| The Navigator | |
 | |
| Author | Pittacus Lore |
| Illustrator | None |
| Publication date | 21st April 2015 |
| Published by | Harper, An Imprint Of HarperCollinsPublishers |
| Publication Order | |
| Preceded by The Fugitive |
Followed by The Guard |
I Am Number Four: The Lost Files: The Navigator was released on 21st April 2015.
About the Book[]
In this astonishing one-hundred-page companion novella to the New York Times bestselling I Am Number Four series, meet Lexa, a Loric hacker whose unrivaled skills helped her narrowly escape her doomed planet, and who's been hiding on Earth ever since.
Lexa was never part of the Elders' plan. She had no idea the Garde children were being evacuated to our planet. But when the Mogadorian attack began, she used her expertise to get an old spaceship in a museum operational once more and became irrevocably entwined with the Garde's fate. In addition to her friend, a pack of Chimæra, and a Cêpan named Crayton, her relic of a ship also carried Ella, the tenth Garde.
With all of their Cêpans now gone, the Garde think they are the last of the Loric people. But they are wrong. They have forgotten all about the crew that brought them to Earth. Where have the pilots for both ships been all these years? And why haven't they joined in the fight against the Mogs? In The Navigator, discover the truth behind their escape from Lorien and what happened to them after they arrived on our planet.
Plot[]
Lexa, a Cêpan of Lorien, is woken up by bangs and shouts. She hides electronic storage devices with stolen content calmly, fearing that she has been discovered and expecting a Lorien Defense Council official to come but then hears music and laughter. She realizes that it's the Quartermoon celebration and thinks about how the Loric people are being tricked into believing that everything is perfect.
She logs onto her computer and finds intercepted intelligence. Most of it is about normal, everyday matters. Some of them, however, are encrypted. These are more useful and Lexa could be paid for some of them, either to be released or kept private.
Lexa's computer sends a message to her stating that her decryption software is having problems decoding a message from an unknown channel. She hadn't known of it previously. She remarks upon how she has either improved greatly at monitoring Capital City or they have become sloppy.
Her second program starts to be able to decipher it, and she tries to figure out who sent it to whom. She can't figure out who sent it, but learns that it was sent to nine citizens whose names she doesn't recognize. She figures out that they are Mentor Cêpans through a search of the Lorien Defense Council's badly encrypted files. She makes out the words “airstrip,” “Garde,” and “Loridas.” She is excited when she learns that it must have something to do with the Elders, off-world for some reason. Even if the information isn't particularly useful, Lexa knows that people would pay for any information about the Elders.
Lexa's identity band, which has a communication system, vibrates, flashing the name of someone called “Zophie.” Lexa ignores it and the noise of the crowds, continuing to look at the message being deciphered. She sees more decrypted phrases. A prophecy coming true is mentioned, along with the end of Lorien and an evacuation. Zophie calls again, but Lexa hears real screams of fear and sees a red sky. Her apartment shakes and she realizes that there is fire coming towards her as the ceiling collapses onto her.
She is still in her apartment when she comes to. She wants to collect some of her belongings, but she can't. She climbs up a pile of rubble out of her window and sees that the rest of her building was obliterated, along with the other buildings on the street.
She sees charred grass and fires and wonders if there's been an error in pyrotechnics or a Garde kid lost control of his or her power. There are bloodied people and bodies everywhere. Zophie calls again, and this time Lexa accepts.
Zophie tells Lexa that the destruction is happening everywhere, that they're being strategically attacked. Lexa realizes that that was what was meant by the encrypted message about the prophecy coming true. She had thought that the story society was based on- that their super-powered children trained to be soldiers against some unknown enemy- was a scare tactic.
Zophie tells Lexa that she has a plan. Lexa is told to come to the museum, and that is the only way to be safe. Lexa can barely think and is confused. Zophie tells her to run there as fast as she can and to not let anything stop her before the connection drops out. Lexa wonders who else to check in on, but realizes that she hasn't let herself become close to anyone.
The remains of her building collapse. Lexa starts to obey Zophie's orders and run to the museum. She sees the chaos, people running everywhere looking for their friends or caring for themselves. As she gets closer to the museum, she sees a dozen pale figures with dark circles around their eyes, wearing dark clothes, with jagged teeth, and carrying blasters and glowing swords. One of them is huge, with a black ponytail and tattoos, presumably Commander Deltoch. They shoot a woman bending over a body and she falls.
Lexa crawls to the side, trying to get out of sight. There's nothing to protect her. A light flashes, disorientating the creatures. The monsters start to be thrown around telekinetically. One is impaled and disintegrates. Lexa sees a young girl with unnatural white hair leading two other Garde members to other survivors.
Lexa reaches the museum, wondering what to do if Zophie isn't there, but Zophie is. Zophie says that Lexa must fly them to Earth on a spaceship they had restored. The Elders don't expect the Loric to survive the invasion. They need to wait for Raylan to unlock the fuel, and Zophie is guaranteed a place on the ship. Lexa tells Zophie to call her pilot brother, the LDA, or the LCA. Zophie says that there is no one else to call, and that they need to leave. Everything is already lost to Lexa. Except her only friend.
Zophie tells Lexa that there is another ship that they should join, piloted by someone called “Janus” and a man enters with a dozen Chimærae and a trolley. Zophie calls him Crayton and asks about Raylan and Erina, who are apparently staying to fight. Zophie nods and introduces Lexa as “our pilot” and Crayton as a “caretaker at Raylan's estate”. Crayton points to the supplies, including weapons and valuables to barter with. He also says that the Chimærae are coming with them, and the passcode to the fuel is her name. Lexa realizes that he is carrying a tiny baby, called Ella, born only hours before, and that Raylan and Erina sacrificed themselves for her after entrusting her to Crayton.
A close explosion causes debris to start falling on them and they put on spacesuits from an exhibit. They start to load the ship and pump the fuel in. The Chimærae follow, shrinking. Lexa tries to remember everything from the ship, and manages to turn the ship on. Lexa flips a switch and the craft shakes but rises, breaking the glass ceiling of the museum. They fly above the Capital City, seeing fire and smoke as well as purple lights. Some of the city is scorched away. The Spires of Elkin, where one-third of the people in the city lived, are gone. Lexa looks away.
There are countless jagged gray enemy warships. The ship luckily passes through them into space. Lexa sees another ship with a Loric signature, and they want to follow it, but Lexa says that it's too far away and they need to conserve fuel, and the ship isn't upgraded enough to contact them. They look out at Lorien, and Lexa thinks about how she wanted to see it changed, not destroyed. Crayton is upset that they left everyone to die.
Lexa tells the others that they used a lot of fuel taking off, and it'll take them a year and a half to get to Earth. Crayton, Ella, and Zophie go over everything that happened. Zophie says that there were rumors of an ancient conflict with the Mogadorians. The Loric had apparently tried to form diplomatic bonds, but the Mogadorians were violent and killed them. Lexa asks who else had been evacuated. Zophie says that Janus shouldn't have even told her anything, and she didn't know. Lexa eventually gets her to say that Loridas or the Elders assembled nine chosen Garde and Cêpans, the last hope for the survival of the Loric, and blessed them with a protective charm. Lexa is angry that the Elders tried to save only a handful of special people and abandoned everyone else. Crayton says that that can't be right. Lexa mentions the message she intercepted, and it still sounds insane that the Elders abandoned them and are sending their last hope, nine kids, to a infinitely inferior planet. Zophie wants to take stock of their supplies, but Lexa asks the real reason Zophie asked her, out of all people, to come. Zophie says that she know that Lexa wouldn't want to fight, because of how she detested the Loric government. The only family Zophie had had was Janus, and he was in the other ship. She had believed that they would be able to contact him. Before she had left, he had given her information, breaking oaths, because he believed that she would die. He wouldn't have been able to bring her because then they would have to make allowances for everyone to come on, and protecting their people would be awful. Lexa thinks about her own brother, and Zophie tells her that she'll never be able to find Janus on Earth.
The ship is one hallway, with four rooms. The Chimærae nest in the storage, and the ship was previously equipped with clothes, tools, and appliances.There's a data pad with instructions, and Lexa picks a bedroom. It's cramped and the bed is too short. Lexa thinks of her brother, dead for five years, and realizes that the prophecy society was built on was real. But Lorien was lost, only 19 people saved by the will of the Elders. Lexa doesn't know why they were chosen to be saved, and only them.
Lexa, Zophie, and Crayton think about the future. They prepare for when they are on Earth, trying to track down the others, who will arrive before them. They insist that the others will arrive unharmed and think about Earth's diversity. They eat less and less as time goes on and start to learn some of Earth's languages. French is the most similar to Loric, but they also learn Spanish, English, German, and Mandarin. Lexa continues writing down everything she remembers about Earth's communications and wonders why the Elders had helped Earth, and if they had been preparing to move to Earth. Crayton worries about raising a girl, and how much to tell her. He wonders if it will be safer to lie to her.
They eventually catch sight of Earth. They're running out of supplies. Crayton has grown a beard and Lexa's previously buzz cut hair is now almost an inch long. They are all gaunt, except for Ella, who is almost chubby. She's learned to stand and speak a few words.
They point out a desert on Earth's surface. It will be uninhabited, the ideal place to land. As they start to land in Egypt, the reentry thrusters don't work and they start flying parallel to the ground. They smash into a sand dune. They use a grenade to get out. They follow a Chimæra called Olivia and eventually find roads and come to Giza. Some people try to sell them a tour, but Lexa bribes them.
They trade in many of the trinkets Raylan sent at pawn shops, and Lexa buys a laptop. She reassembles it, upgrading it with Loric data pads, and starts to look for any sign of the other ship. They see a picture of a ship that has to be Loric, taken in the US. Lexa finds that it was taken in a secluded part of northern New York, and that the normally active blogger who posted it stopped responding. His name was Eric Bird, and Lexa finds his address. They debate whether or not to obtain fake passports, and Lexa sells a necklace with Loralite to a trader. She goes with Crayton and Ella to trade more.
The trader seems uncomfortable, staring at Ella, and looks at a picture of him and his daughter. Lexa notices his sweat and bruises, implying that he was beaten up and threatened. He refuses to trade with them, and they start to leave. They see Mogadorians in a van, and the trader apologizes, saying that he didn't know that there would be a baby. He is hit by a bolt of energy. There are seven Mogs in total, and all of the exits are blocked. Lexa uses a grenade and Crayton and Ella start to leave. The EMP stopped the weapons of both Lexa and the Mogs. Crayton is hit in the leg by a large sliver of glass and falls. He throws Ella to Lexa. A Mog is about to kill Crayton when the trader shoots it. He shoots the others and tells Crayton and Lexa to run.
They get back to Zophie and tell her what happened. Their illusion of safety was destroyed, and they worry about Janus and the other ship. Crayton gives Lexa a key to his room, and when she wakes up, he, Ella, and a Chimæra, Olivia, are gone. Crayton left a note saying that searching for the others is too dangerous, and his duty as Ella's guardian is to protect her. Zophie is confused, but Lexa burns the letter, saying that they must leave no trail. They buy fake passports and a driver's license leave nothing behind.
They arrive in America and rent an SUV. They find Eric Bird and he tells them to go away, and that he has nothing to say. He tries to shut the door, but Zophie begs him, saying that he's the only lead on her brother. They find out that Eric already told everything to the Mogadorians. Lexa and Zophie find a cabin near the supposed landing sight of the ship. Lexa continues to search the Internet. Zophie is dejected after learning that the Mogs were looking for the other Loric. Eventually Lexa scrambles the IP address before posting in a forum about alien encounters in Loric, “Where are you?” Zophie has been forwarding Lexa news/rumors articles about potential Garde. Lexa sees a particularly interesting one about several tattooed men who chased a boy into the woods, and then a reply in Loric to her comment: “I'm here.”
The commenter's data is blocked, and Lexa asks “Who are you?” still in Loric. The anonymous replies that he or she is a friend from Lorien, specifically from the capitol. When Lexa asks when this person came to Earth, the person says that she asks many questions, to which she responds that she has to be careful. She finds that the person does not have a working knowledge of Loric culture, but still wonders if there is any chance that the person is a friend, a Loric ambassador. She says that she is here on a Lore envoy. The anonymous says “Yes, a Lore envoy. I have new orders but I cannot share them here. Where are you?” Lexa, realizing that it's a trap and thinking of the woman murdered types out a short but potent response: “Die, Mogadorian trash.” She is sent a message: “Let's try this another way” and a MPEG movie. She plays it. It shows Janus, shirtless, gaunt, and tied to a chair. He is told to “speak to his kind”. He says that he is sorry, that he tried to hide the ship, and that he told them about the Garde children. But then he becomes fiercer, saying that they are scattered to every corner of the world, and that the Mogadorians will never find them. There's a shock passed through him and he dies.
Zophie knocks, asking if everything is okay. Lexa lies, saying yes, having closed the video. She doesn't tell Zophie about her brother's death, instead saying that they should investigate a story on the news. Zophie nods. Lexa sees that the Mog has left her another message, saying that they have many prisoners, and asking her to turn herself in. Lexa thinks about how the Mogs are the real killers of her brother, and how they are horrible. Lexa responds back: “I will destroy you.”
Lexa tries to leave by herself, unable to witness Zophie's optimism. Zophie catches her and Lexa makes excuses. Zophie eventually agrees, and thanks her, telling her to stay in contact. Lexa leaves. When she tries to call Zophie, there is a beeping that means that the number was disconnected. She tries multiple times, but nothing changes. Eventually she finds a message from Zophie saying that she contacted someone who must be Loric because they knew all about Loridas, the Garde, and Janus. Lexa pulls up the live surveillance feed of the cabin and sees dozens of Mogadorians fighting Chimærae. Zophie is killed by a monster and the Chimærae run. Lexa cries and starts to run.
Two weeks later, someone publishes a story about a man with a young freckled boy (Possibly Number Three) trying to fly to Africa with a chest covered in Loric symbols. Lexa hacks the blog and overloads the servers. She then sends a virus to the writer and photographer. It destroys her hard drive. But Lexa is alone again. She blames herself for not being honest with Zophie, and continues gathering information. She thinks about how dangerous it was to try to find everyone, and how everyone close to her seems to get hurt. Lexa decides that she will be a phantom and a guardian, covering up the tracks of the Loric, gathering resources for them, and she'll look for Janus's ship.