ACT XVIII: SURVIVAL

The ultimate value of life depends upon awareness and the power of contemplation rather than upon mere survival.

Aristotle

July 5th, AD 2299, Nouveau Port-au-Prince (Downtown), Nouveau Port-au-Prince, Planet New Haiti, 09:34 AM

Nouveau Port-au-Prince, the capital city of the planet New Haiti, a relatively modern and cosmopolitan city originally built three centuries ago by the first human colonizers who inhabited a planet outside the solar system, after doing so with Mars, the Earth's moon and the moon of Ganymede near Jupiter.

The history of that city, and of the planet itself, is something interesting, and in a way it is marked by the tragedy of a people who lost their original homeland due to an unfortunate combination of several events, among them was the Third World War, The Tragedy of La Española, and as if this were not enough, the country of Haiti, where most of the settlers originated, had not fully recovered from another earthquake that it had suffered in 2010, not to mention several epidemics that that nation suffered before the war, and from the plundering suffered by centuries of misrule and military dictatorships since its independence from France.

Seeing that the conditions of that nation would never improve, coupled with the damage caused at that time by climate and ecological change caused by their own rulers and inhabitants alike, the only hope for a change that could improve the quality of life of Haitians was migration away from planet Earth, once the colonization of Mars, and later, Ganymede, was possible. This was partly due to the fact that the doors of other nations on Earth were closed to the Haitians after the war, since at that time many nations still had to deal with the inhabitants of the already dying Middle East, who were migrating en masse to Europe, East Asia and America when they lost their home after the war, and many nations did not want to deal with more immigrants, much less from a nation as miserable as Haiti was at that time, not to mention the prevailing racism, of course.

Unfortunately for the Haitian immigrants who wanted to immigrate to the newly created human colonies on Mars, the moon and Ganymede, they realized that many nations and their corresponding inhabitants did not want Haitians in their colonies, for fear that they would cause more problems for the already volatile population in those settlements, especially on Mars, where half of the settlers living there were from the former Middle East, and the latter did not wish to share the then scarce resources they had with other displaced peoples, let alone Haitians, as a result of racism.

Seeing that they would never be accepted in any human colony outside the Earth, and when at that time, the option of creating artificial space colonies around the Earth was still an ongoing idea and would not be completed until the middle of the 22nd century, the only option for Haitians to migrate out of their dying nation was to have their own planet for themselves, something that at that time seemed impossible.

All this changed when a group of Swedish astronomers found a solar system next to the star of Alpha Centauri, the closest star to the solar system where the Earth is located. That system had five planets, including one that was similar to Earth and therefore could harbor life. After sending a probe capable of traveling to that new place using the then-new "jump" technology, it was discovered that new planet was not only similar to Earth, but that there was no need to terraform it as it was done before with Mars or Ganymede, saving the Earth governments billions of dollars in the process, and there was a good reason for that:

The new planet had native plant life, and extremely primitive forms of life, mainly fish, crustaceans, worms and insects, being the first time that life was discovered outside the Earth. Unfortunately, no intelligent life could be discovered on that planet, and originally there were no plans to colonize that new world, so as not to disrupt the processes of evolution and life that were going on there.

But because of the extreme urgency that the colonization of outer space brought as a result of World War III, the governments of the Earth threw out that idea, seeing that the survival of the human race was more important than the welfare of primitive species of which there was no certainty that they would evolve into some kind of higher form of life, or at least that was the mentality that prevailed both among the rulers and in the scientific community of that time.

Thus, said and done, the first settlers who arrived on the new planet, thanks to the new spaceships capable of reaching that new world in a matter of days, instead of years, were the inhabitants of the now extinct nation of Haiti, which disappeared in the year 2105 when the great majority of its inhabitants migrated to that new planet, leaving behind only the elderly and people too weak to make the long journey in space; By 2110, all of Haiti's inhabitants had migrated to the new planet, to other countries or colonies, or had died in their homeland, with Haiti becoming the Special Zone No. 2 by the UN since then.

As a result of the colonization of that new planet, the inhabitants of that new world, the great majority of them coming from the old Haiti, decided to call their new home New Haiti, and the first colony that was built on that planet was named Nouveau Port-au-Prince, in honor of the former capital of their now extinct nation on Earth that they had left behind.

One of the first things that the Haitian settlers did in their new planet was to create a kind of a clean slate there; first, they wanted to avoid making the same mistakes that their ancestors made with their old homeland, which were many of the reasons that ended up ruining their original place of origin, and second, they wanted to rule the new planet on their own, with a minimum of intervention from any government on Earth.

At first, many governments on Earth refused to give that planet to Haitian immigrants, but considering all they had suffered since the Tragedy of La Española and World War III, not to mention that no government was willing to engage in another futile conflict, the governments of Earth changed their minds. Furthermore, the colonization of this new planet offered the opportunity to send as many people as possible away from the Earth to help reduce the population burden, and thus reduce the effects of environmental pollution and climate change.

And so, in this way and with those goals in mind, the first colonizers of the planet New Haiti managed in a few decades to convert that beautiful but desolate planet into a vibrant cosmopolitan world, far away from the poor and miserable predecessor that existed on Earth. This is important to note, because many inhabitants of the Earth and their respective governments, especially those who had no sympathy for the Haitians as a result of the racism that prevailed at that time, did not believe that the Haitian settlers who inhabited that planet could successfully colonize that planet, and even many predicted that the planet New Haiti would end up the same or worse than the old Haiti on Earth. The Haitians showed otherwise and kept many mouths shut when they achieved that feat.

And to show this, the capital of that planet was a modern city with skyscrapers, modern buildings and all the amenities known in any other city on Earth, compared to its predecessor that many of the ancestors of the inhabitants of that planet left behind.

And as for this city, a rather lavish-looking limousine ran along Toussaint L'Ouverture Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares of the capital from that planet...

-"WHAT?"- A feminine voice was heard inside the vehicle, talking with another person via a Net-powered, voice-only call. -"Why the hell do I have to come back to Earth in a military spaceship instead of a civilian one, huh?"-

-"I am very sorry it has to be this way, ma'am, but your father asked a small favor of both the New Haitian government and the United Nations Space Force for you to travel in a military ship for your own safety."-

-"Still, I find this overkill as fuck that I have to go home in a military ship."- The woman replied a very angry and annoyed expression in her face. -"It is true that I am an important person, but not that important that I have to return with so many security precautions on top of me."-

-"You of all people should be more aware of that, my lady."- The other man, which sounded like a very old person -"You are the only daughter, and therefore, heir to the Hoshino clan, and your father, Mr. Yuusuke Hoshino, president of Hoshino Aerospace Industries, wishes you to return home with all possible safety precautions."

-"I understand that perfectly, but I find this all rather extreme if you ask me, because this kind of stuff is more fitting for a president of a country, not for someone like me."- Then, the girl asked the old man another question -"And why didn't my dad tell me about this when I left Earth, huh?"-

-"To be honest, my lady, I don't know. It's likely your father has changed his mind about your personal security."-

-"Shit, and this whole thing about going to this planet was his stupid idea in the first place."-

-"Watch your language about your father, ma'am!"- The old man scolded the young lady for using coarse language about her father. -"You don't have to speak that way about him!"-

-"Oh, yeah?"- The woman challenged the old man. -"I can talk about anyone as I feel damn well like, you old fuck."-

-"WHAT?!"-

The girl sneered with malicious joy as she saw that she had achieved her goal of making that old man angry.

-"Well, let's cut to the chase, old man; when's my flight supposed to leave here for Earth?"-

It took the old man a few seconds to answer the woman's question, as he was still reeling from the woman's insult.

-"Your ship will leave Nouveau Port-au-Prince tomorrow at 11 AM, and you will board a shuttle that will take you to the space station at the William Jones II Military Base of the United Nations Space Force south of the city."- The old man replied. -"Once you are at the space station, you will board the JS Asuka from the Japanese Space Self-Defense Force at 2 PM and you should arrive to Yokosuka Spaceport from the Amaterasu space colony no later than July 12th and to Osaka the next day."-

-"The Japanese Space Self-Defense Force?"- The girl wondered at that last part. -"I didn't know my dad had connections with the military."-

-"I'm surprised you don't know that part, my lady; our company not only sells products to civilian industries, but also to the military, so it's only natural that your father would have a way to get you safely transferred to Japan in a military spaceship."- The old man responded via the Net at that woman's question regarding her father and his ability on convincing the JSSDF on bringing her back to Earth. -"Plus, returning to Earth in a Japanese ship means you won't have to deal with the language barrier, which would be another incentive for you."-

-"Well, I have to admit that coming back in a ship where everyone speaks my language is a good thing, but I don't think it would have been necessary; I know how to speak English and French anyway..."-

Silence

-"...but when you talk to my father, tell him I appreciate it anyway."-

-"I'm glad you understood, my lady."-

-"Anything else you might want to bring up?"-

-"At the moment, I have nothing more to add."- The old man, suddenly, wanted to say a extra thing to that young woman. -"But there is something I would like to say, and this comes from me, not from your family, let alone your father."-

-"What would it be?"-

-"Be very careful what you say, my lady."- The old man sternly warned the woman. -"You have a well-deserved reputation for having a very sharp mouth, and I fear that one of these days, that mouth of yours will get you into a trouble from which you will not be able to escape by just asking your family for help."-

The woman did a brief pause before replying, since she didn't expected being scolded that way by one of her underlings in such caustic way.

-"I will have that in mind, Kurosaki."-

The woman then cut off communication with the old man, and she reclined on the seat of her limousine, notably upset by that man's passive-aggressive comment about her and her harsh, vulgar attitude. Afterwards, the woman talked with the Net in a firm manner.

-"Net, remind me to fire Kurosaki when I return home for daring to talk about me like that."-

-"Understood, my lady."-

July 6th, AD 2299, UNSF William Jones II Military Base (entrance), South Nouveau Port-au-Prince, Planet New Haiti, 10 AM

-"Halt! I need to see your IDs, please."-

One of the soldiers guarding the door to the base signaled for the limousine in front of the entrance to stop first.

-"Good morning, sir, we're here as requested so that our lady can take her shuttle to the transit space station."- The driver of the vehicle say to the soldier. -"Here are our identification chips, as requested."-

Upon receiving the identification chips, the soldier introduced them to the computer inside the sentry box in order to match the information contained in the chips with the identity of the limousine's occupants.

-"Okay, let's see,"- The soldier read the information aloud. -"The person taking the shuttle today at 11:00 AM is Miss..."-

-"Hoshino."- The young woman answered the soldier, as she rolled down the window of her limousine. -"Kaguya Hoshino, at your service."-

-"Kaguya Hoshino?"- The soldier was surprised to hear that name, for it was well known to him. -"Are you perhaps the sole daughter of the CEO of Hoshino Aerospace Industries in Japan?"-

-"Yeah, that's me, believe it or not."- Kaguya, the young woman inside the vehicle, responded at the military man. -"I think you must be wondering the same thing I am why someone like me is traveling in a military spaceship, and not a civilian one, right?"-

-"Uh, certainly I do, Ms. Hoshino."-

-"Well, let's just say your question is as valid as mine, and that's all I'm going to say about it."-

The soldier didn't ask any more questions about it.

-"Do you have any more questions for me, officer?"-

-"N-no, I think that's all, I wish you a good trip, Ms. Hoshino."-

-"Thank you."-

The soldier let the limousine into the base, while it went to the landing strip where the shuttle would take off for the space station. Meanwhile, the soldiers were intrigued to see how it was possible that someone like a civilian, irrespective of their importance, would be allowed to travel to Earth in a military ship.

-"That woman and her family must be rich enough to convince the top brass at the UNSF to allow that smug little bitch to use a military ship as her private vehicle to Earth."-

-"Same here, my friend."- The other soldier next to him replied with very visible annoyance in his face. -"What the fuck are our superiors thinking about using a spaceship for this kind of shit, huh?"-

-"Well, considering we haven't had a war in centuries, at least I think they want to squeeze some use out of our ships, even if it's for something as stupid as this."-

-"Well at the rate we're going, I'm not surprised if we end up becoming something similar to Amazon or some shit like that, to be honest."-

July 6th, AD 2299, UNSF William Jones II Military Base (Airstrip), South Nouveau Port-au-Prince, Planet New Haiti, 10:45 AM

Kaguya Hoshino's limousine, after a few minutes of driving around the base, parked near the airstrip, while the shuttle was waiting for the young heiress of Hoshino Aerospace Industries at that location.

While Kaguya and her entourage of servants brought all her luggage close to the transporter, so that it could be checked in first, a soldier, of Haitian origin, approached the young Japanese woman to talk to her before she boarded the ship.

-"Good morning, Miss Hoshino."- The soldier said at the woman. -"Are you ready to fly yet?"-

-"I'm more than ready, ehh... Mr..."-

-"Captain François Lestrange, New Haitian Space Force, at your service."-

-"Oh yeah, Capt. Lestrange!"- Kaguya summed up her conversation, while hiding her embarrassment at not knowing the name of the captain of the ship that was to transport her, even though she should have known that information before she arrived at the base. -"The pleasure is mine, too."-

Capt. Lestrange was surprised by the physical look of that woman standing in front of him, since he was expecting a more... adult-looking woman. Kaguya Hoshino was a thin woman with long red hair, most likely dyed, beautiful brown eyes, and, although he understood that she was about 22 years old, she barely looked like a 14-year-old girl, at most.

On top of that, the captain noticed that this girl, despite her almost childish build, had a... relatively large bosom compared with the rest of her body, which made the man blush a little when he saw her.

But unfortunately for that man, the pleasure of seeing that beautiful girl was short-lived when Kaguya became aware of that soldier looking at her in a very unusual way.

-"What are you looking at, captain?"-

-"No, nothing!"- the New Haitian captain tried to pretend nothing had happened, and set his sights elsewhere. -"I was just checking that everything was in order with your records and needed to see that you are the person on your ID chip."-

Kaguya did not say anything about else, but she knew very well that the man was watching her breasts, because of her physical appearance, but she decided not to give any further talk about it.

-"Is there anything else you'd like to say about my files, Captain Lestrange?"-

-"Well, we checked that your luggage is in order, and I don't see any problem with your data, Miss Hoshino, so you can board without any problem."- The man then added another thing. -"I just remind you that you'll be the only one getting on the shuttle, so your butlers will have to stay here in New Haiti."-

-"I already know that, captain."-

-"Well, the ship takes off in about 15 minutes, so if you need to say goodbye to your entourage, you'd better do it now, miss."-

-"Thank you."-

Kaguya then said goodbye to her butlers and servants who accompanied her in her limousine before boarding the ship.

-"Please, Lady Kaguya, when you arrive to Osaka do not hesitate to contact us to know that you arrived safely."-

-"Don't worry, Kakizawa, I always do that when I return to Earth. Just be careful here in New Haiti, too."- The young heiress replied to her butler, an elderly man dressed impeccably in a formal suit, which contrasted with the military uniforms of the other soldiers who were to board the ship.

-"Don't worry, my lady, everything will be in order at your holiday home here on this planet while you're away."-

-"Thank you very much; now I bid you farewell, see you later!"-

-"See you later, my lady!"-

Without further ado, Kaguya Hoshino climbed inside the ship and sat in her assigned seat, while she watched her servants say goodbye to her from the tarmac through the ship's window.

The first thing she noticed when she got on the shuttle was that she was the only person dressed in civilian clothes, while the other soldiers who accompanied her were in their respective uniforms, which started to make her a little uncomfortable, due to the extremely brutal difference between her and the people accompanying her. Fortunately, none of the soldiers on the ship seemed to pay attention to her presence, since most of them were talking to each other.

15 minutes later, the ship began to move along the runway, and in a few minutes, the ship took off quickly from the base, bound for outer space. Once in the air, Kaguya could not help but make a crack about the incident with the ship's captain when he looked at her so lewdly.

-"That fucking pervert,"- The young lady though to herself. -"why does everyone have to look at me like that? It's bad enough that I have big breasts, a little girl's face and being short-sized for men to look at me the wrong way, for fuck's sake!"-

And she kept thinking on that painful issue for her, until the ship left the atmosphere of New Haiti, and then headed to the space station.

July 6th, AD 2299, New Haiti Transit Space Station, 12:10 PM

-"All personnel boarding the JS Asuka are reminded that the ship will depart from the space station for the Earth Sphere's Amaterasu Space Colony at 1400 hours. Please verify that all your belongings have been registered and placed in the ship's cargo bay in advance. Thank you for your understanding."-

That was one of the first things Kaguya Hoshino heard when she arrived at the space station. And although she was used to arriving at transit space stations, this was the first time she was in a military type one, which had its own protocols and rules, something Kaguya was not used to beforehand, being a civilian.

-"Now what am I supposed to do while I'm waiting for the ship to leave this place?"-

The young Japanese girl wondered as she walked around the space station, and then she asked a military policeman about somewhere to hang out at the station.

-"Excuse me, Mr. Policeman, where can I get something to eat or rest while I wait for the ship to depart from the here?"-

The policeman noticed that the girl was not a member of the UNSF or the Japanese Space Self-Defense Force, but a civilian, so he had to ask the woman more questions.

-"Are you a civilian, I presume?"-

-"Yes, my name is Kaguya Hoshino, daughter of the CEO of Hoshino Aerospace Industries."- The girl explained to the PM. -"My father arranged a trip to Earth and that's why I'm here; I guess he did it because I made a business trip to New Haiti a few months ago on his behalf and now I need to return home."-

-"You're not too young to go around here alone, are you?"- The soldier asked puzzledly to Kaguya when he saw her, thinking that she was a little girl because of her almost childlike looks. -"Where's your dad, if I may ask?"-

That question, which seemed innocent enough at first glance, was enough to make that woman angry, as she had already heard that question again and again in her life. It was obvious that the soldier was not taking her seriously and he thought that she was someone's underage daughter, something that due to her high-school girl appearance made many people think that she was underage, being actually 22 years old.

-"I'm not a child, I'm an adult, in case you haven't noticed, and I'm 22 years old!"- Kaguya yelled at the PM. -"Here's my ID if you don't believe me, for god's sake!"-

The military policeman received from Kaguya her ID chip, and once the man verified the young woman's identity, he was able to prove that she was of legal age.

-"Oh, man! I'm really sorry for the confusion, Miss Hoshino!"- The soldier apologized at the young heiress. -"I thought you were a minor at first."-

-"I hope it won't happen again."- Then, Kaguya asked the PM once again. -"Well, back to square one, where can I rest or eat here?"

-"There's a cafeteria in section H of the station; it's down that hallway on the right, miss."-

-"OK, thanks."-

July 6th, AD 2299, New Haiti Transit Space Station (Cafeteria), 12:20 PM

-"Excuse me, I'd like a cup of coffee and some doughnuts, please."-

Some minutes later, the cafeteria steward served Kaguya the food she had ordered. Because her ship was leaving in a few hours and she had to be ready as soon as possible, she asked for something she could eat quickly to avoid waste and loss of time.

-"Here's your food, miss; that'll be $25.45, please."-

The young heiress paid for her meals with her credit card, and then, she walked over to an empty table, where she could eat lunch quietly and undisturbed.

-"My god, this whole damn trip just made me crave for a good, fat horse to eat right now!"-

Feeling hungry, Kaguya started eating the donuts with voracious gusto; even though she could have paid to eat something more fancy, she never had any objection to eating even junk food if necessary, considering that she was on a military space station and could not be very picky about what she was eating now.

But as she ate, Kaguya heard a voice that was remotely familiar to her, something that made her stop, and look at where that female voice was coming from.

-"Hey! it's that you, Kaguya?"- The female voice said at the Japanese woman. -"Holy crap! What the hell are you doing here, girl?"-

When the young woman looked to see where this voice came from, she quickly knew which person that voice belonged to, and it was a person who was too familiar to Kaguya, perhaps too well-known for her own liking.

-"A-AKANE?!"-

When she looked at the woman who called her by name, she immediately realized that it was a person she had known since her university days, before they each took different paths in their lives.

That woman was a slightly taller, chubby girl, with dreadlocks and dark skin, because she, despite her Japanese name, was born in Africa, and was adopted by a Japanese couple when she was a little girl. And above all, she had an almost eternal smile and was always in good spirits for almost everything, a fact that was upsetting to Kaguya at times.

The woman's name was Sargeant Akane Araki, who was a member of the Japanese Self Defense Space Force, and a member of the JSSDF Space Rangers, an special military unit that deals mainly with reconnaissance missions in unknown or enemy territory.

-"Yo, Kaguya!"- The black woman said at that girl, happy to see her again, especially in that space station. -"What are you doin' here, if I may ask? Did you perhaps sign up for the JSSDF or somethin'?"-

The young woman tried to think of an adequate answer to that question, but she only managed to say the following, in a hurry.

-"That's the same question I'd like to ask you too, Akane!"- Kaguya replied loudly at that woman. -"I never imagined I'd see you again, much less in this place!"-

-"I thought you already knew I was goin' to join the army when I graduated from university; or did you forget that?"-

-"Well, I only heard a rumor that you were thinking about pursuing a military career, but I never thought you were serious, quite honestly!"- Kaguya responded, surprised to see an old college friend dressed in a military uniform, but maintaining her usual positive attitude.

-"Heh, heh, of course I was really serious on that, sweetie,"- Akane replied with a smile in her face. -"Or do you think I joined all those martial arts, kendo and kyudo clubs just because?"-

-"Well, considering how combative you were back then, I'm not surprised you joined all those clubs."-

-"Hey, I've had to deal with bullies since I was in grade school, so it's only natural that I would take up some kind of combat sport, don't you think?"- Then, the African-Japanese woman asked a question to Kaguya. -"What about you, Kaguya-sweetie? How have you been farin' since you graduated from university?"-

-"Well,"- The rich girl tried to think a good reply to that question. -"I have tried to help my father with some of his business, and in fact one of the reasons I am here in New Haiti is to close some business deals that the government of this planet has done with Hoshino Aerospace Industries. I can't give you any more details, because it's confidential information, but I think it all worked out perfectly, if I may say so."-

-"That's somethin' to expect from the heiress of the Hoshino clan."- The military woman said in a somewhat whimsical tone, knowing beforehand that her friend -"I betcha you're still practicin' your kyudo too, aren't you?"

-"Of course I do! Do you think a maiden of the Hoshino clan wouldn't know the art of traditional Japanese archery? That would be blasphemy, if you ask my opinion, hah!"- Kaguya replied proudly to her long-time friend from the university. -"On top of that, I'm also studying Mixed Martial Arts for self-defense. You know, because I'm kind of... small in stature and all that."-

-"Wow, and I see you haven't changed at all."-

-That comment offended the young lady, who noticed that her friend was going to say something more harsh to her.

-"What do you mean with that, Akane?"-

Akane then pointed her finger to her rich friend.

-"You're still the same smug, arrogant, pretentious queen-bitch who thinks everyone around you are below your feet. That's why."-

-"And you're still the same violent brute who wants to settle everything with your fists; no wonder why you joined the army."-

That scathing retort from that young millionaire made Akane take a defensive stand in a verbal way.

-"OH, YEAH?"- Akane quickly repaid the insult to Kaguya and raised her voice. -"At least I'm not usin' the JSSDF as YOUR personal bodyguards to protect your cute little ass all the fuckin' way to Earth! Or am I wrong?"-

Kaguya Hoshino was surprised that Akane Araki knew exactly why she was traveling on the JS Asuka, although considering that she was the only civilian at the station and her personal background, it was not difficult for Akane to infer the reason for the girl's presence in that place.

-"I must guess you already know why I'm here, right?"

-"HAH! And do you think I'm stupid or what?"- Akane bragged her skills on the face of that girl. -"I'm not a member of the Space Rangers for nothin'! My main job is to scout out enemy territory, and part of my job is also to spy in the same way; knowin' the banal motives of rich girls like you is for me like readin' War and Peace in Russian with my eyes closed and one hand tied behind my back."-

Kaguya swallowed his saliva, and trying to hide her discomfort with her friend's attitude, she explained why she had to use a military ship to take her to the Earth Sphere.

-"OK, OK, you win; the reason I'm here is because my father convinced the JSSDF to bring me to Earth, because he thought it would be equally safe and with the benefit that I wouldn't have to deal with the language barrier."- Then, the girl added another quip. -"To be honest, I think this is overkill too, even for me. A normal, more elegant spaceship would have been enough for taking me back home, not a military one like the Asuka."-

-"I can tell your parents spoil you a lot, Kaguya."- Akane bitterly replied at her friend. -"Since you are the only child, they give you everythin' you want, and sometimes, what you don't even want."-

A brief silence ensued, as Kaguya did not know how to answer that question about her family, and how to justify it.

All crew of JS Asuka, the ship will depart for the Amaterasu space station at 1400 hours. You are required to be inside the ship one hour in advance for roll call and corresponding cabin assignments. Thank you very much for your attention.

-"Look Kaguya, we can discuss this shit later, I'm goin' to the Asuka as well as you, and we'll have enough days to talk about it; I'm also headin' back to Osaka, so there'll be a lot to talk about on the way."-

-"Well... OK, I think you're right,"- Kaguya replied somewhat annoyed after that tough chat. -"plus, I don't feel very comfortable in this place full of these very rude-looking soldiers."-

-"And what did you expected to see here, honey,"- Akane replied with a certain tone of smiling sneer that was very evident on the face of that woman of African descent. -"a shitload of butlers and maids waitin' for you with open arms?"-

-"Eh, no, of course not!"-

-"In that case, move that pretty ass of yours, 'cause we're outta here, and we're not gonna wait another minute for you, little punk!"

-"OK, OK, Akane, but you don't have to swear at me like that!"-

-"Yeah, sure, look who is talking, the snake-mouthed princess."-

-"WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY?"-

Being called snake-mouthed princess was reason enough to irritate Kaguya Hoshino, while her friend, Akane Araki, only laughed endlessly at the reaction of that arrogant young millionaire socialite.

-"HA, HA, HA, HA, HA! I'm just kidding; seriously sweetie, you better start movin' if you don't want to lose the ship!"-

-"All right, but don't rush me, dammit!"-

July 6th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Hangar Deck), 02:20 PM

The JS Asuka, named after an area in the Yamato Province (now Nara Prefecture) in Japan, where imperial palaces and centers of government were built in the 6th and 7th centuries, was a frigate-type spaceship used by the Japanese Space Self-Defense Force, whose main mission for which it was originally built was to perform protective work for other larger ships, such as battleships and the like, in addition to transporting military supplies, and perform tasks such as clearing space mines, drones or even destroying, or removing asteroids or space debris that could be dangerous to the ship or any allied fleet.

At least that was its original mission, in theory; because there had not been a war between humans for two and a half centuries, the mission of that ship was mainly to transport heavy cargo from one planet to another, either military and in some cases, also civilian.

In short, the ship functioned more like a glorified freighter than a military ship, a paradox that the crew of the ship could not get over. At least they were being paid a good sum of money to do that job, nevertheless.

Leaving this aside, once Akane Araki and Kaguya Hoshino had entered the ship and after the ship's captain, Yoko Kurosawa, had rolled up all the crew members of the ship, with the help of the Net, of course, both girls headed to their respective quarters before the ship left the space station.

-"Gee, I never imagined the personal scans they did on everyone who went into this ship were so damn exhaustive!"- The millionaire girl complained to her friend Akane about the personal checks that were done on her person before she boarded the Asuka, something that did not seem to worry the former too much.

-"And what did you expect? This is a military ship, and you're a civilian guest, as far as we're concerned."- Akane explained to Kaguya the rules governing entrance to the ship. -"It's obvious that you'll be checked out a lot, because we're not gonna risk a spy or a stowaway sneakin' onto the ship."-

-"Well, I think I get that, I'm just not used to that kind of treatment."- Kaguya then asked for more explanations regarding the rest of the rules and regulations used on the Asuka. -"Other than the checks on entry, is there anything I should know while I'm on this ship?"-

-"Well, apart from the rules you were told when you entered the ship, and the ones Captain Kurosawa said during roll call, there are two other things you should know, Kaguya."- The African-Japanese woman explained those additional rules. -"The first is that you must be in your quarters when you are ordered to, especially when the ship leaves the station or when we jump from one place to another; the second and most important thing is that, while you are on this ship, you must wear a special uniform that you will have to wear all the time until we get to the Amaterasu space station. Once there, you will be able to change into civilian clothes if you wish."-

-"Always wear military clothes, you say?"- Kaguya complained about the possibility of having to wear the same clothes during the whole trip. -"Can I at least wear a change of clothes?"-

-"Of course, there's a change of clothes in your quarters, and any dirty clothes you have can be sent to the ship's laundry."- Akane explained the girl's concerns about her daily clothes. -"But if you mean to wear different clothes, I'm afraid you'll be wearing the same kind of uniform during the trip, as required by the JSSDF regulations."-

Kaguya cursed her luck on the need of having to use military clothes during the whole trip to Earth, since using, in her opinion, that kind of un-feminine clothes was something that her father or Kurosaki didn't bothered to explain to her before taking that trip.

-"Oh shit! If they had told me I had to put on those clothes first, I wouldn't have accepted this trip on this ship in the first place, for fuck's sake!"-

-"Well, you should have complained to your daddy before you took this kind of trip, honey."- Akane mocked her. -"We're not a space cruise company to begin with, we're the army, in case you haven't noticed, you stupid bimbo."-

-"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU CALLING A STUPID BIMBO?"-

-"Because only a brain-dead bimbo with big boobs like you, or your family, would think on returnin' to Earth in a military spaceship instead of a civilian one, that's why!"-

-"BRAIN-DEAD?!"- Kaguya exploded in anger as she heard being insulted that way by her friend. -"WHY YOU LITTLE CU-!"-

-"Hey hey hey!, Be careful who you're talking to, Kaguya!"- Akane warned to that girl, who barely could contain her rage on the military woman. -"In case you forgot, I'm your senior, and now it's more so now that I'm in the army, so be careful how you talk to me, OK, sweetie?"-

That warning caused Kaguya Hoshino to stop the heated discussion she was having with Akane. She knew full well that Akane, being two years older than she was, did not hesitate to use her seniority to annoy her friend whenever she saw fit, something that caused endless friction between these two women.

-"Yeah, sure, you always act all high and mighty when it suits you, but when it comes to other things, you always go on the defensive, especially when it comes to money or Kyudo, where I always beat you!"-

-"At least I don't go around braggin' about my victories, nor do I treat my opponents and everyone around me like shit!"-

The young heiress did not know how to respond to her friend's criticism of her behavior, except that her anger at all such comments was very visible, something that Akane enjoyed seeing with a smile in her face.

-"You know somethin', Kaguya-sweetie?"- The black woman said at her friend. -"You look really cute when you're angry, especially when someone tells you the truth in your face."-

-"And you should watch out for that big mouth of yours, Akane, or one of these days you're going to regret it too when you meet someone who's not going to enjoy your sense of humor and your snide sarcasm."-

-"Well, I think when that day comes, I'll know what to do;"- The female soldier retorted to that warning. -"but I don't think that day has come yet."-

After that heated discussion, Akane and Kaguya arrived at their respective cabins, where they were to wait there for the entire decoupling process until the ship left the space station.

-"Well, we have reached our quarters. I think you already know what to do, Kaguya, and once the ship has left the station, we can get out of our rooms safely."-

-"And how do I get into my room?"-

-"Using your voice, of course. Remember that when you entered the Asuka, you had to register your voice first before boarding the ship, so that the Net could identify your voice, and you could access the services you are entitled to use."-

-"Oh, I see."-

-"In that case, I am going to enter my room, curiously your quarters are in front of mine, since an officer who originally was going to use your place could not come because of illness, so enjoy it when you can, babe."-

-"Well, I will, Akane."-

-"Okay, I'll see you later when we get out of this joint."-

-"See ya!"-

When Kaguya entered her quarters, she noticed right away that the place was relatively comfortable: While there were two beds on top of each other, the place was quite large, with a small kitchen, a service table where she could eat, a bathroom, a toilet, a shower, and of course, a computer for communicating with the Net or for work. She thought that, in spite of everything, her journey to Earth would not be so uncomfortable after all.

And best of all, that whole place was for her alone.

-"This won't be bad after all, even with that Akane as my next-door neighbour."-

July 6th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Crew Quarters), on the fringes of the New Haiti System, 04:30 PM

The Asuka had already left the transit space station some hours ago without problems, and now it was making its preparations to jump towards its destiny, the Earth Sphere, from the limits of the solar system where the planet New Haiti was located.

The process of jumping would take a few days, as the ship must first leave the solar system, and make sure that at the time of jumping, the ship will not end up somewhere else, like inside a planet, or worse, near or within a star or black hole.

Seeing that it was now safe to leave, Akane Araki stepped out of her quarters and headed for Kaguya Hoshino's, in order to continue talking to her.

-"Hello, Kaguya? You can come out now, the ship has already left the space station in case you haven't noticed yet."-

-"Wait a second, Akane, I'm changing my clothes right now."-

Two minutes later, Kaguya came out of her room to talk to her friend. Akane was surprised to see her friend, who traditionally dressed in formal and casual clothing, was wearing a military uniform, something that clashed with her princess aura that she had always nurtured since Akane had known her.

This was obviously displeasing to Kaguya, who did not like having to wear such attire, but was required to do so by military regulations, something that Akane could not help but remind her of.

-"To be fair, Kaguya, you look very pretty in a military uniform."- Akane laughed a bit at her friend. -"If you were to join the JSSDF, you'd have all the men dead at your feet. HA, HA, HA!"-

-"OH, SHUT UP!"- The young girl replied embarrassed to have to wear such clothes, and especially to do so in front of her playful friend. -"This damn uniform is too tight for me, especially in the chest! Isn't there something else that fits me, if I may ask?"-

-"Well..."- Akane replied, still with a smile in her face. -"I'll talk to the people in charge of providing the uniforms here on the ship to see if they have something that fits your measurements, although as far as I remember I don't know any of the women who work on the Asuka, including me, who have a big... chest... like yours."-

That particular point about the size of Kaguya's breasts caused the latter to be embarrassed when Akane commented on it aloud, for fear that someone else would hear that.

-"YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY IT ALOUD, YOU MORON!"-

Akane reminded her wealthy friend about demanding more than she was being offered on the ship...

-"Hey, this is a spaceship, not a fuckin' department store, we're not here to cater to the whims of little girls like you!"-

-"I AM NOT A LITTLE GIRL, YOU INSOLENT BITCH!"-

-"HA, HA, HA, HA! Yeah, right."-

Akane only laughed when she saw the tantrum her friend was throwing in front of her for being called "little girl" on her face. For that woman, seeing a girl as lovely as Kaguya Hoshino get angry like that was enough to make her day, something she loved to do when that girl made some absurd demand from their school days.

-"Sergeant Akane Araki, your presence is required on the ship's bridge to deal with some matters as soon as possible."-

The voice of the Net interrupted that comical exchange between both women, causing Akane, who was acting teasingly with Kaguya, to change her attitude to a more serious one suddenly.

-"Who is requesting my presence?"-

-"The Captain of the ship, Yoko Kurosawa."-

-"The captain, you said?"- The black woman said with a more serious tone. -"It must be somethin' important for her to call me."-

After receiving that order, Akane turned to her friend to cut short the argument the two of them were having at the time.

-"I have to go to the bridge, so we can continue our fight later; If you need to eat or hang out, you can go to the ship's cafeteria, or if you want to do somethin' else, there is a small entertainment center where you can watch movies or do some exercise, don't forget to obey any orders you are given, and above all, don't get yourself into some kind of mess, sweetie."-

-"Of course not, I'm not a little girl to tell me that!"-

-"Well, in that case, I'll see you later. Have fun while you're on the ship!"-

Akane ran down the corridor to the ship's bridge to meet with the captain Kurosawa, while Kaguya Hoshino stood there not knowing what to do next, except that she felt that, as so often, she had no way of winning an argument with that woman, at least not in a manner that would humiliate her in any way, something that left a bad taste in her mouth.

-"Damn it, why does that stupid woman always seem to humiliate me when she can?"-

July 6th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Bridge), on the fringes of the New Haiti System, 04:55 PM

-"This is Sgt. Akane Araki. Requesting permission to enter the bridge, sir."-

-"You can go in, Sergeant."-

Akane entered the ship's bridge without further ado and met with the captain of the Asuka, Yoko Kurosawa, who was waiting for her there.

Yoko Kurosawa was a woman of medium height, approximately fifty years old, although she looked relatively young for her age, short black hair, and a very friendly look and personality. The sight of Akane made the woman happy, for it seemed that she had known her for some time.

-"Sergeant Akane Araki at your service, sir!"- The African-Japanese woman said, while doing the mandatory military salute at her superior officer.

-"There is no need for such pandering with me, Akane; I just want to talk to you right now."-

The young woman was a little intrigued by the relaxed attitude of her superior, as she seemed to be talking to her as friends rather than as between subordinate and superior officer.

-"What can I do for you, Captain Kurosawa?"-

-"I only wanted to know how you were doing, Akane; I heard that you were boarding the Asuka with a friend from your time at the Kansai University, and I thought it would be good to speak with you once more, since we have not seen each other since you left the JSSDF military academy at Sasebo."-

-"Heh, heh, heh... Well, you can say that I have done well, although there is not much to say since I joined the Space Rangers, thinking that I would find some more action than just working on a ship, seeing that the only thing you do as a soldier these days is to serve as a glorified courier."-

-"I don't blame you for that, I think the same as you, and it's really boring not seeing any action."- The captain agreed with Akane in her observation about the current political situation. -"In fact, I haven't even seen space pirates in this sector for years, since the New Haitian government started a very aggressive agenda to eliminate space piracy; all I've done in the last few years is fill out paperwork, make shipments for military and civilian clients, and occasionally help security agencies in their pursuit of criminals. It's not like in the old days when we could blow up pirate ships we met on the way, and have the satisfaction of arresting them and the occasional fame one got from doing so. Now, it's a miracle if we can even destroy an asteroid at all if we're lucky."-

Akane shared the same sentiment with her superior, and she could not feel somewhat depressed at hearing the woman's complaints about not seeing as much action as she once did.

-"I agree with you, Captain: When I joined the Space Rangers, I thought that I could see more action than just working as a soldier on Earth, since I would be visiting other planets besides my own, and the only thing I do now is, besides having to write paperwork, it seems like I am being paid to go on vacation somewhere else in the universe as long as I do something worthwhile, and I look more like a glorified cop, just like you, rather than a member of a special army unit. At least I'm not complaining about the pay, and yet I'm getting the same training as if I were in wartime."-

-"Yes, it's a shame that someone as talented as you have to waste their skills on such trivial things as these, like helping to transport civilian cargo, and in your case, being the nanny and the bodyguard for that wealthy girl."-

-"Heh heh heh, don't worry about that, captain, I've been used to treating her for years, and I know her very well, through sometimes she can be a royal pain, if you ask me."- Then, Akane addressed another issue about Kaguya and her family. -"I don't understand why the JSSDF allowed someone like her to get on this ship as if it were her personal vehicle; even with our already low standards we have now in peacetime, having to bring millionaires to Earth is already falling to a very low point, if I may say so."-

-"I think that has an explanation that most likely your friend didn't tell you."-

Afterwards, Kurosawa turned on the holographic monitor in front of her at the center of the bridge, and Akane looked closely at what that monitor showed.

-"From what I see, Captain, it looks like ordinary cargo."- The soldier replied at her senior officer, while pointing the images that appeared in the holographic monitor. -"What does this have to do with Kaguya?"-

-"Mr. Yuusuke Hoshino, president of Hoshino Aerospace Industries, asked us to send this shipment to Earth from New Haiti. According to the customs declaration and based on the inspection, the cargo consists of spare parts for spacecraft. Strangely, the shipment seems to be very urgent, so it was requested that the JSSDF be the one to send the cargo and not a private company, and the JSSDF will receive an advance payment of 10 million dollars, plus another 5 for the UNSF."-

-"And I guess Hoshino Aerospace Industries is a regular customer of the Japanese Space Self-Defense Force and the United Nations Space Force, right?"-

-"That's right, and it also manufactures aircraft and corresponding spare parts for both organizations since 200 years."-

-"Then I suppose the reason Kaguya is on this ship is because she is overseeing the smooth delivery of the cargo."-

-"That's what we think, but from what we've been able to analyze, according to the ship's surveillance cameras, she has never mentioned anything about any cargo or any attempt to verify that everything was in order."- Then, the captain asked Akane about her friend. -"What do you know about this, Akane?"-

The African-Japanese girl was left to ponder this unexpected turn of events, and she answered what she knew.

-"Now that you mention it, Captain Kurosawa, she has never mentioned anything about any cargo or anything related with her family business, not even when we were at the space station, and besides that, she didn't seem to agree to get on the Asuka, because she thought it was rather overkill on the part of her family to return to Earth in a military spaceship."-

Captain Kurosawa was surprised to hear that, for it meant that both Kaguya's voyage inside the ship and the transportation of the cargo were related events, but it also meant that the girl was not fully aware of her family's company affairs.

-"It is likely that Mr. Hoshino simply took advantage of the fact that both the cargo and his daughter were coming at the same time in the same place, even more so if they both went at the same time in a military ship, just to be on the safe side. How clever of him, if I may say so."-

-"In that case, if Kaguya is not in charge of verifying the shipment here in the ship, then who was in charge of signing the corresponding papers on behalf of her father?"-

-"Well, apart from Mr. Hoshino giving us his electronic signature, the company's legal representative in New Haiti was a guy named Haruo Tanuma, who was the one who authorized on behalf of the company's subsidiary on that planet to send the shipment to Earth."- Kurosawa responded, while adding the next. -"In fact, Mr. Tanuma, for some reason that he did not fully explain, decided to tag along with us to supervise the shipment of the parts to Earth. Considering he never mentioned anything about Ms. Kaguya Hoshino, I must assume that he knows nothing about her presence on this ship and vice versa."-

-"Mmmmm..."- Akane pondered that last remark a bit. -"Since Kaguya doesn't know anything about this matter, do you think it would be good not to mention any of this to her?"-

-"If neither Chairman Hoshino nor Mr. Tanuma have made any mention of her, and she knows nothing about the shipment of parts either, we have to assume that neither of them want this to come to her attention, and I do not think that commenting on this matter would be of interest to her, according to what I have seen of her on the security camera videos, and from what you have told me so far about Ms. Hoshino. Besides, it would only stress her unnecessarily, considering her already discomfort with being here on this ship."-

-"I guess you're right about that, captain."-

-"Well, changing the subject, is there anything else you want to talk about, Akane?"-

When Captain Kurosawa decided to change the topic of the conversation, Akane Araki was a little surprised to see that the woman wanted to talk about other more personal topics besides those related to her work.

-"Is it about work stuff, or more personal matters?"-

-"Talk about whatever you want; the truth is that talking about army issues gets tedious after a certain point."-

-"Well, if I may be a little intrusive in your life, captain, what do you plan to do when you return to Earth?"-

-"Me? I'm taking a vacation to Hawaii and I'm seizing the occasion to visit my daughter Fumiko, who lives in Honolulu. She told me a few days ago that her first daughter was just born, and I would like to see my new granddaughter as soon as possible."-

-"Well, congratulations to you on your new granddaughter, captain; you must be very happy to be a grandmother now."-

-"Thanks, Akane."-

-"And if I may ask this question, do you know what your daughter will name her?"-

-"According to what she told me, Fumiko and her husband decided to call her Akari."-

-"Akari..."- Akane smiled at the sound of that name. -"For some reason that I don't fully understand, I find that name very beautiful, but at the same time... it fills me with a strange feeling of déjà vu."-

-"Déjà vu, you say?"- Kurosawa asked to her junior, quite intrigued by that last part Akane said about the name of her grandaughter. -"Why did you say that?"-

-"I don't know, it's like that name means something to me, and right now I can't shake the feeling the name is somehow auspicious to me."-

-"Auspicious?"- The elderly woman replied with a worried expression on her face. -"You're not going to tell me my granddaughter's name would bring bad luck or anything like that, right?"-

-"Of course not! That's not what I meant by that!"- Akane retorted at the implication the name "Akari" could bring any kind of bad omen to either her or Capt. Kurosawa, the grandmother. -"I only mean that the name Akari conveyed a strange sensation to me, but it would be very difficult to explain to you in words, Captain Kurosawa."-

-"Ehhh..."- The elderly captain gave her own explanation about the reason why the name of her newly-born granddaughter was giving her junior officer a weird feeling to her. -"Could it be that the reason you feel that way is because you haven't married yet?"-

-"What?"-

Akane knew that Capt. Kurosawa was right to mention her married life, or the lack thereof, since it could be a reason why she had that strange feeling, something that Akane could not deny.

-"Well... let's say..."- The soldier was trying to explain in a somewhat awkward way her captain's query. -"Let's just say that me and Satoru haven't decided anything yet about our future. He's just been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in the Osaka police department, and I haven't even thought about what to say when I get home."-

Akane was referring to her boyfriend, Satoru Okazaki, who was a member of the Osaka Police Department, with whom she has been having a relationship since they both graduated from Kansai University, and both chose different paths, with Akane joining the army, and Satoru joining the police.

-"You don't talk much about your private life, do you?"-

-"Well, yeah... I don't like people interfering with my personal life, considering I've had bad experiences with that kind of thing. That's why I don't talk about it much with almost anyone, not even my friends or my parents."-

-"I see, sorry for asking that, if that bothers you so much, Akane."-

-"There's no problem that, sir!"- Then, Akane wanted to change the topic with another thing. -"Well, putting aside family and that sort of thing, when are we going to jump into the Earth Sphere?"-

-"If everything goes smoothly, we should jump there for tomorrow, just to arrive at the Amaterasu station on the 15th of this month."-

-"Oh, I see."- The young girl responded at her senior officer. -"In that case, if you don't need anything else from me, I request permission to leave the bridge, Captain."-

-"Permission granted, you may leave."-

-"Thank you, captain."-

But before she could leave the bridge, Capt. Kurosawa asked Akane another question.

-"By the way, Akane, I need to tell you something else."-

-"What would it be, captain?"-

-"Try not to bully your friend Kaguya too much, will you?"-

It took Akane a few seconds to answer that question from her captain, but after that pause, she responded with the following:

-"I think that's up to her, not me."-

July 6th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Cafeteria), on the fringes of the New Haiti System, 07:00 PM

-"Here's your food, miss; I hope you enjoy it."-

The ship's cook served the food to Kaguya Hoshino, who, like the rest of the crew, lined up to be served along with the other soldiers who were doing the same.

In spite of being a military ship, and against what one might expect from the food that could be served in those kinds of places, the food served in the cafeteria of the Asuka had nothing to envy to a luxury restaurant: Among the food served there was Argentinean flank steak, Caesar salad, a Norwegian salmon fillet burger, French fries, biscuits and natural orange juice. The only thing missing would have been a good table wine, but Kaguya perfectly understood that drinking alcoholic beverages on the ship was forbidden by internal rules of the ship.

Once her meal was served, Kaguya went to sit at a table to enjoy it, where she was the only person there. And while she was eating, a person very familiar to her came over to her table to hang out with that girl.

-"You seem to be enjoyin' the ship's food, don't you?"-

Kaguya raised her head and she noticed Akane Araki was standing in front of the table, with her eternal smile on her face.

-"Oh, hi, Akane!"- Kaguya greet her friend, while eating her meal. -"How did your talk with the captain go?"-

-"Fine, just fine, we talked about many issues and things related to our job."- Then, she walked over to a chair that was on the table where Kaguya was eating. -"Can I sit with you, babe?"-

-"I'd rather eat alone, but I don't think I have a choice in this. Sit down if you wish."-

-"Thankies!"-

Akane sat at the table, while she watched her friend eat her lunch in a somewhat desperate manner. This was understandable, for Kaguya had barely eaten a quick bite before she had climbed into the Asuka, and the hunger was already taking its toll on the woman's spirits.

-"By the way, Akane,"- Kaguya interrupted her meal for a few moments. -"do you know when this ship will jump to the Earth Sphere?"-

-"According to what the captain told me, we will jump tomorrow if nothing goes wrong and once we leave this solar system. Once we jump, we should arrive at the Amaterasu station on the 15th, and then take a shuttle to Japan."-

-"And what do you plan to do when you return to Osaka, Akane?"-

-"I will visit my parents first, and I will most likely take a year off after workin' my ass off in space for two years."-

-"I guess you're taking the year off with Okazaki, right?"-

Akane smiled at that question her friend did.

-"Oh, my."- The African-Japanese woman replied. -"It seems that everyone is askin' me questions about my intimate life with Satoru. The captain also asked me the same thing you did."-

-"Knowing how low-key you are about that, it's natural for everyone to ask the same question."- Kaguya explained her reason for asking about the personal life of that woman. -"But you don't have to say it, if you don't want to."-

-"I wasn't goin' to do it anyway, so forget it if you were expectin' to say a word about my life."-

-"Heh, I expected no less from you."-

-"What about you, Kaguya?"- Akane asked the same question about Kaguya's plans when she returned to Earth. -"Are you gonna take the year off too, or are you gonna do something else?"-

-"For the moment, I don't think I'll do anything else, and I'll most likely stay at home and rest."-

-"Oh my..."- Akane replied somewhat annoyed at that answer. -"That is a very fuckin' boring life, if you ask me."-

-"And what did you expect? I also have my ways to relax and spend my free time."- The rich girl gave her answer to Akane about her own plans. -"Maybe I take more riding lessons, probably I practice more archery, I could spend more time studying something else, I don't know, I still haven't decide it at all."-

-"Sure, the typical activities of a bored millionaire brat."-

Kaguya looked at her friend Akane in a very upset way as she heard her hurtful comments about herself and her family, and she couldn't help but look at her friend with angry eyes.

-"One of these days, your mouth is going to get you into deep trouble, my dear friend."-

-"Ha! Like I'm the only one with a big mouth, like a certain snotty millionaire kid I got in front of me."-

Offended by this and other comments Akane had made about her, Kaguya stepped out of her seat, carrying her food and she headed for the cafeteria's exit, leaving a perplexed Akane alone.

-"The hell are you goin' to, Kaguya?"-

-"To eat in my room, instead of keeping hearing you talking shit about me!"-

And so, Kaguya Hoshino left the cafeteria to continue eating in her quarters, and thus no longer having to listen to Akane Araki, who could only respond with certain annoyance to this situation to herself.

-"Geez, some people just can't stand to be told what they really are."-

July 7th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Crew Quarters), outside of the New Haiti System, 01:00 PM

Attention all ship's crew, the JS Asuka will jump to the Earth Sphere in five minutes. Please follow the indicated procedures, and in the case of non-essential crew, please remain in your quarters until the ship has finished jumping. Thank you very much for your attention.

With these words, the ship's computer warned all of the Asuka's crew about the jump process, making use of the fact that the ship had already left the New Haiti solar system. As the Net had mentioned, all non-essential personnel quickly went to their rooms to wait patiently for the ship to jump, while following the correct procedures.

Among those people, there were Akane and Kaguya, who were walking around the ship at the time, and both girls went to their quarters in the same way.

-"All right, Kaguya, I guess you know what to do during the jump procedure, don't ya?"-

-"Of course I know that, you dummy, it's not the first time I've gone from one planet to another!"-

Once in their rooms, both girls prepared to follow the procedures before the ship jumped; but before they started, Akane decided to talk to her friend from the room's comlink in order to say some things to her.

-"Hey, Kaguya, I'd like to say some things to you before we jump."-

The young Japanese millionaire girl was somewhat surprised to hear that her friend wanted to talk to her under these circumstances, and she agreed to talk to Akane anyway.

-"Hell of a time to start a conversation, Akane!"- Kaguya began the chat with a complain. -"What do you want to talk to me about?"-

-"Look, about what happened last night in the cafeteria, I was thinking about it with myself in my room, and I think I admit that yesterday I went too far with my mouth. Let's just hope we can still be friends, okay?"-

A brief silence was made, as Kaguya was thinking in her answer to her friend Akane...

-"Apology accepted."-

-"Really? Thanks a lot!"-

-"Though knowing you well, my dear Akane, I know you'll let your mouth move before your brain next time."-

-"That sounded like an insult."-

-"And you expected me to shut up after what you said to me in the cafeteria?"-

-"Well, no... at least from what I know about you."-

-"Then don't complain, you dumbass!"-

-"OK, OK! I understand that!"- Later, Akane began to speak in a more serious tone, as the ship was about to jump. -"Well, let's cut this crap, because the ship is about to jump. When this is over, we'll go back to talkin' about whatever you want, OK?"-

-"OK."-

Since the ship was going to jump, both girls in their respective quarters sat in a special seat made for this type of event, which had several safety belts in case there was a problem where the jump, either during or after this, was very rough and thus prevent them from being thrown against the walls, ceiling, or the floor.

The ship is about to start the jump process in 10... 9... 8... 7.. .6... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1... ZERO!

JUMP!

And so, the JS Asuka jumped to the Earth Sphere, leaving the New Haiti solar system behind...

July 7th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Crew Quarters), unknown hour.

After jumping from the outskirts of the New Haiti system, the Asuka managed to reach a safe place in space without any problems, appearing there as if it was a sudden burst of light.

Attention all crew, the JS Asuka has reached a safe place. All the jump procedures are considered as concluded and all the non-essential personnel can now leave their quarters. Thank you for your attention.

-"God, it's good we got out of this and we're in the Earth Sphere!"- Akane Araki said when stretching her legs after the jump. -"I'm gonna start taking these damn safety belts off at once."-

Once Akane had taken off her seatbelts and stood up from her special seat, she left her room and went to Kaguya's quarters to see that she was all right.

-"Is everythin' OK, Kaguya?"-

-"Yeah, I'm right!"- The girl responded from the other side of the door. -"Just wait till I take my belts off and get up from this thing!"-

Seconds later, Kaguya left her place and met Akane in the corridor...

-"I'm glad the jump went well!"- Kaguya responded, as she breathed in relief once it was safe to leave. -"I always worry when this happens, because I think something can go wrong at any time."-

-"Yeah, you're not the only one who thinks about that when jumpin', sometimes I worry that one of these days, the jump goes wrong and we end up in a bad place or..."-

But before those girls could talk any further, Akane and Kaguya noticed something very strange, as they saw that many crew members began to rush through the corridors as if it were an emergency.

And for someone like Akane, with years of experience working inside spaceships, she knew that when that happened, it meant that something had gone wrong, either on the ship or outside.

-"Hey, guys, can you tell me what the hell's going on here?"-

But none of the crew had bothered to stop and tell her what was happening, leaving Akane with doubts about the context of the situation. And before she could ask any more questions, the unmistakable voice of the Net was heard in the hallway, addresing exclusively to the female sergeant.

-"Sergeant Araki, Captain Kurosawa requests your presence on the bridge immediately."-

Upon hearing that, she knew that something bad had happened during the jump process, and that meant that the captain needed to discuss the issue with all middle and senior officers on the ship. And she being a mid-ranking officer of the JSSDF Space Rangers, that meant that something related to the position where the ship was now located in the universe required her immediate presence.

This whole situation made Akane, who was smiling until that moment, change her face to a more serious and assertive attitude, far away from her normal goofy personality she always had.

-"This sounds like a bad thing to me, Kaguya."- Then, the black woman addressed her friend in a more straight tone. -"You better go back to your room and wait for me to come back and tell you it's safe. We can't risk anything happening to you under the current state of affairs."-

-"Do you have any idea what's going on right now, Akane?"- Kaguya replied, notoriously worried about the whole situation on the ship.

-"I don't know, and that's what I'd like to know as much as you do."-

And without further ado, Akane Araki ran to the Asuka's bridge to find out what was really going on in the ship, or even outside of it.

-"I just hope it's not something too serious what's going on with the ship right now."- Kaguya talked to herself while watching how Akane went straight to the bridge, while the rest of the ship's crew were walking next to her likely for the same reason.

July 7th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Bridge), unknown hour

Once Akane entered the bridge, the first thing she noticed was that there was a lot of activity inside, since the people who were in charge of controlling the Asuka's computers and navigation systems were busy trying to analyze the situation that was going on inside the ship at that time.

And when she went to the command chair where Captain Yoko Kurosawa was sitting, in front of her were five other medium and high-ranking officers who were traveling with Akane inside the ship; like her, they were also called to the bridge to discuss the situation that was unfolding on the Asuka.

Akane knew all but one of them very well: Among them was Lieutenant Commander Ayame Ogawa of the JSSDF's Department of Naval Intelligence, Dr. Ryouta Nishikawa of the Department of Military Xenobiology, Sergeant Shin'ichi Miyamoto of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force, Lieutenant Colonel Kenzou Arima, who was Akane's superior in the Space Rangers special unit, and last but not least, Haruo Tanuma, legal representative of Hoshino Aerospace Industries. About the latter, his appearance was somewhat unexpected for Akane, since he was a civilian to begin with and it was not to be expected that someone like him would be present in a military matter.

Once Akane presented herself before Capt. Kurosawa, the woman began to say what was transpiring at the time regarding the ship.

-"Ladies and gentlemen, I've summoned you here to discuss a rather complicated situation involving the ship and I need you six to be aware of the current state of affairs. I hope you can understand the predicament we are in, so that we can talk about it with the rest of the crew, who I think they know more or less what we are dealing with."

Akane Akagi was the first to begin speaking, seeing the people who were at her side and whom the captain had also requested to be present, especially Mr. Tanuma.

-"Excuse me, Captain, for being the first one to have to talk about this, but I need to know three things: The first is, what's going on on this ship that requires our presence, secondly, what's Dr. Nishikawa, a xenobiologist who's rarely been called upon in all the time I've been working here on a matter of this kind, doing here, and thirdly, what's a civilian like Mr. Tanuma even doing here with us discussing military matters?"-

-"I guess you still don't know our current situation, do you, Akane?"-

-"To be honest, no, sir."- Akane replied at her captain. -"I'm just finding out when I left my quarters that there was a lot of movement of personnel through the corridors of the ship, as if something bad had happened, and right away the Net tells me that my presence is required here, so I didn't have time to stop and ask what was wrong with anyone else."-

-"In that case, I think a picture is worth a thousand words."- Then, the female captain ordered the Net. -"Net, turn on the holographic monitor and show our guests the current situation."-

-"Understood, Captain."-

The holographic monitor came on, showing what appeared to be an Earth-like planet, which in other normal events would be nothing out of the ordinary, except for one detail...

-"Before I explain our current situation, I will tell you two pieces of news, one good and one bad."- Kurosawa began her explanation by showing Akane and the rest of the crew the video footage of that Earth-like planet.

-"What would be the good news, captain?"- Akane said first.

-"The good news is that the ship jumped from the New Haiti system to this place without any issues."-

-"And what would be the bad one, Captain Kurosawa?"- Lt. Col. Arima worryingly asked at the female captain.

-"That this planet in front of us is not our planet Earth, nor are we in the Earth Sphere. Everything seems to indicate that the ship, for some reason that we do not know at all, jumped to a place in the universe that it should not, and now we are stranded in a completely unknown place."

-"WHAT?!"-

The six people in front of Captain Kurosawa stepped back in shock when they heard the news that the Asuka had ended up in an undetermined place in the universe.

And no one had any reason to doubt her word, since the first thing they noticed about this planet was that it had two moons, instead of just one. Besides that, there were none of the space colonies that normally surround the Earth, nor were there any satellites, or any kind of artificial objects floating in space. And if this were not enough to prove that they were not in the Earth Sphere, the position of the stars and other planets surrounding that planet so similar to the Earth was very different from what they knew.

-"Forgive my rudeness, captain, and I would not like to question your ability to handle this ship, but how could a ship like this end up in a place so far away from the Earth Sphere?"- Mr. Tanuma, the Hoshino Aerospace Industries (HAI)'s legal representative, asked to Kurosawa with a rather enigmatic and flushed expression he could show in his face.

-"That's a good question I'd like to know too, Mr. Tanuma."- The woman replied at her civilian guest. -"As far as we could verify, all the jump protocols were properly followed, and according to what the Asuka's computer could tell us, the ship should have jumped to the indicated coordinates; in theory, the ship should have jumped near Jupiter's orbit, and thus traveled to the Amaterasu station at cruising speed. For some reason, the Asuka sent us all to a place we know nothing about instead."-

-"What exactly do you mean by you don't know where we are, huh?"- Sgt. Miyamoto angrily asked Capt. Kurosawa about her last statement regarding their current position.

The captain hesitated a bit to answer that question, and after wringing her hands a bit, she had to answer about the harsh reality they were facing together.

-"I will be honest with all of you: The place where we are, as far as the Net has been able to deduce, based on the calculations that the ship's computers have obtained according to what they have perceived from what exists around the ship, is not in the space navigation charts that exist to date, which means that we are most probably in uncharted territory for any human being."-

-"That means...?"- Akane said at the female captain.

-"Yes,"- The woman said in a dramatic way. -"for better or worse, we are the first human beings to arrive in this solar system. And the planet in front of us is possibly a habitable planet, as far as we can see with the naked eye."-

A brief silence fell over the six officers who were present before Captain Kurosawa, as they tried to grasp the magnitude of the situation they were in. They had found a habitable planet, which could be used for humanity, in the not too distant future, if necessary.

The only problem with having found a liveable world now was to find a way to return to Earth, and make its existence known to all mankind.

-"Captain Kurosawa, having found a habitable world is nice and all, but there is no point for us in knowing that if we cannot return to Earth first."- Arima explained to the female captain how useless it is to have found a planet that humanity can inhabit if they do not find a way to return first. -"Can we try to jump again, to see if we can get home this time?"-

-"That would be the normal thing we should do, except that the ship can't jump again for another fortnight when the ship's power generators return to an acceptable temperature, and make sure this situation doesn't happen again. We do not know if what happened was a ship's problem or something we do not know at all, and that is to add that we do not know where in the universe we are now. There is a possibility that we are not even in the Milky Way galaxy, but in a different one, for god's sake!"-

-"And how do we know that the fault for which the Asuka ended up in this place was due to a computer glitch, or some unknown element that we haven't checked yet?"- Akane gave her opinion on the topic -"There's even a possibility, although it sounds rather scary-sounding from me, that this could be a product from a sabotage attempt, if you guys ask me for my opinion."-

-"That's utterly absurd, if you ask me, Sgt. Araki!"- Lt. Cmd. Ayame Ogawa replied loudly at the black military woman. -"The last recorded attempt at intentional sabotage of a spaceship, either from the JSSDF or the UNSF, was in the early 22nd century. Even if we consider that the New Haiti system suffered from space piracy during the first decades of its existence, we have had no reports of pirate attacks against our ships since 40 years as the local government imposed more severe measures to combat pirates."-

-"And that's not to mention that the very planet New Haiti has recorded very low organized crime rates in the last few decades, which helped a lot to make space piracy very unattractive to those who want to commit crimes."- Lt. Col. Arima complemented his peer's words about their previous departure location.

After a brief moment of silence, which was interrupted by the sound of the computers and the voices of the other crew members working on the bridge, Akane Araki asked another question.

-"Then I guess we won't even try to send a distress signal to see if we get help from a nearby ship, huh?"-

-"Unfortunately, that's right."- Kurosawa confirmed Akane's fears. -"Since this solar system is unknown and there are no satellites and relay stations to transmit signals either to Earth or to any nearby space colony or inhabited planet, it is futile for us to do so. On the other hand, our situation is not as bad as it seems; our only problem to try to return to the Earth Sphere is that the engines and the jump drive require a cooling down period of 15 days before trying again."-

-"So what do we do while the ship cools down, captain?"- Ogawa asked Kurosawa about what would be their next plans. -"How many supplies do we have before they run out?"-

-"About the supplies, we have food from here up to two months, so, if there is no other problem with the ship, that shouldn't cause any issues, as long as we know how to properly manage our available resources."- The female captain explained her current plan of action in the meantime. -"And considering that we found a new planet, I think it wouldn't hurt to send a probe to see if the planet has oxygen, or any kind of plant or organic life. Who knows, even if we are lucky, we might find some kind of native intelligent life in this new world, which would also be useful in the event that we need some kind of help, just in case."-

-"And considering this in mind, that's why Dr. Nishikawa is present here with us, I see..."- Akane said with regards of the resident xenobiologist on the ship. -"I've always thought that having these kinds of scientists on our ships is a waste of money, since we haven't found any intelligent life on other planets since the colonization of space began in the 21st century."-

-"Sgt. Araki, it may not seem like it, but I also do other things besides researching if there is intelligent life in other worlds, such as being an assistant general physician, or also even being a veterinarian when required."- The aforementioned Dr. Nishikawa replied affronted at the remark about his alleged uselessness on the Asuka.

-"Well, in that case, excuse me if I brought your skills into question, doc!"- Akane then frowned at the doctor.

-"That's enough, Akane."- Capt. Kurosawa warned her junior about her behavior on Nishikawa. -"Does anyone have anything else to say?"-

-"No, sir!"- Everyone replied in unison to the woman.

-"In that case, you may leave,"- Then, Capt. Kurosawa gave further instructions on her men and women in her command. -"but I will need the presence of all of you every day at 2000 hours in the ship's meeting room to discuss the current state of the situation and to take the necessary steps to address this crisis."-

Once the meeting with Captain Kurosawa was over, all those present who were not members of the bridge left that place..

Regarding Akane Araki, she went to her friend Kaguya's quarters to inform her of what was transpiring and to tell her the truth, assuming she had not been aware of the incident the ship was in first.

July 7th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Kaguya's Quarters), unknown hour

BEEP! BEEP!

-"Who is it?"-

-"It's me, Akane; I need to talk to you urgently."-

Kaguya opened the door to her room and let her military friend in to discuss the current situation.

Even though she had not yet started to speak, it was beyond doubt, from her facial expression and her ensuing speech, that Akane had nothing good to say about the plight in which the JS Asuka was plunged into, along with his entire crew, and especially those two women.

-"I must guess that something terrible happened to the ship, don't I, Akane?"-

The young African-Japanese woman sat on Kaguya's bed to talk to her, which caused Kaguya to sit next to her, so that they could talk in a more comfortable way.

-"I'm going to tell you the same thing Captain Kurosawa told me:"- Akane began her chat with the same words used during the situation briefing on the bridge. -"I have good news and bad news."-

-"What's the good news?"-

-"The good news is that the ship jumped from one place to another without any problems; that would be the last thing we should worry about at the time to get out from this damn mess."

-"So, the bad news would be...?"-

"I take it you haven't used the ship's video system to see what's outside the ship yet, have you?"-

-"N-no!"- Kaguya stuttered a bit, curling her lips in nervousness. -"I didn't want to use the outside cameras, even though I heard from some of the soldiers running next to my room that something strange had happened out there, but I didn't know any more specifics, and I wanted you to tell me what was going on now."-

-"In that case, I'll show you what's going on and the mess we're all in."- Then, Akane ordered the Net with a loud voice. -"Net, please turn on the monitor, activate the external cameras and point them at the planet."-

-"Understood, Sgt. Araki."-

The AI did what the human woman ordered, and a video image was shown on the computer monitor in Kaguya Hoshino's room. The first thing the Japanese millionaire lady noticed was that the planet in front of them looked very much like Earth...

Except that planet had two moons, and there was no space colonies surrounding the planet, which meant two things: That planet that both Kaguya and Akane were seeing on the monitor was not their Earth, nor were they in the Earth Sphere anymore.

-"This must be some kind of very sick joke, right, Akane?"- Kaguya did a shaky, nervous smile in her face, after seeing that mysterious world that was not her native Earth. -"That... that planet is surely Earth, and not some... bad prank by you and the rest of the crew using the ship's exterior cameras."-

Akane shook her head back and forth in denial at her friend's reluctance to admit the reality of what she had before her eyes.

-"Believe me, Kaguya-sweetie... right now I wish this could be a fucking joke of mine, or from some asshole with a bunch of free time on his hands..."-

Those words chilled Kaguya's skin, thanks to the implication that they were not only in a completely unknown place, but also that there was probably no way to return home, which caused her to start shedding tears as she saw the terrible reality she was facing before her eyes...

-"No... please... Akane... tell me this is not true... right?... sob...no...no..."-

Akane hugged her friend tenderly, seeing the tears she shed from the fear brought about by the scenario that both girls faced, knowing that they were now far away from their home, the planet Earth, and that it was now up to Akane and the rest of the crew to find a way to return to their world safely.

-"It's going to be all right, Kaguya... I promise you we're going to get out of this mess, no matter what."-

-"AND HOW THE FUCKING HELL CAN YOU EXPLAIN THIS SHIT, HUH?"- The young Japanese girl yelled and cursed loudly at Akane, demanding some kind of explanation. -"How did we end up in another solar system and not on the Earth Sphere? I mean, isn't it supposed to be hard for something like this to happen?"-

-"LIKE I FUCKING KNOW, GODDAMMIT!"- Akane replied as loudly as Kaguya did, overwhelmed by the same fear and rage her friend is facing as well. -" That's something everyone on this ship is fucking wondering, because this shouldn't happen on any way, shape and form! As far as I know, the last time a spaceship jumped to an unknown place in space with no way back was two centuries ago!"- Then, the black woman yelled even harder. -"TWO! FUCKING! CENTURIES! DID YOU HEAR ME? I don't know what we did wrong to be the first idiots in an era to wind up in only god knows where we are now!"-

Kaguya was surprised to see her friend really angry, as there were very few things that could make Akane Araki, a woman known to have a very upbeat attitude towards anything, burst into rage, apart from anything to do with racism, xenophobia and bullying.

-"A-Akane... are you all right?"-

The woman clenched her jaw and yelled at Kaguya even louder than before...

-"NO! I am NOT! FUCKING! OK! KAGUYA!"-

Seeing that her friend had taken a few steps back when she saw Akane screaming at her, the young African-Japanese soldier lowered her voice at the sight of her friend's frightened face, thinking that Akane would hit her.

-"Please... Akane... don't hit me... please... no..."-

At the sight of what he had done, Akane Araki shoved her hands in her face in shame and wasted no time in apologizing to her pint-sized friend.

-"Oh... I'm... I'm so sorry for yelling you like that... Kaguya..."- Akane tried to find some words in order to apologize to Kaguya, who was still frightened at the sight of a very angry soldier woman. -"I couldn't... I couldn't help but take out my frustration on someone else in light of what happened; I'm as scared as you are, and I'm still thinking about how we can get out of this."-

Once Kaguya regained her poise, as she was just as nervous as her friend, she tried to ask for more details about how they could leave that place...

-"And you guys can't just... sob... jump back again?"- Kaguya asked Akane nervously and with tears in her eyes.

-"Technically yes, but we need to wait about 15 days to try again, because the engines and the jump drive need to cool down first;"- Akane explained Kaguya their main issue on returning to Earth. -"if we tried that now, the ship would not survive the jump, and we would arrive on the other side in hundred of pieces or worse."-

-"What do you mean with the "worse" thing?"-

Akane breathed deeply before continuing with the talk.

-"Have you seen the movie The Fly?"-

-"Nope, but I do know what that movie is about."- Then Kaguya asked. -"Why do you bring that film up?"-

-"Well, If you remember what happens more or less at the beginning of the film, or at least of the first film, the protagonists experiment with a monkey, and by using the matter transporter in the animal, it ended up being transported to its destination with its internal organs out."- Akane followed with the next explanation. -"During the first years of the space colonization era using the FTL jump drive, there were some cases in which the travelers ended up in the same situation. Needless to say, in those cases, the only thing that could be done was to euthanize the victims and end their suffering. At least they didn't turn into murderous mutant insects like in that movie, to our fortune."-

Kaguya opened her mouth in utter disgust at the sole implication on any attempt to return home before the 15-day period.

-"YAHGGG! THAT MUST HAVE BEEN TERRIBLE!"-

-"Yeah, but that was in the past."- Akane explained the reasons why that kind of event was not possible anymore. -"Thanks to the Net, a situation like that is impossible to happen now, unless you are either very stupid or want to kill yourself first."-

-"And what do you intend to do now as the fortnight passes?"-

-"At the moment, I can't give you many specifics, since it's classified information, but I can tell you that we're not going to stand here and do nothing, that's for sure."-

Akane Araki then rose from the bed where she sat and headed for the exit of Kaguya's bunk.

-"Are you... going back to your room, Akane?"-

-"Yeah, what else can I do now?"- The black woman replied, this time with a more relaxed attitude compared with a few minutes ago. -"Besides, tomorrow's gonna be a very rough day for me, so I need to be prepared."-

-"Oh, I see... In that case, I'll see you tomorrow, Akane."-

-"See ya."-

But before leaving the place, Akane gave a few closing words to her friend.

-"Oh, before I forget, I apologize for yelling at you like that. As I said earlier, I'm very stretched out and all this shit puts me on the edge, as I've never dealt with a problem like this before."-

Kaguya, who had already recovered his previous mood and seeing his friend Akane smile again, that made her see that at least she was willing to apologize for her mistakes, and not just that woman continuously bullying her junior in a derisive manner.

-"Okay, I understand your predicament, but at least tell me when you're going to raise your voice, because you are really scary when you get really angry, heh heh heh!."-

-"Heh, heh! I'll keep that in mind. See you tomorrow!"-

July 8th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Akane's Quarters), unknown solar system, 10:00 AM

Kaguya Hoshino, having nothing else to do the next day, decided to visit her friend Akane Araki's place, which was in front of hers, but not before ringing the bell.

-"Who is it?"-

-"It's me, Kaguya."- The girl presented herself. -"I was a little bored, and considering the current situation and now that I've had breakfast, I'd like to talk to you, if you're not busy with other things."-

-"Sure, no problem, just let me get dressed quickly and I'll open the door."-

Minutes later, Akane opened the door of her quarters, but not before politely welcoming her guest.

-"I welcome you to my "humble" little home, Kaguya."-

Leaving aside the fact that her friend was being sarcastic, the first thing that caught Kaguya's attention when she entered Akane's room was the large amount of stuff that was all over the place.

Even considering that Akane Araki's place was the same size as Kaguya's, since she was a mid-level officer, that woman did know how to make that quarters, normally designed to be a temporary dwelling while she was on the ship, arranged it to be more fit for a young woman like her than a soldier's.

Among the many things in her friend's room were several scale models of various giant robots from anime series of the past, many scale figures of anime characters, both from that time and from previous centuries, and many books dealing with many different subjects, as Akane loved to read.

But what caught Kaguya's attention most, as she looked to her left, was a collection of many ancient Japanese weapons that Akane had at her side, which included three katanas, two wakizashi, a traditional Japanese bow with arrows, three tanto, three bokken, a naginata, three shinai, several kunai and shuriken, a tsurugi and many other weapons that she could not quite identify. In the same way, Akane also had in his collection two samurai armors, with their respective equipment, and also armors for practicing kendo.

Such a collection of ancient weapons would be the envy of any modern collector, and even more surprising that all those weapons were in a medium-sized bunk in a spaceship, a place that was not designed for such a purpose to begin with.

-"Geez! Where did you get all that collection of Japanese weapons, Akane?"-

-"Well, not to brag, but since I'm paid very well, I've been in the business of collectin' ancient weapons from feudal Japan since I was in high school, and I always have them on hand, just in case."-

-"And what the hell do you want with all those old stuff?"- Kaguya questioned her friend about the utility on using such old vintage hardware. -"Don't tell me you use them in your work in case you're up against someone, do you?"-

-"A sword does not run out of bullets or arrows, unlike firearms; that is why I always have them with me."- Akane replied her reasons on using such weapons. -"Also, I think you know I've been a member of Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū school of martial arts since I was in junior high."-

-"Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū?"- Kaguya was deeply surprised to hear that name, and also to know she was a member of such prestigious martial school. -"You mean that famous martial arts school that is also the oldest one in Japan?"-

-"Exactly."-

Kaguya had her reasons to be surprised to hear that name, and not without good motives: Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū, (天真正伝香取神道流) whose name means The True Teaching Way from Heaven of the Katori Shinto School in Japanese, is an ancient traditional Japanese martial art school founded by Iizasa Ienao who lived near the Katori Shinto shrine, hence the name, near 1480.

The school is famous, not only for teaching kendo, but also for teaching various military martial arts, including kenjutsu, battoujutsu, bojutsu, among other arts; Many famous swordsmen and samurai studied in that school, some even opened or created their own martial arts schools based on the teachings of that school, so it was not surprising that Kaguya Hoshino, a young woman from the Japanese high society, was astonished to hear that her friend Akane, who came from a middle class family, studied in such a school.

-"I knew you studied martial arts and kendo when we were in school, but you never told me you studied in that school!"-

-"Well, you never asked."-

-"But that doesn't explain how someone like you can afford such a school, dammit!"- Kaguya raised her voice, trying to find an explanation how someone as humble like Akane could afford attending such a prestigious school, compared with her. -"Even I would have a hard time getting admitted there, even with my connections on behalf of my family, for god's sake!"-

Akane did some exasperated sighs after hearing Kaguya's complains about her ability on afford studying in such dojo, knowing beforehand that Kaguya was growing jealous of her, Akane had no choice but to explain the reason why she had enrolled in that prestigious martial arts school.

-"To keep the story short, I can tell you that my stepfather is a friend of the head of that school, and since I was interested at that time in studyin' martial arts as a result of being bullied all the time since elementary school, I had no problem gettin' into that dojo and we only had to pay a reduced price for registration and fees."-

-"But still, it must not have been easy for you to be at that school."-

-"Certainly."- Akane admitted when she mentioned her early years in that place. -"Since it is a school that teaches military arts, especially the same arts that the samurai learned in Feudal Japan, it was more than evident that the standards in that dojo were much higher than in any other kendo school I have known. Besides, they were not goin' to have any consideration for me just because I was a woman; not that I would care at any time, anyway."-

-"Hmmm, I think that would explain a lot of things about you, my dear Akane."-

Akane quickly interpreted that last part as a hint why she was so aggressive in a playful way with everyone, especially Kaguya, to which she responded in the way her friend was waiting for Akane to react.

-"What, are you implying that I'm just violent because I learned martial arts skills in basically a samurai school?!"-

-"And what more could be expected of you, huh?"- Kaguya raised her eyebrows and then pointed her finger on Akane's face. -"Only someone like you would think of studying in an old-fashioned school where they teach how to kill people; not for nothing did you join the army instead of having a more legitimate job like mine!"-

In other circumstances, Akane would have responded with the same coin to that arrogant young woman, but it was evident that Kaguya was simply very jealous of her because she was lucky enough to be a member of such a prestigious dojo, compared to her, who in spite of her ties she could not even dream of considering that option.

So, instead of verbally toying with her, Akane decided to take a more physical approach to settling the matter with Kaguya.

-"All right, you stupid rich bimbo, I had enough of your fuckin' insults!"- Then, Akane challenged Kaguya. -"If you think I'm just a bully with a license to kill just because I'm a member of a samurai school and a member of the army, why don't you show me in a kendo duel, instead of verbally insulting me like you always do?"-

-"I don't have to stoop to your level, you stupid samurai-wannabe brute!"-

-"Oh... Perhaps you're afraid to fight me, Kaguya? Or am I wrong? Or are you just a giant chicken?"-

To prove her point, Akane started making mocking chicken sounds at Kaguya, insinuating that her friend was just a spineless coward unable to back up her own words. That was the straw that broke the camel's back for that young girl, who would not tolerate being called a coward under her nose, and accepted Akane's challenge.

-"STOP IT! I SAID STOP THAT SHIT RIGHT NOW!"- Kaguya yelled at Akane and pointed her finger to her -"I ACCEPT YOUR CHALLENGE, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!"-

-"OK, Challenge accepted!"- Afterwards, Akane Araki decided to make the things more interesting for both of them. -"To make this more exciting, I'm going to make a bet."-

-"What kind of bet?"-

-"If I win, you're gonna do what I want, plain and simple."- The black woman set the rules of their duel. -"On the other hand, if you beat me, not only will I do what you want, but I will recommend you for admission to the Katori Shintō-ryū school, if you wish."-

Kaguya found the rules of that duel acceptable, knowing that if she won, not only would she have the opportunity to enter that school, but she would also be able to humiliate Akane in the most ruthless way for once in her life.

-"And where are we going to face each other here on this ship?"-

-"There is a small martial arts dojo inside the Asuka's gym; there we will be able to fight without problems."-

-"In that case, let's go there, and I hope you're prepared to lose this time, Akane!"-

-"The same goes for you, dumbass!"-

July 8th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Dojo), unknown solar system, 11:00 AM

The JS Asuka, like many ships of similar size, had its own gymnasium, where the ship's crew could exercise and play sports in their free time, considering that this was very necessary due to the lack of gravity in space, and the ship couldn't always use artificial gravity at times.

Fortunately, this was not the case, because the ship used its artificial gravity system that allowed the crew to enjoy a gravity more or less similar to the Earth; this was achieved because the ship, which was more or less cylindrical, could rotate on its own axis, while the central core where the human crew was located remained static, which allowed the crew to work without feeling that the ship was spinning and therefore, feel dizzy.

As the ship is owned by the Japanese government, it was obvious that the Asuka also had its own dojo, where people could practice and teach martial arts, mainly karate, judo, aikido and above all, kendo.

And with respect to this last sport, Akane Araki and Kaguya Hoshino, who were to face each other as part of their challenge, were preparing for their confrontation before entering the dojo. Each girl was in a separate location dressing in her respective armor and helmet.

Kaguya knew that she was at considerable disadvantage against Akane: While the former was not exactly a push-over, Akane, on the other hand, was a woman who not only had never been beaten in any official combat, but she had won two national championships, and was a finalist in an international inter-university tournament held in Buenos Aires, Argentina when they were both in the university, and she had lost that tournament to another Japanese participant, so Kaguya had to be clever enough to defeat that woman, who besides being stronger than her, was also taller.

Once each woman had finished putting on her armor, Akane and Kaguya entered the dojo, and after bowing, both stood face to face with their respective bamboo swords, or shinai, in their hands, ready to fight as soon as the referee, who was a person they had chosen before entering the dojo, allowed it, plus two other auxiliary referees.

-"In this match will participate Ms. Akane Araki, from the Tenshin Shōden Katori Shintō-ryū school, and Ms. Kaguya Hoshino. I expect an honorable duel between the two of you."-

-"Thank you."- Both girls bowed at the referee.

-"Well then... BEGIN!"-

With a quick movement, Akane began the duel, trying to make a quick, accurate strike to Kaguya's head in order to score a point for her.

But Kaguya, who more or less already knew her friend's fighting style, predicted in advance what she intended to do, and with a quick movement, she used her shinai to protect her head and block the attack. Seconds later, Kaguya stepped back to think of some retaliatory tactics.

-"Looks like you predicted I'd go on the offensive first, huh?"-

-"After seeing you in several bouts, I think I know a lot of your moves, so I'm not surprised at all."-

Then, both women looked at each other, while they used their swords to measure the distance between them so they would know when to counterattack at the right time.

And once Kaguya had properly taken her distance, she tried to hit her opponent with a quick sideways motion aimed at the right side of Akane's neck, which would have earned her a point.

But Akane realized what his friend was trying to do and she quickly retreated; the young African-Japanese kendoka then counterattacked in order to attack the left side of Kaguya's body, but she quickly blocked the strike.

And so, both women continued fighting, without any quarter, for more than half an hour, with no one being able to make even a single point that would allow them to win, even by sudden death.

Both women stared at each other carefully, trying to find a way to win the fight by looking for some weak point in their opponent that would allow them to even score a hit.

-"All right Kaguya, if I can even hit her only once, I can get a point and win this fight, it's just a matter of concentrating and knowing where to hit her."-

-"DAMN! I must admit that Kaguya is fighting for real now, and it's not gonna be easy for me to beat her this time; if I knew how to break down her defense and score a single point..."-

After looking at her opponent, Kaguya knew that the time was right to launch a counterattack and win the fight at once, taking advantage of the fact that Akane was seemingly hesitant for a few seconds.

-"It's either now or never!"-

And throwing his kiai harder than she could project from his mouth, Kaguya threw himself with all his might at Akane, in order to attack her and end the fight.

Akane seemed to have quickly predicted what she would do, and she too quickly reacted to that counterattack, running with all her might in order to win...

But before either of them could even make physical contact, an electronic voice broke into the ship's dojo...

-"Sgt. Akane Araki, your presence is urgently required in the ship's meeting room on behalf of Captain Kurosawa in half an hour."-

-"WHAT?!"-

-"NO WAY!"-

Both girls were disappointed that their fight was interrupted by an emergency, but at least Kaguya knew that in view of the current situation in which they both found themselves, Akane had no choice but to comply with that order and go see what she was needed for.

-"All right Kaguya, we'll leave this fight for another time, I have shit to do now."- Afterwards, Akane began to remove her armor as quickly as she could, then dress in her service uniform, and immediately afterwards, head for the exit of the dojo. -"When I'm free, then I'll think about whether to continue this dumb duel or not."-

-"In that case, I'm ready to continue whenever you want; I just hope you don't forget that we still have a pending match, and that don't think you can use this as an good excuse to avoid me, Akane!"-

Akane had no time to listen to such nonsense, and she rushed off to the meeting room of the ship, leaving a quiet Kaguya standing alone in the middle of the dojo, having the feeling that their fight would not resume anytime soon...

-"Damn..."-

July 8th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Meeting Room), unknown solar system, 12:15 PM

-"Sorry for being late, I was busy with other stuff!"-

Akane Araki had just arrived on time at the Asuka's meeting room, and all the people that Captain Yoko Kurosawa had requested of her presence, including Mr. Haruo Tanuma from Hoshino Aerospace Industries (HAI), were already present in the room.

One of those present, Lieutenant Colonel Kenzo Arima, noticed that his subordinate was very sweaty and agitated, the latter because she had just suddenly finished her kendo duel with Kaguya, and she had not had time to bathe and rest, something that he immediately brought to Akane's attention.

-"Looks like you've been busy, Sgt. Araki."-

-"I'm sorry to come here like this, but I was practicing kendo with my friend and I didn't have time to shower first due to the urgency for which I was required, sir."-

But before they could discuss the matter further, Captain Kurosawa appeared on the scene, which caused everyone present, except Tanuma, being the latter a civilian, to make the military salute to her.

-"You may all sit down." -

-"Yes, sir."-

Without wasting any more time, the captain of the Asuka explained the reason she had summoned all the people with high and medium ranks on the ship, as well as Tanuma; and judging by the expression on her face, it seemed that the issue she was going to address would be very important.

-"The reason I have summoned you all here is because, as I mentioned yesterday when we arrived to this unknown solar system, it is because we sent an exploration probe yesterday at 2330 hours to the planet we have under our noses to verify if it is habitable or if there is any kind of life inside."- The woman began her discussion on the issue. -"And we seem to have found something interesting that deserves to be discussed here with all of you."-

-"Something interesting, sir?"- Tanuma, the HAI representative, questioned Kurosawa. -"What exactly do you mean by that, did you find some kind of life on that planet or what?"-

-"It would be better if our resident expert, Dr. Nishikawa, explained it to us better."- Then the captain handed over to Dr. Ryouta Nishikawa. -"You may begin, doctor."-

-"Thank you very much, captain."- The doctor began discussing his findings to his audience. -"Let me get to the point, ladies and gentlemen: Everything seems to indicate that the planet in front of us not only has an atmosphere of oxygen and nitrogen similar to that of the Earth, but also, as far as we have been able to verify with the help of the probe, it also has plant life; unfortunately, the area that the probe has explored until today is a desert area, so we could not verify whether there is running water or other organic life, but if we could find plants, all indications are that there must also be water to sustain that vegetation."-

For more than obvious reasons, that important discovery surprised everyone present in the room, since it was more than evident that the planet seemed to have some kind of life, even if it were botanical one, due to the little they had investigated up to that point, and that without mentioning the implications in case some human wanted to set foot in that new world.

-"We're really lucky, aren't we, folks?"- Lieutenant Commander Ayame Ogawa at the news that unknown planet could have life. -"We are the first humans to find a habitable planet in centuries since New Haiti, and I think the high command will be more than happy to know this when we return home."-

But for some reason, Akane Araki, who was listening to the news about what was on that planet, seemed rather concerned, and to some extent, even angry, because she had her reasons why that news could not be good for anyone, and she shared her concerns with everyone in the room.

-"I don't want to be that person, but I think we need to do more exploration there first before we could even think about trying to occupy that planet one day, let alone set foot there first."-

What that woman said was not something everyone wanted to hear, and even Captain Kurosawa asked her subordinate her reasons for not attempt any idea on populating that planet in a distant future.

-"I'd like to know your reasons why we shouldn't populate that planet when possible, Sgt. Araki."- Kurosawa asked her junior. -"Are you afraid that we'll find something dangerous that we shouldn't get involved in, or do you have any particular reason you'd like to share?"-

Akane breathed as deeply as she could, and afterwards, she offered her explanation on the subject of some possible human colonization on that planet and her opposition to it.

-"As all of you already know, the first viable planet that humanity found outside our solar system, New Haiti, was originally a developing world in which there was, like this planet we discovered, only plant-based life, and certain types of marine life no more advanced than crabs."- Akane explained her concerns about the new planet. -"Due to the circumstances caused by World War III and the destruction of the ancient Haiti on Earth, not to mention the opposition to more colonists on Mars and Ganymede, and the lack of space colonies at that time, humanity was forced to colonize that planet, at the cost of destroying the natural processes that developed there before humans discovered that world."-

-"I think that understand your worries, Sgt. Araki,"- Capt. Kurosawa replied at the black woman. -"But you, more than anyone else, should understand that at that time we didn't had no choice but to colonize that planet, or risk seeing humanity extinguished, either in another war or as a result of climate change or other catastrophe. In other words, it was either us or that planet, plain and simple; in addition, the large number of displaced persons after WWIII that existed made any other option other than space colonization out of our solar system unfeasible."-

-"I understand that perfectly, Captain, but what I want to convey here is that we are no longer at the end of the 21st century to face that dilemma again, but that the circumstances in which we find ourselves are completely different."- Akane replied. -"Also, the political situation on Earth and in the other colonies is no longer as chaotic as it was before, and we should no longer worry about what kind of people may or may not inhabit a certain place on a certain planet or colony as it was in the past."-

-"So, we assume what you mean is that we shouldn't even think about colonizing this world, right?"- Tanuma asked to Akane.

-"Indeed."- Then, the female Space Ranger added another personal concern. -"In fact, if it were up to me, I wouldn't even try to send probes or any kind of foreign object to that planet to verify whether there is life or not; the best thing would be to leave that planet alone and concentrate on how to get back to Earth safely instead."-

The words of Akane Araki caused a great roar among those present in the room, as there were some who felt the same way, while others thought otherwise, and believed that they had a duty to investigate that planet, if only out of scientific curiosity.

-"Your concerns are valid, Sergeant; however, we will be stranded here for 14 days or more, depending on the circumstances, and this kind of opportunity is not normally seen every day, so I think there is no harm to seeing what is on that planet, even if it's just to check what's inside, don't you think?"- Dr. Nishikawa gave his justification for the benefits of investigating that unknown planet that they had before their eyes.

-"Besides, aren't you supposed to be a Space Ranger? Considering your area of expertise, investigating unknown or enemy territory should be something relevant to you, and I thought you'd agree with the idea of investigating the planet while we're stranded here, wouldn't you?"- Tanuma questioned Akane about her reasons on not scouting that planet.

-"Certainly."- Then, the military black woman retorted that idea on regards on her actual job. -"But there is a big difference between investigating unknown territory, and investigating an entire planet, and even more so if we don't know what is there. Also, what would happen if we find harmful or dangerous fauna to humanity, or even if there are dangerous microbes or viruses for which we have no natural defenses? And that without going with the possibility of any kind of intelligent life living there, which our presence could be considered a threat to them."-

-"I would also like to say that I also agree with our partner;"- Lt. Col. Ogawa complimented her junior's remarks about her concerns about that planet -"if there is any intelligent life on that planet, I would not like to be known as the person who brought unnecessary destruction and death to their world in the name of progress or survival of the human race, as happened with the discovery of America and Christopher Columbus."-

-"Also, I also want to add, as an additional note, that,"- Akane continued with her explanation. -"since the colonization of space began, one of the priorities taken before colonizing any world is to verify that in case a world with intelligent life is discovered, the first thing would be to talk to them and know their culture before trying any attempt to suddenly introduce us to their worlds, no matter how benign our intentions are; It goes without saying that all the many native tribes around our planet Earth that disappeared in ancient times were victims of our greed, arrogance and lack of consideration for their cultures and we will not repeat the same mistake twice."

-"We understand your concerns about the possibility of finding intelligent life on that planet, but if you ask my opinion, it is very difficult for us to find anything there at this point; since mankind has been able to leave our solar system, we have not found a single trace of intelligent life more advanced than crustaceans and marine life, and in some cases, we have been lucky to find even microbes. "- Tanuma refuted Akane's concerns. -"so I don't see any problem exploring that planet to see if we can find anything that might be useful to us sooner or later."-

-"Also, what makes you think that planet might be different from New Haiti or other worlds that we have encountered or terraformed in the past, like Mars and Ganymede?"- Lt. Col. Arima asked Akane. -"Personally, I agree more with Mr. Tanuma's stance, in view of our past experiences with this sort of thing."-

Akane didn't say anything for a few seconds, and afterwards, she gave a response to that question.

-"Let's say it's a hunch, or even, feminine intuition, as ridiculous or cliche as it sounds."-

-"Intuition, you say?"- Tanuma responded somewhat incredulous at Akane's opinion.

-"That's right."- The black woman said at the HAI representative. -"I have a bad feeling that attempting to check out what's in that world beyond knowing if there's air or not could be more trouble than it's worth, or even worse." -

Tanuma, suddenly and without warning, slammed his fist at the table in rage.

-"And you call yourself a Space Ranger, Sgt. Araki?"- Tanuma yelled at the sargeant. -"Since when does a soldier like you follow hunches, huh?"-

-"Mr. Tanuma, I ask you nicely to keep your voice down here!"- Capt. Kurosawa warned that man when he raised his voice to that man. -"She is a mid-level officer on this ship, and you are a civilian, and any decision made on this ship is my decision and that of both the JSSDF and the UNSF, not your company's, whether you are a military supplier or not!"-

Tanuma's outburst caused a notorious stir in the room, for there were some people who agreed with Akane's position and others who seemed to agree with the businessman in the same way. The fact that they were the first humans to find a habitable world had caused a great ethical dilemma between leaving that planet alone or simply investigating what might be there, if only out of mere curiosity.

-"Ladies and gentlemen, in view of the fact that this issue has become very controversial by its very nature, as captain of this ship I am going to make some decisions about it, and I hope that we all agree on them:"- Captain Yoko Kurosawa used her authority as the captain of the Asuka to settle the discussion about that planet once and for all. -"Due to the concerns of both Sgt. Araki and Lt. Col. Ogawa about any attempt of human presence on that planet, for the time being no human member of this crew will descend on that planet without my authorization, and our work on that planet will be exclusively for exploration and nothing else. On the other hand, if necessary, I could change my mind in case of an emergency or any situation that would require having to travel to that planet, either to get resources for the Asuka, or in the worst possible scenario, to escape to that planet if something happened here. Let's just hope that never has to happen."-

An absolute silence was felt in the room when everyone present heard the captain's voice and saw that she was trying to end the discussion at once; it was evident that some agreed with her, even if some people, like Mr. Tanuma to begin with, were not happy with that decision. Unfortunately for him, he had no authority to make her change her mind, so he could only say nothing more about it.

-"Does anyone else have anything to contribute to the issue, apart from the ethical considerations of whether we should go to that planet or not?"

-"I don't think so, Captain, at least not from me."- Arima responded to the query -"What about you, ladies and gentlemen?"-

-"I have nothing more to say for now."- Ogawa also gave her answer. -"And you, Sgt. Araki?"-

-"Hmmm."- The young black woman hesitated on giving a reply for a few seconds, and then, she finally speaked. -"I'm not very happy with how the whole issue regarding this unknown planet turned out, but I think it's an acceptable conclusion that the captain came to, and I think we should accept it for the time being."-

But on the other hand, Mr. Tanuma, the proponent of further exploration of that planet, did not say another word, although his displeasure was notorious.

-"Well, if no one has more to add to the subject, I'll call this meeting off. You're all dismissed."-

July 8th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Corridor near meeting room), unknown solar system, 02:00 PM

All the main officers aboard the Asuka left the meeting room, among them Akane Araki, who was walking along the corridor somewhat annoyed by the way the meeting unfolded; she simply could not believe that there were still people willing to make the same mistakes of the past in the name of the progress of the human race, even when there was no need to commit the same measures that were taken with other planets, as it was with the aforementioned planet New Haiti, as she explained in the meeting.

But before she could even leave the corridor, Akane heard a voice that was too familiar to her, or to her own liking...

-"Do you mind if you allow me a few words with you, Sergeant Araki?"-

When she turned around, Akane realized that the person who wanted to talk to her was Haruo Tanuma, HAI's legal representative, and with whom she had a verbal disagreement a few moments ago as to whether or not to explore the new planet.

-"What do you want, Mr. Tanuma?"- Akane replied at the man with a tight-lipped smile in her face. -"If you wish to continue talking about that planet, we can discuss it another day; I'm not in the mood right now to go back to the issue in this place, least of all with you."-

-"No, no, no, it's not about that, sergeant!"-

-"If so, then, what do you want from me?"-

-"What I wanted to ask you especially is a favor."-

Akane narrowed her eyes at that strange request from that man.

-"A favor, you say?"-

-"Yes, I need to ask you a very important favor from you, I hope you can honor it."-

-"And what would that favor be, Mr. Tanuma?"- Akane asked Tanuma about his special "favor". -"I just hope it doesn't involve money or anything like that."-

-"I heard from Captain Kurosawa that you are friends with Miss Kaguya Hoshino, the daughter of our CEO, Mr. Yuusuke Hoshino, who by the way is traveling on this very ship, isn't it?"-

-"Well, she is certainly my friend, and she travels on this ship; normally it is not something I should share with strangers, but since you are an employee from HAI, I do not think it would cause any harm on saying so."-

-"Very good."- Tanuma smiled. -"Now, this is the favor I need to ask you: If you see Miss Kaguya again, I kindly ask you not to mention anything about me with her, that's the only thing I ask."

-"I don't talk about you to her?"- The military woman was puzzled by that request. -"May I know the reason, if it's not inconvenient for you?"-

-"Let's say it's a request her father made to me in case I ran into his daughter here at the Asuka."- The man then added another odd remark. -"That's all I can say about it."-

Akane was intrigued by that strange request Mr. Tanuma made of her regarding Kaguya. In other circumstances, that would have been somewhat suspicious, although on the other hand, since the order seemed to come from the mouth of the head of HAI, she had no reason to think of anything else that might be bad for her friend.

-"Well, if you say so, I'll do as you ask, Mr. Tanuma."-

-"Many thanks for you, Sgt. Araki."- Afterwards, Tanuma moved in the opposite direction to the one Akane was heading down the aisle. -"If you'll excuse me, I have other things to do now; see you later."-

-"See you."-

Once Tanuma was out of sight, Akane wondered why the businessman did not want Kaguya to know he was on the ship.

Even if the reason that man could not make his existence known to the heiress of the HAI came from orders of her father, Akane was surprised that both Tanuma and Kaguya's father had strange reasons for her not knowing something that would do no harm if she learned it under more normal conditions. Kaguya is also supposed to work for the company as his father's legal representative, and it would be very strange for her to be denied such trivial information as knowing that another representative of the company was boarding the same ship as the daughter of the CEO of Hoshino Aerospace Industries.

Would that mean there's some kind of family feud that both Mr. Tanuma and Kaguya don't want to talk about?

After giving it some thought, Akane doubted that possibility very much, for she knew that Kaguya had no personal issues with her father, other than the matter of having asked her to go on a military vessel rather than a civilian one.

So, considering Haruo Tanuma's somewhat belligerent attitude toward the exploration of that new planet, and the fact that he had asked her not to reveal her presence to Kaguya, there was only one thing she could do to dispel his doubts on the subject, and for that she had to be as low-key as possible to avoid having any unneeded problems.

Even if that meant even being demoted, or worse.

July 9th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Cafeteria), unknown solar system, 10:30 AM

The next day, Akane and Kaguya were having breakfast together in the ship's cafeteria, as the former decided to buy her friend a meal out of her own pocket. Akane was eating a large bowl of udon, while Kaguya was eating toast with strawberry jam, along with a milkshake.

-"Hey, Akane, thanks for inviting me to have breakfast with you, I was feeling very lonely having to eat by myself, you know."-

-"Heh, don't need to thank me, sweetie! I knew you'd enjoy my company instead of being surrounded by all these macho guys, and maybe some women, who must be lookin' at you in a lustful way."-

Kaguya knew exactly what her friend was referring to, especially considering that the young heiress had a body that looked more like a 14-year-old girl's, deep red hair and somewhat large breasts for one of her physical build. That was something that Kaguya was fully aware of, and hearing that from Akane's mouth made her feel embarrassed and her face blushed quite a bit.

-"You... YOU DON'T HAVE TO SAY THAT ALOUD, DAMMIT!"-

-"As if it wasn't the first time that men didn't look at an innocent-lookin', virginal girl like you in their lives; just ask me how many perverts, and more than one lesbian, by the way, I had to send myself right to the hospital when we were in high school and university. It must be hard being someone as pretty as you and bein' the target of even the occasional pedophile out there."-

Kaguya knew that Akane was right, and she had saved her life on many times by fighting against many people who tried to grope or even rape her friend because she was mistaken for a younger girl, something that was always her biggest source of grief since she started high school.

Even if Kaguya did not like her friend's violent attitude, deep down she was grateful that Akane was willing to defend her when necessary, even though she sometimes felt helpless that she could not resolve things on her own.

-"Heh, heh, heh, heh! Hey, Kaguya, you look so damn cute when you blush, you look like a popsicle with that face and that red hair!"-

-"Shut up, will you?"-

Akane continued to laugh for a few more seconds, and after amusing herself at the expense of her beleaguered friend, she chose to change the subject to one she needed to discuss with her.

-"All right, let's put these stupid jokes aside and let's get straight to the point."- Akane went into her more serious mode she used when she needed to discuss a more serious matter with someone. -"I need to discuss an important issue with you."-

Kaguya knew that when her friend Akane stopped joking and started talking seriously it was because something was not right, so she partially opened her lips in curiosity and she heard what her friend wanted to say.

-"Judging by your voice, it looks like it's serious, Akane."- The younger girl pointed out. -"Is something wrong?"-

-"I'd like to know, at your discretion, if you've had any serious family problems."-

Kaguya tilted her head in confusion after hearing such thing, since she wasn't used to being asked such questions by her, or anyone else, for that matter.

-"It's... it's the first time in years you've asked me about my family's affairs."- The girl nerviously replied at Akane. -"Why are you so interested in that now, and even more so given the current circumstances?"-

-"Well, let's say..."- Akane was trying to think of a good excuse to talk about Kaguya's family without her realizing her true motives. -"Let's say you haven't told me what exactly you were doing there in New Haiti before I met you at the space station; I just know you were doing some business on behalf of your father, but you haven't given me any more specifics."-

-"Well, if you want to know that, I can only tell you that I don't have any serious problems worth mentioning."- Kaguya replied with somewhat smug expression in her face. -"Unless you're talking that my father asked me to come back to Earth in a military spaceship."-

-"But other than that,"- Akane went more specific with this question. -"haven't you heard of any problems your father has had with any particular person or group of people?"-

Kaguya did some memorizing and she answered to that question emphatically.

-"To my knowledge, no."-

-"What about what I said about what you were doing in New Haiti?"-

-"I was signing some documents and representing my father on some business deals; the rest is confidential information that I cannot share with you, even if you are my friend."-

Akane was disappointed to hear that, but she understood well the reasons why her friend Kaguya didn't want to share what she knew, being that informacion a top-level trade secret protected by law.

-"I understand that..."- Then, the African-Japanese woman did another question to her rich friend. -"but there's something else I'd like to know."-

-"What else do you want to know, Akane?"-

-"When you were in New Haiti, was there anyone in particular you worked with there?"-

The Japanese girl narrowed her eyes at that question.

-"If you mean specifically if I had a particular assistant or person there on that planet, no."- Kaguya responded. -"I was the one who took care of all the local business when I was there, and the only people on the company payroll with me in New Haiti were my personal staff from my vacation house, who remained there on that planet."-

Akane said nothing else and tried to parse what her friend had said, while the latter wanted to know why she wanted to know all that information.

-"Is there a problem with an employee of my company that you want to investigate, by any chance?"-

-"It's not that, at least not that I can suspect;"- The black girl replied. -"there are just some things I don't understand about why your father sent you back home in a military ship."-

-"You already know that, don't you?"-

-"Yeah, but there are some things that I feel don't add up here, but at the moment I can't tell you anything else until we get home safely, since it could cause an unnecessary mess if I open my mouth without any proof."-

After finishing his udon, Akane got up from her chair...

-"Well, well, the food was good, now I have to do other things; if you'll excuse me, I have to go."

...and was about to leave the cafeteria in an unknown direction.

-"Hey, why are you leaving so fast? Aren't you gonna tell me more about what's bothering you about my family's company?"- Kaguya replied quite annoyed and angry by the sudden departure of her friend Akane, since there were lots of things they need to discuss. -"And what about the duel we had yesterday, aren't we gonna resume on another day or what?"-

-"I told you I can't say any more, so just stick to what I said, dumbass."- Then, Akane finished with her chat with this. -"And as for your stupid, childish duel, we can resume that another day; I'm very busy right now, so if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna head out of here."-

Akane Araki left the cafeteria, leaving an enraged Kaguya Hoshino alone at the table, eating her remaining food by herself.

-"AHHH, GODDAMMIT! WHY THAT STUPID FAT BITCH ALWAYS SCREW ME OVER AND HAVE HER WAY WITH ME, HUH?!"-

All the soldiers who were in the cafeteria set their sights on that foul-mouthed girl, due to her physical appearance that looked more like a high school girl than a 18-year-old adult woman, something that she didn't find very funny at all.

-"WHAT THE FUCKIN' HELL ARE YOU JARHEADS LOOKIN' AT?"-

July 9th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Meeting Room), unknown solar system, 08:15 PM

All the senior and mid-ranking officers of the Asuka had met again to discuss the progress in exploring the new habitable planet in front of them, as well as how the plans to jump back to the Earth Sphere were going.

Dr. Ryouta Nishikawa, the ship's resident xenobiologist, was presenting several video footage of what the exploration probe had been able to find to that point to everyone in the room; among what the probe had been able to transmit to the ship in the form of video feeds was what appeared to be a prairie, a forest and a very large desert area. There were also several images of rivers, which confirmed without doubt the presence of water on the planet.

But what most drew the attention of many of the people gathered in the room was how beautiful the landscapes of that planet were, which were even more beautiful than those of other worlds that humanity had discovered up to that point, such as New Haiti, Mars and other similar places.

-"I don't know about you, guys, but that planet sure is beautiful, no doubt about it."- Lt. Col. Ayame Ogawa said with a very notable melancholic visage in her face.

-"Yes, but what strikes me is that, if I had to compare it to something I knew, all those landscapes look like something out of a Wild West movie."- Sergeant Shin'ichi Miyamoto could only smile at seeing those unreal-looking places.

-"Yeah, we just need to see the Indians and the cowboys killing each other like in those movies."- Akane Araki said with a malicious, slight close-lipped smile right that was visible for all the present in the room.

-"Oh, come on! Why are you always so smug about these things, Sgt. Araki?"- Ogawa scolded her junior about that cynical remark on regard of the life in the old Wild West.

-"First of all, I have never liked those movies, since they always show a very twisted and stereotyped image of life at that time, not to mention the way they treat the Indians as the bad guys of the story, while the cowboys or the white men are always the heroes who save the damn day."- Akane replied with a very notable flushed face. -"Being a woman from a minority makes me very sensitive to this kind of thing I see on a daily basis, and that's why I act this way on regard of that kind of racist propaganda crap from the 20th century."-

-"Ladies and gentlemen, could we put aside the Wild West analogies and concentrate on the planet and what's inside it?"- Capt. Kurosawa interrupted the argument before it went bigger.

-"Yes, sir."-

-"Very well, captain."- Dr. Nishikawa was happy to see that he could continue discussing his findings. -"Returning to the subject, it is worth mentioning that to date we have not found any trace of life more advanced than plant life, but we cannot rule out finding something if we investigate the planet further; up to this point, we have only been able to explore a very small region of that planet of no more than 100 km, which is roughly equivalent to no more than 0.5% of that planet's surface."-

-"There's one thing I'd like to know, doctor."- Sgt. Miyamoto asked Nishikawa. -"In the video footage you showed us, one can see rivers out there. How likely is it that the water in that world is safe to drink, or at least that it doesn't have some strange stuff that we don't know about and it could be toxic to humans?"-

-"As far as we can ascertain with the probe and because of the limits imposed by Captain Kurosawa, that is very difficult to know, since we can only descend with the drone to the stratosphere to prevent our presence from being noticed by any kind of intelligent life that may exist on that planet."- The Japanese xenobiologist responded. -"We couldn't even rule out that what looks like water might be something else, like mercury or some water-like substance, but it's actually a different material unknown to us. Let's remember that there are planets and moons like Titan on Jupiter, for a good example, where their seas are made of methane and frozen hydrocarbons."-

Akane, who also saw the images that the probe had sent, spotted something very strange that looked like it came from a very specific region of that planet that appeared to be a desert.

-"Dr. Nishikawa,"- The girl asked to the xenobiologist. -"I just noticed something in one of those videos you showed to us: In what appears to be a desert, there seems to be what looks like a source of smoke, or at least that's what it looked like to me."

-"Oh, you mean that?"- The science man replied. -"It is likely to be a fire caused by some lightning strike in that area or some similar event."-

-"Maybe it's just me, or maybe it's my experience as a Ranger in that department,"- The woman gave her explanation about what that event could be. -"but there's a big difference between a fire produced by natural events, like lightning, and a fire produced manually, like a campfire."-

-"Are you implying that that could be a proof that there is some kind of intelligent life on that planet, Sgt. Araki?"-

-"Well..."- Akane hesitated a bit before giving a straight answer. -"To be honest, it's more of a guess on my part, based on my military knowledge, so don't take it as a suggestion that there might be intelligent life down there."-

After a brief moment of silence that was felt in the room, Sgt. Miyamoto decided to change the subject about the planet to something even more important.

-"On a slightly different note, how are the preparations for jumping again going, captain?"-

-"The engines have already cooled down, so we can move from here starting tomorrow at 1800 hours, but the jump drive still requires another 13 days to be ready;"- Capt. Kurosawa replied. -"the faster we get out of here, the better it will be for everyone before they start to worry seriously back on Earth."-

-"Does that mean we'll stop exploring that planet, sir?"- Ogawa asked at her senior.

-"Well, we already achieved our goal of finding out if that planet is habitable or not, so we don't have any more need to linger in this place; remember that our original mission is to transport material for a civilian company, and our exploration work is only on a superficial level. Any further exploration work must be carried out professionally with the authorization of the United Nations and the UNSF."-

-"I agree with the captain on that,"- Akane Araki sided with Kurosawa on moving on from there. -"besides, that planet for some reason gives me the creeps."-

-"Why do you say that, Sergeant?"- Mr. Tanuma said at the woman with a mocking tone. -"Do you think there could be terrible monsters lurking on that planet, or some deadly dark secret waiting for any human dwelling down there?"-

-"I don't know, and I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't imply that I'm superstitious or whatever."- The black woman angrily replied at that man. -"I just have a bad feeling about it, and the sooner we get out of here, the safer we'll be."-

-"Anyway, our exploration work will continue tomorrow until 1500 hours of this ship; unless we find something worth investigating further, the probe will return to the ship at 1600 hours, and then the ship will prepare to leave this solar system from 1800 hours, and then jump to Earth in 13 days, as soon as the jump drive has cooled down completely."- Capt. Yoko Kurosawa gave the roadmap they would use before leaving that unknown system. -"Does anyone have anything else to add to this?"-

-"No, sir."- Everyone replied at the woman.

-"In that case, you're all dismissed."-

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Crew Quarters), unknown solar system, 07:30 AM

-"Morning, Kaguya dear."-

Kaguya Hoshino's drowsy voice could be heard over the intercom next to her room as she tried to answer.

-"UGHHH... Good morning for you, Akane..."- The girl replied annoyed at being woken up so early in the morning. -"Why the hell are you waking me up at this time of day?"-

-"Just to let you know that I'm gonna be busy all day, so if you have other plans in mind with me, you better change them."-

-"YOU GOT ME OUT OF MY BED JUST TO TELL ME THAT SHIT?"-

-"Hey, at least I'm doin' you the favor of warnin' you beforehand, so you don't whine about it later!"-

-"If you have nothing else more important to tell me, then let me sleep now, will you?"-

-"OK, Over and out."-

-"FUCK!"-

Kaguya cut off communication with Akane over the intercom while she tried to sleep again, while the latter was at least relieved to know that one problem had been taken out of her hands before she started working on something that might involve her friend.

And considering what might happen next, it was very important that she should not raise suspicions of anyone, much less from Kaguya or Mr. Tanuma.

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Cargo Area), unknown solar system, 12:15 PM

The first place where Akane could start investigating was the Asuka's cargo area, where the shipment of supposed spare parts bound for planet Earth was located; The cargo consisted of several tons of metal containers, each of which had a miniature control panel containing a small CPU where all the data related to the contents inside was stored.

Thanks to this, anyone who wanted to know what was inside any container could do so without having to open its contents, since each one is checked in advance by the relevant authorities before it is loaded onto any transport vehicle.

With this in mind, Akane entered the cargo area, and she began to look carefully at each of the containers with her own eyes to see if there was anything abnormal in them. Luckily for her, there were not many people on duty protecting the cargo, so she could enter without anyone asking her any questions, and also taking advantage of her position as a mid-level officer.

-"Well, everything seems to be in order here in this place; I don't see anything that looks fishy."-

The first thing Akane began to verify was whether the contents of the containers were consistent with what it said in the statement of contents before they were loaded onto the ship. For her, this was very important, since since she met Haruo Tanuma, there were many suspicious things about that man and the best way to clear any doubt about it was to know the reason why that man wished to keep secretive about his presence for Kaguya on the ship, And perhaps the cause of that lay in the cargo the JSSDF was carrying in the Asuka on behalf of Tanuma's company.

-"All right, let's see what the computers in the containers have to say about what's inside these things."-

Akane began typing some commands into the console of one of the first containers she encountered on the road; immediately afterwards, the computer said the contents statement aloud:

-"This container is owned by Hoshino Aerospace Industries, a division of the Hoshino Group. This container contains the following: Insulating ceramic tiles, control panels and their respective parts, holographic monitors, solid state disks, among other products."-

-"I want to know who authorized the loading of this container onto this ship."-

-"The authorization comes from the port authority of the city of Nouveau Port-au-Prince, on the planet New Haiti, authorized on July 1st, 2299."-

-"Tell me the name of the person who authorized the shipment."-

-"It was authorized by Mr. Baptiste Lévêque, director of the city's port authority."-

-"Tell me the name of the legal representative in charge of this shipment."-

-"The name of the HAI's legal representative is Mr. Haruo Tanuma."-

-"Well, everything seems to be fine here so far."- Then, Akane gave the computer another order. -"Now tell me one last thing, can you give me a personal profile of Mr. Tanuma, so I can check out his background?"-

The computer paused briefly before responding to Akane, and after about 20 seconds, the AI gave its response.

-"I'm sorry, but that information is considered confidential. You require a level 5 clearance to access that file."-

-"WHAT THE FUCK?"- Akane cursed as harder as she could. -"LEVEL 5 CLEARANCE?!"-

She had more than enough reason to be shocked to learn that the profile of that man was protected with a Level 5 clearance: In the United Nations Space Force, all information transmitted on the Net is protected under 5 different types of levels, with Level 1 being the lowest, which is normally used for ordinary information, such as profiles of low-ranking soldiers, civilian employees, etc., and Level 5 is the highest possible clearance level, normally reserved for information considered to be of vital importance to the national security of each of the organization's member states.

Traditionally, Level 5 is used for confidential information involving top-secret projects, black or clandestine operations conducted by the UN, or any related military organization such as the UNSF, and anything that a country in question wishes to keep secret that is only known to the UN or the country conducting the covert operation.

How was it possible for that man, Haruo Tanuma, a civilian legal representative of a company that had business ties to the New Haitian military and the UNSF, and therefore to the Japanese Space Self-Defense Force, to have a Level 5 profile?

That only meant one thing: Either that man was more important than he really was, or there was something else he might have been hiding, and therefore, he was using Kaguya's company for some undercover business that directly involved the top brass of the UNSF, the United Nations or even any of the organization's member countries.

What Akane didn't know right then was that things were going to take a more ominous turn than she ever thought they would...

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Bridge), unknown solar system, 12:23 PM

Dr. Ryouta Nishikawa, the Asuka's xenobiologist, was on the ship's bridge looking closely at video footage taken by the probe that was sent to the unknown planet in order to investigate its possible inhabitability by the human race in the near future, while Captain Yoko Kurosawa was at his side also watching the video footage.

Unlike other times, the video that appeared on the ship's monitors was being transmitted in real time, which allowed to know where to direct the drone vehicle to a specific place.

-"Any updates in particular, doctor?"-

-"At the moment, there is not much to report here, captain, unless the deserts, forests and rivers of this planet are of interest to you, which is what we have been seeing for the last three days."-

-"Remember, doctor, we have until 1500 hours to continue exploring that planet; if there is nothing else worth investigating there, the probe has to return to the Asuka at 1600 hours at the latest, so that we can start working our way out of this place and leave this solar system."-

-"I know that, Captain, you don't need to remind me; that's why I'm working hard to see what else we can find interesting down there."-

Suddenly, one of Dr. Nishikawa's assistants who was working on one of the consoles on the bridge in charge of controlling the probe had noticed something that looked interesting enough for the doctor to check out.

-"Doctor, I think you need to see this."-

-"What is it, Takamatsu?"-

-"You better see it with your own eyes and judge by yourself."-

Once the video footage appeared on the monitor controlling the probe that was on the unknown planet, the first thing everyone noticed on the bridge of the ship was that what they were seeing was something that could best be described as a kind of mountain that was located in the middle of what appeared to be a dry lake.

But if that natural structure seemed so incongruous because of its very location, even more so was the fact that mountain seemed to be surrounded by dark clouds surrounding the peak of that mountain.

And if this did not seem even more strange, that mountain was massive in its elevation, almost the size of Mount Everest on Earth, but its length was relatively small, which gave an appearance that could be more accurately described as that of a knife.

-"That's the strangest mountain I've ever known in my entire life."- Nishikawa fixed his gaze on that giant, alien natural formation. -"Even other planets don't have mountains as bizarre as this one."-

-"You want me to get the drone closer to it, doctor?"- Takamatsu asked to his senior.

-"If you please."-

With the authorization of the xenobiologist, Takamatsu, the person in charge of controlling the probe, brought the unmanned vehicle closer to that mysterious mountain, in order to see it more closely and to know its secrets in more detail.

-"That mountain really seems to hold your attention, Dr. Nishikawa."-

-"And who isn't, Captain?"- The Japanese doctor replied in awe at the woman. -"It's not every day you get the chance to see something like this in your life, and if we can get a closer look at that mountain, we might learn something about the natural phenomena that exist on that planet."

-"As far as I'm concerned, as long as that doesn't cause us any problems, and doesn't waste any more time, I don't see any problem in taking a look, even if it's quick, at that weird mountain."-

But as soon as the probe began to come within a kilometer of that mysterious mountain, the monitor screen suddenly went into static, meaning that the video signal that the probe sent was cut off for some reason.

-"I think we lost the video signal, doctor."-

-"My guess is that the clouds possibly caused some interference with the probe's antennas."- Nishikawa tried to dismiss the reason for which the probe stopped broadcasting video to the ship. -"Use another frequency to communicate with the probe, Takamatsu"-

-"Right away, sir."-

But a few seconds after the probe had stopped transmitting video, an intense sound was heard on the console controlling the exploration probe, and several warning flags were displayed on the screen where the unmanned vehicle was controlled.

All of this meant only one thing that was clear to everyone on the ship's bridge: The probe had suffered catastrophic damage, or in more basic terms, had been destroyed.

-"Captain, Dr. Nishikawa, I think we've lost the probe."-

Nishikawa, who gasped after seeing that the probe was destroyed by some unknown reason, yelled at the young man.

-"I ALREADY KNOW THAT, YOU IDIOT!"- The man replied enraged, as he didn't knew what really happened with that probe. -"I WANT TO KNOW WHAT DESTROYED THAT PROBE, AND I ALSO WANT TO KNOW THE LAST RECORDS OF IT BEFORE WE LOST CONTACT!"-

-"Yes, sir!"-

Takamatsu analyzed the last logs that the probe sent before it was destroyed, and upon reading them quickly, the young assistant in charge of controlling that ill-fated drone alerted the doctor to what he could discover.

-"Doctor, Captain Kurosawa, I would not like to have to say this,"- The young man said -"but all the data that the probe sent at the time we lost contact with it indicates that the probe may have been destroyed suddenly, which means that it may have been blown up from the sky by something."

-"By something, you say?"- Kurosawa replied in disbelief. -"That's ridiculous! Either that drone was destroyed by some weather phenomenon we don't know about, or something or someone down there shot down the probe, and the latter is unlikely, considering that we have not found intelligent life on that world."-

Seconds later...

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Cargo Area), unknown solar system, 12:45 PM

-"I'd like to know what you're doing here by tampering with our company's containers, Sgt. Akane Araki?"-

Akane heard behind her back the voice of someone who would be the last person in the entire universe she wished to see at that moment: Haruo Tanuma.

Tanuma, most likely in order to verify the shipment himself, was in the cargo area of the Asuka, and he surprised the woman by analyzing the contents of the containers. For more than obvious reasons, he was very upset to see that woman again in such circumstances and he demanded an immediate response.

But Akane also had questions to ask the man, especially about his relationship with the UNSF's top brass and why he had a Level 5 profile, even though he was a civilian. She would not allow herself to be cowed by that man, and if she had to take more extreme measures, Akane would not be tempted to pursue them if necessary.

-"I think you're the one who has to explain this, Mr. Tanuma, considering that you seem to be hiding a lot of things you don't want anyone else to know!"-

-"What do you mean with that, Sgt. Araki?"- The man tried to feign ignorance on the subject.

-"It will be better for you if you stop acting like you don't know a damn thing, and tell me why someone like you has a Level 5 digital profile."-

-"Level 5?"- Tanuma did not seem to know what Akane was talking about, or at least that was what he pretended. -"What do you mean by that, Sergeant?"-

Akane typed a command into the container console and let the computer speak for itself. The AI mentioned Haruo Tanuma's name over the console's speakers, and the level of security his profile was protected with, implying that he was a more important person than he really was.

-"I think I deserve an explanation about who you really are, Mr. Tanuma."- Then, Akane pointed her finger at the man. -"I don't think that a simple legal representative of a civilian company like HAI can have such a high level of clearance profile that is only reserved for the top echelons of the UNSF, when civilian companies usually only get to Level 3 at most. And I have my suspicions that what is inside these containers is not exactly what it really is, or its use is for other purposes than it really should be."-

-"I think that has an explanation, Sgt. Araki,"- The man explained what -"and that has to do with why I asked you not to mention my presence on the ship to Lady Kaguya, to avoid involving her."-

-"Do you work for the top brass of the UNSF? And what is the real use of all these so-called ship spare parts that we are transporting? And why are you transporting all this in your company's name? Does Chairman Hoshino, Kaguya's father, know about it? Or is he also involved in all this in the same way?"-

-"There's an explanation for all this, Sergeant, if you'll allow me to explain it at length..."-

But before Tanuma could begin to speak, an intense sound was heard coming from the rear side of the ship...

CRASH!

After that sound was heard, the ship shook in a very violent way, so that both Akane and Tanuma fell to the floor as a result of that event; when she could stand up from the floor, Akane wondered what was wrong.

-"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?"-

And before she could ask herself that question again, the ship shook again, causing both people to fall to the ground again, although Akane slipped into one of the containers, causing a minor injury to her knee.

When she stood up again, Akane Araki knew exactly what it all meant, and she knew that what was happening at that time on the Asuka was no accident...

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Bridge), unknown solar system, 01:10 PM

The command bridge of the Asuka had become a gigantic pandemonium, where all the computers were emitting all kinds of alarms and visual warning images, while the crew was working desperately on the situation in front of them. It was obvious that something terrible was taking place, most likely outside the ship, which caused the crew to act immediately.

-"CAPTAIN, WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"-

-"Attack?"- Capt. Kurosawa yelled at one of the crew members controlling the ship's radars. -"Where's the attack coming from, and how many hostile units are we up against?"-

The radar man quickly tried to verify that information, and as soon as he saw what the ship was dealing with, his face paled with shock.

-"There are 20 enemy units; apparently they're all drones!"-

-"DAMMIT!"- Kurosawa slammed her fist after hearing the amount of enemies they're now facing against. -"Where the hell did all those drones come from?"-

Dr. Nishikawa, who a few moments ago was in charge of the exploration probe investigating the new planet, tried to shed light on the cause of that attack, and he only managed to infer the following.

-"I don't know, captain; either our probe could have alerted the local natives of the planet, thinking that we are hostile, or we simply activated some planetary defense system, believing that we possibly wanted to invade their planet!"-

-"I don't think this is the right time to say this, but I think this is the worst way to know that intelligent life exists on that planet; perhaps too intelligent for our own good!"- Takamatsu gave his opinion while desperately checking more data in his console.

The ship shook violently again, product of the impacts of the projectiles fired by the enemy drones, causing the crew to look for some way to defend themselves from that merciless attack on their ship.

-"Captain!"- Dr. Nishikawa yelled at the female senior officer. -"Do we have anything to defend ourselves against those drones?"-

-"We have an energy cannon, and some armed drones, but this ship is not equipped at this time for combat against an overwhelming enemy force, as the Asuka was designed mainly for support roles in space combat; it was never contemplated that at any time we could face an enemy force, much less one of alien origin!"-

BOOM!

The Asuka rattled again with extreme violence due to the impacts of the hostile shells on the ship, causing widespread panic on the bridge.

-"DAMAGE REPORT!"-

-"We received extensive damage to the stern and starboard sides of the ship, Captain!"- One of the helsmen warned Kurosawa. -"The automated repair systems are trying to repair the damage as fast as they can!"-

-"LAUNCH EVERYTHING WE'VE GOT AGAINST THOSE BASTARDS! DON'T LET THEM GET ANY CLOSER TO OUR SHIP OR WE'LL ALL DIE HERE!"-

-"YES, SIR!"-

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Cargo Area), unknown solar system, 01:25 PM

-"SHIT! WE ARE UNDER ATTACK!"-

-"What did you say, Sargeant?!"-

Without wasting any more time, Akane Araki headed for the exit of the cargo area, in order to find out what was happening on the ship, leaving Haruo Tanuma behind. The latter was horrified to feel the explosions, and at the same time to see that woman had decided to leave him alone in that place to his fate.

-"HEY, DON'T LEAVE ME ALONE HERE, SERGEANT! DO YOU WANT ME TO DIE?"-

-"You go back to your quarters and don't come out until you're ordered to, then I'll deal with you another time!"-

At Sgt. Araki's command, Tanuma ran to his room as fast as he could, while Akane talked to the Net in order to communicate with the bridge and find out what was going on.

-"Net, patch me through to the bridge so I know what the hell is going on here!"-

-"Understood, Sargeant."-

While the African-Japanese woman was running down the corridor towards the hangars, so she knew what she could do there, Captain Kurosawa's voice could be heard through the Net, which, for obvious reasons, was quite distressed.

-"I guess you want to know what's going on now, don't you, Akane?"-

-"Yeah, it looks like we're being attacked by something out there, or what's really going on, captain?"-

-"An enemy force of over twenty drones is attacking us from all sides of the ship. We don't know where those vehicles are coming from, but we believe our exploration probe may have led them to believe that we intended to invade their planet or may have activated some local defense system."-

-"Hell of a way to find out there's alien life on other worlds!"-

-"Yeah, we think so too."-

-"That aside, what can I do about this, captain?"-

-"Go to the hangar and try to help the crew to prepare all the drones we have, so we can launch a counterattack. I'll give the order to use the energy cannon to destroy as many drones as we can."-

-"Please be very careful, captain!"-

-"Don't worry, Akane, it will take more than a few drones to finish me and the Asuka."-

Thus, Captain Yoko Kurosawa cut off the communication with Akane, but as soon as the first one had finished speaking, another urgent call destined for the second one was immediately put through.

-"You have an urgent call from Miss Kaguya Hoshino. Do you want to speak to her, Sergeant?"-

-"Put her through, please!"-

Immediately, the trembling, terrified voice of the young Japanese millionaire girl was heard through the miniature data pad Akane had for personal calls.

-"What the hell's going on out there, Akane?"-

-"The ship is being attacked by an ALIEN force!"

-"WHAT?!"- Kaguya responded in utter shock, -"THIS MUST BE A MISTAKE, OR A JOKE OF YOURS, RIGHT?"-

-"DO YOU THINK I'M STUPID ENOUGH TO FOOL AROUND WITH THAT STUFF RIGHT NOW?"- Akane yelled at the redhead girl. -"I CAN ONLY TELL YOU THAT WE ARE BEING ATTACKED BY SOMETHING OR SOMEONE!"-

-"NO WAY!"-

Akane, who was annoyed because her friend called her at such a critical time, did not want to continue the conversation anymore and decided to cut her off.

-"Look, Kaguya, I don't have time to talk to you; the ship is in danger and my help is needed. You stay in your room and don't leave unless ordered to, or if you're in danger. I'll see you later when this is all over, OK?"-

-"OK. Just be careful, will you?"- Kaguya said before cutting the communication with her. -"Don't do anything reckless that could get you killed!"-

-"You don't need to remind me that, my friend!"- Akane replied with a more diplomatic tone. -"Over and out."-

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Corridor near Hangar Deck), unknown solar system, 01:37 PM

When Akane was heading to the hangar to help out in any way she could, and when she was just a few feet from the gate leading to the place...

BOOM!

A powerful and deafening explosion was felt in the hangar to such an extent that Akane was thrown several meters back from where she was originally as a result of the blast wave caused by that event.

-"AHHHHHHHHHHHH!*"

When Akane regained consciousness seconds later, she realized that the hatch was closed, and the only thing that could be heard around her were the emergency sirens that indicated that the ship had received extremely severe damage, from which it would be very difficult to completely recover.

DANGER, DANGER, CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE IN THE HANGAR, ALL HATCHES ARE BEING SEALED AND SURVIVAL PROTOCOLS ACTIVATED; WARNING! CATASTROPHIC DEPRESSURIZATION IN THE BAY, PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM THE AREA IMMEDIATELY.

Hearing all this, Akane began to shed tears of rage, for there were several people she knew in the hangar, including her superior, Lt. Col. Kenzo Arima; and hearing the extent of the damage sustained in the hangar, Akane correctly deduced that he and his men had most likely died in the attack. If she had entered the place a few seconds later, she too would have shared their same fate.

But she knew that crying was not going to help her in any way, and she was not going to allow her superior's sacrifice to be in vain, so the first thing she did was go to the bridge, to see what else she could do if she received orders directly from Captain Kurosawa.

And considering how tragic the situation was turning out, she knew that any help, no matter how small, would be welcome.

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Bridge), unknown solar system, 02:00 PM

-"CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE TO THE HANGAR, WE HAVE LOST ALMOST ALL OUR DRONES!"-

-"WE'VE SUFFERED OVER 50% DAMAGE TO MOST OF THE AFT PART OF THE SHIP, AT THIS RATE THE ASUKA WON'T HOLD OUT ANY LONGER!"-

The sirens kept sounding on the bridge, while the crew desperately tried everything they could to save the ship, as the enemy drones attacked the Asuka from all sides.

Meanwhile, Captain Yoko Kurosawa cursed that there was nothing she could do about it, except watch as the ship was gradually being destroyed by all those mysterious enemies that had apparently come out of nowhere.

-"Shit, it's like those bastards found a way to hit us the hardest!"-

-"What about the energy cannon?"- One of the crew members said while asking the reason why that weapon wasn't used in that moment.

-"Let me check that!"- Another crew member replied on regard of the later.

After checking the status of the energy cannon in the computer, the weapon operator responded in a horrified manner.

-"The cannon's power generator was completely damaged! We can't use the cannon at all!"-

-"DAMN IT! THIS CAN'T BE, FOR GOD'S SAKE!"-

And again, the ship was violently shaken by another explosion, only this time the explosion was so intense that the ship moved from side to side, as if it were a swing, causing some of the crew who were on their feet to fall to the floor.

-"CAPTAIN, AT THIS RATE THE ASUKA WILL SOON BE DESTROYED BY ENEMY FIRE, I SUGGEST WE SHOULD TRY TO ABANDON SHIP!"-

-"DON'T BE RIDICULOUS!"- Kurosawa rejecte such idea, since the only place they could escaoe to would be into that unknown planet, and that world could be very dangerous for them if they fall into enemy hands. -"WHERE THE HELL COULD WE ESCAPE TO RIGHT NOW?"-

At that critical moment, Akane Araki entered the bridge as quickly as she could, which surprised Captain Kurosawa greatly.

-"SERGEANT AKANE ARAKI REPORTING, SIR!"-

-"AKANE! My god, I thought you were dead when the drones attacked the hangar a few minutes ago!"-

-"I barely avoided death on the way there, Captain; unfortunately I cannot say the same for Lt. Col. Arima, sir!"- Then, Akane asked another vital question. -"What is our current status?"-

-"The ship has suffered over 50% damage to many of its vital systems, we have reports of countless casualties almost everywhere, and our engines are damaged, including the jump drive, which means we will not be able to escape from here!"-

-"Do you have any ideas, sir?"-

-"At the moment we have no means to defend ourselves, and it seems that these drones know where they can do the most damage to us, as if they knew all the specifics of this ship to perfection!"-

-"BUT THIS IS RIDICULOUS, SIR!"- The black woman replied in shock after hearing such thing. -"If these drones are vehicles of alien origin, there's no way they could know the way this ship was built, let alone its weak points!"-

-"There is the possibility that these drones have some kind of sensor or device that allows them to know the interior of our ship and to know where our weakest points are."-

-"OH, SHIT!"- Akane cursed as loudly as she could. -"In that case, WE ARE REALLY SCREWED!"-

BOOM! BOOM!

The Asuka again reeled violently from the enemy assault, so much so that some of the console boards suddenly caught fire from the damage. The crew meanwhile tried to put out the fire as much as possible with manual extinguishers, because the automatic ones were now out of service.

But the bridge was not the only place where there were fires on the ship: Due of the damage the Asuka received so far, there were fires in the cargo area, in the supply room, and in the engine room.

And, as if the situation wasn't bad enough, more than 100 crew members had died during that battle that looked more like a massacre than a space combat itself.

And the worst was yet to come...

-"CAPTAIN, THE DRONES ARE MOVING TOWARD THE SHIP AT HIGH SPEED!"-

-"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!"-

The radar screen indicated that the twenty drones were rapidly closing in on the Asuka, which could only mean one thing:

-"They're going to try to finish us off right away!"- Akane yelled at the captain, after figuring out the enemy's intentions! -"What are we going to do now, captain? At this rate we're not going to make it out of this battle alive!"-

Captain Kurosawa knew she had to make a decision, given the circumstances in which the ship was in imminent danger of destruction.

The only problem is that the decision she was going to make was between a bad one and a worse one: If the crew escaped from the ship to the unknown planet, there was a risk that they would be captured by the enemy forces that might be on land.

On the other hand, to stay in the ship and to try to escape or to counterattack was a basically suicidal choice, in view that the Asuka had lost all its armament and its means of propulsion were out of any means of repair. Emergency jumping anywhere other than that solar system was also a death sentence, as the jump drive was damaged.

With no other option in mind, and having the lives of all the crew in her hands, the woman gave the last order she would give on her ship.

-"To the entire crew of the Asuka, there is no way we can win this battle, and the safety of my crew is now my number one priority. Abandon this ship immediately and head for the escape pods; I'll stay here on the ship and see what I can do until the entire crew is safe!"-

A silence was made present on the bridge, as the crew knew that decision was very difficult for both the captain and the entire crew; even Akane Araki, who normally would have objected her orders in other conditions, knew that there was nothing else they could do except escape from that ship, if they wished to survive.

-"It will be done, captain."-

With no more time to lose, all the people who were on the bridge, except Captain Yoko Kurosawa, left the place where the escape capsules were, and to leave the spaceship before its destruction.

But before Akane did the same, the captain stopped her for a moment to give her one last message for her.

-"Akane,"- The elderly woman said at her junior. -"If I cannot make it out of this alive, and if you can ever return to Earth, I want you to give this message to my daughter Fumiko, and my granddaughter Akari when she grows up."-

-"Wha-What would that message be, sir?"-

-"I want you to tell Fumiko that her mother always loved her to the end, and I want to apologize for not spending more time with her. As for Akari, when she is old enough to understand, tell her that her grandmother was a brave person, and she always wanted to meet her."-

Hearing those words from her captain, Akane could not help but shed tears, knowing that her captain's destiny was to die for her country and her crew, so that they might be safe. Knowing that there was no more time, Akane said her final goodbye to that brave woman who was willing to sacrifice her life for the sake of her crew.

-"I will, Captain, or I should call you, Mrs. Yoko Kurosawa."-

-"Thank you so much for considering me more of a friend than your captain, Akane, I wish I could had more time to talk to you."- The woman gave her final farewell to her. -"Now go, and save yourself."-

-"Yes, sir!"-

After making the last military salute to her, Akane left the bridge with tears in her eyes, knowing that woman, whom she considered as a friend, was going to die at any moment.

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Crew Quarters), unknown solar system, 02:30 PM

But before escaping from the ship, Akane had two things to do before she left the place: The first was to look for Kaguya Hoshino to join her in the escape pod, and the second was to pack up all her things, including her valuable collection of ancient Japanese weapons, from her room.

When he arrived at her friend's room, however, Akane noticed that the door was open, and Kaguya was not there. That meant that she had most likely already gone ahead and was already in the escape pod area.

Knowing that she had no more time to waste, Akane didn't had time to worry for her friend, and she went to her room, and in a matter of minutes, she had managed to pack all her things, including her weapons and other stuff, in a really big backpack she put in her back. If it had been someone else, that huge backpack would have hindered her movements and she would have walked slower, which would have been a liability for her.

But Akane, who had several years trained in carrying heavy loads on her back, that weight was nothing she could not deal with, and without further ado, she left her room, bound for the escape pod area.

July 10th, AD 2299, JS Asuka (Escape Pod Area), unknown solar system, 02:45 PM

The escape pod area was packed with all the people trying to escape the ship at any cost, in view of the danger of destruction looming over them.

But the first thing Akane did when she got there, was to look for Kaguya, who surely she was there trying to find a capsule, or waiting for Akane to find her first, so the two girls go in the same capsule.

-"KAGUYA! KAGUYA! WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUUU? KAGUYAAAAAAAAAAA!"-

Because of the noise of the place, along with the voices of all people wandering in the area, and also the deafening sound of the alarms that blasted throughout the ship, Akane had problems on locating her friend among all the crew of the ship that made desperate attempts to escape from that hell.

But, amidst all the turmoil in the area, Akane heard, albeit faintly, a voice that was very familiar to her...

-"I'M HERE, AKANEEEEEEEE! WHERE ARE YOUUUUUUUUUU?"-

That voice was undoubtedly that of Kaguya Hoshino, her friend, and Akane quickly ran to where the voice came from to catch up with her so that the two of them could escape from the ship together.

But when she was just a few steps away from the location where Kaguya stood...

CRASH! BOOM! CRACK!

A powerful explosion was felt in the escape pod area of the Asuka, which was so intense that all the people who were there fell to the floor, making all the people present fall prey to panic and try to enter the pods any way they could, some even trampling on others who were on the floor, or getting beaten if they did not reach a place in any pod.

And when things couldn't possibly get any worse for those people trying to escape from that space hell...

BAAAAAAAAANNG!

A powerful explosion pierced the ship's armor to such an extent that it reached the escape pod area. As a result of that catastrophic damage, the area suffered a sudden and violent decompression, causing many people who had not managed to enter any pod to be violently thrown out from the ship to a certain death in the vacuum of outer space.

Akane Araki, who was barely recovering from the fall of the first explosion, watched in horror as all those people died before her eyes, and the impossibility of doing anything to prevent it; and that without mentioning the possible fate of her friend Kaguya, who could have died in that instant.

But she had no time to grieve for her; the ship only had a few minutes left before it exploded to pieces, and she had to escape from there any way she could.

Fortunately for her, there was a capsule that no one else had climbed into, and quickly and without a second thought, Akane entered it.

After buckling up her seatbelts and fastening her backpack in a safe place, Akane quickly activated the pod ejection sequence, and in less than 5 seconds, the escape vehicle was violently ejected from the Asuka, bound for that new and unknown world.

As the capsule descended rapidly towards the planet, she managed to perceive what seemed to be an explosion coming from where the Asuka was originally; everything indicated that the spaceship where she worked all that time no longer existed, and had been destroyed by the enemy drones.

But before she could curse that event, the enormous gravity forces produced by the falling speed of the capsule, as well as the explosive wave caused by the destruction of the Asuka, made that the pod descended even more violently to the ground, producing that the blood went up to Akane's head and she lost consciousness; from that moment on, she didn't know what happened next...

July 10th, AD 2299, ?, Unknown Planet, 04:10 PM

When Akane managed to open her eyes, after losing consciousness for a few hours, the first thing she noticed was that her whole body felt completely sore, as a result of the gravity forces she was exposed to during the descent of the capsule.

Then, she pinched her arm to find out if she was still alive, and what she was witnessing in that moment was not a nightmare or possibly she ended up in paradise or the afterlife.

-"Looks like I'm still alive after all."-

After verifying that she did not have any broken bones or serious injuries that would have prevented her from moving from her seat, Akane removed her seat belts and walked to the escape capsule's hatch; before leaving the vehicle, she had to make sure that the place where she was going to exit actually had breathable air.

Although Akane knew that this planet had a breathable atmosphere, she had to be sure before leaving the capsule that she did not end up in an area with toxic gases or no oxygen at all, so to make sure, she turned on a small emergency computer that was next to the vehicle's hatch.

Since the computer only had a small auxiliary processor that served mostly to help anyone using the capsule know if the place where the vehicle had landed was safe or had breathable air, not to mention that it had no connection to the Net, the machine could only give relatively basic and vital information that might be necessary for the survival of its crew; not that the people using the escape pod would ever use it again anyway.

Once the computer confirmed that there was breathable air on that planet and in that area, the young African-Japanese soldier activated the safety lock that opened the escape capsule so she could step outside.

The first things she noticed when she came out of the capsule was that her ears had become a little clogged due to the sudden change in atmospheric pressure between the vehicle, the Asuka, and the atmosphere of the new world, which caused Akane to feel a little dizzy coming out of that means of escape.

But one of the things that most impressed, and even shocked that human woman in that unknown world, was that she had end up into what seemed to be a desert, in which there were only mountains in the distant landscape, some bushes around the capsule, and the wind blowing considerably at that time on Akane's back.

And above all, the heat was considerably intense, even for the standards of a woman who had been born and raised in the early years of her life in a country that was warm almost all year before she was adopted and moved to Japan.

-"Damn, of all the places I had to end up in this damn planet, I had to land in the middle of a desert!"-

When Akane glanced quickly at the planet's horizon, she saw what appeared to be shooting stars falling from the sky rapidly and intermittently.

She knew, however, that what falling to that planet were not shooting stars, but the remains of the Asuka, which was destroyed by the attack of the enemy drones that cowardly attacked her ship in space.

Seeing all those lights, Akane began to cry and curse her fate, for she knew that most likely most or all of the crew on that ship, including Captain Yoko Kurosawa, her superiors, and most importantly, her best friend Kaguya Hoshino, had died before they could escape from the Asuka.

-"NO!...NO!...sob... DAMN IT!...sob... GODDAMMIT!"- Akane then slammed her fist on the capsule's hatch next to her. -"Captain... Kaguya... WHY?... sob... WHY?... WHY, GOD, WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?!"-

Akane wept for several minutes in that place as he saw the tragedy she was witnessing before her eyes, and also the tragedy she was suffering herself at the time, for all that meant only one thing:

She was the only survivor from that ship, and most likely, she was the only living human being on that planet.

As she continued to cry, however, Akane heard a noise that seemed to be like the sound of birds circling around her, and she quickly looked up to the sky in order to find out where that loud noise was coming from.

Akane saw that there were several strange birds that looked like vultures flying near her and the capsule; on one hand, that meant that there was animal life on that planet, something that the probe that the Asuka had deployed to that planet days ago had not detected beforehand, but that also had another implication that the young Space Ranger quickly inferred from that:

If there was animal life, it was likely that there could also be intelligent life on that planet, especially from the civilization that launched those drones, and destroyed the Asuka.

And that also meant something else: If the drones possibly saw that the crew escaped to the planet of origin of the enemy vehicles, that means that the holders of these machines would possibly be at that moment searching for the survivors that could have arrived alive to that new world.

-"If I stay here any longer in this place mourning my friends, the enemies will soon come to find me here; it is better that I take all my stuff, and run away from this shithole as fast as I can!"-

Akane returned to the pod, and after picking up her enormous backpack with her belongings, she headed west toward the mountains, thinking that being there would give her some insight on exactly where she was.

July 10th, AD 2299, Mountain Area, Unknown Planet, 04:40 PM

After walking for forty minutes towards the west, Akane Araki managed to spot what seemed to be a hillock high enough to see what was all around her, so she could form a clear picture of the place where she was.

Fortunately for her, the path leading to the top of the hill was not very steep, so she had no problem climbing it with everything and her heavy backpack on her back.

Once at the top, Akane was astonished to see closely what was around her: Despite being a desert, that untouched place was perhaps one of the most beautiful places she had ever known in her life, with steep mountains and valleys surrounding the place like she had never seen before anywhere on her native Earth; and if this were not enough, the air she breathed was the cleanest she had ever tasted in her life.

-"For heaven's sake, I can't believe such a place could exist in this universe, and best of all, I'm feeling it with my own being in a way I've never felt in my entire life!"-

There was so much peace and tranquility that Akane felt inside when she saw such a beautiful, even magical place, that she wanted at that moment to cry out to the heavens to vent her anger, her frustration, and especially her sadness after seeing so many people die in less than a few hours, including her best friend, Kaguya Hoshino, and her captain, Yoko Kurosawa, who was just planning to take a vacation in Hawaii when she had returned to Earth to spend her days with her daughter, Fumiko.

Unfortunately, she was the only survivor of that tragedy, and now she had to find a way to survive in a world completely unknown, and most likely hostile to humans, and staying right there to grieve was not going to help her at all.

And with regard to the latter, she saw in the sky that there were several bright lights flying from one side of that desert to the other, as if they were trying to find something.

Akane quickly knew what that meant: the drones were searching for any survivors from the Asuka, probably to capture them or kill them on the spot; and her being at the top of that hill meant that she would be an easy target for those unknown vehicles.

-"If I stay here any longer, I'll be a sitting duck for those damn machines; I'd better find a place where I can escape without being spotted from the sky!"-

But for Akane, she only had two options to escape from that place: The first option was to flee downhill to what seemed to be a forest behind the mountains, risking herself getting lost in a place she didn't know, and that's not counting the chance of being attacked by some unknown animal.

The second option was to try to find her way in the desert, and run the risk of dying of heat, thirst, or worse.

For obvious reasons, Akane chose the first option and she rushed down the hill into the forest, praying that at least nothing bad would happen to her there.

July 10th, AD 2299, Forest Area, Unknown Planet, 08:30 PM

After going down the hill, and walking aimlessly through the forest, Akane stopped at what appeared to be a riverbank to rest and camp there, and so spend the night before continuing the next day.

Once there, Akane unpacked from her backpack a tent that was large enough to accommodate two or three people, at most, which was an asset for her, given the sheer volume of items she had to carry on her back. Since the drones might be hunting for her in the forest after flying over the desert area, Akane set up that tent in front of a tree that was lush enough to prevent anyone from detecting its presence from the sky.

Once she settled in there, and seeing that she was hungry, the young soldier unpacked some food she had stored in the tent, including a bowl of hot ramen, and a bottle of orange juice to quench her thirst.

After that long walk, all that food tasted almost divine to Akane, in view of all the tragedy she had suffered in order to make it to that completely new and unspoiled world alive; but in spite of all that, she could not help feeling depressed and lonely over the fact that she was the only person who survived the vicious attack on her ship, and that the other people who accompanied her on her journey, including an old school friend, had most likely died.

-"Right now, I would give anything to have Kaguya by my side again, even if it was just to make fun of her or have her laugh at me, as we always did..."-

She recalled with some sadness all the fun and joyful moments she shared with that girl, even if they did not always agree with each other, and their ways of seeing life were completely different, being Kaguya a daughter of one of the richest men in Japan, and Akane was from a middle class family living in a humble residential area in Osaka.

But despite these differences in class and personality, Akane loved Kaguya very much, because deep down, she was a girl who had a certain inferiority complex that she tried to hide by appearing to be arrogant and rude to everyone around her, because she never had many friends at school, and Akane was the only person who was not impressed by the fact that Kaguya was a rich girl, and she was not willing for her to try to humiliate her so easily; Because of this, she and Akane were rivals at first, but as the years went by, that rivalry turned into an unbreakable friendship, and in turn, Kaguya also appreciated Akane's friendship, as she was the only person able to tell her what she thought of Kaguya in her face, even at the cost of making her angry.

But as she ate her food and drifted off into her mind those sad memories of that supposedly dead friend, Akane heard a loud sound coming from across the river; the sound seemed like heavy footsteps approaching the woman's tent.

-"Who the hell is it?"-

Without wasting any more time, Akane returned to her tent and from the backpack she was carrying, she took out a Desert Eagle .50 caliber revolver, a weapon that, in spite of being an antique from the 21st century, still worked in perfect condition and she had the corresponding ammunition at hand; and considering that she was in a completely unknown world, Akane couldn't take the risk of using a less powerful weapon to deal with whatever was coming at her.

-"All right, pal, or whatever the hell you are! I am armed with a very powerful weapon, and if you try to attack me, I WILL BLOW YOUR FUCKIN' BRAINS OUT RIGHT HERE! GOT IT?"-

Upon hearing the footsteps approaching her, as whatever was approaching Akane crossed the river, which was not very deep either, the soldier took out a miniature lantern from her pocket so that she could see who or what was approaching that human woman in the middle of the night.

-"Shit!"- Akane cursed in her mind. -"If I'm going to die here, this would be a pretty depressing way to go: On a godforsaken planet, and most likely eaten by god knows what horrible creature comes out of there, or maybe attacked by cannibals, evil aliens who can stick things in me where the sun doesn't rise, or who knows what...!"-

And after a few minutes, a mysterious creature appeared before the eyes of Akane Araki, who still pointed her gun at whoever it was for her own safety.

The first thing Akane noticed about that strange creature was something she had never seen with her own eyes in her life, and if it were not for the fact that she was seeing it and it was right in front of her, she would have thought at any moment that it was a some kind of sick joke, a horrible nightmare, or a hallucination brought on by the mental trauma caused by the destruction of the Asuka.

-"A-A-A...A DINOSAUR?!"-

Yes, indeed, the creature in front of Sgt. Akane Araki was indeed a dinosaur, or at least that was what it appeared to be.

But it wasn't just any dinosaur, at least as far as she could relate to her own understanding of what she knew on Earth: That creature looked like a strange mixture between a velociraptor and a huge iguana, and was about the size of a donkey. And as if this were not enough, that creature seemed to try to approach Akane; it was obvious that the ramen that she was preparing in that instant attracted that dinosaur to the human woman's shelter.

But Akane, reckoning on her Space Ranger military training, and also what she had seen and read about dealing with unknown creatures in movies and novels, knew that she could not trust that creature so easily if it came too close to her, no matter how friendly it looked like. What would have happened if that dinosaur had spat some dangerous substance in her face, or tried to attack her if she had touched it, or anything that that extraterrestrial being would have interpreted as an aggression?

Given any of those scenarios, Akane knew that she could not take unwarranted chances, and the best she could do was to scare that creature away somehow.

-"SHOOH, SHOOH, GO AWAY, GO AWAY!"-

The dinosaur didn't seem to understand that, and insisted on coming closer to her, something that made her even more nervous...

-"I SAID GO AWAY, YOU OVERSIZED LIZARD!"-

Seeing that the dinosaur was only a stone's throw from Akane, she couldn't risk being attacked by that unknown creature, so the woman pointed her Desert Eagle toward the sky, and...

BANG!

The powerful shot from that high-caliber gun caused the dinosaur to scream in terror, and run away as if its life depended on it; in turn, the shot from that revolver caused all the birds in the forest to fly away from the area in horror of hearing that powerful sound, and the insects that were lurking around began to sound more loudly than before.

Seeing the commotion she had caused in the forest, Akane wondered herself if it was a good idea to use that gun to scare off that dinosaur in the first place; And she had good grounds for asking that question, taking into account her current predicament.

-"Shit! I think I've already made things worse."- The African-Japanese woman cursed her luck. -"I just hope those drones haven't noticed my presence here in the woods."-

After looking at the sky for a few moments, she realized that, apart from seeing the birds flying after that shot in the air, she did not see the presence of the drones that destroyed the Asuka; that meant that most probably they had returned to their home base already several hours ago after not finding any other survivors, or they simply returned because they started to run out of fuel.

Breathing a sigh of relief after seeing that that shot did not cause any other major problems, Akane was not going to allow another such life-threatening slip-up to happen to her again, so to detect the presence of any living thing that could approach her tent, she set up several motion sensors around her area that would warn Akane if someone tried to sneak up on her by sending a signal to her bracelet, which would vibrate to warn her of any intruders.

After a few hours of work installing the sensors, Akane Araki had run out of steam, and she entered her tent to proceed to sleep.

-"Well, nice planet, I'm going to sleep, because tomorrow I have to leave this place and find some sign of civilization or life in this cursed place, so, good night!"-

But Akane knew that it was not going to be easy to fall asleep after all that had happened to her in less than a day; and from being in a spaceship to ending up sleeping in a forest on an unknown planet was a big difference for her.

?

-"Where am I"-

The first thing Akane Araki saw when she opened her eyes was that she was in a forest, a forest that was much like the one she was sleeping in at the time...

-"What's going on here? Why do I feel such heat everywhere?"-

When she opened completely her eyes, she understood why she felt that overwhelming sensation of intense heat that invaded her entire body.

The forest where she was standing was on fire...

-"NO! THIS CAN'T BE! WHAT'S HAPPENING TO ME? WHY AM I HERE?"-

And if this wasn't scary enough for her, the first thing she heard were screams of terror, coming from what appeared to be women, old people and children, who seemed to be suffering an excruciating death from that fire.

-"WHAT THE HELL ARE THOSE SCREAMS? ALL THOSE PEOPLE ARE DYING! I DON'T UNDERSTAND WHAT'S GOING ON HERE, SOMEBODY EXPLAIN ME, DAMMIT!"-

Akane looked around and she heard nothing but screams of pain, fire, and more fire everywhere, as if she seemed to have ended up in hell itself.

Did any of this have anything to do with the destruction of the Asuka? Everything seemed to indicate that it did, except for one thing:

All those cries of pain, panic, and fear were uttered in a language she didn't know.

Were they screaming in Japanese? As much as she tried to interpret what they were saying, it was more than evident that the language they were speaking was not Japanese, or any earthly language that she knew, but another that she had never heard in her life.

But there was another thing that was in front of her, and that compared to all the previous things she saw and heard, brought greater horror to that human woman at levels of sheer absolute terror.

She saw what appeared to be the body of a woman, who seemed to have arrows all over her body, her body seemed to be spilling a lot of blood, and she seemed downright defiant in front of the whole situation Akane had around her.

And at that moment, Akane felt something strange and particularly familiar in that woman, as if he had met her somewhere before; it was as if she had been someone that Akane had considered as more than a friend, perhaps something more intimate for her...

Captain Yoko Kurosawa? Kaguya Hoshino?

No, that unknown female figure was not of ANY of those two women who died on the Asuka; but there were two things that Akane can be certain about that person who died before her eyes:

The first was that woman was someone very precious to her, and the second and most important one was that silhouette was not human.

-"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"-

July 11th, AD 2299, Forest Area, Unknown Planet, 09:20 AM

Akane rose from her sleeping bag, completely drenched in sweat after that horrible nightmare she had just suffered a few moments ago.

When she could open her eyes, she realized that she was in her tent, with all the things she had managed to bring out from the Asuka, and that the forest that seemed to be on fire in her nightmares was still in perfect condition as she had seen it last night before she went to sleep.

-"sigh It was just a nightmare, thank god..."-

It was likely that nightmare could have been a product from the trauma brought on by the stress of the tragedy she underwent when her spaceship was destroyed, and all those images were probably visual allegories of what she witnessed on the Asuka before she escaped alive.

But what intrigued Akane the most was the last part of that horrible mental hallucination: What did that blood-soaked woman full of arrows mean, as if she had been turned into a pincushion?

But none of that mattered to Akane anymore; that was just a nightmare, nothing more and nothing less.

Now, she had to concentrate on continuing her journey in search of some kind of intelligent life to contact on that planet and ask for help to return to Earth, assuming, of course, that the denizens of that world were friendly and they did not try to capture or kill her first.

But before doing anything, Akane first had to eat some breakfast, and for that, her first meal of the day was some onigiri, rice balls typical of Japanese food that she enjoyed when she needed to eat something fast, and some lemon juice to be able to shove the food down her throat.

That delicious meal caused Akane's spirits, which were deadened by all the events that took place yesterday, to rise a bit, although this did not prevent her from still being saddened by the death of all her friends who had been on the Asuka until recently.

-"HMMMM! Nothing like two hot onigiri stuffed with sweet cherries to get me up after a bad day!"-

After finishing her breakfast, Akane Araki prepared herself to continue on her way, and after a few minutes, she packed her tent, sensors and other belongings into her trusty backpack, and without further ado she continued on her way, this time heading west, in search of some clue that would allow her to find some trace of civilization on that planet.

July 11th, AD 2299, Forest Area (Waterfall), Unknown Planet, 10:41 AM

Akane could not help but be surprised every time she walked through that mysterious forest of that new world that she is now forced to live in from now on: Not only was the vegetation completely different from everything she had seen in her life on Earth, but the fauna was also very different, even if most of the animals she had seen up to that point were insects, wild birds and above all, that mysterious dinosaur that looked like a cross between a velociraptor and an iguana.

And if that wasn't enough for her, Akane stumbled upon something that far surpassed anything she had ever seen since she arrived on that planet: a waterfall.

But it wasn't just any waterfall, it was a huge one from which the water fell from an altitude of about a 50-story skyscraper, coming from a mountain just that size.

-"HOLY... MARY MOTHER OF GOD!"-

Akane had no words to describe what she was seeing before her eyes; that waterfall made even waterfalls like those of Iguazu in Brazil and Argentina, or even those of Angel Falls in ancient Venezuela, on Earth, look insignificant at its side.

But before she could continue to admire the majesty of that wonder of nature, she perceived a very intense smell coming from the sides of the mountain from where the water of that waterfall fell...

-"Where the hell is that smell coming from?"-

As she approached the place where the smell came from, she noticed that there was what appeared to be a yellow puddle on the ground; looking at the splash closely, Akane noticed two things that were very noticeable, thanks to her skills and experience as a Space Ranger.

The first thing was that yellow pool in the ground was urine.

The second and more worrying thing for her was that the smell of that pool was unmistakably that of cat urine.

-"How can there be so much cat piss in one place?"-

Considering the amount of urine in that place, Akane could deduce several possibilities, among which was that there was dangerous wildlife on that planet, and especially in that forest, and that urine was from some wild feline that might be roaming around.

Minutes later, she started considering other theories that started running loose inside her head, but she quickly ruled them out because they were simply too far-fetched for her to even consider.

-"Nah, I guess I'm just imagining wild shit after watching so many Disney movies."-

But when things could no longer be worrying enough for the African-Japanese soldier...

-"WHO IS THERE?"-

Akane drew her Desert Eagle, and in a swift 160-degree turn, she pointed her firearm against what she was hearing behind her...

-"WHAT THE FUCKIN' HELL?!"-

Akane faced again that strange dinosaur she had seen the night before, and it was two steps away from her.

-"YOU AGAIN?!"-

The dinosaur crept up on her, and it seemed that the lizard was sniffing something from either Akane or the backpack she had on her back. For obvious reasons, the soldier was not going to allow that animal to come near her, at the risk of it attacking her inadvertently, but she neither could shoot the animal, for fear that the dinosaur would attack her first, or the shot would draw the attention of other animals, or even of the drones that destroyed the Asuka.

-"SHOOH! SHOOH! GO AWAY! GO AWAY! YOU HEARD ME?"

But the animal seemed to ignore her pleas, and the lizard was beginning to sniff out Akane's body, which let her know what the animal wanted from her.

-"You're hungry, huh?"- The woman pondered herself in her head, as she was horrorized to see that animal smelling all over her body from head to toe, in search of food. -"Could it be that dinosaur wants some of what's in my backpack?"-

The dinosaur started sniffing her backpack, indicating, without a doubt, that the animal wanted food, but Akane was trying to guess what exactly the lizard wanted to eat from it; seconds later, she quickly found the answer.

-"Do you want to eat that?"-

Akane placed his backpack on the floor and she pulled out one of the cherry-filled onigiri she had for breakfast in the morning, knowing that the dinosaur was probably just trying to eat those rice balls, most likely attracted by the sweet smell of cherries.

-"Well, if you really want to eat an onigiri..."-

Akane offered the rice ball to the lizard, but not before placing the onigiri on the ground to prevent the animal from attacking her, and before she knew it, the dinosaur ate it with pleasure. The soldier from Japan was surprised how that prehistoric creature had eaten that typical dish of her country's food and that it had no problem doing so.

-"I didn't know a dinosaur could like something as simple as an onigiri;"- Akane said while she watched the dinosaur eat that rice ball. -"I think the cherries have something to do with it."-

But Akane knew that she could waste no more time watching that dinosaur eat that onigiri, and while the animal was enjoying eating that rice ball, the soldier quickly repacked her things and walked away from the waterfall, leaving the lizard alone to eat its onigiri in peace.

-"Damn! Of all the places I had to end up in the universe, I ended up crashing into fuckin' Jurassic Park!"-

What Akane did not know was that her adventures were only just beginning for her.

July 11th, AD 2299, Plains Area (Dry Lake), Unknown Planet, 01:30 PM

Akane had left behind the forest where she had spent the night, and entered what appeared to be a very dry, almost deserted area, where there were only a few shrubs, a few cacti, and what appeared to be skeletons of dead animals littering the land.

The reason she decided to step into that place was that she saw from afar what appeared to be a trail of smoke coming from the horizon, coming from the northeast, which would say that there might be some kind of presence of some kind of life in that place.

And that place looked like something out of some cheap western movie, the kind Akane always hated for its content, but ironically, she was in what looked like one, to her personal misfortune.

And if this was not enough, the heat of that area was so intense that Akane felt that at any moment her boots were going to melt, after having walked for several minutes through that barren plain, with no more traces of life in sight than the birds flying over her head.

Even though she brought enough water with her for several days, plus other unsweetened drinks and fruits that would help her recover the liquids lost during the journey, it did not make the long walk any easier for Akane.

And after several hours of walking through that place without finding anything, the heat, the lack of results and above all, the constant feeling of utter despair that she felt for all that happened with the Asuka the previous day, were beginning to make a dent in the normally bright personality of that woman, who felt that she was already reaching the limits of her own sanity and human resistance.

-"SHIT, SHIT, SHIT!"- Akane cursed to herself as loudly as she could. -"Why the fuck was I thinkin' that wanderin' around this fuckin' desert shithole was gonna be a good idea, HUH? I'VE BEEN WALKIN' FOR OVER THREE HOURS AND ALL I SEE IS ROCKS, SKELETONS AND TONS OF SHIT EVERYWHERE! WHAT KIND OF STINKIN' PLANET IS THIS?"-

Akane looked up at the sky and continued to curse, as if trying to talk to the birds flying around her.

-"And these damn birds are just hangin' around to see when I drop dead and eat me for carrion!"-

And there was another thing that distressed and disgusted Akane even more, which was something she noticed when she was in the woods, and it was something that began to worry that soldier with every passing hour.

-"And if I didn't have any more SHIT to worry about than this fuckin' hellhole:"- The African-Japanese woman continued with her rant, while walking around the zone. -"WHY DO I SMELL CAT PISS EVERYWHERE?"-

Akane kicked a rock in front of her, and continued her furious ranting as she walked, this time aimlessly and without looking in any specific direction, most likely a product of her frustration and anger.

-"JESUS CHRIST, TELL ME WHAT THE FUCK DID I DO TO DESERVE TO FALL INTO THIS PLACE THAT LOOKS LIKE A BRANCH FROM HELL!"- The woman cried in rage, as she blamed herself for her own situation and that of her fallen friends. -"I THINK ALL THESE FUCKIN' YEARS OF SCREWIN' AROUND WITH KAGUYA BACKFIRED ON ME, FOR FUCK'S SAKE!

Her rageful banting continued for many minutes more, as she continued to walk across the barren landscape of that area...

"AND NOW BECAUSE OF ME, KAGUYA IS DEAD, CAPTAIN KUROSAWA IS DEAD, AND THE ENTIRE CREW OF THE ASUKA IS NOW DINOSAUR FOOD!"-

And when things couldn't get any worse for her...

CRASH!

As she stepped on one side of the ground, a huge pit opened up in the dirt, and in a matter of seconds...

-"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Akane Araki fell into what appeared to be a huge hole in the ground.

The woman fell to the bottom of that hole in less than two seconds; because of her body weight, coupled with the additional weight of her backpack and the height of her fall, Akane crashed to the ground almost headfirst.

-"UGHHHHHHHHH"-

As a result of the impact, Akane began to gradually lose consciousness, and she began to gradually close her eyes, thinking that this was already going to be the end of her...

-"God...dammit... this is... a really... shitty... way... to... die..."-

After a few minutes of falling there, the last thing Akane Araki heard before she lost consciousness completely was what seemed to be the voices of two young people.

For some reason she could not understand what they were saying, but for her that was the less important issue, because she sensed that she was on the verge of death before closing her eyes...

END OF ACT XVIII