Happy Harbor
June 4, 15:05
Every system in the Zephyr that ran on electricity came attached with a miniature, high density capacitor appropriate for its size and function, all of them capable of keeping the ship functioning for a considerable amount of time should its main power source somehow be damaged or removed.
So it was no surprise to find some lights in and outside of the finally completed and hovering Zephyr on when I arrived in the hangar, the Zeta-Tube powering down behind me.
For a moment I stood at my elevated position and admired what we'd accomplished. It took us less than 2 weeks, but the highly advanced plane was ready for anything we could put her through.
She was 25 meters from nose to tail, with a total wingspan of about 40 meters. Her coat was jet black, from every panel, fin, and to every visible exterior part. I contemplated changing the design, choosing from the many profiles myself and the boys had come up with.
The crystal coating and camo tech would make this easy, but I shook my head after thinking about it for a bit. This was my first flight with this thing and I wanted it to be all black for the duration. Afterward, we'd choose one of the nicer designs.
Aware of the numerous, impatient gazes boring into me, I came to my senses and left the site near the tubes. I was coming from lunch and mini golf with Felicity, a good and fun activity before I took my baby out for its first spin if you ask me.
"Dude! We've been waiting for so long. And we're still waiting."
"No you haven't Wally," I rebutted and focused on the others. "Hey guys."
"Hey." "Hey man." "Hello."
From his position at the Zephyr's aft door, Wally, in a fashion that displayed where he focused his misguided determination, shouted at the top of his lungs. "Well now that you're here and fashionably late, are you gonna show us her picture now?"
"How does one relate to the other? You know what, don't answer that," I said while taking the small case from Mike. My left hand went into my left pocket and I let the case hang on my right side.
"Like I said the last time, only when it becomes official. Until then, starve or die of thirst. I don't care which of them you do."
"Come on!"
Shooing the red haired speedster backward, I climbed the boarding stairs, Roy and Superboy flanking me.
Despite our arrangement, there was more than enough space on the sides, something Robin and Kaldur proved when they joined us and the five of us entered the lit interior of the Zephyr at the same time.
The design was mostly black and burnished grays, but there were more than a few standout silvery sheens, mostly from the floor. There were four main sections, and we crossed the third one in no time, leaving the cargo hold and entering passenger space.
A full 30 square meters of wide, open room, most of it unoccupied save for six seats arranged in commercial airplane pattern, had been dedicated to the purpose of holding the team and anyone else who happened to find themselves here.
How the seats were designed also meant they could be removed or more could be added at any time, meaning the space could be freed up for something that needed it. Not that its current size in addition to the cargo hold couldn't hold enough speeders that each team member would have one on missions.
"Take a seat. We'll be off soon," I said and stopped right in the ship's center, going down on one knee.
In a rebellious or more accurately, curious, fashion I felt multiple presences converge behind me and I sighed, lips curling into a slight grin afterward. Ignoring the various looks over my shoulder, I activated the candle flame and I felt its deadening effects instantly.
A bit past the stage where I used it as more than a crutch, I took active control of it and let out and imprisoned my emotions in a certain order. At a spot on the floor right in front of me, the psi detector I'd personally installed registered my mental pulses and the rapid shifts they made.
Combining that data along with a host of other sensors working in the background to ascertain my identity, it confirmed that I was indeed the one with the authority to do what I was about to do and unlocked the hatch.
A grid of blue lines appeared at the spot my eyes were laser focused on before the grid parted into six separate plates and retracted into the floor, opening up space for a cylindrical component to rise.
The small suitcase opened with a faint sound and a smaller blue cylinder, about the size and length of a vitamin bottle, made itself known to us. Instead of drugs however, its contents were pure blue light. Gently, I grabbed it and held up the case, passing it to Mike.
He grabbed it and I slotted the microfusion reactor into the port. The larger cylinder responded on its own to the new presence and spun before sinking back into the hatch, which sealed itself afterward and erased every trace of its presence.
"Okay then," I stood up and turned around, dusting my hands. "You guys gonna sit down or what?"
"That was cool," said Ron.
"It was, wasn't it?" I smiled.
Clapping, I rubbed my hands together and entered the last section of the ship, going straight to the end where the cockpit was located. There were two seats, one for me and one for Mike.
There was no way the boys didn't want to try their hands at this, but it had been a firm no from me. Unlike them, Mike and I had reached and completed level six of the flight simulator and were waiting upon Atom for our evaluations.
While they were disappointed, hearing that they were so far behind changed their disappointment into a passionate drive to not be left behind.
Seated, I grabbed a pair of earpieces resting in a special holder and wore them. They immediately picked up on my thoughts and a sea of light shapes appeared over the dashboard before us.
On Mike's end, he had his interface plug jacked into a spot dedicated for that sort of connection. "Beginning pre-flight check," he said.
"Communications check," I continued out loud. "Testing vocals."
My voice echoed in the ship and I kept poking at the holograms, moving and shifting some of them.
'Testing psi,' I said, this time with just my mind, and my voice echoed once again.
The success rolled onward from there, every diagnostic coming up green.
"All systems normal."
"Reactor output at one hundred percent."
"Structural and hull integrities at hundred percent."
"Shields are at full power."
"Power levels are stable. All systems are green. I repeat. All systems are green."
"Buckle up boys," I said and patched into the cave's comm systems. "Red Tornado, the bay doors please."
We heard the drone of machinery the instant my words landed and we watched through the wide, forcefield protected windscreen as the massive doors opened to reveal more of the sea and the noon sky.
"Activating thrusters," I said and tightened my grip on the holo steering controls, enjoying the tactile feedback of the forcefields I'd incorporated into the design.
With a combination of thought and a slight push of both arms forward, the Zephyr began a slow acceleration and flew through the open doors. Once we were outside and the sun hit us proper, I tilted both hands backward and the ship responded.
Its nose tilted up and we began ascending, our speed climbing steadily just like the rush in not just my body but the boys' as well. Guaranteed.
Feeling brave and confident, I kept tilting my hands and thought of the maneuver I'd practiced over a hundred times in the simulator.
My baby answered to my whims and tilted its nose backward, breaking from the vertical climb into a perfect roll until we were level again.
"Incredible. We actually did it," said Wally.
"That we did," I said through the speakers. "I hope you're all strapped in, guys, cause we're about to take things up a notch."
"Do it," said you know who.
"Doing it," I replied and tapped at the dashboard, forgoing the holograms this time. Everything needed to be tested, including the touch screens.
Rolling my hands on the steering holograms and cracking the bones in my wrist, I prepped everything we'd need before we could go supersonic.
"Activating stealth and wind control modules. Life support and environment control systems coming online. Engaging inertia compensator. Sending more power to thrusters… now."
There was no sudden sound, no sudden pressing into the seat behind me. The world beyond the windscreen just warped all of a sudden and became nothing but a slideshow of green, brown and white lines before it all became a faint, whitish blue.
"Mach one and climbing," Mike informed. "Approaching Mach two. Mach two point two. Mach two point five. Mach three."
As soon as I heard Mach three, I flicked my eyes over to the map projected in front of me and eased up on the controls, decelerating until we came to a complete stop over the open sea.
"Running diagnostics," said Mike, and I joined him in doing so. "Heat is within normal levels. Hull integrity remains normal. Drive integrity is holding, no damages detected. Power levels are stable. Scanning passengers…"
Blue, fan-shaped lights appeared above everyone and swept over us from top to bottom, even Mike, Aaron, and to an extent Kaldur and Wally, whose constitutions could withstand the forces that were just at play.
"No injuries detected. All physical functions are well within normal parameters. Comparison with pre-flight scans show a 1.2 percent deviation. Preliminary results show that the cause is heightened activity in the amygdala."
So we were all just excited. Good. Time for the real test. Well, real because I didn't consider breaking the sound barrier 3 times over was much for someone with my—let's just say, advantages. It was the bare minimum, frankly.
"Alright. Proceeding to the next stage of the flight test. All systems are primed, so here goes nothing."
Sending more juice to the thrusters, not just the ones in the back but in the wings as well, I titled the Zephyr until her noise pointed straight at the sky.
Once the angle was right and Mike's plotted course appeared before me, I blasted off and followed it, the scene beyond the windscreen becoming more cloudy as we shot upward.
In no time, clouds were all we could see before they too gave way to a scene flat earthers would deny vehemently. The horizon began to tilt and the Earth's curvature became apparent. The sight became a full blown image when we finally left the atmosphere and entered low earth orbit.
The sensation of lightness hit and pulled me against my seatbelts. With no small amount of excitement, I reduced power to the thrusters and set the ship into a drift that brought us face to face with the ball of dirt and water we called home.
Fully enraptured by the blue, brown, and green all covered in white swirls, and the vast inky blackness dotted with glowing points serving as a backdrop, I didn't notice when the team removed their seatbelts and floated over to join me.
When I did, I simply glanced at their faces, noting their similar expressions.
In the spirit of not ruining the moment, I kept silent and joined them in taking in the humbling sight.
.
.
.
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Happy Harbor
June 4, 15:29
"Hi. Dr. Silas Stone," the man who approached me with a hand extended said.
"Hi," I tamped down my surprise and accepted the handshake. "I'm—"
"Elliot Rath. The genius who created a means of cybernetic installation that any medical graduate fresh out of school can perform."
The needed qualifications were even less than what he said, but I elected not to correct him. Taking a closer look at the man with a strong handshake as I let said hand go, I noted his clean haircut, square-shaped and wide brimmed spectacles, and his strong jawline.
What stuck out to me most of all was his expression. It was stony and unfeeling, not in an evil or cruel kind of way, but in the 'I deal with facts and nothing else' way. I tilted a bit to the right to get a glimpse of his entourage and he introduced them.
"These are my colleagues; Doctors' Jenet Klyburn, Sarah Charles, and Adrian Forsythe."
"Hi."
""Hello."" "Hey."
I returned their nods and focused on Victor Stone's father. "You were saying something about…"
"The installation procedure, yes," he replied and stepped closer to the observation window nearby. His friends and I joined him in watching the application of the process he was talking about.
"Back at S.T.A.R. Labs we already have a way of fitting patients with cybernetics, but the specialized skills needed, high costs, and abysmal rejection rates were the main hurdles we've spent quite a while tackling."
"I can imagine. These," I nodded at the operation below, "were not easy to come by either," I said, thinking of the decades of research and testing and the sheer amount of money corporations had poured into the cybernetic industry back in Cyberpunk.
Not that I was going to admit that to them. I was taking full credit for this. Especially since psi tech and M and E played a huge part in taking the involved technology further.
"I faced the same hurdles you did, but my—let's say… unique insights paved the way to what you see now."
"Would you be willing to share these insights with us?"
"Sure. Why not? You guys at S.T.A.R. Labs do some fun stuff, and I already had plans to drop by. I didn't let you poke at my tech for nothing."
"Fun stuff…" I heard Dr. Forsythe mutter.
My lips curved into a slight grin but I stayed focused on the operation, momentarily casting my gaze over to the doctors monitoring Roy's vitals while Dr. Spence did her work.
Apart from her, they were all not necessary. Their roles could be taken over by devices Dr. Spence could easily monitor while she cut into Roy's arm, but GA didn't want to take any chances. And frankly, I understood the man.
Roy was like a son to him. That's why I heeded his request to let another group of scientists go over the procedure, and we both settled on S.T.A.R. Labs.
Analysis of anything super or alien related fell under their purview anyway, and they had strong ties to the League.
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