ReDawn (Skyward, #2.2)

There hadn’t been real fighting on ReDawn in almost a century, and both Unity and the Superiority promised peace and cooperation. Never mind that the Superiority had kept us contained here all this time, punishing us for rebellion. Never mind that if we accepted their peace, we also had to accept their control over every aspect of our technology, our travel, our behavior, our culture. They’d already made us paupers, withholding advanced technology from us because we rejected their rule. Now they would make us beggars as well, stripping us of our dignity and our heritage in the process.

And so many of my people accepted it. A prisoner could be convinced that they lived in a paradise, if the prison was pretty enough.

“Is there anyone left who will fight with us?”

“The base on Hollow refused to unify,” Rinakin said. “I sent my daughter and her family there. But I’m afraid they won’t be able to hold out long.”

My brother Gilaf was stationed at Hollow. He and his flightmates helped supervise the lumber work there. Unlike the rest of my family, Gilaf wasn’t going to swallow Unity lies.

“If the other Independence bases see that there are holdouts, maybe they’ll reverse course,” I said.

    “That is my hope, but I expect Unity will mobilize their forces quickly to bring them in line.”

It was hard to imagine my people firing on each other, but Unity always seemed more willing to strike out at us than at the Superiority.

“How can they do that and claim it’s for peace?” I asked.

Rinakin didn’t answer that question. I already knew the answer anyway.

It was easier to believe the story they were told than to awaken to the reality of our oppression.

“What we need,” Rinakin said, “are some allies who have not forgotten that we are at war.”

I tapped my sharp nails on the dashboard of the ship. “I know,” I said. When Rinakin originally suggested that I answer the call to join the Superiority military, I’d been excited. Finally, something I could do. All anyone on ReDawn ever seemed to want to do was talk. Even though I hadn’t made it to the tryouts, discovering that our old human allies were still alive and fighting should have been a victory.

But then those former allies kept me unconscious for weeks, woke me only when they needed something, and then treated me like a prisoner.

Still, I remembered the desperation of the woman who spoke to me first. They want my people dead. We need your help. She at least seemed to understand the gravity of the situation.

And the other one—Jorgen, the male cytonic. He was clearly untrained, to the point that he didn’t know how to communicate properly. But I did get a bit of emotion from him through his cytonic resonance, enough to know he wasn’t happy with the direction things were going.

    He was scared.

But at least the humans knew what it was like to fight back.

“The humans are facing the same problem we are,” I said. “Their leaders are looking for a way to end the war. If we appeal to them for help, they could side with Unity.”

“I don’t think that will happen,” Rinakin said. “The Council has received a directive from the Superiority. There’s someone new in charge apparently, and they’re demanding we turn over the humans we’re harboring.”

I stared at Rinakin. “We’re not harboring humans, are we?”

“No,” Rinakin said. “But a human took your place and infiltrated the Superiority. How are the Superiority to assume that happened?”

By the branches. “They think I was working with the humans.”

“They think we are working with the humans,” Rinakin said. “And now they’ve issued an ultimatum. Turn over the fugitives—”

“Or they will very politely destroy us,” I said. “Which isn’t aggressive at all, I’m sure.”

“They’ll justify it,” Rinakin said.

They justified everything. And more than half of my people would parrot the justification as if it made sense, simply because the Superiority said it.

“You think I should return to the humans and ask for help.” In hindsight I should have stayed longer, tried harder to discern their true intentions. But I’d been disoriented, alarmed at how long I’d been unconscious, how much I might have missed.

    And I really did not like that nasty government woman.

I’d thought the myth of human aggression was propaganda spread by the Superiority. Now I wasn’t so sure. And if they were as aggressive as the Superiority said, they could be good allies to have right now.

They also could be twice as dangerous if they turned against us.

“The Superiority controls us by dividing us,” Rinakin said. “That’s why they wanted us to think the humans were eradicated. They’re afraid of what we can do together.”

That sounded like a Unity argument, but I saw his point. From what little I’d seen, we had more knowledge of cytonics and politics, while the humans had real fighting experience, something no one on ReDawn had anymore.

“I don’t know how strong the human military force is,” I said. “Or how many ships they might be willing to send our way.” If any. My last meeting with them had gone poorly—I hadn’t endeared myself to their leadership, nor them to me.

“Then perhaps they would take us in as refugees,” Rinakin said. “We could begin to build a resistance from their planet, the way they once mounted a resistance from ours.” He glanced over at me. “If the humans joined us, it might grant us the most important resource. Hope.”

I didn’t like relying on flighty emotions, but Rinakin was right. The humans might be our best option.

They might be our only option.

“Or, we could use your knowledge of the humans to buy us time,” Rinakin said. “If we seem like we’re cooperating, Unity might leave us alone a while longer.”

    He didn’t sound any more excited about that prospect than I was. “If we give the Superiority what they want, we’re playing right into their hands.”

“Yes. But the Superiority might not be our most pressing concern.”

“I don’t want to tell Unity I found humans,” I said. “We should be using that information to discredit them.”

“I agree,” Rinakin said. “That’s why I think you should return and ask the humans for help, while I go to the Council and try to reason with them.”