Chapter 9: A View From The Heavens
Hello to those who still have my novel within their Libraries! I apologise for not updating for quite a while. University had just started, and I've only recently found time to continue my writing. Therefore, the chapter updates will be a little sporadic in the coming weeks as I try to balance my University work with my writing. For those of you who are still around to read, I thank you for your patience. Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Chapter 9: A View From The Heavens
"Please, have a seat, Your Majesties," Regina said while gesturing to the seats on the right side of the Albatross.
With Amarant and Eleanora taking their seats, Dr. Halloway sat opposite them on the left side of the Albatross, facing the two monarchs and preparing for any questions she was at liberty to answer.
"Well then, I believe the most pertinent question for the evening is: Which country do you originate from?" Amarant asked in a neutral tone while his eyes scanned Dr. Halloway's face for any sign of falsehoods.
Eleanora herself circulated her mana and activated a racial skill called [Iwari Iro], which allowed her to know when her target was lying.
Hearing the King's question, Dr. Halloway pondered how to answer it before saying,
"While I don't mean to question Your Majesty's knowledge, I am 100% certain the place we come from is not known to you."
Hearing her response, Amarant arched an eyebrow and responded,
"Oh? And what makes you so sure?"
"Because we are not from this Planet, Your Majesty," Regina replied curtly.
Amarant narrowed his eyes with suspicion upon hearing Regina's words. He was about to claim she was 'full of shit' as he would have during his adventuring days, but received a telepathic message from his wife, stating,
"She isn't lying."
Amarant caught his tongue before opening his eyes slightly wider when he heard his wife's words resound through his mind. Then, after a brief pause to collect his thoughts, Amarant spoke.
"Suppose I say I believe you, the next question I'd like to ask is 'why are you here? Why have you come to this world and landed in this country?'"
With a heavy sigh, Regina was internally relieved that, despite appearing as though they were a primitive society, they didn't immediately believe she was lying. Following up with Amarant's question, Regina began recounting the events that led to their arrival without disclosing anything overtly classified.
"...thus, through a series of miraculous coincidences, we survived what would normally be a death sentence, appearing outside your Planet at complete random, without any power to prevent ourselves from entering your atmosphere and successfully landed within your Country without crashing."
Amarant and Eleanora sat in silence after hearing Regina recount such a fantastical story. It honestly sounded like the ramblings of a madwoman to them or the wild imagination of a child. But with Eleanora's ability stating that Regina wasn't lying but also withholding some information, they decided to take a minute to process her words.
Speaking up after a minute or so of tense silence, Eleanora asked,
"If you came here in this craft, does that not mean you could leave this planet?"
Looking towards the Queen, Regina nodded her head, stating,
"Yes, we very well could leave if we wanted to. However, we wouldn't get very far. At most, we could leave this Planet's atmosphere, but we wouldn't be able to reach any of the other nearby planets. Well, that's not entirely accurate… It's not that we couldn't; it'd just take a lot of power, more power than our current supplies of fuel could last us."
"I see…" Eleanora replied, falling into thought on how to proceed. However, her thoughts were interrupted by a soft voice, saying,
"I want to see it."
Hearing the sudden words, everyone looked to where the voice came from, seeing Ariana looking at them with a determined expression.
As they hadn't realised Ariana had awoken, most of the group were surprised, with Dr. Halloway asking,
"What is it you want to see?"
"I want to see what it's like up there," Ariana said while pointing her hand above her head.
Seeing the insatiable desire for adventure within the little girl's eyes, Shirogane, Amarant and Eleanora couldn't help but sigh, some outwardly, some internally.
Sam, however, looked at the young girl with curiosity. Her adventurous spirit and curiosity subtly reminded him of his younger self before he had been inducted into the Einherjar project. While such childish sentiments had long faded, Sam couldn't help feeling a sense of kinship with the Princess.
Dr. Halloway had an increasingly large smile appear on her face after seeing Ariana's expression and actions, teasing,
"You'd have to get your parent's permission first, Sleepyhead."
Hearing the way Regina addressed her, Ariana pouted before turning her attention towards her parents, apprehension apparent on her face. She was still upset and shaken about what had occurred earlier, but the desire to explore won the battle within her mind.
Seeing their daughter look towards them with apprehension, Amarant and Eleanora felt the guilt from earlier twisting their hearts in their chests. Looking towards each other, they subtly nodded before Amarant said,
"I suppose a demonstration would verify the veracity of your claim…"
Hearing her Father's words, Ariana's face lit up like the sun as she beamed an irresistibly adorable smile, saying,
"Thank you, Father!" Before running up and hugging him tightly.
Amarant chuckled, stroking his daughters back, before looking up to see Dr. Halloway smiling gently towards them with a reminiscent look in her eyes. He also caught the slight movement of her vision towards Sam, wondering if they were related on a much deeper level than he'd previously believed.
Coming out of her reverie, Regina said,
"Well, I suppose we're taking a trip into orbit."
…
..
.
After demonstrating the procedures of being securely strapped into the Albatross' passenger seats, Sam provided one final check to make sure the royals were secure before stating,
"Upon takeoff, you may feel slightly uncomfortable. However, such feelings will pass shortly after we exit the atmosphere."
Finished with what he had to say, Sam turned around and entered the cockpit, joining Dr. Halloway, who had already strapped herself in.
Performing a general check of all systems with the aid of Solace, Sam eventually fired the engines, causing the Albatross to gradually rise from the ground until it had surpassed the height of the trees in the surroundings.
All the while, the subtle shaking of the hull made the Monarchs a little nervous. Ariana, however, was looking around in fascination, each tremble of her surroundings making her giggle.
After reaching an appropriate altitude, Sam pushed the engines into full thrust, causing the Albatross to lurch forward, travelling about 300 meters in less than a second, while gradually pointing its nose upward to continue its ascent.
After pointing almost vertically, the Albatross began to climb higher and higher, surpassing the clouds, finally breaching through the ionosphere before settling into the Planet's thermosphere. Immediately after, Sam corrected the dropship's positioning, nose pointing toward the Planet, allowing it to enter a stable low-planet orbit.
Sam then shut down the engines. Staring out over the Earth-like planet below, Sam began to reminisce the first time he'd seen such a sight. He remembered he was about seven years old the first time he'd observed a Planet in this way; it was a training camp designed to teach soldiers how to handle combat in zero-gravity situations. Remembering how he'd been lightly chastised for enjoying the experience of weightlessness a little too enthusiastically, a subtle smile, barely even noticeable, developed across his face, hidden behind his visor.
Remembering the 'V.I.P's' he had in the passenger bay, Sam decided to allow the adventurous little Princess to have fun. Turning off the artificial gravity within the Albatross, Sam announced on the intercom,
"We've reached the outer atmosphere of the Planet. Releasing safety harnessing."
Seeing Sam's actions, a curious expression developed across Dr. Halloway's face. This was one of the first times since his time during training that she'd seen Sam perform an action that would've been viewed as unnecessary. Even Solace had noticed the change, exchanging a glance with Regina and noting it down within her logs.
Pressing a few buttons, the safety harnesses on the royals undid themselves, allowing them to begin floating up from their seats.
"Woah! Ehehe~! This is so weird!" Ariana exclaimed as she began floating about. She giggled as she watched Shirogane and her parents struggle to right themselves.
Hearing the giggling from the passenger bay behind them, a look of realisation appeared simultaneously on Regina's and Solace's faces. They now understood Sam's reasoning, causing them to reevaluate Ariana's worth as well as more closely monitor Sam in the future.
Solace, in particular, was internally shocked at Sam's actions and the influence Ariana appeared to have had on him in such a short amount of time. Believing the young Princess to be the key to fixing Sam's machine-like behaviour, Solace planned on having them interact more often.
After a while of struggling about as they floated uncontrollably, the Monarchs finally thought to activate their flight spells, allowing them to regain their stability, which caused Ariana to pout at losing her entertainment.
She hadn't quite achieved the necessary skill to fly yet; thus, she leisurely allowed herself to float around before finding herself stabilised by a pair of large and firm hands.
Turning to look at her Father, she found him looking at her with a gentle gaze. Ariana then buried her face into his chest and closed her eyes, enjoying the peaceful feeling of being weightless. She felt she could've easily fallen asleep then and there; however, the quiet was interrupted by a familiar hissing sound followed by a clank.
Sam made his way into the passenger bay, catching sight of the admittedly heartwarming scene. He turned around and secured the door towards the cockpit before facing the occupants.
He slowly made his way over to them while pulling up a specific schematic on his HUD. His nanobots quickly got to work making four shield generators.
Seeing Sam approach them with a device suddenly appearing within his hand, the Monarchs suddenly became on guard. After all, Sam, in full armour, cast an intimidating figure over the much shorter locals.
Sensing their discomfort, Sam attempted to put them at ease by referencing one of the items that appeared in many of the different magic/fantasy novels he'd read, hoping something like it existed and they could make the connection.
"This device is a shield generator; I suppose it would be similar to an artifact that can produce a magic barrier, should those exist…"
Sam then demonstrated by placing the device to his chest, causing a blue energy shield to overlap the previous one his armour generated, then having it disappear as usual.
Hearing Sam refer to the device being in the same vein as a magic barrier artifact and watching its effects being applied on him, the Monarchs visibly relaxed before asking,
"Why would we need one of those?"
Hearing the question, Sam proceeded to give a simplified yet detailed explanation for his actions.
"Outside this ship is the vacuum of Space. There is no air, or rather oxygen, for you to breathe. Also, without wearing something to keep a relatively similar atmospheric pressure to what you experience on the Planet, your body would experience a large range of scenarios that would prove to be lethal. For example, due to the lack of pressure, the air in your lungs, should you hold your breath, would rapidly expand, which could cause your lungs to burst. Also, the lack of pressure would reduce the boiling point of your bodily fluids, meaning all the liquid in your body, including your blood, saliva, etc., would begin to boil as it turned to vapour, despite remaining at the same temperature. This would then lead to gas bubbles blocking your blood vessels, killing you in the process. At most, a normal human could survive about a minute in the vacuum of Space."
Hearing Sam's explanation, the Royals, including Shirogane and Ariana, began to pale.
Noticing their reactions, Sam appended,
"Which is why I wish to provide each of you with a shield generator. It will maintain basic atmospheric pressure on your bodies, as well as provide you with a consistent supply of breathable air."
Hearing this, the Royals all sighed in relief before nodding towards Sam in acknowledgement.
Sam then made his way over to each of them, securing a shield generator to their bodies and watched as it covered them entirely before disappearing. The same occurred for Shirogane, who was surprised to see that it conformed to his body perfectly.
"The shield generator comes equipped with a communicator, allowing us to speak with each other, which would not be possible without it, due to there being no atmosphere for sound to travel through."
Checking over each of them with his HUD, Sam confirmed that they were all appropriately secured before looking over to the Monarchs, asking,
"Are you able to maneuver yourself with Flight Magic?"
"Yes, we can move around without any trouble," Eleanora replied.
"Understood. I am going to begin depressurising the passenger bay before opening the hatch."
"Why can't you just open it?" Ariana asked,
"Currently, breathable air surrounds us, creating an atmospheric pressure similar to the Planet below. If I were to open the hatch suddenly, all the air would be sucked out into the vacuum of Space, sucking us out along with it. This is merely to provide a smoother experience." Sam replied as he began depressurising the cabin.
Once it was all clear, Sam said,
"Opening the hatch."
The hatch began to slowly lower, revealing the vast expanse of Space, littered with glinting stars.
The Royals all stood still, observing the sight in wonder. Sam made his way past them before firing his armour's boosters, exiting the Albatross and allowing him to adjust himself in Space.
Turning around, Sam gestured for them to follow him before making his way around the front of the craft.
The Royals followed him out nervously, cautiously making their way outside and following after Sam. However, when they finally made it to the front and caught sight of their Planet before them, they stood stock-still, breathless from the breathtaking sight before them.
With Sam floating over to join them, he stared at the view in silence.
"There's a famous quote from our home planet by one of the first of our people to visit outer Space. It reads, 'As I left my vessel and entered the unforgiving void, I believed myself to have died. After all, what else could this be but A View From The Heavens.' Every time I see a sight like this, I can't help but agree." Dr. Halloway's voice resounded from the communicators in the shield generators.
Her words seemed to have struck a chord with the locals as their only response was to subtly nod their heads in agreement, gazing silently at the blue world below.
…
..
.