I’D NEVER DRAGGED so much mass through the negative realm before, but I was met with no more resistance. We cut through easily, like a knife through whipped whiteberry jam. For a moment we all hung suspended, the eyes staring down at us. A force, massively big and wide, reached for us like it wanted to smother us all. I felt Jorgen and the many slugs around me, all staring up at them. I could feel fear from the slugs, and something else from Jorgen—shame perhaps?
And then the eyes disappeared, and we hung in the miasma in sight of Hollow. We were still on the day side of the planet, the sky bright. I immediately checked our proximity to Wandering Leaf to ensure we hadn’t emerged in range of the autoturrets. The platform was a shadow floating off to our right, not close enough to fire. Hollow’s corpse reached upward toward the sky, a hazy outline against the miasma.
“Saints and stars,” Kimmalyn said. “Does that thing eat people?”
“The tree?” I asked. “No, it doesn’t eat people. Have you never seen a tree before?”
“I’ve seen a tree,” Arturo said. “It wasn’t much taller than Nedder.”
“These can grow up to fifty kilometers tall,” I said. “They float in the miasma, and our cities are built on them.”
“Scud, that’s creepy,” Nedder said.
“And beautiful,” Kimmalyn added.
“What is all this in the air?” Arturo asked.
“Gases,” I said. “Most of the trees have clear patches of air around them, but Hollow has fewer because the tree itself no longer produces oxygen. There’s still a bubble of breathable atmosphere from the plants that grow here and from the atmospheric generators installed by the lumber corps, but it’s much thinner and we’ll have to be more careful.”
I scanned the area quickly with my cytonic senses, but I couldn’t find any cytonics besides us.
“I’m seeing a ship on my long-range sensors,” Jorgen said. “Looks like a transport ship. Is that our target?”
“Yes,” I said. I found the controls to expand my own sensors and took a look. I’d brought us in on the far side of the tree, about a five-minute flight out, not sure if the holding ship would even still be here. It had been a few hours, and they could have taken them somewhere else by now.
But the ship was still hovering outside the base. Either they’d subdued the people inside, or my people were too afraid to fight.
We were going to show them how it was done. The Unity fighters wouldn’t be expecting us, so even if they’d seen us arrive, we should have a few minutes to prepare while they readied their starships.
“There are civilians still living on the tree,” I said. “Some small settlements, plus the lumber mining facilities. I don’t want to fire on those or on the transport ship. My people are being held there, and we’re going to need them to join the fight.”
“Understood,” Jorgen said. “What can you tell us about the ship?”
“Not a lot,” I said. “It’s a small Superiority transport. It’s not a fighter, but it has a cytonic inhibitor, so I can’t jump in and get people out. The last ship like that I ran across was manned by diones but piloted by an UrDail cytonic. This time there’re no cytonics here but us, unless they’re in the hold of that ship.”
“Do you know if they have a hyperdrive?” Jorgen asked.
“I doubt it,” I said. “They’d never give us that technology, for fear we’d figure out the secret.”
“That sounds about right,” FM said.
“If they can’t hyperjump,” Jorgen said, “then we can put pressure on them, try to get them to land. Do you know how many fighters we’ll be facing here?”
“No,” I said. “However many starships were stationed here, plus the number of fighters Unity brought with them when they took the base. They might not have enough pilots to fill all the Independence ships though.”
“All right,” Jorgen said. “Our primary objective is to get the transport ship to land and free the imprisoned UrDail inside. Secondary objective is to retake the base. Skyward Flight, detach and move toward the… tree thing.”
“Its name is Hollow,” I said.
“Scud,” Sentry said. “Even its name is spooky.”
All around me, light beams retracted as the flight let each other go. I didn’t see any Unity fighters moving toward us yet.
“Alanik, there should be a button flashing on your radio panel,” Jorgen said. “Press it?”
I did so, and his voice continued over the radio.
“This is a private channel,” Jorgen said. “The rest of the flight can’t hear us. Do you see the dial to switch from channel to channel? You might want to note mine so you know how to reach me specifically if there’s something you need to report that you don’t want everyone to hear.”
“If I have something I need to report,” I said, “I could speak it into your mind.”
“Oh, that’s right,” Jorgen said. “I need to work on that. I can do it with the slugs, and it probably works the same? I also need you to show me how to hyperjump without a taynix.”
“You might not be able to,” I told him. “Not all cytonics can.”
“Do we have different abilities?” he asked. “Like the taynix?”
“Not exactly. More like strengths and weaknesses. And some cytonics are stronger than others.”
“Figures,” Jorgen said. “If it’s possible for Spensa to show me up at something, she always will.”
He didn’t sound bitter about that. I was no master of human intonation, but to me he sounded more sad than anything.
“Where is Spensa?” I asked. “You said she was gone again. Was she taken by the Superiority?”
“No,” Jorgen said. “She’s lost, somewhere in the nowhere. The… place you pass through when you hyperjump. The place with the eyes.”
“The negative realm,” I said. “What do you mean, she’s lost there?”
“She went there to escape the Superiority,” Jorgen said. “And she hasn’t been able to find a way out.”
“The negative realm isn’t a place you go,” I said. “It’s a place you… slip through. You can’t remain there.” At least you couldn’t as far as I knew.
“Yes, well. You don’t know Spensa. She does a lot of things that ought to be impossible.”
She seemed like a good person to have on your side, though less so if she disappeared.
“Did you want to pick a callsign?” Jorgen said. “We don’t usually use our real names over the radio, but I don’t know if your people have the same custom.”
“We don’t,” I said. “And I wouldn’t know what to call myself.”
“If you ask the flight, you’ll get lots of suggestions. But you might not like them.”
“Why do they call you Jerkface?” I asked. “Is it because of the wounds on your face?”
“No, unfortunately.”
“Are you unattractive by human standards?”
“What? No!” Jorgen stuttered a bit. “You think I’m ugly? It’s not about my face. Jerkface means, like, a jerk. A rude person.”
“Oh,” I said. “So you are disliked, then.”
“I am not disliked! Or, I was. By Spensa. Anyway, it’s a long story.”
I could have stopped trying to figure this out, but I was too amused by Jorgen’s defensiveness. “So you and Spensa are enemies then. Because she is always showing you up.”
“Um, no,” Jorgen said. “We’re not enemies. Not anymore. We never really were. It’s… complicated. Oh, look! The flight is trying to reach us on the general line.”
The button for the private channel stopped flashing as Jorgen’s voice went quiet.
We started flying toward Hollow. My ship moved haltingly as I figured out how much pressure to apply to the boosters, but by the time we neared the tree I was starting to fly more smoothly.
As we drew closer, the transport ship moved away from the base. The pilot had spotted us, because a flight of Unity ships was now headed our way.
“Skyward Flight,” Jorgen said. “Engage those ships. T-Stall, Catnip, FM, and Sentry, keep the fighters occupied while the rest of us cut through to the transport ship.”
“Copy that,” FM said. We accelerated toward the enemy ships. There were ten of them in total, so we were nearly evenly matched in number. As we approached, Skyward Flight opened fire, forcing the Unity ships to break formation or risk losing their shields.
We used similar techniques when we drilled against each other, but we used lasers, not destructor fire. In this battle there were no tag outs, no warnings. The humans weren’t playing a game.
Neither was the Superiority, and it was about time my people caught up to speed.
“Alanik,” Jorgen said. “You don’t have a wingmate, so you can stick with me and Quirk.”
As the enemy ships broke formation, two pairs of human ships darted after them, chasing them in circles. I smiled. The Unity fighters must be terrified.
Arturo and Nedder took off through the gap left by the broken enemy formation, and Jorgen and Kimmalyn followed. I stayed close to them—none of these Unity fighters were cytonic, and since I was in a human ship they hadn’t figured out which one I was in. They wouldn’t be able to see through the canopies unless their ships got very close, and even then it would be difficult to discern faces beneath helmets.
I scanned for hypercomm signals and didn’t find any, though I might have missed Unity’s call to Quilan, or they might have done so over the ordinary radio. They were probably wondering where I managed to get a full flight of unfamiliar ships within a couple of hours, and that confusion could only be to our advantage.
We accelerated, tearing through the miasma toward Hollow. The silhouette became clearer against the crimson sky. Destructor fire followed from behind me.
I banked to the side, executing a swivel-turn, and opened fire on the two ships targeting me.
“Amphi, Nedder,” Jorgen said. “Alanik’s got some tails. Give her some support while Quirk and I push through.”
“On it,” Arturo said, before I could even tell them I didn’t need help.
Nedder shot past me, drawing the enemy fire, while Arturo did a swivel-turn of his own, pivoting to catch the ships in the crossfire. One of them executed a banking roll and fled in the direction of Jorgen and Kimmalyn, while the other lost its shield and took a direct hit in the left wing. The pilot ejected, a parachute opening and slowing their descent. Their helmets and flightsuits would allow them to survive in the miasma. The pilot would put out a distress beacon as they descended toward the core, and would probably be picked up before they reached it—and if not, shortly after.
We all turned, moving toward Jorgen and Kimmalyn, though Nedder and Arturo beat me to the ship that was chasing them, making quick work of it before I could even get off a shot.
I was going to have to step up my game if I wanted to keep up with them. I didn’t appreciate being treated like a novice. I can handle two ships, I said to Jorgen. Just because I don’t have combat experience doesn’t mean I don’t know what I’m doing.
I didn’t mean to insult you, Jorgen responded. I would have done the same for any one of us.
Really? They all felt like they needed to buddy up just to take down a couple of ships? Yes, I knew what we were doing was a lot more dangerous than the games, but for supposedly hardened warriors… it seemed so… spineless.
Nedder and Arturo shot out in front of Jorgen and Kimmalyn and then slowed, taking point again. Jorgen didn’t say a word about it. Rather, he let them ride out in front of him like he wanted them there.
The others must have been doing a good job chasing off the other ships. We were nearing the tree now, passing by the thickest branch of Hollow and into the thin bubble of clear atmosphere. A few small towers wound around the edge of the branch.
The transport ship wasn’t going to get away. Even if we hadn’t had the ability to hyperjump, it wasn’t designed to move at fighter speeds in atmosphere. It seemed to have realized that, because it had stopped moving away from the tree and was now headed toward it, quickly disappearing from view.
“Alanik,” Jorgen said. “The ship we’re after disappeared into the tree. Is there a hangar down there you’re aware of?”
“No,” I said. “The base with the hangar is in the upper branches. But they call it Hollow for a reason.”
“Okay,” Jorgen said. “Let’s follow that ship. Alanik, since you know the terrain, take point.”
It was a good plan, though I wished taking point didn’t put me out in front when I was struggling with my ship’s controls. Thankfully I had the maneuvering down, so I didn’t look like an idiot as I led them around the thick trunk of Hollow and down toward the chasm in the crook of the tree branches.
“FM,” Jorgen said over the radio. “Sitrep?”
“We’ve got them running,” FM said. “They’re headed in your direction though.”
“Took ’em long enough to catch on,” Nedder said.
“They had to know why we were here, didn’t they?” Arturo asked.
“They did,” I said. I remembered what Rinakin said. Just because they understood our tactics didn’t mean they wouldn’t work.
I flew my ship through the gaping mouth of Hollow and into the depths of its trunk. It was dark in here, though daylight did shine in patches through knotholes in the sides of the trunk, some of which were as much as a kilometer wide. Spindly buildings stretched up the inside, carved and constructed against the interior of the tree. Lumber mining facilities, cutting out the dead wood to be shipped to other parts of the planet. The chasm went deep down into the trunk, partially formed by the natural rotting of the dead tree and then expedited by mining.
We spotted the transport ship heading toward the mining facilities at the bottom of the chasm. “We’ve got limited time before those ships arrive,” Jorgen said. “Alanik, plan for forcing the ship to land?”
“You can’t shoot it down,” I said. “And they’re not going to land willingly. Do you have light nets?”
“We have light-lances,” Jorgen said. “We can use them to grab the ship, but we wouldn’t be able to drag a ship that big without taking out its boosters first.”
“Will it be cornered down there?” Arturo asked.
“No,” I said. “There are exits near the lumberyard for exports.”
“It’s bigger than a fighter, isn’t it?” Kimmalyn asked. “Could we take out the boosters without hurting the prisoners?”
“I doubt it,” I said. “The boosters are right below the hold. My people are practically on top of them.”
“Let’s get closer,” Jorgen said. “Quirk can take a look, see what she thinks.”
We approached the transport ship. UrDail transport ships weren’t equipped with weapons, but this Superiority ship had a shield and some basic destructors.
And they said we were too aggressive.
“Boosters are no-go, Jerkface,” Kimmalyn said. “No way I can hit those without damaging the hull. Cockpit is possible though. I’m guessing the pilots aren’t our friends?”
“Not friends,” I said. “But you can’t shoot out the cockpit without hurting my people in the hold… can you?”
“Quirk?” Jorgen said.
“I think I can get it,” Kimmalyn said.
“Be sure,” Jorgen said.
“Ummmm.”
Below us, the transport ship was moving across the top of the lumberyard buildings. It was a medium-sized craft, designed to move maybe thirty people. If they had fit everyone from the base inside, they’d be packed in tight.
The transport ship cruised toward the exit shaft. They probably guessed we were here to rescue their captives, and that we weren’t willing to shoot the ship down.
They guessed right, on my part at least.
“We’ll have to get the shield first,” Jorgen said. “Nedder, go in close, get it with your IMP. Alanik and Amphi, ping them with your light-lances.”
“Where is that, exactly?” I asked. FM had told me, but I couldn’t remember. It wasn’t in the same location as my light hook.
“The buttons on the sides of your control sphere,” Jorgen said.
I found them. “Got it. I didn’t hear Quirk say she was sure she could do this.”
“Um, Jerkface?” FM broke in. “We can’t figure out how to get to you.”
“We’re inside the tree,” Jorgen said. “Entrance is where the branches meet the trunk.”
I still couldn’t tell several of the humans apart, especially when they all started to chatter together.
“Say again, Jerkface? Did you say you’re inside the tree?”
“What’s the matter, Sentry? Never flown a ship inside a tree before?”
“Shut it, T-Stall.”
“We’re on our way, Jerkface,” FM said, “but you have incoming.”
“We need to do this now. Quirk?”
“I can do it,” she said. “I want to have to use only one shot, but I can do it.”
“Nedder,” Jorgen said, “catch that ship before it leaves the tree.”
“Jerkface?” Arturo said. “If we chase it outside, we’d have more space to catch it in an uncontrolled descent before it hit the ground.”
“Are you talking about chasing that ship full of my people down toward the core?” I asked.
“Um, maybe?” Arturo said.
“In here is better,” Jorgen said. “We have incoming. Nedder, get it done.”
“Copy,” Nedder said, and he dove toward the ship as it headed into the mouth of the shaft that would lead out of the tree. When he got close, he hit his IMP, dropping the ship’s shields.
Arturo dove directly behind him, and I jerked my ship to the side in my attempt to keep up. I wished I had my own ship—I looked like an idiot in this thing, which wasn’t going to help them think of me as a capable member of the team.
“Scud,” Jorgen said. “Enemy ships, on top and closing. Nedder, help me hold them off.” I focused on following Arturo as we neared the transport ship.
Kimmalyn’s ship darted over our heads. She had to get ahead of the transport ship to get a clear shot. The transport ship aimed its destructors at her and fired, but she dodged and turned her ship around to face it.
“Ready,” she said.
“All right, Quirk,” Arturo said. “On my mark.” He soared over the transport ship and shot it with his light-lance. I aimed and fired as well, grabbing the ship by the other side.
“Scud,” Nedder said. “They’re coming in hot.”
“Fire!” Arturo said.
Kimmalyn’s destructors fired, and the cockpit of the transport ship exploded in a shower of sparks.
