Tyranny of Steel

Berengar and Yasmin found Zara in her room, reading over a notepad which contained a variety of advanced equations that she had written for some reason or another. A look of pride appeared on the man's face, as he saw his young daughter, who was barely eleven years old, easily comprehending such high-level math.

The moment Zara gazed up from her notepad, she saw her father standing in the doorway smiling, which caused her to fling the object aside and rush towards him in another attempt to hug the man.

"Daddy!"

Berengar's smile grew even wider while he effortlessly picked the growing girl up and held her in his arms. Zara was so excited that her father was finally home that she did not even notice her own mother standing beside the man. Instead, she eagerly asked if Berengar was ready to see her newest rocket.

"Is daddy ready to see Zara's rocket?"

Berengar smiled and nodded his head in agreement, before assuring the girl that both he and her mother would be watching the display.

"Of course, your mother and I would be honored to witness your latest developments. Do you have everything you need?"

Zara nodded her head with excitement, causing Berengar to chuckle as he carried the girl out of her room and down to the car, which was waiting to take the trio to the testing facility. After a short drive, and some casual conversation with the girl, they arrived at the facility, where a rocket, which was considerably larger than the one which Zara had launched in the Granada Palace Gardens, sat upright on a dedicated launch platform.

Unlike the previous rocket, this design was six meters tall, and twenty-five centimeters in diameter. It did not make use of a hybrid engine, but instead made use of a solid propellant, which was none other than ammonium perchlorate.

Zara led her father and mother to a bunker like complex, which provided safety to the team that worked on the rocket. Though this was nowhere near the size of a V-2 rocket, or the new intermediate-Range Ballistic Missiles, the facility was designed to accommodate such devices, and to an extent even more powerful rockets. The young girl had an eager expression on her cute face as she explained the capabilities of this relatively small rocket.

"If my math is correct, then this rocket will definitely surpass the boundary of space! Last time I was just shy of reaching my goal. But not this time!"

Berengar gazed at his daughter in shock. This rocket was not even half the size of a V-2, and yet, according to Zara, it was entirely capable of achieving a similar altitude. When the man looked at the team who had supported his daughter in creating this technological marvel, they silently nodded their heads in confirmation that this small rocket, indeed, possessed the ability to accomplish such a thing. Before Berengar could properly interrogate his daughter about how she had designed such a compact yet powerful rocket, she had already begun the countdown.

"Ten

Nine

Eight

Seven

Six

Five

Four

Three

Two

One

Blast off!"

With the hit of a button, the Rocket ignited, and quickly took off vertically into the air, flying higher and higher into the sky, while the observation team watched it carefully, and recorded the altitude and speed that it managed to achieve.

Eventually, the rocket reached a height of 117.6 km, with a high speed of 5,800 km/h thus successfully passing the boundary between earth and space. While this rocket was still a bit below the 170km altitude that the V-2 had successfully reached during its previous test, it was in actuality a significantly smaller rocket, and thus the fact that it was able to enter space at all was already a massive achievement.

Berengar was honestly quite stunned by what he had just witnessed. As for Yasmin, she was not entirely aware of how significant Zara's achievement was, and thus could not fully appreciate the girl's efforts.

Eventually, the rocket began to descend back down into the facility after its parachute had been deployed. Zara had a smile, the likes that Berengar had never witnessed before, as she turned around and gazed upon her father in an attempt to see his expression.

Naturally, Berengar was bewildered by the fact that his daughter had already achieved such a mastery of rocketry despite her young age, and as a result, it took him several seconds to recollect his thoughts.

Zara began to pout, upon seeing that her father was not yet praising her, however, that lasted for only a moment before Berengar scooped the girl up into his arms while repeatedly pecking her on the cheek. The words of encouragement he spoke was more than Zara was expecting.

"Zara is amazing! You have succeeded in creating the second man-made object to enter space, and at such a young age, too. I have no doubt that you will one day be a valuable asset of our dynasty! I should have expected no less from my baby girl!"

Yasmin could not fully comprehend the depths of what her young daughter had just achieved, and was quick to ask her husband if it was really all that impressive.

"I'm sorry. I don't entirely understand what just happened. Why is this such a significant feat?"

Berengar and Zara both looked at Yasmin as if they were gazing upon an idiot in their final form. Something which caused the woman to stare back at her husband and daughter with an infuriated expression on her otherwise pretty face. Seeing that his wife was about to throw a hissy fit, Berengar sighed before properly explaining their daughter's achievements while still holding the girl in his arms.

"What Zara just accomplished is extraordinary, to say the least. Though my scientists have already achieved a similar feat, it was after years of collective experimentation and with a rocket significantly bigger than the one Zara has designed entirely on her own.

In just one year, Zara has built a rocket that is almost on par with the V-2 which we have used as a weapon on the battlefield. At least when it comes to the ability to reach space. As it currently stands, the Aerospace division of the Kufstein Royal Armory is dedicated solely to military applications of rocket technology. But Zara's rockets are designed for an entirely different purpose!

If our daughter continues on this path, I have no doubt that within our lifetime, we will be able to land a man on the moon. Something which has simply been inconceivable for all of human history until this moment!"

Zara listened to her father continue to praise her with a wide smile on her cute face. She was so happy that her latest design had brought such inspiration to her father, and could not wait to build an even more powerful rocket in the near future. She had too many ideas, and not enough time to act upon them all, especially since she had just recently started to attend university as a full-time student.

Still, the fact that her father was doing everything he could to support her creativity made Zara the happiest girl in the world, and thus she sat silently, while listening to the man explain to her mother just how impressive her achievements were.

The idea of landing someone on the moon was an entirely foreign concept to Yasmin, who was not the most educated woman in the world, and after a thorough lecture she felt that her brain was hurting, and decided to put a stop to her husbands ramblings.

In the end, the trio left the testing grounds and returned to the Palace, where Berengar spent the rest of the night doting on his young daughter. Much to the chagrin of his other children. By the end of the night Zara went to sleep with a wide smile on her face, one that had never ceased from the moment her rocket successfully passed the boundary of space.