Chanur's Legacy (48 page)

“One can hardly please both, as
gtst
excellency foresaw. I must take the Preciousness, I must advance onto the station, I must show these emissaries that I am disdainful of them and their gross displays of foreign force, these—“

Gtst
ran out of breath and subsided onto the pillows, while Dlimas-lyi tried with gentle touches to calm
gtst.

“I shall go with
gtst,”
Dlimas-lyi looked up to say. “I shall not permit
gtst
alone to venture among strangers.”

“your excellency,” Hilfy said in all honesty, “your tastefulness and good qualities make me admire you exceedingly. You are the most excellent of stsho.”

“You are likewise the most excellent of hani,” Tlisi-tlas-tin declared, reaching up a thin, white hand.

“I value your estimation.”

Was it possible a hani could grow fond of
gtst
excellency? She thought so, quite profoundly fond of the fellow
and gtst
nestmate.

She knelt down, to bring herself eye to eye with
gtst
excellency, who gazed at her with no lowering of lashes or nodding away.

“Your excellency, may I ask the most extreme trust? The most reckless trust? And perhaps something of great delicacy?”

“Ask.”

“May I—em—transport the Preciousness elsewhere for perhaps an hour or two? May I do things in your name which I may try to perform tastefully, but which, if I fail, will attach only to me and my ignorance? In no wise would I risk your excellencies’ honor or your reputations.”

Eyes lowered, hands fluttered. “You ask a most dire favor!”

“I am—aware of the nature of the Preciousness, and I will treat the Preciousness as if it were my own honor in question.”

It seemed
gtst
excellency might faint or Phase, so great was
gtst
agitation. Then
gtst
seized her hand with all
gtst
slight strength.

“Gtsta
might handle the Preciousness! In this fashion would our honor be kept!”

“Most resourceful of stsho!” she said, and leaped up in a thoroughly tasteless haste, on her way to the door before she remembered a courteous bow.

“Wai, go!”
gtst
excellency cried, waving
gtst
gossamer sleeve. “Go, at all necessary speed, dear hani, and work necessary disarrangements upon our enemies!”

For a while there was just no thinking, even about hazards around them. It helped that Chihin was crazy; or as crazy as he was, with everything that had happened, and it helped that the other four of his wives
didn’t
insist on conjugal privileges...

But for a while one’s brain just shorted out, and then wouldn’t work, and when common sense finally came back, the two of them seemed to find it together.

“I think—“ Hallan tried to say.

“Yeah’’ Chihin breathed.

“I think maybe we better get back. ...”

“I think so too,” Chihin said, and started getting up, so he did. He thought, We could be killed. We could all be arrested. What kind of fools are we, acting like this?

But Chihin looked at him and he straightway lost his good sense again, until she made a face and swore and shoved him out the door, where the air was colder and clearer and the ship-sounds in the corridor reminded anybody with a brain at all that there were urgent operations going on.

They went to the bridge but only Tiar was there. Tiar twitched an ear back to take in their presence, Chihin flung herself into station and punched buttons—he settled into his chair more carefully, and didn’t.

“What’s up?” Chihin asked.

“Captain’s downside, talking to the mahendo’sat.”

“What, talking to the mahendo’sat? What have we got to say to the mahendo’sat? Blow their—“

“That’s what they’re doing,” Tiar said. “Fala’s got ops lowerdeck, Tarras is with the captain, and, well, we know where you two were.”

“Don’t give me that! What in a mahen hell’s going on?”

“Main ops channel,” Tiar said.

“Well, well, now we got make deal.” Haisi stood, arms folded, on the dockside, at the bottom of the
Legacy’s
ramp, and blew smoke into the frosty air. “You give
oji,
we give you clear undock, go home, safe, no trouble ... small difficulty with kif, same we fix.”

“Fix like you fixed things at Kshshti.” “Not us, hani, you got bad information. You got real close experience with kif. You forget?” “No. But it doesn’t matter to the bottom line.” “What matter?” Another puff of smoke, green and blue against the neon of some shop along the Rows. “What make matter? You in one damn bad mess, hani. You look bad, Pyanfar Chanur look bad. You got find way out , . . because if that kif out there attack this station, who bring same here? If you start shoot, who got trouble? You got.”

“You say. Looks to me like we’re both here.” “Wrong.” With hand on large expanse of dark-furred chest. “We here with invitation stsho government. We got word maybe kif problem, stsho from Llyene ask us come in here, toss out kif guard on account of no good deal No’shto-shti-stlen make with marry Atli-lyen-tlas. Atli-lyen-tlas got too many ‘so-ciations with kif. Llyene government have got embarrass’ by No’shto-shti-stlen, official come here, examine record, got prepare replace
gtst,
maybe severe reprimand. Meanwhile here come kif. Damn right here come kif. Want old job back. Want commit little piracy, a? You been number one suckered, hani.”

She laid her ears back. “If you’re so friendly with the stsho, how come you had to come ask
me
about the
oji.
How come that? A?”

“You know stsho. Three sex.
Gtst
do politic,
gtste
and
gtsto
very private, do sex, no public. No’shto-shti-stlen and Atli-lyen-tlas both
gtst.
So somebody got to step down from politic. Stsho at Llyene don’t like Atli-lyen-tlas, long time want
gtst
come back stsho space, long time No’shto-shti-stlen protect same, now want marry
gtst.
So what sex No’shto-shti-stlen be?
Gtst
propose same in the
oji.
Maybe if No’shto-shti-stlen stay
gtst,
stsho at Llyene not upset enough come here make new government. But stupid hani won’t answer question, so they come. They say you give them the
oji,
all fine.”

“So where are they?”

“They watch. I promise same. Not worry.”

“Where’s No’shto-shti-stlen?”

“With stsho. We not touch. I tell you, you give
oji,
everybody go away happy. ‘Cept maybe kif. You no worry. We fix kif.”

“Vikktakkht’s a friend of my aunt.”

A laugh. A long draw at the smoke-stick and a slow exhale. “Vikktakkht kif. Nobody friend. Don’t got word, ‘friend.’ Just ‘advantage.’ Just stab in you back when you no more scare him. Why he not come in station, a? He wait. Let stupid hani fight the mane. Tell you what. You give
oji,
stsho at Llyene happy, we happy, no problem.”

“I don’t
give
anything, mahe. I’m not a charity. I got it, I keep it. Maybe I take it to my aunt.”

“Make big mess. Meanwhile you got go out there tell kif sorry you make mistake. You look real bad, hani. You look like dessert. Maybe like hos-tage, a? Kif go make deal Pyanfar, hey, you want? You pay. You got experience that game.”

Trying to shake her nerve, he was. She wrinkled her nose, not a friendly gesture. Or a patient one. “Maybe I get along with them just fine.”

“Then you two time fool. You got chance win big here. Pyanfar got lot commitment No’shto-shti-stlen.
You
make new deal, be friend new gov’ment, all fine, easy new gov’ment be friend Pyanfar. You big important. Lot good deal for you.”

She stared at him, thought about the directions power would run in the Compact, asked herself what was in it for Paehisna-ma-to, and came up with: “double-cross.” Not quite a coup for Paehisna-ma-to, but no prosecution for the explosion at Kshshti, they’d blame that one on the kif; no absolute gain of power but no stop to the Momentum of Paehisna-ma-to either. Net gain, no loss, No’shto-shti-stlen out of the way, net gain there, too, putting Meetpoint in the hands of someone more attuned to other voices.

Gods, she did hate politics. And hated worse being suckered.

But if Haisi tossed off a kifish strike force of twenty hunter ships as a “we fix,” Haisi had a lot of fire-power out there hidden in the system—

“So?” Haisi asked her. “You want be logical? No good, the
oji,
got no value ‘cept to stsho. Chanur don’t want lose face. We don’t want lose face. ‘Specially Vikktakkht don’t want lose face: what you got do is make him look good, make him go ‘way,”

So maybe there
wasn’t
such a large mahen force. And Haisi was one good negotiator.

“You want me to tell him to go away, huh? You worried?”

A quick frown. Haisi snatched the smoke-stick from his mouth to jab it in her direction. “You want peace? You not want? That are whole question. You not just stupid hani captain, you
Chanur.
You got youself in politic, all right, you play smart. You only damn one can get that kif go ‘way now. You only one can save Vikktakkht
sfik
so he don’t get throat cut by own follower. Kif damn fragile, all time damn fragile. You got save him, or we got fight. I
rather
not fight. I rather not have this kif sit point gun at Meetpoint. Lot nervous people here.”

Maybe Haisi was saying the same about himself— he was in a bind, a serious one. He wanted a way out.

So she’d done him damage. She had that.

“I have to give him something,” she said. “I have to bring him in on the negotiations. 1 have to be there. This has to save face for everybody. You understand me?”

Haisi looked relieved. “Number one fine. You got million credit deal. You walk away clear. What more want?”

“No, no, no, it doesn’t work that way. We’ve got to talk to the stsho. We’ve got to have a slice of this, so does Vikktakkht.”

“What you want? You dumb hani captain, no make gov’ment.”

“I’m Chanur, mahe. You’ve been using that, that’s the game you’ve been playing, and I demand to have something out of this that’s going to satisfy that kif out there, that’s going to satisfy our honor, and not have any trouble with our papers, our cargoes, or the Personage’s affairs. I have an obligation to her friends. I have a contractual obligation to No’shto-shti-stlen. That’s
gtst
property. I can’t just hand it over. I’ve got, for that matter, an obligation to that kif out there, who’s played tolerably fair with me. So you’ve got what you want here, you haven’t got what I have, you’re not secure until you’ve got it, and you’d better damn well settle with our honor, and our claims, and our—pardon me—finance, because anything else is going to be expensive to the stsho and to this station, which
isn’t
going to make the stsho damn happy with you, a?”

“So what you got have?”

“In trade? First off, not to have that stsho contract hanging over my head. I’ve got to have trade agreements with the new government, including trade agreements for Vikktakkht’s interests. I’ve got to have Chanur’s friends out of here: we’re not leaving any hostages in anybody’s hands.”

“What friend you talk about?”

“No’shto-shti-stlen.”

“No, no, no good deal.”

“What no good deal? What threat is
gtst
to anybody if he’s not the governor?”

A few rapid puffs of smoke. The whole dockside was unnaturally silent. “You give
oji,
I present deal to stsho.”

“No. You give me No’shto-shti-stlen, or no
oji.’”

“You no damn position to bluff, hani. You want see Chanur take bad damage, you go ahead. Meetpoint dock get blow to hell, all you fault, you bring kif in. Look damn bad. We throw out kif guard for stsho, you bring back, blow up dock. ...”

“I could
destroy
the
oji.
So nobody gets it.”

Brows went up. “Not good. Holy antiquity. Belong big stsho fam’ly.”

“So somebody gets badly upset if anything happens to this
oji,
huh?”

“Stop play game! We talk about you trade agreement. We get damn kif leave this system!”

“Agreements with the kif too.”

“We talk.”

“You want him out of here, right you talk. You talk damn serious. No doublecross.”

“First give
oji.”

“First give No’shto-shti-stlen.”

“Simul-taneous.”

“All right. You bring No’shto-shti-stlen, I bring the
oji.”

“Maybe so you got Atli-lyen-tlas. Maybe you think pull trick. I tell you, we see stsho, that stsho dead before foot touch this deck. Same hani.”

Now
the masks were off.
Now
they knew the players. She stared at the mahe as eye to eye a hani could, at a species head and shoulders taller. “I’ve said what we have to have. Simultaneous transfer. Then we start talking—and talking seriously, mahe, no damn tricks on your side either.”

“You got pocket com? You crew follow all this?”

What’s he up to? she wondered; and said aloud: “They’re listening, damned right.”

“Same mine. Same stsho. We stand here, you crew bring
oji,
stsho bring No’shto-shti-stlen. All fine.”

“Fine.” She folded her arms. “Tiar?”

“Aye, captain,”
the answer came back.

“When I see No’shto-shti-stlen on the dock, I’ll advise you. Nothing leaves the ship before then.”

“Aye, captain. “

“Advise the
hakkikt
we’re in negotiation and we’ll keep him posted.”

“/’// do that, captain. “

She gave a wave of the hand. “Your turn.”

A casual puff of smoke. Haisi rattled off a string of mahendi language she didn’t follow that well. But it contained words like No’shto-shti-stlen,
gtst,
and stsho.

There was argument.

Haisi said, “Stsho want know no guns.”

“No guns.” She switched to stshoshi, figuring on Haisi’s bug to pick it up. “I wish to establish friendly relations with the most distinguished representatives from Llyene. I should in no wise wish to perform a tasteless act of violence or to endanger them in any way.”