Chapter 58: Brief Respite (1/2)

“Yosh, shall we depart? Apply for launch clearance, Mimi.”

After having breakfast, we decided to finally depart to our next destination, the Sierra star system – a place with a bustling resort planet as its main draw. It became hard for us to do any pirate hunting on our own in the Alein star system because of the independent anti-pirate mobile fleet led by Major Serena. It would be inefficient if we insisted on fighting over them for scraps now that the main pirate base in this system has been successfully crushed.

“Roger!”

“Do your thing like always, Elma.”

“Got it. Leave the subsystem controls to me.”

The state of the ship was all green. The self-diagnostics check performed by the ship AI didn’t detect a single problem.

“We have clearance.”

“Great. We’re heading out.”

I released the docking mechanism, retracted the landing gear, and slowly flew out of the colony. I did it at a slow enough speed in order to avoid colliding with other ships as we headed out of the colony. If I mess up badly, we’ll possibly end up crashing and triggering a huge chain explosion accident. If that ever happened, we’d have to pay for the damages to other ships as well as the colony itself, apart from the repair fee for our own ship, even if we do manage to survive the accident.

“Um, our gate passage number is 3. We’re going next, after that yellow transport ship.”

“Gotcha.”

Ships rushing through gates all at once during launch procedures may possibly cause major accidents to occur as well. So in order to prevent that, ships are only allowed to launch out when their turn comes up. Getting number 3 was quite a lucky break since we didn’t have to wait long.

“It’s our turn.”

“Okay. I’ll make sure to be a model driver at least until we get out of the colony.”

“Yes.”

“Causing an accident near the gate is a pretty serious offense after all……”

Elma made a faraway look. She may have possibly been involved in one in the past. Because it may cause interference with other ships within the colony, the energy shield output needs to be set to minimum while inside.

After a few moments, the yellow ship finally managed to fully launch out of the gate, making it our turn.

“Let’s go, Hiro-sama.”

“Yeah.”

I slowly led the ship forward until we passed through the specialized airtight barrier covering the colony, separating it from the coldness of space. It was a mysterious barrier that allowed solid objects like ship hulls to pass through but trapped the air inside the colony interior. I think it’s one of the most mysterious devices I’ve ever encountered in this dimension.

After passing through the barrier, we finally reached open space. We increased the generator output and accelerated away from the colony.

“Please set the coordinates on the nav-computer, Mimi.”

“Yes. Course is now set.”

Mimi operated the console in front of the Operator seat and inputted the coordinates for the target star system in the nav-computer. The data popped up on my screen as well. After receiving the data, I pointed the bow toward the direction of the target destination.

“FTL drive, charging start.”

“Roger. FTL drive, countdown.”

Elma followed my order and started firing up the FTL drive.

“5, 4, 3, 2, 1…… FTL drive, activate.”

After the sound of an explosion, the Krishna disappeared from normal space; only leaving behind light trails in its wake. The formerly stationary stars in the far distance started moving.

“Currently heading to the Pamoni star system…… Final stop: Sierra star system. It’s four nodes away from here via Hyperlane. Hyper Drive, charging start.”

“Charging Hyper Drive.”

“Hyperlane link complete.”