“Sfik, niece. You’re a prize in this, like it or not, and bringing you back into the hakkikt’s reach is asking for more kifish tricks. Sit tight. And let Chur do the talking to central. Let’s try to get Tully out of there, huh? Efficiently and quietly. For his sake.”
Hilfy’s jaw clamped. Her ears were back, her claws dug into the seatback. But: “Aye,” she said. Everyone but Chur was getting to her feet. Khym too. And the Ehrran crowd stood there aftward on the bridge, blackbreeches among whom her Rhif took her stance, still scowling, while Jik leaned his rump against a cabinet and rubbed behind one ear.
“Is she running this?” Rhif Ehrran asked indignantly. “Captain Nomesteturjai, I undertook this business on your government’s request, understanding you personally requested-”
“My government same request you go with,” Jik said. “Same request you got patience, honorable. Chanur got thing organized, a?”
“Come on,” Pyanfar said. “Guns, Tirun. Let’s get this moving.”
“Aye,” Tirun said, and brushed Ehrran crewwomen out of the way of the locker door.
“Got positive ID on that stsho freighter,” Chur said. “And they’re not stopping for anything.”
“It go home,” Jik said, “got plenty disturb.”
“Gods rot,” Ehrran said, “what more did it need? We’ve got a stsho in the middle of this incident, tc’a and chi-.”
“Got also mahendo’sat cit-i-zen on this station,” Jik said pointedly. His smallish ears were flat. “Maybe same got mahen agent, a?”
“Yours?”
Jik shrugged. “Maybe. Maybe not. I got check files. But I got other bet: when Sikkukkut come in here, some damn kif escape tell kif authority at Harak system. Four, five day ago. Maybe ‘nother go Kshshti. We got move, get thing fix right, a, Pyanfar? Soon maybe got whole damn lot kif here.”
“Let’s go,” she said. She took the rifle Geran passed to her, while Haral buckled on an AP. Khym took his rifle from Geran’s hand and checked the safety in rapid order.
“Wait a minute,” Rhif Ehrran said. “Chanur. You’re not taking him out there, are you?”
“I’m not taking him anywhere. He goes on his own.”
“Chanur, that’s the limit. I’ve got a file on you that goes-”
“I’m sure you do.”
“Look here, Chanur.” Ehrran’s ears were back and pricked up with a twitching effort. She lifted a hand, one carefully controlled foreclaw crooked. “Practice your cockeyed social theories on your own ship; that’s your business. But when you plan to bring him into a sensitive negotiation and hand him a rifle into the bargain-”
Rot it, speak up, she wished Khym. But he would not. His ears were down in outrage. It was all dammed up in him: and the temper it deserved if it came from him-would only confirm all the old prejudices Rhif Ehrran served. Unstable males. Hysteria. Berserker rages. He just kept his head down and threw the safety on again. And looked her way.
He was a lousy shot. But kif were afraid of anything his size. Justifiably, if he got into it hand to hand.
“I’d rather have him at my back,” Pyanfar said studiedly, “than some.” She slung the rifle into carry, deliberately looking elsewhere, finding it convenient to throw a glance in Hilfy’s direction. “Stay topside, will you?”
Because, o gods, they had a kifish guest below; and the last thing she wanted on her mind was worry over Hilfy and Chur with a kif loose on the ship.
“Get him out,” Hilfy said.
“I’ll do that.”
“Chanur,” Rhif Ehrran said, “for the record, his presence and your insistence is going in the report.”
“Fine. Maybe you’ll be able to deliver it to the han in person. Or maybe none of us will ever have to worry about it, huh?” She waved her left hand. “Out!”
“You don’t give the orders on this.”
“We go,” Jik said, bestirring himself from his cabinet-edge.
“That quarter-hour’s getting short,” Pyanfar said- She lagged behind, seeing Ehrran’s blackbreeched lot out the door, and Jik, and her own crew. She paused for a backward look, then strode through the others to overtake Jik halfway down the hall.
“Got few my crew wait outside,” Jik said as she came even with him. “They watch the ship.”