Chapter 32 – Alein Tertius Colony

Translator: SFBaka

“Fuwaaa〜h… It’s so huge!”

“It sure is… Just how much larger is this place compared to Termaine Prime?”

“Um, I think its population is about five times more than Termaine Prime. I’m not too sure about the colony’s exact size though.”

What came before our eyes was a huge octahedron-shaped space colony. It seems to be slowly spinning about at a distance. But, judging from its size, I think the speed of its revolution is actually quite fast. I guess the constant rotation is needed for producing artificially induced gravity. Anyway, it was an unbelievably huge colony.

This gigantic structure is called the Alein Tertius colony. This is our first stop in our trip to the Alein star system and is one of the three active colonies situated here.

“Please send out a docking request, Mimi.”

“Ah, yes! I’ll send one out right away.”

Mimi fiddled with the Operator console in front of her and sent a docking request to the port administration of Aleintertius. The request contained our personal details; particularly, our ship’s name, my name as the ship’s captain, and our group’s reason for visiting. It didn’t take long for an approval to be sent back.

“We have received permission to dock! We’re assigned to hangar bay number 72!”

“Gotcha.”

We followed the guide beacons displayed on the cockpit’s main screen and proceeded towards our designated hangar. As expected of a large colony. There’s quite a lot of ship traffic. It would result in a great, big mess should an accidental collision occur. But I didn’t want to trouble myself with that point so I just left it to the ship’s auto-pilot.

“Using something like auto-docking is cheating……”

“I just wanna take it easy, alright.”

Elma seemed to have a bit of a complaint about my way of handling things, but I just ignored it and carried on. Even though making a perfect landing the manual way does sound kinda fun in a way, I still prefer doing it the easy way. I needed to install a dedicated docking computer module personally in order to obtain the auto-docking function, but it worked like a charm and allowed the ship to land safely inside the hangar bay. I guess she just felt antsy due to her experience riding an out-of-control starship.

After docking successfully, the ship’s generator output gradually transitioned to standby mode. There wasn’t a need to raise it to battle mode while inside a colony, and cruising mode also used up quite a bit of power as well.

“We’re finally here. Alrighty then. What should we do first guys? Do you wanna have a meal first?”

“Isn’t it kinda early for a meal? I think it would be better to finish all our other tasks first.”

“So, those will be selling off loot, paying a visit to Inagawa Technology’s office and claiming bounty rewards at the local military outpost huh.”

“Ah, please leave selling the loot to me.”

Mimi made a guts pose by raising both hands and making fists with them while letting out an excited grunt. Since she could just use the terminal to sell the loot instead of going to the shops personally, I think it should be alright to leave it to Mimi. There’s still a need to be wary of merchants possibly shortchanging us, but Mimi was particularly attentive to details regarding money, so she should be fine.

“I’ll leave selling the loot to you then, Mimi. So next is the visit to Inagawa Technology, but…”

“It would be better to wait for Inagawa Technology to send out a formal invitation first. It’s not like we’re in a hurry either.”

I nodded in agreement to Elma’s suggestion. We’ve already exchanged contact info with the company representative anyway. They should still be busy discussing the remuneration details with the company’s higher-ups, so it would be better not to go there yet.

“Okay then. Let’s just get the bounty rewards from the military.”

“Should I go?”

“Nah, I should go instead. I’m the captain after all.”

I didn’t have a problem with having Elma go instead, but I think it’ll go more smoothly if I went over personally instead. I’m the ship captain after all.

“I’ll come with you then. It would be dangerous for you to walk there alone.”

“I’m not a kid, y’know……”

But, well, I guess Elma does have a point. I’m unfamiliar with the place, so having her with me would help a lot. They do say two heads are better than one, right? I’ll have her come along then.

“Well, I guess two people does sound safer. Let’s check out downtown while we’re at it as well. Please watch over the ship in the meantime, Mimi. You’ll be safer staying here.”

“Is this really that dangerous of a place? This colony, I mean.”

“No, I don’t think so. The level of public order seems comparatively high. But we won’t know for sure until we take a look for ourselves. But, well, judging from the ship traffic earlier, I think this place is frequented by a lot of outsiders like us, so it doesn’t hurt to be more careful.”

“Yes, you’re right. The hangar bay we’re assigned to has a lot of foreign ships docked inside as well. It does seem a little unruly. Let’s prioritize gathering info then.”

“I see…”

Mimi nodded in understanding. I and Elma can take care of ourselves just fine to a certain extent, but Mimi’s just a frail young girl, so she doesn’t have sufficient abilities to keep herself safe out there yet. She does have a laser gun with her, but, honestly speaking, she kinda sucks at using it.

“Alright then. Elma and I are going out for a bit. I plan to contact you just in case we take longer than expected, but go ahead and eat your meal if we do come back late, okay.”

“Yes, understood. Please take care out there, Hiro-san and Elma-san.”

“Yeah.”

“Un, we’ll see you later.”

Elma and I quickly prepared ourselves and got off the ship.

“Whoah, how do I say this? The atmosphere’s kinda different here.”

“Well, this is like the big city compared to places like Termaine Prime.”

Elma told me matter-of-factly as we continued walking around the place. The interior of the Alein Tertius colony can be described as an iron jungle filled with towering skyscrapers.

Countless high-rise buildings stood within the central living district of the colony. There was a great number of alleyways and side-streets as well. The colony didn’t rely upon a singular lighting module that could simulate daytime within its walls, and instead made use of street lights to illuminate the surroundings. In other words, it was a city of perpetual night.

“But wouldn’t living in such an environment affect the citizen’s health or something?”

“It seems they have a way to artificially simulate sunbathing within the comfort of their own homes.”

“That sounds tedious though– Uh, do we have to do that as well during our stay here?”

“We can just use the med-pods.”

Hm, so the med-pods have that function available as well. Come to think of it, mercenaries like us spend a considerable amount of time in outer space, so I think the med-pods are configured with that function with that in mind. I don’t know how it exactly works though. Same old, same old. They said you needed a healthy dose of sunlight to maintain your health back in my old world as well.

“Walking on foot inside a colony this huge is tiring, not to mention troublesome. Do they have some sort of public transport we can use here?”

“Of course.”

I looked towards where Elma’s gaze pointed and saw something resembling a sub-way entrance.

“There’s an active sub-way system connected all throughout the colony, so we can use it to travel between places here. Termaine Prime also made use of it to some extent remember? They used it on the colony’s logistics system. This here is like the enhanced version.”

“I see.”

I don’t know how that worked either, but it ensured speedy trading and delivery of goods within the colony without you having to attend to in person. I wonder what kind of vehicle they’re using?

“So, can we take sub-way……”

“No need. The military’s base is already just around the corner anyway.”

“I see. Oh well. I’ll get another opportunity to try it out later.”

That’ll be when we finally pay a visit to Inagawa Technology. We also need to restock our foodstuffs, so I’ll get another opportunity to take the sub-way then. We’re planning to spend quite a bit of time in this colony anyway.

“There it is.”

Elma pointed toward a building that had both the empire and the imperial military’s flags hoisted out front. It kinda didn’t seem like a proper military garrison though. It looked more like an office building.

“It doesn’t really feel like a military base huh.”

“It depends on the area they’re located in. There’s also some which function as military training schools in places with ample space.”

There wasn’t even a single guard watching over the entrance. However, they’re using a surveillance system coupled with a battery of sentry laser turrets instead. So the imperial military is also a fan of automation huh.

We entered the military building and encountered a secondary security gate within. This time, there was a guard in place. It was a macho guy with bulging muscles that gave quite an impact. But apart from this guy, everything else was automated. They also had laser turrets installed in here.

“Personal weapons aren’t permitted inside the building. Please leave them over here.”

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

I and Elma handed over our laser guns and spare energy packs. The guard also checked if we were hiding anything else. He also checked out our data terminals.

“The check’s finished. If you want to cash-out your bounty rewards, please head over to that window. If you have any other business, please inquire on the window right next to it.”

“Thank you.”

We said our thanks to the muscle-bound macho guard and went over to the bounty reward counter. I’ve also done this back on Termaine Prime, so I’m already familiar with the process. But the atmosphere here is quite different though.

Back on Termaine Prime, the front entrance of the military base had laser-rifle toting soldiers manning it. When I reached the inner security gate, I encountered even more soldiers. Sure is a big difference compared to here.

“Welcome to the Alein Tertius colony. You’re a new face, aren’t you?”

The clerk manning the counter was a guy with a gentle atmosphere about him. He looked older than me. He’s probably well past his thirties. More specifically, I think he’s in the middle of his forties.

“Yeah. We just arrived earlier. My name’s Captain Hiro. This is Elma, one of my crew. There’s also another girl named Mimi left on our ship. She’s also a part of the crew.”

“So it’s Hiro-kun and Elma-kun. I’m Sergeant Daniel. I’m from a family of mercenaries, so you don’t need to act all formal with me. You can just call me Daniel or Danny. I’m fine with either.”

“No, please allow me to call you Sergeant Daniel. I’ll just tone down my formal speech a little instead.”

“I insist as well. I’ll also be addressing you as Sergeant Daniel.”

I shook my head and refused his offer to call him without using honorifics. Elma also agreed with me on that point.

“Is that so? If you’re fine with that, then I am as well. So, I guess you’re here to cash-out your bounty rewards, correct? You’ve already hunted pirates even though you’ve just arrived. You’re quite passionate about your job, aren’t you?”

“We managed to pick up a distress signal on the way to this colony. When we rushed over, we encountered a ship of Inagawa Technology being attacked by pirates. We couldn’t just abandon them.”

“Inagawa Technology? Were the passengers safe?”

“We somehow made it in time. We couldn’t tow them back using our ship, so we waited for the military patrol to have them towed instead. We went ahead of them, but I’m sure they’ll be arriving soon as well.”

“I see. They’re probably safe now that our guys are escorting them. You’ve done a great job, Hiro-kun.”

Sergeant Daniel had a worried expression on him as he listened to my story. He then made a good-natured smile afterward. This sergeant really had a way of making people feel at ease while talking to him.

“Yeah. We’re glad we were able to rescue them. So, about the bounty money…”

“Ah, yes. Please wait a moment…… You shot down two ships. Your total reward is 15,000 Enels.”

“…That’s quite a lot, isn’t it?”

“Well, a lot of civilian ships have already been attacked by those four pirate ships you encountered lately. They worked fast and escaped even faster, so we’re having trouble bringing them down. You managed to bring down two of them this time, so I think they’ll lay low for a while.”

“I see…”

I nodded in acknowledgment after hearing about the circumstances. But they had little cargo on them even though they’ve attacked a number of ships already. They only had some supplies and booze on them. Do they have a hidden base around here somewhere?

“Here you go. There’s all your rewards. Are you planning to stay in this colony for a while?”

“Yeah, that’s the plan. I think we’ll have plenty to see in a colony this bustling.”

“I guess so. There’s a lot of tech companies that have their offices here, so there’s also a lot of employees coming and going. There is quite the number of recreational facilities in the colony to cater to them.”

“Is that so? I look forward to it then. Alright, we’ll be taking our leave now, sir.”

“Ah, do take care.”

We bid farewell to Sergeant Daniel, went over to the security gate to retrieve our weapons and equipment, and left the military office.

“That man was quite easy to talk with, wasn’t he?”

“He really didn’t seem like a soldier. He seems like someone more suited to a teaching profession than being a part of the military, I think.”

“So the imperial military also had guys like him in it huh.”

Since I’m not familiar with the imperial military, it was a surprise for me to find someone like him in it. An organization like the military does kinda seem complicated and sort of mysterious to civilians like me.

And this world has space forces as military mainstays apart from the usual air, ground and naval forces. So I can’t imagine just what sort of developments happened to the structure of the military at the advent of a full-fledged space age. I could try to read up on the subject, but I don’t really feel like it anyway.

“At any rate, that sergeant told us something curious earlier, didn’t he?”

“Yeah. About those pirates we shot down, right? I thought they had surprisingly few cargo after the sergeant said they’d already attacked a number of civilian ships.”

“I thought so as well. Chances are, they’re stashing their loot away somewhere else.”

“Yeah, most likely. But they’re only composed of four ships……”

“The group is small in scale, so looking for them will be troublesome.”

Elma shrugged her shoulders while sporting a wry grin. It’ll be easier if they went and made a base out of an asteroid, but it’ll be comparatively more troublesome if they just stashed away all their loot inside a sturdy container and were keeping an eye on them somewhere in space. If it’s the latter, it’ll be next to impossible to find them without knowing the exact coordinates.

“Oh well. Let’s just leave it at that. We’ll just leave it to chance.”

“I won’t let them get away next time.”

“That’s the spirit. Now let’s go back and have our meal. Mimi’s waiting for us.”

“Yeah, let’s go then.”

We nodded to each other and walked back to the ship. We’ll eat our fill once we come back and take the opportunity to relax a bit after. We still have enough funds so we didn’t have to find work straight away. We’ll take this chance to rest for the entire day and start our activities tomorrow instead.