Chapter 383 Troubles in Space (1)
Well, of course, ignoring the few trinkets she sent to space to figure out its properties and limits.
Everyone quickly boarded the satellite, entering through its airlock dock. After entering, the entire space was revealed. It was... a bland view since everything was mounted on the round walls of the satellite to reduce the risk of accidentally breaking something.
After everyone got in safely, Ember came in last, before moving straight toward the control panel at the exact middle of the satellite's long body.
"Pressurized cabin locked. Sealing off the docking area..."
She continued pressing buttons as everyone watched curiously. Then, one after another, large walls started to fall from the ceiling in all four directions, enclosing the entire room completely. Looking at the bulky metal walls, it was obvious how tough it was.
"Sealing is complete. Preparing the satellite for launch. Initiating the startup sequence."
Suddenly, the light inside the satellite dimmed before turning bright again. From the low hum that could be heard softly echoing, it looks like Ember switched power sources from the laboratory's electricity to the onboard batteries.
Right after, several displays started to come to life, booting, before they started to track the sensors located all over the entire satellite. After about a minute, Ember turned to me with a serious expression.
"Master, initialization is complete. Please give the order to launch."
"Alright..."
I took a deep breath, turning to everyone who had already moved somewhere with a handle to brace themselves. Seeing that everyone was finished preparing, I smiled lightly before turning to Ember once more.
"Launch it in 5!"
At my command, Ember's lips curled into a joyful smile. Without delay, she started to countdown, and at the same time, she cast her portal skill at its largest scale.
"Five! Four! Three! Two! One!!!"
*CREAAAK!*
The entire satellite shook greatly!
Since the other side we connected to is the vacuum of space, the satellite didn't even need to move as it was literally sucked into the portal that Ember opened. Even the bulky metal walls creaked from the force of the vacuum! In just a few moments, the shaking stopped.
"... Is it over?"
Fang asked, sniffing the air curiously. Of course, she couldn't detect changes, as we were inside an airlocked chamber. Instead, I turned to Ember, who quickly began operating the system's panel, opening a couple of windows around it.
The girls, curious, quickly flooded over the small window, competing to get a look at the scenery outside.
"Woah...!"
"Amazing! Look at that place! It's all blue!"
"That part is all red! Is that a desert?"
From beyond the window, they should be seeing the planet in its entirety. I smiled, seeing the joyful look on everyone's faces and their sparkling eyes, before moving to Ember's side.
She was still tapping wildly on the control panel since the entire thing wasn't over. On the display before her, a large sphere was depicted, and the image of the satellite with a broken line predicting its orbit was displayed.
"Can you get it into orbit?"
I asked curiously, but Ember didn't answer immediately. She kept on pressing buttons, adjusting the ion thrusters and other variables, before finally having the time to breathe.
"I managed to fit the system's predicted path into a fixed orbit, but we aren't sure yet if it's going to be as we computed. I'll still need to watch over it for a while."
"..."
It seems like she would need to man the console for a while longer.
"Then, I'll go and deploy the solar panels and let the entire satellite fully expand."
As her master, I at least knew the basic features of the entire satellite. After all, we did discuss the design before. I tried to walk forward, but I floated up immediately.
"Woah!"
I forgot that I can't walk in zero gravity. I soon reached the top and gently kicked it to fly forward. I zoomed across the entire satellite before smashing against the other end, face first.
"Ummmph!"
"..."
Everyone turned to look at me as if looking at a rare creature.
I can't help it, though. It's not like I have experienced moving around in zero gravity before. It's hard to adjust my strength!
While soothing my crushed nose, I felt around, looking for the lever. I quickly found it and pulled. The lever extended into a cylinder before locking after extending about half a meter. After it was completely extended, I twisted it clockwise.
*HUUUUM!*
The sound of motors echoed, notifying me that the satellite was beginning to morph into its actual size. The tubular, elongated satellite began to even get longer as I got further and further from the girls until it finally stopped. Now, I was roughly 200 meters away from them, compared to the previous twenty or so meters.
The satellite was now longer and more spacious, but it felt extremely empty! After all, it was so clean that I couldn't even find a single exposed wire anywhere. The only thing that caught my eye were the sections after the satellite expanded. However, after fully extending, they were sealed immediately, ensuring that the interior remained completely airtight.
"I'm done over there."
I quickly told Ember, who was still busy watching the values displayed before her. Curious, I peeked at it. It was a summary of the values detected by the sensors. The temperatures around the satellite, its current speed relative to the planet, its altitude, and its heading.
From what I could see, the satellite was maintaining an average of 30 to 35 thousand kilometers from the surface. I think, with reference to Earth, that's almost 1.5 times the Medium Earth Orbit (MEO). However, since the planet is bigger than Earth, the current orbit should be considered a low orbit instead.
"What's that...?"
Fina suddenly asked, curious about something she saw. Everyone tried to look at where she was pointing and squinting before their eyes suddenly turned wide.
"L-Leader... something's approaching! It's big!"
"...?"
I felt confused at first before my heart suddenly skipped a beat. Fear grasped my entire mind, causing me to quickly move to one of the windows and look at where the girls were pointing.
There... A gigantic, luminescent jellyfish was approaching.
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