C Cherryh - Chanur's Homecoming

you, as I would have made it simultaneously with Akkhtimakt it he were not the fool he is.”

This pleased Sikkukkut, perhaps. The dark eyes flickered. Sikkukkut picked up his cup and the thin tongue exited the v-form gap of his outer teeth and lapped delicately at the petroleum-smelling contents. “I have known mahen fools,” Sikkukkut said.

“Don’t number Ana among them.”

“Or yourself?”

“I hope not to be.”

“I have a notion what you might have been doing out on that dockside, Keia, my friend. Ana Ismehanan-min wanted confusion behind which to depart. And someone fired the shot that touched off the riot.”

“Rhif Ehrran.”

“The hani? Come now, Keia. Hani gave no orders to the mahendo’sat.”

“It’s not certain that they take them either, your pardon, hakkikt. Myself, I look for a fool to do a fool’s work; and Ehrran is the greatest fool I know.”

“Ehrran isn’t sitting here at this moment.”

Jik drew in a long breath of smoke and let it go again. “It did give her the diversion she needed. And indeed, she isn’t sitting here at this moment. At cost to me, to Chanur—in fact, hakkikt, expensive as it may be to her in the long run, in the short, it served her very well. And what my partner is thinking of in her regard I wish I could tell you. I wish I knew. I think he has use for that hani he took with him, use he couldn’t get out of Chanur—Chanur being no fool.”

“Perhaps he has made use of all the hani. Perhaps he has secured his retreat from among us, and that is all he hoped to do—might that not be, Keia? I only wonder what you are doing here.”

“Perhaps he only followed her because he saw no way to stop her.”

“His ship has armaments,” Sikkukkut said dryly. “He was close behind her before her ship reached velocity.”

“I mean within his intentions he had no way to stop her.”

“And those intentions are?”

Jik spread his hands. “I keep my agreements, hakkikt. And if he has abrogated our partnership—” It was his best argument, his most desperate. His brain fuzzed and the drug meandered through his veins with the force of a tidal bore. “If he has cast me off, hakkikt, I still keep my agreements with you. That’s my job to do; and if I fare better than he does, then that will prove to my Personage which agreement is the better to keep.”

“Mahen mentality.”

“I tell you: it’s very like sfik. Give me status and I’ll outweigh him with the Personage at Maing Tol. It’s that simple. It’s not unknown that the mahendo’sat conclude conflicting treaties. And if my course looks wiser than Ana’s, mine will be honored and his will be set aside. If both of us look like fools, our Personage will lean on other agencies—nor can either of us know if our Personage is not concluding a third treaty with the stsho. If all fail him, he will fall and another Personage’s agents will be to deal with. The mahendo’sat is easy to predict and reasonable to deal with. It will always go for its greatest advantage.”

“Kk-kk-t. And will this Personage of yours stir forth in action or wait for events?”

“Outcome from the subordinates is always the deciding factor.”

“Where has Ismehanan-min gone? Where is this human fleet? What agreements has he made with the methane-breathers? What of your own?”

They returned to old questions, the same questions, bringing the interview in its usual circle. “Again, mekt-hakkikt, I don’t know. They may aim at Meetpoint. It’s not impossible the humans might come here. And I don’t know of any agreement with the knnn. I asked the tc’a to come here to assure that there was no panic on methane-side—”

“Why did the knnn take your tc’a?”

“I don’t know. Who knows the knnn? Who can make an agreement with them—”

“Except the tc’a. Except the tc’a, Keia. Tell me what dealings you have had with them.”

“God help me, none.” He held up a protesting hand. “I never deal with knnn.” And carefully, with his sense in rags from drugs and drink: “That’s Ana’s department.”

“You wish to alarm me.”

“Hakkikt, I am alarmed. I don’t know whether Ana is in control of it, or whether the knnn are doing something independent.”

“In control of it.”

It did sound stupid. Jik blinked slowly and took another drag at the smoke. “I mean maybe he’s in consultation with them.” The hakkikt feared the methane-breathers. Their irrationality, their technology, their vapors and tempers or whatever it was that sent them into frenzies, made the methane-folk a force no one sane wanted to stir up. “Or they approached him.” That was enough to send the wind up Sikkukkut’s back. “I don’t know, hakkikt. I swear. God witness. I don’t know. I did send a message to Maing Tol. So did Goldtooth. What was in his packet I don’t know.”

“What was in yours?”

Jik shrugged. “My deal with you. My urging they accept this treaty. I tell you, hakkikt, I’d urge you—all respect, hakkikt, you let me go back to my ship. I have a personal interest in seeing this agreement of ours flourish. It’ll make me a very powerful man at home.”

Give the kif something he understood, an ambition within kifish comprehension.

“You’re attempting to use psychology on me,” Sikkukkut said.

“Of course I am. It also happens to be true.”

“What happened to friendship! You know I know words like this. I am not stupid, Keia; I can study up on a concept without having the internal circuitry to process it. Friendship means that you work in concert with Ismehanan-min. Loyalty means that you might become a martyr—I learned that word of ker Pyanfar. An appalling concept. But there it was in the mahen dictionary. I was curious. Martyr. Martyrdom. The whole of mahen history teems with martyrs. You place value on them. Like the hani. Have you wish to become one, Keia?”

Jik lifted his brows. “Martyr is another word for fool.”

“I found no such cross-reference. Tell me: Keia: I want to know this: where do the knnn fit into Ismehanan-min’s

arrangements? What arrangements has he made with the stsho?”

“He would betray them.”

“And your opinion of them?”

“They would betray us.”

“They have. Stle sties stlen is a deadly creature. For a grass-eating stsho. Is he dealing with this person?”

“I don’t know. No. Yes.” God help him, the drug was fuzzing up his mind again. For a panicked instant he lost all the threads and got them back again, remembering his story. “But not at depth. Ana doesn’t trust the stsho. It’s mutual. Of course. The humans will come to Meetpoint—eventually. I think they’ll come there. And Stle stles stlen will Phase when gtst sees it. No sts-stsho can withstand that kind of blow to gtst reputation. Ana will take advantage of the confusion and seize the station. If he can.”

“And Akkhtimakt will allow this.”

“Ana will have to anticipate him there. Perhaps—perhaps, hakkikt, Ana moved so quickly because he knows something of Akkhtimakt’s intentions. That there was no more time—in Ana’s estimation.”

“And why would he go with the hani?”

“Look for advantage.” That questioning made him nervous. It was a new tack; he tried to think his way through it and in desperation went back to old answers. “I think—think he hopes to use Rhif Ehrran to get into Meetpoint itself without having stsho techs Phase and bring the systems down. Now you doubt this. I well know. But stsho react badly to surprises; from kif, they expect threats. Even from hani. But mahen threats unbalance them. They’re unaccustomed. Ehrran has a treaty with them. That’s all I can guess about it. She’s a key. That’s all. A fool and a key.”