Episode 5- sailing through cosmos.
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The journey was mostly silent, the passengers tensed up, expecting for some pursuit. But nothing happened, yet. The dropship flew away from the planet, to the edge of the current solar system, performing a quick jump to the neighboring system.
This one, having nothing worth to offer, stood empty. The ship quickly flew to a nearby asteroid, landing on it.
"Why did we land?" asked miss doctor.
"This ship is registered, and easy to trace, so we are changing it. Hey Tychus, you see that button? on your left."
"Yeah"
"Then push it" With a hiss a big hanger with basic environment suits come out.
Pilot took that moment to walk out of the cockpit, and took two suits, dragging the other woman with her. With a short complaint heard, the 3 men were now alone.
"I hope you know how to wear one, yes?"
"I think so" told Jim.
He was met with a shake of head, the teen said "put it on, then i will show you how to properly seal them up."
After a moment, their old clothes were discarded, the new suits being skintight, showing off their impressive physique pretty well. After another moment the two females showed up, showing their "assets". The two gentlemen were occupied with admiring the view, when they were snapped out of it when they heard a thud.
The box from the shelf above head was dropped down, then opened by the youngest of the group. To their eyes appeared helmets, with air bottles among them.
"You have a holder for those on your backs, you connect them to the back of your helmets. Also, we all will be carrying boxes with supplies, and what you carried out from the facility."
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With a flurry of activity, they were ready. Ramp was lowered, boxes taken and they followed after the kid. They floated in space, what with the asteroid not having gravitation and all. With small thrusters they flew to their destination. After maybe ten minutes or so, they arrived. Through their short range commlink, Reynor asked "is that a… boat?"
"Damn it Jimmy, I heard stories, but I didn't know they actually are still in use." Said Tychus.
"That's because only our colony uses those, less efficient than ships and all that. Okay, fly close to the deck, because gravity will hit us soon". Doing just that they were met with barely visible translucent barrier. As soon as they touched it, they experienced a sudden drop, falling to their faces and asses one after another. With exception of the kid and pilot who twisted in midair, landing crouched. Thankfully following the advice, the drop was short, and harmless, mostly.
"Oww" said miss Doctor, landing on her behind.
"Now follow me, we will put those boxes in place, then I will show you the place to sleep". Walking to the lower deck they were met pretty much just with six hammocks, and some space for small cargo.
"They won't flip over or anything during our sleep?" Asked Jim. Having set her box down, the pilot walked away, to start their voyage.
"Nah, the gravity center is at the bottom of the ship, so even if we do a corkscrew, or flip over, we will only experience it with our eyes, nothing more. Anyway, I'm doing dinner, be at the deck by half an hour."
They heard a small humming of the ship and they lifted off, felt by a little shaking of the ship.
"Oh man, what a rush, not as explosive as others, but certainly unique". Said Jim, walking up to the hammock and laying down on it, with hands behind his back.
"Mhm, another adventure can be added to our record."
The doctor walked by them, going to the deck.
The two looked at her, then at each other. Then Tychus climbed up on his own hammock, saying "half an hour of nap sounds good, wake me up when the food is ready." After a moment, light snores could be heard from him.
Raynor just looked at the ceiling, lost in thought.
Miss doctor stood at the entrance, watching as the teen set up a portable stove, and started making food. First he chopped onions and a few cloves of garlic, then added them to hot oil. Secondly, a bigger pot full of water was put next to the first. Stirring contents of the first pot with a wooden spoon, he then added prepared tomato extract and more water. Some salt, basil, oregano and pepper, and work was mostly done.
"You can ask away", he said, taking out grater, and started grating cheese to a big bowl.
"What does Maria want from me, concretely?"
"Biology, mostly".
"She knows it well enough, doesn't she?"
"Not this time, she mostly dabbles in it, and mostly the already known things, like flora and fauna from earth. In this case we have something big, and completely new, and mom is more technology savvy anyways". In the meantime, cheese was all ready, sauce was well on its way, and spaghetti was put in the big pot.
"Couldn't she just hire, or contact someone else?"
"No no no, it's strictly on trust basis, we can trust only you, and there is no one fit for this job. Call the boys, dinners ready."
They were met with pasta, together with aromatic tomato sauce. Showing the cheese, the small cook said "take as much as you want, I need to bring Magdalena her portion." With that he started to walk out, when Jim asked "Who is she?"
"The pilot of course, didn't you know? She presented herself…, wait she didn't, I didn't too…, so I suppose you wouldn't know". He said, walking away.
The two men looked at each other, then turned back to eating, adding cheese.
After a minute, the teen returned, put the rest on his plate, cheese being the huge portion of it, and started to eat with gusto.
After finishing, and putting the plates away, the teen said "Okay, it's time for formal introductions, I am Dobromir, she is Doctor Ariel Handson, and those are James Raynor and Tychus Findlay", with names, he was showing with his hand at each one of them.
"Okay, first Jim, then Tychus, at the end Ariel, then you can go again."
"What's with that ship?, seems everyone knows about it more than me."
"Well, to go from the beginning, times of Earth before unification to be exact, the solar sails were used for satellites, a rather cheap method of propelling but at the same time, very fragile. Then came the actual ships we see today, and the sails were forgotten. Then, our little colony came into being, more or less a hundred of years ago. Our planet is extremely poor in terms of fuels and minerals, and rather far to be worth a constant trade, so my great grandma made those ships. Of course what you see currently is an upgraded version, but still."
Before Raynor could ask more, he was stopped with "Now, Tychus."
"What is our place to "lay low?""
"The colony I talked about, it's a fringe colony, an isolated one at that. Not far from the Sara system. Our planet is called Po'midor, it lies in the Por system. Next, aunty"
"What you were supposed to steal, exactly?
"Here" with that she was handed a piece of paper from Tychus. Looking at it she said with disbelief, "This junk?! It's not working, and not worth much either!"
"You would think so, but you know my mom, for me, it's just czary mary hokus pokus for me."
"Back to the ship, how does the ship work? Especially the invisible barrier that separates us from nothingness?" asked Jim.
"Sails are the upgraded version from old earth, being more close to normal sails. Just as ships were propelled by the wind in old days, this ship too is propelled, but by protons, not light. The barrier was put together by my mom, from alien technology like the one you just stole. Our earlier ship designs were without it, ergo they were actually enclosed, looking more like turtle, but with wings. Tychus."
"Who is our employer exactly?"
"Maria Skłodowska, without Curie. My mom, she's pretty much the most important person in our colony, together with my father, who is Wojewodą.
"Who?"
"Something like a colony chef, only much more respected than in other colonies their leaders are."
Before he could say anything, Handson said "I don't have more questions".
"What of you two?"
Recalling something less important, but still curious, Jim asked "During the mission, you didn't have glasses, yes?"
"Yes, and?"
"Your eyes glowed, do you have implants or…"
"No no no, it's natural, at least for me".
"What do you mean by natural?"
"The answer is for another time, let's just say there is a reason someone as young as me acts as a proxy. Anything else?"
"When will we arrive?" asked Tychus.
"Here comes a little snag with this travel method, it will take more or less ten hours. If we were traveling from our homeworld to Tarsonis for example, it would take us a whole week. Mom is working on it, but I know next to nothing. And to Earth… I have no idea, motion in space is constant, so the ship would be gaining speed endlessly… let's just say it's out of our reach. Now that questions are answered, I need to change places with Magdalena, she needs rest too." Just as he was walking off,looking over his shoulder he said "I have some very old classics on the computer, if you are bored, you can check it out."
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Ariel stayed at the deck, looking at the stars as they passed by the cosmos. The two bros walked down the deck to check out the "classics". Needless to say, playing Lego games in cooperation was interesting.
Everyone was sleeping when the call was heard "Wake Up! We're almost there!"
Some were startled, others just stood up and walked to the deck. To their eyes were shown a very green world, crisscrossed with blue lines and blobs. The trio didn't even notice the change of steerman on steerwoman. From behind they heard:
"Our world is mostly grassy plains, rivers, lakes, and swamps. You are about to experience it firsthand".