Introduction:
When multiple worlds were created from technology found in a construction site, no one expected a result like this. Kazuki Yotsuga and his robot Zinv have once again prevented the collision of five worlds by creating one world out of the colliding worlds. In this new world, mankind is about to make its first attempts at space travel, a dream dear to Kazuki's heart.
Pioneers
Chapter 1:
Kazuki Yotsuga looked around Dr. Sanada's house, his home now. All the chores were done, so far as he knew. Everything was clean and in good order. His homework was done for once. All the work here was done, so he was free to have fun the rest of the afternoon.
The rest of the afternoon, Kazuki knew, was going to be taken up by a zero-gravity practice, but he knew he'd enjoy it. He'd be able to squeeze in just a few minutes of seeing Zinv, his giant robot and other self. Kazuki wasn't sure how he'd feel about weightlessness, but was fairly certain he'd survive.
The doorbell rang. Kent was always a few minutes early, which usually made Kazuki nervous. Kazuki could never understand how he always had so much time on his hands and could get ready so quickly. Kent and Dr. Warai were supposed to be instrumental in designing their spaceship, had legions of responsibilities, and work conscientiously. Yet they always were the first to arrive at any destination.
He let Kent Slade in. "Hello, Kent," he greeted him. It was odd; in one way, he had only known this man for a few days. In another, they had known each other for a long time, ever since Slade had married Mitsuki Rara's twin sister.
Kent effusively returned, "Hey, how's my favorite teen idol?"
Kazuki laughed nervously. How many times now had he called him that? "Kent, you know I never understand what you mean by that."
Kent grinned and waved an arm expansively. "Well, allow me to explain it to you. You see,"
Mitsuki Sanada interrupted him by entering from the dining room. "Kazuki, are you going to keep him waiting all day? Let the man sit down."
Kent's crafty expression stole onto his face. "Why thanks, Mitsuki. You'll want to hear this too. I was just about to explain: the reason I call him a teen idol is he's so popular with the-"
She replied hurriedly and irritatedly, "You and your weird nicknames for Kazuki! Don't fill his head with nonsense! Yayoi and I have a hard enough time trying to educate him as it is!"
Kazuki quickly changed the subject, "Where's Mitsuki, Slade?" He meant the one Slade married.
"Oh, Mitsuki's outside playing with D and Kumu," Slade said easily. His face took on an expression of panic. "No, wait, she's right in front of me!" He looked out a window. "No, there she is out there." He looked back at Mitsuki Sanada. "There she is in here again! Aaah, I'm going insane!"
Akane walked in from another room in the house and commented, "I can hardly believe we're trusting you to build our spaceship."
"Too many Mitsukis, can't keep them all straight," Slade mumbled with a huge smile on his face. He loved joking around almost as much as his advisor, Dr. Warai. Mitsuki Sanada just eyed him dully while Kazuki had no reaction at all.
"How many times have you told that joke, Slade?" Akane inquired.
"Not nearly enough," Slade insisted with a smile.
Yayoi also appeared in the hall. "Is that why your wife lets you call her Mits? You can't remember which is which otherwise?"
Slade folded his arms across his chest. "For the millionth time, I thought you were allowed to contract names like that in Japanese!"
Akane thought to herself that anything which helped to clarify which of the three Mitsukis was being referred to was helpful, but said nothing.
Yayoi smiled, "Don't worry about it. We know she likes the nickname."
Mitsuki Sanada said, "I don't think Kazuki likes his nickname. Isn't that right?"
Kazuki noted, "Hey, I think we'll all be late if we don't start going soon."
Yayoi, as well as all three Mitsukis, D, Akane, Kazuki, and Kent, finally managed to head in the direction of Dr. Rara's island laboratory, where Zinv resided and the training was to take place. The bodyguard trio of Ryla, Mena, and Alice kept a conspicuously low profile as they followed and guarded them.
When finally they all managed to get to the laboratory, Kazuki went immediately to see Zinv. The others accompanied him, to see Zinv as well as to see the other robots that had been completed and tested the previous week.
The hangar was an incredible and entrancing sight for anyone who had fought through the war between the Earth Defense Force and the RaRa Army. There rested robots ranging from Zinv to a small, human-made copy of Himc, to Core Robots, to a jewel-cannon robot sans its grey shoulder covers. All of them were side by side, allies instead of enemies.
D commented, "Just like us," expressing the general sentiment.
Sensing that Slade was about to deliver some terrible joke, Mitsuki Sanada moved towards him, hoping to somehow silence him.
"Boo!" Dr. Warai shouted behind the crowd, completely startling everyone, making Dr. Warai laugh and laugh. He had easily slipped in unseen while everyone else looked at the robots.
"We're not going to make it of the atmosphere, are we?" Akane asked wearily.
It was roughly at this juncture that Dr. Hayase arrived to shoo them into the anti-gravity room. Awaiting them were Dr. Rara and his wife Ayuko, Dr. Sanada, and Mrs. Nanjyoin.
The anti-gravity room had inside it a partition with walls made of glass as well as strange gray elements behind the glass. The same gray things were placed on the walls, ceiling, and floor of the partitioned room. These were the gravity generators.
There had been some talk of doing a conventional weightlessness simulation using a commercial jet and fancy maneuvering. This fell through due to the extreme expense of building an interplanetary spaceship, giant robots, and buying enough fuel to get it all to a distant planet. Instead, the decision had been made to test the gravity generators first on inanimate objects, and then on humans. These generators would maintain human-comfortable gravity on board the spaceship; here they were configured so as to counter Earth's gravitational field and produce weightlessness. Should the generators work properly, no one would have to experience zero gravity during the entire trip: this training was in case of mischance.
"Dear, these practical jokers have lowered my confidence," Akane told her husband, Dr. Sanada. "The tests of the gravity generators did go well?"
"Of course they did, dear," Dr. Sanada assured her. "We designed them directly off of the technology Zinv uses."
"And I'm not a practical joker: Dr. Warai is," Slade added with more indignation than he actually felt.
Dr. Hayase, as she had for several parallel universes now, ignored the buffoons around her. She sat at a console and quickly got the generators configured for the human testing.
There was a pleasant ring, and Ayuko pulled a cellphone out of her purse. She grimaced as a high-pitched squeak or screech emanated from the earpiece. Akane looked at Ayuko. The noise was probably just static, but it seemed familiar somehow. Ayuko saw that Akane was looking at her, so Ayuko strode briskly out the door.
"I guess she doesn't want to test it first," Dr. Sanada commented. He elbowed Dr. Rara good-humoredly. "I feel sorry for you, Rara, you have to pay all her cellphone bills."
"You're telling me," Dr. Rara muttered, lost in thought a moment. "She's on it all the time." He departed from his reverie and jousted back at Dr. Sanada, "You've got it worse, though. You still have two daughters to pay for!"
Kazuki moved towards the door. "I'll be with Zinv. Let me know when you're ready."
Dr. Hayase assured him, "We're ready now, Kazuki. I think the room is only big enough for about three at a time."
Slade grinned, gestured toward the partition's doorway, and told Kazuki, "Ladykillers first."
Dr. Warai snickered at that, while Mitsuki Sanada sighed and Yayoi shook her head.
"Uh, thanks," Kazuki said, made uneasy by this other oft-repeated nickname. "But, maybe Mrs. Nanjyoin would like to go first."
"Thank you," she told him. "I would be glad if you and D would assist me."
When D, Kazuki, and Mrs. Nanjyoin, were safely inside the partitioned room, Dr. Hayase carefully and slowly adjusted the fields until the Earth's gravity was nullified. The three of them began to float off the floor.
"That looks like fun," Mitsuki said to her husband. "Oh yeah," he agreed.
Dr. Sanada called to the weightless threesome, "Great job, everyone. Now, start moving around in there!"
Kazuki tried, but found he wasn't actually moving forward. His arms and legs and body moved fine, but he had no leverage to actually move forward. "Uh, how?" he asked.
Dr. Rara looked at Dr. Sanada. "You did remember to put the straps in so they could pull themselves along?" Dr. Rara asked.
"You forgot too, idiot!" Dr. Sanada shouted at him.
"We all forgot," Dr. Hayase said placatingly.
Dr. Warai called, "Try swimming motions, see if that works."
Kazuki tried, and decided, "Well, I guess it works, sort of. Do you need any help, Mrs. Nanjyoin?"
"No, thank you," she replied, "I prefer floating."
D twirled in the air. "I love this! Can we get one of these at home, Dad?" she asked excitedly.
Mitsuki Sanada began to laugh at the ridiculous sight of people floating and swimming and twirling above the floor. Ayuko finally reentered the room and wordlessly stood by Dr. Rara again.
Dr. Hayase now announced the test was coming to an end, and slowly turned down the gravity so that everyone returned slowly to earth.
Slade, the Mitsuki to whom he was married, and Mena ended up as the next group. Slade took to his environs with extreme happiness, literally bouncing off the walls.
"Kent, that looks dangerous," Mitsuki commented worriedly as he kicked off walls and ceilings and floors faster and faster.
"Why? It's not- Ow." He had just slammed himself into a corner by pushing himself backwards.
"Are you all right?" she asked in deep concern.
Mitsuki Sanada doubled over in laughter. "You should stick to physical comedy like that, Slade!" she gasped.
Dr. Warai chortled at him as well. "You've just invented a new sport! Human ping pong!"
Kent looked into the concerned eyes of Mitsuki and Mena. "I'm fine, thanks," he told them, "but if you could lend me some scraps of dignity I'd be grateful."
Ryla called to them good-humoredly, "Scrape him off the wall already! We're all waiting our turn!"
Dr. Hayase shook her head and looked resolutely at the control console.