I ran toward it, though what I was going to do against a creature in armor I had no idea. I knew less about hitting people than Arturo did.
The creature reached the doorway, far ahead of me.
“Boomslug, help!” Rig called from inside.
A torrent of force emanated from the command room and cut the armor of the varvax into pieces. The creature inside the armor scuttled out, and then disappeared into the negative realm again.
“I can’t believe that worked,” Rig said. He reached the doorway of the command room and knelt to pick up Boomslug. “I am going to get you a whole crate of caviar, Boomslug. I promise.”
Boomslug nuzzled Rig, looking quite pleased with himself. And then FM came running up and threw her arms around both of them, knocking them hard against the doorframe.
“Don’t squeeze the slugs!” Jorgen said, running up right behind me. No one listened to him.
Arturo came up beside me, staring up through a skylight at the battleship that was breaking into pieces above us.
“Jerkface,” Sadie called from her ship. “We have incoming!”
I looked out through the entrance of the hangar and I could see them—numerous UrDail ships painted a bright blue.
More Independence fighters coming to our aid.
“We did it,” I said. The Superiority would surely come after us again, but we weren’t alone anymore.
Twenty-two
“I don’t know if we need the backup,” Jorgen said, looking over Sadie’s shoulder at her sensor screen. “The Unity forces are retreating.”
“Thank the stars,” Arturo said.
I concurred. From inside the command center, I could hear Rinakin resuming his broadcast about the strength of ReDawn and her ability to resist. He seemed to be using the word progress a lot. I bet Nanalis was going to love that, but Rinakin’s broadcast would make certain that blame for the Superiority’s appearance fell squarely where it belonged.
“He’s going to want to parade you around at the Council tree,” I said to Jorgen. “You’re the hero of ReDawn now, apparently.”
Jorgen looked horrified, and I laughed.
“Hey,” Nedd said, coming up and slapping Jorgen on the back. “If you want, you can tell them I’m Jorgen Weight. I’ve always wanted to be in a parade.”
Jorgen looked like he might consider it. “We need to report to Cobb,” he said. “Tell Command we’ve been successful here. After that, hopefully we can go home. If I can talk some sense into my parents, maybe they’ll even send an official diplomatic coalition instead of a flight of pilots.”
Actual aid, and a renewal of our old alliance. I’d gone to the humans looking for help—but until this moment I don’t think I’d let myself believe help would actually come.
“Thank you,” I said to Jorgen, “for not abandoning my people to the Superiority when the inhibitor went down.”
Jorgen looked confused. “Of course,” he said. “That’s what an alliance is. It means we protect each other.”
So many of my own people backed down at the first sign of inconvenience that I’d expected the same of the humans. They could have left and waited out whatever that ship would have done to Tower in retribution. They’d risked their own lives to save my people. They’d done it again and again.
I’d misjudged Jorgen. He was an incredible leader, and it was a privilege to fly with him.
“Yes,” I said. “That’s what an alliance is.”
Jorgen still looked confused, like this was so obvious it didn’t bear saying. “I’m going to try to reach Cobb on the hypercomm,” he said. “We need to warn them about what the Superiority almost did to the people who were supposedly working with them.” He ducked into the command center.
“I told you he wasn’t going to turn on you,” Arturo said. He leaned against the corridor wall, watching me.
“You did tell me that,” I said. “But you also said you thought I was going to turn on you.”
“I said I didn’t think you would,” Arturo said. “But that it was a possibility.”
“I seem to remember you being very threatening,” I returned. “And quite concerned.”
Arturo grinned. “Fine. Maybe neither of us is a perfect judge of character.”
“If I’d really believed you all weren’t trustworthy,” I said, “I never would have asked for your help to begin with.”
“That’s probably true,” Arturo said. “Though did you have other options?”