She killed the nav computer. Its frantic beeping was a lie here. She closed her eyes for half a second, feeling the subtle hum of the star’s gravity waves through the hull. Most pilots saw chaos. Talia saw patterns.
The docking clamps on her hull extended. She had one chance. the rookie talia
“Talia, you couldn’t dock with a docking bay if it hugged you first,” her gruff commander, Admiral Voss, had roared that morning. She killed the nav computer
“Exactly,” Voss said, not looking up from his console. “In a gravity well that chaotic, your precious instruments are useless. Instinct is all that’s left. Move, Rookie.” Most pilots saw chaos
The rookie’s name was Talia, and she was the worst pilot in the Galactic Fleet. That wasn't just an opinion; it was a statistical fact, stamped on her file in bold red letters. Her ship, the Stardust Skipper , had more dents than a recycled asteroid, and her landing record was a running joke at the Ceres Base mess hall.
The room went silent. Senior pilots Sharpe and Mendez looked at her with a mix of pity and horror.