Page 7 of Blightfall

“Oh, scud,” I said. The nowhere was a dimension parallel to ours, which cytonics passed through when they hyperjumped. Despite what the name implied, it was far from empty. If one of the portals between our dimension and the nowhere had opened, sending a rubble belt’s worth of matter through to our side…“Are the humans on this planet still alive?”

“We think so,” Jorgen said. He pressed a button on the holoprojector, bringing up a report beside another three-dimensional representation of a planet. The side facing us had a large landmass surrounded by ocean. Detritus had no large bodies of water, only a wasteland of dust and debris, so it always surprised me how common surface water was on other inhabited planets. “The information we stole from the Superiority during the war mentions the rubble belt and the inhibitor field around it. It’s not caused by taynix, but rather some kind of natural cytonic disturbance. It can’t be turned off, though it affects only the area around the planet, not the planet itself.”

That was odd. I hadn’t heard of a “natural cytonic disturbance” before. And one that affected the area around the planet, but not the surface? It almost sounded like a cosmic bubble, the planet trapped within it.

“Shouldn’t we be able to jump directly to the surface, then,” I asked, “even if the airspace above it is blocked?”

“We should,” Jorgen confirmed. “But we can’t, and we don’t know why. That may be one reason the Superiority considered the humans on this planet a very low escape risk. In addition to being trapped inside some kind of naturally occurring inhibitor, they are also not spacefaring, don’t have acclivity stone to power ships, and seem to be peaceful.”

“So they’re still trapped there,” I said. “Even though the Superiority is gone and can no longer actively hold them captive.”

“That’s what we believe,” Jorgen said. “We’re sending scouts to fly through the disturbance, along with a team of diplomats…”

I saw where this was going. Another bodyguard mission, this time to a people who were known to be peaceful and didn’t even have ships capable of firing on us.

“Our job is to keep the diplomats safe,” I said.

“In part. The information we stole indicates that there was a small Superiority security force watching the planet. But even if that force is still there, hiding inside the nowhere disturbance, they won’t have seen combat in a century. You should be able to quickly deal with any resistance and then land near the city. Leave it to the scouts to survey the planet and the diplomats to make contact with the city. I want your team to investigate the nowhere disturbance to see what you can learn about what caused it. You’ll want to take Alanik. As a cytonic, she may be able to sense things about the disturbance that others can’t.”

I was never opposed to taking Alanik with me, and not just because she was an amazing pilot. I would spend all my time with her if I could. “Should I not take the entire flight?”

“I don’t think you’ll need that many ships,” Jorgen said. “We aren’t sending our diplomats in without precautions, but we also don’t want a full strike force on a diplomatic mission to a population that doesn’t have starfighters. I want to send you, Alanik, and two other pilots.”

“I’d like to bring Nedd,” I said.

Jorgen raised an eyebrow. I didn’t know if Nedd had told Jorgen yet that he intended to stay with the flight. I didn’t want to turn Nedd’s job offer down for him, but I also didn’t want to leave him behind.

“As a copilot,” I clarified. “He’s been riding with Gilaf, so I’ll bring him too.” As long as Nedd was my second-in-command, we couldn’t fly in the same ship. He had to be ready to give orders if I went down.

“I want you to take four ships,” Jorgen said, “so you can break into wingmate pairs as necessary. If Nedd is riding with Gilaf, I recommend taking Sadie as your fourth pilot.”

I resisted the urge to groan. Sadie Chay was the youngest pilot on my team, and the least experienced. “Due respect,” I said, “but if we’re supposed to silently guard the diplomats and let them do the talking, I’d rather bring someone…”

“Quieter?” Jorgen suggested.

“Someone who knows when to keep their mouth shut. I could bring T-Stall or Catnip.” They were the oldest and most experienced members of the flight, having graduated from cadet training a few years before the rest of our team.

“It’s your call,” Jorgen said, “but I think you should take Sadie. She’s been underutilized, and she might surprise you.”

Specific assignments for my team members were customarily up to my discretion. Jorgen wouldn’t force my hand, but a suggestion from our most senior officer couldn’t be easily ignored. “I’ll think about it,” I said.

“Good.” Jorgen picked up the printout, frowning at the bite Boomslug had taken out of it.

“Really?” he said softly to the slug.

“Boom,” Boomslug said.

Jorgen handed me what remained of the papers. “This has all the information from our stolen intelligence. The people of Blightfall speak several languages, and English is among them. You shouldn’t have to do much talking, but you’ll be able to communicate as necessary to keep the diplomats secure.”

“Any idea why they call it Blightfall?” I said. “It sounds ominous.”

“Ominous,” Boomslug agreed.

“Yes,” Jorgen said, waving his hand at the holoprojector to zoom in on a section of the planet. “A large part of the planet has been taken over by an invasive tree species.” A waypoint marked the location of the human city at the north end of a large continent, and I could indeed see that much of the continent was covered in a massive forest bisected by a river. “The original spores were transported by a group of humans who’d been traveling planet to planet before the Second Human War, looking for exploitable resources. Apparently the nutrients in the soil and the atmosphere were ideal for the proliferation of the trees, which destroyed the existing ecosystem.”

“Great,” I said. More parts of the galaxy ruined by invading humans. That was what all the human wars had been fought over: our ancestors’ desire to conquer the galaxy, and the intergalactic efforts of aliens to stop them. Sometimes I felt like we were teenagers leaving home for the first time, only to discover that our great-grandparents had robbed and murdered their way across the galaxy, soiling our family name. It didn’t make the Superiority’s oppression okay, but it did make it easier to understand.

“I also wanted to talk to you about hyperjumps,” Jorgen said. “The new regulations are a little different from what you’re used to, and will change your command structure slightly.”