novelraw Chapter 282: Preparing for take off.
Chapter 282: Preparing for take off.
"...Are you sure?" For some reason the Spartoi didn't seem to want to let Ale drop in the Hatchling One.
"Yes, for the fifth time." Ale was starting to get annoyed, so annoyed in fact that she was thinking about the problems that hacking this stupid plane would get her into.
Which was probably none, since the plane didn't have anyone besides her, actually. It had a body... But now that Ale knew that her pilot was... You know... dead, whose body was it?
"*Sigh*, I mean... It should be... fine?" The Spartoi seemed to be disturbed by the plan nontheless, "And probably safer than using the drop pod..."
"Also with this the plane doesn't get exposed to more risk, you can circle back to Aquila and get the other Spartoi that are traveling with us safe too." Ale said nodding, panning the camera to the four fighter jets that were traveling with them.
Ale hadn't thought about those before, but now that she could see them, she was starting to wonder if this was the plan all along, there was no way those four fighter planes would have enough fuel to do the whole trip after all.
Or well, since they were cruising in Zero G... Perhaps they could make it? No way they would be able to return to orbit without refueling though.
"You don't have to worry about those, they don't have an actual body inside." The Spartoi said dismissively, "If anything, they will go with you as escorts... I would also want to do that too if I am to be honest..."
"But your body is here, so you can't risk it. If you get shot down you will be at greater risk after all." Ale pointed.
"Oh that... Yeah... My... Body..." The Spartoi seemed to shake his head, "Fine, but promise to contact me in case you need a rescue, I'll remain on the same route so I can return faster if needed."
"Wouldn't you get farther away quite fast? I'll have to slow down for my return into atmospheric flight." Ale pointed out, the Hatchling One would bleed speed at a very fast rate after all, while Drake One would keep going at the same speed.
"While I can't turn around, I can accelerate and finish the orbit faster." The Spartoi said, turning fully to Ale, both Ale and the Spartoi were standing in a VR Environment of the cargo bay.
Ale's pod was now being fitted with the things that would turn her pod into a small plane.
"You will have enough fuel to do the rest of the travel even if you mess up the gliding." The Spartoi then pointed at a map on the wall, "This is the insertion point we are planning for, but the fuel we put will work so long as you are anywhere in the United States space"
"Isn't that island part of it, too?" Ale pointed to a small island that was painted in the same colour of the rest of the map.
"Yes, Puerto Rico is Part of the USA airspace, and yes. The fuel will let you get back to Ohio albeit the flight time will be longer than what we are aiming for." The Spartoi drew a line on the map, "Even if you go at it with bad wind and a lower altitude, you will still make it in roughly eight hours."
That was a long time to be traveling. How the hell did they manage to get enough fuel in that pod?
"The engine is highly efficient one, uses liquid mana as fuel and more importantly, if needed you can fuel it with your own mana reserves. This one was designed to be used with Master's Core Power. But it should work just as well with any Core User." The Spartoi slapped the pod with one of his hands, of course that had no effect on the real one since, again, they were mere VR projections.
"So it was designed for Alexanders..." Ale said going over the blueprint of the device, it made sense, it was probably why the original engine was an Ion Engine instead of what they had to swap for. "Well, anything else you need from me?"
"I should be the one asking that," The Spartoi laughed at Ale, then after shaking his head he turned serious, "Only one thing. Tell Master we don't blame him, we really don't."
"Blame him?" Ale asked surprised, and confused, "Why would he think that? Isn't his whole personality being an asshole? Those don't mind what we mere mortals think about them."
"You don't really think that." The Spartoi said with a knowing smile, "We know, that some of us are... well, either about to die... or are already dead."
The Spartoi walked to the spot where his 'Body' was supposed to be.
"We have known for some time, most of us were educated people after all. Medics, nurses, surgeons... Not all of us were ace pilots and engineers. It was impossible to have that much luck." The Spartoi then summoned some vitals... or well, the projections that usually would be tied to the vitals of someone, only most of these were flatlined. "I was both a pilot and a med student you know. So I knew."
"... And you have... confirmed it?" Ale asked, had he heard when Alexanders told her that this particular spartoi was dead?
"There is no way to do it, as I said before. We can't return to our bodies. That was meant two things. One, we can't return to our bodies by our own volition." The Spartoi raised a finger, and then pointed to the side of the plane, "And two, the only one that can do that is Master."
"So unless Alexanders return you to your body, then you will never know if you are actually dead or not." Ale nodded, "But if you are dead, then returning there will outright kill you."
"And that is the thing isn't it?" The Spartoi said with a smirk, "Some of us had beliefs in religion, as thus... We ask, do we have a Soul if our body dies? Are we really the people we were before this experiment started? At what point did we left our bodies? From the beginning? When we had our bodies die? Am I the same person I was before I registered to the Spartoi program?"
That was... a one too heavy question for Ale.
"I don't know." Ale answered, she didn't have the correct answer. While she could... Theorically. Make a body, would that body be able to house this person?
Perhaps if Ale had access to the AI Core that housed his mind? Assuming he even had one of those. But then again, if he had an AI Core... Was he really the person from the beginning?
"It's fine," The Spartoi said shaking his head, "I am me. And even without a physical body I will remain as thus. You don't have to worry, and besides... It isn't like I died."
He didn't?
So he wasn't the dead one then? Good.
"My body will probably die the moment they try to unfreeze me, but I am alive even now. My heart beats once every week." The Spartoi said with a nod, "I have been counting."
"I think you might need a few extra beats here and there." Ale said turning to her own vitals, 45 beats per minute. Kinda on the lower end huh.
"The machines do most of the hard work, the brain is kept in a saline solution that oxygenates the brain by itself. So really, the heart is merely a formality." Ale wasn't sure that was how it worked either. But then again, he was the med student... "OR so I think, this whole thing is outside my range."
Dang it!
Then what was the answer?
"Thank you for listening, Lady Ale." The Spartoi then turned to look at Ale again, "You don't have to tell Master anything. I just wanted to use this chance to check if Master had said anything or not."
So Ale was just used as a means to glean on Alexanders? That was... rude.
"...I see..." Ale said nodding, "If you really want to know about who is dead and whatnot... Ask Sapphire."
Ale decided to give them a chance to check, Ale would want to know after all, if she was to ever get into that situation, she would want to know for sure. Even if nothing would change, at the very least she would have wanted to know.
Was it hypocritical of her? Perhaps. Both Alexa and herself had a very skewed view on mortality after all. The same could have been said about the version of themselves that they made when fighting Chrysalis. That version of themselves had never known that it was a fake, experienced destruction as she was murdered, and then was deleted.
Never to know that she herself was not the actual one.
"Sapphire?" The Spartoi asked as the back door of the plane was opening.
"The purple-haired woman that follows Alexanders," Ale elaborated, "Or in case you haven't seen her, the AI Administrator at the top of the Saintsworths."
"Oh... That..." The Spartoi said shuddering, "Yeah... I know who you refer to. We will take it under consideration..."
That was an interesting reaction, Ale had guessed that most had normal interactions with that woman, but it seemed like that was not the case? Or well, at least it didn't seem like that.
"It was nice meeting you." Ale said bowing to the Spartoi, "Thank you for getting me here."
"Oh yeah, don't mind it." The Spartoi said, shaking his head and waving at Ale, "Part of the job, I'll keep an eye on your trajectory just in case. I should be able to give two or three passes above you before you make it to Ohio. So ring if you need anything."
Orbital trajectory was not something that Ale was good at, so she merely nodded at that. Was space travel that efficient? Ale had assumed that the plane would be straight send up to a new direction, but it didn't seem like that was the case.
"Well, then I'm off." And like that, Ale disappeared from the VR environment.
"May the light of Civilization lead you back safely." The Spartoi bowed one last time as Ale lost the connection to the VR Environment.
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The next time Ale awoke to her awareness, she was... still in a VR Environment.
"Main Core?" Ale said aloud in the white open space that she found herself in.
[Loading up virtual environment...]
[Loading up assisting assets...]
[Setting up virtual atmosphere...]
One by one the things around started materializing. First was the loading cargo bay again, only this time Ale could see a small glider with the cockpit open.
"So...I guess this is how I will control the glider then?" Ale said walking to the cockpick. It had a comfy chair the right size for Ale to sit on.
[This virtual environment was designed to help host pilot the glider with ease, the virtual environment will self adjust using the camera feed.]
"Can I change it so I can process the data directly?" Ale asked, there wasn't a real reason to do that of course, since that would make it... Perhaps somewhat boring.
[It is possible.]
[Proceed?]
[Y/N]
"Not for now, but in case of emergency leave a subroutine ready for it." Ale would rather be ready for that if it was needed, who knew, those extra microseconds could be something that saved her after all.
In a situation that required quick reaction, Ale didn't want to be limited by the time it took for the VR environment to process the data; it was better to read it directly in those cases after all.
"Okay then, so let's start this one." Ale took her seat in the small glider and closed the cockpit behind her.
The seat was indeed comfy. But that was the last thing she was worried about, since this was reading her intent and how she interfaced with the controls all that Ale really needed to do was have the intent of wanting to take off.
The program would then translate that into instructions and execute them by itself. At this point, Ale only needed to think about it, and the device would do it by itself.
But that was boring.
"Turning out the engine... opening the fuel valve... checking flaps and wings..." Ale was going by all the normal procedures that she imagined she would need to do. Right now she wasn't even checking on the program data to see what she needed.
She did, however, ask Main Core to check the stuff she didn't know, she did not want to crash after all.
"All green." Ale couldn't help but smile as her diagnosis test returned green, meaning there was no risk for her in case she piloted this thing. Which she was going to do anyway. "So... Ale Saintsworths, Hatchling One... Taking off!"
Who did she say that to? No one in particular, after all only Main Core and maybe Alexanders/Sapphire would see it.
And as thus, Ale took off straight from the plane into the open exterior, her glider slowly floated away from Drake One.
As soon as Ale had enough clearance, she maneuvered the glider and pointed it down, straight towards Terra Invicta. All it took was a prod from her controls and the small plane was going towards the planet.
Soon it would enter into the atmosphere and that would be the first test, Ale had no doubts about the quality of the material, she had checked the blueprint after all.
But then again, this was the first time she did an orbital insertion. One couldn't be too sure.
So with some trepidation Ale pulled at the lever that symbolized the thermal shields and floored it.
Ale would return to Ohio even if she needed to drop straight out from orbit to do it!