Page 85 of Blightfall

“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.

Twenty-Six