Chương 47: 029 – Welcome To Stargazer Fortress

"Greetings and welcome, guests from the Free Trade Confederacy!" Paladin Rain greeted them enthusiastically once they were all through.

"I'm Paladin Rain, with me is Paladin Princess—" she held up her left forearm, on which was mounted the device for the artificial intelligence, "—and this is Seraphine and Ataraxia." The other Kaedekin reached into the square holster on her belt and drew out… a thick tablet? No, there was a seam and hinge…

"We wish for you to enjoy your brief stay and feel at home during your visit. And we apologize profusely for not being able to offer you any food or drink while you're aboard. Please don't think too badly of us for it. We promise, the first chance you get to visit without needing to wear a suit, we'll serve you so much food and it will all be delicious!" Loren's new friend Seraphine ("Yay! It's really nice to meet you… ah, sorry, I didn't get your name?") was nodding enthusiastically as she slipped the device back into its sheath, standing next to Rain as she leaned on her cane. The Kaedekin didn't seem to need the support, but given the cane seemed to be all-metal construction, being a mobility aid probably wasn't its purpose.

"Now, before we start walking, could I ask all the pajhadin to please take these?" Rain took off her top hat and pulled something out of it.

"These are tracking markers. We've arranged it so that any non-essential lights in public spaces within five meters of them will be deactivated. I'm sorry we can't make the perimeter larger, but Stargazer Fortress is an active facility, and unfortunately we need light. Hopefully these will make navigating the station more comfortable for you." The 'tracking markers' appeared to be long bands of while cloth.

At Commander Bronze's assent, the three pajhadin in the group stepped forward and Rain quickly tied the markers above their elbows in neat bows. Not for the first time, Loren wondered how the pajhadin actually perceived the word around them.

It clearly wasn't echolocation the way most people thought—and even if it was, no one seems to have ever bothered to consider asking why it worked through an enclosed helmet—but beyond being an awareness of the shapes around them, an awareness that grew more detailed the darker it was, she didn't really know much about it. Aliens rarely bothered trying to explain how their magic worked, at least to humans.

Apparently decades of being humansplained at about how their understanding of their own abilities they'd gained over thousands of years of cultural experience was objectively wrong and not being taken seriously when they explained it was magic could do that. Above them, the lights went out, leaving them in a little patch of slightly dark shadow in the middle of the well-lit landing bay.

"Uh, I realize it's not much now, but please wait until we get into the hallways of the station," Rain said.

"If it's really insufficient, we can expand the effect's perimeter. Now, before we begin, does anyone have any questions? Please raise your hand and I'll do my best to answer them. Yes, Commander Bronze?"

"How many are on Stargazer Fortress right now? Will it be crowded?" The question was asked with casual innocence, as if they just wanted to know if it was peak tourist season.

"Ah, good question!" Wait, what?

"The number of permanently stationed personnel fluctuate between eighty and ninety thousand Kaedekin, though it can be less depending on how many people are taking days off. However, the station's temporary occupants can number between one to three hundred thousand people, depending on the time of year and how many Kaedekin are passing through from the various mining stations, moon bases and the settlements on Nightmare, or are just coming over to visit friends or are having a school field trip."

Did she just say 'school field trip'?

"But don't worry, there's plenty of room in the station, so it shouldn't be crowded. If that's all, we should get going. Is everyone ready to go?" Since there wasn't anything actually keeping them there, Rain gestured for them to follow her. It barely took ten steps before the next question arose.

"Why are there so many people there?" Commander Bronze asked, pointing towards something to their left, on the other side of the utility boat. Loren looked, as did many others.

"Oh, that's just the viewing terrace," Rain said cheerfully.

"Normally people have lunch there as they watch ships lifting off and landing, but today… well, they're all there to see you." Loren had trouble seeing the terrace in question since she was on the completely wrong side of the group trailing behind the yellow-clad Kaedekin, but eventually she saw it through a break in the press of people. About thirty meters away was the terrace in question.

Standing about four meters above the deck, there was a simple waist-high railing supported by a glass—or at least some kind of transparent material—wall. The space behind it was currently full of Kaedekin. At this distance all she could see was a riot of color, as if a child had been given a coloring book with a crowd scene and every color in existence, and decided they wouldn't use the same color combination ever. They weren't cheering, pointing or being an unruly crowd. They were just… standing there.

A few seemed to be having lunch, and many were drinking some kind of beverage. A few seemed to be holding tablets and were writing… no, sketching. The rest were just… watching and talking to their friends.

"What's everyone talking about?" one of the pajhadin—the HUD tagged her as Vocthuu—said.

"It's too bright for me to perceive anything."

"Oh, here," Rain said. She was tapping something on the device on her wrist.

"This should help." Ten seconds later, the lights immediately above the terrace, as well as every light between the terrace and them, went dark.

"Is it safe to do that?" someone else in the group—the HUD named them Juarez—asked.

"It's fine," was the cheerful reply.

"No one will be authorized to use this landing bay for the next hour, so it's safe to turn off the daylamps here for a bit. Is that enough, Lieutenant Vocthuu?"" Oa — yes, ma'am."

"Ma—oh! There's no need to call me that! Just Rain will do fine." Ten seconds later, the lights over the terrace and the rest of the landing bay came back on. By then, they were walking towards one of the obvious large entrances built along the wall opposite the landing bay entry port… which was still open to space and only had the Kaedekin's force field-like magic to hold in the atmosphere. Or was it an actual force field they'd somehow derived from their magic?

In practical function, there wasn't much difference between the two, but in methodology…

"Does that barrier require a lot of power?" Loren found herself asking, remembering to raise her hand in time.

"It seems to be the only thing keeping the atmosphere inside." The utility boat was still surrounded by a barrier, she realized. Or rather, it was being excluded by the barrier, which had distended to keep the utility boat in the vacuum of space.

"Don't worry!" Rain said cheerfully.

"Stargazer Fortress has multiple generators specifically for imbuing the vennfluid atmospheric barriers. And if those fail, then we have backup systems. Which does include actually closing the door, if that's what you're wondering. All visitors to the station are also issued an emergency air supply in case of unplanned violent decompression." There was a pause, and Rain glanced down at the device on their arm.

"Oh, I'm being reminded to add there are no planned violent decompressions. We do not, in fact, violently decompress the fortress. That would be extremely lethal to the plants on the station." She said it like some people might actually consider violent decompressing their space station to be a good thing.

"Now, let's start the tour!" she said enthusiastically as they exited the landing bay through a short but very wide passageway, with enough space for at least three lanes of vehicular traffic. At three meters tall, it was just tall enough for the rakido to pass though in their suits, although if any of them started skipping they would undoubtedly do themselves a head injury, or at least hit their helmets. The lights above immediately shut off as they entered the hallway—no, not a hallway, an air lock.

She could see where a barrier would drop to seal the passage. Beyond the airlock was what Loren at first mistook for some kind of open space. It was only when she stepped out properly did she see that it was actually a large concourse that by the curvature looked like it might run the circumference of the station, or at least this part of it. Kaedekin filled the space, either eating at what looked like picnic tables, sitting on benches, or just standing around and talking.

Adult Kaedekin—at least, so Loren presumed, as they were as tall as Rain—and child Kaedekin were mixed together, and now that there were more than just two standing side-by-side, Loren could see they all had the same face. The same half-open mouth beneath the same pert nose, the same gentle cheeks and curved eyebrows. Only the eyes were different. While they were all the same shape, gazing at her with wide-eyed wonder, each one was a different color.

There were the browns and blues, some purples and even greens, but there were also pinks, yellows, oranges, reds, pale grays and even blacks. Just looking out at the Kaedekin looking back at her, she spotted at least five people with heterochromia, which was five more than she'd ever seen in her life. Many of them had to be using some kind of cosmetic alteration or contact lens, there was no way that many people should have that condition. Especially since they were clones!

Shouldn't they all have the same eye color? The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. And the way they were looking at her… It was a bit disquieting. As a 'quantum engineer', she was used to getting looks that often said more than their senders intended. Curiosity, anger, envy, disdain, astonishment, exasperation, pity… she was familiar with them.

She'd even gotten awe once, when they'd had to demonstrate to her cousin's new wife just what exactly it was that 'quantum engineering' and marrying into a family of them involved, finally breaking through the shell of rationalization nearly all people had that let them simply ignore the wonders of the universe they didn't have the time to understand and couldn't be bothered to really care. This look was a first.

It was hope and longing and eagerness and excitement and curiosity and just a bit of shyness and innocence. It was the same look she'd gotten just before she'd been asked if she wanted to be friends. She glanced to the side at the thought. Seraphine was walking next to her, moving casually as if it was perfectly normal to be there, like they'd been friends for years.

At the motion, the Kaedekin turned to meet her gaze with a smile, and looked like she was about to say something before visibly restraining herself to a nod and pointing towards Rain. Loren decided to take the advice, focusing on the more familiar woman.

"Stargazer Fortress is the first and oldest life-sustaining orbital structure in the Dancer system, raised up to orbit about three hundred forty-three years ago, after we finished reverse-engineering the gravity generator," Rain exposited to them as she led the spacers out of the airlock and into the concourse that seemed a combination of major thoroughfare and picnic area.

Even with the lights directly above them shutting off as they moved, there was still enough illumination to get a good look, and even as Loren watched many of the Kaedekin's eyes seemed to glow, which was slightly disquieting to see.

"Before that, the only objects in orbit around Surcease were the moons and manually launched satellites for trying to track weather systems and attempts at setting up early warning satellites to notify us of possibly incoming alien invasions. All of those…. didn't stay in space long at first.

In hindsight, everyone agrees that we should have spent more time figuring out the principles of orbital mechanics and trying to work out the math before we tried to place anything permanent up there, and that a video game about a fictional space program was not a good simulator of what you need to place something in a stable orbit around a planet."

"Wait," one of the rakido—Zull, according to the HUD relaying his words over the open channel—said. They sounded morbidly curious and absolutely horrified.

"Your people went up into space without a firm understanding of orbital mechanics?" Rain had that special look of cultural embarrassment from something your ancestors did.

"We were impatient," she said, "and we paid for it in satellites that kept threating to fall and crash back into the planet. We couldn't let that happen, of course. Not only would it damage the environment, Yamiryusei's shroud on the atmosphere means we wouldn't be able to track where the satellite crashed. That means any debris from satellites that fall would just lie there, which would be littering." The words were spoken with absolute seriousness.

"So we had to keep resetting the satellites every few weeks. Fortunately, we had a lot of girlpower to throw at the problem. At least we mastered rocket science first. I don't know why humans in the old universe seemed to have such a problem with it, rocket science is easy."

"That sounds like wasteful expenditure of resources," the rakido commented.

"Oh no, there were always sisters willing to fly the five hundred kilometers straight up into orbit to adjust their trajectories," Rain said.

"While they couldn't really stay up there for very long due to air supply limitations, they said it was always worth it to see the moons and stars with their own eyes and to bring pictures back down to Surcease. Ah, according to the Museum family, it's exactly because we couldn't see through our atmosphere that we couldn't properly develop the principles and math for orbital mechanics. Humans from the old universe worked it out by using telescopes to observe how the solar system's planets moved.

Because of the shroud, we couldn't do that until we were beyond the atmosphere and could actually see the planets, and what textbooks we had about science was really unhelpful when it came to figuring it out. Not without seeing what it was supposed to represent. So we sent sisters up there so they could make the observations needed for us to get the data needed to actually work it out." They passed some kind of mural on the pink walls, one that everyone glanced at curiously.

It seemed to depict some kind of picnic involving cute-looking fanciful creatures. The colors were very washed out without light coming from directly above the group, but the shapes were easy enough to distinguish in the artificial gloom. The more time they spent here, the less it reminded Loren of a proper military facility and more like a Frontier Cooperative station with a military annex attached.

"That's why this was called 'Stargazer Fortress'," Rain continued once they'd all passed the illustration.

"In addition to being a vanguard base for a first response force in the event of an invasion by alien visitors much less friendly than you, it was also used as an observatory for Kaedekin to start developing astronomy. Not that it started off this big, though. The oldest part of the station and the first one to actually be launched into space was the observation and farming dome. At the time, it was considered the easiest launch in history.

The gravity generator was set to neutral to nullify the gravitational pull of the planet, and then it was just pushed up into space."

"Why didn't they use the… the gravity generator to accelerate the dome itself up to escape velocity?" someone asked.

"Because they'd already planted the trees and crops and didn't want them falling up into the dome," Rain said.

"At the time, the gravity generator could only generate a single gravity field oriented in one direction. If they'd used it to accelerate away from Surcease's gravity, everything on the dome would have gone up into the ceiling."

"Couldn't they have used the neutral gravity to flip the dome upside down, and then accelerated it to space that way so that the artificial gravity would still be pointing down?" Surprisingly, it was Seraphine who asked the question. She sounded like this was something she genuinely hadn't known. There was a pause.

"Huh," Rain said, looking pensive.

"I wonder why anyone didn't think of that?"" Pinged the network. Inquired of surviving buddies of the period," a disembodied voice said from Rain's general direction." Response received and summarized.

'They thought of doing that, but decided it wouldn't be any fun, and everyone wanted to launch it the normal way as practice in case it became necessary to perform emergency launches of massive weapons platforms into space in response to sudden invasions'."

"Oh! Well, that explains it," Rain said, nodding in understanding.

"Yeah, it would probably have been more fun to push the dome into space than just letting it float up on its own. Everyone would have needed to go up anyway to adjust its orbit so it wouldn't fall down. Um, as scientists finally worked out how orbital mechanics worked, this became less and less necessary, and by 170 AA Stargazer Fortress as it existed at the time was self-propelled and self-stabilizing.

Construction on the station continued over the next couple of centuries to add more layers until the station reached its current configuration about hundred years ago, not counting any upgrades of internal systems." Loren stared, and she knew she wasn't the only one. They had intentionally launched the station—well, the initial components of the station, from the sound of it—with rocketry instead of using their gravity manipulation capabilities because they thought it was more fun? Were these people insane?

"Um, how big was the initial dome of the station when it was launched?" someone asked. It sounded like the same person who'd asked about the gravity generator.

"The same size it is now?" Rain said, sounding confused by the question.

"Three kilometers in diameter. Ah, wait, I understand. The dome originally wasn't as thick as it is today. Initially it only had two levels beneath the initial farming levels. One for living quarters, laboratories, food and air production, and another for the gravity generators, power systems, force fields, weapons systems, fighter bays, and other defense equipment." Loren and everyone else had to mentally readjust their initial idea of what exactly the Kaedekin had launched into space.

Their civilization had launched a three kilometer wide structure into space with only gravity manipulation to counteract its weight—but not it's mass, because gravity didn't work that way—using whatever propulsion systems they had for the period… because it had been fun … and because it was a readiness exercise in case they needed to launch anything else into space on short notice using the same method in the event of a sudden extraterrestrial invasion. …

No, no, not even that last part couldn't excuse how insane the rest of that sentence was. Emergency preparations only excused so much.

"That sounds absolutely… I can't think of the right word at the moment," the powered armor Falling Stillness was piloting said. Insane, Loren thought, and she was pretty sure everyone else was doing the same in the privacy of their own heads so as not to offend their hosts.

"Yeah, in hindsight launching a three-kilometer-wide dome into space was a bit impatient of everyone, even if it does look like a flying saucer," Rain agreed(?) cheerfully.

"They wrote down it was pretty hard to steer since weight wasn't as balanced as it could be. But things worked out in the end, and now it's playing host to all of you. If Stargazer had its own spirit, I'm sure she would be very happy about how things turned out. Ah, but it doesn't, though. Permanently confining a spirit to a structure like this, no matter how big and cool it is, would be cruel. Anyone integrated into Stargazer can get days off any time they want."

Loren supposed that given the space station was still standing centuries later that the Kaedekin had probably been doing something right.

"How many times did its orbit threaten to destabilize and crash back down into the planet?" someone asked. She wondered how much trouble that person had just invited on themselves asking the question everyone was no doubt thinking. Intelligence analyst, your suicidal sacrifice will be remembered.

"Oh, lots!" Rain answered cheerfully.

"But don't worry, we got it to stop trying to do that eventually."