The Navigator 2: We the People Page 5

  "Sir, a moment if you will. The Major pointed something out to me a few minutes ago; something that we overlooked in our threat assessments of hyperspace exposure for our cargo pilots and those repeatedly exposed to hyperspace. I've already got my team back on BC IV working on this, but until we can prove either way that those pilots are safe, I would strongly recommend a twelve-hour minimum layover at each end of a jump. I know that's going to play hell with your cargo schedule, but the sanity and health of our pilots is at stake here."

  "Doctor, if you say it's needed, I'll make it happen. You're right, this is going to hurt us in getting cargo moved. The Council will want a full explanation for this policy change. Are you prepared for that?" Hawklings asked surprised at the sudden change.

  "I can only give them and you a verbal report for now, Sir. I can also gather some hard data pretty quickly from here. None of us stopped to realize that our cargo pilots spend more time exposed to hyperspace than even a Navigator does. Granted, there is far less distortion involved, but there is always some distortion in every hyper-jump. The possibility exist that this is the reason our pilots are dying," Symms replied.

  "Whoa, what?" Becka asked. "Our pilots are dying?"

  Hawklings nodded. "Yes, they are. Their minds go first, when we take them out of service to get them help, their health deteriorates pretty quickly after that. Until now, we've been at a loss as to the reasons. It's the main reason for the six-month psych reviews for all pilots." He paused. "Okay, get what data you can, Lenard. We'll brief the Council tomorrow." He turned to Shana.

  "Captain Darryl, effective immediately, you are permanently reassigned to the Navigators as a pilot. You are exempted from exploration duty and charged with the sole responsibility of providing transportation for the Citadel leadership. This promotion includes an advancement in rank to Senior Pilot. I have already put in the request with the Canadian Air Force for your official promotion to the rank of Major," Hawklings explained.

  "I understand, Sir, thank you," Shana replied grinning.

  Hawklings smiled back at her. "The jobs not all roses, Shana; there's a reason we picked you for this. Also effective immediately is the increase in your security clearance. There is a better than average chance you will hear or see things that are classified. The information about your fellow pilots is one such example."

  Shana's grin faded and she nodded. "I understand, Sir, I even understand the need for classifying it."

  Hawklings nodded. "Good, now, before we get to the heart of what I need to talk to you all about, does anyone want a drink or maybe a snack?"

  As he rose to get the coffee, Hawkling's aide beeped his intercom. "Please excuse the interruption Admiral, but Doctor Ortegon is out here and he's very excited about something. He says it won't take long and it's very important."

  Hawklings sighed. "Okay, let him in."

  The doctor entered the office and smiled at the Admiral. "I am very sorry for the brief interruption, Admiral. However, this is important."

  "What can we do for you Haviar?" Hawklings asked, grinning at the man's exuberance.

  The broadly smiling doctor winked at the Admiral and turned to the table. He walked up to Becka, bent and kissed her cheek. He then pinned a small pink ribbon to her lapel. "Congratulations, Navigator." He then moved over and shook Joe's hand. "Congratulations, Major."

  He turned back to the Admiral. "I thought it best to notify them as soon as possible."

  "But…" Joe said "How can you know this quickly?"

  "The nano's, Major. They reported her condition as soon as they contacted the station computers," Haviar replied. He again turned to a stunned looking Becka. "Please come by the medical center before you depart the station so we can do a full work-up and program for the next nine months. After the child is born, we will make adjustments as necessary."

  "Uh, yeah, I'll stop by before we go anywhere, Doctor," Becka said as tears began to form in her eyes and she began to smile. She looked at Joe, hopefully.

  Joe smiled and winked at her.

  "Now that I have performed that happy duty, I will leave you. Thank you for allowing me to do this, Admiral," Haviar replied as he made his way to the door.

  Hawklings shook his hand. "Thank you for coming up here to tell us in person, Havier."

  As the man left, congratulations were given to the two now expecting parents. The rest of the group got drinks as well and they settled down again at the table.

  "This happy news is a good lead-in to one of the things I need to discuss with you," Hawklings began. "With the Citadel gone, we have several dozen homeless Navigators. Do you have any ideas what to do about that, Major?"

  "As a matter of fact I do, Sir," Joe replied. "I would like to see a new facility built for us. This time on a planet or moon. I had BC IV's green moon in mind for it, but it doesn't have to be there. We could just as easily build it on BC IV, like in the place where Becka and I went to get used to my new toys. That's far from any habitation, the land is arid and desert-like which is poor for farming and ranching and unlikely to be needed for anything else. We could build a community for the gifted to live and raise our children while still controlling interaction with the outside world," Joe began.

  "If you remember the discussion we had about preparing for the emergence of other gifts and abilities in the gifted, this would be a part of that preparation. With the development of Dr. Symm's new shielding, we should be able to limit the noise and distortion from practicing Navigators while still allowing the study and understanding of these new abilities in a controlled environment that is still as close to normal as we can get." He paused. "Which reminds me, The Citadel was a small station and there were no children there. Where are they?"

  "There is a special community on planet that raises them as foster children. The mothers are free to visit as time and duties allow. It's not the ideal situation, but it's as close as we can get for the time being," Hawklings replied.

  "I think I might have a better idea," Joe replied. "We include the foster families as part of the community; it'll give us more time with our children and should improve the morale of the Navigators as well. I know it would mean a great deal to me."

  "I'll accept any and all suggestions, Major, you should know that by now!" Hawklings said grinning.

  "Another consideration would have to be security," Joe explained. "Eventually, that will be a consideration for us. It would give us a safe place to call home where we can raise our own children, and it would help to keep us grounded by working a 'normal' job. If the shielding works well, there is no reason we couldn't treat it almost like a military base; allow a small parasite town to cater to our needs, but still control access to the base itself. With the shielding, and the mass of the planet, the problems of the early days should be negated.

  "Call me old fashioned I guess, but I feel that our children, especially if they are gifted, should be raised by their parents. I'm sure that the foster parents are doing a great job, but as soon as those kids start manifesting their talent, they could have serious problems. It would be good if they had parents there that have gone through it and can help get them ready for it," Joe explained and shrugged. "Or counter it if it becomes necessary."

  Hawklings winced. "Yeah, we've already run into that a couple of times. One young man tried to do the same thing Jarad was doing on The Citadel. By the time a Navigator got back there to see her children, he already had three of the foster mothers pregnant and had all the men set up as guards. He'd turned the entire enclave into his own private harem. It was a mess; we had to bring in counselors and psychologists. Luckily, he hadn't been attracted to the really young ones. Now we make sure a Navigator visits the compound at least every two weeks, but the problems are starting. That's the reason I was so interested in your theory about Navigators developing more abilities; it's already starting."

  "What happened to the young man?" Joe asked.

  "Unfortunately, he committed suicide a few weeks later. His docto
rs believe he couldn’t accept being stopped.” The Admiral shook his head at the memory and changed the subject. “Let's run your ideas past the Council and hopefully get the designers working on a planet-based facility," Hawklings replied. "I think the Navigators would be happier if they had their kids around as well."

  Joe nodded. “I'm sure they would. I know I'd be very uncomfortable not having my children around." He said looking lovingly at Becka. "One of the other things I wanted to speak to you about was recruiting. Specifically, the recruiting of potential Navigators. If they are aware of their talent, then those folks are going to be paranoid beyond belief. There is no way a retrieval team is going to get anywhere near them. That's one of the reasons I believe there are far more of us out there than you currently know about."

  "What would you suggest we do?" Hawklings asked.

  "Well, for starters, stop using former military special ops soldiers on the team. We have a certain feel about us that tends to put people on edge anyway. You should look into making them more friendly and less ominous. After all, there is nothing sinister going on here; they will just have to keep it all secret. Intimidation isn't a very good method to gain trust and cooperation," Joe replied. "Perhaps we can find someone that is sensitive to others like us, that would be willing to assist us in locating others."

  "Good ideas, all of them. I'll definitely keep them in mind," Hawklings replied.

  "So, how is tomorrow going to work? The ban on returning to Earth can't be a medical one, since Becka was allowed to come on my recruitment, and you go to the weekly meetings," Joe asked.

  "It is medical actually, but more of medical security than danger. Since you have been modified with nanocytes, you're walking, talking proof of what we are doing up here. If you got in an accident and were taken to a planet-side medical facility, there would be serious issues," Hawklings replied.

  Joe nodded. "I can see that. Not to mention the fact that a person could just walk away and be able to disclose the entire truth and have proof to back them up. By restricting access, you simply avoid all those potential issues. I thought it was something like that. How long does the Council feel we can keep this a secret from the general population?"

  "It's not just the general population, Major. A good portion of the governments have no idea of everything going on up here. If they did, they would all demand more control over what we do. That would start a war, since by and large the governments of Earth are about power and control. If you haven't noticed, we don't use any fossil fuels at all. We do import goods, but we don't actually need to, thanks to the replicators and our own farmers and manufacturing facilities. Technically, we're all but independent of Earth. We even have enough people now to maintain our own population if we had to, but we still like to get more people from the planet.

  "Eventually, we would like to open all this up to the people of Earth, but until we figure out a way to keep the governments from killing everyone over it, we have to remain covert," Hawklings explained. "Now to the last issue we need to discuss; what really happened at The Citadel." He paused, "I've read everyone's reports but yours, and you haven't had time to write one up. I've got a good grasp on what happened up until you ordered the evacuation and sent Symms back to the shuttle. What happened after that?"

  Joe nodded his understanding of what the Admiral was asking. "After Doc Symms left me, I accessed the computer to try to override whatever it was that Jared had done to the station. At first I thought he had set the reactors to self-destruct, but quickly found that not to be the case." Joe continued and told the Admiral everything that occurred on the station up until he made the pod jump into hyperspace.

  Hawklings nodded. "Cassandra. I'd heard from Becka and Lenard she had contacted them. It's good to know she's still alive and well. I just wish she would have come back to us; we could have helped her."

  "Before all of this happened, I was curious about what happened to her, so I looked it up," Joe replied. "I don't think I could blame her for what she did. At the time, she had no idea if she could trust you folks; after all, you did send her back to the planet and all but delivered her to the Groom Lake Ghouls. Luckily, she could read them and jumped herself out of there before they could sedate her and begin the dissection."

  Hawklings nodded. "If we’d had any idea that's what they had planned, we never would have let her go back to the planet. Unfortunately, we didn't get the chance to explain that to her."

  Joe smiled at him. "I think she's becoming aware of that now. However, in the interim, she has been a very busy lady. She's recruited a large following of her own; a community of gifted people she has rescued from those same ghouls that have been hunting them. However, she now has a problem and has asked me to help her with it."

  "What's the problem?" Hawklings asked.

  Joe held up his hand to the Admiral. "Don't worry, Sir, your niece is safe, but the people on Earth might not be. You see, the people she helped, have in turn helped others. So many others that they have developed a rather large community of gifted people. They elected their own Council of Elders and have been living on Earth, under the radar. As with any community, there are always those that disagree with current policy, or wish to change the status quo. She has a group of mostly young people that have been gaining supporters. She tells me they are far more militant than the Elders of the community would like, and they tend to advocate violence far too easily. They believe they can effect change by destroying those that would harm them." Joe explained. "She asked me if I would consider going to her community and speaking to them, but she also warned me that they tend to see me as one of their primary enemies. In their eyes, I am a super-powerful, gifted, killing machine controlled by the United States Government. They are using me as a focus for their rhetoric. I planned on going there, speaking to the people, and telling them what we are doing up here and why. Maybe it'll help take some of the air out of the hot-heads and give the elders more support."

  Hawklings paled. "Attacking normal people would be the absolute worst thing they could do! It would destroy any chance for trust of the gifted, and the government would use it as an excuse to hunt them down and kill them."

  Joe nodded. "I was going to offer them a place where they could live their lives without fear of being hunted or ridiculed. Where they could live their lives as humans should be allowed to."

  Hawklings nodded. "Yes, do that. The Council may not agree, but if that's what it'll take to defuse the situation, then we need to make it happen. A war like that could very easily end life on Earth. Fear and suspicion would be rampant. People would start killing each other just because they think that other person might be gifted. It would be a nightmare." He was thoughtful for a moment. "I'll get the people on BC IV going on housing units for them. Major, there is one last thing I need to tell you about; the jump you made out of the station wasn't a clean jump. There was a major issue."

  Joe looked confused. "Huh? We all arrived just fine, I didn't make it to the place I imaged, but at least the guys at BC IV station got to us in time."

  "That's not entirely true; you did make it to the place you intended. You also made it to the time you imaged," Hawklings replied.

  "Huh?" Joe asked.

  Hawkling smiled sadly. "Major, two hours before you left for The Citadel, your escape pod was recovered from your desert location with you and five other occupants. All six of you were in a form of temporal stasis that prevented you from even aging. We hid your future forms on the station until you started to wake up. That occurred shortly before The Citadel was destroyed. Major, when you jumped the pod out of The Citadel, you also jumped it roughly thirty hours back in time."

  "Sir, that's… not possible," Becka replied. "The temporal equations of a hyperjump do not allow for a negative value. A paradox event is created that cancels the rest of the equation."

  Hawklings nodded. "I know. Joe still did it." He sighed. "The knowledge is nice to have, but is of little practical value. Doctor Symms, as well as a few
other scientists have been given clearance to study this. It’s believed that what happened was like a natural law of hyperspace preventing a paradox event."

  "Sir, we weren't even out there for thirty hours; it was more like six hours," Joe replied.

  "Major, the crisis at the Citadel lasted twenty-seven hours," Doctor Symms replied. "There was a temporal differential involved in the event that effected The Citadel."

  "So that's why we were sent directly down to the New Hedron medical center instead of the station!" Shana replied. "Because Joe and the others were being kept there!"

  Hawklings nodded. "Exactly so. Even though they were under a strict quarantine, we couldn't risk one of the survivors discovering their presence."

  "That's why you were so short with us when we spoke after we escaped," Becka said.

  Hawklings nodded. "I know how you feel about him, Becka. I was afraid I would let something slip that would let you know he was safe. Of course, at the time, we really weren't sure, but that was all we had to go on."

  "This could be a problem. We could have Navigators trying to jump into the past to effect changes. There is no good outcome for that scenario," Joe replied.

  "Agreed. That's why the entire event has been purged. There is no recorded information that the event ever took place and those that know of it have been sworn to silence. If we discover one of the gifted that can affect memory, we may even ask them to see if they can purge the information from those people as well, myself included," Hawklings said. "Before you ask, no, the Council is not aware of this event. After we leave here, none of you are to ever speak of it again. It never happened. Agreed?"

  "Why did you tell us then, Sir?" Joe asked.

  "I felt you had the right to know," he shrugged. "If you are aware of the possibility, you can be more aware of signs that it has happened again and act appropriately."

  Joe nodded slowly. "I understand, Sir." He paused and smiled back at the Admiral. "By the way, you will get to see your niece again; she is going to meet us in Tokyo tomorrow to speak to the Council."