Page 28 of Blightfall

That was odd, and I didn’t totally understand it. Figuring out the inhibitor field was part of our mission here, and we weren’t making progress on that front.

The other half of our team’s mission was to begin diplomatic relations with the humans of Blightfall, but we’d lost most of our diplomatic team, and I was no longer confident that it was safe to announce ourselves to the humans of Blightfall—not when we had so drastically misunderstood the situation on this planet.

We’d been in dangerous situations before, but this one felt different.

It took me a moment to realize why.

Jorgen was the one in charge then. I hadn’t had to make the calls during the war. I’d followed where he led.

Saying that out loud would be admitting that I wasn’t as good a leader, that I didn’t have what it took to guide my team through this. And even if that were true, it would be worse to broadcast it to the team. If I wanted them to have confidence in me, I had to have confidence in myself. We’d already lost five members of our team today. I had to do everything I could to keep things from disintegrating further.

“If we determined the situation was safe,” I said to Suki, who floated on her platform inside my cockpit, “would you be prepared to make diplomatic contact?”

Suki looked at me like I had lost my mind, then said, “Flightleader, I’m a xenoanthropologist. My job on the diplomatic team was an advisory one. I daresay most of my direct diplomatic experience has been spending time with you.”

I’d been afraid of that. Suki could help us in an advisory capacity, but even if it was safe to reveal ourselves to the humans of Blightfall, we’d have to do the talking. “Nedd,” I said over the radio, “can you tell how far we are from the human city?”

“There’s a hub of radio activity thirteen klicks out,” Nedd said, “with enough traffic to indicate a city.”

“Can you tell what kind of radio traffic?” I asked.

Nedd was quiet, probably listening in. “Weather reports. Some statistics…I think they might be sports scores.”

“Sounds like a civilization,” Alanik said.

“Investigating that city is our best bet,” I said. “We can leave the ships here, and either hyperjump or follow their tracer beacons to return. For now, I think we need to disguise ourselves using Hoid’s illusions and take a look around the city. See if the humans are aware of the force that attacked us, and if they seem safe to approach.”

“That sounds like a wise course,” Suki said.

“If we’re going to do this,” I said, “we need stealth and subtlety.”

“Hey,” Nedd said. “We can be subtle. Remember when we first met Alanik? We were totally subtle.”

“Were you?” Alanik asked, as if this were the first she was hearing about our prowess with stealth.

“Didn’t we corner her in a medical bay and scare her until she ran away?” I asked.

“You did,” Alanik confirmed.

“I meant after that,” Nedd said. “When we met up with her on her home planet.”

“You mean when your hyperjump attracted military attention,” Gilaf said, “and ended in a firefight?”

“Yeah,” Nedd said. “That time.”

“There was the time you visited my people,” Suki said. “This also attracted attention and eventually a firefight. A very large one. With explosions.”

“I’m sensing a pattern,” Nedd said. “Involving firefights.”

“Okay!” I said. “So none of us have ever successfully spied on anyone before! But we did battle an oppressive galactic empire and a bunch of superpowered, godlike artificial intelligences, and we won, so it’s not like we don’t have experience doing impossible things.”

“I’d say this is significantly less impossible,” Suki said.

“Thank you,” I said. I steeled myself. My team needed my leadership, so I had to sound confident, even if I wasn’t. “This is why Skyward Flight was sent on this assignment. Because we all have experience jumping into insane situations where things go wrong and then finding our way back out again. Jorgen had faith that we can do this, and so do I.”

Interlude

Bob was a friendly slug. Bob liked friends. He had many friends, and many of his friends were new friends.