FM carried the blue slug out of the ship, and the humans moved toward the doorway that led deeper into the platform. I climbed out of the Superiority ship and moved to Jorgen’s cockpit to fiddle with the radio. There was a box bolted beneath his dash, similar to the one that had held the inhibitor slug. I popped the door open, and Boomslug peered out at me expectantly, like I might provide more algae strips.
He was about to be sorely disappointed.
The humans hadn’t been gone for more than a few minutes when someone approached the open canopy. Arturo walked toward me with his yellow and blue slug in a sling across his chest. He must have come back to retrieve it from his ship.
I moved to stand, but Arturo held up a hand. “Alanik,” he said. “Can we talk?”
“Yes,” I said.
Arturo looked over his shoulder, like he was afraid we’d be overheard. The slug in the sling regarded me quizzically. “I was thinking about what you said on Detritus, about the Superiority wanting you to turn over the humans you were working with.”
I hadn’t said that to him, so I guessed Jorgen must have told him. “We weren’t working with any humans,” I said.
“Right,” Arturo said, his face grim. “But you are now.”
Oh. I’d been so focused on getting help that I hadn’t thought of how that would look. Clearly I shouldn’t have told Jorgen about that particular demand.
“We were just fighting the people who want to turn you over to the Superiority together,” I said.
“Sure,” Arturo said. “But shooting at a few ships doesn’t mean you aren’t planning to betray us in some other way.”
That was true, and nothing I could say would prove otherwise. “So you believe I’m lying to you.”
“I don’t know,” Arturo said. “I’m not sure what your motivations are. Jorgen believes you do want to make an alliance with Detritus, that you’re going to teach him how to use his powers.”
“Use his powers!” his taynix added, as if for emphasis.
“Easy, Naga,” Arturo said, petting its spines.
“I will,” I said. “I would be happy to, because we’re working together. You all risked a lot to be here.”
“We did,” Arturo said. “So I hope you didn’t come to Detritus looking for humans you could use to appease the Superiority.”
I bristled. “I would never work with them. Their wood is rotted all the way through.”
“I want to believe you,” Arturo said. “So does Jorgen. That’s why he didn’t tell Cobb about what you said.”
He should have, obviously. Their commander had made a decision without all the information. “Jorgen suspects me of deceiving you,” I said.
“No,” Arturo said. “Jorgen is too busy worrying about whether he disobeyed orders. I’m worried you might have deceived us.” He looked me straight in the eyes. His were dark and deep, not clear and bright like most UrDail. “Can we trust you?”
“You already have. You did it when you left your planet with me.” I’d fled when I’d first met them, not willing to offer them my trust, yet they’d come to help me anyway. I wouldn’t have done the same, but I was glad that in this way they weren’t like me.
“We did,” Arturo said. “Because the potential benefits outweigh the risks. We need allies, same as you. And we may be clueless when it comes to galactic politics, but we’re not helpless. If you turn on us, we will fight back, you understand?”
Arturo presented the threat calmly and evenly, like it was nothing more than a fact.
These humans possessed hyperdrives, had found the secret where I had failed. They’d also survived for nearly a century in the face of Superiority hostility.
“It would be a very serious mistake to underestimate you,” I said.
“I’m glad we agree on that.”
“And I have no intention of betraying you or your people.”
Arturo kept watching me, his face thoughtful, evaluating me. It bothered me that I couldn’t read in his eyes what it was that he saw.
“Thank you,” Arturo said. “I hope we can keep this between us.”
And then he turned and walked confidently back in the direction Jorgen and the others had gone.
I watched until he was out of sight. I hadn’t baited the humans here with the intention of trading them to the Superiority, but I did want to use them, in a sense. Unity used the specter of human extinction to terrify my people into submission. If my people saw humans fighting on our side, they’d see that resistance was possible, even against terrifying odds. Their existence was a weapon I could use against my enemies.