A DIFFERENT POINT OF VIEW

by De Writer

Safe in Orbit

Back in the Observatory, Luna located the wreck of the Lash of Empire in the field of her telescope. Looking up, she commented, “As bad as things got here, after the Mong bomb test, these poor folks got it far worse! Take a look, Celestia!”

Celestia put her eye to the eyepiece and tweaked the focus a tiny bit. “Dear Mother!” she exclaimed. How did they mange to get plastered like that? Let’s see … The Displacement Engine’s driver array is about half gone. They have three hull breaches that I can see. Only one seems to be leaking air at the moment. There, now that I can see the propulsor array, it is no wonder that they need help! I can only make out two of the array pylons left!”

Luna snickered, “Gee, you would think that we have never seen a Displacement Engine space craft before!”

Celestia nodded sarcastic agreement. “Right! Total mystery, here! Gee, what holds it up, Miss Alicorn of Science? What is this? The fifth or sixth one?"

Luna sobered some. “Counting the one that we DID NOT see in time, there on the moon, it is six. These two were the only warships, though.”

Luna retrieved the new Scroll and thoughtfully double checked every bit of it, to be certain that it said what it was supposed to. She placed it into the stand to hold it unrolled to her exact place.

She invited, “Want to play, Celestia? This will be fun.”

Celestia shook her head. “No, Luna. I enjoy watching you do work like this, though.” She settled herself on a big cushion to watch.

Having Creation Magic of her own, Celestia could literally see the beauty of Luna’s magic as it developed.

Luna reared, spreading her wings like a big cup to help contain, form and launch the spell. She began to chant the ancient mathematics of the Language of Creation, as taught to them by the Titan of Life Creation. The exacting dance of mathematical expressions creating, manipulating, and interacting, controlled her precise working. When all was exactly as Luna wished it to be, she sent it on its way.

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Aboard the Lash, drifting in her uncertain orbit with all power off, the only lights those of candles, Hissin listened with pride as the strange distortions began. None of his crew were giving any voice to fear. They might not understand how it was being done but they knew that a friendly Power was moving their crippled vessel away from that deadly planet below and into safe space.

The distortions settled down. The blue creature gently tapped Sensors. “Power up, Sensors. Get all the data that you can. You are so good at it.”

She spared him a smile as she began to power up her station.

Pilot and Astrogation were both busy too.

They looked up in awe. Pilot reported, “We were placed into our desired orbit with all of the specified elements, orientation of the vessel and orbital tilt in a single maneuver with no corrections needed.”

Engineering reported, “Our power up is going well. We have some sections that were damaged too badly to be safe for repowering. Aside from the 70% loss of our auxiliary maneuvering systems and it still being unsafe to use any form of Displacement equipment, including our primary weapons, we have a safe platform to begin repairs.”

Life Support reported in, “Our air regeneration equipment is down by 30% and our waste recovery systems are at 75%. This is within standard battle damage safety limits. Life support is safely operational.”

Hissin approached the Respected One, still lounging on Hassit. “We thank you for your assistance, Sir. Without it, our ship and our news would have been lost to the Empire. Is there anything that we can do for you?”

He nodded in what was now recognized as agreement. “Let me go over all the data that Sensors picked up from that weapon test. Due to other necessities, I missed quite a bit of it. I do know how good she is and trust that even with my cushion’s interference, she got most of it.”

Hissin nodded assent and asked Sensors, “Is the situation stable enough to give the Respected One his request at this time?”

She replied briskly, “Sir and Master, we can now do that. I have all routine hazard scans running on automatic. They are set to override and deliver warnings if needed.” She began to work at her station.

Apologetically she explained, “Due to the interference of, um, your cushion, Respected One, we only got the opening one half second of the event in visible light. It is impressive but not terribly informative.”

“Quite all right, Sensors. You did an amazing job, considering the problem that you had.” He watched the whole detonation sequence through to the incoming masses of still molten debris striking the ship. He then examined all of the data that was in other forms.

“You really did do excellently, Sensors. Hissin should commend you in his reports. In fact, this whole bridge crew should be commended. You all handled the emergency perfectly.

“Now, I need to go and give belated birthday gifts to some friends. I thought that keeping you all alive was a tad more important. I am sure that both Eris and Cy would agree.”

Hissin gave his strange visitor an almost puzzled look. “I shall recommend that the Empire stay away from here. We see the physical world in one way. You have a a very different point of view.”

The old blue unicorn slowly faded away.

~THE END~