Navigating the Stars

by Maria V. Snyder

  We reach a set of metal steps that spiral upwards.

  “Steps?” I ask as I follow Radcliff. “Why not an elevator?”

  “Would you want the captain of the ship to be unable to reach the bridge if the power goes out during an emergency?” he asks.

  “No.”

  “Plus they’re easier to defend.”

  “Ah.”

  The steps empty into a landing. Two armed officers stand to each side. We cross into a large half-moon shaped room. The lights are dim. A handful of people work at terminals along the back wall that bookends the entrance. There’s a giant screen covering the entire front curved wall. It shows… Pulled by an invisible force, I step closer. That’s not a screen.

  The Big Fat Frog doesn’t have windows—or so I thought—for safety reasons, yet the blackness on the other side is alive. Points of light burst and swirls of yellow streak and reddish orange globs glow. I’ve seen pictures of the Milky Way Galaxy before, but they are a child’s crude sketch in comparison to this… awesomeness.

  “Beautiful, isn’t it?” a male voice asks next to me.

  I jump a meter.

  “Sorry,” he says then holds out his hand. “Captain Abraham Harrison.”

  I gape. He’s exactly what an Interstellar space ship captain should look like. Tall, muscular, with just enough gray in his short brown hair to instill confidence, but not enough to worry he’d have a heart attack enroute to the next planet. Intelligence and competence fog the air around him and I realize I’m staring and my insides turn to liquid as I clasp his extended hand with my own cold fingers. “Lyra Daniels.” I suppress a wince at the slight squeak in my voice. We shake and he releases my hand. It tingles.

  “Welcome to my bridge, Miss Daniels. Thank you for being willing to help us. We’re all worried about the people on Xinji as I’m sure you are as well.”

  Unable to trust my voice, I nod importantly—seems to be my go-to response when I’m overwhelmed and surrounded by adults.

  The captain switches his attention to Officer Radcliff. I almost sway with relief.

  “Tace, make sure she has everything she needs,” Captain Harrison says.

  “Yes, sir.” Radcliff sweeps an arm out, indicating the far left corner. “This way, Miss Daniels.”

  Oh, so it’s Miss Daniels now. I flash a grateful smile at the captain and just about faint when he grins back. He puts Diamond Rockler to shame.

  We approach a dark-haired man who is sitting at a terminal. His back is to us.

  Radcliff taps him on the shoulder. “I’m back.”

  Without turning around, the man says, “There’s a glitch in camera two-oh-seven. Do you want me to check it out?”

  Recognizing the voice, I suck in a breath. Niall.

  “Yes,” Radcliff says.

  Niall stands in one fluid motion, relinquishing the seat as he removes his tangs. He steps back and freezes when he spots me. “What is she doing here?” he asks with a hint of surprise in his voice.

  Nice acting job. Niall knows exactly what I’m doing here. I glare at him.

  “Miss Daniels is helping me. Go check on two-oh-seven.”

  Niall stiffens. “Yes, Dad.” He brushes past me without another word.

  Dad? I figured they were related, but Radcliff being Niall’s father seems like a betrayal. I know, weird right? Although it figures. Like father like son.

  Radcliff inserts his tangs and accesses DES’s database. “Now what?”

  “Your way didn’t work, remember? Let me sit down,” I instruct.

  He faces me. “I’d rather you tell me what to do.”

  “It won’t work that way. It’s…” I search for the right word. “Instinctual.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  I shrug. “It’s called worming for a reason. I find the small gaps in the Q-net by…feel. I’m like a blind earthworm in the dirt, and I just have to squirm my way through it without creating ripples so you don’t know I’m there.”

  He opens then closes his mouth. “Squirm?”

  “Yeah. There’s so many layers that it’s a tight fit to go from one to the other.”

  Radcliff sighs, but relinquishes his seat. I insert my entanglers. Wow, this terminal is like diving into the deep end of the pool.

  “Can I trail you?” he asks.

  “No. It’s going to be tough enough for me to get through.” As far as the Q-net goes, I’m spelunking in mostly unknown territory.

  “Then keep the screen on.”

  I do as requested. Radcliff remains behind me as I worm into DES’s files. It takes a fraction of the time compared to using the rec room’s game system. After ten minutes, I find the cluster where the files should be. The gaps in data stand out like missing teeth. There’s an…echo of them and, if I can follow that echo, I’ll locate the files.

  Except it’s a strange echo. The tone is wrong. Foreign. The person who moved the files entered the Q-net from…well, I don’t even know. He or she is good. Very good. And when I hunt down the files’ new cluster, there’s nothing there but a clean sheen, which means they’ve been deleted. I drum my fingernails on the armrest. Nothing is ever really deleted in the Q-net. And there’s a…residue, but it’s beyond my abilities to translate. I try a few tricks I’d learned. Nothing.

  “Well?” Radcliff asks.

  I explain.

  “Do you know who deleted the files?”

  “No.”

  “Can you speculate?”

  In other words, can I rat out my cohorts? While I’m flattered he thinks I’m a member of one of the nefarious worming gangs, I’m just a dabbler. All my knowledge came from Jarren and his from Warrick. Thinking about them triggers a memory. When Jarren taught me that deleting just re-positioned files, he mentioned that a few people know how to bury the files deep, leaving only a residue, but I can’t recall his actual instructions.

  “Miss Daniels?”

  “No. The identity of the person is beyond my skills, but there still might be a way to get those files.”

  “How?”

  “I have a friend who might be able to help if he’s not in transit to another planet.” And if he even remembers me or wants to talk to me.

  “I guess that will have to do.” Radcliff moves to my side. “I’ll locate him for you.”

  “No need.” This terminal is rated at such a high level, I’m able to pinpoint his location without having to worm. Jarren is still on Planet Suzhou and he’s thirty-seven A-years old. I send him a text message through the Q-net. It’ll still take time—there’s relays and space-time frequencies involved, but that’s not my area of expertise. I’m just glad “real time” communications are possible. The bigger question mark is if he replies.

  “I’ll let you know if I hear from him.” I stand up.

  Radcliff grumbles. “See that you do.” He tilts his head toward the stairway. “I’m sure you can find your own way out.”

  I can. Does that mean he trusts me?

  “Don’t worry if you get lost, Miss Daniels. I always know when someone is where they shouldn’t be and will send one of my officers to rescue you.”

  And that would be a no on the trust thing. As he settles in his seat, I wonder if he realizes that he has just issued me a challenge to infiltrate those restricted areas without getting caught. The cameras and sensors that are installed throughout the ship are far easier to worm into than bypassing DES’s security.

  I grin at the back of his head. Challenge accepted.

  Crossing the bridge, the Galaxy once again captures my attention. I slow to a stop as I marvel.

  “This is why we don’t have windows anywhere except here. No one would get any work done,” Captain Harrison says in a joking tone.

  “Really?” I ask even though I’m half-distracted and unable to tear my gaze away.

  “No. All the bridge officers eventually get used to it. Safety is the real reason Interstellar Class ships don’t have windows.” He sweeps a hand out. “Ther
e’s lots of bits floating around in the universe and when you’re traveling as fast as we are, those small pieces become lethal projectiles when a ship hits them at speed. Our titanium hull can withstand the impacts, unlike glass.”

  “But your window…”

  “Not glass. Transparent lonsdaleite.”

  “Lonsdaleite?”

  “It’s a hexagonal diamond and fifty-eight percent harder than a regular diamond. Expensive, but it won’t crack.”

  Interesting. I turn to him. “Why do you even have a window on the bridge? You don’t need it to navigate.”

  “No we don’t.” His blue eyes spark with humor. Captain Harrison leans closer and lowers his voice. “The DES’s recruiters tell everyone if they join the fleet, they’ll see the universe. If that wasn’t here, I’d have a mutiny on my hands.”

  A few of his crew huff in amusement and I’m smart enough not to believe him.

  “There’s also a powerful magnifier in the lonsdaleite. What you see there is thousands of light years away.” He straightens. “Were you successful, Miss Daniels?”

  I explain about the files being deleted.

  “That’s more than we had a few hours ago.” He studies me and I resist the urge to squirm. “Have you ever thought about becoming an interstellar navigator?”

  Caught off guard, I blurt, “No. Why?”

  “Navigators have to be experts in accessing and manipulating the Q-net. According to Officer Radcliff, you have an impressive skill in this area already.”

  “I…I never considered it.”

  “How about a bribe?”

  What? Who is this guy?

  He laughs at my expression. “If you’d like to learn more about what it’s like to be a navigator, I’ll introduce you to our chief who will arrange what we call short-term internships for teens who have potential. There are more and more Interstellar Class ships being built, but finding crew is getting harder and harder. We already recruited Tace’s son Niall. He’s been a ship rat all his life and he’s going into security.”

  “No surprise,” I mumble.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Ah… How long would the internship be? My parents—”

  “Yours would only be for the rest of the trip to Yulin—sixty days or so for a couple hours a day.”

  “Is the bribe about not having to go to soch-time? In that case, sign me up.”

  “Sorry, no. The bribe is you can come up here and stare out that window whenever you want as long as you stay out of the way.”

  Wow. That is a heck of a bribe. “I’ll think about it.”

  “Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

  “Of course.”

  He strides over to one of his officers. I’m surprised he even took the time to talk to me. I gaze out the window one more time, drinking it in before I leave. How could anyone get used to that view? I’ve no memory of my trip back to our quarters. My thoughts swirl with all I learned. Why would someone delete those files? Me a navigator? Would Jarren reply? What happened to Xinji? A navigator?

  When I enter our quarters, my mother is at the terminal, but she stops working.

  “Where’s Dad?” I ask.

  “In a meeting with the chemists. How was the bridge?”

  I’m impressed. She showed considerable restraint by not pouncing right away over the files. Then I gush over the view, the captain, the view and the captain again. Hey, I’m seventeen A-years old, I’m allowed. Her loving amusement fades when I mention the internship with the navigator.

  Instead, a whole gamut of emotions flit over her face before she settles on a careful curiosity. “And what did you tell Captain Harrison?”

  “That I’ll think about it.”

  She winds a strand of hair around her fingers. “It’s a wonderful opportunity. Are you interested in being a navigator?”

  “I don’t know enough about it. But I’m willing to find out just for access to that view. Have you ever seen it?”

  “I did when we traveled from Earth to our first assignment on Taishan. The crew used to allow the passengers to take tours of the bridge during non-critical times.”

  I wait, but she doesn’t elaborate. “What happened to make them stop?”

  “It was a security thing. Not everyone can handle the realities of the time dilation. And now people are given a full psyche eval to see if they’re cut out for space travel.” Mom pulls me into a hug. “Whatever you decide to do, we’ll support you, Lyra.”

  I squeeze her back and she releases me. “Thanks.”

  “Just be aware that flight crews leave all their friends and family who are not on board their ship far in the past. We’ll never see you again.”

  Ah, yeah. There’s that. “I’m still going to Yulin with you. And if I do the internship, it will keep me busy and out of trouble.”

  Mom cocks her hips and crosses her arms into a familiar posture. “Why do I not believe that?”

  “It’s called denial, Mom. Once you embrace the concept, you can believe anything.”

  She laughs her light trill that resonates with me like I’ve been wrapped in a warm blanket. It’s a sound I’ve only heard a few times since Phoenix left.

  “Did you find those files?” she finally asks.

  “Sort of.” I explain.

  “Let’s hope Jarren comes through. In the meantime…”

  I’m already heading to my room. “Yeah, yeah. The supply list isn’t going to organize itself.” I stop with my hand on the door handle. Why can’t the list organize itself? From what I’ve just seen, the Q-net should be able to do it. I turn around. My mother has returned to work. Did she assign me busy work, or does she not know? I’d have to ask her after I complete the task so she can’t accuse me of using delay tactics, which I might have tried a few times in the past. Without success. But this time, I’m looking forward to the chore.

  Of course my terminal is useless for what I want to do. I need deeper access, like through the forgotten terminal that’s tucked away, but Officer Tace Radcliff would swoop down on me even though what I’m doing isn’t illegal…or, at least I don’t think it is. The urge to take a chance pulses in my veins. I could worm straight for the cameras and erase my passage to the terminal and then… But what if I’m caught? The captain would rescind his offer and I might end up in the brig after all.

  Better not risk it. I guess I’ll use the game terminal in the rec room. Huh. First time that I’m looking forward to soch-time.

  The next day, I’m five minutes early for soch-time—a personal record. I even arrive before Niall and I briefly consider taking his seat. Normally, I would do it in a heartbeat just to bug him, but not today.

  I hurry to access the Q-net and transfer the supply list from my terminal. Now what? Worming into an empty cluster that’s deeper than the surface programs that do the basic plug and chug type work that everyone has access to, I drag the list down with me. Now what? I think reorganize and the cluster rips it into a million bits, but they don’t go far, they fog around, filling the cluster. I concentrate on kitchen. Movement as lines of text form. Row after row of kitchen items. Woo hoo! Next is construction and the nails list with the hammers and screws. The laboratory equipment column goes on for quite a while. And then I no longer have to do any prompting as the Q-net “gets it” and takes over, putting the proper items in the right groups. In a heartbeat, it’s done. Wow.

  I save it to my personal cache then pull up Lan’s research data file and spend the next hour developing a headache as I try to understand what those symbols mean besides the fact they’re similar to the ones on my octagon.

  “You can’t disrupt soch-time,” the babysitter’s shrill voice cuts through my concentration. “It’s illegal.”

  “I’ve permission from the captain,” Officer Radcliff says.

  Both are dangerously close. I quickly enlarge the game to cover the entire screen before I turn my head.

  Officer Radcliff is standing by Niall’s chair, ignoring the babysi
tter’s flutterings. His gaze is on Niall’s sketchbook—now closed on his lap. Radcliff’s expression is ugly.

  “Is this what you do with your soch-time?” Radcliff asks his son.

  Niall doesn’t say a word. He’s still and holding his pencil with a death grip as if his father has aimed a weapon at him.

  “You’re supposed to be socializing.” Radcliff’s anger is clear.

  “They are,” Babysitter says. “They play games all…” She trails off when Radcliff turns his glower on her.

  I use the opportunity to add another character to the game. Then I make a quick decision that I’ll probably regret later.

  “Officer Radcliff,” I say, standing up.

  “What?” he practically growls.

  “Can you settle a dispute for us?” I ask.

  His posture radiates suspicion, but he nods.

  “Niall’s sketching out the map of the dungeon under King Toad’s fortress, and I think that’s cheating. That the intention of the game is for us to be able to learn how to navigate the labyrinth as we go. Like with trial and error versus mapping it out. What do you think?”

  “I…er…think that if you have a map, you should use it. Why risk running into trouble or a dead end—which would be bad if you’re being chased—if you don’t have to?”

  “That’s what I told her,” Niall says, catching on quick. “We can save our lives for the final battle against Queen Mouse.”

  Niall’s sketchbook is now open to the page that looks like a map, although I’ve no idea what it really is—I’m just glad I remembered seeing him work on it. I snatch it up so his father can’t get a closer look. “Okay, okay, you made your point. I’ll use your stupid map.” Grumbling, I return to my chair.

  “No more games today, Miss Daniels,” Radcliff says.

  My heart plunges to my stomach. Did he suspect? I wait.

  “Your presence is required on the bridge.”

  Relief courses through me until I remember Niall’s comment about the brig.

  “Now?” the babysitter asks. “It’s highly unusual and there’s fifty minutes left.”

  Does soch-time trump captain’s orders?