“W-What the?! What happened?!”
“Miss Marisha! Don’t talk!”
Just then, right after Meitzer spoke to Marissa... There was a huge explosion behind them.
“Why—ow!!” In shock, Marissa bit her tongue hard. “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow...”
“That’s why I told you not to talk... Are you all right?” Meitzer spoke with concern to Marissa, who had tears in her eyes. “It didn’t hit you, did it?!”
The human who had waved them away drew near enough that they could make out his face.
“No, and that’s thanks to your warning.”
“Um... sorry about that.”
A full-bearded man in early old age looked at Marissa covering her mouth and moaning, and at Meitzer, who responded with a wry smile. “Are you... Professor Auguste?”
“Oh, do you know me? Are you the visitors the military mentioned?” The man was Auguste, and he answered with a surprised look on his face.
A short while later, Auguste led Meitzer and Marissa to the Association for Space Travel.
“Whoa... What a mess!”
The facility was spacious, but there were mountains of documents, presumably research materials, and various experimental tools scattered around leaving little space to walk.
“Please, right this way.”
Auguste showed them toward the back, where the floor was barely visible and a sofa suggested they had been expecting visitors. It would be hard to reach it however.
“Some of this stuff looks expensive. If I break it, it’d wipe out my monthly pay!”
Marissa was walking carefully. At her feet lay some kind of experimental sample that looked like avant-garde art.
“No, not your monthly pay. More like your annual pay!”
“Hwaaah?!” Marissa cried out from the bottom of her heart hearing this comment from Meitzer, who was striding smoothly but carefully through the objects, despite his large frame.
A low-ranking soldier’s salary wasn’t high. Marissa was still repaying her loan from her student days, so she lived frugally. She had recently taken a relatively decent side job, but she still didn’t have money to waste, and the loss of a month’s pay was a hardship she could not afford.
“Please, wait a moment. I’ll have someone make tea.”
“No, that isn’t necessary.”
Having finally reached a place where the floor was clear, Marissa sat on the sofa, feeling exhausted spiritually and physically.
“Hey, Helmut! Make tea! Huh? There are no cups? Well, there are beakers, aren’t there? I think so anyway! Use ones that have been washed!”
“Whoa...” Marissa exclaimed in a voice conveying concern over just what the beakers might have been used for.
“So what brings you here?” Auguste asked Meitzer with curiosity.
“It’s hard to tell whether our group is a bunch of visionaries or just delusional. Luckily, thanks to my past life, the government arranged a research budget, but it isn’t a lot of money.”
Auguste was a former professor from Berun University. He was an unusual fellow, a former medical doctor who later became a physics scholar. He had a laudable history in medicine, so his name was influential with government big shots. That was what he meant by his past life.
“Actually... I’ve read your work, Doctor, and it was quite interesting.” Meitzer offered praise to refute Auguste’s humility. “I think it was called “The Path to the Stars.” It described how humans could leave the earth’s atmosphere and visit other planets. And how we could go to the moon. I had the impression that you were serious and had developed your theory considerably.”
“Oh my... You read that? I’m much obliged.”
A few years ago, after the conclusion of the Great War, Auguste published a paper. Most scholars dismissed it as little more than the summary of a science fiction novel. They believed it was impossible for humans to go into space.
“Many academics declared it impossible for human beings to live in a world without air, water or even gravity, and wondered how it would be possible to navigate a void. But I felt differently.” Auguste’s eyes sparkled in response to Meitzer’s words. He was probably over fifty years old. But now he looked like a young boy.
“I’m so happy. It’s been a long time since anyone said that.”
“I’m glad, Professor.”
Auguste’s helper Helmut, who had brought tea, also laughed joyfully. As if second-guessing the wisdom of serving tea in beakers, Helmut had poured it into cups, albeit slightly chipped ones.
“Well? Is your research going well?”
“Actually, we’re locked in a tough fight. When will the day come that we can head into space?”
“To me, it appeared to be going smoothly. That experiment earlier looked like a success.”
“Hm?” Hearing Meitzer’s astute comment, Auguste closed his mouth.
“Earlier? Um... what was that earlier? A bomb?” Marissa, who had nearly been caught in the mysterious large explosion, was eager to know. The government wouldn’t look the other way if they were setting off mysterious explosions. She would have to report it through specific channels.
“No, you don’t understand, Miss Marisha.” Meitzer spoke to Marissa, whose face was now stern. “That was the experiment’s objective. It’s a rocket.”
“Rocket?” Marissa had never heard the word before.
“There are various definitions, but in this case, it means a machine that ejects internal matter for thrust instead of taking in air from outside.”
The word rocket was derived from a word meaning bobbin. That was because rockets had a similar shape.
“Traveling through a space with no air, water or gravity requires thrust from a reaction to an explosion caused by chemical combustion. We launched a rocket, and that explosion occurred when it fell.”
“You appear to know all about it!”
Meitzer grinned at Auguste’s surprise.
“That’s why you have your laboratory out here in the boonies, isn’t it? It’d be hard to perform such experiments in the middle of the city.”
“Yes, that’s it exactly.”
The rockets Auguste was studying combined liquid oxygen and liquid fuel. Burning that fuel caused an explosion that provided powerful thrust. Such an explosion was more destructive than the blasts of crude bombs.
“The rocket reached the projected altitude, so the experiment was satisfactory. We were right about the blend ratio of liquid oxygen and fuel.”
Sometimes science achieves productive results even when it appears that it has failed.
“Then if you make a bigger rocket, will people be able to go into space? Like, to the moon?”
“No, too many problems remain. With current technology, it’s impossible to leave the atmosphere.”
“Oh, is that so?”
“But...”
Meitzer unintentionally narrowed his eyes. “So long-distance flight is already possible within the atmosphere?”
“?!” Auguste’s face tensed at Meitzer’s words.
“The government isn’t pouring tax dollars into the Association for Space Travel because it’s drunk or handing out charity. They figured you would someday develop technology with practical applications. But, that’s not true. You’ve already reached that point. Am I wrong?”
“.....................” Auguste didn’t answer.
Meitzer continued. “The military is paying the Association’s bills because it expects the technology to carry over into military use. And you’ve already achieved results.”
Under the cover of the Association for Space Travel, which sounded like something from Fantastica, was a test site for new weapons. That was its true function.
“You know the military occasionally plays a role in scientific and technological progress, don’t you?” Auguste finally spoke back. “There will be temporary drawbacks. However, it will be a blessing to humanity.”
“I suppose so. I can’t deny it.”
Meitzer was a military man. He even had the rank of general. So he understood the man’s reasoning.
“The fact is that science made dramatic progress during the ten years of the Great European War. That technology trickled down to the average person and has enriched humanity. There’s no doubt about it.”
“In that case...”
“But it mustn’t happen too fast.”
Meitzer’s eyes took on a glint of intensity. “You must halt this research. Such technology should never exist in this world.”
“What... do you know?”
The technology developed by Auguste and the Association for Space Travel could be applied to one particular weapon. Even the mere fact that it existed could destroy the balance of world powers.
“Verne 1. The world isn’t ready for that weapon yet.”
Application of the rocket development technology could give birth to a very dangerous weapon. That weapon was the ballistic missile, and the only two people in the world who knew about it were Meitzer and the girl known as the Saint.