don’t speak the Superiority languages,” Jorgen said.
I hesitated, then fished in my pocket for the translator pin I’d taken from the alien. The medics had her hooked up to a breathing device and were extracting her—carefully—from her ship. I felt a spike of concern, even though I’d only just met her.
I could still feel her touch in my mind. And her plea. A fading arrow in my brain, pointing into the stars.
I held up the pin for Jorgen to see. “I can use this pin to translate for me, I think.”
“Confirmed,” M-Bot said. “I can set it to output in English so you’ll understand what they’re saying.”
“All right, that’s a start,” Jorgen said. “Now, can you imitate that pilot’s ship with your holograms?”
“I’d need to do a scan of it.”
“Well, I guess we don’t have time—”
“Done,” M-Bot said. Then he shifted to an imitation of the alien’s downed ship. It was a far better fit than the Krell ship had been; M-Bot and Alanik’s ship were much closer in shape and size.
Jorgen nodded.
“You’re thinking I should go,” I said to him. “Scud, you actually think I should go through with this!”
“I think we should consider all of our options before making a decision. How much time left?”
“Not much! A minute or two! It’s not like I have a clock in my brain. The sensation is just fading. Quickly.”
“M-Bot, can you successfully make her look like that alien?”
“If she has the bracelet on,” he said.
I scrambled to pull it off his dash and slap it on.
“Handily,” M-Bot said, “our medics just finished a scan of her for vitals. And . . . There.”
My hands changed color to light purple as he overlaid my face and skin with a hologram of Alanik. M-Bot even changed my flight suit to match hers, and the imitation was perfect.
I stared at my hands, then looked at Jorgen.
“Scud,” he whispered. “That’s uncanny. All right. So what is the plan?”
“There’s no time for a plan!”
“There’s time for a quick outline. You go to the recruitment station in this alien’s place, then claim to be her. You try out for the enemy’s military . . . Wait, why are they recruiting new pilots? They’re probably increasing their troop numbers to come fight us, right?”
“Yeah,” I said. That would make sense.
“That might be useful. If you did this, you could gather valuable intel on their operations. From there, you would try to steal a hyperdrive—or get some pictures of one for the engineers—then you teleport back here. Do you think you can get back on your own?”
I grimaced. “I don’t know. My powers . . . aren’t very consistent. But Alanik’s records said she was going to the Superiority because she hoped to learn about her own abilities from them.”
“So either you’ll have to figure that out, or you’ll have to steal a hyperdrive somehow, then get yourself and M-Bot back to us with the stolen technology.”
“Yeah.” It sounded impossible when he outlined it like that. Yet I looked up toward the stars, and I felt a fire burning within me. “It sounds crazy,” I told him. “But Jorgen, I think I have to go. I have to try this.”
I looked down, meeting his eyes as he stood on the wing beside my cockpit. Then, remarkably, he nodded. “I agree.”
“You do?”
“Spin, you can be reckless—even foolhardy—but I’ve flown with you nearly a year now. I trust your instincts.”
“My instincts get me into trouble.”
He reached over, putting his hand on the side of my face. “You’ve gotten us out of far more trouble than you’ve ever gotten yourself into, Spensa. Scud, I don’t know if this mission is the right thing to do. But I do know our people are in serious danger. We talk optimistically, but the command staff knows the truth. We’re dead here unless we find a way to use hyperdrives ourselves.”
I put my hand on his. The information in my brain was dimming. Only seconds remained.
“Can you do this?” he asked me. “Does your gut say you can?”
“Yes,” I whispered. Then, more firmly—with the strength of a warrior—I repeated it. “Yes. I can do this, Jorgen. I’ll get us a hyperdrive and bring it back. I promise.”
“Then go. I trust you.”
I realized that was what I needed. Not his permission, or even his approval. I needed his trust.
In a moment of impulse I sprang from the cockpit, then grabbed him by his flight suit and pulled him down so I could kiss him. We probably weren’t