Hybrid Saga 01 - Hybrid (84 page)
“Well, kid,” Jarred said, waiting for Ethan to turn towards him before continuing. “You want to do the honors?”
Ethan felt a burst of child-like excitement at the question. Jarred had first coached him on the basics of piloting on their flight in to Solta about a million years ago. At least it felt that way. A lot had changed since then. He wasn’t the same, wet nosed kid he was then, excited and terrified at the controls all at once. Though the prospect of flying this or any vessel still excited him, and probably always would, the nervous fear was gone. There were far greater things in this Universe to be weary of. This wasn’t one of them. This was his dream. This was freedom.
As Ethan placed his hands on the controls, and felt the ship’s subtle response to his touch, he knew he was where he was meant to be. He was home. Glancing over his shoulder, he smiled back at his sister and she returned it, looking at him, not with the worry or scorn she always had, but with a confidence that filled him with pride. Across from him, Tarik also seemed to grunt his approval. Maybe.
“What’s our course?” he asked, looking back over at Jarred.
Jarred gazed out through the viewport for a moment. “There’s a whole lot of space out there. Why don’t
you
decide.”
For a moment, Ethan was confused by the proposal, looking out through the viewport at the array of stars. Kern and Sierra were just beginning to drift away themselves, sure of their own destination. But what was
theirs
? He didn’t know where they were going. How was he to know what course was the right one? He could pick any direction. Any vector. There was an infinite number of possibilities. Maybe that was the point. Maybe Jarred didn’t even know which direction they should be heading. Maybe it didn’t matter. As long as they chose a path and started down it. It wasn’t important where it took them. Not right now. What was important was that they made the choice, confident that wherever that vector led them, they would be ready to face what waited at its end.
Ethan smiled again, this time to himself, and turned back to the controls, laying in a course. One of his
own
choosing.
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