This page contains a chapter by chapter summary of Starsight. We hope this summary will make it easier to find specific areas of the book, as well as providing a quick plot refresher for anyone who doesn't want to take the time to reread the entire book.
Part One
Chapter 1
Spensa flies around outside the atmosphere of Detritus in M-Bot, fighting Krell. She contemplates M-Bot's lost advantage in not having to worry about being ripped apart in Detritus's atmosphere, as she and the Krell are now fighting in the vacuum of space, independent of drag and air resistance. M-Bot reminds Spensa that she's supposed to be leading the Krell back to her flightmates for an ambush, as the Krell will seek out flashy and experienced pilots to hurt the humans' air force. Spensa deviates from this plan, however, and flies back toward Detritus, where Rodge McCaffrey and the engineers have succeeded in recapturing some of the ancient defense systems and platforms of the planet. Spensa, able to hear and react to the Krell's faster-than-light (FTL) communication faster than themselves, easily uses her IMP to disable the Krell shields and swing around with her light lance to destroy them. Spensa is presented with a chance to return to the main battle, but she peels off to confront two Krell drones, and she begins to sink into her subconscious, into the nowhere. She feels the eyes begin to burn her, full of hatred, as she recalls activating her cytonics at the Battle of Alta Second after slipping into the nowhere. Spensa starts slipping deeper into her trance, when M-Bot jolts her out of it by informing her that he has detected a new ship. She sees a smaller, sleek black Krell ship, not a drone, but a Krell-manned ship, an ace.
Chapter 2
Spensa performs maneuvers to evade the enemy ace, as her shields are down and theirs are not. Spensa blasts a drone out of the sky, but runs into its debris, as there is no gravity in space to bring it down to the ground. The drones help the ace corner Spensa, so she tells M-Bot to call Jorgen. While waiting, she flies closer to Detritus so that the planet's defense systems will begin targeting the Krell, thus negating their superiority in numbers. Spensa sinks into her subconscious and attempts to activate M-Bot's cytonic hyperdrive, but M-Bot informs her it is offline. Spensa performs a maneuver to get on the ace's tail, trails them for a bit, and eventually gets a shot off as the ace spins around and takes a shot at Spends. The ace misses, but both of Spensa's shots connect, destroying the sleek black ship. M-Bot reminds Spensa of the presence of the drones, and she begins to turn her ship around, only for Kimmalyn and FM to swoop in and finish off the drones. Spensa swings back around to inspect the ace's debris, and M-Bot informs her that the fight really could have ended either way. Spensa wonders why the Superiority doesn't just send dozens if not hundreds of aces like the one she'd just fought to wipe humanity out in one fell swoop. She also recognizes that humanity will eventually win, as they are slowly recapturing more and more defense platforms and acclivity stone, and M-Bot's technology is helping the entire fleet. Jorgen contacts Spensa, fuming, and gives her, FM, Kimmalyn, and Spensa's new wingmate, Sadie, instructions to hang out for a bit until they have orders to return to their new command post on the defense platforms, Platform Prime. Sadie informs the others of a warning light on her proximity monitor, and the four look up to see the arrival of two Superiority battleships docking near the Krell monitoring station. M-Bot informs Spensa they are capable of bombarding the planet, to which she responds that the defense platforms will hold. The group finally receives orders to return to Platform Prime, and they begin their descent.
Chapter 3
M-Bot calculates the flight's return to Platform Prime through the other abandoned platforms as Spensa contemplates how many people must have used to live on the platforms, with all the skyscrapers dotting them. Skyward Flight meets up with Xiwang Flight to dock at Platform Prime, a large, blue-glowing platform. M-Bot forces Spensa to take his mobile receptor with her to her meeting with Jorgen, and Spensa informs Dobsi, a ground crew member, of the damage M-Bot's fuselage sustained. Spensa returns to her bunk to see Doomslug and wash up, then meets up with the rest of her flight. She talks with Kimmalyn and Sadie, as well as T-Stall and Catnip, two new members of the flight. Jorgen arrives and dismisses the others, and lectures her on how her cytonic abilities are too important to risk fighting useless battles by herself against the Krell. She admits she's been taking needless risks to recreate the situation where she hyperjumped at the Battle of Alta Second. Kimmalyn returns to the room and informs them that the engineering team have uncovered a video recording in the ancient archives.
Chapter 4
Spensa and Kimmalyn enter the data bank room, colloquially called the library, and are greeted by Rodge, who informs them that the engineering crews have discovered the final video logs of the platforms before they were shut down. Cobb, now the Admiral of the DDF, enters the room, and is greeted by Commander Ulan. Cobb tells Spensa to meet with him later, then gives the signal for the video to be played on a nearby computer screen. A technician turns on the volume, and a blonde engineer tells the monitor that the planet's defense platforms are insufficient and that the delver has tracked their communications and is fast approaching. He switches the screen to a camera on Platform Number 1132, as the sky begins to rapidly fill with stars, which Spensa quickly realizes are malevolent eyes, coming towards the planet. The shadow of the delver is cast over the platform, and Spensa sees a circular object at the center of the delver's dust cloud. The screen returns to the man in the library, where a woman reports the failure of the other platforms, and the imminent assault from the planet on the delver. The man continues typing, only to be consumed by the shadow of the delver, but not before the blackness gathers behind him, and forms a shape: Spensa.
Chapter 5
Spensa sees herself displayed on the screen, and shouts for a tech to turn off the screen. Jorgen grabs Spensa and holds her back, asking what she saw. She tells him and ask him if he sees the same. He squints and says he can vaguely see stars and a dark shadowy shape. Cobb orders the screen turned off and tells Spends to meet with him immediately. He also tells Rodge to continue working on his project. Cobb leads Spends to the observatory and asks her what she saw. She tells him, and he tells her how dire the situation really is, the DDF knows nothing about the Superiority, but that they do know that somehow the Superiority travels the stars without attracting the attention of the delvers. Cobb also tells Spensa the planet's anti-bombardment systems won't hold out for long against the Superiority battleships and that she may not have to worry about the delvers. Spensa tells Cobb she was trying to push herself to access her cytonics in the heat of battle, and he tells her he might have another way to get the humans off Detritus.
Chapter 6
Cobb leads Spensa back to the docking bay, where she sees Rodge working on M-Bot. Cobb asks how his project is going, so Rodge taps his datapad and M-Bot transforms into a Krell ace. Rodge reveals he has manipulated M-Bot's hologram programs to make M-Bot appear to be other types of ships. Rodge continues to explain that M-Bot's capabilities are in espionage, not on the front lines where the DDF has been using him. Spensa realizes Cobb and Rodge want her to infiltrate the Superiority space station and possibly steal hyperdrive technology. Cobb elaborates that he wants Spend a to bring a team with her, possibly start a spy school to train the DDF pilots in espionage. Cobb knows if the plan is to work, it has to happen quickly, as the DDF doesn't know how long they have with Superiority battleships lurking nearby. Spensa feels something odd, as if someone has arrived, when Cobb receives a call from Rikolfr informing him that a solitary ship has hyperjumped to the edge of Detritus' defense platforms. Spensa asks Cobb if she can go check it out, as Platform Prime is closer to the ship than the ground crews. Cobb consents, on the condition that Kimmalyn go with her.
Chapter 7
Spensa gets in M-Bot, performs a preflight checklist, and exits the docking bay. Kimmalyn comes out of her bay, and the two head toward the alien ship. M-Bot informs Spensa the ship is not making wise choices in evading the defence platforms, which a Krell ship would not do. M-Bot calculates an interception course, and Spends and Kimmalyn draw closer. Spensa receives permission to give chase, gets closer, and sees the ship is very damaged and spiraling towards a crash. As the ships reenter the atmosphere, g-forces begin to take their toll, and Spensa nearly blacks out. She then senses an overwhelming feeling of panic, seemingly broadcasted from the alien pilot. Cobb tells Spensa his analysts believe the ship to be manned, making it necessary to save the ship. Spensa light-lances the ship, and slows its descent. Both ships lands safely, so Spensa jumps out of her ship and onto the alien ship. She climbs over the canopy and looks through the cockpit glass to see not a Krell, but a humanoid woman.
Chapter 8
Kimmalyn climbs onto the canopy of the alien ship as well, and Spensa searches for the manual release to the cockpit, as the alien woman appears to be bleeding. Spensa releases the cockpit, and the woman starts speaking in an unintelligible language. The woman taps a pin on her flightsuit, and she begins talking in English. She tells Spensa her people and the human's were allies once and that Spensa is not to trust Starsight. She also implants the coordinates of Starsight in Spensa's mind. Three DDF troop transports and the rest of Skyward Flight touch down, and M-Bot tells Spensa he's hacked the alien ship's computer and discovered the alien's name is Alanik of the UrDail. He also tells Spensa he has access to all of the ship's databases on Alanik's people, her planet, her planet's history with humanoid and the Superiority, and much more. Spensa meets up with Jorgen, and tells him that she has to go immediately to Starsight, as the coordinates are fading and the humans might not get another good chance to infiltrate the Superiority. M-Bot tells Spensa that she can use Alanik's pin to make her English input output any alien language. Jorgen gives his approval and tells Spensa he'll inform Cobb, and they kiss. Spensa gets back into M-Bot, yanks the coordinates back to the front of her mind, and activates M-Bot's cytonic hyperdrive.
Part Two
Chapter 9
Spensa finds herself floating in the nowhere, and sees the delvers' eyes begin to open as the stare at her, bursting with hatred and malevolence. M-Bot tells Spensa they're being contacted, and as she looks out M-Bot's cockpit, she sees a space station, a flat plane dotted with lights, Starsight. The people attempting to contact M-Bot seek identification, speaking in the language of the Dione, so Spensa asks M-Bot to fudge Alanik's transponder signal. Spensa calms down and looks inward to see if she can pinpoint how to return to Detritus, but she has no cytonic coordinates for Detritus, only Starsight, so she asks M-Bot to calculate their location. In the meantime, M-Bot's fudging has failed and the Superiority is sending ships out to investigate. Two ships level off near Spensa, M-Bot patches through their comm line, and they begin to speak in an alien tongue. M-Bot hacks Alanik's translation pin, and the aliens begin speaking English. Spensa tells them she is Alanik of the UrDail from the planet ReDawn, and that she is responding to the Superiority's request for more pilots to form a larger space force. The two ships tell her she is welcome to dock at Berth 1182, then fly off, and Spensa can't believe she's succeeded, expecting the two ships to turn around and fire at her at any moment. They don't, and M-Bot informs Spensa they are some forty light years from Detritus, meaning without a stolen cytonic hyperdrive, there's no going back. Spensa flies closer to Starsight, and sees that the flat plane of the station was surrounded by a bubble that must keep air and heat in the space station. Spensa feels towards the general direction of Detritus, and feels what she believes to be Alanik's cytonics, then proceeds to enter the bubble.