Location: Experimental Launch Bay, Dysnomia (orbiting Eris, approaching perihelion)
Local Time: Year 106 AFL (After First Landing), Day 125, 25:25 hours
Earth Date: 2258, May 15, 9:00 AM

After having gone through every safety check 10 times, needlessly instructed through her earpiece despite the spaceship being her own damn design, Laurel Gromm is getting restless. In less than 30 minutes, she will be the first person ever to experience 5th dimension travel, also known as 5DT. Despite being unable to predict anything that will happen in-between here and the other side of the galaxy, the professor has calculated a 98.2% chance of success. Of the rest, 1.7% is framed by uncertainty, as no body has actually experienced the 5th dimension before. The last 0.1% is worry of falling asleep at the wheel out of sheer boredom, before Eris reaches perfect perihelion.

Droning out the directives meant for the air crew working in Zero-G, Laurel tries to steady herself about that one point seven percent risk, reviewing the basis of her confidence in her mind. "Hmm.. The first four dimensions, (height, width, depth, and time)," she reflects on, "affect us constantly, as well as consistently. Expedient travel in each of them has, throughout history, been mastered. Every time a new peak is reached, we quickly run out of ways to progress regarding each dimension. (As an aside, isn't it ridiculous how easily some people can define progress only by a difference of position, discounting those who came before them?). For the past 150 years, progress has been especially difficult since, while possibly for the best, 4D travel has been at a standstill. This is due to Fermat's Second Last Theorem proving that nothing can move in more simultaneous dimensions than it naturally exists in."

Siiiiip. A thoughtful pause while Laurel sucks on the tube inside her helmet, connected to the tea tank- a mandatory resource for long-term space travel. Although room is very much at a premium on the modern spacecraft, a minimum of 1L of tea per each day of potential travel always is treated as mandatory in outfitting plans.

"However, until I created my field 42 years ago, nobody has been able to find concrete evidence of a yet higher dimension. This is due to the fact there is no way to see a higher dimension beyond the ones you already move in! (Thankfully, we exist in all of the first 4 dimensions, and so are able to lead fulfilling lives). Yet, the effects of one dimension higher may be felt. Consider a leaf of paper angled 90 degrees from the ground: it has no understanding of width, but an object with both height and width alike can collide with it, knocking it over and leaving it confused and displeased at its sudden loss of majestic height."

Deep in thought, Laurel taps her fingers present-mindedly on the small dashboard. A major requirement of effective space travel is extreme compression. This is achieved through both ensuring that no more than one personnel is required to operate the ship, as well as desizing rays that can shrink most materials to 1/1000th of the original size (resizing rays are nearly as important). Tap, tap, tap... "However, that same piece of paper can change which dimensions it moves in- due to its form, it can only make use of at most one. After being knocked over, it now exists only as width, but even though it is unnatural for it to be there, it can freely move throughout width alone! This is known as the exact continuum travel theory."

"All of this applies to us equally as much as the paper: except that the gap we struggle to cross is between 4D and 5D (hyper-consciousness). Despite constantly being subject to movement inside 5D, the ability for 4D-bound creatures to be aware of it is 'like trying to see the tiniest dot from the corner of your eye, without the power of a macroscope'. A favourite phrase of mine!", Laurel concludes the thought with. "Thanks to the strength of mammal consciousness, we have been able to know that hyper-consciousness is there, despite it's apparent invisibility and unknown power potential. Thus, as we are surrounded by it constantly, we are always able to be pushed by the forces moving through it. Finally, to make use of it ourselves, we must temporarily give up on one dimension we are used to having..."

Such thoughts continue to keep her sharp and preoccupied while time slowly, slowly tick-tick-ticks by.

Static crackles in Laurels ear. "Professor Gromm, please be aware that you have launch approval for 6 minutes from now."

Thanks to the aural stimulant, Laurel is aware that important things are finally happening. A quick glance at the digital clock tells her the time is 25:48- close to the end of this very long day. Checking for the umpteenth time the 4th and 5th dimensional co-ordinates of her destination, Laurel feels confident in reaching it in just a few days, at a rate of travel unprecedented by any vehicle in history. The goal of this test flight is a certain remote star that was the accidental recipient of a shipment of lens wipes. Many on Dysnomia pine for those damp cloths.

Laurel is suddenly annoyed by a bit of dirt or somesuch on her glasses. Unfortunately, that lost shipment of wipes was marked as too low-priority and high-cost for replacement. Dysnomic researchers have ever since relied on cleaning anything glass by rubbing it on their shirts. Making present matters worse, the tight space of the pilot seat does not give Laurel enough elbow room to do that. All she can do is continue her earlier chain of thought.

"Since we live in 5D constantly, yes, we can be assured that there is no harm capable of affecting us. Surely, if there was anything possible, it would have happened by now. Hrmm." Laurel remembers that her cabin should be free from any possible exterior agent, so, what could make them dirty? Unless... No, it couldn't be! "Despite the ternary quantum mechanics the engine is powered by, nothing that will happen later during my flight could have displaced backwards itself in time, because that would require too many simultaneous dimens-"

Loud static buzzes Laurels earpiece suddenly, the volume indicating extreme significance. "Professor Gromm, somehow our estimates have ended up off by approximately 48 seconds. Perihelion will now occur in T-minus 187 seconds. I will begin the countdown sequence immediately."

"187... 186... 185..." starts ringing out. Normally, this would be very distracting during a moment of stress, but Laurel is a fan of counting numbers backwards, so it is simple to ignore. With little time remaining before launch, Laurel begins to recalculate the risks of the mission, to try to figure out what is going on: "95.5%... no, 92.9%... damn it, lock in a run-time! Okay. 86.3% chance of success, dropping every second. Once I get a handle on why the numbers are shifting, I can turn the calculations on live. Let's see, Calibration for fear of falling asleep is now 0.0%, that's logical... 5th dimension uncertainty is down to 0.5%? That's unusual, but- oh NO, a 13.2% chance of my glasses becoming fogged up beyond usability or repair? That should not be possible!"

Frantically looking around, Laurel suddenly becomes aware that the blot in the corner of her pair of glasses has been joined by more. "Where are these coming from?!" she intentionally says aloud, turning on her mouthpiece. "No... wait, the extent of these- since they are on the surface of my lens, they have no depth... that leaves four dimensions: height, width, time, and hyper-conciousness. My god, this filth on my glasses is moving backwards to me, by dropping an entire dimension! This would be amazing if not so threatening to the operation."

"92... 91... 90... 89... 88... Professor Gromm, can you explain the difficulties in the operation of this mission? 80... 79..."

"Yes! My glasses are getting retroactively dirty, because it has been determined that they will get destroyed by some unknown substance in the future. I have no way to clean them!"

"One moment Professor! 72... 71... 70... Research command wants to know if this would truly jeopardize the mission of your craft functioning in 5DT. Delaying the mission would cause frustration, as this is our best chance to test pilot your vessel. Only today can you use the strength of the gravitational pull of the Sun, as our orbited body experiences the exact point of per-"

"Excuse me? I am the one who planned this mission! Do not talk down to me like this. I figured out that running the test launch during perihelion would be optimal, so there is no point in your pretending as if I do not know what is at stake. Currently, my calculations warn that the mission could fail by a...", Laurel pauses to hastily re-run a diagnosis. "Currently, a 16.7% chance of failure, due to lack of visibility."

"26... 25... Research command says that, if necessary, you are free to use one of the lens wipes waiting at your destination. Prepare for blast-off in 24... 23... 22..."

"Blast them, and blast this project!" Laurel yells in her head. "Blast these absurd social unlaws that we follow on this far-flung habitat! Hmph." With a sense of curiosity, as well as a need for a sooner solution, she adjusts her seat so that she can wipe a finger each frame of her glasses. As she expected, it causes them to become less dirty- now it looks like a soft smudge, instead of an unparseable blur. "Okay, it seems that my vision is ahead in 5D space while my body is not, meaning my hands can create a different reality for my perception. Hopefully everything will sync up as I enter 5DT..."

"5..." Gripping the wheel tightly with her free hand, Laurel shifts the vector lever to turn off height, and enable hyper-consciousness. "4..." The the black hole generator is turned on, to create inverse negative energy in the micro-fuel tank. "3..." In nanoseconds, the reduction ray in the dock envelopes the ship, reducing it and Gromm to a tiny speck of what each was before, creating a sonic boom, due to the increased room for ether to displace where the spaceship was previously. "2..." Laurel deftly (and with great precision, for her now minute size) aims the flare reflector exactly at the heart of the sun, to ensure maximum accuracy.

"1..."

Suddenly, not even noticing the bump of inhuman displacement speed caused by the launch, Laurel's view expands infinitely while also contracting, as if she is staring down a cube of mirrors turned into itself that is at the same time fogging up from a hot shower.