Surrendering to the Inevitable…

Saura was plastered to the view port, staring into an area of space that appeared to be empty of stars. Her ears were forward, almost quivering, and her eyes held a distant look.

“Do you want to do this?” Deep diving the vasty, guiding a ship through space without maps of black holes, grav sinks, and other undetectable hazards was massively dangerous. It was also the way the Tabi Empire mapped space for the rest of the Whooex Union.

She turned to me, her eyes abruptly clear. “The ship and I find the way.”

I knew Tabi ships did not use the same drive system as the rest of the Star Associations. I also knew, since it required their astrogators in order to make it work, they refused to share the process with other members. “Do you like that feeling?”

She began to take on that remote look again. “Yes.”

“Do you miss it?” Her remote expression had already given me the answer.

“No.” She blinked. And just like that it all was gone and I was wrong in my assumptions. She was the same Saurubi I passed in the ship corridor every day on the way to the control room or the head. “Is the function I perform,” she added flatly.

“Oh.”

 She knew it was not the response I had expected based on her reactions. “Vivi,” she added softly. “Is madness in vasty. It beckons us always. Is easy to follow. Is why we choose physical pain of connection to ship; it reminds us of our flesh. Would be so easy to leave if we did not keep tie to physical self.”

Well, shit.