The ship the ship crab is carrying might be where Tortilla Double came from. And so, I’m sending a request to dock, thinking it might work.
“Hm… It did go through and it is displaying a guide… But it seems it is not guiding us to that hollow. Also, the name of that shield ship is probably Reeril.”
“That’s not what I expected.”
So it’s not where the turrets are, but we can dock in that ship. So basically…
“<I am able to take over the support AI.>”
“Wao~! An operation to tell it to pay rent~!”
“Rent… A landlord coming to collect… Tools for sale…!”
“Saratha is taking damage here…”
“What should we do? Should we perhaps go?”
I shake my head.
“There’s a bit too much to consider. First, let’s see if docking isn’t a trap.”
“<I don’t believe a support AI would use a docking request as a trap. Regardless of the reason, we should assume it accepted because a neutral party requested to dock.>”
So if an AI accepted a docking request, that means it won’t set up a trap?
“Next on the agenda is who will go~? I don’t think there’s air in there~. But leaving it to Iris feels wrong~!”
“I feel like everyone that can fight should go, but we have guests in the cargo bay…”
Saratha has a point. Iris is dealing with them with the drones, but I don’t know how they’ll react when they realize we’ve docked.
“Me then.”
I declare.
“You don’t have enough combat training~!”
“Stay in the cockpit, Genma.”
“You should perhaps hold the fort with me.”
I want to go on an adventure too!! It’s an abandoned ship!!
“<Considering the oxygen situation, I believe Kori and I should go. Please wait while I make clothing for space work to go along with the exoskeleton.>”
The cola float slime girl needs less oxygen than the rest of us.
Her body is melted on the inside, so her oxygen needs aren’t the same, and she can stay in a vacuum for about three days. She can even extract oxygen from a water bottle.
But as for landing…
“Will we even be able to dock? It looks like that juicy hermit crab is packed pretty tightly in there.”
“Come to think of it… Juicy?”
“Ahh, it makes me want to eat something.”
I didn’t really eat a lot of crab on Earth… But food printer crab stick salad is really good.
▽▽▽
I’m interested in that space work suit with an exoskeleton Kori is wearing, but it gets a little rowdy as she heads to the place in the cargo bay where we leave tools.
“If you’re making a move on that monster, take us with you!!”
““““That’s right!””””
“Why, old guys!!?”
The weirdly fired up and spruced up middle-aged guys charge this way with excitement.
“You’re heading to that scrap, right!? Salvagers like us know the way and what’s worth the most!”
“We’ll strip the metal to repay you for the food and water! You can sell that! And we can take a portion too! Everyone wins!”
“That…”
“Hey, we’ve gone without any profit for months! I can still see puni in my small information device, but wait until we get to a place with FTL communications! My balance will die!!!!”
“I might go back and see I’ve been thrown out!!”
“I was already behind on my rent, so I’ve been thrown out for sure!!”
It’s all too real. Then Iris takes a step forward.
“Hm… Incidentally, are you all in the salvaging business?”
“I am!”
“I’m the captain of a transport ship!”
“I’m an antique dealer!
“Leave the smuggling to me!”
“Did you call the Peacitt company?”
“Stop stop! I don’t know how to react to some of those! But I do to some!”
They cackle, which is bad for public order.
“Settle down for now.”
Some guys get busy putting their thumbs on their necks, lowering them, or raising middle fingers. There are some hand signs I don’t know, but I imagine the intention is the same.
“Now I don’t know how you heard about this, but…”
“Getting through the encryption of the small communication devices was easy!! Give us space work suits too!!”
“These guys are seriously bad for public safety… But you know, right? The priority is our safety. I have no reason to set people who won’t listen to us free. But making cells is a pain too.”
I turn towards the soldiers, and the animosity stops. I’m glad they’re more polite than they appear.
But I’m curious about something one of them said.
“What do you mean guide us? Isn’t it your first time there?”
“Ohn? Ships tend to have similar layouts. Different companies make different ships, but the layout’s been optimized.”
“Eh… Iris, is that right?”
“That might be the case. I can see ships with similar layouts in my local memory.”
Hm… If we can communicate via long range video call, will it be fine?
“What do you think?”
“I would immediately say no in an online environment, but I believe there is room for consideration.”
“Hey! How ’bout me?”
“Sorry, but if we’re keeping this between us, our safety comes first.”
I make a cross with my arms. Making a circle with your octopus tentacles will get you nowhere, Vasilisa.
“How about sending us then?”
“I want to keep you guys safe too.”
I make another cross with my arms. I’m not using people as disposable pawns. Drones are safer.
“You just want to explore the ship and take all the money!”
“Let us have a slice!”
“I’m gonna be homeless when I get back!!”
“Shut up! We need to escape this sector first, or you’re going to starve holding rare metals you can’t eat!”
Some keep going, but stop when the very real option of starving is brought up.
Leaving that aside, maybe using them as salvaging advisors is a good idea. At least Iris and the others think so. I guess?
▽▽▽
And so, we’ve prepared various things. We have a giant screen in the cargo bay, and it’s synced with Iris’ vision. The ones whose main occupation is salvaging are in front, so the old guys and Vasilisa can examine.
Suzuri and I will stay in the cockpit. Kori is in her space work suit with a stick figure exoskeleton, as she infiltrates the ship. Iris is also going in a space work suit, and with a plasma rifle.
The space work suits are airtight, and have propulsion equipment that’s like a backpack. And so, they can advance in zero gravity.
Saratha is standing by in the cargo bay, watching out for anything the people in the cargo bay might do.
“First, I’m detaching from the small combat ship you were on! Don’t miss it too much!”
“<Of course not!>”
“<Die soldier!>”
“<Hit the ship crab!>”
“Looks like they’re more resentful than I expected…”
“They said they were feeding them once every two days… Detaching.”
“Detaching instructions confirmed. The connecting bridge has been removed. Detachment complete.”
Now I just have to use the subthrusters to get away from the small combat ship so we don’t hit it, and follow the docking guide to the ship crab.
“<Ahh! We’re finished!>”
“<We should’ve stayed put and waited for rescue!>”
“<But…! Who knows when it might come!?>”
“<I thought this ship was our rescue!>”
I ignore the nonsense in the cargo bay. It’s split evenly between guys fired up to salvage and ones not so much.
I keep an eye on both, which I can do with my artificial eyes. I can even have depth perception with just one eye.
Thanks to the thought calculation implant and brain optimization nanomachines, I can process visual information from two sources at the same time. It’s like parallel thinking.
The turrets seem wary of us, as they point our way, but don’t fire. Tortilla Double is still neutral to them.
It’s going fine, as Tortilla Double makes it through the large rectangular entrance to a hangar. I think a hundred meter frigate could fit here just fine.
We have successfully entered the ship crab’s ship, Reeril.
I want to let the auto pilot do the rest here, but there’s something stirring below.
What’s that? Isn’t it about twenty meters?
“<Hey! Hey hey! That’s bad! Why is that big thing here!?>”
“That’s a slime that only melts clothes!!!!!!>”
“<Don’t let it get close! You’ll die!>”
“Why is there a stupid pervert slime like that????”
“This slime actually preys on space suits.”
The old guys are riled up, so I figured it was a pervert, but what is this hardcore thing? Wouldn’t someone just die if they bumped into it outside of a ship?
“Isn’t this a pretty dangerous slime?”
“<The mortal enemy of ship scavengers!!!>”
“<It doesn’t eat ships, but this nonsense slime eats space suits!! Don’t let it get close!>”
“I remember one colleague being attacked by one. It opened a hole in his ass, and the ejected air made him fly away. Didn’t even leave a corpse.>”
“<Can’t this ship attack down!?>”
“<It can~.>”
“<Master, request firing on the giant slime below.>”
I confirm her request, and drop the output of the defensive lasers to hit the slime… Will it die if it’s hit by them?
“Would a slime die if it’s hit in the soft parts?”
“<Shoot the core! It’s right in the middle!>”
“Genma, I am marking the slime core.”
I have the monitor show what’s down, and see an orb in the middle of all that jiggling. It’s now highlighted in red. I see. It’s just like Kori. It will die if I shoot its main organ.
“<Hold on. Won’t the ship crab treat shooting inside the ship as a hostile act!?>”
“<It depends on the orders of the support AI. It might be a little suspicious if strictly defensive actions are taken.>”
“<Right? A foot soldier firing should be no problem. How about letting me in there? I can finish it with magic from here.>”
“Magic… Magic? Give it a shot Vasilisa.”
“<Leave it to me!>”
I hear someone yell lightning through a communications microphone in the cargo bay, and the slime core is assaulted by a blue light.
The jiggling stops, and the slime spreads as if melting.
It’s dead. Landing.
“<Ahah! That slime fluid is a nice grease, so it can be sold! Ten puni per liter! Ah, the thrusters are burning it!!!!>”
“Good job Vasilisa. Kori and Iris, something’s burning, so when you land… Is it putting itself out?”
“<Confirming spread of fire suppressant in the landing zone, we are going to break in as soon as we confirmed we have landed.>”
“<As soon as~!>”
The operation to make the ship crab pay rent is underway.
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“Genma, I am marking the smile core.”
Slime*