To Lyger 0: That is absolutely a possibility. Although no one has yet confirmed the results of that test, one way or the other…
Replies to Reviews of the Epilogue to "Long Live the Queen":
To Lyger 0: They do have an interesting dynamic, don't they?
"Welcome to the New Atlantis Spaceport!" Stepping out of the portal room, Max held his hand out to take in the large enclosed hangar space, turning slightly to face his guest. Behind her, portal whirred shut on the wall of the sleek, white-painted portal room. Although at present there was only a single portal ring and a simple reception desk, they had built it with room to grow, giving it enough space to hold several more portals if necessary. But, then, that had been their design philosophy for the entire spaceport: although their operation was small for now, they expected to expand, and this hangar was a prime example. He glanced back, across the largely-deserted hangar as he explained, "This was the first building we constructed, after the New Atlantis Council agreed to host the spaceport – we have the best construction and maintenance facilities on the planet at our disposal. When operating at maximum capacity, our facility is capable of producing one of the standard space-planes in three months, though we are unable to do so at present; our current problem is finding the correct materials."
Following him across the hangar floor, Max's mother's eyes widened, staring up at the tall ceiling, then out over the deserted hangar floor, taking in the various parts and tools pressed against the walls. The walls themselves had been plated up to fifteen meters above the ground with a black heat-resistant material that almost seemed to suck in the surrounding light; to make up for it, the top half of the walls was missing, replaced with windows through which the bright sunlight streamed from outside. At present, most of the facility stood empty, though two machines along the wall whirred, the robotic arms moving rapidly back and forth over a shaped piece of heat shielding. Further down the line, another machine blinked silently, a faint orange glow emanating through the display window.
After studying the hangar for a long moment, his mother finally whispered, her voice echoing in the open space, "You've talked about this place so much… but you still never truly did it justice. I wasn't quite expecting your spaceport to be so large. Or so well-appointed. Vostochny has large facilities, of course, but none that I saw had the same functionality as this."
Max raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I said that our spaceport was on an island off the coast of Australia, not far from the ocean, and you expected grass huts lashed with salt spray?"
"That does seem like it would be a concern," she pointed out. "How far are you from the ocean? And how do you prevent salt from getting into the electronics and corroding your systems?"
"Magic," he explained, quirking his lips in a grin. "Nowhere on New Atlantis is quite out of sight of the ocean, but the field they selected for us is separated by a kilometer of farmland from the ocean. For added protection two of the New Atlantis sorcerers have placed wards around the spaceport to guard against any environmental factors and ensure that sea spray, hurricanes, and the like will not impact us here."
She blinked. "And magic is just… normal for you now."
He shrugged, smirking. "Three minutes ago, we were in Paris; now we are in Australia. What else could it be except magic?" Glancing around the hanger, he raised an eyebrow at her expectantly. "Well, would you like to see the rest of the facilities?"
"Absolutely!" She nodded, grinning eagerly. "I am so curious to see your space-planes. The schematics couldn't have done them justice."
He grinned proudly, leading the way out of the open hangar door and into the bright sunlight of the South Pacific afternoon. The long runway stretched in either direction away from the hangar entrance, to the right ending in front of an enormous portal ring that was just whirring open as they appeared while to the left it continued a bit further before the runway stopped at the edge of a field. Opposite the maintenance hangar they had just left sat another hangar, equally large, with a roof of razor-thin stone, magically reinforced. A dozen small berm dugouts lined the runway on either side of the two hangars, little more than earthworks with walls on three sides and the fourth side open in the direction of the runway. Petrified wooden roofs covered four of the dugouts, though the doors were only closed on two of them and the others were visibly empty. The portal opened to reveal the blackness of space, pinpricked with stars, the rim of the moon visible along the edge. A sleek black-and-white plane with a thin yellow band down the center flew through the opening and landed on the tarmac, bouncing a couple times as it rapidly decelerated. The portal quickly shut behind it, and a trio of groundcrew raced over to the space-plane. With a roar, the space-plane activated its secondary engine and turned around, backing carefully into one of the empty roofed dugouts.
"Well, what do you think?" Max asked his mother, grinning eagerly and raising an eyebrow at her.
Her mouth hung wide open. "It's… well, I don't know what I was expecting, but it really is a fully-functional spaceport." She shook her head. "And it seems to be even more active than Baikonur, Vostochny, or Cape Canaveral. I take it that was a space mission returning?"
Max nodded hesitantly, though he frowned. "Perhaps," he allowed. "It could have been a space mission, but without seeing the log, I cannot be certain what their mission was. The space-planes are used for more than extra-atmospheric missions: they are also designed with aerodynamic functionality as a consideration so the Atlantean Intervention Teams can use them for deployment."
"'Deployment'?"
"When they go on missions," he explained. "In the last year, all of the hero teams have become more active and recognized a need for rapid deployment options. The Heroes of Paris typically use my portal ability for that; the United Heroez have Doorman to fill a similar function. New Atlantis does not have anyone with that same capability, so they use our space-planes – the tradeoff for hosting the spaceport. Whether that is what they were doing, however…" He shrugged.
His mother hummed. "I notice that you have space for at least twelve of your space-planes, though nine of the dugouts are empty. How many spaceplanes do you have currently?"
He grimaced. "Only three," he replied. "Two were lost in the fight against the Tarasque, and we have only constructed a single replacement. Eventually, our intent is to outfit a full squadron of interceptors, in addition to four of these squad-sized space-planes and one larger transport model." He frowned. "But that will be far in the future – at the moment, we do not have the materials necessarily to fabricate even a fourth space-plane."
"Where have you been getting your materials from?"
"Of the material, 84% by volume is terrestrial," Max answered promptly. "The few exotic materials have primarily been salvaged from the Shunjar ship that broke up in orbit around Earth."
"You know," she mused, raising an eyebrow, "from what I understand, NASA has sent numerous survey probes into the asteroid belt to study material compositions; they have completed some promising research on asteroid mining, though they haven't been able to begin yet. Perhaps you can find alternative materials for your spaceplanes that way."
Max furrowed his brows in thought. "I had considered that. And with my miraculous, I could set up the mining equipment much easier than one of the civilian space agencies…"
"According to one of the NASA engineers I met, NASA had an automated mining drone they were testing a couple years ago," his mother continued. "Perhaps if you agreed to assist NASA in their own mining operation, they would share their technology with you? Or, perhaps we could approach them with a proposal for a joint operation and share the resources acquired?"
"It would require another portal circuit to bring personnel and materials between the mining locations and the Earth…" Max murmured to himself pensively. "As well as planet-side facilities for processing – unless that can be accomplished on-site." His eyes widened, and he nodded slowly. "Perhaps that is the solution to our security problem: we place a joint spaceport/base somewhere on Earth, complete with processing and control facilities for the mining operation. From there–"
"You know, he'll probably go on like this for another hour or three if someone doesn't stop him," a familiar voice mused, laced with humor. Max jumped, glancing over to find Cissy watching him and stifling a laugh, a space helmet held under her arm.
"Oh, I know," Max's mother replied, smiling fondly. "He's been like this his whole life: give him a problem, and he can't do anything else until he's reasoned his way through it at least six different ways!"
"Well, I'm glad to know it's not a new thing!" Cissy mused, raising an eyebrow at Max. "Name's Cissy Burney," she added, holding out a hand to Claudie.
"Claudie Kanté. I'm… Max's mother."
"Yeah, I kind of figured that," Cissy acknowledged, nodding. "It's good to meet you. My own daughter's about his age: half the time it feels like Max and I are colleagues here; the other half… he makes me feel so old sometimes…" Shaking her head ruefully, she made a face.
Max's mother gave her an amused look. "Considering that I went away when my son was just starting lycée and I returned a grandmother, I know the feeling!"
Cissy hummed. "Alison hasn't made me a grandmother yet, at least – not sure if she's actually planning to, for that matter. 'Course, I can't really blame her: it's not that easy, being a superhero and raising a child."
"I'm still not sure how my future daughter-in-law is planning to do it," Max's mother admitted.
"Oh, I wouldn't worry too much about that," Cissy assured her. "Sabrina has a good head on her shoulders – they both do. They'll manage."
His mother nodded. "I suppose I'm not too worried. But, all the same, I'm just waiting for that first late-night knock from them to take the baby for the night so they can run off and save the world!"
Max sighed. "We will try to avoid that as much as possible," he assured her. "Especially since neither of us is expected to regularly fight against the supervillains; we ordinarily stay behind to coordinate."
"Should I hold you to that?" his mother asked him, raising an eyebrow.
Cissy stifled a laugh. "So, Claudie, what do you think of our facility so far?"
"It's incredible! I've been fascinated to see Max's spaceplanes ever since he first mentioned them. Were you piloting the one that just landed?"
Cissy nodded. "Taking it for a test flight," she explained. "Making sure the controls responded properly. The ailerons were a bit sluggish," she added, glancing over at Max.
He hummed, furrowing his brows pensively. "I will make adjustments."
"That was the only problem I noticed," Cissy told him. "But you might find something else when you get it apart."
"I will do what I can," Max promised.
Cissy nodded. "Thanks."
Claudie glanced over toward the large spaceplane and shook he head ruefully. "Thank you for the opportunity to see your facility. It is… overwhelming."
"You're always welcome to stop back for a visit," Cissy assured her. "This time, it took a bit of convincing for the Council to authorize you to come, but we got everything squared away in the end. Considering that we wouldn't even have this facility without Max's help…"
"Please, thank your Council for me," Max's mother replied. "You can be sure that I will never divulge any confidential information that I receive in this position – especially not after Max and Sabrina have trusted me with this. I wouldn't want to do anything that might put them in danger. And of course, that goes both ways. Any top-secret information I learn from NASA, RSA, ESA… I can't share that with your, either – not without clearance."
Cissy nodded. "I will pass that along," she promised. "And we will not ask you to share information that needs to be kept secret."
"Thank you."
An hour later, as Max and his mother were walking together along the perimeter of the spaceport, having looked over the rest of the spaceport together, his mother let out a heavy breath. "Max…" she began, frowning.
He cocked his head. "Yes, Mother?"
"Thank you for this," she told him. "Thank you for trusting me – with your secret, with your spaceport. Thank you for letting me help you with all of this – as much as I can help you. I … won't let you down – not again."
His eyes widened. "When have you ever let me down?"
"I left," she admitted. "I abandoned you. I left to pursue my dream, and you still needed me. If I had still been here…"
"If you had still been here, then maybe life would still have ended up the way it did," he pointed out. "I never considered myself to have been abandoned. I was always proud to say that my mother was an astronaut."