“It’s me,” a quiet whisper of a voice said. I jumped, and turned to look, but no one was there. I was hit with the striking scent of cinnamon. Burned cinnamon, actually.
“Welcome, unseen one,” Hesho said, standing, then bowing low. The others of his crew did likewise.
“You’re . . . invisible?” I asked, surprised.
“I am a figment,” said the soft feminine voice, and I realized I knew that voice. I’d heard it before.
“The drone ship that helped me save Morriumur!” I said. “You were on that ship.”
“Figments,” Hesho said, “are known to be able to infiltrate ships and take control of them.”
“So, are all the drones piloted by . . . by people like you?” I asked.
“No,” the disembodied voice said. “There aren’t many of us. I simply took control of one of the ships for this test, against the will of its remote pilot.”
Incredible. But what was she? A smell? Was I talking to a
The distinct scent trailed away, but I didn’t know if that meant Vapor was leaving, or . . . something else? I found the idea of a creature that I couldn’t see to be distinctly disturbing. Who knew when she would be watching us?
The lunch was breaking up, creatures from other tables filing out to return to their ships. Hesho bade us farewell with gusto, then climbed down the ladders set up by his crew. Together, the group of over fifty diminutive foxes gathered their things and trotted out the doors.
Morriumur and I followed, eventually emerging out into the open air at the top of the station. Black sky overhead, speckled with stars. Ships were launching a few at a time for the flight back to Starsight.
I bade farewell to Morriumur, then walked over to M-Bot and hauled myself up onto his wing so I could get into the cockpit.
“Some engineers came to try to inspect me while you were below,” M-Bot said, “but I scared them away by making it seem like they’d accidentally tripped an alarm system.”
“Good thinking,” I said.
“It was kind of like a lie,” he said. “I
As we prepared to take off, I felt something against my mind again. I glanced to where the sensation seemed to be coming from, and noticed a set of partially opened hangar doors. I could see a shadow standing inside. Brade—watching my ship.
“I don’t like the idea of you going off on your own tomorrow,” M-Bot said. “Flying another ship.”
“Jealous?”
“Maybe! It would be cool if I could feel that. But more, I think it’s dangerous. We’ll need to double-check your bracelet’s holographic projector. Its CPU should be able to manage your hologram without my aid, but we’ll want to observe it first. It would be better if I could go with you.”
“I don’t really see that we have a choice,” I said as I lifted us up and away from the platform. “We need to get our hands on a Superiority ship.”
“It’s possible they won’t give you one that can hyperjump,” M-Bot said. “At least not at first.”
“I considered that,” I said. “But if I can gain their trust, there’s a good chance they’ll relax their security around me. I might not be given a starfighter that can hyperjump, but I’ll likely be near one. If I can’t steal a hyperdrive, perhaps I can at least get some photos of one.”
“Photos won’t get us home.”
“I know. I’m still working on that.”
As we flew toward Starsight and I thought it through, I realized that I’d inadvertently been given a backup plan. Winzik and the others had just assigned me to the same flight as their pet human. Did Brade know there was an entire planet full of humans like her, only free? Might she be willing to escape there, if I gave her the right opportunity?
If I couldn’t steal a hyperdrive from the Superiority, maybe I could instead steal away one of their cytonics.
18
I settled M-Bot into place on the top of our embassy on Starsight, then sat back in my seat, suddenly exhausted.
Being Alanik was taxing. I was accustomed to just going with my gut and doing what seemed natural for me. It had gotten me through life well so far. I’d admittedly earned the occasional bump or scrape, but I’d never had to worry about pretending to be someone other than myself.
I sighed, finally hitting the canopy release and standing up to stretch. The embassy didn’t have a ground crew to pull over steps for me, so I climbed out onto the wing, then hopped down.
“Overall,” M-Bot said to me, “I think that went well. We’re not dead, and you actually managed to get into their military.”
“By the skin of my teeth,” I said, grimacing as I remembered the burl gorilla alien who had thrown the tantrum and been kicked out. That
“Do your teeth have skin?” M-Bot asked.
“I don’t think so,” I said, walking over and hooking up M-Bot’s charging cords and network link. “Not sure where the saying comes from, actually.”
“Hmmm. Oh! Well, it’s from an English version of the Bible. That’s a really antiquated version of the Book of Saints, from Old Earth.”
