I held my breath. I’d told them over and over what I thought about making peace with the Superiority. They already knew what I had to say. As I listened, I picked out another voice over the hypercomm. Jeshua Weight. —assurances that no harm will come to them—
—valuable, the alien voice said. Never be so aggressive as to—
—aggressive enough to exterminate us—
—work with us, you have nothing to fear—turn over your hyperdrives, and—
“The Superiority representatives say they won’t hurt the cytonics,” I said. Which might be true, but sending them away was still a terrible idea. “And Cobb was right. They want you to turn over the taynix too.”
“We can’t do that,” FM said. “Right?”
“Right?” Drape said, and Rig put a hand on his spines.
“They’re trying to imprison you here,” I said. “It’s what they do. Keep you isolated on your planet unless you play by their rules.”
“That’s what they’ve always done to us,” Rig said. “Ever since our fleet crashed here.”
“But this time we have the power to leave,” FM said. “We can’t give that up without risking that they’ll go back to trying to exterminate us. The shield stops them for now—”
“But not forever,” Rig said. “That’s true.”
“And we’re not giving up the taynix,” FM said. “No matter what.”
—negotiate. We would of course need assurances that—if we are to cooperate—
Human or UrDail, politicians were all the same. “It sounds like they’re thinking about it.”
“I meant us,” FM said. “We aren’t giving them up. The politicians will have to come to ReDawn and take them from us.”
I smiled. “I’d climb that tree with you.”
“I imagine Cobb will too,” Rig said. “He can’t be in favor of this.”
—your generous offer— another voice said over the hypercomm. Admiral Cobb, I thought. —need time to collect the taynix—transport them to you and continue our negotiations—
“Um,” I said. “It sounds like he’s also considering it.”
“Seriously?” Rig said.
FM shook her head. “We should get more of the taynix out while we still can.”
“We can’t take them if we aren’t ordered to,” Rig said. “We’d need to talk to Cobb.”
“Cobb says he’s in favor of sending them to the Superiority!” FM said. “If that’s true, he won’t help.”
“He might be saying that for optics,” Rig said. “Maybe he’d be glad to have an opportunity to send them away so they can’t be turned over.”
“He can only do that so many times,” I said, “before your politicians will catch on.”
“That’s true,” FM said. “Maybe we should take them ourselves, without asking.”
Rig looked at FM in alarm, but he didn’t argue with her.
“Where would we find them?” I asked.
“The ones that can hyperjump are all over the platform,” Rig said. “We have most of them partnered with pilots. Some of the hypercomm and mindblade slugs are kept in Engineering, but it’s crawling with people right now.”
So we wouldn’t be able to pull them all out without alerting people to our presence. “I think we should get my ship and get out of here as soon as possible. Is it capable of flight?”
“Not right now,” Rig said. “I’m sorry, I haven’t had time to—”
“Can you fix it on ReDawn?” I asked. If not, we’d need to take another human ship. When it was time for us to make our move, I wanted all the Independence pilots in the air with us.
“Yes,” Rig said. “Given a few hours, I could put it together again.”
“What else is the Superiority saying?” FM asked.
I’d been distracted from the transmission, but I focused on it again.
—meeting to assure you of our intentions—do what is best for your species and the intergalactic interests—
“They’re setting up another meeting,” I said. “Probably to turn over taynix, I’m guessing.”
“What about Gran-Gran?” Rig asked.
“Who?” I said.
“Becca Nightshade. Spensa’s grandmother. If the Superiority is really asking them to turn over the cytonics, she might be in danger.”