Editing Summary:ReDawn

Alanik decides not to meet with the council on their terms. There are four other cytonics at the Council Tree, and could together form a cytonic inhibitor to prevent Alanik from using her abilities there. She tells Quilan that she will not be meeting with the Council. She contemplates the Superiority’s controlling nature, and worries about Unity’s aggressive actions. Her and Rinakin decide that they need allies to help them resist Unity. Rinakin suggests possibly reaching out to the humans for aid. Rinakin says that the Superioirty suspects that the UrDail are working with the humans, and that they need to turn over the humans that they are harboring.

They approach Spindle, a smaller tree, and are greeted by a government ship as Quilan tells Alanik that he’s come to escort them to the Council Tree. Quilan tells them that there’s no need for things to get aggressive. Alanik searches through the Nowhere, trying to find Detritus. She can’t reach it, discovering that they have a cytonic inhibitor, though she senses Jorgen’s mind. They land and are greeted by Quilan, who strikes Rinakin with a cytonic concussion bolt.

Alanik waits with FM and her taynix as Jorgen goes to talk to Detritus’ leaders. Alanik asks her questions about the taynix, and FM explains more about them. Jorgen radios that they are ready. As Alanik and FM walk to the command room, she thinks about how cramped the buildings there are, as opposed to the taller and larger structures on ReDawn. She meets with multiple humans in the command room, including Jeshua, Cobb, and Cuna. Alanik tells them that she knows that the taynix are hyperdrives, but covers for FM and Jorgen by saying that the UrDail already knew. Jeshua asks what Alanik wants, and she responds that they should work together against their common enemy, the Superiority. Alanik offers to teach their cytonics, and to share UrDail knowledge on the Superiority and other matters. In return, she asks for an alliance between the humans and the Independence faction of ReDawn. She proposes that the humans send a force to an Independence base to help resist against the Unity faction. Cobb likes the idea, but Jeshua says that they are using all of their resources to defend against Superiority forces. Cobb and Jeshua disagree on whether the National Assembly or the DDF should have authority over the decision, but Cuna suggests that Alanik be given quarters where she could wait.

Skyward Flight continues to dogfight against Quilan's ships, occasionally using the taynix to escape light-nets. Because of the overwhelming enemy force, Alanik comes up with the idea to retreat to [[Wandering Leaf]], a floating platform with automatic turrets. They plan to use the taynix to teleport underneath its gun turrets. Kimmalyn finds a hangar inside Wandering Leaf, and Quilan attacks Alanik using mindblades. Alanik tries to hyperjump to Wandering Leaf but Quilan hits her with a concussion bolt. She misses her target, then jumps again. Again, doesn’t make the jump properly and her ships begins to dive towards the surface of the platform, out of her control.

Alanik and Jorgen hyperjump to Detritus’ command center and grab the fake Cobb, then teleport to Snide, a slug who is on the Superioirty ship where Gran-Gran, Jeshua, and the other politicians are. Gran-Gran gets taken to a holding cell where Cobb and Cuna are, communicating cytonically with Alanik. Jorgen chases off after his parents to show them the fake Cobb and convince them that its a trap, and Alanik realizes that the Superiority operatives are evacuating the ship. She goes to the center of the ship and finds a boomslug-operated bomb thats rigged to blow up the ship. Alanik fetches Rig, who doesn’t know how to disarm the bomb and says it’ll explode if tampered with. Jorgen reports cytonically that Jeshua and Algernon, along with other human politicians, are in a locked room that’s cytonically inhibited.