Chapter 6 – September 2047 – Sirius

The point where the Lysithea fleet warped out—〈Sirius Line β〉—was a void space wrapped in darkness, devoid of any nearby star systems.

Mikako experienced the moment of warp while lying on the Tracer that was being retrieved and carried into the garage.

As the countdown echoing through the ship reached ten, all major power supplies were shut down, and the interior was swallowed by darkness.

The container carrying Mikako’s Tracer also came to a stop in orbit.

For safety reasons, the power inside the Tracer was forcibly shut down in sync with the ship and Mikako too was left all alone, enveloped in pitch-black darkness.

The sudden arrival of the Tarsians. And her first real combat.

Still unable to shake off the lingering heat of excitement, Mikako’s heart pounded doki doki, her breath came short and ragged, and her knees trembled.

More than the joy of victory, it was the overwhelming fear she felt when facing the Tarsians head-on that left a sharp, numbing impact on her body.

The indescribable terror of being surrounded by a prison of tentacles. The raw, visceral feedback of slicing through flesh with a beam blade. The pleasant fatigue that usually followed repeated training drills was nowhere to be found.

—This isn’t some after-school club activity!

Only now did Mikako, with no room left for denial, truly realize the gravity of what she had been dragged into.

All alone in the dark. She wanted to return to her comrades as quickly as possible and spill everything—what happened, what she saw, what she did. She felt that if she could just let it all out, it might ease this crushing heaviness inside her.

At the moment of warp, the booth shook. All around inside the Tracer, high-frequency creaking noises rang out. A never-before-felt discomfort surged through her, like each of her cells was being ground down with a mortar. At the same time, there was a strange sensation of her entire body being pulled upward—drawn in some unknown direction.

The warp was over in just a few seconds.

The Tracer’s power came back online, and shortly after, the container it rested on began moving again. An internal announcement rang out, declaring the end of the warp.

Though the ship’s mechanisms were quickly recovering, it took more time for the crew to start moving. The indescribable discomfort gradually faded, but the numbness and heavy sluggishness remained, rendering her unable to move.

—Ah… I have to tell Noboru-kun.

Twisting her body with all the strength she could muster, she stretched out her arm to retrieve the cellphone lying on the floor. Her fingers didn’t move properly, and she couldn’t write any more of the message. All she could manage was pressing the send button.

—I wonder if it’ll reach him…

Perhaps due to confusion over the current location, the phone took an unusually long time to display the estimated arrival time.

〈398 days, 13 hours, XX minutes, XX seconds〉

It was the phone’s humble way of expressing uncertainty.

—Noboru-kun must be in his second year of high school by now.

A wave of loneliness welled up within her.

***

Mikako crawled out of the Tracer booth and, after taking a shower, staggered back into the private room she had been assigned.

The moment she arrived, a summons came in.

It was from the bridge.

The living quarters of Mikako and the other Tracer pilots were strictly separated from the control staff’s living quarters centered around the bridge, and it was rare for members of both sides to meet face-to-face.

Mikako had never once seen any of the nearly thirty control staff she’d heard about aboard the ship. This was her first summons from the bridge, and when she learned that the one summoning her was not just the captain, but the fleet’s Supreme Commander, she was shocked.

The path to the bridge felt far longer than it actually was.

Waiting to welcome her into the Supreme Commander’s office was Commander Gilbert Lokomov, a man in his fifties with blue eyes. She had seen him many times in video messages, but meeting him in person for the first time made her nervous.

Greeting her with a gentle smile, Commander Lokomov spoke in smooth, fluent Japanese.

“Nagamine-kun, good work out there.”

He offered her a seat.

“Thanks to your excellent performance, we were able to gather valuable data on the Tarsians. I sincerely thank you.”

He extended his large hand for a handshake. Mikako accepted it.

“In recognition of your service, we’re considering awarding you something. Is there anything you’re lacking aboard the ship? Anything you want, anything you’d like to eat?”

So this was his way of saying he would give her a reward. It felt like she was being treated like a child, and she couldn’t be entirely happy about it.

“More than that, there’s something I want to ask. Please answer me properly.”

“Go ahead.”

Commander Lokomov straightened his posture at his desk and responded.

“Was it the right thing to do—to fight the Tarsians?”

The commander didn’t answer immediately.

“Are the Tarsians our enemies?”

The commander fell into thought.

“To be honest, I still don’t know. We don’t yet have any means of communicating with them. Even after analyzing a large number of artifacts unearthed from the Tarsis ruins, we couldn’t find a single clue that might help us understand their language. In other words, they might not even have anything equivalent to our written language.”

“So then… maybe it was a mistake that I fought them.”

“No, we had no choice but to fight. In fact, we’ve already had casualties. If we hadn’t fought, we would’ve been the ones wiped out.”

“Then, if we encounter the Tarsians again… it’s okay to fight them, right?”

“That will depend on the situation, but you’ll follow orders. Whether to fight or not—that decision is mine.”

“Understood. I’ll follow orders.”

Commander Lokomov nodded deeply, then shifted his tone slightly.

“Right. There’s one thing I wanted to ask you. During the battle, the Tarsians surrounded you with those tentacle-like things, yes? Do you think that was some kind of attack?”

“Well… it didn’t feel like an attack, but maybe they were going to attack afterward. They stared at me with those huge eyes… it was really embarrassing and made me feel gross.”

“They stared at you and it embarrassed you… I see. Maybe they’re also trying to understand us through trial and error. Hmm, thank you. You’re excused from duty shifts today. Take your time and rest. Oh, and the day after tomorrow, the fleet will be making a major move. We’ll be using a shortcut anchor to warp. Our destination is the Sirius system—8.6 light-years from Earth. If you need to contact someone, make sure to do it today or tomorrow.”

—8.6 light-years from Earth!?

Just hearing that made her feel faint.

***

【Noboru-kun,

Mikako is currently 1.1 light-years away from Earth.

You’re a second-year high school student now, right?

I wonder if yesterday’s message reached you properly. Sorry it was such a half-finished email. You probably already understand the general reason why there was no contact and why my messages suddenly stopped arriving for over a year.

It’s like this—the Tarsians suddenly appeared. And the hyperdrive decision was made so abruptly that I didn’t even have time to write a message.

I sent yesterday’s message right after we warped out, just because I wanted to let you know I was safe.

But I really must have made you worry. I’m sorry.

Or maybe… you got tired of waiting so long, and you’ve already forgotten about me, Noboru-kun.

Anyway, Mikako is doing fine.

By the way, today, I have something important to tell you.

Tomorrow, the fleet will warp again.

This time, we’ll be using a shortcut anchor to make a huge jump—really far. From Earth, it’ll be a distance of 8.6 light-years.

Mikako is really going off to a far, far corner of the universe.

And what that means is… from now on, it will take eight years and seven months for our messages to reach each other.

It’s like we’re lovers torn apart—one in space, one on Earth.

By the time my next message reaches you, you’ll be twenty-four years old.

I wonder… will you still remember me, Mikako?

Well then, goodnight.

—From Mikako, playing the role of a tragic heroine.】

***

The scene that greeted the crew of the Lysithea fleet after warping out evoked a strange sense of nostalgia.

A blazing crimson sun, and the planets revolving around it.

During the preliminary survey that led to the discovery of the shortcut anchor, it was confirmed that the fourth planet—named Agartha—had an environment very similar to Earth.

On the eve of the warp, all of the Tracer pilots, including Mikako, were summoned to the lunchroom and given a brief lecture on the Agartha exploration plan.

In the short term, they would carry out ground surveys across the entirety of Agartha to investigate whether there were any traces of Tarsian civilization on the planet. In the long term, the goal was to establish a base on this planet and use it as a foothold for extending Tarsian investigations even deeper into space.

However, this was only the outline of the exploration plan; the duration of the survey would be determined based on its progress.

After the warp-out, the fleet immediately moved into orbit around Agartha.

They spent half a day taking satellite images, and using those, a fairly accurate map was created.

Based on that map, each ship was assigned a designated area for investigation. Then, each ship organized its own survey team, dividing the areas into grids and assigning specific zones to each team member.

The Tracers were split evenly between those descending to the planet and those remaining on the ship, operating on a twelve-hour shift rotation. The ground team would devote their twelve hours entirely to survey activities, while the standby team aboard the ships would rest and prepare for emergency deployment if needed. Though no clear end date was given for the operation, if everything proceeded smoothly according to schedule, the entire grid was expected to be fully explored within a month.

The ten ships descended and scattered across their designated zones.

And then, on the first day of the survey, about fifty Tracers from the first squad of each ship descended one by one to the planet’s surface—.

***

When they entered the atmosphere and the landscape below came into view, Mikako felt a wave of relief wash over her.

It was the first green she had seen in a long time.

The land of Agartha was covered entirely in shades of green.

Ever since being forcibly confined at the lunar base camp, she had lived surrounded by nothing but metallic, monotone hues. Nowhere within the solar system—no planet or satellite they had visited—had shown her the vivid colors that signified life.

Seeing Agartha’s greenery made Mikako keenly realize just how dry and barren the environment she had endured for the past year and several months had been.

Low clouds trailed across the sky, and through breaks in them, the light green of sprawling grasslands and the deep green of forests peeked through. As they descended in altitude, the details of the terrain became increasingly visible. There were mountains, hills, valleys, flowing rivers, and sunlight glinting off lakes.

The fifty Tracers that had descended together reached an altitude of a thousand meters above ground, then scattered in all directions like umbrellas opening outward.

Mikako flew toward her destination in formation with five nearby Tracers assigned to the surrounding area.

She could even see birds—or something like birds—flying in formation at low altitude.

It was a breathtaking view.

There really were stars beyond Earth teeming with life—and she, as one of the first to witness it, was seeing it all firsthand.

As they neared their respective assigned grids, the formation disbanded.

Mikako was alone.

She landed on the surface. All around her stretched gently rolling grasslands.

From the grass beneath the Tracer’s feet, small animals leapt out in surprise, momentarily illuminated by the sunlight before disappearing again into the grass.

Mikako’s assigned grid was a square roughly 100 kilometers per side—much larger than she had expected. If she tried to explore it properly, she’d never finish in time.

But Mikako followed orders and began her walking survey.

Step by step, the Tracer advanced across the earth.

She never thought the basic maneuvers they’d repeated so relentlessly on the lunar base would prove useful in a place like this.

As far as the eye could see, there were only grassy plains. There seemed to be no trace of the Tarsians at all—not even if she wanted to find something.

Thus began a monotonous march.

—But what kind of『traces』are we even looking for?

That there were no structures on the ground had already been made clear during the map creation phase.

Mikako manually piloted the Tracer for about two hours, then handed control over to the onboard computer.

She once again thought: this landscape really did resemble Earth.

And yet, a landscape like this didn’t exist on Earth.

Agartha’s nature was truly untouched, pure nature itself. The land was overflowing with life. But within that, there wasn’t the slightest scent—nothing at all—that hinted at the presence of intelligent life.

That undeniable difference made Mikako all the more nostalgic for Earth—for the familiar landscapes she once knew so well.

She walked for another two hours.

The grasslands began to rustle. A breeze had picked up. Dark clouds started to spread across the sky.

Mikako brought the Tracer to a halt.

—Ah, rain.

Like a brief summer shower,raindrops began to fall from the sky.

Struck by the rain, the Tracer stood motionless. The gathering rain repainted the colors of the land below. Beams of sunlight pierced through gaps in the clouds like spotlights.

As Mikako looked up into the sky, tears welled in her eyes.

—I want to feel the rain.

—I want to go to the convenience store and eat ice cream together.

Mikako closed her eyes and, as though releasing all she’d been holding back, cried out:

—I want to see you, Noboru-kun!

Tears streamed down her cheeks and dripped onto her uniform skirt, soaking it.

***

【Hello, twenty-four-year-old Noboru-kun.

It’s fifteen-year-old Mikako.

Hey…even now, I still love you so, so much, Noboru-kun.】

***

Mikako pressed the send button with a prayer in her heart.

—Please… let it reach him.

Ever since she was taken away, she had spent every day absorbed in training, completing the tasks given to her and acquiring new skills, with no time to reflect on herself. No—that wasn’t entirely true. She had deliberately thrown herself into all of it, so she could turn a blind eye to the unbearable absurdity of her situation.

But she had reached her limit.

Mikako cried. She cried with all her heart.

Tears she hadn’t shed for over a year poured out endlessly, overflowing and running down her cheeks.

She cried until she was empty, until she was exhausted, and then slumped weakly back into her seat.

Suddenly, she sensed someone’s presence.

—Who’s there?

The moment she opened her eyes, a blinding light burst into view.

In the blink of an eye, a flood of images flashed across her retina.

Her high-rise apartment building. Herself in kendo uniform. Waiting at a railroad crossing for a freight train to pass. An empty classroom. A messy desk. A chalkboard with a drawing of a heart and《Terao Noboru + Nagamine Mikako》scribbled inside it. Herself riding double on Noboru-kun’s bicycle. Leaning on his shoulder pretending to nap on the bus…

Each one a cherished memory, buried deep in the album of her heart.

But someone was peeking in—watching these memories through big, wide eyes.

For a brief moment, she caught a glimpse of a Tarsian.

Startled, Mikako raised her head.

There she was—herself, floating gently in the grassland, facing someone.

And before her stood a slightly younger version of herself.

“Hey. You finally made it here.”

The younger Mikako spoke gently.

“Becoming an adult means experiencing pain. But the two of you can go much, much farther—even to the ends of the galaxy. …So please, come with me. I want to entrust it to you.”

Mikako made a sorrowful face and shook her head like a child throwing a tantrum.

“But I just… I just want to see Noboru-kun… I just want to tell him I love him…”

Tears that she thought she had already cried out welled up once again.

Mikako buried her face and wept. Alone, in a middle school classroom, she cried with her head down on the desk.

The evening sun streamed in, painting the room in deep red.

“It’s okay. You’ll definitely see him again.”

This time, it was the grown-up Mikako who gently comforted the crying Mikako.

The adult Mikako then turned her back to leave. When she looked back, a railroad crossing and train tracks stretched between the two versions of herself. As Mikako tried to follow, the crossing gate came down. A JR freight train passed by right in front of her. And then—there was no one left.

The crossing and the tracks had vanished without a trace.

What spread out before her now was the grassland of Agartha.

At some point, the rain had stopped, and the leaves of the grass gleamed with vivid life.

—What was that? A dream? Was I… just dozing off?

Even if it was a dream, the images had been far too vivid.

—Was that really you? Were you a Tarsian? Why would you speak to someone like me, your enemy?

Startled, Mikako quickly looked around.

The Tracer was standing at the edge of a massive fissure in the earth.

—When did I end up in a place like this?

She bent the Tracer forward, crouching down as if to peek over the cliff.

“What… is this?”

It looked like a place she’d seen somewhere before.

—Yes, the Tarsis Ruins!

The remains of dwellings, identical in structure, were stacked along the cliffside as if clinging to it.

—Found it! Since it’s on Agartha… then these are the Agartha Ruins!

Just as she rushed to open the communication channel to report it, a sharp alert tone rang out—summoning her instead.

『Tarsians sighted. Tarsians sighted!』

The screen immediately switched to a mission map.

『Tarsians have appeared in multiple locations and are attacking the survey teams. All personnel, engage immediately.』

—Why? Is this what you meant by pain?

Something came screaming down from the sky at incredible speed.

It slammed into the ground about a kilometer away, erupting into a massive column of fire.

—Why do we have to fight?

Wiping her tears away with the back of her hand, Mikako’s expression shifted.

She now wore the face of a warrior.