Bestial Planet

Chapter 41: Test Flight

It had taken most of the day to ferry all the equipment but after roughly 7 hours they finished. It was now around 3 p.m. and Panzer was still full of energy, Yora looked out of it, as did everyone else besides the Pilot. They all were sitting and enjoying the warm sun while Panzer was inside the craft knocking about.

"HEY YORA!"

Panzer's voice was a booming echo from inside the craft. Yora exhaled and begrudgingly walked into the craft, the others close behind him.

"What's up?"

"Are there any laws against flying anti-grav craft or testing them?"

"Hey it's your planet, your solar system. You can fly whatever the hell you want out here. Interstellar and beyond is when regulations come into play or if you shared this system with another sentient race, which you don't."

Panzer and the others looked at Yora surprised by his lax take on the matter. The pilot was taken aback by the lax attitude.

"Mr. Centaul, as an engineer surely you can't suggest an Ambassador fly an untested space craft?"

Panzer, still tapping away at the keyboard, interjected.

"Remember, not a space craft. There are no systems on board that would make this suitable for space."

"Technicalities aside Ambassador, my caution is warranted!"

Panzer slid underneath the control center and a few seconds later a bright spark lit up the dark bridge.

"God DAMMIT! Don't worry, I'm fine! I was just connecting the power!"

The pilot now looked sick to his stomach.

"Just conne... power? NOPE! I cannot, in good conscience, allow the Ambassador to take this untested ship for it's inaugural flight."

"Well then, it's a good thing we have such a decorated pilot on hand who offered their assistance."

The pilot looked at Emmeth as though he were insane. Panzer slid back out from under the console sucking on his singed fingers.

"I don't think I've designed the controls to be too dissimilar to the ones I've seen on other ships. The readouts though, for the systems? Not exactly complete."

"Oh yay." The pilot couldn't hide his worry.

*****

A small group had gathered around the area to see the pinnacle of human engineering take it's first flight. Some were still having trouble believing that it was indeed designed and built on earth. However, when looking at it side by side with the actual alien space craft, it definitely looked like something from Earth. Panzer struggled to fit into the largest safety suit the pilot had on his own ship and everyone else was told to keep clear from around in front of the prototype.

Panzer sat in the co-pilots seat with a giant smile on his face, in stark contrast to the pilot next to him.

"You ready?"

He said with the sheepish smile to which the pilot nodded. Panzer typed a few commands into the computer and the anti-gravity drive shuddered to life, shaking the ship relatively violently before smoothing out.

"I think that was because of harmonics but they seems to be... harmonizing, now."

Panzer was looking at all the read outs that were accurate and made sure they were within his calculated allowances.

"When you're ready pilot."

"Yes Captain Ambassador."

"I like that." Panzer said looking away from his screens and at the ruined city in front of him. The ship slowly left the ground and Panzer's heart was in his throat, the pilot's practically stopped as he was waiting for something to explode. It slowly rose to around 25 feet off the ground and Panzer was practically jumping in his seat.