"No'shto-shti-stlen!" gtsta exclaimed delightedly. "Blessed be the receiver of the gift, blessed be the bearer of young, blessed be you, O most excellent of excellences!"
No'shto-shti-stlen-it was gtst— came and took the Preciousness in gtst arms, and bowed and bowed-there being nothing the captain, walled away from the proceedings by a phalanx of murmuring and bobbing stsho, could do to object to the situation.
Gtstathen walked, naked as the day gtsta was born, through the yielding wall of stsho, and past them…
since the stsho did not stop gtsta, it hardly seemed safe for a hani captain to do so: she held Fala with a press of her hand, as gtsta walked blithely past them and on down the yellow-ribbed shadow of the rampway.
"Better open the outer gate again," Hilfy said to Tiar. "Gtsta wants to go out there, and we've got no right to argue."
"But—" cried No'shto-shti-stlen, standing the other side of the parted stsho, "but, Holiness, who have I married?"
Gtstaswung about, walking backwards, and waved gtsta spindly arms. "Tlisi-tlas-tin and Dlimas-lyi, my Dlima-lyen-lyi, my egg, my loveliest, most favored, most blessed—"
Gtstawas out of sight, then, warbling something to gteraself, and the stsho around them were apparently congratulating No'shto-shti-stlen, No'shto-shti-stlen bowing and bowing, and holding the Preciousness.
It was time to get the whole party out of this tube, Hilfy said to herself, to get them somewhere safe, like the passenger quarters, if that was tasteful… at this point a hani was definitely out of her social depth and proceeding on guess and luck.
She worked her way through the crowd with a great deal of bowing and apologies for tasteless dutiful necessities… "Including your excellencies' personal safety. Please urge everyone toward the ship, please make some decorous haste. There are infelicitous persons outside and the gate is open." Tarras and Fala, thank the gods, had taken up guard at the rear and one of them had disappeared, probably to see if gtsta was clear of the gate. Evidently gtsta was. She heard it shut.
"We're sealed," Tiar said, breathing a sigh, and looked around to her crewmates. Who were congratulating each other, and probably not listening.
She gave her attention back to the dockside camera hook-up, which was operating, of a sudden, stsho officials having seemingly decided that it should. There was not a notable lot going on, except a completely naked stsho who was walking around and around the object that, reacting with the station's oxygen, had expanded into a pillar of lace.
Gtstaseemed delighted with it. Gtsta ran ringers over it, gtsta examined it high and low and from every angle. Eventually another couple of stsho showed up, fully dressed, bowing repeatedly, and likewise admiring the accident.
Not a sign of Haisi and his crew. Not a transmission out of Ha'domaren, which was at dock, tightly sealed.
Of a sudden, though, they were getting real station information, real system information. She contacted her opposite number aboard Tiraskhti, and found herself in direct communication with Vikktakkht.
"Things are quiet right now," she said, "hakkikt. We have the oji, we have No'shto-shti-stlen, the Llyene stsho are apparently aboard, and I haven't heard from my captain yet, but I think they're making some sort of contact with the stsho we have aboard."
"We have station output. Is this truthful?"
"I think it is, hakkikt. I've no way to be sure that's the case, we're not in direct communication with station authorities."
"Most probably you have them aboard. "
"Yes, hakkikt."
"Kkkt. Amusing. I wonder if Ana-kehnandian has a notion of calling in his forces… or what those ships out there will do as soon as the wavefront reaches them, I will offer him safe passage — for the next several hours. Advise your captain to abide by this. "
"Yes, hakkikt, I will tell her." Arrogant son. But thank the gods they were talking about safe retreats now. In her guess, Ha'domaren was trying to figure out what to do, and what it had left, and whether a fight to the death right now was in Paehisna-ma-to's interest.
Or if there was a way to recover the initiative. Not that this hani could see. Not from the moment that son had realized he'd let No'shto-shti-stlen and the Preciousness get together.
She eavesdropped on the passenger cabin. There was a great deal of stsho ooohing and warbling going on. There were numerous people in there. "What are they up to?" Chihin asked. "Weddings breaking out all over," Tiar said, not without a thought that, by the gods, the han had not a word to say: and Meras clan, remote and rural, and probably old-fashioned, was going to find itself in alliance with powerful, now solvent Chanur-Counting a can full of what was beginning to draw a curious crowd out there; and a franchise.
Sahern was not going to say a word else on the Meras affair, by the gods not, unless they wanted an active feud with Chanur, which didn't look like a smart bet for anyone at the moment.
So a few more years for the enemies to regroup. But it didn't mean Chanur would be sitting still.
She didn't let her guard down, didn't stop paying attention to the screens. Chihin and Hallan took over watching station scan, and eventually reported outward movement out of the mahen ships that were now clearly identified on scan.
"Leaving him, they are." That was worth a call belowdecks. "Captain."
“ Problem?''
"Mahendo'sat appear to be leaving system, not real organized. Gtsta holiness has drawn a crowd out there around the rock. No apparent trouble on the docks. I think the hakkikt's going to stay where he is until he's sure what Ha'domaren's doing, but he's offered Haisi a safe passage, I'm supposed to tell you that."
"Haisi take it?"
"He hasn't budged. Hasn't made a move. — No, wait." There was a change on the station schema.
"Son's just appeared as in count for departure. He's going."
"Ha!" the captain said. "We got him."
Chapter Twenty-one
It surfaced like a diver in an upside-down ocean, breached near the system buoy, and dived again—
up — into the interface and perhaps deeper. It was there long enough to have gathered a system map: the buoy output one; and to sing a message of its own, in its harmonic voices. This one was simple.
tc' a stsho kif mahendo' sat hani hani hani hani hani hani peace peace peace peace peace Chanur Chanur Chanur Chanur Chanur Meras Meras Meras Meras Chanur peace peace peace peace peace
"Well, look at that," Tiar said.
"How did it know my name?" Hallan asked.
"Famous, I suppose," Chihin muttered. "The kif certainly know you. They set you up. And I'm beginning to wonder about the tc'a."
"I wonder where that son's headed."
"Same place The Pride is," Chihin said.
"Or maybe they don't have to," Tiar said. "I'd about bet you cousin Pyanfar knows what's just happened. I'll bet you that son just transmitted."
Chihin shook her head. "If we start talking through the tc'a, gods save us. It's no way to run a trading business."
"Back to trade and thank the gods," Tiar said. "Enough of politics. We got the wedding party off our deck, the Preciousness and all, we got Tlisi-tlas-tin for governor, No'shto-shti-stlen's a happy bride, and we've got a can of exploding rocks to sell,"