However, when the man poked his head between the gap in the bathroom door, he saw no one in the room.
"Who called me then?" he muttered half inaudibly.
A moment later Ryan smiled wryly as he looked up at the ceiling. Well, he muttered to himself, there must have been an intercom in one of the ceilings.
"Ryan?" the voice came again.
"Who's there?" Ryan replied.
"It's me, Hyker."
In the cockpit, Hyker excused Ryan's ignorance of him, as they had not met at all. Neither did Pical, Quinn, and Oryza. The four of them had never left the cockpit since leaving the Pangandaran Castle area.
Looks like it needs a bit of celebration, Hyker laughed inwardly. Yeah, no big deal, just a small party. An introduction party with everyone on this spaceship.
"Hyker?" Ryan repeated as he continued his shower.
"Yep!" Hiker replied. "The person in charge of the flight direction of this plane, I'm the driver."
"Damn it!" Ryan chuckled in the middle of the shower. "You think this spaceship is a car, do you?"
"It's the same to me," Hyker said. "Nothing in different—well, except for the size."
"Oh, forget it!" Ryan shook his head. "Then what is it?"
"Captain asked you to come to the cockpit."
"Right now?"
"Yep!"
"Very well," said Ryan. "But, soon enough. I'm in the shower—you know, I haven't showered in two weeks. Lovely coincidence, isn't it?"
"You are crazy!" Hyker laughed. "Whatever, have fun with your bath. But, please do it quickly. You understand, man?"
"Copy that."
"Don't masturbate there. You can do that later."
"Jerk!"
And then only Hyker's laughter could be heard echoing in the room where Ryan was now.
"You're crazy," snorted Quinn who heard Hyker's words.
"Yeah, he is crazy," said Oryza as well to Hyker. "Whatever he does in the bathroom, it's up to him. None of your business!"
"I think," Quinn said, "you're the one trying to masturbate. Am I wrong?"
Hyker ignored the words of his two female colleagues, he was still laughing. Pical could only smile, resting on his chin by shaking his head.
The only door in the cockpit hissed, then swung open in both directions. Captain Dharma steps into the room.
"Anything new?" asked the captain as he stepped into his chair, to the right of Hyker's.
Hyker looked at the captain, nodded, then pointed at some of the other large planes out there. Especially, the planes belonging to the Federation.
Captain Dharma was getting closer to the front, two hands on the dashboard, a pair of eyes watching the planes that Hyker pointed at.
At that time, the Federation's large planes moved slowly in one large flock. The planes circled the giant SoF station in the middle. Like a group of snails that move dynamically guiding their very large mother.
"They're moving," Captain Dharma muttered half inaudibly.
"Yeah," Hyker stood, to the captain's left, and folded his arms across his chest. "look at those ships!"
Hyker pointed to the other planes, most of which were much smaller than the Federation's aircraft. The planes that Hyker was referring to were like following the Federation planes, keeping them quite far away.
"They follow the Federation," said Captain Dharma trying to analyze what was going on there. "And, SARO is also moving."
"Did you think I'm thinking right now, Cap?" Hyker laughed softly, shaking his head.
"I guess," said the captain.
"So, we're going to do the same?"
"Of course."
"All right then," Hyker returned to his seat. Slowly start one of the two main engines of their aircraft.
"Pical, Oryza, Quinn!"
"Aye, Captain!" said the three in unison.
Their attention and hands were fixed on the big screen in front of each of them, watching the movements of the planes out there.
Ryan felt his footing a little unsteady when the plane was moving quite slowly.
"Damn it," the man cursed while pinching his forehead. Fortunately, Ryan had time to hold on to the wall of the corridor beside him, or else his head will surely hit the wall.
Ryan isn't the type of person to get motion sickness easily. It's just that, this is outer space, and it's a different story for each individual who has experienced it. What's more, this is the first time for the bespectacled man to be in space.
"Keep this distance," the captain told Hyker.
Captain Dharma oversees the movement of other spacecraft directly through the cockpit windshield.
"If what I think is true, then they must be moving towards a planet that might be capable of supporting life."
"That's what I'm thinking right now."
Hyker stabilized the plane's position as the captain wished, slightly increasing the plane's speed. Hyker brought the SC45 to the far left of the crowd of Federation aircraft.
There were only one or two other aircraft close to the SC45 aircraft Hyker controlled.
"What did you get, Oryza?"
The captain glanced at the girl over the tip of his shoulder, then watched the movements of the planes outside again.
"There's not much to see," Oryza said. "Although I agree with you, Cap, it's just that the movement of the Federation ships doesn't seem to be heading to one planet or another. Well, at least not yet."
"Are you sure?"
"Hu-um," Oryza nodded slightly.
The girl fiddled with the big screen in front of her. Her fingers are quite agile to move on the surface of the screen. She was simulating the form of a schematic showing all the planes out there. Also, imaginary lines predict the direction or route the spacecraft will take.
Oryza even runs motion simulations on every planet that people out there are likely to go to, every planet that is in a straight line with the imaginary line Oryza made on the big screen in front of her.
Because any planet that is on an imaginary path—or at least near the trajectory of the SoF mothership created on screen in front of Oryza—is not the kind of planet that can host life.
Several times a red light flashed on the screen, in front of the girl. The red light informs her that the planets that she predicts will be passed by the planes are only planets that are unable to support life.
At least, the flashing red dots also appear in various information about the planet itself. Information that the planets have been studied by scientists before. So yeah, Oryza is pretty sure about the simulation analysis that she made.
TO BE CONTINUED ...