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870 - Heading to the Lab
🕑 Added 2025-03-20 06:20:55 +0000 UTCWith the next two weeks included, this month had been one of the most chaotic for them. They underwent numerous procedures, followed by deeply emotional reunions with their families and friends. These reunions were further highlighted by the emperor’s welcoming speech, delivered in their presence alongside their loved ones, just hours before their return home. The program was carefully scheduled to conclude mere minutes before their ships docked at the space elevator, allowing for long-awaited physical reunions to finally take place.
Yet, while they reunited with their families and embarked on their well-earned vacations, the agency responsible for their return showed no signs of slowing down. The last of the exploration fleets were still expected to arrive in the coming months, keeping operations in full swing.
At the same time, the Joint Task Force was conducting its final checks in preparation for the upcoming mana stone trade, as well as the commencement of permanent stays for Astral Conclave diplomats and citizens holding visas.
…………..
"Are you scared?" Aron asked, glancing at Henry, who was visibly trembling.
"Of course not! I think you're the one who's scared and just using me as an excuse to back out," Henry shot back, clenching his fists in a desperate attempt to stop his hands from shaking. Unfortunately, the slight crack in his voice completely shattered the illusion of confidence he had tried to maintain.
"Oh, looks like I’ve been found out," Aron said with an exaggerated sigh. "Well then, my brave brother, why don’t you go first? Since, you know, it hasn’t been tested by humans yet."
Before Henry could react, Aron stepped behind him, gently maneuvering him between himself and the open wormhole gate.
"….."
Instead of responding, Henry bolted. He had a sinking suspicion that Aron standing behind him meant one thing—he was about to be pushed through that thing. And he definitely wasn’t ready for that.
"You’re the one who wanted to follow me for research, remember?" Aron said as he effortlessly caught Henry mid-sprint. Lifting him onto his shoulder like a sack of flour, he secured his grip with no intention of letting go as Henry flailed wildly, trying to break free.
"I thought we’d be using one of your ships! You know, FTL travel in the solar system through your special privileges! Who the heck would think we were going through a wormhole gate?! I didn’t even know this thing existed until a few minutes agooooooooo—aaaaaahhh—MOOOOOOOOM!" Henry’s desperate plea echoed as Aron carried him closer to the shimmering, ominous gate. The swirling energy made it look as if it would disintegrate them the moment they touched it.
But instead of stopping them, their mother simply smiled and waved. "Return safely and be careful," she said gently.
Their father, standing beside her, looked at them with nothing but pride as the two brothers vanished into the wormhole gate, disappearing from the basement of the CUBE.
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh—!" Henry screamed, his brain convinced his body was being torn apart at the molecular level.
And then—thud.
The sensation of solid ground beneath him was so unexpected that his screaming cut off abruptly. After a few seconds of feeling nothing, he hesitantly cracked one eye open, half-expecting to see the afterlife.
Instead, he was met with Aron’s face, filled with poorly restrained amusement, as if he were moments away from bursting into laughter.
"Bathroom’s that way," Aron said, casually pointing.
It was only then that Henry snapped back to reality, his senses catching up to his surroundings. They were inside an enormous room, larger than even the massive chambers in the CUBE’s basement. The only active gate in sight was the one they had just come through, but all around them were evenly spaced, oval-shaped devices resembling inactive versions of it. The layout made it easy to deduce: this was a gate station, likely used by the Empire to transport people and supplies over vast distances in an instant. And from its sheer size, it was clear that the facility could accommodate well over a million people, suggesting that logistics were just one of its many intended functions.
“I’m not that scared," Henry grumbled, brushing off the remark. "No matter how freaked out I get, I do have good muscle control.” He took the embarrassment on the chin—Aron had definitely called his bluff.
"Good," Aron replied, offering him a hand. "We have a ship waiting to take us to the temporary lab."
Henry took the hand and pulled himself up, still shaking off the experience. "I even bragged to my friends that I’d be traveling faster than light. I thought for a moment I’d become the fastest man alive."
Aron smirked as they began walking toward the nearest exit. "We can do that when we return, if you want."
Henry huffed, dusting off his clothes—despite there being no visible dust in the immaculately clean facility. "Damn right we will."
…………..
While the brothers made their way to the temporary lab to examine the material firsthand—since only images were available from the data they had brought back due to the scanners' inability to properly analyze it—another operation was in its final stages, far from the empire.
Drifting in the vast emptiness of space, a station gleamed faintly under the dim starlight that managed to reach it. This station had been constructed specifically for the upcoming infiltration into the Astral Conclave during the mana stones exchange meeting. Recently relocated once again to further distance it from Earth, it had arrived at newly mapped coordinates provided by the empire’s survey ships.
Inside, mechanical figures moved methodically, performing what appeared to be final manual inspections on the ships docked within. These vessels had been carefully designed to resemble those of various Conclave civilizations that had participated in the war, offering an alternative means of stealth—blending in—should invisibility-based cloaking prove ineffective. With the last checks nearly complete, the operation stood ready, awaiting the emperor’s final approval before executing the plan at the scheduled time.
Things within the empire were shifting into high gear as various agencies operated with a sense of anticipation, preparing for the imminent changes set to unfold in the upcoming meeting.
Comments
GripenSupremacy
TYFTC
Sol_Invictus
Hahaha, that's funny
Sol_Invictus
TYFTC
Jade
TYFTC!
Kryonic
Tyftc!
