time it worked.
I could almost hear that scream in my mind again. The high-pitched wail . . . The scream of the hyperdrive. Made by the creatures they were using to teleport.
“Drone, end video,” I whispered. I’d been expecting something horrific, like the surgically removed brains of cytonics. But . . . why should sapient beings be the only ones to have these powers? Didn’t it make sense that some other creatures might develop a means of teleporting through the nowhere?
I thought of all the times I’d found Doomslug in places where I didn’t expect her—all the times I’d noted in passing that I rarely saw her move, but that she always seemed to be able to go places quickly when I wasn’t looking.
Then, one final understanding came crashing down on me. A seemingly simple phrase from the datanet entry. Often found near species of fungi.
M-Bot. When he had awoken, one of the only things he’d had in his data banks was an open table for cataloging local types of mushrooms. He’d fixated on it, knowing it was important, but not why.
His pilot had been looking for hyperdrive slugs.
“How?” I asked Cuna, trying to cover up my shock at all this. “How did you know I had a hyperdrive slug?”
“I followed you,” Vapor said, making me jump. I still sometimes forgot she was around. “When you went out with Morriumur that day in the water garden.”
Doomslug had met me at the door that day. Scud, she’d been acting so strange and lethargic since we’d arrived. Was that because Starsight’s cytonic inhibitors interfered with her powers?
Cuna unplugged the drone, then placed it back into my pack. Then they laced their fingers, watching me with a thoughtful alien expression. “This causes problems,” they said. “Beyond anything you likely understand. I had hopes . . .” They made a dismissive gesture, then opened the door to the shuttle. “Come.”
“Where?” I said, suspicious.
“I want to show you exactly what the Superiority is, Alanik,” Cuna said, taking my backpack and climbing out.
I didn’t trust that dark expression, marked by a creepy smile. I waited behind, smelling cinnamon.
“You can trust them, Alanik,” Vapor told me.
“Of course you’d say that,” I replied. “But can I trust you?”
“I haven’t told anyone what you really are, have I?” she whispered.
I looked sharply toward the empty space where she resided. Finally, feeling overwhelmed, I climbed out.
“Cuna,” Vapor said loudly from behind me, “do you need me any longer?”
“No. You can return to your main mission.”
“Affirmative,” she said, and the shuttle door closed.
Cuna started toward the building without waiting to see if I’d follow. Why turn their back on me? What if I were dangerous? I hurried up beside them.
“I wasn’t Vapor’s main mission?” I asked, nodding back toward the shuttle as it took off.
“You were a stroke of luck,” Cuna said. “She’s actually there to watch Winzik.” Cuna reached the door, which had a window and a security guard inside. They nodded to Cuna, but then bared their teeth in a dione scowl at me.
“I bring this one with me, by my authority,” Cuna said.
“I’ll need to note it, Minister. It’s very unusual.”
Cuna waited for them to do some paperwork. I took the chance to tap a short message on my bracelet. M-Bot. Still read me?
“Yes,” he said in my ear. “But I’m very confused.”
Doomslug is hyperdrive. If I die, get to Detritus. Tell them.
“What?” M-Bot said. “Spensa, I can’t do that!”
Heroes don’t choose their trials.
“I can’t even fly myself, let alone hyperjump!”
Slug is hyperdrive.
“But . . .”
The guard finally opened the door. I stepped into the building after Cuna, and—as I’d worried from its fortresslike exterior—it had shielding to prevent spying, so M-Bot’s voice vanished.
The hallway inside was empty of people, and Cuna’s footwear clicked on the floor as we walked to a door marked OBSERVATION ROOM. Inside was a small chamber with a glass wall overlooking a larger room, two stories tall, with metal walls. I stepped up to the window, noting the markings on several of the walls.
That strange language, I thought. The same one I saw in the delver maze—and in the tunnels back on Detritus.
Cuna settled down in a chair near the glass window, placing my backpack beside the seat. I remained standing.
“You have the power to destroy us,” Cuna said softly. “Winzik worries about delvers, politicians argue about pockets of aggressive aliens, but I have always worried about a danger more nefarious. Our own shortsightedness.”
I frowned, looking at them.
“We couldn’t keep the secret of