Skyward

Rodge and Spensa work on final repairs to M-Bot’s wing, using materials that Rodge’s internship supervisors have allowed him to take home in return for his helpful schematics based on M-Bot’s design. Rodge doubts Spensa’s intuition that Ironsides cannot kick her out of flight school. He also challenges Spensa’s views on the definition of cowardice, since she claims that leaving the school, like he did, would make her a coward. She pouts but then recognizes Rodge’s achievements in fixing M-Bot and celebrates with him, reassuring him that she does not see him as a coward. He announces that she can test fly M-Bot, although they will have to move slowly without any boosters; also, M-Bot’s weapons aren’t functioning. Spensa flies in a slow circle, then takes M-Bot high into the atmosphere—far higher than the DDF pilots go. She and M-Bot observe the debris, and Spensa once again feels that space itself is talking to her. They fly back down, and Spensa tries to convince M-Bot that he can fight. He continues to deny that possibility, insisting on following his last pilot’s orders to hide.

After several routine simulations, Cobb introduces a new lesson explaining how to deal with Krell lifebusters. He explains that although losing Alta base would be a blow, losing Igneous would prevent the DDF from building more ships, so pilots must seek to protect Igneous at all costs. They run many simulations in which the cadets try to stop Krell bombers. In most of them, they fail. At the end of the day, Hurl offers to sneak Spensa food again, but Spensa doesn’t want the others to get into trouble, so she refuses. Passing other classrooms, she hears an instructor telling students that a pilot in a falling ship can re-exert control and that “acclivity rings”—the devices that give starfighters their lift—are too valuable to risk. This advice directly conflicts with Cobb’s teachings. Even though the school expels students from flight school for ejecting, Cobb emphasizes the importance of valuing the lives of pilots over other concerns.

Spensa talks with M-Bot on her walk back to the cave and recalls a cadet’s comment that the simulations are based on recordings of historical battles. She asks M-Bot to access a recording of her father’s final battle, the Battle of Alta, but he explains that it and some other data are stored in a way to protect them from something he calls “the eyes.” He remembers instructions about protecting things from “the eyes,” but he doesn’t know what the eyes are. He says that records of the Battle of Alta must be held in an archive somewhere on base. Spensa gets another call on the radio and starts to respond as if it is M-Bot, but she realizes that it is a call from base. All pilots, including cadets, are called back to base to board their ships for battle because 75 Krell ships have been spotted. This is one of the largest forces that the DDF has ever seen the Krell bring down to Detritus. Spensa, mentally worn from the day’s training, pushes herself into a jog back to base.

Spensa is late reaching the launchpad, and Skyward flight almost has to send out a reserve pilot in her place. (Reserve pilots are those who failed out of the academy for the transgression of showing cowardice by ejecting from a falling ship.) She joins her comrades, and they all wait and watch the battle, ready to provide backup. They’re ordered not to engage but are forced to do so when a group of Krell approaches. They struggle in the chaos as the Krell tail those whom they see as potential flight leaders. Spensa distracts them from tailing Kimmalyn. When Hurl tries to attack a Krell whose shield is down, she is hit, and when her ship starts to fall, Spensa tells her to eject. Hurl insists that she is not a coward and repeats their vow as she tries to regain control. The ship hits the ground and explodes, killing Hurl. More experienced pilots take over the battle, and Jorgen orders Skyward flight to retreat.

Spensa wakes up in the infirmary, where she is told that everyone in her flight has been given mandatory leave to cope with the loss of their flightmate, a protocol that one of the doctors has been campaigning to implement for some time. She cannot face returning to Igneous to hear her mother’s disapproval of the DDF, so she goes to the classroom, where the rest of the flight joins her. Jorgen orders them to stand at attention and calls for Cobb to join them. When Cobb arrives, he is furious in his grief over Hurl and orders them to ignore the DDF’s prohibitions against ejecting. He calls Hurl an idiot her decision not to eject, raising Spensa’s anger. She accuses him of trying to justify his own cowardice in ejecting, but she quickly regrets her words, knowing that his actions were not based in cowardice.

Cobb tells them that Hurl cannot even be buried for weeks, because her ship’s crash destroyed her acclivity ring. Without the need to salvage valuable parts, her remains are not a priority for salvage. Spensa tells the rest of the flight that she is going to use their week of leave to retrieve Hurl’s body and give her a proper burial.

Partway through her trek, Jorgen interrupts Spensa’s grief-ridden thoughts by driving up in his vehicle. He offers to drive Spensa to the scene of Hurl’s crash so that they can both bury their friend. Spensa agrees, knowing that she doesn’t have enough supplies for the long trek on foot.

Jorgen admits that despite Spensa’s insubordination, he “deals” with her because he knows she flies as part of a team. As they prepare the pyre and watch Hurl’s body burn, Spensa realizes that she finds Jorgen less frustrating because she sees the emotions behind his cold exterior. He explains that he is trapped; he wants to be a pilot, but he knows that he will only be allowed to fly safe missions for six months after graduating, and then his family will invent a reason for him to leave the DDF and serve his father in his political work. He feels that he has no freedom.

Spensa spots the undamaged booster from Hurl’s ship and realizes that she can use it to repair M-Bot. She decides to risk asking Jorgen to help her drag it back to base, telling him not to ask her why.

Jorgen helps Spensa with the booster. He guesses that she is trying to repair or build her own ship, and he lectures her on why she cannot do that. She explains that Ironsides won’t let her fly. He argues that the DDF would find her and take the ship away or shoot her down. Despite these arguments, when he drops her and the booster off near the cave, he tells her to build the ship and find a way to defy Ironsides and all the rest, for those like him who cannot do the same.

Despite their continued worries over the fact that rebuilding the ship constitutes committing treason, Rodge and Spensa agree to connect the booster to M-Bot. Rodge doesn’t yet need help with the work, so Spensa has nothing to do for the rest of her leave. M-Bot tries to comfort her, but Spensa is struck by his admission that he needs data in order to determine how to move forward in any given situation. Spensa decides to give herself a purpose: finding the recording of her father’s final battle somewhere on Alta base.

Spensa finds Cobb in his office, preparing various subtle ways to get access to the archives. She requests to view old battles so that she can have something to do. Cobb sees through the façade but gives her his access code; he tells her that if she is found and questioned, she can claim that he sent her. She finds the relevant data square and slips it into her pocket, planning to view it elsewhere, perhaps in her mockpit. However, FM, now dressed in everyday clothes, spots Spensa and drags her to the neighborhoods just outside the base to spend their time off together.

FM takes Spensa to a restaurant where many pilots and cadets eat and where Arturo, Arturo’s girlfriend, Kimmalyn, and Nedd await. Nedd surprises Spensa with a warm greeting, and she enjoys spending time with them all. She asks about Jorgen, but Nedd and Arturo claim that he wouldn’t have joined them. When Arturo’s girlfriend steps away, Spensa reminds her fellow cadets of Arturo’s questions about the Krell. They all agree that the DDF’s refusal to answer important questions about the Krell and the war is suspicious. Arturo plays devil’s advocate, suggesting the information simply isn’t available to cadets, but they all agree that the DDF’s practice of sending cadets out to fight is suspect. However, Spensa can tell that this and other dangerous strategies are taken out of desperation because the Defiants are losing the war. Spensa leaves before the rest, intent on watching the battle record in her pocket.

M-Bot plays the recording for Spensa. At one point in the battle, she sees her father fly upward, into the sky, rather than away from the battle as the DDF claims that he did. She believes that he flew up to fight the Krell at the source, and the radio recordings prove this to be true. M-Bot interrupts Spensa’s rant about her conviction that DDF has covered up her father’s heroism. Skipping ahead in the records, he shows her that her father returned from space and joined the Krell forces, killing several of his fellow pilots with brutal efficiency. She doesn’t understand why the DDF would cover up something worse than an act of cowardice. In the radio recordings, Cobb asks Spensa’s father why he has betrayed them all, and Spensa’s father says only that he will kill everyone. Spensa curls up, silent, inside M-Bot’s cockpit.

Spensa spends the week huddled in her cave, overwhelmed by grief and confusion, even as Rodge works on M-Bot. On the night before classes are to resume, she resolves to return to flying. On the cadets’ first day back, Cobb informs them that from now on, they will run maneuvers in real ships rather than in their mockpits. Cobb meets Spensa at her ship. She tries to apologize for calling him a coward, but he doesn’t want to talk about it. Cobb suggests that Spensa see one of the doctors to discuss what she is going through, saying that they aren’t as bad as she thinks. As proof, he shows her a note from Ironsides that grants Spensa full cadet privileges (including living and eating on base). He explains that “someone” tipped off Dr. Thior, who protested Ironsides’s mistreatment of Spensa.

Spensa returns the recording, and Cobb confirms that its contents are true. Since that day, Cobb has been haunted by the look he saw on Spensa’s father’s face as he flew near enough to look inside the cockpit. He explains the long-standing debate among high-level Defiants, some of whom believe that cowardice is a gene defect passed down through families, while others reject the idea. Spensa, he explains, is now at the center of this debate, which spans generations. He surprises Spensa by asking if she ever sees “eyes,” as if there are hundreds of eyes watching her, and his question reminds her of M-Bot’s words about being careful of “the eyes.” Cobb explains that her father said things like that; before his betrayal, her father also admitted that he could hear the stars. Cobb orders Spensa to tell only him if she ever sees anything resembling the eyes that he described.

Skyward flight joins scouts during a battle to learn about effective scouting. When Arturo asks how they can stand remaining below while pilots are fighting above, the experienced scouts admit that although the DDF makes it clear that scouts are not cowards, they must nonetheless endure the disapproval of the other pilots.

On the ground, they find Arturo’s mother talking to Cobb. Spensa, Jorgen, and FM watch as Arturo is given a pilot’s pin and then taken away from base. Cobb explains that his family, spooked by Arturo’s close call in the battle that claimed Hurl’s life, have arranged to have Arturo honorably discharged, just as Jorgen’s parents will do when he has completed a few battles as a full pilot.

Spensa is angry. When Jorgen stops to check in with her, she takes her anger out on him, yelling that only the lower-class cadets in their flight have died. She points out that the upper-class cadets got months of training and flight time before flight school, and calls their parents cowards for pulling the cadets out of flight schools. When Jorgen grabs her arms, she puts her head on his chest, and he holds her awkwardly as she calms down. Spensa feels a bit better.

Spensa enjoys the canteen food and the companionship of others while she and FM chat with the few remaining cadets from other flights. They have lost so many cadets that the three cadet groups together do not make up a full flight. When someone from one of the other flights calls her “quiet,” Spensa realizes that she hasn’t been acting like herself lately. After dinner, she goes to the cave for the first time in a while to check on M-Bot. Rodge has left a note saying that the booster is ready and thanking Spensa for helping him find a career that he truly loves. The experience with M-Bot helped him discover what he is best at, and the designs he made based on M-Bot have earned him a place as a design engineer. Spensa excitedly agrees to M-Bot’s suggestion to go flying.

Spensa finds that M-Bot is far more responsive and powerful than her ship at base. She can reach higher speeds without the ship shaking from the effort. When she suggests fighting, M-Bot evades the topic by offering to put a hologram of a battle on his hull so that she can expend her energy there without putting them in danger of an actual fight.

The only battle he has full 3D imaging of is the Battle of Alta, the one in which her father betrayed the DDF, but she tells him to use it anyway. Partway through, she realizes that her father is anticipating the Krell’s movements, which is why he can fly so well. M-Bot confirms that her father turns milliseconds before the Krell do. Spensa hears a new part of the recording in which Ironsides references “the defect” when speaking to her father, who claims that he can control the defect. As she watches her father fly into space, she suddenly sees the eyes that Cobb described, opening all around her in the darkness. She yells at M-Bot to stop the recording, and the eyes disappear, but he claims that he did not see the eyes. Shaken, Spensa takes him back to the cave.

M-Bot informs her that he will shut himself down. He claims that she will not be able to control her desire to fight, making it inevitable that they will stumble into a battle if he allows her to keep flying him. He claims that his pilot must wake him, although his pilot is long dead. Spensa accuses him of dying like the rest of her friends, but he shuts down completely.

Spensa is distracted as she, Jorgen, and FM fly together, and she nearly hits FM. Jorgen checks in over the radio, but she ignores him. She is struggling with the weight of all her recent discoveries and with the loss of so many friends. When Cobb gives the cadets a half-day of leave, she wanders the base aimlessly. She sees Jorgen by his private vehicle and pushes herself to talk to him despite the fear that has held her back from voicing any of her thoughts to him, Cobb, or Rodge.

She tells him of her father’s betrayal, but he already knows because he learned the story from his parents. She describes the concept of a “defect” and shares her worries that she has it and that will hurt her flightmates. She tells him that she is seeing some of the same signs of the defect in herself that her father once showed. Jorgen doesn’t believe in the defect, but he tells her that even if it is real, he still wants her on his team. He urges her not to let her father’s legacy determine her own future. He has overheard his parents talk about the mutiny that occurred on the ships that brought humans to Detritus. He explains that his and her ancestors were both part of the mutiny, but his parents do not want this information to become public and cause divisions among humans. Spensa feels better than she expected after hearing Jorgen’s compliments and reassurances. When he leaves, she realizes that she needs to visit her family again.

Spensa finds comfort in her mother’s embrace but is disappointed when her mother assumes that she has left the DDF. She starts to tell her mother about the things that her father said before his death—about hearing the stars and seeing eyes—and it is clear that her mother has heard those things from the DDF. Her mother dismisses this information and explains that she refused the DDF’s offer to give her a cushy job and home if she would agree to the narrative proclaiming her husband a coward. Spensa mentions the defect, and although her mother dismisses that as well, she admits that Spensa’s grandmother thinks differently.

Spensa finds her grandmother and admits that she is tired of not knowing what is truth and what is not. Her grandmother tells her a story of her own childhood. She says that the defect is a gift rather than a curse, and she tells Spensa how it allowed their ancestors to navigate the long distances between stars. Humanity relied on these people to navigate the stars, but they also feared them. Gran-Gran explains that her own mother navigated the Defiant ship, and when a disagreement arose between different groups as to how best to handle a Krell attack and where to go, her mother sacrificed her own life to send all of the humans far away to Detritus. Spensa wonders if the brave choice for herself would be to leave the DDF to prevent the risk that she might betray her people, but Gran-Gran insists that the defect/gift is the only way that humans will ever return to the stars and be able to navigate them. She insists that Spensa must learn to control her abilities.

Spensa, Jorgen, and FM join a group of more experienced pilots on a scouting mission, tagging debris for salvage. Two pilots try to show off for FM and Spensa, thinking that the cadets would only have experience with destructors. Their efforts are clumsy, and FM and Spensa show off what they have learned with Cobb, who emphasizes the need for skills with lightlances and IMPs.

Jorgen gets permission for him, Spensa, and FM to investigate higher up. They find a massive piece of debris that looks like the shipyard that Spensa and Nedd entered. The weapons on this piece of debris are firing. They report it to Cobb, who doesn’t understand their concern at first. Spensa asks what the weapons are firing at, then spots Krell ships coming from the gap in the debris; she assumes that they are there to investigate the shipyard. The Krell spot the three cadets.

Spensa, Jorgen, and FM flee the Krell as the rest of the experienced pilots intervene. They follow orders to retreat and remain on standby, but one of the other pilots has Krell trailing him, trapping him away from the rest of his flight. The cadets pursue, but in the chaos, Spensa is hit. She goes into an uncontrolled fall and nearly refuses to eject, as Jorgen urges her to do so. The thought of how her death would affect her friends, her family, and Cobb makes her grab the eject lever. She wakes a short time later on the ground and waits for emergency transport. On base, Ironsides removes Spensa’s pin, then hands it back and informs Spensa that because she ejected a short time before graduation, she will be join the reserves who only fly when the admiral calls them. Spensa knows that Ironsides will never call her. She leaves.