V said irritably, "Come on! I always knew you're unreliable in this area. Only girls like Rebecca and Lucy would be fooled by you."
Lark watched the two chatting, couldn't help but chuckle to himself. For a moment, the three of them really looked as relaxed as if they were planning a trip to the Moon.
Until the robot's voice interrupted Mercer and V's banter, "Master, we have to take the tram to the launch station now."
"Let's go," Mercer stood up, and the robot pushed the cargo cart to lead the way.
V and Lark followed him, and after a few steps they took the tram directly from the VIP passage. One staff member wanted to guide them forward, but Mercer waved his hand, rudely instructing them not to touch their luggage.
The staff could only smile apologetically—for Orbital Aviation's super VIP clients, they had to comply with all requests unless it seriously violated rules.
Thus, even though allowing the cargo robot on the tram was slightly against regulations, they could only watch from the side without daring to object.
Once inside the tram, V looked out of the window and exclaimed, "Is it this big in here? We still need a tram to get through?"
"There are eight rocket launch stations here alone, plus a general international airport... The rocket we're taking requires a five-minute tram ride just to reach it."
Mercer seemed to have already memorized the layout here.
The tram carried them nonstop to their destination, and the VIP carriage had no other unnecessary passengers because the manned rocket they were boarding could only seat four and was dedicated to VIP clients.
It's faster, and the safety factor is higher too.
Venus controlled the robot, dumbly placing the luggage in the corridor before entering the rocket, while the staff tried to guide them into the rocket.
But Mercer merely glanced at him, causing the staff to suddenly faint as if electrocuted.
"Let's go, we can just head in directly."
Mercer spoke.
V looked at the massive rocket thruster nearby with some concern and asked, "How does this thing work?"
"The launch program is all set—it's unmanned control throughout. Sit inside, close the door, then it automatically ignites and launches, cruises, lands..."
Mercer explained as he gestured for V and Lark to proceed inside.
Entering through the hatch, the cabin was relatively spacious with four seats positioned opposite each other.
Mercer secured the luggage under the seat with a strap, then settled in with V and Lark.
After fastening the seatbelt, Mercer gestured for V to keep quiet, glanced around, then nodded, "Not bad, all equipment accounted for... We're about to depart."
"Oh!" V quickly checked her seatbelt, then sat nervously excited, looking around, "How come there's not even a window? I wanted to see us taking off!"
"See the screen? It'll light up later, displaying real-time exterior views captured by cameras, just treat it like a window... Did you really think a manned rocket would give you a window?"
Mercer looked at her disdainfully, "Read more books..."
"Hey! You didn't say we're going to the Moon. If you had, I'd definitely read up on some Moon and space common knowledge..."
V mumbled, then heard the hatch suddenly lock, and red indicator lights lit up inside the cabin, "Oh dear! It's red! Mercer, is this okay?!"
"Don't worry—we're going up."
Mercer's words had barely fallen when V felt the cabin suddenly shake, followed by a clear upward elevator-like movement sensation.
"Where are we..." V nervously squeezed her hands.
Lark, sitting beside her, seemed slightly worried but softly explained to V, "Our cabin is being sent to the upper part of the rocket like an elevator. The lower part of the rocket has the ignition device, which will separate and be recycled after ignition. The subsequent flight relies on the upper part..."
As she explained to V, the cabin lighting quickly changed to a clean white, and then an image of Orbital Aviation appeared on the screen.
A beautifully dressed woman in a fitting Orbital Aviation uniform appeared on the screen, smiling as she introduced.
"Welcome aboard X10021 manned rocket. The flight target is—the Orbital Aviation lunar orbit Space Station."
We are expected to enter Earth's parking orbit in five hours, then follow the predetermined route into the Earth-Moon flight route, and expect to land at D011 Moon Base 21 hours after leaving orbit."
The smiling woman on screen continued explaining the cabin facilities, and V listened until it covered emergency escape protocols and safety precautions, then curiously asked:
"How do we go to the toilet? Twenty-plus hours of flight? Isn't the flight time a bit too long?"
She turned to Mercer, saying, "I thought we'd get there in at most a dozen hours."
"Do you know how long it took the first lunar rocket to reach the Moon?" Mercer explained seriously without teasing her, "Apollo manned spacecraft flew to the Moon for a full four days on the first trip!"
"Reducing it to about 24 hours now is already considered fast." Mercer said, then paused, "Regarding toilet, washing, and meals, see that emergency escape hatch thing over there?"
He pointed to something resembling an emergency escape hatch, "Inside besides the emergency escape hatch is a simple toilet, but I swear, you won't like the feeling of using the toilet here."
"Why?" V asked like a curious baby.
"Because here is not like the Moon Base or advanced Space Station, with built-in Gravity Device allowing freedom of movement like on Earth—you've seen how astronauts look in space, right? Zero-gravity floating?"
Mercer grinned, "So, if you want to use the toilet in weightlessness, you have to create negative pressure... Simply put, like a fan sucking air, pulling your stuff away...
Still don't get it? I'll be blunt, want to use the toilet? You have to use a catheter."
"Damn!" V's face turned black immediately, but thinking again, she fortunately said, "At least I took good care before coming, holding back for over twenty hours shouldn't be a problem."
"As for food..." Mercer casually pulled out a drawer beside the seat, filled with compressed foods and compressed water, in plastic bags with built-in straws for sipping.
"Just make do with these, try to eat less, anyway they're not tasty, might get troublesome for the toilet." Mercer dismissed V's current appetite for novelty with one sentence.
At this moment, a roaring noise continued outside the cabin, while V crossed her legs, rubbed her hands, "Are we taking off now?"
"The ignition device has started."
Mercer said, and then, the entire cabin began to tremble.
The screen immediately switched to an external camera view.
The three's gaze simultaneously shifted to the screen.
On screen, seemingly from footage shot inside the terminal, the massive rocket began igniting and slowly ascending—then the camera automatically switched to an exterior view, clearly showing them lift-off from tens of meters above ground, starting to ascend steadily.
Like watching scenery through a window.
In the night sky, all the scenery blurred and became distant amid intense shaking and engine roar.
One hundred meters, two hundred meters—the vertically ascending rocket's speed increased rapidly, reducing the once grand launch site to insignificance in a few breaths.
"Going to the Moon..."
V murmured.
Mercer similarly gazed at the exterior view displayed on the screen, echoing quietly, "Yes, to the Moon."
The scenery shown on the display gradually became monotonous—pitch-black night, sparse stars, apart from the engine roar and rocket's mechanical trembling, the path to space was only silent.