Chapter Twenty-Five Sadie
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.”
“I agree!” I said. “We have completed our inspection of your populace, and I find the conditions here to be most agreeable! We are finalizing our observations now, and then we can be on our way.”
“Good,” Arturo whispered.
This was going well. If she agreed to let us go, we might be able to fly out through the debris field and hyperjump home without having to interact with her any further.
“That is good to hear,” Ivy said smoothly. “If you’ve finished your inspection, I would love to see your report before you go.”
I smiled. We were prepared for this. “Would you like me to send it through the hypercomm?” I asked. My fingers fidgeted on the human-sized datapad where Suki had transferred her report.
“I would prefer to receive your report in person,” Ivy reiterated. “And you haven’t observed conditions here on our station, which should certainly be in your notes.”
Scud. I looked to Arturo, who hesitated.
“Our orders were only to investigate the conditions of the humans here,” I said. “No need to bother you with a visit.”
“It’s no bother at all!” Ivy said. “I would be delighted to host you.”
That was odd—the Superiority usually found humans to be terrifying, especially in groups. “One moment, please,” I said. I turned off my transmitter, so Ivy wouldn’t hear what I said next. “What do you want me to do?”
Arturo hesitated. “I don’t want to land on her station, but stars, the things we could learn up there.”
“What are our other options?” Nedd asked. “The nowhere portal?”
“I like our odds on the station better,” Arturo said.
“We can try to appease her, but even if she were to attack, here in the somewhere we could flee, maybe to someplace where we could hyperjump to the surface of Blightfall, and hide again while we came up with a new plan. We can’t hyperjump in the nowhere, so we’d have fewer avenues of escape. ”
“I think the station is worth the risk,” Alanik said.
Arturo looked back at Dayan. “I can help you if it comes to ground fighting,” Dayan said.
“The Superiority is traditionally terrible at ground fighting,” Arturo said. “And the operatives we’ve met in the past have been terrified of humans. They usually run rather than fight, so I like our odds there.”
“Let me at the aliens,” Dayan said.
Alanik gave them a sharp look, but didn’t comment.
“What do you think?” Arturo asked me.
Stars, he wanted my opinion? “If it’s those two options or wait for Jorgen to send more pilots to die,” I said, “then I think we should go.”
Arturo glanced at Nedd and Gilaf, who both nodded.
Stars, I should be grateful Arturo was asking our opinions.
But leadership only did that when they were afraid they were making the wrong call—or when they thought the balance of odds between victory and death was so skewed toward the latter that they wanted to console themselves with our consent.
“Agree to it,” Arturo said. “If she won’t let us leave, maybe we can gain control of the space station, or find answers about the inhibitor field that would allow us to access the codes and hyperjump out.”
I turned my transmitter back on. “We agree,” I said. “We will observe conditions on your station, deliver our report in person, and then fly out through the debris field and hyperjump to our superiors. Is this satisfactory to you?”
“I eagerly await your arrival,” Ivy said. “My drones will escort you. As long as you head directly here, you will not encounter resistance.”
“Thank you!” I said. “I look forward to making your acquaintance.” I flipped the hypercomm off.
“She isn’t going to let us go once we land, is she?” I asked.
“Maybe not,” Arturo said. “But once we’re on the station, we can work toward taking her out.” Arturo signaled to the others to close their canopies and climbed into his own fighter.
For better or worse, we were doing this.
I only hoped we would make it out alive.