บท 97: Time Testing Before Launch
Erina was utterly baffled to hear what the maid was saying. This situation made no sense to her; she was just a cook!
Sure, she can make great food. She doubts there are not many chefs in the world who could surpass her in taste, but this is different.
Marcus Goldman is simply terrifying when it comes to power and influence. He is a genius inventor. Their current situation reflects on that.
They are about to arrive to the moon and then travel through the current of the time.
To think that she could offer anything to interest him makes her baffled.
"Listen. Chef Girl. You still have to get the point that our Master is still a guy. He no doubt likes your looks and sees you as a fellow artist.
That is why he didn't shove you into this hierarchy." Hippolyta pointed at herself.
"...Now, now. Let her breathe and process that information." Jeanne walked over and pulled the Warrior Queen back.
"But it's the truth! She is the first normal human who got such a treatment!"
Hippolyta didn't give up that easily. She pointed out something important.
"...True."
Jeanne stopped in her tracks for a second.
"I am a Saint reborn, and Le Fay is a witch worthy to be pieces in his collection." The blonde clarified.
"And we are the only beings closest to humans in this faction."
"...Then all those maids…" Erina realised that there were several maids… they were not even humans!?
"They all have backgrounds." Jeanne smiled sweetly.
"They all related to myths in some shape or form. The girl you see with silver hair and a ponytail is Goddess Artemis. The girl with blue and red hair is a Norse Goddess, Hel, and the one with blue hair is Tiamat, a Dragon King.
As you can imagine, Marcus has a collection."
Hippolyta only named a few.
"As you can see, this is a big deal, and you flopped it." The red-haired maid sighed as she let the chef girl go. She then walked over and dropped into a comfortable cushion seat.
"...I don't understand. It makes no sense!" Erina was able to reply, as this stuff made no sense to her at all!
"Isn't he some proud inventor and conqueror who doesn't care what the world thinks? Isn't it why he is planning to bring doom to our society?" The girl almost ranted at the pair as she couldn't control herself anymore.
All she wanted was to return to her perfect life at Totsuki!
"It's not that cut and dry." Jeanne sighed as she understood where this was coming from.
This girl just got strong-armed to work for the most notorious man on the planet.
"...What do you mean?" The chef girl took a deep breath and asked the saint maid.
"Our Master has his own hierarchy. It's not based on regular norms. It's more or less meritocracy. He will approach people who he thinks work on their art as much as he does.
Sure, he might have invented all the stuff you see around, but he still respects other people who put the same amount of time into their craft.
That includes you."
Erina looked perplexed for a second before putting her hand on her forehead.
"...And the end of the world?" So she had more chances than she thought.
"He is ending the current system as it's getting in the way of his system. For someone like you, the new system will reflect your values far more." Jeanne smiled as she saw the profile of this girl.
The saint was impressed and slightly spooked; the girl was almost as much a workaholic as Marcus.
She is focusing purely on cooking, which most likely attracts Marcus. The inventor would want to nurture her talent until she becomes something akin to the Goddess of Food and Cooking.
"...What do you mean?"
"It means that you can focus on your art until the end of time, as the concept of money and other stuff won't matter anymore.
Master has a perpetual motion engine which generates energy indefinitely. The same energy is used to make necessary products so that you can spend all your time creating what you want."
"...But all that will only work if we follow Technocracy?"
Erina realised that this sounded far too good to be true.
"Of course. It's his creation, his energy, and his AI which controls.
Think for yourself, do you give all your hard work and food to just everyone?" Jeanne scoffed.
"...No, I don't."
"Then, at the very least, you should listen to what he wants."
"...What about those who don't want this?" Hisako asked from the side as she understood the grand picture.
"Then you should start sharpening your swords and filling up your ammo cartridges, as when we are at an impasse and diplomacy fails, you can only rely on your weapons."
The Saint explained with a strained smile.
"...I see…" Erina's assistant could only nerviously reply.
It's pointless as such a hyper-advanced faction can travel through space and time and wipe the floor with everything current humanity has to offer.
[Approaching Moon. ETA one minute. Everyone who wants to walk on the Lunar surface walks to the hangar deck.]
Aurora's voice spread through the room. Hippolyta jumped out of her seat.
"Let's go!" She grabbed Jeanne and the cherry-blond girl by the hand. She easily handled the pair. Being a minor Goddess, her physical strength was beyond the pair.
"T-There is no need to pull me like that " Erina was spooked by how easily she was dragged to the door.
"I am coming too!" Hisako swiftly caught up, and by this point, Hippolyta let the pair go. They all walked back to the lift.
Seconds later, it arrived, and the group of four walked inside.
"Aurora, take us to the hangar!"
With an excited tone, the red-haired maid requested the AI to move them.
[Very well.]
The AI took the lift down.
"So, how are we going to walk on the Moon?" Erina asked the maids. She is pretty sure they need a suit.
"There is an armoury in the hangar deck. It will build suits for us for a space walk." Hippolyta said with a smile.
"Master has what is called automated assembly line in most of the places. It utilises atom manipulation to make things rapidly." Jeanne explained to the pair.
"It includes clothes and even food. That is why we can travel for thousands of years if need be."
"...I assume lifespan means nothing…" Erina pointed out that she remembered Marcus' nonchalant expression when he mentioned 'death'.
"That is the least of your worries." Jeanne joked as they arrived at the hangar bay.
As they stepped onto the deck, one of the gunships left through the hangar gates. In front of them, through the gates, they saw a mammoth of a construct—the space gun, leisurely floating in space.
"..."
'This feels like one of those sci-fi movies.'
"Come! Over here!"
The red-haired maid once again pulled the pair of chefs to a couple of blue rings at the side of a wall. There were several glass panels with armours behind them.
"Aurora, I want you to make a couple of space-worthy suits for these two."
The red-haired girl said to the AI before looking at the two.
"Stand in the middle of the circles."
Once again, she released the pair from the hold. The two girls looked at each other nerviously for a second before nodding at each other.
They walked over to the circles.
[The easiest way to control and move around is a variant based upon Assault Knight armour.]
A hologram window appeared in front of them. It went through several armours before stopping on the one with a jet pack on the back.
"That is fine. As long as they can move around." Hippolyta didn't care about the looks. All she wanted was for the pair to survive on the lunar surface.
[Understood.]
A blue light scanned the pair from top to bottom. Two more holograms appeared next to the two girls. These two showed how the armours would look on the pair.
[Any colour preferences?]
"...purple and red?" Hisako said the moment she saw the bland colour of the armour.
[Like this?]
The armour's colouring shifted—dominant purple with some red highlights.
"...That looks good, I take it!"
Seeing that Hisako had been bought over, Erina decided to join.
"I want gold and purple."
[Understood.]
The armour hologram next to the chef girl shifted to dominant gold and secondary purple. It was not bad, in Erina's opinion. Not that she wants to spend long here picking a colour. They have limited time for this. So she accepted the current colouring.
"I take this one."
[Rendering armour. Preparing to craft.]
Second later, the flour moved, and segments came out. The first ones to appear are the boots.
[Place your feet in the boots' armour.]
"..."
The girl with slightly trembling feet moved, placing her legs in the boots. The moment she did, there was a clicking sound. The metal shoes were sealed on her feet.
'Oh…'
Then, robotic arms came out and proceeded to place the armour on her.
[Extend your arms in T-position.]
The cherry blonde swiftly followed the instructions as the golden armour was placed on her one by one.
The last piece to be done was the helmet, which weirded the girl out as she wondered how on earth her long hair was dealt with!
Regardless, it took less than a few minutes as soon as she saw the HUD turning on and the bars with symbols next to them filling up.
[M.T.M Reactor: Online]
[Aurora Support: Online]
[Oxygen Levels: 100%]
[Radiation Shielding: Online]
[Assault Knight Model: 1.0 Variable Exploration Setup: Online]
A bunch of pop-ups appeared in front of her, annoying her. So she made them disappear with a thought.
'Oh…'
The next second, she made them reappear.
'I see…'
Since it works like that, she looked at the symbols and made explanation windows pop up.
'Interesting, so this suit is space worthy!'
She realised that her oxygen levels would remain high just by walking on the moon's surface! And even if she doesn't walk around, she has around 3 hours' worth of air!
This is more than enough to explore the moon in the limited time she has.
After inspecting the HUD, which she finds unique, slightly intriguing, and a little bit terrifying, she realises that this is the first time she has experienced technology like this so close to her. It's far more interactive than anything she has seen before.
"Are you two ready?" Hippolyta's face popped on HUD. The chef girl nearly had a fright attack as it was far too sudden.
"Haha, I know, you get used to it." The Warrior Queen joked, seeing the expression of the two girls.
"Anyway, we are getting one of the Gunships. It will take to the area where the Apollo missions took place. Master wants us to place Technocracy's flag."
When Erina heard that, she snorted from amusement. It feels quite— childish.
Regardless, the group of four went to the gunship, which was preparing to launch.
~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~
Marcus gunship landed in a much wider and much bigger hangar of Ars Almadel Salomonis. He immediately looked around. There were rows and rows of gunships, Starscream jet fighters and land assault units like the XC-01, spider walkers and even Quinella's Integrity Knights in case she needed them dropped from the orbit.
As Marcus, Sirin, Gu Yuena, Quinella, and Athena walked forward towards the lifts, the Goddess noticed that rows and rows of Royal Guards stood from the gunship to the lifts.
Behind these Royal Guards were the Forward Knights equipped with Plasma Pikes, and behind them were the Assault Knights equipped with variable rifles.
The first thing that came to Athena's mind was to compare this to Star Wars, the entry scene of the Emperor.
However, she didn't comment out loud on the similarities.
"I know it looked big when I saw it above the school, but inside…" Sirin looked around as she realised that Marcus could store buildings and houses in these hangars!
"It's enormous!"
"This is only one of eight hangars. All of them are equipped the same way as this one," Marcus explained to her as he continued to walk towards one of the lifts that would take him to the command centre.
The Command Centre is like the communication tower of his growing Faction.
Since it's in space, it can cover the entirety of the planet.
However, once the comm tower is finished in Saturn, it will cover the entirety of the Solar System.
"...Right…"
"Remember, we are in space, and everything is bigger here." He said that while stroking her hair.
Sirin rolled her eyes before blushing. The guy always looks for opportunities to cuddle her.
As they arrived at the lift area, the doors opened, showing a large platform big enough for at least eight SUVs. The doors closed behind them, and the platform started to rise.
"So what are we going to do here?" the white-haired girl asked curiously as she looked around. The lift looked boring. There was nothing to look at.
"Run last tests for Time Engine." He said as his gaze eventually ended up on her.
"Our trip has a success rate of 99.73%. We will end up in the... Triassic. However, the specific date is unclear. We could vary from 10,000 to 50,000 years."
"...Wait… if the dates are that big. How will we return back properly?" She asked him as she realised that they were talking about millions of years here.
"Anchor. Our Ars Almadel Salomonis isn't just for show. It will work as a relay point and landing area." He explained to her as he ended up pulling her for a hug. Which made her cheeks start to heat up.
Considering his fiance was right there.
"Since it works like an anchor, we can assume you're planning to drop more since we will be checking all of the periods." Athena ignored his actions, as she had already concluded that his affection for his creations was something she had a hard time-fighting.
"That means you have bigger plans for the prehistoric world," Athena said with a realising look.
"...But won't that change the world? Impact us?" Sirin exclaimed with some panic. If something changes to Technocracy, to Marcus, won't she cease to exist?
"Relax. What Athena said is true. In each of the eras, I am planning to have an outpost.
But then, are not our timelines? At the end." He said with a shrug.
"Time is a river. And the river will flow regardless if you add one or two islands in it."
"...So then…"
"The Triassic we will visit while our is not truly ours. It's just from travelling once we've already branched out," he clarified.
"What I am doing is simply tying the renegade timelines to my one."
Her mouth slightly opened.
"But aren't you impacting someone else future then?" Sirin, with a realised tone, pointed out.
"Relax. Our creator is not that ruthless." Quinella rolled her eyes.
"To impact something in such a distant future is hard. We would need to make an enormous amount of footprint.
Something we have no reason to do. Considering we don't even need to build on the ground in the first place."
The assistant pointed out the obvious to the Herrscher.
"Floating city?" Athena said with a realisation.
"In a way, it doesn't need to be a city. A fortress is enough." The platinum-haired girl pointed out that they don't need a population; they can automate like they always have.
"True. I already saw how the base is. I suppose it will work." Since they have assembly lines and perpetual energy, they can build everywhere. It was silly to think that just because they were in the distant past, they wouldn't be able to develop their infrastructure.
"Yes. We are only interested in dinosaurs and vegetation. As well as observing biological evolution in nature. The rest doesn't mean anything to us."
Marcus smiled when he heard Quinella's explanation. She knows him well enough.
Seconds later, the lift doors opened and revealed an enormous hall. They stepped in.
Sirin's eyes widened as she saw a huge holographic globe of Earth spinning in the middle. She could see countries and their borders, as well as plane routes and ships.
Technocracy is monitoring everything! As they walked forward, they swiftly saw that this was a balcony, and below them were rows and rows of officers working on their computers.
'To think that something like this was onboard the space gun! They are watching everything!'
"...I assume that you are watching everything through the internet?"
Sirin asked after checking how many computers there were.
"Internet, satellites, street cameras, everything. I added this little feature after then the strikes in the USA and around the world."
'In other words, he wouldn't have bothered if not for the idiocy of humankind.'
"...calling it a little…" Athena sighed.
"Compared to space, this is not much." He replied to her comment.
"Then I can assume once our empire becomes interstellar, you will dedicate an entire planet to monitor?"
"Indeed. First, a planet, then the solar system, then cluster, then entire Galaxy if need be."
'I shouldn't have asked.'
"Anyway, for now, let's forget the boring thing and focus on something more fun."
He took a step.
"Begin the last test related to the time engine."
The moment he said that Earth's holographic globe disappeared, an enormous screen replaced it. Ars Almadel Salomonis moved.
The station pointed away from the Moon and Earth towards a distant void.
[Begining Time Engine's live tests.]
"Does the station have a time machine, too?" Athena asked as she realised that the battle station already had a means of time travel.
"It has Byfrost, too. Upon the stations' upgrade completion, I left sections around Diamond Cores empty. They were filled up along the way I was doing my time travel equations. It was finished the moment Seekvaira submitted her time travel magic.
I have been snooping around in time travel since I finished my genetic alteration. I have a general idea of how it works and how the engine will look.
All Seekvaira did was confirm my suspicions." Marcus clarified as he looked at the monitor, which split into two: one showed the outside of the barrel, and the other showed that probes were loaded into the barrel, and gravity had locked them in place.
[Sir, probes have been loaded; all five of them will be sent at different times.]
"Fire when you are ready."
[Firing in 10…9…8…]
~~~~~~Meanwhile, on Moon~~~~~~
Erina looked at the grey-ish gravel of the moon's surface.
The world was barren and really quiet—far too calm for her. Thankfully, she was not alone in this place.
"Erina-sama! Look at the view!"
Her assistant got her out of her thoughts.
The girl dropped the gravel and walked over to Hisako. However, it was quite strange to walk with how light she was feeling.
As the cherry blonde got up on the hill, she finally saw something amazing!
She could see Earth in all of its glory!
"...Beautiful…"
"Yes… it makes one think how small we are."
The assistant's words made a lot of sense. For a while, the chef girl felt that she was at the top of the world, but then Marcus appeared. Then Marcus threatened to blow up London.
After that, she felt… weak or inadequate, as being great is just that… a cook.
She might have influence in certain industries, but in front of Marcus' authority, her influence is nonexistent. The man literally created his own economy independent from the world and then pressed his thumb on the entire planet.
Now that she can see Earth like this…
It doesn't feel big… earth is just a blue marble in a massive black void.
'Is this why he wants to spread to stars? Venus…Mars… and more…'
That moment, blinding light at the corner of her vision, got her attention.
Erina turned around and saw the space gun shooting a beam of rainbow energy into something.
It didn't go far as the beam slammed into some sort of green and white magic circle.
"Are these the tests he spoke about?"
The moment she said that, her HUD showed a window.
She could see what it was.
"...So he is sending probes to several different time periods. These probes should crash into Moon in—"
Seconds later, she saw small meteorites land several miles away from their location.
Then, several gunships left the space gun and flew towards the location of those meteorites.
"...It looks like it worked."
"Yes. Anyway! Girls, you should collect some moonstones. Not every day you visit the moon." Hippolyta interrupted the pair as the Warrior Queen landed not far from them.
"Right. We should collect some stones. I should bring something for grandfather."
The chef girl agreed as she started to look around.
~~~
The gunships landed as SPBA knights exited the transporters with an array of instruments. Then, they walked over to the small craters and started to check the probes' readings.
"This one left the time warp at 1908 November 24. According to the planetary rotation."
The knight transmits the data to Ars Almadel Salomonis.
"And this one left the warp at 1808 November 23."
"1708 November 21"
"1608 November 18"
"1508 November 15."
"It appears only 1608 and 1508 were slightly off the selected course of November 19 and 17."
The knights finished with their reports.
Marcus, who saw the data, stroked his chin.
"Recalibrate the vectors and double-check the rotations of planets." He then instructed how to work around it.
"We must remember other gravitation centres like Mars and Venus as well as Jupiter, even if they are that far away. They still emit gravitational pulls."
[Recalibrating, including all of the gravitational pulls of the Sol system.]
"Send the word. I want all of those probes collected and recycled for future use." Marcus instructed his officials.
"Relaying orders."
A few minutes later, there was another test.
This time, everything was right on target. But playing with time travel at a grander scale is a bit taxing.
Marcus walked over to one of the hologram computers and created another project. This one was quite grand as he wants all meteors and comets tagged and accounted for.
"That's quite a task. But I am sure our knights will be happy to know that they have some work to do." Quinella, who was standing next to her creator, commented with a smile.
"Don't forget that we are expanding rapidly. Bases on Venus and Mars already have basic infrastructure. It's only a matter of time before they can start working on their allocated projects."
She nodded with a hum.
But then she remembered something.
"You never told me what are your plans for Mars!"
The beauty pouted at him. Even she has no access to his personal files!
"Mars projects are quite important. One of them is barren planet restoration, which includes revitalisation of the cold planet's core, then observation of planet rotation as Mars doesn't have a big enough moon to balance the planetary spinning.
The third one is a research of planetary sculpting."
"...Hoh… I thought as much. You are using the smaller sibling of Earth as test grounds." Quinella was not away.
The same could be said about Venus, as that planet needs to research its atmosphere.
"Does it mean you are planning to move moons from Jupiter or Saturn to Mars and Venus?" Quinella suggested as she was thinking about how to stabilise the rotations of those two planets in the inner solar system.
"We can think of that after we return from the trip." He shook his head. They can think of moving moons at a later date.
"Indeed~" The beauty used this opportunity to snuggle. She then recalled something crucial.
"According to my calculations, our trip to the Triassic Period will take around a month." She said that with a thoughtful look.
"We should think of a schedule for who will accompany you in bed through such a long journey~," She said with a seductive smirk.
"Oh my. You are not afraid that I could choose such a thing arbitrarily?" Marcus teased his assistant.
"Not at all. I was designed to strive in such circumstances." The beauty leaned forward and started to whisper into his ear.
"You should leave such mundane things to your Quinella~."
Marcus wrapped his hands around her thin waist and proceeded to kiss her lips.
The kiss lasted a few moments before he let her go.
"Then I leave such thing in your hands~"
~~~~~~Several Hours Later~~~~~~
Erina boarded the gunship alongside Hisako and the pair of maids.
There were other gunships which were returning to the Confiscator.
"It appears Goddess Artemis finally visited the object she should be Goddess off." Hippolyta joked as she recalled how Marcus used to tease her about that.
She finally became a proper Goddess of the Moon who was on the Moon.
"How does that even work? Shouldn't she have some sort of power to influence the moon?" Erina, being clueless about the majority of supernatural things, could only ask.
"In proper terms, her powers don't influence the moon, but they are more conceptual, as gods and their powers were influenced by human worship long ago.
As you may know, people who worshipped these gods had no idea what the moon or star was; thus, they became more or less conceptually powerful. Goddess Artemis can't influence the moon's rotation, but she can influence the moon's effects, which are especially visible when hunting at night." Jeanne explained in the same way Marcus explained to her before.
Erina slightly nodded when she heard that.
"So it's like being an expert… you could say that just because someone calls you 'Frying Pan God', it doesn't mean you can make frying pans; it's just that you are godly at using them." Erina replied in her own words. She nodded sagely at her own words.
Whatever it is, she can translate it into her food terms.
"..."
"..."
Jeanne and Hippolyta looked at her strangely, but they nodded at her in the end.
"Yes, you can say that."
The pair of maids eventually nodded. But then their eyes went to the side. They realised that they were flying inside the barrel!
"...This…"
"I see! We are going to use Ars Almadel Salomonis' powerful barrel to accelerate even more!"
"...Wait… why do we need to fly far? Aren't we visiting Earth 250 million years ago?" Erina was confused; she remembered watching those time travel movies.
"Well, you need to add to the equation that Earth… no, our entire Galaxy is moving. That means Triassic Earth was quadrillion, if not more, miles away from where it is now," Jeanne sagely said to Erina and her assistant.
"...That's…" For a second, the cherry blonde tried to comprehend the volume of those numbers.
"Don't think too much. We have no idea how much it is. The number is huge, and don't think too much about what Jeanne says. She is just parroting what Master said a while ago."
The Chef girl nodded. She still tried to comprehend what it meant.
They are travelling very far away. Not just distance but back in time as well.
"I suppose those movies lied to us."
The girl was quite dissapointed.
Regardless, they arrived at the hangar, and the doors opened up. There were several knights waiting for them.
"We have prepared containers for you to store moonstones."
The knights showed fancy metal boxes with the moon carved in them.
"Oh, these are beautiful. Do you think we could get something like these in the future for bento?" Erina asked them. As the helmet retracted, she inspected the craftsmanship.
"No problem. The Automated Assembly Line can create anything you might wish for cooking purposes."
As the knight explained, the girl proceeded to store whatever nice-looking stones she acquired on the moon.
The girl realised that she was one of the few humans to have stones from the Moon! That is amazing.
'But then I will be one of few to see living dinosaurs and make food from them.'
Her eyes then widened as she paled in horror. She has no idea how to prepare Dino meat! Is it red meat? Is it a white one? Or is it reptilian!?
The beauty placed her armoured hand on her forehead.
'I am… so dead…'
"Erina-sama?"
The girl snapped out as she looked at her assistant.
"It's okay, we will survive… I no doubt we will return alive from this trip!" The girl tried to cheer her up.
"...I am not afraid of that." The Totsuki elite replied with a strained look.
"I am more afraid for us. I have no idea what to do with food. We will be getting Dinosaur meat. How are we supposed to cook that?"
Erina explained what her fear was.
"You should not worry about that, Nakiri Erina." A silver-haired maid with braided hair walked over to their side. She had an imposing burst size. Erina's eyes were on those for a bit. These kinds of assets terrified even her. She considered herself to have a great physique, but this one was… well…sinful?
Or more like devil-like.
"I am Grayfia Lucifuge. The Head Maid of Marcus Goldman's household. If you need anything, you can ask other maids or me."
"...I understand. Thank you in advance." Erina slightly bowed like a proper Japanese.
"It's fine. What I meant is that you have a secondary objective." Grayfia started to clarify.
"Secondary?"
"Yes. By all means, we are going to an alien world. That means we will be testing plants, fish, and other life forms. What's good for eating and what's not?"
Her eyes widened at that moment. She imagined herself as an explorer in an alien world.
'Wait, I will be…'
Goosebumps of excitement washed her over.
"Aurora will assist you in finding out what is poisonous or dangerous for people to consume. Eventually, we will have an entire library of materials for future uses."
"...Does it mean we will be collecting living specimens?"
"...Precisely. The entire warship has been repurposed for the singular purpose of acquiring living and breathing dinosaurs which will be added to Technocracy." Grayfia quite proudly said that.
Once again, her Master will do something no one else did!
"... by 'added to Technocracy', you mean as soldiers or some… war beasts?" Erina looked pale as she imagined those big creatures from Jurassic Park rampaging through Earth under Marcus' banner!
'Having hyper tech and robots is not enough!? He needs lizards with big teeth and claws as well!?'
~~~
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