Chapter 82: Expeditions and Start of The Phantom Menace (Part 4)

AFTER A FEW MINUTES ON THE DECK OF THE EXPLORER:

Iss'ek found himself lying on the floor and was quite confused on what he was doing on the floor. Suddenly, Aleena's smug face came into his field of vision and she said, " I had expected you to drop your datapad out of shock but you surprised me and dropped dead yourself.....Ah!!!!....Sorry!!.....I mean fainted."

Iss'ek popped himself up on his elbows and looked outside the deck and saw the massive behemoth floating in the space. Iss'ek saw that the ship was pitch black in colour, shaped like a helmet and there were two golden structures pointing slantingly upwards towards the sky from the both sides of the helmet. Iss'ek turned towards the technician officer on the deck and said, " Can you scan that monster?"

The tech officer shruggred helplessly and said, " We tried but that monster is invisible to our radars. If I was not seeing this with my own eyes and was fully aware that I was awake , I would have taken it as an absurd dream."

The Communications Officer, " We are being hailed, Sir!!" Iss'ek turned serious and said, " Open the holo-comm."

The Holo-comm crackled to life and a rough voice came out of it, " WELCOME TO HERMES!!! This megacarrier is our ride to the deep core. Our computers have calculated your arrival time, based on it, you will board Hermes in 6 hours, 43 minutes and 26 seconds. Wait patiently till then. The imperial officer on the deck will be your guide in the megacarrier." After hearing the message, everyone turned to Aleena for answers.

Aleena said in a prideful tone, " HERMES is a megacarrier capable of transporting thousands of capital ships from one place to another. This megacarrier will be used to transfer all the capital ships primed for the deep core exploration."

A technician asked in confusion, " What is a megacarrier? How many capital ships this monster is able to carry?"

Aleena continued, " A megacarrier is the giant big brother of the star carrier.....Before you ask about the star carrier, I will tell you now. A star carrier is a transporter developed to transport capital ships from one place to another undetected as movement of hundreds of capital ships is easily noticed. This Megacarrier is capable of transporting 15,000 capital ships... Don't ask anymore questions, you all will be provided with the information packet, when you dock inside the ship." Aleena left the deck and contacted her superiors, reporting her arrival and the briefing she had given the Corellian personnel. She then, turned her attention to outside and saw hundreds of capital ships entering the HERMES, from the bottom of carrier. The ships moved below the carrier, placed themselves orderly below the carrier and then, they together moved upwards and vanished inside the carrier.

After the allotted time, the Explorer also moved below the carrier. The deck was filled to brim with people while the video of entry was being broadcasted to all the persons on the Explorer. When, the entry came into view, everyone was astonished as there was no entry!!! But, one look above them, made them see that the capital ships were seemingly going through the solid bottom without hindrance. All the people were confused and looked towards Aleena, who just sighed and said two words which greatly irritated the people but they could do nothing, " Information Packet!!"

The ship was moved upwards and when it arrived at the other side, two massive pilers graped the ship and put it on a platform. A shield came active and encased the ship and platform into a bubble. All this happened before the crew members could even get over their surprise of entering through a solid wall. The people looked around and saw thousands of ships placed on similar platforms and the platforms while carrying the ships were floating in the air. There were not able to see much from their vantage point. After the last ship got through, the ships were reshuffled and similar sized ships were placed together. Then, the floating platforms interconnected with each other through several large and wide bridges. Thankfully, the bridges had railings.

Aleena spoke up, " We are the second last group to arrive here. HERMES comes up only once a week to the surface so if we were to be late, we had to wait another week for our entry."

Iss'ek, " Why does this monster comes up once a week?"

Aleena looked at Iss'ek incrudeously and asked, " There is gravity on this gas giant, Commander Iss'ek. The amount of gravitaional force, this Megacarrier has to overcome to exit the gravity well of the planet is something that even your computers would take several minutes to calculate. The HERMES needs to recharge itself before it can come out of the gravity well. It takes one week to gather that much power discretely without alerting all the sensors present in hundreds of thousands of light years radius around. We are working under cover here."

Iss'ek said in annoyance, " Sorry to burst your bubble but travelling on such a big starship is not exactly the definition of working under cover."

Aleena said, " You don't know the full capabilities of this magnificent technological marvel. This ship is capable of turning itself invisible to the radars and naked eyes. Soon, a group of evaluators would arrive to check the whole capital ship and it's crew members. The deep core exploration is not going to be some walk in the park. You and your crew members will be tested, if you are ready for going into the inner regions of the deep core or not. Prepare yourself, the evaluators won't let any of you go into the inner regions, if something is found amiss. You would be restricted to manning the base camps on the planets of the outer edges of the deep core and believe me, the real fun and adventure is in the inner regions."

Iss'ek turned serious and turned his crew and said in a serious tone, " You all heard, Officer Aleena. Check every inch of the ship from top to bottom. Don't slack off because if you do, I will personally throw you off from this platform. Everything should be in place and in top condition. Pass my orders to the whole fleet. It would be great shame for us Corellians and a blight in the glory of our ancestors, if even one of our capital ships doesn't ace the upcoming examination. NOW, MOVE!!!" The personnel on the deck became more active than an angry beehive and the buzz created due to several voices filled the air.

Iss'ek turned towards Aleena and asked, " What our chances of passing the evaluation?"

Aleena gave a helpless expression and said, " I don't know." Iss'ek sighed in annoyance and turned his attention to his ship in order to make sure that he and his men pass the upcoming evaluation.

ONE WEEK LATER, TOP FLOOR OF HERMES's COMMAND CENTER, ABOVE THE UNNAMED GAS GIANT IN THE WASTELANDS:

The atmosphere of the command center was filled with excitement and anticipation. Everyone was taking fleeting glance towards the figure who was standing near the huge one side transparent glass sheet overlooking the whole command center and observing the specially trained professionals working below. The command center was hundred stories tall and was surrounded by several kilometers thick quantum wall which also acted as a very big screen in order to gave a view of the outside the HERMES. The figure watched as the last group of capital ships entered the Megacarrier and spoke up in a strong voice, " Prepare for Launch. We are moving now!!!"

A man decked in a white uniform nodded and said in his comm, " This is your commander. The Emperor has given the permission to launch THE HERMES. All personnel prepare for launch!!!" The professionals manning the stations below cheered together and started working with renewed vigour.

Outside The HERMES:

The golden structures let out massive purple clouds which had the temperature of thousands of degrees while the back portion of the Hermes slowly melted away to reveal a black hole which started giving out a purple light. The hole of so big that it covered most of the back region of the HERMES. After a few minutes, the sister drives were fully ready for launch. The light and fumes coming out of the exits of the propulsion systems were illuminating thousands of miles in purple light. The light started to shine very brightly. The carrier suddenly rumbled and a giant tear in space appeared in front of the carrier. The carrier swiftly entered the tear and the tear slammed shut. The shutting of the tear released an energy wave which ignited the fumes which detonated and destroyed the gas giant which was housing the HERMES for the last few months. After a few minutes, the fires stopped and a newly created asteroid field was left behind.

A Few Minutes Before, Inside the Command Center:

A technician spoke up in giddy voice, " THE SISTER DRIVES ARE READY FOR LAUNCH!!!!"

The commander smiled and said, " Begin the countdown."

The giant screen started to show a message in very big red letters.

" THE SISTER DRIVES ARE READY FOR LAUNCH. BEGINNING THE COUNTDOWN."

"10"

"9"

"8"

"7"

"6"

"5"

"4"

"3"

"2"

"1"

"0"

" LAUNCHING THE HERMES TO THE PRE-ENTERED COORDINATES. TIME REMAINING TILL REACHING THE DESTINATION: 15 : 12 : 41 : 35 "

The whole command center fell silent as a giant tear appeared in space in front of them. They all held their breaths as the HERMES entered the tear and they started travelling in the hyperspace. It took them a few seconds to recover which was followed by mad cheering and clapping. The commander swiftly brought everyone to order and turned to Alexander and said in a grateful voice, " Your Majesty!! Thank You for giving me this chance."

Alexander smiled and said in a serious voice, " Let's begin this meeting. This will be our last meeting for many decades. I am going into deep meditation that will last for several decades in order to quickly advance my Magus ranks."

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