Chapter 174 - Volume 8, Chapter 32 (1/2)

Volume 8, Chapter 32: Side Story: Ship upon the Stars, Part 1

“………eh?”

By the time I was aware, I was in a strange place.

A white floor that felt like stone but looked like non-slip plastic.

Although the walls and the floor were all of the same texture, the ceiling shone faintly, its gentle glow lighting the surroundings.

…… why was I here?

Well…… I had found a way back to Atra from the other world, Tess, and I was crossing dimensional space with my abilities, but……… did I hit something?

Well, it seems like I’ve gone into a space I don’t quite know, but for now, I’m unhurt, and my clothes are intact, down to my usual black and silver dress, but I can’t see anything else, and I don’t know why I ended up popping out of my dimensional travel.

“……Mysterious.”

“…… is that all you have to say, Yurushia?”

As I looked down towards the source of the grumpy voice, I saw a beautiful dark-skinned twenty-something glaring at me from under me as I sat on top of him.

“Oh, Rinne. What a pleasant surprise.”

“…… You didn’t notice at all, did you?”

No, no, I realized about halfway through. It’s just that it’s much more comfortable sitting on those strong muscles than it is on the cold floor.

“Speaking of which, Rinne, doesn’t your voice seem younger?”

It’d gone from that moody old voice that I’d liked, to something that was a bit younger and calmer. This might be a good thing……

“When I look older, it’ll return. For now, please get off me.”

“Aww.”

Rinne pulled himself up with only his abs, and then as he got up, he lifted me by the scruff of my neck, picking me up gently and then putting me back on my feet softly.

…… Rinne had been my cushion and protected me from my fall, so I wanted to soak in the atmosphere a little more.

“So. what do you think we’re in?”

“Let me see……”

No such luck for now. With Rinne, who has thousands of years of knowledge, not knowing, I feel somewhat in charge.

According to my attendants, there should have been no other [World] between where we were and Atra. Looking at the material, it seems to be a bit more advanced than that of Terra. The floors are quite narrow, too. Windowless space. And I could feel it moving slightly. So, if I had bumped into something, then……

*pipipirorinnn~*

“……hah?”

Suddenly, I heard something that sounded like a stringed instrument, and then the door slid open, and several “humanoid” people rushed in.

They wore loose clothing that looked to be made of artificial fibers. The expressionless men, hidden by their goggles, pointed their toy-like guns at me, while I heard the voice of a young woman behind them.

“We mean you no harm. Would you please comply?”

She looked to be in her mid-twenties, and was quite the beauty, but looked completely like a cosplayer, with her bright blue hair and orange eyes that weren’t quite possible even with color contacts.

“Do they understand what I’m saying……? It’s a psychic translator, so if they can communicate, I should be able to talk to them……”

“Yes, I hear you.”

Is that why it sounded like noise at first? Well, maybe my own [Spiritual Language] translator interfered with it and mixed it up.

“Ah, that’s good. Even so, a girl and a cat?”

“eh……”

When I turned around to look, Rinne was no longer in his [Human Form] but had turned into his [Black Cat mode], and had climbed on top of my shoulder, whispering quietly in my ear.

[(This form will be less suspicious. Play along.)]

“……(got it.)”

“…… Is something wrong?”

“No. Just asking, but how did I get here?”

She had a slightly suspicious look on her face, and then smiled, mumbling.

“Would you like to move first? Welcome to our world. I am Sebra. I welcome contact with any aliens.”

“Thank you.”

Aliens…… huh.

The woman — Sebra led the way down the white corridors. There was a large window along the way, and I saw a river of stars and a city of pure white.

It’s not the sky. There was a city built upside-down in the sky, and I suppose it’s as expected.

“……A ship……”

I could see the river outside of the enormous window.

This was a colony spaceship and, apparently, I seem to have caused an accidental contact with this ship that was sailing in a different dimension.

* * *

The colony ship 00302 encountered a sapient intelligence for the first time 506 years after leaving the home star.

The ship housed 80 million humans and was travelling in search of a planet to settle.

Up until now, they had discovered multiple planets with life on them, but all of them had been abandoned as they’d determined that it would take thousands of years to terraform, thanks to their atmospheres and their environments.

Amongst them, there had been natives with their own cultures and languages, but they had not been recognized as sapient since their appearances and thought processes were too different from theirs.

One day, while they were in their bi-yearly long-distance jump, a dimensional quake happened aboard the ship.

Such accidents were rare, but not impossible. There had been cases where the ship had collided with foreign objects in the past, but this time, the guard had been mobilized for the first time in decades because they’d detected “life” in one of the warehouses of the ship.

Sebra, the security chief in charge of that block, was nervous.

Lifeforms that had gotten lost while navigating the dimensions…… Although it was unfair to them, they couldn’t help but imagine that the creatures were some sort of grotesque alien that would lay their eggs in humans, like in those classic movies.

But the ship’s main system, [Mother], had given Sebra an astounding command through psychic communication.

From the magnitude of the dimensional quake, the damage that had been done to the ship, and the magnitude of the mental waves it had observed, it had judged that these were sapient beings capable of dimensional navigation on their own, and had ordered her to “capture” them.

And furthermore, it seems that one of them was also likely to be humanoid, given its mental waves.

First contact with an intelligent alien lifeform.

And if they had come alone instead of on a ship, it was entirely possible that they were far beyond this civilization.

“…… It’ll be unpleasant if it was some sort of creature with long limbs, pale skin, and no hair.”