The following was shown when Cadence pressed the play button on the disc reader. She paused intermittently to converse with everyone that was with her.
"This is Flurry Heart. I am alive and well. It is now eight and a half years since I escaped from the Syknoian queen. Shrapnel from the Harmony's self-destruct hit my ship and sent me hurtling through space. My ship, the Peacekeeper, eventually came to rest inside a large cave in a giant asteroid at star coordinates X: 66, Y: 94, Z: 75."
Cadence was blessed to hear that her sweet girl was doing well. Everyone else had a similar feeling.
"My engines were badly damaged and there was too much rock around me to establish a clear communication signal without using my emergency antenna. I have had to wait all this time in order for me to accurately spawn a portal to get this journal to Eqqus without any anomalies that could interfere. During my time waiting out here; I have repaired my engines and they are working again. I have not accepted my fate to die out here, because I believe in my mother and Aunt Twilight's students to find a way to rescue me and my ship."
"I wonder how she has managed to sustain herself this long.", Yona said in a puzzled tone.
"In order to survive, I have an onboard hydroponic garden in which I have grown vegetables, and I have eight years’ worth of freeze-dried meats that I have carefully rationed to last twice as long. So far, I have only used just more than half of my food. When setting up my garden area, I made sure to only plan on growing vegetables with high nutrition and ones that I like very well. In the way of meals, I have sometimes made soup, paella with the rice that I have also been growing, and even pasta dishes since I have grown and ground wheat with which to make fresh pasta."
"I'm shocked that she planned that far in advance. She must have wanted to be prepared for anything.", said Smolder with surprise in her voice.
Cadence agreed with Smolder. She was also proud of her daughter for learning everything necessary for survival.
"I'm curious to know whether she has tried to give us a helping hand in getting her out.", said Silverstream.
Flurry's final bit of information answered her question.
"In order to assist with my rescue, I have been using a diamond drill and chisels from my toolbox to break pieces of the asteroid out of the way and enlarge the cavity that the Peacekeeper is trapped in. As far as I know, I have created enough clearance to avoid any more scratches when my ship is pulled out of here. Flurry Heart out."
When the log ended, there was only silence in the room. Everyone was impressed at how much Flurry had prepared herself for an emergency situation. Cadence was so proud of her daughter that her eyes were glowing.
Just then, the radio went off, which shocked everyone. Cadence looked at the point of origin, and her eyes grew large. The call was coming from Flurry herself. Excited, Cadence hit the "Speaker" button.
"Sweetheart, is that you?", she asked.
"Mom, I am here. I finally managed to set up my radio antenna. I am sure you have gotten my journal and are planning how you will come to get me."
"We just finished watching the journal when you called in. We have already started building the next version of the Harmony, but we will not be finished for a while. So we will need another ship to get you."
"Understood, Even though I am trapped out here, this asteroid is rich with iron and cobalt. I have been using my diamond drill to mine ore as well as enlarge the cave that I am in. I'm sure that the ore can be purified and then used to help with the construction."
Cadence agreed with her daughter and then assured her that the Young Six and any volunteers would be coming to get her as soon as possible.
Cadence began laying out plans for the ship that would be used to rescue Flurry Heart. There was a launchpad in the North Luna Ocean that had been used in the past for space launches and it was still working fine. The only issue was that the pad was near a tectonic plate boundary. Earthquakes had occurred while the pad was there, but not enough to cause severe damage to the pad. This would be the perfect spot from which to launch on the rescue mission. The Young Six decided to christen the vessel Alicorn.
"Looking at Flurry's blueprints for the Peacekeeper, you will need a fairly large space for it on the ship. That means the Alicorn herself will be huge.", said Cadence to the Young Six.
"We will need a dock built for it in orbit first, because the launchpad would collapse under the intense weight of the ship. Also, the Alicorn won't have any landing gear. However, we could land if we had a shuttle on board.", Sandbar indicated as he looked over the designs.
"I remember that we had built more star drives than we needed when we were preparing for the war. Six were on the command ships, and we had two left in storage. One is being used now for the Harmony-A. We can use the eighth one for the Alicorn.", said Yona.
Cadence said that using the last star drive was a spectacular idea. Construction of the Alicorn began at once. After the parts were built in shop, they were airlifted to the launchpad for assembly on a space station. After all of the pieces were welded together and the systems were hooked up, the testing phase could begin. During the testing, the Young Six were working on creating new space suits for themselves. Cadence also received a surprise from Mickey and his friends.
"We volunteer to assist with bringing Flurry home.", said Minnie.
"I did tell her that we would be sending any volunteers we had along with the Young Six, so it's nice that you guys stepped in.", Cadence replied.
“We’re excited about our first space mission with Aunt Minnie.”, said Millie and Melody.
Mickey and his friends met with the Young Six and explained that they had volunteered to join the mission, which pleased them. The Young Six helped them create some new and sturdier space suits for the mission and then they all started training for the most intense space mission they had ever attempted. Mickey and his friends looked at the designs for the Alicorn and were impressed at how it was going to be constructed. It had two enormous engines that would provide the necessary thrust to reach the nebula. The cockpit in both the main ship and the shuttle each had fourteen seats. There was a seat for each of them and one for Flurry Heart. The flight simulator showed that the ship could potentially reach the asteroid in only a few hours. After two years and three months of construction, one year of testing, and two and a half months of training, everything was finally ready for the mission. Now it was just a matter of watch and wait for the right weather conditions to carry out a safe launch.
TO BE CONTINUED...
It's now or never. Will the Young Six along with Mickey and his friends be able to rescue Flurry Heart and bring her home, or is Flurry going to die in space?