Constellation, Blue Wood Holding Starlight (1)
"Oh, so the Whispering Star Cluster is watching too? Then it's only proper that I offer greetings. I am Gustav, commander of the Federation's 5th Fleet."
Inside a massive space fleet.
An elderly man who had been conversing with my avatars bowed his head slightly toward empty space.
This was the 5th Fleet, the ones who had blocked the Cosmic Insect Swarm last time after the 4th Fleet. Was scouting their main duty?
Constellation, Whispering Star Cluster sends greetings.
"The Constellation says it's pleased to meet you too!"
"Hoho. Is that so? Then I look forward to working with you avatars for the time being."
A scouting fleet departing from the Arcadia star system.
Among the many fleets of the Super Galactic Empire Federation, the 5th Fleet had been assigned the reconnaissance role.
And among the countless ships in the 5th Fleet, this was the warship carrying not the captain, but the fleet commander himself.
Yuna and Beatrix had been assigned here.
I'd heard the commander's personal curiosity played a part in their assignment.
Was it consideration or respect for me, known as a Galaxy Spirit?
That might be part of it.
After all, that commander was also an avatar contracted with a constellation.
"Vega star system comm relay—transmission delay normal. No anomalies."
"Micro gravity distortion detected within 0.2 AU. Presumed space monster."
"Central propulsion module cooling rate stable. No anomalies."
"Restarting plasma valves and adjusting fuel injection rate."
The interior of the spaceship buzzed with the crew's clipped exchanges.
Incomprehensible numbers and letters floated across the instrument panels, while the commander, having finished chatting with the avatars, examined holograms from the central cylindrical chamber.
The scouting fleet's objective was to provoke and flush out alien constellations.
They called it beating the grass to startle the snake.
Stir things up beyond Federation space, and the bastards would come crawling out.
And...
"Hmm. So this was the request from the Marcher of Black Glory and the Ring Piercing the Heavens? Outer space material collection..."
"I've put in the request to Xenon Fleet Commander. We'll land on the planet, collect samples, and return..."
Constellation, Whispering Star Cluster remarks that the Federation surprisingly accommodates constellation requests well.
"Ah. The gods must have paid some price in return-wa yo. Maybe something like making military officers into avatars-wa yo..."
"But they wouldn't dare ask it of you, Constellation. A cautious request, perhaps."
Could the Federation and constellations be seen as symbiotic?
Not all constellations cooperated with mortal nations, but they seemed to be adapting in their own ways.
The Outer God who calls herself "this lady" must be finding this spectacle amusing.
"We're going a bit slow to stay vigilant against alien constellation threats."
"We can't use the warp engines either, so no helping it-sa wa yo."
Shift the viewpoint upward a touch, and you'd see countless ships slicing through the silent void.
The battlecruisers and small craft in formation moved slowly, like a fragment of a vast galaxy.
The nebula light reflecting off the hulls painted the decks in ghostly blue...
The cosmic vista always before my eyes.
Often, an impulse rises to shatter that suffocating stillness.
A boring, tedious world.
The most dynamic sights were the occasional galaxy cluster winking out.
Or the birth of a new divinity snagging my senses now and then.
If I just drifted along in a daze, might I have wrecked the universe by now?
Thankfully, Shub was there.
Her created divinities too.
And apostles in other dimensions.
They all scattered my attention just enough.
* * *
As I watched the space fleet hunting alien constellations in that dimension.
I spotted someone approaching my first apostle.
"Aigoo! Hello there, Miss Yuna! What an honor to see our class's top star again!"
"...?"
"When I heard you'd soloed that Cosmic Insect Swarm, you can't imagine my shock! And a Galaxy Spirit constellation to boot!!"
A blond young man bustled up to Yuna with exaggerated fuss.
"Ah! You're that Du-La-La guy from the Avatar Exchange Event?"
"...It's Mu-Rakrima."
"Ack! Sorry!"
"My eye that you punched at the Avatar Exchange Event still stings..."
The sharply dressed man—Du拉克rima or Mu-Rakrima—made a wounded face.
Come to think of it.
This was the guy who'd made it to the finals of the exchange event but got beaten by Yuna.
"Were you assigned here too, Rakrima?"
"To be frank, I volunteered."
"Volunteered? They take volunteers? Can you really get assigned to the commander's ship like that?"
Mu-Rakrima swept his blond locks back dramatically from his forehead and declared proudly in response to Yuna's question.
"Haha! What are you saying? Of course I pulled some strings with my connections!"
"...Ah. I see."
"Though if you lack the skills, they boot you without mercy, so I worked hard to sell myself. As a member of the tech exchange delegation to pioneer planets..."
The son of a mega-corp CEO handling cutting-edge tech, a golden boy.
"So why come here? Outer space scouting's all risk, no reward—might even run into alien constellations."
"As I said, there's the tech exchange with planets we pass, but... to build connections, you gotta take some risks."
"...?"
"Remember this, Yuna: the world's all about credits, and credits come from connections. Connections."
Bluntly honest guy.
"See? Because I hosted the Avatar Exchange Event, you even remember me, right? I've got an event coming up—honor us with your presence and..."
"Suddenly don't wanna remember you."
But.
Maybe laying his intentions bare like that was a strategy to build trust.
Social creatures survive by such tactics, after all.
ㅡThe lifeforms in this dimension who died by my mistakes probably lived that way too.
* * *
Daily life on the scouting fleet, repeating its tedious searches, was incredibly dull.
Unlike the crew working shifts to operate and maintain the ships, the avatars enjoyed plenty of perks.
Was bringing avatars on fleets standard?
In space battles, they seemed like just strong soldiers.
Wonder what the reason for this treatment was.
Constellation, Whispering Star Cluster wonders about the role of avatars on space fleets.
"You mean the avatars' position-sa wa yo?!"
"Position...?"
The oddly phrased constellation message left the avatars with ambiguous expressions.
The AI info-body sometimes garbled my intent into messages.
Constellation, Whispering Star Cluster asks if avatars' roles in space battles aren't that significant.
"Ah, that's what you mean-wa yo?"
"True, when battleships move, avatars barely have anything to do. The fleet's weapons sweep space monsters from afar. Avatars handle infiltration or special forces roles during planetary pioneering."
"That was definitely the case in early space pioneering-sa wa yo! Back when superpowered folks' value had dipped a bit..."
Inside a planet, maybe, but in open space? Blast monsters from range with ship guns—easy.
Weapons of a science civilization even gods envied could hit ethereal monsters too.
"Right when that mindset was widespread, a battleship without superpowered escorts got wiped out entirely."
Wiped out?
Constellation, Whispering Star Cluster asks for more details.
"An evolution-type monster had snuck aboard the battleship. Intelligent, humanoid-like, evolving gradually—so by the time they noticed the intrusion, the engine room and many sections were already..."
The whole crew wiped by a single small monster inside the ship?
SF-era soldiers differed from my past life's grunts.
Drug-enhanced supersoldiers, full-body cyborgs and prosthetics users.
Should be AI-assisted high-tech weapons and fleets too.
Even with a monster inside, getting owned by one?
"We secured the surviving internal CCTV footage. Midway, it even used ethereal superpowers. Wanna see? It's declassified for avatars only..."
I zoomed in on the footage Yuna showed from her terminal.
The short clip ended.
Monster straight out of an SF horror flick—high intellect, combat prowess too.
Impressive.
"The incident rewrote space monster combat doctrine from scratch. After, all battleships mandated superpowered escorts—avatars—or detectors and facilities. Law changed."
Constellation, Whispering Star Cluster says at least they caught it—fortunate.
At least they killed it—good.
All mortals had potential to become gods, and alien constellations were confirmed.
If that monster lived on, harboring grudge against the Federation...
"Yeah. They blew up the whole fleet later, so probably dead?"
"Yuna. It might've survived-sa wa yo..."
"Eh? Nah. Whole fleet exploded."
So they didn't confirm the kill visually?
Possible it survived. Or descendants born since.
As I pondered resending a message to the avatars.
A voice came from outside their room.
"Alien constellation superpower waveform detected!"
Found something.