C. J. Cherryh - Chanur 04, page 42
"Too much fuss," the old spacer said, and dusted off her trousers. "Drives me berserk, this whole business. They want a decree, I'll give 'em a decree. Haral, meet a nice kid. Hallan Meras, meet Haral Araun. Sorry we can't stay and talk right now. Luck to you."
She walked off with the crew from the ship, the human Tully and all. And na Khym nef Mahn, who was the first man in space.
One of the crew lingered a moment, a small woman who looked him up and down with eyes that for a moment seemed to see-gods, inside him and around him with a force that left him all but shaking. Chur Anify. The strange one. She was the one that had charted the new Points off beyond Minar, and probes had found them, a bridge to other stars. She was almost as famous as the Personage.
"Who is this boy?" A Llun officer asked, all hard and threatening.
"He has a right to be there," Chur Anify said, and the officer looked at her and dropped her ears and let him alone.
"Are you some relative?" that officer asked when the cars had left the dockside and grim Llun marshals stood double guard outside The Pride of Chanur's ramp access. "Are you Chanur?"
"No," he said, holding his baggage and still dazed as if all the stars in space spun about him. That had been the Personage, the mekt-hakkikt of the kif, the Director . . . there were as many names as there were species in the Compact. She had talked with him, this power that could move a thousand ships and mediate affairs among species.
With him, as if he were truly someone who mattered.
Or as if he might be that someone, someday.
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Chanur's Homecoming, C. J. Cherryh - Chanur 04
