ReDawn (Skyward, #2.2)

“All right,” Gilaf said. He turned to Jorgen. “Thank you for coming to our aid. Though that thing you did, moving us from place to place—are you all cytonics?”

Jorgen looked alarmed, like he wasn’t sure if he should give up their secrets. The humans had all left their slugs in their ships, and I didn’t want to anger them, but knowing what assets we had on our side would only inspire my people. “They have hyperdrives in their ships,” I told Gilaf.

“Shake the branches,” Gilaf said, and I heard more murmurs of shock and relief from the other pilots. “We look forward to our alliance.” He moved into the ship, helping the medic lift their captain, and together the group of pilots moved through the vestibule that led deeper into the platform. Inin and the other civilians followed them.

    I hoped the area wasn’t too dangerous, and that any scavengers were long gone. But Gilaf and the others had training. They could handle themselves and protect the others.

I turned to Jorgen and the other humans. We’d come a long way, and I needed to convince them to stick with me a little longer.

“What do we do now?” Jorgen asked. “We don’t know if your friend Rinakin wants to be rescued. And these people…are they the only UrDail we can expect to be on our side?”

“Rinakin is on our side,” I said.

“Yes,” Jorgen said. “But he’s speaking publicly against you, and he’s only one person.”

Lots of people would listen to Rinakin, which made him one very important person. But given what we’d just heard, that worked against us at the moment.

“You’re a fugitive,” Jorgen said. “And now we’re fugitives for helping you.”

“We’re not going to escape court-martial if we go home,” Sadie said. “Are we?”

“Jorgen might,” Kimmalyn said. “Is your mom really going to put you in prison for defection?”

“Maybe,” Jorgen said. “But it doesn’t make me feel any better knowing they’re willing to do that to the rest of you. Scud. What do we do?”

“You could call Cobb,” FM said. “See what he wants us to do.”

Jorgen shook his head. “Cobb said he’d be in touch, but I can’t call him. He’s trying to maintain the illusion that he had nothing to do with our departure, so my parents don’t shut him out of the loop entirely.”

    “Can they do that?” Kimmalyn asked.

“Maybe,” Jorgen said. “There aren’t a lot of specific codes on the books for how intergalactic diplomacy should be handled, which gives them some leeway.”

“Diplomacy is a mistake,” I said. “You’re no better off there than you are here, not as long as your government is considering capitulation.”

“If both our governments are moving in the same direction, what are we going to do about it?” Jorgen asked. “We’re pilots. We don’t have control over things like that.”

“There are plenty of people on ReDawn who will do the right thing when they can see it clearly,” I said. “But they’re being deceived. Unity talks like we can all get along, but we can’t do that with people who want to oppress us.” I looked around at the others, gauging their reactions. I was in a precarious position here. If they decided not to help me, the other pilots and I would be in it alone.

The humans all looked at each other. They seemed resigned, which in this case was a good thing. I just needed to give them a reason to believe there was hope.

“Rescuing Rinakin will make a difference,” I said. “He’s beloved by many of my people. If Unity is threatening him and we get him to safety, then he can speak the truth, tell people what Unity is really up to. They’ve taken over the military, captured our people. If people hear that news from Rinakin’s mouth, more of them will turn to our cause.”

Jorgen sighed. “Okay. We’re committed. Let’s make the best of it.” He looked up through the skylight at the giant autoturret, which had stopped firing. Through the negative realm, I could feel Quilan moving farther away. “What exactly is this platform doing here?”

    “It was a battle platform,” I said. “Abandoned after the second war, centuries ago. I think it used to move through the miasma at will, but now it simply drifts.”

“We should take a look around,” Jorgen said. “The platforms on Detritus are similar, and they have all kinds of capabilities besides the autofire. Maybe it will have a shield we could get working, or something else that might help us rescue Rinakin.” Jorgen turned to me. “Is there a reason you don’t hyperjump in and pull him up here? Is it because you don’t know where he is?”

“If he keeps broadcasting, it will be easy enough to triangulate his location,” I said. “But some of the Unity cytonics have the ability to inhibit, so they won’t leave Rinakin unguarded. The Superiority also granted Unity some cytonic inhibitors. More than the one in this ship.” I gestured toward the wreckage.

“Is the inhibitor still on board?” FM asked.

It was a good question. The ship’s inhibitor had stayed active, even after the cockpit was obliterated. It wasn’t working now, but the technology should still be on board. I stepped into the empty hull, examining what was left of the ship.

Rows of passenger seats were mostly still intact, and at the end of the aisle was a panel with instrumentation—and a box set into the side of the ship. I moved up the aisle with FM right behind me.

“That’s a taynix box,” FM said, and she squeezed past me and knelt down next to it. The other humans crowded around the hole in the hull, watching.

    “There isn’t a slug in it,” Jorgen said. “We’d be able to feel it if there were.”

He was right—the box felt empty to me. But when FM unlatched it and pulled it open, a pale blue taynix with bright green spines stared up at us out of the box.

“Hey, baby,” FM said, reaching in gently and pulling the slug out. She looked at Jorgen over her shoulder. “No slug in the box, huh?”

“I can’t sense it in the negative realm,” I said. I couldn’t even touch the area where it rested in FM’s arms, though the area had been too small for me to notice before. “It’s…inhibited itself.”

“It’s adorable,” Sadie said.