Ruby was still feeling down. Sure Jaune's talk helped, and her big sister was doing all she could to make her smile. The redhead girl was more than happy for that, and appreciated their efforts. Yet she couldn't stop thinking about their last stop and how that could have being them. No one had any idea why those aliens were migrating, but it was sad nonetheless how they ended.
She walked absent minded around the ship, trying to keep her mind out of her problems. They were in the middle of deep space, far from any star system as Jaune decided to not take another step before the star charts they bought were installed and that the alien tech schematics they acquired were deciphered. She soon found herself in the docking bay, what became more or less the place everyone would congregate. She saw Ren, Nora, Penny and Jaune discussing while looking at a holo-screen and decided to listen to them.
"So, the maps are ready to be installed?" Jaune asked to Penny, and she answered with her energetic smile.
"Yes. We finally finished translating them."
"Here, let me show you…" Ren said as the screen showed a 3D model of the galaxy. "The blue zone is what they call the Known Sector. It is areas that have being mapped and visited before by a sentient race." A mass of blue filled a small part of the galaxy, and to Jaune it looked like a fat octopus. "It is representative of less than 1% of all Galaxy. The charts have every planet described, including if they are in dispute or have an indigenous intelligent race. All planets fit to our species are either of those."
"So, we would be wasting our time in the blue zone." Jaune concluded and Ren nodded.
"Here is the green zone or the Mapped Sector as they call it." A more spherical globe enveloped the blue zone. "It is star systems that they have analyzed over distance or with probes. It is twice as big as the Known Sector. Most of those planets are marked as 'claimed by'."
"So even if one of those is fit for us some alien race might just come later and say they called dibs on it. Fantastic." Jaune spoke and groaned. It wasn't a good perspective exchanging the war on Grimm for a war with another species.
"There is two pieces of info that I think we should discuss. This…" A black, red and white 'net' appeared at the edge of the Mapped Sector, likely attempting to cover it. "Is what they call the Devourer's Line. The chart doesn't say why it is called that, but the schematics we retrieved in the Kangaroo system had one 'Devourer long and short range sensor'. It seems something we might want to install on the Nagato."
"First, where does our home system is in the middle of all this?" Jaune asked, now worried about the possibility of one of those alien races being too close for comfort of his family.
"Here, just outside the edge of the Mapped Sector. Apparently no one knows about us until now. And we are in the opposite side of the Devourer's Line, and with a name like this, it is a good thing."
"Good news at least. What other techs we got?"
"Oh, nice, nice ones! They had schematics for improved forcefields, improved gravity floor and the coolest thing of all, the subspace scanner!" Nora celebrated, and Jaune just arched an eyebrow.
"The shields is quite self-explanatory, we can install them on the Nagato, the bullheads, the fighters and our Hunters. Increased efficiency and durability with just a few changes." Ren explained and Ruby cut in.
"Cool!" Jaune and the others turned to her, making her a bit self-conscious, but the captain smiled and gestured for her to come closer, and she did.
"Feeling better?" He asked with a gentle arm around her shoulder.
"A little. Thanks for asking, skipper." She said shyly and with a nod and a smile.
"Very well, how long before every forcefield generator can be updated?" Jaune asked his engineers.
"Well, usual engineers would need a month, but awesome engineers like us will take a week at most!" Nora shouted and made a pose.
"The 3D printers are making the needed components as we speak. The improved gravity floor is more software than hardware, and it will allow us to have gravity even during the initial phases of warp." Ren explained and Jaune sighed. He liked the initial phase gravity-less environment, but conceded it was better having it all the time for tactical purposes.
"And what about this subspace scanner?"
"It allows us to collect data from within the subspace. Apparently they allow us to detect things existing in the subspace and also detect things from normal space while on subspace."
"Wait! There are things in the subspace? I always thought it was just a sea of cosmic energy." Jaune asked, and Ruby looked at them confused.
"Subspace?" She asked, and Ren gave her a small smirk.
"To properly conceive it I would have to teach you complex mathematic formulas that have more letters than numbers." He started, and the displeased face Ruby gave him was all he needs to know. "So I will go for the more didactic route."
"I thought you were going for an easier one…" Ruby lamented, and everyone held a laugh.
"Let's start with warp. Here a movie of the FTLRSS-6 going into warp…"
The movie showed a ship similar to the Nagato. From its warp engines come a blue and red aurora-like emission, blue on the left engine and right engine. Once the lights become as big as the ship they curved in the direction of each other and mixed, creating a rainbow colored aurora effect around the ship before it disappeared in a flash of light.
"Wow! This was awesome! Is this what the Nagato do every time we warp?" Ruby asked, her silver eyes glittering.
"Yep, but this one was slowed a hundred times, so you probably just see a flash of light when we do it. What we do is creating two clouds of supercharged subatomic particles in opposed frequencies, and when they get big enough they try to nullify each other they get at each other's throats as Yang and Weiss and warp the normal space in such a way we just dive in the subspace!" Nora explained, and Ruby actually understood that.
"But what exactly is the subspace?"
"We have theories, but Director Ozpin describes it like a woven net of energy that holds existence together. Well, another description would be that the universe is like a fluffy cake where we live in the dough and the subspace is the filling and the topping." Ren finished and Ruby nodded in understanding.
"But then, how we navigate from place to place so fast?"
"Oh, we ride the slipstream! Those weaves that exist in the subspace carry us to place to place like riding the neatest wave ever!" Nora yelled, and Ruby looked at Ren for help.
"Think that the subspace is like trillions of rivers going everywhere, and those rivers travel faster than light since the subspace don't obey the physic laws we have in normal space. We use magnetic fields on the hull to make the ship fall in the right 'river', or slipstream, which goes to the direction we want, and we jump out of warp once we arrive." Ren explained and Ruby nodded, finally understanding all the process.
"This sounds complicated."
"It is, it took Director Ozpin years to get the entire math correctly, a decade to develop the first functional warp engine system and two decades before the Nagato." Ren concluded the explanation.
"And one single failure to get my mother lost heavens knows where." They turned to see a displease Yang staring at the screen before she just left in a hurry.
"What happened?" Nora asked, and they looked at Jaune and Ruby, but both remained silent on that matter.
"Ren, priority is upgrading the forcefields. Then I want the subspace scanner, gravity floor upgrade and finally this Devourer sensor, whatever it is. We aren't going anywhere till we have everything working." Ren and Nora nodded and walked towards the work benches to start their job, soon followed by Penny. Jaune turned to Ruby with worry in his eyes. "Should I go talk with Yang?"
"Give her an hour than go talk to her; otherwise she will just punch you in the face." Ruby answered seriously. Jaune just nodded and accepted that as true.
"I have a training session with Pyrrha now; I will talk with Yang later. Why don't you go to the sky deck and look at the stars? It is incredible beautiful when there is no pesky sun to get in the way."
"Are we talking about the star or the Petty Officer?" She asked, and they both shared a laugh.
…
"Wow!"
Ruby floated inside the sky deck and looked through the glass to see the fantastic colors and shapes of the galaxy. She had being there a few times, but this was certainly the most fantastic view she had ever saw. There were clouds as colorful as jewels, so many starts that they looked like crystal dust sprayed in the darkness, formations so breathtaking that she couldn't ever describe them to anyone and that no picture could translate as well as seeing it with their own eyes.
"Hey, little captain." Coco called Ruby, surprising the girl before she pouted.
"Don't call me that, Sergeant!" She shouted and Coco laughed, waving to the red-haired girl to come closer, so Ruby floated towards her and sat at the edge of the deck as the two girls looked at the stars. "I wonder how many of those places don't even exist anymore…"
"Yeah, but you know what would be funny? If we had a telescope powerful enough to look at our planet from here. We would look at it as it was before the Grimm." Coco said, but her voice didn't carried sadness, to Ruby's surprise.
"Do you think we will find it? A planet we can live in?" Coco hugged Ruby pushing the smaller girl closer.
"We will. Look at how vast the galaxy is, and we only know a small part of it. We will find a place for us."
"How can you be sure? After all we saw?" Ruby stared back at the stars, remembering all the sadness and death they found till that moment. Coco petted her a little and smiled.
"Because our CO is dumb." Ruby stared in shock at Coco, but the older girl chuckled and explained. "Any other would have taken the few bad encounters we had and deemed this trip hopeless. But not him. He said that we have a thousand systems to check, and we tend to find what we are searching for in the last place we search, so what happens if we give up in the 999th planet and what we were searching for is on the 1000th?"
"That… makes sense." Ruby agreed.
"I know we had some bad encounters, kiddo, but we did meet a cool alien race. Those Hippolians were nice. So, no point giving up now, OK?" Ruby hugged Coco back this time.
"Thanks, Coco."
"Anytime, little captain."
"Call me this again and I will have you cleaning the latrines." Ruby joked, and they both laughed.
"Ah, there you are, it is our… Oops, sorry, do you two need five more minutes?" Sun asked as his head popped up from the hatch. Ruby and Coco shared a look before noticing the compromising position they were and ended the hug by pushing each other away and blushing.
…
"I am sorry!"
"Pyrrha, for the last time, it's OK. 'Tis but a scratch OUCH!" Jaune winced as Dr. Verd was helping him with a cut on his arm courtesy of Pyrrha's service knife. They were training and she got a little careless. It didn't helped when he said he thought she looked beautiful while fighting making her lose her focus.
"I am sorry!"
"Pyrrha, you apologize one more time and I will make you cook." Jaune said playfully, and the redhead blushed as she remembered the disastrous first attempt at cooking. She didn't blow up the kitchen like Yang nor she poisoned anyone, but her food lacked any and all flavor, aside all the cuts and burns she got.
"I am… yes, Captain." She corrected herself, but kept an eye as the doctor finished stitching him and put a bandage to cover the wound.
"And done. Now, next time you two want to get it on, remember to use protection." She joked, making Pyrrha blush madly while Jaune just stared without getting the joke. "I meant the Hunter, Major. Why were you two even training hand-to-hand combat without them?"
"OH! I-I j-just thought if someone boards the ship and we don't have time to put them it would be better to be prepared." She explained while trying to hide her embarrassment. The doctor smirked and closed her suitcase.
"And Jauney is getting better? At combat, I mean."
"Yes. I never saw someone improve so fast. In fact, Captain, you are quite talented. Why your scores at combat school were so…"
"Abysmal? Horrendous? Worse than a drunken child?" Jaune suggested with a smile.
"I was going to say subpar of what you could do." Pyrrha said with a smile of her own.
"That is because Jauney never wanted to be a soldier before meeting Tenryuu." Shen added and Pyrrha stared at the captain. He chuckled a little before sitting in a bench in the training room.
"I wanted to be a cook. I knew if I failed to get a Hunter license they would put me on some menial task, hopefully the kitchen. Then after finishing the mandatory service, I would become a private cook." It was one of those weird realities in the Remnant Colonies. While restaurants were rare, private cooks would go to people's homes and try to fix a meal with the artificial food. It was quite a good job if you had the talent. "While I always dreamed to be able to do something for the colonies, combat school kind of crushed that dream for a while."
"And the Admiral convinced you somehow?" Pyrrha asked as she sat by his side.
"Well, later on, when it was time for the mandatory service and she drafted me to the Spacy." He explained and took a sip of water from his bottle. "But to be honest, the person that convinced me to try harder was Cardin Winchester." Pyrrha looked at him in shock, as she never expected that despicable man to be one to say something to help another person.
"Him?"
"Yep. It happened in the last year of combat school. He said after beating me up that he would become the next Commander-General and would ban all Faunus, including my sisters. I decided that I wouldn't ever let someone like him to get there, so last year of school I did my best during training with the sole purpose of beating the crap out of him. I defeated him in the last spar we had, get a Hunter license and his last days of school were spent with everyone mocking him for being defeated by 'vomit-boy'." He explained unenthusiastic. Pyrrha nodded in understand and rested a hand on his shoulder.
"And the Admiral?"
"After she snatched me for the Spacy, she told me that someone like Winchester could always ended in a high position just to 'fuck up everything'. That the only thing bad people need to win was to good people do nothing. So she convinced me to prove my worth and go to the officer's school so I could keep people like Cardin in check." Jaune finished giving his half-finished bottle to Pyrrha. "I am going to take a bath now. See you two later."
Pyrrha watched as he got out and thought of her own reasons to become a soldier. It was less about others and more about herself. She always admired the courage of going down on the planet to try to take it back or at least get resources from the colonies and dreamed to be one of those. But now it felt a little bit selfish of her when Jaune became what he is now because he wanted to protect others. She sighed and drank a bit of water.
"How bold of you, Major." The doctor said with a smirk.
"Sorry?" She asked as she sipped from the water once again.
"This is the captain's bottle, so you are indirectly kissing him." Pyrrha almost drowned in the water and blushed terrible as she coughed.
…
"Yang, you know if you don't tell me what is bothering you, someone else will pester you about it." Weiss said in her usual indifferent tone, only to hide she was concerned about the blonde Marine with her face buried on her pillow. "If you are doing this to get the skipper's attention…"
"Not everything I do is because of him, princess." Yang growled back, and Weiss scoffed.
"Stop calling me that. I am not a princess; I am a Marine like you. I saw people dying, I fought the Grimm. I am as much a soldier as you."
"Why?" Yang asked as she sat in her bunker, hugging her pillow.
"Why what?"
"Why are you a soldier? You could live a comfortable life back at the colonies with your father's money and influence."
"You know, you people have a distorted notion about what being 'rich' in Remnant means. How big the average house there is? 20-30 square meters? My apartment was 45, and that was because we needed an office and a table to receive people. I didn't even have my own room. Employees? Just a personal cook. Money? Yes, we had quite a bit, but to buy what? It was not like we had surplus of anything to buy and sell back there. At the most, you could pay someone to modify your clothes or to use a bit of your food share to transform it into other things like beauty creams. Aside things like books and music, there is not much commerce going there." Weiss lectured Yang, and the blonde nodded a bit. Sure it was still better than what most had, but it wasn't THAT better.
"Still, why you stayed at the army?"
"My father… never was the most present one. Mom and my sister Winter were all my family, since he was always too busy with the business to pay attention to us. Then mom died, and it became worse. He stopped treating us as their daughters and more like employees needing to fulfill their obligations. Winter used this as a way to cope with the dead of our mother and once she finished the mandatory service she got into the company." Weiss had a bitter tone as she told that story, and Yang decided to be less confrontational.
"And you were left alone."
"Yes. And combat school wasn't better. Everyone thought I was a delicate flower who would never be a true soldier, even after I kicked their butts in battle. And when service started, it was only after we lost half our platoon in a botched mission that people started to treat me as one of them, and even so I still had to deal with the 'princess' treatment."
"But why you stayed at the army?"
"My father… he wanted me to marry a prominent counselor twice my age to expand his influence in the government. Becoming a Marine was my way to revolt, you could say, but also to not be forced into something I didn't want to and at the same time do something I wanted to." Weiss finished, and Yang sighed and nodded.
"Sorry, I promise to not call you princess anymore."
"Thank you, I appreciate that. Now, your turn. What is troubling you?"
"Family troubles, though mine is different from yours." Yang sighed and hugged her pillow tighter. "I didn't want to be a Marine at first, you know? I wanted to be a Spacy pilot so I could get into Project Beacon and find clues of what happened with my mom. She was the pilot for the FTLRSS-5 and in her very first flight she disappeared. I was just a baby at the time, and dad kept it a secret until Ruby's mom, Summer, that I believed to be my own mom too died. But them, after some stuff happened, I decided that I would not lose family again, and kept an eye on Ruby."
"So when Ruby became a Marine…" Weiss wondered.
"I followed. She was pushed forward two years because how talented she is, but I knew she needed a sisterly figure to help her."
"That was quite selfless of you." Weiss said, surprised that the usually annoying blonde had a side like that.
"Ugh, now I need something full of chocolate." Yang groaned on her pillow.
"Do chocolate cream works for you?" They turned to see Jaune standing there with a bowl filled with the brown dessert and spoons. Yang smiled and waved him to come closer, and she grabbed him pulling him up her bunker and snuggled, and only lucky avoided him to drop the bowl. "Er, Yang?"
"Shush. Snuggles first, chocolatey stress reliever later. Weiss, you will have some and that is an order."
"Since when you are my superior officer?" The white haired girl questioned but she took a spoon anyway.
…
Ten days passed as they finished upgrading the Nagato.
Thankfully that little break helped everyone to improve their moods, and soon everything was being hectic again to the displeasure of Glynda. But even her agreed that seem the young crew like that was better than the gloomy mood of the first few days. Now that the ship's modifications were finished and tested, they were reunited at the docking bay to discuss their next step. Velvet activated the holo-screen and the galaxy appeared. The screen zoomed in and a big yellow circle enveloped the green and blue zones.
"The yellow zone is the mission range zone of the Nagato. Going to each of its extremes would take us three years in warp. There are hundreds of thousands of star systems here, but we only are aware of a thousand systems with possible planets, thanks to data from the star chart. Unfortunately, half of them are in the green and blue zones…" She explained in a very serious tone.
"This means half of the planets we planned to visit are either occupied or claimed by alien species around this sector. And we also have the Devourer's Line to worry about." Glynda complemented as the red, black and white net appeared. "We don't know how big this is, and the star chart warns us that this line and everything beyond it is dangerous. Velvet projected a simulation of how big this line could really be."
"Considering its format, position and how it goes, if this extends beyond the Mapped Sector…" The net extended and was like it was trying to envelope the green and blue zones and extending into the yellow zone. "…we lose half of all the area we have to explore."
"The blue and green zones were out right of the bat. We won't trade a conflict for another, especially when our side is in disadvantage here. That leave us with less than 300 star systems to check, all in the unknown zone, meaning we basically are back to square one." Jaune completed and they all looked at each other. "Of course, our visit to The Club paid off, as we are not going to waste time with planets we can't have, and we acquired new technology that will help our trip. I know it seems that our efforts aren't amount to anything, but even a kick to our butts are moving us forward. You are the best crew I could have asked for, and I hope to be able to count on you as we dive into uncharted waters."
"Aye aye captain!" They all said in celebration. Jaune chuckled and scratched the back of his head.
"You are all crazy, but the right kind we need right now. Very well, Ren, Nora, how's our girl?"
"Wait, what girl? Did you made a baby when we weren't looking? Tell me it is with Pyrrha as I bet she would be the first one. Though Yang has being going hard and I pretty sure Velvet…" Nora started blabbing making everyone squirm in despair.
"Nora, I am pretty sure the captain is referring to the ship." Ren explained.
"Wait, he is having a baby with the Nagato? How's that possible? Does the ship have all the needed parts? Or that would be by Penny? Can Penny even…" By that time Ren put a hand on her mouth while she kept talking.
"I will explain to her later. The Nagato is ready to go whenever you want. All systems are working perfectly." He informed the captain, and Jaune nodded.
"OK, everyone, go to your stations. We resume this trip in fifteen minutes." Jaune informed and the crew disbanded.
…
Jaune sat at his chair at the bridge, and it felt like he hasn't being there for ages. He looked to Neptune and Sun talking to each other, while Coco laughed at a blushing Velvet, not letting go of Nora's slip of tongue. Penny and Glynda stood by the sides of his chair while Ren finally came to man the engineer station at the bridge. He took a deep breath before using the intercom.
"Here's your captain speaking. We are ready to depart to the… Aardvark system and yes, this was a real creature, there are pictures on the library. Time of travel is holy shit six days! Remember to take regular baths. Tonight's dinner will be a mockery of lasagna and dessert will be pie. The flavor will be up your imaginations. In case of emergency paper and pen will fell from the compartments above your heads so you can write your last wishes. If we are forced to land on water we will hope it also has fish or a very sad Blake Belladonna will be seen around." Jaune concluded, gaining a few giggles and muffled laughs from the crew and a roll of eyes from Glynda. "OK, Neptune, engage!"
The Nagato vibrated and warped, and Jaune sighed as the gravity floor was still working. Once again a melancholic music filled his ears, and he spent a few minutes listening to it, before starting humming along. After a while he started singing some lyrics he made up at the moment.
Can you hear the calling of the raving wind and water?
We just keep dreaming of the land 'cross the river
We are always on the way to find the place we belong
wandering to nowhere, we're paddling
down the raging sea
Who can cross over such raving wind and water?
On the rolling boat we sit, shivering with coldness
Come by an island, come by a hillock,
It's just another place, we paddle on
Down the raging sea
But in one morning we'll see the sun
Bright shining morning dew singing
They who will search will find the land
Of evergreen
Can you hear the calling of the raving wind and water?
We just keep paddling down the sea, up the river
No destination, but we are together
In the silent sadness we're paddling
Down the raging sea
Down to nowhere
Jaune opened his eyes that he didn't realized they were closed to see his crew looking at him in surprise, and that made him self-conscious and blush a little.
"Tell me someone recorded that." Coco started and Velvet raised her hand. "Tell me you broadcast it to the ship!"
"It was a nice song." She admitted shyly, but her eyes were cast on Jaune, and were so intense that he squirmed a little.
"Great. I am just glad my sisters aren't here to hear me singing. Actually, I am glad they aren't here to see a lot of things."
"Don't worry, Captain. I am recording everything so your sisters won't miss any moment of our trip." Jaune paled at that affirmation.
"Penny, we will review your recordings later. I see I need to classify a lot of stuff." He said to a confused android as the Nagato sailed to its next destination.
…
A.N.: The son Jaune sang is To Nowhere by Yuki Kajiura, from the .hack series OST.