Chapter 2 - Launch to Survive
September 13th 2204 – UNCF Launching Platform, Tokyo Metropolis, Earth – 0930 hrs
It was a beautiful Tuesday morning at Tokyo Bay as an almost cloudless blue sky greeted the crowd of spectators that were seated at the Amaterasu Launching Platform. This facility which had so publicly christened and commissioned the first Andromeda-class battleships in view of the public was previously destroyed by Gatlantis' assault on Earth nearly a year ago but had been recently rebuilt with a new architecture design which now had added some spectator arena seats on both sides of the launching slipways.
"Good morning everyone, I'm Karen Crossroads reporting live at the Amaterasu Launching Platform Arena," announced a female reporter who was standing with a camera crew on a viewing platform next to a currently occupied launching berth. "We're here today to witness the launch and christening of the UNCF Arethusa; the latest and newest addition to the family of Andromeda battleships."
Crossroad smiled as the cameraman panned to the massive sight of the newly completed Arethusa as she sat proudly in her launching berth. The Aquarius-type ship was now spotting an attractive paint scheme with her hull's longitude lines painted in dark gray while her dorsal and ventral sections were given a light bluish gray coat with yellow markings on some areas of the ship such as her front bow section, the front section of her turrets and several panel lines near the housing for her auxiliary engines' pods and housings. Her Ginga-styled superstructure was also painted light bluish-gray with the second bridge section painted dark gray with two lovely flanks of yellow markings on either side. Her dome was also painted dark gray but spotted a lovely shade of yellow that cut across the center portion from the front bottom section to the base of the neck that raised towards the second bridge area.
"As you can see here after a few reported setbacks and delays, the ship that has been dubbed "The Great Experiment" is finally ready to take to the skies for her first test trials before her scheduled commissioning next week," she continued as she walked alongside the railing. "The third member of the so-called Aquarius-type battleship has been hyped to be the spearhead of a possible new generation of ships for the Cosmo Navy that will not rely or even be installed with the wave motion guns which most battleships today are commonly armed with."
At that moment, Crossroad stepped towards both Rezebak and Captain Thomson.
"Mr Rezebak, you must be very proud to be launching your beloved dream project today. How do you feel about it?"
"Thank you Ms Crossfields," Rezebak beamed enthusiastically. "It's fantastic that we finally got to this milestone of completing the vessel. Originally we planned to launch the ship earlier a few days ago, but due to a technical hiccup last Saturday we had to reschedule it today. Nevertheless we're excited to see what she can do on this week's test trials. The Arethusa's going to kick the shit out of her competitors like there's no tomorrow."
"I am sure she will Rezebak," chuckled Crossroad. "Your bold endeavor has been warmly received by the public and heavily supported by members of the Earth Federation and even the Garmillan governments. Although, it has been reported the same couldn't be said in the military as many veteran officers and captains are divided over the subject of putting so much trust on a highly experimental and untested ship as yours. Especially since you're planning to build at least six more ships of the same type. Do you think some of their concerns are justified?"
"Well I would definitely disagree about their concerns in regards to our new baby here," replied Rezebak politely. "There are always going to be doubts about whether such new and technological revolutionary ships should be rushed into service. But similar comments were said of the original Andromeda and the Ginga herself when they were commissioned last year. And we know not only did they prove their doubters wrong but also changed the strategic and tactical landscape in Earth's favor. You can bet this new ship will follow in their footsteps and carry on their success story.
Rezebak gave a glance to the camera with a smirk.
"Regardless of what those naysayers say, the Arethusa will be fully ready for service by the end of the month."
September 13th 2204 – UNCF Arethusa, Earth – 0935 hrs
"What!? You want to limit the main engine output to 3800 RPM?" asked Commander Alan Rowden as he barked at one of the visual screens on the comms console that was linked to main engineering. He was currently on the bridge prepping the crew for the launch and was preoccupied with the Chief Engineer's safety concerns in regards to the ship's wave motion engine.
"I'm afraid so sir," sighed Chief Engineer Yao Nanban on the screen, who appeared to be a lanky Japanese man in his mid-40s. "In light of the recent hiccup with the ICARUS system, I recommend we rely on auxiliary power for a majority of the shakedown cruise. Just to be on the safe side till the bugs are fixed with the power control systems."
"Unacceptable," retorted Rowden. "The power output you're suggesting is barely enough to lift the ship into the atmosphere, even with auxiliary power."
"But sir, it's still within acceptable requirements for the launch," argued Nanban. "I would rather be on the safe side than-"
"I want a higher limit than that, Mr Nanban!" Rowden demanded. "We're going to perform the launch of the greatest Andromeda the world has ever seen and we need all the power we can get to show it to them. I trust you realize what is at stake if you don't deliver, am I right?"
A long tense and awkward silence filled the bridge as everyone waited for Nanban to reply. A minute later, the chief engineer let out a long reluctant sigh before responding to the XO.
"Yes sir, we'll raise the engine RPM limit to be just more than enough for the launch."
"Thank you Mr Nanban, that will be all," replied Rowden with a smirk before cutting the comms link to main engineering.
"Porter!"
"Yes XO?" asked Lieutenant Commander Wilhelm D. Porter, a purple haired man in his late 20s who was manning the primary tactical console.
"You're in command of the bridge, I'm going down to meet up with the Captain in the port auxiliary hangar once he's finished with his interviews with the press," instructed Rowden as he made his way to the elevator at the back of the bridge. Once entering the elevator car, he took a long gaze at the rest of the bridge crew.
"The rest of you continue with the preparations for the launch till the Captain and I get back. Regardless of any more technical difficulties. Is that understood?"
"Yes sir!" replied the bridge officers.
"Good! Carry on!"
Just as the lift doors closed, the entire bridge crew let out a collective exasperated sigh.
"Damn Rowden, does he really think we can launch in this state after the massive power outage from testing that damn ICARUS' power distribution system four days ago!?" grumbled Lieutenant Haruto Kazami, a young red haired helmsman who was responsible for piloting the Arethusa on her maiden flight. "We needed a week at least to finish all the affected systems and amenities that were affected by that power trip and we barely got more than two-thirds of them done!"
"It can't be helped," sighed Lieutenant Haru Cristina as she put up her hands casually. She was a graceful silver haired young female gunner officer who served as Porter's second in command in the tactical department.
"Top brass is desperate to get the Arethusa's certificate of space worthiness from the IMO quickly in time for us to participate in the bilateral Earth-Garmillas exercise coming next month in the LMC," she continued. "With the long voyage to the LMC starting in less than two weeks, it's no wonder why we're being rushed even in this state."
"Even so, I don't think our ship is even close to being ready for a long cruise to the LMC," added Lieutenant Daniel Jones, an American-African in his early 30s who served as the radar officer on the bridge. "Considering our recurring technical issues, I won't be surprised if the entire ship falls apart by the time we reach the New Balan Warp Gate."
"Ugh damn this stupid fritz-" muttered a discontented voice from beside Christina which prompted her to look at her superior officer who seemed to be struggling with his controls.
"Something wrong sir?"
"Obviously," snapped Porter with a frustrated sigh as he gestured to his tactical displays and screens on his console which were glitching every ten seconds. "These weapon systems are not functioning again."
"Haven't you tried rebooting it?" she frowned as the blue-silver haired gunner tried to operate on the fire control system for the shock cannons.
"I've already tried," Porter answered. "But they always crash when I try to restart them. I thought the tech reps had already fixed that problem yesterday!"
As Christina tried to reactivate the program, multiple error codes started flashing on the screen.
"Hmm, well if it still isn't working, you should go and see Lieutenant Commander Chiyomi," Christina mumbled thoughtfully. "She'll probably help arrange the tech raps to have another look at it."
"You're sure about that?" asked Porter nervously. "Rowden might come back and-"
"Don't worry about the XO," reassured Christina. "I'll keep an eye on things on the bridge till you get back. Besides, he's probably wanting some spotlight from the press for himself."
"True," Porter let out a chuckle. "Well in that case I better make this one quick. Christina, you take the conn if you please."
"Yes sir!"
Christina gave a nod just as Porter got up from his chair and made his way to the lift. As the doors closed, the interface in the elevator began to speak in a garbled voice.
"L-l-lev-level!?"
"Deck 12 please," Porter answered.
As the elevator began to descend the lights in the ceiling began to flicker, prompting the tactical chief to gaze upward in concern, wondering if the elevator car would suddenly stop midway and get stuck. Thankfully, the lift reached Deck 12 without further oddities prompting Porter to sigh in relief. But just as he took a step forward, the parting elevator doors suddenly jolted to halt halfway which left a vertical gap that was just far too narrow for Porter to pass through causing him to bang his head in between the edges of either door.
"Ugh seriously?" Porter grunted in annoyance before using his hands to push the doors further apart allowing him to slip through.
Brushing his uniform with his hands to clean it up just as the elevator doors closed behind him, Porter looked up and immediately grimaced at the busy sight that greeted him. Mechanics, engineers and tech representatives were all rushing in the hallway in different directions with several trolleys of mechanical parts and wirings being hustled along. The few that weren't were rapidly traversing the corridors were busy securing and securing panels and lights in the ceiling from ladders mounted near the walls.
Oh bother, this is going to take longer than expected.
Undeterred, Porter decided to plunge into the crowd and tried to make his way as fast as he could to his destination.
"Excuse me, coming through! Sorry! Pardon me!"
In the last fifteen to sixteen minutes, Porter had tried his best to carefully navigate the treacherous corridors while trying not to bump into any maintenance personnel that were walking or were still rushing to finish makeshift repairs to the lights and other pipes in the ceiling. The tactical officer wasn't in the best shape either as his upper section of his uniform had been burnt when a shower of sparks from a torch welder that was operating on the ceiling accidentally landed on his right shoulder pad and caught on fire. Thankfully he wasn't hurt or badly burnt as a nearby mechanic had grabbed a fire extinguisher and quickly put the small blaze out. Despite being asked to visit the medic bay immediately, he couldn't afford to do so as he would lose precious time to get to the accounting and supply office and back to the bridge.
That's it, almost there… Just one more corner… Eh?
Standing in front of Porter's way was a massive bulkhead door which sealed the rest of the corridor. It was straddled with multiple yellow tape and caution signs which indicated that the area of the deck was sealed off for maintenance with only authorized damage control personnel allowed to enter.
Are you kidding me!? Porter thought incredulously. It's closed!?
"Excuse me sir, this area is off limits to non-essential personnel," came a voice from behind.
Porter turned around to see a petty officer standing behind him.
"Are you okay sir?" the petty officer continued as he gave a concerned look at his ruined uniform. "Your shoulder pads are burnt. Do you need medical assistance"
"No it's fine, just a minor burn, that's all," Porter answered with a sigh. "But what happened here?"
"Well you see when we had that last massive power outage, apparently it badly damaged the ventilation system on this area of the ship," he answered. "Until it is fixed, all residents on this section have been relocated to other areas of the ship."
"Huh, I see," replied Porter as he stared back at the bulkhead door before facepalming slowly.
"Are you looking for somebody sir?"
"Yes, I was going to the accounting and supply office," he replied. "I need to file an urgent maintenance system request there. Do you know where it's been relocated?"
"Oh you want to find Lieutenant Commander Chiyomi's new office?" he answered with a smile. "Sure, I know where she and her team are currently stationed. But it's going to be a long walk up."
"Ah thank you,"
Porter froze for a moment and looked at the petty officer worryingly at his last statement.
"Wait, what do you mean: 'A long walk up'?"
September 13th 2204 – UNCF Arethusa, Earth – 0955 hrs
Several exhausting minutes later, a tired and battered Porter limped towards the end of another corridor which ended with a bulky airlock door while pressing a handkerchief on a bloodied nose. Having followed the instructions of the petty officer, the tactical chief had been redirected to the Arethusa's escape module pod which was located at the back of the very top of the ship's superstructure which was originally designed to house the bridge and staff officers in the case of an emergency evacuation. This meant he had to retrace his steps through the busy crowd and take the elevator back up to the first deck. Unfortunately along the way, the unlucky Porter had yet another mishap where he accidentally tripped himself on some loose wiring on a floor and broke his nose from the fall.
"Ugh… To think that their office was relocated not far behind the bridge," Porter grumbled as he dragged himself towards the airlock door. "Could have saved me a heck ton of trouble…"
Stopping at his destination, Porter skeptically stared at a big yellow warning sign on the airlock door which read in bold black words:
Escape Module Compartment MK-EMC-05. Only To be Used for Emergency!
Seriously? Is this really the temporary residence of Chiymoi's team? Porter thought to himself doubtfully as he stared at the sign.
Turning his attention to the intercom at an interface panel next to it, Porter rang the doorbell.
"Hello? This Lieutenant Commander Porter speaking, I'm here to file a maintenance request. Is there anyone there?"
Silent seconds passed by, but the intercom's speaker remained silent.
"Hello? Lieutenant Commander Chiyomi? Are you there?"
With silence still greeting him, Porter started to wonder whether he was in the wrong location yet again. Before he could decide to leave and head back to his post on the bridge, loud metallic clanks and hissing sounds were heard as the airlock door dramatically opened itself up. The curious tactical officer took a few steps inside and immediately could briefly hear what seemed to be a robotic voice coming inside as he walked through a hallway with two double bedrooms flanking on either side.
"Shutting non-vital systems, remain in silent mode for survival-"
"Ugh that nitwit tin-can coward," interrupted a grumbling female voice. "Oh well, at least there is more quiet without him yapping about."
"Speak to yourself Lieutenant Kiriskai," snapped an annoyed but familiar female voice. "Less talk, more progress please!? We need to get this tidy up and secured before the launch! Do I make myself clear!?"
"Yeah yeah, I know sir," replied the first female voice dismissively.
Porter's eyebrow rose in puzzlement as he walked towards the end of the hallway. But when he arrived he was left speechless at a very messy sight. What was supposed to be the escape module's recreation hall had now been reorganized into a hastily built office room with at least four desks, two of which were packed with stacks of tablets, paper reports and all sorts of stationery on the top with drawers below that were also stuffed to the brim with similar items. In addition he noticed that there was an odd large cylindrical-type item being covered with a large sheet but paid little attention to it.
There were two officers currently present in the room. But to Porter's surprise, Grethe was not either of them despite hearing what was her voice earlier.
One of the two officers was a young female officer who was typing away at her computer with several datapads and paper documents on her desk. She had short strawberry blond hair with a bandanna holding back her fringe and according to her rank stripes on her shoulder collar was the rank of lieutenant. Despite the excessive workload she was given, her face looked too laid back and relaxed.
The second was a blond hair accounting officer/disbursing clerk who was currently preoccupied by placing some datapads and files neatly into some boxes and had his back facing towards Porter's gaze, completely oblivious to his presence.
Clearing his throat, Porter stepped towards the strawberry blond officer and decided to inquire with her first.
"Erm, excuse me Lieutenant?"
The strawberry blond officer paused for a moment before looking up with a polite smile.
"Yes sir how can I help-"
At that moment, the strawberry blond's face twisted in terror and shock as she looked upon Porter's battered appearance.
"Eeeek! What happened to you!?" she screamed, causing the blond officer from behind to jump in fright.
"Kirisaki what happened? Did something went-" The blond officer's eyes went wide upon seeing Porter's state. "Holy moly what happened to you? Are you alright?"
"Don't worry about me," Porter sighed as he waved them dismissively. "It's just a scratch. Has anyone seen Lieutenant Commander Chiyomi? I was going to file a request for a diagnostic check on the tactical console in the bridge."
"Chiyomi? Oh she's gone down to the storage level of the escape module to store some boxes below," replied the female officer before she turned back to look at what appeared to be an opened hatch on the floor behind her that led to what seemed to be a deep dark abyss.
"Any second now…"
Porter looked at the hatch door for a few queer seconds before hearing several bumping noises followed swiftly by a very distinctive angry voice yelped down below.
"Ah damn this darkness! I swear to God if somebody doesn't install lights inside this pitch black storage room ASAP I will-"
At that moment, a very distinctive green twintail head popped up revealing the said fuming Lieutenant Commander. Her face and hair was stained with dirt from her visit to the basement storage room and her upper uniform was a bit wrinkled in place. Her aqua eyes soon caught the attention of the visitor and narrowed in annoyance.
"You," muttered Grethe venomously as she fully emerged out of the floor hatch which caused the battered tactical chief to wince.
"S-s-sorry to disturb you Miss Chiyomi," stammered Poter nervously as Grethe approached him step by step, still glaring daggers at him. "But you see, I have a request for a diagnostic test run so I was hoping if you could arrange for the tech… Reps.. To look into it?"
Porter gulped as Grethe was now inches away from his face and tried to avoid the burning gaze from her aqua eyes by shutting his own.
"Well of course, Lieutenant Commander Porter," replied Grethe as she suddenly flashed a beaming and polite smile.
"Eh?" Porter cocked his head in confusion as Grethe strode towards her desk in an elegant fashion. "Are you sure about that? You look quite busy and occupied, maybe I should come after we've launched into space-"
"Oh no not at all," said Grethe sweetly as she opened up a drawer at her desk. "It's just another tedious day being the chief purser of the ship.
"Being swamped by over several dozen reports and requests to file daily," Grethe's eyebrows twitched twice before she pulled out a datapad and opened up a digital form "Making calls to different departments of the ship… Either way, it's all manageable for me."
Grethe suppressed a soft but uneven chuckle from her lips as she scrolled through the datapad before she found the correct form.
"There we go," Grethe turned around to face Porter to give him the data tablet for him to fill out and sign. "Just fill it in and you're good."
"Thanks Chiyomi," replied Porter, sighing in relief as he began to type in his request.
"By the way," Grethe continued. "I can't help but notice you look quite beaten up. Did you have an accident?"
"Yeah," grumbled Porter. "Twice actually. Got showered by electrical sparks from a blowtorch plus tripped and fell on my nose while I was looking for your new office."
"Oh that's simply terrible," Grethe let out a dramatic gasp. "I think you better go to sickbay right away to see to your injuries. You know…"
A small scheming smirk grew on Grethe's face which escaped the notice of Porter. "If you're actually unfit for duty, I might offer my services as tactical chief while you recover. Temporary of course. After all, I was trained as a tactical chief as well back in the academy and aced that course too for the record."
"Thanks but that won't be necessary Chiyomi," replied Porter with a sheepish smile. "I appreciate the kind offer, but I'm fine. They're not as bad as they look. Besides, if I'm out, Lieutenant Chrstina can still fill in my place."
"Ah.. Of c-c-course," Grethe's smile slipped a little.
After signing his name on the form, Porter submitted the form and sighed. "Phew finally done, well I better get back to the bridge. Take care guys."
"No problem," replied Serena cheerfully. "Please come again!"
Grethe grimaced at Serena's words but let out a half-hearted chuckle.
Please don't, we already got quite a lot on our plate.
As Porter made his exit, Grethe let out a frustrated sigh.
Tsk! Denied yet again! Grethe mentally cursed to herself.
At that moment, a large linen cloth was suddenly tossed from underneath and landed right on top of a startled Serena.
"Ugh what the-!?" Serena struggled to pull off the massive white cloth before turning to glare sharply at an orange Analyzer type AU-14 subframe robot that had been previously hiding underneath the cloth.
"Intruder has left the refuge, begin resuming previous operations," it stated.
"Ugh couldn't you have done that more discreetly Clunky Dumpty!?" Serena snapped at the robot. "Besides, there wasn't any reason to hide as it wasn't those engineers that you are worried about."
"Negative!" initiated the stubborn robot. "The probability of engineers sending other crew members from different departments to capture me is still high. Precaution is still warranted."
"Oh for crying out-"
"Okay that's enough!" Grethe sighed. "Get back to work please. Speaking of which, Clunky, how much time do we have left?"
"Calculating," AU-14 made a couple of beeps as he began recalibrating the countdown. "According to the countdown, you have exactly thirteen minutes and thirty seconds to launch!"
"What!? That can't be right!" Grethe frowned as turned to the clock which displayed 0857.
"I thought we had at least less than an hour left? Are you sure about that?"
"Affirmative," replied AU-14. "My clock and calendar was just rebooted to the current time from external online sources. My clock should be accurate."
"Hey Chiyomi…" Lieutenant Minato Shirogane asked uneasily. "You don't think… That clock was busted by the power outage three days ago and is actually an hour behind."
Grethe's stomach twisted uncomfortably as she began to realize how likely that scenario was. Especially since that the escape module itself wasn't on the priority list for maintenance checks and repairs prior or after the latest power outage.
"C-c-lunky," Grethe stammered nervously as a cold sweat sent a chill up her spine. "C-c-could you also reboot t-t-hat clock as well?"
"Roger that!"
Several wire connector pods shot out from AU-14's hand and plugged right next to the rectangular digital clock which caused the numbers displayed to scramble as the AU-14 began to restart the clock's system.
Please let it not be a mistake, please let it not be a mistake, Grethe begged nervously as she clasped her hands together.
A few seconds tick by before finally the clock flashed its updated time: 0959 hrs.
"Ahhhhh!" screamed Grethe hysterically, her eyes widening in alarm as she frantically scrambled to keep her paper files and stationery. "Kirisaki! Get some tape and ropes to tie the boxes and tables down!"
"Sorry Grethe! I got my hands full here!" yelled back a panicking Kirisaki as she was trying to sort and organize her massive pile of paperwork and datapads while frantically finding boxes and lockers to keep them. "Can't we get this tincan to bring some!?"
"Negative!" replied an stubborn AU-14 as he hastily retreated back into a corner. "I refuse to leave my refuge! The chances of being ambushed and seized by those fiendish engineers is 79%. Self preservation is a higher priority!"
"Oh for crying out loud, they aren't anywhere in the superstructure at this moment" argued Kirisaki as she shot an annoyed glare at the trembling AU-14 subframe. "Just go out and find one of the accounting staff in the superstructure to get some help to clear and secure this place up you cowardly bot!"
"Negative! Must not leave refuge!"
"Just do something you stupid piece of-"
Back on the bridge, the doors of the elevator slid open to allow Captain Thomson and Commander Rowden to step in.
"Captain and XO on the bridge!" exclaimed Christina which prompted everyone to stand to attention.
"As you were men, carry on," replied Thomson casually before stepping towards his chair.
"Lieutenant Kazami, prepare for final procedures for launch," he ordered as he took his seat. "We'll initiate the launch sequence once the christening bottle ceremony has been done."
"Yes Captain," answered Haruto before prompting to activate the comms to communicate with engineering. "Helm to engineering, channel auxiliary power to engines-"
"Lieutenant Christina."
Christina grimaced as Rowden called her out.
"Yes XO?"
"Where's Tactical Chief Porter?" Rowden narrowed his eyes at the gunnery officer. "Did I not leave him in charge of the bridge in my absence?"
"Yes Commander," replied Christina. "But he had to-"
Before she could finish, the elevator door opened to allow the said tactical chief to rush into the bridge.
"Sorry for being absent earlier sir!" gasped Porter as he tried to catch his breath.
"Mr Porter, would you care to explain your absence?" asked Thomson as he gave a disapproving glare at him. "And what happened to your face? It looks like you got punched or something."
"Sorry Captain," replied Porter as he gave a salute back to his commanding officer, he was now wearing a fresh uniform as he quickly had changed in his quarters a few minutes ago. "I was just returning from the Accounting Admin office to deliver a request for a diagnostic test on the weapons systems for the tactical console. I accidently fell on my face along the way, but it's nothing too severe to hamper my duties sir."
Thomson gave him a queer look but decided not to press the matter. "Very well Lieutenant Commander, we'll talk about this after the launch. For now, just take your station."
"Yes sir!" Porter awkwardly retreated to his tactical console and quickly took his seat at the tactical station.
"What took you so long sir?" Christina whispered. "You were supposed to be back fifteen minutes ago!"
"Trust me, you wouldn't want to know," Porter sighed. "It's just another day on this troublesome bucket of bolts."
September 13th 2204 – UNCF Launching Platform, Tokyo Metropolis, Earth – 1003 hrs
"As Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Earth Federation Defense Force, I am honored to welcome you to the christening ceremony of the newest Andromeda-type battleship, the Arethusa, The most advanced and capable defense support platform in the fleet," exclaimed Serizawa as he was giving his christening address to the large spectator crowd at the arena with several several executives including Rezebak and government personnel watching from behind.
"This illustrious ship will join the ranks of Asashi and Ginga, as part of our efforts to create a new defensive-orientated fleet which will reinforce and maintain the peace that we had long fought for-"
Down below in the lower ranks of the spectator seats, a few construction workers who were involved in the construction of the ship were watching the ceremony as well.
"Hey I was just thinking about something," one named Tomoki suddenly spoke up.
"What?" asked a Gyu, a broad Japanese man.
"Considering all the hiccups and mishaps we're having on constructing this ship. Do you think she's bound to be cursed by more bad luck?" he asked.
"Like what?" scoffed Gyu. "The wine bottle will fail to smash on the hull upon christening?"
"Exactly," Tomoki replied. "Many ships whose christening bottles fail to break are usually plagued with bad luck. I heard a story of a Russian submarine during the first Cold War that was one such example."
"Utter rubbish, it's just an old sea tale superstition," retorted Keiken, a foreman who had a goatee beard. "A friend of mine who worked on the new Ark Royal said that the same happened to her when she was christened. Bottle failed to break five times but she is doing just fine."
"Eh, I still think it's going to happen regardless," insisted Tomoki. "Just wait and see. In fact, I am feeling pretty confident about it."
"Enough to bet on it?" asked Gyu.
"Oh yeah," replied Tomoki confidently. "Loser gets to buy dinner for all of us tonight at that ramen shop."
"Deal because you'll be paying for it!" jested Keiken.
A chuckle erupted from the three.
"And now on behalf of the Earth Federation government and the Cosmo Navy," declared Serizawa and he placed his hand on a lever that would release the christening bottle and the ribbons and confetti from their respective places.
"I christen thee, Space Battleship Arethusa!"
Serizawa pulled the lever which opened up large hanging spheres that showered the Arethusa with a ton of large confetti and ribbons that prompted the spectator crowds to cheer in elation. At the same time, the wine bottle swung its way down towards the Aquarius-type battleship's bow while being held by a long ribbon that was attached to the ceiling.
But halfway through its descent, something unusual happened. The knot that tied the bottle and long ribbon together suddenly came loose, causing the bottle to change its trajectory and missed the bow entirely!
"Ohhhh!" gasped the entire spectator crowd in both surprise and amusement before several bouts of laughter echoed in the arena.
"Well, that's a first," chuckled Gyu as he witnessed the flabbergasted Tomoki and Keiken's jaws drop in disbelief.
But suddenly the crowds started to shout in alarm and panic which confused Tomoki.
What's going on? Tomoki looked to the nearest viewscreen and saw that the camera was still tracking the falling bottle and saw what had disturbed the audience.
Oh no!
A minute before…
Down below the Arethusa's bow near the gigantic rail track, an elegant and beautiful black cat with a white underbelly by the name of Oskar the Ninth, was strolling contently towards an opened door at a very large concrete pillar. Despite being quite old, this cat had survived the brutality of the Garmillan War in the underground cities and had lived a tough and tense life hunting whatever scraps he could find in a barren and hostile world and was now living contently at the Amaterasu Launching Platform Arena.
The feline was just seconds before hopping through the open door when suddenly he heard some shouts and screams of alarm coming from above.
What are those hoomans screaming about now? Oskar wondered just as he heard a very distinctive whizzing sound from above which prompted him to look up.
Oh meow-
The sound of a smashing bottle echoed the entire arena which caused a collective gasp of horror from all the spectators, including Tomoki, Keiken and Gyu. The latter of which placed his hands to his mouth in disgust and terror at what just happened.
Yeah, that's even more cursed than failing to break a christening bottle…
Soon hundreds of eyes turned to the slawjacked Serizawa, who also was aghast at what just happened. Sweating nervously, he slowly glanced at his right hand and the lever he had just pulled. But before he could say or do anything, suddenly a few shouts went out followed by cheers of relief as the giant screens had showed a news replay that showed that the black cat had miraculous jumped and dodge the champagne bottle a millisecond before impact before scampering to safety into a nearby doorway.
Serizawa let out a sigh of relief and looked back to see Rezebak looking also flabbergasted at the entire bizarre incident. However the other mustached man soon composed himself and shrugged back in response.
"Well erm, that's er… One lucky kitty," stammered Serizawa awkwardly as he got back on the mic and quickly cleared his throat. "Captain Thomson, you may proceed to launch the Arethusa and Godspeed… That… That's all."
Down below as the auxiliary engines of the Arethusa began to roar to life, a pair of green iris glowed from the dark doorway and slowly a very infuriated Oskar, stepped into the light to glare at the massive ship. Although the black cat had not been severely injured from the near death experience, he was deeply enraged at the hoomans' latest creation for nearly ending his last life for it hadn't been the first time.
The recent power outages during the construction over the past weeks had frightened the resident cat multiple times to the point he lost two of his remaining three out of nine lives. Despite the inconveniences it gave to Oskar, the cat thought that once the hooman's monster would fly off as the others would usually do, his troubles would go away and his home would be quiet once again. However, this latest incident was the last straw, and Oskar the Ninth decided that the hoomans' new monster will not leave unpunished.
Channeling his inner ancestor's blood, the black feline arched his body, narrowed his eyes towards the Arethusa, and gave a very loud and sharp hiss at the ship, hurling a bunch of very unpleasant words and curses at the vessel that were far too dark and vulgar for hoomans to translate.
September 13th 2204 – UNCF Arethusa, Earth – 1008 hrs
At the same time inside the Arethusa's escape module, Grethe had just barely secured and locked her desk when suddenly she felt a very disturbing chill that ran through her entire body.
"Ehghh!" she shuddered uncomfortably.
"What's wrong Grethe?" asked Shirogane. "You okay?"
"I don't know," a wide-eyed Grethe trembled as she fearfully held herself with her arms defensively. "I felt as if some all-powerful deity placed a terrifying curse on us."
"It's probably just your imagination," said Serena dismissively before rushing to her seat. "Come on, let's get ourselves strapped in!"
As the trio rushed to their seats and put on their safety belts, AU-14 found an isolated spot where he secured himself inside the recreation room's bar table with metallic wires that held him in place on the floor.
"Phew! Just in time," sighed Grethe in relief.
"Auxiliary engine, low speed rev at 1600," reported Rowen as he kept watch of the engineering console. "Energy output on all four sub-light engines looks good."
"Engines ahead slow by 0.5," declared Kazami as he slightly tilted the massive helm stick. "Auxiliary engine, contact 2 to contact 3."
On the captain's seat, Thomson adjusted the collar of his jacket just as the gantry locks started to slowly move the ship forward down the rails.
"Wave motion engine, open the shut-down valve," Rowen ordered.
"Roger," replied Nanban's voice on the bridge's PA speakers. "Opening the shut-down valve, energy flow looks good. Flywheels one through four spinning normally. T-minus ten seconds to wave motion engine ignition."
As bells and whistles bid the massive ship goodbye, the Arethusa rumbled down the gentle incline of the mass driver rails before leveling off just a couple of meters above the surface of the sea.
"Seven, six, five-!"
As Kazami counted to zero. Rowen was observing the wave motion engine output levels on his screen. Although the WM core energy pressure was good, the WM energy charge output was still on the safe side of 89% instead of the usual 128% that was usually required for a complex high angle launch. Nevertheless, Rowen was confident that it was just enough for the ship to break the Earth's gravitational pull.
"Two, one, zero!"
"Contact and ignition!" exclaimed Rowen as he pushed the lever forward.
The Arethusa's massive main engine ignited with a burst of blue flames, propelling the Aquarius-type battleship forward down the rails which sent a whiplash of wind and waves in her wake.
As the ship began to climb up the steep slope, Captain Thomson issued his final order just seconds before the mobile docking clamps automatically detached from the ship's hull.
"Arethusa, TAKE OFF!"
"Aye sir, Arethusa taking off!" exclaimed Kazami.
Seconds later, the massive hulk of the Arethusa triumphantly cleared the top end of the mass driver and began her climb towards the heavens with her roaring engines echoing for miles.
"-And Arethusa has cleared the tower and is on her way to begin her first test trials mission and starting a new chapter to the AAA program," commented Crossroads excitedly.
Down below, cheers and applause of ovation continued to erupt from the Amaterasu Launching Platform Arena as the crowds looked up at the sky to watch as the Arethusa continued to ascend above the clouds.
Well everything seems to be proceeding smoothly, Rezebak smirked to himself while watching his creation ascending higher with a pair of binoculars. Aside from the freak incident with that stupid cat, there shouldn't be anymore hiccups-
"Wait a second," came a voice from one of the Cosmo Navy officers as he pointed high up at the ship. "Is it just me or is the Arethusa actually not going up as fast as she should be?"
Rezebak gave a queer look at the officer and quickly took a long glance at the Arethusa with his binoculars. To his confusion and concern, sure enough, the Aquarius-type ship seemed to ascend slower than usual. Far slower than the norm.
"You're right," spoke up another government official who frowned at concern. "The Aldebaran, Apollo Norm, Achilles and Antares didn't fly up that slow when they got launched. Something is off."
"Yeah, that's not quite right…" added another.
"Looks like she's not even going full throttle with her engines."
Rezebak grew nervous as whispers and talks continued to spread among the contractors, investors, government and military staff members. Soon Serizawa himself was giving him that warning glare of his which nearly caused him to sweat and realized he had to do something to reinstall confidence into his main audience.
"Relax, it's probably just a delay in her main engines to kick in full power," reassured Rezebak with a chuckle. "A complicated ship like her is bound to have a few bumps here and there. She'll get up to full engine power soon enough. Just wait."
As he looked back up to the sky, he restrained himself from shooting a glare back at the Arethusa.
Damn it Thomson, what's going up there on my ship?
September 13th 2204 – UNCF Arethusa - 1017 hrs
"Why aren't we going up fast enough?" yelled Thomson as the bridge continued to vibrate loudly from the intense roar of the engines. "We're barely crossing the mid-point of the mesosphere."
"I'm not sure sir," answered Kazami as a worried expression came on his face. "Speed is also dropping from 22,530 km/h. Now at 20,987 km/h…"
Frowning, Rowen decides to open the comms channel to main engineering.
"Bridge to engineering, why aren't you generating enough power to the engines?"
"We are sir!" yelled back Nanban's voice on the PA speakers. "Power levels from the wave motion core should be providing enough engine thrust to get us into low Earth orbit. We don't see any indications of something going wrong on our displays and instruments. Something else must be restricting us from reaching low Earth orbit."
"Can you increase power to the engines?" asked Thomson.
"Yes captain but… I wouldn't recommend that… We might risk yet another power surge from the ICARUS system. I don't want to do it while we're at this high altitude!"
"Captain, we're still losing air speed, the nav computer has calculated that we might stall out just 20 km below the Karman line if we continue ascending at this angle!" added Kazami. "Recommend we lower our angle of ascent and use our ventral thrusters to push us slowly into orbit."
"But that's not part of the flight plan lieutenant," growled Rowen. "It would look bad from the press if we suddenly leveled off."
"It's better than stalling and crashing, sir," snapped Kazami before composing himself. "Captain, we're just taking a slower and safer approach to low orbit. It's not a fancy display but it's better than the riskier alternative."
"Very well, you may proceed," Thomson signed reluctantly. "Lieutenant Kazami, you may level off our angle of ascent."
"Yes captain," replied Kazami as he got to work.
The Arethusa's dorsal thrusters fired up just as the lower auxiliary engines reduced thrust, causing the ship to slowly reduce its upward pitch from a near 80 degree angle to a modest 40.
"It's working!" reported Kazami as he let out a sigh of relief. "Air speed is increasing to 27358 km/h and climbing! ETA to passing the karman line is now at thirty-five minutes. We'll be in lower Earth orbit in about forty."
"Very well," replied Thomson before giving a glance to the comms officer. "Midshipman Hirano, inform Earth Federation Command and Cosmo Navy HQ that we're changing our flight path. But be discreet. I don't want those news reports to get wind of our issue."
"Yes captain," replied the short brown pigtail haired comms officer before she went to work.
"Kazami,"
"Yes sir?" the redhead helmsman flinched slightly at the Captain's words.
"Just keep her steady, we'll talk afterwards,"
"Y-y-yes sir," Kazami gulped before proceeded to pilot the Arethusa further away from the blue warm sky below and into the dark cold expanse above.
A/N: Hi guys... Pardon for the very late upload as a heck ton of real life issues both work and health related plagued the progress of writing this chapter in addition to the constant rewrites I had to do. Not much to say about this chapter as it's pretty self explanatory although there a couple aspects of the Arethusa's design that I would like to point out.
While doing research in regards to the Aquarius-type Andromeda variant that briefly made its appearance in episode 21 in Yamato 2202, I was looking into the design and functionality of some parts of the superstructure design which is shared by the Ginga as both vessels were designed large in part by Makato Kobayashi.
The dome featured in the Aquarius design varies differently from the glass green-house type design seen on the Ginga and its OG Yamato Resurrection counterpart the Musashi, with the former being more like a car or an aircraft canopy design with braces and arches that run vertically. Although the functionality is unknown, I decided to use it like a multipurpose dome that could be repurposed into a fancy dining arena for diplomatic meetings or a potential enlarged command and control center for massive AI or unmanned fleet coordination.
The Arethusa's escape module which is featured here is a particularly interesting part of the ship I discovered while looking through the concept arts and blueprints that were used in the designing of the Ginga. Initially, I thought it was a landing pad for either Cosmo Seagulls to land or possible enclosed hangar for the Ki-8 White Stork Expeditionary Transport Boat at the top back of the superstructure. But after getting the proper translations of the Japanese scripts beside the parts, I was surprised to learn it was actually an escape pod module which reminded me of the exploration ship Prometheus' lifeboat module in that Alien prequel movie.
Also if you're confused to why my description of the Arethusa's paint scheme was quite a bit messy, I apologize as it's not easy for me to describe it myself. I based it on colors of the Aerial Battle Carrier Artdessei, which was the flagship of the anti-kaiju organization GUTS from the Ultraman Tiga series and the aforementioned Prometheus from the movie of the same name. Both of which were the most technological advanced experimental ships of their respective worlds. If you want to see how the Arethusa really looks like, just take a look at this fanfic's cover photo and you'll get a rough glimpse of how she looks.
Well that's about it, I hope you enjoyed the second chapter of The Arethusa Incident. As for the next chapter release, I can't really say as later in October I would be quite busy IRL more than before making it even harder for me to get content out. However, I can tell you that work on the third chapter is well underway.
Oh and if you wonder what's so special about that cat. Might want to look up its famous RL ancestor who also goes by the name... Unsinkable Sam... (smiles knowingly) XD