68. Nodoka
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68. Nodoka
The talks with Alze had concluded. Agirakana moved to the outer edge of the Hamilapiratara stellar system and then entered hyperspace.
Their destination was not the Sol system, but interstellar space approximately two light-years away from the previous Sol system where Agirakana had once drifted—now dotted with numerous hyperlane gates.
During negotiations with Alze, the possibility of constructing hyperlane gates within Alze territory had been considered, but both sides agreed it was premature and ultimately abandoned the idea. In the future, should trade or other activities take place, installing gates would likely be more efficient. Aside from that, Alze had expressed interest in technological exchange, but Agirakana saw no benefit in such a proposal and had already dismissed it during preliminary discussions.
Five days in hyperspace. With all external contact severed, there was no access to NET entertainment—boredom, pure and simple.
Lately, the usual cadre of admirals had all been preoccupied, rarely appearing in the admiral’s office, and with no one else around to pay attention, she sat in the office’s seat, conspicuously bored, idly watching the geological construction work taking place in the eighth and ninth outer layers projected onto the monitor atop the desk.
The process of rock fragmentation and layer formation went on and on—exactly the sort of scene that would bore anyone senseless within minutes. From a distance, even boulders measuring several kilometers across appeared no larger than pebbles, offering no sense of grandeur whatsoever. The work progressed at a glacial pace, giving no indication of meaningful progress. There was nothing entertaining about it at all. It was said that completing the surface shaping, a preliminary step in terraforming, would take several centuries yet.
Still, without so much as a flicker of boredom, I continued watching the scene unfold. Eventually, Maria—apparently unable to bear it any longer—brought me a cup of coffee and spoke up.
“Captain, I’ve prepared your coffee. Please, have some.”
I looked away from the monitor, turned toward her, and took the coffee from the mug she offered. Alongside it came a tea snack that seemed ill-suited to coffee—large, green mochi with mugwort in it.
“Huh, this too was made by Maria? Smells delicious.”
“Thank you.”
“Let me try… wow, good. Not too sweet, that’s the right balance.”
“You’ve put in some practice, I see.”
“Maria can do anything well, it seems.”
“I’ve had quite a few failures, but I don’t show them in public.”
“So you’re secretly grinding away. Impressive.”
A little flattery, and Maria’s cheeks flushed pink as she quickly changed the subject.
“Captain, after analyzing the data we obtained from the Hamilapiratara system, it appears that Admiral Marco will be awarded the rank of Marshal. She’ll also be promoted from fifth to fourth class peerage.”
“Good to have someone understanding on our side getting recognition over there. Was the Marshal title just a ceremonial honor, like in the old Japanese military?”
“Yes, her military rank remains Lieutenant General. Officially, she’ll be known as Fourth-Class Peer, Marshal of the Cosmic Fleet, Marshal Aisha Marco.”
“Sounds quite impressive, doesn’t it?”
"Should the captain also come up with something suitably grand? Something like 'First Emperor of the Great Agirakana Empire'?"
"Maria, you've gotten good at jokes. Didn't know you were so familiar with First Emperors."
"Yes, my current little obsession, besides cooking, is reading about such things—fictional histories, you know."
"Having hobbies is a good thing. It's nice to see the other bioid units starting to develop their own interests, too."
"Thank you. To return to the matter at hand, in Alze, government policy is decided by the Imperial Privy Council—an agency directly under the Emperor. It appears Marshal Marco will be appointed to that council. The two former marshals who held the position have been removed under the guise of medical convalescence."
"Removed? Does that mean they did something wrong?"
“Apparently, those two marshals held rather firm opinions against Agirakana. Given how dangerous it could have been for the Empire if someone high up had made unusual moves toward Agirakana at that time, their removal seems like a reasonably sound decision. The current composition of the Privy Council appears to be dominated by the moderate faction toward Agirakana, led by Admiral Marco.”
“Quite the expert on the matter, aren’t you?”
“This time, we managed to gather extensive, high-accuracy intelligence as Agirakana approached Azeen. If we can deploy the ground forces’ special operations unit to Azeen, we should be able to sustain that level of intelligence acquisition.”
“If we’re sending a unit, we’ll need to consider establishing an Embassy sooner rather than later.”
“Azeen already has multiple orbital elevators, so there’s no real need to insist on placing the Embassy directly on the surface, as far as I can tell.”
“Then?”
“We could deploy a single lightning squadron and use the flagship’s light cruiser as the Embassy?”
“Since there are no travelers involved, and the reason for the setup is swift communication with the other side and a buffer zone, that would work. Still, a light cruiser lacks proper welfare facilities, and if we’re not allowing personnel from Agirakana to disembark, wouldn’t a vessel with better amenities be preferable?”
“In that case, let’s repurpose the light cruiser’s hull, stripping it of offensive armaments to create a dedicated vessel.”
“That’s better. Can it be built right away?”
“There’s ample room in the light cruiser’s hull—complete in a few days.”
“As always, impressive.”
“Thank you.”
“Is that all for work-related matters? Anything else we should be thinking about?”
"Earth-related matters seem to be under control. The immediate priority is replenishing our antimatter reserves—particularly antineutrons—following this operation’s consumption, and dispersing probes around the Arze system. Both are proceeding smoothly, so there are no urgent matters at present."
"Then I suppose we can take it easy from here. I did promise recently to take Ichijō to Agirakana, so let’s arrange a pickup after the jump-out. The cherry blossoms near my Private Residence have already faded, but the irises by the garden pond should be blooming soon, wouldn’t you say?"
"The buds have grown quite large—likely in full bloom within a week of the jump-out."
"Let’s time Ichijō’s invitation to coincide with that."
"I’ll take care of the arrangements."
"Appreciated. Let’s call it a day here for now and head back to my Private Residence to tend to the garden."
"Then I’ll assist as well."
"Ah, thanks. That’s kind of you."