ReDawn (Skyward, #2.2)(9)

It took me a moment to realize she was referencing my injuries. Last time she’d seen me, I’d been in a hospital bed.

“I’m well,” I said. “And you?”

“Um, we’re fine,” Jorgen said. “We’re glad you’re back, but—what are you doing here?”

Straight to the point then. I liked that, but it was the opposite of what my espionage trainer, Finis, had taught me before I’d left for Starsight. Many species were suspicious of direct requests. They saw them as too aggressive. I wasn’t much of a spy, but I was the only cytonic who could answer the summons by hyperjumping in my own ship, and who could have the chance to hyperjump back out again if things went wrong. I’d failed, and these humans had succeeded in my place.

If they wanted to be aggressive that was fine by me, but I hadn’t forgotten everything Finis had taught me.

“I need help,” I said. “And I’d like to offer assistance in return. Your people are in a poor position with the Superiority.”

“That’s an understatement,” Jorgen said. He was about to go on when two brightly colored animals appeared on his shoulders—sluglike creatures with bulbous heads and spines running down their backs. One was yellow with blue spines and the other red with black stripes, and each emitted one of the smaller cytonic resonances I’d felt before.

    Had those animals just hyperjumped?

“Jorgen!” the yellow one said.

I took a step back into the corner.

They also talked?

“Hi, Snuggles,” Jorgen said. The pin translated “Snuggles” as a cuddling action, but the slug looked too spiky to cuddle with to me. Jorgen shot an irritated glance at FM. “I thought you were working on that stay command.”

“We’re working on it,” FM said. “Gill is getting pretty good, but—”

“Gill!” the yellow slug said, and then it disappeared and reappeared again on the floor by FM’s feet with a second yellow and blue slug in tow, this one with blue markings framing its head.

“Yes,” Jorgen said. “I see that Gill is great at it.”

“To be fair,” FM said, “that wasn’t his fault.”

“Gill!” Snuggles said triumphantly.

Jorgen sighed, and FM pulled a fabric sling out of her pocket, wrapping it over her shoulder. She picked up the slug from the floor and tucked it into the pouch, petting it on its spines.

I stared at them all. “What is that?” I asked.

“It’s a taynix,” FM said. The creature leaned toward me out of the sling. Its body was long and thin, like the wood leeches that sometimes infested the bark of the trees back home.

I was familiar with several alien species, but not one that looked like this. “Are they intelligent?” I asked.

    “Yes,” FM said.

“Sort of,” Jorgen corrected her.

“Not as intelligent as humans,” FM allowed. “They don’t actually talk. They repeat things we say.”

“Things we say!” Gill said.

“Yes, like that,” FM said. “Thanks, Gill.”

“And they hyperjump,” I said.

Jorgen closed his eyes. “Yes. So much for not revealing all of our secrets immediately. Thanks a lot, Snuggles.”

“Snuggles!” Gill repeated.

This was officially the strangest meeting I’d ever had, but at least I’d already learned something. “The creatures are cytonic,” I said. “I can feel them in my mind.”

“Yes,” Jorgen said. He peered around the side of the curtain, like he was afraid we would be overheard. “But don’t try to communicate with this one.” He indicated the one riding on his shoulder. This taynix was red with black stripes down its sides and black spines running down the center of its back. “He’s…temperamental. I can’t go through that again.”

“Again!” the red slug said. Its voice was deeper than the others, and somehow more disconcerting.

“But you’re not here to talk about slugs,” FM said. “You said you needed help? I’m surprised you’d come to us, after the way you were treated last time.”

“I don’t want to judge your whole people by the actions of a few,” I said carefully. “I would not like it if you judged my people by the actions of some that I know.”

    FM smiled. “I’m glad you feel that way.”

They both watched me expectantly. We’d certainly been through the small talk portion of the conversation that Finis recommended, even if we’d been talking about teleporting slugs, which was definitely not part of my espionage primer. “Some of my people have decided to align themselves with our common enemy,” I said. “I think both our peoples could benefit from an alliance.”

FM and Jorgen looked at each other. “I agree,” Jorgen said carefully, “but I don’t have the authority to make one.”

I’d been too aggressive. Maybe humans were more like the peoples Finis had prepared me to address. “But you are a cytonic,” I said. “Surely you have some sway in what your leaders decide.”

Jorgen and FM exchanged another glance. “Is that what it’s like on your planet?” Jorgen asked. “The cytonics are in charge?”