An Unexpected Appearance

That day, Valbo, the reconnaissance unit commander, returned in a panic. Upon seeing him, Bobro, the captain of the second-class reconnaissance ship Gyogaru, summoned Valbo and demanded a report.

“I ordered you to exterminate the Space Jellyfish. Why have you returned alone?”

“Captain, everyone in the unit is dead. I fought as hard as I could, but there was nothing I could do alone, so I came back.”

“Tch! I knew those lower-class subordinate soldiers were useless. Can’t be helped. I’ll send in the Space Assault Troops instead.”

Captain Bobro deployed the Space Assault Troops and exterminated the Space Jellyfish. However, this was only a temporary solution. Unless the spaceport was completely repaired, there was no way to prevent more Space Jellyfish from entering.

By that time, the fighting against the orcs had intensified, and it was decided that exploring the spaceport would have to wait. The reconnaissance ship Gyogaru departed the vicinity of the spaceport and headed for the front lines.

With our concerns about air, food, and water resolved, we resumed exploring the spaceport.

“Does this mean we can finally be free?”

Sario shook his head.

“We’re still a long way from freedom. As long as we have those Conditioning Implants in the backs of our necks, we’ll remain lower-class citizens.”

“Can’t we have them removed?”

“Apparently, they’ll explode if someone tries to remove them improperly.”

A chill ran down my spine.

“That’s… We have to find some way to get them out.”

According to Sario, they could be removed in civilized nations with advanced medical technology.

Apparently, we would have to escape the Gorgona Star System and reach a civilized nation. But our small spacecraft couldn’t travel to another star system. What were we supposed to do?

I asked Sario about it.

“The small spacecraft alone won’t be enough. I think we’ll just have to find another way.”

We thoroughly investigated the interior of the spaceport and discovered another repair facility. Inside lay a space cruiser that had been partially dismantled.

“We might be in luck.”

Sario suddenly made that remark. I wasn’t sure what he meant, but I assumed it had something to do with the space cruiser. The vessel appeared to have been an elegant spacecraft measuring fifty meters in length.

We boarded the partially dismantled ship and searched for anything useful. There, we discovered a Luon Drive. A Luon Drive was a propulsion system used to travel through Trans-Spacetime Space, a higher-dimensional space where faster-than-light travel was possible.

However, a Luon Drive alone couldn’t achieve faster-than-light travel. Another device was needed to transfer, or transition, into Trans-Spacetime Space. This device was called a Trans-Spacetime Jump Field Generator. Unfortunately, the space cruiser didn’t have one either.

“Let’s take what we found back to the small spacecraft.”

We transported the Luon Drive to our small spacecraft and had the maintenance robots service it until it was operational. Once repaired, we installed the Luon Drive in the engine room and modified the ship so that it could be controlled from the cockpit. Sario and I could never have managed it alone, but with so many maintenance robots available, the modifications were completed quickly.

Around that time, we realized there were no longer any goblins in the vicinity of the spaceport. Nearly all the goblin vessels had headed toward the fourth planet, which had become the battlefield in their war against the orcs.

We searched everywhere for a Trans-Spacetime Jump Field Generator, but found nothing. Eventually, only one unexplored location remained. It was a heavily secured room, and the only way inside was to destroy its door.

“Why is this room the only one that’s locked up so tightly?”

“Something extremely important must be stored inside.”

“Something important… I wonder what it could be?”

“Maybe a new type of weapon. Or perhaps treasure.”

We discussed whether there was any way to open it, but eventually concluded that destroying the door was our only option. We had explosives belonging to the goblins, so we decided to use those.

After planting the explosives on the door, which was made of a special alloy, we retreated to a safe distance. Then we pressed the detonator. An explosion powerful enough to make the entire spaceport seem to tremble erupted, sending shattered debris flying through the weightless surroundings. Once everything had settled down, we approached the door.

The fixtures that had held the door in place had been destroyed, and the special-alloy door lay fallen in the corridor. Apparently, the mounting points had given way under the explosion before the door itself did.

“All right, let’s go inside.”

“Yeah, let’s see what’s in there.”

We entered through the destroyed doorway and found a corridor beyond it. After passing through the passage, where fragments of debris floated around us, we emerged into a somewhat larger room. Inside stood an egg-shaped capsule approximately three meters long.

Beside the capsule, which gleamed with a bluish-silver sheen, stood a nuclear fusion reactor that appeared to be supplying it with energy. I wondered why this particular fusion reactor was still operating, but then I noticed a large fuel tank behind it. Apparently, fuel had been continuously supplied from that tank. There were probably maintenance robots still operating here as well.

The fusion reactor developed by the Anubis race must have been supplying an enormous amount of energy to the capsule. I wondered what the capsule was using all that energy for.

At that moment, a voice echoed inside my head.

【Goblin subordinate soldiers, I ask that you grant me a favor.】

I looked around, searching for the source of the voice while thinking that I wasn’t a goblin. However, there was no one there.

“Don’t tell me… Is someone inside the capsule?”

【Obey my voice.】

When I heard those words, I found myself unable to resist. I staggered toward the capsule and began performing a complicated series of operations on the control panel built into its surface.

“Zen, what are you doing?”

The sound of Sario’s voice brought me back to my senses.

“Huh? What was I…?”

A crack spread across the surface of the capsule. The floor rippled and shook with a deep, booming rumble. Then a large fissure appeared in the capsule, gradually widening.

“W-What’s happening?”

Someone emerged from the capsule. It was a naked woman. She possessed an almost mystical beauty, and upon closer inspection, the only feature distinguishing her from an Earth human was her long, pointed ears. She reminded me of an elf from a fantasy story.

I could only stare in confusion at the impossible sight before me. The room was a vacuum, completely devoid of air. An ordinary naked human exposed to such conditions should have died almost immediately, yet she appeared entirely unaffected.

She was clearly no ordinary human. She possessed an overwhelming presence that no human could possibly exude. Sario was trembling uncontrollably.

“Are you one of the Celestial Gods?”

【Yes. I am Zorofienne of the Rikagel Celestial Gods.】