Chapter 4. Let's fly!

After the shameful expulsion from the cosmobase, TV presenter Janna Neumann did not give up for some time, and tried either to get inside, or to attract our attention - she beat the sealed hatch of the entrance shaft with the toe of her shoe, shouted something, threw stones at the blankly watching ror hanging a couple of meters above the hatch. She even tried to run up the ladder and catch a light apparatus in a jump. But, the drone did not even dodge- his small stature did not allow his Janna to catch on, and the drone only ridiculously fluttered her red curls with the wind from the screws. Between all these actions, she was talking to someone on the intercom. Judging by the expression on her face and sharp gestures, she was scolding someone or cursing with someone. Ariadna offered to turn on the sound on the scout so that we could listen and laugh properly, but we refused. We don't need that kind of humor. In the end, Janna gave up, got into her bolid, tried to ram the scout right away (here he dodged quite cleverly) and, having laid a steep turn, flew away. We breathed a sigh of relief once again, and were finally able to calmly reflect on where we would go for the first time. It is better to determine where to move right away, even on the planet, than to solve it by hanging aimlessly in some orbit in space. We went through a lot of options, but they all turned out to be either too long, or extremely dangerous, or quite routine and not at all impressive. Personally, I suggested flying to the Center of the Galaxy, at one time, about a thousand hundred years ago, the expedition of the ship "Raimun" led by Professor Yumi Aquino got closest to it. An expedition unique for its time. It was the only one of the ships that returned back from expeditions to the Center.

Perhaps, in part, that long-standing expedition was crowned with success, because the Tokyo Institute of Deep Space, which organized the expedition, ordered a special ship not to anyone, but the SICF. "Raimun" and its crew brought with them impressive scientific data that greatly advanced the science of that time, for example, they discovered that in the center of our galaxy there is not a black hole, as previously thought, but an object completely opposite in properties, which does not absorb, but generates matter, but at the same time has gravity, the power of which allows you to hold all the contents of the galaxy around you. During the expedition, the scientists themselves fell into a curious temporary anomaly, which turned them from quite elderly people back into boys and girls. Little is known about that expedition, all but the most general data and part of the scientific information received was classified by the Alliance's special services. And no one later sent expeditions there. They were considered excessively dangerous and costly (Professor Aquino promoted this expedition for most of her mature life and was able to achieve her goal only by the age of 80), and the data from the Raimun was considered sufficient for knowledge about the properties of the central region of the galaxy.

Ariadna appreciated the offer, but advised not to rush yet - after all, the Center as the first task is too difficult, and it's better to start with something simpler. We, in general, recognized her rightness. And then she had an idea. She unfolded an extensive map of the Galaxy in front of us, narrowed it down to a New Area and its surroundings in the Perseus Arm, outlined the boundaries of the developed space of Novorossia, forming an oblong area from the middle of the Perseus arm, where the RT331 cloud is located, to the main colonization zone a couple of thousand light years further. Beyond this end, a couple hundred light-years to the north, a small patch of light droplets froze.

- Do you see this separate piece of light among the emptiness above the disk of the galaxy? Ariadne asked. It is a galactic satellite of the Pleiades. Do not confuse it with an intragalactic star cluster in the Old Area - it has long been mastered by Empires and does not concern us. But according to my information from Galanet, the Society of Colonists of Novorossiya has been planning to colonize the Pleiades for a long time. They even sent two unmanned expeditions there more than a hundred years ago - for primary reconnaissance... and since then the case has somehow stalled. All flights there have stopped. The reasons are unknown. These expeditions were conducted by the Order of the Renaissance, as part of the primary exploration program of the Perseus Arm... and from the Order, alas, little information gets into the public domain.

- Why is the name the same? Paul asked. –They could at least give a prefix- External Pleiades, for example. So as not to get confused.

-Pay attention to the shape of the cluster, - Ariadna pointed with her light finger at a piece of light - It is very similar to the shape of the inner Pleiades - perhaps it is because of the external similarity that this satellite of the galaxy was so named. I suggest we head there. We map it, measure everything we can, check for the presence of intelligent life, explore the most interesting objects with probes. Then we will transfer the collected data to the Colonization Society. Your decision?

Hmm... why not? We will solve a long-standing problem that our native Societies could not reach.

- I agree. For a start - a great goal. Raise your hands, who's in favor?

Everyone raised their hands. Even Ariadne, though why would she? After all, it was her idea.

-If we take the Lotus system as a reference point, the Pleiades are now five hundred and twenty light-years north of the plane of the galactic disk. There's about three hundred light-years of empty space between us and the cluster. The cluster itself is about a hundred light-years in circumference.

- Why about? Oleg asked. – Is there really no exact data?

-All galactic objects are continuously moving,- Ariadne replied. –Around the centers of local clusters, each other and the Center of the galaxy. In this regard, all data is constantly updated and supplemented by space monitoring services, in addition, it is necessary to take into account possible errors in calculations.

- Yes, indeed - Oleg remembered. – We were told this in class and even shown how it works in simulations. – And how long will it take us to get there?

- It will depend on many factors. The maximum speed of this cosmobase ranges from one parsecs per hour to one parsecs per minute - it depends on the density of the medium and gravitational conditions. Among the stars, we will be forced to move relatively slowly, but in the clear space beyond the stellar array of the galactic arm, we may even exceed the maximum speed. Our flight will take... a few days. As you can see in the diagram, the Outer Pleiades are not too far away from us on the scale of the entire galaxy. That's all I can say.

- Yes, I won't say it's turtle-like, - Vladik drawled. - Probably, a thousand years ago it was something unthinkable, and even now it's not bad... for a civilian trough on the Lotus-Viridia route. But now... the best ships travel in clear space without a star a parsecs per second. In interstellar- for ten. They have to accelerate and brake longer than they have to pass the main section of the path.

- Well, I'm sorry - Ariadne spread her light hands. – I don't have another gravpolar for you. We'll have to fly as fast as we can. But we have another, much more serious advantage. However, I have already explained to you at the briefing, but I will repeat once again: our cosmobase is very inconspicuous. Its gravitational background and superluminal trace are several times weaker than even civilian spaceships. We're very hard to spot. This ensures the structure of the space base, its structural material, the principle of operation of our propulsion system and means of masking in the wave ranges. Even if someone chases us, we will sense them before they do us, and we can just hide. Unlike any other ship, we can completely turn off all rotation mechanisms and radiating devices for a while, becoming completely invisible to gradars, and, if necessary, very quickly restart everything.

We don't need time to warm up the engines, our entry into the superluminal mode of travel is very fast. Braking, however, is slow, but this is less important. Our maneuverability is comparable to the maneuverability of an average bolid, we can deploy the base at full sublight speed by 180 degrees with an arc of a thousand kilometers. and the sublight speed is no worse than that of any modern high-speed corvette.

- You see, friends, any modern ship of the mass series is a set of compromises between cost, characteristics, manufacturability, and many others. The "Photon" project is not a compromise. This is a record. Top. Ideal. Is it okay that I'm so modest?

- I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend, - Vladik looked down. – let's do some in-flight preparation.

- Are you ready to start? Ariadne asked.

- Of course!

- Then - let's dig out of here! Here's a video from the survey scanners. Attention to the scheme! The takeoff promises to be beautiful. We're starting!

The projection showed a softly outlined square of blackness. Well, of course! We're underground.

-Ariadna, wait,- I interrupted. – We need to warn the militia before takeoff.

- Okay, I'm calling the MSF station.

The face of an already familiar attendant from orbit appeared in the corner, who reached for a mug of tea, sipped and asked:

- Reception, you again? The attendant asked gloomily. – Well, have you collected what you need from the comet?

-Quite,- I replied. – We wanted to warn you. We will make another space launch from the same planetary coordinates.

- What? Again? The attendant asked dejectedly after taking a sip of tea. – Won't you all calm down there, you fucking astronauts? Can't you take your junk to the spaceport and launch it from there?.. Okay, good luck and all that. Good riddance to vacuum and exhaust to the horizon. I'll warn everyone - and began to dig into the terminal.

- You can start - I waved my hand as a sign of permission.

And Ariadne began. We have been closely following the scheme. All the maneuvering engines turned on at once, streaming super-hot beams of accelerated plasma. The rock around bubbled up and melted. The gravpolar was launched at low speed, and the base slowly turned around, melting and evaporating real magmatic flows through the hole at the top! A minute of rotation - and all the rock in contact with the skin of the base melted. A powerful plasma column of marching ejection struck from the southern shaft.

The base began to slowly but surely push through the radiating magma diverging upwards, outwards. Bright white, covered in fiery dirty lava spots, a hundred-meter ball, raised by blinding blue-white beams of maneuvering engines, soared high above the forest. For kilometers around, the ionized air glowed bright blue, from a permanent high-frequency explosion, everything around rumbled and shook terribly, trees a few kilometers around burned down and showered with ash, which scattered far around. The first volcano in the history of the young planet turned out to be human-made.

From the sizzling plasma tail under the ball of the base on the surface of the ground, the stone melted and evaporated, merging into a boiling lake of fire. The ground, enveloped by a voluminous lightning of ionization, was sintered into a molten crust. The "Photon" made several rapid revolutions around itself, and under the action of centrifugal force shook off all the remnants of lava, completely clearing the white ball shining in the sunlight. The space base increased the power of the marching beam and in a matter of seconds soared into outer space, leaving the surface far below.

- Famously we started!- the Elder appreciated. – Ada, won't our town be blown away by a shock wave from such special effects?

- Don't worry, I've calculated everything in advance. Rumble and strong wind, there will undoubtedly be. The whole planet will hear our launch. But there will be no destruction. Here, look: the consequences of our launch.

Ariadna brought up a picture from the lower survey scanners and enlarged it many times. The funnel from us remained a fair one - a completely natural volcano, with the edges of the funnel raised, around it a kilometer-long disk of solidifying monolithic lava field. After that, the picture abruptly shifted to our town. Everything is intact, even people are walking. More precisely, everyone ran out of the houses and stared in the northeast direction, just where the rumble and light came from.

-It's all right,- the Elder One breathe out in relief. – We warned our people that we would take off loudly and with a salute, and not to worry about this…

- They're calling us! Ariadna warned.

- Take it.

The attendant appeared on the screen, and several more attendants with him:

- Hey, you, immediately explain what the fuck you did!- someone from the patrol authorities shouted. –Near the Sovietsky- a funnel like a volcano! Did you say that your new spaceship will be bigger than the previous one? What's it? What is it, I ask you?!

-Calm down, it's all right,- I replied. -Didn't you hear anything? The ship was underground, and we dug out as best we could. We could clarify all the details, but... we're in a hurry. It's about time for us. We wish you a peaceful space!.. Ariadne, get on the course! We've had enough of talking…

- Yes, it's time, - agreed the AI, -It seems they are lifting the cars and warming the engines of the corvettes.

Ariadna stood almost in the projection, a symbolic yellow star lit up in her palm. In the other palm - the same red. They were connected by a double light line - yellow and red. Another line, yellow-blue, moved out of the red one, and at the end, in the palm of your hand, a blue star lit up. A whole cascade of stars connected by straight or slightly curved lines came out of Ariadna's hands, and she left this cascade at the top of the projection, at its very beginning, a small pulsating white ball lit up. Although the action is more decorative and ritual than really necessary, but it looks beautiful. The whole cascade is our path between the stellar groups, and the pulsating white dot is the Photon space base.

Meanwhile, the space base picked up speed, and rushed away from the Lotus star system in a daring straight line, leaving behind a long light plume tens of kilometers long, ignoring the laws of astromechanics - the power of the combined propulsion in pre-flight mode allows it. We leave our native heliosphere full of hopes and impressions. I hope the galaxy will accept us at the highest level!

To begin with, the galaxy has taken us in with nausea, headache, fuzzy hallucinations, and weakness throughout the body. Yes, Ariadna warned us that reaching near-light speed and going over the edge are accompanied by negative effects from space-time anomalies, which are mainly expressed in an unpredictable picosecond difference in the passage of time in different places of the ship. This affects both on-board systems, which because of this have to be repeatedly reserved and surrounded with protection, and living organisms. The human body is perfectly reserved by nature, and despite the unpleasant sensations, it experiences this effect relatively easily. Something akin to seasickness, only worse. We had to drink a whole mountain of drugs that make the effects of exposure to anomalies a little less harmful. However, with the release of stable superluminal, all the effects of the familiar world remained beyond the edge, we became a small island of matter in the middle of nothing, and unpleasant sensations went with it.

With the joy of the luck that fell on us, I simultaneously felt the mountain of responsibility that hung on me. Ariadne is listening to me. Let everything be on a mutual basis and I can't order my friends to go into the fire if they don't want to, but I am the initiator of key decisions now. From now on, our lives depend on the wisdom, or vice versa, the stupidity of my orders. The cosmos is strict and ruthless, it does not forgive mistakes, unlike planets. One serious mistake and we will be gone. It remains only to hope that I will justify what I have come to myself, and I will strive for it with all my might…

And yet, joy overshadowed the sense of fear and responsibility in its scope.

We gradually came to our senses. And, in order not to waste time in vain, we headed down to the gym compartment. This is one large hall, similar in size to the control room, but with a flat ceiling instead of a dome-shaped one. If desired and needed, it can be turned into a virtual shooting range, a flight training hall with simulators, a fencing ground and much more. I stayed in the control room for a while to chat with Ariadne. But the conversation didn't go well with her, and I joined the others.

The team met me downstairs at a stand with training pistols, standing in front of a large video screen with targets depicted. The screen on the wall is made of an absorber material similar to the one from which the walls of the disintegrator are made - the energy of the shot will go into the storage devices that will reload the weapon.

- How are you doing? I ask, turning over in my hands a compact training pistol, heavy for its size, with a laser system instead of a barrel, a built-in gyroscope, a sound simulator and a light blinker. You can't really shoot from it, but the laser simulates hitting the target on a sensitive screen, the gyroscope- the recoil from real shooting from pistols of different types and models, the mode can be adjusted with sliders on the side of the barrel simulator, the blinker - a light flash, for which there are also settings, the sound simulator - the sound of a shot. The end result is different from the real shot, but overall, it looks and feels convincing.

-Not bad,- the Elder remarked, seeing me and typing something on the remote. – We had a similar simulator in the training building, only bigger and designed for a combat group. The guys are very good at it. Especially Oleg - he has never missed. Yes, try it yourself!

That's where the confidence left me. The fact is that even in extracurricular self-defense classes, and in the cosmonauts club, I showed almost the worst result in shooting, having received a stupid nickname stuck for a long time ... no, I don't want to remember.

"All right," I agreed. After all, all my friends are here and no one will giggle behind my back. I take the pistol, adjust it in accordance with the markings on its surface to the mode of small-caliber bullet shooting - the most familiar type for me. I get into a shooting position, aim at a red circle floating on the screen with diverging waves, having accompanied the target and having gained the moment, I shoot. A flash, a crash, the arm was slightly jerked up and back, and the laser beam successfully hit ... an empty place. The second attempt is the same. The third- hit. M-yes… It's like someone invisible knocks down the sight at a critical moment. Out of ten shots, only four came out more or less accurate. Tried a moving target… Alas, the result only got worse- if I didn't hit the stationary one the first time, but then I realized that I could send the beam exactly to the target only by accident. Somebody give me a machine gun, can have a multi-barrel... or a shotgun with a buckshot...

- The barrel is crooked - I "state", causing smiles on their faces. I put the pistol back in the pull-out wall niche.

Vlad Gore Sr. typed something on the remote again. Six multicolored targets appeared on the screen, walking along the surface at a decent speed. Taking another pistol of the same pattern from the stand, he took an absolutely motionless pose for a moment, and threw it up, causing it to spin in the air, immediately turned his back to the screen, caught it behind his back, and, without leaving the position, successfully hit all six targets in a couple of seconds.

I was in shock. The whole action took about three seconds.

- What was that!? I asked.

-It's hard not to hit the target,- my father replied with a shrug. –Calculated the speed and trajectory of the targets, the height of the weapon in the hand, the angles of aiming at the key moment before the shot, and- fired.

-I don't remember you doing that before,- I said.

- Where was I supposed to do this? Not at home - the Elder shrugged his shoulders. – Yes, and I didn't want to - I shot too much in my youth, when we stormed the raider bases.

- How long have you been able to do this?

- I learned there, while still in the service. The lessons of the space Infantry are not forgotten.

- What, and I will have to be able to do that?

- Decide for yourself. But, such a skill will not be superfluous. This is not a show-off, but a very real combat technique in a shootout. Of course, it is rarely used, and most often in zero gravity. Not all at once, of course, but if it worked for me, it will work for all of you.

-The ability to shoot skillfully is, of course, good, but for us it is not the main thing. I grumbled.

- How to say, - Leo perked up, adjusting his pistol. - If we are not at the station, but somewhere on the planet, and at the same time someone will shoot at us - that will be the main thing.

-I guess you're right,- I agreed reluctantly.

I liked the training swords. A whole mini-colonnade of "pieces of iron" hangs at the bottom of the wall next to the rows with firearms. Very diverse samples - there are native epee of the space fleet of Old Russia and Novorossiya, (this weapon has not changed since that distant era) and katana-like blades characteristic of the Alliance military fleet, and several other samples that I had not even seen before. From above, on the wall, protective cuirasses, shoulder pads, loincloths, helmets, shields and other elements of protection are fixed in niches. All swords and defenses are made of the same material as most items on board - white lithoplast.

- Yes, everything is just hung with "pieces of iron", - Paul noticed my look.- Apparently, among the creators of the base and the initial crew there were fans to wave them properly. I wonder if Ariadna Belikova was a fencer?

-I don't know,- Ariadna AI voice came from the ceiling sound panel. – Unfortunately, she didn't leave any personal data about herself on board. I can only guess. And the official chronicles are extremely stingy in describing her habits and everyday inclinations.

-Anyway, they thought it was important,- I said. "And so am I." What about fencing?

- Nooo!... - Oleg drawled, aiming at the screen with a training pistol. – It's not interesting to train with swords with thou. You know why.

- And if everyone is against me? I asked. – Well, the four of you will surely hook me?

Friends thought about it, but still refused. My father, Vlad Gor Sr., said that in the service he studied basic techniques, but they are more for a group fight with a shield, rather than single combat. They also studied combat in zero gravity. They did not use swords in the battle group, but heavy short cleavers, and such a fight does not look like our fencing pas at all. It's fast, scary, and very short. However, for all their combat operations, they never had to swing a cleaver - they always managed with banal firearms in a weakened mode and non-lethal stun grenades.

But with each other, friends were not averse to cross training blades. Wearing protection, they began to warm up, practicing standard techniques of attack, parry and movement. Everyone chose quite familiar epee's.

It is not for nothing that we have taken up such an ancient, archaic weapon at first glance. Nowadays, all crews of any combat spacecraft are equipped with swords and other personal edged weapons, and all because shooting from firearms is potentially dangerous in any, even the largest and most protected ship. This threatens to damage important systems and can lead to an explosion and destruction of the ship or station. Especially in the case of leakage of flammable gases - the same hydrogen, for example. The grade of lithoplast for cold weapons does not spark on impact. The same rules apply to settlements under domes on non-atmospheric planets and space stations. It is forbidden to have powerful firearms, grenades and heavy weapons there. Space has brought back to life a lot of long-forgotten things. Take the same pirates who seemed to have been tortured back in the days of the exploration of the Solar System.

The fencing stand has its own remote control, and we have set it up for in-depth training. The target screen turned into a video tutorial on fencing, and we began to practice the movements and techniques proposed by the onboard system. Alas, she couldn't offer us anything new. We learned all this back at the club. But, something turned out to be quite useful. Since we plan joint actions in any situation, we placed the main emphasis on mastering the tactics of combat in a group, which required serious organization of actions and following strict rules.

After training with weapons, we used the third console to pull out ten neurocapsules with flight simulators from the floor. They completely imitated a real space flight, they even included a gravitational impact module to simulate residual overload.

Of course, there are other devices here, not the ones we are used to in the club, but, in general, everything is very familiar, it has dramatically improved our mood. . I remember, at the age of seven, when I first sat in a flight chair and took the helm, I felt in my element. And now, deftly jumping into the simulator of the car "Photon-A", I fix the support devices, activate the systems. The chair adapted to the shape of my body, a panorama of the hangar was outlined on the viewing glass, imitating a lantern.

The on-board computer requested a flight diagram. Knowing my capabilities, I chose a difficult route. He started from the start from an Earth-type planet, carefully rising from which, he entered digital outer space. According to the program's instructions, he deftly passed through a dense gas-dust asteroid cluster with asteroids, bypassed a double system of planets with powerful unstable magnetospheres without hitting a single stone, slipped almost along the surface of a hot gas giant, flew around a solar-type star in a very low orbit, dodging deadly prominences every second.

On the outskirts of the system, I came across a patrol of unfriendly aliens, from whom I hid, just sitting down on a comet flying madly in an unstable orbit, bursting with emissions.

Everything worked out the first time, there were no serious difficulties anywhere, perhaps, except for shooting from an onboard weapon - it was not much better than with a manual one. Therefore, we had to trust a lot of automatic guidance here. But, this approach is dangerous- unlike an unpredictable person, automation works according to approved algorithms, knowing which, you can find a way to counteract. That's why I tried to do all sorts of calculations myself, but it didn't turn out too great. The auto-guidance system coped better.

By the end of the onboard day, we managed to do so much that we were falling off our feet. But, it only inspired us.

The following days we spent in equally intensive training and learning the necessary knowledge. The flight itself as a whole went very smoothly and without the slightest incident. On the large viewing projection in the control room, the darkness of the superluminal abyss reigned, overlaid by a web of flight data.