Chapter 5 #2
“This ship isn’t made to fly against gravity,” Trove said.
“Once we get it into space, that’s where it will stay.
It’s never going to be planet bound again.
And since it’s not meant to be planet bound, it’s not really strong enough to go straight up against gravity.
What Sway is doing now is called spiraling.
We’re ascending, just slowly. We’re building our momentum with our elevation so the fight against gravity isn’t as difficult.
It’s not a technique typically used, since any ships too big to launch off a planet typically wouldn’t be built on a planet.
And if this were a populated planet, doing this would be more difficult due to air traffic and satellites and ships in the upper atmosphere.
But since this planet is empty and we have the space to do so, this is the easiest way to reach escape velocity. ”
Chee made a thoughtful sound, but the confusion on her face didn’t really fade.
“Did that make sense?” Trove asked, wondering if his explanation wasn’t clear.
“It did.” She shook her head. “Sorry, science and physics and stuff was never really my thing. Like, conceptually, I get what escape velocity is, but also I don’t think I really understand it. But if you guys say this is the right way, then I’ll trust you on that.”
Trove shook his head. “I’m no pilot myself. I never bothered learning this stuff. And I never finished my school lessons either…”
His voice trailed off as he realized how that must sound.
Trove only had the most early of his formal education.
He’d never bothered to go back and finish either.
He learned all he needed to survive on Rik-Vane, and studying wasn’t among those things.
And now that he was out, his profile said he had finished his basic education as mandated by the Coalition.
It was a false identity, but it withstood nearly all scrutiny, and he felt like he knew enough, so there really was no reason to go back and make it actually true.
Trove didn’t consider himself stupid. Sure, he didn’t have a formal education, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t learned a lot throughout his life. But admitting that he didn’t even have the most basic of lessons that all younglings acquired made him feel like a dunce when speaking to this female.
It was no fault of his. He knew he wasn’t actually a dullard. He wasn’t ashamed of himself.
But still…
“I barely passed high school myself,” Chee said, cutting off his thoughts. “I mean, there was a lot going on at the time, so I wasn’t really focused on studying. I think my teachers knew that too. I think they took pity on me about it. But luckily my job didn’t require a lot of higher education.”
“Right…” Trove murmured.
Why did that make his heart race?
She wasn’t trying to mollify him. She hadn’t been trying to make him feel better.
Most of her attention was still out of the window, watching the planet slowly, slowly sink further and further away.
There was no sense of platitude, of pity.
She was just making inane conversation. Replying to his comment with a bland one of her own.
And he was grateful for it. Her lack of reaction meant she wasn’t only not judging him for what he lacked, but she genuinely didn’t care. She even empathized with him a bit.
It was a perfect reaction specifically for the lack of reaction.
“How long will this take?” She asked, completely moving on.
“Depends. This isn’t the most aerodynamic ship. It doesn’t need to be after this. And we’ve never pushed these engines up to speed. We just have to wait and see.”
Chee hummed before looking back at him. “So, what’s the plan? There are no subspace crystals here, right? Don’t you need those to do the subspace… swing… thing?”
“We do. None of the ships here had any. But our old ship has a full, new suite.”
Chee made a face. “Erm, not to be rude, but didn’t your last ship, like… explode?”
Trove couldn’t help it, he laughed. She sounded so awkward asking it. Like she didn’t want to offend him but couldn’t help but point out the obvious problem here.
“True, the Humility was destroyed. But the casing around the subspace crystals was very strong. It’s highly possible that they survived.
So, our first stop is the debris field. We’re going to try to recover whatever we can from there.
Our crystal suite, some of the parts, hopefully some of our belongings survived the explosion.
We’ll recover whatever we can from the debris field.
Then, once that’s done, we’ll try to get to the nearest space station.
We’ll use that opportunity to resupply, replace whatever we can’t recover, and finish whatever we couldn’t on the Vainglory. ”
Chee nodded along, like that made sense. “I suppose only once all that’s done will you focus on Hyde’s job?”
“Right.” Trove nodded. Then, frowned. “A cup? He’s really paying us all these credz and went through all this just for… a cup?”
Chee shrugged. “I guess so.”
“Is it a sentimental cup?”
“He didn’t say. He just said he wanted it, and he wanted to see if you all could bring it to him.
And, honestly, I didn’t really care. Wealthy people do weird things sometimes.
They think differently from us. They’re weirdos, in other words.
It’s easier sometimes to just do whatever weirdness their mind demands and get paid for it. And in this case… a cup.”
Trove couldn’t help it, he chuckled. “Must be one incredible cup.”
“It’s apparently in the collection of another wealthy person. So, I guess it’s valuable at least. Maybe it’s covered in diamonds or something.”
“Diamonds? Are diamonds valuable on Earth?”
“Yeah. Are they not here?”