Sometimes I suddenly wake up and think it’s all a dream.
Being filled with anger and resignation about what I see on the internet and TV, and being controlled by the word recession when I see the size and price of onigiri in a convenience store.
Thankfully, I had a salary and okay bonuses. But I was tired from being so busy, and I had a dusty game console, and games still unopened with the receipt on them.
Human relationships went well, but not so well. At the very least, I wasn’t getting married like people normally do, and sleeping didn’t make me less tired.
But I felt happy when a stray cat suddenly came over to me, new sweets in the convenience store were tasty, to the point where I wished they would stop bringing out new tasty things, and seeing the cries of people on social media who just started playing a social game I stopped because I was too tired was comfortable.
I was getting through life with those small pieces of happiness.
Before I knew it, the Earth was destroyed. My friends, family, everyone I knew, faded away. And now I’m hundreds of years in the future, in space, looking at a huge whale.
RrQrr rr rQ rQrQQ QqrQ.
“Whoa, understood.”
The ship we’re on, Tortilla Double, is in a hyperspace called a fairy path, leaning a little to the right because it looks like we’re in the way of what looks like a blue whale.
“Be careful out there.”
Tortilla Double is a slow ship, but I didn’t think it was slower than a space whale that’s one kilometer in diameter.
Hyperspace and hyperlanes aren’t different worlds. Sometimes ships pass by the overtaking lane, but I wasn’t expecting a space whale to telepathically ask us to change lanes. Ah, its tail is shining. Is it thanking us?
“What a polite whale… Iris, I’m leaving the rest to you.”
“I have taken control. I apologize for the trouble.”
“It’s okay. I know other people besides you need to be in the cockpit.”
The mechanical intelligence butler in the tailcoat bows and apologizes. There was nothing she could do, she’s the only one onboard who can’t receive space whale telepathy.
I take her hand, saying there’s no reason to apologize, and head to the napping pod in the corner of the room, that’s slowly getting more comfortable, where I’m greeted by a human sized kagami mochi.
“Good job~. So that can happen~.”
The kagami mochi has fizzy cola on the bottom, and a triangular pyramid of white soft cream on top.
It’s a cola float. Kori, the cola float slime girl. She hops and talks while still in this kagami mochi form.
“You weren’t there before…”
“I was curious, so I came here~! Let’s sleep, darling!”
“I’m not sleeping, I’m standing by. It’d be bad if we did it together, so get out…”
“No~!!!”
What should I do… Uoh!? Someone hit me in the back of the knee!? Iris!? Kori wait, don’t eat me…
I’m Genma, a man’s man who keeps getting in trouble because of this and that. Since only men are attacked by laflotty, I’ll call it a manly thing.
It’s been seven days since we ran away from the Zadar colony, and we’re still in hyperspace. There aren’t whales swimming, but there are jellyfish dancing with flowers on their heads, so I stopped looking outside. It’ll make me go crazy.
We’re all doing what we want, which is what we do in hyperspace, but Vasilisa is studying like crazy.
I don’t remember putting that much pressure on her, but I feel a bit bad. Everyone’s doing all sorts of things because of that, and are taking a break because they’re tired.
The cockpit can be controlled remotely, so Iris is bringing various snacks like yogurt with a sour taste, biscuits, and sugarless mint flavored carbonated water.
The yogurt is eaten with organic strawberry jam I tried making. I’ve finally unlocked the achievement of cooking onboard.
“Pressure? No, studying is fun.”
“I was thinking I might’ve put too much pressure on you. Was I wrong?”
“Of course. I was just surprised when you gave a hundred thousand puni implant like it was nothing! That’s on my mind too, but studying is fun! Memorizing things is fun!! No more eyes glazing over, I’m remembering everything! I’m happy to study right after exercising too!”
“That is veeeery true! When I realized I was memorizing reference materials in half a minute with just a glance, I wondered what I had been doing for the last sixty-eight years of my life… Reading reference materials three times is enough to memorize everything in them… Although the output still cannot catch up…”
Suzuri is a space mouse, not a space cat…
“Genma, this strawberry jam isn’t as good as I thought. It’s not that different from food printer stuff, is it?”
“Wait… Is this organic?”
“Yep~. It doesn’t taste that different from processed stuff~.”
“It’s definitely better than what I had on Earth… It’s mastery chef’s fault for being too good.”
Of course, this was made with just strawberries and sugar. I simmered it until it became thick and lumpy, and it’s really good with yogurt.
But some processed foods are better from the food printer. I knew this, but this is like the jam I would get as a summer gift.
It’s not worth the effort, but even on Earth, sometimes mass produced off the shelf items tasted better.
As I take it easy doing nothing, it gets to be time to leave hyperspace. Everyone comes to the cockpit, straps in, and we see a passionate welcome from jellyfish through the windows and monitors. They’re holding signs while dancing.
That’s an illusion! It has to be! What is that!?
“They are called space jellyfish, or ocean spirits…”
“Because they move freely through hyperspace, right… I don’t even know anymore, because living beings sometimes cruise along like it’s nothing… It’s not an illusion, right!?”
“Boss, I can see them too. It’s not an illusion.”
“Genma really does not handle hyperspace well.”
“Oh! We are exiting~! Four, three, two, one, zero~!”
We were silently moving through space, but it was the same strange sights as always.
Vacuum, extreme low temperature, harmful radiation, such is space, an environment that rejects life.
But as I heard before, what I see before me is a colorful asteroid belt.
They’re all covered in green moss, looking like a green belt from a distance. That’s actually what the pamphlet that introduced me to this star system called it.
There are other things growing on them. Grassy fields, fields of flowers, trees, blue or green glowing mushrooms…
This orbits a star. The smaller asteroids are still over one kilometer in diameter, and some are hundreds of kilometers. I can’t wrap my head around ones bigger than Shikoku.
This is called Pokapoka Flower Field Prime. None of the planets have life here, but there are many areas on the asteroids that could harbor life. It’s a star system that makes pirates drool with delight.
But my thoughts are cut off when Tortilla Double’s big laser cannon turns and fires.
I see it hitting something and sending it flying away, thirty kilometers from here.
“Iris?”
“I apologize, but it was an emergency. I was following instructions from the Mercenary Guild. Five thousand puni have been deposited into your account for destroying that comet.”
“Tell me beforehand…”
There are a lot of comets flying around here in Pokapoka Flower Field Prime, so destroying designated ones is a common quest.
That’s why we’re here, to make money cleaning up comets and watching out for pirates.
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