章節 5: Lift Off
"Wally, I know you're probably not going to listen, but when you get out there please remember to eat, and sleep, like a proper human. Those things are important, you know...and even if you 'are' a weirdo who can go a long time without those things you 'do' have limits...and when you reach those limits, you always end up getting sick, or worse super cranky." said Catherine. Wrapping up the fifteen minute lecture she'd been giving her older brother as they said goodbye.
Walder sighed, laughing. A look of wry gratification on his face, because he could still remember a time where there was no one who cared about his welfare, and even less who'd ever think about him as a human being.
"Come on, sis. You've been nagging since we got out of the car. I'll be fine. Look at mom. She's not freaking out."
Florence Cerveny chuckled.
"Well...I've got your sister here to nag you for me, son."
The three Cervenys shared a laugh, enjoying what was actually a long running inside-joke concerning some of the peculiarities Walder had failed to hide from the members of his family who were closest to him.
The one Amihan-Cerveny tried not to feel too much like an outsider as she followed them, walking at her husband's side.
Henri looked up, craning her neck towards the sky as she watched various stellar vessels fly over head. The number of fast flying, loudly humming, shapes she saw grew exponentially, the closer their little group got to the city's spaceport.
The spaceport was one of the few places that could unfailingly break Henrika's poker faced facade. There was something about looking up at night and seeing the sky turned into starry sea filled with metal, flying, fish
The proliferation of anti-gravity technologies and the lack of air in space meant that for the most part the winged designs of old stellar vessels had been left behind and eschewed in favor designs that just focused on carrying cargo and passengers.
Human aesthetics, and the aesthetics of their fellow sentients within the stars leaned towards the streamlined and the sleek, and as a result the sky was filled with metal whales.
The thick hulled vessels looked quite majestic, and peaceful, till their "eyes", or forward-mounted guns, began to glow an angry red. In which case those "whales" would turn into dragons, spew molten metal, hot plasma, and charged photons, across the night sky.
In another life, had her mother not died, had she not ended losing her first-daughter status, and growing disillusioned with the clan for whom she'd worked so hard, Henrika likely would have served as a Hero league liaison on such a vessel.
Sailing through troubled waters and fighting against horrors of the void, starborn raiders, and other enemies of the galactic state.
Thinking about it made Henri sigh.
Walder gave her a look of concern, and a light questioning nudge as he walked beside her. She shook her head, both to let him know that she'd rather not talk about the issue, as well as to clear her head of the matter altogether.
Their little group's destination was a dock at the end of the port, within this dock sat a ship. Sleek but somewhat portly. Clearly built for speed with two sets of fin-like boosters on each side, two ventral boosters mounted along its under-carriage, and two dorsal boosters cresting along its back. This was Grimwald's ship.
It's name...Her name, was the Julianne. Named for someone that Walder had once cared very much about, yet another person he'd ended up being forced to fight for the sake of saving the universe from being consumed.
Compared to the freight ships, cruise liners, passenger vessels, and frigates, that the ship shared the port with, it was more of a fish than a whale, but it the ship had its own charm and humble majestic.
Its dappled, black and silver, coloration making it look like a humongous koi. Its antenna arrays jutted out of the sides of its prow like whiskers. The Julianne had two sets of eyes of crystal covered eyes. Each eye was a laser canon with the crystals being their focusers. Standard fair for a ship that was going to be flying out of range of the more policed areas of the galaxy.
Walder pat himself down while trying to look for the remote. He found it, the little black control stick was attached to a key. Walder pressed a button on the remote and with a soft hum a set of stairs was extended out from beneath the ship.
"Well, it looks like we're here." said Walder turning around to face the only two individuals out of the Cerveny clan that he actually recognized as being his family.
He went to hug his mother and she gently pat his back, smiling calmly.
"Do the family name proud, son. I know you've got your secrets and are trying to be low-key, but doesn't mean you can't still be great at the same time." said Florence.
Walder smiled, simply nodding because this wasn't the occasion to have this argument again.
"...I'll do my best."
His sister pulled him into a hug. Her expression suddenly distraught.
"Take care of yourself, okay? Don't be stupid and get yourself hurt or killed." said Catherine. With tears streaking down her cheeks.
"I'll take care. Don't worry."
"Make sure to call once you and Henri, are out of the system." said Catherine.
"Yes, Cat. I'll call everyday if you like."
The girl nodded. Pulling out a handkerchief to dab at her eyes. She gave a brother a second hug and then let go with a complicated look of reluctance on her face, her gaze idly drifting over to Henri.
"Don't be silly…*Sniff*....Thrice a week is fine."
"Yes, ma'am." said Walder. Chuckling.
With the goodbyes done, and the only people in the clan who'd miss him when he was gone having seen him off, Walder climbed up the ramp that led into the ship. Henri trailed behind him.
They each left the planet carrying a single duffle bag, everything else that mattered to them had already been moved aboard the ship.
"Jules...Prepare the pre-launch procedures, if you please." said Walder. Deciding to head towards his quarters first to drop off his bag before heading towards the cockpit.
Henri watched him go as she heard the pleasant and refined female voice of the ship's onboard artificial intelligence answer with a chipper,
"Yes, Captain."
The ships engines roared to life, sounding like some ancient primordial beast, whose slumber had just been disturbed.
"Checking fuel supply... Checking life support systems...Checking weapon systems….Checking Shields...Anti-Inertial Systems are go...Warp Systems are go...Planar Conversion Systems are go…Star-Eater Systems are go..."
The pleasant voice of Jules the AI droned on.
Henri ignored it. For the most part, the piloting and maintenance of the ship had nothing to do with her. Walder, Jules, and their little friends, the flan would see to the ship.
For the foreseeable future Henrika would simply hold up in her room. Watching this season's line-up of anime, and playing through the long backlogs of games she'd bought but never touched while she and her husband made their way to the far-side of the galaxy.
There was a rumble that sat somewhere between a washing machine finishing a heavy load, and a small earthquake, in intensity. The ship had finally taken off.
Henri looked at a wall that the ship had elected to "paint" as a window, and saw that the starport and the city of Roselight below were getting smaller. The city's twinkling lights making it look like some kind of shiny toy.
As she watched the world below shrink, Henrika couldn't help but sigh in relief, loosing a tense breath that she hadn't known she'd been holding. Watching the big world below become a tiny bauble made it feel like all her problems in the clan were tiny as well.
After she tossed her bag aside and flopped onto her bed, Henri found herself feeling exhausted yet optimistic. They'd done it. They'd actually done it. Despite all her planning, she'd freely admit that she'd held some doubts about whether they'd really be able to pull off their petty little scheme, and whether their families would really let them get away with it.
Yet the results were plain to see. The two had finally made their escape, slipping loose of their proverbial collars.
For the first time in her life Henri realized that she didn't know what was going to happen next in her life, and she was fine with it. After living a life on rails where both the good and bad outcomes were all but inevitable, she couldn't help but welcome a little uncertainty into her life.
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