Ben Franklin’s Quote

By: Ben Franklin

A fine genius in his own country, is like gold in the mine

Imagine you have a special talent, something you’re really good at! This quote says that having a special talent when you’re at home or in a familiar place is like finding valuable gold hidden underground in a mine. Gold is amazing, but in the mine, it’s hidden away where nobody sees it. Your special talent might feel hidden too, maybe because you’re shy or haven’t had the right chance to show it. But going on an adventure or facing challenges is like digging for that gold! When you try new or difficult things, it helps bring your hidden talent out into the open for everyone (and yourself!) to see how valuable and cool it is. So, everyone has a special talent, like hidden treasure, waiting for the right moment to shine!.

Federation Miner

The shudder that ripped through the Illumination wasn’t friendly. It was the kind of judder that screamed ‘metal complaining!’ Kia squeezed his eyes shut, fists clenched white in his lap.

“Report, Illumia?” Captain Ben’s voice was calm, a steady hand in the chaos, but Kia could hear the tension humming beneath it.

«Navigational anomaly detected, Captain,» the ship’s AI, Illumia, replied. Her voice, usually a comforting murmur, held a metallic edge. «Energy fluctuations offline. We are off course. Severe trajectory deviation.»

Off course. Kia bit his lip. That was space cadet talk for super lost, which was their permanent state anyway, bouncing from star system to star system in their endless search for home. But ‘severe trajectory deviation’ meant really lost, maybe in parts of the galaxy the map hadn’t even bothered to print yet.

Another jolt threw Kia forward against his safety harness. Lights flickered. A smell like burnt popcorn mixed with old socks tickled his nose.

“Damage assessment?” Captain Ben was already flicking switches on the main console, fingers moving with practised speed.

«Minimal hull breach,» Illumia reported. «Life support stable. Primary engines unresponsive. Auxiliary power is engaged. Detecting an uncharted planetary body ahead. Gravity well pull increasing.»

“An uncharted planet?” Kia blinked. That was… different. Usually, being lost meant endless, dark nothingness.

“Illumia, lay in an emergency landing trajectory,” Captain Ben ordered, gripping the control stick. “We need to get down and assess repairs.”

Kia watched the main view screen. A swirling marble of blues, greens, and strange coppery colours grew larger. It looked weirdly… fizzy, around the edges. Like soda that had sat out too long. He squinted. He always saw weird fizziness around stuff, especially energy fields or things that were really still for a long time. He’d mentioned it once back on their first ship, before… well, before they got lost. An engineer had just ruffled his hair and told him to stop imagining things.

As they dropped lower, piercing the planet’s swirling atmosphere, the ‘fizz’ intensified. It wasn’t just around the planet; it was in the atmosphere, a glittering, coppery haze that made his eyes ache slightly. A strange sound began to hum through the hull, too low to be engine noise, too high to be just wind. It felt like the ship itself was vibrating inside the sound. He rubbed his arms. Everything felt… itchy, in a way he couldn’t explain.

“Turbulence increasing!” Captain Ben grunted, wrestling the controls. “Hold on, Kia!”

The ship buffeted wildly. Kia squeezed his eyes shut again, wishing the weird vibrating noise would stop. He pressed his palms against his ears, but he could still feel it, buzzing in his teeth. It wasn’t just sound; it was a pressure, a complex pattern of pushes and pulls that seemed to wrap around him. Most people didn’t notice things like that. Back home, people just thought he was fidgety or heard things that weren’t there. He just thought it was normal… maybe everyone felt the air vibrating in weird ways, right? Apparently not.

With a final, bone-jarring crash that sent spare tools rattling across the floor, the Illumination slammed down onto solid ground. Silence. Blessed, glorious silence, after the terrifying roar and vibrations. The strange buzzing faded, leaving only a faint echo in his head.

“Report?” Captain Ben asked, his voice a little strained.

«Touchdown confirmed,» Illumia stated flatly. «Severity of impact has compromised environmental controls in Bay C. Hull breach exacerbated in Sector 7. Primary engines irreparable with current resources. Auxiliary power reserves are critical.»

Captain Ben let out a slow breath. “Critical. Well, that narrows it down.” He turned to Kia, offering a small, tired smile. “Alright, Space Cadet. Let’s see where we are, shall we?”

Getting the ramp down was a process of fiddling with auxiliary controls, helped by Illumia providing power jolts where needed. When the ramp finally lowered with a long, drawn-out groan of stressed metal, a breath of the alien air filled the cockpit. It smelled… coppery, exactly like the haze. And something else, too. Like fresh rain mixed with hot dust and… static electricity. It tickled his nose and the back of his throat. He felt a strange pulsing in his fingertips.

Captain Ben activated the ship’s low-gravity settings to conserve power and opened the main hatch. Stepping out onto the ramp felt like walking on thick jelly. The ground felt spongy beneath his worn boots, uneven and strangely warm. The sky above was a swirling canvas of copper and soft violet, pierced by a distant, fuzzy-edged sun. Plants grew in impossible shapes and colours – tall, crystalline stalks that tinkled faintly in the wind, large, soft pads that pulsed with internal light, and thick, thorny vines that seemed to ripple even when there was no breeze.

He heard the faint, high-pitched chiming of the crystal stalks, the low thrum of the pulsing pads, and the rustle of the rippling vines. He saw the strange shapes, the alien colours. He smelled the coppery, wet, static air. And underneath it all, he felt that weird, complex vibration, pulsing rhythmically through the ground and the air itself. It was everywhere here. He pressed his hand against a large, smooth rock nearby. It felt warm, and the vibration intensified against his palm. He pulled his hand away, startled.

“Wow,” Kia breathed, spinning around. “It’s… weird.”

“It’s uncharted,” Captain Ben corrected gently, pulling a handheld scanner from his belt. He scanned the surroundings. “Atmosphere is breathable, surprisingly. Minimal hazardous radiation. Gravity is about 0.8 G – lighter than home.” He frowned at the scanner display. “Life signs… multiple, but unlike anything in the database. And… detecting unusual energy signatures scattered across the landscape. Powerful, but… organic?”

Organic energy? That sounded strange. Kia stared out at the pulsing landscape, feeling the constant, complex rhythm pulsing through his feet. It felt like a massive, slow heartbeat spread across the ground. Was that the organic energy?

They set up a small perimeter around the ship, activating a low-power deflector shield to keep out minor hazards. As the strange violet-copper day began to fade, casting long, purple shadows, Kia noticed something else. Flickers. Tiny, silent flickers of… not light, not exactly. They were like rapid thoughts, appearing for a split second and vanishing, appearing near the pulsing pads or the tinkling stalks. They were like the ‘fizziness’ he saw, but structured, complex. They had shapes, sometimes simple geometric forms, sometimes fleeting images that felt almost like faces.

“Captain,” Kia said, pointing. “Do you see those… flashes? Like static, but different?”

Captain Ben scanned the area. “I see the plants reacting to the changing light, Kia. And some atmospheric distortions. Nothing else.”

See? Kia blinked. They weren’t seeing it like light. It was more like sensing a brief, complex presence in the air, translated instantly into a flicker in his mind’s eye, like a silent, blink-and-you-miss-it thought bubble. It was the vibration made visible, sort of. It was hard to explain. “No, not that. Over there. Look! There was one, near that giant pulsing pad!”

Captain Ben looked harder, adjusted his scanner. “Still nothing visual, Kia. Are you sure? Might be your eyes adjusting to the alien light.”

Kia shrank a little. Imagining things again. But he knew he wasn’t. These flickers felt important. They felt… like messages, almost. Strange, fleeting images.

That night, nestled in their makeshift sleeping quarters in the cockpit, the rhythmic vibrations intensified. Kia couldn’t sleep. Every pulse seemed to carry those visual flickers with it, stronger now in the alien night. They weren’t just geometric shapes anymore. Some were pictures – a serene valley, a deep, glowing cavern, a towering structure that shimmered.

He sat up quietly, peering out the viewport. Outside, the pulsing plants seemed to be glowing brighter, the crystalline stalks humming a soft, resonant tune that filled the air and vibrated deep in his chest.

Suddenly, a flicker, stronger than the others, appeared right outside the viewport. It held an image – not static, but intentional. A clear, smooth image of two beings, standing upright, with long, flowing robes made of star-stuff and… empty faces. No eyes. They weren’t frightening, just… different. The image held for a moment, then faded, replaced by another – a simple arrow, pointing away from the ship, towards a cluster of taller, dark shapes in the distance.

Kia gasped softly. “Captain?”

Captain Ben stirred, sitting up instantly, always on alert. “What is it, Kia?”

“Out there,” Kia whispered, pointing. “I saw something. Not like a plant. Like… like a message. With pictures!”

Captain Ben was silent for a moment. “Messages? Pictures? Illumia, are you detecting any transmissions or visual phenomena?”

«Negative, Captain,» Illumia replied. «Atmospheric analysis consistent. No known energy wave transmissions detected. No visual anomalies outside the ship confirmed by external sensors.»

Captain Ben looked at Kia, a deep gaze. “Okay, Kia. Tell me what you saw. Every detail.”

Kia described the image, the beings, the arrow. He described how it wasn’t something he saw with his eyes, but more like it appeared inside his head, tied to the planet’s vibrations. He told him about the constant buzzing, the itching, the way everything felt fuzzy and pulsated with energy. He’d never described it in so much detail before, not even to himself. It sounded crazy when he said it out loud.

Captain Ben listened without interrupting, stroking his chin. “Hmm. Illumia can’t detect it. The ship’s sensors can’t detect it. But you can. Kia, have you always felt these things? The vibrations, the fuzziness, the… static with images?”

Kia shrugged, looking down at his hands. “Sort of. It was usually faint, just annoying. Felt weird in class. People just told me to sit still or stop fidgeting. I just thought I was weird.”

Captain Ben leaned back, a thoughtful look on his face. “Sometimes, Kia, what makes you feel weird in one place… can be exactly what you need in another. Out here, in uncharted territory, standard ways of sensing the world might not be enough. Perhaps your unique way of perceiving things isn’t ‘weird’ at all. Maybe it’s just… specific.” He didn’t press for more details, just watched Kia with that calm, steady gaze. “Those pictures, those messages… where did they feel like they were coming from?”

“The planet?” Kia guessed, feeling the subtle pulsing beneath them. “Or… something connected to it?”

“Something connected to it,” Captain Ben echoed. “Alright, Space Cadet. In the morning, we follow the arrow.”

The next day, under the swirling coppery sky, they left the relative safety of the ship. Kia walked at Captain Ben’s side, scanners in the Captain’s hand, but Kia’s awareness leading the way. He felt the faint path of the ‘arrow’ image etched into the rhythm of the planet, a slight increase in the familiar vibration along a certain direction. It was subtle, like following a trail of faint glitter nobody else could see.

As they ventured further from the ship, the air grew thicker with that strange, humid, static smell. The pulsing pads glowed brighter, their light feeling warm and heavy against his skin. The crystalline stalks chimed complex melodies that resonated inside his bones. He noticed that the visual flickers intensified near the pulsing pads, forming clearer, more elaborate images. He focused, trying to ‘read’ them. It was hard, like looking at multiple TV screens flickering at once. He saw images of deep tunnels, bright veins of light, and strange, intricate patterns that repeated like a code.

Captain Ben stopped, checking his scanner. “We’re heading towards a major energy signature detected by the ship. But Kia… are you sure about this direction? My navigation says this leads to… a massive geological formation. Maybe a cave?”

Kia felt the rhythmic pull of the ‘arrow’ image. “It’s this way, Captain. The feeling is stronger here. It’s telling me to go towards the thrumming.” The thrumming was that deep vibration he felt everywhere, which seemed cantered ahead.

They continued, eventually reaching the base of a colossal, naturally formed structure that rose like a collection of immense, coppery crystals fused together. At its base was an opening, shrouded in rippling, thorny vines. The ‘arrow’ image from the night, tied to the planet’s thrum, pointed directly into the opening.

“Alright, Space Cadet,” Captain Ben said softly. “In we go.”

Entering the cave was like stepping into a different world. The coppery sky was replaced by a low, shimmering ceiling that glowed with a soft, internal light, pulsating gently. The air was warm and thick, smelling strongly of damp earth and something sweet, like honey and flowers. The sound of the outside world faded, replaced by the rhythmic, powerful thrumming that felt like being inside a giant drum. And the visual flickers! Inside the cave, they were everywhere, vibrant and constant, painting shimmering pictures on the cave walls and swirling in the air like slow-moving smoke made of light and image.

Kia stared, awestruck. He’d never felt this level of intense vibration, this density of visual messages. He felt slightly dizzy but incredibly alive, like someone had finally turned up the volume on something he’d only ever heard faintly.

As they moved deeper, navigating by the glowing ceiling and the stronger pulse of the arrow image guiding Kia, they encountered them.

Beings.

They moved silently through the shimmering cave, robes like solidified starlight flowing around them. They were the beings from Kia’s vision – upright, graceful, with those smooth, featureless faces. They emitted no sound that Kia could hear, but as they approached, the air filled with powerful, complex images.

The images washed over Kia, clear and vivid. They were communication. Images of their world before – peaceful valleys, sparkling rivers, soaring structures made of light. Images of them, the Deltarians, living in harmony with the planet, their consciousness intertwined with its rhythms and energy. Images of knowledge, of history, of a deep, calm wisdom. And then, the images shifted, darkening. Images of intrusion. Clanging metal. Ripping sounds. Brutal machines tearing into the earth. Dark shapes moving against the light.

«Intruders. Miners. Taking. Breaking. Silence.» The images were overlaid with a feeling, a silent scream of distress that resonated through the ground and clawed at Kia’s senses.

Kia recoiled, putting a hand to his forehead. It was too much. The feeling, the images, the thrumming all intensified, a wave of pain and fear from the Deltarians.

“Kia!” Captain Ben was instantly beside him, his face etched with concern. “Are you alright?”

“They’re… talking,” Kia choked out, eyes wide, staring at the featureless face of a Deltarian who had ‘walked’ (floated? Glided?) closer. “Not with words. With pictures and feelings. They’re called Deltarians. And they’re scared. Because of the Miners!”

Captain Ben’s eyes widened slightly. “You’re… interpreting them?”

“It’s like,” Kia struggled to explain, “the images and feelings are tied to the vibration, the thrumming. It’s like I can suddenly… understand it clearly in here.” He tapped his head. He had found it. His ‘weirdness’, his fuzzy static sight and vibration feeling – this was what it was for. He could see the Deltarians’ telepathic images. He could feel their pain.

Just then, the rhythm of the cave’s thrumming pulse stuttered. The soft glow of the ceiling flickered violently. The visual images swirling around them began to dissolve, fragmenting like shattered glass. A cold, metallic interference spread through the warm, sweet air, smelling of ozone and stale oil.

«Silence growing. Connection breaking. Help.» The Deltarians projected images of despair and fading light.

“It’s the Miners,” Captain Ben said grimly, pulling out his scanner. “Their tech is disrupting the planet’s natural energy. And maybe… disrupting the Deltarians themselves. Kia, what do they need?”

Kia focused, sorting through the frantic images. He saw pictures of dark machines attached to glowing veins of light in the cave walls, machines emitting the cold, metallic smell and the painful static. «They connect. They take. They break the light paths. Stop the breaking.»

“They’re mining energy from the planet itself!” Captain Ben exclaimed. “And it’s hurting the Deltarians, maybe silencing them, cutting them off from their… connection. Kia, where is it worst? Where’s the main disruption coming from?”

Kia closed his eyes, filtering the chaos of vibrations and images. He felt for the strongest source of that painful interference. It wasn’t just one place; it was a network. But there was a centre to it, a focal point where the cold static was thickest, pushing against the planet’s natural pulse. He pointed deeper into the immense cave structure, towards a section where the ceiling glow was weakest and the interfering smell was strongest.

“That way,” Kia said firmly, the uncertainty gone from his voice. His weird ‘gift’ was finally making sense. It wasn’t useless; it was vital. “It’s strong there. Like a giant cold hand squeezing the feeling out of the air.”

They moved swiftly through the deepening caverns. The ground grew rougher, littered with chunks of shattered crystalline material. The air was thick with the smell of ozone and mineral dust. Ahead, the rhythmic thrumming of the planet was almost completely drowned out by a high-pitched whine of machinery. They flattened themselves against a crystal wall as they heard the heavy thud of boots and the rumble of automated vehicles.

Rounding a bend, they saw it.

A vast cavern, lit by harsh, portable floodlights. At its centre, enormous, clawed machines were anchored to the cavern walls, tearing away glowing chunks of the mineral veins the Deltarians had shown Kia in their images. Humanoid figures in bulky mining suits directed small, clanking droids that scooped up the material. Overseeing it all was a figure in a slightly cleaner, more imposing suit, standing on a raised platform.

“Director Voss,” Captain Ben murmured. “Figures. Heard he ran Federation Miners into the ground with bad investments. Probably trying to make a desperate score out here.”

The noise was deafening. The clanging of machines, the rumble of excavators, the harsh whine of the disruption technology washing over the cavern, like nails on a chalkboard inside Kia’s skull, almost completely silencing the Deltarians’ images and the planet’s pulse.

“The main disruption is coming from that large device near the back wall,” Kia whispered, wincing at the mental noise. He could see it now with his strange ‘sight’ – a large, boxy piece of tech humming with that painful static energy, radiating interference that seemed to block the flow of the planet’s own vital pulse. It wasn’t just mining; it was cutting off the planet’s energy source, the very thing the Deltarians were intertwined with.

Captain Ben scanned the setup. “Armed droids… multiple security bots. Voss looks well-guarded. We can’t fight our way through. Illumia is too damaged to give us cover fire, and our phasers wouldn’t make a dent in that mining equipment.” He looked at Kia, his brow furrowed. “How do they connect to the veins?”

Kia focused his strange sensitivity, tuning out the disruptive static as best he could, trying to see the way the machines were attached. He saw glowing threads of energy connecting the mining claws and the main disruptor device back to the veins in the rock. But the energy wasn’t flowing into the machines from the veins; it was like the machines were clamping down on the veins, pulling the life out of them, and sending the stolen energy back towards a central collector, located…

“…behind the disruptor device!” Kia exclaimed softly. “The veins don’t go into the machines, they just connect on the outside. And the main collector, where they’re sending everything, is behind that big static box, connected by… flexible tubes, pulsing with light!” He could see the energy being sucked through the tubes, a vibrant flow turned painful and cold by the disruptor.

Captain Ben followed Kia’s gaze, though he couldn’t see the energy flows. He trusted Kia’s unusual perception now. “Flexible tubes… pulsing light. That collector must be drawing power from the veins, amplified and stolen via the disruptor. If we could… sever the connection between the disruptor and the veins, or the disruptor and the collector…”

“They’d lose power,” Kia finished. “And the static might stop, the Deltarians could… reconnect?”

“It’s a long shot,” Captain Ben admitted. “But our only shot. Those connections must be shielded, though. A phaser won’t cut them. A simple wrench wouldn’t work.” He paused, thinking rapidly. “Director Voss… he needs to show a profit. He’s focused on getting that mineral energy out. He won’t expect an attack from inside his own operation, focused on the supply lines rather than him directly.”

Captain Ben outlined a daring plan. While he created a diversion, drawing the attention of Voss and the main droids, Kia would have to sneak past, get to the back of the main disruptor, and somehow break those glowing energy tubes connecting it to the collector.

“But… how?” Kia asked, swallowing hard. The idea of sneaking through the buzzing, clanking chaos, right past the bad guys, made his stomach churn. And how could he break tubes humming with stolen energy?

“You can feel the energy, can’t you, Kia?” Captain Ben’s voice was quiet but firm. “You said it’s being ‘squeezed,’ ‘pulled.’ Can you… can you feel a weak point in those tubes? Or… or perhaps, using your own sense of how this energy should flow, could you create a… disruption of the wrong kind?”

Kia frowned, focusing his unique sight. The energy tubes felt solid, strong, full of the stolen light. But the way the energy was being forced through them felt wrong, painful. Like forcing something precious through a harsh, narrow pipe. If he could… push back? Against the painful flow? Not with strength, but with the knowledge of how it should feel?

It was a completely untested idea, born from his strange, lifelong sensitivity to these things. But it felt… possible. Like he could almost reach out with his mind and feel the conflicting energies clashing within the tubes.

“I think… I think I can feel how it’s breaking the natural flow,” Kia said slowly. “Maybe if I touch them… and sort of… push the natural feeling into the wrong flow… it might… overload it? Like short-circuiting the pain?” He looked at Captain Ben, uncertainty flickering in his eyes. “It’s just a guess.”

“It’s the best guess we have,” Captain Ben said, giving him a rare, focused nod. “Ready, Space Cadet?”

Heart hammering against his ribs, smelling the ozone and mineral dust, feeling the harsh static interference and the fading planetary thrum, Kia nodded.

Captain Ben took a deep breath and, with a shout calculated to grab attention, sprinted into the cavern, dodging stray droids and yelling something about stolen artefacts. Chaos erupted as Miners and droids turned towards the disturbance.

Clutching the rocky wall, Kia crept low, using the immense mining machines as cover. The noise was terrifyingly loud. The floodlights were blinding. He could hear the angry shouts of Miners, the clatter of droids, and Captain Ben’s voice, leading them on a merry chase near the cavern entrance. He focused on the ‘static’ feeling, sensing the pathway Kia had identified earlier, moving towards the back of the huge disruptor device.

He reached the back of the machine. It hummed violently, the source of the painful static washing over everything. The glowing, flexible tubes snaked out from it, attaching to the collector. Kia knelt, reaching out a trembling hand. The tube felt warm and vibrated strongly with the rushing, stolen energy. It felt wrong.

He concentrated. He remembered the soft pulse of the planet outside, the rhythmic thrumming, the feeling of the vibrant veins when he first entered the cave. He focused his strange sense, pushing back against the harsh, cold static in the tube, trying to ‘feel’ the way the energy should flow, the way the Deltarians felt it. He pushed that ‘right’ feeling, that natural vibration, against the painful ‘wrong’ vibration rushing through the tube.

For a second, nothing happened. Then, the tube in his hand gave a violent lurch. The light inside it flared, changing from a cold, harsh white to a deep, pained red. A high-pitched screech emanated from the tube itself.

Kia focused harder, pushing more of the ‘right’ feeling, the natural planetary pulse, into the tube. He felt a hot jolt up his arm. The air crackled around him, smelling sharply of burnt metal.

«Resistance! Undesired feedback detected!» a mechanical voice blared from the disruptor. «Energy flow critical!»

Another tube beside the first one also began to scream, glowing red. Kia moved to it, placing his hand against the pulsing wrongness, pouring his sense of the natural, right vibration into it. He could feel the connection with the planet, with the distant, struggling Deltarians, guiding him, showing him where the break was.

Suddenly, with a deafening crack, the first tube exploded, showering sparks everywhere and releasing a cloud of foul-smelling smoke. The high-pitched static whine faltered. Then, the second tube burst. The ground vibrated with a massive surge of chaotic energy.

«System overload! Primary Disruptor failure imminent!» the mechanical voice screamed.

In the main cavern, pandemonium broke out. Alarms wailed. The immense mining machines ground to a halt. Director Voss yelled in fury. The main disruptor machine sputtered, crackled, and then went completely dark, plunging Kia’s corner of the cavern into shadow.

The silence was profound, broken only by the distant sounds of Captain Ben still leading confused droids away and the angry shouts of the Miners. More importantly, the painful static smell faded almost instantly. And beneath it… Kia felt the natural thrumming of the planet returning. It rushed back, flooding the air, filling the cavern with a wave of rhythmic, powerful energy. The soft glow returned to the ceiling, stronger now.

And with it, the visual images returned, stronger, clearer, and filled with overwhelming waves of gratitude and relief. «Saved. Thank you. Connected again. Light restored.» The images showed the Deltarians healing, the planet’s veins pulsing with renewed life, the cold grip loosening.

“Kia!” Captain Ben’s voice came from the entrance, filled with urgency. “Voss knows something’s happened! Let’s go!”

They retreated quickly, melting back into the complex network of tunnels as the angry, bewildered shouts of the Miners echoed behind them. By the time they reached the mouth of the cave system, pushing back through the rippling vines, the copper-violet sky outside was beginning to lighten.

They ran back across the spongy ground, guided by the steady beat of the planet’s pulse which now felt strong and clear. Kia didn’t feel the weird ‘fizz’ or ‘itch’ anymore; his unique sensitivity felt… focused, powerful, useful. He understood it now.

Back at the Illumination, which looked small and beaten compared to the vast landscape, Captain Ben clasped Kia’s shoulder, his grip firm. “You did it, Space Cadet. I don’t know exactly what you did, feeling those energy lines and… doing whatever you did to them. But you stopped them.”

Kia just grinned, exhaustion finally catching up with him, but adrenaline still singing in his veins. “It wasn’t weird,” he mumbled, feeling proud. “It was just… me.”

Before they could fully assess the Illumination’s battle damage, a new type of image flooded Kia’s mind, clearer than ever before. They were from the Deltarians. Images of repair, of glowing light knitting metal, of complex diagrams that looked like schematics.

«Healing,» the images conveyed. «Thanks. Ship injured. We help. With planet energy. We provide path.»

Captain Ben stared as Kia relayed the messages. “They can help repair the ship? Using the planet’s energy? And… provide a path home?” He looked at Kia with newfound respect. “Your ‘sensing’ is extraordinary, Kia. Absolutely extraordinary.”

Over the next few days, the Deltarians worked, channelling pure planetary energy through the healed connections Kia had preserved. They didn’t touch the ship physically, but streams of glowing light seemed to flow from the ground, swirling around the Illumination, patching hull breaches, repairing damaged conduits, recharging Illumia’s failing core. It was slow, and beautiful, and felt like magic powered by friendship. Illumia, functioning with renewed power, was suddenly filled with new data – complex star charts that the Deltarians, intrinsically linked to the cosmic energies, somehow possessed. A path, not direct, but leading them closer to known space.

As the Illumination hummed with newfound power, ready to depart, Kia stood by the ramp, watching the gentle pulses of the Deltarian city, visible now in the distance thanks to his enhanced vision. He felt a soft, farewell wave of images from them – «Journey well. Find your home. Carry your light.»

He wasn’t just the fidgety kid who saw weird static and felt annoying vibrations anymore. He was Space Cadet Kia. He had a ‘genius,’ a strange, unique sensitivity that had saved a planet and an entire race, and given him and Captain Ben a chance to find their way back home. He knew, with a quiet certainty that settled deep in his bones, that his ‘weirdness’ wasn’t a flaw; it was his gold, finally found, shining brightly in the universe.

Captain Ben clapped him on the shoulder again. “Ready, Kia? Delta-58Q is safe thanks to you. Time to chart the course for the next adventure.”

Kia grinned, feeling the hum of the ship through his boots, ready.

Until next time space cadets, stay safe.

The End

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The Square Magazine Podcast

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