Chapter 25 - Spacecraft

Lan Xiao and Nan Cheng had booked the tickets for a vacation a long time ago. It was considered a rare opportunity for them to go on a trip, they had stayed on their mother planet ever since they were young and they moved over to the Heaven Luo planet after getting married. They had never visited the Heaven Dou Planet.

Since it was the first planet that was chosen for humans to migrate to, it holds significant importance to the history of mankind. They wanted to visit and have a tour around the first planet developed out of their homeland to see how far it had gone.

“Mom, will we be sitting inside the spacecraft soon?” Lan Xuanyu sat in the car and pulled onto his mother’s sleeves excitedly.

Nan Cheng looked at her son’s large eyes, she then giggled and replied, “Silly boy, this is the sixth time you’ve asked me this question. Yes, yes. We will be boarding soon and we will be sitting in the spacecraft in a while and then, you will be able to witness the vast space around us.”

“Oh yeah, that’s awesome!” Lan Xuanyu shouted out enthusiastically.

Lan Xiao turned back and took a loving glance at his son. As he grew older, Lan Xuanyu had turned from an extremely adorable baby to a young lady-killer. Especially with his pair of large eyes. Apparently, as Lan Xuanyu grew older, his pair of black eyes had been laced with a tinge of purple. His crystal clear eyes looked as though it was able to reflect the entire world as he blinked his long eyelashes. It was a look of someone that would be adored by everyone, no matter where he was.

Finally, the Spirit Guidance flying car arrived at its destination; the aviation base located in Zi Luo city. They had to make a stopover at Zi Luo city to board a Spirit Guidance plane towards Heaven Luo Planet’s capital, the Heaven Luo City to get to the spacecraft that would take them to the Heaven Dou Planet.

At present, only the capital, the Heaven Luo City had the capabilities of sending vehicles into space. Moreover, there were very few flights that required early reservations.

Lan Xuanyu had some experience in terms of sitting in a spirit guidance plane while he was travelling with his parents around the Heaven Luo Planet to sightsee. He was anticipating his ride with the spacecraft since to this generation of children, every single child wanted to go to space.

Three hours later, the plane smoothly landed in the heart of Heaven Luo City’s airport. They had another half an hour ride through the flying car until they reached the vast Main Space Flight Center.

The entire center was constructed and decorated in white with a gigantic metal wall that acted as a large screen that projected some various images.

“Woah! Mom, is that a battleship?” Upon seeing those images, Lan Xuanyu jumped up in excitement.

Nan Cheng bent down and placed a finger over her lips. “Shhh, Xuanyu, lower your voice. You shouldn’t make too much noise in public, it is the most basic of behaviors. We cannot disturb others!”

“En, en. I got it, but mom, are those battleships!?” Lan Xuanyu lowered his volume but his tone still had that same sense of eagerness.

Nan Cheng raised her head and looked towards the screen. On the screen was a backdrop of the endless starry sky with a swarm of silver spacecrafts at its forefront, traveling in line with each other despite their varying sizes. The largest one resembled a fortress with many other smaller battleships that surrounded and protected it.

“Yes, son. Those are battleships. Check the units on those ships, they should be the federation’s newly launched Fourth Galactic Battle Group,” Lan Xiao clarified.

“Dad, that’s awesome! When I grow up, I want to pilot a battleship, ok?” Lan Xuanyu tugged onto Lan Xiao’s sleeves repeatedly with an endless sense of excitement.

Lan Xiao smiled and caressed his son’s head, “It’s not easy to pilot a battleship. You will need to study hard and pass the battleship faculty’s exams at college.” Be frank, wasn’t it every boy’s dream to go to outer space? He too had been young once and had yearned to be a commander of a battleship but they were only selecting one student out a hundred thousand! The amount of hard work to gain the opportunity to become a member of a battleship’s personnel was not one to be described in words. It was practically impossible for someone to attain without any specialized grooming and arduous training that spans for at least twenty years.

The galactic fleets were humanity’s sharpest edge, and most importantly, they were the insurance required to complete an interplanetary migration. It had to be known that in humanity’s thousand years of history, only four galactic fleets were successfully established and very single fleet was the Soul Federation’s most important asset.

But with the increase of expansion and development in science, the increased resources provided by the expansions allowed them to have a stark increase in speed in terms of establishing the later fleets.

It had grown to the extent that humankind was able to establish a hub in space that only the top brass of all military personnel knows. The hub was then named the Strike Space Fort in order to commemorate the federation’s first college; the Strike College for its outstanding contributions for the federation in these past thousands of years.

Alongside Strike Space Fort was the establishment of the federation’s fifth and sixth galactic fleets which was estimated to be completed with only a half of a century.

Lan Xuanyu remained fixated on the large screen for a long time. The battleships were too attractive, especially the dazzling metallic guns that flickered on the ships. It was as though Lan Xuanyu was able to imagine the spectacular scene where it unleashes its thousands of cannons like firecrackers. It was simply too beautiful.

“Let’s go. We can’t be late, or we won’t be able to board the spacecraft.” Nan Cheng baited her son.

“En,” Lan Xuanyu replied with a smile.

The family of three continued with the travel procedures. There were many complicated procedures and they had gone through three safety checks. The cost of a spacecraft was truly exorbitant and it was not as though there were no evildoers in history that had ever thought of holding a spacecraft like that for ransom. That’s the reason why they had to go through all of that.

After going through multiple checkpoints, they finally entered the inner region to wait.

Through the gigantic glass pane, Lan Xuanyu saw a large and erected construct that resembled an artillery shell on a flat clearing in the far distance.

“Yes, that is the spacecraft that we will be boarding.” Lan Xiao anticipated his question so he immediately quelled his doubts.

“Awesome! It’s so big.” Lan Xuanyu’s excitement remained sky-high.

Lan Xiao smiled, “That spacecraft is made up of various parts, out of which the spacecraft’s main body and the propulsion units being the most important. After sending the spacecraft into space and separating from it, the propulsion units would automatically turn back so they could be reused. And once the spacecraft flies into space, it will travel on its designated route for us to reach our destination. We should be leaping through wormholes and it was estimated that we would arrive in the Heaven Dou Planet in seven days. Hold back your excitement son, or space would turn out to be too boring.”

“I love space, dad, I will never be bored.” Lan Xuanyu’s excitement did not lessen because of his father’s words.

It was now time to board! After the last security clearance, the family of three finally boarded the spacecraft.

The cabin berth was naturally divided into different grades and ranks. In fact, it was impossible for an average salary class worker to have sufficient money to board a spacecraft. Lan Xiao and Nan Cheng were already classified as part of the upper-middle-class, but a single space trip was enough to deplete their savings.

And despite that, they sat in the lowest grade cabin berth.

Everyone was provided with a square meter of personal space with sufficient vertical height. One would be able to incline their chair with two metal guards on both sides which were all separable. Those seats on top were much more comfortable.

A child’s seat was different from an adult. Lan Xuanyu’s cabin berth was smaller but it was sufficient enough for him to lie down right by his parent’s side. The family package also included some set meals which was relatively economical.

“Welcome onboard the Federation’s 7703 spacecraft. I hope that in our following journey, we will be able to provide relief and happiness. Next up, we will be presenting a few key points to take note that we invite our guests to abide by.”

A sweet-sounding voice was then broadcasted through the entire spacecraft.