"What a waste of time and money", Rufus sighed, his eyes fixed on the sky, where the Shinra logo Cid Highwind had drawn into the sky with white smoke had started to dissipate. They were still on the grandstand, but Palmer had left them alone for a moment to talk to one of his other guests. He reassured them that he would return in just a few minutes, and Rufus elected to remain on the grandstand, by himself with just his bodyguard. Rufus turned his head to Tseng and pointed at the chair beside hm. "Come on, sit down." Tseng looked down the grandstand, but Palmer was nowhere to be seen, so he sat down and looked into Rufus' light blue eyes. "Did you enjoy it, at least?", Rufus asked. Tseng responded, confused: "Enjoy what, sir?" – "The airshow we just watched?" – "Oh, the airshow!", Tseng exclaimed. Scratching himself behind his ear, he answered: "I wasn't really watching that, sir." Rufus raised his eyebrows, but his questioning expression turned into a smirk rather quickly. Leaning closer, he said with a low voice: "It's good to know that you ensure my safety so diligently, even in the face of a spectacle like the one we just watched." As much as Tseng would have loved to watch his master the whole time, he was too distracted by his duties, because he could not forgive himself if anything were to happen to him.
His silence was apparently explanation enough for Rufus to understand that it had come out wrong, because he leaned back and restated, more seriously: "No, really. Thank you." He sighed. "What do you think? We could take Palmer up on his offer." Tseng stood up and responded: "Certainly, sir." Rufus kept looking at him without moving. "I was wondering what you wanted", he pressed on, but Tseng shrugged and shook his head. "The offer was to you, not to me, sir." Rufus rolled his eyes and stretched out his hand to Tseng. "Sir?", he asked, keeping his eyes on their surroundings. "What happened, Tseng? You were so chill earlier and now you're so uptight." – "I'm sorry, sir. I'm just always worried when we are in such an exposed space. I know we're in a Shinra facility, but I did not take care of security here personally. It makes me nervous having to rely on Heidegger's people for security. You know how little he cares about details." Rufus lowered his hand, and Tseng continued: "Sir, I couldn't forgive myself if anything happened to you." Rufus looked at him for a moment longer and then gave Tseng an actual smile, which was reward enough for him, at least for now. Rufus got up and took Tseng's hand for a second. "Thank you for telling me. Then perhaps I should stop distracting you and instead go get some of that coffee Palmer offered to me, before it goes stale." Tseng squeezed his hand for a moment and affirmed: "A wonderful plan, sir."
They made their way down the grandstand, back to the backstage area, where an attendant was waiting for them and offered Rufus coffee. He accepted the coffee and ordered another one for Tseng. They were about halfway done with their drinks when Palmer reappeared, still as excited as he had been earlier, or perhaps even more so, now that he was given the opportunity to show off the rocket to the vice president. They followed Palmer off the grass field, where the performances had been held ("good riddance", Rufus commented under his breath), boarded a van fitted with two rows of seats and drove a few minutes to the rocket launch pad located in the middle of a large grass field surrounded by a ring of piled-up soil ("to break the shock wave from the rocket launch and protect the facilities around it", Palmer explained, although nobody asked). Once they got off the van, they realized the true size of the rocket towering over them for the first time. It stood at a height of over 100 meters on top of an elevated concrete platform, fixed to an even taller scaffold tower, holding all sorts of cables and pipes and tubes, which, Tseng was certain, Palmer could explain the purpose and function of every single one of them, and he was glad that Rufus had the wisdom not to ask any questions.
As soon as they got off, they were greeted again by Cid Highwind, still wearing the black overall from before and a pair of goggles, appearing substantially more relaxed than before, now that his performance was over. "Congratulations on your great performance. That was the best thing I've seen in a long time", Rufus praised Cid as enthusiastically as he could fake it, while they climbed the concrete stairs up to the tower set up next to the rocket. The pilot looked back at him and scratched the back of his head, flustered: "Glad ya liked it, Mr. VP. It took us weeks to even plan the choreography. The logo thing was Dr. Palmer's idea." – "Very nice", Rufus commented, nodding at Palmer as they got on the rickety elevator taking them to the top of the tower. The elevator shaking caused by Palmer jumping up and down with excitement made Tseng desperately hope that the thing was stable enough not to fall or crash.
He was relieved of his worry when they reached the top of the tower, where Cid slid the grate securing the elevator platform aside and invited them on to the walkway leading toward the entrance of the rocket. Around them, several technicians were tending to whatever their tasks were in preparation for the rocket launch the following day. Among them stood a lady with large round glasses in a lab coat, reading meters and taking notes on a clipboard she was holding. She looked around when the elevator arrived. She smiled at Cid briefly and glanced back at her clipboard, still smiling and blushing, when he raised his hand and smiled back at her. They stepped on the walkway, which consisted of an equally shaky scaffold construction with a see-through floor consisting of a metal grate. "I hope you're not afraid of heights, Mr. VP", Cid commented, while Palmer went, or rather, bounced ahead, making the walkway rattle violently under their feet. "No… I am not afraid of heights", Rufus replied sourly, but his unspoken plea for Palmer to walk like a regular person went unheard. "Director Palmer, could you slow down a little, so the vice president may enjoy the view a little longer?", Tseng asked, which made Palmer stop and come back to them, commenting: "But the interior is more interesting!" Rufus walked on more slowly, looking over the railing up and down the rocket. "Impressive!", he exclaimed, sounding more sincere than before.
This small comment prompted Palmer again to explain the different propulsion stages, pointing out the different parts of the assembly that were to be detached successively, until only a small pod would remain to circle in earth's orbit. They had finally reached the entrance to the rocket and climbed through the hatch that was not quite large enough for an adult to step through upright, and into the airlock. "How will you return to Earth then?", Rufus directed his question to Cid, possibly because he was genuinely interested in the answer, but could not stand another one of Palmer's endless monologues, who nimbly climbed ahead, up a ladder to take them to the cockpit. "There's a detachable capsule that will basically fall all the way down and land in the sea. With me inside", he disclosed, following Palmer. "That sounds dangerous", Rufus commented Cid's explanations about the rescue capsule. "No worries! I'm the best!", Cid exclaimed and added, a little more humbly: "Well, the scientists said it'll work." The cockpit was cramped full of technology, meters, controls, buttons, switches, and a sturdy seat facing the console.
When all of them had reached the cockpit, Cid explained the planned course of the mission, starting with the launch, continuing with him remaining in the pod within earth's orbit for 52 hours. Then he would board the escape capsule, dive back into the atmosphere and finally plunge into the sea, where he would be picked up by a team with a boat, accompanied by a TV crew to document his successful return. "And then", he continued, pulling out a small metal case from his pocket to show Rufus its contents. "I will propose to my girlfriend when she pulls me out of the capsule." Rufus raised his eyebrows, while Tseng had to suppress a laugh at the absurdity of such an idea. He had to praise Cid for hits guts to propose on a live TV program, while he also doubted that it was a good idea to put so much pressure on her to agree. "Shouldn't you propose to her before you launch? What if something happened to you? Wouldn't that be regrettable?" Cid shook his head violently. "No way! If that happened, she'd never forgive herself." Palmer came a little closer and whispered to Rufus: "His girlfriend is one of the scientists who built the rocket. Shera never makes a mistake. It would be a real scandal if anything happened to Cid." Rufus nodded with a keen expression on his face. "Then let's hope everything will go as planned."