[Home Page]          [Download .EPUB]          [Download .DOCX]

Volume 1     Volume 2     Volume 3     Volume 4     Volume 5     Volume 6
Volume 7     Volume 8     Volume 9     Volume 10     Volume 11    Volume 12
Super Miniskirt Pirates Volume 1     Super Miniskirt Pirates Volume 2

discord discussion

March 9th, 2026

 

 

INDEX

 

Chapter 1: Space Anomaly in the Tau System

Chapter 2: The Disappearance of the Bentenmaru

Chapter 3: The Odette II Sets Sail

Chapter 4: Preparations for Battle

Chapter 5: The Mysterious Unidentified Ship

Chapter 6: The Final Battle! Garnet A

 

 

 

Illustration by Matsumoto Noriyuki

Design by Shindosha

"The Bentenmaru's battle records?" Misa looked at Marika quizzically. "And from the time of the War of Independence?"

 

"Yeah..." Marika nodded, looking uncertain. "Where are they located?"

 

"Of course they’re in the archives. If you use your captain's authority, you can search through the Bentenmaru’s records as much as you want." Looking around the bridge, Misa added as if remembering. "Oh, of course the crew's private areas are an exception. Why? Do you want to see that sort of thing? That's not a good hobby."

 

"No, I don’t." Marika hurriedly waved her hands. "I just need the official battle records from the War of Independence against the Stellar Alliance."

 

"Then they shouldn't be that hard to find." Misa turned her seat around to the observer’s console and started tapping on it. "Your school has the fleet command headquarters underneath it, doesn't it?"

 

"Huh?"

 

"If it's the official records from the War of Independence, they're all in the Star System Military Archives, so there's no need to go into the forbidden war ruins. There's no way there would be any restrictions on the citizens of Sea of the Morningstar looking up battle records from that long ago."

 

The War of Independence against the Stellar Alliance is an important part of history for all planets that were members of the Federation of Colonial Stars. Battle records from more 100 years ago were declassified long ago, and there are no restrictions on citizens viewing them.

 

"I checked the public archives first." Marika peered at the display from behind the observer's seat. "If it's a public record, I can access it from my club room."

 

"It wasn’t there?" Misa asked, typing on the keyboard. "Pirate ships that were issued privateer licenses were treated as warships during the War of Independence. Not only battle records, but even logbooks should be made public, right?"

 

"I know, right?" Marika sighed with a heavy look on her face. "That's what I thought, but I couldn't find any decent records."

 

"Eh?"

 

Misa stopped her hands. Marika continued her explanation.

 

"All I could find were battle records with only the date and time and the results, or the meal menu. I wondered if they'd been edited by censorship at headquarters or the archives, or if there was some data loss somewhere. I was wondering if the Bentenmaru would have the original battle records."

 

Electronic records have long since reached the theoretical limit of imprinting information on each atom. A spaceship only needs a small portion of its archive to hold all the records of its long lifespan.

 

"That's probably..." Misa began tapping on the control panel. "It's not a matter of censorship or data loss or anything like that, it's probably just negligence on the part of the captain and crew."

 

"Huh?"

 

"Yes, here’s the logbook from the end of the War of Independence." Misa called up the Bentenmaru’s logbook, which had been written over the years, on the display. "Do you want to read it here?"

 

"Transfer it to the captain's seat." Marika swiftly jumped up to the captain's seat. The document file transferred to the sub-monitor was opened on the main display.

 

An empty logbook was displayed.

 

"Oh no..." Marika cried out as she saw the logbook, which only had the dates and three meal menus. "What's this? Most of the time it even the current position is missing!"

 

"That's what a pirate's logbook is like." Misa began to close the console at the observer's seat. "Do you think a half-witted person who can't serve on a warship or a merchant ship would keep a proper logbook?"

 

"Miisaaa."

 

"Joking aside." Misa laughed and stood up as Marika gave her a resentful look. "The truth is, it must have been such hard work that they didn't even have time to write the logbook. Pirate ships have always been short on crew and usually working without rest."

 

"Ah..." Marika's hardest job since becoming captain is writing the logbook. Most of the information that needs to be written, such as the current location at each time and the status of the ongoing mission, is templated, but no matter how much she does it, she never feels like she's used to it.

 

“It seems like it was normal for them to only give verbal battle records, let alone battle reports, because they didn't have time to put them in writing, and for doing three other tasks at the same time.”

 

"Yeah..." Marika nodded gloomily.

 

"What will you do? If you have a recorder, you can record everything without cutting corners."

 

A recorder logs every event on the ship in chronological order, whether during battle, sailing, or entering port. Since the theoretical limit was reached and memory capacity became almost no problem, it is normal for spaceships to keep records from the time the system was first initialized during construction.

 

"No." Marika shook her head with a glum look on her face. "Did pirate ships during the War of Independence submit unprocessed recorder data as battle records?"

 

"I don't think they did that either." Misa shook her head with a plausible look. "Because at the very least, if it was submitted, the star system military would have kept a record."

 

"Yeah..." Marika nodded while thinking. “During the busy period at the end of the War of Independence, the headquarters was already overwhelmed with the regular army, so there was no way they would create an easy-to-read report from the battle records of a pirate ship unless it was absolutely necessary.”

 

"What's wrong?" Misa looked up at Marika, who had sunk into the captain's seat. "You want to see the battle records from the end of the War of Independence? Did you get a history assignment?"

 

"Yeah, well, something like that." Marika answered vaguely. "The previous president of the yacht club asked me if I could show her the battle records of the Bentenmaru during the War of Independence."

 

"Hmm?" Misa crossed her arms in interest. "The previous president was a brilliant woman who went to Space University, right? That's amazing."

 

"Well, she's amazing, in many ways." Marika suddenly realized something and sat up from the backrest, turning to face Misa. "Hey, can you show me the battle records of other pirate ships?"

 

"I think they'd have no problem showing you the battle records from the War of Independence." Misa looked back at Marika as if testing her. "But will you find anything more than the battle records in the archives?"

 

Marika thought of Captain Kenjo Kurihara of the Barbaroussa and the other familiar faces of the pirate ship's leaders, and once again sank into the captain's chair.

 

"I don't know about pirate ships crew during the War of Independence, but I guess they're probably in a similar situation to ours."

 

"Are you ready?" Kane, at the helm, called out to the captain. “We're almost at the designated airspace. Time to get to work.”

 

"Yes." Sitting back in the captain's seat, Marika looked around at the display. There were responses from multiple sensors.

 

"Is this correct?" Coorie turned around and asked, having passed the summarized observation data to the captain's seat for easy viewing. Marika checked the spatial coordinates displayed on the screen.

 

"It's correct." Next, she checked the current location of the Bentenmaru.

 

"There's been no change in its relative position to Tau, and it's far away from the Sea of the Morningstar, so does that mean this spatial disturbance is coming from Tau and its coordinates are linked to Tau's rotational period, not the Sea of the Morningstar's orbital period?"

 

"You're right." Coorie tapped the control panel. "Well, when it comes to spatial disturbances in the inner planetary system, they're usually directly affected by the largest gravitational source in the vicinity."

 

Marika compared the observation data she'd brought from Odette II with the latest data obtained by the Bentenmaru. "But it seems the peak of activity has passed. When I looked at it before, the shapes of the constellations on the other side looked distorted, but now I can only confirm it with the sensors."

 

Coorie quickly switched between the observation results. "I don't think it's a space anomaly important enough to warrant a pirate ship's observation."

 

"If it was just a spatial disturbance, there's no way it could have lasted this long." Luca, in the navigator's seat, said, placing her hands on the crystal ball in front of her. "Even if the energy that caused the anomaly was concentrated at one point in space for some reason, it would eventually radiate out and disappear. Even though it's weakened, there's no way it could maintain a scale large enough to be detected so easily."

 

"That's true, but..." Coorie looked over the data she had gathered. "Unless it was a really strange space anomaly, there's no way they'd bother to send a request with a reward to investigate through the regular channels."

 

Misa, in the observer seat, slid her fingers over the control panel. "Look, this spatial anomaly's registration number. When the Odette II discovered it, it was a temporary number, but before anyone knew it, it had been given an official number and additional tags."

 

Marika looked over the registration number given to the spatial anomaly. When the Odette II reported it to the control station, the registration number should have only contained the Galactic Standard Calendar year, an abbreviation for the Tau star system where it was discovered, and a serial number from the beginning of the current year, but now various unfamiliar tags had been added or deleted.

 

"That's true." Marika tried to translate in her head the abbreviations that prefixed the spatial anomaly's registration number, which seemed to have become a familiar sequence. "...So this spatial anomaly has been registered with the Galactic Empire's navigation control bureau, not with the star Tau!?"

 

"No wonder I thought it was a generous job for the control bureau." Kane, at the helm, looked serious as he examined the sensor data. "If the sponsor is not a star system government but the Empire, does that mean this spatial anomaly is really that important?"

 

"It doesn't look like it at the moment." Coorie fiddled around at the control panel. "Well, then, as ordered, shall we start a more thorough investigation?"

 

"All the observation probes are ready to be deployed." Schnitzer announced from the battle commander's seat.

 

"Roger." Marika nodded in the captain's seat. "Well, then, let's go and place the observation probes around the spatial anomaly as planned. Eight in total?" Marika looked over the investigation plan displayed on the display. "Wouldn't four units be enough to gather the data? That's a lot."

 

"The more observation points you have, the more accurate it becomes." Coorie presented a revised plan for the placement of the eight probes based on the latest data. "Sponsors who pay a lot of money are strict about the quality of work. Kane, make sure you place them accurately."

 

"Okay!" Kane tightened his grip on the wheel. Sandaime turned to the captain's seat and gave a thumbs up. "The Bentenmaru is ready to launch!"

 

"Well then, let's go." Marika ordered. "Bentenmaru, launch!"

 

 

It is said that Space University began when the first intelligence born in the universe tried to record the knowledge it had gained.

 

There is no definite record of whether it was the first life form or the first intelligence born in this universe, how many civilizations had arisen before, and to what stage they had evolved before perishing. What is certain is that the species that wanted to record their knowledge knew how to cross the stars, and they tried every possible way to preserve the records for as long as possible.

 

The first space university was built on the oldest continent on that planet. The first intelligent beings who had acquired the ability to cross the stars next decided to place a backup in space in order to preserve the records more reliably.

 

No matter how well protected a structure on a planet is, it cannot escape natural disasters. It was expected that the records stored in interplanetary space would survive much longer than those on a planet, but they were also expected to be lost at the end of the parent star’s lifespan.

 

Interstellar space would provide an even more stable environment for a longer period of time.

 

The most robust interstellar spaceship built with the technology of the time was sent into interstellar space without any FTL technology, for the sole purpose of preserving records.

 

As expected by the intelligent beings who created the first space university, the backup spaceship sent out to preserve the records faithfully fulfilled its role. Even when academic institutions such as space universities built on planets were destroyed due to war or other reasons, the record ships in interstellar space helped them to revive each time.

 

When a record ship that had survived even the destruction of the intelligence that first created it was discovered, it was not one ship but a fleet of several ships. It was also confirmed that there were several other fleets flying with the same records.

 

The Record Fleet was discovered not by a single species but by a community of several intelligent species, the oldest known loose association in history, the origin of many ancient star nation-states and the precursor to the modern Galactic Empire, who entrusted the care of the discovered Record Fleet to a newly unified academic research institute.

 

The academic research institute, which was created by integrating the highest educational institutions and think tanks of interstellar civilizations that had arisen in multiple star systems and developed to the point of crossing the stars, was said to have not even been unified in name at first. The institute, which was given a position to ignore the political interests of interstellar civilizations, adopted the name of the organization that created the discovered record fleet, Space University, in tribute.

 

 

Space University was established in a star system with a stable G-type star as its parent star, and three planets in the habitable zone, and no indigenous civilization had yet developed. Since then, Space University, which is older than the Empire, has continued to carve out an uninterrupted history as the oldest and greatest academic institution in the Milky Way galaxy.

 

The fourth planet in the University system, called Tania¹ after the god who governs language in classical mythology, is the oldest developed planet that still retains its original appearance. Tania has an artificial ring in geostationary orbit and is connected to space by orbital elevators built at two points on the equator. It is a planet blessed with abundant oceans and nature.

 

Jenny Dolittle could not have imagined the landscape of a development planet that had never experienced great wars or ups and downs, yet had a history measured in tens of thousands of years. History is built by the work of intelligent beings over many generations, and the idea of ​​history being created in a controlled and isolated place was beyond her imagination, coming from a pioneer planet.

 

Tania has four continents and an archipelago. The planet’s axis is not tilted significantly relative to its parent star, and its orbit is nearly perfectly circular, resulting in a stable climate. Tania is home to several ancient cities with a long history spanning tens of thousands of years, and even planetary orbital and climate control has been implemented to maintain the environment.

 

New students who enter Space University are assigned to various locations on the three planets based on their wishes and aptitude. Jenny Dolittle began her university life in Acacia, the oldest city on Tania, which receives the most new students and was built around a huge archive.

 

Acacia is the oldest planned city in existence, designed around a huge archive at its the center and the facilities necessary for its maintenance and operation surrounding it. There are planets and cities in the universe older than Space University, but all of them were developed and expanded due to military and commercial needs. There is no other city that was planned as an information city from the beginning and has been maintained and developed for that purpose.

 

Facilities necessary for its maintenance and operation were constructed around the archive, a gigantic conical tower that has been called either the great tree or a mountain due to its shape.

 

The gigantic archive at the center is essentially a gigantic information factory.

 

When the decision to build the archive was made, there was already a wide variety of formats to be preserved. Even writing is not limited to ancient monuments, wooden tablets, plant leaves, animal skins, or paper made from these materials. There are also records expressed by methods of processing materials, such as knot tying, cloth weaving, and paper folding. There are also records that are passed down only by memory as oral traditions, and countless non-written records such as paintings and sculptures.

 

It is common for a language to have multiple writing systems, which also change over time. It is also common for recording media and standards to change due to technological advances and environmental changes.

 

Due to the archive's philosophy of storing all records in the entire universe and maintaining a system for their access, it became an information factory using the latest technology, rather than the library as originally envisioned. In order to accumulate records of various forms and styles and keep them available for viewing at all times, a system must be maintained to constantly translate and output all records in the latest format. The city was built with a large enough area and space to accommodate future development.

 

However, the tens of thousands of years since it began operating were enough to eat up that buffer.

 

The government housing where professors, engineers, and researchers of Space University live was built on the outskirts of the old town. Compared to the central part of Acacia, which is centered around an artificial mountain built on a giant scale, the government housing district, lined with stone government housing that is neither tall nor huge, looks like an old garden city.

 

Since many of the residents live there for the job of determining student grades and rankings, the government housing district, where many teachers and professors live, was known by the nickname demon alley. Jenny looked around the area known as hell's first block, where many of the professors with the longest tenures live.

 

The two- and three-story antique stone residential buildings are apartment buildings with minimal commonalities, such as the position of their entrances and windows. Depending on the residents' tastes, the walls are painted in eccentric colors that make them stand out from the surroundings, or are sunken with special surface treatments, and each house's garden varies from those that are neatly divided and tended to, to others that are left neglected. There are mountains of equipment whose purpose is unknown, and at one house, a dragon is curled up and sleeping in front of the entrance, without a collar or fence.

 

The sidewalks are made of the same wear-resistant stone as the building materials, and the straight roads look like they could be used as runways, where a variety of vehicles, both human-powered and automated, are parked, stranded, or thrown out.

 

"Well, if you're so foolish as to pull a prank against the Hell’s professors, you probably wouldn't have come all the way here in the first place."

 

Jenny, walking down Hell's first block with her mobile information terminal in hand, stopped in front of an old government house covered in ivy. There was no need to check the numbers and symbols on the delivery box. Parked in the driveway was the commuter sports car she had seen in the professor's parking lot. Compared to the steam locomotives of the past and the flapping planes with internal combustion propulsion ornithopters with folded wings, the wheeled commuter car looked rather ordinary, even with its bright, racer-like colors.

 

Jenny looked down the paved path that led to the back of a poorly maintained garden and saw the door to the government house. The entrance area, befitting an old building, was devoid of any modern electronics.

 

The front door was decorated with the same ancient coat of arms as the door to the professor's laboratory. The head of a long-fanged carnivore that is said to have once lived on the same planet as the professor, with a curved sword and a twisted staff stacked one on top of the other underneath. The relief on the old black wood is said to represent the bravery of the carnivore, the power of the curved sword, and the wisdom of the staff, but Jenny hadn't checked how accurate this explanation was.

 

Standing in front of the entrance, Jenny looked around once more. She noticed that the mouth of the long-fanged carnivore was holding a heavy metal ring. A bump protruding from the bottom of the metal ring seemed to support the relief of the stacked staff and curved sword, and there were traces of it having been beaten many times.

 

It took Jenny a while to remember how to use it.

"It's a knocker. Wow, I thought the one on the door of the high school principal's office was the last one."

 

She grabbed the heavy metal ring held in the carnivorous beast’s mouth and lifted it. When she hit it against the lump, the metallic sound, heavier than expected, rang out like a bell.

 

She waited for a while, wondering if she should knock again, when she heard a muffled voice from somewhere.

 

"Yes, who is it?"

 

Jenny looked around the entrance again. It wouldn't be surprising if there was some kind of security system hidden there, but the voice she heard didn't seem to be mechanically reproduced.

 

"I'm Jenny Dolittle, a freshman." Jenny spoke the lines she had prepared. "I've come to meet Professor Athena Sakyura."

 

"Oh, it’s you."

 

Jenny found the place where the voice was coming from. An old funnel was attached sideways next to the door, and a rust-colored pipe led to somewhere.

 

"It's unlocked. Come in."

 

It seemed that sending a message in advance to confirm the visit schedule was worth it. Jenny waited for the door to open.

 

"Oh, just to be clear, open the door with your own hands. There's a lever in front of you, on the left side of the door. Push it down and it will open."

 

"It's not automatic." Muttering, Jenny put her hand on the large antique-looking lever attached to one corner of the large front door. The door unlocked with a click as the old, heavy mechanism moved.

 

Jenny opened the heavy, large door. Inside was an antique shop.

 

"Come straight in, I'm in the room at the back on the right." A muffled voice came from the funnel at the front door. "There are a lot of antiques here, so be careful not to snag anything with anything around you."

 

"Yes." Jenny answered and stepped into her professor's official residence.

 

 

 

Freshmen admitted to Space University are assigned to various faculties based on their preferences and basic education. They can also choose the academic field they wish to pursue.

 

Jenny, who enrolled in the Economics department, chose the History of Modern Interstellar Warfare as an elective outside of her specialty. She had always been interested in history and enjoyed researching it, so she thought she had a basic knowledge of the subject.

 

However, Athena Sakyura, who became Jenny's first-year professor, easily shattered the confidence of this college freshman, who was the top student at her local high school. Although she understood intellectually that this was a necessary course for the re-education of freshmen who had no criteria for evaluation other than their accumulated detailed knowledge, Jenny could not accept it emotionally, so she set her immediate virtual adversary at the university to be her professor, an Imperial nobleman who was rumored to be a long-lived Methuselah.

 

The condition for victory was to make Professor Athena Sakyura recognize her as an intelligent student. Jenny returned to the Sea of the Morningstar with that intention, but came back to Space University with a different purpose.

 

Unlike the laboratory, which was equipped with the latest information technology, Professor Athena's home study was filled with a classical interior like those seen in historical dramas. The lighting equipment attached to the wall also seemed to be gas lights, judging from the bright flames flickering irregularly in the glass lampshades.

 

"Sorry for the mess." Old books and antiques were piled up on the huge desk facing the wall. Athena turned her office chair, the only thing that looked new, around to face Jenny. A funnel connected to a flexible tube dangled against a wall covered with pasted notes, image cards, and printouts. "My parents keep sending me antiques one after another, hoping to get rid of them. I'm thinking it's about time to get a dealer to take them away."

 

"Your parents…" If they're a long-lived species, the number of relics they accumulate will increase in proportion to their lifespan. Jenny started to imagine this, but then shook her head.

 

"Please." Athena stood up from her automated support office chair and pointed to several chairs of various ages and styles placed on the worn carpet. A large stump that appeared to be fossilized was being used as a table, judging from the lamps, what looked like liquor bottles, and a drinking pot that were placed on it. Jenny sat down on a relatively new, low-backed chair decorated with intricate carvings that looked to be about 100 years old. The classic style cushions, which she had only seen on old furniture from the time of the Governor-General's Office at Hakuoh Girls' Academy, were softer than they looked when Jenny sank in.

 

"So, what is it?" The professor asked, her chair facing away from the desk. "What did you want to ask me that made you come all the way to my house?"

 

"Time travel?" The professor's grey eyes shot at Jenny. "What are you talking about?"

 

"I mean it literally." Jenny continued the conversation, using all her memories and prior knowledge of the long-lived species she had met. "Time travel, moving from the present to any time in the past or future."

 

The professor looked at Jenny's face intently. "You can't escape the one-way flow of time. Didn't you learn that in basic physics?"

 

"Nuclear fusion and FTL speeds were once thought to be impossible." Jenny began to present the argument she had prepared. "On my planet, education never denied the possibility, even if it was only a small one."

 

"That's not a very commendable educational approach." Athena spoke her honest opinion. "Even if you teach someone that something is impossible, there will always be people who don't believe it. Sometimes, those people will make something impossible possible, but education isn't about expecting a lucky break like that."

 

"I understand the professor's educational philosophy." Any facial expression or gesture could provide some information. Jenny doesn't take her eyes off Athena. "So, can you answer my question?"

 

"Is time travel possible?"

 

"No." Jenny asked, staring into the professor's eyes. "Is research into time travel being conducted at Space University?"

 

It is said that Space University, which has an entire star system, three habitable planets, and hundreds of facilities in interplanetary space, including space cities and colonies, currently has billions of ongoing research topics. Not all of them are open to ordinary students, and freshman Jenny Dolittle can only see a list of a few of them.

 

"How did you come up with that idea?" Suddenly, the professor's eyes took on a color she had never seen before. “Did something happen in your past you'd like to redo?”

 

It took Jenny a moment to realize he was joking, as she had never heard anything like that before. “Yes, I have enough past experiences I want to redo that I can make a list and submit it.” Jenny wasn't sure if she had managed to make the right expression, but she tried to smile as she answered. "But I'll take care of my own life. That's not why I'm asking about time travel."

 

"Then why?"

 

"In this universe where FTL speeds have been put into practical use and spaceships and information can be delivered faster than the speed of light, isn't time travel the last remaining frontier?" Jenny asked, staring intently at the professor's face so as not to miss any small details. "There's no reason to think that this isn't being studied at the galaxy's top academic institution."

 

"I'm a historian." Athena replied without taking her eyes off her student. "Unfortunately, I'm not an expert in spatial physics or quantum time. I think that's a better question to ask the director of science."

 

"Research and development into time travel is not a publicly-disclosed research topic at Space University." Jenny replied. "As a freshman, I don't expect to be easily informed of the existence and details of unpublished research topics. I heard at the entrance ceremony that information requires appropriate qualifications.”

 

"So you understand your position." Athena tilted her head slightly and looked at Jenny. "Officially, the answer to your question is, of course, no, but before I answer, let me ask you something. Why would you ask a historian about time travel?"

 

Jenny thought, trying to remember the line of her thoughts. She opened her mouth. "I thought that the professor was probably the closest to the answer I wanted to find out from Space University."

 

"Maybe the answer you want to find is in the physical science research institute?"

 

“I realize that it’s not easy for Space University to tell a freshman who has just entered the university and has not yet achieved anything about an undisclosed research topic just because I asked a question.”

 

"Then why are you asking a historian who is not a specialist?"

 

"Because I thought that if they were really considering the practical application of time travel, verification would be necessary." Jenny continued, carefully watching the professor's expression. “If research on time travel is being conducted, there would be thorough feasibility study. And if time travel were to be put into practical use, history would be the field that would benefit the most. Even if it's still in the theoretical stage, I thought that there should be a demand for participation from the field of history.”

 

"That's a reasonable inference before confirmation." Athena took off her interface headset and placed it on the desk. "Come in. I'll show you something interesting."

 

Athena left the study and headed straight to the bathroom. Jenny checked just to be sure.

 

"What's interesting, the toilet?"

 

"No. It'll take a while, so I'm preparing for that."

 

Athena's commuter car was a large sports type. Jenny, who was invited to get into the low wedge-shaped car, looked at the unnecessarily large control panel in front of the driver's seat and the sticks on both sides of the seat, and then looked back at the profile of the professor who was fastening her seat belt with practiced hands. "It's not just a car, is it?"

 

"Yes. Do you get motion sickness?"

 

"No." As she answered, Jenny followed the professor's example and carefully fastened her belt in the bucket seats’ body support system. Athena flipped the main switch to start up the system. Colorful control panel displays appeared around the driver's seat.

 

"That's good."

 

The glass roof canopy, which had been opened from the front by a flexible arm, closed. Jenny noticed that the windows and body were much thicker than a normal commuter vehicle.

 

Athena checked the display and placed both hands on the control sticks on either side of the driver's seat on the right side. Jenny braced herself, anticipating the acceleration.

 

Contrary to her expectations, Athena smoothly started the commuter. They left the residential area, which was fully equipped with autodrive, in smooth full manual driving and got onto the highway that connected directly to the old residential area.

 

Even on the highway, Athena's driving remained safe and sure. Still driving manually, she followed the flowing lanes and took a route to the suburbs.

 

It took willpower not to ask about the destination. Jenny did not look at the scenery of the ancient city visible from freeway via the car's floor-to-ceiling interior, but at the area around the driver's seat, where a variety of information was displayed that would be unimaginable in a normal commuter car.

 

Many of the 3D displays showed the traffic conditions not only around the vehicle but also overhead, their current location, and the operating status of the power system. Jenny realized these were the displays of an aircraft, not a ground-based commuter.

 

Without warning, the commuter rose into the air. Jenny struggled to maintain her composure.

 

Perhaps it was the powerful anti-gravity system at work, but there was no feeling of weight inside the vehicle as it soared. Even after passing several low-lying clouds, the air pressure inside the vehicle did not change, as if it was pressurized. With its axis pointed toward the sky, the commuter's speed and altitude increased rapidly.

 

Generally, vehicles operated within the atmosphere are rarely equipped with inertial control or anti-gravity systems, with the exception of those used for specific purposes.

 

Jenny stole a glance at the display on the driver's side. The speedometer, which easily exceeded the sound barrier, indicated that they were continuing to accelerate. The blue sky, the same as the one seen above the Sea of the Morningstar, was turning a dull black. "Are we in space?"

 

"Yes." Athena cast a quick glance at Jenny in the passenger seat. "I guess that coming from a transportation company and being the president of the yacht club in high school is not just for show. I thought you’d be a bit more surprised."

 

"I am surprised." Jenny answered, looking around the inside of the commuter. It was a four-seater sportster, and although the display around the driver's seat was overloaded and the control system was different from a normal commuter, but the rest of it looked like a carefully modified commuter. "I can't believe such a small aircraft can reach orbit."

 

The professor, holding the control stick in the driver's seat, seemed to smile. "I'm glad that you're a student who's used to being in space. I can skip a lot of explanations."

 

"I'm amazed." Jenny said sincerely. "I can't believe that we can fly into interplanetary space so easily, let alone into orbit."

 

The professor in the driver's seat was smiling.

 

"You can't really go FTL, can you?"

 

"Who knows?"

 

Outside the vehicle window, protected by multiple layers of light-blocking shields, the surface of Unibar Gs1, the parent star of the Unibar system, was slowly bubbling and churning. The commuter was pointing at a location almost directly above Unibar Gs1, even closer than Saison, the first planet in the Unibar system.

 

Even after passing through Tania's stratosphere and rising to what could be called outer space, Athena did not slow down the commuter's acceleration. Because the acceleration could not be felt thanks to the inertial control system, the only way to read the speed was from the numbers displayed. Not wanting to hide anything, Athena, who was driving, opened the display on the passenger side and showed the navigation display.

 

Passing low orbital altitude, Athena accelerated the commuter even further. Seeing the professor continue to accelerate far past orbital speed, Jenny guessed that their destination was not the relay station in Tania’s orbit, but something further out.

 

Jenny's guess was half right and half wrong. What was right was that the commuter's destination was even further away than the relay station, and what was wrong was that the destination was directly above the star, requiring a single small commuter to cross three inner planetary orbits.

 

It was only after passing the second inner planet’s orbit that Athena, holding the control stick, finally began to slow down the Commuter. Jenny was overwhelmed thinking about where on the commuter was the high-capacity inertial control system that could continuously accelerate and decelerate throughout the entire journey.²

 

As they approached the star Unibar Gs1, the vehicle windows’ protective tint increased. The stars that were visible before disappeared, and the star’s surface corona became discernible, but the environment inside the car was the same as when they were on the surface of Tania.

 

Approaching Unibar Gs1 from the ecliptic plane, Athena set course for the north pole of the star. Directly above the star, so close that it would be licked if a large flare occurred, a glowing golden structure resembling a giant spider was visible.

 

"That's what I wanted to show you." In the vehicle, with artificial gravity still in effect, Athena pointed to the golden space structure in their path. "A high-energy particle research station. A research station close to Unibar Gs1 that uses the abundant energy of the star to repeatedly create and destroy high-energy particles."

 

"A stellar-scale high-energy research station..." Jenny repeated the professor's explanation. She knew about the existence of energy research facilities that consisted of giant accelerators built in orbit around gas giant planets, but this was the first time she had heard of one on a stellar scale.

 

“The reason it's gold is because that's the best material for reflecting heat. The reason it was placed so close to the star was so that we could utilize the abundant energy, but since we can't extract so much energy that it would affect the star's activity, there's also talk of moving it to a larger location where even a little reckless use of energy wouldn't affect the surrounding star system, and leaving this location specifically for stellar control.”

 

"Isn't the energy of one star enough?" Jenny muttered in a daze.

 

"The question was whether research on time travel was being conducted at Space University." Athena slowly rotated her commuter, looking down at the station located directly above the north pole of the star Unibar Gs1. "The answer is, it is being conducted."

 

Jenny silently stared at the research station directly above the star.

 

“However, the experiment currently being conducted is a very basic one, only capable of sending information to the past."

 

"Transmitting information to the past, you say?" Jenny repeated the experiment, which was much more modest than she had imagined.

 

"That's right. If you use FTL communication, you can send information to the entire universe without any time lag. But you can't send information before the time of transmission. That's common sense, isn't it?"

 

"Yes."

 

“FTL travel is a method that avoids traveling the actual spatial distance by passing through hyperdimensional space, but by employing a slightly more advanced trick, you can circumvent the temporal constraints.” Athena laughed from the driver's seat. "A professor of hyperdimensional cosmology gave me a more technical explanation, but that's basically it. However, the temporal constraints are much stricter and more delicate than the spatial constraints because they are on a different dimension, so at this stage it's not about making an object travel through time, but sending simple information to the past."

 

"Huh."

 

"The current goal is to send a simple signal five seconds into the past."

 

"Only five seconds? Really?"

 

“I asked the same thing. How can we not even send a simple yes-or-no signal five seconds back? Then I asked if it was possible to stop time, even for an instant? Apparently, stopping time, not by using faster-than-light travel to seemingly stop time, but actually stopping the flow of time as it is now, calculations show that it would require an amount of energy equivalent to the mass of the entire universe.”

 

"...But," after thinking for a moment, Jenny answered. "Even if we could stop time in the entire universe, the time we perceive would also stop, so we wouldn't know."

 

"It's called the observer's paradox," Athena said. "As long as we live in three-dimensional space, we can't perceive the exact direction of the fourth dimension. That's why we need a trick that is theoretically supported by multidimensional cosmology."

 

Athena glanced at the student in the passenger seat. "Can I ask you a question?"

 

"What is it?" Jenny unconsciously braced herself.

 

"Why did you come up with the idea of ​​time travel?"

 

Jenny looked at Athena's profile, who was still facing straight ahead in the driver's seat. "I thought that if I was going to do historical research, the best way to do it would be to do a field survey... just kidding." Jenny quickly denied it. "I thought that maybe there have been some instances of time travel or similar phenomena in the past, and that the professor might know more about them."

 

Athena, in the driver's seat, turned to face Jenny in the passenger seat. She tilted her head slightly and looked at her for a while, then returned her eyes to the control panel. "In this universe, time doesn't flow uniformly everywhere. You know that much, right?"

 

"Yes." Jenny nodded. Time does not flow uniformly in space, due to various factors such as velocity and gravity.

 

"Before it became common to use high-energy, brute force jumps like we do today, FTL travel was done by searching for and connecting gaps, phase differences, holes, and tears in space. If it's possible to transcend the laws of space, there's no reason to conclude that it's impossible to travel in time."

 

Athena turned the commuter around. It seemed to have turned its back on the star and started accelerating, but Jenny couldn't feel the movement because the inertial control system was still working perfectly.

 

Looking at the display, the commuter appeared to be continuing its acceleration. It seemed to have begun its return flight to Tania.

 

"I'll let you in on a special secret."

 

At her joking tone, Jenny looked again at the professor's profile in the driver's seat.

 

"Do you know what Space University was originally?"

 

"I heard it was a fleet of ships carrying knowledge."

 

"Before that." After setting the return trajectory, Athena released both hands from the control stick. "The Record Fleet that became the basis of Space University wasn't born suddenly between the stars. It existed even before that, back when there was no way to travel between stars, and even before they built libraries on their home planet.”

 

"There are records from that long ago!?"

 

Smiling, Athena continued. “The earliest origin of Space University was a magic guild. The oldest records, though unconfirmed, indicate that this guild was responsible for recording and sharing techniques that were called magic—astrology, which became the foundation of astronomy, and alchemy, which became the foundation of chemistry—so that these techniques wouldn't be lost.”

 

"It’s… magic?"

 

Jenny tried to use a word that she hadn't used much before. Athena continued.

 

“The system of knowledge that would later come to be called science was initially referred to as magic or occult arts, kept secret, and subject to strict restrictions on its use. It was only later that it was organized, explored, and developed into science through the discovery of its underlying principles. Meanwhile, as the general public's level of education rose, truths that had previously been passed down only to a limited number of people in specific classes began to be widely disseminated through education. In almost every civilization, it seems that a certain proportion of the population, not just the total number, needs to be educated before they can progress through the industrial and information revolutions and ascend the ladder to interstellar civilization.”

 

That was something Jenny had also been taught. Higher education cannot reach its full potential unless it is provided not just to a small fraction of the population that forms a civilized society, but to a certain extent becomes universal. This also relates to whether society has the capacity to afford the seemingly unproductive act of education for the majority of the population, and how much inefficiency it can tolerate.

 

"So, Space University, which was once a magic guild, chose an educational institution as its optimal form." Athena skipped over the detailed process and theory and stated the conclusion. "It takes time, money, and effort, but in the end, we believe that it was the most reliable method. Education may not yield immediate results, but it can also produce results beyond what you initially expect."

 

"Is the current form of Space University the desired result?"

 

"The form of Space University is only a means. Education, record-keeping, and research are all just tools. So, think about how to use them effectively."

 

"Yes."

 

"Time travel is not just about finding temporal anomalies or forcefully distorting the time line. You can also learn about the past by exploring and analyzing historical records."

 

Jenny looked at the profile of the professor in the driver's seat. "Is that why you're studying history, professor?"

 

"That's just one of the reasons. I'm not studying history because I want to travel in time." The professor said, facing forward. "You're focusing on the War of Independence, right?"

 

"Yes." Jenny answered. She had heard many times about the professor's devilish memory.

 

"Giving even just a hint about this kind of thing might be against the rules, so please consider everything I say from now on as just me talking to myself."

 

"Yes?" Not understanding what the professor meant, Jenny asked again.

 

“Like most big undertakings, wars are usually harder to end than to start. Once they begin, it's a continuation of direct and indirect combat driven by the circumstances and intentions of the parties involved. In a political science sense, there's not much difference between ancient battles before space travel and modern battles conducted at FTL speeds.”

 

"Ah..."

 

“However, the beginning and end of a war are closely intertwined with the historical context of each era and the circumstances of the parties involved. In particular, the way a war ends varies greatly depending on changes in the situation, the capabilities of the parties involved, and their intentions. If you're going to study war, I think focusing on how wars end would be the most useful approach.”

 

Jenny thought about the professor's words as they applied to her. She chose the War of Independence between the Stellar Alliance and the Federation of Colonial Stars as her theme because it was the history most relevant to her. And Jenny remembered another reason: learning from actual combat would be useful in peacetime work.

 

"I wonder if the subject of my research is too complicated and mysterious?"

 

"I understand it." Jenny answered, smiling. "Thank you for your valuable advice."

 

 

"Huh?" Marika, who had asked her classmate Mami to get her a box lunch and had come to the yacht club's clubroom, tilted her head in confusion. "What's wrong?"

 

In the empty yacht club room during lunch break, Marika tries out some vaguely remembered procedures in front of the old-fashioned communication system that takes up half the wall.

 

"Did I make a mistake somewhere?" Sliding back to the table with her chair, Marika picked up the mobile device that was lying there. The communication device, which looked like an ordinary mobile phone, had been heavily modified by the Bentenmaru's technical staff using military technology, allowing it to communicate directly with the spaceship in orbit without going through a network.

 

Touching the standby display, Marika checked the screen. There were no new incoming calls or unread messages.

 

Turning her head further, Marika faced the display screen of the communication system on the wall.

 

As the captain, even when she is not on duty aboard, Marika makes regular contact with the Bentenmaru twice a day, in the morning and at night. Sometimes she just sends a standard message to say that everything is normal, and sometimes she makes a voice call if she has the time.

 

Today, Marika went to Hakuouh Girls' Academy as usual and, during her morning break, sent her regular communication to the Bentenmaru, which was supposed to be investigating an anomalous phenomenon in interplanetary space. However, the expected confirmation receipt didn't come back even after waiting until her next break. She tried calling directly from her mobile device, but it didn't go through, so as soon as her morning classes ended, Marika rushed to the yacht club and activated the built-in communication system, which was larger and more powerful than her mobile device.

 

The Betenmaru is a privateer ship officially sanctioned by the Sea of the Morningstar, and is fully equipped with both a main contact number and an extension for staff. However, the main contact number was sent to voicemail, nor did the extension work.

 

Since Marika became captain, there have only been two or three times when she was unable to contact Bentenmaru. The first time was when an escaped cat-monkey caused all the crew members except Marika to be quarantined, leaving the Bentenmaru completely empty.

 

It wasn't uncommon for Marika to forget to make regular contact or to be late or unable to make contact due to unavoidable circumstances, but it was rare for the Bentenmaru, with so many people on board, to be out of communication. And losing contact with the Bentenmaru could only mean one thing.

 

"An emergency, huh..." Marika muttered, thinking back to see if there was anything she'd forgotten or skipped any steps.

 

The Bentenmaru should still be continuing its observation of the spatial disturbance at the location where the eight observation probes were installed. Marika switches the communication system's display to the network and checks the astronomical forecast.

 

The star Tau was stable. There was no record of any abnormality warnings being issued due to it.

 

"Last time, the star Tau was quite unstable, but it’s not like that this time. If that's the case..."

 

She then investigated to see if there were any unusual conditions occurring in the airspace where the Bentenmaru should have been. Checking the air traffic control station's route information, the latest military information, and even the news reports, nothing had changed.

 

"So does that mean the Bentenmaru has gone radio silent for some reason?"

 

If the Bentenmaru had gone into hiding on purpose, it would be nearly impossible to find it.

 

"Was there a reason why the Bentenmaru needed to go into hiding without contacting me...?"

 

After voicing the possible scenarios, Marika was puzzled even more. She couldn't imagine of what kind of situation the Bentenmaru might have encountered, or what kind of abnormal situation might be occurring in the Tau star system.

 

Her mobile phone suddenly started ringing. Startled, Marika answered the call with her usual quick reflexes. "Hello, this is Kato Marika... Ririka!?" She instinctively checked the caller on the display. It was definitely the Shin-Okuhama Airport Air Traffic Control Tower, where her mother, Kato Ririka, worked.

 

"There's no need to panic. It's real. This morning's breakfast was some stored rations, fruit juice, and yogurt."

 

After hearing the menu of the last meal they had together, which served as a password, Marika looked at the call display on her display once again. It was via a normal phone line. "Okay, okay, um, do I need to verify my identity?" Since entering high school, Ririka has never called Marika's mobile phone while she is on campus.

 

"I can see that the cell phone you are using is inside Hakuoh Girls' Academy. This is a message from the Orbital Control Station to Kato Marika, captain of the Bentenmaru. The Bentenmaru has gone missing."

 

Marika looked at her phone screen again. There was no doubt that it was a call from the Shin-Okuhama Airport Control Station.

 

Taking a deep breath, Marika put the phone back to her ear. "Um, could you please give me all the information you currently have?"

 

There was a pause on the other end of the line, as if someone was smiling. “The Bentenmaru's transponder suddenly disappeared while it was investigating an interplanetary spatial anomaly at the request of the military. Since the area is only monitored by the military's unmanned patrol satellites, the exact circumstances are unknown, and for now, the fleet hasn't been mobilized because it's not considered an emergency.”

 

"Suddenly disappeared..."

 

Spaceships traveling are required to transmit transponders for safety. However, it is not uncommon for transponders to be turned off for various reasons.

 

"Even with scanning by the patrol stations, the hull of the Bentenmaru cannot be found in the airspace in question. There is no sign of FTL travel."

 

The arrangement of the patrol stations managed by the military is not uniform. It is natural that they are thickly distributed in the inner planetary system and uncommon in the outer planetary system, the airspace around the Sea of the Morningstar is the densest, and sparse in other airspaces. The patrol stations revolve around the star in their own orbits, and there are not many around the airspace the Bentenmaru was investigating.

 

Under normal circumstances, it wouldn't be difficult for the Bentenmaru, with its transponder turned off, to evade detection by the patrol stations. However, even though the patrol network is sparse, it would be almost impossible to break through it and perform a FTL jump.

 

"That is why the military is unable to determine whether Bentenmaru encountered some kind of unusual situation or if it intentionally went into hiding. Upon checking, it was found that the captain of the Bentenmaru is on the Sea of the Morningstar and can be contacted. In that case, the next thing to do is to directly check with the captain."

 

Marika quickly recalled the details of the request that the Bentenmaru had received from the military. "The Bentenmaru is continuing to investigate the spatial anomaly in the airspace in question at the request of the military." Marika answered without a clear plan for the future.

 

“According to the request, the survey and observations must be conducted with the highest degree of precision. The possibility of malfunctions in the high-power main engines or the continuously transmitting transponder cannot be ruled out.” Marika added, thinking about whether she could come up with any other plausible explanation. "If possible, could you also ask the military to refrain from scanning that airspace?"

 

"Is the reason why we can't see the Bentenmaru right now because it's part of the planned investigation and observation?"

 

"As the captain of the Bentenmaru, I trust my crew." Marika recited her motto. "The Bentenmaru isn't acting as a pirate right now. Just because the captain isn't on board shouldn't limit their investigation and observation."

 

"Roger that." Ririka backed down much faster than Marika expected. "So, the Bentenmaru isn't in any abnormal situation right now, and there's no need to ask the star system military for an investigation just because it's gone missing."

 

Marika shook her head, thinking about what would happen if something problematic had happened to the Bentenmaru. “That's right. If possible, I think designating the airspace that the Bentenmaru is currently investigating as a restricted, high-security airspace would make the investigation proceed more smoothly and prevent unnecessary trouble.”

 

"A restricted airspace, huh?" Ririka on the other end of the phone seemed to laugh. "Fortunately, they're far from the Sea of the Morningstar at the moment, but wouldn't setting up a restricted airspace zone in the inner planetary system attract unwanted scrutiny from various parties?"

 

"Ah..."

 

"For now, the airspace in question is moving away from the Sea of the Morningstar."

 

It has been confirmed that the spatial disturbance is not moving with Sea of the Morningstar's orbital period, but with the rotation period of its parent star, Tau. Tau's rotation period is about 30 days, and the spatial anomaly moves away from Sea of the Morningstar and approaches it again in conjunction with Tau's rotation.

 

"As the control station, all we can do is recommend that visitors coming to the Sea of the Morningstar choose an approach trajectory that avoids the spatial anomaly, is that okay?”

 

The control station can only specify the trajectory of a spaceship in the vicinity of the Sea of the Morningstar. In interplanetary space, there is no need to specify a trajectory in the first place.

 

When a spaceship enters a solar system, it chooses its own trajectory and flies autonomously until it approaches the target star. The orbital control station checks the ship's registration, proper name, current position and speed using a transponder, and provides control if necessary.

 

Many spacecraft, however, entrust trajectory setting to the control station. For such spacecraft, the control station designates the optimal and safest trajectory.

 

“That's enough.”

 

Since the reason for the Bentenmaru's disappearance is unknown, the possibility that other spaceships flying in the surrounding airspace could similarly disappear cannot be ruled out. Feeling relieved that they had managed to eliminate some of that danger, Marika responded with a sigh of relief.

 

“So, when is the Bentenmaru expected to become visible?” Naturally, Ririka struck at the heart of the matter.

 

"...I don't think it will take more than a week." Marika answered, trying to remain calm. “Ideally, I'd like to spend about one rotation of the Tar star slowly observing it, but the contract doesn't allow for that much time.”

 

"A week?”

 

When Ririka questioned her again, Marika quickly calculated the situation and reasons. The situation of a spacecraft with its transponder turned off being missing somewhere in the controlled airspace was not a comfortable one for the control station.

 

"I think it will take about three or four days." Without any real plan, Marika let the words spill out. "With that much precise observation, I think we can gather a lot of data."

 

"Roger that." Ririka replied. "Well then, I will inform the military and the control station of the disappearance of the Bentenmaru’s transponder and the failure to locate the vessel itself as part of its observation of the spatial anomaly."

 

"Thank you."

 

"Is there anything you would like to tell me?"

 

A torrent of questions and things she wanted to confirm welled up. After taking a deep breath, Marika answered. "No, there isn’t. If there is anything you need, I promise to contact the control station as a top priority."

 

"I'm counting on it. I plan to be back by dinner today. Sorry for disturbing your studies. Bye."

 

Their communication ended. Marika looked at the display of her mobile device for a while, which showed the name of the Shin-Okuhama Airport Control Station on the other end of the line.

 

A knock reached her ears and Marika came back to her senses. "Sorry, I'm coming!" After quickly erasing the communication system's operation logs and starting the shutdown procedure, Marika ran to the locked clubroom door. "Hey, wait!"

 

Mami was waiting outside the door, holding two lunch boxes in front of her. "What should we do? Shall we borrow this room? Or go somewhere else?"

 

Upon hearing this, Marika looked around the club room again. The display of the communication system, which had completed the shutdown procedure, disappeared. "Let's go outside. I want to eat while looking at the sky."

 

"Marika, is something troubling you again?!"

 

Marika was startled and looked back at Mami's face. "How did you know?!"

 

"Because you've always been like that." Mami was holding the open door and waiting for Marika. “When you found out that the new teacher you had a crush on in first grade was already married, or when you picked up a kitten on your way to school, you always said you wanted to eat outside.”

 

"Oh, right..." Marika placed her outstretched index finger and thumb on her forehead. “You remember unpleasant things, don't you?”

 

“Well, it's about you, Marika. So, what's up? Is there anything I can help you with this time?”

 

Marika turned around and confirmed that all the equipment in the room was completely turned off. "It’s a business secret, you know."

 

"Oh, so it's something about work." Mami handed Marika her lunchbox as she came out of the clubroom. "The rooftop? Or would you prefer the courtyard?"

 

"Let's go to the courtyard." Marika took the lunchbox and started walking.

"The Bentenmaru!?" Chiaki bombarded Marika with the same question she'd asked countless times before. "It's gone missing! Do you know what that means!?"

 

"I told you I don't know." Marika repeated the same answer she'd given countless times before. "That's why I'm asking the Barbaroosa to help me investigate the airspace where the Bentenmaru was last seen."

 

"Are these spatial coordinates correct?" Kenjo Kurihara, in the captain's seat, projected a star chart onto the large 3D display in the center of the bridge. The 3D configuration of the inner planets' orbits centered on Tau, with their current position on the opposite side of Tau from the Sea of the Morningstar.

 

"They’re fine." Marika looked at the 3D diagram on the large display, comparing it with the numbers of the spatial coordinates she remembered. The bridge of the Barbaroosa, which uses a battleship as a pirate ship, is much wider than Bentenmaru's. "I think we should be able to see the observation probes that the Bentenmaru deployed any time now."

 

"These?" Nora, in the first officer's seat, superimposed eight bright spots on the orbital diagram on the 3D display. "Their transponders are functioning normally, but I can't tell anything more from here."

 

The probes that Bentenmaru had deployed to observe the spatial anomaly formed the vertices of a regular hexahedron³, just like Marika remembered. These artificial objects, placed in space via the proper procedures, continued to emit transponders according to navigational laws.

 

"Can I borrow your control code?"

 

"Yes."

 

The observation probes and observation buoys under Bentenmaru's control are locked with control codes to prevent unauthorized use. Unless the encrypted control code is incorporated into the command, the probe or buoy cannot be moved or the desired data obtained.

 

 

Standing in front of the 3D display, Marika, dressed in her uniform, went over to Nora, sitting in the first officer's chair, and handed her a small data card. "Please try this."

 

"I'm borrow it." Nora inserted the card into the slot and performed the usual checks before reading out the data. "It's very polite to only put the control code on a brand new data card."

 

"I was trained on the Bentenmaru."

 

"It's easy to use, so it's very helpful." Nora read the frequency and control code from the data on the card and called the observation probes, which were continuing their observations while maintaining their exact positions. Their responses came back immediately.

 

"Yes, I’ve got it." Nora looked up at Marika. "What should I do?"

 

"Download the data from the start of the observations up until now." Marika spoke the procedure she had thought out many times. "Please put the data on the card I just gave you."

 

"Anything else?"

 

“Please use Barbaroosa's sensor system to scan the airspace where our observation probes are deployed.” Marika looked around the bridge of the Barbaroosa. She had received a basic explanation of the types of sensor systems the Barbaroosa was equipped with during their joint operation, but she couldn't picture how effective they were as clearly as she could with the Bentenmaru.

 

"That's a simple matter. Is it for actual use? Or for promotional purposes?"

 

Marika laughed at the obvious distinction between the two. "For actual use, but please use only passive sensing, not active sensing."

 

"Please specify the search area. And why limit sensing to passive only?"

 

"The search area is a 200km radius around space enclosed by the eight observation probes. The reason is that we don't know what kind of stimuli the spatial anomaly that that Bentenmaru was observing will react to, so we want to avoid unnecessary disturbances."

 

"Bentenmaru, what were you doing?"

 

Marika looked up at Chiaki's question. "We were investigating a spatial anomaly that appeared in interplanetary space at the request of the military."

 

"I already heard that." Chiaki said in a quiet voice, glaring at Marika. "It's weird for the military to use a pirate ship for a simple spatial anomaly."

 

"Chiaki, that's enough of that." Kenjo called out from the captain's seat. "Confidentiality agreements are common in this line of work. It's up to the Bentenmaru as to how much information they disclose and how much they explain."

 

"A spike!" Boggs, the cyborg manning the sensor station, reported, comparing the reaction on the display to a thorn. "There's a weak reaction on the outside of the observation probe, it is..." Boggs quickly captured the target and zoomed in while continuing his verbal report. "Metal reaction, equipped with a beacon. A message capsule."

 

At the same time as the image, a new reaction appeared as a bright point on the 3D display in the center of the bridge.

 

"Is it moving?"

 

On the large-scale 3D display, the new reaction wasn't moving fast enough to be easily discernible.

 

"The relative speed with the observation probe is several tens of meters per second." Boggs answered while operating his console. "It's not synchronized with the probe, so it's coming from somewhere else. The problem is, this beacon started transmitting just now, a timing that suggests it was waiting for us to start observing."

 

"Really?" Upon receiving Boggs' report, Nora, in the first officer’s seat, scrolled through the data to verify it. The beacon emitted by the message capsule was weak, but the signal, which is also used for distress calls, could be received at great distances.

 

"No doubt about it." Boggs replied. “I don't know if it started transmitting because it detected our approach or if it was on a timer, but it was definitely silent until just now. With a message capsule of this size, wouldn't it be difficult to find unless you specifically targeted it with radar?”

 

"Can you retrieve it?"

 

The message capsule shown on the screen was a message capsule commonly used on the Bentenmaru. It was a cylindrical tube called a thighbone, about 40 cm long and 5 cm in diameter, made of a special material that protected against heat and radiation, and was made to be sturdy enough to withstand long-term exposure to the environment of space.

 

It is designed to be strong enough to withstand atmospheric entry from orbital velocity and even a surface impact without losing its original form, but it is only equipped with a beacon transmitter to communicate its current location.

 

"That's easy." Boggs checked the sensor data of the space around the drifting message capsule. No abnormalities were found. "That would mean getting closer to the space surrounded by the observation probes than our current location, wouldn't it?"

 

Marika turned to Kenjo in the captain's seat. He nodded as if asking for her opinion.

 

Marika answered. "As long as we stay outside the observation probes, I think we'll be fine."

 

 

 

As they approached, the details of the message capsule became clearer through optical observation.

 

"This is definitely the Bentenmaru's message capsule." Kenjo said as he saw the visible identification symbols on the slowly rotating capsule's surface, the ship's name clearly visible to the naked eye, and their pirate mark of Benzaiten⁴ holding a lute⁵. "Captain Marika, did you know this was here?"

 

"No." Marika shook her head honestly. "I was hoping there might be some clues left behind."

 

"I don't think Captain Marika knew the message capsule was here." Boggs displayed the results of his analysis so far. “Based on the message capsule's trajectory, it was released at least a hundred years ago.”

 

The message capsule was recovered by a Barbaroosa crew member performing extravehicular activity with a mobility unit. After being checked for contamination such as harmful radiation, it was brought into the Barbaroosa’s bridge.

 

Marika stared intently at the cylindrical message capsule that was brought onto the bridge along with a cart carrying a simple analysis system.

 

The message capsule is a standardized message capsule with a unique identification number. It was determined that the message capsule, made to Galactic Empire standard specifications, had been manufactured about 10 years ago and delivered to the Bentenmaru.

 

However, a simple analysis showed that the sensor was spitting out an error. The accumulated cosmic ray exposure on the surface of the hardened, heat-resistant cell-metal message capsule yielded an impossible result in the age measurement.

 

"It's been thrown into space for 120 years, plus or minus three?" Chiaki read out the information on the display with a look of disbelief. "The internal clock is also showing a date 120 years into the future according to the standard calendar. Marika, what kind of management are you doing as captain?"

 

"The internal clock is off too?!" Marika raised her voice and reconsidered the information displayed. The clock built into this type of message capsule does not have an automatic calibration function, and does not receive standard time transmitted by navigation buoys or orbital control stations to adjust the time. “So, the timer was deliberately set to start transmitting at a future time?”

 

"...That seems to be the case." Chiaki admitted with a puzzled look on her face. “If you wanted a message capsule with an inaccurate internal clock to start transmitting at a specific time, you'd have to set the timer for a later time for it to work.”

 

Marika did some calculations in her head. What if the Bentenmaru had been in the Tau star system during the War of Independence, the same time the Odette II had jumped to, and had attempted to contact the future?

 

The Bentenmaru's navigation logs accurately record the time leading up to the incident. It's certain that the Bentenmaru's crew could predict with considerable accuracy how long it would take for Marika to fail her regular contact, sense something was wrong, and get here somehow.

 

"It's probably the work of one of my crew." Marika turned to Kenjo in the captain's seat. "Well, Captain Kenjo, from now on I, Captain Kato Marika of the Bentenmaru, might say some outrageous, nonsensical, and contradictory things from now on. Could you please listen without being surprised?"

 

Kenjo widened his eyes slightly and looked back at Marika. "Oh? So you've finally decided to talk?"

 

"Aren't you curious about what's in this?" Marika picked up the heavy communication cylinder. The message capsule, which had been floating in interplanetary space for over 100 years, was completely cold. The screw-in caps at both ends were tightened so securely that they couldn't be loosened with bare hands.

 

"Give me that." Chiaki, holding a huge wrench in each hand, clamped the message capsule between them and forcefully rotated the long handles.

 

"I'll help."

 

"Okay, hold this."

 

With Chiaki and Marika working together, they finally managed to turn the screw-on cap. After adjusting the wrench and turning it a few more times, it became easy enough for Marika to turn it with just her hands.

 

"The spatial anomaly that the Bentenmaru was investigating at the request of the military had been known to the control station for some time." While spinning the cap, Marika began to explain. "When it was first discovered, it was at the Sea of the Morningstar's Lagrange point, not far from the military's anchorage airspace."

 

When the cap containing the clock and transmitter was removed, an inner lid was revealed. Both the outer and inner lids were designed to maintain airtightness using metal gaskets, but in a capsule that had been kept in a high vacuum for over a hundred years, the internal pressure had long since leaked out. No matter how tightly sealed, atmospheric molecules will inevitably leak through the gaps in the structure of the metal’s molecular structure.

 

Marika handed the cylinder to Chiaki, who was waiting with pliers.

 

“As you know, spatial anomalies, unless they're something extraordinary, don't usually last long or remain observable for extended periods. In most cases, they're troublesome at first, but eventually they dissipate and disappear.”

 

Chiaki began removing the inner lid with the pliers.

 

“So, this spatial anomaly was expected to disappear naturally, and while a warning was issued, no one paid much attention. The first to approach this spatial anomaly was with our Odette II.”

 

"Did you approach the spatial anomaly in the Hakuoh Girls' Academy's training sailing ship?"

 

After removing the inner lid, Chiaki looked inside and then handed the cylinder to Marika.

 

"We didn't mean to get close, but we were led there when chasing an unidentified ship."

 

A polymer sheet for cushioning was rolled up and stuffed inside the cylinder. Pinching it with her fingertips and Marika pulled the rolled up sheet out of the cylinder.

 

"Then, like a sudden explosion, the spatial anomaly expanded right before our eyes, and we were swallowed up."

 

"Swallowed, you mean the Odette II?"

 

Marika nodded to Chiaki. "Although the solar sails weren't deployed, it was an entire solar sailing ship equipped with a FTL booster. "

 

"And then?" Chiaki said with a suspicious look on her face. “Where were you transported to?”

 

"It was here." Marika said shyly as she began to unfold the rolled up cushioning sheet. "But it wasn't now. We were swallowed up by the spatial anomaly and thrown to the Tau star system, where the War of Independence was taking place 120 years ago."

 

A data card fell from the spread sheet onto the floor of the bridge. A murmur began to spread across the bridge of the Barbaroosa. Marika pretended not to notice and picked up the case containing the dropped card.

 

"Quiet down!" Kenjo roared from the captain's seat. "If you've been working in space for many years, it's not that uncommon to miss a jump and end up in an unexpected place. There are countless stories about spaceships that jump from the past, and plenty of stories about jumping from the future. However, this is the first time someone I know, someone whose face and name I recognize, has come forward and said they were in that situation."

 

Kenjo turned his sharp gaze towards Marika. "Nora, just to be on the safe side, turn off the bridge recorder for a while."

 

"I appreciate it." After bowing, Marika surveyed the bridge of the Barbarossa. The bridge crew, all seasoned veterans, were all maintaining a calm demeanor, but the sight of Chiaki, who looked like she was about to snap at any moment, was frightening.

 

"So, you’re saying that the training ship Odette II of Hakuoh Girls' Academy was swallowed up by a spatial anomaly and was sent the Tau star system where the War of Independence was taking place?" Captain Kenjo summarized, slumped in his captain's seat and with his thick arms folded. Marika nodded vigorously at Kenjo.

 

"That was a world where the current Galactic Positioning System wasn't available. There was an old navigational aid system called LORAN from the colony era, and since Odette is an old spaceship, we were able to use LORAN and confirm our current location and time."

 

Marika showed Captain Kenjo the data card she had picked up. “I think this probably contains things like the logbook from the Bentenmaru's voyage, which, judging from the age of the message capsule, was about 120 years ago. Would you like to take a look?”

 

Kenjo stared intently at Marika, revealing his strong, almost predatory-looking teeth. "It was the will of our ancestors that said we shouldn't listen to the ghosts of the past."

 

Marika looked at the data card she had picked up. It read: "Bentenmaru voyage log, for Captain Kato Marika's eyes only," and the current date in the Galactic Standard Calendar was handwritten on it. Marika involuntarily looked at the handwritten text a second time.

 

"This message..." The fact that the date is today means the message capsule's timer was indeed set for today. Kenjo continued, looking at the data card in Marika's hand. "Listening to the words of a ghost can cause you to be consumed by the past. Sometimes, if you get lost, you can't find your way home. Of course, I'm not uninterested in the contents of the message that has been floating around here for 120 years, but you have to look at it by yourself, Captain Marika."

 

Kenjo glanced at Chiaki. " Let me know if you need help. But I don't want to interfere with things that happened in the past."

 

After noticing her father's gaze, Chiaki spoke to Marika. "If you went to the Tau star system 120 years ago, how long were you there? I've never heard of Odette II going missing for even a moment."

 

"The Odette II was in the past for about a week. She returned just a few minutes before the jump to the past, so the data from the Orbital Control Station shows no period of time when she was missing."

 

"That makes sense." Kenjo said with a growling voice. "But even if the previous Odette II returned to the present before she went missing, it seems that this time the Bentenmaru did not. We have to listen to the will of our ancestors, but as a pirate ship, not helping them is not an option. What are you going to do, Captain Marika?"

 

"Well…" Marika answered with a smile, pretending to be at ease. "The Bentenmaru might suddenly come back tomorrow, or maybe she's already back and is simply taking care of other business elsewhere."

 

Marika looked at the data card in her hand. "First, I'll check the contents of this. Then, please give me the Barbaroosa’s observation data. If there's anything the Bentenmaru wants me to do, I’m sure my crew will make sure the message gets to me. "

 

"Roger that. I'll make a copy of the data here. Chiaki, please take Captain Marika to the guest communications booth. There, she can check the contents of the card without being seen by anyone."

 

Kenjo clapped his hands together firmly. "Nora, resume recording on the bridge."

 

 

"Wow, there's a room like this."

 

Marika was led by Chiaki to a special guest cabin. In one section of the pirate ship, a converted old battleship, a room like a reception room in an old castle was set up with lavish furnishings and the utmost luxury.

 

"Sometimes we have guests who like this kind of luxury." Chiaki looked around the room, decorated with classical sculptures and masterpieces and a glittering chandelier hanging from the high ceiling, with an indifferent expression. One wall had a large window with a lattice pattern that seemed to show the vastness of outer space, but it was actually a high-resolution display showing a simulated image.

 

"If we had had a room like this when Gruier first came on board the Bentenmaru, it would have been a lot easier for us."

 

Chiaki shook her head as Marika looked around the room enviously.

 

"A real member of royalty or nobility wouldn't be impressed by a room like this, as they're used to seeing such things."

 

After making a surprised face, Marika remembered the summer palace she had stayed at on First Virginia, the big blue sister planet of the Serenity system. "Now that I think of it, that’s right..."

 

"This way." Chiaki opened a door made of old wood with carvings that seemed out of place on a spaceship. The room beyond was a small, purposely partitioned communications booth. It was surrounded by walls made of the same polished old wood and had a standard information and communications system installed. "This is a communications booth for distinguished guests. Many of our customers, such as VIPs from major trading companies and government officials, are willing to pay any cost to ensure the confidentiality of their communications."

 

Reaching across the prepared seat, Chiaki ran her fingers over the console with practiced hands. All of the displays on the information terminal lit up. "This is a matter of trust for us too, so this information terminal is independent of the ship's network and has a separate communication line. Is this okay?"

 

After Chiaki moved away from the information terminal, Marika took her place and sat down in the provided chair.

 

"I think it'll be fine. So, if you want to run a serious business, you have to prepare something like this?" Marika inserted the data card she had taken from its case into the console's slot. It was recognized, and input windows for her name and password appeared on the display.

 

"Well then," Marika said while tapping on the keyboard as Chiaki was about to leave the communications booth "are you interested in what's inside the message capsule?"

 

Marika switched input windows. "The fact that Captain Kenjo had Chiaki guide me means he wanted you to go and check things out, right?"

 

"Do you want to show me?"

 

In response to Chiaki's question, Marika showed her the case that the card had been in. "Whose handwriting do you think this is?"

 

Chiaki's eyes were drawn to the handwriting on the case label. "That doesn't look like an adult's handwriting... Could it really be Marika's?"

 

"Maybe." Marika opened the data card, thinking about what method she would use if her past self were to send a message to her future self.

 

An image message with the Bentenmaru’s emblem as the title appeared on the display. Marika glanced at Chiaki.

 

"I'll keep you company."

 

Marika played the message. Seeing the person on the screen, Marika and Chiaki cried out at the same time.

 

"Huh!?"

 

"Hello, me and, probably, Chiaki." With a troubled smile, Marika, dressed in her captain's uniform, spoke up on the display.

 

"Um, right now, Chiaki and I should be viewing this message in the communications booth in the VIP room of the Barbaroosa. If that's not the case, then history must have changed somewhere, so I hope that's not the case."

 

“Marika, what are you talking about!"

 

Chiaki grabbed Marika's shoulders at the communications station. Marika shook her head in a panic.

 

"There's no way I would know! This is from 120 years ago, and judging by the way she's talking, it's a future version of me!"

 

The bridge visible behind Marika in her captain's uniform is definitely the Bentenmaru's.

 

"I think Chiaki is especially confused about a lot of things, but I'll explain it to you. The Bentenmaru is currently in the Tau star system of 120 years ago, and is doing various things to clean up the aftermath of the war. Every day feels like a secret story of the War of Independence, but at least it's my second time, so I'm doing my best."

 

"You seem to be pretty overwhelmed." Chiaki looked back and forth between Marika on the display and the real Marika sitting in front of her, mouth agape. "Either way... well, when you're directing battles from the captain's seat, that's how it is."

 

"Now, I'll explain why I sent this message using such a roundabout method. I don't know if I can explain it well, but please try to understand the parts that don't make sense. Otherwise, the future we return to will be different."

 

"I'll have you explain it to me properly later." Chiaki whispered in Marika's ear, who was frozen in her chair. “Since you're saying the same thing.”

 

"Well, I'll tell you the most important thing first. Please bring the Silent Whisper to Garnet A."

 

"What!?" Marika looked at her face on the display again.

 

"No matter what I do, I don't have enough pieces. One Silent Whisper is worth a dozen patrol ships from the War of Independence, so it's urgent. Oh, no need for weapons, I don't intend to have it participate in frontal combat. So how can I get it delivered?'

 

 

 

The Bentenmaru’s crest appeared on the display.

 

Marika and Chiaki, both sitting, stared at the crest for a while.

 

Chiaki was the first to speak. "What was that just now...?"

 

"What do you mean...?" Unable to answer, Marika closed the image message. She opened it to see if there was any other data on the card. "How would I know?"

 

"It's your message!" Chiaki snapped. "You don't even know what you're saying!?"

 

"How would I know why my future self is saying something like that!?"

 

"What do you mean ‘future self’? Isn't this a message from the past!?"

 

"That's why!" Marika turned her chair towards Chiaki to explain, but was at a loss for words. "The me who was just talking is probably me from much later than now."

 

She explained it without fully understanding it herself.

 

"I don't know what will happen in the future, but I think I will probably go to the Tau star system again when the War of Independence is going on. I think that's why I sent the message with a timer from the future me."

 

"What are you talking about?"

 

"So, the message is definitely from the past, but the me who sent it is not the me of today, but a much later version of myself, so I don't know yet what it means or what will happen next."

 

After glaring suspiciously at Marika, Chiaki dropped her head and sighed. Marika asked timidly.

 

"Do you understand?"

 

Chiaki nodded, her face still downcast. "You don't understand either."

 

"Good, so you do understand."

 

"I don't understand!" Chiaki bared her fangs and roughly opened the booth door.

 

"Judging by that, you really haven't heard about the future plans either, have you?"

 

"What are you talking about?"

 

Chiaki checked the current time on the multi-function watch on her uniformed wrist. "The real reason why the Barbaroosa came to the Tau star system. It's about time to arrive at the relay station."

 

 

The Barbaroosa did not dock at the Sea of the Morningstar relay station. Marika returned to the Sea of the Morningstar relay station in a small craft that the Barbaroosa carried for communications purposes.

 

An unexpected person was waiting for her at the small craft docking port.

 

"President?" Seeing the unexpected face, Marika quickly corrected herself. "No, Jenny?"

 

She looked around. Lynn is nowhere to be seen at the small craft docking port used for interplanetary space travel.

 

"Oh?" Jenny had the same surprised look on her face. "You were on the Barbaroosa too?"

 

"She's one of our clients."

 

"Eh?"

 

Chiaki, wearing the uniform of Hakuoh Girls' Academy Sea of the Forest Star campus, carrying a large bag on her shoulder, comes out of the small craft docking port. She slides her finger over the control panel of the boarding bridge and the airtight door began to close.

 

"Eh?"

 

The reservation display on the screen changed from the curt registration number indicating the Barbarossa's docked craft to a ‘available for reservations’ message.

 

"Chiaki, aren't you going home?"

 

"I won't be staying long."

 

From the window next to the boarding bridge the docked small craft can be seen leaving.

 

“That was the idea, but after seeing something like that, I'm not so sure I can go home as planned.”

 

“If you're coming with the messenger, that's very reassuring.”

 

Jenny started walking ahead. "Let's go. We can still catch the next flight to Shin-Okuhama."

 

After watching Chiaki follow naturally, Marika hurried to catch up. "What's wrong, Jenny? Weren't you supposed to be back at university?"

 

"I'm back. I've been given a new assignment, and I'm currently researching it." Jenny stopped and waited for Marika to catch up, then lowered her voice. "I'm glad you're here, Marika. I have something I don't want anyone else to hear. Can you introduce me to a Chinese restaurant in the staff dining area at Shin-Okuhama Airport?"

 

"... Eh!?" Marika looked at Jenny's face again. "The airport staff dining area is not open to the public!"

 

"There's no problem if you're with staff. Ririka is on duty today, right?"

 

The staff dining area at Shin-Okuhama Airport is clearly separated from the general public area. While plausible reasons such as security measures are given, both airport staff and cafeteria staff agree that, unlike the newly constructed terminal building, the old underground food court is not a suitable place to allow general passengers.

 

Marika, along with Jenny and Chiaki, arrived at Shin-Okuhama Airport via a shuttle flight from the relay station.

 

Before departing from the relay station, Marika had sent a message to Ririka, who was on air traffic control at Shin-Okuhama Airport.

 

If her shift had gone according to schedule, Ririka should have finished work by the time Marika's shuttle arrived. However, as Marika got off the boarding bridge, she noticed a message on her mobile device.

 

"That means it was just about the time we landed."

 

From the control tower, the shuttle's departure and arrival times were easily visible. Marika opened the message, expecting that Ririka hadn't finished her work.

 

"What's wrong?" Jenny asked Marika, who was reading the message on her mobile device as she walked. "Ririka is still at work?"

 

"Yes." Marika answered while checking the message. "Apparently, the cargo convoy from above is delayed and the re-entry corridor is clogged, so she can't leave her post."

 

"I see." Jenny looked at the arrival and departure information on a display as she passed by. There were no delays to passenger flights. "In that case, I guess we'll wait for Ririka to finish work before having dinner?"

 

" It's okay." Marika showed Jenny the display of her mobile device. "Ririka sent me a family ID that's valid only for today. With this, we can enter the staff area."

 

 

Even at the new terminal at Shin-Okuhama Airport, the general public area and staff area are strictly separated. A single temporary family ID is not enough for all three of them to enter the staff area. Marika, however, used a back entrance—a maintenance door next to a refrigerator in an unmanned shop with vending machines, located in a section of the old terminal building that houses an old inn that opened at the same time as the airport—to sneak into the staff area.

 

"Please don't get separated." Marika led the way down a narrow corridor stacked with ancient food containers and wooden boxes that she had never seen used anywhere else.

 

"I thought I knew the airport pretty well..." Jenny looked up with interest at the old-fashioned bare light bulbs dangling from the dingy ceiling. "I didn't know there was a place like this."

 

“The upper levels have been almost completely renovated to become the new terminal, but the underground area remains largely unchanged. Apparently, because the extensions and renovations were done haphazardly without any proper planning, there isn't even an accurate map of the area. I only know the staff cafeteria area myself.” Marika began descending the stairs hidden behind a narrow gap in the wall, a place one might easily overlook if they didn't know it was there. "If you get lost, I won’t be able to come and get you."

 

"There are places like this everywhere, aren't there?"

 

Chiaki happily looked around the cramped underground alleyway, lined with old, overlapping signs advertising the underground restaurants. Marika, slightly surprised, asked a question.

 

"Are there any other places like this?"

 

"There's a food court like this in Nakamiyako Port at the Sea of the Forest Star. It's very similar. But that one isn't underground, it's above ground."

 

"Huh." As she listened to the story, Marika searched for a hidden door. When she opened the door, which looked like nothing more than a black wall, she was greeted by the lively sound of frying ingredients and the appetizing smell of spices.

 

"Hello!" Marika yelled as she peered into the kitchen. The kitchen crew, all wearing high chef hats and looking like villains, all turned their gazes towards Marika. Marika forced a smile and bowed.

 

"I’m Kato Marika. Um, are there any seats available?"

 

"Come in." The only person who didn’t turn around, the tallest man in a chef’s coat, answered in a hoarse voice. "Ririka has made a reservation for you."

 

"Thank you." As Marika carefully made her way to the back of the kitchen, avoiding the giant pots and stacks of ingredients, she noticed that Jenny wasn't following her. When she turned around, she saw that Jenny, who had just taken a step into the kitchen, had her eyes fixed on a picture frame in the back.

 

"That's..."

 

Marika followed Jenny's gaze.

 

The contents of the picture frame, which had been coated black with grease and soot over the years, were illegible to the naked eye.

 

While Marika was thinking about whether to go and get her back, Jenny bowed towards the kitchen.

 

"Nice to meet you. I'm Jenny Dolittle, the former president of the Hakuoh Girls' Academy Yacht Club." Jenny entered the kitchen with a smile. "Thank you, Marika. I wanted to see that."

 

"What's that?"

 

Chiaki asked, who had followed behind and looked around the kitchen. If you didn’t know about it, you wouldn't notice the frame hanging high up on the grease-stained wall. With a troubled look on her face, Marika answered in a low voice.

 

"The surrender document."

 

"Eh?"

 

" From the War of Independence. Now, we shouldn't disturb their work, so let's go in quickly."

 

"So there's a room like this, too." Marika had only seen the hall lined with tables of all sizes, and the large private room they occasionally rented, so she looked around the room with interest. Around a round table the same size as the smallest table in the hall, there were six beautiful chairs, all with intricate carvings and colorfully embroidered cushions fitted into the backrests.

 

"Wow, that's amazing." Chiaki was the last to enter and closed the door behind her. She flicked the display of the information terminal she had taken out of her skirt pocket. "All the networks I was connected to up until now have been cut off."

 

Chiaki continued to scroll through the display, searching for a network that the information terminal could connect to. She couldn't find one.

 

"I asked for a room where we could have a private conversation." Marika pulled out two chairs. "Come on in. Let's have some tea." With practiced movements, she poured tea from the ceramic teapot on the table into handleless teacups. "Unfortunately, we don't have chocolate parfait here, but the almond tofu is delicious."

 

After glaring at Marika, Chiaki waited for Jenny to arrive at the table, then pulled out a chair for herself and sat down. "I think my part will be easier to talk about, so can I go first?"

 

Marika nodded. Jenny turned to Chiaki.

 

"Please."

 

"I brought these from the captains." Chiaki took out a stack of data cards from the bag she had brought with her and arranged them on the table. "These are copies of combat records and logbooks from pirate ships that are still in active service today, taken from the original records of each ship during the time of the War of Independence."

 

"Thanks. That's very helpful."

 

"But I don't think the contents of the records are that different from what you can get at the Federation of Colonial Stars archives."

 

"Is that so?" Jenny smiled enigmatically. "Even the records from the Odette II that I have at hand have some inconsistencies, so I imagine that the records from the pirate ships that are still in operation today are full of interesting data."

 

Jenny picked up the cards on the table in a pile like a dealer. Marika remembered something and reached into the inner pocket of her uniform. "Here's the data you asked for, too."

 

She took out a few data cards and chose one carefully to avoid making a mistake. "This is the logbooks and battle records of the Bentenmaru up until the end of the war. Um." Marika glanced at Chiaki. "I don't think mine will be of much use either."

 

"It's enough to confirm where they were and what they were doing. Now, if we combine this with the records from the Stellar Alliance, we should be able to figure out almost everything about who was where and doing what during the War of Independence.”

 

Chiaki looked back at Jenny, who had put the cards in her clutch bag. "Jenny, are you tracking all the spaceships from the War of Independence!?"

 

"No way, who would do something that requires so much effort; just thinking about it makes me dizzy." Jenny laughed. "It’s only for a short period of time, from when the expeditionary fleet approached the Tau system until the Galactic Empire intervened and the war ended. There were only a limited number of warships from the Stellar Alliance that were not organized into the expeditionary fleet, and I can track where most of the spaceships from the Federation of Colonial Stars and the pirates were and what they were doing, so I just want to confirm everything."

 

"Even if you say only for a short period of time, you're talking about all the spaceships from both sides engaged in a full-scale war, across multiple star systems, right?" Chiaki said with a troubled expression. "It's not just in the hundreds, is it?"

 

"1,921 ships."

 

Marika and Chiaki looked back at Jenny as she spoke. Jenny continued.

 

"Excluding those that were in dock, ships that went missing during the war and still haven't been found, ships that were unable to move, and those whose whereabouts are unknown, there were a total of 1,921 ships operating at the end of the War of Independence, including the Stellar Alliance and the Federation of Colonial Stars."

 

"You counted them!?"

 

"That's something you can easily do if you compile the data." Jenny shrugged. “The expeditionary fleet's frontline strength was 400 ships, with auxiliary and supply ships operating together or separately totaling 500. In contrast, the Federation of Colonial Stars total forces assembled in the Tau system to intercept them was only 370, including pirate ships, as well as transports and liaisons that cannot travel FTL and are not considered combat ships by the Stellar Alliance's standards. The rest were merchant ships that did not participate in the battle, and I believe that among them were disguised Stellar Alliance ships and Federation of Colonial Stars intelligence-gathering ships that had falsified their registrations, but I haven't been able to fully verify them all.”

 

"Does that include the Stellar Alliance fleet that went on the Stellar Slayer mission at Garnet A and the pirate fleet that went to deal with it?"

 

Jenny nodded at Marika's question. “The official records from the Stellar Alliance don't mention the Stellar Slayer fleet, and all the pirate ships are said to have been called in for an interception operation in the Tau system, but yes, it's included in my calculations."

 

“Was that enough military strength to attempt an interception?”

 

"No way, they were just trying to make it look like they were on equal footing by adjusting the numbers." Jenny shook her head dismissively. “I told you, that's the force they were able to assemble. Once it became clear that the expeditionary fleet's destination was the Tau system, the Federation of Colonial Stars only had about 70 spaceships in the Tau system that could even remotely be considered combat-capable, including pirate ships and disguised merchant ships. Even if you gathered all the warships that could form a regular fleet, including those undergoing repairs in dry dock, the number wouldn't even reach double digits.”

 

Marika and Chiaki looked at each other, then Marika turned back to Jenny.

 

"No matter how you look at it, the ratio of forces is not enough to wage a proper war."

 

"From the beginning of the War of Independence, the military strength of the Stellar Alliance and the colony planets was never equal. If you compared their total strength, it was more than double or triple, a different game. However, while the Stellar Alliance had to split its military strength among multiple colony planets, the colony planets managed to appear to be putting up a fair fight by concentrating their meager military strength in one place and moving it from one battle to the next."

 

"I'm glad I wasn't a soldier back then." Marika sighed. "Just thinking about it makes me depressed."

 

"The only fortunate thing for the colony planets was that the expeditionary fleet, which was likely to be the decisive force for the Stellar Alliance and the largest fleet in their history, was so large that it couldn't move as quickly as previous mobile fleets. Thanks to this, they had the time to gather forces from all the colonial star systems, and they were able to slow down the expeditionary fleet's movements by attacking the long supply lines from the Stellar Alliance. But even if the full force of the Federation of Colonial Stars had gathered in perfect condition in the Tau system as planned, it would have been one-third the number of ships, and less than one-tenth of its strength. I'm really glad I wasn't at the Federation of Colonial Stars headquarters back then. No matter how you look at it, it was an impossible game."

 

"Impossible game?"

 

"Of course, they gathered forces for a decisive battle, but even if everything miraculously went according to plan, the best they could do would be to repel the expeditionary fleet, and if they fought honestly, all their forces would be destroyed and they would have to surrender unconditionally. That's why the political side was using all available channels to negotiate with the Stellar Alliance so that they wouldn't have to surrender unconditionally in the worst case scenario. Do you know about this?"

 

Marika looked at Chiaki questioningly. Chiaki then spoke to Jenny.

 

"I only know what's in the textbooks. Negotiations to end the War of Independence were ongoing, but the Galactic Empire's intervention completely disrupted everything, creating a crisis so severe that it could have wiped out both the Stellar Alliance and the colonies, so I don't think there are any meaningful records left."

 

"There are records, and the statute of limitations for both the Stellar Alliance and the colony planets has expired over half a century ago, so they have been declassified. However, the changes that followed the annexation by the Empire were so great that only the most curious people had studied it until now.”

 

"Well, that's because history literally changed."

 

"But the people of the Federation of Colonial Stars, who were in the midst of the expeditionary fleet’s attack, had no idea that a history-changing event was about to occur, and they couldn't count on it. So, they took various measures to avoid the worst case scenario. There are some measures that you can only take if you are in a certain position. For example, even if an ambassador from a colony planet and the Stellar Alliance negotiates, there are things they can and cannot do depending on their authority."

 

"Well, it probably wasn’t that easy to contact the Federation of Colonial Stars from the Stellar Alliance."

 

"The Federation of Colonial Stars's Fleet HQ on Sea of the Morningstar was where representatives from all the colony planets gathered, so they were expected to not only command the battles but also guide the course of the war. Of course, each battle is a separate situation, but if you forget why you're fighting, you can't continue the war. So the Fleet HQ not only commanded the battles, but also worked on ending the war with the Stellar Alliance."

 

Jenny looked around at Chiaki and Marika’s faces.

 

“They knew that even if they intercepted the expeditionary fleet and repelled it as expected, that would be the end of the Federation of Colonial Stars's military power. If the expeditionary fleet held its ground and attacked again, there would probably be no military power left in the system to defend against it. In the worst case scenario, they could imagine that strategic weapons would return the Sea of the Morningstar to its pre-development state."

 

"Pre-development..."

 

"That would be before colonization, before the Sea of the Morningstar had a name. It would be even worse if it were reduced to scorched earth."

 

Even during the War of Independence, giant bombs capable of easily incinerating an entire planet existed. Although there are no records of them being used in actual combat, records show that the expeditionary fleet was equipped with them.

 

"One of the trump cards to avoid the worst case scenario was the signing of a surrender document, in which the Federation of Colonial Stars would admit defeat to the Stellar Alliance. If the Federation of Colonial Stars surrendered, the war could be stopped even if the worst case scenario occurred, such as the expeditionary fleet destroying the interception forces and orbitally bombarding the Sea of the Morningstar."

 

Jenny reached for her tea.

 

"For better or worse, the Federation of Colonial Stars never had to hand over the surrender document to the Stellar Alliance. Since it was a valid surrender document under interstellar law at the time, I thought it would have been treated with utmost care afterwards, destroyed to prevent it from being misused, or at least locked away in a restricted archive in the public records office and forgotten. But apparently, the original document still exists."

 

"...Did you hear that from president Lynn?"

 

“Of course. When you hear a story like that, you definitely want to see it for yourself. I heard it was here, so I asked Marika to bring me along. This is the part I don't want anyone else to hear. I'm truly grateful to you today.”

 

"Jenny..." Marika looked at Jenny suspiciously. “Are you really satisfied just looking at that picture frame, which is so completely covered in black coating that you can't even tell what's inside?”

 

"That's a different matter." Jenny shook her head lightly, with a composed expression. "Of course, I'd like to open it up and take a good look at the actual surrender document, but I can't ask a chef I've never met before at a restaurant I've never been to before to do that. So, that's something for another time. But more importantly..." Jenny looked around at Marika and Chiaki, who were sitting on either side of her. "What’s the important thing that we need to talk about now?"

 

Marika closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then turned to face Jenny. "The Bentenmaru has gone missing."

 

"Huh?"

 

"I found out where it is. Today I received a message capsule from the missing Bentenmaru. According to it, the Bentenmaru's current location, or rather the current time, is the Tau star system at the end of the War of Independence 120 years ago. So, what comes next is something we should do now." Marika said, still staring at Jenny's face. "It looks like we'll have to go back 120 years, probably with the Odette II."

 

"Hmm..." Jenny hummed thoughtfully. She glanced at Chiaki. “You didn't seem surprised by what Marika just said. Does that mean you already knew?”

 

"I just heard it." Chiaki shook her head curtly. "I don't know the details, but Marika isn't the type to tell such obvious lies, and there is circumstantial evidence."

 

"I like girls who understand things quickly." Jenny turned her eyes back to Marika. "Can you tell me why you decided that we have to go back 120 years in time again?"

 

"The Bentenmaru, which jumped to 120 years ago, left a message capsule near the spatial disturbance it was investigating, timed for today."

 

"The Bentenmaru was investigating that spatial disturbance?" Jenny looked at Marika’s face again.

 

"At the request of the military." Marika nodded. "Of course, we didn't report to the control station or the military that there were two Odette IIs at once, or that we had been there in the past. Requests to investigate spatial disturbances are not uncommon, but an order for a detailed investigation with eight probes is rare, so when Misa checked, it seemed that the request wasn't from the star system military, but from higher up."

 

Jenny frowned. "Higher up? Where?"

 

Marika lowered her voice. "The Imperial Fleet."

 

After a short silence, Jenny shook her head lightly. "If that's true, it's strange. The Imperial Fleet could have just sent their own research vessel."

 

"My guess is that they didn't want to draw attention."

 

"What kind of message was in the bottle that the Bentenmaru sent across 120 years?"

 

"It was mine." Marika said with some difficulty. "I recorded the message on the bridge of the Bentenmaru."

 

Jenny stared intently at Marika's face. "Marika’s? Marika's message came out of a capsule from 120 years ago? Who arranged that casting?"

 

"Probably the bridge crew of the Bentenmaru pitched in."

 

"I'm envious of your pirate ship with its many talented people."

 

"Thank you."

 

"So, the current Marika has no memory of recording such a message?"

 

Looking at Marika, Jenny muttered as if to confirm. Marika nodded.

 

"So, in the near future, we're going to jump back in time and record that message there, right?"

 

"That's right." Marika nodded, still looking confused. "Um, do you understand what's going on?"

 

"I know that something I don't understand is not over yet." Jenny said with a reasonable expression.

 

"Um, what's going to happen to us?"

 

Jenny patted Marika on the shoulder, who looked worried.

 

"Things will just happen the way they're meant to. Time travel and time slips are fields where neither the theory nor the application has been confirmed by modern science. It's pointless to worry about what might happen by trying to think things through logically, so don’t think about it. Instead think about what you should do.”

 

"Eh, how can you think about what to do when you don't know what's going to happen?"

 

"Compared to the last time we were suddenly dropped into things, this time is far better since we've received a warning from someone we know." Jenny said nonchalantly.

 

"Besides, it's already been decided that the Odette II and Silent Whisper will go back in time and meet the Bentenmaru, right? That's easy."

 

"Is that so?"

 

"That's how it is, or so my professor of hypothetical history told me."

 

"Hypothetical history?" Chiaki and Marika asked in unison.

 

"Yes, hypothetical history. There are no what-ifs in history, as the famous line goes, but it's a study of simulating history with hypothetical models that add various assumptions. As you'd expect from Space University, they even have a research lab for it."

 

"Space University is doing something like that?!"

 

“They do everything there, from rigid mathematical theory to black magic. Hypothetical history apparently started with simulations based on economic mathematics, where they quantified various historical models, not just monetary calculations, and simulated them to see how much they deviated from reality, and how reliable the equations and constants used were.”

 

"Huh."

 

"Hey, do you know what Maxwell's demon is?" Jenny looked around at Chiaki and Marika’s faces. "If there was a demon that could separate the air molecules in a room, with the ones with high heat content here and the ones with low heat content there, the temperature in the room would be higher in some parts and lower in others. But in reality, that doesn't happen, and the temperature in the room will eventually become uniform according to the law of increasing entropy. In the same way, the flow of time and history will only flow in one direction unless there is a demon that can control each molecule. The historical simulations used in hypothetical history don't produce very different results just by adding one or two variables."

 

Marika and Chiaki looked at each other suspiciously.

 

"So, history has a certain convergence effect; like a stone being carried by a river, even if it's pushed out of the current by chance, it will eventually return. The idea is that even if you do something at the time travel destination, history won't change as much as you expect."

 

Marika looked back at Jenny. "Are you sure about that?"

 

Jenny smiled mischievously. “Unfortunately, simulations are just simulations, and calculations are just calculations. There are theories to some extent about how many variables should be incorporated into a historical model to determine whether the outcome will change or not, but the biggest drawback is that it cannot be actually verified.” Jenny looked around at Marika and Chiaki with amusement. "Do you know why it can't be verified?"

 

Marika and Chiaki looked at each other.

 

"Because if history changes, then everything that happens after will change too. Whether history has changed because of interference from the future or not, you can't compare the changed history with the original history."

 

"Eh?"

 

The two girls said in unison, looking confused. Jenny nodded in agreement.

 

"In other words, history is formed from with a certain degree of inevitability, so even if the people involved do something a little reckless, it won't make much difference. So, what will happen in the future is predetermined to a certain extent, and what happened in the past doesn't change it that much. To put it more simply…" Jenny looked at Chiaki and Marika's faces like a teacher in front of her students “even if we go back in time, which may or may not happen, from the future's perspective, it becomes part of the past. If we have to go back to the past with the Odette II again, there's probably still something we need to do.”

 

"I don't think the flow of time cares about the inevitability of history."

 

Jenny nodded at Chiaki’s statement. “But if we know that time travel is going to happen again, don't you think it's not a bad idea to prepare for it in a way that’s convenient for us?”

 

"Is that okay? At worst, history will be changed."

 

"Even if history is altered, we probably wouldn't notice." Jenny shook her head lightly. "I don't know how serious they are or how feasible it is, but it's not uncommon for any clever think tank or advanced research institute to at least consider time travel. If it can be put into practical use, it would be incredibly useful, so no matter how much money and manpower is put into it, it'll be worth it."

 

"Jenny," Marika said, looking at Jenny's face "you still think we have something to do, don't you?"

 

"Yes. I'm not sure if time is helping me with my history report, or if it's something else."

 

"Even time is on your side?" Chiaki gave a wry smile. "That’s unbeatable."

 

"It's a matter of attitude. Whether it's the past, the present, or the future, do what you can. There's a limit to what an individual can do, and no matter how much you worry, you can't be sure of the right answer."

 

"So worrying is pointless?"

 

"At least, that's not the captain's job. The captain's job is to make decisions, and if you worry, you won't be able to do your job."

 

Marika looked away from Jenny. "But..."

 

"The Bentenmaru is missing, and you yourself have requested support. You've already decided that you will return to the past once more, so isn't it your job to prepare and do what you need to do to make the most of the given situation?"

 

"Um..." Pushing her seat back, Marika stood up from the table, motioned to Jenny and Chiaki to keep talking, and walked slowly to the door.

 

"If we have to send the Odette II out again, I think it's the captain's job to prepare as much as possible now."

 

Jenny followed Marika's movements with her eyes as she continued speaking. Marika put her hand on the knob and slammed the door open.

 

"Oh?" Ririka was leaning against the outside wall with her arms folded, talking to an older man in a chef's coat holding a large platter, saw Marika's face peeking through the open door. "Are you done with your private conversation?"

 

"... Weren’t you listening?"

 

“You're in a private room at the old man's restaurant; there's no way I could hear what's going on inside." Ririka knocked on the thick door. "If you're not finished talking, I'll wait."

 

Marika turned back into the room. "It's okay, sorry to have kept you waiting." Marika bowed to the old man. "Please, let's start dinner."

 

 

The next morning, the flight plan for the next training voyage was delivered to all members of the yacht club under the name of Kato Marika.

 

The Odette II, the training sailing ship of the Hakuoh Girls' Academy Yacht Club, must change its registration category in order to maintain its FTL booster. In order to change from Category II, a subluminal spaceship, to Category I, a FTL spaceship, the ship and its FTL engine must be inspected by an inspector from the Bureau of Shipping, which oversees the registration and inspection of spaceships.

 

Inspection as a subluminal spaceship could be done even while moored in the dock. If the paperwork was in order, the inspection could even be done via network, and the certificate of approval would be sent. It is not uncommon for Category I FTL spacecraft to be unable to undergo inspections during long voyages, so inspection procedures via network were established, and the presence of an inspector is not necessarily required.

 

However, if a category change were to be made, such as adding a FTL engine, an inspector would be required to be present. If the actual spacecraft is shown, there is no need to perform a FTL jump. However, the inspector would still need to see the actual spacecraft with the FTL engine.

 

But the Odette II's private dock at the Sea of the Morningstar Relay Station isn't large enough to accommodate the ship with its bulky FTL booster attached.

 

Therefore, in order to change its category, the Odette II needs to be shown to the inspector outside the dock with its FTL booster attached.

 

The yacht club had scheduled a short training voyage during the holidays that included the Sea of the Morningstar harvest festival. After undergoing an inspection of the ship with an inspector from the Bureau of Shipping on board for the category change, they would use the FTL booster to make a round trip flight to a nearby star system.

 

After school on the day that the flight plan for the training voyage was received, the Yacht Club canceled all of their training plans. Not only all the members, but even the previous club president, Jenny Dolittle, who is now a student at Space University, attended the briefing, which took place in a locked club room with the highest level of counterintelligence measures in place.

 

Marika explained the training voyage to the entire crew, including not only all the members but also former president Jenny, who was attending as an observer, and Chiaki, who was on loan from the Hakuoh Girls' Academy Sea of the Forest Star Yacht Club.

 

Marika revealed all the information currently known to the members regarding the possibility that, according to Jenny's predictions, this voyage might not go as planned.

 

"So, for this training voyage, we will allow you to disembark after the ship inspection is completed."

 

Marika looked around at the faces of the club members who were listening to the explanation in various places because the center table in the club room was not enough.

 

"The hull inspection to change the category to a FTL spaceship involves complicated operations such as docking with the FTL booster, so I would like everyone to participate. However, I think that the training voyage after that will not go as planned due to the circumstances I just explained. In the worst case scenario, we may not be able to return as planned."

 

The members laughed at Marika's carefully measured phrasing. Marika responded with a polite smile and continued.

 

"After the inspection, the inspector will leave the Odette II and a shuttle will be sent to the relay station. There will be no announcement on the ship, so those who wish to disembark should gather quietly on the deck." Marika looked around at all the club members' faces once again. "Um, if you have any questions, I'll answer them as best I can."

 

"Yes." Sasha, holding a memo pad in one hand, raised her hand. Marika prepared herself.

 

"Yes."

 

"The preserved food used up until the last voyage has already arrived at the dock."

 

"Huh?"

 

"This time, I think it would be easier to handle any unforeseen circumstances if we added some fresh food and luxury items just in case, so, um, I've listed a lot of things like that, but is it okay to place the order?"

 

"What!?" Marika's eyes widened at the list Sasha had transferred from the memo pad she had in hand to the display on the main table. There were far more items than in their normal food supply.

 

"Actually, I have something to discuss too." Lynn, the president of the yacht club, sitting next to Marika at the table, pointed her open notebook display at Marika.

 

"Now that we've started using the Odette II, which had been docked for a long time, we're running low on spare parts. Since we can't expect resupply while we're out, we need at least this much, and if possible, we'd feel much safer if we had all the parts on this list.”

 

"Huh?!" Marika couldn't keep up with the list that was scrolling by so quickly.

 

"B-but, where are we going to get that kind of budget?"

 

"It’s fine." Lynn gave a thumbs up. “The school is providing a special budget for the category change, remember? We're doing all the paperwork and applications ourselves, instead of hiring a contractor, so it's coming in much cheaper than the initial budget. It would be a problem if we were using the leftover budget for personal use, but as long as we're using it for Odette II, it's fine. I even got approval from the 'Black Granny’.”

 

"Black Granny? You mean the vice principal!?"

 

"There's something I should tell you, too." Jenny, attending as an observer, raised her hand and spoke. "Today, I asked the relay station to carry out regular maintenance and updates for Silent Whisper, and also to replenish repair parts. I asked for it to be done as quickly as possible, so it should all be finished by the time the Odette II leaves port."

 

"Just how much does it cost to maintain and update an electronic reconnaissance ship!?"

 

"It's fine, it's still under warranty. All replaced parts will be handed over to them as operational data, but we wouldn't have any use for those specialized parts that need replacing anyway, right?"

 

"Huh? We won't have any replacement parts left?" Lynn interrupted, sounding dissatisfied.

 

"I was thinking about upgrading the Odette II, or parts to modify your HAL-Bou."

 

“Since they don't spare any expense on development or operation, there are a lot of specialized parts, so it'll be a real hassle if we actually use them. For now, I'm consulting with Liosen Gelyune about extending the warranty period by sending our operational data, but once that expires, it will cost us a lot of money to keep it, so I'm thinking of selling it to some eccentric private army or something."

 

"Umm, I think it would be a good idea to have some other things like this ready." "Are there any restrictions on what I can bring?" "If you don't know what's going to happen, it's better to bring everything you can, right?"

 

A barrage of questions bombarded Marika. Her mouth agape, Marika looked at president Lynn for help.

 

"Marika, who has the qualifications, will be the captain for this training voyage as well." Lynn waved her hand with a cheerful, detached expression. "The preparations before departure are also the captain's job, right? Now, do your job."

 

After giving Lynn a dejected look, Marika began to answer the mountain of questions from the club members one by one.

 

"So, Chiaki, you're also going on this voyage?" Gruier called out to Chiaki, who was watching Marika from a tea table away from the main table as she dealt with the barrage of questions from the club members one by one.

 

"Well, I wouldn't have bothered coming all this way if I didn't intend to." Chiaki looked at Gruier. "You're also going to go on board no matter what anyone says now, aren't you?"

 

"Yes." Gruier answered as if it was obvious. "If space pirates didn't exist in this universe, Serenity wouldn't exist in its current form."

 

"According to what Jenny said earlier, if there were no space pirates from the Federation of Colonial Stars, someone else would help out, right?"

 

"You can't rely on hypotheticals." Gruier said with a composed expression. "It's my duty to protect Serenity in its current form. I'll do whatever I have to do to achieve that."

 

Gruier cast an affectionate⁶ gaze towards Marika as she desperately struggled to handle the club members crowding around her

 

"It seems like your desires are taking precedence over your sense of duty, doesn't it?"

 

"Huh?"

 

"No, it’s nothing." Chiaki also looked at Marika, who was surrounded by the club members. “She’s grown up so well, hasn’t she?"

"It'll take a while to load the containers!"

 

On the bridge of the Odette II, which was not fully staffed before departure, Marika, in the captain's seat, listened to Sasha's report from the pier through her headset. "Come on, we can worry about organizing the warehouse later!" Marika spoke into the microphone on her headset while simultaneously carrying out several procedures, including a pre-departure hull check and a final check of the flight plan. "As long as the hatches are closed so that there is no air leakage, it doesn't matter if it's in the passageway or on the flight deck, just get all the luggage on board!"

 

"Roger! The captain just changed the plan. We can put the organization off until later, so just get the luggage on board first!"

 

Thinking that it would be a lot of work to clean up, Marika returned to the task at hand. The majority of the manpower had been diverted to loading supplies, including food and spare parts, that had arrived at the pier, so the current bridge crew was far below its full complement.

 

"Is that okay?" Chiaki asked while checking the operation of the navigation electronics and updating the data. "If we fill the deck with cargo, there won't be room for Silent Whisper."

 

"I'm glad it's not here right now." Marika replied, while checking the flight plan for any potential issues that might be questioned by air traffic control. "The Silent Whisper can wait until the ship is cleaned up before landing. It'll be fine as long as it's there before the jump."

 

The Silent Whisper, which would normally be on board the Odette II's deck, had left the ship for inspection and maintenance. Either it had just arrived at the Sea of the Morningstar relay station at the right time, or Jenny had specially called it there for that purpose, as it was currently docked aboard patrol service ship belonging to the Liosen Gelyune company.

 

Jenny, who was operating the Silent Whisper alone, had contacted her and said that even if they took the express course and omitted the acceptance test, the maintenance would not be completed in time for the Odette II's departure.

 

After departing the relay station, the Odette II will first fly to the military's anchorage area, connect its FTL booster, and then undergo a hull inspection by a Bureau of Shipping inspector for a category change, a process commonly referred to as a ship inspection.

According to the plan, by the time of departure, all supplies including food should have been loaded, and the maintenance and updates of the onboard Silent Whisper should have been completed. However, the usual schedule of loading supplies and carrying out maintenance on the ship at the same time as preparing for departure quickly fell apart.

 

The transport company that was supposed to deliver the supplies to the ship's warehouse simply secured the container to the weightless pier and headed off to their next job. Meanwhile, the Odette II, facing the important task of changing its category, had to undergo more thorough checks than usual before departing.

 

With the help of the Hakuoh Girls' Academy administration, they were able to prepare all the necessary documents for the Bureau of Shipping inspector while still on the ground. However, since it was a category change rather than a normal hull inspection, the number of in-person check items for the hull increased as if cursed.

 

“The Odette II has been in space many times, and the booster has been used many times and has a proven track record, so why do we have to check all these things now!?” The number of mandatory check items alone was three times that of a normal ship inspection, and an order of magnitude higher than the usual pre-departure check, causing Marika to scream in frustration in the captain's seat.

 

"Besides, the automated check is running and giving the OK, so why do I have to go out and check it!?"

 

Even though it's a delicate solar sailing ship, the Odette II is 200 meters long, so if you want to look around inside and out, you'll have to travel a long distance and it will take time.

 

"That's how bureaucracy works, it can't be helped." Lynn answered while typing that sounded almost continuous. “They probably won't feel like they've done their job unless they physically move around and check it with their own eyes.”

 

“If they want to do work, they should do it themselves!” Marika slammed the console angrily. “The computer's check results are more reliable anyway, so why do we need to go out and check the parts that are already properly maintained and working?!”

 

"Well, normally, there are specialized companies that do the tedious work of ship inspections and category changes, but when it comes to our own training ship, we can't just leave it to a contractor." Lynn took her fingers off the control panel and took a sigh. "The teacher said that the necessary expenses will be covered as long as the club members do it themselves, and anyway, there's no company within a radius of 50 light years that can take care of an antique solar ship full of electronic weapons like this."

 

"Ahhhh." Letting out a cry of despair, Marika slumped face down against the control panel in the captain's seat. "Now that I think about it, when we wanted to replace parts that couldn't be repaired, we had to deal with contractors who didn't even speak Galactic Standard to get the parts we needed."

 

"Well, let's split up and do the visual check." Lynn tapped the control panel and floated up from her seat. "Chiaki, can I can leave this to you?"

 

Chiaki glanced up. "I can't even handle the electronic weapons system, you know?"

 

"Don't worry, I've set it up so it'll handle everything automatically from the installation check to the inspection and updates." Lynn patted the electronic warfare seat. "If anyone starts complaining, let me know. Captain, I'll do inside, can you handle outside?"

 

A captain must personally check the status of the spaceship before departing. Pre-flight checks are not required by law, and all the necessary data is available on the bridge.

 

If Lynn does the pre-flight check inside the ship, Marika calculated that it would cut the time and effort required before departure in half, and looked around the bridge. Chiaki was in the navigator's seat, Lynn was in the electronics battleship, and Yayoi was screaming in the engineer's seat while checking the engine. There were only four crew members on the bridge, including Marika.

 

"No, I'll do it myself." Marika shook her head to drive away the devil's temptation to take the easy way out. “I would like to skip the pre-flight check if possible, and if the president and I do it together, it would take half the time. But if I’m going to be the captain, I think I’ll regret it later if I don’t see the condition of the spaceship with my own eyes.”

 

Marika forced a smile at Lynn, who was floating in the electronic battleship seat, and Chiaki, who looked up at the captain's seat in surprise. "President Lynn, please take over as the acting captain on the bridge while I'm away."

 

The Odette II is currently in port, but there is no telling when or where a message will come from.

 

Laughing softly, Lynn, who was floating, grabbed the backrest and returned to the electronic warfare seat. "Roger. I accept the role of acting captain on the bridge." She moved to the electronic warfare seat next to her and started tapping on the control panel. "If there are any messages that I can't handle here, I'll contact you, so don't forget to take your transceiver."

 

"We don't have much time." Chiaki said with a cheerful expression. "Hurry!"

 

"Roger!" Marika replied in a cheerful voice, and sent the final flight plan, which had been checked, to the control station. The scheduled departure time was still a while away, and the clearance should be back by the time she returned to the bridge. “Okay, I'll leave the rest to you!”

 

Remembering to grab the transceiver, Marika jumped out of the bridge and into the central shaft that ran through the center of the ship, synchronizing the headset she was still wearing with the transceiver as she went.

 

Several bags and sacks of personal belongings from crew members, who apparently hadn't had time to put them away in their rooms, were floating in the center shaft.

 

“This is going to be tough even after we depart.” Looking down the center shaft towards the flight deck, she could see containers overflowing from the large loading doors, seemingly crammed in haphazardly. "I wonder if we can secure them before we leave port."

 

The Odette II was equipped with an inertial control system and was designed for weightless navigation, but there was no telling what would happen once it was in space. If it made any rough changes to its position without securing its cargo, it could drift around the ship, destroying the equipment and the hull structure. Marika kicked off the wall with both hands and feet and jumped onto the ship's deck like a pinball.

 

"This is..."

 

The center shaft was buried under containers, cases, bags, trunks, shopping bags, drink cases, and stuffed animals that had overflowed from the ship's deck. It would be possible to get out by digging, but considering the risk of being buried alive along the way, Marika jumped to a side hatch in the center shaft. She then went through a simple inspection airlock at the base of the mizzen mast and exited the ship.

In the dedicated pier C68, the Odette II, with its nine masts folded, is moored with its port side against the pier as expected. The loading operation was still underway, requiring not only the port flight deck but also the starboard one to be open.

 

"It will take a while." As she floated away from the hull, Marika looked around the pier where the containers were lined up, only temporarily secured. “Won’t it?”

 

"If it's just loading, I don't think it will take that long."

 

Startled by Sasha's voice coming through her headset, Marika looked for the source of the communication. On the starboard flight deck, a blonde girl was waving, relaying floating containers from the port side in a bucket-brigade fashion.

 

"I see you!" Marika waved to Sasha as a sign that she had confirmed who she was talking to. "Sorry, I'm not here to help with the pre-flight check."

 

"Roger that. We should be done loading by the time of departure." Sasha answered, pushing the small container she had received to the second-years waiting on the ship’s deck. "But just thinking about sorting it out afterwards is exhausting."

 

"Well, in the worst case we can meet up with Jenny after the ship inspection, so can you clear the deck for the Silent Whisper to get in by then?"

 

"That’s okay, I think." Sasha said, relaying the next container floating by to the flight deck. "The central shaft will probably be full of stuff though."

 

"It'll be fine as long as the sorting is finished by the time we get back." Marika made a complicated face as she looked at the bags, packages, cases, and pouches floating among the supplies, which looked suspiciously like personal belongings. They had announced that they would allow anyone who wanted to disembark after the ship's inspection, but it was clear that all the club members had brought on large amounts of luggage intended for a long-term training voyage.

 

“I think the biggest job for a while after we leave port will be organizing the ship.” Sasha replied between giving loading instructions. "There was a game like that, right? I never thought it would actually happen in real life. Well, I'll leave it to you to do your job."

 

"Thank you." Waving her hand, Marika jumped across the space inside the pier to the port side of the Odette II. The basic procedure for a preflight check is to start from the port side of the spacecraft, moving horizontally towards the bow, and then completing a full circle.

 

The Odette II's appearance inside the pier, with its three masts folded in three directions, was far from its normal sailing posture. Since there were no major modifications or exterior alterations compared to previous inspections, Marika moved slowly, paying close attention to whether there were any visible abnormalities on the exterior of the Odette II.

 

As she rounded the bowsprit that jutted out from the bow, her transceiver started ringing.

 

"Yes, this is Kato Marika." Marika flicked her headset and immediately answered the call. The display showed a call from the bridge.

 

"This is Lynn from the Bridge." Lynn's voice, coming from the wireless headset earpiece, sounded a little confused. "Is now a good time?"

 

"I’m visually checking the bow." Marika replied, drifting along the starboard side of the Odette II's hull. "What is it?"

 

"The control station is calling the captain by name. I told them you were busy, but they said it was an urgent matter that would only take a moment."

 

"Please connect me." Marika said, wondering if there was something she had forgotten to write in the flight plan she had already submitted. "If it can be resolved quickly, I think it'll be alright even while I'm doing the pre-flight check."

 

"Be careful." Lynn said in a low voice. "You're not communicating with the relay station control station. You're communicating with Shin-Okuhama Airport."

 

"Eh?"

 

Before she could confirm, the communication was switched.

 

"This is the Shin-Okuhama Airport Control Station, Kato Ririka speaking."

 

"Ririka!?" Still floating, Marika instinctively straightened her back.

 

"I know you're probably busy right before departure, but can I talk to you for a moment?”

 

Lynn said that the caller was from Shin-Okuhama Airport, and Ririka stated her affiliation before her name. This meant that this was not a call from a mother to her daughter, but rather an inquiry from the control station to the captain. With that thought in mind, Marika continued. “Yes, I am currently conducting a pre-flight check at the relay station pier, but I can talk.”

 

“Sorry to interrupt you while you are working. It's just that I need to confirm a few things.”

 

If the air traffic controller was calling the captain as part of their duties, this communication would likely be recorded. Feeling a pain in her stomach, Marika answered into the headset. “It's fine. Please go ahead.”

 

“The Odette II is scheduled to depart for a ship inspection to change category, is that correct?"

 

"Yes."

 

"You're scheduled to depart at 12:00, so you're in a hurry, aren't you?"

 

"I'd like to take it a little longer, but we need to go out and dock with the booster before we can meet the inspector from the Bureau of Shipping."

 

"Is it true that the captain of the Odette II is Kato Marika?"

 

"I'm the only one in the yacht club with a captain's license."

 

"The Bentenmaru hasn't returned yet." Ririka cut straight to the point. "And according to the latest flight plan we have here, the captain of Bentenmaru is still you, Kato Marika. A captain is needed to operate a ship, and since there is only one captain, only one spaceship can be operated at a time."

 

"The Bentenmaru is currently engaged in a different mission."

 

That was a problem that Gruier had pointed out when creating the flight plan for the Odette II. Gruier had also proposed a solution at the same time.

 

"A pirate ship only needs a captain with a privateer's license when it is engaged in acts of piracy. The current mission of the Bentenmaru does not involve piracy, and the Bentenmaru has several crew members with captain's licenses."

 

Because Marika insisted on balancing her studies with her job, there have been many times when she has not been on board the Bentenmaru since she was appointed captain. Not only the bridge crew, but the pirate ship is so rich in talent that you can throw a stone and hit someone with a captain’s license, so there is no shortage of acting captains.

 

"Who is the acting captain of the Bentenmaru now?"

 

"Umm..." Marika tried to imagine the situation the Bentenmaru was in. Currently, the Bentenmaru is investigating a spatial anomaly. "Hyakume and Coorie should be taking turns."

 

"Well, I guess there's nothing to worry about with those two." Ririka's voice on the other end of the radio contained a smile. "And, the situation of the Bentenmaru cannot be disclosed due to confidentiality agreements."

 

"Let's just leave it at that." Marika goes along with her.

 

"Let's get back to the Odette II. After the ship inspection, you plan to make a training voyage to Garnet A. Is that correct?"

 

The control station shares all submitted flight plans. A spaceship traveling through the stars could appear anywhere at any time, and there's no telling what kind of situation it might find itself in. Marika submitted the Odette II's flight plan to the Sea of the Morningstar Relay Station, but it wouldn't be surprising if the control station at Shin-Okuhama Airport checked it.

 

"Yes." Marika wondered why Ririka had bothered to ask for confirmation of their flight plan. If it was just a training voyage for the girls' school yacht club, there was no way that a ground controller would contact her. The only possible explanation could be that the captain of the currently missing Bentenmaru would be aboard as the captain of another spaceship.

 

"You're scheduled to return to the Sea of the Morningstar in three days, with one backup day. Is that alright?"

 

Marika finally understood the role she was expected to play after Ririka's seemingly innocent final words.

 

"There's no problem. The red giant Garnet A is stable for now, and we haven't scheduled any difficult training programs. One backup day is more of an excuse to the parents of the club members, so don't worry too much about it."

 

"The scheduled investigation period for the Bentenmaru will end in four days."

 

Ririka's tone remained unchanged, and Marika braced herself, knowing that they were getting to the point.

 

"You're fully aware of the situation, aren't you?"

 

"It's something my crew can handle." Marika said as nonchalantly as possible. "Maybe the job would be done better without a high school girl captain on board."

 

Ririka's mocking response came back. "Oh?"

 

“It’s a crew of seasoned veterans who are second to none, so I can leave them to their routine work. I'm sure the Galactic Empire and the Imperial Fleet feel the same way.”

 

Ririka burst out laughing at Marika's self-deprecating words on the other end of the radio. "Roger that. I'll pass that on to the relevant parties. Is there anything you'd like me to do?"

 

"Don't worry about anything." Marika said sincerely. "We'll all come back safely."

 

"Don't make me worry too much." Ririka replied simply.

 

"I hope for a safe voyage for the Odette II and the Bentenmaru. This concludes our communication.”

 

“Thank you.” Marika looked at the transceiver display. The communication from Shin-Okuhama Airport, which was relayed by the bridge, was cut off. Instead, the bridge called Marika.

 

“This is the bridge, Chiaki speaking. What was that communication? Why did the Shin-Okuhama control station contact us about our space flight plan?”

 

“…It’s probably because” Marika answered in one sentence, summarizing the situation around her “lots of places were worried about us, and Ririka took care of everything.”

 

Anyone can listen to the conversation on the transceiver if they want to. After a moment of silence, Chiaki replied. “…I see. It's a good thing that you have a persuasive family member on the ground.”

 

“Truely.” Marika nodded over the line. "Now, I'll do my job properly so they don't have to worry."

 

 

The loading of supplies and luggage onto the Odette II was completed 30 minutes before the requested departure time. However, the containers that had been temporarily secured to the pier, as well as the cargo and luggage that were to be brought on board, were simply brought into the pressurized compartments inside the ship. The area around the center shaft, including the flight deck, is currently impassable.

 

All hatches on the Odette II were closed and checked for airtightness, and at the same time, preparations for opening pier C68 began.

 

Pier C68, which is also a closed dock, is normally filled with air at one atmosphere. As an old-fashioned closed dock, pier C68 is not equipped with an advanced air shield that would allow it to maintain a pressurized atmosphere while the ship's hull passes through. If the air pressure inside the dock is not lowered sufficiently before the dock is opened for departure, the atmosphere inside will explode into the vacuum of space as soon as the main gate is opened, causing violent winds that could damage the dock or disturb the attitude of the relay station.

 

To prevent accidents and make efficient use of atmospheric resources, the atmosphere inside must be vented before the pier is opened. It's not easy to vent the air in a closed pier that can fit an entire spacecraft, unlike a small space like an airlock for a spacewalk. Furthermore, both the spacecraft and the pier must be sealed before it can be opened.

 

Normally, before opening a closed system, the air is vented after the spacecraft's airtightness is confirmed. When the Odette II departed this time, the usual procedure was ignored, and the pier's air was vented at the same time as the hatches on the spacecraft's side were closed. It would be troublesome if there were any air leaks or unclosed hatches on the Odette II, but the system is fully equipped with an automatic repair system in case the airtightness is breached. If this system is activated, a rapid-hardening polymer foam is sprayed into the leaking area to ensure airtightness. Subsequent repairs would be quite complicated.

 

The automatic repair system for maintaining pressurization was activated, and the airtightness check of the hull was conducted in a race, and fortunately, the Odette II won. At this point, the captain, who was still checking the inside of the ship, had not yet returned to the bridge.

 

Preparations for departure continued on the bridge, with less than the minimum number of personnel present, communicating by transceiver.

 

 

Marika, who had completed the pre-flight checks that are usually performed before departure, as well as the checks required for the ship's inspection for a category change, returned to the bridge five minutes before the scheduled departure time.

 

"You’re late!" Marika slid into the captain's seat, out of breath, as Chiaki, in the navigator's seat, displayed permission to depart from port from the control station on the display in front of her. "I thought we were going to leave without our captain."

 

"It’s because the central shaft was closed." Marika, who had literally flown back from the engine room at the rear of the ship, checked the launch trajectory displayed on the screen. "There are no ships that could be an obstacle on the route, and no priority spaceships that might cut in line" she muttered.

 

"Is it okay to proceed on schedule?" Chiaki confirmed, rapidly switching between displays on the navigator's seat. "We can still postpone departure."

 

"Proceed as scheduled!" Marika declared, skimming over the status shown on the captain's seat display. "If there are no problems with the navigation, engines, and sensors, and we're ready to depart, there's no need to bother postponing it. Has the air been properly vented from the pier?"

 

"The current pressure is eight percent." Lynn, who had moved from the electronic warfare seat to the radar/sensor seat, answered. "Because the pump is old, it gets hard to evacuate if it's set to less than 10%. At this rate, we won't be able to create a vacuum in time for departure."

 

"If we don't start opening the gate one minute before the scheduled departure time, we won't be able to leave on time."

 

The departure time of a spaceship is the time when contact with the port is lost, either by disengaging the gantry field lock or by even just a single cable. Although it is slender, the main gate of pier C68, which houses the 200-meter-class solar sail ship Odette II, is driven by an old mechanical device, so it takes time to open and close.

 

"Four more minutes." Lynn looked at the display that was counting down the scheduled departure time. "At three minutes and twenty seconds, I think the best we can do is to get it under five percent. What should we do? If we postpone the departure by ten minutes, there aren't any other scheduled arrivals or departures that would cause a conflict, are there?"

 

"If the pressure is below five percent, the port authority won't get angry." Marika glanced at the numbers for the outside air pressure, which was slowly decreasing. Closed piers vary in size and the performance of the air pumps they are equipped with, so as long as the pressure is reduced from the normal pressure standard of one atmosphere to five percent, there will be no operational problems even if they are opened.

 

"If the pressure is down to five percent one minute before the scheduled time, we can open the gate and depart as scheduled. Is the engine OK?" While switching the display on the control panel, Marika checked with Yayoi in the engineer's seat.

 

"It's fine. Since the ship's interior is still a bit messy, I've prioritized the inertial control and anti-gravity systems, and set the main engines to minimum power."

 

"What about the navigation systems?"

 

"All systems, no abnormalities." Chiaki answered formally. "The update was completed without any problems and the calibration was done. We'll have real-time position tracking wherever we go."

 

"How about the radar/sensor systems?"

 

"The navigation radar is normal, and the passive sensor system is also working normally. We can't use the combat radar and active sensors in the harbor, but there are no plans to use them on the way there, so it should be fine."

 

"Communications system?"

 

The communications officer's seat was left vacant. Marika checked the status of the communications system, which had been set to prioritize the captain's seat. There were no emergency notifications from the control station, and no calls from outside. There were no abnormalities in the communications situation around the relay station.

 

"Normal communication, FTL communication, and data communication are all fine. How's the control system?"

 

"It's fine." Ai replied, gripping the wheel at the helmsman's seat. “The tests just now showed the values ​​are within specifications. We can proceed with departure, flight to the anchorage area, and docking with the booster.”

 

"Thanks." Marika looked around the bridge. Both the engine and navigation systems, as well as the radar/sensor systems, only had one person assigned to each, when ideally they should have two. The communications officer's seat was empty, with the captain's seat handling those duties. The bridge crew was less than half of the minimum required number.

 

"Are we really going to operate this ship with only five people?"

 

The engine room also had only the bare minimum of personnel, and work continued on stowing the cargo throughout the ship. Marika looked around the deserted bridge and muttered to herself. "Well, in the worst case scenario, it can be operated unmanned, so it's not a problem."

 

Marika looked around the displays around the captain's seat. They aren’t fully prepared, but there are no warnings that would cause problems when they start moving. She checked the outside air pressure, which was steadily decreasing.

 

Marika switched the channel on the headset she had been wearing to the ship's announcements and cleared her throat.

 

"This is the bridge, Captain Kato Marika." Marika's voice echoed throughout the ship. "The Odette II is currently preparing to depart, and the scheduled departure time remains unchanged at 1200. We plan to prioritize the use of antigravity engines for the flight, and keep normal propulsion to a minimum, but please be aware that emergencies can occur at any time."

 

Marika closed her eyes and listened carefully to the sounds she could hear. The sound of the air conditioning, the rhythm of Lynn typing on the keyboard, and the vibrations from the engine room were only faintly transmitted. Feeling that everything was the same as usual, Marika opened her eyes.

 

"After departing the relay station, the ship will head to the Star System Military's anchorage airspace to dock with the FTL booster." Marika looked at the schedule, which was drawn up with a lot of wishful thinking. "After docking, we will rendezvous with the Bureau of Shipping's tender outside the anchorage airspace, and undergo a category change inspection by an inspector. The deadline for clearing the ship is when the inspector boards. We will keep you updated from the bridge, but if you can't make it in time, please at least tidy up so that it's not too unsightly."

 

Laughter could be heard from the open door.

 

"After the inspector finishes inspecting the hull, we plan to depart for the training voyage after stowing Jenny's Silent Whisper."

 

Marika checked the external pressure on the display. The pump at the pier seemed to be struggling, but the external pressure had finally dropped below five percent. One minute and thirty seconds before the scheduled departure time.

 

"The gate will open in 30 seconds. We will move Odette II after confirming that the atmosphere has been vented." Marika called up the command to open the gate on the control panel, then glanced at the countdown board. "Odette II, prepare to depart, gate opening, 20 seconds."

 

"Antigravity engine, starting."

 

Yayoi in the engineer's seat began starting up the antigravity engine. Marika looked around the display again to see if there were any problems with the engine or control systems. The display, which should prioritize showing any alarms, calmly showed the system status.

 

"Five, four, three, two, one, zero!"

 

After confirming that the external air pressure had dropped to the four percent range, Marika flicked the touch panel to command the gate to open. In a vacuum, it would be enough to just open the gate in the direction of travel, but in the current situation where there is a small amount of atmosphere remaining, it is necessary to open both the front and rear gates at the same time. Releasing the pressurized air from only one side would cause an unnecessary recoil to the station, but opening both gates at the front and rear simultaneously will cancel out the recoil.

 

The two gates at the front and back of Pier C68 slowly began to open to the left and right. As the airtight seals opened, the air remaining in the pier was released with explosive force, and a small amount of water vapor filled the dock with a pure white mist due to adiabatic expansion, which was then sucked out through the front and rear gates.

 

The outside air pressure quickly dropped to zero, but they couldn't move until the gate was fully open.

 

"Gantry lock, release." Marika said, still connected to the onboard PA system. Controlled from the Odette II, the gantry lock securing the hull to the pier was released. A dull thud was heard as the gantry arm extending from the pier to the ship's hull released the Odette II.

 

Marika confirmed that the air pump at the pier had automatically stopped due to a drop in air pressure. There was no one at the pier, so they had to set up the post-departure process.

 

"Releasing cables."

 

Power had already been switched to ship’s internal, but the emergency power and information cables were now disconnected. Ai, at the helm, moved the wheel slightly to move the Odette II away from the pier.

 

"Pier, gantry arms retracting."

 

The gantry arms that had secured the ship to the pier were retracted to the dock wall.

 

"Proximity sensor system, all normal." Lynn activated the optical laser sensor, which is essential when moving in a narrow space like inside a dock, and displayed a precise diagram of the surrounding airspace on the display.

 

"Gate opening confirmed."

 

"Departing." Marika said, keeping the ship's internal broadcast system open. "Ahead slow! Odette II, let's go."

The latest spacecraft have become more labor-efficient, so it is not uncommon for commercial spacecraft to be operated by a very small number of people. However, when it comes to a solar sailing ship that is over 200 years old, it is not so easy.

 

Without deploying their solar sails, the Odette II flew at a slow speed from the relay station to the star system military's anchorage airspace. Since the bridge, engine room, and radar/sensor systems were all operating with fewer than the required crew members, the ship flew cautiously, prioritizing safety and avoiding any incidents.

 

After leaving the relay station's control zone and heading toward the military's anchorage airspace, Gruier returned to the bridge. According to her report, most of the supplies on the ship's deck have been moved to the shaft in front of the warehouse, and are currently being organized.

 

"Since the organization of the incoming supplies is nearing completion, Sasha has instructed the communications officer to return to the bridge."

 

"Thank you, then, take the communications seat."

 

The flight plan for docking with the FTL booster in the military's anchorage airspace had already been submitted and approval had been obtained. After receiving confirmation via an automatic response from the anchorage airspace management satellite, the Odette II entered the anchorage airspace.

 

While the docking with the FTL booster could be performed from the bridge, the confirmation and connection of the control systems after docking required manual labor. Although the flight deck had finally been cleared, the organization of the supply materials was not yet complete, so, out of necessity, all the bridge crew and engine room staff donned spacesuits and went out for extravehicular activity.

 

Yayoi, the only one left, was in an unusual situation where she had to not only give instructions for the work but also the overall supervision of the extravehicular activity, and with captain Marika on-site, the connection of the FTL booster was completed only slightly behind than the wishfully optimistic schedule that had been in place.

 

As soon as Marika returned to the bridge, she received a call from the Bureau of Shipping's tender carrying the inspector. Marika replied that she would accept the inspector on board as scheduled.

 

 

When the Odette II received the Bureau of Shipping’s tender on its flight deck, some of the crew members' personal belongings were still floating in the central shaft.

 

The hull inspection for the category change was completed so easily that the crew members, who were not used to bureaucratic work and were bracing themselves for it, were surprised. Since all the documents had been submitted in advance, the inspector who came on board the Odette II only pointed out a few defects that could be corrected on site, and after walking around the inside and outside of the ship, declared the inspection complete.

 

 

"Odette II from Silent Whisper, this is Jenny Dolittle." On the communication monitor, Jenny looked around at the exhausted faces of the bridge crew with a strange expression on her face. "I will rendezvous with you soon. What's wrong? You look like you've been in a fight.”

 

“Odette II to Silent Whisper, this is Gruier on the bridge.” Only Gruier, with her composed expression, responded to the communication. “The inspector from the Bureau of Shipping just finished inspecting the ship and has left. The procedures for changing the Odette II's category are now complete.”

 

“Well done.” Jenny, alone at the controls in the Silent Whisper's cockpit, chuckled. “So now the Odette II can fly freely through the galaxy as a Category I FTL spaceship.”

 

“Wow, that was more nerve-wracking than actual combat.” The communication line was switched to the radar/sensor seat, and Lynn took over the call. "I finally understand why the seniors didn't change the Odette II’s category. It was too much trouble."

 

"Oh, so that's a nice souvenir for your juniors. Is the ship cleaned up?"

 

"There's enough space on the ship's deck for the Silent Whisper." Gruier announced. "I think we'll finish sorting the warehouse by the end of the day. The Odette II is mostly operating normally."

 

"That's good to hear." Jenny, who was alone on the Silent Whisper, glanced at the food packs filling the other seats. "At this rate, you probably won't even have to prepare dinner for tonight. I bought out the entire Koenig Katze delicatessen from the relay station, so please keep the dining hall open."

 

The bridge erupted in cheers when Jenny mentioned the name of one of the finest food shops in the relay station.

 

"Thank you. We'll prepare the best seat for you."

 

"Bridge from the ship's deck." Sasha, who was working on loading the Silent Whisper, contacted the bridge. "Silent Whisper is onboard and is currently being secured."

 

"Thank you." Marika responded to the report from the deck. "Um..."

 

"One more thing to report." Sasha added, as if she had forgotten. "At this time, not a single person has come to the flight deck wanting to disembark. Jenny not only bought out the Koenig Katze deli, but also Uiro Moon's sweets."

 

"Eh..."

 

Uiro Moon is a popular sweets store at the relay station.

 

"Looking at that mountain of sweets, I think everyone will stay even if it meant repeating the year."

 

"As expected..." Marika thought she could see Jenny's smug face. "Understood. The Odette II will depart as soon as securing the Silent Whisper is completed."

 

 

 

At the Shin-Okuhama Airport Control Station, Kato Ririka received a report that Odette II had made a FTL jump from planetary orbit within the solar system.

 

"Their destination is Garnet A, huh?" Ririka muttered, looking at the short report displayed on the sub-monitor in the chief controller's seat. As per the submitted flight plan, the Odette II made contact with the Bureau of Shipping’s tender near the star system military's anchorage airspace, retrieved a small ship that had departed from the relay station, and then made a FTL jump. "I wonder where they really went."

 

Unless a dedicated patrol boat was assigned, it would be impossible to track the destination of a spaceship’s jump from its wake. While checking the lineup of transport ships in the re-entry corridor, Ririka displayed the latest status of the Bentenmaru on the sub-monitor.

 

If a spaceship is emitting a transponder signal within controlled airspace, its current location will be displayed regardless of where it is in the galaxy. However, the Bentenmaru's transponder signal had been lost in four days ago in the Tau star system.

 

Ririka muttered nostalgically. "I wonder who she takes after with that reckless streak."

 

 

"Touchdown." Sasha announced, finally assuming her usual position in the navigator's seat just before the FTL jump. As soon as the Odette II returned to normal space, the navigation and radar/sensor systems began observing its current position and confirming the situation.

 

"No ships in the surrounding airspace!"

 

"Galactic Positioning System⁷ location complete."

 

The results of the location observation were shown on the display in the captain's seat. They are in Garnet A's outer planetary system, closer to interstellar space than they are to the inner system.

 

"Current time is also normal." Looking at the galactic standard time displayed by GPS, Chiaki, who had moved from the navigator's seat to the radar/sensor seat, made an additional report. “It doesn't seem like we've time-traveled yet. This is our present day galaxy.”

 

Chiaki switched the display in front of her to the actual view from optical observation. The same starry sky as seen with the naked eye was displayed.

 

"Well, there were no abnormalities during the jump." Marika, in the captain's seat, was checking the additional observation results of their current position from various sensors. "Since we jumped smoothly and landed smoothly, it would be more troublesome if we ended up somewhere else or in a different time."

 

"Where are we?"

 

Only signatures consistent with interstellar matter were visible in the surrounding airspace. The navigation radar only showed reactions from a distant dark cloud and tiny rogue planets.

 

"Garnet A." Marika answered.

 

"Garnet A? We’re not even in the outer planetary system, but even further outside the remaining Oort Cloud?"

 

"This is fine." After checking the GPS coordinates, Marika raised her head and looked around the bridge. "One hundred and twenty years ago, the pirate fleet of the Federation of Colonial Stars fought the final fleet battle of the War of Independence here against the Stellar Alliance fleet, which was trying to make Garnet A into a supernova. The message in the Bentenmaru's message capsule said to bring the Odette II here⁸. So there must be something here."

 

"It's here!" Chiaki exclaimed. "Beacon confirmed!" Chiaki had seen the same signal on the bridge of the Barbaroosa. "The Bentenmaru's message capsule!"

 

"Bring the ship closer and prepare for retrieval." Marika ordered.

 

The message capsule was retrieved by a pair of first-year students who had been waiting in the airlock in space suits since before the jump. The message capsule's inherent clock was off by about 120 years from the current time, just like the one recovered by the Barbaroosa. From the orbital elements, Lynn deduced that the message capsule had been released from outside the solar system 120 years ago.

 

When the message capsule was opened on the bridge of the Odette II, a data card with Marika's handwriting written on the label was removed. All that was recorded inside were symbols and numbers representing spatial coordinates.

 

Realizing that the coordinates were not absolute galactic coordinates, but rather solar system coordinates based on Garnet A, Marika directed the Odette II towards the indicated point.

 

"It's a message capsule that hasn't even sent out a beacon, just orbiting a red giant star without a single port, so I don't think there's much chance of it being found." Marika explained on the Odette II as they headed towards the desired coordinates.

 

"Since it's been left alone for 120 years, I think it's possible that someone else stumble upon it. It's not information that would be a problem if it was taken, but I wanted to make sure that no one other than the people involved would understand it."

 

"I see it!" Chiaki announced. "It's small scale, but it's a spatial disturbance! It's far enough away from the parent star and there are no significant gravity sources in the vicinity. Unless you have the exact coordinates, you wouldn't be able to find it even if you searched. "

 

"You're right." Marika examined the data on the spatial disturbance, which was initially detected through optical observation and then confirmed using a more refined gravity sensor. Compared to the spatial disturbance swallowed by the Tau star system, its effective radius was an order of magnitude smaller. "But the distortion is significant, isn't it?"

 

The spatial disturbance itself cannot be detected by optical observation. However, the distortion of the starry sky in the background is clearly visible in the space captured at the maximum telephoto lens.

 

"That place over there... that is 120 years ago, isn't it?" Jenny was in the observer's seat, watching the data obtained from all of the Odette II's observation instruments. "If I brought my professors here, that alone would probably guarantee my graduation."

 

"Should we do that?" Marika, in the captain's seat, asked Jenny. "If we send the coordinates of this place to Space University along with a research request with your name on it, I'm sure they'll be able to investigate it more precisely and accurately than the Bentenmaru or the Odette II could."

 

"That's an attractive proposal, but…" Jenny quickly scrolled through the collected data. “We just found this spatial disturbance, and we've only been observing it for a short time, but the size seems to be fluctuating quite dramatically, doesn't it?”

 

"That's right." Marika looked down at the observation data. Spatial disturbances themselves are a phenomenon that are occasionally observed, but it's rare to see one whose size changes from moment to moment right before your eyes. "If the passage to the other side disappears while we're leisurely surveying, that would be the trigger for history to change right before our eyes. According to the schedule, or rather the message from the past, the Odette II was here 120 years ago, right?"

 

"It should be." Marika looked uncertainly at the coordinates recorded on the card inside the message capsule. "I'm not sure though."

 

"Everyone over there is probably anxiously waiting for reinforcements to arrive. I think we should hurry."

 

Seeing Jenny's smiling face, Marika let out a heavy sigh. She looked around at the bridge crew.

 

The bridge crew of the Odette II, all facing her, looked at the captain with expectant smiles.

 

Closing her eyes, Marika nodded. "Understood. Let's go. Maintain current speed and engine output, keep the masts fully retracted, use only passive radar/sensor systems, and maintain the current observation posture. Our target is the spatial disturbance at Garnet A. The Odette II will now begin the main phase of its training voyage."

 

 

This was the third time that the Odette II had taken a trajectory that would have put it directly into a spatial disturbance. Compared to the previous two times, the ship experienced almost no turbulence during this passage through the spatial anomaly.

 

"Did we miss it?" Marika, who had switched the display to the external view monitor, quickly looked around the control panel.

 

"No." Sasha answered from the navigator's seat. " The galactic positioning system is down. There's no LORAN reception either. There weren't any navigation support systems deployed in the Antares constellation during the War of Independence, were there?"

 

"Star chart confirmed!" Lynn called out after checking the star positions with the sensor system. "It’s not the current configuration. It matches the arrangement from 120 years ago! It looks like we've come to that side."

 

"Scan the whole sky!" Marika ordered, standing up straight. "Confirm current location, then scan the surrounding airspace, all passive, don't emit radio waves from here!!"

 

"Spatial disturbance detected aft." Lynn reported. “That's the one we just came through. Now, did emerging from it trigger any touchdown-like reactions?”

 

With a FTL jump, will exert various effects on the target coordinates and surrounding space even before touchdown. The last time the Odette II returned from 120 years ago, a pre-jump phenomenon was observed. It cannot be ruled out that a similar phenomenon occurred in the surrounding airspace this time as well.

 

In outer space, without any modern navigational support systems, the Odette II observed the surrounding airspace according to established procedures

 

"Current position, outer planetary system of Garnet A." Sasha reported from the navigator's seat.

 

"Our position relative to Garnet A has shifted quite a bit, but the distance hasn't changed much."

 

"There are some suspicious signatures." Lynn immediately sent some of the signatures she had found to the display in the captain's seat. "There is probably a reaction from a spaceship on the other side of Garnet A."

 

"I wonder if it's the Stellar Slayer fleet from the Stellar Alliance."

 

"No signatures in the immediate vicinity."

 

There were no spaceships or similar signatures in the immediate vicinity that would suggest an imminent attack. Marika gave her next commands. "Fully deploy the masts. Radar/sensor system, continue to observe the surrounding space with passive observation. Please measure the current time as accurately as possible with all-sky observation."

 

In outer space, where there is no navigational support, the only clock is the chronometer equipped on the spaceship. However, at present, it is only useful for knowing the spaceship's own time.

 

The stars in the universe are constantly moving. The movements of the stars in the Orion Arm, including the Cetus and Antares Constellations, has been precisely measured for everything from fixed stars to planets and comets, allowing us to calculate their positions from the past to the future.

 

If they can accurately observe the current position of the planets orbiting Garnet A, and the positions of the stars visible in the sky, they can determine the current time. Marika looked at Jenny in the observer's seat.

 

"Jenny, do you have any records of the Stellar Slayer fleet?"

 

"The Stellar Slayer fleet?" Jenny repeated the question, shaking her head with a troubled expression. "Well, isn't it a violation of the rules of even the Stellar Alliance to try to artificially create a supernova, making it the ultimate weapon? I've looked hard for them, but it seems there are no records left, and I heard that when it was annexed by the Galactic Empire, they got rid of all the inconvenient records, so it's probably among them."

 

"There are no records of the Stella Slayer fleet?" Marika thought deeply. “I thought things would be much easier if we knew the current time and the relative positions of the Stellar Slayer fleet.”

 

A thought struck her, and Marika looked up. "Then what about the pirate fleet? Since the pirate fleet that jumped to Garnet A to intercept the Stellar Slayer left behind all their logbooks, we know where they are and what they're doing, right?”

 

"You can't rely on them."

 

"Huh?"

 

"Marika, you probably understand this as captain of the Bentenmaru, but when things get really busy, you don't even have time to keep records; you just have to deal with one thing after another. On a pirate ship where chaos is a constant, some records seem to have been patched together haphazardly after the fact, and the automatic recordings sometimes disappear or are clearly contradictory, or sometimes they're just copied and pasted from previous records." Jenny opened the file she had taken out and ran her finger over the pages. "I'll try to organize it so it's easy to read. Don't rely on it too much, though."

 

"Please do."

 

Thanks to the meticulous maintenance performed for the ship inspection, the deployment of the Odette II's masts and yards was completed without any problems. Most of the antennas are mounted on the masts, and multiple sensors are also installed on the masts and yards to allow for simultaneous operation with as much distance between them as possible. Deploying the masts alone significantly increases the ship's detection capabilities.

 

"December 21, year 129 of the new calendar, huh..."

 

Leaving the processing of the vastly increased observational data to the radar/sensor system, where all the seats were filled, including Lynn's, Marika looked at the current time calculated from the positions of the constellations and planets.

 

"It's about six months since we last came here." Gruier said from the communications' seat. "Shall we try calling someone?"

 

"Who in the world would we be calling!?"

 

"The Bentenmaru." Gruier tapped the control panel. "They should be nearby, right?"

 

"They should be."

 

In the message contained in the message capsule, Marika said that Bentenmaru was in the Antares constellation.

 

"But right now, here at Garnet A, the Stellar Slayer fleet is preparing to turn the red giant into a supernova. Have the Federation of Colonial Stars pirate ships come this far yet?"

 

Marika tried to recall the movements of the pirate ships during the final stages of the War of Independence. According to her vague memories, the Tau star system was desperately trying to cope with the approaching large expeditionary fleet from the Stellar Alliance during the final stages of the war. Meanwhile, the pirate fleet was engaged in battle with the Stellar Slayer fleet, which was carrying out the supernova project underway at Garnet A in the Antares constellation.

 

Marika only knew the general outline of the battle that unfolded at Garnet A. The supernova bomb that the Stellar Alliance was planning to use was a doomsday weapon capable of scorching planets within a radius of over ten light-years and destroying the ecosystems of habitable planets within dozens of light-years. Its use was strictly prohibited by treaty throughout the Galactic Empire and even in the frontier regions that opposed the Empire.

 

Although not officially a regular military operation, the fact that the Stellar Alliance tried to use a supernova bomb against its colony planets at the end of the War of Independence was carefully concealed when it was annexed by the Galactic Empire. As a result, almost no official records of the battles at Garnet A remain. The few battle records are on pirate ships, but Marika knows that they are poorly organized and difficult to use.

 

"Communications are out of the question!" Marika shook her head, thinking far ahead. "Because there should be two Bentenmarus around here! What if we try to call one of them—either the Bentenmaru from the War of Independence or the one that jumped here from the same future as us—and we accidentally call the wrong one?!"

 

"Huh?" Lynn exclaimed in an exaggerated voice. "So what does that mean? Does that mean there are two Bentenmarus here, the old one and the current one?"

 

" It's not just the Bentenmaru." Jenny answered from the observer's seat while tapping on the control panel. "There should also be two White Swans. One of them is called the Odette II."

 

"Eh?" The bridge crew's voices blended together in a chorus of confusion.

 

"But the current Bentenmaru doesn't know that Odette II has come here yet, right?" Gruier said, confirming each word.

 

"Marika left a message in the Bentenmaru’s message capsule after coming here and making contact with the Bentenmaru, right?" Chiaki glanced at Marika in the captain's seat while continuing her analysis. "Marika, how did you get in contact with the Bentenmaru?"

 

"How would I know?!" Marika blurted out. "What should we do? I don't think we'll get a proper response if we try calling them through normal communication, and besides, if history is anything to go by, this place will soon become a battlefield!"

 

"At least, it seems like that's what the people here intend." Lynn expanded the display and quickly showed a list of the signatures detected within the Garnet A star system. "Since it's only passive observation, the signatures on the other side of the star are from a few hours ago. The signatures related to FTL travel in the outer planetary system are from about half a day ago. They're probably supply ships or something."

 

"...There are a lot of them directly above the star."

 

Garnet A, now a red giant, has swelled to such an extent that it has engulfed its former third planet. The red giant, with a diameter of 1.12 astronomical units, has become so massive that it has grown to be about a third the size of the inner planetary system of the Tau system, with several signatures occurring around it.

 

"The strong signatures at both poles are the control stations for extracting energy from the red giant, and the ones on the equator are the work ship for controlling the star itself, right?" Marika muttered, remembering the last time she came here. She shook her head, realizing that even though it was in her past, it was 120 years in the future.

 

"The signatures at both poles and the equator are not spaceships from the Stellar Alliance, but rather work ships of the Stellar Slayer fleet, so they shouldn't pose a threat. The ships on the equator are probably also work ships equipped with powerful gravity control engines, so once we confirm their current location, further tracking won't be necessary. The ships that could actually be a threat are probably located elsewhere..."

 

"Oh, there are several in the outer planetary system." Lynn listed the signatures that could currently be detected on the display. " They're emitting strong radio waves without any regard for being seen, so they stand out like lighthouses. Judging from the signatures and output, I think they’re probably the Stellar Slayer fleet’s escort fleet."

 

Marika looked at the signatures as a list on the display. The computer checked the database and displayed the types and ship classes that matched with a high probability for some of them. "Eight cruiser-class, sixteen destroyer-class..." Marika spoke as calmly as possible, in the face of a much greater force than she had expected.

 

"They're sending an expeditionary fleet to the Tau system, and yet they're able to bring this much force to a place like this." Jenny muttered in admiration. "I wonder if they’re on the list. Wait a moment, I'll check to see if I can confirm it."

 

"Please do."

 

"So, what do we do?" Lynn said, rechecking the signatures that were automatically determined not to be spaceships in the first scan to make sure there were no missed ones. "It seems we arrived without any pre-jump phenomenon, so they haven't noticed us yet. But we're well within their scanning range. If we stay still, it'll only be a matter of time before we're found."

 

The spacecraft around Garnet A were freely emitting radar for patrol purposes, scanning the area. The radar waves traveled at the speed of light through space, reflecting off the Odette II. Marika spotted a spaceship in close proximity to the Odette II. If they remained still, the Odette II would appear on their radar in an hour.

 

"Any signatures other than the Stellar Alliance?"

 

"The friend-or-foe identification system is working fine." Lynn displayed a series of automatically identified enemy markers on the screen. "Right now, I only see enemy ships in this airspace. There are no friendly ships or unidentified vessels. When are the pirate ships expected to arrive here?"

 

Marika looked at Jenny, who was tapping away at her keyboard while investigating. It didn't look like she'd get an answer for a while.

 

"I think they'll be arriving soon."

 

The communication system emitted an unexpectedly sharp ringtone.

 

"Incoming transmission!"

 

Gruier opened the communication channel. Marika's eyes widened in surprise as she looked at the data displayed on the communication monitor. "The Bentenmaru!?"

 

"Directional communication, with identification signal." Gruier announced, picking out only the necessary data. "The other party's identification signal is Bentenmaru, but it's not the Odette II that's being called. It's the White Swan."

 

" Did an old protocol get triggered?"

 

"I think so." Gruier answered, tapping on the control panel with quick fingers that were unusual for an amateur. "This ship is now Odette II, but it used to be the White Swan. This encryption code is also from a long time ago, so please wait, I'll match the code now."

 

"So the other party is the old Bentenmaru!?"

 

Gruier nodded to Marika, who had raised her voice. "I think so. Do you want to take it?"

 

Marika thought for only a moment. "Connect us."

 

"I'm opening a line with the Bentenmaru. Audio only."

 

"This is the Bentenmaru, Captain Bunzaemon."

 

An unfamiliar voice came through. At that moment, Marika realized that the crew of the Bentenmaru during the War of Independence was completely different from the crew of today.

 

"How are you, White Swan? I didn't notice how you got here, but leisurely observing without any camouflage? You still have quite the nerve, Captain Shiratori⁹."

 

"The current captain of the Bentenmaru is Kato Chirusonian Bunzaemon." Jenny passed the data to the captain's seat. "The captain of the White Swan is Shiratori Kent, 52 years old, male."

 

"What!?"

 

The voice modulator that Lynn had prepared in anticipation of something like this happening wouldn't be ready in time.

 

"His daughter is the first officer on board." Jenny sent new data to the captain's seat. "Shiratori Suzuka, 17 years old, female."

 

"This is the White Swan, Shiratori Suzuka." Marika read the name on the display and answered the call.

 

"Are you the ones? The separate force that the Karyoubinga’s Count mentioned, located at the end of a supply line different from the main force?'

 

Marika looked at Jenny, seeking some kind of information.

 

“At this time, the pirate ship's job was to attack the supply line of the expeditionary fleet heading to the Tau star system.” Jenny spoke quickly, tapping on the control panel at high speed. “There was also information that the Stellar Alliance was preparing a final weapon separate from the expeditionary fleet.”

 

“I don't know if it was the final weapon that was in the information, though.” Marika checked today's date. She didn't know who she could talk to, what she could say, or how much information she could reveal.

 

"It's definitely preparations related to a war." Captain Bunzaemon said cheerfully. "Otherwise, why would the Stellar Alliance have such valuable forces around a red giant that has no strategic value? It seems they have four utility cruisers and a destroyer as well."

 

"Our observations have confirmed the presence of eight cruisers and sixteen destroyers."

 

"That's the White Swan for you!" Bunzaemon's voice was laced with amusement. "The rumors about your ship having clairvoyant-level surveillance capabilities aren't just empty talk, are they? Could you tell me their deployment?"

 

"Of course. Well..." Marika looked around the bridge.

 

"Wait a minute!" Lynn shouted while tapping on the control panel. "They won't be able to decipher the data if we give it to them as is! I’m currently looking up the standard code for this era!"

 

"Here it is!" Gruier, in the communications officer's seat, sent a file to the radar/sensor system. "Type 28 quad code, with conversion code for the current date!"

 

Wartime encrypted communications changed their encryption codes depending on the date.

 

"Thank you! How did you manage to find this?"

 

"The Odette II handled it automatically." Gruier answered while touching the communications panel. "I found the communication standards and the encryption codes for communications between pirates. Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to respond to their sudden call without any preparation."

 

"I'm impressed that our predecessors kept these settings, even though they probably never intended to use them again."

 

"Sending all our data would take too much time." Marika casually continued the conversation with the Bentenmaru. "I'll send you a list of the enemy ships, as well as the types and current locations of the spacecraft that seem to be working around Garnet A."

 

"That's very helpful. Please give my thanks to Captain Shiratori, Suzuka-chan."

 

Being addressed so familiarly, Marika's response was delayed for a moment. She made eye contact with Chiaki, who was looking anxiously at the captain's seat.

 

Her mouth moved naturally. "It's not 'chan'!" Chiaki's eyes widened.

 

"Okay, it’s done!" Lynn tapped the control panel. "The digest version of the observation results is complete, I'll send it to you, Gruier!"

 

"Received. We can send it out anytime."

 

"Sending our observation results." Marika looked down at the communication display. The only thing connecting the Odette II and the Bentenmaru is the currently active communication line. "Is it okay to send it over this line?"

 

"Yeah, go ahead. I'll decrypt it and check it right away."

 

"Please send it."

 

Under Marika's instructions, Gruier sent the observation results data to the Bentenmaru.

 

"Received."

 

Although it was data for dozens of spaceships, it was stripped down to just the type, current position, and velocity direction, so it didn't take up much space.

 

"Just a moment, I'm having our skilled technicians check it... Ho ho ho, this is amazing!" Bunzaemon exclaimed in admiration. “Not only can you see subtle signatures that we couldn't identify, but you can even see things that we didn't even notice. What kind of magic are you using?”

 

“...It's a trade secret.” After finally answering, Marika added as if she had just thought of something. “My crew is excellent.”

 

A hearty laugh was heard from the other end of the line. Marika didn't laugh.

 

“Thank you, White Swan. Until our forces are ready, the Bentenmaru will temporarily retreat to the designated rendezvous point. What about you?”

 

“We've confirmed what we needed to confirm, so we'll also temporarily withdraw.” Marika mentioned one of the options she had been considering. “We'll keep sailing and leave the patrol zone.”

 

After saying that, she added hastily. “That's what Captain Shiratori said.”

 

“Roger. See you later, Suzuka-chan.”

 

After taking a breath, Marika responded. “It’s not Chan! Good luck, Captain Bunzaemon.”

 

Marika confirmed on the communications display that the line had been cut. Just to be sure, she looked at Gruier, who nodded to the captain's seat.

 

“Communications ended. Good work.”

 

“Whoa...” Feeling a sudden wave of fatigue, Marika wiped her forehead. The sweat that hadn't flowed in the weightless state stuck to the back of her hand. “Why? Where was the Bentenmaru? It was just normal communications, right? There was barely any time lag, so that means the other party was within 100,000 kilometers, right?”

 

“If we get found, we'll both be in trouble.” Lynn rechecked the close range sensor data. "Warships on patrol emit strong radar signals so it's not that difficult to find them passively if they're nearby. If you know where they are, it's common to wait for an opportunity to sneak in, or to run away if you're about to be found."

 

Lynn checked the observation data, focusing on areas that were likely to be blind spots based on the positions of the two nearest cruisers. "This asteroid in the catalog is a perfect match, I wonder if it's hiding in this thing?"

 

"I wonder if it's using stealth or something." Considering the current equipment on the Bentenmaru, Marika shook her head. "No, I don't have time to think about other spaceships. They should be more familiar with the situation than us, so let's leave it to them. Deploy the solar sails and head from the ecliptic to the north pole."

 

"Take a trajectory from Garnet A's ecliptic plane towards the North Pole."

 

Ai, the helmsman, repeated the command. Jenny asked.

 

"Why that direction?"

 

"I just chose the direction where the patrol network was the thinnest. I don't know the rendezvous coordinates. I wonder if they're still in the old records?"

 

"Good job. How was it? How did it feel to talk to your great-grandfather?"

 

Marika looked at Jenny again. "Huh? My great-grandfather?"

 

"Kato Chirusonian Bunzaemon was the first captain of the pirate ship Bentenmaru. And pirate licenses are only granted to direct descendants." Looking down at the display, Jenny confirmed the name of the former captain of the Bentenmaru. "The man you just spoke to is Kato Bunzaemon, Kato Marika's great-grandfather."

 

A chorus of surprised exclamations rose from the bridge. The loudest voice was Marika's.

"I'll explain the situation."

 

Talking through a microphone, Marika looked around at the faces of the club members gathered on the bridge of the Odette II. While the radar/sensor and engine departments had essential personnel on duty who couldn't leave their posts, everyone else was crammed into the not-so-spacious bridge.

 

Some of the club members who couldn't fit in were crowded around the open doors to the central shaft. Marika's voice was also being broadcast throughout the entire ship.

 

"We've been able to determine the current situation from the voyage and communication logs that remained on the Odette II. I'll explain the current situation as far as we know it." Marika looked down at the display, which showed a list of the currently known facts. "First, the current time. It's December 21, 129, new calendar year, and it will soon be past midnight, making it the 22nd. The time zone is the standard time used on the spaceships of the Federation of Colonial Stars, the same time as Shin-Okuhama City, where the fleet headquarters is located. It's not the galactic standard calendar, but the reference time is the same as the current time in Shin-Okuhama City."

 

"At the very least, that means we're operating in the same time zone as Hakuoh Girls' Academy, right?" Jenny called out from the observer’s seat. “So we don't have to worry about suddenly being thrown into a different time and being confused.”

 

"That's right." Marika looked around at the faces of the club members, who seemed a little confused. The ship's clock on the Odette II had switched to displaying the currently confirmed time. "However, the date is 120 years ago, during the final stages of the War of Independence."

 

Anyone who grew up on a former colony planet knows the anniversary of the start and end of the War of Independence. The War of Independence ended on December 31, 129th year of the new calendar.

 

"As you all know, the war will end in about ten days. The main force of the Stellar Alliance’s expeditionary fleet is approaching the Tau system, and the Federation of Colonial Stars is overwhelmed with dealing with it."

 

Compared to the last time they came to the Tau system during the War of Independence, the club members' background knowledge has increased significantly. They were becoming experts, surpassing even professionals, in areas that would likely never be useful in everyday life, such as the communication protocols and navigation support systems of the War of Independence era, the command structure and deployment of the Federation of Colonial Stars Fleet, as well as the equipment and achievements of each ship, and the radar performance and practical capabilities of the weapons of the Stellar Alliance's fleet.

 

"Many of you are probably familiar with the Stellar Slayer Project, which the Stellar Alliance was carrying out as a side project during its fleet expeditions to the colonized planets, as we've been involved with it quite a bit recently. The question is, what was happening here at Garnet A in the Antares constellation at this time, just ten days before the end of the war?”

 

Marika projected a star chart centered on the red giant star Garnet A in the space in the center of the bridge that had been cleared specifically for this purpose.

 

“Thanks to Jenny bringing us the records from Karyoubinga, we have a general understanding of the situation. We'll use the current pirate ship logs and the communication with Captain Bunzaemon of the Bentenmaru to infer the situation, and we'll update it accordingly if there are any discrepancies.” She overlaid the positions of the spacecraft, as determined by observation, onto the star chart. "This is the currently known deployment of the Stellar Slayer fleet. Control stations are located at both poles of Garnet A, and work ships equipped with powerful antigravity engines lined up around the equator, and preparations are currently underway. "

 

Leaving aside the large control stations at both poles, the arrangement of work ships at the equator is not yet uniform. There is a large floating dock in orbit around Garnet A that seems to take care of the work ships, and many work ships are waiting for their turn for maintenance or resupply.

 

"Apparently the Stellar Slayer was not originally intended to turn the red giant star a supernova. The original plan was to create an energy network and extract energy from the star and send it via hyperspace to space cities in interstellar space and spaceships traveling in deep space”

 

Marika looked at Jenny to make sure that she was explaining things correctly. Jenny nodded slightly and took over the explanation. She turned on the microphone on her headset and started talking.

 

"It's easy to extract energy from a star. But you can tell just by hearing about it that the idea of ​​then sending that energy through hyperspace is full of insurmountable challenges. Even now, the golden rule for FTL travel is to travel as far away from the source of gravity as possible, but they're trying to send the energy from right next to a red giant star, even if it's a dying one." Jenny, holding the remote control, used a laser pointer. She adjusted the length and indicated the red sphere of the red giant star displayed in 3D.

 

"These are the control stations installed at both poles. The system absorbs energy from antennas that spread in all directions and sends it into hyperspace. Of course, as an energy network, it's still incomplete at this point. The initial attempt to repurpose this system into a weapon was the Stellar Slayer project." Jenny looked around at the faces of the younger students. "It would be difficult to deliver energy through hyperspace to a spaceship moving at high speed, but if it was aimed at a colony planet, it would be a powerful destructive weapon. The problem is the jump error via hyperspace, and even with a tolerance level the size of a planet, the experiment didn't succeed. That's fortunate, because if it had succeeded, the Stellar Alliance wouldn't have needed to send a fleet; they could have energy-bombed any place they wanted, whenever they wanted.”

 

A murmur went through the bridge. Jenny continued.

 

"It must be terrible for the people being bombed. There are no battleships in orbit, and in fact there are no enemy ships in the system, but whether it's a military base on high alert or a peaceful city, explosions just happen. The only way to detect it in advance would be if the prejump phenomenon was observed on the ground, but there's no time to escape. On the other hand, for the attacking side, there's no weapon as easy and simple as this. As long as you know the coordinates of the target point, you can attack whenever you want, on any scale you want. Of course, tremendous difficulties were expected in its development, but the potential rewards were so great that massive budget, equipment, and personnel were invested. However, in the end, the development of the energy network couldn't be completed in time for the war, so its priority was lowered."

 

Jenny pointed to each of the work ships stationed around the star with her beam pointer.

 

"Their research into extracting energy from stars has also greatly advanced our knowledge of stars themselves. At some point, I think they developed a theory and technical procedure for artificially turning a red giant into a supernova. That's probably why they tried to deploy Garnet A as a final weapon against the colony planets.”

 

Jenny used her laser pointer to indicate each of the enemy ships positioned around the star in red.

 

“So, how did the Federation of Colonial Stars, which doesn't even have its own observation base, find out about the secret weapon in the Antares constellation? Information about the Stellar Alliance's secret weapon being under development was probably relayed to the fleet command, but of course, the regular fleet didn't have the resources to deal with it. That's where the familiar pirate ships come in.”

 

Using the remote, Jenny made a blue dot, indicating an ally, appear at Garnet A, which had previously only shown red dots indicating the Stellar Alliance's side.

 

"The role of the pirate ships when the expeditionary fleet is heading for the Tau star system is to cut off the expeditionary fleet's supply lines, which was stretched incredibly far from the Stellar Alliance. Even now, only the Empire's regular fleet, which has about three times as many transport ships and support vessels as combat ships, can operate for extended periods and engage in combat without resupply. If you want to keep a large fleet operational and effective, daily resupply, training, and maintenance are essential. Right, Lynn?”

 

"In games and simulations with easy settings, there are plenty of examples like that." Lynn answered from the electronic warfare seat. "Even a completely closed-loop intergenerational spaceship would not miss an opportunity to resupply. Especially a large fleet from 120 years ago. If supply ships weren't making daily shuttle runs along the designated route, the fleet's combat power would decrease by several percent per day."

 

"Thanks for the easy-to-understand explanation. In other words, targeting supply ships one by one is an important job that will gradually reduce the fighting power of the main expeditionary fleet. If that's the case, it's natural that targeting the supply bases where supplies are stored will have a greater effect than targeting the supply ships themselves. If it succeeds, the damage to the expeditionary fleet will be great, since they must resupply even if the supply base is gone, so the burden on the Stellar Alliance's supply ships will also be great. That's why the pirates were working hard to cut off the supply lines, and while targeting the supply ships, they noticed that there was another supply line in addition to the expeditionary fleet. I think that the separate force that Karyoubinga noticed was probably the other supply line for Garnet A's Stellar Slayer fleet."

 

Jenny used her laser pointer to trace the outline of the red giant star.

 

"From here on, there will be some guesswork. I think the fleet headquarters on Sea of the Morningstar probably has reliable information, but we're not supposed to be here, so we can't just casually call them or ask anyone for confirmation. The information I've pieced together took 120 years to compile, so I’m picking out only the parts that suit me, and if I were to tell someone today, they'd probably laugh at how many mistakes there are. But I believe it's connected to future history, so there shouldn't be any major mistakes.”

 

Jenny switched the display with her controller.

 

"The information about Garnet A's detachment, that the pirate ships noticed from the supply lines, must have been passed on to Fleet Command. They were free to do whatever they wanted wherever they wanted, but they had to report who was doing what and where, and what the results were, and ask for Fleet Command's instructions if necessary. That was one of the conditions for maintaining their pirate license. And Fleet Command also knew that the Stellar Alliance was preparing a final weapon in addition to the expeditionary fleet. Although the records of battles in space are famous, the Federation of Colonial Stars knew that they could not compete with the Stellar Alliance in terms of frontal strength or economic scale, so they put more effort into information warfare. So they told the pirates that a supernova bomb was being prepared at Garnet A and ordered them to stop it. In response, the pirates are abandoning their original job of supply and commerce warfare and gathering at Garnet A. That's the current situation."

 

Jenny used her pointer to indicate the current position of the Odette II, which was moving away from Garnet A.

 

Clearing her throat, Marika took over the explanation. "The pirate ships are gathering at the specified coordinates. They're keeping a safe distance, though, to avoid being spotted by the cruisers and destroyers that are on high alert." Using the control panel, Marika switched the 3D display, which had been a close-up of Garnet A, to a star chart of the surrounding star system.

 

“The fleet command's deployment order to Garnet A, addressed to the pirate ships, with the objective of preventing the Stellar Slayer fleet's activities, as well as the initial rendezvous coordinates, were confirmed because a message containing that exact information was found in the communication logs from when the Odette II was still the White Swan. From the associated communications, we also know where the White Swan was and what it was doing.”

 

A murmur of surprise spread through the bridge.

 

"According to that, the current location of the White Swan is Ryutin, which is the Stellar Alliance's nearest supply base. According to the logbook, it will arrive here at Garnet A in two days."

 

An even louder murmur rose from the club members.

 

Clapping her hands, Jenny drew the attention of the club members on the bridge to her.

 

"We pretty much know what's going to happen from now on. But we don't know what we should do. So I'll explain what we know now. What I want to explain is the Stellar Alliance's war strategy." Jenny cast the beam pointer at the red giant star at the center of the 3D display. “Thanks to the pirate ships that were responsible for disrupting the supply lines being diverted elsewhere, the expeditionary fleet will soon arrive at the Sea of the Morningstar without having to worry about supplies. So why did the Stellar Alliance, at this point when their expeditionary fleet was about to reach the Tau system where the colonial alliance's fleet headquarters is located, and when they were expected to win as planned, try to do something so reckless as to use a weapon that wasn't even necessary to win, a weapon that required diverting extra forces, the supernova bomb?”

 

Jenny turned off the beam pointer in a dramatic fashion and looked around at the faces of the club members peering in from all sides on the weightless bridge.

 

"It's because the Stellar Alliance was thinking of going to war with the Galactic Empire after the War of Independence."

 

An unannounced alarm cut through the silent bridge. Marika reflexively checked the display around the captain's seat.

 

“Unidentified signature!” Chiaki called out from the radar/sensor seat. "It's faint, but there's no doubt about it!"

 

"Unidentified?" Marika asked, trying to keep her voice as calm as possible. "So it's not the Federation of Colonial Stars or the Stellar Alliance?"

 

"I can't confirm either of those identification signals." Leaving confirmation by other observation methods to the other club members also at the radar/sensor station, Chiaki reported only her conclusion.

 

"The it’s not the Stellar Alliance." Marika quickly concluded. "Garnet A is on high alert, and this is within the Stellar Alliance's airspace. If they're not sending out an identification signal there, then they're definitely the side that doesn't want their identity to be known."

 

"So, pirates?"

 

Marika didn't nod.

 

"Shall we investigate?" Lynn, in the electronic warfare seat, called out casually. "Fortunately, the unidentified signature is farther away from Garnet A than we are. If it's directed outward, it won't be easily noticed even if we use radar."

 

Right now, the Odette II is facing away from Garnet A and heading toward the northern sky. There are no warships from the Stellar Alliance in the direction of travel, so there is no need to worry about our presence or position being revealed by detecting our radar even if we use it. Strictly speaking, there is a possibility that the radar reflected by the target will return to the vicinity of Garnet A and be detected, but the possibility and risk are sufficiently low.

 

"Let's check." Marika said. "Keep the radar output as low as possible to avoid any complications. Um, based on the current readings, we can't determine the type of ship, can we?"

 

"It has low thermal radiation, its energy signature is undetectable, there's no visible wake, and it's probably using optical stealth technology." Chiaki projected the image from the maximum optical telephoto lens onto the center of the bridge. The background of the starry sky was blurred in just one small spot. "There's definitely something out there that doesn't want its identity known." Chiaki summarized the information she had gathered and conveyed it to them. "With this limited information, the possibilities are too broad to narrow down the type of ship, but wouldn't it be reasonable to assume it's a high-powered vessel built to military specifications?"

 

"Okay. Get ready for battle!" Marika ordered. "Everyone, please return to your posts. We'll continue this discussion after we've identified the spaceship in front of us."

 

With a chorus of shouts, the crew members who had been crowded on the bridge scattered to their respective stations.

 

"Should we use the Silent Whisper?" Jenny asked from the observer’s seat.

 

"No." Marika shook her head. “We don't know yet whether it's friend or foe, or even its identity. I'd like to keep our secret weapon hidden for now."

 

The bright spot shown in the northern sky of Garnet A, which was displayed in 3D in the center of the bridge, remained white, indicating that it was unidentified.

 

"Even as it is now, the Odette II's detection ability is better than the White Swan thanks to the updates. We can win even without the Silent Whisper."

 

"However, I don't think an opponent who is already using stealth tactics would willingly allow themselves to be brought to light." Lynn, who had jumped from her usual electronic warfare station to the radar/sensor station, took her seat, replacing the twin-tailed first-year student. "Fortunately, even with only passive detection, we have a general idea of ​​the enemy's location. Let's narrow down the range, concentrate our fire, and flush them out in one go."

 

The radar was quickly prepared for firing.

 

"Don’t use pulse mode." Marika instructed after seeing the beam mode for the radar that was transferred to her. "Let's go with continuous beam."

 

"Eh?" Lynn looked up at the captain's seat. "After the first shot, I was thinking of pulsating it every three seconds or so to see what would happen."

 

"But firing such a focused radar beam is practically like picking a fight."

 

The output is not set to maximum, and the radar being prepared for firing is not a high-frequency radar used for fire control. However, the output of the radar equipped on the Odette II far exceeds the standard for civilian ships, and is still powerful even when compared to warships.

 

"When the radar hits them, they will know that we have noticed them. In that case, it makes no difference whether we turn off the radar or not. What's more frightening is the possibility of them launching a counterattack that we couldn't anticipate while our radar is off."

 

"Roger that." Lynn easily changed the radar mode. "Preparation for radar is complete. We can go anytime."

 

"Please wait." Marika looked around the main bridge, with its full complement of crew members present, and then lowered her gaze to the displays around the captain's chair. “As yet, not all personnel are in place. Since we have the time, let’s wait until everything is ready before we start.”

 

"Alright, then I’ll…" Lynn swapped seats with the twin-tailed first-year and returned to the electronic warfare seat. “Well then, I'll get things ready and warm up the equipment so we're ready to engage.”

 

"Please don't go overboard." Marika called out to the electronic warfare seat. "We don't know what's going to happen here in the future. Don't go all out with our trump cards right from the start, okay?"

 

"I know, I know." Lynn replied, switching several settings. "Unless the enemy has a particularly elaborate reaction, it'll be fine, but if we keep our systems running, we can collect more diverse data than just from radar/sensors alone. However, if we gather too much data, we won't have enough time to analyze it all."

 

Reports of readiness came from throughout the Odette II. Marika gave the command. “Begin radar transmission.”

 

"Transmitting." Chiaki reported briefly. "We should get a response in 20 seconds..."

 

Radar signals, emitted at the speed of light, take a certain amount of time to hit a distant target, reflect, and return. As soon as transmission began, a timer began counting down from 20 seconds.

 

"It's arrived." Chiaki muttered as the countdown dropped below 10 seconds. “Now we just have to wait for it to return... It's here!"

 

Exactly as calculated, the radar lit up the target 3 million kilometers away.

 

"Locked on! Huh, what?!" Chiaki, who was about to start analyzing the returning signal, let out a sudden cry. "It disappeared?!"

 

The target was only visible on the radar for a brief moment. The signal swelled up as noise immediately after it was detected, then faded and disappeared.

 

"No, it's stealth." Lynn said, tapping on the control panel of the electronic warfare seat. "The jerks! They've disabled our radar with active stealth!"

 

"Sensors, continue to focus on observing the target airspace!" Marika ordered emergency measures. “Change the radar frequency to a higher setting and re-scan!”

 

"Changing frequency and re-scanning." Chiaki repeated, switching the radar frequency to a higher setting.

 

"Just to be sure, double the range! The target doesn't seem like the type to just stand still after being scanned!"

 

Marika checked the sensor reading. No spatial anomalies indicating a FTL jump could be observed. As the radar, with its changed frequency, was re-emitted, the reset countdown timer began to count down to zero.

 

"Change frequency again in 10 seconds." Without waiting for a response, Marika instructed them on the next course of action. "From now on, change the frequency every 10 seconds and search the area around the first target. Have you analyzed the first signal?"

 

Even if the reaction is only for a moment, if it's recorded, it can be analyzed in any desired way. However, the twin-tailed girl in the sensor seat shook her head and passed the analysis results to the captain's seat.

 

"According to the search results, there are no ships in either the Stellar Alliance or the colony planets that match the response."

 

"Then check all the other spaceships in the Galactic Empire."

 

The search itself is done by computer.

 

"If that's the case, then..."

 

The display that had no search results was now overflowing with data and began scrolling at high speed.

 

"What!?"

 

"That's useless." Jenny sighed, looking at the same results from the observer seat.

 

"We’ve got it!" Chiaki called out. "It moved this far in an instant?!"

 

This time, the computer immediately provided the query results. The bridge crew all shouted out in unison as the ship's name was displayed simultaneously in several places on the bridge.

 

"The Bentenmaru!?"

 

"Yes, the Bentenmaru." Chiaki repeated, as if to confirm. “We don't have reliable data on the Bentenmaru from the past, but this Bentenmaru matches the data held by the Odette II.”

 

Marika checked the data that had been sent to the captain's seat.

 

Since becoming a pirate ship, the Bentenmaru has undergone numerous modifications. Although the basic hull design, which was based on a mobile cruiser that was already considered second-rate during the War of Independence, remains unchanged, its appearance has steadily transformed due to repairs from damage and modifications from upgrades.

 

The Bentenmaru's response matched the latest data the Odette II has from 120 years in the future.

 

"Gruier!" Marika called out to Gruier in the communications officer's seat. "Directional communication, at lowest power, call the Bentenmaru using the names Odette II and Kato Marika!"

 

"Ready." It was unclear how long she had been preparing for this, but Gruier opened a communication channel. "Directional communication, Captain Kato Marika of the Odette II, calling the Bentenmaru."

 

Instead of a response, a short message came back. The message, sent in the name of Misa Grandwood, acting captain of the Bentenmaru, asked the Odette II to scan several specified coordinates in rapid succession with its radar.

 

"They're in combat."

 

Based on the speed of the response and the content of the instructions, Marika immediately ordered that radar be directed to the space specified by the Bentenmaru. She sent back the radar frequencies for each target to the Bentenmaru.

 

"Initiating scan." Chiaki announced. "We will be directing radar to nine blocks centered on the initial target area, changing the frequency every ten seconds."

 

"Go ahead." Marika nodded.

 

"I've told them our frequency and transmission timing, so the Bentenmaru can catch and analyze the Odette II's radar response."

 

Normally, a radar system transmits and receives its own reflected signals. However, if the exact transmission timing, location, and frequency are known, another spaceship can receive the radar waves transmitted by another ship using its own antenna.

 

"The angle between the Odette II's current position and the Bentenmaru's is quite different, but they should be able to get useful data against a stealth enemy."

 

"Begin transmission!"

 

As soon as the initial transmission preparation was complete, the Odette II transmitted radar into the space ahead. After ten seconds of transmission, it changed the frequency and transmitted radar to the next designated area.

 

"Who is their opponent?" Gruier said while waiting for a response to the first radar signal. "Could it be the Stellar Alliance?"

 

"There is currently no notable movement in the Stellar Alliance fleet around Garnet A." Chiaki reported, having anticipated the question. “If an allied starship is being chased by a pirate ship from the Federation of Colonial Stars, there would have been some more movement, but there is nothing."

 

"But if the Bentenmaru is chasing them, then they're not our allies."

 

Marika looked at the message sent under Misa's name. "With this quick response and the mission instructions given without explanation, I'm sure it's my pirate ship."

 

"It's the Bentenmaru we know. I'm certain of it."

 

Marika looked at Gruier, who had stated it with conviction. "What's your basis for being so certain?"

 

"There are various communication standards and so on, but the decisive factor is the timestamp in the message from the Bentenmaru." Gruier pointed to the display with a smile. Hearing that, Marika looked again at the time of the message sent under Misa's name.

 

The message includes a timestamp indicating when it was sent. In typical communication, time lags ranging from a few seconds to several minutes are not uncommon, and sometimes attenuated signals are received months or even years later.

 

The message sent from the Bentenmaru was timestamped in Galactic Standard Time, and that time was only a few days different from that of the Odette II.

 

"Uh, if the Bentenmaru hasn't reset the galactic standard time, then that means our crew has spent a few extra days here." Marika suddenly realized this and looked up. "Wait a second, then what about the previous communication with the Bentenmaru?!"

 

"Don't worry." Gruier calmly called up the communication logs.

 

"As you can see, our timestamp is set to the time observed after we arrived here. There is a difference of a few seconds between our timestamp and theirs, but that's not that unusual in our world 120 years from now, so I ignored it."

 

"As expected..." After looking at Gruier again, Marika shifted her eyes to the radar response on the display. Four shots had already been fired, but there was no response from the area covered by the first three.

 

"Don't just focus on the front, keep an eye on other directions as well." Noticing that everyone on the bridge was paying attention to the radar response, Marika warned them. “If an attack comes from a direction we're not looking at, they'll be completely wiped out.”

 

Hurriedly, the twin-tailed and short-haired girls on either side of Chiaki each began searching in a different direction.

 

After completing the radar scan of the nine blocks centered on the initially targeted airspace, and even after waiting for the return signal from the final radar pulse, Odette II did not receive any new responses. Even the expanded search covering all directions, including the area behind, where Garnet A was located, yielded no significant results.

 

"There are mountains of responses if you remove the filter." Chiaki said while carefully examining the results of the radar scans. “But there aren't any promising responses that would warrant another scan. What should we do? Should we expand the range further, or should we just scan the entire area in our direction of travel?”

 

"Not yet." Marika shook her head in the captain's seat. "The Bentenmaru might have picked up something. Are there any signs of electronic warfare?"

 

“From the rear, that is, from Garnet A, we're getting a lot of signals from patrol radars and such, but we can't see anything in front, including around the Bentenmaru. It's true that we can't carelessly emit anything because a cruiser fleet is patrolling nearby, but the Bentenmaru is probably in the same passive observation mode as we are.”

 

 

In a patrol zone, even accidentally igniting the normal propulsion system could trigger detection via infrared. If the source of the spreading infrared radiation is traced, the spacecraft's current location could be tracked.

 

"Since the Bentenmaru hasn't said anything, don't move." Marika ordered. "When it comes to combat, they have more experts over there, so if we do anything unnecessary here, we'll just get in their way."

 

A call signal echoed on the bridge. Marika swiped her eyes over the communications monitor.

 

"There's a message from the Bentenmaru. This time it includes a picture."

 

"Connect the call."

 

"Can I take a look?"

 

"Of course!" Marika stared at the communication monitor. The noise took the shape of a person. Marika wondered what she would do if someone she didn't know appeared on the monitor.

 

"Yes, this is the Bentenmaru, Acting Captain Misa Grandwood." Misa appeared on the communication monitor and saluted with a nostalgic look on her face. "It's been 120 years, Odette II."

 

"This is the Odette II, Captain Kato Marika." Marika let out a sigh of relief and waved to the other side of the monitor. "Sorry I'm late. Is everyone there safe?"

 

"Late?" Misa looked at Marika again, a hint of surprise in her expression. "So, you, not just you, all of you, came here on purpose!?"

 

"Yes." Marika nodded with a smile. "I've also brought a secret weapon. Um..."

 

Marika looked around the bridge of the Odette II. "As the captain of the Bentenmaru, I’d like to get some reports. First, what's the current situation?"

 

"The Bentenmaru is tracking an unidentified ship of unknown origin." Misa answered smoothly on the communications monitor. "Ah, don't worry, we haven't had any contact with this ship or command. I was worried that we might do something careless and change history, but the fact that you've come here means that at least for now the future hasn't been altered that much."

 

"We came here four days after Bentenmaru went missing from the Tau system." Marika said, thinking that explaining everything would be a pain. "At least up until that point, I don't think the future has changed much, but, um, the unidentified ship? Is that the one that disappeared so quickly?"

 

"That's right." Misa nodded with a serious expression on her face. "An unidentified ship that doesn't seem to be from the Federation of Colonial Stars or the Stellar Alliance. The fact that the Bentenmaru is chasing it so relentlessly, yet can't even get a glimpse of it, is highly unusual."

 

As if realizing something, Misa looked at Marika again. "What secret weapon did you bring? The Odette II?"

 

While its electronic warfare capabilities are no match for the Bentenmaru, the Odette II's detection and communication capabilities are superior, thanks to its ability to use its massive mast as an antenna.

 

"No, it's even more useful." Marika cleared her throat dramatically. "It's the Silent Whisper."

 

 

 

The two ships made contact, maintaining a sufficient distance from Garnet A and the coordinates of the pirate ship's rendezvous point, which had been confirmed from communication records from the time when the Odette II was the White Swan.

 

Before making contact, the Bentenmaru and the Odette II exchanged various information via communication.

 

As Marika had suspected, the Bentenmaru had been completely swallowed by a rapidly expanding spatial disturbance during its close-range investigation, and had jumped into the past. Although the confirmed current location was the same Tau star system, the time was completely different.

 

"If I had known it would turn out like this, I would have listened to the details more carefully." Misa said over the communication line during the explanation of facts. "Because I never thought that targeted time travel would happen two or three times."

 

Marika made excuses apologetically. "It's not the kind of story that would be believed even if I reported it."

 

“And even if I had heard it, without knowing this situation, I wouldn't have believed it either.”

 

The bridge crew, who had guessed from Marika's words and actions that the Odette II had jumped back in time, demonstrated their remarkable emergency response capabilities. The present time is the end of the War of Independence, and the Tau star system is in a state of panic as the expeditionary fleet from the Stellar Alliance is about to arrive, so the Bentenmaru, which still has the data and equipment from that time, was able to move around without difficulty.

 

In Marika's absence, the command of the Bentenmaru is rotated among the bridge crew depending on the situation. When it was determined that the current location was the Tau star system at the end of the War of Independence, the acting captaincy was transferred from Hyakume to Misa.

 

"Why Misa?"

 

“Because I'm the one with the most free time during this emergency.” Misa answered nonchalantly. "As long as no one gets hurt or collapses, it's not much of a problem if I don't do any work. Besides, there's the matter of seniority..."

 

"Seniority?"

 

Marika looked at Misa suspiciously. Misa quickly changed the subject.

 

"Unfortunately, none of our crew members have experience with time travel."

 

"Really?"

 

“I don't know everyone's background for sure, but I've never heard of anyone having such experience. So, we all got together and discussed what to do.”

 

"So, what happened?"

 

“Well, there aren't that many options. First, do we actively intervene in the current situation, or do we observe passively?”

 

That was a problem Marika and the members of the yacht club had also struggled with. Misa asked Marika.

 

“Since you're the experienced one, I'd like to ask you about time paradoxes. How did you handle that situation?”

 

"I decided to avoid deviating from the existing history." Marika replied. "If we do something careless and the Federation of Colonial Stars disappears, or the pirates disappear, we'll be in trouble."

 

"That's basically the same conclusion we came to. Yes, we know how the War of Independence goes. We don't want to change the outcome. So we decided to observe the situation as calmly as possible. Luckily, the Tau star system is at war, so even if our ship seemed a bit out of place, we don't have to worry about being chased as long as we don't take any hostile action that stands out, and we still have our old records. We all agreed that that's why the captain was so concerned about the old records."

 

"That's why it's so hard to translate the records into something useful."

 

"So, we agreed to wait and see for the time being, but we're not being a pirate ship either. We kept our distance from the Sea of the Morningstar so as not to attract attention, and continued to search the entire sky in case it might be useful. That’s when we noticed an unidentified ship that wasn't in the records." Misa stopped her explanation at that point. "The rest will have to wait until after we make contact. Since they've been evading us for so long, and we don't know where they might be listening from, I don't want to talk about it over regular communication."

 

Misa looked back at Marika from the communication monitor. "I have a question for you too."

 

"What is it?"

 

"How did you know the Bentenmaru was here?"

 

"I received a letter that was left behind." Marika pointed the camera at the Bentenmaru's message capsule, which she had fixed at the foot of the captain's seat since she had nowhere to put it. "And there are two of them. One in the Tau system and one in the Antares constellation."

 

Misa looked at the message capsule held in Marika's hand with a very strange look on her face. "A message capsule? A message capsule from the Bentenmaru?"

 

Marika nodded emphatically. "The Bentenmaru sent a message in a bottle into the future, and I received it 120 years later."

 

"...At least since we came here, we haven't released any message capsules, you know?"

 

Marika nodded again. “The Bentenmaru will release the message capsules sometime in the future. We have to remember that, otherwise the future will change.”

 

 

 

The Odette II docked alongside the Bentenmaru.

 

There is a limit to how close the Odette II can get to the Bentenmaru with its solar sails spread. The Bentenmaru's reconnaissance ability depends largely on the size of its spread antennas, so it is important to keep their antennas deployed even while docked. Therefore, the Odette II and the Bentenmaru docked by extending their boarding bridges and connecting them at the midpoint.

 

Marika boarded the Bentenmaru accompanied by Jenny, Gruier, and Chiaki. Meanwhile, Coorie had boarded the Odette II with her electronic warfare staff and maintenance crew to check on the status of the Silent Whisper and other matters.

 

"Welcome back." Misa raised her hand as Marika entered the bridge and stepped down from the captain's seat. The entire bridge crew is on the bridge, except for Coorie, who had greeted her on the flight deck.

 

Marika looked around at the familiar faces in their familiar places and breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you're safe."

 

"It must be tough being the captain of two ships."

 

Marika shook her head, trembling, when Gruier said that. "Stop it, it's impossible to command two ships at the same time!"

 

"But at the moment, Marika is the captain of the Odette II."

 

"Well, as long as the Bentenmaru is operating as a pirate ship, we need Marika on board."

 

Marika glared at Misa. "Misa will continue to serve as the acting captain of the Bentenmaru!"

 

"Well, I’ll be lonely. Won't you stay here?"

 

"No matter how you look at it, the unarmed solar sail ship is more dangerous! I don't think the current Stellar Alliance army will distinguish between the training ship Odette II and the pirate ship White Swan, and the captain of the Odette II is listed on the flight plan, so I'll be the captain of Odette II until we return!!"

 

"Yes, yes." Misa backed down easily.

 

"It's certainly dangerous to be unarmed on this battlefield. What should we do? Should we put some of our ground troops on board in case of emergency?"

 

In fleet battles, Schnitzer's ground troops are in charge of ship-based weapons, and are also a powerful force in hand-to-hand combat.

 

"Ah, that might be a good idea." Marika looked at Schnitzer in his designated seat. She didn't want to pull Schnitzer away from his combat command duties on the Bentenmaru's bridge, but having the Bentenmaru's ground forces heavily armed and stationed on the Odette II would make it easier to handle various emergencies, including combat situations.

 

"If you can get them on board with heavy weapons for mobile warfare, they can handle anti-aircraft combat."

 

Marika quickly shook her head, imagining ground troops in powered suits and armored space suits holding anti-aircraft missiles and large-caliber rifles on the Odette II. "Absolutely not! As the captain, I would never allow our fully armed ground troops to board and stay on a girls' school training sailing ship!"

 

"Really? Our ground troops would do a good job."

 

"No, you should definitely avoid working at a girls' school." Kane, in the helmsman’s seat, chimed in. "That's tougher than retreating from a losing battle."

 

"Really?!"

 

"Okay, okay, don’t threaten Kane either!" Marika looked around at the bridge displays. "The Bentemaru seems to be doing just fine."

 

Marika turned her attention back to Misa. "What is this information about the unidentified ship that you don't want to talk about over regular communications?"

 

 

"So, since we ended up in the Tau star system at the end of the War of Independence, we decided to wait and see what was going on as far away as possible from the patrol network that was centered around Sea of the Morningstar." Misa displayed a star chart of the Tau star system on the main screen. "Even though I decided to wait and observe the situation, that was just a short-term plan. If I just watched silently, something might happen that I had to deal with. I was planning to run away if things got bad, but there's no guarantee that we could escape, even if the people we were up against were our ancestors from 120 years ago. I won't know until I'm actually in that situation, but if I need to sink the enemy to survive, that's what I intended to do as the acting captain."

 

"Wouldn't the Bentenmaru be okay?"

 

Misa smiled and shook her head at Chiaki’s question.

 

"Fortunately, the Bentenmaru of this era is away on another mission and isn't in the Tau system, but we are still imposters in this time period. I don't know if we can fool them if they conduct a thorough check, and we certainly can't go to the fleet headquarters to verify our identities. There isn’t a single crew member from this era’s Bentenmaru on this ship, and besides, there are no records here of a fake Bentenmaru being found or investigated."

 

"So, we can't risk being discovered by accident."

 

“Everyone agreed that it would be easier and simpler that way. But we don't know what will happen if we actually get into a battle, and what if the war unfolding before us is different from what we know? Fortunately, that hasn't happened yet, but we haven't reached a conclusion on this matter.”

 

“If the war turns out to be different...”

 

Misa looked at Jenny as she muttered.

 

"In the history we know, the expeditionary fleet of the Stellar Alliance that reached the Tau system never attacked the Sea of the Morningstar directly. But if that were to happen, would you just watch silently, or would you fight alongside the Federation of Colonial Stars? It's a difficult question."

 

"Yes." Jenny nodded. "It's an incredibly difficult question."

 

"No one was worried about returning to the future because there were plenty of options, like cryosleep or a roundabout trip at light speed, and that's why the Bentenmaru was assigned to a patrol mission as a volunteer with no reporting obligation. Then, we noticed a spaceship that wasn't on record."

 

"Is it a spaceship from the Stellar Alliance?" Jenny asked. At this time, when the expeditionary fleet was about to reach the Tau system, the Stellar Alliance had sent out many reconnaissance ships.

 

"Then the situation would be simple. If the expeditionary fleet can't get accurate information and delays the attack, that's consistent with the history we know. But the unidentified ship we noticed had completely different behavior patterns and signatures from the reconnaissance ships of the Stellar Alliance. The Bentenmaru also has at least some archived records, and when we compare them, it doesn't match anything like a separate unit or a commando reconnaissance team from the Stellar Alliance.”

 

"So a spaceship that wasn't from the Federation of Colonial Stars or the Stellar Alliance came to the Tau star system?"

 

Misa nodded when Gruier asked.

 

"Moreover, there are no records of that spaceship in the Bentenmaru’s records. Maybe we could find something if we went back to the future and looked into it, but of course that's impossible. But we can speculate about the possibilities, right?"

 

Misa looked around at the faces of Marika, Chiaki, Jenny, and Gruier on the bridge, one by one.

 

"The colonization of planets began before the practical application of FTL engines. Since then, our civilization has had numerous contacts with other civilizations. The region of space that includes the Stellar Alliance and the colony planets is a particularly remote area of ​​the Orion Arm, so these encounters weren't very frequent at first. However, once FTL travel became available, the opportunities for contact expanded rapidly, and trade with other galactic civilizations began. For example, isn't it true that the FTL engine on the Odette II was manufactured not by the Stellar Alliance or a colony, but by a manufacturer in the Galactic Empire?”

 

"The manufacturer that made the converter reactor no longer exists, but I have checked the records." Marika said, having looked at the application documents for the Odette II’s category change. "I don't know how it came to be in that form, and why it is still in use today."

 

"So what?"      

 

Misa asked, encouraging her to think further. Marika answered as prompted.

 

"So, it wasn't from the Stellar Alliance or the Federation of Colonial Stars, but from the Empire or the frontier?"

 

"During the War of Independence, the Federation of Colonial Stars shouldn't have had any contact with the Galactic Empire," Jenny said. "However, I've heard that the Stellar Alliance had some contact with the Empire and had obtained a lot of information."

 

"Even without direct contact, reconnaissance is still possible, right?" Misa spoke in a teacher-like tone. "The Empire has a policy of non-interference in civil wars, and if it's a civilization they haven't officially contacted yet, they probably won't intervene. But if even a small part of a civilization capable of faster-than-light travel has made contact, it would be possible to gather a variety information. And even though the Imperial Fleet, which invests so much in intelligence gathering, isn't directly involved, I don't think they would ignore a conflict on the frontier."

 

Misa looked around at the students' faces once again.

 

"Don't you think we need to confirm this?"

 

"Confirm whether the other party is the Galactic Empire or not..." Gruier muttered, as if to verify. “That's right. If it's the Empire we're dealing with, there's not much to worry about. And if the frontier nations are just observing the situation, that's one thing, but if some criminal organization or pirates are trying to take advantage of the chaos, then that would cause a lot of problems. Because at least in the history we know, no such outlaws have ever intervened.”

 

"So, you've been tracking this unidentified ship all the way here to confirm that?" Gruier said to Misa.

 

“That's right. Based on circumstantial evidence, a reconnaissance ship this well-trained and equipped could only belong to the front lines of the Imperial Fleet, but we haven't been able to confirm it yet. However, if the Odette II and Silent Whisper join us, we should be able to track the unidentified ship much more efficiently than chasing it with just the Bentenmaru alone.”

 

"...That's not good."

 

"Huh?"

 

"I think that's a pretty bad situation." Marika looked at Gruier's face as she spoke.

 

"Why? The Galactic Empire isn't the enemy, so why is this a problem?"

 

“If the conflict in the Tau system were simply between the Stellar Alliance's expeditionary fleet and the Federation of Colonial Stars, I don't think the Imperial fleet will interfere. But what if the Empire notices that one of the factions here in the Antares constellation is planning to use a supernova bomb?"

 

Schnitzer groaned. "What would happen is..."

 

"Supernova bombs are strategic weapons that the both the Empire and the opposing frontier territories have banned by treaty." Schnitzer turned his seat around and spoke in a low voice.

 

"If a new civilization that is not part of the rebel forces or the Empire tries to use it, the Empire will eliminate it by force."

 

"Ah, that's why!" Jenny exclaimed. "So the Galactic Empire will intervene in the War of Independence!"

 

"No, I don't think so." Schnitzer's answer was unexpected.

 

"The problem for the Empire is not the War of Independence, which is classified as a civil war, but the use of a supernova bomb, which will burn the surrounding environment to the ground, whether it is a habitable planet or not. If it is a strategic weapon that violates the treaty, the fleet should act quickly and eliminate the threat without waiting for the judgment of the Empire's high command."

 

"Then there shouldn't be a problem, right?" Chiaki said nonchalantly.

 

"If the Empire can eliminate the danger of the supernova bomb, wouldn't that be great?"

 

"That's not the history we know."

 

Chiaki gasped at Schnitzer's answer.

 

"Besides, if a fleet that is non-interventionist in principle intervenes, I don't think the matter will end with just removing the supernova bomb."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

Jenny asked Schnitzer, answered in a calm voice.

 

"The fleet's mission is not just to keep the Empire safe. Eliminating threats to the universe is also a crucial task for the fleet. Would they consider a civilization that attempts to use a supernova bomb as one with which they can coexist?"

 

"In other words..." Jenny frowned and spoke the predictable conclusion. “The Stellar Alliance will be destroyed by the Galactic Empire?”

 

"I don't think the Galactic Empire would distinguish between the Stellar Alliance and the colony planets." Schnitzer said, his tone unchanged.

 

"Even if we are fighting a war of independence, from the perspective of the Empire, we are the same civilization. Would they take into consideration internal circumstances such as a war of independence between the Stellar Alliance and its colony planets? And would they show leniency to a civilization they judged incapable of coexistence?"

 

"If they use the supernova bomb, we'll all be wiped out!?"

 

Schnitzer quietly nodded at Jenny's conclusion, which sounded almost like a scream.

 

"Even if the supernova bomb wasn't used, the fact that it was attempted may be enough for the Empire."

 

"And in the history we know, the supernova bomb wasn't used, and the Empire didn't intervene to crush our civilization by force."

 

With a thoughtful expression and her arms crossed, Marika looked up. "So, is that what we have to do here?"

 

"What we have to do?"

 

Chiaki asked again. Marika nodded.

 

"In the history we know, the Galactic Empire didn't intervene in the battle between the Stellar Slayer fleet and the pirate ships at Garnet A. The pirate ships didn't allow the supernova bomb to be used by the Stellar Alliance." Marika spoke, confirming each detail of the situation. "And now, there are spaceships that are not in the records at Garnet A. Just in front of us are two ships, the Bentenmaru and the Odette II from the future, and three if you include the Silent Whisper, and one unidentified ship whose origin is unknown."

 

Marika looked around at the faces of the bridge crew. “If something happens that isn't recorded in history, something we don't know about, wouldn't our job here be to ensure that it doesn't unnecessarily affect the history we do know?”

 

"Uh..." Looking at Marika's face, and then at the understanding expressions on the Bentenmaru's bridge crew, Chiaki turned back to Marika. "I understand what you're saying, but aren't the victory conditions a bit too complicated? In this situation, how exactly can we win?"

 

"Um..." After thinking for a moment, Marika spoke. "First of all, we should avoid interfering in the battle at Garnet A if possible."

 

"I think that will be difficult."

 

Gruier pointed out with a grim look on her face, and Marika asked.

 

"Why?"

 

"First of all, emotionally we are on the side of the pirates. Also, we have already made contact with the Bentenmaru and provided them with information."

 

Misa, upon hearing Bentenmaru, gave Marika a strange look. With a look of regret, Marika covered her mouth with both hands.

 

"No, not this Bentenmaru."

 

"Not this Bentenmaru, which means..." Misa realized right away. “The other Bentenmaru?”

 

While covering her mouth with both hands, Marika nodded slightly.

 

"With the current Bentenmaru, who is a pirate ship in the War of Independence?!"

 

Marika nodded again.

 

"What kind of contact did you have?! Did you meet the crew of the old Bentenmaru?!"

 

"Just a little bit of voice communication." Marika tried to make excuses in a small voice. "And then, the data of the Stellar Slayer fleet around Garnet A observed by the Odette II."

 

Misa stared intently at Marika's averted face and shook her head slightly. "Well, what's done is done. Let's just hope that the consequences don't affect history."

 

"It should be okay, if it's only that much." Hyakume said leisurely, tapping on the control panel. “If the communication logs between us and the Odette II around Garnet A during the War of Independence are still in the ancient archives, then it means it hasn't affected history, right?”

 

Misa gave Hyakume a skeptical look. "Really?"

 

“Communication logs can be wiped out and disappear after a few days, or they can be rewritten later, so I don't think you need to be so nervous. Uh, it's the communication logs of the Bentenmaru from a little while ago, right?”

 

"It shouldn't have been a communication with Odette II." Gruier adds. "We used the White Swan's ID properly."

 

"Nice work. It must be this guy. A communication log from 129, 12-22-0224. The observation data from White Swan is also saved along with it. Don't worry, Captain, the results of the communication are properly recorded on the Bentenmaru. That means, at least, it doesn't seem like this communication caused any changes to the future."

 

"That's good..."

 

Marika breathed a sigh of relief. Misa turned back to Marika.

 

"So, you spoke with the crew of the current Bentenmaru?"

 

"Yes." Marika nodded. "With Kato Bunzaemon, the captain when the Bentenmaru became a pirate ship. He's my great-grandfather, apparently."

 

A strange silence filled the bridge.

 

"Anyway, we should avoid any unnecessary contact with both the pirates and the Stellar Slayer fleet!" Jenny said. “If we make contact that wasn't recorded, who knows what could happen.”

 

"I think that's a good policy for that situation, but the problem is with the unidentified ship." Misa turned her attention back to Marika. “Currently, we don't even know its identity or affiliation. Based on circumstantial evidence, we're judging it to be either an Imperial Fleet ship or a spaceship with similar training and equipment, but we can't be sure.”

 

“For that one too, we just have to prevent them from intervening, and not give them any information, right?” Marika said. "It would be a problem if Garnet A went supernova right in front of us, but even if it becomes known that the fleet is trying to turn a red giant into a supernova, there is a possibility that the Galactic Empire will intervene in a way that is not in our history. In that case, what we should do is not only to prevent the Empire from intervening, but also to intercept the unidentified ship so that they can't get any information."

 

"Are you planning to take on the Empire?"

 

Marika laughed at Gruier's questioning remark.

 

“No way. You should only pick a fight with an opponent you can beat, and only when winning would be worthwhile. Right now, all we can do is identify the unknown ship and prevent it from learning what's happening here. So, first, we should intercept them repeatedly to prevent them from even carrying out reconnaissance.”

 

"I see, so that's the plan." Coorie, who was in the middle of maintenance and adjustment of Silent Whisper with her crew, answered after hearing Marika's explanation when she returned to the deck. “It's fine to make a decisive move, but you should also have a backup plan in case it doesn't work out.”

 

"In case it doesn't work out?" Marika looked at Coorie again. "Are you saying that the ship we're chasing now might not be an Imperial ship?"

 

"I think it's probably an Imperial ship." Coorie nodded vaguely with a complicated look on her face. “I don't think it's possible for an unidentified ship that we've been chasing from the Tau system to Garnet A without even being able to identify it to belong to either the Federation of Colonial Stars or the Stellar Alliance. But we don't know much about the current galaxy. Even in electronic warfare, we only feel confident because we're dealing with the Stellar Alliance of this era. If it were the Imperial Fleet or the rebel forces, we don't know if we could fight them properly, whether it would be an easy victory, a tough fight, or even if we could compete at all.”

 

"That's..." Marika blinked in surprise at the suggestion, which came from a direction she hadn't even considered.

 

It is said that space combat began the day after spaceships began flying. There is endless debate about which species was the first to fly in space in the galaxy, and about the situation in the universe as a whole, but there's no doubt that combat has a history as old and rich as spaceflight itself.

 

In the future, 120 years from now, both the Bentenmaru and the Odette II possess considerable electronic warfare capabilities. However, this is the result of continuous updates and ongoing contact with forces outside the former colonial planets since their annexation by the Galactic Empire. Marika does not know whether their military capabilities, including electronic warfare, were comparable to the Galactic Empire's standards at the time of annexation, or whether they were completely outmatched.

 

"...Coorie, can you check it out?" Marika blurted out the idea that had suddenly come to her.

 

"What did you say?" Coorie looked at Marika again. "You're saying I should investigate the Galactic Empire's current electronic warfare standards? How?"

 

"Connect to the Galactic Empire's network." Marika spoke her ideas one after another. "The Galactic Empire is already using a FTL network, right? If we can get into the Galactic Network, we can get reliable information about the Empire, right?"

 

"Well, yeah." Coorie scratched her messy, carelessly tied-up blonde hair. "If there were an access point nearby, it would be easy to connect, but in this era, the Bentenmaru's protocols won't work."

 

"What?" Marika frowned. "What do you mean?"

 

"I mean, since I came here, I've been wondering if there's anything I can do, so I tried it out." Coorie looked away from Marika slightly. "Imperial fleet bases come and go, but I thought that if it was as big as Port Seruna would definitely be operational, so I thought I could connect to the galactic network using FTL communication. But it didn't work. The authentication and everything were completely different 120 years ago, and I couldn't even see the nameplate on the front door."

 

"You couldn't get into the network?"

 

“Simply put, that's the situation. I was able to confirm that the fleet base in Port Seruna is currently under the jurisdiction of the Seventh Fleet and is a thriving frontline base dealing with the frontier."

 

In the world 120 years from now, Port Seruna is the base of the Imperial Fifth Fleet. 120 years from now, the territory of the Galactic Empire has expanded even further, and the front lines against the rebel forces, which are the responsibility of the Seventh Fleet, have moved even further to the outer reaches of the galaxy.

 

"I see, so you need current knowledge not only for electronic warfare, but also to get into the network..." Marika fell deep into thought. "What do we need to get in?"

 

“This is still a frontier region, not yet part of the Galactic Empire, and we're in the position of being uncivilized people whose spacecraft haven't even been registered and recognized by the Galactic Empire yet. It would be so much easier if we had a valid Imperial bank account right now.”

 

"An Imperial bank account, huh..." Marika thought deeply. In 120 years' time, there would be an account in the Bentenmaru's name because of their business dealings with organizations and companies within the Empire, including the Imperial Fleet and the Insurance Association. Marika, who had only known Sea of the Morningstar's local credit union until then, also opened an account at the Central Bank because it was necessary for work.

 

"There's no way we can use Bentenmaru's account, right?"

 

"What are you expecting from an account that hasn't even been opened yet? Besides, there's probably not a single credit in it."

 

"What are you talking about?" Gruier, who had returned to the flight deck via the boarding bridge that was still connected, called out to Marika and Coorie, who were engrossed in conversation next to the various open hatches of the Silent Whisper.

 

"No, I'm just saying that it would be easier to access the Galactic Empire’s information network if we had a bank account."

 

"A bank account?" Gruier tilted her head slightly. "We have one."

 

Marika and Coorie exchanged glances.

 

"Well, of course, a venerable sovereign kingdom would have a bank account."

 

"The royal family has access to a substantial amount of money at any time for emergencies. There's a private account for that purpose at the Imperial Bank."

 

"The Imperial Bank?!" It was Coorie who let out a startled cry. “You mean the Imperial Bank without any qualifiers like First Imperial Bank or Central Imperial Bank!?”

 

"We've been doing business with a lot of different places for a long time." Gruier nodded nonchalantly. "The Serenity Kingdom opened an account at the Imperial Bank when it was founded. A special account for the royal family was also opened at that time, and it has been useful on numerous occasions since then."

 

Marika looked between the flustered Coorie and the ever-composed Gruier.

 

" Is having an account at the Imperial Bank really such a big deal?"

 

"The Imperial Bank, the Imperial Bank!" Coorie waved her hands around frantically, foaming at the corners of her mouth. "Even in the vast Galactic Empire, there's only one Imperial Bank without any prefixes or suffixes, the Imperial Bank itself, which is on the same level as an Imperial ministry! The value of the Imperial currency is guaranteed, and the economy of not only the Empire but the entire galaxy, including the frontier regions, function smoothly because the Imperial Bank is doing its job properly! It is impossible to open an account at the Imperial Bank unless you are a nation, so it is crazy to have an account at such a place that you can use freely at your own discretion!"

 

"Well, I am like a nation." Gruier gave a vague smile. "Would you like to use it?"

 

"Use it?" Marika looked at Gruier's confident face again. "Um, so in other words, Gruier can use the money in the account now?"

 

"That should be the case." Gruier nodded. "Since we don't know what kind of emergency situation will occur or what the circumstances are, there are no troublesome restrictions on the use of the private account."

 

"But, but, it's the Serenity Royal Family's private account, right? Is it really okay to use it without permission?"

 

"It would be a problem if a third party used it for their own personal gain, but as long as it is used by the royal family at their discretion, there is no problem."

 

"But if they investigate later, wouldn't that cause a lot of problems?"

 

"No one will investigate." Gruier's face clouded over slightly. “Well, I can't exactly say there won't be any problems, and even though it's our royal family's treasury, it's not inexhaustible. Is the amount you need a large sum?”

 

"Ah, it's not a big deal at all." Coorie waved her hands rapidly. “I just need to contract with a suitable provider and have them open a gateway to the information network, so it should cost about the same as a cup of tea."

 

"In that case, please use it."

 

Gruier said with a bright smile. Marika and Coorie exchanged glances again. Coorie, dramatically slumping her head and letting out an exaggerated sigh, placed a hand on Marika's shoulder.

 

"Captain, this is the first time I've truly understood the meaning of the saying, ‘Even in hell, everything depends on money.’"

 

"Um, well..."

 

“I thought that if we jumped back 120 years, there wouldn't be anything useful, but here we are, with a princess from a prestigious sovereign kingdom, and even time travel doesn't leave her short of money. What's the world coming to?”

 

“Really, the security of powerful nations is designed to overcome even minor historical constraints, isn't it?” Marika returned Coorie’s shoulder pat. "I'm so glad that Gruier is on our side. Thank you Gruier, I'm not in a position to be picky about my methods, so I'll use whatever I can."

 

"Yes, please feel free to use it." With one leg drawn back, Gruier performed a slight bow, a princess's curtsy.

 

"Coorie, keep a record of how much you spent on what. I'll pay you back later."

 

"Whether it's the Imperial Bank or the royal family, it's best not to make promises about paying back borrowed money." Coorie said, returning to her usual tone. "In 120 years, the interest will have ballooned to who knows how much."

 

"In that case, let's pay back the money we spent to Gruier right away." Marika smiled. "Is that okay?"

 

"No one will complain if the money spent from the account is returned to our pockets." Gruier nodded.

 

"Would you like to do it now? Or would you prefer to wait until I finish this work?"

 

Coorie looked back and forth between Gruier and Marika. The answer came immediately.

 

"Let's do it now. The sooner we get the information, the better."

 

 

Coorie came to the bridge of Odette II with Marika and the others, and sat down with Gruier at the communication officer's station and began preparing to connect to the information network.

 

The Galactic Empire has built a powerful information network throughout its territory as a public facility. Initially developed as an academic network and later for military purposes, this network has been maintained and operated as a galaxy-wide information network since the practical application of FTL communication.

 

This network, which allows for simultaneous information sharing across the entire galaxy, is said to have changed the galaxy more than FTL travel itself. FTL theory made it possible for information to travel at FTL speeds, along with people and materials. The information network connecting the entire Galactic Empire made it possible to share the latest information anywhere in the universe without the effort required to maintain and operate FTL spacecraft.

 

Due to the nature of sending information through hyperspace, FTL communication requires much more energy and specialized equipment than normal communication. FTL communication is affected by spatial conditions, just like FTL navigation, so continuous connections are limited to relay stations, space cities, and large ships with ample power output.

 

One hundred and twenty years after the Tau star system went through the War of Independence and was annexed by the Galactic Empire, there would be many access points constantly connected to the network via hyperspace communication. However, now at the end of the War of Independence, the Orion Arm, which includes Cetus and Antares constellations, is not part of the Galactic Empire, and therefore there are no access points that are constantly connected to the network.

 

The place Coorie had identified as a relatively close location with a reliable, constantly connected network node was Port Seruna, which was maintained and operated as an Imperial Fleet base. However, the attempt to establish a FTL communication link to Port Seruna using the Bentenmaru’s phone book from 120 years in the future unfortunately failed.

 

With the help of Gruier, a princess of the Serenity Kingdom who has an account at the Imperial Bank, Coorie first tried to set up a FTL line to the bank branch that should be in Port Seruna.

 

"As expected, places that lend money make their communication facilities easily accessible."

 

Unlike the previous attempt, where they couldn't even set up a network connection despite knowing the exact coordinates of Port Seruna, the communication setup for the Imperial Bank branch was completed so easily that Coorie was sometimes puzzled.

 

“Even the Bentenmaru, which has communication systems and standards that came into use after annexation by the Empire, couldn't connect properly. It seems that businesses that deal with customers are willing to accommodate anything, even if it doesn't quite meet the standards. At this rate, they might even be able to receive and process signals from ancient analog systems!”

 

"Can you use such an antiquated signal for FTL communication!?" Lynn, who had come to the communication officer's seat to help, spoke up.

 

"When it comes to FTL communication, you can't know how it will work until you actually try it, so I thought it was common sense that it would be at least digital."

 

"I'm surprised too. If they can handle analog FTL communication, not only do they have a very flexible system, but they might even be able to automatically analyze and handle communications using unregistered, unknown standards."

 

"Wow..." Lynn shook her head. "That's some incredibly advanced technology. I wouldn't want to go to war with a place that has that sort of setup just for a reception desk."

 

"We’re not starting a war this time." Coorie banged away on the keyboard of the control panel, making a rapid tapping sound, then looked up.

 

"We’re connected. Can you please authenticate, Gruier?"

 

"Yes." Gruier took the place of Coorie who had slipped away, and sat down in the communications officer's seat. She smoothly typed in a long random number into the standard authentication screen.

 

The screen changed. "Good." Gruier muttered to herself. "That's a question I can answer."

 

Marika, who had been looking away from Gruier during the authentication process, couldn't help but ask. "Eh?"

 

"To use a private account, you need not only a PIN number, but also questions to confirm that you are a member of the royal family." Gruier ran her fingers over the keyboard. "The full name of the first prince of the Kingdom’s Royal Family, without any abbreviations. The Grand Duke Shimsiel, my grandfather." Gruier typed in the long name, looking slightly pleased. "Obviously, he's not Grand Duke now, so I have to be careful not to get the title wrong."

 

Gruier quickly tapped the authentication key. The string of characters, transmitted through the FTL line was reconstructed and authenticated by the mainframe of a bank branch at a distant space station.

 

"Yes, we're connected." Gruier looked up with a grin.

 

"What do we do now?"

 

 

 

"Connected to the galactic network?!" Hyakume spoke up after hearing about the Odette II’s network connection on the bridge of Bentenmaru. "That's quite a sneaky trick you've come up with. But can we really connect to the galactic net with the equipment we have now?"

 

"With Gruier's help and a lot of sneaky tricks." On the communications monitor, Marika stuck out her tongue. Hyakume nodded in understanding.

 

"Well, with that princess there, most tricks would work. So, did it connect?"

 

"Right now, Coorie is setting up the Odette II’s connection to the network. Ah, it's connected."

 

Coorie, in the communications officer's seat, continued setting up the information network while explaining to Lynn and Gruier. Marika looked down at the settings screen displayed at the captain's seat.

 

“The access point is currently Port Seruna, the forward operating base of the Seventh Fleet.”

 

"I know it's an old base, but I guess that's the way things are these days." Hyakume muttered with deep emotion. "But even after 120 years, military companies have come here and economic activity has been brisk, so can we really connect to the galactic net so easily through a frontline base?"

 

“I think Coorie will probably complain a lot when she gets back, so please listen to her. Apparently, the size of Port Seruna’s military port hasn't changed much, so there are still many companies operating there to maintain it. And apparently, there are even providers offering network services with complete confidentiality and counter-intelligence guarantees for the high-ranking private sector officials.”

 

"Even in ancient times, the ways of the world are the same." Hyakume shook his head in disbelief. "But with such a high-end provider, the contract fees and usage fees seem like something you don't want to think about..."

 

"That's where the Serenity Kingdom's Royal Family account at the Imperial Bank comes in handy."

 

"An Imperial Bank private account, huh?" Hyakume opened his mouth in disbelief. "What a thing to have. But can the future Seventh Princess use it in a place like this?"

 

"She can, that's the thing." Marika nodded as if reassuring herself. “It's an account exclusively for the royal family, and specifically for emergencies, so as long as they can confirm it belongs to the royal family, no further identification is needed. Having a private account at the Imperial Bank is incredibly powerful; as soon as the verification was complete, a live operator appeared as a concierge and arranged everything we needed exactly as we requested.”

 

"Seriously?" Hyakume put his hand to his head in exasperation. "Captain, are you aware that you're dealing with something completely outrageous?"

 

“I'm just relieved they're not our enemies. And you know, if we borrowed the necessary funds from the Kingdom and tried to settle it in 120 years, the interest alone would bankrupt the Bentenmaru.”

 

"Yeah, you'd never be able to pay it off."

 

"To prevent that from happening, I'm thinking of paying back the money I spent to Gruier right away. I think Coorie will bring back the exact amount, so please prepare it from the Bentenmaru's safe."

 

Not just pirate ships, but any spaceship that might encounter unforeseen circumstances anywhere in the galaxy keeps readily available cash in a safe.

 

"Okay, I'll open the safe." Hyakume answered while scratching his cheek. "I hope the bill is something our coffers can handle."

 

 

 

"I appreciate the Imperial Fleet's tradition of open information." Although quite different from the designs she was used to from 120 years in the future, Coorie had no trouble navigating the Seventh Fleet's website, which was displayed in standard language. She easily found the information she was looking for. “Now we can easily find out where the ships of the Seventh Fleet, which is responsible for the borders, are and what they are doing."

 

One of the reasons for the existence of the Imperial Fleet is the long-standing tradition of gunboat diplomacy. The fleets numbered First to Sixth, which are responsible for the Empire's territory, publicly disclose the location and activities of all their main forces.

 

The Seventh Fleet, which is essentially at war with the rebel forces on the borders that do not submit to the Empire, is no exception. With the exception of cases where the purpose of their operations must be kept secret, the purpose and location of its ships' activities throughout the galaxy are largely made public.

 

"It's not detailed enough, and probably not accurate enough either, to be useful in a situation where you're actually planning to deploy an interceptor fleet to engage the Imperial fleet in a real war." Coorie downloaded data on the latest status of the Imperial Seventh Fleet, which was stored in several parts on the information server at Port Seruna, to the Odette II.

 

"This much data just for that?!" Lynn's eyes widen at the amount of data sent over the FTL line.

 

"Even so, this is limited to ships belonging to the Seventh Fleet."

 

The Imperial Fleet classifies and manages its spacecraft by size, from smallest to largest: spaceplanes, space shuttles, spaceships, and space warships. Space warships constitute the main fighting force, while all others are considered spaceships.

 

“We don't know where the unidentified ship was before reaching the Tau system, or where it will go after leaving the Antares constellation, but we can at least tell that it's a spacecraft large enough to undertake long-duration voyages without resupply. Unless it's an unlisted top-secret special operations vessel, it should be among these ships.”

 

Coorie began analyzing the massive amount of downloaded data.

 

Marika cautiously called out to Coorie. "Um, just for reference, I'd like to ask how many spaceships does the Seventh Fleet have in total?"

 

"Probably several million."

 

Marika looked back at Coorie who had casually mentioned that ridiculous figure. "Huh?!"

 

"Unlike other numbered fleets, the Imperial Seventh Fleet covers the entire frontier as its airspace. That means it has to cover an airspace one or two orders of magnitude larger than the others, and the number of ships it has is one or two orders of magnitude larger."

 

"A fleet of several million ships... how do they even command that?"

 

“They're not throwing their entire fleet at a single target, you know. Besides, that number only includes the ships in the Seventh Fleet capable of faster-than-light travel. If you included carrier-based aircraft and support ships, the total number would probably be two orders of magnitude higher.”

 

"Haa..." Marika sighed. "Space is vast, isn’t it?"

 

"It's manageable if you don't try to deal with everything at once. There's no need to check the destinations of millions of ships. We only need to check the Seventh Fleet ships that are currently supposed to be in the Antares constellation."

 

After confirming that Odette II's download mainframe had absorbed all the data, Coorie began a conditional search. What Imperial ships are currently operating in the Antares constellation?

 

"Huh?" Surprised by the unexpected result, Coorie re-examined the display. The latest data on the Imperial Seventh Fleet published by Port Seruna showed that there were no ships from the Seventh Fleet currently operating in the Antares constellation. “Do they not provide regular updates on their current location?”

 

Grumbling, Coorie relaxed the search criteria. She expanded the date and time setting from today to three days ago.

 

No search results found.

 

"Oh?" She tried specifying the Tau system, more than four days ago. No search results found.

 

"Huh, this really is strange?" Thinking she might have made a mistake in the settings, Coorie tried specifying a star system near Port Seruna: the Fountainbleau training airspace.

 

A list of ship names, enough to fill two fleets, appeared on the display.

 

“Maybe it’s not my mistake…?”

 

Coorie reset the search parameters.

 

Even after trying various search criteria, no ships belonging to the Imperial Fleet currently operating in the Antares constellation could be found.

 

After expanding the search criteria to the entire Orion Arm and extending the time frame to about a week, a few ships finally appeared in the search results. Coorie checked the current location of each spaceship one by one and shook her head.

 

"Captain Marika" Coorie reported while tapping on the control panel at high speed. “This is a preliminary report, but based on the search results, there are no matching ships among the publicly available data for the Seventh Fleet. So the unidentified vessel we are currently tracking may not be a ship of the Imperial Seventh Fleet.”

 

The bridge fell silent. Only Coorie's relentless keystrokes continued.

 

Marika reviewed Courier's search results again and looked up. “So, it's not an Imperial warship?”

 

“The data I'm currently checking is from publicly available sources regarding the Seventh Fleet. I haven't ruled out all possibilities yet, so I can't say anything for certain, but at least the Seventh Fleet doesn't have a significant fleet deployed in the Orion Arm, including the Antares constellation.”

 

“Is it possible that it's a warship from a fleet other than the Seventh Fleet?”

 

"I won't deny the possibility, but it's unlikely. Unless there's some special reason, the Imperial numbered fleets never leave their assigned airspace. And as far as the military's official website is concerned, there's no announcement that any of the numbered fleets assigned to the Imperial territory are operating outside of it." Coorie continued to pull information from the network. "I've only looked at the official site, so it's possible that a special ship that hasn't been made public is conducting a top-secret mission, but I think that possibility is low enough to be ignored."

 

"If you don't mind, could you tell me why you think so?"

 

"Because, both in the past and now, the Orion Arm is an airspace that has no significant strategic or resource value to the Empire." Coorie answered bluntly while tapping on the control panel. "If this was a strategic point on trade routes or had special mineral resources, interstellar civilizations would contact us even if we didn't say anything. Neither the Stellar Alliance nor the colonized planets have been invaded by significant alien civilizations, and even now, while we are fighting the War of Independence, our relationship with them is limited to economic activities, because we are in a backwater region with nothing particularly valuable to be taken or anything that would be particularly desirable for others to acquire."

 

"I know that." Marika sank into the captain's seat with an unpleasant look on her face. "There's no need to say that so bluntly."

 

"An accurate understanding is necessary for an analytical evaluation." Coorie answered in a flat, emotionless voice. “Both now and in the past, the Orion Arm hasn't been an important place for the Empire. Well, not now, but after we join the Empire, they might consider us an important part of the Empire, but since we're currently fighting the War of Independence, I don't think the Empire would care about us unless there's some special reason."

 

“What if they're investigating whether a fringe interstellar nation outside the Empire's influence is using a supernova bomb?”

 

"In that case, the Imperial fleet has no reason to keep it a secret." Coorie said without slowing the pace of her tapping on the control panel. "At this point, neither the Stellar Alliance nor the colony planets have much contact with the Empire. Even if the Seventh Fleet sent a survey vessel to unexplored airspace to gather information, there's nothing to be gained by treating it as classified. In fact, there are plenty of research vessels and fleets sent to remote areas outside the Orion Arm."

 

Coorie displayed the search results on the screen after slightly modifying the search criteria. The number of results increased dramatically. “The Seventh Fleet publicly discloses how many research vessels are deployed to which airspace. There's no reason to keep the deployment status of research vessels to the Orion Arm a secret.”

 

Marika stared intently at the search results on the display. She couldn't think of a valid counterargument. "…If the ship we're chasing isn't from the Seventh Fleet, then who or what is it?"

 

"I'll look into that now." Coorie doesn’t slow her pace as she taps on the control panel. “Flight plans, both now and in the past, are publicly released by air traffic control. I'll use the flight plans submitted to the control station at Port Seruna to identify any Imperial spaceships currently in this area."

 

"Please do." Marika thought for a moment and asked. "Is it possible that the unidentified ship is not an Imperial ship but from the frontier?"

 

"I won't rule it out, but I think it's unlikely." Flight plans came pouring in from the control center. “The data obtained so far on the unidentified ship is limited, but the patterns of its FTL jumps and our few observations match the signatures of Imperial spacecraft possessed by the Bentenmaru. While it's certainly not uncommon for ships in the frontier regions to be built with engines and hulls from Imperial companies, I can't think of any reason why such a ship would be deliberately investigating this strategically insignificant area.”

 

“Well, they probably have their own reasons, so it's pointless for us to speculate further.” Marika looked around the displays around the captain's seat, checking their current location. “Uh, the unidentified ship isn't from the Imperial Fleet? What should we do?”

 

"Think about it." Coorie said curtly. "The reason we were chasing the unidentified ship with the Bentenmaru is because it's something that doesn't appear in the history we know. Even now, when we can connect to the Empire's net and get information, the situation hasn't changed. If we knew who it was, we'd decide how to deal with it, but the fact that there's an enemy there that we have to deal with hasn't changed."

 

 

 

Spaceships traveling within the Empire submit flight plans to a control center. Flight plans are shared among all control centers and are used to ensure the safety of spaceships and their routes.

 

The orbital control situation in the Empire wasn't much different from what Marika and the others knew from 120 years in the future. The flight plan standards had changed slightly, and the data for flights into airspace without designated flight paths was considerably rougher. But it should still be enough to know which spaceships were where and why.

 

The base at Port Seruna also serves as the air traffic control center responsible for the largest airspace in the surrounding area. This controlled airspace even extends to the central part of the Orion Arm, which is outside the Empire's territory.

 

When an Imperial-registered spaceship makes an interstellar flight, it is required to submit a flight plan to the control center. A spaceship flying in the Orion Arm has its flight plan submitted to the Port Seruna control center, and this flight plan is supposed to be shared with other control centers.

 

However, no matching spacecraft currently within the Orion Arm could be found in the data publicly released by the Port Seruna control center.

 

Coorie further utilized the network to find out the latest status of the Imperial fleet deployed in the frontier airspace centered on the Orion Arm, as well as the defense forces and system armies of independent star systems, invasion companies, military contractors, transport companies, and privately owned and registered spacecraft.

 

"No matching ships?" Marika stared at the display, feeling as if she was being deceived by the information from the network that should have been the most reliable.

 

"I don't know if the unidentified ship is intentionally concealing its identity or if our investigation is simply off the mark, but that's the situation." Stopping her hands, which had been continuously tapping on the control panel with almost no break, Coorie looked at Marika in the captain's seat. "That's dangerous."

 

"Yes..." Marika, who had initially only nodded at what she heard, nodded again more emphatically as she grasped the meaning. "I never thought there would be a spaceship here whose identity we couldn't figure out after going this far. This means that we don't just have to intercept the unidentified ship, we have to clearly confirm its identity."

 

"I agree." Coorie gently floated up from the communications officer's seat. "Honestly, I didn't feel like we were chasing such a dangerous spaceship. It’s the end of the War of Independence, but I thought it was strange that we couldn't even get a glimpse of it, even though we were chasing it with the Bentenmaru, which should have much more advanced equipment than they do now."

 

Marika thought for a moment and asked. "You didn't think it was a dangerous spaceship?"

 

Pirate ships deal with a variety of spaceships. It's not uncommon for them to be asked to do business with luxury cruise ships, conduct exercises with the Imperial fleet or star system armies, or investigate unidentified spaceships.

 

Because a pirate ship’s crew deals with a variety of spaceships, their experience accumulates at a pace that would be unthinkable for fleet, military, or standard shipping services. The crew's instincts and senses are also honed through a wide range of situations.

 

After thinking for a moment, Coorie answered. “In terms of performance, it's a formidable threat. However, at least since we started tracking it, we haven't detected any hostility from the unidentified vessel, such as an attempt to sink us. It seems their top priority is to avoid being detected by us, and their second priority is gathering information.”

 

"Information gathering, huh..." Marika muttered, sinking deep into the captain's seat.

 

"An information gathering ship not from the Stellar Alliance or Federation of Colonial Stars."

 

"And a highly capable spaceship at that." Floating in the middle of the bridge, Coorie stared intently at Marika as she spoke. "I didn't sense any hostility or intent to attack, but I did sense that they possessed the capability to do so. It may not be from the Imperial fleet, but I believe they are equipped with sufficient firepower."

 

"An armed intelligence-gathering vessel, huh..."

 

"It's dangerous."

 

"I agree." Marika nodded. “As soon as Silent Whisper is operational, we'll resume tracking the unidentified ship.” Marika looked around the bridge. "And so, the next job has been decided. The Odette II will work with the Bentenmaru to track the unidentified ship and confirm its identity. Uh..."

 

Marika turned her attention back to Coorie. "The plan is the same as what we discussed back on the Bentenmaru, is that okay?"

 

"I think it'll be fine." Coorie started moving towards the central shaft. “With the Odette II at the center, we deploy the highly maneuverable Bentenmaru and Silent Whisper and expand our search network over a wide area, waiting for the unidentified vessel to be detected again, right?”

 

"That's it." Marika touched the control panel. "The Silent Whisper is ready, so can I leave it to you?"

 

"I'll take care of it." As she drifted towards the central shaft, Coorie turned to face the bridge. “Are you sure it's okay that no one from the Odette II is aboard the Silent Whisper?”

 

"Stop it!" Marika replied, almost screaming. "This spaceship is already in trouble because we don't have enough people. There's no crew to assign, even just one or two, to the Silent Whisper."

 

"Okay. Leave the details to us then." Waving her hand, Coorie kicked off the wall as she returned to the flight deck.

 

"Marika?"

 

When Jenny called out to her, Marika turned to the observer's seat.

 

"What is it?"

 

"Can I get the data from the Port Seruna control station?"

 

"Sure, go ahead." Marika tilted her head. The information currently available should be accessible even in the universe 120 years from now. "What are you going to do?"

 

"There's something I'm curious about." Jenny started tapping on the control panel. "I've looked into the movements of spaceships from the Stellar Alliance and colony planets at the end of the War of Independence, but in addition to that, I also have data on the spaceships of the Galactic Empire that we haven't yet made contact with. This includes all the spaceships that should be in this area. I thought that by adding external data, we might be able to see things that weren't visible before, such as who is where and what they're doing.”

 

"Please do." Marika nodded slightly. "It's not that I don't trust Coorie's analysis, but please let me know if you notice anything new."

 

"Of course."

 

 

After undocking from the Bentenmaru, the Silent Whisper departed from the Odette II.

 

The Silent Whisper carried one pilot from the Bentenmaru, so that Coorie could focus on operating the electronics.

 

A small fleet of two ships and one craft deployed a patrol network in search of an unidentified ship that should be somewhere in the vicinity of Garnet A.

 

The Silent Whisper and the Bentenmaru were deployed around the Odette II, which has excellent search and communication capabilities but lacks maneuverability and has no onboard weapons. If there is an opportunity for direct contact, the Bentenmaru, which has excellent maneuverability and is the only one capable of frontal combat, will take the lead.

 

The search focused on the northern sky, centered on Garnet A. The last signature that appeared to be from the unidentified ship was in the northern sky, and even after that, no spatial anomalies such as energy emissions or gravitational quakes associated with a FTL jump had been observed. Therefore, the Bentenmaru predicted that the unidentified ship was still cruising in the northern sky direction of Garnet A and would reappear.

 

"It would be a different story if the unidentified ship could jump and disappear without prejump phenomena or gravity quakes." Hyakume told Marika via video communication while checking the lines to ensure smooth data transmission. "If we're up against such an incredible spaceship, then it was a mistake to have taken on them in the first place. I don't mean to underestimate them, but we're assuming their capabilities are within the limits of what we can handle."

 

"I see..." Marika pondered, her expression troubled. "If the enemy is unidentified, that means there's a chance that they can be beyond our expectations."

 

“It's not like we're in an uncharted part of space full of out-of-place artifacts and occult phenomena, and so far, we haven't been outmaneuvered before we could even understand what the enemy was doing, so I think we'll be fine.”

 

“But if even the Bentenmaru can barely keep up, they might be able to easily escape if they wanted to.”

 

"It's true that it's more advantageous to flee than to pursue, but thanks to the reinforcements, our forces have tripled. If possible, I'd like to use this force to reinforce the pirates against the Stellar Slayer fleet." Hyakume glanced outside the communications monitor. "If we did that, history would change, so we can't do it openly."

 

The patrol network deployed by the Bentenmaru and the Silent Whisper, centered on the Odette II, also covers the star system centered on Garnet A.

 

The positions of the Stellar Alliance, centered on the Stellar Slayer fleet, and the status of the gathering pirate fleet are displayed on the display with an accuracy that was unknowable to either party at the time of the War of Independence.

 

"If they had this data, they would do things differently..." After thinking for a moment, Marika turned her attention back to the communications monitor. "Misa, are you there?"

 

"What is it?" Misa appeared on the communications monitor.

 

"Um, I asked Coorie, but what kind of opponent does the Bentenmaru’s crew thinks the unidentified ship they're chasing is?"

 

"What kind of opponent?"

 

Misa tilted her head. Marika continued her explanation.

 

“It's an opponent that keeps escaping against the full power of the Bentenmaru, leaving behind only traces that make it hard to even guess its true nature. We only get a glimpse of their radar signature, even though the Bentenmaru has made contact several times. Don't you think our crew would have some sense of what kind of opponent they are?”

 

Marika stared intently at Misa's face through the communications monitor.

 

"Even without fighting, Coorie thought that the enemy had fighting power. They don't intend to use it at the moment, but they have that power. Do you, Misa, share that opinion? I wonder if Schnitzer feels the same way."

 

"You want to hear my impression, then." Misa answered with a look of understanding.

 

"I don't know how much combat power the unidentified ship has because we haven't actually fought it, but I agree that it would have at least enough power to take on the Bentenmaru. Well…"

 

After thinking for a moment, Misa continued.

 

"What I felt from that ship wasn't power or hostility, but confidence. They had a clear purpose, and they knew what they had to do to achieve it, and they were carrying out their mission. It's weird because I don't know anything about their mission or purpose, but I was confident that they had the ability and intelligence to do it."

 

"Have you ever had a similar impression before?"

 

"Yes." Misa answered simply. "I get that impression from the flagship class Imperial fleets that we train with. I also get that impression from cruisers that have a lot of combat experience and are well trained. But this time, the opponent..."

 

After thinking for a moment, Misa said. “That kind of confidence almost feels smug, like nothing can shake them. If you ask me what it resembles, I'd say it's more like a bureaucracy than the military.”

 

"A bureaucracy?" Marika repeated the unexpected impression.

 

"Right. The feeling is similar to a government office or a ministry, a public organization that has been constructed as firmly as possible using all possible cunning.” Misa stuck out her tongue. “I think I'm probably the only one on the Bentenmaru who gets that impression. What are you going to do? Are you going to ask the crew for feedback and profile the enemy?”

 

“Profiling is one thing, but I think we should probably think about how to find out the enemy's true identity.” Marika answered uncertainly. “Since our forces have increased, I think we can corner the unidentified ship as it is. But I feel like if we don't think about how to expose its true identity after cornering it, it might escape while we're thinking of how to respond.”

 

Surprisingly, Schnitzer's impression of the unidentified ship was that it was 'not hostile.' He felt like it was avoiding combat situations more than it was trying to hide its true identity. At the same time, they likely have reliable military capabilities to achieve their objectives, but that doesn't seem to be a problem for the battle commander.

 

Hyakume viewed the unidentified ship as a seasoned veteran, particularly skilled at escaping. "The fact that it kept creeping up despite knowing it was being watched means that it was confident in its ability to escape. Somehow, this behavior pattern doesn't seem like that of a warship."

 

Luca had determined that the unidentified ship was an Imperial research vessel.

 

"That's why there's no ship that fits the description in either the Seventh Fleet information from Port Seruna or the data from the control station."

 

"The Orion Arm is currently outside the Empire's territory, and they're not required to submit flight plans to the control station. No one will complain if they fly without submitting a flight plan.”

 

“There's no way a fleet ship would fly without orders or plans.”

 

“Then it's probably not a fleet ship.”

 

Sighing, Marika asked “so what do you think that ship is here for, Luca?”

 

“It's just watching us for fun.”

 

“Eh?” Marika couldn't help but ask again. “That's all?”

 

“That's all.”

 

 

 

The patrol network deployed on the northern side of Garnet A had completed adjustments and was now fully operational, bringing in a huge amount of data. The Silent Whisper, equipped with the latest ultra-fast, high-capacity computers, had the greatest information processing capabilities. Data observed at the three locations – The Bentenmaru, the Odette II, and the Silent Whisper - was first collected and processed by the Silent Whisper via a fixed, always-open data line before being sent to the Odette II and the Bentenmaru.

 

The patrol network is a scaled-down and improved version of the one that a pirate fleet, including the Bentenmaru and the Odette II, had once set up on the frontier. Unlike the last time, when many spaceships were on the move searching for enemies, this time the scan was in a fixed airspace, which increased the accuracy of their observations.

 

 

There are many ways to detect artificial flying objects, such as spaceships, in the vastness of space. If they are propelled by reaction, the infrared response from the propellant flames will leave a long tail, and if they communicate or use radar, electromagnetic waves will be emitted. Activity generates heat, and if they make a FTL jump, space will be distorted.

 

Filling the patrol airspace with radar would improve observation accuracy, but the Odette II had reasons for not being able to take an active search stance.

 

If the ships used radar, it would be detected not only by the unidentified ship but also by the pirate fleet that was gathering on the northern sky side. Since there are no records of reinforcements from the future in the battle records of Garnet A, the pirates must not be made aware of the presence of the Bentenmaru, the Odette II, or the Silent Whisper from the future.

 

The deployed patrol network not only clearly showed the movements of Garnet A's Stellar Slayer fleet, but also the movements of the gathering pirate fleet.

 

Despite the designated assembly point, the pirate ships moved on their own. According to the records, the first to arrive at the Antares constellation was Captain Kato Bunzaemon's Bentenmaru, followed by Count Destro's Karyoubinga.

 

"Even pirate ships don’t have time to waste." Jenny said as she looked at the pirate ships around Garnet A, which were not even fully gathered, let alone prepared, despite the first fleet battle with the Stellar Slayer fleet being held tomorrow. "I mean, right now, when the final battle against the expeditionary fleet in the Tau system is in its final countdown, there's not a single ship in the Federation of Colonial Stars that's idle. Even without onboard weapons, there's still plenty that can be done if you can fly, so all the ships that can go are heading to the Tau system, and the pirate ships that have been called to gather at Garnet A are all on missions, so they're in the middle of finishing the work in front of them, taking advantage of the time they have left. Even the Bentenmaru, despite getting the Stellar Slayer Fleet’s location data from the Odette II, is busy conducting reconnaissance.”

 

“The Stellar Slayer fleet is also in the midst of a rush to build the supernova bomb system directly above the red giant.” Lynn replied. "People in the old days were really hardworking."

 

Laughter rippled through the bridge of the Odette II. Gruier, who didn't laugh, said "the fate of the stars depends on it."

 

As a result of the interceptions since arriving at Garnet A, the Stellar Slayer fleet's communications can now be received with a high degree of accuracy. However, it was only a replay of what was recorded.

 

"I think the Stellar Alliance's spaceships and the Federation of Colonial Stars 's pirate ships are aware of this and are doing their jobs accordingly."

 

"It’s tough for us because we have to protect both the Stellar Alliance and the Federation of Colonial Stars."

 

The information they have obtained is not just the location of the Stellar Slayer fleet and the pirate ships. They have also succeeded in intercepting communications that are directional and encrypted to prevent eavesdropping, and are mostly written to reduce communication times.

 

Even 120 years ago, encrypted communications are not something that can be easily deciphered. Both the Bentenmaru and the Odette II have records of communications between the Federation of Colonial Stars and pirate ships from that time, along with the decryption keys, so they can intercept with the same accuracy as their allies.

 

"And what's more, we can’t reveal our true identity. I can really understand the feelings of the hero of justice in a story." Marika glanced over the list of intercepted communication records. "Same as always."

 

Gruier updated the communication records displayed at the captain's seat. "Captain, you shouldn't read the body text. If you see the faces of those pirates now, your judgement will definitely be impaired."

 

"Yes, yes."

 

Leaving the confirmation of communications to Gruier, Marika scrolled through the communication list, which only displayed simple titles and the sending and receiving ships. At the moment, only the Bentenmaru, the Karyoubinga, and a few others had arrived at Garnet A, and although she knew that more and more pirate ships were arriving, there weren't many familiar names.

 

During the War of Independence, the Tau system issued over a hundred privateer licenses to civilian ships to strengthen its military, and several hundred across the entire Federation of Colonial Stars. While not all of them continued to operate from the start of the War of Independence until its end, at its peak, the number of pirate ships involved numbered in the triple digits. The pirate ships gathering at Garnet A, the final battlefield, are survivors of the War of Independence.

 

"There will only be a handful of these pirate ships left in 120 years." Marika looked at the names of the pirate ships scheduled to gather on the list. There were many names she didn't know. Marika didn't know how many of them gave up their privateer licenses after the war, how many chose to live as pirates, and how many changed jobs or went out of business over the years.

 

"There is a prejump phenomenon on the northern sky side." Chiaki announced from the radar/sensor seat. "Allies. The Black Swan, a pirate ship."

 

Marika stared at the name of the pirate ship at the top of the updated list. Among pirate ships that operate independently, the Black Swan excels in command and communication, and has achieved remarkable results in trade wars by attacking the expeditionary fleet's supply lines.

 

The Black Swan's name is a counterpoint to the solar sailing ship the White Swan, but its original form is a highly maneuverable cruiser. It was one of the seven pirate ships that were first issued privateer licenses by the Federation of Colonial Stars, and is highly trusted by its fellow pirates.

 

According to information from the Sea of the Morningstar Fleet Command, it was certain at this point that the Stellar Slayer fleet's goal was to set off a supernova bomb. The Stellar Slayer fleet itself, which is mainly made up of work ships, is not a significant fighting force, but the cruiser fleet that serves as escort has sufficient numbers and strength. For this reason, it was expected that the pirate ships would have to move as a fleet, and a command structure for fleet operations had been established through prior meetings using FTL communications.

 

The reason why the Black Swan was chosen as the command ship for this battle, which would be the pirate fleet's first fleet battle, was simple. It was one of the few purely military ships in the pirate fleet, which was dominated by civilian ships, and it had the thickest armor of all the pirate ships participating in this battle.

 

Thick armor means it has the highest chance of surviving a battle to the end. And the battle command ship is expected to lead to the end, regardless of the outcome.

 

" I guess not being punctual is a pirate tradition." Marika muttered as she looked at the data for the Black Swan, which had arrived much later than the originally designated assembly time. Because there were not enough pirate ships to attack the Stellar Slayer fleet, the assembly time and the scheduled start time of the attack that was supposed to follow were frequently changed.

 

Upon arriving at Garnet A, the Black Swan began active communication with the surrounding pirate ships without waiting for the spatial anomaly caused by the FTL jump to subside.

 

"They don't seem to be trying to hide their arrival either." Gruier monitored the sudden increase in communication volume that occurred upon the Black Swan's arrival.

 

Even though they were quite far away from Garnet A, there was no hiding the spatial disturbance caused by the FTL jump. The cruiser fleet escorting the Stellar Slayer fleet had not yet shown any signs of attacking the pirate fleet, but they should have known that pirate ships were gathering in the surrounding airspace due to their observation of the prejump phenomenon.

 

"Well, both friend and foe must know that battle is about to begin."

 

Marika looked at the display showing the arrangement of spaceships around Garnet A. The pirate fleet would be the ones attacking the fleet that was continuing to work around Garnet A and the cruiser fleet that was escorting it.

 

And Marika knew what the outcome would be.

 

"What about the unidentified ship we're targeting?"

 

Marika asked Chiaki, who updated the observation data with the latest information.

 

"No response. Incidentally, neither the pirate ships nor the cruiser fleet seem to have noticed us. Well, the pirate ships' search targets are concentrated around Garnet A, and the cruiser fleet is intent on preparing for an interception and isn’t making any aggressive advances."

 

After hearing the report, Marika nodded. "Shall we begin now?"

 

Looking around the bridge, Marika said to Gruier "call the Bentenmaru. The Bentenmaru we know. Encrypt it carefully, reduce the output as much as possible, and make sure it can't be heard no matter how intently someone is listening."

 

"Understood." Gruier set up a communication line with the Bentenmaru as instructed.

 

Marika's eyes fell on the tracking record of the unidentified ship sent by the Bentenmaru.

 

Misa was still acting as captain of the Bentenmaru. Marika appointed Hyakume, who was in the radar/sensor seat, as the person to communicate with, and then instructed the bridge crew to listen to the call.

 

“Hyakume here.”

 

The communications monitor switched on, and Marika scrolled through the neatly organized data from the Bentenmaru on the display in front of her. “I saw the tracking record, and it's a troublesome opponent.”

 

“Right?” Hyakume on the other side of the communications monitor nodded in agreement. “Now, if they were intent on attacking us, we could do something about it, but as soon as we get a glimpse of it, they run away. If they just disappeared, that would be the end of it, but if we pay attention, they'll come back soon and you'll start seeing them again. They don't seem interested in fighting, so that's a relief, but they're still annoying.”

 

“If they can see our situation just as clearly as we see theirs...” Marika said, pondering. “I thought that now might be the time to make a move, since our forces have increased, but they must have realized that there was another ship in the fleet when the Odette II's radar hit them. If that's the case, our only hidden weapon is the Silent Whisper. They're not scattering unmanned probes, are they?”

 

Deploying unmanned probes in advance for reconnaissance in airspace where combat is expected is an old tactic.

 

“They may be doing it, but we haven't found them, at least.” Hyakume answered while checking the recent combat data. “If we could pick up even one probe, it would be a clue to identify the enemy, but there are no signs of that. I'm not sure how well it knows our situation, but it probably has the same detection capabilities as an electronic battleship.”

 

“The Bentenmaru is the only one who has been chasing the unidentified ship?”

 

“Right now, the Bentenmaru is the only one intensively tracking the unidentified ship. Someone from a Federation of Colonial Stars spaceship has caught a glimpse of it, but they think it's not a big threat or urgency, so I think we're the only ones chasing it continuously.”

 

“Do you think the unidentified ship sees us as separate from the Stellar Alliance and the Federation of Colonial Stars?”

 

“Us?” Hyakume on the communications monitor looked up. “So by us, you mean, this Bentenmaru distinguished from the other?”

 

"That's true, but I wonder if they can distinguish between the regular forces of the Federation of Colonial Stars and pirate ships that are not under their command. I think it depends on the situation, but if the Bentenmaru, which is supposed to be on the side of the Federation of Colonial Stars, were to chase an unidentified ship while leaving the Stellar Alliance that they should be dealing with, I was thinking that they might deal with us differently."

 

"It’s obvious from the outside that the two forces, the Stellar Alliance and the Federation of Colonial Stars, are messing around with each other. But I think it's unlikely that they're looking at this Bentenmaru as a separate force from other pirate ships. At least since we started chasing the unidentified ship with the Bentenmaru, we've been lucky enough not to encounter a situation where a spaceship from the Stellar Alliance appeared in front of us and causes a firefight or anything like that."

 

Hyakume asked with an amused look on his face. "What's up? Have you come up with a clever idea?"

 

"I know from the Bentenmaru's tracking records that they're not an easy opponent." Marika says, still thinking about something. "Even if we increase our numbers and our resources, if we do the same thing, they'll end up escaping in the same way. And if they don't come back, we'll be left with an uncertainty that may be important for the future."

 

"What are the uncertainties about the future?"

 

"Whether the Empire was monitoring Garnet A's supernova bomb, or whether they didn't know about it. So it's not good to let them escape without knowing what information they have, and it's not good to give them any more information. In that case, I think the only thing we can do is lure them into a situation where they can't escape and capture them."

 

"That sounds like a good idea, but what exactly are you planning to use as bait to lure out the unidentified ship?"

 

"Battle." Marika spoke without even knowing if her decision was right or wrong. "The pirate fleet will launch its first attack on the Stellar Slayer fleet soon. So we'll use that as bait to capture the unidentified ship that comes out."

 

Marika displayed a memo she had compiled of the Bentenmaru's tracking records on the display. "The unidentified ship appear when there's some big movement in the expeditionary fleet or the Federation of Colonial Stars, and they seem to run away when they're spotted by the Bentenmaru. And there haven't been any large-scale battles in front of the unidentified ship since the Bentenmaru came here."

 

Marika looked up at Hyakume, still feeling uneasy. "Like Luca said, if the unidentified ship is just watching us for fun, I think it will come out of curiosity when the battle begins. If they think we are on the pirate side of the Federation of Colonial Stars, then if they see us participating in the battle with the Stellar Alliance, they might think that our surveillance ship can’t be spared and will move more boldly."

 

"I see, we have no intention of participating in the battle outnumbered from the start. Well, if we both keep moving while maintaining the profiles of the Bentenmaru and the White Swan, it may be useful as a diversion against the Stellar Slayer fleet, but if we get directly involved in the battle, there is a possibility that history will change." Hyakume checked the positions of the Stellar Slayer fleet and the pirate fleet on the display in his hand. "And then, if the unidentified ship comes out to watch the battle and we pretend not to notice it, when it gets too involved, we will immediately switch to intercepting it."

 

"What do you think, Hyakume?"

 

"It's the perfect bait to draw out the unidentified ship. The pattern of them appearing when there is some big movement matches our records. But Captain, there is one major problem for this operation to succeed.” Hyakume stared at Marika from the communication monitor. “We know how the battle will go. But to lure out and capture the unidentified ship, we must abandon whatever situation we're in and switch to pursuing it. And the result of the first fleet battle between the Stellar Slayer fleet and the pirate fleet was a crushing defeat for the pirates.”

 

Marika nodded. Although there were no sunken ships, the pirate fleet that launched a surprise attack on the Stellar Slayer fleet was intercepted and defeated by an unexpectedly strong escort fleet.

 

“Even if they were our ancestors from 120 years ago, would you be able to desert your fellow pirates knowing that they were going to lose the battle?”

 

Marika closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Then she opened them. "We leave the affairs of this era to the people here. We will do our own job."

"I've never had a chance to see someone else's fleet battle."

 

The bridge's gaze was focused on the central 3D display, showing the spaceship formations centered on Garnet A.

 

"Even though I knew what was going to happen, I didn't think it would be this exciting." Glancing sideways at the battle log showing the progress of the first fleet battle against the Stellar Slayer fleet, Jenny voiced her honest thoughts in the tense atmosphere on the bridge.

 

"I think it's probably like watching a play." Gruier said. "I think it's similar to waiting for a play to begin, performed by a close acquaintance."

 

"A play by an acquaintance..." Jenny looked at the progress chart that she had arranged in her own way to make the battle logs easier to read. “It would be easier if it was just a play, but what's about to happen is a real battle.”

 

"I'll say it again." Marika, in the captain's seat, said as formally as possible. "We will not intervene in any battles at Garnet A. If we, who shouldn't be here, get involved in the upcoming battles, it could change the course of future history."

 

“So, no covering fire to give the pirates an advantage?" Lynn, in the electronic warfare seat, asked to confirm.

 

"No." Marika answered immediately. "Helping the pirates means attacking the Stellar Slayer fleet and the escort fleet. Of course, it's emotionally tempting to support the pirates, but that means attacking the escort fleet, whether directly or indirectly. If, as a result, people who shouldn't die here die, or ships that should survive sink, history will change."

 

Marika looked around at the faces of the crew on the bridge, trying to keep a calm expression as much as possible. "We're not here to help the pirate fleet. We're here to protect history so that the world won't change in 120 years. So, no interference!"

 

"What if..." Lynn raised her hand to speak.

 

"What is it?"

 

"What if the battle doesn't go the way we know it will?"

 

Marika looked at Lynn's face. Lynn continued.

 

"What if the pirate ships are nearly wiped out in the upcoming battle, or if they miraculously defeat the cruiser fleet and annihilate the entire fleet, or if the fleet gets desperate and sets off a supernova bomb mid-fight? What will we do?"

 

"...No changes." It took courage to make such a clear statement. "Jenny had been collecting pirate records for me, so I've looked at them, but I don't know how reliable they are. As for the battle at Garnet A, the pirate battle records are sloppy, and in the chaos after the war, the records for the Stellar Alliance were erased. So, even if the events unfold differently from what we know, we can't accurately determine whether that's a false history or a correct history. So, no matter how the battle unfolds, neither the Odette II nor the Bentenmaru will intervene."

 

Marika looked at the star chart centered on Garnet A. "We won't attack the cruiser fleet of the Stellar Alliance, nor will we support the pirates. Rather, our job is to deal with beings that are not recorded in history."

 

"That's tough..." Lynn spoke leisurely on the silent bridge. "Well, we're trying to protect the future that our ancestors are supposed to protect, so I know it's not easy, but it's hard to just sit back and watch until the other side makes a move."

 

Lynn raised one hand. "One more question, okay?"

 

"Go ahead."

 

"We'll just watch the battle in silence, but what if the unidentified ship doesn't get caught in our net?"

 

It's been almost 24 hours since they started observing the entire sky, building a patrol net with the Bentenmaru and the Silent Whisper, with the Odette II at the center. They've been able to track all the spaceships around Garnet A almost perfectly, from the Stellar Alliance's Stellar Slayer fleet to their allied pirate ships, but they've yet to get a definite response from the unidentified ship.

 

"They'll show up," Marika said confidently. "We've gotten similar responses from the Silent Whisper and the Bentenmaru twice, and from the Odette II once. The reason we haven't been able to spot the unidentified ship so far is because we haven't been actively pursuing it, and have been letting our prey go free. But what if the unidentified ship doesn't even make an appearance in the upcoming battle..."

 

After thinking for a bit, Marika said. "Let's see this battle here until the end, then go back to the Tau system and watch the end of the War of Independence. I think we can think about how to get back to the future after that."

 

There are plenty of ways to travel from the past to the future, such as Lorentz time dilation of near light-speed travel¹⁰ or cold sleep.

 

"The end of the war, huh?" Jenny looked at the chronometer displaying the current time. "The War of Independence will be over in a week... I wonder if it will really be over."

 

"It won’t be over?" Lynn asked nonchalantly. "After coming this far, did you suddenly think of some new uncertainty?"

 

"Not at all." Jenny laughed, trying to avoid the question. "The battle records for Garnet A are full of inaccuracies, but there are plenty of official and unofficial records of the War of Independence. If something different from the records occurs a week before the end of the war, that means history has already started to change."

 

Jenny looked down at the display. "If that happens, I won't know how to respond."

 

"The pirate ships Dark Star and Love Machine will soon enter the fleet’s defense zone." Chiaki reported the latest observations from the Silent Whisper. "If we're not careful, we'll end up fighting the cruiser fleet. Isn't it too early?"

 

 

"The starting time of the battle will ultimately be decided by headquarters based on reports from the parties involved, and will be recorded in the report created after the battle." Schnitzer, who was pulled out to act as a commentator, explained the situation to the Odette II’s bridge via the communications monitor. "However, this battle was mainly fought by pirates, whose battle records were often incomplete or not even submitted. After the battle at Garnet A, the headquarters of both the Stellar Alliance and the colony planets were busy with the Empire's invasion, the end of the war, and the annexation, so there are no official reports from either side regarding this battle.”

 

“That's crazy, isn't it?” Jenny, who has done a lot of research, grumbles. 'Well, it's understandable, looking at the actual situation.”

 

“The battle records from Garnet A, which are considered to be the established version in the Tau system 120 years later, are a compilation of records that were later made accessible and have been pieced together to make the story as consistent as possible. Many parts have been omitted, and there are no records from the spaceships that did not return from Garnet A.”

 

“Sunken pirate ships, huh...” Lynn's mutterings were unexpectedly loud on the bridge.

 

"In other words, just because the battle records we have don't match the progress of the upcoming battle doesn't mean history has already begun to change." Schnitzer continued his explaination. "Currently, the Dark Star and the Love Machine are on the front lines and will likely engage in combat with the three intercepting escort-class ships."

 

"That's your prediction as the Bentenmaru’s battle commander, right?"

 

In response to Marika's confirmation, Schnitzer answered.

 

"That's right. And the Bentenmaru and the Black Swan are moving to pursue the two ships that are ahead of them. The Black Swan probably wants to wait until there are more pirate ships before starting the battle, but they're probably planning to support the pirate ships that have already gone ahead and reduce the enemy's strength as much as possible now."

 

"Well, the battle will start soon." Marika already knew the result of the initial battle.

 

No ships were sunk in either the pirate fleet or the Stellar Slayer fleet. However, the experienced cruiser fleet engaged in effective combat maneuvers against the pirate fleet, which was experiencing fleet combat for the first time. Using the basic tactic of always forming a team of two or more ships to take on individual ships, they easily defeated the pirate ships that attempted hit-and-run tactics.

 

As a result of the battle, most of the pirate ships suffered considerable damage. The Black Swan, which fought on the front line until the very end, was moderately damaged, while the White Swan, which had focused its electronic warfare on the destroyer fleet to cover the retreat, became the target of the cruiser fleet's long-range precision fire.

 

As a result, three of the nine masts were broken, but the damage to the hull was minor. However, crew members who were performing an extravehicular activity to provide emergency repairs were hit by a near miss.

 

According to records kept by the Odette II, three men were killed, four were seriously injured, and two were slightly injured.

 

It is not recorded how many of the seriously injured survived the battle and recovered, or died despite medical treatment. Among the seriously injured was Shiratori Kent, who was the captain of the White Swan at the time.

 

Right now, she was in the same place aboard the same spaceship as Shiratori. Marika was suddenly struck by a sense of unreality, as if everything in front of her was happening in a dream.

 

"The battle log is now being recorded in its entirety." Shaking her head, Marika looked around the display in front of her. "Has the unidentified ship appeared anywhere?"

 

"I haven’t seen them yet." Chiaki reported. "There are a few that might be it, but even at this late stage there are still pirate ships jumping in, so I think we'll just have to hang on a little longer and wait for a definite response."

 

"Hey, Marika."

 

"No."

 

Marika immediately responded to Lynn who called out to her.

 

"I haven't said anything yet!"

 

"You want to warn the pirate ships to be careful because the Stellar Slayer fleet's escort fleet will always attack them in groups of two or more, since they usually operate alone, but that's no good." Marika stared at the display without looking up.

 

"But hey, Marika, it’s just advice from a fellow pirate ship."

 

"It's no use. Even if it's information from the command ship, they can't respond to something like that once they're in combat. Even if we warn the Black Swan, they can't rearrange their positions now, and there's no way the pirates who've survived up until now are going to listen to us."

 

"Hmm?"

 

Marika answered smoothly, and Lynn gave her a strange look.

 

"So, Marika, did you at least think about it?"

 

"I did." Marika answered without looking up. "I tried to think of ways to minimize the damage without changing the outcome of the battle, but it didn't work. If this were a regular army, I could make them follow my orders according to the chain of command, but with a pirate ship, it's impossible to get them to change their tactics just because I gave them advice."

 

Marika looked up with a forced smile. "Well, they're pirates after all. The only way for them to learn is by getting hurt."

 

"The Dark Star and the Love Machine will soon be making contact with the enemy vanguard." Chiaki reported calmly. “They're pirates with a quick trigger, so they'll probably fire first... they fired!”

 

The Dark Star, which was ahead of the others, fired their first shot at the very edge of its main gun's effective range.

 

The pirate fleet had already identified the fleet escorting the Stellar Slayer fleet thanks to their reconnaissance activities so far. Destroyers have excellent maneuverability, but their design prioritizes versatility, so the caliber of their main guns is not that large. In contrast, the two pirate ships, Dark Star and Love Machine, are larger than destroyers and are equipped with powerful cannons comparable to those of cruisers. They can only fire a limited number of guns at once, but they have a longer range than destroyers.

 

"I understand that they want to settle this before the enemy's main guns can reach them, but isn't that too far away?" Lynn is looking at the distance between the pirate ship and the destroyer.

 

"No, the first shot is just a test shot for observation purposes." Chiaki guessed the purpose of the pirate ship's gunfire from the energy reaction she's getting. "Neither the Dark Star nor the Love Machine used radar before firing. This is partly because the destroyers are using strong electronic jamming, which makes it difficult to pinpoint their exact positions, but they know that optical observation alone is not enough to ensure the accuracy of their hits."

 

After hearing that, Lynn looked at the data from the two pirate ships' salvos observed by the Silent Whisper. "Not a full charge, and with fuzzy focus?"

 

"It's not a full charge so that the next shot can be fired immediately. The reason it's not focused is because even though the destructive power is reduced, if it hits the target, it will be burned and it will be easier to detect.”

 

The destructive power of an energy beam is determined by the amount of energy it delivers to the target. The more fully charged and focused the beam is, the greater its penetrating power. If the beam is not focused near its target, the cross-sectional area of ​​the beam increases, increasing its chances of hitting the target.

 

Unfocused beams do not have much destructive power. A beam that spreads to over ten times the target area greatly increases the hit rate, but greatly reduces the destructive power.

 

However, even if it cannot penetrate armor or destroy armaments, the ship's hull heats up when hit by the energy beam. In space, the high infrared reaction stands out like a beacon, making aiming the next shop easier and more reliable.

 

"I see, that's the tactic they use." Lynn clapped her hands. "In that case, they can attack the enemy from a distance, even from the very limit of their range. That should work, right?"

 

"If there are two pirate ships against one destroyer, maybe." Chiaki voice grew heavy. "But the enemy destroyers are using a four-ship formation, and they're not civilian ships that will sit back and wait for the next shot when they are fired upon. They'll approach while making evasive maneuvers, and once they're within their range, they'll open fire with their main guns."

 

The pirate ships fired another salvo. The Dark Star and the Love Machine seem to be firing their gunfire in their own styles, with varying timing.

 

"And from the perspective of the target ship, the source of the energy beam is a bright, shining beacon. The destroyer can confirm the enemy's current location as much as it likes before it gets within range of the destroyer's radar." Lynn thought for a moment. "...So, if the pirate ship can't get a hit before it gets within the destroyer’s range..."

 

"It'll be a brawl that relies on their frontal armor. Of course, there are plenty of things they can do, like electronic jamming and disturbance curtains, but if the pirate ship gets within range of the destroyer and starts a brawl, they'll probably lose."

 

"Don't pirate ships have more powerful cannons?"

 

"If we compare the power of each gun, the pirate ship's main gun is more powerful." Chiaki's voice was dull. "Plus, pirates are good at non-standard operations, so I think they make all sorts of crazy modifications to their main guns, knowing that it will shorten their lifespan. They fired, seriously this time!"

 

In a pause in the pirate ship's firing, the Dark Star fired a fully charged naval bombardment. It seemed they had increased the beam concentration as much as possible, and the energy response in the data sent by the Silent Whisper was orders of magnitude stronger.

 

"A hit!"

 

A cheer went up on the bridge of Odette II. A strong energy response came from one corner of the four-ship destroyer fleet.

 

"...But only one shot. If it was from the side, it would be fine, but if it was from the front, I don't know if even a destroyer could stop it..."

 

The Love Machine also began firing its main guns at full force. A beam cannon with a strong energy response was fired, but no hits were made.

 

Marika closed her eyes. She forcibly turned off the battle display in preparation for her next order. "Any responses from the unidentified ship? The battle has really begun. Do you see anything?"

 

"Coorie is tracking some notable responses." Chiaki showed the points reported by the Silent Whisper on the bridge's 3D display. "One main target. The other one is a pirate ship heading this way."

 

"Continue observations." Marika gave the command as originally planned.

 

"If they’re not being tracked, the unidentified ship will get bolder, so the Bentenmaru and the Odette II will continue to pretend to be distracted by the battle. We'll only start moving once the unidentified ship is firmly caught in our net."

 

The two ships that started the battle, the Dark Star and the Love Machine, continued firing at the destroyer fleet while slowing down. However, there was a gap between shots due to the energy recharge, and the destroyers were making active evasive maneuvers, preventing them from landing any effective hits.

 

The two pirate ships were slowing down in order to delay coming into the destroyer’s effective firing range even a little. In response, the destroyer fleet continued to accelerate in order to get the target pirate ships within range as soon as possible.

 

While continuing their powerful deceleration, the pirate ships continued their gunfire at the destroyer fleet. As the Silent Whisper, which was tracking the battle, observed the destroyers, the pirate ships began a full retreat as the destroyers moved into range.

 

Even though the pirate ships were within range, the destroyer fleet did not begin firing. The destroyers had better acceleration performance than the pirate ships currently in front, and it seemed they planned to begin firing once they had approached close enough to gain sufficient firing accuracy.

 

“Just because the enemy isn't firing doesn’t mean you should get cocky. If they just quickly retreat the damage will be less severe...” Chiaki grumbles as the pirate ships continue to fire while retreating. "If the Bentenmaru and the Black Swan don't get there in time, they'll be seriously damaged."

 

The battle airspace is far from Odette II, but close to the Silent Whisper, which is positioned at a distance. It's within range for effective electronic attacks against the destroyers. Marika realizes that she is hoping that Coorie aboard the Silent Whisper will send help to the pirate ships.

 

"They won’t," she tells herself. “If they interfere with history, it might change."

 

"The Bentenmaru will enter the battle airspace soon." Chiaki announces. The four destroyers and two pirate ships were moving at high speed through the airspace where the battle was taking place. "Just to be clear, the Bentenmaru of this era."

 

"I know." Marika thought about the strategy the Bentenmaru would use. Since the time of the War of Independence, the Bentenmaru had undergone numerous modifications to specialize in electronic warfare. Although it is not as powerful as the current Bentenmaru, its electronic warfare capabilities should still be effective against the escort fleet.

 

The destroyer fleet, which should be well within effective range, has not yet begun firing. The Bentenmaru is probably launching a powerful electronic attack to disrupt the destroyer fleet's gunfire. The Black Swan, with its greater firepower, was heading toward the battle zone to provide cover for the retreat of the two sister ships and as reinforcements.

 

At the same time, the three cruisers that are the main force of the escort fleet rushed to the battle area to provide cover to the destroyer fleet. The remaining majority of the main force of the cruiser fleet remained in the area around Garnet A to escort the Stellar Slayer fleet.

 

The Bentenmaru and the Black Swan were not the only pirate ships heading for the battlefield. Behind them, the Karyoubinga and several other pirate ships were also approaching, along with the White Swan, which appeared to be on a reconnaissance mission, coming from the ecliptic.

 

Marika predicted what would happen next from the steadily changing battle situation display. She didn't have much experience fighting in actual fleet battles, but she had participated in many exercises against Imperial fleets and star system armies.

 

If the Bentenmaru and the Black Swan joined the Dark Star and the Love Machine, the destroyer fleet, which was currently in a favorable position, would be at a disadvantage. However, if the three cruisers currently rushing to the scene joined the fleet battle, the situation would once again turn in favor of the Stellar Alliance.

 

"It's no good..." Marika muttered. Although there are differences in training and equipment, the outcome of a battle is almost always determined by the amount of firepower at the front. Even if you have a lot of firepower, if you don't put it into the fight, it's easy to lose.

 

And so, most of the pirates currently in this airspace are joining the ongoing battle. In contrast, the Stellar Slayer fleet, working directly above Garnet A, is not taking part in the battle, and the majority of its escort fleet is waiting, watching the progress of the battle.

 

"I think there are probably some pirates who are impatiently watching the battle situation." Chiaki called out to Marika, who was glaring at the battle situation display with a frown on her face. “Pirates have been fighting wars for years, so they've learned a lot of different tactics, but this is their first fleet battle with so many people involved, so they need time to learn that their old methods are completely useless."

 

"It takes time, and there will be casualties..." Marika muttered. "Why do they always have to do things that aren't necessary?"

 

"Maybe because they suffered a major defeat in the first battle, they managed to do well in the next battle." Chiaki said, looking at the same battle situation display. "Pirates aren't stupid, so if they get hurt, they'll think about it a little. On the other hand, the escort fleet was able to crush the pirates without much trouble, so I think they underestimated our strength. Otherwise, I can't imagine a pirate fleet with such a sloppy, reckless battle and a broken chain of command being a viable fleet force.”

 

"...What about the unidentified ship?" Marika changed the topic. "Since we're providing such a show, have they come out?"

 

"Our primary target is our top priority." Chiaki gave a brief update on the situation. "It's definitely the unidentified ship, so they’re just monitoring the other ships’ signatures and concentrating on investigating us. The Bentenmaru and the Odette II are pretending not to see it, but how will they judge us when we're not in the battle? The question is how much they'll involve themselves since this is their chance to show off."

 

 

 

Before the Dark Star, the Love Machine, the Bentenmaru, and the Black Swan joined up, the destroyer fleet began to retreat without being able to land a significant blow. The pirates, who now had the advantage in overall strength, now began to pursue. The destroyer fleet tried to drag the pirate fleet in, hoping for cover from the cruiser fleet approaching from the rear, while the pirate ships tried to weaken the cruiser and destroyer fleets as much as possible before they could join up.

 

The battle had also begun outside the battle zone. As the battle zone moved vertically northward, the White Swan, approaching from the horizontal ecliptic, began firing long-range electronic jamming signals from its wide-spread antennas at both the destroyers and cruisers approaching to provide cover.

 

For a moment, the battle situation seemed to be in favor of the pirates. However, Marika knew what was going to happen next.

 

The White Swan, which was conducting electronic jamming from a long distance, deployed an uncommonly large antenna suitable for a solar sailing ship. The antenna was large enough to be a target. The cruiser fleet, suffering from the electronic jamming, attempted long-range precision fire on the White Swan. As a result, the White Swan suffered considerable damage.

 

The cruiser fleet began their long-range precision fire. Before the results were known, the Odette II received a report from the Silent Whisper.

 

"It came out!" The report echoed on Odette II's bridge from Coorie’s direct communication. "Garnet A, heading toward the north, A4 at coordinates 0023! The response is tiny, it's definitely not a spaceship from this era."

 

Marika looked at the response data processed by the Silent Whisper. They were not directly observing the enemy with their radar, but even so the reaction was still very weak. "What is this..." Marika looked again at the tiny signal, which she would have missed if she hadn't been certain of its existence.

 

“We’re not directly engaging it yet, right? It's not that far away, so how can they keep the signal so low?”

 

"I think they're doing some kind of active stealth on all the ships in this airspace." Coorie answered. "In any case, to avoid drawing attention, they've turning off conventional propulsion, and barely using antigravity because it would cause a gravitational reaction, and they're moving the spaceship with inertial control alone. In that case, they can keep energy and infrared radiation to a minimum."

 

"Can you make optical observations?"

 

"Impossible." She answered immediately. "It's probably passive, but it's optically camouflaged. I can see its current position from the deviation in the background stars, but I still can't figure out the shape of the spaceship."

 

Coorie's voice became heated. "But they’re definitely approaching the battle zone. It's so engrossed in watching the battle in front of them that they don't realize there's a spaceship laying a net waiting for them." She adds happily. "We caught them."

 

"We need to get them close enough to close the trap."

 

Marika glanced around the displays surrounding the captain's seat. There was no change in the visible data. However, with the observation capabilities of the unidentified ship predicted from the Bentenmaru’s tracking data, the Odette II should also be within its field of view now. In other words, both the Odette II and the Bentenmaru are being watched by the unidentified ship.

 

Marika confirmed the positions of the Silent Whisper, the Odette II, the Bentenmaru, and the unidentified ship. At the moment, the unidentified ship was roughly equidistant from the Silent Whisper and the Odette II, and was approaching Garnet A.

 

"I’ve caught them here too!" Chiaki called out. The sensors, in passive observation mode which didn't reveal their own observations to the enemy's sensors, picked up a small shadow-like signal in the airspace that the Silent Whisper had found. "Seriously... If I hadn't been told it was a spaceship, I would have definitely missed this reaction."

 

"The battle starts here." Marika stared at the still distant signal on the display. "Measure the enemy's position accurately. Is the engine output OK?"

 

"It's fine." Yayoi answered from the engineer's seat. "Normal engines are fine, and the main engine output of the FTL booster is also sufficient."

 

Changes in energy reactions are more noticeable than their size. Both the Odette II and the Bentenmaru increased their engine output as the pirate ships began their battle. They can change to full speed at any time.

 

"Steering, are you OK?"

 

"Currently controlling attitude using only the solar sails." Ai answered while carefully turning the wheel.

 

In the corner of her vision, part of the display flickered.

 

"The cruiser fleet has caught the White Swan." Chiaki announced. "A direct hit... I think a mast was probably destroyed."

 

"Don't look." Marika said, trying not to think about the fate of the unseen pirates. "That's not our battlefield. The one we have to deal with right now is the unidentified ship that's trying to sneak into the battlefield."

 

Even if the unidentified ship is interested in the battle at Garnet A, it is unclear how good its observation capabilities are. The closer it gets, the clearer the observation results will be, but it is unclear how close it will get, or whether it will remain at a distance.

 

The small signal picked up by the cross observation using the Silent Whisper, the Odette II, and the Bentenmaru definitely indicated that it was approaching Garnet A.

 

The Dark Star and the Love Machine continue their gun battle with the destroyer fleet, protected by electronic warfare from the Bentenmaru. The Dark Star should have better armor than the destroyers, but it is a target for the concentrated fire of the destroyer fleet, which has superior rapid firing, and its situation is not good.

 

From a distance, the Black Swan begins diversionary fire on the cruisers in the rear. The destroyer fleet was soon being approached by a reinforcement cruiser fleet, and from behind the Bentenmaru and the Black Swan, pirate ships including the Karyoubinga were heading for the battle airspace.

 

"Let's go." Instructions came from Coorie. "We'll corner the unidentified ship. Odette II, Bentenmaru, as soon as you're ready, light up the enemy!"

 

"Odette II, attitude change complete."

 

Ai replied. Then came a communication from Misa.

 

"This is the Bentenmaru, ready to go anytime."

 

"Silent Whisper here, we're now engaging the target unidentified ship." Coorie's voice echoed across the bridge. "Commencing illumination!"

 

With their bows pointed directly at the unidentified ship, the Odette II and the Bentenmaru began illuminating the airspace where the unidentified ship had been spotted with their radar at full power. At the same time, the Silent Whisper retracted its deployed antennas and sensors, shifted into high maneuverability mode, and began accelerating towards the unidentified ship.

 

"Start accelerating!" Marika ordered. "Target, unidentified ship!"

 

The Odette II accelerated to the same target point as the Silent Whisper, using full inertial control. The Bentenmaru also began accelerating, turning its back on the battlefield between the destroyer fleet and the pirate ships.

 

The Odette II's radar reached the unidentified ship ten seconds after irradiation began, and Bentenmaru's radar fifteen seconds later.

 

"I knew it!" Chiaki cried out when she saw the response ten seconds later. "As soon as our radar reached it, it switched to active stealth! But this reaction is still an automatic response. If you can blind the radar of two ships this far apart, go ahead and blind them!!"

 

After a few seconds, the Bentenmaru‘s radar that was aimed at the unidentified ship returned to the Odette II.

 

"I can see it!" Chiaki immediately showed the obtained data on the display in the center of the bridge. "It's big, battleship class!!"

 

Active stealth is a technology that sends back a false response to radar illumination from one direction, deceiving others about their presence. It's not so difficult if it's illuminated from a narrow angle, but it's difficult to respond to simultaneous illumination from faraway and different directions.

 

The radar illumination from the Odette II and the Bentenmaru clearly showed the silhouette of the unidentified ship, the class of which had previously been unknown.

 

"Can you identify it?"

 

"I'm doing it now." Based on the obtained data, the computer began a matching process to see if there were any registered ships with the same type. Lynn read out the results. "The closest is the Imperial fleet's Glassius class battlecruiser."

 

"An Imperial battleship?" Marika saw the same data on the display. She checked the movements of the Glassius class currently in operation. No active ships. "But this one..."

 

"Oh come on!"

 

The last Glassius class starships were old spaceship, having been was commissioned over 150 years ago. It wasn't surprising that a search using current data, 120 years later, showed no active ships. Marika searched again for the operational status of the Glassius class 120 years ago using the Galactic Standard Calendar.

 

"Huh, even if we expand our search to include the Seventh Fleet, there are no Glassius class ships n active service during the War of Independence?"

 

"Eh?"

 

It seemed that Lynn had set her search to be in the current era from the beginning. Marika looked back at the display, which still showed the same results.

 

The Imperial fleet, blessed with an abundant budget, updates its spaceships at a fast pace. Thirty years have passed since the last ship of the same type was commissioned, so it would not be surprising if it had been retired from the Imperial fleet.

 

"If it's a battleship sold off by the Empire, is it operated by a military company or a private organization...?"

 

"Unidentified ship, increased energy reaction!" Chiaki announced. "As expected, they’re quick to react and make decisions. Now that we know you're here, you're going to jump and escape."

 

Up to that point, everything was going according to plan.

 

"I won't let you escape so easily."

 

Marika considered the jump performance of an Imperial battleship-class ship. A combat spaceship has high jump performance to escape. She didn't know if the main engine's energy was increased so that it could escape quickly before it approached here, but there was no strong reaction when the unidentified ship was first spotted.

 

If it was going to jump long distances, it would need to be charged with a large amount of energy. However, if all that was needed was to jump far enough to become invisible, deceiving the enemy, it wouldn't take long to begin the jump.

 

Without even having time to use conventional propulsion to escape the approaching Odette II and Bentenmaru, the unidentified ship pivoted to a position not much different from when it was discovered. After a rapidly increasing energy reaction, the unidentified ship disappeared, leaving a wake of flashy spatial anomalies and gravity quakes typical of a large ship.

 

"Okay, let's go." A communication came from Coorie, who had already closed the distance to the unidentified ship. "The jump data is as follows!"

 

"Okay, we'll go ahead." Misa, the acting captain of the Bentenmaru, said after quickly receiving the observation data from the Silent Whisper. The Bentenmaru, which had already finished preparing for the jump, calculated the destination of the unidentified ship from the observation data from the Silent Whisper and jumped to the exact same point.

 

"It would be easier if the Bentenmaru could catch it." Marika looked down at the observation data sent from the Silent Whisper. "Where are we jumping to?"

 

"Around the border between the Cetus constellation and Ingalunga¹¹, in empty interstellar space." Lynn pointed to the corner of the star chart, which showed the destination of the unidentified ship calculated from the observation data. "Do you know what ship that Glassius class is?"

 

"I don't know."

 

Lynn displayed a list of several candidates that she had chosen based on her own intuition rather than the results of the computer search. "There are no more Glassius class battlecruisers still in active service in the Imperial Fleet. Although they are called battlecruisers, they are half-baked spaceships like combat aircraft carriers with a lot of aircraft on board, so they were left unused in both the core and on the frontier and were not used for very long. However, since the ship's structure has a lot of room, some of them have been sold to invasion companies or star system militaries and have survived for a long time. A rare example is one that is used by Space University as a research vessel."

 

"Space University!?" Jenny exclaimed, jumping from the observer seat to Lynn's electronic warfare seat.

 

"Space University, um, Space University!?"

 

"Past or present, there is only one Space University in the galaxy." Lynn showed Jenny a display showing the data of the Glassius-class research ship belonging to Space University. "It's obviously old, so it's currently being overhauled in the University system, or rather, it will be in 120 years. This is the only Glassius-class still in service, but the refurbishment will take the rest of next year, so it doesn't come up when I search for active ships."

 

"It can't be..." Jenny muttered with a grim expression, her thumb pressed to her lips.

 

"FTL communication from the Bentenmaru!" Gruier announced from the communications officer's seat. "It seems that a second jump was made right in front of the Bentenmaru, which was tracking the unidentified ship. We have received the observation data."

 

The observation data sent over the FTL line showed the next jump destination of the unidentified ship.

 

"It got away after all."

 

Marika nodded in agreement. She looked at Yayoi in the engineer's seat. "Can we go?"

 

"I was prepared for that, so everything's set!"

 

Yayoi quickly entered the settings into the control panel and completed the final check. Marika nodded.

 

"Odette II, let's go. Jump now!"

 

 

 

The Bentenmaru touched down. Immediately, Misa, the acting captain, contacted us. "Odette II from Bentenmaru, this is Misa. How is the Unidentified ship?"

 

"As you can see, there's no sign of movement at the moment."

 

Gruier, in the communications officer's seat, gave the Bentenmaru the latest situation. The unidentified ship made a second jump right in front of the Bentenmaru, and the Odette II tracked it. They made contact in the gap between the Orion Arm and the Perseus Arm. After two consecutive jumps, the unidentified ship seems to have used up all its energy in its escape, and showed no signs of moving any further.

 

If it continued to jump, the plan was to use the Odette II to analyze the jump data of the unidentified ship and transmit the results to the Silent Whisper to continue the pursuit.

 

"Captain Marika is currently attempting communication, but there is no response."

 

"Then we’ll just keep quiet and watch." Misa replied. "The Bentenmaru will remain on standby for now, and we'll prepare to deal with any situation that arises."

 

"This is the Hakuoh Girls' Academy training sailing ship, the Odette II, out of Sea of the Morningstar in the Tau system." Marika called out again, using the Imperial communication standard, not the Federation of Colonial Stars communication standard. "Your ship has violated several navigational regulations under standard law. Please state your affiliation and ship name."

 

Marika looked around the displays around the captain's seat. The Odette II’s transponder, which was based on the standard regulations of 120 years ago, was transmitting. However, there was no spaceship in the universe that matched the transmitted ID yet.

 

"This is the Odette II, a training sailing ship from Sea of the Morningstar in the Tau system." Marika repeated once more. "This is a frontier area outside the Galactic Empire, so there are no penalties for not following the standard regulations. However, your ship has violated the Tau system, which is our airspace. We have no intention of attacking you. We simply wish to request an explanation of the situation."

 

This communication, along with Marika's image, should have been sent to the other side in the format specified in the standard regulations. With her fingertips on the headset microphone, Marika looked at Gruier in the communications officer's seat. "Well?"

 

"No response." Gruier replied while carefully checking the communications monitor. "But there's no doubt they can hear us. I think they're probably discussing how to respond."

 

Just 1000km away, in front of Odette II, the unidentified ship was cruising along. It seems that it had used up all its energy after two FTL jumps, so its energy response was low. It seemed to still be under radio silence, and not even a single radar signal was emitted.

 

"What’s going on over there?" Marika looked up at Chiaki in the radar/sensor seat. "Can you tell?"

 

"The active stealth is gone, but the optical camouflage is still active."

 

1000km in space is a close distance. However, even with all the Odette II’s optical sensors, they could not get any significant information from the optically camouflaged ship. From the shape of the ship, it was determined to be a Glassius-class battlecruiser, but beyond that, the ship's individual characteristics and identifying markings were completely obscured.

 

"What do you want to do?" Gruier asked. “Shall we resort to pirate-style forced communication and yell right into their ears?”

 

"I don't want to use such rough tactics." Marika looked at the unidentified, optically camouflaged ship on the display.

 

"It's just a spaceship that we don't have in our records, it's not hostile or aiding the enemy. It's just that it’s a suspicious thing hiding its true identity lurking around, and if we can confirm its true identity, we don't want to make things any more complicated."

 

In front of Gruier, the communication system rang a gentle chime. "We have a reply!"

 

"Put it on the screen." Marika instructed, making it visible to everyone on the bridge.

 

A woman with short, dark blue hair, who seemed to be a long-lived Methuselah, was displayed on the communication monitors at each seat. “This is researcher Athena Sakyura aboard the Space University research vessel Curiosity.”

 

"Whaaat!?" Jenny shouted without any regard for her surroundings. Athena, on the other side of the communications monitor, looked at Marika, who was wearing a headset, with a puzzled expression.

 

"You're the captain? Really?"

 

"I’m Kato Marika, captain of the Odette II." Marika bowed to the communication monitor. "Nice to meet you. Thank you for responding to our communication. The Federation of Colonial Stars, including the Tau system’s Sea of the Morningstar, has not yet made official contact with the Galactic Empire, but since that is a Space University research vessel, does that mean that purpose of this mission is for research?"

 

After widening her eyes at Marika's response, Athena on the communication monitor turned away and sighed deeply. "What a big blunder." Athena shook her head. “University research is based on the principle of no contact and non-interference to avoid creating unnecessary preconceptions or restricting behavior, but we were chased and captured by an alien civilization we haven't even made contact with yet? What excuse am I supposed to give my boss?”

 

"We just want to confirm your affiliation and purpose." Marika repeated over the line. "We're not interested in the Galactic Empire's code of conduct, and we have no intention of interfering with the research vessel's purpose, whatever it may be. As long as we can confirm your affiliation and purpose, we have no intention of restricting your actions after that. If you don't intervene in the battle at Garnet A, Curiosity is free to return to that airspace as a Space University research vessel and continue observing the battle."

 

After thinking for a moment, Marika added. "Of course, we have no intention of reporting the principle of non-contact for research vessels anywhere. We are in a star system that has not yet made contact with the Empire. As of now, we have no vested interests with the Empire."

 

"For a star system that has not yet made contact, you know quite a lot about the situation." Athena looked at Marika with interest from the communication monitor. "Besides, how can a civilization that has not made contact with the Empire be able to communicate precisely in accordance with our communication standards?"

 

"Our crew is excellent." Marika smiled and gave her usual answer. "If you wish, we are prepared to answer your questions as well. Could you help us confirm your affiliation and purpose?"

 

Athena raised one eyebrow and responded. "I understand your intentions. Could you please wait a moment, I'll go and convince our leadership.”

 

“Okay.” Marika nodded. “How long should we wait?”

 

“Oh, just keep the line connected. I don't intend to take that long.” Athena stood up from the communications officer's seat without even switching to the standby screen and disappeared from the monitor.

 

“It looks like it's going to work.” Gruier called out. “At the very least, I don't sense any improper intent or lies in what the operator just said.”

 

“I don't know about the ship, but the person on the other end of the line is definitely a Space University employee.”

 

Jenny said so that everyone on the bridge could hear. Marika looked at Jenny's face.

 

“Do you know this person?”

 

“Yes, all too well.” Jenny looked down at the communications monitor, which was just showing an empty communications officer's seat. "They say that long-lived species don't change much in appearance, but I never thought the day would come when I'd see it with my own eyes." Jenny raised her head and looked around at the faces of the bridge crew. "She’s a professor of history at Space University 120 years from now. Athena Sakyura is my current professor at Space University."

 

After a moment of silence, a "Huh?" sounded on the bridge.

 

"However!" Jenny raised her voice emphatically. “Of course, my professor from 120 years ago doesn't know my face, and my name isn't even on the current Space University register. Even if I know them, they don't know me now.”

 

"...It's hard to explain."

 

Gruier said with a thoughtful look on her face. Jenny shook her head.

 

"I'm not going to explain it. It's a waste of time to explain such a complicated and impossible situation. There's a much bigger problem than that."

 

"What is it?" Marika asked Jenny, who looked serious.

 

"If that ship is really a university research vessel and has nothing to do with the Empire's intentions or the fleet's investigation, then all our assumptions collapse. It means the situation we thought we were in was just wishful thinking based on our own convenience."

 

"...What's the problem?" Marika asked, tilting her head even further.

 

"It's a problem." Jenny muttered. "It's a big problem that could change history."

 

"Prejump phenomenon confirmed." Chiaki reported the latest situation as shown on the display. "The Silent Whisper will arrive at our current location shortly."

 

 

Soon, Space University's Glassius-class research vessel, Curiosity, deactivated its optical camouflage. Its pure white hull shone brightly in the pitch black of space, revealing every detail to the Odette II, the Bentenmaru, and the arriving Silent Whisper.

 

The other party returned to the communication monitor. "I'm Athena Sakyura, a researcher at Space University’s Department of Frontier Folklore and History." Athena introduced herself again. "Yes, as you guessed, I was watching your activities as part of my research into civilizations uncontacted by the Empire. I have no ill will or harmful intent, and although I'm not sure if you'll trust me, I have no intention of aggression. I'll probably write a report about it later. I'll probably have to submit several written apologies first, though."

 

"So it's really just for research purposes!?"

 

Jenny screamed. Athena nodded with a puzzled look on her face.

 

"The Empire has a policy of non-interference when it comes to uncontacted civilizations. Your civilization is not even under the Empire's surveillance yet, so I thought it would be a good example of a civilization that spread to colonies without much contact with the outside world. Is there a problem?"

 

"It's a problem, a big problem!" Jenny yelled, shaking her hair wildly. "The fact that the Empire, who we thought were watching us, don't know anything about us is a big problem!"

 

Marika looked at Jenny with a puzzled look on her face. Gruier gasped.

 

“I thought something was strange when I looked at the Imperial fleet's movements right now. They're supposed to intervene in the War of Independence in a week, but there wasn't even a hint of that happening in the Seventh Fleet. If they were going to intervene in an interstellar war, they'd have to send a large fleet to several locations at the same time, and that's what happens in the history we know!”

 

Jenny looked around at the faces of the bridge members. She took a deep breath, steadied herself, and began to speak.

 

"Okay? The spaceship we thought was a scout ship for the Imperial fleet was actually a university research ship, which means the Empire doesn't know about us!"

 

"So that means?"

 

Lynn repeated with a puzzled look on her face, and Jenny replied with a look on her face as if she was about to snap.

 

"If things continue like this, the Empire won't intervene in the War of Independence!"

 

Afterword (Asahi Novels version)

 

So, what should I do after this?

 

Well, "Miniskirt Space Pirates" has entered its eleventh volume. As usual, I'm just going with the flow, letting the spaceship move forward without thinking about long-term structure, just following the characters' lead and letting my pen flow freely. As always, I follow my ephemeral hedonism and steer the story in an interesting direction without thinking about the consequences, but I guess I can just think about how the story will unfold by the time the next book comes out, so I'll leave the problem-solving to my future self.

 

This time, Marika and the others are still running around in the past, during the independence war era, just like last time. I started this thinking that if it's about world-building and subverting that world-building, I could probably craft a decent story but it's been a lot of work. I don't even know every corner of the galaxy in the normal world, but 120 years ago the situation and the balance of power were completely different. I had to go around asking all sorts of questions like, "What's going on over there?" and "Is it okay like this?"

 

Even more time-consuming and labor-intensive than the actual writing of the manuscript is the act of entering the world of the story.

 

The author lives in the same real world as you do. But even in a work set in modern Japan, the characters aren't in front of you, and the situation is far removed from the author in the workplace. An author can't enter the world of the story unless they go to the characters side and looks around at the same world, the same situation. Without going that far, they can't see how the story will develop.

 

When I was younger, I thought that maybe this would get easier once I became a veteran. Of course, such geniuses have always existed, but I'm still a long way from being able to sit down with a piece of manuscript paper in front of me and effortlessly visualize the characters' feelings and development in the blink of an eye. When I see the workplaces of my predecessors, I am reminded of the hardships they went through, and at the same time, it is chilling to imagine such veteran warriors nonchalantly carrying out such difficult work as a daily routine.

 

At the same time, I feel relieved that my predecessors had a hard time too and that I'm not the only one struggling.

 

If you go into the world of the story every day, the trip from your workspace becomes much less difficult. If you leave it for too long, you'll forget not only how to get into the world of the story, but also how to write a novel, which is no good.

 

If you are under pressure to meet a deadline, you will inevitably go into the world of the story every day. Near the end of the story, you will be rushing at a pace that is incomparable to the leisurely first half, and I feel my physical strength steadily declining. How are you all doing these days?

 

Once the deadline is over, you won't be under pressure to meet it anymore. Of course, the next deadline is set, but it's not tomorrow, a week from now, or a month from now. If I can beat the deadline, I have to finish the movies and videos I've been putting off, the books I want to read, go on trips, and do research.

 

Because of all this, I gradually become more distant from the world of my story, which I was up to my neck in before the deadline, and have a terrible experience when the next deadline comes. I'm learning, but don’t use any of it. Human intelligence is fleeting. It's okay, if I continue to live like I did before the deadline, I'll die.

 

Time doesn't just fly; it seems to specialize in surprise attacks. The series "Miniskirt Space Pirates" that began in 2008 is entering its seventh year. The anime version of "Bodacious Space Pirates", which began airing in 2012, will have a completely new theatrical film released on February 22, 2014, after this book is released. The film version of "Bodacious Space Pirates: ABYSS OF HYPERSPACE," marks the 25th anniversary of director Sato Tatsuo's debut as an anime director.

 

And Sasamoto, who made his debut in 1984 with Asahi Sonorama Bunko, will celebrate his 30th anniversary in 2014.

 

When I was younger, I dreamed that if I could build up a career and become a veteran, I would be able to work a little more slowly and leisurely.

 

After doing it for so many years, I've come to understand that this was just an illusion. In the end, only what you write becomes a manuscript, and if you don't write it, no one will read it.

 

So, I look forward to your continued support for the next 30 years or so, along with my next work.

 

If I add the date, I'll get yelled at by all the people who haven't put the time machine into practical use, so I'm deleting it.

 

Yuichi Sasamoto

 

Afterword (KADOKAWA version)

 

The fifth year of Mouretsu Time Pirates

 

Five years, huh? It's already been five years since the movie came out.

 

Five years ago, when I was writing Mouretsu Time Pirates, production was in the final stages for the movie version of Mouretsu Space Pirates: ABYSS OF HYPERSPACE, which was released in February 2014. However, as with the TV series, I knew very well, as the original author, that it would be easier for me and the staff if I left everything to director Tatsuo Sato, and didn't interfere or check anything, so I continued to leave it to him. I didn't check the script that was sent to me at first, and when I went to Tokyo for another matter, Masahisa Suzuki, who helped with the setting for the movie version, advised me, "You might be able to help us strengthen the setting, so why not read it?", so I just had a quick look.

 

Even though Sasamoto has never done a good job as an original author, he has provided source material many times.

 

The thing I fear most as an original author is not that a mediocre media adaptation will be made.

 

The biggest fear when entrusting your work to someone who makes a living from the same creative vocation, such as manga or anime, even if the media is different, is that the resulting media adaptation will be obviously more interesting and better than your original work.

 

There is no difference in the attitude to create a good work between an original author and a writer who uses that original work to work on other media. As a result, what if the media adaptation turns out to be more interesting than the original?

 

In other words, that means that the original author loses to the media writer in the serious battle of creation. The original author thinks that this is the most interesting thing and puts a lot of thought into it, but if the media adaptation turns out better than that, then the original author loses because he was unable to come up with a more appropriate and interesting expression, structure, or narrative style. I see, that's how it is, I never thought of it that way. Oh no!

 

And at the same time, it's also a victory for the original author as a reader. It's nice to be able to read or see an interesting story. And this serious challenge can be repeated, not just once, but as many times as you like. I won't lose next time, just watch.

 

If the qualities and style of the author you entrust your work to are too far removed from the original author's, the original author can laugh about whatever comes out, saying that it's a completely different field. After all, if they draw a cute heroine or a cool mecha depiction, there's no way to win. My business is to write down fantasy that can't even be drawn. And the secret to victory is to fight in your field of expertise.

 

That's why it's scary to even think about suffering an unexpected defeat in your own field where you think you can win, but at the same time, it means you can show a new move in a field that you've put so much thought into. As a writer, it's a disappointing loss, but as an audience, it's a happy victory.

 

As for the movie version of Mopai (abbreviated), I wasn't worried about the outcome, since the director and staff were the same ones I had already entrusted with the TV version. As the original author, who had skimmed through the script but hadn't even opened the storyboards, preferring to enjoy them at my first viewing. It was actually three weeks before their release that I saw a version close to the finished product. I met the director when I visited Tokyo, and he told me that the next day they were doing the dubbing and sound adjustments, so I asked if I could go and watch them.

 

This isn't limited to movies, but the shape of a work in the middle of being made is really interesting. It's a rare opportunity to see the production process that can't be seen in the finished product, and the various things that go on in the process that we can only guess at. Being the original author, my request was accepted without hesitation and I ended up watching the penultimate dubbing process at the Azabu-Juban studio.

 

The theatrical version, which was split into three parts, was previewed just before completion, with the director giving instructions and fixing anything that could be fixed on the spot, and previewing just that part again, with any parts that looked like they would take longer being previewed at a later date. This was the first time that Sasamoto saw a theatrical version that was close to being finished.

 

As it was part of the production process, he couldn't laugh out loud, and as the original author I could just grin irresponsibly, but after watching all three films I noticed how short the total running time was. I added up the numbers on the counter, which I vaguely remembered, and the main feature was just over 90 minutes?

 

When I checked, the running time including the ending credits was 95 minutes. The director said he tried to create a story that wouldn't expand the scale unnecessarily, but I had no idea he'd structured it so tightly.

 

Although the film was still unfinished, I noticed that even though the scenes were the same as in the trailer, new effects were clearly layered on top.

 

I knew that the work process had changed significantly since animation began to be created by computers, but seeing it with my own eyes was striking. That shots from the trailer has been processed and tweaked in various ways.

 

A manga artist friend of mine had told me about the pros and cons of digitizing illustrations. With a paper manuscript, it's finished once the inking and coloring processes are complete, but with a computer, you can experiment as much as you want and layer as many colors as you want, so you can probably work forever.

 

With anime, too, you can now add as many effects and corrections as you want, so it's probably the situation where you just do everything you can and need! When a certain process becomes more efficient and the work progresses faster, you start spending more time on other things - that's been the case for a long time.

 

And so, just three weeks before the release, on the very day the preview screening was scheduled, emergency messages were flying around saying, "The afternoon screening has been postponed!" and "The evening screening has also been canceled." With only a little time left until the scheduled release date, and thinking about the staff who are still putting in their efforts at this last minute, trying to improve the film's quality even a little, all I can say as the original author is, "Okay, I get it, don’t worry about it just do your best.”

 

We had gathered for the preview screening, but it was canceled, so I went to a local Chinese restaurant to have dinner with an old acquaintance and an editor who had joined us, and hearing about the status of other theatrical anime, and it finally dawned on me that I was a party to the project. The original author's job here is to remain relaxed and let the staff work with peace of mind. Even though it's almost finished, I have seen the dubbing process and have a general idea of ​​the result, so I don't have to worry about that.

 

At the end of the dinner that day, I received word that the film was "complete." The actual preview screening took place the next day, pushed back by one day. Since it's a theater dedicated to preview screenings, they can accommodate schedule changes. I didn't feel anxious even when someone involved suddenly asked me, "Excuse me, could you please say hello as the original author before the screening?" The director greeted the audience by saying, "Thanks to the hard work of the staff, we were able to make something that's more than just a movie."

 

After the preview, the director and I went to a local bar and celebrated until the morning. No matter how many years you've been a writer or director, you can still be anxious about the quality of your new work. But don't worry, this is one of the top five anime films I've ever seen, one that even the original author would be happy with.

 

At an event after the film's release, the director Sato Tatsuo said, "The works I made for myself are Muryou, Nekojiru-kusa, and Mopai." The original author couldn't help but pump his fist in his heart. Works you make for yourself are valuable because you can't lie to yourself. Good job for me for taking advantage of the opportunity to have such a work made. Now, I wonder if there will be a rematch.

 

April 17, 2019

 

Yuichi Sasamoto

 

This book is a new edition of "Miniskirt Space Pirates 11: Bodacious Time Pirates" published by Asahi Novel in February 2014, with additional content and corrections and a new cover.

 

 

Sasamoto Yuichi

 

 

 

1963: Born in Tokyo.

 

1974: Becomes hooked on "Space Battleship Yamato" from the original broadcast.

 

1979: Watches "Mobile Suit Gundam" from the original broadcast.

 

1982: Reads "Galactic Beggars’ Army" and learns how to use airplane pilot manuals as reference books.

 

1984: Published "Operation Fairy"

 

1992: Published "Come and See the Stars Dance"

 

1992: Begins researching rockets from the first H-II rocket to write a space opera.

 

2008: "Miniskirt space pirate" battle begins!

 

2012: "Moretsu Space Pirates" televised.

 

2014: "Moretsu Space Pirates" theatrical animation was released.

 

2018: "Miniskirt Space Pirates" second battle begins!

 

 

Matsumoto Noriyuki

 

 

 

Worked for a game company for about 10 years. After that, he became a freelance illustrator, working on illustrations for light novels. Currently, his main activity is manga. His representative works include "Rin - Noriyuki Matsumoto Art Collection" (Enterbrain), "Tsubame Yodamari Shoujo Kiko" (Tokuma Shoten), and "Minami Kamakura High School Girls Bicycle Club" (Mac Garden).

 

 

 

Notes

[←1]

TL Note: I have no idea who this is. The closest I can find is Tinia, the sky god and highest god in Etruscan mythology. Hermes is associated with language, or possibly Mnemosyne.

 

However, since Space University was established (long) before the Galactic Empire met humanity, you can’t really expect it to be named for a deity from a human pantheon.

[←2]

TL note: Some quick numbers: The Earth is 150 million kilometers from the sun. Using that as a rough scale, say their target (inside the orbit of the innermost planet) is 98 million kilometers away, the acceleration of Earth’s gravity is 9.8 meters/second^2, and accelerate for half that distance and decelerate for the other half. For an acceleration of 1G, a round trip would take about 111.1. hours. At an acceleration of 10G’s, a round trip would take about 35.1 hours. At an acceleration of 100G’s, a round trip would take about 11.1 hours (reaching a maximum of 3.3% of the speed of light).

[←3]

TL note: A regular hexahedron is a 3D geometric solid with 6 flat faces, a cube. It has 8 vertices (the probes.)

[←4]

TL note: Benzaiten is the Japanese name for the Hindu goddess Saraswati, the goddess of music. Also the goddess of wealth, eloquence and art.

[←5]

TL note: The original Japanese is biwa, a Japanese lute.

[←6]

TL note: The kanji here is “愛” (love or affection), but also has the furigana “いと” , thread. It gives the word an implication of “fate”, as in “tied together with the red string of fate” but it’s hard to express in English.

[←7]

TL note: Hereafter shortened to GPS, as given in the furigana.

[←8]

TL note: Actually, it said to bring the Silent Whisper.

[←9]

TL note: I’ve been using the English translation for the name of the ship. “White Swan” in Japanese is Shiratori. Now, I’ve just found out that the ship is named after its captain. Sorry, but I’m going to keep using “White Swan” for the ship and Shiratori for the captain and first officer.

[←10]

TL note: The translation of the Japanese here is literally “the Urashima effect of light-speed travel”. This is a reference to the legend of Urashima Tarou, a Japanese fisherman who saves a sea turtle and is rewarded by being carried to the Dragon Palace under the sea, where he spends several days being entertained by the princess Otohime. When he returns to his home village, he finds that he has been gone for at least 100 years. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urashima_Tar%C5%8D

 

And, if you’re interested, for the crew to experience 3 days while going 120 years (43,830 days) into the future, their velocity would be 0.999999997685 C. For the crew to experience 30 days, their velocity would be 0.9999997658 C. For the crew to experience 365.25 days (1 year), their velocity would be 0.99996527717 C.

[←11]

TL note: The Japanese is “インガルンガ”, “Ingalunga” or “Ingarunga”. Neither I nor anyone I asked has a clue.