Exploring The Spaceport

“We made it. That was dangerous, yesh.”

Sario’s voice came through my communicator. I was crouched inside the narrow air duct, clutching my head as I remembered the three companions who had died.

This world was completely fucked up. Why did things have to turn out like this? Berta, Rieto, Dimas… I’m sorry.

“Zen, we’re soldiers, yesh. We don’t have time to grieve every time a comrade dies.”

I understood what Sario was saying, but there was also the fact that we had been abandoned. When I pointed that out, Sario sighed.

“Surely you’re not planning to return to the Gyogaru?”

“I don’t want to go back either, yesh, but if we stay here, we’ll run out of water in our Mobile Armor and die.”

The air in our Mobile Armor was recycled, so we could continue breathing until the power supply ran out. However, we had only a small amount of water. At this rate, we would die in four or five days.

After discussing our options, Sario and I decided to search for a way to survive in this spaceport until we had exhausted every possibility. If we couldn’t find one, we would return to the Gyogaru.

We proceeded deeper into the air duct. Eventually, we reached what must once have been a facility for controlling airflow. However, it had been completely destroyed, leaving nothing but a large hole.

Sario and I emerged from there into a corridor. We followed it, investigating rooms along the way. The spaceport was roughly the size of a town, complete with shops, factories, and residential areas. We headed toward the district containing factories and repair docks.

Shipbuilding docks and repair facilities were concentrated near the spaceport’s outer walls. We thought there might be something useful there. We started by investigating the larger repair docks and factories, but nothing remained. Apparently, the Celestial Gods had thoroughly destroyed the facilities used to manufacture spacecraft.

“They’ve destroyed so much that I have to wonder whether all this destruction was really necessary.”

I muttered amid the mountains of rubble, and Sario nodded.

“It almost looks as though they were searching for something, yesh.”

Sario’s observation surprised me.

“Searching for something? Even though they’ve destroyed this much?”

“They didn’t just destroy the machinery. They also destroyed containers and other things used for storage, yesh.”

“To me, it looks like they simply destroyed everything. Still, I wonder what the Anubis did to make enemies of the Celestial Gods.”

“I don’t know.”

After searching for several hours, we discovered an unusually luxurious mansion standing in one corner of the industrial district. It had also been destroyed, but the surviving portions of the structure made it clear that it had once been magnificent.

“This might have been the mansion of a wealthy magnate or a noble.”

“In the middle of an industrial district?”

“Strange, isn’t it? Let’s take a closer look, yesh.”

We searched the ruined mansion, but its interior had been thoroughly destroyed.

“Huh? Isn’t that an underground passage?”

I discovered a section of collapsed flooring that exposed what appeared to be an underground passage. Sario approached and peered into the opening.

“Oh, you’re right, yesh. Let’s investigate this too.”

We cleared away the rubble and entered the underground passage, which extended toward the outer edge of the spaceport. Following it, we encountered a sturdy-looking door. After examining it, Sario said it appeared possible to open. It had originally been secured by an electronic lock, but with the power disconnected, it could apparently be opened manually.

When we opened the door, we discovered a hangar for small spacecraft. Inside was a luxurious small spacecraft that looked almost brand-new, and Sario and I approached it to investigate. The vessel was approximately fifty meters long, twenty meters wide at its widest point, and eight meters tall. Its exterior resembled the lance-shaped piece used in Japanese chess. However, rather than being angular, it had a streamlined shape.

“This is a spacecraft used by the Anubis royal family, yesh. However, this particular type was designed exclusively for traveling between planets.”

“Does that mean it can’t travel to other star systems?”

“That’s right, yesh. Besides, this spacecraft isn’t dead. It’s still functioning, so we won’t be able to open its entrance hatch.”

Sario sounded disappointed, so I approached what appeared to be the entrance hatch to see whether that was really true. Just then, the hatch opened.

“Whoa!”

Startled, I jumped backward as a robot emerged from the hatch. When Sario saw it, an expression of understanding appeared on his face.

“I see. There was a maintenance robot aboard, yesh.”

Apparently, the maintenance robot aboard this small spacecraft had survived and continued performing maintenance, allowing the vessel to remain in perfect condition. However, as the robot attempted to disembark, it toppled backward. It seemed to have maintained the ship without bothering to maintain itself.

The maintenance robot lay sprawled on the ship’s floor, unable to get back up. Apparently, it had fallen badly enough to shut down completely. I had only ever seen something like that happen in two-hour television murder mysteries. Of course, the victim lying here wasn’t a person but a robot.

Sario and I entered while the hatch was still open and were surprised to discover that artificial gravity was operating inside. Spacecraft that maintained artificial gravity even in their entrance hatches were unusual. That was why the maintenance robot had fallen over, but thanks to its mishap, we had managed to get inside.

Upon inspecting the interior, we discovered that both the power system and engines were functioning normally, and there was water aboard as well. The only thing missing was food.

“If we can obtain some food, we can leave this place aboard this ship, yesh.”

The small spacecraft was equipped with two miniature nuclear fusion reactors, two plasma engines, propellant tanks, and two five-light-diameter laser cannons. Its deuterium fuel tanks were also full, and apparently, the maintenance robot had been obtaining fuel from somewhere and replacing it regularly. However, before we could actually operate the ship, it would need a thorough inspection, which would probably take the two of us several months.

“About that inspection, I know where we can find some maintenance robots.”

Sario tilted his head.

“What do you mean?”

“Remember the warehouse where we found the Galithium? There were maintenance robots in there too.”

Sario immediately suggested that we go looking for them. We carefully made our way through the spaceport’s corridors toward the warehouse. We reached it without incident, entered, and headed toward the pile of wreckage at the back.

“There’s a door behind all this debris.”

“Then let’s clear it away.”

It would have been difficult work on a planet, but without gravity, we managed to clear the debris in a short time. We opened the door and entered. Just as I had seen before, the maintenance robots were still there, packed inside their boxes.

“These are military maintenance robots, yesh. There are about fifty of them. Let’s see if we can activate one.”

Sario and I removed a maintenance robot from its box and switched it on. If it had been built using Earth’s technology, there was no way it would have functioned after being abandoned for several decades.

However, the robot performed a self-diagnostic check and then began moving. We powered it using an emergency power unit we had found in the warehouse. An emergency power unit was essentially a single-use chemical battery.

“Who is my master?”

I signaled to Sario with my eyes, indicating that he should become its master. Sario stepped forward and spoke.

“I am your primary master, Sario Barakel, yesh. And this person is your secondary master.”

“I’m your secondary master, Zen Jinguji.”

Apparently, robots like these identified people by their voices and faces. We activated all fifty maintenance robots, with each of us registering as the primary master of half of them.

According to Sario, the Anubis military maintenance robots had been designed to resemble the Anubis themselves, and apart from being made of metal, they looked remarkably similar.