Ravana's Shadow (33)

Kit was the last one to reach the launch elevator.

Maddie was waiting near the bottom, dressed in the full protection of her EVA gear. She waved as Kit approached, grinning wide. Despite the spotlights shining on the Neophyte from all sides, the faceplate remained transparent. "Director! Or should I say Captain?" She held her arms open, expectant.

Maybe not the standard professional decorum she would've expected from her old life—but so what? The Institute was a different place, maybe a better one. She accepted the offered hug, holding Maddie as tight as she could. "Never thought anyone would call me that again."

"It was always gonna be you," Maddie said, when she let go a few seconds later. "Wren might've been one for longer, but her kinda ship was so different. The Acheron had gravity lenses, impulse drives..." She shook her head weakly. "I bet people flew in rockets like this all the time when you were young."

Kit looked up at the Neophyte—taller than the Institute, its base thick enough for the many modular engines in its first stage. "Probably. Some differences. My ship used three different kinds of fuel, not one. You people did the impossible getting hydrogen and oxygen to ignite fast enough to use for attitude control."

Maddie started rocking back and forth, growing more energetic. "It's not impossible at all! The ignition system we use—"

Something floated into view in front of them, kept aloft with a tiny blue flame and several stabilizing fins. A camera drone, built for the airless void outside Mara. 

"Director," Forerunner said. It wasn't her the persona was correcting—but it would probably be easier on Maddie to make it seem that way. "We have a very limited launch window. Perhaps you should have this conversation once you're en-route for Ravana? There will be plenty of time to learn the Neophyte's systems then."

Kit nodded, then put her arm over Maddie's shoulder, steering her towards the waiting elevator. "Good idea. We'll talk about it when we get there."

The elevator had no walls, just a mesh of wire to keep them from tumbling out in any individual direction. There was very little space inside, just enough for two colonists and their oversized tails. If Kit stood on tiptoes, her head would smack into the ceiling.

"Our brave Director Kit Red Squirrel and the Neophyte's chief engineer Maddie Red Fox now ascend the [x] meters towards the Neophyte's crew airlock. Waiting for them are Abel English Spot, Chase Pine Marten, Emma French Lop, Kaden Kit Fox, and Sadie British Longhair." That was Jay's voice, coming over the radio. Jay himself was probably sitting in the control chair by then, surrounded by all their replacements and substitutes in Mission Control. 

Kit had passed them that morning, after a light breakfast of nutritional fluid. Hopefully they felt calmer than she did. His voice came in quietly over the radio, easy to tune out if anything more important was happening.

Kit had little more to look at than the Neophyte's impressive body, glittering metal painted with white and black and pastel green. She wasn't speaking to Jay, though Mission Control would be able to hear anything any member of the crew had to say. "This used to be the Aether," she said, touching one hand against the mesh door. They passed support umbilicals, where pipes were still mated to the individual stages. "Now it's something else."

"If starships had souls, I'm sure yours would be happy to fly again," Maddie said. "Even if it looks like something else."

She nodded. "I never had a persona, and my computer wasn't nearly as smart as yours. But if the Aether could talk, I'm sure it would want to protect the Institute just like I do."

The elevator didn't move terribly fast. Minutes passed as they ascended, beyond the gigantic first stage, the much-slimmer second stage, then the bizarre-looking Neophyte itself atop that. 

With no atmosphere, there was no shell or frame to fully enclose the cargo, so each crate remained clearly visible in its mounting points. Then there was the habitation sphere, currently deflated and wrapped in protective fabric. It looked a little like launching a popped balloon into space. At least the cockpit was more conventional, with a needlessly aerodynamic curve and lots of sloping windows.

Kit still didn't know if they'd chosen that design just to humor her, or for some technical reason she didn't understand. Either way, she wouldn't be asking today.

The elevator rumbled and clicked its way forward towards a plastic shell around the airlock. The doors opened, and finally the layer of protective wire slid out of the way. "After you." Kit gestured.

Maddie needed no second invitation. She probably would've sprinted, if Mara had stronger gravity.

Kit lingered in the elevator another second more, glancing back at the Institute. She could see it from up here, though far less dramatically than before. They hadn't rebuilt the false communications tower, and its replacement was much smaller, barely rising above the top of the tallest dome. Faint light emerged from within, spilling out of the several simulation domes. Any citizen who wasn't watching from the promenade was probably packed into one of the domes right now, squinting at them through the windows.

Kit waved in their direction, then at the camera, before finally hurrying through the door. It sealed behind her. Maddie was already inside, waiting for the blast of air and foam that would keep the interior free of any toxic dust.

Then the door opened, and the lights on Kit's HUD turned green.

She left the helmet on, just like everyone else in the Neophyte's control room.  

The Institute's EVA gear was light and advanced enough that they needed no second set of equipment for launch. These same two layers would function equally well for all stages of the Ravana mission.

"Captain on deck," Chase said, straightening near the door. He stood there like he'd been on watch, though of course he had no weapons. Instead, he wore a complete toolbelt over his EVA suit, with far more pieces than any Kit had ever carried. But did he know what any of those things did? "Welcome aboard, Kit. I think they're just finishing up preflight checks."

"Finished preflight checks," Abel said, glancing back at them from his seat. It was the smaller of the two seats at the Engineering station, waiting for Maddie to join him. "All green, captain. Just waiting for the go-ahead to pressurize the pumps."

Those pumps were themselves marvels of engineering, somehow as versatile as they were reliable. Or so they were about to find out.

Kit circled around the other side, past Emma at life support, Sadie on guidance, and Kaden on comms. Finally, she reached the center chair. 

None of these were terribly comfortable looking: made from hard foam, shaped perfectly to catch and hold their occupants. The clear glass consoles in front of each one could rotate along with the center control surface, giving them total freedom to operate their stations even as the orientation of the Neophyte changed. They were currently oriented with their backs to the ground, making them somewhat awkward to climb into.

Kit stood just beside hers, watching Maddie. Sure enough, the fox had difficulty working her tail through the narrow gap. Kit made her way over, and helped the fox get settled. "How's that?"

"Great!" She beamed up at her for a second, then turned eagerly to the console in front of her. "Fuel tanks are green! Cells are pressurized, persona submatrix is spooling. We're go to begin pressurization."

"Do it." Kit walked back to her seat, then twisted sideways to get her own tail through the gap. Hers was so absurdly huge that the chair had to be completely designed around it, with a back section that swiveled into place only after she was already in place. Automatic straps slid down, then clicked into matching restraints. Another loud click came from just behind her, as the life-support tether connected to her suit's systems.

Kit's chair was at the dead center of the cabin, with a perfect view of every other console, and the huge screen on the far side. Despite looking like windows, all were currently covered with reinforcing seals for launch. They would be using screens until they got into orbit.

Kit's controls rose up around her—a gyroscopic control yoke, along with a panel covered in mechanical switches and buttons. Each one had a clear label, and a thin plastic safety cover. They probably just put those in for dramatic effect, right? 

The switches and her yoke both had faint red lights illuminating them, indicating automatic control. She could move them all she wanted, but without the big switch on her chair, they wouldn't do anything.

Her display glass showed a ghostly artificial-horizon version of the Neophyte, divided by lines and labeled sections for each engine. A tiny spot in the corner lit up, with a brief "connecting" message. 

Then Garrick's face appeared there. His real one this time, not transformed into an illusory citizen. Forerunner had more important things to worry about just now.

"Governor Kit—you reading me okay?"

She nodded at the screen. I'm a governor again? "Coming in clear. But we'll lose you as soon as the launch begins. We'll reestablish a signal lock as soon as we finish the Ravana insertion burn."

Even Garrick’s small image looked a little worse for wear. His bulging muscles were somewhat less impressive now, his skin pallid and stretched. His hair was a little patchy, his beard uneven. "Honestly wasn't sure you could pull this off. Kept waiting to find out your Forerunner had faked the whole thing, and none of you... animal-things... were real."

"Is that still what you think?"

He looked away from the camera. "I won't know for sure until you walk into my office. But the more I see... the more convinced I am that some of you are real."

"How generous," Kit said, flat. "You're welcome to listen in through the rest of the launch. But if you'll excuse me, my colony of fake people are probably waiting to hear from us. Saving your life has some tight deadlines."

"I'll be here," he said. "Assuming you survive. Godspeed, squirrel." His image vanished from her screen, signal terminated.

"Pressurization nominal," Maddie said. "Control circuit diagnostic is good. Are we doing this?"

"Control, are we cleared for launch?" Kit asked.

"Clear," Forerunner responded, a second later. "Beginning countdown at T-minus five minutes."

Something lit up just in front of her—a white light, with a lens just beside it. Forerunner's voice came in over the radio. "Ready to broadcast."

Kit sat up straight in her seat as best she could. This might be the last time anyone in the Institute ever got to see her—or maybe just the real her. They had a backup now. But if they had to restore her from data on a drive, Kit would never know.

"Citizens of the Institute of Perpetual Luminescence. Kids of the Mara colony. All these months we've worked were for this moment—the rocket you see on your screens, packed with all the equipment we need to complete our mission.

"Space is big, and it's dangerous. We don't know what's waiting for us up there. We can't know for sure whether this rocket will get us there or fail in some critical way we didn't see coming. Everyone who climbed into this rocket knows this might be the last thing we ever do for you."

Know it or not, those words had an impact on her crew. Sadie's tail curled around her chair, and Emma started rocking nervously back and forth. Was she going to tear herself free of the restraints and run?

Only Morgan looked calm, from her seat in the back. She even had the dexterity to help Chase get settled in his restraints while still buckled into hers.

"We climbed in anyway, because we know how hard every one of you worked to make this happen. You sacrificed recreation time, you put aside your research. Many of you sacrificed the larger templates you had earned. We have all given part of ourselves to the Neophyte."

She rested both hands on the controls. They didn't respond, of course, but she wasn't trying to direct the ship. "We carry your sacrifices and contributions with us across every kilometer of Surya's cold expanse. Ten thousand years from now, when our stations and colonies cover every planet and moon in the system, those citizens will look back at this moment. They will thank every member of this expedition—but they will thank you too.

"And so do I. Thank you for what you sacrificed. Thank you for every hour of extra work, thank you for understanding the urgency of our situation. For eleven thousand years, the Institute of Perpetual Luminesce has struggled and fought to survive. Every battle you won, every discovery you made, all brought us to this launchpad. Keep the lights on while we're gone. The next time you see us, Mara will have a moon."

She gestured, and the lights switched off. Kit slumped into her seat, heart racing and breathing shallow. She glanced over her shoulder to where Morgan was sitting. "How was that?"

The ermine shrugged. "We'll know in an hour."

She took another few seconds to catch her breath. Probably for the best she couldn't see how the Institute might be reacting. She didn't need enthusiasm right now, Kit needed calm, and confidence.

"T-minus one minute," Forerunner said.

"Final checks," Kit said, stiffening again. She took one hand off the yoke, while the other rested near her bank of switches. With any luck, she would only need to press the one. "How are we looking?"

"Green on life support," Emma said, swallowing. 

"Guidance is green," Sadie added. "Course tracked. We should have... two hours to begin Ravana injection burn."

"Deluge system engaged," Kaden said. This time, Kit felt when all that coolant blasted below them, shaking the Neophyte slightly to either side. It was soon joined by many other rumbles—the distant roar of pressure pumps, the steady rhythm of clicks as her crew worked their controls.

"Five... four... three... two..." 

"Launch chain engaged," Maddie said. "Waiting on you!"

Kit flicked the plastic cap off her controls, then pressed down hard. "Main engine start!"

"Ignition!" Maddie yelled, so loud and shrill her voice distorted over the helmet radio.

An explosion rocked through the Neophyte. Helmets and headsets did little to muffle the sound—Never in her life had Kit heard anything quite like this. Video across an airless void could never do it justice.

Incredible pressure slammed into them, shoving Kit back into her seat. Uncomfortable foam and rigid suits suddenly seemed yielding and soft by comparison.

"Secondary engines start!" Abel said. 

"Liftoff!" Jay's voice called, filled with static and distortion over the radio. "Liftoff of the MSS Neophyte!"