Moon 514 || Blaze and the White Griffon

21 || the Launch

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Last revision: 4/24/2013

Blaze awakened, startled.  The ship was rumbling.  The clock read 3:00 a.m. sharp.

We are launching, he intuitively concluded. 

It seemed surreal.  A couple of weeks ago, space travel was technology lost after the Second Holocaust.  Now, it ranked as one of the many deceptions Blaze received during his supposedly stellar education.  From his brief experience touring the ship, it was clear that technological advancements had been made between the latest space ships Blaze had read about and the technology evident on this particular space craft.  Fossil fuels were no longer needed for takeoff – even synthetic fuels were unnecessary.  Solar panels to provide electricity were obsolete.  New panels absorbed both solar energy and ambient energy from outside of the ship but those panels were located underneath the exterior paneling of the ship so they were entirely beyond visibility.  Linatech paneling on the deck allowed nearly instantaneous access to information stored in the database as well as constant access to all ship controls from any station – if that became necessary.  Technically piloted by a single man who understood each station’s duties and who had been heavily trained in combat protocol, the ship could manage well enough without a trained pilot captain if necessary – though such a situation was far from ideal and left the ship vulnerable if anyone controlling a station became unable to control that station by reason of poor health or death.

But there were more advancements as well.  Linacubing allowed the ship to retain its inner heat in deep space and allowed the force of launching and landing to be offset enough to prevent injury on the inside of the ship without strapping everyone into a chair.  Blaze had read about the advancements of Joseph Lina but didn’t really know much about him other than the fact that he was a pioneer inventor who revolutionized data technology and holographic interfaces – the man who made the cube possible in the first place.  Without Joseph Lina, the Order’s mission to complete the database wouldn’t have been possible.  But Blaze had only recently discovered that Joseph Lina was also responsible for the development of linacube technology as well.  Now that he thought about it, calling a folded up linatech panel a “cube” was almost confusing.  Blaze suspected that there was a lot more to learn about this pioneer scientist-inventor and what he had accomplished so he determined that he would read more about him sometime in the near future. 

Blaze felt as if he was moving even though he was still lying in bed.  Anyone familiar with classic age aviation would have considered that those moving sensations were remarkably insignificant given the speed of the ship and given the fact that the ship was on the verge of passing outside of the atmosphere but to Blaze, he felt as if he was experiencing the tremors of some grand earthquake.  With no vehicles within his Order, this was a huge leap in transportation experiences for Blaze.  It would be many moons before he would have the opportunity of comparing alternate technologies to become truly appreciative of what he was experiencing this very moment.

Somewhat excited – somewhat stressed, he sat up in his bed, tossed off the thin but heavy blanket, lifted his body off of the bed slightly, and practically jumped onto the flooring, nearly losing his footing.  He liked the flooring in his private chambers – it was almost like walking outdoors – a new sensation that he had unconsciously grown to enjoy – but it was nothing like what he was used to in his Order.  But even though he liked it, he was still forgetting during those sleepy moments that his bed was located at the top of a significantly steep incline.  Leaping out of bed threatened to throw him stumbling onto the floor.  This time, he somehow retained his footing but he reminded himself that he needed to remember to be more cautious the next go around as he only barely escaped crashing to all fours – not that it would have hurt him much but still …