Aye, captain,” Chihin said, and Hallan punched the requisite buttons to bring the aux board over to scan, his hands wanting to shake quite embarrassingly.
“Good night,” Chihin said to him. “Good luck.”
Panic quickened his breathing. No, not panic, healthy respect for his responsibility. Just a monitor-the-dots problem. But Chihin wasn’t going to be there if anything went wrong this side.
“I’m here,” Tarras said at his other elbow. “Take it easy, do your job, kid. You shouldn’t get any input the computer doesn’t recognize.”
But in another minute or so a dot leaped on to his screen, at Kefk Station rim. His heart jumped. Chihin swore—but she’d just taken the drug. “That’s number 10 berth,” he read off his screen, trying to stay calm. “Mu~Muk-jukt, captain.”
“Friendly to the hakkikt or what?” Fala wondered aloud.
“Ask the hakkikt,” the captain said; and Fala did; and said, “He says, quote, he knows…”
Meanwhile another kif left the station. He reported it and he didn’t push buttons.
“Gods-be kif show-outs,” the captain muttered at one point. “They’ve got to see, they’ve got to be there, they’ll cut Vikktakkht’s throat if this goes wrong. His and ours.”
You mean they’re not taking orders? Hallan wondered to himself. It wasn’t any hani way of doing things.
“Up v,” the captain said. “Let’s just put a little more push on it. They’ve got the pillows, below.” They hadn’t taken on cargo. They hadn’t had the time. Or they hadn’t trusted it.
They were just going, and Chihin murmured, drowsily, “Wake me if you see any pretty lights, kid. Otherwise, see you otherside.”
Another one and another one. Fala said, “Na Hallan, I forgive you.”
“What did I do?” he asked, surprised out of his concentration, and between reports. Lines were converging. They were going, gods, they were going …
“Stand by,” Tiar said sharply. “This isn’t the standard drop, cousins. Let’s not miss a stitch…”
… “Well, well,” aunt Pyanfar said, arms folded, feet set, the very image of herself, “you’ve committed yourself to the kif, have you?”
Hilfy was not surprised at the appearance. She was surprised at herself, that questions leaped into her head, Have I done the right thing? Am I a total fool, aunt Py? … not angry, not resentful, not any of those things, just wishing she could ask across space and warped time … ask the real Pyanfar, not the one that came and went in her mind …
Like what was going on at Kefk, that kif kept Pyanfar’s doings behind a screen, a whole unguessed power that wasn’t just The Pride, wasn’t just one ship and a well-reputed hani who mediated the Compact’s trade and treaty disputes …
Like: aunt Pyanfar, what have you gotten yourself into? Who are you, since you threw me out, down-world?
The mekt-hakkikt, indeed, the leader the kif could never find to unite them; the Personage of the mahendo’sat, with whatever religious mandate that conveyed—until some rival like Paehisna-ma-to came along; the President of the Amphictiony of Anuurn, no gray-nosed, doddering grandmother to quibble about two thousand year old privilege or ceremonial inheritance; that was not what was based at Kefk.