The Navigator Read Online Free Page B

what it is until I realize that we should be flying past the Spires of Elkin. But they’re gone. The structures that held a third of our city’s people have been obliterated.
    I go numb. I can’t look at it anymore. My focus shifts solely to the instruments in front of me.
    “It’s gone,” Zophie whispers. “Our planet. Our home.”
    Our trajectory has more of an arc to it than it should, and I pull on the flight yoke, desperately trying to keep the ship’s nose up. The sky is too dark, full of smoke from our burning city. But the ship presses on, and we punch through the haze. It’s only then that we can see the enemy warships. Jagged and gray. Countless in number. Firing on our planet. Smaller ships shuttle down to the surface. In the middle is a pearly sphere, floating like a dim moon that the other vehicles orbit.
    “How can this be happening?” Crayton asks.
    We shoot past the fleet; by some luck our course sentus through a hole in their formation. And then we’re jetting into the blackness of space. Despite the ship’s primitive nature, I have to admit it’s fast. At least on takeoff.
    And just like that—in the course of a few minutes—we’ve made it. We’ve left Lorien behind.
    I tap on the radar screens, trying to make sure no one’s following us, but I don’t see anything. Once I figure out how to set the artificial gravity and autopilot, I finally allow myself to breathe. Clayton bounces the baby in his arms and whispers shaky reassurances to her, but his eyes are wide and watery.
    “By the Elders . . . ,” Zophie mutters. She leans forward in her seat, staring out into space. “Where’s the other ship? Can you find it?”
    It takes a little while to navigate the controls, but eventually I figure out how to expand the radar’s search.
    “I’m getting a Loric signature from a ship that appears to have stopped some distance from the planet,” I say. “But it’s a weak signal. We’re so far away from it already.”
    “Turn back.” She starts to nod. “Head towards it. We’ll travel to Earth together.”
    After swiping through a few galaxy maps, I find Earth. Various figures start to populate the cockpit screens.
    “I don’t think we can.” I stare at the instrument panels in front of me, doing calculations in my head. “It’s too far away from us right now, and we barely have enough fuel to get to Earth as it is. We’re going to have to rely on momentum more than I would want to already. Unless you know of a fueling station somewhere between here and there. Besides, we were lucky to escape unharmed. Turning back around and getting close to those enemy ships again could be suicide.”
    “Then contact the other ship,” Zophie says, an edge to her voice. “They’ll be operating on an emergency channel. Or maybe the official Council channel. I’m not—”
    “We can’t,” I say.
    “What are you talking about?”
    “Those alien ships might intercept the transmission,” Crayton says. “What if they use it to follow us?”
    “We’re in a giant white rocket that just shot into the sky,” Zophie shouts. “We didn’t exactly make a subtle exit.”
    “We can’t ,” I say louder. The baby in Crayton’s arms wakes up. “We can’t contact them because this ship was refurbished to be an exact replica of the older models, meaning its communications systems were never upgraded. Their ship runs on a completely different comm system.”
    Zophie starts to say something but instead lets out a whimper. The baby begins to shriek. Crayton looksback and forth between us, confused.
    “So what does that mean?” he asks.
    I turn to one of the port windows. In the distance, Lorien burns. Our world is weeping fire and smoke and death, and for a moment memories flash through my head. Happier times long since passed—chasing my brother through lush green fields, laughing over home-cooked meals, the faces of people I haven’t thought of in years. It’s so overwhelming that I have to