“Okay,” Stoff said. “I hardly think I needed that report in the middle of the night.”
“We have a bigger problem,” I said. “The Superiority found us on Evershore. They must have heard Kauri’s transmission and came looking for us. They attacked, and we defended ourselves and the nearby city, but then the Superiority withdrew. We heard over the hypercomm that they’re waiting for reinforcements.”
“Well,” Stoff said. “That does sound like a problem.”
At least we agreed on that. If he’d tried to convince me this wasn’t our problem, I would have worried about exploding in mindblades again.
“Sir,” I said. “We need to take Wandering Leaf to defend against whatever the Superiority is planning.”
“Fine,” Stoff said. “You didn’t need to wake me for that either.”
Didn’t I? It surprised me that Stoff wasn’t trying to claim DDF ownership over the thing since we were the ones who had retrieved it from ReDawn and figured out how it worked. It was a good thing—both for our current situation and our relationship with the UrDail—if he didn’t. But…
“We also need DDF support,” I told Stoff. “A few more flights at least. The more you can spare, the better.”
Now Stoff looked skeptical. “Detritus isn’t under attack,” I said. “We have the shield to protect us even if the Superiority were to return, and with the hyperdrives we could be here at a moment’s notice. We can spare the ships, not only to protect Cobb and Mrs. Nightshade, but to show solidarity with the kitsen.”
Stoff watched me carefully, and then looked over at Kelin. “Excuse us,” he said.
“Yes, sir,” Kelin said, and she paced off down the hall.
Stoff glanced at Rig, as if considering whether to send him away as well, but seemed to decide it wasn’t necessary. “Okay,” he said.
Um. “Okay, sir?”
“Okay, take the flights. How many do you need?”
“How many will you—”
“Never mind,” Stoff said. “Don’t tell me. I’ll radio over to Command that I’ve authorized you to call up flights to support you on Evershore. You can call them up yourself.”
I could? “Sir?” I said.
Stoff sighed, and I felt like I was missing something. I looked sideways at FM, but she didn’t seem to be any clearer on what was happening than I was.
“Your orders came directly from the admiral, didn’t they?” Stoff said. “I wouldn’t dream of overruling him.”
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw FM and Rig exchange a look.
I didn’t really know what to say to that. I didn’t want to argue—I’d been worried that Stoff was going to take away what limited autonomy I had now that he knew Cobb was in fact incapacitated. DDF protocol was clear that he had the right—even the responsibility—to do just that.
“I can decide how many flights to call to Evershore,” I said. I didn’t want to belabor this too much—it was good news really, and Skyward Flight needed us to take care of this quickly and bring them help.
But this felt more like a trap.
“Yes,” Stoff said. “You’ve been very clear on what Cobb ordered you to do. If this is your mission, then you should have the autonomy to complete it, don’t you think?”
Ah. I saw what he was doing. On paper I was a renegade. I’d taken my flight and our starfighters to ReDawn, officially against orders. I’d then returned and demanded that we cut the assembly out of the loop and that we work with the kitsen to retrieve Cobb. There were plenty of people who would testify to my insubordination—everyone but Cobb would consider that case open and shut.
Stoff hadn’t arrested me when we returned, but he’d been watching me ever since. He’d been giving me a lot of leeway in case my actions might be in Detritus’s best interest, but he’d never quite committed to attaching his name to anything I’d done in case it blew up like the scudding Superiority ship.
If Stoff kept this up, he could still take credit for anything Skyward Flight accomplished—if he wanted the credit. If we failed he’d be able to wash his hands of it. Say I acted on my own, say he didn’t really understand what was happening while I was offworld.
Did Stoff really not care about anything but keeping his head down and avoiding responsibility for whatever came next?
“Sir,” I said. “Forgive me for questioning, but that’s a lot of autonomy.”
“It’s no more than the admiral saw fit to give you,” Stoff said. “Isn’t that right?”
Stars. Maybe that was all he cared about. This was in fact a lot more autonomy than the admiral had seen fit to give me. I didn’t want to push Stoff too hard though. I only wanted to understand his motives, not change his mind.
“This is important,” I said to him. “We’re protected for now, but it isn’t going to last. The Superiority’s resources are as vast as the galaxy. They’re trying to convince the delvers to be on their side. If we don’t find a way to resist them…”
Stoff cringed, his shoulders hunching forward. “You don’t have to tell me.” I saw genuine fear in his eyes. He was terrified. “If you think you can do something to better our situation, then you scudding well had better do it.”
He closed the door in my face.
“Did he seriously just do that?” FM asked.
“Dump responsibility for everything on us?” Rig asked. “Yeah, I think he did.”
Not on us. On me. I was an easy mark. My parents were gone, so I couldn’t depend on them to cover for me. I was isolated. Politically speaking, I was expendable.
Stoff seemed sincere about wanting us to succeed. He knew how desperate our situation was. But he wasn’t going to do anything about it. He was a vice admiral; with Cobb out of commission it was his job to step up and lead.
But he was hiding like a coward because he was too afraid to deal with it.
“Jorgen?” FM said.
“Hang on,” I said. “I need to check on the others.”
I leaned against the wall next to Stoff’s door, reaching into the nowhere. Alanik? I said.
Still nothing, she said. This rodent keeps talking to me about birds. There are no birds living in my mind, Jorgen, and I don’t know what he means about the waves either.
Huh. That had made sense to me, but… That’s about how I feel when you talk about finding locations in the nowhere, I said. Maybe mindblades aren’t your thing?