Flight Test and Turbulence
The feeling of having your feet leave the ground was genuinely exhilarating.
Luke couldn't resist flying a circle in the warehouse. After crashing several times, he had to stop to adjust his balance.
This process was time-consuming. It required continuously collecting data, adjusting the internal structure based on the collected data, and then repeating the whole procedure.
After two days of work, the result was still not ideal.
The Phantom 1's flight ability relied on energy propulsion, fundamentally different from a Kryptonian's biological field. The latter could perform any maneuver in mid-air—dancing, walking, hovering—but the Phantom 1 was limited to clumsy, horizontal movements forward, backward, left, and right.
"How to fix this?"
Luke chewed on a cigar, slightly worried. "Adding an anti-gravity device is a good option, but that would make the armor bulky, and the energy consumption would be another problem."
"If only I had Nth Metal."
Just as he was thinking this, the spaceship suddenly shook, as if it had struck something.
"Not an asteroid field again, is it?"
Luke didn't dare be careless. He put on the armor and left the warehouse. This time, the tremor lasted a shorter time, only about ten seconds. By the time he reached the Main Control Room, the ship had stabilized.
"Linda, what happened?"
The girl, pale-faced, turned her head stiffly. Her smooth forehead was covered in sweat, as if she had just experienced something terrifying. She swallowed hard and said in a hoarse voice,
"We... we might have run into trouble."
Encounter in Dimensional Space
Outside the Fortress of Solitude was a void, a place with neither light nor dark, composed only of the most basic constituent particles of matter and vague concepts formed by consciousness and thought.
This was Dimensional Space, also known as the Dark Realm or the Place of Origin.
Spatial jumps utilize the space-time differences between Dimensional Space and the physical universe for super-speed travel. Every time a ship enters or leaves Dimensional Space, it consumes energy. The larger the volume and the higher the density, the more energy is consumed. The energy consumed by a ship like the Fortress of Solitude cannot be measured by current Earth technology.
Energy is the foundation of civilization's development; so-called technology is merely the branches built on the trunk of energy.
Dimensional Space is intimately connected with energy. Relative to the physical universe with its complete laws, it is more like a conceptual entity formed by the combination of energy factors.
There is no air, no light here, only the most basic elements. Unimaginable dangers lurk in the darkness, the most terrifying of which are the Giant Beasts.
No one knew how these higher-dimensional beings were formed. Even the top scientists in the entire universe couldn't explain it. Some scholars of higher civilizations believed these creatures existed before the birth of the Multiverse.
They roam aimlessly through Dimensional Space, living for endless ages, growing bigger and stronger day by day. In front of them, even the most powerful gods in the universe are as small as ants.
At this moment, Luke felt exactly this way. Just one look through the viewport made his body tremble like a sieve.
It was too big. So large that he could only see a vast shadow. He couldn't make out the outline of its body in his field of vision. The seventy-foot-tall Fortress of Solitude was like a grain of sand in the ocean next to it.
Fortunately, Dimensional Space lacks physical laws. Otherwise, a mere twitch from this thing would generate a shockwave capable of turning the entire ship into dust.
Luke swallowed hard, stuttering,
"W-w-what the hell is that thing? Linda, can you even pilot this ship? How could you not see something that huge? If you want to die, don't drag me along!"
"Who's trying to die? It flew here itself! How was I supposed to know?"
The girl snapped back angrily. She quickly activated the emergency protocol. The Fortress of Solitude cloaked its form, lowered its energy shield to minimum power, contracted its outer structure, and dimmed all lights, doing its best to impersonate an ostrich.
Afterward, the two sat side by side beneath the viewport, afraid to breathe. They silently chanted, "It can't see me, it can't see me," while praying to every deity that the huge entity outside wouldn't suddenly roll over.
If it were to roll over, never mind the Fortress of Solitude, even major powers like Brainiac, Darkseid, or the Anti-Monitor would have to kneel and call it daddy.
In this moment, Luke suddenly recalled a documentary he'd seen in his previous life: How many microorganisms does a person crush when they roll over? Does a person care about the lives of microorganisms?
The answer is obviously no. Once a life form reaches a certain evolutionary level, the significance of weaker life becomes blurred. Just as humans don't care about microorganisms, this behemoth wouldn't care about the Fortress of Solitude. Perhaps it hadn't even noticed the tiny speck stuck to its skin.
Time crawled by, becoming agonizingly long.
After an unknown duration, the oppressive feeling began to recede. Luke still couldn't see its form; his vision was pitch black. Other than a vast, blurry shadow, he couldn't make out its true appearance.
Once she confirmed the danger had passed, Linda seemed to lose all her strength. She slumped onto the floor like a fish without bones. Her heart pounded loudly, her face was drained of all color, and sweat dripped through her clothes, forming a small puddle on the ground.
Luke wasn't much better. He stepped out of the Phantom Armor and sat down heavily, saying with lingering fear,
"You didn't tell me I'd run into something like that before we came."
"I didn't expect it either."
"What exactly was it?"
"I don't know. You can call them higher-dimensional organisms."
"Organisms? Plural?"
Luke zeroed in on the key word. "Don't tell me there's more than one of these things."
"Who knows? It's the first time I've ever encountered one."
Luke took a few shaky breaths, his expression turning sour.
"Linda, I think you're hiding a lot of things from me."
The girl rolled her eyes. "Thinking too much. How could I trick you? You're the only one who tricks me."
"Is that so?"
Luke didn't believe her at all, staring intently. "Kryptonian spatial technology has tens of thousands of years of development history. It's impossible not to be aware of the dangers of spatial jumping, yet you told me nothing."
"You didn't ask!"
Luke: "..."
"Alright, alright."
The girl scrambled up and whispered something. Luke sneered and held up four fingers.
"One box isn't enough. I want four boxes."
"Four boxes it is."
The Fortress of Solitude had plenty of Energy Crystal reserves. Giving him four boxes was no big deal. After all, the stuff belonged to her cousin, Kal-El, not her.
Her own share had already been transferred to the Odyssey. The Odyssey was Linda Danvers' capital for survival.
A woman in the process of cutting ties and establishing her own future is just that unreasonable.
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