"Mr. Reed? Hmm..."
The security officer at the checkpoint fell silent for a moment. Then, seeing the "Orbital Air VIP Express" notification pop up on the screen, he broke into a smile and immediately stood up. "Your security check is clear. Please proceed through the VIP lane over here."
Reed, or to be precise, Mercer using a behavioral-sync faceplate, merely gave a cold nod before walking straight through the VIP lane and into the departure lounge.
Following close behind were V and Songbird, dressed in casual clothes.
Similarly, the security officer just glanced at their IDs, saw the prompt pop up on his computer, and waved them through with a smile, not bothering to follow the strict security procedures.
V looked around, then walked up to Mercer, who was disguised as Reed. She first looked a bit unaccustomed to Mercer's current appearance as a burly black man, then whispered, "Is this necessary? Didn't you already clear things up with Myers? What's the point of using Reed's face to go to the moon?"
"It's for outsiders to see. Once things go down on the moon, others will naturally check the passenger list for this flight..." Mercer explained. V frowned. "Then shouldn't I be in disguise too?"
"You? No need. Everyone knows you're just a bodyguard, a hired gun..." Mercer's words made V bare her teeth and glare at him.
Songbird walked over to Mercer's side and said thoughtfully, "So the purpose of disguising yourself as Reed is to pin the blame entirely on Militech?"
"Correct. And also to give you a plausible way to return to Earth..." Mercer didn't elaborate further. He then led the two of them along the VIP lane and into the premium lounge.
In addition to the common lounge, the premium lounge also had high-end facilities like massage rooms and private suites for resting, which was a real eye-opener for V.
Mercer simply pulled them over to a seat in the lounge and leisurely began to drink a NiCola. Songbird chose a cup of coffee, while V, after some deliberation, picked out a bottle of champagne.
"These rich folks really know how to live. Free booze before a flight?" V marveled.
"A first-class ticket can easily cost over ten thousand eurodollars. And for VIP clients of Orbital Air, a single flight starts at two hundred thousand eddies. How much do you think that champagne of yours costs?"
Mercer spoke in a relaxed tone. Songbird, sipping her coffee, looked at him and suddenly said, "I feel like you two are even more relaxed than before we set out..."
"Well, we're already here... It's not like we haven't gambled with our lives before," V said, cutting to the chase. She then glanced at Mercer. "But where's our stuff? Didn't you have it sent over in advance?"
Mercer jutted his chin, and the two women saw an airport baggage bot approaching, pulling several oversized suitcases.
"Esteemed VIP clients, this is the luggage you need to check in. Would you like me to place it in the cargo hold area for you in advance?" the bot's gentle female voice asked.
"I'll check it first."
After Mercer spoke, the bot unloaded all the items.
Mercer opened and checked them one by one. Each of the large suitcases was heavy as hell. Songbird took a peek. "How much stuff did you bring?"
"You didn't think a set of armor each was all the prep we needed, did you?" Mercer retorted, quickly inspecting the large pile of weapon and equipment cases disguised as luggage.
After finishing his inspection, Mercer said directly, "Stand by. Help me move this to the station's tram in a bit."
The rocket launch site was still some distance from the airport, requiring a ride on the station's orbital tram.
The cargo bot acknowledged the command, then reloaded the large suitcases onto its cart, clumsily reminding them, "Considering the cramped space in the manned rocket's cabin, I must again remind you that you should place these items in the manned rocket's cargo hold area in advance..."
Mercer couldn't be bothered to reply. The bot's cyberoptics flickered, and then, suddenly, they became animated.
"Master, everything is normal at present."
"I'm leaving the home front to you."
Mercer said softly. The bot, or rather, Morning Star who had taken control of it, replied in a gentle tone, "I will ensure everyone's safety and await your triumphant return."
"Mm," Mercer nodded. Morning Star had the bot stop to one side, waiting for the boarding time.
Songbird marveled, "That's a high level of intelligence..."
"Don't ask what you shouldn't, unless you plan on getting involved in this kind of trouble later on."
Mercer said, and Songbird quickly shook her head.
She held out her hand, looked at her palm, and said with a sigh, "I feel like I'm dreaming, Mercer. This feeling... it doesn't feel real."
"Heh, you still have a ways to go before you're truly free. No need to get emotional so early," Mercer said.
Songbird shook her head, but her mood was still a mixture of apprehension and the excitement of a primary school student about to go on a field trip. "But aren't we already on our way?" she said with longing.
"You're the only one getting your freedom. If I want to retire, who knows how long I'll have to wait," V interjected, glaring at Mercer. "With this guy's personality, jumping from one idea to the next, I feel like I might not even live to see retirement."
Mercer shrugged, his tone light. "What are you talking about? Even if you don't plan to retire, I do. Once I've dealt with all these morons who seem bent on destroying the world, I'll definitely be out of here faster than anyone!
When that time comes, I'm going to live the good life of a rich man, travel everywhere, eat and drink, and bring along a bunch of beautiful women... ahem, I mean, like you, Rebecca, Lucy, Kiwi, Sasha, and the others. We'll all go together..."
V said irritably, "Give me a break! I knew you were completely unreliable in this department. Only little girls like Rebecca and Lucy would be fooled by you."
Songbird watched them chat, unable to hold back a giggle. For a moment, the three of them really did look as relaxed as if they were just going on a trip to the moon.
The bot's voice finally interrupted Mercer and V's bickering. "Master, we need to leave now to take the tram to the launch station."
"Let's go." Mercer stood up, and the bot led the way, pushing the small cargo cart.
V and Songbird followed behind him. After a short walk, they went through the VIP lane and boarded the tram directly. A staff member wanted to guide them, but Mercer just waved his hand, bluntly telling them not to touch his luggage.
The staff member could only offer an apologetic smile. For these employees, any request from an Orbital Air super VIP client had to be accommodated to the best of their ability, as long as it wasn't a serious violation.
So, even though letting a cargo bot onto the tram was a bit against the rules, they could only watch from the side, not daring to object.
After boarding the tram, V looked out the window and exclaimed, "It's this big in here? We have to take a tram to get there?"
"There are eight rocket launch stations in here alone, plus a universal international airport... The rocket we're taking is a five-minute tram ride away."
Mercer seemed to have already memorized the layout of the place.
The tram took them directly to their destination without any stops. The VIP car had no other passengers, as the manned rocket they were taking had a capacity of only four people, being a high-end rocket exclusively for VIP clients.
It was faster and had a higher safety rating.
Morning Star, controlling the bot, blankly placed the luggage in the corridor leading to the rocket. A staff member tried to guide them into the rocket.
But Mercer just glanced at him, and the staff member suddenly collapsed as if electrocuted.
"Let's go. We can just go straight in."
Mercer said.
V looked at the massive rocket launcher, now just a stone's throw away, and said with some concern, "So, how does this thing work?"
"It's all a fixed launch procedure, a fully automated process. You get in, close the door, then it automatically ignites, launches, cruises, and lands..."
Mercer explained as he gestured for V and Songbird to enter first.
Stepping through the hatch, they found the rocket's passenger cabin to be reasonably spacious, with four seats arranged facing each other.
Mercer used zip ties to secure the suitcases under the seats before sitting down with V and Songbird.
After fastening his seatbelt, Mercer first made a shushing gesture to V, looked around, and then nodded. "Not bad, no missing equipment... We're about to depart."
"Oh!" V quickly checked her seatbelt, then sat in her seat, looking around nervously and excitedly. "How come there aren't any windows? I wanted to see how we take off!"
"See that screen? It'll light up in a moment and show a real-time external view from the cameras. Just think of it as a window... You didn't really think a manned rocket would have a window for you, did you?"
Mercer looked at her with disdain. "I told you to read more..."
"Damn it! You never said we were going to the moon! If you'd told me earlier, I would've definitely looked up some basic facts about the moon and space..."
V grumbled, but then she heard the sound of the cabin door locking, and red indicator lights immediately lit up inside. "Whoa! It's red! Mercer, is this right!?"
"Don't worry, we're going up."
As soon as Mercer finished speaking, V felt the passenger cabin shudder slightly, followed by a distinct sensation of upward movement, like being in an elevator.
"Are we..." V nervously wrung her hands.
Songbird, sitting beside her, also looked a bit tense but calmly explained to V, "The passenger cabin we're in is now being lifted like an elevator to the upper part of the rocket.
The lower part of the rocket is the ignition module. It will detach on its own after ignition for recovery. The rest of the flight is actually powered by the upper section..."
As she explained, the lighting inside the cabin quickly changed to a clean white, and the Orbital Air logo appeared on the screen.
A beautifully dressed woman in a smart Orbital Air uniform appeared on the screen, introducing the flight with a smile.
"Welcome aboard manned rocket X10021. The destination for this flight is the Orbital Air Circumlunar Orbital Space Station.
We are expected to enter a parking orbit around Earth in five hours, then follow the predetermined route to enter the Earth-Moon flight path. We are expected to arrive and land at lunar base D011 on the moon 21 hours after leaving orbit."
The woman on the screen continued to smile as she explained the cabin's facilities. V listened for a while, until the woman had gone through all the emergency escape clauses and safety precautions, before asking curiously, "How do we go to the bathroom? We're flying for over twenty hours? And this flight time... isn't it a bit long?"
She looked at Mercer and said, "I thought we'd be there in a dozen hours at most."
"Do you know how long it took the first lunar rockets to get to the moon?" Mercer, wanting to save her some face in front of an outsider, didn't laugh at her but explained seriously, "The first Apollo manned spaceship took a full four days to get to the moon!"
"The fact that it's been shortened to about 24 hours now is already considered very fast." After a pause, Mercer added, "As for using the toilet, washing up, and the three daily meals, see this hatch on the side?"
He pointed to something that looked like an emergency escape door. "Besides the emergency lifepod, there's also a simple toilet in there, but I swear, you definitely won't like the feeling of using the toilet in a place like this."
"Why?" V asked like a curious child.
"Because this isn't like a lunar base or a high-end space station with a built-in gravitational field generator that lets you move around as freely as you do on Earth. You've seen what astronauts look like in space, right? Floating around in zero gravity?"
Mercer grinned. "So, if you want to use the toilet in zero-g, you have to use a device to create negative pressure... Okay, to put it simply, it's like having an exhaust fan sucking everything away...
Still don't get it? Then I'll be blunt. You wanna use the toilet? You'll have to be Chippin' In."
"Fuck!" V's face immediately darkened, but after a thought, she said with relief, "Good thing I took care of business before I came. I should be able to hold it for over twenty hours."
"As for food..." Mercer casually pulled out a drawer from the side of his seat. Inside were compressed food and water, packed in plastic bags with built-in straws for sipping.
"We'll make do with these. Try to eat as little as possible. They don't taste good anyway, and it'll be a hassle if you need to use the toilet."
Mercer's words immediately extinguished V's desire to try them out.
At that moment, a continuous rumbling sound came from outside the cabin. V crossed her legs and rubbed her hands. "Are we about to take off?"
"The ignition module has been activated."
Mercer said, and then the entire cabin began to shake.
The screen immediately switched to the external camera view.
All three of them fixed their gazes on the screen.
On the screen, in what appeared to be footage from inside the spaceport, the massive rocket began to ignite and slowly ascend. Then the camera automatically switched to the external view, clearly showing them rising from a few dozen meters off the ground, climbing higher and higher.
It was like looking at the scenery outside a window.
In the night sky, all the scenery became blurry and distant amidst the violent shaking and the roar of the engines.
One hundred meters, two hundred meters; the vertically ascending rocket accelerated, and in just a few breaths, the once-enormous launch site became tiny.
"Going to the moon..."
V murmured to herself.
Mercer, also gazing at the external view on the screen, softly echoed, "Yeah, going to the moon."
The scenery on the display gradually became monotonous; a pitch-black night, sparse stars. Apart from the roar of the engines and the mechanical vibrations of the rocket, the road to space was nothing but dead silence.