Sector 7

by Robert Emerald Fountain

Rating: everyone
Tags: Science Fiction, Alternate Universe, Young Six, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Adventure
Length: 2719

Mapping the final sector of the universe

For the past several months, the Young Six have been mapping part of the universe. Sectors 3, 4, and 6 have been easy, and Sector 5 has been their hardest one so far. The space station's crew at this final sector has informed them that they managed to get a small amount of information on one planet before the budgets were cut several years ago. The Young Six will get the remaining information on this planet and finally finish their mission and return home after eight months in space.

Note: This sector is our own solar system.

Credit goes to Deviantart user Dinosaurbro20 for Andrew and Lizzie's names.
https://www.deviantart.com/dinosaurbro20/art/Bio-Marie-2023-947541422
https://www.deviantart.com/dinosaurbro20/art/Andrew-2022-beyond-930119198
https://www.deviantart.com/dinosaurbro20/art/Bio-Lizzie-2023-947650884

Credit goes to Deviantart user michaeldreemur for Michael and Taylor's names.
https://www.deviantart.com/michaeldreemurr/art/CALLIE-HOLDING-MY-CHILD-940690721

Published 2023-03-18 03:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2023-03-18 03:00:00 UTC

Silverstream

Silverstream picked her destination to be Saturn. The swirling and rolling gases on this planet were indicated by a probe she sent down to be at a pressure high enough to crush, melt, or vaporize her ship if she tried to land. Her probe was destroyed since its shields failed after a few hours, but she knew this from the get-go. Similar to what Ocellus had reported about Uranus and Neptune, Saturn's atmosphere was mostly composed of hydrogen and helium. Silverstream saw on her scanner that Saturn had almost 90 moons, and she was astonished by the different colored clouds that appeared as stripes around the planet in various shades of brown, gray, and yellow.

She saw many rings around Saturn that were clearly visible. They were made of ice chunks and rocks that had been smashed by the magnetic field and coated with dust and other substances. Some of these chunks were close to being as big as a house, while some were even bigger and close to being the size of mountains. She noted all of this in her logs before confirming that she had missed nothing. Once she was certain that all of her notes were accurate, she left Saturn and returned to the space station.

Smolder

With Mercury and Venus being the closest ones to the sun, Smolder volunteered to chart them. These two planets would be blistering hot, so she readied her heat suit and swapped out the cooling-water with liquid nitrogen. Mercury was filled with craters, similar to Earth's moon as Sandbar said. Whenever the sun was beating down, the surface reached a scorching 800 degrees Fahrenheit. However, there was no atmosphere to hold in all of that heat. So the temperature plummeted to a bitter-cold negative 290 degrees Fahrenheit. On some parts of the planet, the sun would rise briefly, set quickly, and then rise again. Temperatures and high levels of radiation from the sun led Smolder to say that it was impossible for life to be possible without extreme protection on Mercury.

Venus was another story. This planet was hotter than Mercury since it was heavily wrapped in clouds and covered with thousands of small volcanoes. The hottest temperature reached 900 degrees Fahrenheit. The clouds were mostly composed of sulfuric acid, and there were high levels of carbon-dioxide which had a corrosive effect at surface levels. This was due to the fact that the CO2 was both very hot and at high pressure at the same time. Luckily, both Smolder's suit and her ship were designed to be resistant to atmospheres like this. She had to watch her step in order to avoid stepping or falling in the boiling rivers of lava. Once Smolder was certain that she had mapped out Venus completely, she lifted off and returned to the space station around Earth.

Earth

After regrouping on the space station, everyone shared their findings with Sandbar. After loading the information into the computers, they boarded their personal ships and flew down to the Earth below. After entering the atmosphere, they dropped their landing gear and touched down safely.

They remembered Daring Do saying that the air on Earth was safe to breathe, so they only carried their mapping equipment when they deployed small shuttles from their ships. Once they were in the air, they started looking for the signs of life that Daring Do had mentioned. They did not need to search for long. They found two cities on the Earth, called Inkopolis and Splatsville, which were a great distance from each other. The main citizens in these cities walked on two legs and had hair that resembled the tentacles of either a squid or an octopus. During a time when they had landed near Inkopolis, they interviewed some of the citizens and learned that they were called "inklings" and "octolings". There were other species too, but they only gathered the basic information on them, such as anatomy. For the most part, they learned about the history of both cities, in addition to how the planet's original inhabitants were wiped out from rising water levels.

As they came close to arriving at Splatsville during a heavy thunderstorm, they spotted a car speeding to what appeared to be a hospital. However, the rain was falling fast and the vehicle soon had to slow down until the driver pulled over and safely came to a stop without crashing.

"I volunteer to see if they need help.", said Smolder over the radio.

Sandbar acknowledged and the rest of the group continued to look around and chart the terrain in the area.

After converting her shuttle for mobility on land, Smolder put on her rain jacket, rushed to the vehicle, and met the two inklings that were inside. The one in the passenger seat was female and was groaning in pain as she clutched her stomach.

"Are you two okay?", asked Smolder over the rain after the driver opened his window.

"My name's Michael. We're not hurt, but we are a little shaken from our car skidding. We're in a hurry to get to the hospital. My wife, Callie, is in labor.", said the driver.

"Oh my goodness. I'll be right back.", said Smolder as she turned to run back to her shuttle.

Smolder came back to Michael and Callie in less than two minutes. She had a wheeled stretcher with her and helped Callie get onto it. In the meantime, Ocellus began to get concerned about what was happening with Smolder. To check on her, she radioed in.

"Smolder, what's going on?", she asked nervously.

"I have two inklings that are about to be parents.", said Smolder as she and Michael rushed Callie to the shuttle.

Once they were on-board and the doors were shut, Smolder put on scrubs and had Callie put on a medical gown. After Smolder opened a platform that resembled a hospital bed, she had Callie lie down. Michael helped her stay calm while Smolder propped her legs up, covered her abdomen with a medical blanket, and readied an ultrasonic apparatus after putting on nitrile gloves. As she moved the wand over Callie's stomach, she looked closely at the screen to make sure that the baby was healthy. Upon seeing that nothing seemed to be wrong, she turned back to face Callie and reached down under the medical blanket.

"Callie, get ready to push.", she said intently.

Callie held Michael's hand nervously and then began to push once Smolder had said she was ready.

"You're doing good. Give me one last push.", said Smolder after three pushes.

Callie was already sweating profusely from the last three pushes. As she gave the last push, pain shot through her and she screamed loudly in AGONY. She screamed so loud that everyone's ears were ringing, including her own. Seconds later, Callie felt a large relief and she lowered her head back. At the same time, she and Michael heard their child let out its first cry.

"It's a boy.", said Smolder.

After letting Michael cut the cord, Smolder wrapped the baby snugly in a warm blanket after cleaning him off. After handing Callie her newborn son, Smolder took off her scrubs and her gloves as she told Michael to follow her in the car. Michael nodded and ran back outside. Once he had started the engine and turned on the headlights, Smolder closed the shuttle's door, ran to her seat and started the shuttle's engine to drive to the hospital.

"Callie, only a doctor can assess your son's health. I am not one, so I don't have the required equipment to do so.", Smolder said as she stepped on the gas.

After radioing the hospital, Smolder noticed the rain starting to let up. Arriving at the hospital's emergency entrance, she opened a ramp on her shuttle and wheeled Callie to the orderlies waiting outside. As Callie was wheeled inside, Smolder called to her friends.

"Guys, you may want to see this. Lock in on my position and meet me.", she said.

"Copy that, Smolder. Ocellus relayed your news to us.", replied Sandbar.

Everyone else arrived after converting their shuttles to drive on land. They were waiting inside when one of the orderlies came to meet them.

"Is one of you named Smolder?", asked the nurse.

Smolder raised her talons.

"Would all of you like to see Callie?", asked the nurse.

Everyone nodded and the nurse led them to the room where Callie was. She was lying back and cradling her son lovingly. Michael was sitting next to her in a chair and they both had tears in their eyes.

"His name's Taylor.", said Callie through her tears.

Everyone walked over to see Taylor and they quietly awwed at how cute he was.

A few minutes later, they left the hospital and got back on their shuttles to resume mapping out the Earth. As they passed over the oceans, they spotted a few islands but made sure to not get too close. By sunset, they had mapped out the entire world and they returned to the Harmony to get ready for heading home.

Preparing to Return

Two months later...

As the Young Six were getting ready to head home to Equus, they received a video call from Callie.

"This is the Harmony. Go ahead, Callie.", said Sandbar.

"I want to thank Smolder for helping me. Also, I want you to meet my cousin Marie, and her daughter Lizzie.", said Callie as another inkling walked up to the camera.

Marie waved at the Young Six, and Lizzie did the same.

"Marie, how old is Lizzie?", asked Ocellus out of curiosity.

"She just turned two last month.", said Marie.

The Young Six proceeded to explain to both Callie and Marie who they were and what they had been doing. Then, Callie and Marie explained who they were and that they were music stars. The Young Six were shocked.

"We just finished our mission and it is time for us to head home.", said Sandbar.

"It sounds like you've had an interesting mission. We hope to see you again someday.", said the Squid Sisters.

The Young Six acknowledged and continued preparing to go home.

Gallus

Gallus decided to map out Earth's moon along with Mars. He started with the Earth's moon. Daring Do made sure to warn him that the gravity would be less since the moon was smaller than Earth. He acknowledged and proceeded to land. He touched down slowly in order to secure a soft landing and then deployed his rover.

As he sped along the surface, he took hundreds of pictures. He came across six structures with a flag next to them in different places. Each one had a name plate that said who came to that spot. He was unable to tell what the flags looked like, because they were faded from many years of exposure to sunlight. At three of the sites, he found rovers, but their batteries were dead. His rover had a solar panel with which to recharge the batteries. Once he had visited all of the craters and rock formations, along with taking samples, he returned to his ship and lifted off to head for Mars.

On Mars, Gallus noticed that anything he had with him weighed only 1/3 of what it would weigh normally. As he traversed the planet, he found what appeared to be several mechanical devices and probes that had been sent long ago. Some of these machines were either badly broken or completely destroyed. Not wanting to risk breaking anything, he only took pictures. Dust storms happened four times during his trek, but he had secured his ship firmly so it wouldn't get flipped over and damaged. At one point, he found what looked like an enormous volcano, but a seismic scan said it was only dormant and not going to erupt anytime soon. After confirming that he had charted all of the landscape on Mars; Gallus returned to his ship, launched, and returned to the space station.

Ocellus

Ocellus chose Uranus and Neptune as her destinations to map out. Both of these planets appeared bluish in color and did not have any solid landmasses except for their moons. Since these two planets were mostly gas, Ocellus charted them from her ship. Daring Do had said there weren't any reports of what the moons were named, so Ocellus only took note of the number of moons instead. Her sensors showed that Neptune was mostly composed of helium, hydrogen, and sulfur with traces of methane. Looking through her ship's telescope, she saw some very faint rings that appeared to be made of small rock fragments. She sent a probe down to analyze the atmosphere, and discovered that this planet was extremely windy. There was also ice below the clouds, but the constant wind kept it from drifting into space. She sent the probe deeper and found that there was indeed a core to Neptune, made of ice and rock, that seemed to be exactly the same size as Earth. In the process of locating the core, she found that there was water, ammonia, and methane ice below the main atmosphere.

Uranus was similar, but it was slightly different in color. It was a bluish-green color. Her ship's computer identified this to be the result of the methane in the atmosphere absorbing red light. She saw the rings more clearly than the rings around Neptune due to the fact that these rings were composed of larger particles. These were mainly rocks and large pieces of ice. The inner rings were darker and more difficult to see. Ocellus had to use a night-vision function in her telescope in order to see these rings. They were so dark that she noted they looked similar to charcoal. What really stood out is that the rings were vertical. She had no idea why this was, nor did Daring Do when Ocellus returned to the space station after making sure she had not missed anything.

Yona

Yona chose to map the largest planet, Jupiter. Her sensors said that the magnetic field was 20 times stronger than Earth's, so she kept her distance. Only with her telescope could Yona see Jupiter's very faint rings of dust. She also sent a probe to measure the wind speed inside a huge red spot on Jupiter's surface. Her readings from the anemometer registered about 270 MPH, which told her it was a raging storm, similar to a hurricane. Yona was also successful in calculating that Jupiter was the largest planet in this entire solar system. Other readouts from her probes indicated strong pressure and heat levels could destroy a spaceship if it tried to land on Jupiter, meaning it was impossible to establish a research outpost. This was also confirmed when her probes showed that Jupiter had no defined surface. What she could tell was that there were plumes of sulfur and phosphorous-rich gases that rose from Jupiter's interior layers. Combined with a very fast rotation that lasted only 10 hours each, creating jet-streams, these clouds were separated into dark bands and bright belts across very long stretches.

Jupiter had many moons, one of which had a crust made of solid ice. Yona explored this moon, called Europa, to see what secrets it held. She had to use a superheated drill to pierce through the ice, because it was harder than granite. 10 miles under the ice, she found a raging ocean of water, that held the possible elements to sustain life. She opted to not search for life, because she didn't know how long it would take until her drilled hole froze shut. Also, she had to avoid geysers when landing. Luckily, she landed on Europa without being hit by flash-frozen water from the geysers, and she left in the same manner. This involved taking tight maneuvers, but she was unscathed in the end. A quick analysis of Jupiter's magnetic field showed that Europa was squeezed and stretched as it orbited, which led to the water being in constant motion under the ice.

After Yona had taken all of the pictures she needed, she flew back through the asteroid belt and returned to the space station. She and her friends were now ready to explore Earth.