She found herself still stirring the stew, like an idiot. And asking herself what Meras could actually say that could do damage. ‘It’s a white vase?’ Stupid piece of information. And what did it mean? What in a reasonable and occasionally logical universe did Ana-kehnandian know or not know about the stsho that could make it valuable or life-threatening or politically important to his Personage, or what in a mahen hell was going on among the stsho? Meras could know something useful or he might not have seen any detail the mahendo’sat could remotely find useful. It might not be that it was a vase. It might be the carving on the vase. It might be that it wasn’t a doorstop, a bag of dried fish or an antique teapot, for all they could possibly know.
She looked up at four sober faces, four sober stares. Fala’s ears went down, Tarras’ did; then Tiar’s did, one ear at a time. Chihin was the only exception, eye to eye with her.
“My fault,” Chihin said. “I thought he’d stay. I didn’t ‘t expect the stsho down the lift, —If we could transfer him to Narn secretly—“
“And say somebody gets onto it, they get him anyway, and they’ve got help. Say they might be within one jump of doing something with the information, straight back the way we came. But the ambassador went to Kita so we have to go to Kita. That’s more than one jump from Meetpoint. I wish I knew what in all reason it matters it’s a vase.” Chihin shrugged perplexedly. Hilfy took a spoonful of stew, wondering if history would forget one Hallan Meras if she sent him on a spacewalk, say on their way to jump.
“I’ll talk to him,” she said, and ate another spoonful. “With any luck whatsoever, divinely owed us these last five years, there’ll be a hani ship through here outbound from Hoas on its way to somewhere useful. I’ve got a hundred lots of cans, a general mail shipment, twenty cans of medical supplies, the luxury goods, the dupe-rights on the entertainment tapes; and that’s about the best we can do on short notice. High value shippers are spooked. Can you blame them? Lucky we can get better than pig iron this run. Industrials and a load of foodstuffs and a ten can lot of spare parts for some construction company at Kita. Mostly cold-hold stuff. I know you’ve been going shift and shift; and we could carry more. But we need to get out of here. I want us out of this port before somebody files suit.”
“I’ll go with that,” Chihin said. “The sooner the better.”
“I’ll get down to cargo,” Tiar said. “I’ve had the easy stint last watch.”
“We’re going to push till we’re loaded,” she said. “Sleep when you’re off, do anything we can to get turned around. I’ll work hold. Meras can stay in the lounge, in the lounge, I don’t care if it catches fire, he’s not to leave it except on my personal order, do we agree on that?”
Nods. “Aye, captain,” from Tiar.
She shoved the bowl back and got up. “I’ll talk to him. And I don’t care how persuasive he is, I don’t care how pretty his eyes are, I don’t care how polite he is, I don’t want that son out of the crew lounge until we’re sealed and we’re sure our paying passenger is staying put! Do I hear Yes, captain?”
“Yes, captain,” the answer came back.
So she left the galley for the lounge.
The captain came through the door with her ears down and her face scowling. Which might mean something else had happened that was his fault, although, before the gods, Hallan had no idea how or what. He stood up in proper respect and ducked his head.
“If the gods are good, a hani ship will come through here at the last moment bound directly for hani space and take you off our hands. If the gods are less well-disposed, you’ll be on to Kita with us. And if—“ The captain’s first claw extruded. “If you do one more thing to screw up, if you walk out of this lounge without my express permission, if you startle our passenger again, if you assume any gods-be need to go anywhere, if you bat your eyes at one of my crew or land in anyone’s quarters, you’re going to find yourself chained in the laundry for the duration of this voyage, which may last another year! Does this order get through to you?”