Project Overworld

For the following weeks, Keith made sure to be there for the new recruits, monitoring their actions from afar. However, he slowly realized after a few weeks that it was useless for him to constantly check their progress.

They were doing really good on their own and most of their questions were more related to the disposition of his base instead of how they should be accomplishing a specific result. They were surprisingly autonomous, although a bit on the slow side regarding his own standards.

Since they were doing so well, Keith started focusing on his own projects for the time being. To kick things off, he extended his spatial room by twice its original size so he could fit another launching pad into it. His crewmates would be testing their own designs onto the first one, so it was more than necessary for him to have an additional one ready for his own purposes.

Actually, he has had the idea of going there in no time because he had a planned to improve his space shuttle so it could reach longer distances. Furthermore, he had to prepare a few more modules for the station itself so that every member of Spacol could fit into there. It was far easier to work towards space-related projects directly from up there instead of launching everything from the land.

That was why, after they would be finished with the development of this automated rocket assembling machine, he had planned for them to move to space.

'Well, let's get going, we have a lot to do for the time being.' Keith thought while admiring his brand new launching pad.

For the whole two months he has been staying on Earth, Keith has had a lot of time to design new modules for his space station on his computer. Thanks to this, he now had a pretty good idea on what he would be doing next.

First things first, he needed to launch a several more fuel tanks into orbit because he has used so much during that Moon race. Afterwards, he needed modules which would be containing a lot of free space to allow them for better movements around the spatial base. Finally, he needed a lot of powerful and spaceproof tools so they could actually be engineering shuttles and other spacecrafts altogether.

After over a month and a half of launching various modules into space, Keith was finally ready to hop onto a launcher and assemble these modules directly to 'EOSS', standing for 'Earth Orbital Spacol Station'. A bit of a pompous name, but necessary regarding his future plans. In fact, EOSS would only be the first in his plans as he wanted to assemble at least one station around every planet of the solar system.

As for his new crewmates, Keith had nothing to complain about. Sure, Michael en Tyler has had a bit of a hard time understanding how electronics worked, but the three others did help them a lot in that regard.

Leyla has clearly been teaching all of them how they should work as a team and their progress was being actually quite surprising according to Keith. During the several weeks he has been focusing on his own matters, they managed to build a machine with mechanical arms that automatically assembled the rocket engine from scratch.

Well, not entirely from scratch since it was using the production of other machines to build the overall structure of this essential part of the rocket. However, this was such a huge progress to Keith because a single engine could take at least a few hours of work to simply assemble the parts altogether. In the meantime, they also learnt a lot on motherboards to make the robots able to process informations that were given to them. Because to this, Keith was starting to hope they could be automating the construction of electronical parts in the near future.

'This is getting really interesting.' He jubilated. Not only did their work could actually manage to reduce the building of a single rocket to only mere week, if not less, they were also managing all of this on their own. Obviously, Spacol lost five person worth of manpower over a month and half for such a simple result, but this could certainly prove essential on the long run.

Also, the result may be simple but Keith witnessed its efficiency while working on his 'Space Station Launcher 16'. He ordered an engine by specifying the measurements needed and got a fully assembled engine by the time he finalized the c.o.c.kpit of the rocket. This has been a real gain of time for him because he has been able to focus on other tasks while it was being produced.

The only problem was that this automatically assembled engine was not as optimized as the ones he had been making up until now, as it lacked some cutting edge technologies like an improved cooling system that could be using air in addition of the liquid fuel itself to cool down the engine.

However, for a solid fuel engine like that of the side boosters used during the take off phase, this type of design worked perfectly. Anyways, the more Keith enjoyed the company of these new recruits, the more elated he felt. He did not realize it until now, but having trustworthy crewmates working towards the same goals as himself really eased the pressure that these project put on him by a significant amount. If Keith ever failed with any of his designs, he knew he could count on them to keep moving forward.

While Keith was making last few tweaks to complete his 'Space Station Launcher 16', Leyla approached him and started off a conversation : "Hey! Quite an impressive rocket you managed to build there!" She exclaimed.

He could not determine where she wanted to go with this conversation but decided to go alongside it anyways : "Yeah, that's the result of dozens of flights. This one can transport a load of a almost a hundred tons without losing too much in efficiency." He suddenly stopped in his work and turned towards Leyla. He waited for her to ask the question that tormented her until she finally opened her mouth.

- "Do you think that'd be possible for me to join on your flight."

Keith was taken aback because of such an unexpected request. He actually did not respond immediately, trying to figure out whether that would be delaying his plans or not.

After considering every changes that would be technically engaged, he finally considered the pros and cons of such an eventuality.

'If she was to go with me on that space station, we would be able to finish this job in two weeks at most. However, I don't know how the others would fare without her.' He meditated. 'Fortunately, I do have a spare spacesuit in case I would happen to tear one apart because of an incident.'

- "How would you estimate the progression of the others without you being around?" He finally asked.

- "I think they'd do relatively well. Regardless, we're currently trying to optimize the engine production machine and we're a bit cramped as five player working on it." She exposed.

Since she was not the kind of person to lie around, Keith immediately trusted her words. In the end, the only problem there was left with such a change in his plans was to enlarge the c.o.c.kpit so it could fit two person.

- "We will be departing tomorrow morning. Be sure to connect as soon as possible." He said. Since the next day was supposed to be the end of the week, Keith had already planned to launch then so he could say goodbye to his friends this evening.

Leyla seemed really happy about this perspective and went back onto her current work with the rest of the Spacol members.

'Such a strange request.' He thought. 'She must really be interested in exploring space to dare and ask to go with me even though she just joined my company.' He concluded. However, he was rather interested in being able to witness her skills from up close.

Obviously, he has been optimizing the programs of his rockets for months now, and he did not think human intervention was necessary anymore. As for the work he had planned once he got to his space station, he was actually really glad someone would be there and help him in that regard.

The next day, by eight in the morning, Keith was done with the few adjustments he needed to make to the c.o.c.kpit. Leyla joined him just a bit later and they both climbed onto the rocket.

- "It will be my first flight in a while." Keith expressed. "Did you prepare for the two weeks awaiting for us? Working in space may be really straining for the mental." He explained. Leyla was right next to him and he saw her nod in the periphery of his field of view. She seemed really excited about this incoming flight and could not even express herself correctly.

Since there was no reason to stay on Earth any longer, Keith activated the engines of his rocket so they could take off.

'Finally...' He thought. '... Let's go back onto that space station.'