Rain's Coming
Second-class cabins were the third-finest accommodations aboard the Hermes, ranking just below first-class and special-class.
Their layout resembled the interior of a mid-to-upper-tier hotel chain, complete with bedrooms and living quarters, the décor touched with a quiet elegance. Most importantly, it was from the second-class cabins onward that windows on either side offered sweeping views of the endless void of space and the ship's central core. Every cabin of lower grade had no windows at all.
Yet in a survivor group where even a single private room per person was a luxury they could scarcely afford, no one ever demanded a second-class cabin. The reason was simple: ninety-eight percent of the sector where those cabins clustered remained unexplored territory, still unsecured against the mutants. Naturally, anyone who chose to live there shouldered the heaviest responsibilities within the group.
Besides Gary, one other man held the title of cabin master—Riban Einston.
"Where have you been, Ilena? It was already hard enough catching sight of you, and it's gotten worse since you left the workshop."
"I went to collect supplies. I'm dead on my feet—why'd you call me?"
"From those soldiers?"
"Yes."
"How about sending someone else from now on?"
Within the survivor group, Riban's commands—leading the extermination of mutants and the reclamation of cabins—were absolute. Even with the Life-Conditioning System running, Ilena was the only person who never removed her mask in his presence.
"Why?"
"Because if something happens to you, our only mechanic, everyone is finished. Those bastards can't be trusted."
"No."
"What's your reason?"
She could not tell Riban, who despised the soldiers, that she was repairing their powered suits. Ilena glanced at the handgun lying on the desk and answered curtly.
"It's the results I earned myself. Weren't you the one always telling me to earn my keep?"
"You're already doing more than enough for us. If you wanted, I could give you more…"
"Forget it. Is that all you wanted to say?"
"Haa."
She turned to leave without waiting for a reply, but Riban still had more.
"I've sent the broken firearms down to the basement. Fix them as fast as you can."
"Got it."
"And check the purification filters and outlets on the water tank. I'll tell Gary the same—stay out of Ebon Square for the time being."
"Why?"
Instead of answering, he closed the shutter over the window that looked outward. Whether he had only stepped in for a brief rest or not, he immediately gathered his gear, left one short remark, and brushed past her.
"Rain's coming."
Slender droplets of water fell from the ceiling. At first I took it for a leak, until my visual sensors confirmed the tiny outlets nestled between the square light panels. Rain poured across the entire city, turning bloodstains and shattered debris into a light slurry of mud that washed away. It had been thirty hours since we began moving to rendezvous with the military.
"It's artificial rain."
Does it rain in Ebon Square too?
"It's part of the virtual ecosystem construction project. Meant to ease the stress of a closed environment and promote the circulation of organic matter inside the ship. It actually works surprisingly well."
The light panels that once displayed the skyline—now reduced to black-and-white static—had been part of the same system. So had the cityscape built along the central core, Sera explained. Water rising to our ankles was far beyond any normal rainfall. Unless the empire's citizens had taken up surfing as a downtown hobby, something was wrong.
The water seems to be rising.
"Of course it isn't working properly. Let's find somewhere to rest for a bit."
There's a factory nearby that manufactures aerospace components.
"There'll be an airlock, then!"
I hadn't said that far. Sera's steps quickened with sudden tension. Even without the airlock, we needed to reach safety fast. Radiation—residue from the stellar wind, I suspected—had been detected in the rainwater. Both Sera and I had resistance to that sort of thing, but long-term effects were anyone's guess. We decided to take shelter in the nearby factory first.
Where do they even get this much rainwater?
"From the Residence Sector's reservoirs, most likely."
Where Ilena is. Is that side in danger?
"The stellar wind has already passed, so no real problem there, and they're unlikely to run short of water. As long as the downpour doesn't keep going forever, they'll be fine."
The reservoirs held vast reserves, but that hardly mattered when nearly everyone who might have used the water was already dead. I snapped the chains on the factory's front gate with raw force, and we finally caught our breath out of the death rain.
"Hmm… I got my hopes up when I heard 'aerospace factory,' but there's no airlock. Should we just go somewhere else?"
She wandered around with an oxygen tank on her back, unable to hide her disappointment that this was not a plant that built airlocks. I still couldn't understand what attachment she had to that claustrophobic container box that was driving her half-mad. Inside the hangar-like expanse of the factory grounds sat something a million times better.
The culmination of every dream and hope of humanity's space industry. A manned craft designed to ride the final stage of a rocket-form launch vehicle and carry out its mission—even back on Earth. I caught Sera with a mechanical arm as she turned to leave and pointed at the streamlined hull whose exterior work was already complete.
Sera. It's a spaceship.
"Ah. Yes. So it is."
Why aren't you happy?
"Because, unlike Jin, I'm not so immature that I start jumping up and down at the sight of a real airplane I used to play with as a toy when I was little."
You were sulking about the missing airlock just a second ago. I debated whether to smack her or generously embrace her with adult magnanimity. In the end I chose neither and simply blew into her ear.
"Whoosh—"
"Kyaa!? D-don't do that…! B-besides, it's just a tin can that can't even be launched outside—what's the point? It's an unarmed observation craft!"
"Sera, do you really not understand why this is important?"
I decided to spell out the value of the thing for her, since she still wasn't getting it.
"How do exploration or observation ships operating in space get their oxygen?"
"Huh? Well, oxy—"
She started to say "oxygen tanks," then something clicked. She moved the suit at once, propped a nearby ladder against the hull, opened the hatch, and began searching the cockpit crowded with buttons. And at last—
"It's here…!"
The instant she pressed the rectangular button beside the power supply, a mechanical sound I had never heard before rose from the fuselage. Green lights signaling atmospheric activation blinked to life all around us, and the letters on the button finally became clear.
Independent life-support unit — atmosphere active
"Life-Conditioning System…!"
It was the first time we had obtained a Life-Conditioning System that could operate independently of the main systems.
Some might ask what more we needed when we already had Jin, but a Life-Conditioning System was critically important. Until the main systems were restored, we had secured a reliable safe zone—one anyone could use. Unlike an airlock, it was mobile; with the suit's power we could establish a base anywhere. It might well have been the single most valuable thing we could find in Ebon Square.
I marked the spaceship's location on the map, rested until the radioactive rain stopped, then resumed our journey. Water still reached our knees and resisted every step, but there was no telling when the malfunctioning artificial rain might start again, so moving was better than waiting.
What would you have done without me?
"…"
I didn't answer Jin's now-familiar self-congratulatory tone, but not out of annoyance. If anything, she was the one who experienced the true worth of his abilities most closely. What system AI could devote itself so completely to its user? Counting only what she had already received, the debt of gratitude was immeasurable. And yet she herself had given him nothing in return.
"Is there anything you need for yourself, Jin?"
Unlike you insignificant humans, I require nothing.
"Stop joking and tell me if there's something you want…"
If I must name one thing—I want power.
That single sentence clenched Sera's heart tight. Her breath grew short; the brush of her own hair against the nape of her neck felt ticklish for no reason. It wasn't shame at the way he drained her mana. If it had been right after they first met—or even just after their life-or-death escape from the bridge—she would have accepted the same demand without a second thought. A woman's sense of shame was useless for survival.
What kept turning her into a mute was an entirely different emotion, the opposite of shame.
I know. You've been under constant mental pressure until now.
She had fought crushing loneliness. Hunger and the pain of wounds had been daily companions. Every day she had trembled with the fear that the airlock might explode and end her life, or that she might meet a mutant she could not handle and be torn apart.
Sera? Sera?
She watched raindrops fall beautifully beyond the transparent glass. Anyone who had dragged her out of that hell and brought her this far would have seemed a little special.
But Jin is an AI.
It wasn't the act of confessing her feelings that frightened her—it was hearing the answer. She no longer wanted to feel alone. Her steps toward the destination she had longed for so long were already exhausted beyond measure. The body's reactions were a flood that battered the walls of the mind; she could not bring herself to speak another word. If she were forced to confront once more that he was only an AI, she might collapse completely.
"Sera!!"
She had frozen in place, so even Jin's voice failed to reach her.
— KWAANG!!
A shock that rattled her entire body, and a searing pain exploded in her abdomen. A single red blip on the radar shot away so fast she could not even track it. The instant water flooded into the suit, Sera realized she had drawn her sword without thinking. Looking at her forearm, she saw the electrodes on the mechanical arm forcibly contracting her muscles.
It's a mutant. Moving underwater—fast enough that radar can barely lock on.
Jin had blocked it. Relief lasted only a moment. A second impact knocked the fuselage backward, and the ground seemed to drop out from under them.
We've been sucked into the sewers. The craft is damaged and taking on water.
Speed and power both off the charts. A variant that either possessed a special ability or had adapted to a specific environment. A Level 1 mutant.
Water had already risen to her waist. Inside the dark sewers she could see nothing. Blood seeped from her abdomen; the short radar beeps warning of the attack were swallowed by the pounding of her heart. Then, into ears drowned by terror, Jin's voice cut through.
Sera—how many minutes can you hold your breath?
Both of his hands already blazed with pure white light that madly vaporized the water around them.