by Darcy Town
Tasanee shook her head. “Oro didn’t cause that and I didn’t do anything.”
“No really, I’m as confused as you.” Ravil nodded. “What a miracle that was. I’m in shock right now.”
Oro and Tasanee raised their eyebrows in unison.
Ravil forced a smile.
Oro got on his knees. “I won’t try and take you anywhere if you do it again, I promise. I swear on…on, my life. Please do it, please!”
Tasanee nodded. “Me too, I swear the same thing, do it again!”
“You’ll help me stay with Rake?” Ravil examined their faces. “No trying to kidnap me?”
Oro nodded. “I will take on Keto and Danny if I have to.”
“Yeah!” Tasanee nodded in agreement.
Ravil rose up on her fingertips and thought it over. If they were being honest then it was worth it. She could not really leave and go far anyways, the consequences of that were more dire for her than these two knowing. “Keep your eyes open.”
They nodded.
Ravil disappeared. She reappeared at their backs and placed her hands on their shoulders. She jumped and dragged the pair with her. Ravil flashed to the other end of the workshop and set them down on packed dirt. She stepped back and waited.
There was silence as Tasanee and Oro looked around. They poked each other, then themselves. Tasanee took a deep breath. “What the hell was that?”
Oro got to his knees. “What you said earlier about ripping holes, it’s true. That’s what you just did?”
Ravil’s eyes darted between the two, ready to jump away if they attacked her. “Yes, but it’s more like connecting to a path or highway, not ripping anything in space...”
“So…” Oro touched his mouth. “You’re an alien?”
Tasanee whipped her head around. “What? Alien? Seriously? What?”
“Well.” Ravil looked between the two. “Technically yes.”
Oro smiled. “Holy motherfucking shit! Rat! She’s a fucking alien!”
Tasanee sat open-mouthed, unable to say anything.
Ravil folded her arms. “Alien is a little broad. I’m subspecies Navigator, descendent of the First Planet races. Primary function is as my title indicates, I navigate spaceships and apparently…Wasters.”
Tasanee tucked her knees into her chest. “Holy balls.”
Oro grinned from ear to ear. “Does Rake know?”
“No.” Ravil kicked her foot against the ground. “I wasn’t supposed to show anyone, including him.”
Oro touched his chest. “But you saved me?”
“I didn’t want you to die.” Ravil blushed. “You’re nice.”
“You didn’t have to though.”
“Of course not.”
“You’ve put yourself at risk.” He swallowed. “What you said earlier about a Resistance…that was true? You have people looking for you?”
Ravil nodded. “My guardians died keeping me hidden from the Empire.”
“Well…I would have been dead for sure.” Oro looked up. “I owe you my life. Thank you.”
“You don’t really owe me your life.” Ravil looked away.
“Wow.” Tasanee shook her head. “Wow…”
“So…why do you look like us?” Oro gave Ravil a once over. “I always imagined aliens would be weirder.”
“Look like you?” Ravil laughed mirthlessly. “You look like me. You’re an unclassified First Planet subspecies, Waster, until named otherwise.”
Oro frowned. “We’re a subspecies?”
Ravil nodded. “Yeah. Why, did you think you evolved here on your own?” They nodded. She shrugged. “Surprise? You didn’t. You were seeded here.”
Tasanee couldn’t take her eyes off Ravil. “How long have you been on our planet? Are you a seed thing too?”
“No, I’ve only been here for three of your years.”
Tasanee’s eyes narrowed. “Three years?”
Ravil nodded. “About that yeah.”
Tasanee nudged Oro. “Space Silence was almost three years ago. Coincidence?”
Oro shook his head. He looked at Ravil. “This Empire you mentioned, it’s them right? Their blockade caused the Space Silence?”
Ravil sat down cross-legged. “Yeah, sorry about that.”
“It happened all because of you.” Tasanee looked Ravil over. “Why?”
Ravil picked up a piece of metal and moved it through the air with her hands. “Without Navigators, ships, entire fleets, move at slow speed. Much faster than your ships can move, but slow to the point that travel in space takes a long time.” She flashed three feet over, then to a few different spots within sight, carrying the metal with her. “They use Navigators to move their ships faster. We were manufactured and bred for that purpose.”
“Manufactured and bred?”
Ravil nodded. “All subspecies of the First Planet races are bred for traits, Navigators, Hunters, Fix-Its, Blackouts. We were all made to be used.”
“Used like tools.”
Ravil nodded. “Exactly as tools.”
They went silent.
Tasanee looked up. “Why are we called Wasters?”
Ravil gestured to the area around them. “In your time on this planet you have developed no apparent gift and therefore you are of no use to the Empire.”
“Lame.” Oro tossed a pebble. “All the others get powers and we’re talentless losers?”
Ravil nodded. “Yes, but you’re not the only ones without powers. There are other planets similarly situated, talentless and also classified as Wasters.”
“That sucks.”
“No, Oro.” Ravil shook her head. “It’s lucky. The Empire let’s none with abilities live free lives. You’d be classified, renamed to fit your function, and shipped off to the colony planets to be bred, developed, and put to use in the war like a wrench or key.”
“Why?”
“Because they can.” Ravil looked at her feet. “Ampyr are the ruling class of the Empire. We’ve all been bred to obey a direct verbal command from them. I would assume that you have the same genetic weakness as the rest of us.”
Tasanee patted the ground. “So why aren’t they here?”
Ravil looked up. “They are. Your two power world governments have been theirs since before the Space Silence became official.”
“Fuck, I was right!” Tasanee leapt to her feet. “Motherfucking alien bribes!” She danced in a circle and pointed at Oro. “You and everyone else can kiss my brilliant ass! Oh my God, Katarina is going to shit bricks!”
“Kat? Rake is going to fucking die and Mica? Mica is going to go crazy!” Oro grinned at Ravil. “Aliens! Keto’s trained his entire life to study aliens!”
Ravil jumped to her feet. “You tell no one!” Both gaped at her. She shook in fear. “No one! This isn’t a game.” She took a step towards them. “People are dying! My friends have died! Don’t act like this is something funny or cool, it is serious!”
Tasanee paled. “I didn’t mean it like that, Ravil. This is a big deal for us. We thought we were alone in the universe. This is our first contact! Some of us have dreamed about this since we were kids!”
Oro hopped over on his knees. “And what you can do, it’s amazing, more than amazing, that you have a skill that can be used to fly ships! The potential.”
Ravil backed away. “I am not a thing to be used!”
Tasanee shook her head. “I don’t think that!”
“I’m sorry!” Oro put his hands together. “That was totally stupid of me to say.”
Ravil glared at him. “People only see me for what I can do for them.”
“He didn’t mean it like that.” Tasanee pulled Ravil into a hug.
Oro joined the hug. “I’m insensitive. It’s your secret and your gift. I do take it seriously, I won’t tell anyone.”
Tasanee nodded. “Yeah, this doesn’t go any further. We can keep secrets.”
Ravil sighed. “Good, because I would have to kill you if you tried to tell anyone.�
�� They flinched. She patted them on their backs and pushed them back. “Just kidding. I wouldn’t, but someone else sure would.”
They stared at her. Ravil blushed pink under their scrutiny and sat down in front of them. She chewed on her lip. “Just ask already, I know you have questions.”
Tasanee grinned and took a seat in the dirt. “So the weird aging, that’s an alien thing!”
Ravil nodded and frowned. “I’m not really an alien like your movies say.” She thought of Rake’s movies. “Non-human entities do exist, but they are not intelligent like us. You know, you’re kind of alien to this planet too if you go back far enough. We’re not really different at all, most subspecies can breed together. You can probably breed with the others too.”
Oro shrugged. “Eh, close enough though. You weren’t born here, so you’re an alien.”
Ravil shook her head. “Definitely not. This place is nothing like my home world.”
“What’s your home like?” Both of them leaned in, utterly rapt.
“Rocky.” Ravil picked at her fingers. “Uh…It’s mostly caves from lava flows, underground, no surface travel. Uhm.” She looked between the two. They waited for more. “Look, I left right after I transitioned out of larvae stage, I don’t remember much.”
“Larvae stage!” Oro’s eyes gleamed.
Tasanee looked her up and down. “What is that?”
Ravil stared at her hands. “You humans grow slowly but evenly over time. My kind goes through stages of rapid development and then a halt to growth.”
Tasanee pointed at her long hair. “You just went through one.”
Ravil nodded. “Correct and our larvae stage is one of those, it kind of equates to your toddlers I think.”
Oro scooted closer. “So are you going to get wrapped up in a cocoon and grow wings or something?”
Ravil frowned. “No, I’m just going to stay this size until I have the trigger event associated with this stage.”
“And what is that?”
“Sex.” Ravil looked away. “My hormones will change and I’ll grow more.”
Tasanee edged in. “So how old are you really?”
Ravil shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?” Oro scratched his chin.
“Counting our years is not a part of our culture. Navigators are a particular stage and that is how the differences are measured. Your Waster ages come with maturation in mental capacity and emotional comprehension, your brain actually changes. Navigators are born fully functional in brain capacity; our bodies just take longer to catch up.”
“Sure.” Tasanee nodded along with her. “So why are you like that?”
“Our planet is far more barren than this one and our bodies adapted to survive in those conditions. Growth occurs only when safety and food and mates become available.”
Oro gave her a once over. “You can hibernate?”
Ravil shrugged. “Similar…I can survive without food for some time if needed. I had to when we were fleeing. It’s not enjoyable, but I won’t die from being hungry.”
“How long have you been on the run?”
She frowned. “I suppose you could calculate the equivalent in Earth years, as our planet has its own rotation around our star, with speed known.” She chewed on her lip. “But my time as a toddler was artificially extended for many rotations, I am not certain to its length.”
“Why was it extended?”
Ravil rubbed her temples. “If I explain that, I have to explain everything else, the war, the way Navigators were made to be. I don’t even know all of it. Information is restricted outside of the Ampyr.”
Tasanee smiled and tapped Ravil with her foot. “Just tell us what you know.”
Oro nodded. “Like why is this Empire blockading us for one girl Navigator? Don’t they have more of you?”
“Yes.” Ravil stared at her hands. “But within every subspecies there are those that are refined, those that have amplified abilities, more amplified than the already special abilities their subspecies has produced. Within Navigators, there are those that can only transport themselves short distances, as you saw a minute ago. There are those that can move small ships, like these here or bigger when working in concert with others. But there are some that can move entire fleets. Theoretically the Langone class can move anything, planets perhaps, on their own.”
“You’re one of those!” Oro’s grin widened. “The fleet moving kind?”
Ravil nodded. “I’ve never done it, but according to what I was told of my bloodline, I have the potential to do it yes.” She swallowed. “I was supposed to get training with my pilot once my blood bond went through.”
Oro nodded. “Your blood bond with Rake.”
Tasanee grinned. “You’re blood bonded to Rake?”
Ravil nodded. “Yes.”
Tasanee gaped. “That sounds badass!”
Ravil’s face fell. “It’s more just bad.”
“Why?”
Ravil looked at the net over their heads. “I was stolen from my home planet by the Resistance so that when I grew up I could get bonded to one of their pilots and aid them, but I bonded to Rake. Once a bond occurs, it can’t be undone. I wasted what I was hidden for, now all I’m good for is breeding.”
Oro frowned. “Now wait a second, Rake can pilot. He isn’t being a show-off when he says he’s amazing, he really is.”
Ravil smiled. “I’m sure he can and he is, but pilots are supposed to train their Navigators, they go through their own training prior to ever forming a bond.”
“Rake’s had training on piloting.”
“It’s not the same. Our pilots learn how to attune to a Navigator, to better express their desires and wants without having to verbalize them. A pilot bolsters their Navigator’s abilities with their strength and conviction. If a pilot is unskilled or lacks confidence that will affect their Navigator through their link.”
“So you can read his mind or something?”
Ravil smiled slightly. “I can read his desires. Well, I could if we had more time together. The longer we are in proximity the easier it becomes. We can learn to sense a want from a need, the strength of the order, and eventually what it is.”
“So if Rake wanted to go to Hawaii, you’d just know and trust that instinct and off you’d go.”
“I wouldn’t even have to have been there before.” Ravil sighed. “But Rake has not had that training. So how can he train me? How can we work together? He doesn’t even know what I am.”
Tasanee looked her over. “Can’t you train yourself?”
Ravil closed her eyes. “When I was kept in age stasis, I was trained on star charts, patterns, distances, planets, spacial anomalies. I know the known universe, but it is not my purpose to decide where to go. The responsibility for the welfare of a crew, for tactics in war, it falls to the commander, the pilot. You are familiar with this. Danny, he leads you, you would fly where he directed and trust that he has a plan.”
They nodded.
Ravil drew patterns in the dust. “I have heard of Navigators that can jump fleets amazing distances, into and out of battles, into the atmosphere of planets without hitting them. Some can deflect attacks, opening up holes to eat weapons’ fire. The powers are theirs, but the guidance and the will to use them are not.” She stabbed her finger into the dirt. “The focus and concentration it takes to move ships without fault, it is immense. Navigators cannot afford to think on why they jump, or when they jump, they cannot think about their safety. They must trust their pilot to make the right choices.”
Tasanee nodded. “You’re an engine, not the driver.”
“Yes.” Ravil looked up. “And I was supposed to navigate a fleet for the Resistance. They are in desperate need of my kind, having only but a few that live, while the Empire controls our home world.”
Oro frowned. “It sounds like this Resistance wants to use you as much as the Empire does.”
Ravil nodded. “They do, but life with th
e Resistance involves choice. I would have been able to choose my pilot. The Empire forces a bonding.”
“How?”
Ravil looked up to the sky. “In the space between, a Navigator becomes attuned to the first person they fly with solo, that person becomes their pilot. In the Empire, they will force a Navigator to jump with a particular pilot and therefore bond with them.”
“That means you did that crazy jumpy shit with Rake and he still doesn’t know? How is that possible?” Oro leaned back. “I’m going to think about that every day until I die.”
Ravil frowned. “We were falling off of a rooftop, he had his eyes closed, and I think he was drunk. He did not notice.”
Oro laughed. “Fucking, Rake.”
Tasanee looked her over. “So didn’t you know this bonding would happen when you jumped with him? Why didn’t you let him drop if it is such a problem to your mission or purpose?”
Ravil looked up. “He wasn’t supposed to live through it. No one lives.”
Oro frowned. “I’m confused.”
Tasanee nodded. “Me too.”
Ravil drummed her fingers on the ground and looked around. A rat scurried through the undergrowth. She pointed. “Watch.” She disappeared. She appeared over the rat and caught it in her hands. She looked at them. “Live rat.”
Ravil vanished and appeared back in her spot in front of them. She turned her hand over. Bones, blood, and hair dropped out onto the ground twitching. “Dead rat.”
Oro and Tasanee looked ill. Ravil wiped her hand on the grass. “Our spacecraft are made to withstand and protect their occupants during a jump. Without a craft, those that travel with a Navigator die like that rat. When I jumped with Rake I assumed he would die in transit. No bond can occur with a dead thing.”
Oro frowned. “But if you knew...”
Ravil folded her arms. “I wasn’t trying to murder him. He would have died regardless of what I did, we were high in the air and I wasn’t thinking, plus he was holding onto me. So he got carried along.”
Tasanee stared at the rat, it stopped moving. “Why didn’t he die? Why didn’t we die?”
Ravil shook her head. “I don’t know. You should have died. That you didn’t, it’s never been heard of before. There have been many, many tests made by the Empire. As far as I can tell, you three are the only individuals to have travelled with a Navigator that way and lived.”