Subsequent in Identity: a subsequent who has the same physical identity as a named individual.
Consequent: an individual who in substance whether in whole or in part is in tenure of legal rights and legal entity as a direct result of contact with or the actions of an individual orgtst subsequent.
, ..If the party receiving the goods be not the person stipulated to in subsection 3 section 1, and have valid claim as demonstrated in subsection 36 of Section 25, then it shall be the reasonable obligation of the party accepting the contract to ascertain whether the person stipulated to in subsection 3 section 1 shall exist in Subsequent or in Consequent or in Postconsequent, however this clause shall in no wise be deemed to invalidate the claim of the person stipulated to in subsection 3 section 1 or 2, or in any clause thereunto appended, except if it shall be determined by the party accepting the contract to pertain to a person or Subsequent or Consequent identified and stipulated to by the provisions of Section 5…
However the provisions of Section5 may be delegated by the party issuing the contract, following the stipulations of Subsection 12 of Section 5 in regard to the performance of the person accepting the contract, not obviating the requirements of performance of the person accepting the contract…
"We have a problem," Hilfy said, over gfi, in the Legacy's galley. She was maintaining, she felt, extraordinary control over her temper. Sober faces were opposite her, the whole crew — since no offloading was going on. Meanwhile gtst honor was lighting up the com board with requests to go out into the station, and whether Haisi had messed them up with station officials or whether Haisi had only fairly warned them what they were facing — customs had a hold on them.
"Have you told gtst honor?" Tiar asked, elbows on the table opposite her.
"Not yet. Haisi could be lying through his teeth."
"If he isn't? What about that contract? What's it say, if we can't find the bastard we're supposed to give this to?"
She truly hated to say that. She did hate it. She leaned her own arms against the cold surface and regarded a tableful of more experienced traders — give or take Fala. "There's a clause in there about Subsequents and Consequents. That we're still bound to get it to the right party."
"You mean that son of a stsho has transmogrified? Switched personalities? Disintegrated gtst psyche?"
"We don't know that exactly."
"We don't know it, so we're not responsible if gtst has gone crazy and shipped out of here."
"We aren't responsible if gtst does. But we do have a clause in there about finding out if there's a Subsequent."
"Oh, gods," Tiar said, and her hand slid over her eyes.
"It said Urtur," Fala Anify protested.
"It also said — find out if there's a Subsequent. And we— I, I'm not passing the responsibility. I should have considered the possibility of gtst not staying at Urtur."
"What possibility?" Chihin asked with a rap on the table-top. "Stsho don't travel once in a—"
"Lifetime," Hilfy said. "Which only holds true until someone spooks it into a new personality."
"So what spooked the ambassador? We were through here, we dealt with gtst excellency at least indirectly to get our clearance for Meetpoint, we didn't see anything wrong, did we?"
"I didn't," Hilfy said. "But I'm willing to bet Haisi has some remote thing to do with it. He was at Meet-point when we came in, he was in a position to know what No'shto-shti-stlen knew…" A thought came to her, a summation, a time-table, that sent an outrageous anger rolling through her veins. "That son of an earless mother!''
"Haisi?"
"No! No'shto-shti-stlen!"
"You mean gtst knew we weren't going to find gtst recipient here?"
"If gtst didn't know, gtst had a gods-rotted good idea there was trouble here! And wrote that bit into the contract about obligating us to go on a Subsequent-hunt! Gods blast that skinny, painted, conniving — he wants us to go running around the immediate universe looking for this character!''
"Where would gtst go? Where would gtst be?"
"Whowould gtst be? That's the question! Haisi says Kita. But that won't be gtst stopping-place — it hasn't got amenities for them. And the mahendo'sat are all stirred up, or Haisi's personage has got a lot of pull here, a lot of pull."
"You don't think it's Pyanfar behind his personage."
"I don't know! I don't know not! That's the trouble getting involved in politics, nobody wears a name badge!"
"So what are we going to do, captain?"
Run for it? Haul their load clear to Kita, with no guarantee there was a profit there?
Hope the mahen stationmaster had traded heavily into the futures market here, and took a soaking when they yanked their cargo off the market and ran for it? Break a few regulations that made the speeding violation look like a mahen commendation?
Good way to make lasting enemies, in either case.
But deal with Haisi? He might be Pyanfar's bosom friend. He might be working for her overthrow and with a mahen sense of humor, using her help to do it.
Get the truth out of Tlisi-tlas-tin? Not outstanding likely. And there was no way to consult No'shto-shti-stlen.
Continuing silence at the table. It was the crew's moral refuge and her moral dilemma: the captain was thinking. The captain was going to get them out of what the captain, who was young enough to be Tiar's daughter, had gotten them collectively into.
"We can pull out. We can stay. We've got two other hani in port with us. That's Padur's Victory and a Narn hauler, both slated for Hoas. But they're marginal ships, they're not up to this. If we involve them, they could be in big trouble, so that's no help."
"No threat to them."
"None so far. We could get the kid aboard—"
"The kid's in potential trouble."
"The kid's ship is at Hoas."
"The kid's ship is probably on its way here right now, if we put him on one of them, he'll miss his ship."
It was true. And beyond Hoas, either ship might be on to Meetpoint, where he wasn't welcome — and consequently they might not be.
"Tell you something else," Tiar said. "Captain. That kid's been on this ship."
She understood what Tiar was getting at. She didn't particularly want to listen to it.
"If you turn him out on the docks," Tiar said, "the mahendo'sat are going to pick him up. There's no question. They'll assume he knows what they want to know."
"He's also not Chanur, not involved with us, he's Sahern crew, they're coming here, and if we're holding him…"
"He doesn't want to go to them. He wants to stay with Chanur."
"He's in love with my gods-forsaken aunt! He's a fool kid, light-years from home on a notion—"
"A gods-forsaken ticking bomb," Chihin said. "We have a stsho aboard this ship, a stsho that we daren't upset. We have a kid with healthy hormones right around the corner from gtst honor and the Preciousness we're now supposed to get to Kita — beyond which, there's precious few choices where we're going, captain."