15:00 IST, Second day, Fourth Month, 3079 PV | Lokava / Shesah-Human embassy / Moonlight Duo Conference Room

  “No, no, no. That is not how you run a planet! My gosh, you two. Are you just expecting to waltz in and have a successful colony?”

  “Of course! We walk into a room and we make everything arrange itself to go perfectly. That is just what my darling Ko and I do.”

  “Yep, she said it. Of course we will be great Lords. It's just in our nature as the Moonlight Duo. Don't worry, our plan will work wonders, you'll see little miss Initae.”

  “You do realize I've seen the rise and fall of entire civilizations. You'd think you two idiots would take my advice on a few things from time to time.”

  “I thought you just wanted to be my dear friend? Who said anything about an advisor? We are just here to have a jolly time. After all, what's the point of winning if you don't have fun along the way?”

  “Fun along the way. It seems like you two just plan to have fun while you're there too. Like, come on, you've gotta put in at least a bit of effort.”

  Ray walks over to Initae, who is standing at the front of the room. She peers down Initae’s eyes and says, “Are you saying that you don't trust darling Ko’s master plan? I'll have you know, he is a genius. A very cute one at that. Plus, he has me to keep him in check. Also, it kinda detracts away from our victory if we just super rely on the all knowing god, right?”

  Initae seems to be actually quite mad. Which is terrifying, considering she can rather casually destroy entire planets.

  “Hmm, well if you think of it that way. Why don't you two have fun with this trial then. I'll come check on you after it's over to see how well you do.”

  “Hey, wait, Init-” I don't get a chance to make amends. She is gone before I can even string together a sentence. Man, near unlimited teleportation sure makes it nice to dodge conversations.

  “Oh, maybe I pushed her buttons a bit too much… I hope she comes back.”

  “Well, she is an immortal being. She could disappear for millions of years and probably not even realize it. I do hope she eventually comes back though.”

  “Well then. I guess we just gotta show her our awesomeness. When she comes back we will have a beautiful planet to show to her!”

  “Sure thing, darling. We are the Moonlight Duo after all.”

  “Naturally, luce lunae per aspera ad astra et ultra.”

  By the way, you're probably wondering where Emil and Rigar are? Lets just say, they got a bit held up. Apparently the mob only grew larger as the night went on and they had to shelter in a hotel until morning. Thus they will catch up with us before we set off.

  16:15 IST, Second day, Fourth Month, 3079 PV | Lokava / Space Elevator

  “Woah, I forgot how cool space elevators are. Look out this window! You can see the entire embassy. It looks so small. Even though it was so massive when we were down there.”

  “Yeah, to think, places bustling with so much life can be seen all at once. Really puts into perspective how small we are in the scheme of things. Hopefully one day we can lead an empire that is at least somewhat noticeable.”

  “For sure! We will build statues of ourselves large enough that you can see them from another galaxy!”

  “Umm, sorry to say. But I don't think that's physically possible.”

  “Well, then we will just have to break physics and redefine it such that it is possible.”

  “We may be above average persons, but I think that might be just a tad out of our ability range.”

  “Geez, no need to be such a realist.”

  She leans over and gives me a punch on the shoulder. In retaliation, I steal a quick kiss. Though, is it really retaliation if both actions are positive?

  “Woah, we can see the entire megaship now!”

  She points outside the window.

  True enough, the gigantic megaships are stationed outside. I managed to acquire a datashard on them. They are classed as galactic freighters, under a subset of ships designed to be colonization engines. Apparently, they boast a top speed of thirty million times the speed of light. Not only that, but they have gigantic interiors to fit with all sorts of equipment.

  Like, these things can be equipped for a wide variety of things required for settling a planet. From complete celestial sculpting, to ferrying millions of colonists. It just so happens that ours is a bit of a mix of things.

  Firstly, it is designed to eventually anchor itself and serve as a temporary space elevator. Until we can construct a more proper one. Secondly, it has massive cargo space filled with building materials, rations and other essentials to jump start a colony. Lastly, it has crew accommodations for one million humans. As well as some pretty snazzy luxury places for higher class colonists and the officers.

  Naturally, one million humans won't be enough to fully settle a planet in a reasonable timeframe. So there are several other smaller ships that will be following behind us that are ferrying many more colonists. To arrive after we finish setting up the basic procedures.

  Plus, we can always requisition more colonists if we find that we have the capacity to support them. In our case, we have decided to start with a modest two million. After that we will see where we end up.

  By the way, these ships are realllllly big. If I haven't mentioned that. 4000m is no joke. With an average width of 1500m, they have a volume of around seven billion cubic meters. For reference, the Sycos has a volume of only around 200 million cubic meters. So yeah, this thing is a behemoth.

  The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  To think, there are intergalactic freighters ranging up to even 8000m in length. I sure hope we get to see, and ride, one of those someday.

  Also, it is to note, that this ship is so large that it won't fit through even a battleship class voidlith. Those have an upper limit of around 2000m. Not that we could transport uninitiated humans through the sanctum anyways though.

  We reach the top of the space elevator. We are immediately surrounded by soldiers and escorted safely into a shuttle bay that can take us out to the ship.

  “Gotta say, it sure does make a girl feel special to be this protected. Makes me feel important.”

  “Well, you are important. You're the most important girl to me anyways.”

  “Oh you.”

  “Wait, I just realized. If Initae isn't with us, there is no one to inhibit our flirting!”

  “What a wondrous thing indeed. Let's make great use of this opportunity, darling.”

  We then proceed to flirt for several minutes while we transit over to the ship. I think I hear a few giggles escape from the soldiers that are guarding us. Our pure nature is just too overpowering I guess.

  As our shuttle approaches the ship, it sinks in just how large this thing is. Compared to it, our tiny twenty-person shuttle is but a mere speck of dust.

  We drift into the hangar door and come to rest in a very fancy looking hangar. As we step out of the shuttle Ray (who is very cute today after her bath yesterday, in which she was also very cute, as she is the cutest in the universe) immediately jumps out and goes prancing throughout the hangar space.

  “Woah, Ko! Look, this sub-hangar must be large enough to fit our entire cruisers!”

  “Yeah, I hear it has capacity for twenty two cruiser class ships. Which is pretty impressive.”

  “Come on, slowpoke, get your cute butt over here and let's go see the bridge.”

  I take her outstretched hand and she practically drags me through the ship. We hop onto the rail system. Yes, this ship is large enough to have a high speed rail network inside. Capable of moving us around the ship at 200m/s.

  We reach the bridge, which is located on the opposite side of the ship near the massive prongs. Upon entering, we are greeted with an amazing sight.

  The room is basically a giant circle, with the walls absolutely covered in screens. All sorts of information is being displayed like; the structural and repulsor shielding integrity, energy reserves, hyperspace drive health and function. Plus there are even status screens for the non-functional space elevator portion.

  Embedded in the floor are hundreds of workstations where dozens of crew are busy working to manage the ship. I see all sorts of different races. Though it's mostly Zekan and Velz. Which makes sense, all of the Arkan, Pota and others are likely working in the specific areas that they need to be in. A lot of work obviously goes into managing such a large vessel.

  I hope that one day we can see human crew dotting the bridges of ships all across the galaxy. I wonder what place humanity will end up preferring. I guess when Ray and I win, it'll be up to us to decide if we want to focus heavily on any one specific area.

  By the way, It's not as though each species only does one thing. For instance, while the Zekan mainly specialize in AI and consciousness digitization. That merely means that they have an advantage in those fields. They still do piloting, shipbuilding and all the other stuff too. Though, I doubt synthetic species like the Arkan and Zekan focus much effort into agriculture. Outside of industrial needs, they don't eat food so there is no need for much agricultural science.

  (Ship AI):”Welcome aboard, Admiral Ducker and Captain Inan. It is a pleasure to have you aboard this fine vessel which is known as the Deliverer. I hope that I and the crew are able to help you fulfill your goals.

  It is currently 16:48 IST, we are scheduled to depart for Earth at precisely 17:00 IST. With acceleration to hyperspace finishing at 17:24 IST. I suggest you get a bit more acquainted with the ship and prepare heavily for the acceleration to hyperspace. You'll want to sit in the special stasis chairs. There is far more of a kick with such a large hyperspace drive.

  “Okay, thank you. By the way, do you have a name?”

  “Oh, silly me. I forgot to mention that my na- designation is Vel.”

  “Nice to meet ya’, Vel. Let's make sure to have a great time partying aboard this vessel! I can't wait to find all sorts of hidden nooks to take darling Ko into.”

  “That sounds like fun. I can't wait to intensely explore all the hidden places you show to me, darling Ray.”

  With that, we sit down in our fancy chairs in the center of the room. I managed to talk to several of the crew on the bridge and they shared some cool information. I will be sure to update my codex soon with some of this new information.

  Just a few minutes before we set off, a message comes from the IEC. Naturally, we accept it and a hologram of The Gamekeeper appears.

  “Greetings, contestants Ducker and Inan. I just wanted to pop in for a brief moment to congratulate you on making it to this point. After all, this is a momentous day for humanity as an entire species!

  Good luck in your endeavors and may the stars be ever in your favor.”

  With that, the brief communication ends. I can't imagine why they had to bother with that message personally. But I guess everyone has their own quirks.

  Vel:”Attention passengers, hyperspace acceleration beginning in fifty seconds. Brace yourselves as we will be going straight into the highest magnitude. ETA at Earth: 12:32 IST, Third day, Fourth month, 3079 PV.”

  Surely enough, after a few seconds we begin accelerating. Even with just the normal engines, it feels as though we are thrown backwards into a brick wall. Which is astounding that even with the G-nullifiers turned on, it still has this much force.

  I soon see why.

  Within maybe five seconds, we go from a standstill to a quarter the speed of light. Within thirty we are nearing eighty percent the speed of light.

  I notice as soon as the hyperspace drive starts to activate. It is as though the weight of the entire ship is compressing itself onto my mind. The effect is at least ten times worse than what I felt while on the Sycos. I nearly lost consciousness due to the disorientation. I barely manage to look over at Ray (who is super cute) and notice she isn't faring any better.

  Most of the crew seem to be feeling it a bit too, but they are clearly way more accustomed to the sensation. Our first time in hyperspace was only a few months ago. So we have barely had any time to adjust to this sensation. If it's this bad with just a galactic freighter. I cannot imagine the feeling of the acceleration to intergalactic speeds.

  After twenty five or so excruciating minutes of the acceleration, we finally clear the last hurdle and the bubble of hyperspace fully encases the ship.

  Instantly, it's as though everything returns to normal and I can think somewhat again. It takes maybe five minutes for my mind to fully recover. Once I do, I say something that I've always wanted to iterate upon. After all, this moment will definitely go down in history, so it's important to say something super duper cool.

  “This is one small step for the Moonlight Duo. But one stellar leap for mankind.”

  I'm sure that whatever is to come, Ray and I shall overcome it together. So, bring it on.

  End of Chapter 56