“Oh good,” Stoff said. “You’re back. How are Cobb and Mrs. Nightshade? Are they in the infirmary? What is their condition?”
Oh, scud. Of course we had to start there. “The medical team was unable to move them without destabilizing them,” I said. Hopefully Cuna was able to move them into the library—I’d left before I’d found out the outcome. No need to get into the strange details of that. Stoff would only want answers I didn’t have. “The team wants to keep them there until we understand more about their condition.”
“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.