JOON'S MANUAL

10^6 = 1'000'000

10^-6 = 0.000001

The exponent, thenumber behind the ^ (normally written as a small number above), tells you how you have to move the comma. If the number is positive, you have to move the comma to the right, and if it's negative, you have to move it to the left. You'll find this convention everywhere where extremely big (astronomy) or extremely small (nuclear physics) numbers are calculated with.

An ATOM consists of a core that's made out of protons and neutrons, the so-called nucleons (nucleus: Latin for core). The protons have a positive charge whereas neutrons are neutral (who would have guessed...). The core is surrounded by electrons which are much smaller than the nucleons and have a negative charge. Every atom has as much electrons as it has protons. And if you go even further into detail, you'll find out that nucleons are made of quarks. Each nucleon is made of three quarks.

For further information use Wikipedia. Don't be shy to ask me in a comment though. I'll gladly answer your questions.

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Tae focus

They were currently changing into functional gear, containing a long-sleeved shirt and some long underpants of an anthracite, synthetic, skintight stretch-material under a uniform consisting of comfortable black trousers made of a charcoal polymer that supported full flexibility, a bulletproof black west that covered the chest and stomach area as well as the back, and high anthracite boots with special soles that gave perfect grip on any underground. The west was fixed with two straps and Taehyung thought of it as rather useless because it did not protect the sides, but the trousers had a useful pair of rubber band loops at the waist to add weapons and other tools. He found it a little too military for a diplomatic mission, but, no matter what, it made them look impressive.

[This is how I imagine the half-gear uniform.]

He used the time in the changing room to get a glance of the other men. Jungkook clearly had the stature of a soldier, but he did not need the uniform to look like that. He was impressive enough in his black turtleneck. Jimin next to him looked small in comparison, but nevertheless the diplomat as well had a well-trained body which he held with what could only be called grace, and oh that booty. The diplomat was a great appearance in general with his soft honey-brown hair and the dark mahogany eyes in the lovely shaped face. Everything about him seemed delicate, and Taehyung had taken a special liking in the man's small hands. The latter evoke the urge to protect him.

Their captain was something in-between, not as closet-framed as Jungkook, but his body was toned and showed perfect control of all his motions. Though Jungkook and him were almost same in height, Hoseok gave off the feeling of a taut bow whereas their youngest was the impersonation of the word wall. And Namjoon, well, he was a scientist. Not that he was not attractive, but compared to the muscular men next to him, he looked average, a trained average though. His body showed the faint shape of muscles, but he was a little too slim. Taehyung wondered if he could blow him off with one single punch. It seemed possible. But the man was not here as a soldier but for his knowledge, and as long as he held back the arrogant know-it-all-attitude, he was pleasant to be around.

Done with changing, they stepped into the elevator that would bring them to the hangar of the transporter ships. Landing and starting with a ship as big as the BT21 costed way too much energy and fuel, so it was easier to 'park' the big vehicle in a stable orbit of the planet and go down with one of the tiny plane-like transporters. They were not much bigger than a van, what caused the five-men-crew to sit rather closely in the back of the vehicle. Except for Taehyung, of course, who would fly the box.

He climbed into the pilot seat and started the engines to drive the shuttle into the starting lot. Once inside, he retracted the wheels and Bang induced the magnetic field underneath the small ship to make them hover in the air.

"Everyone ready?" Taehyung asked through the headset.

"Yes," answered the captain and the pilot started the countdown.

"On my command, Bang. Three, two, one. Go!"

The doors in front of them opened and the suction of the vacuum of outer space gave them a kickstart like a bullet from a barrel. The pressure in the first seconds was almost unbearable, but that was what they had been trained for at the Academy. Then Taehyung took over control and guided them down to the surface.

"I hate those bullet-starts," the velvety voice of Jimin sounded from behind him. "Why did they not develop beaming, yet?"

Taehyung grinned. Three, two, one.

"Because beaming is impossible," Namjoon's sand-voice began to explain. The scientist simply could not shut up when someone talked scientific bullshit. "Dematerializing a body sets free an extreme amount of energy in form of radiation. To give you an example: A 60kg body equals, according to Einstein's formula E = mc^2, the energy of 1000 hydrogen bombs, each with the force of one megaton. It's uncontrollable. Moreover, the human-like body has about 10^28 atoms, each having about 8 electrons and 16 nucleons, the latter made of three quarks each. That leaves you with a total of round about 6 times 10^29 particles, of whom each has at least two configurations and an excitation state, not to speak of three not measurable coordinates in the room. So, for every organism you want to beam, you need the information of all those particles to recreate him in a different place the exact same way he was before. That would be 3 times 10^30 numbers to encode one person, or to speak in computer language 10^31 bits, what equals ten Brontobytes." Taehyung choked on his saliva. The best they had on V were computers with several thousand Exabytes memory, but one Exabyte was just 10^5 bits. "But that still leaves you with the problem that you can't use the same particles from before because you destroyed them, what, by the way, takes the energy of 100 hydrogen bombs, so you'd have to build the body from completely new material. And if I might add-"

"You might not," Jimin interrupted him bluntly. The diplomat was pissed.

"Oh, but I'm interested," Taehyung said just to mock the small man.

So, Namjoon continued. "The matter of whether an organism has a soul or not is still unclear. And as long as no-one has answered this question, you must consider the possibility of losing the soul when you destroy the body."

The astounded silence behind him signalized Taehyung that everyone was as stunned as him. Who would have guessed that a science officer would consider something like a soul? Kim Namjoon apparently had to offer more than facts.

"We're about to land," Taehyung announced ten silent minutes later.

When the wheels hit the ground, the crew undid their seatbelts and he unlocked the loading ramp.

"No weapons, Kook," he heard the captain and watched the raven soldier pull a semi-automatic from its place under the waistband on his back. What an idiot. Taehyung shook his head and pushed the whale-bone knife up his sleeve.

"Welcome on planet Pride, captain Jung and crew of the BT21," the same slow female voice from before greeted them. In front of them stood a tall creature with pale-blue, almost transparent skin and thin, elegant limbs clothed in a long white dress-like tunica. "My name is Velocity." She touched the forehead of her bald head followed by her lips and waited for them to mirror her actions.

If one looked closely, one could see that her lips were not in sync with what she said, but the transmitter around her slim neck instantly translated everything she said into their language and played it into their headsets. Her own voice was barely audible and apparently contained many s-sounds.

"We're pleased to meet the Pride-folk. Please lead the way, Velocity," their captain said politely while the woman looked at them with her ice-blue eyes, which occasionally blinked slowly. Taehyung was fascinated by her. He had seen Prides before as a child, on his home-planet V, but this was a long time ago. He completely had forgotten how tall this folk was. She over-towered Namjoon, the tallest, by half a meter, but was as slim as the commander.

Slowly Velocity turned around and they started to follow her. When they left the spacious hangar, a small bus-like vehicle waited for them in the wide hallway. They took their (hilariously big) seats and Velocity guided the shuttle through the halls. Everything seemed to be shaped out of one gray-white stone. There were no corners or signs of two parts connecting what made Taehyung admire the skillfulness of these people. It was no monster with three heads, but it was finest of art.

"Our queen is waiting for you in the coronation hall. She is very happy to finally negotiate about joining the USS. But allow me a question," her soothing voice continued.

Hoseok nodded.

"Are you not a very young crew?" the Pride asked.

Their captain smiled. "Yes, we are. But the government decided that we're the best for this job, and I completely trust their decision." Taehyung doubted they needed Jimin for the job. Hoseok was doing great with his calming tone and polite manner.

But when they entered the coronation hall, he understood why they needed the Charmer. Apart from Velocity whose expression always was politely neutral, the Prides they found here clearly showed that they thought of themselves as superior. They were not proud but arrogant. Taehyung could see Hoseok tense when they entered the giant bright hall. By foot.

The way up to the throne seemed to stretch into eternity, and Taehyung wondered if they wanted to exhaust them intentionally by making them walk up there. Kingdoms were so ancient to him. Earth II with its technocracy seemed so much more advanced than this silly king and queen thing. How could a whole nation rely on one person's decision?

They finally reached the throne and Velocity touched her forehead and then her lips again before she left their group to stand on the left side of the queen. On the right side stood a group of twelve men and women in similar dress-like clothing.

Hoseok copied her greeting, followed by his crew and waited for the queen to speak.

"Welcome, captain Jung Hoseok," she said, completely ignoring the others. "I'm glad to meet you." She sounded anything but. The way she looked down to them irritated Taehyung and he chewed on his inner cheek to not say something he would regret later. Damn his V-temper.

What followed was rather uninteresting for him, so he started to scan the faces of the small crowd next to the throne. This must be the senate of Pride. The members as well as the queen seemed way older than Velocity, and the slightly disgusted looks on some faces made him question the success of their mission. Face after face he tried to read them. The planet sure deserved its name.

When he got bored of those old stone-faces, he turned to look at Velocity while Jimin took control of the talking. The small man's charm seemed to work on the queen. But Taehyung's attention was captured by the ice-blue eyes that looked at him as well. Had she been watching him all the time? He knew that the protocol read to use no emotional expressions, but it was damn hard to suppress a smile right now. Call it a coping mechanism, but Taehyung liked to smile at people he had offended or was not able to read.

Their stare contest ended when the door burst open and revealed a running male Pride. He greeted the queen with the same gesture as they had and began to talk. "My queen, we have visitors from Ancient. The planet is under attack."

The queen instantly rose and stepped down from her throne to follow her man to the hangar. From all Taehyung knew, Ancient was part of this solar system and was already part of the USS. The Ancients had had a significant role in convincing Pride to join. Who would attack a friendly folk like them?

In the hangar they found a group of five people, similar to the Prides, but smaller and less elegant (one solar system apparently led to similar physique), and the leader of them stepped forward.

"Queen Pride, our planet is attacked by an unknown army. We need help. Our people are dying," he said after being given one of the language transmitters.

The man was close to crying.

"How long did you travel?" Hoseok interrupted, his face showing that he knew he was rude.

The pale-skinned man looked at him confused. "Who are you?"

"I'm Jung Hoseok, captain of the USS ship BT21."

The Ancient's eyes lit up. "Help us, Sir! You can do it, right?"

Of course, they could. Their ship was a military one after all, and half of the crew had a military background. In fact, they had no choice. Neither Ancient nor Pride possessed an army, so they were forced to help by USS law. But by the look on Hoseok's face they would have done it anyways. There was no chance the man would turn his back on a helpless nation.

"If you save our friends, Pride will join the USS," the queen said and turned towards their captain.

"Of course, we will. But judged by the non-GCS ship you came with, your trip lasted very long, so there is no guaranty we're in time," Hoseok replied with urge in his voice.

"One week," the leader of the small party answered with agony-stained voice. "We've been happy to be on the same side of sun as Pride."

"We'll leave now," their captain stated and touched his forehead and mouth to bid his goodbye.

"Velocity will guide you off," the queen said and turned around to her new guests.

Hoseok did not waste a second and headed over to their ship, his crew and the young Pride following him. A second before Taehyung set his foot into the trunk of their vehicle, he heard something clatter that sounded much like his bone-blade. He froze and slowly turned around.

In front of the Pride's feet lied his whale-bone knife. The woman bent down and gently took the weapon as if it could break easily. The hangar suddenly was very quiet, and he could almost feel Hoseok's burning gaze on his back.

"I carry this for the mere purpose of defending myself," the pilot began to explain under the piercing eyes of the Pride. "I'm bad with words and easily anger people what occasionally leads to life-threatening situations." He grinned widely before he could think of the manner codex.

His crew held their breaths.

And then the unexpected happened. Velocity smiled. The ice-blue eyes sparkled with a humorous glint and the corners of her mouth lifted softly. Taehyung was flabbergasted by the unique picture in front of him.

"My twin sister is on Ancient," she said, and her eyes got a sad glow, "Save her, Taehyung." And with that, she handed back his knife and softly touched her forehead and then his. The pilot just looked at her with wide eyes.

"Officer Kim," the captain's voice brought him back to reality after Velocity left.

Slowly, he turned around and looked at his colleagues. "What did just happen?"

Hoseok looked amused. "She showed her trust in you. And apparently she's the only one who took the time to read our files to learn the names." With a sigh he turned around and the others followed him.

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Min Yoongi was sleeping in his pilot seat when they entered the bridge.

"Wake up!" Taehyung hissed and slapped him on the back of his head. How could the man sleep on a diplomatic mission?

With a growl, the white-haired woke up and arranged his figure in the chair.

Hoseok began to give instructions. "We need to head to Ancient. Set the mark as close as possible, so we don't waste time." While the sugar-man seemed to wake up completely, Taehyung already set up the coordinates and the captain called for all members to come to the bridge.

"Coordinates taken," Bang's voice sounded from the off, "The destination is closer than common USS space law allows. Do you confirm?"

"Yes," Taehyung almost shouted and placed his hands on the controller panels.

"AMEs launched in three, two, one. Go," Bang counted, and the ship started to move out of Pride's orbit. Unfortunately, QGCS would cause damage to the planet, if they started immediately, so they had to get out of the critical zone to start the cores.

"QGCS launch in ten, nine, eight..." the AI said, and everyone waited impatiently for their head-off.

"...one. Go." The view out of the window got its typical distortion and everyone breathed out the air they had held in.

Before anyone could say anything, Bang already announced their arrival. "We're about to arrive. Five seconds until QGCS is turned off. Five, four..."

Taehyung's hands on the controller panels waited attentively while the seatbelts slung around him and his co-pilot, the interface waiting for his commands.

"...one. Off."

A giant block of blackish stone appeared in their sight, and while Yoongi had to process what was happening, Taehyung's gamer reflexes kicked in and his hands moved before he even thought about it. The ship made a roll and missed the giant object by some meters. It was still strange to fly those maneuvers. On earth it had looked like a computer game, but now one became slightly lighter when the ship made a roll or twisted harshly. It was way more real than playing a computer game. But the most fascinating was how agile their big ball was. The shape of an Interceptor was rather plump; it reminded him of a snitch from an old book about a magic world he had read once. The body was a ball and it had something that looked like wings, but they were directed forwards and made the ship look like it was about to hug someone. The weird shape was caused by the circular accelerators or cores that were built into those wings. However, the plump shape was anything but plump in maneuvering.

"Fuck," he heard the raspy voice of the other officer and smirked satisfied. Time to show the man why he was in command. Like he had never done anything else, he maneuvered their massive vehicle around the black bricks of all sizes while the other just watched.

"Shielding mechanism, Bang," he demanded, and the AI activated the high-energy laser to destroy blocks that were two small to surround.

Twelve seconds later, they had passed the asteroid field and were exposed to a shocking view. The once green and blue planet was black like coal and the asteroids they just had passed, in reality, were pieces of the planet that missed parts of its crust.

Planet Ancient was dead.

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