We heard the gate closing behind us. The landing room was pretty bleak. The walls, ceiling and floor were made from metal, which gave the area a boring gray color scheme. The only thing in the room that wasn't gray was a transparent door that led into the colony. Behind it was a myriad of colors, so we curiously made our way there.
While the landing room was as dull as the Science and Containment Centre on Europa, which we visited during our previous mission, the colony itself was lively and colorful, like a completely different world.
For starters, plantlife was all over the place, excluding the landing area of course. Upon entering the colony, we passed by an oversized root, wide enough to be like a speedbump. Then we looked up.
It seemed like a solid portion of the All-Seeing Eye was a giant garden of sorts. Various bushes, shrubs, flowers, vines and more gigantic roots grew over large portions of this massive area, which seemed to be a main hall, branching off into different districts.
All of the greenery made the place feel serene and welcoming, very earthlike for the insides big metal ball floating in the skies of a mostly hostile planet. It seems like the vegetation was planted to make the colonists feel more at home and it got the job done. The Venusian colonists which we passed by looked relaxed and cheerful, although they gazed upon us as if we were morons.
- What's wrong? - I asked, noticing this.
- I know! - Anthony took off his oxygen mask.
- Wait! - it took me a few seconds to realize what he meant.
None of the colonists wore oxygen masks, because the plants were like an enormous air filter, allowing the citizens to breathe normally. Having understood this, I took off my mask as well. The others soon followed.
We decided to explore a bit. The floor was metallic, much like the one in the landing room, with the difference being the roots growing onto it. There were pathways between the plants. We were making our way down one.
I looked up to see just how high the tallest plants reach. Several vines hung off the ceiling, but that wasn't the weirdest part. The strangest things above us were the flying people.
They were just casually floating from one spot to another, wholly ignorant of gravity. For a brief moment, I assumed that some colonist invented a way to locally turn off gravitation, but the people were upright, which made even less sense.
Dawn and Sebastian stared at the flying people too.
- They have jetpacks! - Dawn noted.
I squinted and soon saw what she meant. Every flying person was equipped with a backpack, emmitting small flames. Basically, they were tiny rockets strapped to your back.
- Wow... - I gasped, as I wasn't aware that jetpacks have already been created. While humanity's technological progress during the last decade was immense, I was still unaware of many things created during this era of rapid progression.
- If you want to find those pesky enemy operatives, you'll need to learn how to operate one of these - Agent Nebula told us.
- Really?! - Amber replied excitedly - We're going to fly?! Awesome!
- C'mon, we have training to do - Agent Nebula walked away from the rest of our group, leading us down another path.
I was still observing the surroundings in awe. The colony was so different to anything I've seen in my life that I felt as if I've stepped into a pocket dimension. But I couldn't sit in here forever, as we approached another door, labelled: "Jetpack Storage".
Walking into the room, it was very different to the overgrown main hall we just left. The only form of greenery was a wall covered with leaves, which was nice, but a far cry from what lies outside.
One of the first notable things was a wall with jetpacks hanging on them. Each of them looked like normal backpacks, but with the storage compartments replaced by two small boosters.
Amber ran up to them, excited to try out this new gadget, but Nebula stopped her from putting one on.
- Wait up! You need to learn how to use one of these, not accidentally fly into the ceiling - Nebula told her.
Agent Nebula was usually like this. During our time on Europa, where we first met her, she seemed to be a very competent field agent and by no means a teacher. The only hint of her true personality which we received was Nebula bringing up her teaching my father to be a space spy.
Now, she has fully regressed into the role of a mentor, whilst still retaining competence. From what I learned aboard our rocket, our training was a part of Anthony's special plan, which involved Nebula giving us new skills to make us spies better fitted for what's to come on future missions.
Nebula was the first one to put on a jetpack. In her hands were two joysticks attatched to the pack. The buttons on them controlled the thrust force, while moving the joysticks slightly rotated the boosters, allowing us to change direction.
Einstein handed each of us a jetpack and helped us strap them onto our backs, under Nebula's careful eye. As it turned out, they were quite heavy. Not nearly as heavy as our bulky spacesuits, but I still felt the jetpack's weight bearing down on my back.
It wasn't anything too bad, though. We quickly got to operating the jetpacks. Upon learning how the controls worked, we moved onto the next step: activating the thrusters and blasting into the air.
- Now, activate your boosters! Set them to low thrust. You only want to be slightly lifted off the ground - with that, Agent Nebula demonstrated how to do this, briefly floating half a metre above the floor.
- Won't this burn my legs? - Sebastian asked.
- That's why the boosters were placed at an angle, so that the flames end up behind you, not on you - Nebula responded calmly.
It was our turn to try. I gripped the joysticks and slowly pressed the thrust buttons. It was a gentle touch, so that I won't come careening upwards. The boosters hissed and I was slowly lifted into the air, which was a peculiar sensation. Suddenly loosing my footing was pretty unnerving, so I let go off the buttons and dropped onto the floor again.
- Try again - Nebula advised.
I overcame my fears and pressed the buttons again, this time however, I was slightly more confident, as I already knew what I was going to deal with. Thus, I stayed in the air for a few more seconds than before. Then, I touched down on the floor once more.
Our next task was learning how to maneuver in the air using the joysticks. Agent Nebula tasked us with flying into a larger room, located to our right. This was much easier for the adults than for us, as they had gone through far longer training than we did. We've only been through four months of official education in the Academy of Astronauts, plus the training with Nebula, which lasted for only a month so far. This was incomparable to the years of training the adults went through.
Still, we tried our best. Amber turned out to be the best at operating a jetpack, graciously flying through the air. I wasn't the best, but managed to make it to the larger room in one piece. It was completely devoid of vegetation, but for a good reason: it was meant to be an area in which people would learn to use the jetpacks and plants couldn't be there, because there would be a good chance of accidentally setting them on fire.
We touched down in the larger room and Nebula continued our lesson. We were now learning to adjust our thrust and fly higher. I struggled to stay upright, because our main goal was making a loop around the room without touching the floor. Halfway through the loop, I turned too violently and tilted upside down. I frantically oriented myself back upright, stopping right before slamming the ground, which I almost slammed into, headfirst.
However, I was now accelerating. Trying to slow down, I ended up completely loosing control. Anthony flew over to catch me, but I was too fast and ended up smashing through the window and rushing out of the All-Seeing Eye.
I wasn't wearing an oxygen mask, so my best bet on survival was holding my breath, as if I was underwater. The Venusian sky was now the only thing visible ahead of me. There was one good thing though: without the boundries of the room, regaining control was much easier. It was still challenging though; I just didn't have to worry about crashing into something along the way.
I finally slowed down and turned around, hoping to fly back into the room which I left. Anthony was already coming, which calmed me down. However, in this moment of distraction, I ended up letting go of the joysticks altogether and plummeting into the hazy depths.
Realizing what predicament I just ended up in, I pressed the joysticks as hard as possible and ended up rocketing out of the clouds. But now I've practically returned to square one: I was going way too fast.
I couldn't change my angle and aim for the smashed window anymore; instead, I was heading on a collision course with another, much smaller one. Unable to stop or turn around, I braced for impact.
I busted straight into someone's office, crash-landing right in front of a desk. I looked upwards, seeing a very startled Chinese man, who was busy sorting papers, which now whooshed off his desk. This man was strangely familiar to me.
- Lim Yazhu? - I coughed.73Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtFAiVnCip4
- No - the man responded with a specific oriental accent - I'm his brother, Chang Yazhu.
ns216.73.216.86da2
and then Add to home screen.