Chanur's Homecoming

Then Haral had evidently told her husband to give up his post and get off the bridge: more, to shut himself up alone in here and wait out the worst jump they had ever made; so her Khym just came back and explained it all calmly? He was terrified. He had to be. She was.

Of a sudden she felt a great tenderness toward him; she reached up and touched his face, nosed him in the ear. “Huh. Good job. Real good job.” Nothing more than that, no compliment for following orders; he deserved having that part taken for granted.

Going home. If they lived to get there it was no good place for him. If they lived past Urtur.

“Don’t do that,” he said in his lowest voice. “You don’t want to be late.”

“Uhhn.” She scrambled past him.

She came onto the bridge still raking her mane into order, still with sleep fogging her brain.

Everything done, the man said. Haral had let her sleep, that was what; Haral had gone and run everything her own way, the competency of which she trusted with her life, high and wide and inside out. But there was more than a handful of lives riding on it this time. And she had wanted her hand on it.

There was Tauran crew in Chur’s seat. Skkukuk was in place. Another young Tauran sat at the com, in Tully’s place. Haral and Tirun, Geran and Hilfy; and strangers. Sirany Tauran rose from her seat, forward. Her gut knotted in spite of everything.

“Tauran,” she murmured, offering a dip of the ears by courtesy to the tawny-hided westerner. “Sorry, dreadfully sorry. I meant to be up here long before this.”

“Your First told me you’d run without sleep.” Tauran lowered her own ears; they stayed half-down, an attitude of reservation, jaw jutting. She swept an arm about. “My cousin Fiar Aurhen at com. Sifeny Tauran at scan: call her Sif. I’ll be heading down.”

“Haral explained-”

“As well as she could.” Tauran gave a hitch at her breeches. “I took you on credit, ker Pyanfar. I’m still doing that. I’d better get moving. We’re coming up on our jump.”

“Right,” she murmured. “Ker Sirany.” At Sirany Tauran’s departing back. The Tauran went off in some haste. The whole bridge crackled with necessity.

“Entering count,” Haral’s voice said over the intercom. “That’s five minutes.”

Pyanfar went to her chair and settled into it. The food and the water was in the appropriate clip. She powered the frame into position, adjusted the restraints, swung the arm-brace up and locked it.

“Four,” Haral said, flicking switches. They were by the hook on this one: too many strangers aboard. “You want it, captain?”

“You got it, do it.” She was checking displays. Tirun was switching at the moment, Haral having her hands full with the count and the last-minute power-ups. The Pride upped her rotations a bit, a little more G dragging them into the seats, for comfort’s sake when they made drop at Urtur.

“We got our escort,” Haral said. “That’s Chakkuf, Nekekkt, Sukk. None I know.”

“Me neither.”

Message sent,” Hilfy said. “They’re on final to jump, on schedule.”

“My captain’s secure,” said a strange voice from across the bridge.

“Clear to go,” Tirun said.

“Mark,” Geran said. “We got everyone on the mark back there.”

They were moving, a field of blips going with them, while another field, stationary, shifted color downward. They were leaving Sikkukkut and company behind. Gods help the station and the stsho.

“Steady on,” Haral said. “How’re you doing, captain?”

“You going to take it amiss if I ask what in a mahen hell we got set up?”

A dip of Haral’s ears. “Same as you planned, captain. I got a checklist, your four.” Haral pushed a button and two screens flashed and changed displays. “Tauran asked questions, I answered as I could, no apparent problems. We’re shift on and off with Tauran down in crew quarters; sent Tully down to ride it out in ops. Tauran was going to get upset about him. He said it was all right. And na Khym, by your leave. I figured we needed senior crew up here on this one-”

Haral let her voice trail off. And men and aliens were an issue, was the unspoken part.

“Did right,” Pyanfar said. Gods rot them, Tully all by himself down there, contrary to her orders, because a priggish lot of hani balked at having him in crew quarters even with opposite shifts. Same sheets and blankets. Gods rot them all.

Couldn’t put him with Khym. Or in Skkukuk’s stinking quarters. Sirany Tauran got Jik’s, captain’s privilege, private cabin.

No room with Chur. Except in the same bed. Gods, and the protection might be worth it. Chur-.

Gods, let her make it. This is the hard one, gods. Get her through it.

Let me get her home. She’s so small a matter in the balance. One hani. While You’re doing all the rest, gods of my mothers-can’t you just keep her with us?

You want my cooperation, gods?

No, no, not the way to go about it. The gods traded too sharp.