Vol. 2 Chapter 2 – April 2047, Mars Base

Calm down, Mikako.

First, detect the enemy. Focus your awareness in every direction.

Always pay attention to your rear and overhead, which can easily become blind spots, as well as beneath your feet.

I’m doing it. Just like the lecture. Besides, I’ve experienced it countless times in the simulator.

Even with a real Tracer, I trained countless times on the lunar surface. Basic maneuvers, experienced. The real thing and the fake thing aren’t that different. After all, even now, inside the real thing, I’m not directly looking outside. I’m only looking at the images displayed on the all-direction screen.

But what is a little different is the sense of acceleration that only the real thing has. Even now, I’ve just launched suddenly from the Mars surface base and rapidly ascended. The sense of acceleration is so intense it almost makes me dizzy.

I’ve gotten used to the operation booth too. The pedal controls, the swinging of my arms, and the movements of my fingertips along the panel.

This time shouldn’t be that difficult. There is only one enemy unit, and its only attack method is missile rounds. No enemy counterattack, therefore no need for evasive maneuvers. You could say it’s super easy. But in actual combat, I’m sure it won’t go like this. Of course, the training will probably level up little by little with more difficult conditions added, but…

Still, according to the mission menu, it’s packed with nothing but combat training.

Isn’t that kind of strange?

“Why? Because they’re assuming we’ll fight the Tarsians?”

I don’t know. There’s no point thinking about it right now.

Just do what I’ve been given to do, what I can do.

Right, let’s focus on what I’m doing now.

Elapsed time, one hundred twenty seconds. …One, two, three.

The launched target should be appearing soon.

Ah! The alarm went off.

Where? Where is it?

Calm down.

Ah! Found it!

Target lock! Fire!

…Please, hit it!

From the Tracer’s backpack, missiles were launched one after another.

Two pairs from the left and right, four in total. Each one was only about the size of a coffee can, yet their destructive power was exceptional, and their maneuverability extremely high.

The four missiles Mikako had fired pursued the white training dummy craft, each tracing a different trajectory. The dummy craft had an appearance reminiscent of a stingray. Its shape and movement were said to have been designed to imitate an individual Tarsian unit, but in reality, information regarding individual Tarsians was extremely limited.

The four missiles moved differently in order to counter the target’s evasive maneuvers. There were more than a dozen pursuit formations used for cornering a target through teamwork, but choosing which one to use was left to the Tracer operator’s experience and split-second judgment.

Mikako was a rookie operator. Moreover, this was her first time firing real ammunition. The target’s evasive maneuvers had been simplified for beginners, but if even one missile hit, that would be enough. In preparation for all four missiles missing, the operator also had to continue pursuit with the Tracer itself.

The dummy craft ignited its boosters, increasing speed, attempting to shake them off with movements close to a straight line.

The four missiles that had spread out gathered together as though drawn toward the trajectory traced by the dummy craft, lining up almost along the same flight path in pursuit. And behind them, the Tracer carrying Mikako followed in remote pursuit.

Behind this chase stretched the reddish-brown, dried wasteland. Mikako had sole control over a vast expanse of Martian airspace. Far overhead, the interstellar battleship 《Nart》 watched from above, while from the ground, the training base and the dozen or so Tracers waiting their turn nearby looked up, countless eyes fixed upon Mikako’s battle. However, Mikako, struggling desperately inside the craft, had no room to worry about the gazes of fellow operators or instructors.

──Please, hit it!

With feelings close to prayer, Mikako stared at the screen.

The leading missile caught the dummy craft. Closing the distance in an instant, it attacked from behind.

However, at the very moment it seemed certain to hit, the dummy craft lightly twisted aside, narrowly avoiding the first shot at the last possible timing.

Reading that evasive pattern, the second missile immediately altered its course. Swinging wide, it attempted to cut off the target’s escape route by moving around toward its front.

Trying to avoid the approaching second missile, the dummy craft corrected its course further, causing its body to sideslip. As though they had predicted that movement, the third and fourth missiles attacked together as accomplices.

Mikako, who had been staring at the screen, let her large eyes shine.

──Really?

The two missiles hit the wing sections that jutted out like a stingray’s fins, pierced through them, and flew off toward the starry sky. No explosion occurred. The warheads had not been loaded.

“I did it! It hit!”

Mikako unintentionally let out a modest cheer.

Flushed with excitement from the successful mission, her cheeks were glowing red.

The images captured by the Tracer’s exterior cameras displayed on the screen, along with the analysis data and support messages from the onboard computer pasted around them, were not all that different from those of the simulator she had repeated countless times. Even so, the feeling that she was riding the real thing heated Mikako’s heart.

The calm and composed voice of the onboard computer announcing the end of the mission echoed out.

Mikako pursed her lips and let out a soft sigh.

──I have to go back.

The next trainee was waiting for their turn. She had to vacate the training airspace quickly.

Making her fingertips dance across the touch panel floating before her as a three-dimensional image, Mikako issued the command to return to the training base. As control gas sequentially burst out from various parts of the fuselage to change direction, the Tracer turned its head toward the planet’s surface and, like a skydiver, fell in an almost straight line, nearly left to free fall.

The red wasteland and the silver-glimmering structures rushed toward her at tremendous speed.

Mikako wore a lonely expression.

“Can you share some shampoo with me?”

The semi-transparent vinyl curtain partition swayed, and an arm covered in foam suddenly stretched out in front of Mikako.

“Huh? Did you already use up your allotted supply?”

Mikako stopped the shower she had been using and turned toward the neighboring stall.

Through the curtain, a body line faintly floated into view.

Although there was not much difference in height, Mikako felt overwhelmed by the overall figure traced out by those sharply defined curves.

“Well, with this tiny amount, I can’t even wash half of myself. I know on Lysithea we can’t exactly call it luxury but this is Mars, right? They should be able to use plenty of water here. Honestly, there’s no need to be stingy over something like shampoo.”

“Yeah, that’s true, but… Ah. My hair is short, so I don’t need that much.”

Mikako placed the tube of shampoo into the outstretched hand.

“Thanks.”

The hand withdrew behind the half-open curtain. The shower stopped for a moment, and the sound of shampoo being lathered into foam could be heard.

“I’m gonna use all of it, okay?”

“Eh… Y-yeah.”

There was nothing else she could say.

“How were your results today?”

“All three shots hit.”

“Seriously? Don’t tell me you were on Unit Two?”

“Yeah.”

“Me, I’m one of the leftovers. And I barely managed to clear it at the very end.”

“Then, are you from Unit Twelve…?”

“Bingo!”

The curtain was thrown fully open with force.

“I’m Houjou Satomi. Things are gonna be rough from here on but nice to meet you.”

Brushing away the foam on her forehead with the back of her hand, she greeted her.

Mikako instinctively covered her chest and stared at the girl beside her with a shocked expression.

“I’m Nagamine Mikako.”

Clearly flustered, she introduced herself in a hoarse voice.

“A middle schooler…?”

Thrusting out her conspicuously ample chest, Satomi openly gave Mikako’s body a thorough once-over.

“No, that’s not it. I graduated this spring. Well, I couldn’t actually attend the ceremony, though.”

“Ah, really? Well, that makes sense, since it was such a sudden summons, right? But did you even have enough attendance days?”

“I didn’t but they made it a special exception. Still, even if they say I graduated, it’s only on record. I never even received a diploma, so it doesn’t feel real.”

“Huh. You might actually be the youngest trainee here. Ah, sorry, sorry. I’m seventeen. Think of me as your big sister who’s two years older. In my case, I dropped out of high school on my own. According to the agent, they said it could either count as a leave of absence or as graduation, whichever I wanted. But since it’s basically like my future job’s already decided, I figured I didn’t really need a high school diploma anyway.”

Satomi laughed loudly in a shrill voice.

“Made any friends yet?”

“I haven’t really had the chance. Besides, everyone around me is older than me…”

“Even if they’re older, the difference isn’t that huge. Among the people I know, even the oldest is only about twenty-one.”

“And besides, I’m kind of shy around people…”

“Then I’ll be your friend. I might not be super reliable, but nice to meet you.”

Satomi thrust out her foam-covered hand, forcibly pulled away the hand Mikako had been using to cover her chest, and shook it. Now exposed, Mikako’s chest really was slim enough that it would not have been strange for someone to mistake her for a middle school student.

“But honestly, if all you make are girl friends, it’s kind of boring, right?”

Not knowing how to answer, Mikako just laughed awkwardly to cover it up.

“I joined expecting there’d definitely be new encounters waiting for me. What a disappointment, right? Feels like we got tricked. I’d just broken up after a fight with my boyfriend too, so that was part of why I volunteered.”

“Huh? Aren’t the male crew members on the other ships?”

“That’s what I thought at first too. A hundred crew members per ship. Even if every single one of them were Japanese women, I figured it still wouldn’t really be a problem allocation-wise. But it’s weird after all. During training on the moon, I secretly got some information out of the base staff and found out. At least as far as they know, not a single man has undergone training yet.”

“Really…?”

“Really. But don’t be too disappointed. They say training on Mars is going to continue for quite a while, and although it’s mostly older guys, there are handsome representatives from every country around too. Though the competition rate’s high.”

“I’m not here for that kind of thing…”

“You’re serious, huh. The honor student type. But if you don’t enjoy yourself now, you’ll regret it. Once the training period’s over and you get assigned to work aboard the Cosmo Nart, there won’t be any men around at all.”

“But if there’s nobody on the ship then…?”

“Yeah, of course there are apparently captains, navigators, communications technicians, and the minimum maintenance crew aboard, but they say they’re all old men. And besides that, to save manpower, most onboard duties like cooking and cleaning have supposedly been automated.”

“So all the crew members are women?”

“That’s right.”

“But why?”

“How should I know? I don’t know the reason for something like that. Of course, since it’s something the big shots decided, I’m sure they’ve got some proper justification for it.”

“It kind of feels like we were tricked, so my feelings are…complicated.”

“Well, there’s no point overthinking it. More importantly, just getting to tour space for free is already a lucky break, right? Even if the moon’s been turned into a tourist attraction, it’s not like people can just casually go there. And yet we got to come not only to the moon, but even to Mars. We’ve experienced zero gravity, one-sixth G, and even one-half G too. …Oh right, did you know? Once the intensive training’s over, there’s supposed to be a Mars sightseeing tour waiting for us. We’ll even get to see the famous Tharsis Ruins up close.”

“The Tharsis Ruins…?”

Mikako tilted her head blankly.

“You know, the ruins that became the origin of the word 『Tarsian.』The traces of extraterrestrial civilization discovered by the First Manned Mars Exploration Team…”

“Ah, I know! There was a photo of it in my social studies textbook.”

“Right, right, that’s it. Well then, Big Sister Satomi will now give you a lecture on the Tharsis Ruins while acting as your sightseeing guide. What looked like a city, fossil-like remains of small Tarsians and gigantic Tarsians… It was basically the greatest discovery of this century! I mean, it proved the existence of intelligent lifeforms other than humanity, so the whole world went into chaos. A huge, huge, huge, huge, huge culture shock. Then a base camp was set up beside the ruins, and full-scale excavation investigations began. That was eight years ago now, in 2039. Back when I was nine and you were seven. I only remember vaguely, but those live broadcast images are burned into my mind.”

“I don’t remember it…”

“Well, there’s a big difference between a fourth grader and a second grader. Anyway, the investigations continued bit by bit, and based on the interim reports from the investigation team, a full-scale survey unit called the『First Mars Civilization Investigation Team』 was organized and dispatched to Mars. But then, an unexpected situation was waiting for them. The moment they arrived at the base, the members of the investigation team began energetically working, as though unwilling to waste even a moment resting from the long journey. Full-scale investigations began with massive amounts of equipment and personnel deployment and it was probably less than a week later, just when the nonstop live coverage had finally cooled down and related footage was only being shown within regular news programs. Then a breaking news report suddenly aired footage of the Tharsis Ruins completely transformed. More than half of the ruins and the base camp had been utterly wiped out. It looked like energy equivalent to a nuclear bomb had exploded all at once. You remember those shocking images, right?”

“Sorry. I don’t remember seeing it live. Of course, I’ve seen the explosion scene afterward since they kept replaying the footage over and over, but…”

“What, so you do know about it. Guess I wasted my explanation. Well, not really, but since we’re at it, I’ll tell you everything that happened afterward too. From the testimony of the few survivors, they learned that it wasn’t an accident, but an act of destruction. A giant Tarsian, exactly like the ones excavated from the Tharsis Ruins, appeared and attacked the investigation team. Just like you learned, the sealed footage was made public the following year. The one showing a group of giant Tarsians floating above the base. After that, things went just like we learned in middle school. Through a UN resolution led by the United States, the Tarsian Treaty was established, and each country independently declared a state of emergency by ratifying the treaty. Then, top priority was given to searching for the Tarsians. Where had they come from, and for what purpose? Of course, the worst-case scenario, that they came with invasion in mind, was considered first, so at the same time a planetary-scale defense system was constructed. It was improvised, but using the existing space forces of the major UN member nations as a foundation, the United Nations Space Force was organized…”

“I know that part. We learned it at school.”

Mikako nodded earnestly several times with a serious expression.

“And then, though I’m not sure exactly how it happened, we were chosen as selected members of the Tarsian investigation team and ended up going on a journey to search for the Tarsians.”

“Since we were chosen to represent the whole world, it’s an honor, isn’t it?”

“That’s true, but it doesn’t really feel real, does it? After all, the Tarsians haven’t appeared even once since then. I think it’s safe to say the idea that they came to invade us is probably gone, though…”

Satomi folded her arms and seemed to think for a while, but soon opened her mouth again.

“Oh, looks like we got carried away talking. We’d better hurry up and change or we’ll miss dinner. This is the only time we’ll be able to get fresh vegetables, after all. We should stock up on plenty of nutrition. Well then, see you in the dining hall. Let’s eat at the same table.”

Smiling, Satomi briskly closed the curtain.

The sound of the shower immediately began echoing again. Mikako also turned the shower knob once more, trying to warm her body, which had gone completely cold.

***

The dining hall was packed.

Every table was filled with young women around twenty years old.

About half of them had already finished eating but they seemed reluctant to leave and were absorbed in chatting. Among them were also girls who did not join the circles of conversation and instead silently typed emails on the mobile phones in their hands, perhaps to family they had left behind on Earth. The scene was just like a women’s university cafeteria.

Holding her issued ID card over the sensor and receiving a tray filled with food from the counter, Mikako looked around the dining hall for a seat. Several groups had already formed, and she could not easily find a seat where it seemed okay to just cut in on her own.

As she stood there at a loss, there was a girl waving her over, saying,『Over here.』

It was Satomi, whom she had met in the shower room.

While most of the others had slipped into relaxed mode in their matching issued sweatshirts, Satomi was wearing a denim top and bottom with wild confidence.

Mikako slowly and carefully made her way through the gaps between seats. It was only her second day since arriving on Mars, and she still was not fully used to the G, so if she was not careful, she felt like she might accidentally bounce up.

Whether Satomi had only just arrived, or whether she had been waiting for Mikako, her tray had not been touched yet. Taking the seat across from her, Mikako quietly set down her tray.

“Can I ask you something?”

Satomi asked while resting her cheek in her hand.

“I don’t want you to take this the wrong way but you’re pretty stubborn, aren’t you?”

Mikako could not understand why she would say something like that.

“…Why?”

“Because what you’re wearing is probably the jersey you used in middle school, right?”

Satomi said, pointing at the clothes Mikako was wearing.

“I heard clothing was free choice and this is the easiest and most comfortable…”

“That might be true but the main reason is probably something else, right? You want to stay as your middle school self. Isn’t that what it means?”

“That’s not…”

She tried to deny it but the words caught in her throat.

She had not consciously worn it for that reason but Satomi’s observation was certainly right.

“Sorry. That’s why I told you not to take it the wrong way…Now, let’s eat. All the vegetables are Martian-grown. Apparently, they cultivate them using plenty of frozen underground water. But since there isn’t enough sunlight, they grow more slowly than on Earth… Taro dressed with miso, and kinpira burdock. Even the miso in the miso soup, and the tofu and other ingredients, are apparently locally produced. Of course, the rice too. It’s enough to make you cry, right? I wonder if they went out of their way to grow Japanese food ingredients just for us. Anyway, let’s thank the staff. Itadakimaasu.”

“Itadakimaasu.”

Before picking up her chopsticks, Mikako took her mobile phone out of her jersey pocket and gently placed it beside her tray.

“Maybe it has something to do with the gravity, but the rice doesn’t seem cooked quite right, does it? Well, I guess we can’t afford to complain.”

Satomi said this while chewing a mouthful of white rice she had picked up with her chopsticks.

“Ah, this might upset you again, but are you maybe waiting for an email from him?”

She pointed at Mikako’s phone with the chopsticks in her hand.

“He’s not really my boyfriend…”

“Let’s see, let me borrow it.”

Satomi quickly reached out and snatched Mikako’s phone away.

On the standby screen was a profile view of Noboru, wearing a martial arts uniform with a tenugui wrapped around his head.

“Hm. He’s pretty handsome.”

Satomi grinned.

“Please stop!”

Mikako hurriedly snatched her phone back.

“A classmate? How far have you two gone?”

“It’s not like that.”

Mikako blushed and firmly denied it.

“Then did you confess to him?”

“I haven’t, and he hasn’t confessed to me either. We were in the same club, and we promised each other that it would be nice if we could go to the same high school, but…”

“I see. So he moved on to high school. But you’re on Mars, and your heart’s still stuck as a middle schooler…”

Mikako stopped her chopsticks and looked down.

“Ah, sorry. I’m such a mean woman, aren’t I? Since I don’t have a boyfriend, maybe I’m jealous because I envy you. You have someone waiting for you, after all. That’s really lucky. I’ll support your relationship too.”

“Thank you. Satomi-san, you’re a very honest person, aren’t you?”

Recovering her smile, Mikako took a sip of the miso soup made entirely from Martian-grown ingredients.

■ ■ ■

Noboru-kun.

On Mars, it was training the whole time.

Believe it or not, my results were good among the selected members.

I saw Olympus Mons and I went to Valles Marineris too.

Of course, I also went to the Tharsis Ruins. It was completely different from seeing them in a textbook.

The areas that had finished being surveyed and were open to the public were limited, like the remains of dwellings and places that looked like parks, but seeing them up close was really exciting.

It made me feel that the solar system never belonged only to Earthlings.

I could really feel that, long, long ago, far in the distant past, even before civilization was born on Earth, they had already built an advanced civilization. It was amazing.

Right beside the ruins, there was a memorial tower. It enshrines the spirits of the members of the First Mars Civilization Investigation Team who lost their precious lives in the Tarsian attack.

Why did the Tarsians do something so cruel?

Was it because we tried to reveal the secrets of the ruins without their permission?

If so, then their anger still hasn’t settled, has it?

Earthlings are trying to thoroughly expose the secrets of their civilization.

We immediately absorb the advanced technology we learned from them and apply it to all kinds of things.

The Lysithea is packed full of their technology too.

For example, sub-light-speed navigation and its drive system. Even more amazing than that is its ability to perform autonomous hyperdrive. It can warp a distance of one point five light-years all at once.

This time, using their technology, it’s our turn to chase after them.

The day when we set out into deep space after them is drawing closer with every passing moment.

Maybe my next email will be from the Lysithea as it heads toward Jupiter’s moon Io.

Tomorrow, we leave Mars.

Little by little, the distance between us is growing, Noboru-kun.

The time needed for emails to arrive is also becoming a larger and larger number.

Even when we reach Io, the emails will definitely arrive, right?

After all, Io has a proper relay base…

Well then, see you again.

From Mikako, who has excellent grades.

■ ■ ■