Page 11 of Savage Union

“Not many have—it’s quite an experience, I can tell you. But it’s very important when you navigate between wormholes that you watch out for dangerous cosmic phenomena along the way. For instance, you don’t want to take a worm hole that spits you out in the vicinity of a quasar or directly in the event horizon of a black hole, right?”

“Your ship would be torn to shreds,” I said, seeing what he meant. “Or else everyone aboard would get massive, lethal doses of radiation.”

“Exactly, my dear. So now I want you to expand your vision—make our own galaxy smaller and look for worm holes. Each one has a unique color that corresponds to the exit of that same hole. The entrance—the side closer to us— will be brighter. Plot me a course to the Terebethian Galaxy—it’s shaped like a disk and it has a red center—and watch out for any dangerous exits,” he told me.

I expanded the map the nav helmet allowed me to see and soon I saw multiple glowing lights littered all over the cosmic field. As Grr. Horstauf had told me, each worm hole had an exit which was the same color but a bit dimmer than the entrance.

Soon I saw the galaxy he wanted me to plot a course to. I chose the worm holes I would use carefully, avoiding a black hole—which was tricky to see—and a neutron star which was sitting outside the exit of one of the worm holes. Even though it was no bigger than a small moon, it would have grabbed any ship that came too close in its massive gravity field and crushed it like an empty drink can.

I drew the lines with my mind and they hovered on the map, showing the rout I had plotted. As soon as I was finished, I plucked the nav band off my head and handed it to my teacher.

Grr. Horstauf studied my route and nodded.

“Amazing!” I heard him mutter. “Not a single blind spot.”

“Blind spot?” I asked, frowning.

He took off the band and turned to me.

“Many—well,mostnavigators—have what we call ‘blind spots.’ That is, they have a difficult time seeing some of the dangers lurking at the exits of the various worm holes. That neutron star you avoided gets almost every Cross-Dimensional Nav student I’ve ever taught—their brain just doesn’t see it. Theymust be trained through hours of laborious study to catch sight of the danger. But you—you saw it right away.”

“It was obvious.” I shrugged. “Can I try again with something harder this time?”

But though it felt easy and natural to me, it turned out that I had a rare talent. A Cross-Dimensional Navigator with no blind spots was so unique my instructor told me he’d only ever heard of one before, somewhere in the Third Quadrant.

He was so excited about my abilities—even though both of us knew I’d never get to use them—that he had me practicing over and over. I memorized hundreds of star charts and galaxy maps and learned all the inter-galactic markers to look for. I was a prodigy—though of course it didn’t do me any good.

I was proud of my unique talent of course, but I had to keep it a secret, even from Slade and especially from our Sire. My father wouldn’t have liked it if he knew what I could do. It wasn’t proper for a Clan Princess to learn a trade—not even a purely mental one like Cross-Dimensional Navigation. So nobody knew I was able to navigate all around the known universe except me and my instructor. And of course, I had never expected to use my skill.

Until now.

Now I was going to use my talent to get the hell away from the Imperium Galaxy and the odious Grr. Malofice who Lyrah wanted me to marry. And luckily, I just happened to know of a ship that was leaving the galaxy for an extra-galactic trip—one that needed a new navigator.

The Illyrian—Turk’s ship.

I knew they needed a new navigator because I’d heard Turk telling my brother how his whole crew had nearly been killed by a brown dwarf star due to navigational errors made by his old navvie.

I intended to be the new one.

I checked the departure boards at the next intersection and saw The Illyrian was docked in Berth Alpha-Quadrex 17. I headed there, hoping I would be just in time to “introduce” myself and audition for the open navvie position.

I was determined to get aboard the Illyrian, no matter what I had to do.

6

TURK

Iwas looking through the crowd, wondering where the navigator I was supposed to meet was, when he finally showed.

“Captain Turk?” I heard a deep, burbling voice say.

I turned and saw a perfectly enormous Galafruxian standing there. He had green skin and greasy brown hair that hung around his ears, which poked out as small convex pods from the sides of his head. His purple eyes bulged and his teeth were brown—probably from eatingSherplaroot, which the Galafruxians claim helps them see into the nothingness of space and avoid blind spots when they navigated.

I didn’t much care for the look of him—or his smell, which was rank and rotten, like fish left out in the sun. But Galafruxians were known to be the best Cross-Dimensional Navigators in the galaxy. I was willing to put up with a hell of a lot to not get killed during the jumps The Illyrian would have to make traveling back and forth across the Triplex Cluster.

“I’m Turk,” I said, holding out a hand to him before I remembered—to my deep regret—how Galafruxians greet strangers.

He spat in his hand—a brown, gooey mess—and clasped my fingers, squeezing tight until the brown phlegm oozed all over my palm.

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