Aoraki — Cyanos Space Agency, Launch Pad 39-A

Friday — early morning

The van slowed and turned through the security gates into the brightly lit launch complex in the pre-dawn darkness.

There was still a chill in the air as the first rays of sun started to peek their way over the horizon.

As they got out of the van and crossed the tarmac to the launch tower, they could see the swirling wisps of vapour created by the super-cold propellant being pumped into the main booster fuel tank.

The whole stack groaned and shuddered, the metal skin of the fuel tank creaking, hissing, and popping as it filled.

Tag patted the pocket on his flight suit.

Dieter patted his crotch.

Dieter then spotted the trees on the other side of the security fence.

Which immediately gave him an old familiar urge.

Jarvis led the way over to a small lobby where the elevator stood waiting to take them up to the top of the launch stack. It was a tight fit, but they all managed to crowd in for the short journey to the top.

At the top they all dutifully used the toilet before they traversed a gangway connected to the main shuttle hatch.

There the launch pad crew helped them into their seats and strapped them in tightly, which, due to the shuttle standing upright for launch, meant they all ended up lying on their backs with their feet above them.

On the flight deck, Jarvis took the pilot’s left-hand seat, with Jaak taking the right-hand seat beside him.

Tag and Dieter took the two seats immediately behind; however, they were still well positioned to get a good view out the front windows.

Jaak, who didn’t know the first thing about flying a space shuttle, wasn’t sure whether Jarvis was kidding him or not.

Now Jaak was pretty sure that Jarvis was joking, but then the switch had to be for something, and Jarvis had taken the time to point it out to him.

With the sun now well and truly peeking over the horizon, the entire launch pad was bathed in a warm magenta glow as Jarvis made the final checks with mission control before they headed skywards.

Then, all of a sudden, they felt it.

Main engine start.

A powerful kick in the pants as the main engines ignited, along with the two auxiliary solid-fuel booster rockets.

Once lit, there was only one place they were going.

Up.

In a hurry.

The noise and vibration of the rocket boosters filled their ears and bodies as the shuttle shook from the raw power propelling them skywards.

Pushed back into their seats, they now felt around three times heavier than usual.

After two minutes, the two auxiliary boosters cut off, separated, and the flight smoothed out.

Then, in an instant — around eight minutes after blast-off — the main engines cut off, the large external fuel tank detached, and there was silence.

They went from feeling three times heavier to total weightlessness in an instant.

It almost felt like they were being thrown out of their seats, but they weren’t, as they were all still securely strapped in.

Their journey into the unknown, along with their cache of cyan stones and their critical mission to boost the TET cores and ultimately try to save the planet, had begun.

^{Credit — blast-off description}

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