Thepter 30
"I know it's too late to ask this, but do you know how to fly a spaceship?" Kallen asked; she was feeling a bit uneasy about this.
Piloting a Knightmare is easy for her, but a huge plane around 150 metres long is a bit…
"It's a valid point. I mean, maybe? I played enough video games." Marcus replied as he dropped into the pilot seat and began to power the plane.
"Ugh…" The Crimson-haired girl got nervous. But she remained in the cockpit and even joined as his second, the co-pilot.
Seeing her distressed but sticking around caused Marcus to think that he should not torture the poor girl anymore.
"I designed this plane to fly with AI assistance, you know." He explained to her as hardlight holograms manifested around him.
"Not to mention every bolt and piece of metal was designed by me." The Inventor Prince rolled his eyes as he began to run tests.
The thrusters, the flaps, and all of the support systems, as well as instructing the tunnel to open before them.
The platform moved as a tunnel opened in front of them. It extended for a considerable distance. The route was glowing red for now.
[Adjusting surveillance systems, running a temporary blackout.]
The route turned green as the plane could leave the city.
"It's a big plane. Will we be able to hide it?" Kallen asked as she understood that Legion was running interference as a precaution.
"This leads directly into Tokyo Bay. By the time people realise what is going on, the plane will be high in the air."
"...and back?"
"Nighttime exists." He replied with a shrug.
"Even so… people talk. There are already local 'myths' around your tech." His new pilot air quoted myths parts.
"Ah, the grey death." He recalled the gangsters when he rescued Nina.
"Yep. The crazy ones said that freedom fighters provoked some deity by building their base in a holy mountain. That's why Kyoto House is no longer supporting freedom fighters." Kallen explained the myth behind Grey Death.
"Cool. But it doesn't explain the missing mountain top or melted material inside." He reminded her about the mess he left in the cavern.
Not that his knights collected all of the stuff.
"That's the scary part, according to the myth. After the grey death, only scraps left and bits of blood, nothing else."
"...I guess I can accept my first myth." He shrugged, accepting such a thing even if there were questionable details.
"That shrugging of yours is starting to annoy me." The girl replied with a twitchy smile.
"Then I will smile at you."
"EVEN WORSE!" The girl blushed as he smiled at her.
"While you are cute to look at, I still need to run some tests. Why don't we visit the moon?" He asked her as his hand went to the lever.
He pushed it forward as the pair of Ion Thrusters roared to life. Blue plasma flames began to emit in an O shape.
Kallen looked around. She felt the power of those things even here at the front!
"Let's go." He flipped a button at the lever before pressing the handle, and the plane blasted out.
One second, they were in the tunnel, and the next one, they were above Tokyo Bay before climbing up.
Kallen, by this point, had her eyes closed. She did that for a decent amount of time, as slowly she opened one and looked at the front.
What she saw was blue that was slowly fading away.
[Leaving Earth in 3…2…1…0…]
[We have left the Planet. Adjusting to Space.]
The Plane's wings slightly moved as the holograms adjusted to the surroundings. Instead of a horizontal line, the regular planes have. It was an orientation based on stars and celestial bodies.
"Begin data gathering for space navigation," Marcus instructed his AI as his fingers danced through the holograms.
[Beginning data gathering]
The holograms flashed as the sensors around the ship turned on.
The only way to navigate in space is by reading stars. That is what Legion's sensors are doing.
"So… umm… are we really going to the moon?" Kallen slowly starts to believe that whatever he says, it WILL happen.
"Yep. Aren't you excited about it? How many people stood on the moon's surface?" He asked her if there was a purpose for that after all.
"...I think less than five."
Kallen isn't that interested in history, especially Britannian history.
"Indeed, and now we will do that." He nodded at her before ordering his AI for his true destination. "Set course for the moon, Legion."
[Setting course for the moon.] The holograms moved, and the course has been set. The map of space appeared before them.
[Calculating distance.]
The word 'calculating' appeared on screen for a couple of moments.
[Calculations complete, ETA 34 minutes.]
"...less than an hour? Isn't it like hundreds of thousands of miles away?" Kallen gawked at the small numbers.
"Indeed, and the actual number is 238 thousand. However, the reason why it takes that long is deceleration. We can reach absurd speeds with Ion thrusters, but this plane doesn't have technology for deceleration." Marcus explained to her, before showing a wry smile.
"You can say my tech is a bit primitive at the moment."
"If you call this primitive, then the Britannians are monkeys that play with sticks and stones!" The girl countered before pulling herself down to the seat and locking in with the belt. She realised she was flying away from the seat thanks to zero gravity.
"Maybe they are." He laughed at his homeland's expense before he returned to his navigation programming.
He already located the major planets; what's left is the orientation of the constellations.
Marcus is a bit pissed at how backwards space observation is on this Earth. They should invest more in this.
One never knows when a civilisation-killing asteroid will hit.
"...So… umm, will we be able to take pictures?" She asked as the girl realised how boring it was…
Just staring at the growing moon…
"Sure, you can do that."
"Great! I doubt my friends will believe me if I don't show these pictures!" She replied with a bright smile.
Marcus smiled at her a bit. It turns out that she can forget her freedom crusade for just a minute.
After waiting for another couple of minutes, the girl removed her belt and began floating around, enjoying the zero gravity.
"We will circle the moon a couple of times before we are slow enough to land properly." Marcus's hands went on the control sticks as he began his manoeuvring.
"Oh great! So we are finally here." The girl replied as she rotated and kicked off from the cockpit's ceiling.
"It was less than an hour. Your patience is lacking." He shook his head, making her blush for a second.
"We literally are flying to the moon, how do you expect to be patient?" She complained back at him.
He pondered for a second before nodding.
"You are right. Now let's see if I got it." One of his hands went through a hardlight hologram, checking the moon's surface.
"Pity that this ball of rock is not rotating; we could slow down even further." He complained as he began landing procedures.
"...Is it? I thought it changes how we see it almost daily."
"That's because it's flying around Earth, not rotating." He explained to her as his plane began to land close to a crater.
Kallen realised that she was slowly landing.
'Oh…'
With a spin, she was standing on the floor.
"I feel very…light." She commented on this strange development.
"That's because of the moon's light gravity." He explained as he got up from his seat.
"...and yeah… it is strange." He took a few big steps before taking a couple of smaller ones, playing around with the moon's gravity.
"...Interesting." Marcus smiled a bit. This brings a few memories back.
"Follow me, we are going to get the suits on." He smiled at her, making her eyes glitter.
"We are going outside?" She hoped for that!
"Indeed, what else!" He motioned for her to follow. The pair used big steps to arrive at the changing room, which was full of lockers.
Kallen's eyes ended up on familiar letters on the lockers.
She could see KK-01,KK-11, KK-21 and KK-31.
The girl doesn't even need to check, as she knows her number.
When she opened the locker, she saw a red one-piece pilot suit.
"Will these be enough for Moon?" She asked him.
He pointed at the helmet before at the squire things charging at the back.
"The helmets seal your body away from outside, and those blocks there are oxygen units.
"We can play outside for several hours without care." He explained to her, making her look at him.
"Play? Are we kids or something?" She was a bit embarrassed to hear him say it like that!
"At this moment we are, and I am not embarrassed to say that." He laughed before grabbing his dark purple and black pilot suit.
"...I-I guess youa zero-gravity. She opened her locker and found a red suit.
'He knows my colours…' Kallen was pleased with his choice.
The girl took off her suit and went to the changing room. After a quick switch of clothes, she went back to take the helmet.
It was the first time she was using something like this. So she wondered if she was doing it right.
Turns out it's extremely easy, as there was a click sound and her helmet sealed itself.
Marcus, who had finished with his clothes, showed her how to wear them.
"There are two buttons on the side." He pressed one, and the glass protection went down. He then pressed another button, and the glass turned dark, covering her face.
"The first one iinfor glass to drop, the second one is to darken it, you can use it to block the sun, and it hides your identity.
Both are important."
"...Oh, that is good." The girl's hand went to the right side of the helmet. Her fingers soon found two buttons.
She played with the for a bit.
Figuring out how they work.
"Got it. We can go now," After figuring out the buttons and checking out her suit, which was similar to the pilot suit used by Knightmare pilots, only a bit thicker.
"The force of the boot's magnet's pull is similar to Earth's, in case you need to use it in a zero-gravity situation and you are close to metal."
He showed her where it is.
"Oh?"
Kallen knelt down to check her boots.
After looking around, she found a simple switch of some sort. With a flick of it, there was a feeling of suction of some sort.
She could feel a bit heavier, or at least there was a feeling of some sort that she was heavier.
"Interesting technology, I feel a bit more normal now." The girl walked around for a bit. It was harder to move her legs now as the boots were getting pulled towards the floor.
"Yes, that's the point. So far, technology is a bit primitive. I lack gravity control, and I need to develop a HUD for the helmets." He explained what was in his bingo book.
Gravity technology is something he figured out by accident in his previous life; it's very close to a Fusion Reactor.
The way it works is not that difficult; it only requires an absurd amount of power. Basically, the 'miniature sun' inside the fusion reactor has to spin.
Of course, a simple spin is not enough, as gravity is a wave. To make these waves flow, he needs to create specific resonators that could spread through the whole ship, like this one, to simulate Earth's gravity.
The same could be applied to the moon or any other celestial object, even gas giants, but that could be used to control gases, like draining Jupiter of its Helium.
Something he can do later to mass-produce his Fusion Reactors.
"...Gravity… you can make artificial gravity?" Kallen looked surprised. She had no idea about the details, but last time she checked, that stuff is something one can't see or even perceive…it's just there!
"Yeah, I just need to spin you around." He showered her with his fingers. He wouldn't mind feeling her up.
"NO THANKS!" The girl took a step back with a heavy blush.
Marcus laughed, seeing her like that.
She is so easy to tease!
~~~
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