“Yes,” I said. “But I can’t bring you all unless our ships are touching.”
“We’re going to interlock using light-lances,” Jorgen said. “We’ve tried other things, but that’s the fastest way. We’ll attach to you, so you don’t have to worry about the controls.”
Kimmalyn’s ship drew nearer to mine, and then a line of light, similar to our light hooks, beamed out from her ship, connecting it to mine.
“Skyward Flight,” Jeshua tried again. “You are grounded. Land your ships immediately or you will face court-martial.”
The others began to converge around me, moving closer than I was comfortable with as they connected their ships to mine. I tried to adjust my position by manipulating my control sphere, but it was more sensitive than I was used to, and I ended up jogging unintentionally to the side.
“Jorgen!” Jeshua said, shouting into the radio now. “Ground those ships!”
“Sorry, Mom,” Jorgen said. He did sound sorry, and more than a little stressed out.
“Um, Jerkface?” Nedder said over the radio. “They’re readying ships. You don’t think they’re going to shoot at us, do you?”
“If you leave to fight for the UrDail without permission you are defecting,” Jeshua said. “Ground your ships immediately.”
“Scud,” Nedder said. “Do you think she’ll do it?”
“I don’t know,” Jorgen said. “Let’s get out of here before we find out.”
“I’m ready when you are,” I told him, and reached into the negative realm, feeling across the abyss toward ReDawn. I reached for Hollow, sensing its familiar branches hanging there, a solid point on the other side of all that nothingness.
“Jerkface,” Arturo said. “Stardragon Flight is starting to launch.”
“This is Robin from Stardragon Flight,” an uncertain voice said over the radio. “Awaiting orders.”
“Where is Admiral Cobb?” Jeshua said.
“She can’t tell them to shoot,” Arturo said. “She doesn’t have the authority.”
I wondered if that was the only thing stopping her; if she’d really give the order to shoot down her own son.
Jorgen didn’t respond. I peered past Kimmalyn’s ship to Jorgen’s. I could see Boomslug perched on his shoulders, though I couldn’t see his face, shadowed as it was by his helmet.
“Alanik, we are a go to hyperjump,” Jorgen said.
“Jerkface?” Robin said again. “What are you—”
I reached across the negative realm to Hollow, and I pulled.
Eight
I’d never dragged so much mass through the negative realm before, but I was met with no more resistance. We cut through easily, like a knife through whipped whiteberry jam. For a moment we all hung suspended, the eyes staring down at us. A force, massively big and wide, reached for us like it wanted to smother us all. I felt Jorgen and the many slugs around me, all staring up at them. I could feel fear from the slugs, and something else from Jorgen—shame perhaps?
And then the eyes disappeared, and we hung in the miasma in sight of Hollow. We were still on the day side of the planet, the sky bright. I immediately checked our proximity to Wandering Leaf to ensure we hadn’t emerged in range of the autoturrets. The platform was a shadow floating off to our right, not close enough to fire. Hollow’s corpse reached upward toward the sky, a hazy outline against the miasma.
“Saints and stars,” Kimmalyn said. “Does that thing eat people?”
“The tree?” I asked. “No, it doesn’t eat people. Have you never seen a tree before?”
“I’ve seen a tree,” Arturo said. “It wasn’t much taller than Nedder.”
“These can grow up to fifty kilometers tall,” I said. “They float in the miasma, and our cities are built on them.”
“Scud, that’s creepy,” Nedder said.
“And beautiful,” Kimmalyn added.
“What is all this in the air?” Arturo asked.
“Gases,” I said. “Most of the trees have clear patches of air around them, but Hollow has fewer because the tree itself no longer produces oxygen. There’s still a bubble of breathable atmosphere from the plants that grow here and from the atmospheric generators installed by the lumber corps, but it’s much thinner and we’ll have to be more careful.”
I scanned the area quickly with my cytonic senses, but I couldn’t find any cytonics besides us.