WE RIPPED OUT of the negative realm and skidded across the metal surface of Wandering Leaf. Our momentum died abruptly in the negative realm, but our boosters propelled us forward anew as we emerged again. I cut their power, keeping my eyes on the ship that held Rinakin as it skidded toward the base of one of the autoturrets and crashed to a stop.
My ship skidded a bit, grinding the landing gear against the metal of the platform, but it didn’t sustain too much damage. I scrambled out, tucking Chubs under my arm in case I needed to hyperjump. I didn’t know what the diones would do with Rinakin, but I guessed if they were his guards they’d be less averse to violence than not-Rinakin had been.
Sure enough, the canopy opened and one of the diones pointed a pistol at me and fired.
I lunged away behind the wing of their ship. They weren’t going to mess around, so neither would I. I grabbed coordinates for the spot right behind the dione’s seat and sent them to Chubs.
We appeared directly behind the dione with the gun, and right in front of the other very surprised dione, who let out a shriek.
Arturo’s ship had slid farther than mine, and he climbed out and raced toward us, but before he could arrive I put a hand on each dione and sent Chubs the coordinates I knew best.
We appeared moments later in the living area in my home on Spindle. Several Unity operatives looked up at me from where they were playing a card game. They could do nothing but watch as I shoved both diones forward and then slipped into the negative realm again, directing Chubs to bring us both back to the surface of Wandering Leaf.
I ducked into the hangar to find Arturo staring at me wide-eyed. His voice was muffled by his helmet, but still audible. “I was going to try to punch them again.”
“Thank the wind it didn’t come to that,” I said, and climbed into the back of the ship, searching for Rinakin.
The oxygen generators were still working in here, so thankfully he hadn’t gotten a whiff of the miasma. Rinakin looked up at me in shock, though he must have assumed I was the one chasing down his ship. One side of his head was red and swelling, possibly from the impact on landing.
I grabbed the gag and pulled it off of his mouth.
“Tell me something so I know it’s really you,” I said.
“Our first lesson in cytonics,” Rinakin said. “I tried to teach you to meditate, and you told me you thought it was a waste of time.”
That was true. I still got impatient with it, but now at least I saw the purpose behind it. Rinakin looked over my shoulder at Arturo. “Did you do it? Did you truly make an alliance with the humans?”
“I’m working on it,” I said. “Come on. We need to go check on them.”
I helped him forward and untied his wrists. He was favoring one of his arms, though I didn’t know if that was from the impact or rough handling by his captors. Arturo stepped to his other side and helped me guide him through the hangar and down the tunnels toward the control room. As we passed beneath the skylights I scanned the sky for ships, but it was too dark for me to see any. As we neared the control room the platform shuddered and the miasma parted off to the side, the mindblade weapons slicing the miasma into ribbons.
Rinakin stared in the direction of the fire. “I think I’ve missed a few things.”
“You have,” I told him. “There was someone pretending to be you, making speeches about how you were joining the cause of progress.”
“That I did know,” Rinakin said. “My captors played the broadcasts for me. That was… unpleasant to listen to.”
“I don’t have time to explain everything,” I said as we reached the control room door. “I need to get out there and help the humans.”
“You’re back,” Rig said, turning from the main control panel to look at us with surprise.
“This is Rinakin,” Arturo said, helping him inside. Rinakin slid to the floor next to one of the defense system boxes, holding his arm.
“Jerkface,” Rig said into his headset. “Alanik’s mission was a success.”
“Good to hear,” Jorgen said over the radio.
“Way to go, Alanik!” I could hear Nedd say.
“Did anyone follow you?” Rig asked.
“No,” Arturo said. “Alanik took care of them.”
He meant the diones. I hadn’t killed them. I’d simply marooned them. Not like that ship I shot out of the sky. It would have reached the core by now, crashed there, entombing the body of the person who’d burned alive inside.
Arturo put a hand on my shoulder, pulling me outside. “Are you okay?” he asked in a low voice. “You’re shaking.”
My whole body was trembling, and though I tried to get a grip on myself I couldn’t make it stop. “I’m fine,” I said.
“The hell you are,” Arturo said. “What’s wrong?”
He didn’t know. I’d shot someone out of the sky and their ship exploded before they could eject and I killed them and he didn’t think anything of it. Probably more people had died in the battle here at the platform. I could hear Rig talking to Jorgen over the radio inside. We needed to get up there.
The world seemed unstable though, like the platform was wobbling in place.
“Talk to me,” Arturo said.
“We need to go—”
“And we will. But first tell me what’s wrong.”
He was probably worried I knew something he didn’t, that I had some plan I was hiding from him. “I swear, I’m not going to betray you.”
“I know,” he said. “I believe you.”
He seemed like he meant it, but he was still looking at me with concern. If he didn’t think I was going to betray them—
Arturo’s grip tightened on my shoulder. “Alanik—”
“They didn’t eject,” I said. It felt good to say it, like I was confessing some sin. “I shot down that ship and the pilot didn’t eject.”
“Oh,” Arturo said. He looked down at the ground. “You’d never killed before?”
“No,” I said. “We play games in our ships. We tag each other with lasers. I don’t know what I’m doing out there! And I shot someone down, and I killed them. And it shouldn’t matter, because they were the enemy, but—”
“I used to think like that,” Arturo said. “Before we knew who the Superiority were, when they were still a faceless evil. It didn’t hurt to kill them. Scud, it felt good. But now that I’ve seen their faces, some of them anyway—” He shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s not as easy anymore. Maybe it never should have been.”
“Easy seems better,” I said. “When the enemy shoots at you, you have to shoot back.”
“Then what you did was justified,” Arturo said. “But it feels terrible.”
“Yes,” I said. “It does.”
Saying that out loud steadied me a little. Arturo dropped his hand from my shoulder. I wished he hadn’t, because that was steadying me too.
“Can you fight?” Arturo asked.
If I didn’t, and some of my allies didn’t make it, I would never forgive myself. “Yes,” I said. “Yes, I want to help.”
Arturo leaned against the doorframe to the control room. “Jorgen needs to give the order to get back inside the platform. We got what we came for and now we need to go.”
“They’re working on it,” Rig said. “But a new flight of Unity ships showed up that’s doing a better job protecting the cytonic ships. If they don’t keep the enemy moving, the cytonics are going to get the inhibitor up and then we won’t be able to leave. They could use your help.”
The humans could hyperjump, but it would take precious minutes for them to collect all the Independence ships. They’d helped us do this, and we couldn’t leave them behind.
“Come on,” I said to Arturo. “Let’s get to our ships.”
We ran through the tunnels and the hangar. Arturo followed me to my ship, checking the damage to the landing gear as I climbed inside. He leaned on my canopy and put a hand on my arm again. “Are you sure you can do this?”
If he were anyone else I would have shaken him off, but Arturo wasn’t being condescending. He was genuinely concerned.
“I’ll be fine as soon as I’m in the air,” I said.
He nodded. I thought maybe he respected that answer. “Good. Let’s get up there.”
Another burst of mindblades ripped through the space around the platform. I didn’t want to teleport us into the path of that, so I turned on my radio as Arturo and I hovered off the platform.
“—got ’em,” Rig was saying. “Jerkface, the enemy is circling around to your position.”
“Copy, Rig,” Jorgen replied. “I see them. Sentry, FM, head them off. I’ll ask some of the Independence pilots to help you.”
“We’re back, Jerkface,” I said. “This is Amphi”—I still couldn’t remember the rest of his name—“and… Angel.”
“Ooooh,” Sadie said. “Angel. That’s pretty.”
“Told you,” Arturo said.
I smiled. “Where should we jump to?”
“Welcome, Angel,” Jorgen said. “Come out on the treeward side. Your friend Quilan is over there with a bunch of Unity ships protecting him. The cytonic ships all seem to have gotten into position now.”
Which meant we needed to get out there immediately or we could be trapped.
“Copy that,” I said. I picked a spot between us and Tower, and beckoned Naga along with me as I hyperjumped.
I realized too late that I should have used Chubs. The malevolence of the eyes felt stronger than ever. We were angering them, drawing their wrath. They struck a chord with something primal that told me they meant me harm, and someday they were going to snatch me out of the sky and exact vengeance.
Arturo and I emerged from the negative realm in the airspace between the platform and Tower, and several ships immediately turned toward us.
Alanik, Quilan said. Surrender your humans and I can argue for your pardon.
They’d figured out who I was working with. I wondered if they’d gotten close enough to get a look, or just deduced.
No, I told him. But I’ll accept your surrender anytime.
Why would we offer a surrender when we’re winning?
“Cover me,” I said to Arturo.
“On it,” Arturo replied. I went into evasive maneuvers, diving past several of the ships as they came at us, pushing toward Quilan.
I reached into the negative realm to retort, and caught snatches of his voice.
—have your humans— Quilan was saying. —to the Superiority—come and get—
By the branches. He was going to turn us in right now. He had his bargaining chip—me, Rinakin, and our human allies—all out here in the open. He must have decided that was enough.
“Jerkface,” I said over the radio. “Quilan is calling in the Superiority. I don’t know how fast they can get here, but—”
—holding out on us— the person Quilan was talking to responded. —measures, effective immediately—should have been more forthcoming—
Quilan’s voice sounded panicked as he answered. “—just found them—told you everything we—have been perfectly loyal—”
“I don’t think it’s going the way Quilan anticipated,” I told Jorgen. “But I don’t think it’s going to turn out well for us either.” At least if he was talking mind-to-mind he wasn’t concentrating on the concussion field, though they might not need him for the inhibitor.
“It rarely does,” Jorgen said. “Any idea what we’re facing?”
“No,” I said. “But—”
Alanik, Quilan said. This is your fault. You brought this down on us. Surrender now, or—
Shut up, I told Quilan, and he did, though I couldn’t shake how frightened he felt out of my head.
What had the Superiority threatened him with that had him so shaken?
At that exact moment the universe went silent again. Tucked around my waist, Chubs let out a whimper.
“They’ve got the inhibitor up!” I said. “We need to get them out of formation or we can’t hyperjump out of here.” We could leave the platform, I supposed, and run for our lives. But we’d still need time for the humans to light-lance all the Independence ships. We might not all make it.
“Jerkface,” Nedd said over the radio. “We lost another one of the Independence ships. Kimmalyn had to fall back to reignite her shield, and we couldn’t keep them from—”
“Boomslug can’t fire the hyperweapon as long as that inhibitor is up,” Rig said. “I don’t know what else to do to help.”
The longer we let them maintain that formation, the longer Quilan would have to concentrate on getting a concussion field over the area, knocking out the Skyward and Independence pilots so they could be picked out of the air one by one.
And then on my sensor readout, something enormous appeared in the sky above us. I tilted my ship upward to get a better look through the canopy.
It was a Superiority ship. A battleship, judging by the enormous cannon pointed right at us.
At me and my allies. At my people on Tower.
“Jerkface?” Nedd said. “Are you seeing this?”
“I’m seeing it,” Jorgen said.
“Is that the one from Detritus?” FM asked.
“Looks like it,” Jorgen responded.
“I think so too,” Rig said. “That means those are planetary weapons.”
“What does that mean?” I asked.
“It means ReDawn is in serious trouble,” Jerkface said. “Unless we can figure out how to take that ship out. Rig, do you think the mindblades are up to the task?”
“I don’t know,” Rig said. “We can’t use them with the inhibitor up.”
“We need to get those cytonics out of formation now,” Jorgen said.
“T-Stall and Catnip are trying to run one off,” Nedd said. “They need backup.”
Getting just one of the ReDawn cytonics out of position would disturb the inhibitor. I couldn’t sense them anymore through the oppressive silence. “Where are the cytonic ships?” I asked.
“I see them,” Arturo said. “Follow me.”
“Copy that,” Jerkface said. “All Skyward pilots are clear to provide backup.”
Arturo took off beneath the platform and I followed. The Superiority wasn’t going to extract the humans. They were going to shoot them down, right here near a population center. I didn’t know how much damage that cannon could do.
And I didn’t want to find out.
“Guys,” Rig said over the radio. “You’re going to want to listen to this.”
Rinakin’s voice came over the general channel. “People of ReDawn,” he said. “You’ve all been deceived.”
“Is that broadcasting generally?” Jorgen asked.
“Yes,” Rig said. “He’s broadcasting to the planet.”
“This is a dark day in our history,” Rinakin said. “Unity operatives kidnapped me and then had a Superiority agent take my place, giving you a message I myself would never give. The Superiority has turned on us, and now a battleship threatens Tower. But we will not give in, and we are not without support.”
Oh. I saw what Rinakin was doing. I held my breath, following Arturo as he sped away from the platform out into the miasma. I could see the ships ahead now, T-Stall and Catnip contending with a group of Unity fighters.
“For today marks the historic reunification of our alliance with the humans,” Rinakin said. “They’ve come to help us in our hour of need.”
“Um, Jerkface?” Rig said. “Rinakin wants me to put you on—”
“On the radio?” Jorgen said. “What does he want me to—scud, okay, do it.”
Above us, the cannon started to glow with an ominous blue light.
“They’re going to fire on us,” FM said. “We don’t know how long the shield on the platform will hold, so we’d better be fast.”
Arturo and I reached the ships and joined T-Stall and Catnip in a barrage of destructor fire. The other ships returned fire, while another ship darted away toward the platform.
That would be the ship with the cytonic, then. “This one,” I said to Arturo, then flipped back to the general channel.
“It is my pleasure to introduce to you Jorgen Weight, human of the planet Detritus, whose people have long struggled under Superiority oppression.”
“Um,” Jorgen said. “Hi. That’s me.”
An alert blinked—Arturo trying to get me on our private channel. I switched over. “Let’s split up and come at them from either side,” he said.
“Done,” I said, and we veered away from each other, still rocketing toward the ship with the cytonic.
“How long have you been fighting for your lives against the weapons of the Superiority?” Rinakin asked.
That was good. Put an emphasis on their violence. Pull the curtain back on their false peace.
“My whole life,” Jorgen said, sounding more sure of himself now. “Three generations, in fact. They beat us back, made us live underground. They’ve been trying to exterminate us. But we’re still here, and we’re still fighting.”
“Yeah, Jerkface!” Nedd said.
The Superiority ship let loose a blast from the cannon. The shield around the platform sputtered and sparked, but it held—for the moment at least.
“ReDawn is with you,” Rinakin said.
“Let it be so,” I said to myself.
“Let it be so!” Chubs repeated.
Arturo and I both opened fire on the ship with the cytonic. They dodged, but we wove with them, catching them with one blast, then two, then three. Their shield blinked out and I fired off one last hit—
And missed as I dodged a torrent of destructor fire coming at me from the side.
Quilan. They’re going to destroy us all, Alanik, he said. He had the key to speak inside the inhibitor, but I couldn’t answer because I didn’t. And it’s your fault.
He fired on me and I dodged again. I’d lost track of the first cytonic ship, so I hoped Arturo still had it in his sights. Quilan bore down on me. He was bound and determined to blow me out of the sky.
But I wasn’t going to let him best me. I executed a swivel turn and unloaded my destructors directly at his cockpit.
His shield fizzled and dissipated. His ship continued flying toward mine, so close that I could see him through the canopy as I fired the final shot. He pulled his nose up—
But he was too late. The destructor blast took off the nose of his ship and cleaved the cockpit in two. His ship plummeted out of the sky.
He didn’t eject. I didn’t think he could have survived that blast, but even if he had he wouldn’t survive the fall.
He was the enemy. It should feel good to kill him.
It’s not as easy anymore, Arturo had said. Maybe it never should have been.
I pulled up just in time to see Arturo, T-Stall, and Catnip all firing at the ship with the cytonic. Both the pilot and the cytonic ejected, and the ship fell out of the sky.
The universe buzzed to life around me.
The Superiority ship fired again. The shield around the platform blinked out of existence.
One more shot and it would be gone.
“Hyperweapon is back online!” Rig said. “Jerkface, should we hyperjump out?”
“If you do,” I said, “can you be sure the Superiority ship won’t fire on the tree?”
“Alanik is right,” Jorgen said. “We need to finish this if we can, for ReDawn.”
For ReDawn?
“For ReDawn!” Chubs said.
They were going to stay and help us. Even at so great a risk.
“Hang on, Rig,” Jorgen said. “I think we need to get the cannon closer.”
“You’re going to put the platform closer to the enormous gun?” FM said. “Isn’t that giving them an easier target?”
“I don’t want to miss,” Jorgen said. “Is the hyperdrive ready?”
“Ready,” Rig said.
And then the platform disappeared and resurfaced up in the sky, blocking my view of the battleship. The autoturrets fired.
“Weapons system ready,” Rig said. “Scud, they’re charging the gun again, Jerkface, so make it quick. I don’t think the turrets are going to be enough.” I lifted my nose and shot up through the atmosphere, cresting the edge of the platform just in time to see the mindblades ripple through the battleship, cutting the metal into long, thin strips. The cannon shattered apart, the energy it had been building crackling back on itself.
“Scud! Someone just landed outside,” Rig said. “I think we must have lost our inhibitor when the shield went down.”
“Jerkface?” FM said, sounding terrified.
“All ships, converge on Wandering Leaf,” Jorgen said. “Bounce protocol.”
I didn’t wait for him to send in the others. I sent an invitation to Naga and then prompted Chubs to hyperjump inside the hangar.
Another ship had landed ahead of me and I jumped out and followed its pilot toward the command room. It was a varvax—a crustacean species I’d learned about when I was preparing to go to Starsight—but it looked so strange out of its ship, walking in some kind of armor apparatus that looked like it was made from different types of stone.
I ran toward it, though what I was going to do against a creature in armor I had no idea. I knew less about hitting people than Arturo did.
The creature reached the doorway, far ahead of me.
“Boomslug, help!” Rig called from inside.
A torrent of force emanated from the command room and cut the armor of the varvax into pieces. The creature inside the armor scuttled out, and then disappeared into the negative realm again.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Rig said. He reached the doorway of the command room and knelt to pick up Boomslug. “I am going to get you a whole crate of caviar, Boomslug. I promise.”
Boomslug nuzzled Rig, looking quite pleased with himself. And then FM came running up and threw her arms around both of them, knocking them hard against the doorframe.
“Don’t squeeze the slugs!” Jorgen said, running up right behind me. No one listened to him.
Arturo came up beside me, staring up through a skylight at the battleship that was breaking into pieces above us.
“Jerkface,” Sadie called from her ship. “We have incoming!”
I looked out through the entrance of the hangar and I could see them—numerous UrDail ships painted a bright blue.
More Independence fighters coming to our aid.
“We did it,” I said. The Superiority would surely come after us again, but we weren’t alone anymore.
