Sunreach: Skyward Flight (9780593566619) by Penguin Random House; & Janci Patterson

Author:Penguin Random House; & Janci Patterson [Sanderson, Brandon & Patterson, Janci]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Random House LLC
Published: 2021-09-28T00:00:00+00:00

Nine

We all agreed it would be best if Jorgen didn’t try to use the hyperdrive for the first time while piloting a ship. Cobb granted us the use of one of the two-seater Dulo-class fighters, which had pilot and copilot seats side by side. The cockpit of the Dulo was still narrow, with the fuselage only a little wider than a Largo class. Even so, as I climbed in, the cockpit felt smaller than normal, like the fuselage was squeezing in on me.

Rig had bolted his metal box under the dash between the instruments and the floor, so the slugs couldn’t hyperjump without taking the rest of the ship with them. He was already working on some duplicate boxes, in case we got this to work.

At least this time we weren’t flying out into the black. The Krell hadn’t pierced the debris belt in months, so chances were good I wasn’t going to have to watch any of my friends get shot out of the sky today.

Didn’t make it any easier to be in the pilot’s seat again.

“You’re sure we’re ready for this?” I said to Jorgen as we climbed into the ship.

“No,” Jorgen said. “But I don’t think we can afford to wait. The engineers are working on the defenses, but they say they have no way to know if they’ll ever be functional.”

Jorgen settled in the copilot seat, shoulder to shoulder with me. This was going to take some getting used to; I was accustomed to having a bit more space from my flightleader while I was flying.

Jorgen checked on the slugs in the box. We had Gill and Happy in there, plus a couple other yellow slugs. We all agreed we needed to bring more than one, in case something went wrong and we lost some of them in transport.

“All right,” Jorgen said beside me. “Let’s do this.”

I put on my headset and turned on my radio, setting the channel for Command, which in this case connected me with Rig.

“We’re ready,” I told him.

“Copy,” Rig said. “Skyward Flight, you are cleared for departure.”

I engaged our acclivity ring, and several other ships lifted out of the landing bay alongside us. We hadn’t gathered the entire flight, but Sadie, Kimmalyn, Nedd, and Arturo were all accompanying us in case we got into trouble. Jorgen jumped on the channel we shared with them—he was still flightleader, even if he wasn’t technically flying.

“Skyward Flight,” he said. “Descend to 100,000 feet and meet at coordinates 334-1280. Quirk and Sentry, you two fly ahead to scout the area for unexpected debris fall. Amphi and Nedder, follow us in point formation.”

Our flightmates sounded off, and then I accelerated. We flew at half a Mag until we’d slipped down through a gap in the belt of platforms, soaring beneath the lights that illuminated the planet from the debris layer.

Jorgen fidgeted nervously with the bandage beneath his chin. “You worried this won’t work?” I asked him.

“Yes,” he said. “I’m also worried that it will.”

That made sense.

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