“Do you think this man who has run us so long a chase will be predictable at the last?” Rakhi restrained his impatience; he fought against the vagaries of her hormone-heightened temper with a precise, orderly process quite foreign to his own tastes, but he could, use it when he chose.
Rakhi, thought Chaikhe distractedly, there is a bit of Chaxal in your blood after all. You sound like Ashakh, or Chimele.
Sit down, he ordered rudely, and remember that Tejef has arastiethe enough to choose his own moment. What chance has he of outlasting us, with Ashanome overhead? He knows that he must die, but he will try to make the terms not to our liking. This is not the moment for tempers, nasith-tak.
She flared for a moment, but acknowledged reason when she heard it, and scanned the instruments for him, feeding him knowledge of fading power levels, blown systems. I have done as much for this little ship as reasonably possible, she told him, and being of the order of Artists, I consider I have exceeded expectations.
“Quite true, nasith-tak.”
And at this point even Ashakh could not keep this ship functioning, she continued bitterly. Chimele knew my power on this world and she knew Tejef’s, and she drew back one ship that we might have had down here. She might have made me capable of attack, not only of defense. Am I only bait, nasith? Was I only a lure, and did she deceive me with half-truths as she did Khasif and Ashakh?
“‘Impertinence!'” Chimele judged, when Rakhi conveyed that to her; and the impact of her anger was unsettling.
Did you deceive me?
“‘Your question was not heard and your attitude was not perceived, nasith. However I use you, I will not be challenged. Follow my orders.'”
Tell her my shields are failing.
“‘Continue in my orders.'”
Hail Chimele, she said bitterly, but Rakhi did not translate the bitterness. Tell me I am honored by her difficulty with me. But of course I am going to comply. Honor to Ashanome, and to the last of us. Walk warily, Rakhi. May the nasul live.
Rakhi stopped translating. A katasthe ought to show more respect for one who can destroy her or exile her forever. Be sensible. The Orithain’s honor is Ashanome’s. Are you takkhe? Au, Chaikhe, are you?
I am dhisais! she raged at him. I am akita! Not even Chimele has power over me. And Rakhi fled for a moment, struggling with the impulses of his own body. His blood raced faster, his borrowed fierceness tore at his nerves, tormented by Chimele’s harachia.
“We shall both be fit for the red robes,” came Rakhi’s slight mindtouch, his wonted humor a timorous thing now, and soft. “Chaikhe, do not press me further, do not.”
About the ship the shields flared once more under attack, shimmering in and out of the visible spectrum as they died, an eerie aurora effect in the late morning sun. Chaikhe shuddered, feeling the dying of the ship, wild impulses in serach and to death at war with the life in her.
Think! Rakhi’s male sanity urged.
Tesyel: her mind reached for the idoikkhe of the kameth of the base ship, a last message. I shall leave you power enough to safeguard yourself and get offworld. I do not require you for serach. A •world will be quite enough. See to your own survival.
“Are you hurt?” His kalliran voice came through with anxious stress. Tesyel was a good man, but he had his people’s tendency to become personally involved in others’ crises. Perhaps in the labyrinthine kalliran ethic he conceived that he had suffered some sort of niseth in being shown inadequate to ward off the misfortune of Ashanome, m’metane though he was. In some situations a kallia had a fierce m’melakhia of responsibility.
I am not injured, said Chaikhe, and you are without further responsibility, kameth. You have shown great elethia in my service. Now I return you to the nasul. Do nothing without directly consulting Ashanome.
“I am honored to have served you,” murmured the kameth sadly. His voice was almost lost in static. “But if I—”
The static drowned him out. In the next moment the shields collapsed. The control room went black for a few seconds. Chaikhe sought desperately to restructure the failed mechanisms, bypassing safety devices.