By the guiding light of Kuiper Station, the Petrachelys left the star port without a hitch. It departed from the civilian-use port area at high speeds. Hao Ren left the controls after setting it on auto-pilot. He then moved to another control station and activated the multi-dimensional display, swiping aside various information panels from the local and nearby space stations. A screen showing the view outside the spacecraft appeared. There was nothing but darkness around him. The faint glow of distant stars shimmered beyond. Beneath the screen was a fast-moving space station construct. The ship was finalising the calibrations for its destination.
Lily, ever the restless one was spinning her chair in one moment, and fiddling with some of the controls the next, a moment later she was sitted on the chair, and another circling around the bridge and howling towards the stars. She was thoroughly enjoying herself by the looks of it. Well, the ship's mainframe computer had already intelligently locked all control panels, and aside from the captain no one could operate anything. Thus, Hao Ren simply let the furball run free. Vivian was in awe as she looked at the stars before her. "I really, really wanted to reach the stars before... Think I told you that before, I almost hung myself on the Apollo to catch a glimpse of the stars in space... I never thought... that dream would come true today."
Hao Ren raised an eyebrow at Vivian, "You sure are a weird one. Does most vampires want to go to space like you did?"
"They are a bunch of pompous, short-sighted inbreds." Vivian did not even bother hiding her disdain for her own kind. "They are too drunk in their search for power, or literally with their endless banquets and rituals. They never, ever thought about the bigger picture. The world is such a vast place after all. I don't know why I was always fascinated by the stars, like how you humans were keep exploring the boundries of space travel.... Maybe it's because of my wings are larger than normal?"
Hilda was seated quietly by Vivian's side. The topic of stars had her rather gloomy, but no one actually took notice of it.
After a short while on the bridge, Lily was bored out of her mind. After hearing that she does have some places within the ships that she could go to, she quickly asked Hao Ren for a map and sped off for an adventure looking at the high-tech gizmos on the ship. Y'zaks threw Hao Ren a concerned look as he saw Lily sped away. "... Is it really alright to let her run around? This is no place for a child to play..."
"It's fine." Hao Ren had already experienced first hand the mind-numbing nature of this high-tech equipments. He had full faith with the ship's mainframe and the MDT's AI's capabilities. He also believed that this ship could give her occupants sufficient space for their activities. "Well, all of the important controls are under lock, and the ship have those squid-like droids patroling about. If Lily's just running about it should be fine."
Y'zaks simply shrugged. "You dote on her too much at times."
"Nonsense, dote or not, that dumb Husky has always been like that."
At that time, the bridge gate let out a soft hiss as it opens, Lily had seemed to finish her lap and decided to return. She even had a new garb on her that no one knew where she got it from. It was a white-overalls with blue seams and light-greyish stylised linings over the uniform. The uniform, a male one at that, was obviously a size too big for the husky that her hands were inside the sleeves and the part of the pants were dragging on the floor as she walked. She looked awfully silly and adorable at the same time, and happily she called out to Hao Ren, "Mr Landlord, Mr Landlord! Look! Look! Do I look the part of the captain..."
Hao Ren was confused. "Where did you get that getup?"
"I don't know!" Lily said as she dragged herself towards Hao Ren in an awkward jog. "I met this robot squid at one of the crossroads and asked it if there are any cool looking space suits. It then gave me this..."
The MDT was enjoying its time controlling the ship through it's command terminal and finally decided to explain the matter to Hao Ren in the laziest fashion ever. "That's your captain's uniform. There's around two hundred of them in the storeroom. As it's not something really important, anyone with a guest access can get one."
Hao Ren nodded absently before he finally realised something, "Two hundred?! Whatever that's for?"
The MDT was rather succint in its reply. "It may very well be your funeral dress."
Lily was still jumping about happily while showing off her new getup to Vivian. "Cool ain't it? Look, it's cool ain't it?"
Vivian turned her face aside to ignore the idiot, and Hao Ren had a nostalgic flashback. He still remembered the first time he saw the animated version of Battlestar Galatica during elementary schoo, the way he reacted was how Lily did, posing all so comically with the crew uniform. He imagined himself being a maintenance crew or a captain, or a fighter pilot, any role that could see his name appear on the credits... That was how Lily looked like to him, all too innocent...
It didn't take long before Lily quiet down as she lay sprawling on the seat, staring at the stars. But the stars itself were already fading away. The ship had already left the star clusters and were preparing to make the jump into hyperspace. The scenery outside quickly turned into a blur as a hyperspace rift formed, blue and red lights were swirling about as the rift rapidly consolidated into a tubular path. After a deep hum from somewhere deep within the ship's engine room, the hyperspace rift around the ship closed and the swirling lights faded. All that was left, was the darkness of space.
"The next stop would be the World Gate. Shouldn't take too long." The MDT broadcasted through bridge's speakers.
The husky sat on the chair blankly for a moment before suddenly putting her hand out to Hao Ren. "Mr Landlord, is there a notebook computer here?"
"Just install the plug-in into the terminal in front of you." Hao Ren raised an eyebrow towards her. "What do you need that for?"
"I have some inspiration, and want to write." Lily was serious. "I still owe the publisher a column as well."
Hao Ren let the MDT did the setting up for Lily as he looked at the husky, his eyebrows still raised. "What does it feel weird when you said you want to write."
Lily was her hyperactive self as usual the moment she boarded the ship.... Her hyperactivity aside, she was a through and through husky, what else do you need to describe her? She scarcely look the part of a proper wordsmith, but Lily herself digress. She was seated crosslegged with her oversized uniform on an even bigger chair. Her face was serious as she started penning her article, while at the same time was arguing with Hao Ren. "Mr Landlord, you are judging a book by its cover again. Do you know how much effort it takes to write a proper piece? If you think writing is like what you see on TV, you're sorely mistaken! Those are the hacks that couldn't pen a proper piece and repackaged themselves as a work of art to earn appearance fees in schools. True words can only come from pure emotions, and to keep a free heart is key to pen a touching line. I'm simply being whimsical to keep up my quality writing...
Vivian was at her limits by then and simply couldn't hear a word more. Slamming the armrest, she roared, "OH STOP BEING SO BLOODY PRETENTIOUS! YOU'RE JUST WRITING FOR A PET MAGAZINE FOR THEIR 'HOW TO RAISE A DOG' COLUMN!"
"...."
Lily's fur also stood up on its edges as she roared back defiantly, "WHO SAID I ONLY WRITE FOR THE 'HOW TO RAISE A DOG' COLUMN! I WAS WRITING LYRICAL POETRY AND SELF-IMPROVEMENT ARTICLES DURING THE REPUBLICAN DAYS! I only wrote for the pet magazines as it was getting much much more popular of late..."
This leg of the journey was rather short as the hyperspace lane was a direct route, from Quiper Station all the way to the World Gate. As Lily was still analysing the various new dog food on their flavours, the ship had arrived at its destination.
The World Gate, a Xiling Empire's unique architecture, as the name implies, it is a gate used to travel from across worlds. Dimensional jumps between two galaxies is different from a localised jump, and it requires an almost impossible level of technology and expertise to do so. Different galaxies have difference it their most basic make-up, some galaxies don't even have the four fundamental forces like how the Milky Way does. They were sustained by a vastly different physical law. The vastness of the void too was a ceiling too high for most races and species and inter-galatic travel was most definitely out of the question. The Xiling Apostles had the means for inter-galatic travel, and to ease the adminstration of the Macro World, and to facilitate the communication of the various civilisation under their rule, the Apostles had built a World's Gate at almost every universe within the Macro World.
There were two types of World Gates, a smaller one built on the surface of a planet for small-scale use. Another was a gigantic structure in space, capable of supporting a fleet, or a planetary body to jump into a different universe. Hao Ren had arrived at the second type of World Gate.
As the ship exited the hyperspace bubble, the scenery outside restored to normal and the shimmering sea of stars were visible once more, and in front of them, lay the monumental structure.