Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105936 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 530(@200wpm)___ 424(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
No thank you.
I wasn’t going to tell anyone who I really was—my Synth implant should keep me safe as long as I was careful. I fully intended to stay undercover the whole time I was aboard The Illyrian.
But even though I knew I couldn’t reveal myself, I longed to be near my Fated Mate. That was the reason I had chosen The Illyrian over any other random ship. Also, I knew that Turk’s ship was headed for the Triplex Cluster—a trio of planets in the Wing Galaxy which was a place I knew well. At least in theory—I had visited it in the simulator many, many times and I had memorized the star maps.
And that was how I intended to get hired on board The Illyrian, even though nobody knew who I was. I had a skill—one that almost no one knew about.
I could navigate a star ship.
Not just galactic navigation—that’s nothing. You just use Space Gates, which are like man-made tunnels bored through the fabric of Space-Time to jump from place to place within the galaxy. That’s easy.
What’s really difficult is Cross-Dimensional Navigation—which is what you use when you’re traveling to other galaxies in the universe and there are no Space Gates to use.
Cross-Dimensional Navigation isn’t so much a skill as a talent you’re born with. I didn’t realize I had it until I took some piloting lessons along with Slade when I was younger. My father didn’t want to let me take the lessons, of course—he pointed out that as a Clan Princess, I would always have someone to fly me anywhere I wanted to go. But Slade stuck up for me.
“What harm can it do to let her try, Sire?” he’d said to our father. “She’s a female—she’ll get bored with it after a lesson or two.”
If that sounds horribly misogynistic, well it was—but on purpose. Slade has always known how to get my father to agree to things and he knew my Sire would let me go with him if he thought I was just being a silly girl who wanted to do everything her big brother did.
I didn’t take offense because I knew that wasn’t how Slade really felt about me. He’s always encouraged me to try and achieve whatever I want. And so it was, that I got to tag along with him to his piloting lessons.
I learned quickly—more quickly than Slade, even—which impressed and surprised the instructor. He told me later that he’d never had a faster pupil and asked me if I wanted to learn even more.
I came in on my own time, without Slade, to see what he was talking about. My near disaster at a club when I was younger made me cautious though—I brought a stinger-pen with me. It’s a tiny self-defense device that looked like a writing instrument but delivers a stinging shock that will make any attacker think twice before trying anything.
However my instructor, Grr. Horstauf, was a kind old man who, thank the Goddess of Four Faces, didn’t try anything. He was genuinely interested in my piloting ability.
“Here—try this on,” he said to me once we were in the flight simulator set up in his office. He handed me an adjustable silver circlet with various lights and sensors set in it.
“What is it?” I asked, taking the circlet from him and turning it over in my hands.
“A navigator’s helmet—sometimes called a ‘nav band,’” he told me. “Put it on and tell me what you see.”
I carefully placed the circlet on my head and Grr. Horstauf adjusted it so that the cool metal touched my temples. A moment later, a field of stars appeared in front of me.
“Oh!” I stared in surprise at the sparkling image. There was a huge swirl of stars and planets like an enormous, shiny disk spinning right before my eyes. “It looks like a galaxy,” I said to Grr. Horstauf.
“It is—our galaxy. The Imperium galaxy is vast—two-hundred thousand light years across,” he told me. “You’re looking at the macro view. I want you to concentrate and try to bring it closer in. Narrow your field of view and play close attention to the Star Gates—they’ll appear as burning blue spots surrounded by a golden halo.”
I did as he said, though I couldn’t tell you exactly how I did it. It was easy though—I just told myself I wanted to see a more close up view of a certain part of the galaxy and the view automatically narrowed. Soon I was staring at one of our local Space Gates—I recognized it by the structures around it.
“Okay—got it,” I told my instructor.
Grr. Horstauf frowned.
“Already?”
“See for yourself. Er—can you?” I asked.
He nodded and plucked the nav helmet from my head and put it on his own.
“Why, that’s our closest Space Gate!” he said. He sounded surprised.