Chapter 15: Second Stage Ignition

ONE WEEK LATER, One Hour After Sunset

Alnus Settlement, Alnus, Special Region

Carol glanced down at her watch for the seventeenth time. Satellite sightings required a special degree of precision to get right when pointing them out to crowds, and she was used to hearing at least a few complaints from kids if the International Space Station wasn't going to pass overhead at the desired time.

So, deciding that they couldn't wait any longer, she gave Greta a nod, and they began their presentation.

They were in the Settlement Amphitheater again, and the atmosphere was very different from the events prior to the Heliocentricity lecture. Carol had brought projector equipment with lots of detailed information and footage, was continuing to abscond with Shirai's telescopes, and had denied requests to have the presentation done anywhere else or for anyone else. "Nariv was successful in raising a mob because he argued that the lower classes felt that they were being ignored," Carol had explained to Mullan. "If any more aristocrats want to see this presentation, then they can come to me. If they don't like the company, they can pay someone to rent one of the surrounding roofs."

Another component of appealing to the masses was the main presenter. This time, Carol took her seat behind the laptop controlling the presentation, and waited. On the stage itself, Greta adjusted her microphone clip and began a practiced lecture, entirely in the Imperial language. "Hello everyone," she said, "can you hear me?"

Sounds of agreement, and Greta smiled out at them. "Great! Thanks again for joining us for the rocket launch this morning. The JAXA team says that the spacecraft is in good health, and that they are starting to get back lots of neat information from it. But first… let's talk about how the satellite moves, where it's going, and how it gets there."

She nodded back to Carol, who moved to the next slide in the presentation. This one was an animated picture, showing the satellite circling a blue circle standing in for the planet below. "We already discussed yesterday the idea of what an orbit was and how gravity works, in accordance with the theories confirmed by the Rondel Council. The orbits we describe for the planets, however, is called an equatorial orbit, because the object moves east-to-west through the sky as it orbits. The Sakura probe, on the other hand, uses a different kind of orbit."

Now some pictures and lines appeared on the blue circle. "Sakura is in what is called a Polar orbit, because it goes north-to-south and passes over the north and south poles every time it goes around the planet.

"But remember, the planet is turning on its center! It turns West to East, which is why the Sun rises in the East and sets in the West. Since Sakura isn't sitting on the planet, it doesn't turn with it! That means that each time the satellite finishes an orbit and returns to the equator, it is looking down on a different part of the planet! This is very important because, when we're done, Sakura will have had a chance to see every part of our planet and, for the first time, we will be able to see a complete map of the whole world; mountains, oceans and all!"

Carol looked at her watch one more time and waved to get her attention. "Okay," Greta said. "We're going to turn off all the lights now so you can see the stars. I want you to watch really carefully to the North."

The electric lights around the amphitheater were shut off, and the projector was similarly turned off. Though there was still some light filtering in from torches throughout the settlement, the sky was clear and full of stars. Greta indicated a point near one of the mountains on the horizon and, together, they waited.

Finally, a delighted cry and someone in the audience pointed. Carol squinted at the horizon and, sure enough, there it was. A tiny white dot had departed from the mountaintops and was slowly scooting up into the sky. Slowly, more and more people in the audience noticed and continued to point and whisper to each other. There it truly was, the thing they had seen go up on the Epsilon rocket that morning.

To be fair, Carol knew that Greta's explanation was a very simplified version of what was going on. The Japanese had placed their satellite into an elliptical polar orbit, so that one side came closer to the planet while the other was further out, allowing the sensors on board to collect both detailed data at perigee and big-picture observations at apogee. From either side of the orbit, as long as it was above the horizon, it could beam cached data to a JAXA receiver antenna inside the Alnus base. The data from the antenna would immediately get copied to a local server and forwarded through a fiber optic bundle to astronomers and universities on the far side of the Gate.

Right now they were looking at the satellite on the apogee-facing part of the orbit, and the satellite seemed to slow the higher it got in the evening sky. Slowly, lights were turned back on and Greta finished her presentation by stating, "Japanese and American scientists are currently compiling data from the satellite, and claim that they already have enough radar data to produce a line-map of the continents by our next presentation tomorrow night. I hope you will join us then, because I'm sure that it will be very exciting since no one, not us, the Japanese, or Americans know what we'll find!"

After a round of applause, Greta met up with Carol and, switching back to Japanese, asked, "Did it look okay? I think that I got all of the points correct, and I can only pray that the concepts were clear during the translation—"

"Greta," Carol said, smiling at her, "You did fine! It made me want to improve my Imperial to keep up!"

She watched for a while as Greta worked with Schumer and Foster to put the presentation equipment away, they strayed over to the edge of the amphitheater to continue following the satellite.

The launch that morning had gone without a hitch, and Carol had enjoyed watching the reactions to the much bigger and better-designed rocket. True, the Japanese Epsilon, like Midgetman, used a solid rocket motor on its main stage, but, since it was an orbital rocket instead of a suborbital one, the vehicle overall was much larger than Midgetman, and had required the construction of a simple but dedicated concrete pad out near the airfield.

It was also the first time that Mullan had been able to join her for a launch. Normally, the man would be with whichever HML was conducting the launch, but since HML-2 and its atom bomb were still in their hangar, he had no reason to skip this launch. When Carol asked for his opinion, he smiled, waved her off and said, "Wish we could show them a Delta IV Heavy. That would really knock their socks off."

The satellite continued to rise and, now that Carol was following, she noticed something strange. The portion of sky that the spacecraft was edging closer to appeared shockingly empty, with all the stars in the region bunching towards a center a few degrees to the West.

"Strange, isn't it," said a voice behind her, and Carol looked over her shoulder to see that Takagi was also looking up at the night sky.

"Very," Carol said. "Shirai's been adamant about refining Flat's thesis on the spatial distortions, and he hasn't come to any conclusions yet."

Takagi nodded, froze, then asked, "Dr. Dawson, did anyone ever tell you which instruments were on Sakura?"

She thought back over the short briefing. "If I recall correctly, a radar topography scanner, an optical camera and a spectroscopic survey scanner."

Takagi nodded, "That is correct, but there is one instrument that was added late, and so was not in the presentation. I only learned about it by talking to the JAXA controller team this morning."

"Really?" Carol said. "What is it?"

"A particle collector. The satellite will fly through the spatial distortion and try to determine if there is a particle or energy cause."

"That's pretty risky."

"Says the woman whose organization is about to maneuver an aging probe through the gap between Saturn an its rings. Yanagida wanted me to ask if you intended to study it with your third Air Force rocket."

Of course not. If all went well, Carol felt, that rocket and the HML it sat on would stay in its hangar and rust there until the end of time. She couldn't say that, however, so instead she said, "Maybe, if they ever get the fueling problem fixed. I have heard from Administrator Kosinski that NASA is already in talks for a completely different project, so we may skip the third Midgetman launch entirely."

Takagi grinned. "Yanagida also said that your answer would sound like that."

"He's a nosy guy, isn't he?"

"He's an intelligence officer. It is in his job description, and—oh!"

Carol's head snapped up in the direction of Takagi's gaze towards the satellite. It appeared to be oscillating wildly, now appearing almost like a tiny line segment than a dot.

There was a bright flash, a tiny fireball that quickly extinguished itself, then nothing.

The scientist noticed that her mouth was hanging open in shock. "Oh crap!" she said, "I think that was one of the hydrazine tanks!"

Carol looked down at the translator again and said, "Do you have a radio? Someone ought to tell—"

She didn't have time to say more. From the West came the wailing of the base alarm, and Greta and the two American soldiers were back at her side, Schumer listening intensely to his radio set."

"What is it?" Greta asked, "An attack?"

The Technical Sergeant frowned and replied, "Not quite."

"Then what is it?"

"An unexpected guest."

One hundred meters outside the South Gate, Alnus FOB

As far as Sergeant First Class Mihara was concerned, the sight before his vehicle shouldn't be possible.

The Alnus Forward Operating Base was defended as a proper base ought to be; roving patrols and pickets, checkpoints on every road and trail, thermal scanners and night vision equipment for every guard and vehicle on duty… enough to assure that an enemy force couldn't sneak up on them, and enough options to prevent a repeat of Nariv's mob and riot. Even rotating radar arrays and fire control systems had been installed to deal with the Wyverns that the Emire seemed to enjoy using from time to time.

Therefore, it was unsettling for him to open the door, and shine his vehicle's spotlight on the young woman standing less than a football field's distance away from the base's main entry point. No one should have been able to sneak through so many layers of security, at least not without training, equipment, and intel on the security systems being used.

And yet, there she was.

The woman appeared in her mid-twenties, scantily clad in a showy white dress, but it was not the revealing clothing that caught Mihara's attention first. Rather it was her blue skin, the large scythe she carried, and the dragon wings sprouting from her back that gave him pause.

Her name was Giselle, an Apostle of Hardy, and she was dangerous.

Months ago, she had woken and taken control of a pair of flame dragons. It had taken an organized assault by the 4th Combat Group to take them out. She was also an Apostle which meant, like Rory, she would shrug off anything that came out of the business end of his Howa Type 64 rifle. Even with the two Komatsu LAVs taking up position on either side, and the thundering roar of a Cobra gunship moving into position in the airspace behind him, Mihara still didn't feel safe.

He had asked his driver to give them several meters of space, so he wound up shouting at Hardy's chosen girl, "This territory is occupied by the JSDF, and we cannot permit you to come any closer without stating your business."

"I'm the Apostle of Hardy, I go where I like."

"You could be the Prime Minister of Japan, and my request would be the same."

Hardy shrugged. "I guess it doesn't matter. Hardy wants to know why her instructions to Itami Youji were not acted upon."

Mihara frowned down at her. "Which instructions?"

"The ones about closing the Gate."

The Sergeant looked down at his driver, who shrugged. "I will contact my commanding officer," Mihara said, "I need you to wait."

Giselle snorted. "Even with your war machines, you are still a typical army."

After he sent his instructions over the radio, he waited for the Lieutenant on the other end to respond, and was surprised to hear the lower voice of General Hazama. "Hand her a spare radio, but stay on the line."

Mihara reached into the vehicle, pulled out a spare radio set and, jumped to the ground. He tried to seem calm as he approached the Apostle, but he felt like he was standing between two active volcanoes-the might of the entire 5th Combat Group behind him, and this… girl. He passed the radio to her and said, "Hold down the switch on the side to talk, and release it to listen."

She waited until Mihara had returned to his vehicle and asked, "Who am I speaking with?"

The Sergeant turned on his own radio set to listen to the conversation. "I am Lieutenant General Hazama of the Japanese Ground Self Defense Forces," came the response. "And you are Giselle… I received reports on you from Lieutenant Itami and some… brief interactions with my 4th Combat Group. What's this about closing the Gate?"

"I want to know why you haven't done so yet."

"I diligently went through the entire brief by Lieutenant Yanagida, and while we understand the interest in keeping Falmart's culture intact, my nation has decided that it is in the best interests of both worlds to keep the Gate open."

Giselle gave the radio a confused look, then said, "Then you have misunderstood Hardy's orders. She did not tell Itami to consider closing the Gate, she insisted that the Gate must be closed. Or has Itami not reported on our trip to Knappnai?"

"The Lieutenant reported on Knappnai, and our stance remains the same. What Hardy decides to do with her powers is her decision, and it only firms our resolve in the choice not to close the Gate."

"I don't think you heard me," Giselle snarled. "The Gate must be closed. You aren't being given a choice in the matter."

A pause, then, "Sergeant Mihara, if Giselle hasn't departed in thirty seconds, you have my permission to use all available means to help her on her way."

Mihara leveled his weapon, and said, "You heard the General. Get out of here before we kick your ass like we did three weeks ago."

Giselle smiled up at him, and taped a finger on her scythe. "You know," she said, "I've had time to think about that. Hardy has too. You should take that into consideration before threatening us."

"Twenty seconds. The pair of you can go do hell. As the Americans say, scram!"

But Giselle simply chuckled. and said, "But don't you know?

"'Tis Hardy of those shadowed plains

Of Kingdoms built on man's remains

Ensnare the ones who ought to know

Who dwells within the land—"

The ground below them erupted, pitching Mihara's vehicle over backwards and throwing him clear. Emerging from beneath the truck, a giant centipede knifed into the air and landed hard on the overturned vehicle with a loud hiss.

Mihara reacted automatically, grabbing his rifle again and firing up at the monster. One of the LAV gunners opened up as well, his 12.7mm rounds punching into the chitin plating of the animal, but the M2 was silenced as this vehicle was thrown as well. This time it wasn't some bug, but a 30-ft golem that emerged from the dirt and slammed a giant rocky fist down on the roof of the armored vehicle. Several yards away, the other LAV was gunning its engine in full reverse, the gunner firing wildly as they retreated towards the base.

Sergeant Mihara scrambled to his feet, but didn't know where to point fist. The ground exploded again, this time with a giant creature made of lava that ignited the grass around it as it pushed its way to the surface, and again as what looked like a giant horsefly blasted through the dirt, and took to the air after the Cobra gunship, and again as a swarm of tiger-sized ants spilled out onto the field like water from an uncapped fire hydrant, and a horrific rumbling as a giant blue dragon, larger than either that the 4th Combat Group had tackled, shook its way out of the dirt and launched into air.

The Sergeant turned to rush back to his overturned vehicle, but barely made it five seconds before he was stopped by a blinding pain. For an instant, his vision cleared just enough to see the end of a giant blade protruding from his chest.

As the world began to fade, he heard Giselle at his ear, whispering, "This is your reward for killing my flame dragons."

The Apostle twisted the scythe around , slicing the JSDF soldier cleanly in half. In that moment, Sergeant Mihara became the first Earth soldier to die in the Special Region.

Before the night was over, he would not be the last.