Chapter 19
Rubedo tried, in her own way, to make a coherent case that she'd killed an Elder-class Nkhilakarn, but...
"It's okay, it's okay. Big Sis understands. Everyone's like that at your age."
"......I'm not going through puberty. I'm way past that age."
Prasada Palace had been reduced to ashes.
The people nearby had been caught in the aftermath and killed.
And the satellite camera that happened to be passing overhead had, by sheer coincidence, malfunctioned.
There was no concrete evidence—no photographs, video, or witnesses.
All that remained was her conjecture.
Everything she'd presented as evidence was merely a theory.
She'd failed to prove her case spectacularly.
Treated like a pubescent kid who couldn't hide her overinflated ego, she sulked mightily.
Ramirez and the others pretended to comfort her, but privately thought they ought to take better care of her from now on.
Three days later.
"Hahaha! Yangyang, Rubedo. I've got two special announcements for you."
Rubedo and Yangyang were still hospitalized while they monitored their recovery.
The doctor couldn't believe his eyes when he saw Yangyang fully recovered.
He asked with utter sincerity if he'd ever seen anything like it in his life, and what on earth they'd done, but...
Task Force 42 never told him anything about Mijeong.
Director Yamashita had ordered them to keep quiet about Mijeong.
Information about Mijeong was tightly controlled by the Security Bureau.
In the space of three days, records of the Earth Empire in the database were quietly deleted,
and even the minor conspiracy theories and rumors about Mijeong circulating across the network were taken down.
"Special? Could they be two pieces of good news?"
"No. Two pieces of bad news."
"......Get out."
Ramirez kicked the hospital room door open and came in bearing bad news.
Rubedo wondered if this Brigadier General brought bad luck wherever he went.
It was a little dangerous to think that, but...
When he'd headed for Fettuccine, an Elder-class Nkhilakarn had appeared in the Furnace as if it had been waiting for the chance...
......A ridiculous thought.
She shook off the stray thought.
"Which one do you want to hear first?"
"They're both bad news. Does the order really matter?"
"One's just bad news, and the other is fucking awful news."
......
Take that back.
This old geezer was the very embodiment of bad luck.
"Since I have to hear them anyway, let's start with the less bad one."
Yangyang, who had been cuddling Rubedo and stroking her hair, spoke up.
Ramirez beamed at her choice.
Just like when he'd first met Rubedo.
The familiar expression brought back bad memories, and Rubedo frowned before she even heard the news.
"Right. The bad news is... congratulations on your discharge. They say you haven't shown any lasting effects or post-traumatic stress disorder."
At the same time, Ramirez set off a little firecracker he'd somehow gotten his hands on.
'Gunpowder... no, it isn't. Still, a fire would be a disaster.'
The little bits of paper settled to the ground,
and Rubedo asked,
"How is that... bad news?"
"Why? You're well enough to leave the hospital, so now you can get back to dirtying your ass as a member of Task Force 42."
Rubedo's already crumpled face twisted up even further.
Ramirez saw it and laughed so loudly the whole room rang.
"You know, hearing you say 'ass' over and over makes me feel really weird."
"Now, for the really shitty news."
"Stop ignoring what I'm saying!"
When it was time to deliver the really shitty news,
Ramirez's expression turned utterly serious, instantly transforming the room's light mood.
Gulp.
A gulp sounded through the room. It was hard to tell whether it came from Rubedo or Yangyang.
"By order of the Emperor..."
The order of the Emperor of the Earth Empire.
Task Force 42's next mission destination, following the First and Seventh Sindalot Multistar Systems.
"......Our next destination is Taygeta."
......
"......?"
Rubedo quietly picked at her ear.
Had she misheard just now?
"Huh?"
"Didn't you hear me? We're going to Taygeta."
"......Whaaat?"
"Damn, that's really fucking, fucking, fucking awful news."
Planet Taygeta.
It had once been called a second Earth,
but the Martian Senate had turned it into a glass marble,
and now it was a dead star.
"Is that really an order from the Emperor?"
"Yeah. Once we're done at Hospitality Point, the order is to return to the jump point and head straight for Taygeta."
"Where are we going after Taygeta?"
"I can't tell you that."
Oh, right.
Of course.
Unlike Rubedo, who only grumbled a little,
Yangyang reacted fiercely.
"I'm against it, Brigadier General."
"Big Sis?"
"You should object too. And call that Kang Chanwoo guy in here."
"Chanwoo already knows. More importantly, the Emperor's orders aren't something you can defy just by objecting."
The Emperor of the Earth Empire.
The one followed by the Human Security Bureau and the military, the two powers at the top of the Human Federation.
The Bureau and the military had exerted considerable influence over the formation of Task Force 42,
so Yangyang, a mere squad member and not even a commander, had no veto.
Even though the Martian Senate was hostile to him,
turning their backs on the Security Bureau to join hands with the Senate would be putting the cart before the horse.
Above all, as long as Rubedo remained Mijeong's host and under the Emperor's protection,
the Senate had no reason to join hands with them, either.
Yangyang's objection was completely ignored.
"But Taygeta..."
"I understand. But as long as we're soldiers, the Emperor's orders are absolute."
Federation soldiers belonged to the military,
and Karyan, the Commander-in-Chief of the military, followed the Emperor,
so the Emperor's orders were effectively the Commander-in-Chief's orders.
"......Yes, sir."
"Good. I'm glad you understand."
In this conversation,
Rubedo was the only one who couldn't keep up.
Wasn't Taygeta just a glass marble?
Why was Big Sis so dead set on not setting foot there?
Could it have something to do with Taygeta being turned to glass?
'......Am I reading too much into it?'
But when she had so few clues, there was no point in agonizing over it,
and Rubedo was clever enough to know that.
Instead, she decided to change the mood and cut into the awkward silence.
"So how are we getting to Taygeta? As far as I know, there isn't a Sindalot Multistar System near Taygeta. Didn't they all get destroyed?"
Ramirez gave her a thumbs-up behind Yangyang's back.
"Good question, Rubedo. There is a way. Remember how those Sigma bastards escaped?"
"I... was busy fighting the Gladiators in the hibernation room, so I didn't see. Do you know, Big Sis Yangyang?"
"......You crazy old geezer, don't tell me..."
A pillow flew at Ramirez's face.
Ramirez easily dodged the incoming pillow...
"A coordinate-calculated emergency jump."
He tossed out something very important as casually as if it were nothing.
Rubedo still didn't understand why Yangyang didn't want to set foot on Taygeta, but
just now,
she'd gained one reason of her own not to go there.
"Get out!"
"Good grief, a Private's arresting a Brigadier General."
A coordinate-calculated emergency jump.
A method of jumping by using a superintelligence to calculate precise coordinates, instead of using a jump gate from a Sindalot Multistar System.
It was less stable than a jump gate, but not so unreliable that anyone needed to make a fuss about it.
But if the destination was Taygeta, that was another matter.
Normally, the instability of spatial randomness would cause little more than some spatial turbulence,
but after Taygeta was vitrified, the Senate had designated the area a restricted zone, and there hadn't been a single jump attempt in years.
In other words...
the spatial fissures etched into space had long since healed completely, making it a dangerous area with a very high chance of a jump accident.
It was like swimming across a floor strewn with shards of glass.
And an accident during a jump meant...
"......Don't give me that coordinate-calculated emergency jump nonsense."
"There, that's the spirit."
damage to the spaceship.
......
......
......
After the attack by the multi-species space pirates of Sigma,
and the high-speed descent and emergency evasive maneuvers through the Furnace's atmosphere,
the Razangriff's outer armor had been left in tatters, but
in the time since she'd last seen it, the ship had been restored to pristine condition, like a newly built spaceship—making its old title as an Earth Empire prototype seem absurd.
"The ship looks nice all fixed up."
-I feel good too.
But despite the cruiser's enormous size,
only six people would be boarding the Razangriff.
Brigadier General Ramirez.
Second Lieutenant Yangyang.
Sergeant Kang Chanwoo.
Researcher Adlam.
Captain Theodore.
And Private Rubedo.
There had originally been four more, but they had all died in the Furnace.
"I don't like that thing."
-Neither do I.
"Do we really have to bring it along?"
Rubedo pointed at the thing strapped to Ramirez's back, her face like she'd just spotted a cockroach.
Its humanlike appearance was a coincidence of convergent evolution.
Pointed ears.
Glowing tattoos etched where its veins were.
......Severed limbs.
It was the Capitano-class Nkhilakarn they'd captured alive in the Furnace.
It was also a valuable life they'd secured at the cost of four Task Force 42 members.
"I'm bringing it because it's useful. I'll connect this guy's brain to the superintelligence to ease the burden of calculating coordinates and reduce the risk of an accident."
"What if the elves end up eating the superintelligence instead?"
"That's why I dug around in its brain. For a while, its intelligence will be worse than a pig's."
That was true.
She'd heard that Military Intelligence had tortured the Nkhilakarn extensively.
"We're making the jump with an elf. Could something go wrong that humanity hasn't accounted for?"
"As far as I know, we're the first in history to try it... but I think it'll probably be fine. If anything goes wrong, I'll take responsibility."
......
She couldn't help feeling uneasy.
Hopefully, her worries were unfounded...
"Didn't the people upstairs object to taking the elf we'd gone to all that trouble to capture back with us?"
"The Director of the Security Bureau ordered it. Surprisingly, the Senate didn't say anything."
If it was an order from the Director of the Security Bureau,
Rubedo reluctantly accepted it.
He was practically the person who held her life in his hands, after all.
Besides, as a rookie Private aboard a carrier-class ship, there wasn't much she could do besides accept it.
"So... congratulations, Rubedo. You're no longer the youngest."
"Yes! Now I can boss someone around as much as I want."
"Make it work extra hard since it has no limbs."
After exchanging that bizarre banter, the people boarded the Razangriff
and headed to their respective stations.
"Captain, hold this guy down tight so he can't move."
-......Brigadier General?
The Captain and Ramirez headed to the bridge to connect Ranpazyakan's brain to the ship's superintelligence operator.
"T-Taygeta has no atmosphere anymore, s-so..."
"Right. We'd better check our armor suits thoroughly to prevent any accidents."
Kang Chanwoo went with Adlam to the maintenance room on the cargo deck to check the condition of their armor suits.
"Hehehe, then shall we get some rest?"
"......Could you move a little farther away?"
Yangyang and Rubedo headed to their rooms to enjoy some wholesome time to themselves.
-Brigadier General... this is a bit much.
"It may be crude, but it's reliable, isn't it?"
-But does that mean you have to open its head and connect it directly?
"Don't worry. These elves won't die from this much."
Energy gathered in the Razangriff's jump engine drive as it left the jump point.
An enormous amount of energy punched a hole in space.
-Jump commencing.
The Razangriff tore through space and threw its hull into the revealed rift in imaginary space.
And then.
-Large numbers of unidentified objects are approaching this ship.
The AI operator sounded the alarm.
-All personnel aboard, brace for impact.
Fortunately, there was no spatial turbulence and the ship wasn't destroyed, but
they faced an unforeseen incident: an attack in the jump corridor.
"Man, seriously, does this make any sense? How can we not get a single easy day?"
Yangyang deeply sympathized with Rubedo's lament.