Chanur's Homecoming

“I should let you loose on my ship? Let you loose with my crew? Jik, I got you out of there. I did that for you. If you trusted me you’d tell me what’s in this paper, but you won’t do that. You can’t do that, and I know why, like you know why I don’t dare let you go. I’ve got to survive. I have to stay alive in this gods-rotted mess you handed me. I’ve got to hold a position where I can still do something. You understand me? I’m going to do something.”

“I tell you paper.” Jik’s voice came faintly, almost inaudible. “You know mahendo’sat-know I got power to make agreement for my Personage. I make now-with you. With hani.”

“Same as you make with Sikkukkut, huh? Same as you make with Akkhtimakt and set them at each other’s throats.”

“Same I keep. Same I give him Kefk, same I fight with. You same know mahendo’sat. I keep agreement. I don’t say Personage keep. But-” Jik blinked again and licked his lips, eyes lively as if he had already won his point. "-if. you get this kif, we got deal with you fair, a?”

“Tell me the paper.”

“Let go first.”

“Oh, no, friend. You listen to me. You listen good. We’re going out of here, going to come kiting blind into whatever you set up over at Meetpoint, and Kesurinan’s going in there on my directions. It’s your ship. Your crew. I’d think you’d be a little concerned.”

“Damn kif heart, you got kif heart, Pyanfar.”

“I got a hani one, same as you’re working for your own.” She laid her hand on his shoulder, even knowing it was unwelcome. “Listen, you bastard, you and I had rather deal with each other. I take your agreement. I’ll sleep with your gods-be Personage if it gets us out of this, but the first thing I got to do is get us into Meetpoint in one piece. And I want those code names and I want every godsrotted thing you’ve been holding out on me. Right up front, I want to know what’s in that message, and what kind of a deal you and Goldtooth have already made.”

He shut his eyes, blinked at the sweat. “Paper say-most this you got to know already: the stsho betray us; the human maybe ally; hani-hani not reliable; I make deal with Sikkukkut to make him hakkikt, I got also deal with tc’a-Pyanfar, you say this wrong ear, you blow Compact to hell.”

“That’s real fine. What of it we’ve got left. Keep talking.”

“Tc’a long time take knnn orders: why they change now, I don’t know. Got some crazy input from chi, damn lunatic chi got notion want go out from Chchchcho, want expand-”

“You mean the chi are pushing the knnn? Good gods, those-”

“Not sure. Maybe tc’a idea. Methane-breather be lot crazy. But knnn-we not be sure, think maybe knnn got eye on chi. Also human got lot planetaries, got lot thing knnn want, maybe; also got humanity, number one problem. Long time problem. Stir up kif. Stir up methane-folk. Big trouble. You not know.”

“The Akkukkak business?”

“Before Akkukkak.” Jik explored a cut on his lip with his tongue and drew a deep breath. “Old hakkikktun be small stuff; lot little hakkikktun be lousy neighbor, lot trouble, steal you cargo, do little pirate stuff, easy we keep lanes clear-few hunter-ship take care these bastard number one good. Then we get fellow name Afkkek, nasty lot trouble. He go down, we get ’nother, name Gotukkun. He got own authority, take what belong Afkkek too. After Gotukkun be Sakkfikktin. Kasotuk. Nifekekkin. Each more big.”

“Each adding his own followers to what he’d taken.”

“You got. Long time kif be fight at Akkht, lot internal stuff. Long time we know kif got more big and more big hakkikt. So we try-try push hakkikktun make difficulty with methane-folk. Sometime work good. Now-we got mistake. Big mistake. We been get human signal, longtime.”

“You asked them in? Gods blast-!”

“Not ask. We try take quiet look, see what be this kind. Lose ship. Lose two ship, we think be knnn, maybe kif take those ship. Maybe knnn same time got curiosity ’bout humanity. I think, me, I think Akkukkak set up trap, bring human, take. But we not know this: he be dead; maybe no one know.”

“Of course you didn’t share this information with anyone.”

“Who we tell? Stsho? Hani You got Tully. We don’t know what else you got. We don’t know what he tell you-I tell you, Pyanfar, you come mahen station, bring human- you trust us damn too much. ’Cept we be friend, a? We don’t tell you all thing we know. But we fight with you keep kif off Anuurn. Lot thing then we don’t know. We got find out. You