Comet's Fall 1: Ostancine

3.2

After this point, things moved far more quickly than I had ever imagined. As things turned out, the doctor had plans similar to my own; that is, getting a better eye on the heavens. I had originally thought to build a larger telescope to point at the sky on the ground, and the doctor's life work was moving his existing telescopes to a higher vantage point in the sky and expanding his platform. The combination of our ideas, however, completed his life's work; the creation of a powerful eye on the sky, in the sky.

Our work would allow us to make discoveries never before dreamed of by other astronomers, but executing our plan wasn't without its profound dangers. The first hurdle was getting the materials we needed to the observatory and then through the portal and onto the platform. Then, after all of the calculation and design work was done, the influx of raw materials drew the curious eyes of the neighbors. Many of them even asked when the doctor would be conducting an exhibition to reveal to the community what he was doing. He simply told them that he was doing an overhaul of his existing stock and that he'd tell the community when and if he came up with anything worth sharing. That did little to stop prying eyes though.

I don't know what they expected, but there were a number of people snooping around the premises and even a break in on one day which prompted us to add more locks to the airlock. We didn't want some curious onlooker tripping his or her way through the airlock the way I had. All of this attention was putting a lot of pressure on us, and it was just too bad that I still couldn't bring myself to remember to lock the observatory while we were there.

As far as the creation of the telescope went, which the doctor kept referring to as 'our great eye,' I finally understood why I had been hearing so much noise from the doctor's office while on cleaning duty. Although there was no air between the platform and the airlock, we still made a quite the racket cutting, magically soldering, and even carving the lenses in house. Much of the noise reverberated up the chains, which was more than enough to carry the sound of our work back to the ground. I cringed to think how many of the observatory's neighbors would be disturbed, or worse intrigued, by each crash and bang.

By the time we were done, we had a beauty on our hands. We'd created a nearly five meter long monster which could be pivoted and locked into position using a series of gears. That was just for security though. Even though its thirty centimeter, coated lens and mirror setup weighed almost too much to carry on the material plane, here in the heavens where gravity was weaker I found even my twiggy arms able to swing the beast into position.

I will never forget the day the doctor finished fitting the decorative flanges into place around the lens and the base. He'd hired a craftsman to create intricately detailed plates depicting the rising sun, the glowing moon, distant stars, and armored, winged figures which looked poised to take flight and explore the cosmos. In my idle moments I'd take it in from afar, wishing to have one just like it in a school of my own some day. Perhaps the doctor would be willing to make another one and let me start taking in pupils on the ground, I thought. Those thoughts would have to wait though because we had a lot of learning of our own to do first.

Aside from the telescope's exterior beauty, the clarity it offered was astounding. For the first time, we were able to see the surface of the moon and study its landscape in detail. We made in-depth observations of the other celestial bodies as well.

After our first test run we couldn't help but buy a bottle of fine, Freeland wine to celebrate. Clinking glasses on the platform's carpeted seating area, we merrily toasted our achievements.

"We've advanced star gazing by thousands of years, my dear," said the doctor, his cheeks rosily flushed by the wine.

"Sometimes I can't believe this is all happening, sir," I replied.