Invention

6. Where is the limit of abilities?

That day he returned home late at night — and the next day he had to go to the office again.

L tried not to dwell on how much more he had to do and instead focused on tackling one problem after another consecutively.

He faced a difficult task: to redesign the spacecraft's body while trying to preserve or minimally alter the drawings of the other already engineered rocket parts. At first glance, this seemed almost impossible, as a fundamental rearrangement of components placement would entail changing their sizes and shapes.

To begin with, he decided to refer to his own rocket drawings — some aspects of which could be repurposed. He was assigned a few engineers who turned out to be quite resourceful, and together, their work progressed more swiftly.

L sat engrossed in calculating one of the elements, and at some point glanced at the clock — it was well past noon. Deciding to take a short break, L finally got up, stretched his stiff limbs and headed to the kitchen adjacent to the room.

'Hello, L,' he heard a familiar voice as he poured himself some tea.

In the doorway stood Ann Brown.

'Good afternoon, Miss Brown,' L responded and fell silent, unsure of what to ask her.

'You can call me Ann,' she smiled. 'We're colleagues now, after all.'

L nodded.

'How's the work going?' Ann asked, pouring water into a glass.

'Slowly, but steadily. I'm trying not to change the core values.'

'You're quite something!' Ann shook her head. 'I only delved into the reflector, and it didn't occur to me to doubt the other parts. And it's actually quite a serious blunder on our part.'

'In fact, if the prototype tests are successful, ME-1 may be used as the basis for the expedition. And we currently have no reason to believe the experimental launch will fail, as the prototype is flawlessly executed.'

'But we don't know how the engine will perform in real contact with the Tunnel.'

'I agree. But regardless of the test outcome, if we manage to redo the drawings by then, there will be an opportunity to implement the craft based on them.'

'I'm sure you'll make it. And still, I really hope the tests go smoothly.'

'Likewise. It will be a tremendous achievement.'

* * *

The following weeks passed as if in a fog.

L would head to work before dawn, returning only after dark. At such times, public transportation was out of the question. L had to take taxis, spending considerable sums of money, considering the distance to Eternal.

With such a rhythm of life, the question of transferring his personal car from Sod became urgent, but he had no idea when he could find time to do it, given that it would take a whole day.

Of course, the best option was to learn teleportation, like Lucy. However, L could not fathom where to find the time and energy to do the training as well — although deep down he felt it was essential. How much easier his life would be if he had the ability to instantly move through space!

But when he came home, he did not even have the energy to have a snack. Already half-asleep, he would try to make some small object levitate, but he could not even manage that and immediately fell asleep.

At the office, he worked almost without breaks. L understood that if he did not meet the deadline, they would revert to the previous designs for further development, and he could not allow that. Moreover, these modifications slowed down the already lengthy project and might never end.