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)
I watched the viewscreen which was momentarily blank. Then it was covered again with the same star map showing all the worm holes between the Imperium Galaxy and the Triplex Cluster as smears of color.
But the boy must have seen more than just smears. In only a matter of seconds, glowing gold jump lines began to appear. I watched in astonishment as he mapped out a route in under a minute! And there were, as he had promised, only five jumps—not seven—which would save on fuel considerably. Jumping through worm holes always drains a ship’s reserves.
As soon as he was finished, the boy took off the nav band and looked at me.
“Done, Captain. Please have the Verifier check my route,” he announced.
“Agatha? Check it,” I said to the AI.
“At once, Captain.”
The verification of the route took longer than it had taken the boy to plot it in the first place. But soon Agatha announced,
“Route passed verification. Rating from one to five—five stars. This is a perfect route.”
“What?” Gurflug bellowed, making me wince. “But that’s impossible!”
“I don’t think you know the meaning of the word,” the boy said coolly. He looked at me. “So? Do I get the job?”
“Hang on—let’s just test a few more routes,” I said. Frankly I was so surprised I was just playing for time. I’d never heard the Verifier call any path through the stars a “perfect route” before. I thought it must be a fluke—a lucky guess on the boy’s part.
“All right,” he said calmly. “Test me. Where else would you like to go?”
“Plot a course from The Triplex Cluster to the Neverending Galaxy,” I said, off the top of my head. “It’s shaped like a—”
“I know what it’s shaped like. I have most of the star maps for the known universe memorized,” was the boy’s astonishing reply. “Let me concentrate.”
He closed his eyes and the maps on the viewscreen changed. A moment later golden jump lines were being drawn.
I was used to watching a navigator draw the lines mentally–it always looked like an invisible pen slowly and laboriously tracing one line at a time. With this boy, it was different. The lines popped up like magic, going from one wormhole to the next so fast I could barely keep track.
“Merciful Amok,” I heard Yorrin breathe and though I didn’t worship his deity, I had to agree with the sentiment. I had never seen anything like this in all my years of captaining.
Again, in less than a minute, the boy was done. And when the Verifier report came back, it was declared, “Five out of five stars. A perfect route,” once more.
Yorrin and I stared at each other and then he said,
“What about to individual planets? Can you get us from Undon in the Triplex Cluster to Hundoi Six?”
“Give me just a minute,” the boy mumbled and then he was off again, plotting at an impossibly quick pace, making the golden lines pop up on the viewscreen like magic.
Once again—a perfect route and five stars out of five. The boy really was a prodigy—I was ready to hire him on the spot! I opened my mouth to say so, but Yorrin put a three-fingered hand on my arm and shook his head.
“Captain,” he murmured. “A word, please?”
“Of course.” I nodded. Of all my crew, Yorrin had been with me the longest—I trusted his opinion.
We left the bridge and went to my Ready Room—the small lounge that served as the barrier between the bridge and my private quarters. There was a desk on one wall and two chairs sitting across from it. I often used it for interviews and one-on-one talks with crewmembers who had complaints or were fighting.
I also used it for the rare but sometimes necessary punishment sessions. Which was why there was a whipping cross and a pain whip hung on the far wall. I’ll flog an unruly crewmember from time to time, though I take no pleasure in it. I run a tight ship—I can’t afford not to, given the extremely dangerous missions the Illyrian takes on a daily basis.
I sat behind the desk and gestured Yorrin to one of the chairs across from me.
“Speak your piece,” I told him. “I’m about to hire this boy—tell me why I shouldn’t.”
“Oh, you should—you should, Captain.” Yorrin nodded in his slow, earnest way. “But he shouldn’t be the only navigator you hire.”
“What? You want me to hire both of them?” I frowned. “I don’t know if the budget will stand it.”
“You’ll have to stretch it then—you need them both,” he said grimly.
I steepled my fingers on my desk.
“Explain.”
“The men won’t tolerate an inexperienced boy as their ship’s navvie,” Yorrin said simply. “We’re putting our lives in his hands. It doesn’t matter what miracles he can work with the simulation program, I doubt he’s ever even been off Rigelis Nine. The men will know that and they won’t like it—especially Frux.”