Chapter 444 - The 9th s.p.a.ce Station!
"h.e.l.lo." He greeted
"Hi, you can skip the queue and dock at the 9th s.p.a.ce station." A soothing elderly voice answered his call.
Seeing how straightforward she was, Felix didn"t want to waste her time with needless chatter either.
"Will someone be waiting for me at the s.p.a.ce station or at the bottom of the s.p.a.ce elevator?" Felix inquired politely.
"My student would be waiting for you at the station"s gate underneath." She informed calmly, "The Queen AI will highlight her with a red aura for you to not miss her. Also, the guards all have been informed to facilitate your travel."
"Thank you for the help, Madam."
"Uhmm."
Cluck!
The call was disconnected and Felix didn"t bother with it. He requested the Queen AI to skip the queue and head to that mentioned station.
If he didn"t have permission, he wouldn"t have dared to attempt doing so since he would be subjected to a heavy penalty by the customs officials.
But when his s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p coasted away from the queue until it reached first in line, the Queen hadn"t informed him about any upcoming messages or warnings from the customs officials.
He simply waited a minute or two and he had gotten access to pa.s.s through between two humongous s.p.a.ce stations that appeared like walls blocking off any other path but the one he was taking.
Those s.p.a.ce stations were one of the administrations of customs around the planet.
s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps weren"t allowed to reach the planet without entering through one of them. Otherwise, they would be labeled as trespa.s.sers and get treated like ones.
Planet Earth needed to reach this level of security if it wanted to keep non-natives away. Too bad, for now, they could only suck it and let everyone enter their planet like it was on a free market.
After Dark Deviant pa.s.sed through the checkpoint, Felix was met with the sight of thousands of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps of all sizes and shapes, coasting around or standing still in an orderly manner like they were in a parking lot.
Those were just the undocked s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps.
The majority of them were berthed in multiple s.p.a.ce stations around the planets that were connected with s.p.a.ce elevators, leading to the different zones on the planet.
Some stations were designed only for transportations like airports and such, while other stations were responsible for cargo and s.h.i.+pments.
Felix didn"t know the 9th s.p.a.ce station"s position but the Queen was taking him to it slowly.
A short while, the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p docked successfully with the 9th station under the Queen"s operation.
"Sir Felix, you are free to disembark." The Queen announced, "Please head to the 5th gate. If you don"t know where it is located in the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p, just follow the red arrow."
"Thank you." Felix quickly unfastened his seatbelt and went after the holographic red arrow. After a couple of turns, Felix finally reached gate 5 that was connected to the s.p.a.ce station.
The moment Felix stood in front of it, the gate automatically opened up, showing Felix a long empty tunnel that was able to support only one person at a time.
At the end of it, there was another closed gate. Felix quickly walked towards it and placed his bracelet on the scanner at the side of the door.
>Welcome to the 9th s.p.a.ce Station Mr. Felix Maxwell.<
Shhshs.h.!.+
Following the robotic greeting, the gate opened up slowly to Felix.
"The moment you enter the station, your s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p will disconnect and be sent to be parked away from the planet." The same robotic voice informed.
"Understood." Felix nodded his head.
He always knew that his s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p wasn"t going to remain here forever since the docking s.p.a.ces were needed to be empty always for newcomers.
That"s why thousands of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps were coasting or standing in s.p.a.ce away from the planet.
They were parked for their owners and Felix"s s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p would join them soon. Since the Queen was the one operating them, there wouldn"t be any traffic accidents at all.
"Mommy, I don"t want to enter the s.p.a.ce elevator!!!"
"Move out of the way!!"
Peep! Peep!
When Felix walked past the gate, the hubbub and clamor of the station filled his ears as thousands of people were walking back and forth like they were inside a busy airport terminal.
Those people were mostly witches appearing like a paradise filled with beauties.
However, there were other races in the station, like Orcs, goblins, Centaurs, giants, imps, dwarves, vampires, werewolves, half-lings, slimes carrying suitcases, and more!
It was like a circus of freaks and Felix being one of the few humans in the station was a new addition to this circus!
Felix wasn"t weirded out by the varieties of races in the station since he always knew that utility races like the Witches and Dwarfs needed other races to help them out with other fields.
After all, most witches were potion-makers, making them focus their entire time on it. This left occupations like bakers, farmers, hairdressers, lawyers, policemen, and the rest empty.
This meant, they needed other people to fill those positions to keep the empire operating smoothly.
Naturally, they would be only there to control the bots who were actually going to be doing most of those occupations.
The robotic technology was too advanced to even take care of everything at once if the witches decided to use the AIs.
But for some reason, they prefer hiring other races for those jobs.
Humans were actually one of the most hired races in the galaxy due to their versatility and adaptability.
They could live everywhere and learn anything. Plus, their wager wasn"t that high.
Hence, the Witch empire had a lot of humans and Felix wasn"t going to feel out of place at all when he visits the cities.
"Queen, please guide me to one of the s.p.a.ce elevator"s gates." Felix requested while inspecting the well-lighted station.
Just like before, the Queen created a holographic arrow and Felix followed after it.
If it wasn"t for the Queen, people would have already lost their way in this gigantic station that span over twenty kilometers.
Heck, it was like a city in s.p.a.ce with lodging, entertainment centers, transportations...etc.
"Hi, handsome. Need a guide?" A short green goblin with light makeup and wearing a grey dress, greeted Felix after he was guided to the transportation area by the Queen.
"Thank you but I am okay." Felix replied, smiling politely.
The little female goblin immediately went to hara.s.s another traveler after getting rejected. Meanwhile, Felix paid for a hover platform and used it towards his destination.
To avoid traffic, collisions, and such, there were lines for each type of vehicle and Felix had gone with the line that allowed only hover platforms.
Sometime later, Felix reached the s.p.a.ce elevator"s gates. There were ten of them placed in a cylinder-shaped silver tower that was long enough it reached the ceiling of the station.
Each of those gates, had a long queue behind them, waiting for their turn to be sent to the station on the planet.
Only one gate had a fewer number of people waiting behind it. Felix instantly knew that was the gate for VIP travelers and the one he needed to take.
However, before he could reach the queue, he was stopped by two Orcs who had brown skin and fangs protruding from their fat lips.
They were wearing a blue uniform with a couple of letters at the back, making Felix realize that they were the security officers of the station.
"How can I help you sirs?" Felix asked politely, not wanting to land in trouble so soon.
However, the two Orcs bowed respectfully to Felix and said, "Please follow us, Sir Felix."
Upon seeing that they were heading to the front of the VIP queue, Felix hastily chased after them after realizing that they were guards sent by Lady Sphinx"s student to facilitate his travel.
Naturally, such a blatant disregard to the queue had displeased the VIP travelers.
After all, they had most likely paid millions to lessen the normal queue time that lasts for hours.
That"s because, there were only ten rooms in the s.p.a.ce elevator, and each room could hold at most 20 people.
Hence, each journey would take 200 travelers down and lift 200 more. In this traffic, that was barely cutting it.
"On what ground does he get to skip the queue? Didn"t we pay all the same amount?" A pale-skinned slender man who appeared like he never saw the sun in his life, grumbled while glaring at Felix and the Orcs.
He was standing in the middle of the queue, sandwiched by other dissatisfied travelers.
"A vampire? They sure are impatient for an undying race." Felix grinned at the vampire without bothering to slow down his footsteps or opening his mouth.
Since the Orcs didn"t address their frustration, he had no intentions of doing so as well.
Hence, when they reached the front of the line, Felix kept his mouth shut and bathed under everyone"s resentment.
Thankfully, the s.p.a.ce elevator had arrived in merely two minutes.
>Ladies and Gentlemen, please allow the pa.s.sengers to exit the elevators first before entering them in an orderly fas.h.i.+on. If you don"t know what to do, when entering the elevator, ask the Queen for guidance. Thank you and enjoy your stay in Fymagroth!<
Following the cute feminine announcement, the ten gates had all opened up at once, displaying every twenty pa.s.sengers sitting on white chairs while wearing their seatbelts.
When the gates were fully opened, the seatbelts automatically unfastened, allowing the pa.s.sengers to exit the s.p.a.ce elevator.
A witch even vomited on her way out, earning a couple of chuckles here and there.
They understood that it was probably her first time riding a s.p.a.ce elevator since most of them had that reaction when they rode it the first time.
After all, the feeling of falling from Outers.p.a.ce into the ground wasn"t pleasant at all. Especially when the elevator"s speed wasn"t to be trifled with.
Since Felix had rode plenty of s.p.a.ce elevators in his previous life, he wasn"t nervous at all.
A few minutes later, the elevator was emptied and Felix shamelessly entered the VIP room first and took one of the seats that were near the window.
The moment he sat down, the seatbelt automatically affixed him to his chair.
Meanwhile, the remaining 19 travelers chose their seats and got comfortable.
No one bothered Felix but they did glance at him once in a while, wondering how could a human have such a high status to allow him to skip the entire queue.
Even Felix was wondering what status Lady Sphinx"s student had to allow this. He understood that it wasn"t the Headmistress since her jurisdiction was based in the Academy.
This was the doing of a high-authoritative witch in the planet government!