Wastes of Space

by Darcy Town

  Oro leapt to his feet. “Humans are special! We do have a gift! See this proves it; we can do something none of the others can. We survive!”

  Ravil smiled faintly. “Yes, you survive, congratulations.”

  Tasanee took Ravil’s clean hand. “So now you and Rake are stuck together.”

  “I’m stuck with him, he has no similar affliction.”

  Oro thought back. “You said you can’t leave him. Why is that?”

  “He would feel nothing, but I would feel a loss. I would become emptier the farther the distance between us became. The sense of loneliness kills Navigators.”

  Tasanee made a face. “You can die from being apart?”

  “Eventually yes.” Ravil’s cheeks were ashen. “Navigators suicide if they cannot return to their pilot.”

  “So what happens if a pilot dies?”

  Ravil’s eyes were empty. “We die too.”

  Oro looked her over. “How, your heart just stops?”

  Ravil shook her head, even the thought of Rake dead drove her hands to shake. “We try and follow.”

  “Follow what?”

  “We follow our pilot’s soul into death. We disappear, searching for them.”

  Tasanee cocked her head. “How do you know all of this? How does anyone?”

  “The Empire ran many tests. In the same way I am sure your ships underwent stress tests.” Ravil looked away. “My guardians told me of them. The Empire knows the exact distance that will cause pain, they use it to torture captured Resistance Navigators. I have never seen it, but now with Rake, I feel it to be true.” She hugged herself. “The distance would be unbearable. Even if I despised him, I have to be near him.”

  Oro and Tasanee went silent, thinking. Ravil touched her head and looked up. “Rake is on the move.” As she said it, Oro’s phone buzzed.

  Tasanee looked at Oro. “Danny?”

  He grabbed it. “Yeah.” He threw the phone back into his jacket. “Probably wants to make sure we’re out of the country before Rake comes home.”

  Ravil trembled. “Don’t take me away please.”

  Tasanee hugged her. “No one is sending you away now!” She brushed her hands through her hair. “When I asked what you felt for Rake…”

  “It’s complicated.” Ravil frowned. “I do not understand all of it. The bond is not always friendly. In the Empire, it is one of servant and master, but it can be a deep bond, a friendship, a kinship similar to family. I cannot help but feel what he feels and want what he wants.”

  “What of love?”

  “Love of friends, of family.”

  “But not lovers?”

  “Not mutually, I have heard in the Empire that Navigators are used for sex by their pilots.” She appeared nauseous. “But the feeling of lust is never reciprocated by the Navigator.”

  “Why?” Oro moved closer.

  “Navigators were made to breed only with their kind, to keep the traits strong.” She frowned, parroting back what she had been told, “Navigators can only desire other Navigators.”

  “So lust comes down to whom you can make babies with and your kind can’t with other subspecies?”

  “Yes.” Ravil nodded. “But it is more complicated than that. Remember the stasis thing, barren home world? Navigators do not seek out partners in times of strife, famine, or plague. Entire generations can get stuck in lust-less age stasis for the equivalent of your decades until conditions are correct.”

  Oro snorted. “Weird.”

  Ravil chewed on her cheek. “The Empire has tried to get around the restrictions by using science, but the pregnancies never come to term. So Navigators are left to breed on their home world, kept on our home planet under guard until bred.”

  Tasanee wrinkled her nose. “It sounds like you’re a farm animal.”

  “That is correct.” Ravil nodded. “How we are seen in the Empire at least.”

  ***

  Marx walked slowly through the streets of Bangkok. He knew where he was to meet Kennedy and Lincoln and he was reluctant for his quiet and peace to end. He thought of his dead mate, his Stalin, strong and calm. He missed her, but he knew she’d lived and died the way she wanted. Her death had come in the hunt, the way all Hunters desired.

  He and Stalin had travelled and hunted together for years, becoming a pair of efficient trackers, some of the Empire’s best. Initially a pairing of convenience based on their talents, they’d developed into something more. She’d brought out in him a reflecting quiet, but now that phase had ended and he was ready to change yet again.

  Marx sighed, seeing the landmarks he had searched for. Lincoln and Kennedy would be close. He spent his last solitary moments pondering what this place would bring him next.

  ***

  Oro folded his arms. “If breeding gets you a ticket into slavery, why do it at all? Can’t you protest?”

  “When the instinctual mating call comes over a Navigator, it cannot be controlled.” Ravil smiled shyly. “It is not the same as your arousal. I can feel that and not be called.” She thought of Rake and got warm. “But the call is a force, an ardent need, unable to be ignored. The difference is marked.”

  Tasanee leaned back. “You mentioned that a little yesterday.”

  Ravil blushed pink. “Yes I…I have a blurry memory…but I think I saw it once, between two Navigators. They had been around each other since they were little, but after a stage shift the girl changed and the boy could not look away.” She looked at them. “Females become compass points to males, and the male compulsion to claim cannot be overcome. They are drawn together, inseparable. It is the only bond to us that is similar to that between pilot and Navigator.”

  “The male cannot control it, what about the female?”

  “Our desire is just as deep, but females have a lower survival rate than males, so we have more partners to select from. The males will sometimes fight to claim a female, but it is still our choice.” She met Tasanee’s eyes. “If a male were to see me as his, I could theoretically keep him at bay until I had more than one to choose from. He would follow me until I chose him or chose another.”

  Tasanee grinned. “You’d have a love slave!”

  “I suppose, but that seems like a cruelty.” Ravil picked at her fingernails.

  Oro moved to get comfortable on the ground. “So this pairing is a for-life thing?”

  Ravil nodded. “Once mated, the pair seeks out no other. My subspecies is peaceable to the point of being docile children, but not when your mate is involved. I have heard of fire fights driven to a halt due to Navigators finding their mate.” Her smile faded. “My guardians told me that this is why they are parted in the Empire.”

  “How do they get you apart?” Oro waved his hands through the air. “Can’t you just zip around and find each other again?”

  Ravil pulled her knees to her chest. “Pregnant females cannot travel and the males will not leave their side. In the Empire, once it is determined that a female is pregnant, the male is killed or his mind is wiped. When the female gives birth, she is pulled into service and bonded to a pilot immediately. Some females suicide, but others are not strong enough.”

  “What about the children? Can’t they run?”

  Ravil shook her head. “Without years of training, jumping off of the planet is deadly. Navigators can get lost in the blue and can’t control where they come out. So we’re stuck, caged, bred, and sent off to bond.”

  “That’s disgusting.” Tasanee covered her mouth. “There’s no way around this call and breed stuff?”

  Ravil shook her head, her white and red hair spilled over her shoulders. “It is inevitable. If I make it back out into space eventually I will be that to a male Navigator, their turning point—”

  “So wait a second,” Oro cut in, “What happens to pairs in the Resistance?”

  Ravil smiled. “My guardians told me that they are allowed to be together.”

  “Sure…” Oro frowned and pulled out the hair band around his brai
d. He ran his fingers through his black hair, taking out the dirt and brambles he’d picked up during his run through the field. “Doesn’t that divide loyalties?”

  Ravil drew her fingers through the dirt. “We are all fighting for the same thing, the ability to choose. Pairs of Navigators are allowed to stay in the same fleet, bolstering support for jumps.”

  “How does that work if they are bonded to a pilot?”

  Ravil shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never actually met anyone in the Resistance besides my three guardians.”

  Tasanee leaned back and crossed her ankles. “Then how did you get to our planet?”

  Ravil concentrated as she recalled her fuzzy memories of the event. “My guardians were part of a raid. They knew that those of my lineage were being allowed to stage-shift to get us ready to be trained on the basics of flight. It was an opportunity the Resistance could not refuse, we were either to be killed or captured.”

  She stared into space and rattled off the story like she read from lines, “All in my birthing group were taken, five I have heard. One group was killed in the escape and the four others divided, fleeing into deep space for remote planets with no Empire presence, to hide until Resistance pick up could be arranged. My transport had to change course and go to this planet. We crashed. Our ship was ruined beyond repair. All but three of the crew were killed. We were not picked up, the Empire caught up with us, and the blockade took effect.” She stopped and felt the familiar twinge of guilt and sadness.

  “So you’re stuck here?”

  Ravil nodded. “Until the Resistance breaks through, or I break out.”

  Oro picked stray hairs off his clothes. “So, the Empire is just sitting up there twiddling their thumbs? Are they hoping you’ll turn yourself in or something?”

  Ravil cocked her head, not understanding what he meant. “I have Hunters tracking me.”

  Tasanee went for the gun at her hip. “Human bounty hunters?”

  Ravil grimaced. “I wish that mundane. Hunters are a subspecies. Primary function tracking other subspecies. They need only a drop of blood to taste, and then they can sense you.”

  “Blood drinkers?” Oro made a face. “Eww.”

  “Other bodily fluids too.” Ravil nodded. “The ones following me tracked my guardians by their subspecies, Feeler, Pyro, and Rexos. Their scent stood out amongst the Wasters, easy to find. Thankfully we did not have individual trackers after us.”

  Tasanee looked towards the gate to her workshop. “What’s that mean?”

  “Tracking individuals is rare among Hunters, a refinement. If one of those trackers got some of your blood, they would be able to find you in this city down to your exact location. They could track you across space, between solar systems.”

  “Christ!” Tasanee looked back to her. “You’re sure you don’t have one of those after you?”

  Ravil shook her head. “Species only, no individual trackers, or we would have been found already.”

  Oro looked nauseous. “And they have some of you to…to sample?”

  Ravil shook her head. “Forbidden. Being able to track Navigators means you can track fleet movements.”

  Oro sighed. “So they’re shit out of luck then. No you, no one to follow.”

  Ravil nodded. “It’s still out there though, looking. They don’t give up, ever.”

  “They sound creepy.” Tasanee shivered. “Do Hunters look different, like you? If they show up will we be able to tell them apart from humans?”

  “Yes. They all have yellowish eyes, long hair in braids, dark skin.” Ravil pointed to Oro. “I thought you were one for a split second when I met you, but you’re way too short.”

  Oro made a face. “Oh, thanks.”

  “They’re all very tall and slim.” Ravil curved her hands. “They have long hollow claws that spring out of their fingertips, so they always wear gloves to cover their hands. They have sunglasses for their eyes, bright light hurts them. They have sharp pointed teeth too.”

  Tasanee folded her arms. “We’ll be vigilant.”

  Ravil smiled, and then it faded. “What happens now?”

  Oro scratched his head. “We can’t tell anyone?”

  Ravil shook her head. “No.”

  Tasanee grabbed Ravil’s shoulders. “When are you going to tell Rake?”

  Ravil frowned. “I don’t know. I…I’m afraid to.”

  “Why?”

  Ravil looked away. “If he knows, he can leave me and he will.”

  “He would not!”

  Ravil looked at her hands. “He’s already tried when we were travelling, Rat.” She fingered Rake’s necklace and frowned. “He didn’t ask to get involved in this mess that I’m in, it’s not fair.”

  Tasanee looked her in the eye. “Ravil! Rake needs something to get involved in.”

  Oro nodded. “All he wants is to fly a spaceship.”

  “But a war?”

  Oro leaned towards her. “We were trained since childhood to fight in a war, yeah it was against the Chinese and Russians, but that’s what we grew up doing. Rake has been with us since he was a kid, training to fight. It is his life, Ravil, and that was taken away with the Space Silence. He’s going to be fucking overjoyed.”

  The image of an All-American gung-ho Rake did not fit in with what she had seen. “I don’t think he is the same anymore.”

  Tasanee shook her head. “You’ll see him off of the junk. He’s a different person. You’ll tell him, show him what you can do, and you can bet he will be on board.”

  “I don’t...” Ravil swallowed her words and blushed.

  Tasanee eyed her. “Don’t what?”

  Ravil covered her face. “I don’t want him to be with me just because it gives him a chance to fly!”

  Oro grinned. “Someone’s got a crush!”

  Tasanee shook Ravil. “Ooooh! Ravil likes Rake!”

  Ravil threw her hands off. “I do not like him like that! I already told you that’s not possible for my kind, he’s a Waster, not a Navigator.” She frowned, grumpy. “That’s a stupid idea and not worth contemplating.”

  Oro braided his hair. “It’s not possible for anyone to fly with you either and Rake did. Maybe we’re something that can get it on with you too.”

  Ravil looked at them. “If I had feelings for him I would hear the call. I do not hear a call!”

  “Yeah, but are the conditions right for that?” Oro looked her over. “Aren’t you feeling like you’re in danger so your sexual needs are suppressed. Huh, maybe?”

  Ravil blushed. “I don’t know about that.”

  Tasanee nodded. “Yeah. Maybe this is what Navigators feel during times of duress, hot and bothered but not overwhelmed with a desire to fuck. You said yourself that you haven’t spent any time around Navigators for a while. Or maybe Navigators can think other subspecies are sexy, they just can’t do the baby-making with them.”

  Ravil made a face. “We do not seek out others for sex. That just isn’t our way!”

  Oro grinned. “That sounds more like something you’ve been told, rather than it actually being true. Maybe you can only have kids with Navigators, but I’m pretty sure a dick is a dick and you can fuck whatever you want to.”

  Ravil glared at both of them. “Are you trying to instigate something? What about the ‘You’re only a kid, Ravil’.”

  Oro shrugged. “You said yourself that you don’t know how old you are.”

  Tasanee pointed. “Yeah and you have tits. You’re obviously ready for some action.”

  Ravil covered her chest with her arms. “It doesn’t matter anyway, Rake only likes males.”

  Oro and Tasanee burst out laughing.

  Ravil gaped.

  Oro blinked away tears. “I wish, oh what a dream come true! Who the hell told you that?”

  “But—he—” Ravil sputtered. “He—he sleeps with men for money.”

  Tasanee held her sides. “So? Kat does too and she likes chicks. Ravil, Rake has never fucked a dude fo
r fun. That’s hilarious! Shit! Gay Rake! Can you imagine that?”

  Oro smirked. “Hells yes I can.”

  Ravil jumped to her feet. “I don’t want to talk about this anymore!”

  Oro stood up. “Wait, sorry Ravil, we don’t mean to make fun that was just really cute.” He smiled. “Look, you can like Rake or you cannot like Rake, doesn’t matter to me. But this war thing, that’s serious business and he needs to know what he’s involved in.”

  Ravil looked at her feet. “I know.”

  Tasanee got up. “Is he on his way home?”

  Ravil nodded. “He is approaching at speeds faster than you can run. He will be at the house soon.”

  “Keto’s car.” Oro headed towards the exit of the workshop. “I’ll move mine.”

  Ravil called after him, “Why?”

  He looked back. “So that they think you’re gone. They still want you shipped off, remember?”

  Tasanee grabbed Ravil’s wrist. “We need a plan of attack.”

  “Attack?” Ravil looked between the two.

  Oro walked backwards towards the exit. “The party tonight, that shit is still on.”

  Tasanee grinned. “We keep her here for now.”

  Oro rubbed his hands together. “Get them together in the confusion.”

  Ravil frowned. “Why can’t we go back when he gets back?”

  Oro shook his head. “He could be drugged and unconscious for all you know. Besides Danny and Keto won’t let you get anywhere near him. No, we need to do this stealthy-like.”

  Tasanee threw her arm around Ravil’s shoulders. “We are going to disguise you and sneak you into the party.”

  Oro got a gleam in his eye. “Ravil, you can see him without the drugs, and then you’ll see what we mean. Rake is two things, a pilot…”

  “And a party animal.” Tasanee smiled.

  Oro pointed at Ravil. “And as for your age thing, we’ll puzzle that one out. We have hours to kill until nightfall.”

  ***

  Rake threw open the door to Danny’s house. “I have arrived!” He looked around. “Where’s everyone? I’m home, greet me!”