Interstellar: Exploring The Cosmos With My Anomaly System
Chapter 36: The Flashlight

Chapter 36: The Flashlight

"Uh– Astra?" Belk called out softly, feeling the cold chill run up his legs. "Why do you have us knee deep in water— holding magnets?"

"Good question, I’ll answer it with another!" Astra smirked with a clay pot behind her, her arms folded as she watched Belk, Vagnis and Sylvi knee deep in a flowing river, the black sheen of magnets in hand as they searched the flowing waters.

"When you got to the mountains on the other side of the forest," She started, Belk watching her with furrowed brows at what she could possibly ask him. "How did you cross the forest separating us?"

"Well... I was just lost for a few days and got to the other side by pure accident, why?" Belk pondered, jolting slightly as Astra snapped her fingers at his statement.

"That’s exactly it!" She declared, "We need a source of light!"

"But fire and the sun are the only source of light," Sylvi pointed out, confusion laced in her voice as they continued to search.

"As of right now that may be true," She grinned, pointing up to the sky as if to use the sun as a reference. "But soon we’ll be carrying devices that can light up our path!"

"We call it the flashlight!"

"So cool!" Sylvi cheered.

"Uh question," Vagnis muttered, raising his hand slightly.

"Yes?" Astra points to Vagnis, causing the other two to look at him with curious eyes. "Your question!"

"Not to damp out the fire of science but, wont simple torches do?" He questioned, his words hesitant as he spoke. The other two thought about it and agreed softly.

"That is true," Astra smirked, a finger tapping against her forehead as she spoke. "But torches in itself are temporary, they burn out pretty fast. Besides, enlighten me, how exactly do the Aelvarians make fire?"

"We hit two rocks together until there’s a spark!" Sylvi explained, Astra pointing at the child, commending her stroke of genius.

"Yes! That’s it!"Astra said, Sylvi grinning from ear to ear at the praise. "Obviously there’s better ways to start a fire but we’re not at all there yet, We don’t have wax, sulfur, Potassium chlorate (or any form of potassium for that matter) for matches much less the chemicals for a long lasting and effective and accurate chemical fire,"

"Not to mention hitting two rocks together takes time and alooot of noise," She explained, the others nodding at her observation, following so far. "So it’s safe to say we’d be more likely to run into wild life than to get a fire going."

"Makes sense," Vagnis murmured, his wet hand to his chin as he thought through her words.

"Astra look! I got a weird black powder!" Sylvi declared, holding the magnet with iron sand attached around it.

"That’s what we’re looking for! We call it Iron sand!" Astra announced grabbing the clay pot and hanging it over the river. "Bring it here, Sylvi!"

Sylvi nodded and made her way to the pot as the other two kept going.

"Still though, I can’t wrap my head around it, how will picking up weird bits of sand help with light?" Belk pondered, pulling out a few of them himself.

"Just think about it," Astra urged, "The sun, fire, the smelting from yesterday, all of those provided some sort of light, right?"

Everyone nodded, the technician smiling to herself as they followed along.

"All the only thing they had in common though is—-" Belk took a minute, his eyes to the water as he thought about it. "They were really hot,"

"Exactly!" Astra declared, "You get a sticker for that,"

’What’s a sticker?’ They all thought in unison.

"Basically using heat we will have a lightsource we can switch on and off at will," Astra explained, her finger waving lightly in the air all the while.

"But how’re we gonna light it exactly...?" Vagnis pondered.

"With electricity of course!" Astra announced.

"Electr— what?" Syvli was even more confused, the topic seeming to get more and more broad by the second.

Astra points to the sky— at the time it was clear, hardly a cloud in sight. "We’ll harness the power from the sky!"

"You mean we wait for a storm?" Belk suggested, Vagnis walking past him to dump his collection of Ironsand into the

"Exactly that!" She nodded ’Not to mention having electricity means i can finally use my professional tools in my inventory—’

[Notice! The iron mill furnace is complete!]

[Iron mill furnace acquired!]

"Seems like Celi and the others are done," Astra mutters, looking the way the came from, "We should head back soon,"

"Huh? You could tell that?" Vagnis head raised to the place they came, not being able to see or even tell the progress from the others.

Astra hoisted the clay pot brimming with iron sand onto her hip, her eyes gleaming with anticipation. "Come on, let’s hurry, we have progress to make!"

"Would’ve been a lot faster if you helped—" Belk groaned, stretching, his back stiff from being hunched over all day.

"Oh well, what can you do," Vagnis sighed as he got out with him.

As the group waded out of the river, Sylvi skipped ahead, magnet still clutched in her hand. "Soooo... how does electricity make light if it’s not hot? Is it magic?"

"Better than magic—it’s physics," Astra said, adjusting the pot. "Think of electricity like... invisible fire that moves through metal. If we shape the metal just right, we can make it glow without burning up. Like capturing a tiny lightning bolt!"

"It’s a lot more difficult than it sounds though," She sighed, the daunting shadow of work creeping up in the back of her mind "Soon we’ll have to make glass!"

"Glass?" Sylvi stopped to think about it, her eyes lighting up as she remembered running up to the technician’s side once more. "You talked about glass before!"

"Yup! It’s going to be one of our most useful tools here." She looked behind her, her eyes landing on Vagnis and Belk "Normally they’re a bastard to make right, but with Vagnis’s steady hands we wont have an issue!"

"I assume we’re using the glass as lenses? Like in your gun?" Belk pondered,

"Precisely~"