Evershore Skyward Flight recap

Word comes from Evershore, homeworld of the kitsen, and Jorgen takes Skyward Flight and Alanik there, hoping to turn a possible ally into a real one before the Superiority settles the question for them. He finds a species governed by a senate that debates everything and decides nothing, a Superiority force already present, and a stake neither side will give up: the taynix, on whose teleporting the whole war now turns. Jorgen has to negotiate, fight and learn to use his own cytonic abilities at the same time, while carrying a recent death in his family and a National Assembly at home that wants him obedient rather than effective. The Superiority attack is repulsed, the kitsen join, and humans, UrDail and kitsen end the book as an alliance. Jorgen comes out of it having accepted that leadership means making the decision himself, and having finally allowed himself to grieve.

Previously: humanity survived on the caverned planet Detritus, penned there by the Superiority, a galactic government that ranks species by aggression and hoards faster-than-light travel. Spensa Nightshade proved to be cytonic, infiltrated a Superiority fighter program at the platform of Starsight, and learned that hyperdrives are living creatures called taynix and that the official Winzik meant to control the world-killing delvers rather than defend anyone from them. She escaped with a hoard of taynix, giving Detritus hyperdrives and a shield, and has since left to chase the delvers' origin, out of contact. On Detritus, FM and the engineer Rodge built the slug program up until the DDF could jump ships between stars, and a Superiority attack was thrown back. The UrDail cytonic Alanik went home to ReDawn, where the humans helped her stop her people being signed over to the Superiority, at the cost of exposing a friend as an enemy agent and hyperjumping an entire tree city to safety. Jorgen, flightleader of Skyward Flight, is a cytonic himself, is carrying far more responsibility than his rank, and is increasingly at odds with the National Assembly at home.

The alliance the humans have begun to build is still two worlds and a handful of promises, and Winzik's fleet is not going to wait. Word reaches Detritus from Evershore, homeworld of the kitsen, the tiny fox-like people whose pilots Spensa met at Starsight, and Jorgen takes Skyward Flight and Alanik there. He is carrying more than the mission: a recent death in his family that he has not had time to face, a National Assembly at home that would rather he asked permission than led, and cytonic abilities he still does not really control. What he finds on Evershore is a people governed by a senate that debates every question at exhausting length and settles none of them, a planet with a great deal at stake, and a Superiority presence that is already there.

Jorgen has to do three jobs at once: persuade the kitsen senate that an alliance with humans is worth the risk, keep his flight alive on a world none of them knows, and learn to use a cytonic ability that nobody on Detritus can teach him. Alanik, far more experienced, teaches him what she can, and the taynix themselves turn out to be part of the answer, since a cytonic working with a slug can do things neither manages alone. The kitsen are divided over their own history as well as their future, having recently ended the rule of their god-emperors, and Hesho, who held that throne, will not simply take authority back to settle the argument. Meanwhile it becomes clear what the Superiority actually wants from Evershore, and it is the same thing everybody in this war now wants: taynix, and control of who can travel.

The Superiority moves in force, and the argument in the senate is overtaken by the fighting. Jorgen has to commit his flight and the kitsen who will follow him without waiting for approval from Detritus, and to accept that the National Assembly's instructions and the needs of the battle are no longer the same thing. His grief and his exhaustion catch up with him at the worst moment. The kitsen, forced to choose, begin to act rather than deliberate, and Jorgen's cytonic partnership with Alanik and with the slugs becomes the flight's decisive advantage rather than an experiment he is nervous about.

The attack on Evershore is beaten off, the taynix at stake stay out of Superiority hands, and the kitsen commit to the alliance. Humans, UrDail and kitsen end the book as a coalition rather than three isolated worlds waiting their turn, which is the first strategic gain anyone has made against Winzik. Jorgen comes out of it able to use his cytonic ability deliberately, working with Alanik and with the slugs, and having accepted what he had been avoiding: that leading means deciding for himself, including deciding against his own government when it is wrong. He also finally lets himself grieve. The Assembly's authority over the DDF is left unsettled, Winzik's war has not properly started, the delvers remain the threat standing behind all of it, and Spensa is still gone.

The Superiority's move on Evershore is beaten off, and the kitsen commit. What Jorgen went there hoping for turns into something larger than a rescue: humans, UrDail and kitsen come out of the fight as a working alliance rather than three isolated worlds each waiting its turn, and the taynix that were at stake stay out of Superiority hands. Jorgen's own cytonic ability, which he had been treating as a liability to be managed, becomes something he can use deliberately, in partnership with Alanik and with the slugs. The harder resolution is personal: he stops trying to be the officer who follows every instruction from Detritus and accepts that leading means deciding, including deciding against his own government when it is wrong, and he finally lets himself grieve. The Assembly's authority over the DDF is left contested, which will matter. Winzik's war has not begun in earnest, the delvers remain the threat behind everything, and Spensa is still gone. What has changed is that the coalition needed to face all of it now exists.