ReDawn (Skyward #2.2)(34)

I bristled. “I would never work with them. Their wood is rotted all the way through.”

“I want to believe you,” Arturo said. “So does Jorgen. That’s why he didn’t tell Cobb about what you said.”

He should have, obviously. Their commander had made a decision without all the information. “Jorgen suspects me of deceiving you,” I said.

    “No,” Arturo said. “Jorgen is too busy worrying about whether he disobeyed orders. I’m worried you might have deceived us.” He looked me straight in the eyes. His were dark and deep, not clear and bright like most UrDail. “Can we trust you?”

“You already have. You did it when you left your planet with me.” I’d fled when I’d first met them, not willing to offer them my trust, yet they’d come to help me anyway. I wouldn’t have done the same, but I was glad that in this way they weren’t like me.

“We did,” Arturo said. “Because the potential benefits outweigh the risks. We need allies, same as you. And we may be clueless when it comes to galactic politics, but we’re not helpless. If you turn on us, we will fight back, you understand?”

Arturo presented the threat calmly and evenly, like it was nothing more than a fact.

These humans possessed hyperdrives, had found the secret where I had failed. They’d also survived for nearly a century in the face of Superiority hostility.

“It would be a very serious mistake to underestimate you,” I said.

“I’m glad we agree on that.”

“And I have no intention of betraying you or your people.”

Arturo kept watching me, his face thoughtful, evaluating me. It bothered me that I couldn’t read in his eyes what it was that he saw.

“Thank you,” Arturo said. “I hope we can keep this between us.”

And then he turned and walked confidently back in the direction Jorgen and the others had gone.

I watched until he was out of sight. I hadn’t baited the humans here with the intention of trading them to the Superiority, but I did want to use them, in a sense. Unity used the specter of human extinction to terrify my people into submission. If my people saw humans fighting on our side, they’d see that resistance was possible, even against terrifying odds. Their existence was a weapon I could use against my enemies.

    Given the circumstances, I would be foolish to do otherwise.





Thirteen


I could only wait in the ship for so long before I set off to find Jorgen and the others. It wasn’t hard to find Jorgen at least, because I could feel his mind and follow in that direction. The passageways here were smooth and sterile, similar to the ones on Detritus, though these were structured more like large tubes than square halls.

Jorgen seemed to shift for a moment, and I wondered if he could sense me coming toward him.

And then— Alanik? he said in my mind.

Yes, I replied. You were able to establish contact.

It’s…similar to communicating with the slugs, but also different. It’s easier when Spensa establishes the connection first.

Have you spoken with Spensa recently? I didn’t know if she’d be able to communicate out of the negative realm the same way we communicated through it.

Yes, twice. Both times she kind of…appeared. But she wasn’t really there. Not like a hyperjump.

There was a kind of sadness that accompanied this. A wistfulness maybe.

You and Spensa are close, I said.

Another emotion joined the sadness. Embarrassment perhaps.

Oh, I said. You and Spensa are a mate pair?

A what? A…no, not a mate pair. I mean, there is no mating involved. I mean—

I laughed, and Jorgen’s voice disappeared from my mind. I thought he’d withdrawn intentionally, and if so that was good. He was learning even without my instruction. I’d found that was the best way, with cytonic powers. They weren’t learned directly so much as experienced and guided. Your mind knew what to do intuitively, if only you could get out of your own way and let it.

    I caught up to some of the humans outside a room filled with instrumentation panels. Jorgen and Kimmalyn leaned in the doorway, watching FM as she pored over them.

“Did you find anything useful?” I asked.

“Maybe,” Jorgen said. “I don’t suppose you happen to be an engineer?”

“No, only a pilot,” I said. I approached and glanced at the buttons and switches FM was examining. “Do any of you have expertise?”

“Rig does,” FM said. “He might be able to tell us if any of this would activate a shield, or connect to a cytonic inhibitor.”

“Any of those would be useful,” I said.

FM looked over her shoulder at Jorgen. “As much as I’d love to ask Rig, I don’t know that dragging him into this is a good idea.”

“I wonder if we could get him out without anyone noticing,” Jorgen said. “If we had one of the slugs take us H-O-M-E…”

The pin translated that last bit as a set of letters, but I had no idea what they spelled in the human’s language. “What does that mean?” I asked.

Jorgen sighed. “It’s the word for the place where you live. FM accidentally made that the keyword for the slugs to take us back to Detritus.”