Difference between revisions of "Summary:Evershore"

The day of hisJorgen’s graduation from Flight School, his father talks with him and examines his graduation uniform. His father tells him how proud he is, but Jorgen doesn’t feel very excited, knowing that many of his friends aren’t graduating. Jeshua arrives, and Jorgen tells his parents what they want to hear, meanwhile thinking about his days as a pilot to come.

Two days later, Alanik still hasn’t been able to find Gran-Gran and Cobb. Alanik and Jorgen discuss allocation of pilots between ReDawn and Detritus, and what happened to Gran-Gran and Cobb. Cuna wonders if they were killed somehow, but Jorgen asserts that they are alive. Jorgen offers to help Alanik with searching for Gran-Gran, and they leave to a different room, Alanik saying that the conference room’s chairs are too square for her liking.

Skyward Flight hyperjumps to Evershore, which is massive and covered with water. As the flight and the medical transport make their approach, Kauri greets them over the radio and welcomes them to Evershore. She tells them to meet her at the Burrow from Which Springs Dreams Both Sweet and Sorrowful, one of their cities, and sends them the coordinates. They land on an island, where a kitsen ship waits. Kauri and her flight exit the ship, and they exchange introductions. Jorgen letlets FM take the lead in the diplomatic matters, calling her their diplomatic specialist. Another starship arrives, coveredthis inone heavily gunsarmed. The captain of the ship, Goro, exits and tells the humans to halt their invasion and leave the planet. Hana, one of Kauri’s companions, apologizes for Goro’s aggression and explains the kitsen’ s history with the humans. Goro demands that one of the humans come forth and fight his champion to the death in a duel. FM tries to calm Goro down, saying that they come in peace. Kauri mediates the confrontation, saying that they should consult the kitsen senate and see if they want to hear the humans out. Goro declares a feast, which is kitsen tradition to do before a duel.

Jorgen, Skyward Flight, Kauri, Juno, and Goro attend a senate meeting for a discussion of the human’s proposal of an alliance, though Cuna doesn’t attend, largely becuase Jorgen worries about them offending the kitsen. Adi, the diredctor of the senate, moderated the discussion with impartiality, giving Kauri and Goro the floor first. Goro asserted that the humans are violent and are invaders, saying that they must be taught a lesson through trial by combat. Kauri defends the humans, saying that they are friendly, and are there mainly to retrieve their injured comrades. Kauri argues that the humans of the past were invaders, but that the kitsen and the current humans have a common en enemy: the Superiority.

Jorgen arrives at the medical tent, and one of the med techs reports that when they tried to move Cobb and Gran-Gran, their condition deteriorated rapidly and inexplicably. They decide to not takesto take risks, and to treat them there for the time being. Jorgen tries communicating with Gran-Gran again, but to no avail. He wonders if perhaps their minds got stuck in the nowhere without their bodies. Juno says that Cobb and Gran-Gran first emerged in the main kitsen library, so the group heads there. One of the walls in the library is a smooth stone slab, with cytonic power radiating from it. Jorgen realizes that it must be a portal to the nowhere, like the one on Detritus. At Jorgen’s prompting, Juno says that all their cytonics met in a great summit in the room to compile knowledge, but they disappear. Jorgen theorizes that the kitsen cytonics got sucked into the portal, and are trapped there, and calling for help. Before he has time to think on it more, Arturo radios Jorgen to tell him a Superiority carrier ship has arrived. Juno volunteers to accompany Jorgen into combat to help him with his mindblades.

Nedd flies in to save Jorgen and Juno, and Jorgen grabs the slugs he had brought. He and Juno hop into Nedd’s ship, and Nedd drops them off at Jorgen’s ship back on the beach. Though the planetary weapon managedmanages to destroy Wandering Leaf, the cannon wasis destroyed by the platform’s autoturrets. As Jorgen tries to take off in his ship, the enemy cyrtoniccytonic arrives and shoots mindblades at him, tearing through his ship. Jorgen and the enemy cytonic both fireshoot mindblades at the same time, and Jorgen’s shots kill his opponent. Though hishe radio stillis worksfine, Jorgen’s ship is completely wrecked. Jorgen has Snuggles take him to Drape, who is with Rig back on Detritus. Jorgen gives him a report, and says they need to get more platforms over to Evershore. Rig shows Jorgen that there are tons of empty taynix boxes in the platform control room, but that they don’t know what many of them do, or have enough slugs to power them. Jorgen reaches out with his senses, sensing many slugs deep in the caverns. He implores with them to help, telling them that they are friends who will feed them and give them a home. Fine joins in with Jorgen, making a case for Jorgen and telling the other taynix how happy he is with the humans. Hundreds of taynix all appear in the corridor at once, of many different and new varieties. The hyperslugs had brought ones of the other varieties. Immmediately, Snuggles, Boomslug, and Fine startedstart herding groups of slugs in front of boxes. A startled Rig says he isn’t really sure what to do, and Jorgen tells him to just do his best to figure it out.

Jorgen uses Snuggles to get to the library faster, and inspects the portal closely. He becomes sure that Gran-Gran’s soul or spirit is trapped beyond the portal, along with Cobb and the old kitsen cytonics. Jorgen quests out with his cytonic senses, looking for Spensa, and gets a vague image of her. He communicates with Doomslug, who gives off a feeling of sadness and loneliness. Jorgen tries to figure out how to enter the nowhere without passing back out immediately, like he does with hyperjumps. Gran-Gran speaks with him cytonically, saying that she heard the voices and hyperjumped to them, only to become trapped with the kitsen cytonics. Jorgen discovers that the portal is locked on both sides, and Gran-Gran tells Jorgen that he is different than Spensa, but still in a good way. As Jorgen focuses on the portal, he gainsgets a grasp of how to open it, and sends instructions to a kitsen oncytonic the other side, whoto helpshelp him on their side. The portal unlocks, and an ancient kitsen hobbles through, followed by a dozen more kitsen.

As more kitsen come through the portal, Cobb and Gran-Gran begin to awakestir, though Kel says that they won’t be in good enough shape to help in the fighting. Jorgen contacts Alanik, who reports a bomber ship, with what Jorgen knows is a lifebuster. Jorgen speaks into Arturo’s mind using his ability, and Arturo reports that the lifebuster ship is heading for Dreamspring. Going out onto the beach again, Jorgen gives orders for Alanik to try and get the lifebuster out and into the atmosphere. Jorgen also offers to let the kitsen senators escape to Detritus using the transport they’d intended for Cobb and Gran-Gran, and assigns a few members of Skyward Flight to oversee it. Kimmalyn shoots down the bomber, and Alanik snags the bomb with her light-lance. She takes it out of range and hyperjumps out of range as it explodes. More Superiority carriers arrive, and this time their pilots spread out to attack other kitsen cities. Jorgen sees that their goal is to make the kitsen pay a heavy price by inflicting a lot of collateral damage.

Jorgen orders members of his flight to evacuate as many kitsen civilians as possible, with as many transports as they can find. Jorgen talks briefly with Rig, and learns that Juno is writing an account of Jorgen’s actions. Jorgen hyperjumps them to Rig, again filling him in. He tells Rig that they need to get as many platforms to Evershore as they can, as fast as possible. Jorgen communicates his intent to Fine, who communicates with the slugs in the boxes. All the slugs hyperjump, and Jorgen looks outside. He sees not only Evershore, but also Detritus itself. He realizes that not only did they bring several platforms to Evershore, but they brought the entire planet of Detritus.