Space Bunnies!

Chapter 3: Sailing

"Ready little brother?" Kai asked, pre-flight operations were completed sooner than Bodi would've wanted, he hardly even had a chance to examine the fauna, and while Kai truly felt bad for him, the atmospheric window for solar sailors was rapidly closing so it was time to go. They offered great freedom in terms of requiring minimal fuel but required nearly perfect conditions in terms of taking off. In their very small command center. The ship was configured as a sailboat would be, with lines, and riggings, all controls for the massive solar sail that would be deployed at the rear once they reached safe orbit, the average Omeocoon was a decent water sailor, nearly the entire planet was water, so it was expected that extrusions(Omeocoon children) learn the art of sailing before they reached the ages of adulthood, because living on a boat was one of the most popular options for Omeocoon residential accommodations, so it was better to learn it then and get it out of the way. Solar sailing was a completely different experience so it was optional. But many of the same sailing principles applied here.

The rigging consisted of several systems. Hand winches equipped with brakes deployed and retracted the mainsail, while a second pair was used for the manually operated solar panels which generated interior power while they were underway. Between the two winch sets in the center of the cockpit was one long bar which rotated at the center point from the ceiling in the middle of the room, it functioned as the steering for the control surfaces. Kai would manipulate this, and Bodi would be in charge of monitoring the fuel system, which was a semi-important job, because until they reached orbit, the craft would be taking off with thrusters only, until they reached a point where they could sail. Hence the reason why they needed fuel.

As mentioned before, solar panels supplied an internal electrical system, which provided power for lights inside the ship and other systems such as the secondary viewport shutters like the ones in the ceiling in their bedroom, except these allowed them to see ahead, and closed to stop the sun of whatever system they were in from glaring at them too harshly. Kai was quite pleased with his gravity plating upgrade to the floor, originally the ship was built for a zero-G environment. But floating around made him rather uncomfortable. Too many things to break. For launching they would strap in. "It's not too late to change your mind..." Bodi said persuasively as Kai helped him settle into one of the small consoles on each side of the ship, in the old days these consoles were called 'nav stations.'

"Actually it is. We already buttoned everything up! Now just sit here and wait until we're in orbit." Bodi playfully rolled his eyes. But Kai returned the gesture with a brotherly smooch on the cheek, which caused Bodi to revolt, immediately trying to wipe all existence of the kiss off of his body. "Bleh! You know I hate it when you do that!" Bodi shouted, he rubbed his brother's kiss away, but he did it with a smile. Once Kai made sure his brother was all set, he threw the last few remaining switches(battening the hatches is the way he liked to see it.) He then settled into his own station, identical to the one his brother was sitting at just on the other side of the ship. He would be directly beside Bodi. And would supervise the autopilot from here until it was safe to steer manually, their automatic pilot was only a level two, for reference there is now a level ten, so it's safe to say that the system is just a little bit older than Kai would've liked, but it did what they needed it to do. The autopilot finished its countdown before the ship rumbled with excitement, it was a little sluggish today, but only because she had taken a few weeks vacation from space travel. But rest assured she was ready to fly. The small maneuvering thrusters on the underbelly were used to push the ship off of the ground, followed by the low clunking of the landing gear retracting into the body of the craft once the ship was at safe altitude.

The vessel applied the rear main rocket at full thrust, which caused Kai and Bodi to become slightly glued to their seats as the ship pushed for orbit. This classification of the planet was quite literally perfect for its ability. "I hate this part!" Bodi shouted, his eyes were squeezed shut as his hands were gripping the armrests of his chair— his voice vibrated with the metal around him as the ship climbed up and out. Their ascent was less than graceful but they made it into space after a mere thirty minutes of travel time. The ship floated freely in orbit, and Kai started charting. "According to our data. This person was last seen at a bar on Devana."

"Devana..?" Bodi asked, his eyes opening slowly, as Kai continued to tap away at the chart plotter. "The desert planet, we went there eight months ago, remember?" Kai reminded and Bodi groaned, he remembered alright. A species like the Omeocoon never forgot dry, hot climates. Devana hit temperatures of 101° F. It wasn't unbearable for an Omeocoon, but it was extremely uncomfortable. "Can I stay on the ship?"

"You're not old enough to go into a bar anyway. But the spacepod will have kids your age. You don't want to go over there and make friends?" Kai suggested, but Bodi shook his head, which Kai could not see because he was too enveloped by his data. "No thanks. I think I better stay here and look after the ship. Last time, that place was pretty shady." Bodi had a point, the 'space pod' was just a fancy code name for a small docking module with about five or six docking ports that led to a central waiting facility. And that connected to a massive skylift, this was just the entrance of the planet. The skylift would shuttle a bunch of people down to the surface without having to land their ships. Sometimes there were break-ins. So overall the ship was probably better off having someone on board. Bodi knew to lock the doors, and he could probably hold his own in a fight much better than any other normal solid individual. "If you want to stay on the ship, that's fine," Kai said simply.

He stood up from the safety of his chair and made his way to this central bar where he could pilot the ship manually, he disengaged the autopilot temporarily, and instead of flipping switches and pushing buttons, moved off to one end to operate manual winches. He unfurled the solar sail in the rear, and they caught the light of the nearest sun immediately. The ship moved with the power of low-emission thrusters, pushing forward with the power of the sun in the system, in combination, the ship's main booster was also running at a fraction of the power than it was before when they were taking off. But they were moving with light now, not fuel. "You can relax," Kai said, just as soon as he was settled into the proper watch position, and the course locked in, he established the autopilot once more. And then moved to the small loveseat at the rear of the ship and laid down, using his hands as pillows, this sofa flanked the crawl-in hatch that allowed entry into the cockpit. Kai closed his eyes and drifted into slumber. Now typically, Omeocoon do not 'sleep' instead, they regenerate after some time in their liquid state. But one lesser-known fact that the galaxy did not really know, is that the Omeocoon can indeed rest in a solid state. the equivalent of resting one's eyes, but this is very much not the favorable method of rest— as it only generates a small amount of energy compared to actually regenerating in a liquid state.

Kai didn't need to regenerate, he just needed to pass the time and remain on watch. Being semi-alert was the entire purpose. Bodi would be in the aft compartment getting sleep until it was his turn to take watch. They would rotate for the next four days or so until they arrived at their destination.