Page 19 of Blightfall

“All ships, wide sweep formation,” I said. The object looked too small to be a crewed ship, and most of the remotely piloted drones we encountered were the same size as our fighters. We needed to determine what it was and whether it presented a threat.

“I have visual on the object,” Underscore said. “Scud, what is that thing?”

“Underscore?” Blaze said. “What are you seeing?”

Underscore didn’t immediately respond. As I passed a smaller chunk of debris, my own proximity monitor blipped: an object heading straight for me. Others appeared on my monitor, lifting off pieces of debris all around us like a cloud.

“Spread out,” I said. “Defensive maneuvers only. Do not fire unless fired upon.”

“Copy, Amphi,” Gilaf said.

“Scud,” Nedd said. “What are those things?”

The one approaching me came into view and went straight for the nose of my ship. I dove, avoiding collision. The shadow of it passed over my canopy.

“They’re birds,” Underscore said. “Scud, what is a bird doing way up here?”

It was a bird—larger than the ones that lived on the kitsen planet—as long as my arm, with slender, pointed wings spanning at least four meters across. Its body was black, but its face was streaked with yellow feathers in a pattern that looked like enormous eyes. Two more flew up next to it, diving toward me like they wanted to get a better look at my ship.

“Stars,” Sadie said. “Is there even enough atmosphere up here for them to fly through?”

“There is not,” Nedd said. “How are they doing that?”

The birds flapped their wings, but something about the motion looked out of sync with the flow of their bodies. They wriggled oddly in the air, shifting their tail feathers to change direction.

“Fascinating,” Suki said. “They must be using acclivity stones. Some birds consume gravel as part of their digestion. My guess is that these somehow consumed acclivity stone and are now using it to propel themselves through space. But there’s no atmosphere for them to breathe. I wonder if they have some means of storing oxygen that allows them to venture so far from the surface.”

“Space birds,” Sadie said. “Awesome.”

“I suppose it’s not possible for us to collect a specimen,” Suki said.

“Outside our mission parameters,” I said. “Do not engage. I think they’re just curious about us.”

“I’d be curious too,” Sadie said. “If the humans here aren’t spacefaring, they may never have seen a ship before.”

“Why would they want to fly up this high?” Alanik asked.

“Maybe some kind of food source in the debris?” Katri suggested. “Algae growing in the ice crystals?”

Nedd groaned. “Why is it always algae? Don’t they have a whole planet of other things to eat?”

“That’s probably where they found acclivity stone,” I said. The strange gravity-defying mineral we used to power our ships was created in the nowhere, though I didn’t understand exactly how. If the rocks around us had passed through the nowhere, they might be rich with it.

“There’s no way to know without more research,” Suki said. “I’ll take note of this for further study on another expedition.”

“Continue toward the edge of the debris field,” I said over the radio. “And…try to avoid collisions.”

“You mean you don’t want a giant bird in your booster socket?” Katri asked.

“I’m picky that way,” I replied. A bird would likely mash itself into a fine paste if it collided with my ship, but I didn’t know how dense their bodies were. I couldn’t risk one of us sustaining damage.

As we resumed course and picked up speed, we quickly left the birds behind, but my monitors flashed, telling me another flock was ahead. We were less than ten minutes out from the edge of the debris field with no idea how far the inhibitor would extend beyond that.

The new flock of birds soared over me, and as they flashed by, I got a brief glance at their talons, all tucked up under their dark feathered bodies.

“Hey, Ghost!” Sadie said. “They’re following you! Maybe they think you’re their mother!”

“Your mom thinks she’s your mother,” Gilaf said.