"It feels so much better like this." Nolan's life size holographic projection circled around inside the bridge. "I was feeling a little jerky."
Hao Ren asked about the ark. "Where did you unload the ark? Did everything go well?"
"I followed the navigation signals from the sirens and sent the ark straight to the ocean floor, at the edge of Nasaton. The Queen will see it when she returns." Nolan nodded. "Everything went without a hitch. There was some turbulence when the ark was unloaded, but Nasaton was not affected. The sirens in charge of receiving the ark are now busy checking the ship and waterproofing it. The ark is massive… It will keep them occupied for awhile."
Hao Ren nodded. He turned to look at the remaining twelve arks in the fleet. These massive spaceships were now remotely controlled by Nolan and slowly leaving the Drone Nest's territory. Since the ships were using more primitive curvature propulsion technology, they needed to travel a bit further before they could perform a hyperspace jump. Similarly, once they reached Io, they must leave hyperspace earlier and began a slow deceleration. The entire process would take three of four days. Hao Ren looked at Lorenz and said, "You're welcome to stay on my ship for these few days. I'll also get you up to speed with the current state of the universe and more background information on the disaster that befell you."
On the second day of the fleet's acceleration, the arks were now approximately a lightyear away from the Drone Nest and reached their "jump window" at sublight speed. The Petrachelys followed the fleet into hyperspace, and together they flew at superluminal speed toward an "exit window" about one and a half lightyears away from Io. On the third day after they left the Drone Nest, the fleet exited hyperspace and left a gravitational lense millions of kilometers long by the edge of the Io system. After that, Nolan made a final check on the status of all twelve arks to make sure they were all functioning within acceptable margins and that the landing gears were on standby. She then made a final course correction on the arks. The giant ark fleet adjusted its course and made its way towards the blue planet located 1.5 light years away.
When the blue oceans of Io was projected on the main holographic screen, Lorenz was rendered speechless for a very long moment.
"Io has no land. Your arks are your only islands. For the next two hundred years, you can only live surrounded by the ocean." Katreina was in a good mood, having acquired the ark of her choice, so she readily stepped into the role of the landlord, introducing the new tenant to his new home. "We sirens love this planet, but it is probably not very comfortable for you… It's a place for you to stay and recover, but not so ideal for your society to rebuild itself."
Lorenz was still unable to speak. He stared unblinkingly at the holographic projection of the wide, blue ocean, and did not say a word.
"You still in there?" Lily poked the old man on the back. "Or are you captivated by Io already?"
Lorenz jolted out of his trance, panting heavily like he had just emerged from under the water on Io. After some time, he whispered quietly, "... This is the ocean..."
"It's only a holographic feed." Hao Ren smiled. "Wait till you see what's coming next. Nolan, begin the landing sequence for the arks."
The twelve arks had already decelerated enough to land on Io. When they received the order remotely from Petrachelys, the gigantic spaceships immediately altered their course and began to descend into Io's atmosphere. The uneven surface of the oval shaped arks brushed past the air particles at high velocities and gradually glowed a bright red. The twelve arks descended from the skies like fireballs, with Petrachelys flying in the Royal Throne's shadow and following them into Io's atmosphere.
As they reached lower altitudes, the arks engaged in a series of maneuvers. A semi-transparent layer of air appeared around each ark like a shell of distorted space around them. This was the gravity manipulation devices at work. The massive gravity manipulation device could isolate the entire ark from Io's gravitational force, preventing the ship's gigantic structure from caving due to the strong gravity on Io. As the gravitational pull between the arks and Io slowly decreased, the ships were also reaching the end of their deceleration sequence.
The first ark to reach Io's ocean surface was the Terra Firm. The ancient spaceship had in many ways sacrificed itself to save the entire fleet. It now descended slowly and elegantly onto the water surface. Air turbulence around the ship raked up giant waves in the sea that rippled outwards. When the ark finally made its horizontal landing on the water, its general purpose and adaptable landing gears were activated. After a loud hum, the thick, black hull on the sides of the ship slowly opened up while the hull plates underneath opened to both sides while dropping large pieces of debris into the ocean. These debris pieces from the result of Nolan's modifying the ship's structure earlier. Since the ship's systems were too old, it was impossible to complete the final stages of structural transformation without removing these unwanted pieces.
When the bottom of the ark opened up, huge pipes, metal columns, buoys and underwater detectors emerged from previously hidden chambers and reached into the ocean waters on Io. These ancient weapons, left alone for ten thousand years, were now used for the first time since they were built on this unfamiliar planet. They eagerly scanned for information from the ark's surroundings, and then delivered these information to the ark's mainframe.
Nevertheless, these information will not be acted upon — Nolan had already severed all the arks from their mainframes, and used drones to build a series of imitation mainframes to replace them. That way, when the arks made their landing, the arks' systems would disregard their original programming and follow Nolan's instructions instead.
The twelve arks descended gradually, one after another, to form a ring-shaped "archipelago" on the vast stretch of seawater on Io. The only fully functioning ark, the Royal Throne, was led by Nolan to the center of the ring. When these massive arks landed on the water, the resulting turbulence and the deactivation of their gravitational isolation system raised massive waves on the ocean surface. It was like a storm was raging around the arks. Waves crashed from unusual heights, splashing violently. Petrachelys circled around the Royal Throne amidst the artificial "storm" to check for damages.
Results from sensors positioned at various places inside the Royal Throne and the Seeping Kernels that penetrated the ship's core systems indicated that all was well — aside from some mild leaking in the two cofferdams located at the bottom of the ark, the landing had went smoother than expected.
Nolan scanned through the incoming data as she reported to Hao Ren. "Underwater and atmospheric sensors are all activated. The life support system is now replacing air and water reserves on the ark. After ten thousand years of recycling, the ship can finally replenish its supplies. The other ships are still using deep sea radar to scan the ocean floor, but Io's seas are too deep. Seabed natural resources are not accessible for the people on the ark, so I've shut down the radar for now — it's not like they're doing anything useful."
Hao Ren nodded. "Contact the drone swarm and have them send an engineering unit down here to start repairing the ships."
Nolan sent a notice to the drone swarm while commanding the arks to begin their systems deactivation sequence.
After ten thousand years of operation, these ancient spaceships had finally landed on a planet. Their overloaded machinery could finally take a break. Of course, the ark could not stop all systems at once. When the drone swarm began reparation works, the systems would take turns shutting down so that the arks remained functional.
While Nolan was busy with the technical maneuvers, Hao Ren turned to Lorenz and asked, "The next step is very crucial — opening the ark's dome. Are you sure the people on the ark can accept what they're about to see?"
Lorenz nodded slowly. "They will have to see the sky one day, so why not do this when they still believe in me?"
"Wait a second." Lily cried in surprise. "You plan to open up the ship?!"