The Thessalonica Legacy

by Dashukta

Above the Sky

The Thessalonica Legacy
Chapter 13: Above the Sky

It had already been late when they arrived at the DropShip. The ponies were exhausted long before they had been roped into the search for the saboteur, so when the search was over so shortly, they were quite relieved. The humans had put them up for the night in one of the Technician bunkrooms, identical to the one the infantry team occupied where Pinkie Pie had found the sneaksuit. Even though the sky would almost certainly be turning pink outside with the approaching dawn, the excitement of the day made it very hard to sleep. But sleep they eventually did, and soundly.

“Oh. My. Gosh. Can you believe we’re on a real live actual spaceship?” Rainbow Dash squealed for the twelfth time in almost as many minutes. Pinkie Pie squealed in response and the two launched into another series of excited exchanges. Twilight groaned and blinked through blurry eyes. The clock on the wall indicated that several hours had passed, but she still had no idea how early it was. Or late. All she knew is she wasn’t fully awake yet. Neither was Spike, curled up next to her on the narrow mattress. She also knew Spike was a covers-hog. She tried to stretch without disturbing the slumbering dragon beside her.

“Ugh. What I wouldn’t give for a proper mattress. I barely slept a wink!” complained Rarity.

“Heh heh. Your snoring would say otherwise” Rainbow cracked back.

“I do NOT snore!” Rarity thrust an indignant nose in the air, “Oh, but I do wish I had my night mask. My eyes must be positively puffy.” Twilight couldn’t see Rarity from her bunk, but was sure the fastidious unicorn’s eyes looked no puffier than usual.

“Will y’all keep it down?” Applejack’s voice floated down from the bunk above her, “I think Twi and Fluttershy are still trying to sleep.”

“I’m awake,” Fluttershy’s small voice came from the other end of the room, as far from the door as possible.

Twilight sighed heavily, “I’m up, too.” Her horn sparked and the manual control for the lights slid up. Banks of recessed lighting glowed to life, exposing the bunkroom in all its dingy glory.

“Yay! Now we’re all awake! Do you think they’ll serve breakfast? Ooh, do you think we could have waffles?” Pinkie Pie nearly fell out of her top-tier bunk.

The ponies began to fuss about in their morning rituals. Rainbow Dash zipped off to the small toilet facility, or as Ling and Ramirez had called it, the ‘head’ for reasons Twilight found totally unsatisfactory at the back of the bunkroom. Applejack retrieved her bags from a storage locker and began digging through for some breakfast. Rarity felt she needed to explain to Pinkie Pie that they were not staying in what could be considered classy accommodations, and did so to great length until interrupted by Rainbow.

“Hey, Rarity? Could you lend me a hoof here? I wanted to take a shower and I’m having trouble with these knobs,” the brash pegasus asked sheepishly.

Rarity faked surprise, “My, my! Rainbow Dash wishing to bathe? What is this world coming to?”

“Oh, ha-ha. Will you help me or not”

“Fine, fine,” Rarity didn’t even rise from her bed. Her horn sparked and the sound of running water wafted in from the ‘head.’

“Thanks, I—AAH! AAH! COLD! TOO COLD!”

Rarity gave an evil smile and her horn glowed again. She giggled to herself as Rainbow called out “Not funny!”

Applejack tossed apples to them all from her saddlebags to serve as breakfast. As they ate, their conversation naturally revolved around their current situation. They asked Twilight to explain again the purpose of their journey to the southern continent, which she tried to explain as best as she could. They wondered then how the journey would take place, if someone would come and fetch them from their bunkroom, and of course, they discussed the news of a saboteur.

“I just can’t believe Liz would do something so awful!” Fluttershy had taken a liking to the Corporal, “She seems like such a nice person, even if she does use a lot of words she really shouldn’t.”

“I feel bad that I got her in trouble by finding those funny pajamas,” chirped Pinkie.

Applejack interjected, “Ya’ can’t blame yourself for that, Pinkie Pie. You did what you was asked to do.” She looked a little sad, “Though I must say, it don’t look god for Liz, do it?”

“My bits are on that Ackermann guy,” Rainbow shook water from her mane, “He’s such a grouch, and Twilight said she heard him yelling all sorts of stuff back in the library.”

“He’s a grouchy meany-pants!” Pinkie punctuated her remark by rapping her hoof on the bedframe.

“Bein’ a sourpuss don’t make ya’ a villain, though.” Applejack said calmly, “If we want to help Liz, we’re gonna have to find more evidence that she did not plant that bomb. Maybe we can get back in that bunkroom if we ask the Leftenant.”

“What do you think they’ll do to her?” asked Fluttershy softly, afraid of the answer.

The sudden buzz of a klaxon and a flashing amber yellow light precluded any further discussion. The ponies looked up in surprise and even the still-slumbering Spike shot awake. A voice they did not recognize echoed throughout the room and the corridors, seeming to come from everywhere at once.

“ALL HANDS MAKE FINAL LAUNCH PREPARATIONS. ALL HANDS MAKE FINAL LAUNCH PREPARATIONS.”

The klaxon wailed again and the message repeated, then the ponies were plunged into silence.

“What in the hey was that racket all about?” Applejack asked, trying to get the ringing out of her ears.
“Lunch preparations? Is it lunchtime already?” Pinkie Pie looked confused.

“Not lunch preparations, Pinkie, launch preparations,” Twilight corrected. “I think that means they’re getting ready to take-off.”

“Oh Awesome!” Rainbow Dash was giddy with anticipation.

There was a knock and the door and Ramirez and Ling entered, politely asking if the ladies were in a state to receive visitors.

“Well, ladies, we’re all loaded up and getting ready to take-off. If you don’t mind, we’d like to reset your cabin for the burn.” Ramirez said matter-of-factly.

As the ponies and Spike stood aside, Ramirez and Ling released a series of catches on the bunks. They then pulled the frames out from the wall. One by one they laid each bunkframe down on the floor and reactivated the catches. They then pulled out a tangle of long straps that had been tucked under each mattress.

“Why are you laying them on the ground?” Rainbow asked.

Ramirez answered her while he worked, “Couple reasons. When we’re flying to or from a JumpShip, the nose of the ship becomes ‘up’ and the engines become ‘down,’ so this wall becomes the ceiling and that wall becomes the floor. The furniture all rotates on these tracks so we don’t have to sleep and sit sideways during a long trip.”

“That makes sense,” said Pinkie Pie. Twilight had to agree, but the others just looked quizzical.

Ramirez continued, “But as for why we’re doing this now, our jumpseats aren’t really built for pony anatomy. So instead, you’ll ride out the launch strapped to your bunks. It’ll be a little awkward at first, but once the g-forces build up, it’ll be fine. Now I’ll explain what’s going to happen during the launch.”

****************

They felt more than heard the rumbling emanating from far away at the rear of the ship. The ponies were each secured tightly to their bunks, hanging awkwardly against the straps. The klaxon sounded again, the voice counting down to the launch now just moments away. Excitement ran high, tinged with nerves and adrenaline. Rarity breathed hard, trying not to show signs of unladylike panic. Rainbow Dash grinned, counting along with the booming voice. Ling had already left to ride out the flight with his infantry squad leaving Ramirez alone with the ponies.

“That’s final call. I’d better get strapped in.” he said.

“Wait! What about Spike?” Twilight called frantically. The little dragon still stood by the bedframes, a little miffed he’d been forgotten.

Ramirez walked to the aft wall and pulled on a handhold. A panel folded down then hinged in the middle forming a narrow, padded jumpseat built into the wall, “Don’t worry, I didn’t forget about Spike. Come here, buddy.”

He locked the seat into place then sat down, adjusting the straps over his shoulders. Spike trundled over, not quite sure what to expect until Ramirez plucked him up and sat the purple dragon down on his lap. The MechWarrior passed the lap belt around himself and Spike and tightened the shoulder straps so they passed over the dragon’s slender shoulders as well.

The rumble built to a roar as the Felicity Klimkosky’s massive engines flared to their full power. In the bunkroom, everything shook with a horrible violence. Rainbow Dash felt as though her teeth were about to jump out of her skull. This was so exciting. They were actually aboard a spaceship and it was actually taking off!

At first there was no sense of motion, just a slight pressure pushing her belly into the mattress. The rumbling continued for what seemed like forever, but couldn’t have been more than a few minutes. She felt herself getting pushed harder and harder into the mattress and her body growing heavier and heavier, like when she was flying fast and pulling out of a dive. She tried to look around to see how her friends were handling the ride, but found that her head had grown too heavy to lift.

All of a sudden, the rumbling changed its sound, growing less intense. Her body was thrown forward and the straps cut into her back. Ramirez yelled out something, presumably an explanation of what was happening, but it was lost as the roar of the engines started afresh and she was once again shoved into the mattress.

Eventually, the roar died away, becoming first a growl, then the distant rumble of thunder before disappearing entirely. The pressure forcing her into the mattress died away, too. In fact, it died away completely. She felt funny, like her heart and stomach were trying to come up through her throat. She recognized that sensation, she felt it when diving steeply towards the ground.

The klaxon fired one short burst, at which point Ramirez unbuckled the harness holding him and Spike to the jumpseat. He gave Spike a little shove, sending the dragon tumbling slowly through the air. Spike squealed in surprise as he found himself suspended in midair.

“Aah! Aah! What’s going on? Twilight! Help!” He twisted and turned and flailed his arms, grabbing for purchase that was nowhere to be found.

Ramirez moved quickly, releasing the straps restraining the ponies.

“Whee!” Pinkie Pie launched into a tumbling cartwheel, ricocheting off the wall.

“Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!” Fluttershy frantically kicked her legs in the air as she floated off the bunk.

Twilight wrapped her forelimbs around the bunkframe. Her horn sparked and Spike floated easily towards her surrounded in a sparkling glow. He grasped the frame with his arms, holding on as if for dear life

“We’re weightless, Spike! I think we might be in orbit!” she said excitedly. She carefully let go.

“You mean we’re in space? Yes! Awesome!” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings, but with no force counteracting the movement, she found herself tumbling back-first. “Woa-WOAH!” she crashed into Applejack sending them both head-over-heels across the room. The pegasus apologized profusely, but Applejack just laughed. They floated in a tangle, narrowly missing Pinkie Pie who was now pretending to be swimming.

“This is fun!” the pink pony giggled. “Are you OK, Rarity? You look a little green.”

“Oh, I feel sick,” the elegant unicorn groaned, clamping her eyes shut.

Ramirez pushed off and floated over to Rarity. He offered her a waxed paper bag from a small stash in a pocket of his fatigues, “Yeah, motion sickness is really common in micrograv conditions. It always happens to me, too. Here, if you feel you need to vomit, use this.”

Rarity wanted to take the bag, but she dare not let go and she feared that even the small amount of concentration necessary to use her magic to take it would send her over the edge. It didn’t help when Ramirez suddenly grabbed a second bag and held it quickly to his mouth and retched grotesquely. In the end, she just smiled weakly, “Thank you, darling. I’ll… take it when I need it.”

Applejack managed to extract herself from Rainbow’s tangle of limbs, “Sure is fun, but how is this even possible? What’s ‘micrograv’?”

“Micro-gravity. It means very little gravity. Here, like this,” Twilight retrieved an apple from the storage locker and tried to explain orbital mechanics, using the apple to represent the planet and an appleseed as the satellite, “See, normally things fall straight down, but the world is round like a ball. If you move sideways fast enough, you end up falling around the planet instead of towards the planet.”

“We’re falling?” Fluttershy was not entirely comfortable with the proposition. Twilight tried to calm her nervous friend, but her explanation tended more on the technical than what Fluttershy truly needed right then.

The announcement system chirped and the voice of Captain Tartaglia boomed through the ship, “Sargent Ramirez to the bridge, please. Ramirez to the bridge. And please bring our passengers.”

****************

It took them several minutes to convince Rarity to let go of the bedframe, and several more to get everyone through the corridor. Spike adapted quickly to maneuvering through the ship not by floating but by grasping the copious railings and handholds and pulling himself along. He was pleased with himself that the humans he saw, including Ramirez, were navigating the same way. Lacking hands, Twilight and Applejack hooked their hooves around the handrails and tried pulling themselves along like that. Rainbow Dash continued to insist on using her wings, to mixed success, while Fluttershy took a page from Pinkie Pie and pushed off of the walls. The slow float pleased her, and she found she could control her movements by turning her body and twitching her wings. Rarity just curled herself into a pitiful little ball and let Ramirez push her along.

Tartaglia was alone with the pilot on the Felicity Klimkosky’s small bridge when the ponies came tumbling through the door. He was pleased to see they were enjoying themselves, with the possible exception of Rarity who looked like she was about to throw-up. The pilot looked up from his display in surprise when an excited Pinkie Pie suddenly thrust her head into his field of vision.

“Hi! What’s your name? My name’s Pinkie Pie. Why are you still strapped down in that seat? Don’t you want to float around? It’s so fun to float around. I wonder if this is what it’s like to be a pegasus pony?” she shot off through the air, “Hey, Dashie? Is this what it’s like to be a pegasus?”

The pilot looked to Tartaglia with a very critical look on his face, “No offence, sir, your ship and all, but why are there a bunch of animals on my flight deck?”

“Animals!” Rarity shot forward with newfound energy, “Well, I never! I’ll have you know, you uncouth…” she floated right up into the man’s face prepared to give him a severe dressing-down, but found him staring back uncomprehending, “Uh…You can’t understand what I’m saying, can you?”

Twilight answered from the back of the room where she was peering curiously at the blinking computers “I haven’t cast a translation spell on him. The spell works by translating what you hear in your head, not by actually changing what people say.”

“Oh, really?” Rarity prepared a tirade even more scathing that she would have otherwise, but was preempted by Captain Tartaglia.

“If you’re quite finished harassing my crew, I have a special treat for you girls,” he waved for them to join him by the thick armored windows.

Spike humpfed, “Tsch. Typical.”

“And you, you crazy lizard. Get your tail up here,” Tartaglia grinned. Spike feigned offense and followed the ponies up to where the Captain was indicating.

When they had first entered the bridge, Twilight had not noticed the line of windows. From the back of the room they just appeared to be black panels on the wall above the computers and crew stations. She did not know what to expect when she joined her friends next to Tartaglia. As she drew near, she saw that the black panels were actually windows, and what was beyond the windows took her breath away. In fact, all of the ponies were struck speechless by the magnificent spectacle before their eyes.

Stars filled the sky, more stars than she could imagine. She looked for familiar constellations, but the numberless swarm of new lights overwhelmed her. Most of them were faint, barely registering in her eyes, but they were there all the same. She suddenly felt very, very small but at the same time peaceful. Stargazing always made her feel part of something bigger, but this was on a different scale entirely.

It was dark below them, though. No stars shined in the bottom quarter of her view as if someone had pulled a velvet blanket across the sky. Separating the two regions was a long impossibly thin curve of silvery white, fading out to either end. She let out a little involuntary sigh as she realized she was looking at the horizon, and the vast black expanse below was the world draped in the veil of night.

“You girls made it just in time,” Tartaglia whispered behind them, “We should be coming up on sunrise right… about… now.”

His timing was a little off, but not by much. The glow grew brighter and bluer in color, extending out to reveal more of the curve. With each passing moment the thin crescent grew in intensity. All at once, the sun burst forth from the horizon. It was brilliant white and its light washed out the surrounding stars, even though the sky stayed an inky black. As the fiercely burning orb rapidly rose higher, the light crept out towards them, revealing the face of the world below as the light inexorably pushed back the darkness as if peeling away the skin of a fruit. Broad wisps of clouds reflected bright yellow in the morning light above steel-grey seas. Awed by the sight, the ponies let out a collective gasp.

“Ooh, I wish my cutie mark was poetry related,” Fluttershy barely even whispered. Twilight nodded in silent agreement, unable to formulate words of her own.

The curve of the horizon was now sheathed in a pale blue glow. She could see brown and green land now beneath them, barely distinguishable from the now deep blue water. The clouds were racing past beneath them in a dazzling array of shapes and patterns and sizes. She knew they had to be very high up. She knew they had to be moving very, very, fast.

“Why isn’t the sky blue?” asked Applejack, “The sun’s up, but it’s still dark up there.”

“We’re above the sky, AJ. We’re in space!” answered Rainbow Dash in reverent tones, “Hey, just how high off the ground are we?” She spoke without taking her eyes from the world rolling past below.

“About 170 kilometers up, give or take. We’re orbiting once about every 90 minutes. We should be passing over the suspected Thessalonica site in two orbits—we didn’t have good scans of that area, and we’ll need them to plot a landing point. Once we pick an LZ, we’ll de-orbit and go take a look.” He paused, “So you girls will have some time to play around. These are the only windows on the ship, so you’re free to make use of the bridge and the conference room below. Just try to stay out of the way of my crew,” he indicated the pilot intently watching his display.

They didn’t leave the bridge. The lure of the windows and the wonders beyond was much too strong to even consider leaving the room. Even as they played, every now and then, they would stop and stare out the windows. Mostly, their gaze would fall on the world below. More than once, a game of three-dimensional tag or a floating race across the room or a demonstration of zero-g dancing would be put on hiatus as the desolate beauty stole their attention once again.

“Hey, Twilight? How big is the world?” Rainbow Dash asked suddenly, after watching a coastline swing past beneath them.

Twilight thought, trying to recall the figure, “You mean diameter or circumference?”

“Like, how far is it around?”

“Uh. A bit less than 25 thousand miles, depending on how you measure. Why?” she asked, though she thought she already knew where Dash’s mind was headed.

“So if we’re travelling almost 25 thousand miles every hour and a half, that’s what? About 17 thousand miles an hour?”

“Well, not quite, our altitude adds some distance and…”

“Ballpark.” Rainbow interrupted.

“Then yes. That’s about right.”

“You know what that means?” Rainbow asked with a grin, “We’re the fastest ponies EVER!”

Twilight humored her friend, “And the highest-flying. And probably the first to circle the entire globe.”

Applejack joined the conversation, “Though does it really count, considerin’ we ain’t exactly doin’ it unassisted?”

Rainbow Dash rubber her chin “Hmm. You’re right. I wonder if they have a spacesuit I could use.”

Tartaglia interrupted their discussion, “I’m sorry, girls, but we’ve selected an LZ and are ready to begin the de-orbit burn. Sargent Ramirez will take you back to your bunkroom.”

The girls and Spike let out a collective groan. “Do we really have to go back? Isn’t there some way we could stay here?” Rainbow pleaded.

“We’ll be really quiet. We won’t make a peep!” added Fluttershy.

Tartaglia hesitated, “Uh, you really should be strapped in. It can get a bit bumpy.”

“What about the jumpseats? Can’t we at least try to see if they’d fit us?” asked Twilight.

With a little fussing, the ponies were finagled into a row of seats lining the back of the small bridge. They sat on their haunches, their lower legs dangling off the edge of the seat and their backs held against the backrest by the harness. They wrapped their forelimbs around the shoulder straps. It was not exactly comfortable, but they accepted it without complaining. Spike sat in the lap of a rather bemused weapons officer who had joined them along with the rest of the normal bridge crew. He tried to ask which buttons fired the laser cannons he was sure the ship must have, but all the human heard was a series of growls and squeaks.

Twilight tried to listen to the crew as they went about their various jobs. She could tell everything was very organized. Everyone had a specific job, and everything was carefully orchestrated. She was able to catch a few words, but on the whole she could barely follow what was going on.

She did, however, feel the sudden thud of the thrusters realigning the vessel’s attitude, though she didn’t understand what it was. She also felt the rumble of the engines when they fired to slow the ship down and begin reentry.

For several minutes, the blackness outside the windows was replaced by a bright orange glow. Afraid that something was wrong, she yelled out to the Captain.

“Don’t worry, that’s normal. That’s super-heated plasma from the friction of us moving so fast through the atmosphere,” he replied.

“Oh! Like a meteorite?”

“Yeah, only we don’t burn up,” he gave her a sideways smile.

She could feel her limbs and head growing progressively heavier as they slowed down. The glow outside the windows eventually gave way to a clear blue sky. The ride did indeed grow quite bumpy, and the deeper they plunged into the atmosphere, the bumpier it got.

When they touched down, it was with a heavy thud that nearly knocked her teeth out. So violent was the shaking as they skidded to a stop, that she was quite grateful when it finally stopped, their velocity spent. Relieved, she let out a heavy sigh.

“Let’s do that AGAIN!” yelled Pinkie Pie. Rarity, Applejack, and Fluttershy were less than thrilled with that prospect.

The pilot spoke to Tartaglia, “The suspect site is about fifteen klicks out bearing two-one-niner. The near-IR scan looks pretty interesting. I think you’ll like this.”

Comments

[DragonMaus]

The ponies looked up in surprise and even the still-slumbering Spike shot awake.

Tech import #1: A new alarm clock for Spike.