“The taynix will help with that,” FM said.
We’d given Rinakin a single taynix of each type, and we already had people from the ground crews scouring the caverns of Detritus for more. We’d lost many in the trap set by the Superiority, and we were going to need all the hyperdrives we could find in the coming days.
“Do you think Stoff will let us take flights to ReDawn if the Superiority attacks again?” FM asked.
“Maybe,” I said. I’d stayed behind while the others went to ReDawn, because I’d wanted to be here to keep an eye on things until we found Cobb. “He’s been weirdly receptive to my suggestions.”
“Do you think it’s because he agrees with you?” FM asked. “Or because he sees an opportunity to escape blame if all this goes wrong?”
“It’s the second,” I said. Once Stoff got over the idea of me challenging him, he’d become almost too accommodating. If things went well, I fully expected him to take credit for all of it. If we crashed and burned, he was going to pin it all on me. “But I don’t think Cobb is going to reprimand me for trying to protect our people in his absence.”
FM looked concerned. She was still doing that a lot in my direction. She’d mostly stopped trying to corner me to get me to talk, which was good. I didn’t need to talk. I needed to stay focused, move forward. My refusal to let her talk to me also meant we still hadn’t addressed the fight we’d had on ReDawn. Her words still rang in my mind: You’re not my flightleader.
I understood why she’d said that—she’d been rightly worried about the taynix being turned over to the Superiority—but it still stung. We were all trained to follow orders, to do as we were told. How bad must I be at this if a member of my own team—and a friend, I’d thought—could disavow me so easily?
“Winzik will not take the defeat on ReDawn well,” Cuna said. “Detritus might be the more difficult target, but he will only see that as a challenge to his authority. He is probably mobilizing more ships even now. He will gather enough force to break through Detritus’s shield eventually, even with the cytonic inhibitor in place.”
That was true, but I didn’t know what to do about it. I didn’t think Stoff did either. “We need to find Cobb,” I said. “He’ll know what to do.”
FM looked doubtful about that, but she didn’t voice it.
“About Cobb and Mrs. Nightshade,” Cuna said. A pin on their collar translated their words, which were spoken in an alien language. “If Mrs. Nightshade merely took them to another room on the Superiority ship, they might still have been caught in the explosion.”
“No,” Alanik said. “I scanned the ship after they left, and there weren’t any cytonics on it except for me and Jorgen.”
“It’s possible they were in an accident returning to the planet,” Cuna said. “If they hyperjumped into a dangerous position, they might have been killed on return. That would explain your inability to find them, would it not?”
“Don’t say that,” I said. “They aren’t dead.”
Alanik and FM exchanged a look.
“We have no evidence that they are dead,” I corrected myself. “We aren’t going to assume that they are without evidence.”
“Stoff isn’t going to hold off on replacing Cobb forever,” FM said. “Even if he thinks he can use you as a scapegoat, at some point they’re going to need to name a new admiral. They’re only taking your word for it that Cobb didn’t die on that ship.”
Alanik looked personally offended. “We are witnesses, so taking our word for it makes perfect sense.”
“Maybe,” I said. “But FM is right. They aren’t going to let this go on forever.” It wouldn’t necessarily be Stoff who took Cobb’s place—there were two other vice admirals of equal rank, though they were both planetside at the moment, trying to deal with the fallout of the Superiority broadcasting the deaths of half the assembly to the citizens of Detritus.
I didn’t think Stoff wanted control of the DDF, or he would have seen Cobb’s absence as an opportunity instead of a burden he was mostly trying to shift to me. “I’m not sure what options we have though,” I said. “Our military is too small and ill-equipped to take on the Superiority once they get their forces mustered. The UrDail pilots are well trained but inexperienced, and the Superiority’s technology outpaces us all. And that’s assuming they don’t try to send another delver after us. Spensa said the Superiority was trying to make a deal with them.”
“We need to continue to reach out and form other alliances,” Cuna said. “There will be many peoples who don’t approve of Winzik’s methods.”
I wasn’t sure that Cuna entirely approved of our methods. They still seemed to find us aggressive and barbaric, even though our tactics had saved them from capture on Sunreach.
“It may be only lesser species in the beginning,” they continued. “But as time goes on, I’m sure the more advanced species will also begin to turn on Winzik.”
“Those lesser species saved your life,” Alanik muttered.
“Twice now,” FM added under her breath.
“Of course!” Cuna said, as if this didn’t contradict what they’d said previously at all. “All species have something wonderful to add to the Superiority—”
“This isn’t the Superiority,” I said. “We’re not trying to join them.” Cuna wanted us to see the Superiority as a diverse group of peoples, and I’m sure they were, given the thousands of planets that were apparently under their control. But. “The Superiority has been killing our people since long before Winzik took over, and we’re not making an alliance with any part of it. Not again.”
Cuna looked like they might argue, but I wasn’t going to hear it. Alanik had been right about the Superiority. My parents had tried to reason with them, and look where that got them.
“Boom,” Boomslug muttered from down by my feet, where he’d curled around the leg of my chair.
I reached for him and scritched him between his spines. He nuzzled his body against my hand.
“Cobb ordered us to find allies though,” I said, before Cuna could make any more defenses of the Superiority. “So if we reach out to others, we’re still following his orders.”
“Technically,” FM said, “he ordered us to make allies of the UrDail.”
“Technically they weren’t orders at all,” Alanik added. “They were not-orders.”
“That’s beside the point,” I insisted. “If we’re making alliances, then we’re doing what Cobb would do. And if our superior officers know we’re doing it, and they don’t order us not to, then we’re still operating within the current chain of command.”