Rig appeared in front of the control panel beside FM, and she jumped. No matter how many times we hyperjumped, it was still hard to get used to people appearing out of nowhere. It reminded me of the times as a child when I used to jump out from behind furniture and startle my mother. It always worked no matter how many times I did it, much to my mother’s chagrin.
Sometimes it wasn’t what happened that surprised you. It was when.
“I’m about to fly out to that platform that resembles Wandering Leaf,” Rig said. “But I’m worried we won’t be able to figure out how to move any platforms quickly enough. I’m equally worried that we will and we’ll leave Detritus open to attack.”
“There are already holes in the platforms around the planet,” I said. “The shield stretches between them. It would continue to fill in the gaps if we only took a few platforms, wouldn’t it?”
“I hope so,” Rig said.
“If it doesn’t, we’ll return them,” I said. “Maybe we won’t even be able to figure out how to move them, but I think we need to explore all of our options.”
“Of course,” Rig said. “I’ll have Drape with me, so if you need to communicate you can hyperjump in and back out again. I’ll also see if there’s a hypercomm there that we can get working.” He looked nervously from me to FM, and FM threw her arms around him.
“Be safe,” he said.
I hoped we would be, but stars, none of us could promise that.
Rig gave Drape the command to take him home, and he blinked out to meet with the engineers. FM looked shaken.
“You okay?” I asked.
“No,” FM said. “But this isn’t the time to talk about it.”
“We have to wait for the signal from the other flights that they’re ready to hyperjump,” I said. “They’ve just been roused from their beds, so we have a few minutes.”
FM squeezed her eyes shut. “Saints and stars, Jorgen. It’s a lot easier to make you talk than to do it myself.”
“I could call Rig back,” I said. “But I think he needs to get moving with the other engineers.”
“I don’t want to talk to Rig about it anyway,” she mumbled.
That surprised me. “I thought you said you liked that he made you talk.”
“I said it was good for me. But I hate it. And I realize that if I don’t talk to you right now, you’re going to use that as an excuse to shut down and probably explode again.”
I hoped that wasn’t true. But I didn’t deny it.
FM sighed. “So yes, it sucks, okay? I hate leaving Rig, knowing I may not be coming back. I know what it does to him and how much worse it’ll be if something happens to me, and I feel terrible about it. I wonder if I ever should have started things between us, if that was really fair to him. And I wonder how much longer he’s going to want to put up with this before he decides that I’m not worth the stress. Okay? Are you happy now?”
“No,” I said. “But I’m glad you told me.”
FM fiddled with one of the console buttons, looking at me out of the corner of her eye. “Do you ever feel like maybe you shouldn’t have started things with Spensa?”
“I didn’t start it,” I said. “She did. But…” It surprised me how easily the answer came. “No. I’ve never regretted it. I could never regret one minute with her, no matter how it all turns out.” The strength of my conviction startled me. I meant every word.
FM’s shoulders relaxed.
“You don’t regret it either,” I said. “You’re just scared.”
FM pressed her lips together, and she nodded. “I don’t think it’s fair to him. But if you can handle Spensa running off into literally nowhere…”
Rig dropped out of flight school after his first time in the air, but he’d come with us into battle on ReDawn anyway, and he hadn’t flinched. “He knows why you’re doing this. He’s making the same call.”
“Yeah,” FM said. “And I hate him being in danger too. I almost hope he can’t get the platforms to move, because then he’ll be here and he’ll be safer.”
If the platforms didn’t move, we’d all have far fewer resources to deal with whatever the Superiority brought against us. But I didn’t point out her bad logic. I understood.
“I’m going to go wake the UrDail pilots,” FM said. “So they aren’t frightened when the platform moves, and so they can decide to stay here if that’s what they want.”
“Good idea,” I said. Alanik’s brother and the others had fought beside us on ReDawn, but this wasn’t their fight. They deserved the opportunity to decide for themselves.
“Jerkface,” a voice said over my radio. “This is Robin from Stardragon Flight. We were told to contact you as soon as we were in the air.”
Last time I talked to Robin over the radio, her flight had been called up to keep Skyward Flight from escaping to ReDawn. “Copy, Robin,” I said. “Do you have a hyperdrive?”
“We’ve got one of them in our flight,” Robin said. “Ivy and Victory Flights have a couple more each.”
“Good,” I said. “Connect all your ships with light-lances. Don’t leave anyone behind. Signal me when you’re ready, and we’ll bring everyone with us to Evershore.”
“Jerkface?” Robin said. “What the scud are we doing?”
“Defending potential new allies,” I said. “They’re under attack because the Superiority got wind of our presence there. We’ll be joining their air force in defending their planet. I’ll give you specific formations when we arrive.”
“Yes, sir,” Robin said.
I blinked. I wasn’t technically Robin’s superior, and I was giving her orders anyway. Stoff had given me leave to do that, but…
I didn’t correct her. I was going to need them all to listen to me, so this was a good sign even if it wasn’t exactly right.
Jorgen? Alanik said in my mind. Another carrier ship has arrived.
We’re on our way, I told her.
I made sure Gill was ready while FM alerted the UrDail pilots.
“We’re ready to go,” Robin told me over the radio. “My flight wants to know where exactly we’re heading?”
Had I not told them? “Evershore,” I said. “It’s a planet inhabited by small fox aliens.”
There was a pause. “Okay,” Robin said. “Thanks for filling us in.”