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 Spensa 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 defense 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.
Chapter 10
The two alien ships guide Spensa closer to the station, and she observes aesthetically beautiful buildings and parks on each block. M-Bot tells her that there is no radio chatter; the Superiority is as scared of the delvers as the humans are. Spensa pulls into the docking bay, and M-Bot tells her that the platform has breathable air for her and the correct pressure. He also tells her that the aliens will understand her English output because their pins will understand one of the main languages of the people who thrice tried to conquer the galaxy. Spensa pops the cockpit and gets an access ticket to the docking bay from one of the aliens. Spensa remains in the ship, and is approached by an alien who refers to themself as Cuna. Spensa tells Doomslug to stay in the ship, then gets out to meet Cuna. Cuna guides Spensa through Starsight to where she will stay, passing by markets and parks galore. Cuna tells Spensa that by agreeing to be in the Superiority's defense force, Alanik might gain secondary Superiority citizenship for her people. Cuna further tells Spensa the Superiority prefers race that are not too aggressive but also have primary intelligence. The UrDail have thus far been barred from Superiority citizenship due to their alliance with the humans in the Third Human War. Cuna tells Spensa she is a member of the Department of Species Integration, and has personally been trying to integrate the UrDail into the Superiority. Cuna takes Spensa to her quarters, and tells her that as a cytonic, Spensa poses a threat to the Superiority, as it was people like her who first drew the delvers from their realm to attack the Superiority. This forced the Superiority to control the cytonics and limit radio communications, but they have since discovered cytonic hyperdrives that do not aggravate the delvers. Spensa realizes that the reason the Superiority never sent a massive attack to wipe out the humans was because they simply didn't have the numbers, and they instead control the galaxy by controlling access to cytonic hyperdrives. Cuna then tells Spensa the reason the Superiority has been gathering pilots like her is because they believe the delvers are watching the Superiority, and they have developed a superweapon to combat the delvers that they need large amounts of pilots to deploy. Cuna tells Spensa that the Department of Protective Services is overseeing the delver combat operation, but that she has significant say in it. Cuna tells Spensa she needs to pass their tryout the next day, and also warns her that her cytonic abilities will be muted by Starsight's cytoshield. Before they can leave, sirens go off around the building, a ship lands in front of the building, and a human woman steps out.
Chapter 11
Following the human woman comes a varvax, who Cuna introduces as Winzik, the head of the Department of Protective Services. The group enters Spensa's quarters and Winzik has the human, Brade, test Spensa for cytonic abilities, after which he warns Spensa not to use her cytonic abilities on others. As Cuna and Winzik continue to talk, Spensa realizes she is being used as a pawn in their greater political power struggle. Spensa agrees to follow the Superiority's rules, and Winzik and Brade leave. Cuna tells Spensa she can arrange for supplies to be brought to Spensa's quarters, and then leaves. M-Bot contacts Spensa and asks her to move him away from the public docking bay so he can be more comfortable and connect to the station's public datanet to look for information.
Chapter 12
M-Bot tells Spensa that he has deactivated all of the Superiority surveillance devices in her quarters and that he's taking a general imprint of the datanet so the Superiority can't track exactly what they're searching for. He tells her all traces of cytonics and hyperdrive technology are missing, however. He also tells her that he is miles ahead of Superiority technology in terms of holograms. He then tells her the five main leading races of the Superiority government: the cambric, tenasi, heklo, varvax (like Winzik), and diones (like Cuna). He tells her that diones reproduce by merging together and becoming a temporary third individual. Spensa then has M-Bot arrange for supplies that both she and Alanik would consume to be brought to her quarters in bulk. M-Bot then covers some other necessities, like attempting to contact Detritus and sending word to the UrDail updating them on "Alanik's" progress with the Superiority. Spensa checks the information Cuna gave her on the flight test the next day and sees most of the participants are secondary Superiority citizens and that if she is to succeed, she will be issued a Superiority starfighter, which she hopes will be equipped with a cytonic hyperdrive.
Chapter 13
Spensa gets in M-Bot and takes off the roof of the embassy, headed toward where the tryout will take place, half an hour of flying away. They receive a flight plan, and enter a stream of a couple dozen assorted ships headed to the same location. M-Bot tells Spensa he should send a message to Alanik's people, giving them basic information the Superiority will overlook, encrypted with a message that she is not Alanik, that Alanik is injured and Spensa is performing her mission. M-Bot asks Spensa if he's truly alive, and Spensa points out he changed his own code, and then asks if he could change his own code to fly himself, after which M-Bot makes clicking sounds and restarts. This happens once more before they realize M-Bot can't even think about flying himself without his computer restarting him. M-Bot reaches the location of the tryout, a mining station surrounded by another atmosphere-simulating bubble. They land and Spensa disembarks, and approaches a crowd of aliens listening to Winzik, standing on a raised dais, addressing them through a voice projection tool. Winzik informs them the Superiority must always be on high alert in looking for delvers, and someone in the crowd asks if it's true that a delver has entered the realm. Winzik confirms this, and quickly moves on to discussing the waivers they all need to sign. Spensa receives one, but doesn't know her travel identification number, so goes up to a Krell taking questions. A group of small fox like creatures are talking to the Krell, telling it how they are no longer a monarchy and should not have to prove their loyalty to the Superiority for the umpteenth time. Winzik approaches Spensa and tries to talk her out of trying out. Cuna approaches Spensa next, asking about Winzik's intentions. Cuna reveals that Alanik is the only pilot that accepted her offer, and that Cuna's real reason in asking species like Alanik's to try out for the force is to see their human-given light-lances in action. Cuna leaves, and Spensa gets back in M-Bot and takes off towards the edge of the asteroid field.
Chapter 14
Spensa falls in line with the other pilots, and a few ships down she sees a sleek black Krell ace. She senses a soft ringing sound coming from the ship, and instantly knows Brade is the pilot. Winzik comes on over the general instructions channel informing the pilots that they are allowed to use ship to ship radio transmissions and that if they feel aggressive or feel overwhelmed, they are to power down their ship and flash their emergency signal lights. The comm cuts off and instantly dozens of drone ships detach from the mining station and swarm the pilots. Spensa zips away from the battle at Mag-3, and inspects the field. She can tell most of the pilots have never been in a battlefield scenario, as they scramble around with no sense of direction. Spensa contacts Flight Command and asks what the objective of the exercise is, to which they respond that to pass, a pilot must survive for 30 standard minutes. Spensa asks what constitutes a death, and Flight Command tells her that she misunderstands their purpose, and she then sees a drone shoot down a nearby ship with live destructor fire. Spensa dogfights with a couple of drones, using her light-lance to destroy one but avoiding using her cytonics to intercept their FTL communications. This scares the drones off, as they know they don't need to test a pilot with obvious skill, but rather pick off weaklings. Spensa sees a large fighter with many destructors, a warship, under heavy attack from the drones, and accelerates to go help them out.
Chapter 15
The warship's shields go down right as Spensa arrives, but their destructor turrets keep firing at the drones. Spensa flies through the trailing drones and hits her IMP, hoping to distract as many drones as possible. She gains a tail, but the warship is able to cut down each drone trailing her. Spensa falls in next to the warship, and M-Bot tells her they are receiving a call from an unfamiliar radio channel. M-Bot patches it through, and only cheering can be heard on the other end. A deep voice on the other side informs Spensa she has saved the kitsen flagship, Gaualako-An (Big Enough to Kill You) and with it, Hesho, former king of the kitsen. Spensa asks if they want to form a flight with her, and Hensho says yes, but only if Spensa can find another quick starfighter to balance their flight. Spensa sees Brade flying off in the distance, and patches a radio comm to her asking if she wants to join. Brade responds by light-lancing another ship into an asteroid and flying away at high speed. Spensa goes toward the ship Brade has just damaged to ask if they need assistance. She patches through a radio comm, and tells the pilot to turn off their ship and flash their emergency lights. The dione pilot tells Spensa they cannot, because the collision has crushed their emergency lights. Spensa tows the ship back toward Hesho via light-lance, and sends out a radio comm via the general channel and asks if any ships can assist them. A feminine voice responds after a second attempt and promises to help if Spensa promises not to shoot. Spensa agrees, and a drone comes out from hiding behind an asteroid and is almost shot by Spensa, until things are sorted out and Spensa tells the feminine pilot to distract the drones keeping her from assisting the dione. The pilot does so, and Spensa is able to dislodge a small rock from the dione's boosters, allowing the ship to have fully operational boosters. The dione informs Hesho and Spensa that his name is Morriumur, and the trio continue patrolling the battlefield until time expires and the drones return to their hiding places on the underside of the mining platform. The surviving 50 pilots return to the atmospheric bubble atop the mining station and exit their ships. Spensa is about to angrily demand why the Superiority used live destructor fire on civilian vessels, but is beaten to it by a hulking gorilla-like alien. The alien slams Winzik for not using dummy rounds and firing on an untrained populace, and proceeds to threaten Winzik. Winzik takes offense and releases the gorilla-alien, identified as Gul'zah of the burl, from duty. M-Bot restrains Spensa from getting further involved, and Morriumur steps in and asks Spensa if she wants to get food with him.