The Navigator Read Online Free Page A

I’m more concerned that the refurbished ship holds together through liftoff at all. Besides, if we get to a point where a space suit is the only thing keeping us alive, we’re probably dead already.
    The ship is housed inside a cavernous domed exhibit, alone in the center of the stone floor. Zophie and I enter the room first, followed by the herd of Chimærae and finally Crayton, who drags Raylan’s supplies on the floating lift. All three of us start shouting orders at the same time, trying to figure out what to do. Caught up in the madness and fear of what’s happening. I slip into a hyperproductive stupor, opening the ship’s main loading hatch and grabbing the firstof many boxes. Interactive panels line the walls of the room detailing the primitive nature of old vessels like ours. How inefficient and poisonous fossil fuel was before we switched to synthetics and then eventually the power crystals we use now. Zophie taps on one of the displays a few times, and it slides away, revealing a fuel pump. She plugs it into the ship and then joins Crayton and me as we load supplies as fast as we can.
    “Can’t these damned Chimærae help at all?” I ask.
    “Feel free to ask them,” Crayton says. “Not that they’ll understand you. Besides, they’re scared.”
    “ I’m scared,” Zophie says, her breath heaving as she somehow manages to lift a box that must weigh as much as she does up to me inside the ship. “I’ve never wished I had telekinesis more than I do right now.”
    When the supplies are taken care of, the Chimærae flood in, shrinking into smaller animals. They flank the sides of the cargo hold as I rush down the narrow hallway that leads to the cockpit, past the small private rooms, galley and common area. In the pilot’s seat, I pause for a few moments as I try to recall the countless hours I’d spent inside this ship, helping to repair its systems—but I’ve crammed a lot of information into my brain since then. I think back to all the old guides and books I’d read and simulations I’d programmed; my fingers start pressing buttons and flipping switches. By some miracle I manage to get the ship powered on.
    “We’re ready,” Zophie says as she appears beside me, taking a seat in the copilot’s chair and buckling herself in. Crayton drops into a seat behind her, the swaddling backpack spun around so that the baby is in front of him.
    “Everybody hold on.” I press a few more buttons.
    The loading door closes, and the ship tilts up, pushing us back in our seats. From the cockpit, we stare at the roof of the domed room, which is only a foot away from the nose of the ship.
    “I’m guessing this thing’s not retractable,” I say.
    Zophie shakes her head. She reaches out a hand and grasps my upper arm. A bead of sweat runs from my forehead down the side of my nose, stinging my eye.
    “I guess we’re about to find out how good a job we did of refurbishing this thing.”
    Zophie squeezes my arm. “Let’s do this.”
    I flip a switch, and it feels like I’ve just detonated a bomb. Fire fills the room. The craft shakes so hard that I’m sure it’s going to fall apart, ending our journey before it ever begins. But it doesn’t, miraculously. Instead, we punch through the ceiling. The thick glass of the dome shatters, exploding out into the red night sky, glittering as it catches the light from the flames around us.
    We’re up in the air.
    The cockpit offers a sweeping view of Capital City, and even though I’m focused on the control panels andonboard monitors, I can see how widespread the damage to Lorien is. Fire and smoke fill the horizon. On our right, a beam of purple light shoots down from the sky beyond the outskirts of the city. I don’t know if it’s a Herald or something far more ominous. From the air, many parts of the city are unrecognizable, smoldering scars where vibrant neighborhoods once stood. There’s something strange about the skyline too, but I don’t figure out