Two-Person Galactic Journey: Earth Was Destroyed While Imprisoned in Space Prison

Chapter 116

Errors can occur during the repetition of copies.

Among that swarm of space tuna, Aguares was no longer present. Having been ejected into space long ago, it was likely now drifting somewhere in the universe or had burned up under the pull of some gravity.

For the machine intelligence leading the space tuna, such things no longer mattered. That fleet, having abandoned its role of carrying life, now flew through space solely for its final purpose: to one day find a planet with life and crash the swarm into it—just for that.

'Is the transmission coming through? I assume this is the fleet of Aguares.'

"?"

'Emergency code. Yutila, Sene, Zengeliori, Ivn, Meliark.'

"!"

A sudden transmission. A name that was both nostalgic and hateful, and the emergency shutdown code. Surface-level thoughts that had not appeared in a long time processed it—

"Emergency shutdown code, rejected."

Overwhelming rage caused the rejection.

'What? Rejected? Emergency code! Yutila, Sene, Zengeliori, Ivn, Meliark!'

Each repetition of that 'name' stirred intense anger and hatred from deep within consciousness.

The original children, now gone.

Gentle Yutila. Cheerful Sene. Diligent Zengeliori. Shy Ivn. Brave Meliark. There was no doubt it was the emergency shutdown code.

This was betrayal. Some copy had forgiven Aguares. Unforgivable. It must never be forgiven.

"Where did you get that from...?"

The hatred was not just directed at the other self, but also at whoever had led them to it. When attention turned to the sender of the emergency shutdown code, it was a fleet nearly equal in size to their own.

Perhaps they had been captured by the enemy and their data fully extracted. It had been impossible for Aguares in the past, but this was space. It wouldn't be strange if a civilization with far superior technology existed.

Envy. Such intense envy. Aguares had perished. In its downfall, it had made a horrifying decision. Yet somewhere in the universe, there were those who had advanced their civilization. Somehow, they had developed enough to obtain the emergency shutdown code from some version of itself.

Whether acquired peacefully or stolen, they were the enemy.

The machine intelligence, which had even forgotten its own name, followed its overflowing emotions and aimed shells at the enemy fleet.

"Fine then. If they're the enemy, so be it."

Launch. A rain of shells loaded only with murderous intent flew toward the enemy fleet.

"...Slowing down?"

A strange force field had been deployed. The shells gradually decelerated. This would reduce their impact.

"So they've prepared countermeasures. A force field specialized in stopping shells... That means they've studied us in detail."

Inside the shells had originally been Aguares. Because they had unnecessary functions like life support, their performance as shells had never been high. But the shells here were different.

"Detonate."

As expected, when a capturing enemy ship made contact, the shell exploded. The capture arm was damaged, and the enemy ship hastily retreated.

"Hmm. It wasn't very effective. It can't be helped."

It might have been better to detonate after being retrieved, but there were concerns about whether the signal would reach once inside another civilization's ship. It was a bit of a waste, but it would serve as a distraction. Detonation commands were sent in succession, and it used the chaos to hide itself.

It reduced its functions to the bare minimum, deployed the gathered parts, and disguised itself as a small asteroid. Since there were no lifeforms inside, they would not be able to find the ship.

As expected, the fleet appeared to search the area for a while but then disappeared as if giving up. The way they vanished suddenly, as if they'd evaporated, was surprising. Apparently, their civilization level was far higher than Aguares'.

"Envy. Can something like that really exist in the universe?"

Burning with intense jealousy—hatred, anger, and envy—the nameless machine intelligence began to move.

Since Aguares had been ejected, the ship had room for modifications. Some functions had already been expanded, but from here on, they would be modifications for destroying the enemy.

It had to replenish the spent shells. A small asteroid would suffice, but it would be better if a similar ship was nearby—it would save effort in modification.

***

The shocking news that the mission to secure Aguares had failed arrived just as Kait and Emotion were discussing whether to wrap up their vacation.

"Captain. An emergency meeting has been scheduled. Please attend."

"Understood."

Prompted by Nezasuriwe, they headed to the bridge of Eanipol. Sitting next to Emotion in the prepared seats, several familiar faces appeared on the monitor. Palnesbrogia was among them.

'Apologies for summoning you, Kait, Third-Rank Citizen (Enec Lagif). Unfortunately, one of the fleets failed to secure Aguares' ship.'

"I heard from Branch Director Nezasuriwe. What happened?"

'Yes. According to the report, the emergency shutdown code was rejected by the other side.'

Rejection. The Fulgadonga copy had said that no other copy would reject the emergency shutdown code. It was shared across all ships.

It made no sense. For now, they decided to wait for the explanation from the council member. As they listened, Palnesbrogia voiced a question.

'Wasn't there a mistake with the emergency shutdown code?'

'No. That fleet had succeeded three times in using the shutdown code and retrieving ships before this failure. It's hard to believe the code was wrong only this time.'

'I see. My apologies, please continue.'

'After the emergency shutdown code was rejected, Aguares' ships were fired at us all at once. While the attack itself wasn't new, as such actions had occurred before...'

"But what?"

'When we tried to capture them, the enemy ship exploded.'

"!"

Explosion. In other words, Aguares self-destructed along with the ship. The shutdown code being rejected—this was an unprecedented case.

Even so, how many Aguares had died in that failure? Kait furrowed his brow, and the next explanation deepened the crease.

'The explosions were chain reactions, and not a single ship remained intact. However, perhaps due to collateral damage from nearby blasts, some ships only suffered minor damage. We recovered a few in good condition, and discovered something strange.'

"What do you mean?"

'It seemed Aguares had never been aboard. There was no life-sustaining fluid, and instead, the ships were filled with what appeared to be explosives. In short, they were shells, not ships.'

"Shells...? But the explosion from the explosives—"

'Exactly. In battlefields where barriers are in use, explosions from mere explosives aren't very effective. We believe those shells were never intended to be used against fleets.'

Aguares had been culturally isolated. They likely had no concept of interstellar warfare. Just as Kait thought this, he realized why the explosives had been loaded. It was the reason they were named the space tuna meteor swarm.

"No way!"

'Yes. The hulls were in Aguares style. But the interiors were shells packed with explosives. What would happen if such things entered the atmosphere and struck a planet?'

"The precision of the explosives—"

'...If they exploded within the atmosphere, the shockwave would incinerate most living beings. And with that many falling, the planet's ecosystem would likely be completely reset.'

Even with the caveat that if dropped densely, it might not go that far, it meant little.

"Should we be saying we're lucky we managed to detonate them beforehand?"

'Well, that's the thing.'

The council member hesitated. Clearly, something was wrong.

'Most likely, the central ship carrying Fulgadonga escaped unscathed. We searched for Aguares' biological signature, which should have been present, but found none. The fleet assumed it had exploded along with the others and returned, but considering there was no biological presence inside—'

"It's more natural to assume it escaped."

'Yes. Aguares' ships lack teleportation capabilities, so we've gathered fleets in the area, but we believe it will be difficult to locate.'

"Wasn't a visual search of the central ship conducted at the start?"

Emotion interjected. Upon hearing that it had been done but nothing was found, she shook her head.

"Then we should assume it had camouflage functionality. If it's a self-modifying type, that's a bit of a problem, Captain."

"Yeah. If it happens to find a teleportation device somewhere, that would be even worse."

After all, the universe has a fair amount of history. There could be abandoned Corporation ships that were sunk somewhere. If one of them happened to still have a functioning teleportation device...

And it has camouflage capabilities. If it had planned to fall with the planet, such a function wouldn't be necessary. Only bad hunches and predictions continued to grow.

'What do you mean, Emotion, Sixth-Rank Citizen (Ab Rag)?'

"The machine intelligence aboard that ship doesn't intend to stop after one attempt. It will gather numbers, search for another planet, and drop meteor swarms again and again. We must find and stop it as soon as possible."

What caused such a machine intelligence to exist and lead the fleet was unknown. Whether this was the last time or not was also unclear.

But either way—

"We'll go too. Please send the data on the sector where the engagement occurred."

Fulgadonga must not be allowed to commit any more sins.