Read Epic of Aravinda 1: The Truth Beyond the Sky for Free Online

put on some pants and was behind the house. Even from a distance, Zahn could tell that the man was taller than he had first guessed, and his silvery uniform reminded him of a freighter pilot’s jumpsuit.
    “Hello again,” Oonak said as Zahn walked up to him. “My ship is down by the beach. Follow me.”
    In the moonlight, Zahn noticed that this man’s skin was actually light brown, and in the center of his uniform’s collar was a small round piece of metal that glinted in the moonlight. Zahn guessed it was an insignia of some kind.
    Oonak led Zahn down the familiar path to the beach. After a few minutes, he stopped walking when he was still many meters from the ocean, and Zahn was confused because he saw nothing. It was the same beach he’d always known, though tonight struck him as especially lovely as a half moon slightly illuminated the silvery sands around them.
    “I don’t see anything. Are you sure your ship is out here?”
    Zahn squinted but still saw nothing unusual.
    “You do not see it? Look closer. Do not look at these silvery sands. Look at the air behind me. Look carefully.”
    Now that Zahn’s eyes had adjusted to the light, he could just make out a faint wavering shape behind Oonak. The space wavered like a mirage over desert sand, as if something imaginary were appearing out of thin air. The wavering shape was rather large, at least seven meters tall, and Oonak waved Zahn over.
    “Touch it,” he said.
    “Touch what?”
    “Right here.” Oonak pointed to a spot and smiled, his white teeth seeming especially alive as they contrasted with the darkness of the night.
    Slowly, Zahn reached out his finger to the spot. After a moment of moving his finger forward, he unexpectedly felt something where he saw nothing. It was as though he were touching solid air.
    “Wow. But if this is really a ship, can I see inside? To prove it’s yours, I mean.”
    “What do you think, Navika?” Oonak said, seemingly to the air itself.
    At that moment, a voice came from nowhere. It was as if the air itself spoke; the voice was crisp and calm.
    “That is your choice, Oonak. Spacefarer Code was already broken when the Avanian found the fragment. But if you’re going to execute the same plan that we discussed, I still recommend that you blindfold the Avanian. We both know how irrational cultures can be before they bloom.”
    “Thank you for the suggestion, Navika,” Oonak said, “but I’m going to be as transparent as possible without violating the code further. I sense this one is… uniquely prepared.”
    Oonak pressed three fingers against a part of the wavering air.
    In a flash, the outline of a triangular door appeared, seemingly hovering in midair in front of him. Oonak tapped his fingers onto the wavering air in a sequence of finger strokes that Zahn doubted he could ever be able to memorize. He could only presume that Oonak was touching a control that was on the outside wall of the ship.
    A door rolled back, revealing a bright interior.
    “Look inside. That is the central node of my ship, Navika,” Oonak said.
    Zahn looked within.
    It was the strangest room he’d ever seen. Nearly everything was white or at least lightly colored. It was brightly lit, and the room was shaped in a fantastically odd way. Instead of four walls, a ceiling, and a floor, the room had eight surfaces. The floor and ceiling were perfect triangular shapes, and in the center of the room was a sphere with cables coming off of it that connected it to the ceiling. It was so strange that he had trouble taking it all in at once.
    Zahn backed away from the ship. He was beginning to feel overwhelmed.
    “Okay, so maybe this fragment does belong to you. This… this is incredible. This is the biggest discovery since—” He took a deep breath. “Okay, let me grab the fragment. It’s in a safe place. I’ll be right back. Will you still be here when I get back?”
    “I would not move even a grain of sand,” Oonak said.
    When Zahn