On the morning of May 5th, Jin woke up in his home on Hourai Island.
It was a quiet morning, the silence broken only by the chirping of birds.
With Elsa currently staying in Kaina Village with her biological mother, Mine, Jin was the only human presently on Hourai Island.
"Ah, I slept well."
"Father, are you awake?"
Sensing that Jin had stirred, Reiko opened the sliding door and appeared.
"Yeah, I feel completely refreshed."
"I am glad to hear that."
"I'm going to start working on the spaceship today."
"Yes."
During the month or so that Jin had been away visiting the lands of the foreign tribes, Laojun had taken the lead in prototyping and conducting operational tests for the spaceship.
Today was the day Jin would receive the full report.
Once he finished the breakfast Reiko had prepared, Jin headed to the laboratory.
Waiting in the front yard was a spaceship ten meters in diameter.
"I saw it yesterday too, but it still feels impressive."
The spaceship was nearly spherical. The crew consisted of the Astro series—mini-sized golems forty centimeters tall, the same size as the Little-Smiths.
By designing the crew at one-fourth the size of a human, they had been able to save both time and materials during the prototyping phase.
"My Lord, I shall now provide a brief explanation of our progress thus far."
"Yeah, please do."
Inside the command room of the Hourai Island laboratory, Jin listened intently to Laojun’s detailed explanation.
"Initially, we produced a prototype at one-sixteenth scale, sized for the Mini-Smiths."
Mini-Smiths stood only ten centimeters tall.
"Despite it being our first attempt, we were able to construct the 2.5-meter spaceship in two days. We used it to conduct various tests."
It had reportedly taken four days to accumulate the necessary know-how for the spherical spaceship design Jin had proposed.
"The primary challenge was the method for maintaining stability."
"Hm? What do you mean by that?"
"Yes. In a space with gravity, the vertical direction is uniquely determined, and thus a horizontal plane is naturally established. However, once one enters outer Space..."
"Ah, I see. There's no gravity strong enough to serve as a constant reference."
"Precisely. That said, the prototype spaceship has only been operated within the gravitational sphere of Ars thus far."
It seemed they had identified potential issues by extrapolating from the data obtained there.
Without a reference point, once a craft began a rotational motion, it would be incredibly difficult to arrest.
Jin recalled their past failure when they had attempted to launch a geostationary satellite.
"This will be particularly important when operating multiple spaceships."
"Yeah, certainly."
When acting as a fleet, the shared use of a reference point became a critical issue.
The direction of travel could be determined, but if the reference plane differed for each individual spaceship, their orientations would never align.
For instance, it would be problematic if instructions were issued from the flagship to "change course thirty degrees upward" while everyone had a different idea of where "up" was.
Of course, this was also a matter of navigation; one could simply designate a specific celestial body as a reference. Even so, it was undesirable for the fundamental sense of "direction" to differ between ships.
"For our primary reference plane, we shall use the orbital plane of the planet Ars."
Unless otherwise specified, the plane parallel to the ellipse that Ars followed in its orbit would serve as the standard.
"Secondly, when performing fleet maneuvers, we shall use the orientation of the flagship as the reference."
"That makes sense."
If the flagship ordered a turn to port, the entire fleet would be expected to turn left relative to that flagship.
"As you can see, acting in three dimensions required the establishment of various new standards."
"I see. I get it."
"While outer Space lacks inherent reference points, establishing these standards has made navigation significantly easier. Though, as of now, this is only within the Celane System."
"No, that's fine. I don't intend to go outside the solar system right away."
"I am honored. Moving on to the next stage: the issues of launch and landing."
This referred to breaking free of gravity to reach outer Space and the subsequent atmospheric reentry.
Regarding this, data from when Satellite 001 and Falcon 1 reentered the atmosphere had proven invaluable.
"Of course, brute force via the force generators is possible. However, we also wanted to ensure the most efficient operation possible."
"Yeah, I think that's the right approach."
Jin had been cautious about space exploration ever since the failure of Satellite 001.
"For attitude control, we have also prepared a level that utilizes the terrestrial magnetism of Ars. It is sufficiently effective in the planet's vicinity."
Inheriting Jin's caution, Laojun had implemented double and triple safety measures.
"All crew communication is handled via built-in manacams."
Since manacams did not rely on air, they would function perfectly in a vacuum.
"As a measure for atmospheric reentry, we have equipped a specialized breeze barrier and an ultra-powerful solid barrier projector."
Currently, a breeze barrier could not displace air molecules at speeds exceeding Mach 3.
The solid barrier projector was designed to protect the hull from the intense heat caused by the adiabatic compression of air. Simultaneously, the breeze barrier would be used to mitigate the physical impact of the air molecules.
"The 2.5-meter prototype spaceship equipped with these systems was a great success."
"Oh, really!"
"The first flight merely exited the stratosphere and landed again without issue. The second flight completed one orbit around Ars at geostationary altitude. This, too, was a complete success."
"That’s excellent news."
"Following this, we began construction of the one-fourth scale prototype. In parallel, we continued data collection with the first ship, confirming the limit values for maximum speed and acceleration."
The maximum speed achieved was approximately 300 kilometers per second, with a maximum acceleration of 20G.
"That's incredible for a prototype... You've done a great job."
"Thank you, My Lord."
"And the one-fourth scale model is the one that was in the front yard, right?"
"Yes, that is correct."
Laojun then transitioned into the test results for the larger model.
"There are no issues with power or maneuverability. However, one problem occurred during a test flight."
"And that is?"
"It happened outside the geostationary orbit. We encountered... perhaps one might call it cosmic dust? It collided with small floating objects, and the outer hull was damaged."
"I see..."
Even outer Space was not a perfect vacuum.
Even tiny meteorites or microscopic cosmic dust could prove fatal to a spaceship traveling at such extreme velocities.
"A barrier will be indispensable in space, then."
"Yes, absolutely."
Laojun agreed.
"However, in its current state, the strength is insufficient."
"Is that so..."
Three hundred kilometers per second exceeded Mach 880 on the ground.
By comparison, the maximum output of Reiko's specialized weapon, the magi-cannon, was Mach 80. If struck by something traveling at more than ten times that speed, even microscopic cosmic dust would possess devastating destructive power.
"Hmm..."
Jin began to cycle through various ways to increase the barrier's strength.
The simplest method was stacking them. Using two barrier projectors would double the strength; three would triple it.
However, it wasn't a very elegant solution.
"To make it more efficient..."
Jin fell into deep thought. Yet, he wore a smile. It was the expression of someone who found nothing more enjoyable than solving a new puzzle.
Then, a sudden spark of inspiration hit him.
"I've got it! What if we projected a matter-repelling barrier, using the same configuration as the breeze barrier?"
"I see; that is theoretically possible."
Since a breeze barrier moved air molecules, Jin figured he could simply apply the same principle to larger objects.
But then, Jin came up with an even more outrageous idea.
"...Wait. If we're just trying to move objects out of the way... we have the Warp Gates, don't we?"