Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 73
“It’s terrifying. The Captain is actually abandoning the ship!” Ibb Descartes was deleting the data on the ship while assisting Leo, speaking to Alois in disbelief. “Even when we were tightly pursued by the Federation Army in the past, the captain never thought of abandoning the ship.”
“This time is different.” Leo told the mechanic. “We’re facing the enemy head-on, with no chance of winning. Fortunately, we have few people, so using the escape pods means smaller targets and a higher chance of survival.”
“Are we already discussing the chances of survival?” Alois frowned, looking distressed. “I haven’t even gotten into that mindset, and you’re telling me the enemy is here.”
Ibb sympathetically patted his shoulder. “Who can react to this!”
A small window popped up next to him, showing communication from Joanna. “Ibb, open the hangar.” The captain said, “Charge the Bard and Godot II with energy. Alois,” she turned to the bewildered young man, “if you don’t mind, come with me to cover everyone’s retreat.”
Before Alois could respond, the captain continued on her own, “The nearest planet from here is Ansod G2. It will take about 72 hours to reach there at the speed of the escape pods. Leo, tell everyone, we’ll meet at Ansod G2!”
“Understood.” The artificial intelligence swiftly transmitted the captain’s orders to every crew member’s communication terminal and set up the escape route in the escape pod’s computer system.
After issuing the orders, Joanna said to Alois, “Okay, I know it’s asking a lot of you. At this time, you’d probably rather be with your Joshua.”
Under her suggestive gaze, Alois turned his face away, blushing. “I can prioritize things…” he murmured, “and Joshua can take care of himself.”
“Ah, I know.” Joanna curled her lips. “Meet me in the hangar in three minutes. I need to copy some data first.”
The window closed. Alois coughed awkwardly and said to Ibb, “See you at Ansod G2 then.”
“Yeah!” The simple freckled young man nodded. “It’s okay. You and the Captain will definitely handle those troops. We’ll survive. I still need to go back and see Titia!” He then panickedly touched his forehead. “Damn, I accidentally said the forbidden phrase.”
“It’s okay. I say it often too, and I’m still alive and well.”
Joshua checked his guns and energy magazines, zipped up his spacesuit, and joined the other crew members who were gathering in the equipment bay. Without needing command, they orderly boarded the escape pods and were launched into space. Next to him, the chef Celia, a critical protection target, was grouped with Joshua. The blonde girl was murmuring prayers in some dialect quietly.
“I always feel like I forgot to turn off the stove in the kitchen,” the anxious chef suddenly said to the assassin. “Should I go back and check?”
“Leo will turn it off for you.”
Celia nodded and continued praying in the unintelligible language. The scene evoked a distant memory for Joshua, when people gathered under the starlit “Dante” as it descended to Earth, quietly praying that the spacecraft named after the Renaissance pioneer would take them out of their plight, into space, towards the future.
Joshua fell into a loop of memories. He didn’t board the Dante. He secretly fled that spaceship, returning to Kester’s research lab. It was this youthful whim that began his long, solitary, dark drift of a thousand years. If not for that, he would have gone with his teacher Giorgione to Neo Athens, established the Neo Athens Academy, spread technology and learning, brought about a renaissance of civilization for humanity, and then died two hundred years ago, celebrated and admired as one of the third batch of Earth’s remnants.
…No, he thought. Fortunately, I didn’t board the Dante. I was fortunate that I came to the colonies two hundred years late. It’s a good thing, as it allowed me to meet Alois.
As Alois was boarding the fighter jet, the lights in the hangar suddenly dimmed, and all the lighting disappeared, leaving only a row of small lights along the launch rail to guide the direction.
He put on his space helmet, and the night vision showed the dim hangar and the complex dashboard in front of him. He lightly touched the control instrument to start the system but didn’t immediately close the cockpit and take off.
“Leo?” he tentatively called out. The omnipresent, omnipotent AI didn’t respond to his call this time. He knew it was because the spaceship had stopped powering, and Leo must have been shut down. Losing this capable assistant, Alois suddenly felt somewhat uneasy.
Hasty footsteps came, and the hangar door was manually opened. Alois looked out of the cockpit, and through the night vision, he saw a woman hurriedly running to the base of his fighter jet.
“Captain!”
“Sorry, I was a bit late.” Joanna looked up. It was the first time Alois saw the captain in a pilot’s space suit. The black fabric outlined her shapely figure attractively. Her bearing was heroic, yet she had the force of a storm. She grinned, showing her teeth proudly, as if silently challenging her enemies.
A surge of confidence suddenly filled Alois. What am I afraid of? he thought. With Joanna Begrel fighting alongside me, what is there to fear! Is there anyone she can’t defeat?
“Alois, here’s something for you to hold onto.” Joanna tossed a small, flat object to the young man.
“What is this?” The flat object traced a parabola through the air, sparkling under the dim light along the launch rail in the darkness. Alois caught it, discovering it was a small storage chip. “What’s this?”
“Leo’s backup data.” After speaking, Joanna walked towards the Bard parked next to the Godot II. “I copied two copies, the other is with me, in case something happens to me…”
“Enough!” Alois interrupted her. “Don’t talk like that, Captain!”
“It’s just being prepared for the worst.” Joanna shrugged, stepping up the metal ladder into the silver fighter. “Ideally, we won’t need the backup you have.”
“So giving me this thing is useless!”
“Ah… then just play around with it.”
The Bard’s cockpit closed. The engines on the tail roared, launching it into the launch rail. Since Leo wasn’t there, everything had to be manually operated by the pilot, and it needed to accelerate with the engines to gain initial flight speed. Joanna handled it expertly, and soon, the Bard was catapulted into space like a soaring bird.
Alois was left alone on the Dream of a Cold Night. He held up the chip in his hand, jesting, “Hey, Leo, you’re in my hand now!” Such an opportunity was rare. Too bad he couldn’t enjoy it longer. If Leo could hear him, he would surely be furious. But the AI now rested in the tiny chip, knowing nothing.
Alois carefully put the chip in the inner pocket of his spacesuit, closed the cockpit, and began to operate the manual ejection system, which was a headache for him.
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