She glanced aside. Khym settled into observer one, between Hilfy’s as yet vacant post and Geran’s seat, flicking switches. He brought com live there, backup now to Hilfy. Geran would sit Chur’s post at scan one; Tully observer two; Chur moved to second scan; and Tirun, with below-decks cargo ops and second-bridge shut down, was left observer three, when she got to it, as auxiliary switcher, comp operator, engineer, and if things went amiss, backup at armaments. When she got to it.
Pyanfar punched in lowerdeck monitoring. “Tirun. You all right down there?”
“I’m coming,” said a breathless, moving source. The sound of running feet in main corridor below. Pyanfar broke the contact. Hilfy took her post. Pyanfar caught the reflection in the monitor, against the light from Khym’s boards.
Back in place. Home again. A ready light came on her board from Hilfy.
A mahen voice sputtered in her ear: “Clear when ready. You got clear, Pride of Chanur.”
Hilfy acknowledged the station communication Khym had brought through, taking over. “Thank you, Mkks.” Routine and cool. Thank you, Mkks. Pyanfar’s blood went cold.
Aft, the lift worked. That would be Tirun.
“Geran,” Haral said, “put Vigilance on the guard-it list right along with the kif.”
A moment’s silence. “You serious, huh?”
“Real serious. Jik says.”
“Uhhhhn.” No further comment. That got done. Their scan operators were onto it.
“Aja Jin to Pride, you got number one depart, go, go.”
Running footsteps in the topside corridor behind. “Gods rot,” Haral said into the mike, “sister, we’re going, move, move, move!”
Footsteps reached the bridge, a body dropped into a chair and Haral hit the ungrapple program.
Clank-bang. They were under power then, a little queasiness as The Pride came off station and gave herself that little bit of thrust that got her outbound.
Nothing showy. The Pride could move. It was not a fact they cared to advertise to the kif or to any other watchers at Mkks. Haral brought The Pride about at leisure and took her time. They might have been hauling eggshells.
“We got an update on the entry projections,” Pyanfar said. “Jik’s got a-”
Then: “Priority,” said Hilfy, that dreadful word from a post with bad news. . ‘
It got switched. “-same advise you,” from Mkks Central’s ice-clear voice, “we got tc’a go outbound. Navigation caution.”
“Gods rot!” Pyanfar exclaimed.
“-Tell it power down and wait,” Hilfy was saying over com. “Mkks station,-”
Com transcripting was all over second monitor, kif protests, protests from Jik and Vigilance. . . .
“Got a blip,” said Geran. “Confirm something outbound from the methane-sector-”
“That’s a kif away,” Haral said, overriding. “Scan two. Comp, get that tc’a figured.”
“I’m on it,” Tirun said. “Stand by, Geran.” Pyanfar gnawed her mustaches and snatched helm function to her board while Haral sorted priorities. Thank gods for full crew: com was babble from three prime sources and a dozen unauthorized outputs; Geran was on station scan output and Chur tried to sort out blips exploding off Mkks station about them like seeds from a pod.
Pyanfar kicked the rotation in, for The Pride’s internal G and rolled them up in a move that got to the pre-set course the hard way. Gods, they were on a hair-breadth schedule out to that jump-point, they had everything calculated down to the instant for that tandem jump, and the situation behind them looked like feathers in a windstorm.
“Schedule’s blown to a mahen hell,” Haral said. “Gods blast that split-brained fool! We got a lunatic mess back there!”
“Hilfy-” From Khym, urgently.
“Priority,” Hilfy said. “Station transmission, general to all ships.”
Image turned up on second monitor. Violet light: a writhing serpent-shape, gold-mottled, that dipped and wove before the lens.
Methane-sector was talking to them: methane traffic control on visual output. The yellow, sticklike form of a chi raced up and down the tc’a’s uplifted back, darted about its head in frenetic attentions to its- whatever a tc’a was to a chi: master; comrade; friend or pet. The tc’a wailed, the multipart harmonics of its segmented brain and speech apparatus, multiple minds, multiple viewpoints in matrix translated at the bottom of the screen.
Tc’a tc’a hani hani mahe kif kif
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