Navi landed with a thud, sending him flying out of his seat. He slammed against the wall of the escape pod and slid down. Things were all topsy-turvy for the small bean. Their charted course should have been safe, but something had knocked their ship out of commission and sent them all hurtling down onto a new planet.
Eyes closed, Navi pictured their path. Asteroids had moved their trajectory nearly 30 degrees off course. With his twin sister, Gati, he had worked out how to get them back on track and trotted off to the captain as soon as they cleared the asteroid field. He had only made it halfway down the hallway when the ship shook. The lights shifted to red, alarms blared, and Navi had raced off to the escape pods. Quickly he had programmed the escape pods, hoping they would be able to all land safely in a cluster around the ship when it crashed. Navi wasn't sure how much further off course they had gone, since he wasn't able to return to the map room after that.
He opened his eyes. Well. There was one way to find out where they were. Navi crawled out from behind what looked like a giant pom-pom plant and looked around. Heavy footsteps nearby made him shrink back. They passed, and he peered out again. The giant, whatever species it was, had disappeared around a corner. Slowly, Navi trailed behind, staying just off the path it had used. Suddenly the path before him opened up. Frightening, he stayed tucked in a bush and watched for danger.
Loud, large vehicles streamed past and the giant stood by the edge of the path. A moment later, the vehicles from one side stopped and those waiting nearby started moving. The giant strode off the path and disappeared from sight. Navi creeped around the corner, watching the vehicles warily. None of them seemed to notice him at all so he took a deep breath and turned his back on them, looking around.
The giant had been standing right beside the most beautiful garden Navi had ever seen. Flowers of every color stood before him. He ducked inside, trying to see each plant better. He sat down in the center and admired the flowers around him.
The sun was setting by the time he had finished his round of flower appreciation. The air was chilly and he didn't have the stamina to walk all the way back to his pod in the dark. He found a fuzzy flower instead, and wrapped himself in the petals. Navi drifted off the sleep, unaware that his twin was just waking up.
By the time Navi got up, the sun was giving off the pink glow of dawn and he was all wet. It seems the air gave off moisture at night. He noted that in his small book about plant life. Navi had collected a few seeds for cultivating at home, if he got a chance, and he needed to know the perfect conditions for their growth.
Blinking, he realized he could sense Gati nearby. She would find him. He could feel that she was excited about something and it was probably nothing he would find interesting. Navi went and checked on the plants again. He noticed that some that were closed last night were starting to open as the sunlight hit them. He climbed in a few, inspecting the shapes and colors and taking mental snapshots of them. Navi would have taken photographs, but his camera was back on the Norfol.
Ah. That reminded him. Navi pulled out the locator and flicked it on. He set it down in front of his favorite flower and watched the lights come on one by one. Everyone but his sister was on the screen before him. He sat down to wait for her to arrive instead of greeting the crew.
A voice behind him almost startled him. Almost. He had sensed Gati's approach with their shared twintuition.
"Navi? I've been looking all over for you."
He turned around with a grin. "But I was so easy to find! I only picked the dead center of a maze of plants. Really, I expected you to be much quicker than this."
Gati shoved him. "Well, what's this?" She pointed to the screen. "They are all together... somewhere. Do we have any maps of this planet? I think... I think this is Sol 3." The planet she named belonged to the solar system they had been traveling through. It made sense. They would have been close when the ship was hit.
"I have nothing on this planet. The best I can give you is flower seeds, but that wouldn't help at all," Navi told her. "Let's see if they know where we are instead. They managed to all find each other so far, I bet they found maps somewhere."
After waking the crew by mistake with their greeting over the communicator, It took a few hours for the rest of the crew to locate them and determine a route.
"We found out the giants, humans according to Brawzen's database, have maps of their transport routes out all over the place. Using those, we have been traveling to all the crew members as they find their bearings," Zana had explained. Using that knowledge, Navi and Gati had spotted one such map location and headed there, waiting for the appropriate vehicle to transport them to the crew.
They had agreed to meet in a central location. Navi and his twin arrived first and settled in, snacking on the food they had found on the trip over. The rest of the crew arrived within an hour. Greetings were shared among them all, with many hugs and backslaps for everyone, before they all gathered in a circle.
"Brawzen and I have worked out the black box data. We think we know where the ship landed but it is going to be a long journey. We don't have supplies and the transport will only get us part of the way," Zana told them.
Sarif reached into her pouch and pulled out some grains. "I have some food. These little things make a really good meal."
Weil looked at the captain. "I can help with the campsites. I've been hiking all over the mountains here since we landed and Captain Rolf also knows what makes a good shelter on this planet."
"We have to find shelter from the wet fog that rolls in each night," Rolf explained.
Navi nodded. "We can help make a map to take with us." He looked at Gati, who nodded as well.
With everything settled, the crew set to gathering up any last supplies. Navi and Gati worked on the map while Weil and Rolf gathered materials to protect them from the nightly fog. Sarif ogled the seeds Navi had collected while Zana and Brawzen showed the twins the ship's projected crash site. Once they had finished, the beans settled in for the night. In the morning they would be off.
Navi, tucked in his makeshift bedroll, turned to his sister. "I'm glad we got a chance to explore this planet, even if our ship might be destroyed."
"I'm glad too. Cars are really cool. Buses are amazing too," she said, referring to the larger vehicles they had used to find each other.
"Yea, they are. Good night." Navi rolled over and settled to sleep.
Night flew by quickly. The sky was again pink with the early morning light. It was time to find the ship.
Navi left behind a code. Collect all the codes from the crew to find the ship.
Visit the other caches in the series!
#1-June 29th 2014
#2-Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!
#3-'Aliens'
#4-The Great White Fog
#5-Ohana
#6-Cars Land
Final-The Blue Box and the Bronze Ship
*Please do not remove Navi's escape pod (bison tube). He needs it to return home.*