Evershore(Skyward #3.1)(11)

“Maybe I imagined it then.” The idea that I was losing my mind was somehow less scary than the thought of some other new thing emerging from the nowhere to haunt us. “I need to talk to Cuna and Stoff, to figure out what we’re going to do next. If the kitsen are really reaching out to us, we have to follow up on it.”

Whatever Stoff’s motives, I hoped he continued to be accommodating.





Four


Alanik followed me up to talk to Stoff, and I didn’t stop her. Stoff had the entire DDF behind him, and I wanted a little strength in numbers of my own. I would have called in the whole flight if I’d thought it would help.

Stoff was sitting in his office—he’d left the admiral’s office empty in Cobb’s absence, which I took as another sign he wasn’t looking to usurp Cobb’s position.

“We’ve found a transmission from a hypercomm, sir,” I said. “Someone called Kauri looking for Spensa.”

“Is it the Superiority?” Stoff asked.

“It could be,” I said. “But they claim to be a kitsen. We have the coordinates for the message, so we can try to reach whoever it is by hypercomm. The message said they have our humans and they’d like to return them. It could be Cobb and Mrs. Nightshade, but we don’t know for sure.”

“Thank you,” Stoff said. “If you get the hypercomm set up, I’ll speak with them.”

“I’d like to talk to them, sir,” I said. “Alanik and I made the initial contact, and if they really are a kitsen, that might be another group we could approach about an alliance. Cobb put us in charge of making alliances, so we should have the clearance to do so.”

I knew that was a stretch, but I tried not to show it. Stoff sighed and gave me an appraising look. I was pretty sure he was weighing how much rope he could give me to hang myself without looking like he was part of the problem when Cobb returned.

But there wouldn’t be a problem when Cobb returned, because we were doing what Cobb wanted in the first place.

“All right,” he said. “Your team has the most experience dealing with aliens, so you may take point.”

Alanik raised an eyebrow at him. I didn’t think she appreciated our efforts with her people being reduced to “dealing with aliens,” but at least he hadn’t called them lesser.

“I’d like to brief Cuna on the interaction as well,” I said. “They might have some insight about who we’re dealing with.”

“Agreed,” Stoff said. “I’ll call the team to the command room in thirty minutes.”

“Thank you, sir,” I said.

Stoff nodded. I was dismissed.

I found Cuna sitting in their living quarters with the other diones we’d rescued from Sunreach. “We’ve intercepted a message from someone looking for Spensa,” I said. “They claim to be a kitsen named Kauri.”

“Oh, that’s wonderful!” Cuna said. “The kitsen are among the most advanced of the lesser species when it comes to their nonaggression. It’s their outdated monarchy that has kept them from ascending to full citizenship.”

“I’m not sure if this really is a kitsen,” I said. “I’m concerned it might be a ploy—Winzik or his people trying to capture Spensa by pretending to be her allies.”

“Spensa worked with a group of kitsen when she was training on Starsight,” Cuna said. “So the claim is plausible! I interacted mostly with Hesho, their former monarch. His people could be powerful allies. They’ve had a long military history to overcome as they’ve worked to be ready for inclusion among the higher species.”

I stared at Cuna. “Our people have a long military history,” I said. “And that’s the only reason we were able to rescue you from Winzik in the first place.”

“Twice,” Alanik said.

“Of course,” Cuna said, though I wasn’t sure they’d understood my point. “And your people have a distant connection with the kitsen. They have some of the best records of cytonic history, despite having produced no cytonics for centuries.”

“We’re going to talk to them over the hypercomm in a few minutes, if you’d like to join us. I need to make sure the hypercomm is ready.”

“I would love to join you,” Cuna said.

“Thank you,” I said, and went off to get Fine into the hypercomm.

Stoff only invited a small number of people to the meeting. He and three people from the Communications Corps sat around the conference table. Cuna and Alanik entered and took two of the remaining chairs while I used the frequency impression I’d learned earlier to ask Fine to open communication with Kauri.

I spoke into the hypercomm’s microphone. “Kauri,” I said experimentally. “Can you hear me?”

“Human,” the voice said. “We are trying to reach Spensa, who once called herself by the name Alanik. Do you know where we might find her?”

“Spensa is away on a mission,” I said. It was true, even if it wasn’t complete. “We would like to speak to you though. What did you mean when you said you had our humans?”

“Two humans hyperjumped to our planet a few days ago,” the voice said. “We believe they might have arrived here by accident. We would have contacted you sooner, but we had to commandeer a hypercomm to do so.”