The Kif Strike Back by CJ Cherryh

“And if he decides I don’t have?”

“You kill him quick. He offer you weapons, a?”

“Huh.”

“He tell truth. Kif truth.” Jik laid a careful hand on her shoulder. “You keep him lock up tight. A? Later I take. I got reason.”

“I’m sure you do.” Her nose wrinkled. She endured the hand, that was no small weight, and turned and stared up into his face. “So what’s the game at Kefk? What’s Sikkukkut want? He wanted me. Before you ever got into it. He got me to Mkks. What’s he want, dragging me into this Kefk business?”

“You got damn lot sfik.”

“You’re crazy.” She shook the hand off. “He’s crazy.”

“You got think like kif.”

“I’m sure you’re good at it.”

“You friend.”

“Friend, my-”

“Maybe kif play same game like Ehrran.” He shrugged, hands in the back of his belt. “He kif. Kif mind got twists. One, he hate Akkhtimakt. Two, he want take opposite from Akkhtimakt. Three, he got no heart. Got no way understand you not all time mad like kif. You add all up, think like kif. He give you kif advisor-he number one smart: you take kif advice, he hope know what you do. You got lot sfik with him. Also you got tame human.”

“What’s that got to do with it?”

“Kif all time got disadvantage, try predict what outsider do, Sikkukkut lot curious ’bout hu-man-ity. Same way stsho not understand kif: stsho want make deal with Akkhtimakt, want make same deal with Sikkukkut, same with Ehrran hani, a? Someone eat they heart someday. Maybe Sikkukkut. Meanwhile, Sikkukkut want get me, a? Want also get human. Human be big problem soon. Same tc’a. Stsho-they nothing without make alliance with hani, if they not more trust mahendo’sat. Anuurn hani damn fool get involve in this politic.”

“They’re not the only ones.”

“You born involve, Pyanfar. You spacer hani. You too smart.”

“Then why am I here?”

“You got stake. We all got stake.”

“Like what, like hani do all the fighting and mahendo’sat pick up all the eggs? Same as you and your partner did to me at Gaohn? Same as get me barred from Meetpoint- same as-”

“Pyanfar. We all got stake. This Mkks be half mahen station, a? I go take walk, I talk few people. Learn thing.”

“Learned what?”

An expansive shrug. “Like knnn be upset. Like tc’a big disturb. Chi crazy like always. Like big rumor on methane-side got lot human come. Lot human. Stsho damn upset.”

Mahen visionaries. Prophecies on the com. “Gods-be.” It was there to have been read. She raked a hand through her mane. “Geran said.”

“What say?”

“Rumor’s all over Mkks. Thousands of humans coming. Where are they coming to?”

“I think maybe Tt’a’va’o.”

“Good gods.” Tc’a. Tc’a territory, right up to Meetpoint. “What fool set that up?”

“Kif know. I think they know damn sure.”

“Then what are we getting into at Kefk? For godssakes, Jik- ”

“Big game. Number one big game, hani.”

“Game. Gods rot it, human ships have fired at knnn.”

Jik’s jaw dropped. He closed it.

“Tully told me. Now you trade me one, partner. Tell me die gods-be truth!”

” What you know ’bout knnn business?”

“Nothing else. Absolutely nothing. But a knnn ship was tracking me directly after Goldtooth gave me Tully; stayed with me when I left Meetpoint headed for Urtur. I lost it. I don’t know where it went. But it was on me. It could have been at Urtur. It might even know I went to Kshshti. Hear? We did have tc’a activity there.”

“Damn,” Jik said. “Damn.”

“Let me tell you something else. I don’t trust that tc’a stationmaster at Kshshti. I don’t know what it heard. I don’t like it, hear?”

“What tc’a do?”

“Do? It was scared witless, that’s what. Mention knnn near it and it went into gibbering lunacy. Avoid, it said. It talked about hani dying at Mkks. It, talked-talked about three sets of kif to watch out for, one of them the kifish home world.”

“I hear this. Not surprise. Homeworld kif wait see who win, a? They not stupid.”

“No, they’re not stupid, just a lunatic mahe who thinks I’m going to play tag with the knnn and politics with the gods-be kif-“

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