قم بترجمة النص التالي الي اللغة العربية It was strange how hard that hit me. It wasn’t even  really my father’s pin. I
still didn’t have an explanation for how it had shown up in my pocket—but then again, I also didn’t have a good explanation for how water appeared on the fragments.
Still, in losing the icon, I felt as if I had been robbed of something deeply personal. My only tangible link to the world I’d left. My source of stability.
Chet! I sent. The icon is gone!
What? he replied. Miss Nightshade, I didn’t have anything to do with it! I vow upon my—
I believe you, I said. I know you didn’t take it, Chet. But it is gone. How?
I have no idea, he replied.
All right. I’m coming to get you.
Wait. Coming to get me?
I had to steal the ship now instead of later, I said. I’ll explain in a bit.
With a growl of annoyance at the empty hole, I dashed back to the ship and hauled myself into the cockpit—keeping an eye on Maksim the whole way. He didn’t raise his weapon. I nodded to him, and in seconds I had M- Bot cruising toward Chet. I could feel him with my mind, but it was still an enormous  relief  when  I  saw  him  standing  at  the  edge  of  the  blue  jungle fragment, one hand raised high in greeting, the other in an improvised sling, with the sleeve of his jacket hanging loose.
I  pulled  the  ship  up  beside  the  fragment  and  popped  the  canopy—then immediately  started  my  ship’s  shield  ignition  process.  It  was  a  terrible shield, but better than nothing.
I  began  to  climb  out  to  help  Chet  aboard,  but  he  deftly  managed  to scramble up the wing on his own. Standing just beside the canopy, he gave me a wide mustachioed grin, then gestured with one hand to the ship. “Our mighty steed. She is beautiful!”
“You  won’t  say  that  after  you  see  her  specs,”  I  said.  I  stood  and  pulled the seat forward, revealing the cargo space behind it in the cockpit. “Sorry about the accommodations.”
“I’ve known worse,” Chet said, squeezing into the spot. “But we have a problem. Without the icon, I worry about us traveling alone, long term.”
“You have the ashes I gave you though, right?” I said.
“I do indeed. They should last us a few weeks at least.”
“Good enough for now,” I said. “We’ll escape, then try to figure out what happened to my icon.” I closed the canopy and locked my seat into place. There  was  barely  enough  room  for  Chet  behind  me.  It  would  have  to  do. Because we had a more pressing problem.
“All nine fighters are giving chase,” M-Bot said. “They have restored the two  resonants.  Everyone  will  be  upon  us  soon.”  He  helpfully  zoomed  out the proximity display to show the Broadsiders as blips on the screen.
“With their scanner active,” Chet said, “I fear for our ability to continue our quest.”
“Any suggestions?”
“We  could  bolt  for  another  pirate  faction’s  territory,”  he  said.  “But  that could backfire. The other faction would naturally assume us to be part of a Broadsider raid, and would react accordingly.”
Well, if it got the Broadsiders to drop off for a short time, then maybe we could use it. I turned the ship to the heading M-Bot indicated and started us flying.
“Spensa,” M-Bot said. “I have bad news.”
“We’re not going to make it?” I guessed.
“Judging  our  top  speed  against  those  of  the  faster  Broadsider  ships,  no. We’ll be intercepted before we reach the border.”
Scud. I glanced to the side as I felt Chet’s hand on my shoulder, reaching from behind the seat.
“There is another option,” he said. “We could fly straight up.”
I glanced upward through the canopy into that infinite pink sky. “What’s up there?”
“I  don’t  know,”  Chet  said.  “I’ve  never  explored  that  direction.  Just  as I’ve never left this larger region. There are distant sections of the belt, to the right  and  left,  but  those  involve  large  gaps  between  fragments  that  are dangerous to cross alone, even when flying.
“I’ve  warned you it’s dangerous to stray far from the fragments. We can quickly  lose  our  identities  if  we  fly  upward,  but  we  have  ashes,  which should delay the effects.”
It  took  me  only  a  moment  to  decide.  I  pulled  up,  sending  the  ship— already  rattling  from  our  excessive  speed—straight  upward  into  that  vast unknown.
The  blips  on  my  screen  slowed.  Excellent.  We  flew  for  a  good  fifteen minutes,  and  I  started  to  relax  as  it  became  increasingly  obvious  that  the Broadsiders were not giving chase.
“Spensa,”  M-Bot  said.  “We’re  being  hailed  by  the  Broadsiders.  Do  you want me to put them on the comm?”
“Go ahead,” I said.
The  comm  crackled  in  an  old-timey  way.  I  tried  to  see  it  as  quaint,  and not another indication that my ship was two shakes and a stern glare away from falling apart.
“Spin!”  Peg’s  voice  blared  into  the  cockpit.  “You  mulun-growing reprobate! Why didn’t you tell me you were a pilot!”
That wasn’t the tone I’d been expecting.
“You figured out I was a soldier, Peg,” I said.
“I  thought  you  were  some  type  of  special  forces  trooper!”  she  shouted. “The way you prowled about. Words! You had a security drone disguised as a cleaning drone. How was I supposed to know you were a pilot?”
“I’ve probably made it obvious that I know my way around a starfighter.”
“Know your way… No need for kalams of humility. I watched you fly on our scanner, and that was some of the best piloting I’ve ever seen. I spent some time with the drone pilots on Culmira Station, and they have nothing on you, girl. Even Shiver is impressed.”
“Well, I appreciate the compliment,” I told her. “Tell the others I’m sorry for  stealing  a  ship.  I  have  a  galaxy  to  save.  Once  I’m  finished,  I’ll  see  if there’s anything that can be done to help you all.”
“Spin,” Peg said, her voice growing softer. “Where do you think you’re going?”
“Right now? I’m losing you all.”
“Yeah?” Peg said. “Do you know what happens to a person if they stray too far away from the fragments?”
I didn’t respond.
“Even if you survive this next part,” Peg said, “what are you going to do then? You can’t stay up there very long, and our scanner will tell us when you  come  back  down.  We’ll  be  on  you  in  no  time.  Veer  right  or  left,  and you’ll have to deal with one of the other factions.
“I  suppose  you  could  move  inward—which  would  run  you  straight  into the  Superiority  mining  facility.  Let  me  promise  you  that  they  keep  careful watch on their borders—we’ve raided them enough to warrant that. You’re good. But can you outfly a hundred enemy ships? Worse, can you do it in that piece of junk?”
“I guess we’ll see,” I told her.
She  swore  softly.  “A  person  needs  more  than  muluns,  girl.  Think  for  a moment.  You  can’t  survive  in  this  place  alone.  You  need  allies,  friends, support.”
“Spensa,” M-Bot said, temporarily muting the comm, “look at Chet.”
I glanced over my shoulder and around the seat’s head support to where he  sat  scrunched  up  behind.  The  older  man’s  eyes  had  glazed  over.  He stared ahead, insensate, and didn’t respond when I waved my hand in front of him.
Something began streaming up around him: a glittering, silvery haze. The reality  ashes.  I  felt  it  too,  as  they  spun  around  me,  like  they  were… disintegrating?
Being  up  here  was  destroying  them,  perhaps  to  keep  us  from  losing ourselves. I gritted my teeth and leveled out the ship, not gaining any more altitude.
“Peg is talking again,” M-Bot said quietly.
I nodded, having him restore the comm line.
“You’re going to start feeling it soon, if you haven’t already,” Peg said. “Can you remember yourself, girl?”
“I’m fine,” I said through gritted teeth.
“Are  you?  Can  you  remember  the  faces  of  your  parents?  Your  friends from home?”
I tried not to listen—but I didn’t dare turn off the comm. Because scud, she  was  right.  What  did  they  look  like?  The  reality  ashes  seemed  to  be struggling to keep me from forgetting my identity, and I felt my memories begin to fade.
“Maybe you can fight through an entire armada on your own,” Peg said. “I don’t know. But the longer you stay up there, the more you will lose. And
traveling  on your own will be bad for you, even if you aren’t so high. Your address  back  home,  your  most  passionate  moments,  the  names  of  your lovers. They’ll blur. Your life will become like a smudge on paper—a black smear where words used to be.”
I  hovered  there,  infinity  stretching  in  all  directions.  Dominated  still, however, by the lightburst. And in there, I could feel the delvers. They were hunting  for  me.  Out  here,  up  high,  they  could  find  me.  And  in  revenge, they’d do to me something alien, something terrible. They’d take my self. My identity. My memories.
“Something odd has been happening lately,” Peg said over the comm. “I have reports of people becoming like delvers, with glowing eyes. You can’t fly  alone,  Spin.  It’s  not  because  you’re  weak.  No  matter  how  determined you are, you still need ties to reality.”
I took a deep breath. “I can’t afford to spend years cleaning landing gear, Peg.”
“Girl,  you’re  wasted  on  ground  crew,”  Peg  said.  “You  return,  and  I’ll give you our best ship.”
“No  offense,  Peg,”  I  said.  “But  I  just  beat  you  with  a  wrench  and  stole from you. I didn’t want to do it, but you backed me into a corner and forced my hand. I can’t believe that you’d simply let me go after that.”
“Oh,  I  won’t  simply  let  you  go,”  Peg  said.  “I’ll  give  you  that  ship  in exchange for something.”
“What?”
“How would you feel about defeating the pirate champion for me?”
I frowned. I mean, I wasn’t opposed to the idea at all—but the way she asked  about  it  worried  me.  Made  me  think  she  had  some  game  she  was playing, beyond that of the other pirates.
But  scud,  I  didn’t  know  how  long  the  ashes  would  last.  And  Chet… something  bad  was  happening  to  him.  I  decreased  power  to  the  acclivity ring, lowering us slowly through the sky.
This  could  all  be  a  trap.  But…Peg  was  correct;  we  couldn’t  fly  up  that high. Pushing aside my worry for Chet, I tried to focus on the conversation.
“Why do you care about something like a pirate champion?” I asked Peg.
“I  don’t,  really,”  she  said.  “But  I  need  to  take  back  Surehold—the Superiority mining outpost. My home.”
Take back the Superiority base? Curious. If Chet was right, and the Path of Elders was going to continue on inward toward the lightburst, I’d need to
find  a way to sneak through Superiority territory. If they were busy fighting off pirates, that would certainly provide some useful cover.
“I’m listening,” I said, leaning forward. “Tell me more.”
“There  are  enough  pirates  in  the  factions  to  challenge  the  Superiority presence in here,” Peg said. “If we attacked together, we could overwhelm them and seize control of the mining base.”
“That  sounds  great,”  I  said,  “but  how  exactly  are  you  going  to  get  the other pirate factions to follow you? Last I heard, even your  sons don’t listen to you anymore.”
Peg  laughed.  “There’s  more  to  this  than  you  know,  Spin.  I  can  make  it work. I merely need an excellent pilot to start the tree growing by defeating the champion.”
I  lowered  us  farther,  and  heard  Chet  stir.  I  glanced  at  him  and  saw  him blinking.  The  ashes  had  stopped  disintegrating,  and  I  had  the  feeling  I’d dodged  something  very  dangerous  by  coming  back  down  as  quickly  as  I had.
“Very  well,  Peg,”  I  said.  “I’ll  consider  this,  but  before  we  agree  I  have one  more  condition.  There  are  some  ruins  I  need  to  visit  here  in  your territory.  Give  me  a  ship,  let  me  visit  those  ruins,  and  I’ll  take  down  that champion for you.”
“Ruins? Words, girl. I can take you to some ruins. We’ll do it tomorrow. Look,  this  is  a  good  deal.  You  help  me—maybe  give  my  fighters  a  few pointers  to  help  them  improve—and  we’ll  deal  a  serious  blow  to  the Superiority. Isn’t that alone worth it? If we stop their acclivity stone mining operations,  your  war  gets  way  easier.  Plus,  when  you  leave  us  next  time, you’ll have earned that ship you’re taking from us. What do you say?”
“Give me a moment.” I flicked off the comm.
“Spensa?” M-Bot said. “I’m worried. Are you feeling better?”
Was  I?  I  took  a  deep  breath,  sorting  through  my  memories.  I…yes,  I remembered. Jorgen, Kimmalyn, FM, Arturo, Nedd. Cobb. Gran-Gran. My mother.
I  could  remember  them…but  scud,  their  faces  weren’t  clear  to  me anymore.  It  had  been  getting  worse  each  day  I  spent  in  here.  I  was  losing things. Pieces of who I’d been.
But at least I had recovered most of what I’d lost from flying up so high.
“Miss  Nightshade?”  Chet  asked.  “Perhaps  my  suggestion  wasn’t  the most…wise.”
“It  kind of worked,” I said, glancing back at him. “Kind of didn’t. How do you feel?”
“Like  I’ve  been  used  as  a  chew  toy  by  a  Markivian  barrow-wolf,”  he said. “Did I miss anything?”
“The Broadsiders want me to return,” I said. “They say they’ll trade me a ship—a good one—and take me to the next step on the Path. But I have to agree to defeat the pirate champion for them.”
“That’s  an…odd  request,”  he  said.  “I  wasn’t  aware  that  their  little championship mattered so much. Peg is planning something. I suspect she always has been.”
“She wants to take back the Superiority base,” I said. “She told me that much.”
“Ambitious!” Chet said. “I like it. Well, I doubt we’ll get a better deal. I say we agree. What’s the worst that can happen?”
“They take us prisoner and chain us to the wall.”
“Whereupon we get to escape again!” Chet said, and then he continued, more  subdued—losing  a  bit  of  the  affectation.  “I  have  spent  a  long  time traveling  alone,  Spensa.  Your  company  is  remarkable,  truly,  but  it  would be…reassuring to spend a period with a group.”
“M-Bot?” I asked.
“If it lets me get out of this ship into something built in the last century,” he said, “I’m for it.”
I flicked the comm back on. “All right, Peg. You have a deal.”
“Ha! Words.”
“One  thing  though,”  I  said.  “You’re  going  to  have  to  clean  up  another bunk. I’m bringing a friend.”
I turned off the comm and steered us back the way we’d come. The other ships  must  have  landed  while  we  were  flying,  since  as  I  approached  the Broadsider fragment I could see that the pirates were all outside, gathered in front of their hangars. A ragtag group to be certain, but I supposed I’d seen worse. Skyward Flight, for example, when we’d first started training.
I  guided  my  ship  over  and  settled  down.  With  a  shared  look  of determination,  Chet  and  I  climbed  out  of  the  cockpit.  I  still  half  expected the Broadsiders to take us captive, but fortunately nobody pulled a gun. We even got a few cheers.
It was forced, and I saw in Maksim’s eyes a healthy distrust. An emotion I’d certainly earned.
Well, I would deal with that. Because at long last, Operation Ship-Steal had succeeded. And tomorrow I could finally continue the Path of Elders.