Chapter 1: Can you hear the stars?
Can you hear the Stars?
I woke up to the alarm going off. A few more minutes was all I needed. Unfortunately, Sunny Star wasn't going to give them to me. The young head of research in astrophysics who agreed to share her room with me was very strict on getting up on time.
The grey blond unicorn who had taken the role of older sister towards me did what she did best. She lifted the small glass of water on the night table with her magic and pored a sip on my face. That got me out of bed lickity split.
"Hey! Sunny, what gives? I told you not to do that anymore." I grumbled from the floor.
"You need to get out of bed. We have a big day ahead of us and Celestia knows how much you'll be needed. Speaking of which, the princess will be arriving later this afternoon and we can barely afford to waste the time." Sunny Star wasn't even done with her sentence that I had rushed to the bathroom and locked the door. "Nevermind," she finished. "Just don't take too long in the shower."
I heard her turn on the radio. Something about the famous DJ Pon3 aka Vinyl Scratch trying to promote a country singer from Appleloosa to the east. As soon as I relieved myself, turned on the shower and washed my yellow coat. I listen as the middle aged buck singing his song. Something about a mare he loved. It was hard to make out the lyrics with the sound of the shower muffling the radio, but it was nice to have something to wake up to. I hurried out before the water automatically switched from warm to cold as it was designed to by a spell. Sunny Star had already left the room to and headed out to the cafeteria. I put on my maintenance uniform designed for fillies, the utility belt covered with various tools designed for fixing various machinery of all sorts.
The radio was now talking on how bad the weather had gotten outside ever since the pegasus had lost control of the weather. It's been going on for years now. It started small. Rain would begin to poor in, or unprovoked lightning. But then tornadoes or hurricanes ravaged most of the country sides. Isolated homes were abandoned. I switched off the radio and leaped out of the room. Couldn't bare to hear about this mess.
I walked down the hallway parallel to large windows giving a clear view of the dark clouds in the sky. Down below gave way to the road surrounding the facility, itself surrounded by the large forest from where I had came from about two years ago. I could still see my mother down there by the fence, telling me to climb over to save myself. I shivered then looked away. I could not bare to think of it, to remember when the bullet pierced her head. It hadn't been raining that day, but it sure had felt like it. Oh mother. I'm sure you would be so proud of me if you saw me now.
"Hey Lily. What's with the grim face, cut it out. You know tears are contagious, don't you?" I looked up to the purple pegasi who interrupted my nostalgia. Lieutenant Triple Trix was giving me a wide cocky smile. I could tell he wanted to clear the atmosphere and didn't want to have anything to do with my mother or other deaths in any form. I knew he had lost some men in the past, but he wasn't the kind of guy who liked to get all sentimental.
"Hi there Triple. Are you ready to greet the Princess today?" I asked him. His smile turned into a smirk, but his eyes went distant. He took his time to think before he choosing his next words.
"I think I'll be busy most of the day. The other astronauts and I have a lot of training to catch up on. Still, with the princess coming later though. It's such an honor. But yea, We'll have to see."
Sure it was true that as an astronaut his day was ordinarily busy, even more so with the big classified mission coming up. The upcoming launch would also require more time off his hooves than he ever had. But he was the lead officer among all the military astronauts in the facility. Yet again, most of the astronauts here were either civilians or scientists, so maybe the princess hadn't come to see former officers in particular.
"Alright," I said with a large smile. "Maybe the princess will visit you during training."
"I guess that is possible, but if she ever wants the few old soldiers here to come by wave a hoof, we'd be right on it." Now his cocky smile had returned to full glow. As we were walking towards the elevators, we continued engaging on his future missions, drifting on the continuous weather problems and occasionally joking about leaving Equestria to save our skin in outer space. There was these small poses on those jokes, as though he was hesitant to tell me something.
We stepped out of the elevator and into the cafeteria on the second floor. There we parted ways, him to get to the other astronauts, and me to the other engineers and maintenance ponies. Why did we eat at different tables, this I never knew. What I did know was that at the end of the day, it was the combined knowledge and know how of everypony which made every missions a reality. The cafeteria was a large glass room which covered the entire floor. The very high ceiling looked like it could house a full grown dragon. Well, if he had been banding down of course. The large windows which covered every walls made the entire place luxurious. Well, if it hadn't been for those dark thunderous clouds then it would.
I arrived at my table where other engineers were sitting, lost in their own conversations. It seemed as though I was the only one missing as they all quieted down to let Andre discus the meeting plan of the day. Andre Lock began his briefing by thanking us for being here and speaking of how important today was due to the Princess's arrival. I pretended to listen the middle aged earth pony by looking him straight in the eyes and nodding occasionally whenever he seemed to make an important point. I didn't want to be rude to Andre, his Spanish accent did always made me smile. But boy did he talk a lot during his briefing. It took me a few seconds to realize he had finished speaking and had actually asked me a question. At the same time every eye at the table was looking at me and judging by everypony's smiles I might as well of missed out on a joke.
"Sorry, can repeat that last part?" I asked defensively. That wasn't the right answer as Andre facedhoofed while everypony else at the table exploded in laughter. I swore I caught a glimpse at both Sunny Star's and Triple Trix's tables and saw the both of them looking in my direction with a smirk. That made me blush.
"Well, now that I have gotten your attention again, maybe you can answer this. Did you see Olive Cylinder today? Apparently she hasn't reported to her room last night." Andre was looking at me in concern. It was true that out of everyone, I was closer to Olive than anyone here. The young olive colored unicorn mare who had single hoofedly discovered how to make rockets fly through thunderclouds was one of the least sociable ponies in the engineering crew.
I looked at where the young olive mare should of been sitting today. The fact it was empty was bothersome, but not frightening. Maybe she needed some time alone. I looked at Andre. "I'll be sure to look for her if you want."
He was about to reply when the elevator doors opened. We looked over at the lead security pony stepping in. Charles Trigger, a rather large unicorn pony marked by the age only by experience itself. His cutie mark was that of a riot shield with a star behind it. He walked right up to our table and stood next to Andre. By the grave look he was giving him, I knew this couldn't be good.
"It's about Olive," the old buck said. "We found her unconscious down to maintenance. We took her to the infirmary but by the looks of it she was knocked out by something toxic. I recommend your crew to look into the matter with caution and have at least one of my security ponies work with each of your groups."
"You really think it's time to play cops and robbers?" Andre asked him in annoyance. "So what if it's something toxic? We can fix that."
"Damn it Andre. It's more complicated than some gas leaks." Charles warned. "Now, I know your engineers are more than capable of knowing which valve not to touch. As for Olive, we both know the kid is a genius. No need to hide that. The gas valves were shut off when my security ponies got to her. Someone sabotaged it, or something. Let me look into it."
"Wait a minute. What are you saying now?" Andre looked worried at the old unicorn. I could tell he didn't like where he was getting at. Suddenly, I realize the other tables were all silent. All the eyes in the room were turned to Andre and Charles with worried looks.
Charles only whispered his next words to Andre. Words which made everyone in the room even more on edge. These next words were pronounced so softly and yet they echoed like a thousand drums across the room. "I think we may have a spy on our hooves."
* * *
Wile the engineers spent most of the day checking every systems in the facility, the security spent theirs trying to find any potential intruders. The astronauts went to their training and the astronomers wondered through the library or on their monitors. Charles had issued two security pony guarding rooms considered critical and had tried to issue one security pony for each groups of engineers, astronauts and scientists. There wasn't nearly enough security ponies for the job, but because all the astronauts were in one room, they only had one supervising their well being. Andre wasn't too please with the augmented security. Triple Trix simply ignored it and Sunny Star found it humorous. In the end, we never found proof of any spy and the security ponies went back to ordinary patrols until the Princess's arrival. It didn't take long.
The princess's arrival was everything but discrete. About an hour before her arrival, three choppers came down escorted by a dozen sky chariot. I could clearly see the guards descending from them from the fourth floor window. All pegasi with a short mane cut clearly showing a croissant chapped scar on the side of their head. Their black armored bardings suggested they were dedicated to being a fast and very mobile force. Especially efficient at lightning blitz. They were clearly not used to be this many of them in one place, but they adapted themselves as swiftly as they were efficient. All with an emotionless expression and a spark of pride in their eyes, they were showing no marge for error in their movements. They paraded in front of the main building for a minute before stopping. They formed two parallel lines facing each other in front of the building, parking their three choppers on one side of the line and their sky chariots on the other side. It was as though they had practiced this for months and their postures was sure to make Charles's ponies red of shame. They were not however. I saw Charles walking out of the building escorted by two of his securities to greet the Squadron Leader of the arriving force. A tall pegasi mare walked to greet him. Her short mane showed that same scare on the side of her head, and only then did I realize these were implants. She looked up at me for a few seconds, noticing my presence through the window, and then focused her attention back to the head of security stopping before her. They exchanged a few words and then headed inside. I simply returned to my task at hoof, trying to fix the panel behind me.
* * *
This was it. The princess. She was here. A large sky chariot landed in front of the building. The pegasus hadn't moved for an whole hour and were looking straight forward across from each other. Finally, one of them broke from ranks and opened the chariot's door wile two others on the other side of the ranks headed to open the building's door.
"Why are you slacking off again, Lily? You know how important today is, don't you?"
"I, err..." The comment had made me jumped to my hooves. Andre was facing me with an impatient look. "I'm sorry. I was only trying to see the princess. I'll return to my post now." I said apologetically.
"I understand. But remember we have an important task ahead. Seeing the princess is quite a sight, especially if it's your first time. But you can watch her later. Right now everything needs to be perfect."
"Alright. What needs to be done?"
"The rocket need to be repairs. All systems seems ready for the Saturday launch, but we're just making a checkup to be sure."
"Alright. I'll get right on that." With that, he turned and walked away. I glanced down the window one last time. The princess had already gone inside. Only the pegasus soldiers remained outside as the rain began to poor in. Oh well. I headed down the hallway in the direction of the launchpads where Rocket SilverShy was set to launch in the coming weekend.
I was so far from knowing what was about to enroll in the following days. And especially, I had no idea of the upcoming history which was about to unfold. Yet that day, the stage was set. A new era was under way. And nothing was going to stop it.
