There is way too much stuff for me to learn! April exclaimed to herself one afternoon a few days later as she pored over a book on astronavigation. How on earth am I going to be a good princess—and eventually a queen—if I don't know anything?
Exasperated, she set the astronavigation book aside and spotted The Farlae Codex underneath it. "Well, there can't be any harm in reading that—and if anyone mentions any of the prophecies, at least that will be something I'll be familiar with." April picked up the book and stood up from her chair at her desk. I might as well be comfortable while I read, she shrugged as she walked over to the couch in her room.
Sitting down, she propped herself up against a feather pillow and settled down to read. Five minutes later she was ready to throw the book down in exasperation. "None of this makes any sense!" she exclaimed aloud in frustration. As she moved to close it a phrase caught her eye. "When the last Winslow appears, another will soon follow." She frowned. "Who is the last Winslow? Is that me? Or is it someone to follow me?"
You are the last Winslow.
"You again?" April asked aloud, startled by the alien voice intruding into her thoughts. But there was no answer. What, you want me to speak to you like this?
It is easier, yes. You are the last Winslow, and this time you cannot say I tell you nothing. There was a distinct note of defense in the voice's tone.
Unbidden, laughter bubbled out of the young princess. You certainly have a unique personality… she trailed off, unsure of what to call it.
Why not "the Voice"? It is how you've been thinking of me all along, is it not?
Yes, but—April broke off her thought as the Voice's presence… vanished. Frowning with a shake of her head, the young woman decided to write down a note of the incident. Then a thought hit her with such force she was unable to dismiss it out of hand. If I am the last Winslow, who is it who will follow me? Does that mean another Winslow will appear, or what? Is this talking about my future children, or what? She shook her head vigorously. This is so confusing…
A knock on her door jerked her out of her thoughts. "April? Are you in there?" Tyria's voice sounded through the door.
"Yeah. Come on in," she called back after a brief pause.
The door slid open with a faint hiss to allow Tyria access into the chamber. Vega darted in right behind her. "Thanks," the cat said. "For some reason she couldn't hear me today."
"Vega—you wanted in? I'm sorry! I must not have heard you because I was looking at this confusing thing," April said, holding up the Codex.
"Why are you looking at that?" Tyria asked.
"Because I wanted to take a break from astronavigation."
Tyria stared at the younger princess, an incredulous expression on her face. "You're looking at the Codex as a break? Sheesh, that's more complicated than astronavigation is!"
"You're telling me." April rolled her eyes. "I kind of just figured that out here. Hey, are you good with astronavigation? 'Cause I could sure use some help here."
"No problem—I just finished my last course on it a few months ago." For the next few minutes the two princesses worked head-to-head at April's desk, poring over the rather large textbook.
"Hey, this actually makes sense now! So I don't divide those numbers together and then use the result to multiply that other number—I multiply and then add and then find the square root. Why didn't I think of that before?"
Tyria laughed. "Maybe because you were attacking it from the wrong angle."
"Right," April said with a grin. "A very wrong angle."
The Alendran princess blinked suddenly. "Hey, I just remembered what I came up here for in the first place… feel like trying out an X-wing simulator?"
April looked at her, eyes wide. "Oh, could I, please? That would be so cool!"
"Well, then, what are you waiting for?"
"Let's go!" the heir of Byrista exclaimed happily, standing up so quickly that she knocked her notebook to the floor. Taking no heed of the mishap, she threw on a pair of shoes and was out the door faster than Tyria had thought possible.
"Wait for me!" she shouted out the doorway after her.
After taking a tram to the military base two miles away from the palace itself, Tyria ushered April past all of the checkpoints into the simulator room. "Here you are—pick any one you'd like. They're all prepped and ready to go, since Stealth Squadron finished their session about twenty minutes ago."
"Cool!" April said as she dashed into one of the simulator chairs. As soon as she was in Tyria helped her get strapped in the crash webbing and said, "Good luck. And relax—I know this is your very first time in one of these so it'll take some getting used to."
"Sure," she replied, cracking her knuckles in anticipation.
Tyria smiled and moved out of the way so the side hatch could close. Suddenly it was as if April had been transported to a completely different place. The control board in front of her lit up displaying its intricate sets of multi-colored buttons. The control stick sat directly in front of her, somewhat between her legs. A pedal sat near each foot.
Then the viewscreens situated around her just like they would be in a real X-wing flashed on, showing the inside of a snubfighter bay. Her X-wing was the only one in the bay—the rest of it was completely empty. Leaves me nothing to run into, April thought to herself wryly, recalling from the books that the simulators were so accurate if you scraped even for a millisecond along anything, you would be able to see and feel it—and even hear it if you were not in vacuum.
April was then startled by a mechanical voice sounding dimly down near her left hand. Startled, she found that a helmet with attached headset sat there. Gingerly the princess put them on her head and fumbled for a moment with the strap. As she did this she listened to the voice's words. "…mission is a simple one: all you are to do is practice and get familiar with the controls—by practicing taking off, landing, and maneuvering in a smaller space." The voice then repeated the information.
Soon, however, it was cut off. "Sorry about that there," Violet's voice sounded in her headset.
"Violet! I didn't realize you'd be here," April told her, startled.
"Yeah—I'm here to help you out. I'm in the X-wing behind you—if you look up at your radar screen on the top right corner of your cockpit, you'll see the monitor that we've recently installed in every snubfighter. It tells the pilot where all the ships in the area are, designating them with blips. The green blips are members of your fleet, blue are friendlies, and red are enemies."
Sure enough, a green blip was located directly behind April's X-wing.
"The X-wing shape in the center is your X-wing—it tells you the status of the fighter. The blue outline is—"
"It's my shield status," April interrupted.
Violet frowned. "How did you know that?"
"This simulator is a lot like the X-wing computer game I played back home—it's just a little bit more complicated," she replied with a chuckle.
"Well, good—at least you know the basics and won't be completely lost. Now I'm going to hover past you—I've already prepped my X-wing for takeoff."
"Okay—and what I need to do now is turn on my engines and wait for them to show green, right?"
"You got it. The activation switches for all four engines are on the upper-left hand side of the switchboard. There's a light next to each one—it'll show yellow if something needs to be looked at and red if they're damaged or simply won't work. The repulsorlifts are activated by the row of orange buttons near the center of the board, up at the top. Your lasers—but you shouldn't need them yet—are turned on by the green button at the bottom center of the board, and you switch to missiles with the yellow button. The purple button turns your ion cannons on. To fire any of them you use the trigger near the top of the control stick. Ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," April replied.
"Okay—just for fun, I'll be Blue One and you'll be Blue Two. Got that?"
"Yep," she said, a hint of her excitement leaking into her voice.
"Here I come," Violet told her as she just began to be in sight through April's starboard viewscreen. As April switched on her four engines her mind was less than half on her job as she stared at the X-wing hovering slowly past her. It seems so real…
"Yeah," Violet replied to her soundless thought. "I know a lot of people who say that they can hardly tell the difference between the two once they're actually in the cockpit."
"Really?"
"Uh huh. Even I can hardly tell the difference."
"That makes two of us."
Violet laughed. "How do your engines look?"
April glanced down at her board. "All green."
"Okay—then lift off."
With a deep breath she activated her repulsorlifts. The sudden feeling of lift startled her more than anything else could have done at that moment. Just then an odd calm came over her. Relax, Princess, the dry voice echoed in her mind.
April looked down at the now-familiar controls. She leveled her X-wing out at about four meters of altitude, and leveled up the throttle just slightly so that she had enough thrust to leave the bay.
The next few minutes went by in a carefully mediated blur. Up, down, around, through, into valleys, over hills, teasing the surface by mere meters before rocketing skyward again.
I feel so… not myself, the part of April's mind not taken over by cold, calculated precision mused. Do I have a new… self…?
No. This is a mixed product of your heritage and my presence, the Voice interjected.
My heritage?
You are last in a long line of talented pilots, commanders, leaders, among other titles. It is not merely personality that produces this. Genetics leads to it as well. One must be strong to be in such positions. Besides, you are one of the few chosen to lead the free galaxy in the coming war.
Why me?
The Voice paused. Why must you people always ask that question?
It's a valid one, isn't it?
I suppose so.
And you always answer with that comment 'cause you don't want to give us an answer, don't you.
The Voice was silent.
What, did I stun you that badly? I'm not an idiot. You should know that as well as anyone.
True.
"Blue Two! Come in, Blue Two!" Violet said,
"Yes, Blue One?"
"What…who…how…that is you in there, right, April?"
"Uh, of course…"
"Where did you learn to fly like that?"
"I…" How does one explain hearing voices in one's head? "I don't know."
"Are you sure? Because I could have sworn that was Commander Turner in that cockpit."
"Who?"
"The leader of our elite X-wing squad, Stealth."
"I was flying that well?"
Violet coughed. "You can say that again."
April landed her simulated vehicle back in the bay and waited for the "hatch" door to open before exiting the simulator. She was greeted by her friend, who was still wide-eyed. "I have never seen anything like that before. Not from someone's first time in a sim."
"Oh. Um…okay."
"Okay?! That's all you have to-- all right. Go study astronavigation and history for the rest of today, or something, and get a lot of rest tonight. I'm going to see if I can get you into a real X-wing tomorrow. That will prove today's fluke either just that or…something I can't even begin to imagine."
April just nodded dumbly. What the… She stumbled off in the general direction of the exit, mumbling to herself all the while.
Violet began pacing and muttering to herself. A moment later another voice sounded in her head. Are you all right? You feel…distressed.
You can say that again, Garion. She proceeded to explain the entire incident to him.
You're this upset over just that?
Just? Just?! What about this fits that word in the slightest?
Are you angry because she surpassed you, and so fast?
That brought the irate princess up short, but only to give her a chance to relight her fuse. What are you saying, Garion? That I'm jealous of a whiny, homesick teenager who could care less about this war and everything it entails? Someone who would abandon us to return to her old life in a heartbeat?
Violet Aria Wakefield! You're not the woman I thought you were.
The words struck her like a slap to the face, and her sense of Garion's presence all but vanished. Emptiness flooded her soul, and the crown princess of Yavinia fell to her knees and sobbed. Where did that come from…is this me…is this really me?
* * *
Garion dashed down the stairs and out the door, running toward his sense of April's presence. I have no idea what happened to her, or how it affected her. Violet's not herself, and… A wave of cruel intent slashed its way across his senses. Something's out there…
* * *
The young redhead walked in a daze. I don't understand…
Obstacles present themselves in life in order to provide ways to test one's maturity, the Voice murmured in the deep recesses of her mind.
Are you saying that this happened to me, that Violet reacted like that, to test us? the emotionless, disconnected part of her awareness queried tonelessly.
Along those lines, yes. You two are not the only ones in need of testing.
What's out there that we need to fight? It's not just in ourselves that the battle will take place, I figure.
The Voice was silent for a moment.
I have a head and can use it from time to time, you know. By this time the conversation had worked its way into the rest of April's mind, and her daze had vanished. The clarity of mind she now held almost shocked her. Violet is the one being most tested now, isn't she.
She has certain…issues…she must get over. Even she wasn't aware she felt this way about various things.
How can I help?
Can you?
Good point. … Garion. He can help. Where is he?
Coming toward you.
He looks funny.
He just sensed something he did not expect to feel here.
What?
One of those responsible for Violet's odd actions.
It's not her fault?
Well, it is. They just exploited her weaknesses and made things exponentially worse.
So she doesn't really feel as weird about stuff as she might appear.
…Something like that.
April smiled thinly. If I use high-end speech all the time with you, mister, I'm not going to be able to communicate with anyone else after a while.
She had no idea what the Voice may have responded with, for at that moment Garion came up to her. "Are you all right?" he asked.
"I'm fine. Really. Go help Violet. I can't do anything for her."
"You can't…or won't?"
"Both, since trying wouldn't make things any better. Quite the opposite. Besides, you're the Jedi. Whatever happened to 'do, or do not; there is no try'? I'm going with the whole 'do not' bit."
Garion's eyes flashed – the first bit of anger she had ever seen from him. "So you're going to leave her there, mad at you?"
"You and I both know she overreacted, but neither of us know why – or, well, you may know why, or part of it, but I certainly don't. Obviously my presence wouldn't soothe things in the slightest. Rather, my being there with you could taint whatever good you could have done in my absence." She arched an eyebrow. "You're acting awfully snippy about all of this, Garion – this isn't like you. What's up?" Is he in love with her?
You certainly figured that out quickly.
How long has this gone on?
Half his life, about. He has never loved anyone else.
Figures. Don't you have anything better to do?
What do you mean?
Throwing people at each other and then playing with the strings to make funky things happen. Can't you just let people be happy and, well, together?
You all are too young to be parents quite yet.
April's burst of laughter startled Garion before he could muster a reply. "What is so funny?"
She blushed furiously. "Nothing, nothing…go take care of Violet before the mess gets any larger, lover boy."
He stared at her, his mouth hanging open slightly, her outburst forgotten. This time his cheeks burned crimson. "How…"
The princess smiled gently. "Don't worry. It's not obvious, and I won't say a word."
"If it's not obvious, then how did you…"
"Eh, it's a talent, I guess. I could always tell who liked who back in high school," she lied glibly.
"Uh…I see."
She watched him stand there, immobile, for another minute before sighing in exasperation. "She's not going to get any better – or freer – if you don't move."
"Freer?"
"You sensed something amiss – do you really think Violet would act that irrationally on her own?"
Garion stared at her – again – before running off.
Geez, for a while there I thought I'd need a cattle prod to get him moving.
Now you know how I feel most of the time.
…Oh boy. I'm turning into another one of you? You really don't need a clone, okay? One of you is bad enough. She frowned. You know, you'd better have done this for a good reason, mister, or I'm going to be locked up for knowing too much. Maybe you should stop giving me tips.
You figured out his feelings for Violet with no help from me.
Lucky guess. Besides, I'm sure you've mentioned something in the past to that extent, or something. I'm honestly not good with figuring out who likes who.
Don't remind me.
April glowered inwardly on her way back to the palace.