Skyward

Spensa determinedly looks at Bim and Morningside’s empty seats the following day. Cobb tells the group to get into their holographic cockpits. He addresses their losses, and Spensa speaks up, sharing her father’s philosophy of reaching for the stars. She also states her determination to join their fallen teammates in the skies as a pilot. Her words help the others gather themselves, and they get ready for training. Spensa is surprised when the sensors in her helmet become warm, and Cobb quietly explains that doctors are looking for physical signs that she is a coward like her father. He reminds her that the best way to prove them wrong is to fly well.

Cobb works the cadets hard to distract them from their grief. At the end of the day, Spensa joins jokes with Hurl and Kimmalyn but observes that Hurl is still uncomfortable around her due to her father’s legacy. However, a cadet named FM walks with Spensa on the way out and reveals that although she is willing to fight to protect her people, she is an advocate for overthrowing military rule, especially because of the negative effects she sees on their society.

Spensa realizes that she forgot her canteen and returns to the classroom, where Cobb is watching the footage of the previous day’s battle. When she asks him why he doesn’t fly with the cadets, he admits that it is hard for him to fly because of his physical injury and because he has not recovered from his grief over losing a flight mate. He admits that he was the one who followed the orders to shoot down Spensa’s father. She confronts Cobb and asks for the full story of what happened, but he gives her the official version while subtly indicating that there is more to the story. She walks away feeling buoyed by the knowledge that she was right and that her father was never a coward.

Rodge and Spensa discuss what she has learned while they replace wires on M-Bot. Rodge wonders if Cobb was really confirming that the official story is a lie, but Spensa asserts that Cobb nodded in confirmation. Rodge shares his growing excitement over fixing M-Bot and admits to sketching new designs inspired by the g-force technology in M-Bot. His internship supervisor at the Engineers Corps was impressed by these sketches. Rodge also tells Spensa that M-Bot is equipped with a cleansing pod; this will save Spensa from risking Ironside’s wrath by continuing to sneak in to use the base’s facilities. M-Bot admits that it has been worried ever since Spensa and Rodge have demonstrated the concept of lying. Without its memories, M-Bot worries about the repercussions of cataloging false information. Spensa explains that everyone lives with that risk, but she offers to do her best to always be truthful with M-Bot.

Cobb has the cadets start practicing with IMPs, which allow them to eliminate other ships’ shields—including their own—if they can get in close range. He continues to insist that they practice with IMPs and lightlances rather than with destructors so that they will develop stronger survival skills. Spensa tries to joke with Hurl, but Hurl gives only short replies and cuts off their radio contact during class. However, another cadet, Nedd, still treats Spensa normally, and Spensa observes that Nedd wants everyone to think that he is less intelligent than he really is.

M-Bot patches into Spensa’s helmet communications without the other cadets realizing, using her radio to locate her. Spensa completes the latest exercise, again taking advantage of the lack of g-force in their simulations to “win.” Cobb forces the group to do three more exercises before dinner. By the end, Spensa is tired and embarrassed after dealing with Jorgen, so she pulls off her helmet before joining the lineup to end their flight session. Jorgen confronts her in a rage over what he sees as her continued insubordination. She tries to leave the room rather than deal with him, but when he tells her that running away is just what the daughter of a coward would do, she deftly takes him to the ground. She nearly starts hitting him but instead finds an eerie sense of calm and pauses. Nedd steps in and tries to help her, claiming that she was just showing them how to engage in hand-to-hand combat, but Spensa can tell by the look on Jorgen’s face that she will pay for attacking him. The others stand by, surprised, and Spensa notices an unreadable look on Hurl’s face. Spensa leaves.

Spensa stands just outside the base, wondering when Jorgen will take his revenge and get her kicked out. After M-Bot pops into her radio to check on her, Spensa recalls her father’s words to reach for something more than most of the humans on Detritus do. She decides to face her fate; if Jorgen is going to report her and get her kicked out, she wants it to happen on her terms. She returns to base and seeks out Admiral Ironsides, whom she finds speaking with Jorgen himself. Spensa tries to request disciplinary measures, but Jorgen interrupts her and pulls her away from Ironsides. He has calmed down, and he apologizes for what he said, admitting that he knows what it’s like to live in the shadow of a parent. Impulsively, Spensa admits to stealing his car’s power matrix. He is annoyed but says she can make it up to him later, perhaps by not insulting him in front of their flight.

Cobb sends Skyward Flight out in real ships for the first time since they lost Bim and Morningstar. They use a debris fall for target practice, using lightlances to mark debris for salvage while more experienced pilots monitor the debris fall for a Krell attack. An attack comes, but as the cadets move to retreat, they get caught between the DDF fighters and the Krell. A Krell fighter tails Spensa, who evades and then uses her IMP to lower the Krell’s shield, making it vulnerable to Kimmalyn’s destructor blast.

M-Bot taps into the video feed that Ironsides and Cobb use to watch the battle and conducts an analysis to determine the Krells’ strategy and the nature of their cube-shaped piece of debris. M-Bot determines that the cube is essentially a shipyard; the Krells are using maneuvers meant to protect the cube and want to prevent Defiants from salvaging it.

Suddenly, Nedd decides to help the DDF fighters who are overwhelmed by Krell. He pursues the Krell alone as the DDF fighters and the Krell fly into the cube-shaped shipyard itself. Seeing this, Spensa follows Nedd.

Nedd and Spensa fly rapidly through the shipyard, using their lightlances to make fast turns. At one point, Spensa feels as if voices are talking to her as she flies. They cannot catch up to the Krell who are pursuing the DDF fighters, and M-Bot tells Spensa that if they don’t leave immediately, they will die in an explosion that the Krell are setting up on the surface of the shipyard. When Nedd refuses to leave, Spensa uses her lightlance to stop him. He calls her a coward but finally follows her. They race out of the shipyard, with Spensa secretly using M-Bot’s instructions to find the best way out. They barely make it out and have to push to high speeds to escape the blast. Upon landing, Jorgen starts to accuse Spensa of being the one to pull Nedd into something stupid, but she explains that Nedd first pursued the ships, not her. Jorgen asks which flight the ships were from, and Spensa’s answer makes him that Nedd’s two brothers were among the fighters who went into the shipyard did not survive.

Nedd misses classes for a week, and Spensa keeps thinking back to his accusation and wondering if she really is a coward. When she and a cadet named Arturo ask multiple questions about Krell behavior, Cobb stops their simulations and tells them what he knows about the Krell, even though this information is restricted to full pilots. He tells them about the weapons technology on the debris circling the planet and explains that the DDF and the Krell both struggle to get more than 100 ships through the debris field because the weapons attack anyone who passes through. He explains that they have only ever found remains of Krell armor; this detail has fed the theory that the Krell are actually AI. The Defiants also know that Krell can read human minds and speak to directly to some humans’ minds out in open space. The mention of AI makes Spensa start worrying that M-Bot is actually a Krell. M-Bot later denies this, but she cannot dismiss her fears entirely. Before Spensa leaves the base, Kimmalyn stops her and makes her sneak to the bunks, where she and FM have food and a pile of blankets for Spensa. They explain that they pretended to be sick in order to order extra food delivered to their room. This will allow Spensa to have one night where she doesn’t have to eat rats or mushrooms or sleep in a cave. Spensa is touched.

Spensa and the other girls talk into the night, and even Hurl joins in, contributing desserts from the canteen. Spensa deeply appreciates their gesture, but now she knows how much she has been missing because she is barred from living on base. They discuss new maneuvers, and Spensa suggests creating a maneuver for the whole flight that involves utilizing the specific skills of each pilot. When the girls suggest that Spensa would be the pilot taking fire from Krell, Spensa admits that she is afraid. The girls reassure her that they are all afraid, but they don’t understand that she associates the emotion of fear with the concept of cowardice. When FM and Kimmalyn leave the room, Hurl admits that she saw what Spensa did for Nedd and no longer believes that Spensa is a coward. Hurl explains that her mother would use the actions of Spensa’s father to berate Hurl for any behavior deemed cowardly. However, Hurl now agrees that fear is normal and that people are defined by their actions. Hurl and Spensa make a pact and vow never to be cowards.

Spensa wakes early and uses a cleansing pod before heading toward the gate to hide the fact that she was on base overnight. She finds Jorgen in their classroom running a simulation of the battle in which Morningtide and Bim died; he is flying his own simulated fighter to determine whether he could have saved them. Spensa sees him break down in frustration, and he spots her as she flees. She lingers before class, talking to M-Bot over the radio. M-Bot admits that he might be a Krell, but Spensa has a gut feeling that he is not. He also explains that he does not think the Krell are AI. Although the fighters might be drones, M-bot’s flight analysis has revealed their patterns to be too human; they do not mimic the ultra-logical patterns of AI technology.

An aide finds Spensa and takes her to the admiral, who now knows that she spent the evening on base and ate the base’s food. Spensa thinks that she is about to be kicked out, but the admiral simply suggests that it is time for Spensa to withdraw from the school. Ironsides also offers to let Spensa keep her cadet pin, which would allow her to gain a lucrative career outside of the base. Spensa realizes that the admiral cannot kick her out at all; if she did, Spensa could spread the story of how they treated her and become a martyr. The admiral needs Spensa to withdraw willingly so that she can brand Spensa a coward just like her father, thereby anchoring the story of Spensa’s father’s cowardice. Spensa finally feels like she has power. She rejects the offer to withdraw and goes to class, where she feels more positive about her present and future.