WSP 033

Awaiting

The package had been sent to them in a high-quality plast parcel marked with the symbol of the Crown. Vaughan, Blue, Jeh, Suro, and Krays were present when they opened it in Vaughan’s dining room. Inside was a folded-up note and a rather small and unassuming arcane device constructed almost entirely out of Purple crystals with a handful of Magenta ones. It took the overall shape of a bracelet with a metal clasp on one end that could be used to tighten or loosen it.

“My goodness…” Suro said.

“It doesn’t look that impressive,” Krays said. “One of those small ones.”

“There’s hundreds of separate crystals in this device… such a device would decay so quickly, and to even construct something this precise…”

Blue levitated out the note and flipped it open. “It’s from Tenrayce, big surprise there, and uh… oh.” Blue glanced at it. “It’s one of Benefactor’s transmitters.”

“She can see us right now!?” Krays stammered. “Hey! Dumb rock! Stop watching us!”

“No,” Blue said. “You have to activate it to send anything.”

“Ah.”

“Anyway… Tenrayce says we can activate it in space if something goes wrong so at least Benefactor knows what happened. It’s not strong enough to send anything from much further than orbit, though. It specifically only sends light-based information, though it sends a lot more than what we can see, apparently.”

“Only Benefactor can pick it up, though,” Vaughan said.

“Yeah,” Blue said, folding the paper back up. “She designed a transmitter, not a receiver. She could potentially train other Purple Crystalline Ones to receive, but they wouldn’t be as sensitive as her.”

“So… an amazing piece of engineering that’ll be helpful for small missions, but not the Moonshot.” Vaughan scratched his beard. “And even then, only if something goes wrong.”

“Still a good thing to have,” Suro said, getting his face as close to the device as he could. “Expert craftsmanship, I… I’m not even sure how it works, there’s so much going on here.”

“It stretches out light, from what I understand,” Blue said. “Though the exact concept by which it works was one of those Crystalline One inspirations, those don’t exactly come with a full explanation.” Her left eye twitched. “Which is most bothersome.”

“Don’t complain about your gifts,” Krays said.

“Coming from you, that’s rich.”

“The rule doesn’t apply to me, I make complaining fun.”

“To you.”

“Naturally.”

Jeh tilted her head. “Does anyone have any idea how we would go about making… a receiver? So I could send stuff down to you guys while I’m up there?”

“Get a large, sensitive Crystalline One,” Blue said.

“Blue…” Jeh put her hands on her hips.

“Oh, all right, I’ll actually consider it…” Blue looked at the device, scrunching her muzzle. “Let’s see… it works with light. Theoretically, we could get the ‘stretching’ spell stored in a Magenta loop, so any light could be stretched with that spell. There might be a squishing spell you could do on the other end, maybe, but… I think part of the issue is that the Transmitter isn’t actually sending out a stretched version of all the light it gets, it sends out a radial burst that goes in all directions of one kind of light. The actual information is encoded within that. It’s probably a lot easier to press all the light together than to take it apart. Trust me, multiplying numbers is easy, factoring them is not. Benefactor inherently knows how to use her huge mind to tear the information out of it, but to design a spell to do that?”

“Hmm…” Jeh frowned. “What if we just send something simple?”

“Benefactor uses a specific somewhat-complicated signal to know when she’s receiving a message and not just getting noise.”

“Ah.” Jeh shrugged. “Well, it would be nice.”

“We can send messages if we could aim properly,” Vaughan said. “Visible light lasers can go a long way, it’s just you have to hit from very far away. Which, well, you can’t even see Willow Hollow from up there…”

“That’s the nice thing about stretching the light out, it’s easier for them to go in all directions, no aiming required,” Blue offered. “Though why it does that… or how…”

Vaughan shrugged. “Unfortunately, we are not Benefactor, nor do we have her here to run experiments. And those who are, well, they’re presumably occupied with more important things right now.” He lifted the device out of the box. “We should be thankful for this, for it will be useful in emergencies. If Jeh crashes again, it might help us find her.”

“I won’t crash again!” Jeh said, huffing. “I was shot down, remember?”

“What’s to stop something else from shooting you down?”

“The fact that there aren’t other crystal monsters on Ikyu?”

“You haven’t gone to the other side yet, how would you know?”

Jeh blinked. “You’re right… I haven’t…” She put her hands on her hips. “That’s it, next big mission, I’m going all the way around.”

Blue’s ears perked up in alarm. “You sure that’s a good idea? The transmitter can go through a lot of things but not the bulk of Ikyu, you’ll be all on your own on the other side.”

Jeh frowned. “I… huh. I mean, we have to do it eventually… but… I don’t want to spend a year or two traveling back if something goes wrong…” She shook her head. “I have to take the risk at some point, and we should do it before we go to the moon. The satellite did work, and I’ll have active control while I go around.”

Blue frowned. “Yes, but…”

“Perhaps wait until you’ve trained Margaret,” Suro suggested. “So you crashing won’t halt the program in its steps.”

Jeh blinked. “Oh yeah, that probably does take priority. Ahem.” Jeh saluted. “Put the ‘map the world’ mission on hold until we have a backup pilot, got it. Speaking of… I’m gonna go hunt her down, see ya!” She hastily scrambled out of the cabin, off to find her “student.”

Vaughan chuckled. “And there she goes…”

“Quite the kid,” Krays said. “It’s almost like she never left.”

“Yeah…” Blue said, frowning. “She also looks the exact same…”

“Girl regenerates from anything, not a surprise.”

“Even aging?”

Krays blinked. “I… huh, hadn’t thought about that…”

~~~

Lila jumped on top of a tall crate to address the people in front of the construction site for the lab. Currently, the site wasn’t even home to any buildings. The trees had been cleared away and the ground flattened, but all that indicated there was going to be an actual structure were a few tall wooden posts sticking up out of the ground.

“Greetings, everyone,” Lila said, beaming out at the townsfolk who had come out to hear her talk. There were only a few dozen, which wasn’t all that surprising, this wasn’t a very important speech. She was just here to discuss the lab and assure everyone that it was a good thing. Which, since most people already believed that, wasn’t that hard of a sell. The people in the audience either liked to hear her talk or had particular beef against the noise that went down while construction was underway.

She had to admit, it could get quite grating, but it was a necessary price to build the thing.

She spoke almost automatically without much thought—at this point, such a relatively unimportant speech could be given on autopilot. She spent less of her time focusing on the specific words and more focusing on the people in front of her. Most were smiling and listening attentively. Ripashi was in the crowd, looking a little bored as he cleaned his feathers absent-mindedly. Lila briefly wondered why he was even here—perhaps he was just passing through and decided to stick around?

Then, of course, there were the people glaring at her angrily. …Perhaps angrily was too strong of a word. The families that lived closest to the construction site and heard the most noise were clearly ticked off, wishing it wasn’t there. But while they had complained and wished it wasn’t happening, they had yet to offer her a reason besides “noise complaints” as to why the construction should be forced to stop. Even that wasn’t a very good reason, they never worked at night, and the noise wasn’t constant—rather unpredictable as to when it would occur, actually.

The people knew this and were probably trying to look for ways to contend with her. However, a location that would enhance the Wizard Space Program, create more jobs for Willow Hollow, and was being provided free of charge by the Crown had so few downsides there wasn’t a foothold for them to stand on.

As she spoke some of the annoyed ones became more and more irritated, but others gained a resigned expression of defeat—there was nothing they could do but try to ignore the sound.

“And so, moving on…” Lila continued. “I’d like to bring forth policy for future construction projects, for we will be building other things. How are we to handle the noise generated by those? W—”

An arcane saw activated behind Lila and entirely drowned her out. She let out a soft chuckle. Of course. She turned around to see a muscular human man cutting wood into even planks for construction. She considered how she would deal with the situation—simply let him work, or kindly ask him to wait a few minutes for her to wrap up? Or…

Her decision was never to be made, for Ripashi made it for her. He landed behind the worker and tapped him on the shoulder.

The worker stopped the saw and glared at him. “I’m workin’ here.”

“You… yes you are! You have the audacity to drown out the words of our wise mayor while she is defending your right to work! How dare!”

The man looked behind Ripashi at Lila and the crowd. “Huh. Your mayor’s the cat?”

“Wh—yes! Are you implying cats are not worthy of being mayors?”

“Easy for me to overlook is all. Small. Hard to see.”

“There’s a crowd here!”

“There usually is in my job. Been kinda nice not having one here.”

Ripashi gawked at the man. “I… you… wh…”

“Ripashi,” Lila said, hopping down from her box. “You do not need to defend my honor. He is simply not accustomed to our ways and assumes things operate as he understands them.” She cleared her throat. “Perhaps you could wait a few minutes to begin work?”

The worker shook his head. “No can do, ma’am, these planks need cutting before the others arrive, and talkin’ to you has already taken a good chunk of the time I need.”

“…You work with a grace window of only a few minutes?”

“We like efficiency here. So if you’ll excuse me…” He turned the saw back on and got to work.

“Well,” Lila said, surprised to find that she was more than a little miffed that she had more or less been utterly disregarded. She knew better than to act on it though. “Ripashi!” She waved, gesturing for him to lower his head so he could hear her. “I can’t talk loud enough to be heard over the saw, you can. Tell everyone that they can go home and we won’t be holding meetings near the construction site anymore.”

Ripashi nodded. With a spectacular jump, he landed on top of the box. “CAW! Everyone! Go home, meeting’s over! No more meetings will be held near the construction site! CAW!”

Lila saw the crowd confusingly disperse. She’d rather it not have gone this way, but she actually didn’t have authority over the workers, merely the land they worked on. They were subjects of their boss, who wasn’t even here, but rather some vague head of a construction company. Lila only knew about him through letters. She wasn’t even sure what race he was.

In the end, Lila recognized it was good for her to be humbled in this way, she wasn’t the “top cat,” there were those above her and regulations she had to bow to. Still… the situation might not have ended the best for the people, seeing their leader cave and potentially be overly accommodating.

The world never ceases to stop throwing unexpected challenges our way. Lila smiled. And yet, it is good that it is this way, for if it were not, we would reach a point where we stopped growing.

~~~

“Margaret’s actually picking up on it pretty quickly,” Jeh told Ashen. The two of them were in Ashen’s little secret grove, as usual. Not much about it had changed, though naturally the tree Ashen was affixed to had grown a little bit over time.

“That may be because of your superior teaching method.”

“Well yeah, Vaughan was trying to teach me to do something no one had done before. Now that I’ve done it, I can give Margaret the shortcuts. Mostly.” Jeh rubbed the back of her head. “Krays was right, turns out I do rely on my natural inclination for magic a lot to just brute-force my way through things. Margaret’s good at magic and has a lot of will, but not like… me levels.”

“You do appear to have a lot of natural talent.”

“Yeah, I wonder where it comes from. I wonder where my regeneration comes from. I wonder a lot of things.” Jeh smiled warmly. “But hey, there were a lot of things I didn’t understand out there on my journey and everything turned out fine.”

“One mystery at a time, then?”

“Oh yes, one at a time. Right now: train up Margaret so we can get to space. Later today I’m going up to release a hamster into the vacuum.”

“…What do you expect to happen?”

“Gruesome, terrible, deadly things. Or just suffocation. We really aren’t sure, the water boiled out there, so…” Jeh shrugged. “It boiled without getting hot, too. Quite something.”

Ashen paused, perplexed by this. “In my experience, you need heat to boil things.”

“I know, right? Space is weird! Who knows what other strange things happen out there?” She giggled. “I kind of want to try it myself, but, y’know… not exactly a good test case.”

“You know, Jeh, visually you haven’t changed. But in the time I’ve known you, you’ve changed a lot personally. You were a girl who didn’t know who or what anything was and just wanted to deal with things. Now you speak of scientific and experimental principles in casual conversation and are extremely driven to achieve your goals… and to work with others. I… believe I am oversimplifying it and stepping over my words, but you have changed much. Your journey, I can tell, has made you stronger.”

“Not physically,” Jeh chuckled. “No muscles on this arm at all, just pain tolerance.” She chuckled.

“An amazin’ skill, t’ be sure.”

Jeh jumped up, readying a Red crystal. “Who’s there?”

The individual who had spoken was not even attempting to hide. He was a middle-aged human man dressed all in black, including the hat, which was decidedly not that of a wizard, but was dome-shaped with a thin rim. He was currently smoking something which, now that Jeh thought about it, she had been smelling for the last few minutes and just not registered. Most striking were his eyes, with irises a brilliant pearlescent white.

“Ah, so you were walking toward us.”

“Made ya think I wasn’t, didn’t I?” the man said. Despite the mild levity in his tone, he did not smile—his face seemed locked in a permanently serious expression, an impression enhanced by the dense, uniform stubble that covered his chin. He took in a deep breath and released a puff of smoke. “Ya don’t need t’ worry, I’m just here t’ check in on the Crystalline One, introduce myself. Just lucky that I’m gettin’ both the interestin’ people in this town at once.”

“If you are here for an introduction, introduce yourself, and explain how you know of my existence.”

“Quite simple, really. I work for the Crown.” He sat down on a nearby rock and kicked up his feet. “Ya can call me Agent Keller. First name don’t matter and is classified anyway.”

Jeh blinked. “You’re… an agent?”

“Eeyep. Had Tenrayce not made that deal, ya’d probably’ve been conscripted to become someone like me, girl.”

Jeh backed away. “You’re not here to take me away, right?”

“Course not, a deal’s a deal.” He took the roll he was smoking out of his mouth and put it out, placing the remnant in his pocket. Immediately he pulled out another roll and lit it—presumably with a Red crystal hidden somewhere on his person. “Plus, ya probably are best suited for this whole space business, even if I don’t understand the appeal myself. I do know there are a lot o’ eyes on ya right now, both good and bad. My job is to make sure nothin’… unsavory messes up your little program.” He blew out another cloud of smoke. “Consider me your security.”

Jeh relaxed considerably. “So you’re like… a legendary warrior assigned to be our bodyguard?”

“Of a sort, yeah.”

“That’s so cool! Can you teach me any moves?”

“Heh.” Even when he laughed, there was no smile. “Possibly, I hear ya’re quite good at magic. Though I can’t show ya my specialty, that’s unique to me.”

“Is it because you are a neko?”

Jeh blinked. “He is?”

“His tails and ears are hidden, but they are certainly there.”

“Guilty as charged,” he said, removing his hat to reveal the ears before quickly putting it back on. “Ya know the rumor that our attribute is luck?”

“I am aware of it. Is it not just a rumor?”

“The wizards don’t think it exists because they can’t ‘reproduce it in laboratory conditions.’ To which I say, nonsense. The luck is real, friends, and I’ll swear by Dia Herself that my special Magenta techniques make me even luckier.” He leaned back and put his arms behind his head. “Of course, the fancy weapon devices from the Crown also help.”

“Why are you telling us this?” Ashen asked.

“A declaration of peace, you could say.” Keller looked up to the sky. “Ya Crystalline Ones can pry secrets out pretty easily. Might as well just come out and get it over with, show ya I can be trusted. I’ll be protectin’ ya and investigatin’ this town for any strange happenings, after all, best if we’re on the same page, get the secrets outta the way.”

Jeh’s breath caught in her throat. Jeremiah. Margaret. They…

“Ah, ya’ve got someone here who has some secrets I probably shouldn’t know about?”

“U-uh…”

“Maybe those Red Seekers on the mountain that cause trouble but you keep around anyway? No? Not them?” Keller shook his head. “Nah, I won’t pry. I’m here t’ keep ya out of danger, not perform an inspection. Heh. I’d go nuts if I had to inspect things, impossible t’ get people t’ trust ya if ya report everythin’.” He sat up, breathing out more smoke. “Let’s make a deal, then. Ya’ll don’t tell anyone I’m a neko, and in return I’ll listen to ya and not go after whoever it is you’re concerned about. Ya will have to tell me who and why, though, so I don’t accidentally knock their block off.”

Jeh turned to Ashen. “I… I think we should.”

“A mutual exchange of olive branches… somewhat strongarmed, but without being rude. Clever, Agent Keller.”

“Been doin’ this a while, I just like to get things squared away.”

“…Very well.”

“Margaret and Jeremiah are my friends,” Jeh said. “We brought them from the Wild Kingdoms. They are… servants of Eyda.”

Keller let out a low whistle. “Don’t see many of those types ‘round here. Ain’t illegal to be one, though.”

“But… they were afraid they’d be seen as a threat.”

“Oh, don’t get me wrong, it’s a good thing ya told me.” He stood up. “Secret Eyda worshippers are generally one of the easiest ways for things t’ go wrong. But ya’re aware of them, so they prolly aren’t a threat t’ ya. To be clear, I’ll still watch them, but not closely, and I won’t take them in or out, anythin’ suspicious I find goes directly to your mayor.”

“Thank you.”

“Speaking of, I still have t’ meet yer mayor. I hope she’s as receptive as ya two.”

Jeh beamed. “Lila’s really nice, don’t worry.”

“Oh, I ain’t worried.” He said, tipping his hat in farewell. “Just like things to go smoothly, is all.” With that, he walked off in the direction of Willow Hollow.

“That is a man we should be very glad is tasked with protecting us.”

“Really?”

“I sense that he is unimaginably dangerous.”

“Well, yeah, obviously.” Jeh grinned. “I think he’s cool. I hope we get to see him beat up a bad guy at some point. It’ll be awesome.”

“Something tells me he specializes in subtle work.”

“Well… maybe we’ll still get lucky. Like him!”

~~~

“All right Mr. Scruffums, time to die what I can only presume will be a horrible and agonizing death!”

Jeh lifted the oblivious hamster out of his enclosure and put him in the airlock.

Naturally, the Skyseed IV was currently in space. Mr. Scruffums was not the only object up for ‘vacuum testing’ today, but he was by far the most interesting. Jeh wanted to see if he would boil from the inside out or light on fire or something. Though as she thought about it, that latter one was unlikely, seeing as while Red crystals could heat things in space, they couldn’t light them on fire.

“Bon Voyage, Mr. Scruffums!” Jeh declared, giving the hamster a salute. “Your sacrifice will be for the betterment of space travel!”

Mr. Scruffums looked lazily outside. The next thing he knew, the airlock was opened, and he was launched into space. Jeh, naturally, caught him with Orange magic and watched. Besides the obvious panic in the hamster’s scrambling motions, there wasn’t really any change Jeh could notice immediately—though the interesting fact that there was no sound from his screams was obvious, but expected.

Jeh lifted him to be closer to her face, and she could notice that he was slightly larger than he had been previously, and… yes, bubbles were forming on his tongue and eyes, the fluids were boiling. Very shortly after this, the hamster stopped moving.

“Really?” Jeh frowned. “Already?” She shook Mr. Scruffums slightly and got no response. “Huh…” Finding that the hamster was doing nothing further that was interesting, she brought it back into the airlock and back inside.

To her surprise, he was still breathing, but out cold. She investigated his mouth and eyes to find that… they looked fine? The fluid was back already and the boiling didn’t really seem to have done anything. He was slightly colder than normal but was quickly heating back up.

“Huh. Guess you get to survive.” She picked up a notebook and started scribbling things down. “So… boiling liquid… got larger… passed out… probably due to lack of air, he screamed and let it all out rather quickly…” She blinked. “So you die from lack of air. I mean… I was expecting something more interesting to fry you.”

Mr. Scruffums was still passed out.

“You have a good nap, you deserve it. Congratulations! You survived!” She patted the hamster on the head. “Good boy.”

As she put other, far less interesting materials out into space, she pondered what would happen if she was out in space. Sure, she passed out as well, but what if she held her breath? She could probably last longer than a handful of seconds…

She put a small balloon in the airlock and let it out. It popped almost immediately, so close to the Skyseed IV that she could still hear the pop.

“Oh.” Jeh blinked. “Ooooooh, yeah, lungs are big balloons, riiiight…” She imagined her entire upper body exploding. “Well, that’d be interesting…” She scribbled down some notes. “Wonder what happens if you go out with just a helmet…”

With that, she kept putting more things in the vacuum of space. Over the course of several trips and experiments, she found out a few things. Solids basically didn’t change in space, not even temperature-wise, unless they were the sort of thing that could melt easily. Anything that could melt or boil would do so readily in space, but without getting hotter—always getting colder. Gaseous things would always expand, often violently, and anything that contained liquid—such as hamsters—would expand due to the liquid boiling and becoming gaseous. This never reached the point of explosions, however.

After noticing the pattern of things that boiled getting colder, Jeh had an idea. She took some water out and rather than just letting it float in space, she pressed it to one of the Skyseed’s walls and let it boil away while in contact with the glass.

She felt the wall actively getting colder.

“…Space just keeps providing ways to solve the cooling problem, doesn’t it? Accelerate your radiative heat, boil some water… to get… colder…” Jeh shook her head—that last statement flew in the face of her common sense.

But it was information. And good information at that. Now they had two ways to manage their heat!

The boiling water one didn’t even require magic. Though, it would require water. They probably had other uses for water. Like drinking.

Naturally, the next few experiments were about water’s properties in space, particularly its cooling of things, but those didn’t produce unexpected results. They were still fun to watch, though. Jeh never got bored of the orbs of water rippling and bubbling with nothing around them.

~~~

Via groaned. “Why do I have to sit through all these briefings…? I’m not a warrior or a tactical mastermind…”

“You need to know the ways of leadership,” Wyett said to his sister. All three of the siblings were walking out of the latest meeting concerning the state of Kroan.

“But it’s like, geeeeh,” Via mumbled. “You two are the ones that do things. You’ve got the intrigue and the brains. I just… I just watch.”

“It is still important to know,” Tenrayce said, turning a page in her book, this one on the theory of war. “Via, you have a greater attachment to the people than we do. They know you.”

“Well, yes, but I can’t exactly tell them about all the things we talk about, it’s all secret! They don’t get to know about how rocky things are getting with Shimvale, they don’t even know about what our forces are fighting all the way on the other side of the Wild Kingdoms!”

“ ‘Fighting’ is not strictly accurate…” Tenrayce commented.

“Why do the rigids launch a huge attack and then completely vanish?” Wyett wondered aloud. “It’s so… bothersome. The plague was everywhere and the Western Ch’eni’tho were struggling to keep it out, then Benefactor wrecked the force coming after us, and then it’s completely silent.”

“I believe the plague is intelligent enough to recognize it can no longer win in a direct confrontation,” Tenrayce said. “Which is a similar position to where C-R’s people and, to some extent, Shimvale are.”

“I thought Shimvale explicitly said they weren’t going to attack us and wished us well?” Via asked.

Wyett snorted. “Kaykayzee Ziggurat hates Benefactor with a burning passion for making her people disappear. Even if the other members of the Council overruled her and sought piece, that woman will stop at nothing, not to mention her song. She just has the benefit of not needing to use direct confrontation to assail us.”

“We expect war, and receive intrigue instead.” Tenrayce turned a page. “We can no longer say we are at peace, and it feels as though enemies are on all sides, but we cannot see them.”

Via shivered. “Seems… scary.”

“And this is why you’re important, Via. You are far better at reassuring the people than we are. They may not know the extent of what we know, but they know enough to be nervous. Something’s going on, and it’s been dragging on for quite some time now and shows no sign of letting up.”

“This might be the new normal,” Wyett said. “A stalemate where no one wants to make a move.”

Via shivered. “I just… yeah, you’re right. I’ve got to be there for them.” She put her hand to her chest and looked up to the sky. “I may be an idiot, but my smile is contagious!”

Tenrayce couldn’t help but smile in return.

“See? I’m right!”

Wyett cracked a smile and patted Via on the head, which was possible to do since her hair was flat on top today. “You… really are something.”

“Ah, just the person I was looking for.”

Tenrayce looked up to see Alexandrite standing outside a window that was cracked open slightly.

“Oh, I take it you have a message for me?” Tenrayce said.

“For the Crown in general, but it’s easier to just hand it to you.” Alexandrite removed a small scroll from his pack and handed it through the window. “This is a proposal from Gronge. He thinks he has a way to bypass the leviathans.”

“Oh?” Tenrayce opened up the scroll. “What’s his idea?”

“In short, drill a tunnel through the continental shelf to go around them.”

Tenrayce looked up from the scroll and stared at Alexandrite, dumbfounded.

“…Madness,” Wyett said.

“…Who told him about Benefactor drilling through the ground?” Tenrayce said, narrowing her eyes.

“Uh.” Alexandrite shuffled awkwardly. “I was not aware it was classified when I sent the letter…”

Tenrayce glared at him. Then she sighed. “Of course you would, that’s your primary job, tell him everything of interest at first notice… I’m going to fine you, though.”

“Of course, your majesty.”

“Anyway, it might turn out well for us. Benefactor can tell us her secret to drilling, we can make a tunnel to the bottom of the ocean… and no leviathan will be able to get through there. It’ll work, though the question is if the economy can support it right now. We are at… pseudo-war, and war itself is both good and bad for the economy in seemingly random ways.” She put a hand to her temple and sighed. “All the numbers…”

“It’s actually going to work?” Wyett said, eyes wide.

“Possibly, and the goods the anglers have are very valuable, it could easily pay for itself once complete. The only issue is if we can complete it…”

~~~

Margaret downed some kind of pink alcoholic drink. She let out a groan. “It’s not doing it today…”

The barkeep shrugged. “I only promise that the drinks are good, not that your mind can be pulled out of wherever it is.” After a pause, she asked. “Do you want another?”

“No… well, not yet anyway.” Margaret folded her arms. “I believe… any further than this and I lose my sense.”

The barkeep nodded in approval. “You still have some sense. That’s good.”

“Yeah… thanks…”

As the barkeep turned to tend to her other customers, the doors to the establishment flew loudly open. A man in dark clothes with a round hat stood in the doorway, taking a moment to put out whatever it was he was smoking before stepping in. He sat down next to Margaret. “The strongest drink ya’ve got that won’t literally burn me.”

The barkeep stared at him. “I don’t… have anything that bad?”

“Clearly ya don’t serve dragons, then. Strongest thing ya have.”

The barkeep gave him some kind of clear liquid. He didn’t down it immediately, instead taking a few sips, clearly intending to enjoy the drink over time. “So,” he said, and even though he wasn’t looking at her, Margaret could tell he was talking to her. “You new in town too?”

“Not exactly new new,” Margaret said. “Been a month or so.”

“I’ve only been here a week myself.” He took a few more sips of his drink. “Quite the strange town ya’ve found yourself in. Not t’ your likin’?”

“Huh? Oh, no, Willow Hollow is excellent, the people here are lovely.” Margaret smiled warmly. “I love it here, and I get to work on amazing things.”

“What do ya do?”

“I’m a pilot-in-training for the Space Program, as well as a painter.”

The man laughed, and as far as Margaret could tell it was genuine, but he didn’t smile as he did so. “Sounds like ya’ve got quite the ticket!”

“Yeah, I do. It’s just… my dad can’t see that.” She tapped her fingers on the countertop. “He didn’t do well on the journey over here, and he’s just… I don’t know, grumpy.” She sighed, looking at the ceiling. “He’s trying to put on a smile for my sake, but I can tell it’s fake. He just…” She paused. “I have no idea why he doesn’t like it here, he wasn’t really that attached to the old house, he was always eager to talk to and meet new people, he always loved seeing everyone’s different ways of doing things. It’s… it’s so unlike him.” She sagged visibly. “Sorry, I shouldn’t be running my mouth off to you.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but it’s good t’ get things off your chest.” The man took another drink. “The older we get, the harder it is for us t’ accept change. We see things go by faster, while we ourselves get slower. When ya have more past than future… the way ya view things changes.”

“I… guess.” She frowned. “Is this just… the way he’s going to be, now?”

“Dunno, I don’t know the man. Seein’ as he locks himself away most o’ the day, prolly won’t get t’ know him.” He paused. “Ya’ll have to be the judge.”

“…He feels like a different person.”

“Happens when ya go through things. I bet ya changed on your journey here, didn’t you?”

Margaret paused. “I… I believe I did, actually. I was… so angry for a while there, but then… I guess… I guess I just came out the other end for the better.”

“Maybe ya just need t’ give him some more time.”

“Yeah… maybe.” She looked down at the man—she was taller than him, even sitting down. “Thank you, mister…”

“You can call me Keller. Agent Keller.”

“Agent?” Margaret tilted her head to the side. “Agent of what?”

“The Crown.”

Margaret tensed, but did her best to play it off. “Oh, really? What’s that like?”

“Gives ya enough experience t’ know when people are tryin’ real hard to not look like they’re scared of ya.” He took a drink, and let out a short breath. “Ya don’t need t’ worry yer pretty little head, ya’ve got friends in high places lookin’ out for ya.”

“I’m… uh…” Margaret shifted awkwardly.

“I actually came here specifically t’ seek ya out, Margaret.” He lifted up his hat and met her gaze with his brilliant, white eyes. “Not to unnerve ya, though that’s kinda unavoidable, and not to help ya either, but ya seemed like ya needed it when I walked in.”

“So… what did you come here for, then?”

“To declare peace.” He let out a chuckle without a smile. “In my experience, it’s best t’ get this sort of thing out of the way so complications don’t arise in the future. Yes, I know who ya are and the exact major detail ya don’t want people to know. I have no intention of reportin’ anything to anyone about it, though.”

“R-really? Why… not?”

“Ya seem like a good, upstanding woman, and I see no malice in those eyes. Plus, yer friends vouch for ya, and they and I already have an understandin.’ ” He set his drink down. “My job is t’ protect this town and the Wizard Space Program. Yer part of that. I want my charges t’ trust me with their lives, makes it so much easier t’ protect them. Want to make it clear that I am not your enemy.”

Margaret took in a deep breath. “Are you sure you’re not? We…”

“Belief is no crime. Ya’d have to do somethin’ with it to cause problems. I’ll be keepin’ an eye on you two, but I’m keepin’ an eye on everyone in this town. My hope is that we can come t’ an understanding, perhaps forge a workin’ relationship.”

Margaret nodded slowly. “That is… the very same thing we tried to do back in our old home. You are a respectable man, Agent Keller. I… am nervous, I will admit, but we did not turn anyone away from our home, and were sad when possible guests would run in fear. I will not make the same mistake—if you wish to welcome me, I will take it.”

“Very good!” Keller stood up, brushing off his coat. “Hope t’ see ya around, Margaret. Never really met one of your people willing t’ have an open chat with an Agent such as myself, really is a breath of fresh air. We should talk ‘bout the nature o’ reality sometime, that should be fun.”

“I’ll hold you to that, Keller.”

“As ya should. Introduce me t’ yer father sometimes, though later, of course, once ya’ve gotten him calm enough for it.” He tipped his hat. “I’ve gotta go make sure those Red Seekers on the mountain won’t be a problem now. Here’s t’ hopin’ they’ll be as receptive as ya.”

“Good luck.”

“I’ll need it…” With a short sigh followed by another abrupt chuckle, he left the establishment.

“What a strange encounter…” Margaret said, looking at the barkeep. “…I think I’ll need another one.”

“Just one?” the barkeep asked. “There were so many layers to that conversation I feel like I need a drink.”

“Just one for now. Might change my mind later.”

~~~

“I just shaved a hamster.”

Jeh was so shocked by this utterance that she fell off the tree branch she was trying to balance on. “You what?”

Krays held out her hands, showcasing that, sure enough, she had shaved a hamster. It had bruises all over its body.

“What the… Krays! Did you beat up this hamster?”

“Oh, no. Well, not unless you count the tiny nick on its haunches because I’m a gari and don’t know how to shave anything—freaky fuzzy beasts, you lot—all those bruises are your doing.”

“Me!?” Jeh put a hand to her chest and gasped. “I don’t go around hurting hamsters for no reason!”

“Well, no, this is just one of them you brought back from the last trip. As you can see, there’s not no consequences for being out in the vacuum of space until you pass out.” She poked one of the bruises and the hamster let out a squeal of pain and bit her finger. The plast coating prevented her from being injured by it.

“Oh. Well, I guess if you shaved the hamster for science…” Jeh blinked. “…You didn’t shave the hamster for science, did you?”

“How dare you accuse me of shaving a rodent with no reason for it!” Krays harumphed. “I, caring, honest, and deeply empathic person that I am, noticed that the poor hamster was walking funny compared to all the others, so I took it upon myself to find out why, and a little shaving revealed the problem.”

“A little. You didn’t need to remove all the hair.”

“Krays never leaves a job undone.”

“You’ve left four unfinished experiments on your desk this week alone.”

“Those will be finished eventually.”

“Suuuuure,” Jeh rolled her eyes. “Anyway, the bruising still isn’t too much of an issue. Clearly, they heal over time, the first hamsters we brought up there are still up and kicking. Well. Aside from the ones I just let out there for several minutes…” she tapped her chin. “Do you think it’s worthwhile to find the exact time of death?”

“Not really, it’s likely different for every creature. We already know plants fare much better than animals. Being squishy is bad.”

“A rigid would probably be just fine.” Jeh paused. “There aren’t any rigids around here, though.”

Krays grinned. “We could probably order one of those little propeller guys… y’know, since we have a lot of proper funding, and all…” She started rubbing her hands together. “I can’t wait for that lab to be complete. I’m going to have so many things to work with.”

“Krays, don’t blow up the lab.”

“I won’t!”

“I wouldn’t trust myself not to blow up the lab. I hear they’re going to be stocking it with all sorts of chemicals.” Jeh tried to look solemn but her own grin started to crawl up her face. “Just think of all the damage you could cause with that…”

“I hope they give us an acid strong enough to burn a hole in the floor.”

“That exists?”

“No idea!*”

*It does exist, there’s a very particular snake in the Southern Desert that produces a tremendously corrosive acid. It’s a wonder the snake doesn’t dissolve itself with the stuff. Very expensive, very rare, and most people have no clue it exists since there aren’t really any settlements down there.

“I wonder what else they’re giving us…” Jeh pondered. “Tools, chemicals… what else…?”

“Lots of copies of research documentation. Gone will be the days of sending Seskii to procure a specific document from afar, we should have copies right here! Not to mention samples of rarer materials… and lab grunts. Can’t wait to have someone to order around.”

“Wait, what?” Jeh blinked. “It comes with helpers?”

“Oh yes! See, part of the whole deal is to get more jobs in Willow Hollow. Some kids from town are probably going to join the program, and it’ll likely attract new journeyman wizards. But we are the Wizard Space program and we can order them around.” Krays started cackling. “They shall grow to fear me and my continual bizarre requests…”

“Don’t be cruel, Krays.”

“Oh, not cruel! Just unusual. Very unusual. A request for precisely three and a third cups of tea, perhaps, or that they walk around a specific area in a circle for a minute, or that they hold something that I’m about to shoot with one of my rocks without telling them that’s what we’re doing. Such fun, the possibilities are endless once you have fresh meat!”

Jeh put her hands on her hips. “Well then, I’ll have to be the one to be nice to them and stop you!”

“Be real, you’ll be joining me on half these pranking expeditions.”

Jeh blinked, pondering this. Then she rubbed the back of her head. “Yeah, it might be fun to do it occasionally…”

“Glad you’re on board. So, I’ve already got at least a dozen of these things planned, tell me what you think of this idea… it all starts by re-arranging all the chemicals in the cupboard in reverse alphabetical order…”

~~~

Margaret took a breath. “Okay, Margaret, today’s the day.” She was currently in Vaughan’s outhouse, undressing from her normal maid-like outfit. “You’ve been trained, you’ve been taught. You know how to fly. All you have to do is actually go to space.” She put on her suit—a loose, but not so loose as to be baggy, article of clothing that covered the exposed skin on her arms and leg, leaving her gauntlets and greaves uncovered. Gari sunburned extremely easily and there wasn’t really a way to install a curtain on a Skyseed, so she got to have a proper suit. “You don’t have any experiments to run.” She cinched down the lining on the cuffs so the outfit wouldn’t slip from use. Waving her arms and legs around she was satisfied that any exaggerated motion wasn’t going to expose any skin. Lastly, she made sure to fold up the part of the outfit that covered her neck, going up to her chin.

“You’ve been given an opportunity to fly among the darkness of night, to feel Eyda’s grace…” Margaret took out a simple arcane device—a metal rod with a Red crystal affixed to it. She activated it and started pressing it to her plast hair. She had been letting it grow out ever since she got back for this exact moment, so she could shape it around her head to protect the skin. “You will fly many missions for the Wizard Space Program.” She completely covered her ears and pressed the hair over her mouth, though she left a small space between so she could still speak clearly. The only part of her head she left exposed were her eyes. “You. Are. Ready.”

The final part of her ensemble were a pair of scientific goggles that were tinted. By far the most expensive part of the outfit, it made everything look dim. Experiments showed that it helped with sunburns quite a bit.

With that, she stepped out into the daylight. Alexandrite was waiting for her outside.

“To the launchpad?” he asked.

“Right away, please.”

Margaret took the moment riding on Alexandrite to calm herself down. She was excited, to be sure, but she needed to keep a clear head for this moment. She had trained much, and even taken the Skyseed IV up into the air a few times, but never far enough to see the stars in the middle of the day. Today, that would change.

In roughly a minute, they arrived at the launchpad. There was a decently-sized audience for the launch this time—she was a new pilot, after all, and much of the town wanted to see her maiden voyage. She noticed Agent Keller standing near the back. He tipped his hat to her. For once, even Jeremiah was here; as hard of a time as he was having, he wasn’t about to miss his daughter’s big moment.

The first thing she did after getting off Alexandrite was hug her father. “Thanks for coming.”

Jeremiah smiled. “You look like you came out of the darkness itself.”

Margaret smiled, not that he could see it. “Thank you.” With that, she turned to the Skyseed IV. “Well, I’m ready to die in space.”

Vaughan raised an eyebrow. “Now that’s just asking for trouble.”

“Or it’s an acceptance of the worst-case scenario. Anyway, any last tips?”

Jeh nodded. “Remember that when you get past the bulk of the atmosphere, you don’t have to worry so much about stabilization. Also, don’t forget to refer to your maps when coming back down, it can be a little easy to get lost.”

“I have the maps, I also have a pack of Colored crystals and water, in case cooling becomes a problem.”

“Great! In that case… just make sure you don’t gawk at the view for too long, it’s really something!”

Blue rolled her eyes. “We’ve all seen the pictures.”

“The pictures don’t do it justice at all. She’ll know what I mean once she’s up there.”

“I look forward to seeing the sight myself, one day,” Vaughan said. “But for now… Margaret, be careful up there. You aren’t immortal.”

“I know,” Margaret said. “This work is dangerous. But I’m ready.”

“All right…” Blue started unscrewing the lid.

Margaret got in and situated herself. It was more than a little cramped for someone of her height, but she could live with it. She carefully affixed the bracelet attached to the air restorer to her wrist, making sure to continually activate it so her air didn’t run out. She placed one hand on the drive’s control as she used her eyes to make sure she had everything. Water, food, crystals, notebooks, pens, Benefactor’s transmitter… it was all here. Not a thing was missing.

“Seal me in!” She called.

Blue wound the lid back on.

Seskii started the countdown. “Ten!”

Margaret noticed that her heart was beating in time with the countdown. “Nine! Eight! Seven!” That heart rate was probably a lot slower than it should have been, but she didn’t care, it felt right. “Six! Five! Four!” She tightened her grip on the drive. She had done this part dozens of times at this point. It would be easy. “Three! Two! One!”

She took one look outside the ship and gave Jeremiah a quick wave.

“Zero!”

She lifted off. Unlike Jeh, who almost always took off slightly too quickly, Margaret made sure to ascend slowly and deliberately. She used an Orange crystal to maintain balance, slowly kicking the drive into more forceful settings.

As expected, despite her nerves, everything still went as smooth as butter. There were no fins to get in the way and, with her constant attention, the ship was not prone to spinning. She went higher, and higher, and higher.

She was so confident in her control that she allowed herself to rotate the Skyseed IV sideways so she could look down unhindered. Already it was hard to make out signs of Willow Hollow, but that was not surprising, she’d been this high up before. However, any further… and she would be in new territory.

And so she ascended. Wind buffeted the ship, but she fought it. She got a little cold, so she applied Red to the walls. A high-flying balloon-like creature drifted close to her, curious, but ultimately kept its distance.

Then it was all white. She had passed through a cloud. She could see absolutely nothing, and water was condensing on the edges of the ship. However, she’d been told to expect this, so she remained calm and pushed through until she popped out the top. It was a little harder to see, because of the condensation, but it did not remain long, the rush of wind evaporated the condensation over the next few minutes. This made the interior cold again, so she applied more heat.

Jeh, you really do have a wide range of temperature tolerance…

As time went on, the density of the air around her went down, and the strength of the winds abated. She knew this meant she could push the drive even further, so she did. She did not have the natural brute-force power of Jeh, so using this much will was somewhat taxing on her. Fortunately, balancing was easier with less air around, so she could focus mostly on the drive and the air restorer, the latter of which required very little will from her.

She took in a sharp breath and ground her teeth—hard though this was, she was still in it for the long haul. She steeled herself as she rose higher, higher, and higher still. She soon saw the curvature of Ikyu… and the sky changed slowly from blue to black. Stars began to emerge.

Margaret found her gaze inherently drawn to the stars. Little pinpricks of light in the otherwise expansive and oppressive darkness of the universe. That’s us, she thought. Us little sparks, adrift among Eyda’s shadow. The darkness enhances those who shine brightest… For the longest time, she kept her gaze on the stars and the space between, already having great inspiration for her paintings.

However, she eventually decided it was time to look elsewhere. She looked back down at Ikyu.

Her breath stopped. For a moment, all her will vanished, and both the air restorer and the drive shut down.

She could see it all.

A round blue-and-white sphere with dotted patches of brown and green scattered about. She could see the east coast, the Shinelands, the Wild Kingdoms, the mountain range that marked the border of Kroan, the west coast, the Tempest, and even some lands beyond that…

Everything she had ever seen or known was right in front of her.

Everything.

Suddenly she understood exactly what Jeh had meant.

She didn’t care about the safety for a moment. She removed her goggles and looked upon the world with her own eyes, and it only became more spectacular. The colors popped. Life itself seemed as though it was calling out to her. All of it.

Everyone who had ever existed was on that rock.

It was simultaneously so tremendous… and so tiny.

Margaret regained control of her will and reactivated the air restorer and the drive. She took a deep breath. “W-well.. m-mission accomplished.” She had been severely shaken by the sight, and she knew it, and yet she didn’t feel haunted. She felt… gifted. Like she understood so much more about existence without actually being able to put a finger on what exactly it was she had learned.

She put her goggles back on and took a little longer to just… enjoy the view. She had no idea how long she remained there, just watching. The realization that she had no idea how long she’d been up there was precisely what got her to go back down. If she spent too long up here, wouldn’t they get worried?

The trip back down was mostly uneventful. Margaret didn’t remember much of it, for the entire way down her mind was filled with memories of the stars…

~~~

A few weeks later, a full-grown dragon delivered a package to Vaughan’s backyard. It was far, far too heavy for Alexandrite to carry.

It was a truly gargantuan metal sphere with five separate circular windows embedded in it. There would have been six, but the sixth was reserved for the door that led inside, which was made out of solid metal. If the windows had been faces on a cube-shaped ship rather than a spherical one, then at the place the corners would have been were where the “handholds” were placed, as they were called. They were not actually handholds, of course, but hollow metal spheres attached to the ends of metal rods. These were intended to be grabbed by Orange magic in flight so the ship could be rotated.

The shell itself was completely empty. There was no furniture, no devices, not even the scaffolding for the drive was in there yet. It was simply a shell.

A shell that would become the Moonshot.

“So? Does it meet with your approval, oh stubborn blacksmith?” Krays asked her husband.

The Wizard Space Program watched with nervous expressions as Darmosil went around the metal shell and investigated it extremely closely, checking every weld for quality and air tightness. He took out a pair of miniature bellows every now and then and pressed them to an area, testing it. He spent the most time around the edges of the windows, frowning the more tests he ran. He eventually climbed inside the shell, performing some tests in there.

“Are you a snail?” Krays called. “How can you even hold your blacksmithing tools with no hands then!?”

“Same way a snake like you can speak without hissing.”

“Hisssssss,” Krays retorted.

With that, Darmosil jumped out of the shell. “I have tried my absolute best, but I was entirely unable to find a structural fault. Those royal blacksmiths have really done their best here.”

“Jealous much?” Krays asked.

“They probably had a team of two dozen working on this thing all hours of the day. They wanted it to be perfect. So no.”

“Oh, psh, tell me you don’t want a full team to do massive projects like this.”

“I don’t want a full team to do massive projects like this.”

“Lies.”

“You told me to say it.”

Vaughan went up to the shell and placed his hand on it. It was cold to the touch. “This… is this really going to fly?”

“That entirely depends on Jeh, honestly…” Blue said, turning to the little immortal. “Want to try?”

Jeh revealed that she had been hiding an Orange crystal in her furs this entire time. “Oh, you bet I do.” With a grin, she used her magic on the shell.

The thing was heavy. Outrageously so, it made the Skyseed feel like a feather in comparison. But with a grunt, Jeh was able to lift it off the ground and hold it there. “Heh… look at… that…” She gently set it back down.

“It’ll be quite a bit heavier once everything’s installed and all the passengers are inside,” Suro said. “You might have some trouble.”

“If she can’t do it, two of us together can,” Vaughan said. “All we need to do is get into space, once there we can fly around on low force applications.”

Blue nodded. “The plan is to drift most of the way without having the drive on at all during those times. The hardest part really is going to be getting off the ground and into space.”

“So… this is the fancy ship you’re buildin’…” Agent Keller said as he walked onto the scene.

“Yep!” Seskii said, grinning. “Impressive, isn’t it?”

“Sure don’t look like it’ll fly.”

“Well it’s a spaceship, not an airship.” Jeh crossed her arms. “You’ve seen how the Skyseed works.”

“Indeed I have.” He let out a chuckle. “I find myself wonderin’ what you’re gonna find up there.”

“Dunno,” Vaughan said with a shrug. “Rocks, probably, but who knows what else?”

“It’ll be a while,” Lila said. “All the other parts still have to be manufactured and we have to install everything.”

“We also need to make personal modifications to the structure,” Blue said. “The inner sphere needs doors to access the space between the two segments, and we need to get a proper airlock installed without ruining how sealed everything is. Not to mention chairs, all the navigation materials, books…”

Lila nodded. “It’s projected that we won’t be able to fly before winter comes, but next spring…”

“To the moon!” Jeh declared, pointing her finger to the sky.

“The moon is currently on the opposite side of Ikyu.” Krays said.

“To the moon!” Jeh repeated, pointing down. “…That just doesn’t feel right.”

~~~

SCIENCE SEGMENT

Let’s talk about what happens when your body gets exposed to the vacuum of space.

First of all, the quickest way to die is to hold your breath. In the vacuum of space, there is zero pressure. Gasses always want to equalize pressure with the environment around them, so anything that is just a bag of gas (such as, say, your lungs) will want to expand. The problem is to get to zero pressure the gas has to expand far enough to have the molecules completely dissociate, which is far larger than your body actually is. Thus, your lungs explode, and then you’re dead. This does not tear your body apart, but not only will it make it so you can never breathe again, but the air will also violently throw itself into the flesh around your lungs and try to tear everything apart. It won’t succeed, but your heart and other very important organs are right there, so… yeah, counterintuitively, the one thing you don’t want to do is hold your breath.

If you let all your air out through your mouth, your lungs won’t rupture, all of it will just come out real quickly. Then you have no air at all in your system—which is something that almost never happens. Try to breathe out and get all the air out of your lungs. Hard, isn’t it? Your body really doesn’t want to be in that state, but once in space, it is. Your body internally stores enough air to maintain consciousness for around fifteen seconds, after which point you pass out. Your body still maintains some oxygen within the bloodstream for a while after this, but it’s only able to ration this out for about two minutes before you actually die.

It’s like drowning, but much quicker. Curiously, you don’t freeze, explode, or do anything really spectacular to die. You just suffocate.

Which isn’t to say there aren’t other strange and highly uncomfortable things going on to your body while you’re in space, those just aren’t the things that kill you.

As has been mentioned previously, space is extremely cold, but since there’s basically nothing in it there’s no way for heat to transfer so you’re more likely to cook yourself over time. This isn’t quite accurate if you get ejected into space without a spacesuit—you still can’t transfer heat to the space around you, but your temperature does drop sharply. The reason for this is a little odd. You, as an animal, have a lot of fleshy bits that depend on water to operate. Water will turn into water vapor extremely rapidly when presented with a zero-pressure environment. However, an unusual thing about materials that change state is that they have to take energy from somewhere to do so; the bonds between the water molecules in their liquid state must be broken. When boiling due to a pressure difference, they tend to steal heat from materials around them. This causes a fair portion of your body heat to transfer into the molecules of water vapor that are leaving your body. Your tongue will simultaneously boil and get super cold. Your eyes as well, and the sweat on your skin. This process is not immediate, but it does really mess with your internal heat.

Also, while your lungs are the primary source of air in your body, there are still gasses elsewhere in much smaller pockets and liquids that are close to boiling, sometimes with gasses dissolved in said liquids that can't remain so while under low pressure. The interior of your body will expand significantly, increasing your size. You don’t expand enough to explode, however, as your skin is very elastic and can hold everything together.

Lots of blood vessels will rupture from all these effects, causing bruising. However, if you’re brought in before the two minutes are up, you can still make a full recovery. Just with a lot of bruises and potentially messed up eyes.

In short, dying in space isn’t all that spectacular, but it does have its fair share of oddities.