Departure

Rylan looked at everyone around him, they were preparing for the launch of the ship. They had been training vigorously for the last three weeks since no one had any idea what to expect, so those who had been volunteered for the mission were being readied for anything. Those in charge had even decided to alter the purpose of the mission, slightly. Their primary goal was still to discover what had happened on Laria but it was decided that to help prepare those on the mission that they should investigate two planets that were on the way to the Larian system.

So two worlds were chosen, Latria and Medicia. Thanks to the comprehensive Larian library they were able to plot to each planet. Also thanks to the library they knew where each platform was located just in case the lack of communication was more than just an inherent system failure. Which was a thought that Rylan was being forced to abandon with each passing day.

Lounging in the hot tub, Rylan tried to let his mind turn off, but it kept trying to figure out what could have happened on Laria for the platforms not to be able to establish their link. Deep down the tech knew that the only way was for the Larian twin to be destroyed or turned off but no platform was ever turned off this long. He also knew just how much it would take to destroy platforms, the Larian scientists had constructed them to be virtually indestructible. Though everything had at least one weakness.

He pushed the thought from his mind, with the training done, he and the fifty other volunteers would make their way to the new spaceship tomorrow. From there they would launch themselves out of the safety of their planet and into the emptiness of space. As Rylan thought about that he slowly began to understand what they were all genuinely going to do. While he was one of the few, who had been to another one of the planets in the Federation none of them had ever traveled in a spaceship.

Virtually no one in the Larian Federation ventured out into the galaxy in a spaceship, not with the platforms. There were a few ships in the Federation, but those had been mostly put aside for specialized purposes. The platforms were merely a much more efficient means to travel between the planets in the federation. As a result, the space-faring aspect of their ancestors had died out long ago. The truth of which Rylan saw as he looked at everyone as they made their final preparations for launch.

Everyone was silent as they collected their equipment, as each finished their preparations they walked towards the embarkation area. Rylan stopped watching the rest of the crew and returned to getting himself ready for departure, but was interrupted by one of his neighbors. “So the saboteur is taking his time to prepare.”