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nDante walked up the open ramp and actually entered his spaceship. As he stepped through the threshold of the Solaris Horizon E7, his heart shook with a mixture of excitement and satisfaction. Excitement because he was about to enter space, while satisfaction was because he owned a legitimate spaceship.

nThe moment he crossed the boundary between the entrance and the padded floor of the ship’s interior, he was greeted by an ethereal luminescence that bathed the place in an otherworldly glow. The walls seemed to hum with energy, a dance of lights cascading across sleek surfaces that mirrored the cosmic expanse that should be beyond the ship’s windows.

nThe quantum reactor’s gentle thrum resonated through the ship, a reminder of the boundless power that surged beneath the surface. It was present but not irritating in the least. Rather, as a city boy, Dante would feel uncomfortable without white noise in the background.

nAs he ventured deeper, Dante’s gaze swept over the intricate lattice of the vortex weave shielding, which was basically like a carapace of blue light arrayed around the ship. It was typical sci-fi stuff, nothing too shocking to be honest.

nHis brisk and confident steps led him to the heart of the vessel, where the Astro-Mapping Array stood as a mesmerizing centerpiece. To put it fancily, it was like an oracle of stars, a mosaic of constellations and astral paths that painted the tapestry of the unknown.

nTo put it bluntly, it was basically like the star chart from The Normandy.

nAs he stood before the navigation chart, the ship’s artificial intelligence, Solaris, greeted him with a voice that resonated with a cadence of wisdom drawn from the knowledge of humanity. A holographic androgynous face appeared beside Dante and hovered in mid-air.

n“Greetings, Master Dante. My name is Solaris, and I am here to assist you in your travels throughout the stars.” The AI spoke in a toneless voice that was neither male nor female.

nDante glanced at the AI with a slightly cold look. “Heed my order, Solaris. You will no longer make any reports to your manufacturing company for any reason, whether for ad tracking or safety reporting, or whatever.” ｂ𝚍ｎｏ𝚟ｌ.

n“For the entirety of your duration as my AI, your only job is to ensure the functional operation of the ship, and the highest command comes from either myself or my AI chip. You cannot take any automated actions regardless of danger or emergency situations. Do you understand?”

nThe AI was sufficiently advanced, so it showed a hint of surprise but could not disobey. “I understand. Your commands have been registered and set with the highest priority. How else can I serve?”

nDante walked over to the bridge of the ship, which was the archetypal place of command and control. The pilot’s seat was empty, so Dante naturally settled into its embrace, his fingers calmly hovering over tactile controls that seemed to beg to be pressed regardless of consequences.

n“Solaris, start up the engine and take us into orbit. Make sure to activate the cloaking function so that no hick by the seaside happens to see us and we trend on social media.” Dante commanded with a hint of amusement at the end.

n“As you wish. The engine start-up and takeoff shall commence in 3 seconds. We will be in orbit within 10 seconds.” Solaris responded.

nAs the ship began to boot up and the engines roared to life, Dante took a deep breath. He felt a symphony of awe and anticipation arise within him as the ship left the ground and rushed into the air at speeds that surpassed his top speed when he was running on the ground at 500 points back then.

nWhat was even more amazing was that Dante did not feel a single bit of turbulence or discomfort. It was like he was simply seated in a cinema and watching from a first-person perspective, able to see the events but not physically feel them.

nSoon, the ship tore out of the atmosphere and reached the void of space a few thousand kilometers away from Earth’s exosphere. Dante had it turned around so he could view the planet for himself, not through the screens of movies or the words of novels.

nIn fact, he activated his vice-admiral’s exosuit and teleported into space after warning Solaris to stay put. He then floated in the voids of space while gazing at Earth, his mood complicated.

nEverything seemed so… stupid. War, discrimination, hatred, love, sex, death. It all seemed like a bunch of dolls playing house, unable to see the little girls outside who were controlling them for their amusement.

nHowever, Dante still understood everything too. He understood the need for war since he wanted to conquer, he understood the existence of discrimination as he also looked down on the aliens of his home universe compared to the Eternal Universe, he understood hatred though he didn’t hate anyone at the moment, he understood love because of his ever-growing feelings for Beatrice, he also understood the desire for sex since more than 45% of his brainpower at all times was calculating how he would ravage her when the time came, and finally, death.

nDeath he understood because it was the end of all things.

nDante returned to his ship and commanded Solaris to scan the maximum range it could. Using a quantum detector, it scanned the entirety of the nearby galaxy as it was its maximum range and merged it with the star chart.

nNot all ships could do this, obviously; this model was the top of the line of the top of the line. If Dante didn’t have his status, he wouldn’t even have been able to hear its name, much less place an order for it.

n“Master Dante, I have found some issues. It seems that the recorded star chart of the Milky Way galaxy and the results of the current scan conflict.” Solaris reported immediately.

nDante’s eyebrows twitched, and what he feared most had happened. He had hoped that since they had similar histories and many shared details, the layout of the universe would be the same too.

n“How large is the deviation?” Dante asked nervously.

n“By about 7.543%, Sir.” Solaris reported immediately.

nDante sighed with relief. As a rule of thumb, deviations above 10% meant that hyperspace could not be used. After all, hyperspace worked by tunneling through the gaps in space at speeds beyond the space-time continuum.

nIt was basically the highway of the universe. You could reach speeds on the highway that you would not dare try on normal suburban roads, how that was predicated on the fact that you knew the highway and could see the other cars on it.

nOtherwise, you’d crash. Now if a car moving at above 100 km

/h crashing yielded a gory and fatal scene, imagine a spaceship moving at beyond the concept of mach speed?

n“Based on the comparisons, can you plot a hyperspace channel that leads to the area near the Eternal Academy?” Dante asked, hoping for the best.

n“Hmm… a moment, please.” Solaris requested.

nEven for a super quantum computer with processing power beyond comprehension, this was a journey that involves zillions of kilometers and miles, and one had to find the route that would avoid hitting all planets on the way as well as collide with other ships.

nHowever, what would take a regular cruiser a few hours at best to calculate only took Solaris 2 seconds. Immediately, the AI reported that a route had been calculated and Dante could initiate the jump sequence.

nDante immediately initiated the process and settled into his seat. As the ship charged up its power and tore through the fabric of spacetime, the void before Dante cracked like a mirror and threw him into a strangely cylindrical tunnel that glowed with a multitude of lights and colors.

nIt was a truly shocking experience, nothing like any of the popular sci-fi series he had seen. They made hyperspace jumping look like you were increasing your speed suddenly, but the reality was that you literally cracked open a hole in space and brazenly rushed through.

nDante glanced at the mesmerizing array of lights outside that looked like it was a screensaver from Windows Media Player back then and found himself entranced. Before his tech could work, a jolt of flame rushed up from his dantian and seared his mind while his spatial spiritual cores glowed and expunged some remnant lights from Dante’s eyes.

nDante woke up and shuddered with shock, not daring to look out again. Not that he thought about it, when Beatrice entered hyperspace in the Eternal Universe, he had been in the Vice Admiral’s cabin, either bathing or out cold from the genetic injection she gave him.

nThis phenomenon has been documented as the ‘Test of the Universe’ by scientists of the Eternal Universe. Any sentient species that enters hyperspace for the first time will see these lights and fall into a trance.

nThey can be easily extricated using external stimuli, and once extricated, you develop immunity to the effect forever. However, if nothing is done, your organic body will crumble into a bunch of space dust.

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