Page 84 of Blightfall

When we were alone. When I could kiss her if I wanted to, which I sure as hell wasn’t going to do in front of the entire flight.

Alanik settled back into her seat, and I thought maybe she was disappointed. “Okay,” she said quietly. “Let me know.”

I looked around at my team. Nedd and Gilaf packed away their rations, and Dayan looked skeptically at the cargo space behind my seat. It would be serviceable for a flight off planet, and survivable if we got into combat, as long as things didn’t go terribly wrong.

“Last chance to back out,” I said to Dayan.

“I know,” Dayan said, “but this isn’t the first time I’ve put my life at risk.”

Alanik watched me quietly, and I wished we’d gotten to finish that conversation.

We would, I promised myself. Later.

“All right,” I said. “Everyone prepare for takeoff.” I called to Sadie: “You’re up.”

Twenty-Five

Sadie

Arturo stood next to the open canopy of my ship. Everyone else strapped in and prepared for takeoff but left their canopies open so they could contribute to my conversation with Ivy without having to use their radios to communicate with me. If all went well, we’d soon fly out through the debris field and home with Ivy’s blessing.

“All right,” Arturo said, leaning on the side of my ship. “Do it just like we discussed.”

It was a show of trust for Arturo to have me call Ivy. I should be excited. This was what I wanted—an opportunity to distinguish myself. But at the moment, I worried I would distinguish myself as the one who got us all killed.

“If I mess this up,” I said, “I blow our only real chance at getting home.”

“If it makes you feel better,” Nedd called from his ship, “it’s possible we don’t have a chance of getting home for you to blow.”

Arturo shot him a glare. “You can do this,” he said to me. “Just follow the plan.”

I took a deep breath, trying not to hyperventilate. I’d done a lot of talking on this mission, but so far I’d managed to do it mostly in low-risk situations, like in the coliseum with Liba or in the pub with Dayan, where if I messed up, I could extract myself and try again with someone else. The conversation after Dayan had attacked us had been different, but I’d been too tied up by their light-whip to consider the implications until the talking part was mostly over. “Okay,” I said. “Okay, I’ve got this.” I turned my hypercomm on.

“Ivy?” I said. “Ivy, are you there?”

There was no response on the other end.

I tried again. “This is the head bodyguard to Superiority Protective Services Inspector Zuzen. Ivy, please respond.”

Suki had provided us with the name, based on contact her people had when the Superiority was trying to recruit so-called lesser species to join their military.

The hypercomm remained quiet, so I repeated myself again. I began to wonder if Ivy had stopped monitoring communications, if this was all for nothing.

And then she spoke, her voice as upbeat yet mechanical as before. “Hello, head bodyguard,” Ivy said. “I spoke with one of your subordinates earlier, and they called for my unconditional surrender.”

“I’m sorry for the idiocy of my subordinates!” I said. “They had no right to say such things to you, and I assure you they will be thoroughly punished.” I hoped that sounded appropriately violent. Superiority agents thought of humans as nothing but bloodthirsty monsters, and I wanted to live up to the expectation.

“Aggression may be the only language they understand,” Ivy said. “Where is Inspector Zuzen?”

“Unfortunately Zuzen was killed by your fighters upon our arrival,” I said.

“It is regrettable that Zuzen chose not to call ahead to announce your visit. If they had, that misunderstanding could have been avoided.”

I clenched my jaw. We were still calling the murder of half our team a misunderstanding. “It is understandable, if regrettable,” I said, keeping my voice even. “We were instructed not to call ahead. Our superiors wanted us to observe the planet covertly. We did not expect it to be quite so well guarded.”

I looked at Arturo, and he nodded.

“I understand,” Ivy said. “Your superiors underestimated the excellent job I have done containing the human menace here for many years.”