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sockmonkeygerald @
paintminion @
Sinjin @
eyayah
hopefully a little bit more technological stance on "taking flight" is acceptable, been on a space kick recently c:
Name: Amaranth41
ID: 212354
Entry Prompt: Big Wide Wingy Things - Story
Entry Title: Ad Astra
Dragon Author:
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Astra paced nervously across the sand, her steps stuttering as she turned back and forth to where Abernathy and Thorusofer had set up with their devices.
"How much longer?"
Abernathy glanced at the ticking numbers as she messed around with pressure gauges, mechanical readouts, every now and then a spark of Lightning arcing from her claws to the exposed wires.
"Two minutes." She said without looking up from what she was working on. "Thorusofer, how's the fuel temperature looking?"
"Holding steady. Pressure is optimal, all seals appear to be holding. Engine temperature is rising, we should be good for ignition in one minute thirty."
The rocket sat on a platform in the sand hundreds of feet away; it was dwarfed by the enormous cliffs at the edge of the Sunbeam Ruins, a toy left behind by a careless dragonet after a day at the beach. And yet, Astra could see the elemental runes on its sides pulsating with power, she could feel the Lightning magic streaking down the cables from Abernathy and Thorusofer's control panels towards the tiny yet massive machine: it was nothing to be trifled with, a feat of dragon engineering.
A smaller, third station was set off to the side of Abernathy and Thorusofer's masses of wiring and gauges and screens, this one made of weather instruments. A barometer took up the bulk of the space, a large round, glass vessel filled with mercury. Above it, an anemometer with a pulsing Wind sigil on it spun lazily, not enough speed for the number paddles to read above zero. The perfect conditions for a launch. Astra wrung her hands together and glanced for the umpteenth time between the rocket and the sky, the vehicle and its final destination, hopefully.
"T-minus ten seconds to ignition." Abernathy's voice snapped Astra out of her musings, and she shook her head briefly. She hurried over to look over Abernathy's shoulder, watching the numbers on her control panel flip as they counted down. "Ignition in five, four, three, two, one. We have ignition."
The ground rumbled as the rocket let out a roar, louder than the largest crack of thunder from the Tempest Spire. The bell at the bottom glowed white hot, and all of the Fire runes on the outside lit up orange as flames began to grow out of the bottom of the engine. With all the light and noise, if Astra hadn't known any better, she would've assumed that Stormcatcher had decided to unleash his wrath.
"Engine temperature within acceptable limits." Thorusofer said, glancing between numbers written on his scroll and the furiously ticking mechanical readouts, each one increasing at a breakneck pace. "Output is stable, we should be getting thrust once we are go for liftoff."
Astra craned her neck over top of Abernathy to check the small weather station to her side, her teal eyes taking in the readings of the instruments. There was a small scroll on the side of the stand that briefly glowed, and Astra rushed over to open it. It was full of numbers, colors, arrows and maps, all forecasting the upcoming wind and weather patterns.
"Just got news from Fahrenheit, he got some new numbers in but we're still good." Astra said with a sigh of relief. "Everything else looks optimal for launch conditions, we are a go."
As Astra looked over to the rocket again, a sleek, metal beast starkly contrasting the undeveloped sands of the northern edge of the Carrion Canyon and the graceful stone buildings just visible over the edge of the Sunbeam Ruins. The sky was a solid blue so intense it almost looked like a painted backdrop, barely any wisps of cloud drifting by, Stormcatcher for once blessing them with clear skies. Astra's heart sang with the rumble of the rocket, fear and excitement mingling in her chest as she waited, patiently, breathlessly, for the moment of truth when the project that she had poured years of her life into finally left the ground. Astra stepped back to Abernathy's control panel to watch the clock tick downwards to liftoff.
The seconds passed as if it was an eternity, finally reaching the single digits.
"Liftoff in T minus ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four,"
"Three,"
"Two,"
"One."
The sound tripled as the engines roared to life, and the ground shook like an earthquake the likes of which Astra had never experienced. The bottom of the rocket burned yellow, orange, and white, an expanding ball of fire. Astra's breath caught in her throat for the tiniest fraction of a second as she waited, hoped, dreamed.
The rocket rose.
"And we have liftoff!" Thorusofer cried.
Astra cheered, she grabbed Abernathy and Thorusofer and hugged them as tears of joy ran down her face. The three of them laughed, giddy, for a moment before Abernathy and Thorusofer each had to return to their panels of instruments. Astra stood in shock as she watched her creation sail upwards, a silver arrow rising to touch the heavens. At this point, the sigils on the outside were no longer visible, though she knew they were there - the blessings and magic of each of the deities, using each of their elements to tie together the intricacies of that which might one day carry dragons to the stars.
"We're approaching max Q." Thorusofer said. He looked worried for the first time over the course of the launch, he furrowed his brows as he looked up at the rocket in the sky, growing smaller and smaller each second. The pressure from the atmosphere would be growing as the rocket went faster and faster, before falling away as the atmosphere thinned to give way to true space. That pressure was the one thing that could cause the whole mission to go sideways now that launch had happened.
"Earth runes appear to be holding the plates together, I'm not picking up any rattling on the sensors." Abernathy responded.
"Pressure's still going up, approaching 30 kPa and increasing." Thorusofer's voice had a tinge of apprehension. "40 kPa, we're almost there."
Astra bit her tongue and looked up, trying to imagine being inside the rocket. Being sealed inside, she wouldn't have been able to hear any of the sound, but the heat, the pressure, the intense G force, all of it seemed like so much to put a dragon through.
"55 and holding." Thorusofer stared intently at his readouts, some clicking away as the numbers cycled through various responses, others holding the same reading. Astra didn't know which one gave her more anxiety.
"Vibrations within acceptable parameters, nothing that should cause any failures." Abernathy said. The tension between the three of them was palpable - if the rocket was going to fail, max Q would be the time. Astra wrung her hands as the rocket streaked away from them, a silent prayer to whichever deity was listening repeating over and over in her mind.
"Pressure is dropping, we are past max Q." Thorusofer finally said. Everyone let out individual sighs of relief. Abernathy laughed.
"Thank gods." She smiled. "I was so scared the numbers were lying to me and we were going to start seeing a cloud of fire any second."
"Oh don't say that yet, we still could." Thorusofer retorted. "Don't want you to curse us, we're only three minutes into the flight!"
"Oh stop being so negative, would you?" Astra said with a laugh. "We made it. The rocket is
flying. Soon enough, it'll make its way into orbit, and we can start observing."
"Yeah that's when you get to do your fun stuff." Abernathy said. "All your experiments are in zero G, right Astra?"
"That's right, I'm looking into how that affects our bodies and technology, maybe so that one day we can go up there ourselves."
Astra stared upwards, the rocket she put so much faith in growing smaller and smaller as it was slowly absorbed by the great blue expanse of sky. She knew that somewhere out beyond all that blue was inky blackness, broken only by the sun and by pinprick stars. She was going to see it one day. She knew she would.
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