Not a nice situation, she said to herself. Not at all a nice situation, Hilfy Chanur. Why did you take the gods-be contract?
“Berth 22,Legacy,” station deigned to say.
“Are we going to take their computer input?” Tiar asked.
“No,” Hilfy said. “What’s one more law? You and Chihin, just figure us in. We’ll take their 22. They’ll probably have guards. Lots of guards.”
“Kif?” Tarras wondered.
“I’ll bet you they aren’t. I’ll bet there was a reason old No’shto-shti-stlen had gtstself nose-deep in kif. And I’ll bet there were casualties. On the other hand—“
“On the other hand.”
“On the other hand, stsho aren’t prone to commit themselves until it’s absolutely safe. So cancel the last bet. There may not have been. There may not have been a shot fired here. It’s not the han’sstyle. Or Llyene’s. Leave that to Paehisna-ma-to. Well, well—“
She was playing with the optics. Scan wasn’t showing the ambush, which in Meetpoint’s sparse system didn’t leave many points of cover—like keeping the station between them and the opposition, hence the lane assignment; like keeping some of them lying off in the system fringes, like between their ships and system exit, to nadir of the star.
But ships in dock caught the wan sunlight quite nicely, besides all those working-lamps and warning-lights that kept outside tenders and pushers from going splat! into a station structural part or a ship at dock. Optics was a major function on her board; and she had already been watching and capturing images.
“Ah. There’s Ha’domaren… Not out there where he could get hurt, not our Haisi.”
“Gods rot him,” said Tiar.
“Couple of kif we don’t know. Tc’a ship shows up as a seen-before, at Urtur.”
“My heart won’t take the surprise,” Tiar said.
“Oh, here’s one. Ehrran’s Honor.”
“Ehrran!”
“We do have a han presence here, friends. Can we assume it’s that faction which hates us with a passion? We have Paehisna-ma-to’s pet hunter captain. We have assorted mahendo’sat, we have— Padur’s Victory.”
“Blast them if they’re in on this!”
“Could be coincidence. They were coming this way, for probably honest reasons. But I’d sure like to know who was at Hoas while we were at Urtur.”
“What about the Sun?” Hallan asked.
“I wish I could tell you not.” But there it was, in evidence between two other hani ships, Nai’s Splendor, and Doran ‘s Golden Hope. Sahern ‘s Sun Ascendant, plain to see. “Lslillyest, a good clutch of stsho ships, none of which I know, none of which library knows, which indicates they’re not traders, they’re from deep inside stsho space … do I guess, the capital at Llyene, if they’ve set No’shto-shti-stlen aside?”
“Politics,” Tiar said. “Gods, there’s something three days dead here.”
“We could get out of here,” Chihin said. “We could tell the kif we’ve had our closer look, goodbye, good luck.”
“They’ll outlaw us. They’ll have their evidence, a cargo not delivered, right on the books. Chanur will lose this ship, Chanur will lose Momentum with the mahendo’sat.”
“Better free-running than clipped at dock.”
“It’s one thing to say, cousin.”
“We’re not giving up!”
“Oh, no, no, no, Chihin.”
“What are we going to do?” Tiar asked.
“I don’t exactly know. Neither do they. They can try their writs and their papers. Those don’t make many holes in the hull. And they’ll talk to us. Talk is what they’re here for. They’re here to prove a case against us.”
“It’s a trap,” Hallan said. “If the Sun’s with them, it’s a trap—they’re going to file some complaint, captain.”
“Good lad, good thinking. Gods-be right they are.”
“I don’t want to get you in trouble.”
She had to laugh. Probably to Hallan Meras it wasn’t funny.
“They’re not getting him back,” Chihin said.
“Just run the calc,” she said. “First thing is not to hit the station. Then we’ll worry about Sahern clan. They’re a minor problem.”
“It’s not a minor problem,” Chihin said.
“Say he’s not going to Sahern. It’s one thing for me to throw him off. No gods-be Sahern is taking him. Two plus two, cousin, let me handle the legal work, you have your hands full and I don’t want to make a mistake here. Fala, you want to make another run belowdecks?”