ReDawn (Skyward, #2.2)(19)

“These orders supersede those,” Jorgen said.

“We weren’t notified,” she said. “We can start working through the preflight checks—”

“No time,” Jorgen said. “We’ll do it ourselves. You can radio to Admiral Cobb directly. He’ll authorize it.”

Or fail to answer his radio, more likely, to maintain deniability.

“Alanik is going to take one of the spare Skyward ships,” FM said.

“There aren’t any spare Skyward ships,” the ground crew member said. “We’ve only now got any Skyward ships again, and we’re definitely not authorized to put an alien in—”

“Do you want to be responsible for us being delayed?” Jorgen asked.

“I am responsible for getting you in the air, and I can’t do that without—”

“The shield is going to fail,” FM cut in. “There’s some debris on a trajectory to destroy the controls, and if we don’t get up there and shoot it down, the sky is going to be open to the Superiority again. Do you want to be responsible for that?”

The ground crew person hesitated, and Jorgen shot FM a grateful look.

“Come on,” FM said to me. “We’ll get you into a ship.”

On the way across the landing bay we passed my own ship parked among a few with obvious damage. It was similar in design to the human ships, but made from darker metal. It didn’t look disassembled from the outside, but when I peered through the canopy, I found that they’d taken everything apart. My instruments were in pieces, the navigation module disassembled and left on the seat.

    “Not flying that today,” FM said. “Rig can fix it for you later. Come on.”

I wasn’t sure whose ship she brought me to, and when I climbed into the cockpit I had even less idea what I was looking at. The instrumentation was all arranged differently.

“Can you fly it?” FM asked.

“I can hyperjump with it,” I said. “Flying might be a bit more of a challenge.”

FM pointed out some of the more vital systems, and I began to acclimate myself. I found the eject lever on the side of the seat, in the same location as ours. Not everything was different from our starships. “These are the radio controls,” FM said, flipping a toggle and spinning a dial. She handed me a helmet. “I’ll set you to the flight channel. Remember what you say over the radio isn’t secure. I’m going to get myself in the air, but if you have any questions…”

I had a lot of questions, but that ground crew tech was probably trying to reach Admiral Cobb right now. Through the canopy I saw Kimmalyn running across the landing bay with three men following her. Trailing after them was a short girl with blue hair.

“We’re all here,” Jorgen said over the radio. “Skyward Flight, let’s get in the air. Go!”

I scanned the ship controls, trying to remember what FM had told me. I found the lever to engage the acclivity ring—those controls weren’t very different from my ship. The throttle lever and the control sphere were the same, though the one in my ship was smaller, and this one felt unwieldy in my hand.

    I made sure to remember the location of the button for the destructors—I didn’t want to set those off by mistake. I engaged my acclivity ring and rose in the air, and managed—mostly accidentally—to remember which were the dive controls as my ship pitched forward, nose pointed at the ground.

“You okay, Alanik?” FM asked.

“Fine,” I said, righting myself. I could fly. I only looked like I couldn’t.

I piloted the ship out of the landing bay and then climbed in altitude until I pulled even with Jorgen. One by one, the ships in Skyward Flight followed us into the air.

“Skyward Flight,” Jorgen said over the radio. “Sound off when ready. Alanik, we’re going to make you Skyward Eight for the moment. You’ll need a callsign eventually, if you don’t have one.”

What was a callsign?

Then Jorgen called out, “Skyward One, callsign Jerkface,”

Jerkface? My pin translated that to something akin to “rude visage,” which didn’t seem like a nice thing to call anyone.

The rest of the flight sounded off, and I recognized a few of their voices, though many of them used different names. Kimmalyn was “Quirk,” I thought, and FM was still FM. I didn’t think I’d met Nedder yet, and I had no idea which of the men I’d seen were Catnip, T-Stall, or Amphisbaena, though I thought that last one might be Arturo, and the girl with the blue hair must be Sentry. My pin didn’t even offer a translation for some of them. I didn’t fully understand the purpose of the callsigns—perhaps to conceal their identities from the enemy?—but this wasn’t the time to ask.

    “Skyward Flight,” Jeshua Weight’s voice said over the radio.

“All ships converge above the landing platform,” Jorgen said, ignoring her. “Alanik, we can’t use the hyperdrives to reach your planet. Are you prepared to hyperjump?”

“Yes,” I said. “But I can’t bring you all unless our ships are touching.”

“We’re going to interlock using light-lances,” Jorgen said. “We’ve tried other things, but that’s the fastest way. We’ll attach to you, so you don’t have to worry about the controls.”