Networks | Glowfic Constellation

Meanwhile, that eccentric inventor is recruiting for two, preferably three, competent force mages, skilled at flying, willing to agree not to disclose the details of what exactly he's paying them for. 180 rings an hour, plus a bonus of 2000 each when the job is done. He'll pay a few rings just to hear the details of the job and see if it sounds doable and agree to secrecy about it.

He gets some takers, two agerah and a thwilit.

The job involves going into space. He has a large thing that needs to be in a precise place in space, moving at a precise speed in a precise direction. He has a bunch of inventions that will handle continuing to have air, and knowing where they all are, and so on. By his calculations it should take about four hours all told. He wants two force mages in case one of them suddenly gets sick while they're in space, they can get back down safely. This is sort of a test - every individual system has been tested and works, but they haven't been tested all together for real yet. He doesn't expect trouble, though.

If it works, he'll want to do it dozens of times over the next few months, though he won't be paying quite as much since it will be less experimental.

Sound interesting, agerahs and thwilit?

The thwilit's in, definitely. The agerah take longer to think about it. One of them wants to know what the inventions for making them keep having air are and what about the temperature and what about the radiation.

He has computer-controlled oxygen tanks and carbon dioxide scrubbers and pressure regulators. The temperature is a heat mage enchantment - he also has a system of radiators and chemical heaters as a backup if that fails. Details available if you agree to nondisclosure. The radiation is heavy complicated shielding, it blocks something like 98% of it, more than the atmosphere even does, you can see the diagrams and experimental results if you agree to nondisclosure.

"I've been working on this for a while, I am quite sure I have my bases covered, but please do tell me if I forgot anything. Better safe than sorry."

"You know, there's a story you wouldn't have heard, since you're not from here. I'll tell it to you free if you don't mind me watching how you take it."

"Sure. I'm guessing some manner of cautionary tale."

"You're guessing right. We bind kids' magic so they don't hurt anyone else. And when they get old enough to know that, they get cocky sometimes. They think it's just about not making someone stop breathing where you can hear them. So there are different stories for different magics. There's one about a structure mage who was making things from the air and knew that nitrogen was safe and inert so he started making things out of nitrogen. He didn't survive learning that one of the compounds he made was explosive.

"The story every force mage knows is that a long time ago, before the empire, before any of the kingdoms the empire united, before the old continents sank, a force mage asked a knowledge mage why you couldn't go to the moon. The knowledge mage said it was because there was no air, so the force mage took as much air as he could reach at once and flew. When he looked down on the world it was breathtaking. His concentration slipped. He lost his air. Then he hesitated. Then he passed out before he could get more air. He never hit the ground. He burned in the air.

"But it doesn't end there. Because another force mage decided that the thing he'd done wrong was to hold all the air himself. And this force mage made a sealed box. But the box was small enough for her to build. It was small enough not to fall apart. There wasn't enough air inside. So she died.

"Someone did touch the moon and live. So three siblings, two force mages and a structure mage, thought they could do it too. The two force mages could catch each other's mistakes. The structure mage freshened up the air they brought with them. And when they reached the moon the heat killed them.

"Also, there's nothing on the moon, it's just rock. The only thing you can get by going to space is the pride of knowing you did it. So.

"Anyway, I couldn't grow up hearing those stories and not go challenge space the first time anyone came up with a plan that might not get me killed."

"...Well, I've heard 'don't throw every element into the air and kill yourself' a few dozen times by now. I am taking this seriously. I sealed a pig inside the ship and exposed it to vacuum for two days. Extreme heat, too. No real way to test hard rads for real down here. I was planning on going up and then back down, make sure it's all working, before doing the actual deployment. You know, where I'm from, they managed to get to our moon without magic? It was hideously complicated and expensive, and thousands and thousands of people worked on it to get just two of them there, but they did it. No heat magic, no force magic, no defense magic. Just metal and explosives and computers and hard work."

"That's amazing, I'd love to see that. Well, I believe you've tried as much as anyone could to make this safe. If we die it'll probably be in an exciting new way no one's died before. I'm in."

"I can probably dig up a video about it. And in any case, grand! I have two force mages now. Let me arrange a meeting to brief you two on the instruments and procedure. We will have to endure weightlessness- Ever done that before?"

"I've levitated but I think that's a different thing."

"Yeah. I am told it's very disorienting. If you throw yourself up into the air very fast and then let go, it's the same sort of feeling for a few seconds. In orbit, you're moving so fast that you fall towards the planet and miss."

"I can try that and let you know if it makes me too sick to work. When do you want to launch?"

"Four days from now, probably, but that's subject to change based on whether you two can handle free fall and how well you understand the procedures. Launch will be from my workshop, not here, though."

It turns out his force mages don't get too queasy in freefall, though the agerah with the cautionary tale doesn't enjoy it much.

Nothing comes up before launch day.

He triple checks the ship, and the backup systems, and the backups to the backups. Space is hard, after all.

And then... They can go up. Straight up, miles and miles and miles.

They sure can.

There's nothing unexpected in the upper atmosphere. It could just as easily be Earth, except that the continents are different and even more dwarfed by the ocean.

Up further and further. This is near enough to space to count in all the ways that matter. He's a bit tense. He triple-checks all the systems and components keeping them from dying. He tests the ranging and navigation instruments and gets a solid return from both his workshop control center and a shack-cum-radio-beacon on the main continent. The ship's atmosphere and temperature stays marginal. He has them free-fall for a while, to help everyone get used to weightlessness. He has the force mages turn the ship every which way, and start accelerating towards an orbit but abort and reverse it after only a few seconds.

And then they should be gently taken back down. They'll get paid for the time, but the real task will be in a few hours, when everyone's fresh, and the big bonus will come after that is done. He considers the dry run a success, though.

They're nervous and twitchy the whole time they're in freefall and glad to touch the ground again.

"Do you want us to wait here till the next flight or just meet back here then?"

"Whatever you'd rather do, as long as you don't come back drunk or high."

"My family would disown me if I did that!" says the thwilit.

Off they both go to do who knows what until the next launch.

He tests the hardware and computers, fills the monopropellant tanks, and finally loads the satellite into the ship.

The satellite is made a lot cheaper than space hardware normally is, since it's a lot cheaper to go up and fix it if something goes terribly wrong, but this is still a pretty expensive project all told. Little costs add up.

"Let's hope it all goes well..."

He waits for the force mages to come back. This time they'll need to accelerate for a solid half hour before dropping out the satellite. The ship also weighs more now, with his package in the storage bay.

They're back on schedule. Whee.

"How much do you want for an explanation of why you want this thing in space?"