Chanur’s Legacy by C.J. Cherryh

Couldn’tbe, couldn’t be that aunt Py had set it up. No. Py hadn’t even known she was on her track. And the kid stood there staring at her, in his bewildered way, and blinked, saying…

…But she couldn’t hear what he said. The alarm was going off. Illusions walked off arm in arm. Cousin Chur could see reality in jump. Or something beyond it. She’d tried to. Her mind just went off into hyperspace and lived in the past; and argued with itself; and with aunt Py and with Things As They Were. And it did no one any creative good…

… “Welcome to Kita Point. Armpit of this end of space. Kifish cultural center. Mahen religious objects, three the credit… Stsho ambassadors, bargain prices…”

… Chihin’s sense of humor. Gods save them.

She reached after the nutrients pack, found it strayed and stretched after it, with muscles that protested. Couldn’t go on at this pace. The mind was playing tricks. The body was arguing back. She left a smudge of fur on the chair arm.

And the stomach definitely wanted to heave, when the soup hit it unprepared.

“Is gtst honor still alive?” Tarras asked.

“Think so,” Fala said. “I hear moaning.”

“Not to their liking, stringing the jumps like this.”

“Hope the ambassador thinks so. Hope gtst heaved up gtst insides, maybe gtst won’t have shipped out of here.”

“Bets on it,” Chihin said. “The Preciousness for our chances.”

“Gods,” Fala said. “The com could’ve been open!”

“It wasn’t.”

“Cut it, cut it,” Tiar said, “small mass-point here, we’re ready for a double-dump, check your numbers. This isn’t a nice one.”

Gods-be right, Hilfy thought. She hated this …

… Bottom fell out of the universe and knit itself back.

“Gods.” Male voice. What was that doing here?

Then she remembered.

“Here we go again,” Tiar said, and the Legacy pulsed its field and broke the bubble a third time. Energy bled off into the interface. Hilfy gazed at a haze of instruments that informed her the ship was on course, proceeding in toward the brown mass that was Kita Point, at a sedate, manageable velocity.

It wasn’t much of a place. The brown dwarf lent energy enough for the collectors that spread like vast wings … grandiose scheme. But it worked. The station had grown, within the span of her years in space, from nothing more than a repair and emergency services depot to a utilitarian nondescript can of a supply and manufacturing center.

It blipped at them, they automatically bleeped their identity. “Is that it?” she heard Hallan Meras murmur, doubtless confused by the small scale of things. “That’s Kita?”

“Guaranteed,” Fala said, “or Chihin’s aimed us at Kefk.”

“I’m never wrong,” Chihin said. “When was I ever wrong? Tell me when I was wrong.”

“Twice last year,” Hilfy muttered, and punched in intraship com: “Your honor, how are you riding down there? Are you all right?”

A stsho muttering came back to her. “Oh, the unwieldiness, oh, the heaviness …” or some such. It was some planetary language.

“Your honor? We’re at Kita. Is everything well with you?”

“With me? With us? With what creature? Oh, the misery. Oh, the discomfort and untidiness. We shall not be fit for viewing.”

Gtstsounded normal enough. For a stsho. Gtst was alive. The Preciousness was on its perch and unbroken. And she hoped to all the gods respectable and otherwise that gtst excellency Atli-lyen-tlas of Urtur was here.

Ha’domarenwas here, already at dock. That showed on the station schema the buoy had handed them on arrival. Ha’domaren had started well behind them again, gods blast them, and gotten in first, figuring Ana-kehnandian had no mundane problems, like cargo or other such inconveniences.

The first over-jump, at Urtur, might have been one mother of a powerful merchant ship. Might have been just a courier, beating them in. Not twice, it wasn’t a simple courier. “The devil,” she said. “Berth 10. You notice?”

Chapter Ten

There were communications you could make in transit and business you could do in transit, even blind tired and frazzled; even collapsing face-down on the galley table between calls and drinking gfi to stay copacetic enough to do routine business. inbound to Kita Point Station, to Kita Point Customs Authority … we have items under seal at Urtur customs, therefore internal to mahen space, we don’t anticipate a need for prolonged procedure as we are not crossing international borders. Our trading license is in order and we are prepared to present papers. Note also this crew will be resting after dock, due to repairs necessary at Urtur. inbound to Kita Station, from captain Hilfy Chanur, her hand, toKo’juit, at dock at berth 14: we have an urgent personal message for one Atli-lyen-tlas, passenger on your ship according to records at Urtur. Please place us in vocal contact. Translation is available on board. inbound to Kita, from captain Hilfy Chanur, her hand, toHa’domaren, attention Ana-kehnandian, chief scoundrel. We don’t take kindly to being passed in jump. We have your position on record before and after. Be advised.”