Chapter 87: Small Conversation

  It was a grueling process, but Abyssal and Co finally got out of the minefield. Four days of constant vigilance paid off when Abyssal felt the freedom of movement once again. She was glad that she could stretch out her body, or rather ship, again after being constrained for a while. As Abyssal exited the dangerous place, Abyssal closed her eyes and said to herself internally.

  “To those that are going to traverse that location in the future, if they ever come across the place, of course, I’m very sorry for the mess I created!”

  Understandable, as she was half the reason why the minefield existed.

  Once exited, the fleet stayed in formation and started their travel towards the Dawning Star. The group coordinated with each other about the general route they were taking and sync up with each other on their warp drives. Thanks to Abyssal’s newly upgraded warp drive, her travel time towards the Dawning Star’s borders was shortened significantly. Compared to earlier with her obsolete drive which would have taken her weeks, the new drive would only take her days. Abyssal had calculated that she would reach Dawning Star within five days.

  At least that’s what she thought would be the case at first. Five days would be the travel speed if Abyssal were to travel alone. The actual calculation for the group was one week and three days. A chain is only as strong as the weakest link and funnily enough, this time it was Jinko herself who was actually limiting the travel speed of the group. Due to her size and complexity, her warp drives took longer to come off cooldown and could only travel a limited distance at one time. This was, according to Astral, below average considering that Jinko was using military tech.

  Astral, who was dissatisfied with Jinko’s drive performance, opened up a communication towards her to complain. Or rather, she asked Abyssal to open communication towards Jinko. Astral was currently within the bridge of the shark-class and was looking towards the monitor within the bridge with her arms crossed. Just like Yoake, Astral left a body within Abyssal. This was done to monitor the Dawning Star’s neophyte and to ‘watch’ over Abyssal and her crew.

  “What is with your drive, Jinko? Explain to me why it takes so long for you to travel this short distance? I refuse to believe someone who is the admiral of a fleet will have such weak drives,” Astral asked Jinko who was currently sitting down on a patio within a garden full of sakura trees, an umbrella over her shoulders.

  “That is because this isn’t my best one,” Jinko replied with a smirk. She stared into the camera like she’s having fun teasing the red-head.

  “Haah?!”

  “I have two separate drives. A high-powered multipurpose drive, and one more for universal use. I am currently using the lesser one for this journey.”

  “What? Why aren’t you using the better one?”

  “Why? Simple, I’m conserving warp fuel.”

  “Haah? We are travelling towards your home turf, you can refuel all you want there, why bother?”

  “I am not some little small fighter that can freely warp around without worrying about my consumption. I have enemies in and outside of Dawning Star, and I wish to conserve whatever I could should a problem arise. Why? Are an extra few days of travel that much of a problem for the great Phoenix? What are a few days? Are you that impatient?”

  Astral looked away when asked with the question. “Well… I don’t really have a problem I guess. I just want to know what’s the delay.”

  “Well, now you know. Any other questions?”

  “Nope. Nothing. Thank you very much.”

  “You are welcome, fu fu fu,” Jinko said with a small laugh before abruptly closing the communication.

  “Arghh.. dammit that girl gets on my nerves…” Astral said after letting out a huge sigh. She walked around the bridge before sitting down on one of the seats. She then put her legs above a desk and put one of her hands behind her head to act as some sort of pillow. Afterwards, she took out a tablet and started to tap on it with her free arm. The way she acted was as if the seat belonged to her, claiming ownership to it. She got herself comfortable, treating the place like a second home.

  ‘This woman… doesn’t she have anything better to do? Are all the people from Freedom United like this?’ Abyssal asked herself as looked towards Astral. She let out her own sigh before looking towards the other new person on the bridge.

  Yoake, just like Astral, took ownership of one of the seats in the bridge. Unlike Astral however who was always walking around and disturbing the harmony of the place, all Yoake usually did was just sit down in a Seiza looking towards a wall like some lifeless doll. The only time where she would move was to either look around or communicate with the crew. It made sense for her to do this as her real body and attention were probably towards her own ship that was currently covering Abyssal.

  Abyssal then looked towards the other two people on the bridge. Meica was currently near the giant holographic table in the middle of the bridge, playing around with a design. She used her hands to fiddle around with the holographic image with precision and speed. Her face curved into a smile while doing so— fangs protruding out of her smiling gesture. This smile was also accompanied with a soft hum of enjoyment. Kuon, on the other hand, had just finished cleaning the bridge and was now cleaning her old body, the drone, as well as cleaning Abyssal’s old body. The crew went about their day with relative peace with everyone doing their own thing.

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  That peace lasted exactly 17 minutes and 33 seconds. A peace that was broken with Abyssal asking Astral about the existence of her spare body within the bridge.

  “Um… Astral,” Abyssal asked timidly.

  “Hmm? What?”

  “Nothing much… I was just wondering… about that fake body of yours, how long are you going to keep moving around my ship? Couldn’t you just do what you are doing within your own ship?”

  Astral threw a glance towards Abyssal from her seat, “What? You got a problem with me moving around?”

  “No, no… no problem at all. You are welcome here any time of course… ha ha ha…” Abyssal replied awkwardly.

  “I see. Thanks, by the way. It’s pretty dark and cramp in my own ship. Just moving around puts my mind at ease, even if it is not my real body.”

  “I see. Your welcome.”

  And so, silence fell upon the bridge of the S.A.S. Abyssal once again. Not for long though as two minutes later, Astral let out a grunt before getting up. She tossed the tablet towards her seat before walking towards Yoake. She stopped just a meter away from her, studying the android representation of the Living Core.

  Yoake, who noticed the strange presence, turned her head around to look at Astral. Her head turned like it was controlled by motors and gears rather than muscles which gave the action quite an intimidating feel. Yoake didn’t say anything though, only looking back towards Astral with a cold apathetic look.

  “Tell me about yourself,” Astral asked.

  Yoake tilted her head at the question.

  “What’s your story? How did you get into this situation?”

  “First state of awareness was established one year four months three days ago. My avatar was created by Doctor Keijima of the Dawning Star third fleet modelled after her deceased daughter. I am a fourth-generation core and was given basic training installed at the institute of war. One training was installed, I was transferred to the Seventh Cruiser Division as a direct subordinate of cruiser Hikari. My assignment under her led me towards my current lead commander, Jinkoshijin. Current duty is to monitor Living Core Abyssal, Kuon, Heir Meica and Rebel Pilot Astral while also providing them with assistance whether physically or advisory,” Yoake answered as if reciting from text, without a single pause for breath.

  Astral kept silent for a few moments, awaiting more from the black-haired girl. Once it was clear that Yoake would not speak of anything else, Astral opened her mouth. “I see. Anything else? I mean what do you like, what are your hobbies, what are your strengths and weaknesses?”

  Yoake only kept quiet to that question and stared at Astral.

  “What? Why are you keeping silent?”

  “I am not authorized to share private information or speak of such matters to outsiders,” Yoake responded. She had yet to blink once during all of this.

  “You can’t or don’t have anything to speak to me about?”

  “...”

  “Alright, fine… What can you tell me about your superiors and your crew? It seemed weird to me that you have crews that follow your commands. It’s usually the other way around. As a matter of fact, I find a Living Core being the supreme commander of an entire fleet… surprising. Is it a norm in Dawning Star?”

  “...”

  “You are playing it hard, huh. What about Jinko? Anything you can tell me about her? What is she like, outside of interacting with us?”

  “...” Again Yoake didn’t reply. She only stared at Astral with a cold look.

  “Oi! Don’t just keep quiet.”

  “I am not authorized to share private information or speak of such matters to outsiders,” she answered again, this time with even more coldness than before. If Abyssal didn’t know any better, she would assume that Yoake was angry at Astral.

  Astral let out a sigh before moving away. “Well, it was worth a shot,” she muttered out.

  Abyssal let out a wry smile as she observed a wild Astral in her habitat. Her legs moved towards Kuon who was busy polishing the two drones of the Fierca Class. She stood about one meter apart from Kuon studying the maid.

  Kuon was seen to be rather annoyed by this as she soon threw a glare towards the girl with flaming red hair. “May I help you with something, dear guest?” she said with animosity.

  “Why don’t you have your own ship?”

  “The opportunity simply hasn’t presented itself for me to have my own vessel. Events since my newfound freedom have been hectic, to say the least.”

  “I see. Let’s just say that you have the opportunity in the future, what would you do? What would you do afterwards?”

  “I will think about it when the time comes.”

  “...What about New England? Do you ever wish to return to that place?”

  “... I have the right to not answer that question,” Kuon replied before standing up and walking away. The two drones that she was working on, turned on and followed her from behind.

  “That girl has an attitude,“ Astral muttered to herself. Her voice was soft, but Abyssal, being the master of the ship, or rather, being the ship itself, could easily hear it.

  ‘That’s funny coming from you…’ Abyssal commented internally.

  Like a restless child, Astral moved towards her next target, Meica. Just like the others, she stood a meter apart from Meica and observed her and what she was working on.

  About a full minute later, Astral started a small conversation. “What are you working on, kid?”

  “Why should I tell mean Astral?” Meica said, not taking her eyes on the holographic design in front of her.

  “Well... It's just that what you are working on looks rather interesting…”

  Meica responded by moving in between Astral and the table, blocking her view. “Astral just interested cause Astral wants to steal tech!” She said before sticking out her tongue and slapping Astral with her tail.

  “...” Astral didn’t respond, only giving Meica a complicated look. She just stood there, continuing to look at the table.

  …

  ..

  .

  Exactly, sixty seconds after that failed conversation, Astral found herself one meter away from Abyssal, studying her from top to bottom. Abyssal tried to ignore Astral by concentrating as much she could on what she was doing, the continuing repairs on the Fierca class. However, the stares soon got too intense and the situation got too awkward for Abyssal to stand it any longer.

  She slowly turned her face to look at Astral. “What…?”

  “I’m bored. Let’s do some training. Fighter against Fighter. I could teach you some moves.”

  “No thanks. I don’t want to get shot. It hurts. Also, my ship isn’t fully repaired yet,” Abyssal replied decisively.

  Astral let out a sigh, the largest one yet. “One more week of this, huh? Great.”

  ‘I should be the one saying that!’