- The Celestials and the Giant Monster
I and Sario escaped from the cosmic monster space Jellyfish, finally free from terror.
“We made it. That was dangerous,” came Sario’s voice over the communicator.
I was huddled in the cramped air duct, cradling my head as I recalled the sight of our three dead comrades. This world is messed up. Why did it come to this? Berta, Rieto, Dimas…I’m sorry.
“Zen, we’re soldiers. We don’t have time to grieve our fallen comrades,” Sario said.
Sometimes I think Sario is older and wiser than me. Having resigned himself to so much as a goblin subordinate soldier, it must have shaped his pragmatic personality. He was right this time too. I understood what he meant, but the fact was we had been abandoned. Pointing that out made Sario sigh deeply.
“You can’t possibly be thinking of returning to the scout ship Gyogal?”
“I don’t want to go back either, but if we stay here our mech suit’s water supply will run out and we’ll die.”
The mech suits recycle air, so we can use them until the power runs out. But we only had a limited water supply. At this rate, we’d die in four or five days. Sario and I discussed it and decided to thoroughly explore this spaceport for a way to survive. If nothing turned up, we’d return to the Gyogal scout ship.
We ventured deeper through the air ducts until we reached a facility that seemed to control the airflow. But it was completely destroyed, just a big gaping hole. Sario and I exited into a corridor and followed it, checking rooms along the way.
The spaceport was the size of a small town, with shops, factories, and residential areas. We headed for the manufacturing and repair dock section, which was concentrated near the outer spaceport walls. We thought we might find something useful there. But even checking the large repair docks and factory buildings first, nothing remained. The Celestials had thoroughly destroyed all the starship manufacturing facilities.
“They really went overboard with the destruction here,”
I muttered amid the rubble piles and Sario nodded.
“It does look like they were searching for something.”
Sario said something surprising.
“Searching? With all this destruction?”
“Not just machinery and equipment, but storage crates too were smashed.”
“To me it just looks like indiscriminate destruction. But why did the Anubis clan become enemies of the Celestials anyway?”
“I don’t know.”
After hours of searching the industrial sector, we came upon one area with exceptionally grand, luxurious buildings that stood out, although damaged.
“This may have been the estate of a wealthy noble,”
“In an industrial zone?
Strange. Let’s check it out.”
Inside the ruined estate, nothing was spared from the thorough destruction.
“Hey, isn’t this an underground passage?”
Part of the floor had caved in, revealing what looked like a subterranean corridor below. Sario peered down into the sunken floor area.
“You’re right. Let’s investigate.”
After clearing away the rubble and entering the underground passage, we found that it led to the outer area of the spaceport. As we moved forward, we came across a sturdy-looking door. Sario examined it and said it looked possible to open. It seemed to have been originally secured with an electronic lock, but since the power was out, it could now be manually opened. When we opened the door, we found ourselves in a hangar for small starships. Inside, there was a luxurious small spacecraft, almost brand new. Sario and I approached the vessel and began inspecting it. The ship was about 50 meters long, 20 meters wide, and 8 meters tall. Its shape resembled a shogi piece, specifically a lance (kyōsha), but rather than being angular, its design was smooth and streamlined.
“This was a spacecraft used by Anubis royalty. However, this type is only meant for travel between planets in a system.”
“So it can’t go to other star systems?”
“Correct. And the small craft’s systems are still active, so we can’t open the hatch.”
Sario sounded disappointed, so I went to check the apparent hatch entrance myself. At that moment, the hatch opened automatically.
“Whoa!”
I jumped back startled as a robot emerged from the hatch. Seeing it, Sario’s expression cleared.
“Ah I see, there was a maintenance robot aboard.”
The small starship had survived in perfect condition because its maintenance robot was still operational and had continued servicing it. However, as the maintenance robot tried to step off the ship, it suddenly fell backward. It had been diligently maintaining the ship, but hadn’t taken care of itself. Now lying motionless on the ship’s floor, the robot didn’t get back up. It seemed to have fallen in just the wrong way, causing a complete system failure. I’d only seen something like this in a two-hour mystery drama—but this time, it wasn’t a human collapsed on the ground; it was a robot.
As the hatch remained open, Sario and I took the opportunity to step inside—and we were shocked to find that artificial gravity was still active. A ship with artificial gravity extending all the way to the hatch was extremely rare. That was likely why the maintenance robot had fallen, but thanks to it, we were able to enter the ship safely. After inspecting the interior, we found that the reactor and engines were fully functional—even the water supply was intact. The only thing missing was food.
“If we can get food supplies, we can use this craft to get off here,” Sario said.
The small craft had two micro-fusion reactors, two plasma thrusters, fuel tanks, and twin 5-gigawatt laser cannons. The deuterium fuel tanks were topped up, the maintenance robot periodically resupplying from some source. But actually operating it would require thorough systems checks over months for just the two of us.
“About that, I know of a place with maintenance robots,” I said.
Sario cocked his head.
“What do you mean?”
“Remember that storage room where we found gallitium? There were maintenance robots in storage there too.”
Sario was eager to go retrieve them. Carefully we made our way through the port corridors to the storage room without incident. Inside near the piles of wreckage, I led us to a door I’d noticed before.
“The door is on the other side of this debris.”
“Then let’s clear a path.”
What would have been laborious work planetside was quickly achieved in the low gravity.
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We entered and, sure enough, there were cargo crates containing about 50 maintenance robots still packaged and inactive.
“Military-grade maintenance robots. There are about fifty of them. Let’s power one up.”
Sario and I unboxed a robot and turned it on. If built with Earth tech, anything abandoned for decades would likely be inoperable.
But this robot ran self-diagnostics then booted up, utilizing an on-site emergency battery unit. The repurposed chemical cells were single-use but sufficient.
“Who are my masters?” the robot asked.
I signaled to Sario, who stepped forward.
“I am your primary master, Sario-Baraker. This is your secondary master.”
“Secondary master Zen-Jinguji.”
It seemed that these robots identified people by voice and facial recognition. We activated all fifty maintenance robots and became their Primary an Secondary Masters, splitting them evenly between us. Sario mentioned that the Anubis Tribe’s military maintenance robots were designed to resemble the Anubis Tribe itself—aside from being made of metal, they looked remarkably similar.
With our newly acquired maintenance robot crew, we returned to the small craft and set them to thoroughly checking and repairing the ship’s systems.
Meanwhile, Sario and I continued searching the spaceport for food and additional water supplies. While the ship had some reserves, we judged it insufficient for extended travel. Progressing through the corridors, we spotted a squad of goblin soldier crossing paths ahead and quickly ducked out of sight down a side passage until they passed.
“What should we do?”
Once the coast was clear, I radioed Sario on an encrypted frequency. I change the frequency of this transmission so the goblins can’t hear us.
“Let’s check the end of this corridor.”
We started moving down the passageway and came across an emergency shelter along the way. After passing through the airlock and stepping inside, the lights suddenly flickered on. It seemed that the power here was still functioning.
“It looks like there’s air in here.”
Sario said this as he took off his helmet.
“Are you sure that’s safe?”
I asked him, startled. and Sario nodded.
“If it smells weird, just put it on again.”
For someone who lived in space, this Shiba Inu was surprisingly carefree. Seeing him fine, I also took off my helmet. It seemed this shelter was equipped with an air purification system, as the air was clean and odorless. The shelter was about 20 meters square, with thirty storage containers securely fixed along the walls. We began opening them one by one.
“More rotten food…”
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