Wild Space: Something White
In the softly lit cabin, Lydia lay on the bed, her face pale as a ghost.
It had been about thirty minutes since she fainted. I sat in a chair, monitoring her condition, while Eve stood silently behind me, holding her breath.
“Umm….”
A faint groan came from the bed. Lydia's eyelashes fluttered, and her eyelids slowly lifted. Her hazy purple eyes drifted across the ceiling before finally focusing on me.
“……Kal?”
“You coming around?”
I handed her a glass of water, and she sat up unsteadily.
She stared blankly for a moment, then shuddered as the memory from right before she passed out resurfaced.
“Ah… monster… white slime… eyeballs….”
Terror began to cloud her pupils again. I quickly took her hand to calm her.
“It's okay. That monster isn't here, Lydia.”
She closed her eyes calmly and took steady breaths. Then her gaze swept the room and spotted the small hand clutching at my clothes from behind me.
“Eve….”
Lydia's voice trembled.
Eve didn't come out from behind me.
She was still pouting sullenly, but her eyes held a tangle of complex emotions.
She felt guilty for getting mad and having Nahibi scare Lydia so badly that she fainted. Pride and remorse were clashing inside her.
Reading Eve's feelings, I reached back and gently nudged her.
‘Go on, Eve. Lydia's waiting.’
Pushed by my hand, Eve shuffled forward hesitantly. Their eyes met.
An awkward silence hung in the air. Lydia spoke first.
“Eve.”
Lydia slid off the bed and knelt on the floor to meet Eve's eye level.
There was no fear or confusion in her eyes anymore—only sincere regret and affection.
“Sister… messed up, huh?”
Lydia reached out with trembling hands and gently took Eve's small hand. Eve didn't pull away.
“Your real form was so strange and scary… Sister said some stupid things. Sorry for calling it gross. Really sorry for saying it was creepy.”
She simply owned her ignorance and mistake, soothing the hurt child's heart.
Did her sincerity get through?
Eve's stiff expression slowly crumpled. Her pouting lips quivered, and tears welled up in her red eyes.
“Sister….”
“Yeah, Eve.”
“Sorry too…”
Lydia threw her arms open wide. In that instant, Eve lunged into her embrace.
“Waaah! Sorry, Sister! Sorry for scaring you with Nahibi!”
“No, no. Sister fainted and shocked you, right? Don't cry, our sweet Eve.”
After their long hug, Lydia emerged from the cabin with a refreshed face.
Eve clung tightly to Lydia's hand and wouldn't let go. Like ground hardening after rain, their bond had grown even stronger.
And in the corner of the ship's corridor lurked Nahibi, shrunken like a deflated white rice cake.
Lydia spotted her and froze stiffly.
No matter how much she'd steeled herself, the lingering horror of that eyeball monster filling the bridge triggered an instinctive revulsion she couldn't shake.
But Lydia didn't run. She took a deep breath and approached Nahibi.
“Um….”
……?
Nahibi uncrumpled her body and looked up at Lydia.
“I heard you're the one protecting Eve… her hoibi.”
Lydia masked her trembling voice and bowed politely.
“Thank you for guarding Eve. And… please take care of her from now on too, Nahibi.”
Hmph. Finally showing some manners, lowly creature.
Nahibi's body swelled briefly, her glow brightening a bit. She seemed to appreciate the respect.
Yes. Now that you know this body's greatness, serve properly from now on. I'll be watching how you treat Eve-nim….
Nahibi was wagging a tentacle arrogantly, about to launch into a lecture—
“Mallang!”
Eve called in a stern voice.
Yes, Eve-nim.
“Doesn't Mallang have something to say? Apologize first! You made her faint earlier!”
B-but Eve-nim…. I was just trying to uphold Your Majesty's dignity….
Nahibi whined pitifully.
“Tsk!”
Eve grabbed a handful of Nahibi's squishy body and squeezed hard.
Kyaaak!
Cartoonish X-marked eyes popped up on Nahibi's surface, then vanished.
A singularity beast, utterly helpless before the little queen.
“Puhut.”
Lydia couldn't hold back and burst into laughter. The moment fear turned to amusement.
“Please take care of me, Mallang… I mean, Nahibi.”
……Just you wait, female. Someday I'll repay this humiliation.
Nahibi grumbled inwardly but extended a tentacle to grasp Lydia's hand. Maybe just because Eve was glaring from her body, but the fact that they'd shaken hands mattered.
Internal conflicts were patched up for now, but the external threat was still very much ongoing.
“Kal! Status?”
Bani rushed into the cockpit.
“Not good. Nahibi handled the scouts, but the main force trailing us is massive.”
I stared at the map Bani had provided, deep in thought.
“Once they've locked on, we can't stop them following our ship's engine trails.”
“This sector's got hardly any traffic, so we're easy to spot.”
“Right.”
“How long till the main force catches up?”
“At current speeds and what Nahibi said, three days. We'll be nabbed in three.”
Three days.
In this vast universe, three days wasn't long.
800 ships closing the net around us. On paper, it was hopeless. But I—we—weren't despairing. I turned to Nahibi.
“Nahibi. That method you mentioned before—possible right now?”
Of course.
Her red eyes gleamed with confidence.
“Count on you.”
Don't worry, lowly creature.
Nahibi smirked arrogantly.
Eve-nim is a queen. And this place… outer rim or not, it's our territory.
I knew what that meant. We weren't running—we were luring them in.
“Good. Let's make it extra hard for them one last time. Bani, course change please.”
“You got it!”
The bridge of the Hound cruiser Cerberus was thick with tension and exhaustion.
Three days of nonstop pursuit. Crew eyes were bloodshot, nerves frayed to the breaking point.
“Status report.”
Admiral Varkas's voice boomed across the bridge.
“Tracking entropy scars and warp residuals… Night Raven entering visual in thirty minutes.”
The navigator's report. But Varkas's face stayed grim.
“Unlike the guarantee that two days would suffice, we're on day three.”
He tapped the armrest sharply with his fingers.
“Their path's too erratic—beyond predictions—and their breakthrough speed's faster than expected…”
“No excuses.”
Varkas cut him off with a raised hand.
“The delay means we tie this off clean. Every extra day ramps up the costs we're paying those outer-rim vermin, and I hate that.”
He ground his teeth.
Urging from Apex HQ too. The budget sunk into this op was astronomical. Failure meant death.
“Understood. No more surprises—we'll secure the target in the Night Raven fast.”
“Notify the other cruiser captains. On visual contact, block escape vectors, focus firepower—have all ports ready to open.”
“Yes sir! All fleet—battle stations!”
From then on, the Cerberus bridge filled with barked orders and comm chatter.
“First and Second Squadrons, deploy left and right flanks!”
“Main guns at ninety percent charge!”
“Missile tubes open!”
“Tell those merc fleet bastards no breaking formation! Stragglers get left behind!”
800 ships moved in perfect sync, forming a massive encirclement. A steel wall filling space—no mouse could slip through. Perfect hunting formation.
And at last.
The reported thirty minutes passed.
“Target coordinates reached! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…!”
The Hound main force arrived at the system core.
“Vice captain.”
Varkas stared at the forward viewscreen.
“Yes, Admiral.”
“We got reports of Night Raven in sight…”
His voice turned sour.
“What the hell is that?”
No sign of a small ship on the screen.
Instead, something unimaginably huge blocked their path.
“That thing…”
The vice captain trailed off. Operators, helmsmen—everyone on the bridge gaped, frozen.
Before the Hound main force stood something far too massive and alien to be the Night Raven they'd chased for three days.
Too big for an asteroid, too small for a moon…
A white planet loomed right before their eyes.