Page 27 of Blightfall

Leaves were sparse on the lower branches, but I had to weave around tree trunks and over fallen branches. If we had to travel far like this, it might be easier to climb up to the lower branches, which twisted and tangled around each other. We could walk along them like a series of balance beams.

I made my way to Orator and found the side fuselage door rumpled and jammed shut, so I climbed in through the hole where the cockpit used to be and forced my way through the door into the hold. It was dark inside, and I switched on the small light-lance attached to my wrist. The red-orange glow illuminated the bodies of Katri and Dasha, still strapped in their seats. Dasha’s head lolled at an unnatural angle, and Katri had a metal rod jammed through her side. Blood had pooled on her seat and splattered all over the walls and ceiling, spread by the abrupt changes in momentum during the fight above. I was grateful for their flight masks. I’d failed them both, and I couldn’t bear to look into their lifeless faces.

Suki was barely visible, layered between Hoid and Twist, who had coiled themselves around her—for comfort or protection I wasn’t sure.

“Are you hurt?” I asked Suki.

“Only bruised, I think,” she said, reaching to unstrap herself from her seat, though the slugs remained in her way.

“Hey,” I said to the slugs, and reached for them. I ran a hand down Twist’s blue spines and then Hoid’s rainbow-colored ones. “It’s okay. You can let go.”

“Okay,” Twist said, loosening her grip on Suki.

“Let go,” Hoid said, and he nuzzled my outstretched hand.

I lifted Twist and Hoid onto my shoulders, where they nestled closer to my neck than was comfortable, especially in this heat. I freed Suki’s flotation platform, which was strapped next to her tiny seat, while she unbuckled herself.

“Come on,” I said. “You can ride with me while we figure out what to do next.”

Suki gave one long, last look at Dasha’s and Katri’s bodies before climbing onto her disk and floating after me as I made my way out of the wreckage. Suki had an easier time than I did navigating back to my ship. She sailed ahead of me, weaving between a few low branches while I trudged across the soft ground to my cockpit.

“All clear,” I said over my radio when I arrived. I settled Hoid and Twist into the sling with Naga. The netting of the sling threatened to burst, but the slugs all curled around each other, too happy to be alive to care about the close quarters. “Nedder,” I said, “what have you found?”

“There are still drones patrolling above us,” Nedd said. “But they’re in the upper atmosphere. If we flew above the canopy, they could probably spot us.”

“If they’re not flying directly toward us,” I said, “that may mean they don’t know where we are. Any idea where the Superiority base is located?”

“I did a scan for acclivity stone in the surrounding area,” Nedd said. That sensor function was meant for locating downed ships with broken beacons, but could also sense enemy airfields. “I’m not finding any concentrations on the planet.”

“So our intel may be correct,” I said. “The people here aren’t spacefaring.”

“Then why are there so many drones patrolling the atmosphere?” Gilaf asked.

“Maybe they’re aware the Superiority has fallen,” I said, “and have been preparing for a potential attack.”

“They were waiting for us,” Sadie said, “thinking we’d come to destroy them now that their side lost the war.”

“That’s the only explanation I can think of,” I said. Though this Superiority force was surprisingly prepared for a group that hadn’t seen combat in a century and couldn’t have been preparing for our arrival for more than a couple of weeks. “Angel, do you sense any cytonic activity?”

“None,” Alanik said. “Just the hypercomm signals to the patrolling ships. A few of them are flying beneath the inhibitor field.”

“Can you tell where their instructions are coming from?” I asked.

“I cannot,” Alanik responded. “They must be hidden by the inhibitor.”

I knocked my head against the back of my seat. “If they can command their drones inside the inhibitor, that means their taynix know the inhibitor codes.” The code wasn’t an actual sequence of numbers, but a unique cytonic impression that allowed their taynix to use their abilities inside the inhibitor field, while we couldn’t. “That puts them at a huge advantage. Combined with their superior numbers, there’s no way we can take them by force, even if we can locate their base.”

“I found it,” Nedd said. “Sensors indicate a large space station hovering over the planet, above the city.”

“Okay,” I said, “so we can’t assault them directly, and we can’t outrun them through the inhibited zone. Their drones would gun us down before we worked our way through the debris and escaped.”

“Sounds right,” Nedd said.

Stars. I had to get my people out of this mess, but if we couldn’t fight and we couldn’t hyperjump, we hadn’t saved ourselves by hiding on the planet. Unless we wanted to start our own colony of tree people and live out our lives in this forest, we’d only delayed the inevitable.

“If we wait long enough, Jorgen will send help,” I said. “Though he’ll be sending them into the same ambush that hit us.” He’d probably send a bigger force, but without any information about our disappearance, it wouldn’t be big enough. “Angel, any chance you or Bob can get a cytonic communication to Jorgen, let him know what we’re up against here?”

“None,” Alanik said. “This planet is odd. I can use my powers here, but it’s as if the galaxy outside the inhibitor field has disappeared. We’re trapped in some kind of pocket.”