Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

---

Chapter 5

“Captain! Welcome back!”

As soon as Joanna crawled out of the space shuttle, she was surrounded by enthusiastic crew members. She hugged everyone she could reach, but the crew seemed to think this was far from enough. People in the back kept trying to squeeze to the front, causing a small commotion.

“Captain, I missed you so much!”

“I missed you too.”

“Captain, you look thinner! Was the food in prison bad?”

“It wasn’t great.”

“Captain, can I get a hug?”

“Wipe the snot off your mustache first.”

“Captain, who are they?” A young crew member pointed warily at Joshua and Alois, who had just climbed out of the shuttle.

“Well…” Joanna stroked her chin. “This is a companion I met in prison, Joshua Planck, the assassin ‘Mourner’.”

The crowd let out a low murmur. “Did you hear that? He’s the Mourner?”

“Look at his eyes, the Abyssal Fire!”

“Oh my god, I can’t believe I’m seeing the Mourner live!”

Joshua crossed his arms. “I never agreed to join you.”

“Then we’ll have to throw you off the ship.”

“I was joking.”

Joanna nodded in satisfaction.

The crew member then pointed at Alois next to Joshua. “Who is he?”

The silver-haired assassin patted Alois on the shoulder. “He’s family.”

The female pirate raised an eyebrow. “I never heard you had family.”

“Just recognized.”

Alois brushed off Joshua’s hand. “Who the hell is your family?!”

“Then we’ll throw you off the ship.” The assassin glared at him.

Alois turned to Joanna. “Yes, I’m family.”

The female pirate’s eyes flashed with cold light. “What’s that on your neck? A cat fur scarf?”

Schrödinger, who was hanging around Joshua’s neck and pretending to be a scarf, flicked its tail and meowed at Joanna. The assassin took the cat down and held it in his arms. “I hope there’s no rule against having pets on board?”

“Oh, of course, you can have pets. We already have a dog, and now a cat too. Ah, I can foresee the ship will be… very lively.”

With that, the female pirate blew a loud whistle. There was a howl, and a golden retriever burst out from the crowd, pounced on Joanna, and put its paws on her shoulders.

“Good boy. Pavlov, you’ve gained weight again!” Joanna squeezed the dog’s paws. “Go meet your new friend!”

The dog happily walked over to Joshua and sniffed the black cat in his arms. “Woof woof!”

The black cat glanced at it coldly and curled back into the assassin’s embrace without a sound.

“Whine…” The dog lowered its head in disappointment.

Someone in the crowd stifled a laugh.

A clear male voice came from above. “Alright everyone, the time for reunion is always sweet and short. In 1 minute and 40 seconds, we will be blasted to bits by tactical satellites. If you don’t want to meet again in the afterlife, please return to your posts immediately. The ‘Lady of the Night’ is about to accelerate through the atmosphere. Fasten your seatbelts and be careful not to get flattened by the acceleration. Cleaning up that mess is a hassle…”

“Enough, Leonard! Would it kill you to say less?” The crew members complained, but nonetheless, they left the lower deck in an orderly manner. Some headed to the bridge, while others went to man the cannons. A young girl led Pavlov away. The dog looked back wistfully at Joanna and whined sadly at Schrödinger.

Alois immediately felt this ship was a terrifying place, where even the dog seemed to have depression.

The voice from above continued, “Mr. Joshua Planck and his family, please follow the glowing markers to the quarters prepared for you. Captain Joanna, please come to the bridge. Given your familiarity with the ship’s interior, I won’t light up the markers for you.”

The female pirate clicked her tongue and turned to Joshua. “Follow the markers. Keep an eye on your cat and family. Don’t let them wander off.”

“Am I the same as a cat?” Alois protested, but Joanna ignored him and climbed the spiral staircase to the bridge.

A green arrow lit up on the floor, pointing to an open door in the lower deck. Joshua freed one hand and tugged on Alois’ sleeve. “Let’s go.”

“Am I the same as a cat?” the angry “family” questioned again.

The assassin walked through the door, which led to a straight corridor, and another green arrow lit up on the floor. “Of course not,” he replied casually. “A cat can be eaten. Can you?”

Alois and Schrödinger shuddered in unison.

Joanna sprinted through the corridors of the Lady of the Night. To outsiders, these crisscrossing corridors would be a complex maze, and without glowing markers, they would definitely get lost. But Joanna had been running around the ship since she was a little girl; she knew the ship like her jewelry box. She knew where every fork led and where to turn for the best shortcuts. This advantage allowed her to reach the bridge at the same time as the previously departing crew members.

The 360-degree circular screen displayed the environment around the ship, with six control stations evenly distributed below the screen. In the center of the bridge was the command seat, a deep red chair resembling a queen’s throne. Joanna sat in the command seat and found not a speck of dust on the armrests. During her absence, the crew had carefully wiped the seat every day, as if the captain had never left.

Before the female pirate could express her joy at reuniting with her crew, the ship suddenly accelerated. The acceleration pushed Joanna deep into the seat. She cursed and fastened her seatbelt, then swiped her fingers in the air to bring up the holographic map of Hecate. Five blue dots floated around the round planet. Those were Hecate’s tactical satellites.

“20 seconds until control of the tactical satellites is lifted,” the voice above said.

“How long until we leave the satellite’s attack range?” Joanna asked.

“About 30 seconds,” the voice replied.

The captain held her forehead. “10 seconds is enough for us to be blasted a hundred times.”

“I can activate the manual evasive system. But to save energy, I need to disable the gravity grid.”

“Manual evasion, Leo,” Joanna ordered. “If we survive this, you can play whatever TV show you want during dinner.”

“You’re the most understanding captain in the universe!” the voice above cheered.

Joshua followed the green arrows through the vein-like corridors. Alois, trailing behind him, repeatedly doubted if they were going in circles.

“How long until we get there?” he complained in a low voice.

“At your speed, maybe in your next life.” The wall beside them suddenly spoke, and Alois’s hair stood on end. “Gravity grid disabled, manual evasive system activated. The ship may shake violently. Grab onto something solid. I don’t want to send a robot to clean blood off the ceiling.”

Alois felt a lightness in his body. Although it wasn’t zero gravity, the loss of weight made him slightly nauseous. Alois Lagrange hadn’t lived in zero gravity space for many years. The last time he experienced it was in military school drills.

Schrödinger let out a screech. The black cat, born and raised on Hecate, fell into a state of panic. This made Alois feel a sense of superiority.

Joshua held the black cat tight, mumbling in some strange dialect (Alois caught the words “God”, “hell”, and “death”, guessing it was either a prayer or a curse), then suddenly looked up. “Damn, the tactical satellites have started attacking.”

---

Kinky Thoughts:

Creative names for their pets. Schrödinger is named after Schrödinger’s cat, while Pavlov is named after Pavlov’s dog (classical conditioning).

---

<<< || Table of Contents || >>>