The Kif Strike Back by CJ Cherryh

“You bastard whelp-” The Ehrran raked a left hand full of claws into her shoulder, and out of nowhere a heavy blow shot past Hilfy’s shoulder and the Ehrran rocked back with a curse.

Tirun’s arm. Tirun, ears flat and with an AP gun in the other fist.

“Go!” Pyanfar yelled, seeing the gantry hit and bounce and thunder like a perversely living thing, now toward the kifish positions and now toward their own, broken and in several places achieving independent motion. Smoke skirled and billowed in the shock.

And for a precious moment there lingered that random violence on the docks as great as the kif and bouncing the kif’s way.

“Go!” Pyanfar yelled. Tahar crew grabbed Haury by one arm and the other, and they limped along. Pyanfar spent one precious shot toward the far side of the dock to keep kifish heads down: Haral fired another of their diminishing few rounds and Gilan Tahar let off a third as they ran and lurched their way behind the cover the careening wreckage gave them.

“Come on!” Tirun shouted at the Ehrran officer. “Save it for later, Ehrran-we got troubles down there! You want to talk about it later, fine. Let’s get the rest of us off that dock down there!”

“That’s Tahar!” The Ehrran pointed at Dur Tahar. “By the gods, Chanur-”

“Save it,” Tirun yelled. “Settle it later, hear? You’re talking to a ship’s chief officer, woman, and we got hani lives at stake!”

“I don’t regard any Chanur patents. You got a man out here carrying arms, you got a non-citizen alien and a known fugitive with weapons-” The Ehrran raised her gun. “You’re under arrest, you, all of you!”

“You gods-be lunatic,” Khym roared, and waded forward. A shot went off and he spun half-about-

-“Gods!” Hilfy cried. Muscles jumped and she launched herself at the same time as Geran and Tirun and Tully.

But Khym had never stopped; he made his spin full about, landed a sweeping blow and the Ehrran went flying across the dock. Hilfy’s own particular target had her mouth still open when Hilfy hit her and sent her knee up into an unprepared gut-straightened the Ehrran up with a gunbarrel under the chin and shoved her back. “AP,” Hilfy snarled, in case the Ehrran crew woman had any doubts what was at her jaw. “Drop yours-drop it!”

The woman rolled her eyes and a gun thudded to the deck. Hilfy shoved her loose. Ehrran were scattering, in full flight, two delaying to pick up their senior, unconscious on the deck. Tully was picking himself up off the deck, bleeding at the nose and wobbling, but he still had his gun in hand, and the last Ehrran lit out running. Hilfy sucked wind and aimed the AP into the running midst of them-

Her finger froze. Her hand shook. None of them fired. None of them did. The blackbreeches crossed the open area, plunging through a group of oncoming mahendo’sat who had appeared out of cover.

“Mahend’ nai casheni-te!” Tirun yelled at them. “Hai na Jik!”

“Pau nai!” the shout came back, with waving of arms. Wait!

“Blast you, help!”

Fire spattered the dock. The mahendo’sat dived back pellmell

“Gods-be!” Tirun yelled, not her voice but a hoarse, cracking sound; and they dived for cover on their side.

“You all right, Khym, you all right?” Geran asked.

“Uhhhnn,” he muttered, hand on his upper arm. Blood leaked through. His eyes were dark and dreadful to see. “Let’s move.”

“Come on,” Tirun said; and leapt up. Down-docks. Into the fighting. The only way any of them chose to go.

“Where’s Tahar?” Hilfy yelled, suddenly missing the captain as they started to run. “Tirun-Tahar-”

“Go,” Tully yelled, waving his arm to indicate direction, gasping for breath as he tried to keep pace. “Tahar go!”

Ahead of them.

Pyanfar stopped and turned and sent another shot toward the inner wall of the docks, covering the three carrying Haury Savuun, putting herself and another of their last rounds from the AP gun between Haury’s all-too-exposed person and the chance of another shot.

A shot came back low and exploded off the downed gantry in a hail of fragments. A second shot went past her: hit the back wall. She staggered and flung herself to the minimal cover they had, wiping a haze from her eyes.

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