After seeing the information relayed to him by the diagnosis performed by the computer, Yuuno found himself extremely glad he had an engineering team install a failsafe component in the engine to activate in the event of dimensional slipstream failure. If it hadn’t been for that, the ship would have been knocked out of slipstream in an unstable manner and sent into a dangerous freefall.
‘Still, how the heck could an engine failure occur? The check up two weeks ago confirmed that everything was in tip top shape!’ He mentally sighed to himself as he wasn’t in the mood for another mystery to keep him up late at night.
The good news was that the normal engines were still functioning. Of course that meant that they would have to make another emergency stop at the closest world for repairs and get additional supplies to make up for the lost time on their trip. “Computer, search for the nearest world and display travel time for normal speed.”
It only took two seconds to come up with a result. “Search complete. Travel time to the closest Class M planet is approximately two hours and fifteen minutes at normal speed.”
‘That was fast,’ thought the Librarian to himself. “Display.”
“Unable to comply. There are no records of Bureau activity on that world. No information is available.”
“For real?” muttered Yuuno under his breath as he suppressed the urge to groan. Without any information on that world’s currency, customs and technological ability, he wouldn’t be able to determine whether it would be a good place to make an emergency stop. “How far is the closest administrated or non-administrated world from our current position?”
“Calculating…”
With any luck, they shouldn’t be knocked too far off course. He can probably just swing back to Ruwella and…
“Closest world is Administrated World # 12: Fedikia. Travel time estimated to be 10 days in dimensional space and 72 days by normal speeds.”
‘…… shit.’ He couldn’t believe what his display was telling him.
“How did we get knocked off course by that much?” asked Material-D in disbelief.
Yuuno sighed in irritation. “I wish I knew…”
‘My orders are to stand by?! Seriously, what the hell?! This blows!’
A fuming Agito floated through the corridors of the Claudia as she waited for Signum to return from that meeting. They had originally been scheduled to start working on the Silver Cross Bible case when a lot of things went out the window the moment those weird looking women were seen everywhere on TV. All of a sudden, meetings were being rescheduled, forces and troops were being moved and a lot of people seem to be acting like the apocalypse is around the corner.
She understood that those women looked like three of the most powerful mages in the TSAB but how can everyone be certain that they are as strong or (God forbid) superior to the three Aces? A lot of people were jumping to conclusions too quickly which is why there had been quite a bit of panic across Mid-Childa shortly after the communication ended.
Things took a while to calm down as multiple press conferences were held someone from the Admiral’s ship acting as a representative (some woman called Shi or something) as the Admiral himself kept dealing with fellow brass and didn’t have the time to properly run things. She kept getting peppered with questions that made her sweat a lot. But somehow, she managed to convince the population that things were being investigated carefully and that the appropriate measures were being taken.
Still, Agito really wished things would go back to normal soon. This whole tense feeling around the ship and this world was getting on her nerves. Heck, when she tried calling Rein earlier to vent about it, she was surprised by the sheer amount of depression she heard from the other Unison Device’s voice when the call was answered. It had been brief as Rein hadn’t been in the mood to talk which further bothered her.
The fiery Unison Device rounded a corner and noticed her partner Signum straightening out her uniform jacket while her smaller red headed companion seemed to be rubbing her eyes with her sleeve. “Oh, there you are! Meeting‘s done?”
“Yes. We just came out not too long ago,” replied the pink haired woman.
“Hey, what’s with her?” pointed out the small device to Vita who seemed to have finished wiping her eyes.
“Oh, nothing. Things just went a little longer than I thought and I was rubbing my eyes to wake myself up,” said the small Knight.
“Heh, it must have been a real boring meeting in there.” The Device sighed loudly. “Sheesh, this whole thing is driving me up the wall! I really hope we can do something soon!”
“As do I, Agito. As do I.” There was something odd in the way Signum said those words and that only meant one thing as far as Agito could tell. Someone was going to be on the receiving end of Laevatein in the near future and it won’t be pretty.
The landing could have been a lot smoother but for the moment, the ship was on the planet’s surface. Now, he could see how bad the damage was.
“Waaahh!! Such a pretty place!!” Material-L was the first to exit the ship and she stared around at the green sky and oddly coloured blue grass field that acted as their landing site. “Don’t you think so, Yuu-nii?”
“Sorry but I can’t enjoy the scenery right now when I have something else to work on.” He headed to the panel which housed the engine and pushed it aside to look at the circuits. As he thought, the engine casing was showing signs of heavy strain. While he could do normal maintenance by himself, this problem looked like something that be handled by a professional.
“How is it?” asked Material-S as she poked her head out.
“This is not looking good. That I can say for sure…”
See other episodes by Yasanagi
(Posted Wed, 04 Aug 2010 06:32)
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