Terraforming (3)

After the incident where Gaia ran away and nearly got hit-and-run by a flying boulder—

"How's Gaia's condition?"

"Exhaustion and fatigue from overwork, plus a few scrapes and bruises. Aside from that, nothing serious."

"Hmm… Understood. Make sure word of this doesn't spread through the ship."

"I'll keep it under wraps."

Once I'd finished locking down the story, I headed in to check on the hospitalized Gaia.

"…"

"I-I'm so sorry…"

Bandages and adhesive strips dotted her already frail frame, making her look like a patient on the brink of death. And the moment that critical-care Gaia saw me, she hung her head and started sniffling.

The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠sight almost made my resolve crumble…

"Of course you should be sorry, yeah."

"Ugh…"

"When a storm's raging because of your mood swings and you go wandering off, what crime did the people who had to go looking for you commit, huh?"

"I'm… sorry…"

"Apologize harder. If it hadn't been for you, my spicy punch would've already buried itself in your solar plexus, yeah."

Riel's fact-check violence, delivered while glued to my side, snapped me back into focus.

"Riel, that's enough for now."

"Yes."

"And Gaia—there will be no separate reprimand for this."

"Yes…"

"But I'd prefer this never happens again."

I turned to leave, then felt the urge to add one more line.

"Your body is, after all, an asset of the Empire. I'd rather you not treat it carelessly."

"…Yes."

With Gaia's sickbed visit finished, I returned to my quarters with Riel and collapsed onto the bed.

The moment I lay down, frustration boiled up from inside me.

"Ha… What the hell is the problem?"

"What is it, yeah?"

"Gaia. She clearly showed us a glimpse of her power right in front of our eyes, so why won't it work here?"

"Beats me, yeah."

That completely useless one-word answer made me itch to break out the Etiquette Injection Rod for the first time in ages.

"…"

"Wait—I get that you're pissed, but what's the best move in this situation, yeah?"

The second I reached into my coat for the Etiquette Injection Rod Mk.4, Riel raised a hand to stop me.

"What."

"I think just forgiving her is the best choice, yeah."

—CLANG!!!

I had zero intention of entertaining that nonsense, so I swung the rod straight at the crown of her head.

"Eubibibit."

"Watch your mouth next time."

"Ugh…"

Watching Riel rub her head in exaggerated pain, I lay back down and sank into thought about Gaia and our current mess.

Why the hell isn't it working… In the original game you just pressed a button and everything handled itself.

The instant that thought crossed my mind, something snagged my attention and locked my focus.

Wait. Game?

I shot upright. Riel, clearly startled by whatever I was about to do, yelped.

"Wh-what is it, yeah?!"

"Hold on. Lock the door and wait right here."

"Huh? Okay."

With that, I immediately opened my status window and started hunting through the UI.

From Riel's perspective I was just flailing at empty air and rolling my eyes around, so she asked with a puzzled look.

"What's going on all of a sudden, yeah? Did a new event pop up?"

Still working the invisible interface, I answered in a voice buzzing with the thrill of a jackpot discovery.

"No. I just realized—in the original game Gaia was basically treated like a system button."

"Yeah."

"Which means… to use her power here, shouldn't there be a related UI or management window in the status screen?"

Riel clapped her hands like I'd just cracked the case.

"Minister, you're right, yeah."

But the moment I started digging through the status window, pure irritation flooded my skull.

"Nngh, this damn UI."

"…"

As I'd complained before, the status window UI of this world I'd fallen into was a masterpiece of needless complexity. No alphabetical sorting, no keyboard shortcuts—just me hunting everything down by hand.

It looked like it would take forever, so I gritted my teeth and hit pause just to comb through the UI properly…

After a considerable stretch of time—

I finally unearthed the special menu buried under that godawful interface.

"Found it."

"Gaia's menu, yeah?"

I silently cursed the trash UI one last time and opened Gaia's menu window…

"Oh, for fuck's sake."

"???"

The second the window opened, a stream of pure profanity tore out of me.

"What's wrong, Minister?"

"No, seriously—this is ridiculous."

Anyone who saw that menu would have felt the same hollow despair, realizing every single thing we'd done so far had been completely pointless.

"Why? Why? Why, yeah?"

"…Gaia still had cooldown left."

"Eh?"

The reason Gaia couldn't terraform wasn't some deep mystery. It ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠was simply that her terraforming cooldown was still active.

And the truly absurd part…

"How much cooldown is left, yeah? Two years? One year?"

"…One day."

"…"

It would unlock tomorrow.

"…So every single stupid thing we did after coming here—what the hell was the point of any of it?"

"Right, yeah."

We both fell silent, absorbing the fact that every test we'd run on this moon had been utterly meaningless.

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Riel carefully broke the quiet.

"…Still, at least it ends before Her Majesty's final ultimatum, yeah."

"Yeah… true."

I nodded in agreement.

"That's a good thing, right, yeah?"

"Mmm."

Even so, the two of us were left carrying a tangled mess of complicated feelings about this awkward situation.

The next morning.

The final day of the ultimatum Artraia had given us.

"Uuuugh…"

"Hurry up and get out here, mushroom girl."

"I'm sorry for being a mushroom girl…"

We dragged Gaia—who had somehow progressed into full matsutake-mushroom mode overnight—out for one more test.

"Is the Minister really giving her another chance?"

"We've already run more than enough tests and nothing came of it."

"This is basically the last one…"

Word that Gaia's tests had failed had already saturated every researcher involved. Even while we were bringing her over, they kept whispering among themselves about the whole affair.

—Flinch.

"…"

Hearing those voices only made Gaia sink deeper into herself.

—Swoosh.

"…"

"Move it, matsutake mushroom."

"Aaaaah… W-wait a second, I need to prepare myself mentally…!"

Riel, never one to leave things unsaid, refused to let Gaia's self-esteem—now resembling a pink-haired guitarist—wallow in peace.

Even so, when Gaia finally stood at the test site, she looked more unstable than ever…

Surrounded by researchers staring at her with cold eyes that had abandoned all expectation, standing alone in the middle of it all—maybe that was why she didn't even attempt to terraform. She just stood there blankly.

Watching her, a thought quietly surfaced in my head.

This is basically just bullying her.

"Gaia, begin the test."

"…"

Following the researchers' process instructions, she hesitantly tried to terraform…

But her cooldown was still active, so of course nothing happened.

Wait—it was one day yesterday. Why is it still one day today?

When she failed again, fat tears welled up in Gaia's eyes…

That was when reality finally clicked. I picked up the mic and spoke into the earpiece she was wearing.

Don't tell me it calculates down to hours, minutes, and seconds but only displays in day units.

I had a feeling my guess was right, so I decided to stall for as long as possible.

"Gaia, once today's test is over we're heading back soon. Is there anything you want to do?"

"…"

Her shoulders jerked at my words, then her voice came out thin and completely deflated.

"Someone like me… what could someone who can't do anything possibly want to do…"

Gaia had transcended matsutake mushroom and become something even more pitiful.

Keeping the status window open in one corner of my vision, I kept talking.

"I know what you're thinking right now, but you don't need to look that crushed."

"…Pardon?"

"This whole thing only happened because I pushed for it."

"…"

"Hmm. It's hard to put into words, but…"

I paused just long enough to watch the cooldown hit zero, then spoke.

"Gaia—this isn't your fault."

"…!"

"So one last time. Just once more. Let's try it."

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"…Yes!"

Something about my words must have struck her. Gaia recovered a scrap of confidence, raised her voice, and attempted to terraform again…

And in that instant—

"…Massive energy reaction confirmed!"

"Crustal conversion… no, the geology itself is changing!"

"Life signs detected everywhere!"

Instruments went haywire while the researchers stared in pure shock.

On top of that, status messages rained down like fireworks.

Watching it all, I clenched my fist tight at the simple fact that it had worked.

There was just one problem…

"Minister, what are you going to do now, yeah?"

"Hmm."

Maybe because this was the first time anyone had ever attempted terraforming in space.

We had no idea what would happen, so we got to experience the results firsthand.

"Duke Arto, every terrain beyond a hundred-meter radius centered on Gaia has… completely transformed."

Just as the researcher reported, the moment we stepped outside Gaia's zone we found ourselves facing a vast expanse of pristine nature—and that was only the beginning.

"Your Grace, decryption of the final message from the ship is complete."

"What did it say?"

"Due to severe natural disasters, the ship was unable to hold position and escaped into orbit."

"…Anything else?"

"The landing apparatus was destroyed during the escape, so re-entry to the planet is impossible."

Suddenly stranded on the surface, I dragged a hand down my face and did my absolute best to keep my expression under control.

That was only while the other researchers were around, of course…

"Fuck."

"Calm down, Riel."

"Shit."

Every time Riel shot me a look that carried genuine murderous intent, I had to carefully look elsewhere and pretend nothing was wrong.

And that wilderness lifestyle only ended several days later.