Fantasy Galaxy: Why Are There Goblins and Orcs in Space?

Chapter 7 : Food and Water

Having acquired the maintenance robots, we returned to the small spacecraft and ordered them to inspect and service the ship.

After that, we continued exploring the space port. What we were searching for was water and food. The small spacecraft had a bare minimum of water aboard, but I judged it insufficient. As we advanced through the space port's corridors, we spotted Goblin soldiers from the Mobile Space Corps crossing a passageway ahead. Sario and I ducked into a nearby corridor and hid.

Once the Goblin soldiers were out of sight, relief washed over us.

「What do we do?」

I asked Sario over the communication device. We had changed the frequency on this channel, so there was no chance the Goblins would overhear.

「Let me shee. Let'sh inveshtigate what'sh ahead down thish corridor.」

We started down the corridor and along the way discovered an evacuation shelter. We passed through the airlock and entered, whereupon lights suddenly flickered on. The power supply here was still alive, it seemed.

「It appearsh there'sh air in here.」

Sario said this and removed his helmet.

「Is that safe?」

I asked in alarm, and Sario nodded.

「If it shmellsh weird, I'll jusht put it back on.」

For a Shiba Inu who lived in space, he was awfully unconcerned. I removed my helmet too. This shelter appeared to be equipped with an air purification system - the air was clean, without any odor at all.

The shelter measured twenty meters on each side, and roughly thirty storage containers were secured along the walls. We started cracking them open one after another.

「Rotten food again.」

Five boxes in a row contained food that had gone bad with age, but when we opened the next storage container, we found water stored inside something resembling a transparent polyethylene tank.

「Sario, water!」

「Really?」

Sario came over to verify. Inside one storage container, the water was divided into transparent tanks totaling roughly nine hundred liters. Water stored in shelters like these was apparently what they called permanent preservation water. It contained no impurities that could cause spoilage, so it would never go bad - ever.

「We're shaved. The water shtored on the shmall shtarship alone wash making me nervoush.」

We kept opening box after box and discovered approximately six tons of water. When I asked Sario, he confirmed we'd secured enough water for the foreseeable future.

In addition to water, the shelter also contained brand-new information terminals. Brand-new being a relative term - they'd been new an eternity ago - but the terminals were undamaged and still functional. Civilization Level C technology was something else.

The terminals were eyeglass-type devices, also called smart glasses, which when worn on the face projected information onto the lenses in front of the eyes. Operating them apparently required a language called shortened language in conjunction with eye-gaze direction and a glove-type controller.

I had no idea how to use them, but Sario and I each secured one. Smart glasses existed on Earth too, but on their own they could only perform simple functions. Doing anything complex required connecting them to a smartphone, computer, or game console via a communication line.

By contrast, the Anubis Race's creations - Anubis-made for short - could perform at a level surpassing high-end computers using the smart glasses alone, capable of executing a wide range of functions.

Furthermore, they had no nose pads or temple arms that hooked over the ears. Instead, the bridge connecting the left and right lenses had an adhesion pad that was pressed firmly against the forehead between the brows. Since we were short on time, I decided to have Sario teach me how to use them later.

As we continued examining the storage containers after that, Sario discovered something.

「Oh!」

「What is it?」

「I've dishcovered a food production devicshe.」

Hearing that, I was ecstatic. This brought us one step closer to freedom. But a food production device had to require some kind of raw material. There was no way the device alone could produce food.

「That's incredible. What kind of food can that device make?」

「Preshervation food tubesh.」

My shoulders sagged. Those preservation food tubes were the one thing I'd been praying I'd never have to eat again.

「But what about raw materials for the preservation food tubes?」

「Thish devicshe ish alsho known ash a monshter proceshing unit. The raw materialsh are Shpashe Clione and Shpashe Jellyfish.」

So that's what they were made from. My enthusiasm plummeted in an instant. On top of that, I'd had no idea monsters could be turned into food. Space Jellyfish were nearby, so it seemed feasible to kill them and convert them into rations. But still...... preservation food tubes.

We continued searching the shelter after that, finding clothes and daily necessities. We secured everything that looked usable. We transported the water and food production device to the hangar where the small spacecraft was stored. Inside the hangar, the maintenance robots were servicing the small spacecraft, and it looked like one more day would see the job done.

Sario relayed the report he'd received from the maintenance robots - the ultra-compact fusion reactors and compact plasma engines had checked out without issues. The air recycling and purification system had some problems, but they'd been repaired. Incidentally, these ultra-compact fusion reactors were a type that ran on deuterium alone.

We searched the space port for food after that as well, but failed to find any and returned to the small spacecraft. Then we fired up the ultra-compact fusion reactors, which had completed their checks. They started up without a hitch, and I breathed a sigh of relief.

The maintenance robots also ran on electricity, so it was fortunate the ultra-compact fusion reactors came online before their batteries died. The air recycling and purification system kicked in as well, and inside the small spacecraft we could now remove our Mobile Armor and space suits and live comfortably.

Sario and I took off our space suits for the first time in ages and relaxed. For clothing, we used what we'd found in the shelter.

「Thish shmall shtarship cannot travel to another shtar.」

I already knew that. This was an interplanetary spacecraft. It wasn't an interstellar spacecraft, so faster-than-light travel was out of the question.

「How do we get off this planet?」

「I don't know yet. But I believe we'll have our chanshe.」

Sario didn't lie. I was sure he was telling the truth, but the uncertainty gnawed at me. We continued investigating every corner of the space port, hauling anything that seemed useful back to the small spacecraft.

Among those finds were propellant for the plasma engines and space suits. The Anubis-made space suits outperformed our Goblin-made Mobile Armor. They just weren't suited for combat.

With the small spacecraft's power restored, Sario ran the electronic systems' self-diagnostic program. There were no issues, so he booted up the ship's Control Brain. At that time, we registered both myself and Sario as crew members. There were security measures in place, of course, but they were an older type, so Sario was able to bypass them.

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It had been roughly three days since the Goblins abandoned us. In that time, all we'd had was water - not a single bite of food.

「Let'sh go hunt shome Shpashe Jellyfish.」

We donned our Mobile Armor and headed for the Docking Bay. We crawled through the airduct until we reached the exit into the Docking Bay and peered inside - two Space Jellyfish were drifting through the vast space. No Goblins in sight.

I checked the remaining ammunition for my space machine gun. Only fourteen rounds left. Every bullet was precious, so I needed to make them count. Sario and I discussed our approach and decided to take the Space Jellyfish down one at a time.

The moment the two of us burst into the Docking Bay, the Space Jellyfish noticed and drifted toward us. Their locomotion resembled ocean jellyfish. They inflated their entire bodies into a sphere, then expelled gas from their rear to propel themselves forward.

The two Space Jellyfish conveniently split up. I observed the one approaching me - it was roughly eight meters across, and I could make out a red core at its center.

I was going to drop it in one shot. To do that, I had to let it get close. Standing your ground while a colossal monster bears down on you takes nerves of steel. My heart pounded in my chest, my breathing quickened.

I held my fire until the Space Jellyfish was on the verge of making contact, then pulled the trigger. The explosive round burrowed into the Space Jellyfish's body, struck the core, and detonated. Just as planned, one clean hit had destroyed the core.

Sario brought his down with two shots. We called in the maintenance robots to dismantle the Space Jellyfish carcasses. With the robots' help, we butchered the jellyfish and transported the remains to the small spacecraft.

The food production device we'd brought aboard the small spacecraft came with a large supply of empty tubes as accessories. Using the Space Jellyfish carcasses as raw material, we were able to mass-produce preservation food tubes.

The total output: three thousand meals' worth. At two meals a day for two people, that was seven hundred fifty days' supply. The moment I did that math - over two years of eating this stuff - a wave of dizziness hit me.

「With thish, we won't have to worry about food for about two yearsh.」

「Eating this garbage for two-plus years? Absolutely not.」

I gave voice to my honest feelings. Hearing that, Sario laughed.

「It's not funny. Aren't there any monsters out there with meat that actually tastes good?」

「Monshtersh that live in shpashe are moshtly terrible. But apparently, among the onesh that have shettled on planetsh, shome have meat that'sh quite delishioush.」

If I wanted to eat good monster meat, it seemed I'd have to get to a planet first.