Page 127 of Blightfall

I wove through debris, but one of the enemy ships had taken a page out of my book and hidden. The ship tethered itself around a rock ahead, doubling back and coming straight for me. I opened fire, executing a spin to dodge. I didn’t think I hit the ship at all, but I did succeed in making it fly off course, sparing my own shields a direct hit.

You’re under attack? Jorgen asked.

Yeah, I said. Drones and piloted ships, on both sides of the nowhere portal. They had taynix captives but they’ve been freed now.

I’ll send backup to the planet, Jorgen said. It’ll be a few hours before they can get to you through the inhibitor field.

The enemy ship passed me and used its light-lance to spin around a piece of debris toward me. I snagged a smaller rock near me and threw it at the ship, shearing one of its wings clean off.

Send a large force, I said. We’ve faced heavy resistance. Stars, I hadn’t told him about the diplomats. Their deaths seemed so long ago. Shame flooded through me. We lost Ferret, Underscore, Blaze, Dasha, and Katri in the first attack.

I’m sorry, Jorgen said. He could have been angry that I’d lost half my team, but all I felt from his words was concern.

I scanned the monitors. Some of the ships had hidden among the debris. Either I’d killed enough of them that they were starting to fear me, or they were setting up an ambush.

“I think we can head back,” Alanik said. “I saw where some of them are hiding. I can plot you a safer route.”

I ducked the ship behind a large rock while she did so, keeping an eye on my monitors for nearby motion, but I didn’t see any.

Combat over? Jorgen asked.

For the moment, I said. Nedd and Sadie are presumably trapped in a facility on this side of the gate. We need to go back for them, but there are ships in our way.

“Here,” Alanik said, indicating a path through the debris, and I followed her instructions, swinging out wide and then working my way back down to the warehouse through an area that was particularly thick with rocks and pieces of broken buildings.

You okay? Jorgen asked. The mind-to-mind contact relayed some of his intent along with the words. He wasn’t asking about the state of the mission or the physical state of my ship. He was asking about me, probably because he’d sensed the wave of shame along with the news about the deaths of our teammates.

I’m doing my job, I said. I watched for ships on the monitors, but I didn’t see any in our immediate vicinity.

I didn’t ask if you were doing your job, Jorgen said. I’ve done a lot of this job in a state of not being okay.

That was fair. He’d once led us on one of our most successful diplomatic missions right after his parents had been murdered. I didn’t have a right to complain.

Stop it, Jorgen said. Of course you have a right to complain.

Dude, I said. Get out of my head.

I felt something from Jorgen that resembled laughter. Sorry. Perils of being a psychic.

I didn’t think he could delve deep into my mind. He didn’t know all my secrets, unless I was thinking about them on the surface. But so much was right there, so raw. My failures, my confusion, my anger.

Yeah, Jorgen said. I’m intimately familiar with that feeling.

I don’t have control of this situation, I said.

Yeah. You know, I’ve felt like that every moment since before we left flight school.

Fine, but now I feel it, and it’s much worse! I liked it better when you were in charge. I skirted around a rock nearly the size of Platform Prime back home.

More laughter.

I needed to figure out how Jorgen did it. Set aside my personal feelings and my fears about the future, and just forge ahead. Take the risk. Do the thing.

Yeah, Jorgen said. Act like me. I’m sure that will help.

“There are two hiding in the debris ahead,” Alanik said. “More waiting beyond that.”

You’ve got this, Jorgen said. Get Sadie and Nedd out of there and hold on until backup arrives.