Chapter 5.3 (1/2)

The sun sank below the horizon, leaving only the endless night sky. Dingo and Angela sat on the roof of the structure, the part that didn’t collapse. The working robot, controlled by Pioneer, was setting up the telescope. He launched the altazimuth mount of the telescope (ED: This wiki page should give an idea of what it actually is: /wiki/Altazimuth_mount). It began to move towards the specified observation point. There was a built-in miniature camera in the eyepiece, the image was broadcast on a flatbed monitor.

Angela watched in terror from afar. The fact that the AI acquired its own personality frightened her, she could hardly believe it. Pioneer handed Dingo the flatbed monitor. It was completely black.

“I can’t see anything.”

In the infrared light, a silhouette of a s.h.i.+p appeared.

“Wow, it’s huge.”

Dingo blurted out as soon as he saw the s.h.i.+p on the monitor. The main part of the s.h.i.+p resembled a corolla of a flower. The propulsion system was at the end, a long nozzle with a magnetic field monitoring system to direct the plasma flow, a cooling panel, and a thermonuclear reactor.

“This is the s.h.i.+p destined to conquer distant s.p.a.ce.”

“Yes, this is the Ark.”

Dingo called Angela. She got closer to the monitor.

“It’s length… How long is it?”

“Lagrange point 3…”

Angela bit her lip.

“That’s it,” Dingo said understanding everything.

Deva is located at Lagrange point 1, which is in the opposite direction. The rocket isn’t visible from there.

“If the goal was just exploring, then why such secrecy?”

Pioneer answered.