Any thinking sentient being could pilot a ship, but Navigators were created for it. They did not so much pilot the ship as they became it: their thoughts translated motion and field and weapon, sense and sensation becoming gravitational wave and quantum flux. They were a mind within a machine. It is not unusual for a Navigator's body to begin to atrophy as it stayed at its station, forgetting and forgoing petty organic necessities like breathing or moving. Yet all were within The Mind, and the Mind always ultimately unplugged those who began to forget themselves and their duty.
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