Horizon

Chapter 3

Don't tease him. Too much.

Nala smiled at her mother's remark as her hand brushed against the smaller sword. Even if she was only a spirit tied to the sword – as was her father – they had been there right alongside her through the centuries. They had seen the world change just as much as she had and yet they still continued to offer advice to her as if she were forty years old, just leaving home.

Not that she minded that. It was an anchor that held her close to reality and had in the past saved her from being whisked away by the madness of the elemental spirits on more than one occasion.

They walked onto the bridge leading inside the vessel. It was a wide enough path that workers could still pass them while pushing carts full of equipment and parts.

“There's still a lot to do,” explained Ialye as a couple of humans pushed a cart full of computer equipment past them and towards the vessel. “Mostly it's installing the computer systems and completing some of the wiring. You know, the little things.”

Nala nodded. “How long until all of that is done?”

The young elf dug out a device from her pocket and began flicking through pages with her finger. She looked at Ghardo. “Too bad I don't have those eyes of yours. Have to use this old thing to keep track of things.”

“It's a good device for what it does,” replied the big man. He had used a similar one for a long time. It had a small screen that reacted to touch and putting in new calendar appointments and notes was easy enough.

“Sure, if you don't mind having to carry it with you,” muttered Ialye and frowned at the small device. “Ah, there it is,” she finally said and quickly read through the notes she had been looking for.

Nala rolled her eyes. The intricacies of small gadgets had never gotten much interest from her.

“At the current work pace it'll be a month until everything is ready,” continued Ialye. “That includes some of the testing we need to do before setting out.”

They had to dodge as a particularly wide piece of equipment was pushed past them on a cart.

“Hasn't everything been tested already?” asked Nala with slight concern. With the Elf Trees already on-board she was reluctant to see any danger befall them.

“All the individual parts have been thoroughly tested, especially the engines,” explained Ialye. “But everything together? There's always something that could have gone wrong with the construction.”

“Shouldn't we have waited to load the Elf Trees after those tests were done?” asked Nala with ever deepening concern in her voice.

“They're easy enough to unload for the tests,” said Ialye. “You saw how simple it was to lower the disc in. It's not that much harder to pull it out for some time.”

“But the trees. Will they handle that?” asked Nala, still concerned.

“It has been tested and should not be a problem,” assured Ialye. “You know how long it has taken to get the trees here. Leaving it until the craft was completely done and tested would have added years to the schedule.”

Nala could not deny that. It had been a long process to convince the elves to go with the plan and it had been especially hard to get them to allow the moving of the trees. It was understandable given the history involved with them. For each family it was like a small piece of themselves being torn out and moved to another location.

“Have there been any major problems so far?” asked Ghardo to direct the conversation towards something that might put his masters mind at ease.