Beyond the Detection Range
"But even at the bare minimum, the detection range should be about twenty kilometers right now. Would it really be safe to go that far?"
At Soyeon's question, the people who had been discussing the plan of action with a flicker of enthusiasm fell silent. Their faces looked as if they'd been caught off guard, as though my safety hadn't particularly mattered to them.
Or maybe it was just resentment that I'd even brought it up.
...Am I being too paranoid?
"That far? Then why have we been going out all this time—"
"This only detects life signs, pure and simple. It's not related to that. Honestly, if we could just hack it and shut the whole system down, that would be ideal. But even back on Earth that would have been tough..."
"Ah..."
Soyeon answered the question raised by the person who should have been in charge of food production. She was working with the facilities team now, if I remembered right.
"But honestly, twenty kilometers—we've already covered about a quarter of that ground. Is there really going to be a problem?"
A fair question.
"We have to keep in mind that the Administrator is an untrained civilian right now. Orienteering, how to handle extreme weather—she doesn't know any of that."
A fair answer.
Orienteering was fuzzy in my memory, but a few tries might bring it back. For now I kept my mouth shut. Little things like that could wait until later.
"Ah... yeah, true."
"It's not a walking trail. This is completely untouched wilderness. And it's nothing like Earth on top of that."
"Couldn't we just teach her...?"
"Even if she learns, it won't be easy—"
"No, look. Honestly, is emergency procedure really that complicated? At least in our situation, if something happens you just sprint back to a point we can still see, and that covers almost everything, right?"
"..."
"Just the basics of finding your bearings—or hell, just take a PDA."
It sounded right. I nodded, and Soyeon casually rested a hand on top of my head.
"Wild animals, exposed surface magma, sudden weather collapse... I'm already thinking of way too many hazards. Beyond five kilometers the air itself could be toxic."
"...Honestly, other than the wild animals, you know those aren't very realistic, right?"
Soyeon closed her mouth. Meanwhile Dahyun reached for her holster. Unlike usual, she unfastened the buckle with a soft click and drew out what was inside.
"Eep."
"Ah, don't be startled."
Dahyun looked at me and gave a low laugh, then spoke for the first time in a while.
"I'll go with her. I've got this, after all. If we go together, there shouldn't be any real problem."
At that, Minseo's eyes widened a little in surprise.
"Uh, th-that, you don't really have to—"
"Sending her alone is out of the question. If she goes out there by herself and dies, I won't be able to sleep at night."
"......If authority transfers, it goes to Soyeon and Dahyun. Shouldn't at least the two of you stay behind to monitor things?"
Minseo considered Dahyun's words carefully, then offered a counterargument at a slightly slower pace. Almost as if she would rather no one be there to protect me.
Ah, no. Stop the paranoia.
"...Well. As long as Soyeon's here it shouldn't be a big—"
At Dahyun's matter-of-fact reply, Minseo thought for a moment, then said:
"What if I go instead?"
At those words, Soyeon, Dahyun, and everyone else wore expressions of genuine surprise.
"...I didn't realize you and she had gotten that close, Minseo."
"Well, we share a room, and I've had military training. This might sound a bit much, but in terms of seniority I'm higher—wait, why are you looking at me like that..."
I glanced at Dahyun's face. It was thoroughly crumpled as she glared at Minseo. So the old rivalry between noncoms and officers existed even out here.
"...True. We're only in this mess because the Administrator has no authority right now. Having one of the two people who do have authority die for certain is a little..."
"Um, excuse me..."
I finally spoke up, having overheard the woman resting her chin in her hand and muttering in a low voice. I watched their faces carefully.
"Why does everyone keep talking like I'm going out there to die... L-like she said, as long as we have guns, wild animals—unless something's so huge and thick one shot won't kill it..."
Soyeon pinched my thigh. At the same time Dahyun pinched the other one, so an embarrassingly unmasculine little squeak slipped out of me before I could stop it.
But I knew it came from worry over the fact that I'd spoken of my own death, so it didn't feel all that bad.
"..."
A few days later again. Time felt like it was whipping past. I wasn't doing anything, and yet there was this sense of anticipation.
I swallowed. A flat expanse dotted with various installations came into view. Farming, no matter how refined, still took up space, so the module that looked like a cultivation room was especially massive. Beyond that, workbenches and solar panels and the like had been set up in reasonably neat rows.
It felt like a fairly large clearing—at least from the perspective of a modern person who'd lived in cities packed with buildings and clutter.
By the standards of nature, it was cramped. If we'd landed according to the original plan, they said you would have been able to see the horizon...
Anyway, of course, walk just a little farther and the real wilderness would open up—the kind where you could barely see ahead of you.
They had installed measuring instruments out to a certain distance, and from the organisms collected while roaming that area they had confirmed nothing especially threatening, and yet—
Fear was unavoidable.
Just as they'd said, there might be some massive predator equivalent to Earth's bears, leopards, or tigers lurking out there.
Or something in the same niche as a highly venomous snake. Or, failing that, some badger-monster that shot poison needles from a distance.
Of course the people still trapped in the escape ship I'd turned into a scrap heap weren't idiots, so I could say with certainty that wouldn't happen... but still.
No—if the environment was nearly identical to Earth's, couldn't something resembling humans exist here too?
"..."
"Scared?"
It was Minseo. The one who'd made it possible for me to walk around with my shoulders a little straighter these past few days.
"Ah, no."
"Heh. Liar. You are scared."
"..."
In the end, the ones going with me were Kang Minseo and Jeong Jiwoo. Both were my roommates, and Jiwoo was also the one who'd pulled her body free first when we'd all gotten tangled up trying to reclaim the terminal. Or rather—she was intersex too.
Well. She looked ordinary. Neither too timid nor too bold—just a normal person you might pass on the street. She was pretty enough, but no one here really lost out in looks, so I'd gotten used to it, and I was too cowed to be ranking appearances in my head anyway.
I'd been afraid that if no one besides Dahyun and Soyeon volunteered, we'd be stuck—but luckily the two of them had stepped up first.
Both had pistols at their hips. Not live rounds—just non-lethal rounds that would hurt like hell if they hit you.
"Got everything? Check one more time—"
"This is the fifth time."
Minseo answered Dahyun's question that way.
If authority transferred the moment I stepped outside the range, that would be ideal—but no one believed it would go that smoothly.
Given everything that had already happened to us... of course not.
So the basic plan was to stay outside the range as long as possible. For starters, we would tough out one full day beyond it.
If nothing happened and the area outside proved safe, we would try extending the time we spent there.
Honestly, I couldn't see a reason for it to fail. Hell, I felt like I could hold out a week, even a month if I had to.
If a life sign stayed cut off for a whole month, what could a mere algorithmic AI possibly do?
So in a tiny way, this was also a kind of pioneering. Which was why we'd packed such heavy loads.
Even in our world, which had supposedly conquered all of Earth, people still got lost in places like the Amazon all the time. It was only natural.
"...Um, I can carry a few more—"
Water, food, survival gear, a portable generator... I'd packed reasonably heavy, but compared to the two women on either side of me I was basically carrying a school backpack. The numbers on the weight they were shouldering were in a different league.
The thing that looked far more advanced than any tent I knew was something I couldn't even lift, so we would have to take turns, two to a tent, and so on.
"Mm. No. Any more and you'll strain yourself. This is just right."
Even when I asked out of guilt, both of them were firm. Everyone reacted the same way.
Considering that me collapsing from overexertion and dying would be the most ideal outcome for them, I still seemed to be receiving a fair amount of consideration.
"If the PDA picks up anything new, take a picture. I'm not expecting much, so only if you have the spare time."
"Yes ma'am."
"It's just one day for now. If anything happens, come straight back. Even if a full day passes and it's safe, you come back no matter what."
"Geez. I got it already. You don't have to worry so much. We're not letting our guard down. Honestly, I'm a little scared myself."
"Scared enough to be a problem?"
"Mm. Not that much."
Minseo turned her head and looked at me.
"Well then—shall we head out?"
"For the record."
Just as the atmosphere was shifting toward departure and my legs started trembling with pointless tension—
"If only the two of you come back, then I'm the acting authority. Keep that in mind."
Dahyun muttered it low, glaring at Minseo. If that tone had been aimed at me, I probably would have gone weak in the knees and sat down on the spot.
"......"
"What's with her. Heh! We'll be back, okay? Ah—can you hear me? We're heading out!"
Minseo acted completely unbothered.
Well, for someone who'd boarded a starship bound for another planet across space, that level of threat probably didn't even register as intimidation.
I trusted Minseo to a certain extent. At least enough to believe she wasn't the type to kill me out there... This wasn't some political arena thick with intrigue, and the overall mood was still "let's all work hard together, heave-ho."
I could trust her.
Besides, at least physically she was full of goodwill toward me. If anything, I should have been more careful about treating the two of them like servants.
"Approved."
"Approved."
"Yes. Be careful out there."
Voices came through the in-ear. The last one was Soyeon's. Twenty kilometers, after all. The lakeside walking path near my hometown had been thirteen kilometers, so thinking of it that way, it wasn't even that far.
And radio still worked out to the five-kilometer mark—a quarter of the way. If something went wrong, I just had to grit my teeth and run.
"Let's go. Want me to hold your hand?"
Minseo's voice. I said I was fine, but she took my hand by force anyway.
Right after, as if envious of the sight, Jiwoo subtly reached out her hand as well.
Less exploration and adventure, more like an overprotected child's first trip to a huge department store—
That kind of "mission" finally began.