Episode 108

The universe was infinitely vast, especially out here on the ass-end of the galaxy. Looking around, a bazillion stars twinkled away, but most of them existed in the far distance, hopelessly out of reach. Some people grew weary of scenery that remained unchanged no matter how far they advanced; others found a weird sort of comfort in the monotony.

"We’re zigzagging all over the place. Is this really the right Route?"

Sakura’s voice was tight with anxiety. Taro gave her a distracted "Yup," though his brain was clearly elsewhere. He was balls-deep in the Coordinate Calculation for the Overdrive, trading rapid-fire data with Koume.

They had been clear of EAP space for two days now. The Plum II was currently hopping through a wasteland of fragmented Drive Particles and garbled communication networks that had become a literal maze. One wrong turn and they’d be drifting through the void for eternity—plenty of landmarks to look at, sure, but none they could actually reach.

Taking the standard Route was a suicide mission; they’d run smack into an enemy defense fleet, which would definitely put a damper on their current objectives.

"We’ve got a magic map, so it’s fine," Marl said, sounding bored out of her mind as she fiddled with a handheld terminal. "A few spots look sketchy, but we’ve managed well enough so far." She looked up, narrowing her eyes at Sakura. "Anyway, was it really okay for you to come along? No offense, but this is dangerous as hell. I don't think 'Fleet Commander' is the kind of job that involves field trips."

The Plum II was currently operating solo. They had left all their Consort Ships behind in the nearest EAP-controlled sector. While they intended to bug out the moment the job was done, the reality was that anything could happen.

"No, I’m here because I’m the Fleet Commander," Sakura said, puffing out her chest with strange pride. "I need to see the truth with my own eyes to convince myself and my subordinates. Besides, having a deputy take command back home is probably better for everyone in an emergency. Hmph. Not to brag, but I’m a pretty pathetic commander anyway."

Is she being defiant or just honest? Taro wondered.

"Sigh... fine. Whatever. We’ve got that secret pact with Teiro, so I guess we’re stuck with you," Marl said, turning her attention away from the Admiral. "Hey, Teiro, you found the target yet?"

Taro shook his head. "Naw." He glared at the Network Map displayed on the monitor. "Something’s fucky. We should be picking up radio pings or something by now, but the scan is a total wash. According to the map, we should be right on top of it."

On the Network Map Taro had stitched together, they should have already entered the operational airspace of the space station GGS525. If people were there, they’d be using radio, which would allow them to triangulate the station's exact location. Ordinarily, navigation beacons would be screaming across the system, but this was wartime; nobody was going to leave the porch light on for them.

"This is merely a hypothesis, but is there not a possibility that they have moved, Mr. Teiro?" Koume asked from the control panel, her status lamps blinking.

Taro gestured for her to keep going.

"If the enemy is planning for Total War, they would naturally take countermeasures. In a Total War scenario, the station itself would be considered a primary target for attack, would it not?"

Koume spun her protruding wheels round and round. Taro slumped back into his seat. True enough.

"No way!" Sakura cried. "If they did that, there wouldn't even be any wealth left for the victor to seize! What would be the point... oh, wait. No. Their goal is secession from the Empire, so the money is secondary..." She trailed off, muttering to herself as the realization sank in.

"Bingo," Taro said. "Back on Earth, we called it strategic bombing. Just flattening cities and factories to break the enemy's spirit. Dunno if Enzio is actually that hardcore, but the possibility isn't zero."

Taro dove back into the Coordinate Calculations. They were outside the network’s reach; a single lapse in focus here meant death.

The Plum II spent the next six hours scouring the vicinity, but GGS525 remained a ghost. Taro eventually scrubbed the search for that system and moved their efforts to the neighboring sector.

The new target, GGS524, was a relatively dinky station. They’d hoped to avoid it—it was much easier to hide in a crowd than in a ghost town—but they were running out of options. There were probably better targets deeper in, but that was stepping into the lion's den.

"Man, don't tell me this one is gone too... you gotta be kidding me," Taro groaned, looking at the abysmal scanner results. Apparently, map data from the Old Neural Network era was about as reliable as a screen door on a submarine.

"Teiro, Teiro! You busy? If you're free, come play darts with Etta!"

Etta beamed up at him, clutching a handful of darts and a holographic projector. Taro stretched, his joints popping. Might as well take a break.

"You're on. Prepare to witness the skills I honed in... uh... middle school? High school? College? Whatever. I was a student, and I was a dart god."

He rolled up his sleeves and took the arrows from Etta. A flicker of unease crossed his mind—the fact that his memories were unnaturally fuzzy was annoying—but he pushed it aside. No point crying over overwritten brain-mush. It’s not coming back anyway.

"Alright! Teiro-chan is gonna aim right for the target’s junk! Not like I was planning on using it anytime soon... Wait, why the hell is the target ME!?"

The holographic target showed Taro standing spread-eagled with a cynical, punchable smirk. Etta threw a dart. Thwack. It hit the holo-Taro right in the jugular.

"Gah! My lifeblood!" Taro hammed it up, clutching his throat. Etta giggled like a maniac.

"This looks wholesome on the surface, but it’s really, really not," Marl sighed, snatching a dart from the kid. She wound up and hove it sidearm with terrifying velocity.

With a satisfying thip, the dart buried itself in the hologram’s crotch.

"Oof!" Both the real Taro and the hologram doubled over in perfect synchronization.

"Hey! Why did the image react!? And why is that part animated!?"

"I mean, it's the bullseye, right?" Marl asked innocently.

"You people are monsters!" Taro collapsed to his knees in despair.

Right beside him, Etta was humming a happy little tune while landing darts in the hologram's chest, neck, and forehead with terrifying frequency.

"Every single one of those is a vital spot! How are you even doing that?"

"Hehe, Etta is amazing, right? Phantom taught me! She said if the target is a human, those are the squishy bits you aim for."

"PHANTOOOOOOM! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU TEACHING HER!?" Taro wailed at the ceiling. Etta just started humming even more cheerfully.

"She’s just a kid, for god’s sake... Anyway, Etta. What’s that song you’ve been humming?"

It wasn't exactly a masterpiece. In fact, it was aggressively tone-deaf. But when Taro asked, Etta just blinked.

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know? You've been singing it for five minutes."

"The song has been playing for a while now, so Etta is just copying it. Can't you hear it? The pretty lady singing?"

Etta closed her eyes, looking perfectly content. Taro strained his ears, but all he heard was the low-frequency thrum of the Plum II’s engines. Marl, however, was already sprinting toward the control panel.

"I can't hear it either... Etta, can you point to where it's coming from?"

Marl followed Etta’s finger and began hammering at the console. Taro scrambled into his seat, pulling up the BISHOP interface. Did Etta just pick up a signal with her brain?

"Is it this noise...? Teiro, move the ship a little."

Taro throttled the engines and accelerated to cruising speed.

"Aw, it stopped," Etta pouted. "And it was such a nice song."

"I knew it!" Marl shouted. "Teiro, it’s a reflection! There are radio waves bouncing off that brown planet ahead. From our previous position, we were in the shadow of another planet, so the signal couldn't reach us. Based on the angle... the source is in the sector to our front-right. If we analyze the noise, we might find something!"

Marl was practically vibrating with excitement.

"Hell yeah!" Taro shouted, cracking his knuckles as he stared at a wall of gibberish numbers. "Deciphering is Teiro-chan's specialty... though I’m starting to worry about Etta being a human-digital-converter."

Taro began shredding through the data that the scanners had dismissed as background noise, reorganizing it into something meaningful. It was a massive pile of info, but once he locked in, it was child's play. He whipped up a few analysis functions, ran them in parallel, and let the computer do the heavy lifting.

"Found it... I see. So that’s the trick."

The transmission source was on the literal backside of a nearby planet, tucked into a low satellite orbit.

"They put it in a total blind spot from the main Route," Marl said. "It’s almost ridiculously simple, but damn effective. They really aren't taking any chances."

The giant planet acted as a natural shield, blocking radio leaks from reaching any EAP intruders coming from the front. You can't hide from everyone forever, but it was a great way to buy time.

"They're playing for keeps," Taro said, letting out a long breath as he stared at the brown sphere on his monitor. "Good thing we took the back road. If we’d come in the front, we would’ve been chased away by patrols before we even knew they were there."

He stared at the image, feeling as though if he looked hard enough, he could see right through the planet to the prize waiting on the other side.