Lentz Horizon

Timothy's POV

I’m nervous as I check my tablet one more time. After all this time, it’s finally time to send the probe. I’m nervous something could go wrong, and excited about it going right.

Kaylee must notice, because she suddenly looks up from the panel of monitors she’s been systematically studying at and checking before the launch.

“Don’t worry Tim! It’s going to work! Everything is looking fantastic!” she beams at me.

“How are we looking?” I ask, trying to keep focused.

“All diagnostics look perfect!” she cheers looking up at me once again with pride in her eyes. We’ve spent years working on this together and now it’s finally going to work!

But all I do is nod my head.

I look down at my tablet again. “Plasma regulators look good; Plasma flow looks good; and the miniaturized fusion reactor is stable, and the shielding looks good. I think we are finally ready to launch,” I sigh in relief and nervousness.

The pride beaming in Kaylee’s eyes melts me, and I’m almost rendered speechless. I don’t know what I’d ever do without her! “Would you do the honors?”

She chuckles and nods her head enthusiastically. “We are a go in Three... Two... One,” and then she taps her screen.

The probe roars to life. I wince, the noise hurting my head, but I couldn’t be more excited! I watch as it rockets down the runway almost too fast for me to keep track of it.

The only thing I can see is a trail of blue flames jetting past.

In seconds it’s already shooting up into the atmosphere and sending out readouts.

It’s working!

Moments later, I get a ping on my tablet. It’s reached space and is now orbiting the Earth. A smile teases the edge of my mouth. All the sensors are up and running, the fusion reactor is running at peak efficiency, and the plasma in the warp nacelles is charged.

I check my tablet.

I tap my screen to engage the warp engine bubble and start the automated program.

“It worked!” I announce, even though I can hear Kaylee’s excited laughter. She knows very well it worked!

It’s only then I realize the old fluorescent lights are too bright. The hum from the overhead light is distracting. It's like a fly right at my ear and I just want to swipe at it. I hate that it agitates me so much, but it does.

Now the bright lights and the buzzing is hurting my head, but I'm trying to ignore it and focus on the fact that my probe has reached orbit. Nothing else matters right now.

I know we needed the light on, but now it's bothering me.

Once again, Kaylee must notice, because she doesn’t say a word but turns off the lights and switches to the LED lights. Then, without a single word, she comes to me and gives me a hug.

I don't know if she realizes how much that means to me. She fixed the problem without me even having to ask for it. And now that the light and the noise is gone, I can finally focus on what is actually important.

"Thank you," I whisper, smiling down at her.

“We did it! It’s up! Now, we just need to push a button and wait for the probe to do its job and return,” Kaylee says encouragingly.

“I know! But until it’s back and in one piece, I’m still going to be nervous,” I admit. Actually, I'm nervous about more than just the probe working. I'm suddenly wondering if we should be expecting unexpected visitors as the warp bubble created a larger than I anticipated gamma burst.

“The readouts are good,” I smile down at the tablet. I need to stay focused on the positive and what this means for us. “If this works...”

Kaylee nods. “If this works, we can head off to Proxima Centauri,” she responds with a smile. She doesn’t even need me to say it. We’ve been talking about this for ages.

“We can examine the star system. We’ll be the first humans in another solar system,” I continue the thought process. Pride rushes through me at the thought. So much is on the line right now.

“We will be able to see if it has a habitable planet. Just think of all the possibilities!” Kaylee finishes, as she checks her monitors. “We won’t have to worry about the corruption in the government anymore. We'll be safe from all the politics!”

“Thorne is corrupt. All he wants is the military. He shut down the Mars outpost because it was too expensive and redirected the funds to the military and he is pressuring the moon mining operations into being a tool for the military. He is power mad with his militaristic view,” I grumble thinking about our current president.

“If this works, we won’t have to worry about him ever again. And we won’t be the only ones we can save,” Kaylee sighs. "We'll be helping so many people."

“I’m worried though,” I admit, finally voicing my concern from earlier. “When the probe went off, it left a large gamma ray pulse, and the government could not have missed it,” I state.

“I know. But even if they noticed it, we should still be able to get out of here before they find us,” Kaylee reassures me. "We will be safe. You'll see. Everything will turn out just fine!"

I nod my head, because I hope she's right. Then I smirk. This would not even be possible without the diamond formation.

"It looks like the Lentz diamond formation for the nacelles seems to have been the last piece needed to get the warp drive working," I summarize.

"You're right! It was just what we needed to get this thing to work!" Kaylee agrees enthusiastically.

An alarm goes off at thirty minutes. The drone reappears in orbit, right where we left off.

“It worked! We didn’t lose it! The probe is now making its return journey,” she states full of enthusiasm.

We engage the landing thrusters for deorbit, and it lands safely in the hanger.

We watch the video of Jupiter and see the probe was able to scoop up some helium three. There are five-minutes of black video at the beginning and ending of the programmed flight time; I think it is jus a glitch, but it seems to have worked! I don’t see anything to worry about.

I check the live cultures and radiation levels. They are all still healthy and alive. Everything checks out. The probe was able to sustain life. We were also able to collect enough He3 for the next step.

I look over at my partner with a smile. “It looks good. We need to get started on preparing Freedom 1 with data from the probe,” I inform her.