Human Starpilots

by F Stephan

  Master Reinkel nodded in agreement and moved toward his office. He took a few steps and turned again. “By the way, the son of Kilet took as long as the Earthmen to get over the injection. This seems high. Any idea why?”

  “Everyone is different. He is reacting fine now, but it took him a bit. The only person concerned here is his father, for the wrong reasons. You, as a teacher, should not be.” The doctor’s voice was clear and firm for once with an edge of annoyance.

  21 Mathias

  Mathias found the chapel in an old part of Certan after two hours of wandering in the street under the rain. This was the third religious institutions he had tried, and the first two had been disappointments. This one, owned by a cult called “The Rebirth” was built in dark-red clay brick, which placed it well before the Second Renaissance. From what Mathias had understood, it had been a sort of golden age half a millennia before. Its end had been bad and was close taboo on Adheek.

  The chapel centered on a single room with row of benches around a chair. Four wings encircled a small, deep court with an ornate water basin at the bottom. The architecture was simple, with floral motifs on the walls. The place would remain cool even in full summer. There were no statues, no usual signs of piety or religion. Mathias frowned. This was very sober, too much for him.

  He sat in the darkest part of the room, water dripping around him, listening. Adheek had boasted very strong religions in the past, and they had a few remaining religions. The cult, where he sat now, was a small and very old one, much in favor of pilots from what he had read. Some said this was the seed from which the Origin sect, the most powerful now in the Federation, had grown. Origin was a bad name at the Federation headquarters, and he had avoided this one very carefully. The constraints had come from Don Mariano when he had submitted his idea.

  He listened intently to the priest, Bretum Touril. The man was of medium build, with typical Adheeken complexion and dark curly hair that made him look younger than he truly was. He wore a simple one-piece garment with a bronze medallion around his neck. Mathias found he liked his preaching, with a ringing voice, music, and a true spiritual dimension.

  At the end of the ceremony, Mathias went to see him. He didn’t know how to address the man, but the other looked at him and smiled.

  “Welcome to our chapel. You are from off-world, aren’t you?”

  “Yes. I didn’t know the proper way to address you.”

  “You should call me Bretum. Rebirth used to have titles and hierarchy. But that was in other times. We have taken another path. What can I do for you? Do you want to join our group?”

  “No, Bretum.” Mathias was uneasy with the lack of formality. He had been brought up in a strict Orthodox Community. “I come from Earth. I work as assistant to the ambassador.”

  “The new planet found three years ago. Welcome. Fascinating planet. Fervent religions. This is going to help us all in this prosaic world.”

  “Our religions have led to many woes.”

  “Yes. Ours did also. A long time ago. But they bring also life, agitation, and the belief in superior force that drives us forward and help us overcome our difficulties.” The tone was simple yet powerful. “With all this fervor, why do you come here to this simple chapel?”

  “Can I inquire more on your beliefs?”

  “They are very simple. We face catastrophe after catastrophe, and always we survive. We are the ones who walk through the disaster. We are the ones who emerge after the hardship and continue the struggle onward. We believe in a deity who brings us forward through seemingly unbearable difficulties, and we are guides striving to find a path forward.”

  “Why would such a deity be so hard?”

  “Because the world is. We do not question the reasons. We analyze the facts.”

  Mathias reflected on this for a while before diving into his request.

  “We have students at the academy. This is our first year.”

  The priest abruptly paled. “It is this time. I should have known.”

  Mathias added quickly, “They all survived, but one will not go any further.”

  “Oh. This is good news. We have many pilots among our faithful. We can talk to them about this situation. I have faced it often.”

  “There is something else.” Mathias hesitated. The other sat and motioned Mathias to sit as well.

  “Three months ago, Tasha lost her father in an ecological disaster on Earth.”

  The priest looked at Mathias for a long moment before answering slowly. “Yes, I think this calls for a ceremony. I would be honored to help you all through this.”

  They spent the next hour organizing the details of the event. Bretum knew very well the workings of the academy and quickly provided solutions to questions Mathias hadn’t asked. Mathias relaxed a little. He would provide all the help he could with whatever his limited means allowed. They were his only hope of redemption.

  Later, he walked back to the business center to check how the negotiation between Don Mariano and the Hydroponics Syndicate was going. He would need to prepare their luggage since the syndicate had asked to meet in its main office in the Cape Ring town. But he would have a little time to finish this business before leaving.

  The ceremony occurred two days later, on Tenday. Everyone from Earth had come and a few other from the academy, Illoma, Shanak and the surprisingly quiet Sonter, had joined them. The priest, Bretum Touril, had found on his own through the DataDump different hymns from Earth and began with a prayer of thanks to the reunion of humanity under the star. The final prayer struck Brian, alien and yet home.

  “Being human among the stars is a challenge. It is a great and difficult challenge. We know our ancestors failed. We suspect they failed several time. And we are sure that each time they started again, many times from scratch. This is not an answer. This is a promise. You will rise again along new paths. You may not like them hard. They may be hard. But you will find a way.”

  When he finished, there were a lot of tears. The priest had prepared a small collation in an adjoining room and they all took a long time to talk, eat, and share after the ceremony. But when they went back home, some of the pain had been alleviated.

  22 Brian

  Brian had gone out for a quiet walk to enjoy the winter night on Adheek. It helped him cope with the exam preparation and the terrible pressure it exerted. The lights, the streets full of music, the birds and the tipol in the shades had become familiar over the months, and he always enjoyed the water running from the two rivers.

  The first part of this trip tonight had been good, and he had discovered a new shaded garden in the old city. It was a beauty, mixing holograms and true plants in an almost perfect blend. But then he had been caught by the cold hail, and now he ran back toward the academy. So, when he heard the voices, it was too late. He was just turning onto Guild Avenue when Sonter and his father exited the Telemite, a fashionable restaurant.

  “This is not enough, son, clearly not enough. I am expecting more, your whole family is expecting more, even the Guild Council is expecting more. You were too long out with the first injection, just like the students of that new planet, Earth. I was only one day out and your mother less than twenty hours. No one in the family has ever had such a low reaction.” The voice was vibrant, expectation mingled with scorn. “You need to be a lot stronger. I don’t want another failure in our family. I won’t allow it. My son, you are going to have to do better than this, or you will not belong to this family anymore. Is that clear?” Kilet’s voice was stern and loaded with scorn. “You will not just succeed in the next exams. You will leave everyone else so far behind they will understand who you are and from which family you come.”

  Sonter was looking down. Then he saw Brian on the street and darted a look of pure hatred at the other student. Brian quickly crossed the street and moved on. Luckily Kilet had not seen him. Their relationship had not improved when Emily decided to go out with him and Illoma chose Brian. But now, he could still feel the hate
ful gaze of Sonter on his back. Brian swore.

  When he arrived back at the academy, Brian hurried to Illoma’s room. She was at her desk working on a space navigation exercise.

  “Hello, love. Are you sure you want to come dripping in my room, or you want to grab a towel first?” She was laughing and shushed him, grabbing and throwing a towel at him. He took a minute to dry himself before telling her of his encounter.

  “So?” She moved to sit on her bed. “Brian, love, you are not dumb enough to think that only you of Earth have pressures to become a pilot?” Brian was taken aback by the sharpness of her retort. “Pilots have power. They connect worlds, and they can push to take or refuse cargoes, to move travelers across, and to upload or download specific data. They are few. They move everywhere, above anyone’s control. Any way to keep a pilot under control, any ties, any lever is fair game.”

  “But,” started Brian.

  “No ‘but.’ We won’t talk about it more tonight. Sometimes, your naivety is annoying. Grow up. There are politics involved here. Listen to all around you, talk to your ambassador and understand what is truly happening here in Adheek regarding the Guild. When you do, we will talk more. Talk to your friend Shanak. He has a better grasp than you have, for all his talk of honor. Now, back to your room, to a hot shower and to your exam preparation. You won’t pass if you won’t work.”

  “Couldn’t I…”

  “Stay? No. I need to work, and so do you. We will have time together when we are through. And when you grow up.” Brian had hit something. But what, he didn’t know. Yet, she was probably right. They were so focused on succeeding that they didn’t pay attention to anything else around them. He sighed. He had two essays to finalize and no time to loose on idle thoughts.

  23 Brian

  “How did it go?” Illoma had waited for Brian in the cafeteria, and her voice was grave. (“She knows,” he thought. But even without the connection that had grown between them, it wouldn’t be hard to guess from his face.)

  “Not good.” His tutor had been adamant. “According to Master Heikert, I’m not making enough progress. I can’t activate my nanites.” They were still learning to use them among their new theoretical courses for the semester and in space simulation. But he felt very uncomfortable with them. He sensed how they were taking over his body, and this sent him regularly into a panic. And the panic stopped his nanites every time.

  “Did he suggest an approach?”

  In the voice of his coach, Brian intoned, “Either you accept them and use them or you reject them and stop this course. But you cannot stay in the middle, and this is what you are doing.” Master Heikert was in charge of their nanites training.

  She didn’t smile at his imitation. “I told you you would have to make that choice. If you do not accept them, they will think you refuse them, and they will control the situation. You don’t want that.” She didn’t leave any openings for complaint.

  “Have you finished your work on hyperspace points?” she asked. Brian noticed her change of subject and had to answer.

  “I haven’t been there for the last two months. You know how the room awes me. First there was the injection and then the end of the semester and the exams. And then, we spent a week together during the winter break with you on the flying boat.” They had taken a large wooden structure using both a helium balloon and magnetic repulsion to drift slowly, pushed by the constant winds between Certan and Cape Ring along the coast and back to the central mountain chain. They had flown over the great rusty desert, the huge cliffs over the green sea, and the antique pyramids eroded by the wind, which stood guard over the last oasis.

  “Tomorrow, you should try it again. It may give you some respite from your tutor. Come, let’s join the others.” Relieved, he took her arm and they walked together to Detram and Myirt to join their friends.

  The next afternoon, Brian reverently approached the star chamber. The large sphere took most of the central tower, protected as usual behind heavy double doors. There were several openings to access different parts from bottom to top. He had been allowed into the section opening on the upper part of the sphere looking down into the void. From there, he would virtually plunge into the universe. After ten thousand years, the representation was still perfectly accurate, down to the smallest path of every asteroid. Researcher had tried to find inaccuracies but none had succeeded.

  Brian sat at the smooth desk. He touched it reverently. It felt like the cockpit of the simulator, smooth and cold. Yet it looked simply like hard wood with the command interface. A 3-D reader with Adheeken technology had been adapted to the side of the interface and allowed Brian to transcribe his research to his bracelet.

  Brian closed his eyes and found himself dropping into the stars. He changed the view, focusing and unfocusing at will on different systems and planets. He quickly found what he was looking for. The system of Adheek had four other planets, with a gas giant among them. They were all gathered along the ecliptic. There were also isolated rocks here and there. Around him in the hologram, he could see hyperspace entry points in different points in the system but for now he had found no real logic between them. They were all in weak gravitational areas, but not all eligible areas had one. And he could not find out how the Federation had found the right areas. He also didn’t understand how those points were linked together. There were indications on relationships between entry and exit, but he didn’t know how they were calculated. At least, it wasn’t direct paths but something more complex.

  This was so frustrating. He knew that, if the teacher had given him the job, there had to be a solution. But once again, after two fruitless hours, he abandoned his efforts to walk back to the cafeteria. If he was lucky, Illoma would still be there.

  24 Brian

  “We will try another approach,” said Master Heikert at the beginning of their work session. “Some of you face still issues activating and holding your nanites. We will all go down to the labyrinth in the basement. I have blocked the full day for this.” This was a room Brian didn’t know. But when Sonter turn pale, he shivered.

  They went down two floors under the main gymnasium. Again, they crossed the heavy double doors with empty security emplacement. At last, they reached a small metal landing with two simple doors, a row of seats, and a communication console. From the look of it, this was not of the ancient times but a recent addition.

  “This labyrinth is a tool that we found on Alkath and which produces surprisingly good results for some. We have reproduced as best as we could. You will enter one at a time. There will be no dangers this time in the labyrinth, except getting lost and being in utter darkness. But there are other signs to find the right and wrong turn. So you will need all your perceptions to find them and navigate the place. The one who tries before you will monitor your vitals through the console. If you are in physical or mental danger, he may ask me to come and get you.” Then he added in a cold voice, “when I decide you are truly in danger.”

  They drew lots to go into the labyrinth. Each of them had huge difficulties getting out and took fifteen to twenty minutes. In the meantime, Master Heikert had opened a classroom opposite the labyrinth and had them work on astrogation problems. Brian usually was at ease with them, but today the pending doom disturbed his concentration. Then, Troum from Nelom went into a fit, and Master Heikert ran to get her. It took him less than five minutes to get in and come back out with her. By that time, a nurse from the infirmary had run to them, probably through a hidden elevator, and was waiting to care for Troum. The pale girl lay trembling on the floor, her usually straight blue hair in complete disarray, her uniform completely soaked in sweat. The nurse stayed a good hour until the fits stopped and then took her away to the infirmary.

  After that, Brian couldn’t work anymore and stopped pretending. He saw the others go and come back, some quiet and serene, others shaking. Even the proud Shanak was unsure of himself when he came out. At last, Emily got out, shaken and trembling, and Brian prepared him
self. Emily handed him the monitoring headband and went to the console.

  As he walked through the round door, darkness surrounded him, strangling him. Nausea asphyxiated him. “Breathe,” said Emily in his ear. Brian took a controlled breath. When Emily monitored his vitals, Brian felt a sense of security he needed desperately. They had worked together for the last three years to reach Adheek. Illoma might get jealous, but right now, she remained an anchor for him, more than he would have thought.

  Closing his eyes, he remembered a line from the Flight Handbook. “In doubt, close your eyes and feel through your nanites the world around you. They are the light of the night. They are strength of the wind. They are the smell of the stars.”

  “Better. Your heart is back to normal. Now focus on all your senses. Allow your nanites to help you.” His sensations became suddenly sharper than ever before. He felt something click in his mind like a circuit closing. The nanites had meshed into his brains and were providing him with a capacity to use a larger part of his brain than usual. Every signal his body received was amplified a thousand times more than before.

  Slight wind from his left with a musty smell. He made a first step to the right, extending his senses to the floor. Metal and concrete. A resonance in the metal. Obstacle in front of him. A smell of freshness on the right. He followed his nose. Wood creaking, he took a step back and turned on himself. A new moist smell. Brian built a path in his head. Sound, smell, touch were increased tenfold and held. Darkness had activated his nanites, and when Brian opened his eyes, they remained with him.

  It took five minutes for Brian to exit the labyrinth. A quick look on the gloomy face of Sonter and the thumbs up from Emily told him he had succeeded. Emily, always the competitor, loved when she met real opponents, but Sonter could not allow anyone to beat him. This was ever driving an edge between the two of them in the last few weeks. Brian didn’t feel sorry for Sonter. Their relationship had continued to worsen, and he dreaded now to hear the nickname that would announce the arrival of his nemesis.