Evershore(Skyward #3.1)(51)

But there were more still. Wrinkled grey ones with black and white spines, several with spines that faded between the many colors of the rainbow, and a strange set of mostly blackish ones that shone an iridescent blue under the control room lights. Some of the slugs were significantly smaller than the others, teal colored with pink spines. Were those babies, or a smaller variety?

The other humans and I all stared at the slugs dumbly. While we did, Boomslug, Fine, and Snuggles jumped into action. Snuggles teleported Boomslug right into the middle of the taynix. Snuggles started touching slugs and hyperjumping them into the control rooms, gathering them in front of the boxes, while Boomslug herded groups of them together with the light touch of a blunt mindblade. The other slugs slithered out of his way, heading in the directions he sent them. Through the nowhere I could feel Fine sending them all feelings and images. Danger. Help. Hurry.

“Um,” Rig said. “I know I asked you for more slugs, but I really don’t know which boxes to put them in. I have no idea what some of these slugs would do, even if we did figure out where to put them.”

“Do your best,” I said. “They came to help, and we need all the help we can get.”





Sixteen


Rig and the engineers started working on where to put the slugs. We’d only need a few to move our platforms, but I wasn’t going to complain about having access to extras. Meanwhile, I reached toward Evershore to contact Alanik.

Report? I asked her.

We’re managing, Alanik said. But there were a lot of ships in that last carrier. I don’t think we can handle another without reinforcements. Will Rig be able to move the platforms?

We’ve summoned help, I said, watching the slugs writhing about in the control rooms. But it’s going to take some time. I can send over another few flights, but I’m worried that the enemy is going to keep coming. Do you think Rinakin would send some of your people to help?

I can make a case for it, Alanik said. It would be best if I went in person.

Ask Arturo if he can spare you, I said. I’ll send in reinforcements as soon as I can.

Will do, Alanik said.

Help! a voice said. It came from near Alanik, somewhere on Evershore—the voices I’d heard before. Help!

I didn’t have time to help voices I didn’t know. Enough corporeal people were in danger.

We know, the voices said. We want to help!

Who are you? I asked, but the voices faded again.

I didn’t have time to figure out where they was coming from. Gran-Gran had heard voices calling for help before she’d had what appeared to be a hyperjumping accident. I still couldn’t rule out a Superiority trap, so I needed to focus on the help I knew I could trust.

I used my radio to put in a call to Command, asking them to get another three flights in the air. They agreed immediately—apparently Stoff hadn’t rethought the length of the rope he’d given me to hang myself with. The other flights had all been put on alert, so it wouldn’t take long for them to get in their ships, but I couldn’t return to Evershore without them.

While I was still here—

“Rig,” I said. “I don’t want to scare you, but I’m going to try something.”

Rig poked his head out of the command room. “Something more scary than dumping hundreds of unknown taynix at our feet?”

“Potentially,” I said. “Or maybe nothing will happen. I don’t know.”

“So either you’re going to scare me or nothing will happen.”

“Right,” I said. “You can keep working. I just wanted to warn you.”

“About potentially nothing.”

Stars, I shouldn’t have said anything. It would have taken less time. “Exactly. Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt.”

Rig gave me a very confused look and went back to examining the taynix boxes. I closed my eyes and focused on the now-overwhelming cytonic resonance all around me. The times I’d felt the strange ridges, I’d been listening to the nowhere the way Gran-Gran taught me.

“Can I assist you, shadow-walker?” Juno asked.

It was only then that I realized that Juno hadn’t remarked on the sudden arrival of a horde of gastropods, most of them bigger than he was. He didn’t seem shocked by much of anything, taking it all in quietly through that eye slit in his armor.

“I don’t know,” I said. “I’m trying that advanced thing you said wasn’t wise.”

“You’ve done a great many things I thought were unwise,” Juno said. “But it seems to be working for you so far.”

I hoped the trend continued. I focused on the vibrations. I located Boomslug and Snuggles, and they seemed to sense that I was reaching for them, because they returned to my shoulders. They each had their own type of hum that was distinct, the way every human has a slightly different voice. It was almost like FM’s music, harmonious in its own subtle way.

I stretched my mind, trying to push past the vibrations, and searched for those ridges again, the ones that were so still and quiet. I gripped the edge of the bench in frustration—I’d done it when I wasn’t meaning to. I should be able to do it on purpose.

I remembered what Alanik had told me back on ReDawn. Try, Jorgen, she’d said. Stop focusing so much on what you aren’t able to do, and try.