Two-Person Galactic Journey: Earth Was Destroyed While Imprisoned in Space Prison

Chapter 241

Chapter 241

"So, how's the reaction, Emotion?"

'As expected, there's no reaction from Lufate Gainun. It seems this wasn't the target region the space eel was trying to pass through.'

"Got it. Glad nothing happened."

This was the fifth region where a space eel had been observed. Kait let out a relieved sigh as he sat in the Queen Bee.

That said, there was no time to keep relaxing. When the space eel was observed in this coordinate, there had been a nearby planetary system. But now, that planetary system was no longer close. It was likely the period when it had moved away due to its orbital cycle.

Just to be safe, they had checked in advance, but there was no reaction from Lufate Gainun. It should be considered a coincidence that they crossed paths with the space eel's route.

"In that case, the destination must be that way."

He twisted his neck to look behind. The recorded route of the space eel. If it had gone straight after detecting Lufate Gainun, then this place was nothing more than a passing point.

Emotion finished her calculations and displayed a photo of the planetary system in their view.

'Within Federation territory... if it went straight from here, there are three planetary systems it could most closely approach.'

"Just to be sure, let's confirm. Are any of those planetary systems inhabited?"

'Among those three, no. Though it's possible we just haven't found them yet.'

"I'd rather not discover something that far out. We've already made too many new discoveries this time."

With a sigh, Kait turned the Queen Bee around.

In the Federation's history, there had been five regions where space eel approaches were observed. All of them were planetary systems inhabited by life. This was simply because the Federation hadn't deployed many artificial celestial bodies outside of life-bearing planets.

Of those, the places the space eels aimed for—the planetary systems contaminated by Lufate Gainun—were only two: Namibif and one other. Kait and Emotion weren't the only ones who felt relieved by that report.

How the space eels moved through the galaxy remained unknown. Whether the destination of the space eel that passed through this region was within Federation territory or beyond it was also unclear.

***

The Federation currently had no active hostile organizations. Due to its sheer size, it couldn't monitor all of space, nor was it capable of doing so. At most, it had deployed artificial celestial bodies near regions closest to unfriendly organizations.

As a result, that very fact could be said to have allowed many Lufate Gainun to infiltrate Federation territory—and it was also a future problem. That said, this wasn't solely the Federation's issue. After all, the only organization to have developed detection capabilities for Lufate Gainun so far was the Rare Species Conservation Agency.

Other organizations were likely also suffering from Lufate Gainun contamination. In that sense, the intelligent life in this galaxy had clearly been continuously losing to Lufate Gainun's survival strategy.

"Well, I can't take responsibility that far."

'Indeed. The dissemination of detection capabilities and the elimination of external threats should be the responsibility of each organization.'

In that sense, the Federation had a significant role to play.

Just like with the space tuna meteor swarm, internal recruitment within the Federation would likely increase again. Asheid had grumbled about it when they submitted a report a while back.

The four regions investigated after Namibif had not been contaminated by Lufate Gainun. And when they checked, there were no signs of budding life either. It was hard to say whether to be happy or sad. In any case, this confirmed that at least three space eels had only passed through Federation territory by coincidence.

"Well, that wraps up the range we can investigate."

'Yes. At this point, we have not identified any place that could be called a base for Lufate Gainun.'

"Right. So that means..."

'Should we assume that if it's from Lufate Gainun's base, they have some method of long-distance teleportation for the individuals they produce?'

Kait nodded deeply at Emotion's hypothesis.

No matter how much they examined the Lufate Gainun samples they had secured so far, they had not found any function that allowed long-distance teleportation on their own.

According to the report from Asheid, a part enabling short-distance teleportation was discovered in the 'comet-mimicking mobile mother body before it implanted the main larvae' captured in Namibif. It seemed several other new parts had also been discovered, and Uvols was pleased that research, which had previously stalled, was now progressing.

On the other hand, Kait and Emotion grew more uneasy about the topic.

The biology was simply too similar. Lufate Gainun was a creature that changed its nature by acquiring the biological traits of the host it parasitized. In other words, even if it parasitized a space eel in the same way, the larvae it produced wouldn't necessarily have the same traits.

Apparently, the Lufate Gainun infiltrating the Federation were individuals with a common ancestor. The two had made that prediction with confidence, which is why they referred to it as a 'base'. For individuals with a common ancestor and no long-distance teleportation capability, Lufate Gainun had spread too widely within Federation territory.

"Alright, Emotion. There aren't many regions that could be a clue. That leaves the space eel's route. Can you track it?"

'It's a bit difficult. They likely didn't teleport to a pinpoint location. If they drifted through space for a while before reaching a planetary system, then we're basically working with no clues.'

The coordinates of the region Lufate Gainun reached, the region where the comet-mimicking mobile mother body appeared, and the predicted route of the space eel. It was too little to go on to find a single location within Federation territory.

'What should we do, Captain? Even if we try to find candidate locations, there are quite a few.'

"Yeah... what should we do?"

The suggested locations numbered not in the hundreds, but in the thousands. Searching them one by one would be an enormous effort.

The Federation's star map displayed the candidate sites as red light points. Kait stared at the projection in silence, then suddenly voiced a question that came to mind.

"Hey, Emotion."

'What is it?'

"What do you think Lufate Gainun uses as materials for its base?"

'What it uses as materials... you mean?'

"Yeah. Based on our hypothesis, Lufate Gainun can't teleport long distances on its own. But if it's from a base, it can. That means the base has something that enables long-distance teleportation, right?"

'Like a ship from the Federation or the Corporation, perhaps?'

Kait nodded at Emotion's words.

But until now, the Federation had had almost no ships capable of long-distance teleportation. That was because of the space jellyfish. With Terapolapaneshio around, the Federation hadn't needed to improve its own teleportation technology. Until its relationship with the Corporation improved and they began receiving technical support, long-distance teleportation within the Federation had been the domain of the space jellyfish.

That would make the likely candidates Corporation or pirate ships. There weren't many ships that had sunk within Federation territory while retaining teleportation functions. During the space tuna incident, there had been a Fulgadonga copy that happened to be caught under such circumstances, but it was unlikely such coincidences would happen again.

In other words, it made more sense to think that Lufate Gainun had its own means of long-distance teleportation, rather than incorporating such ships.

"We already know, don't we? An entity closely tied to Lufate Gainun that's capable of long-distance teleportation."

'Space eel...'

"Yeah. Most likely, Lufate Gainun's base is the space eel itself."

Emotion did not object to that hypothesis. She judged it to be plausible.

But if that were true, it would mean there was a space eel that had not been caught by the Federation's surveillance network for a long time. That, too, seemed unrealistic. Even Kait, having said it aloud, felt something important was still missing.

"The space eel's teleportation reaction is different from normal teleportation, right?"

'Yes. It's different from both the Corporation's and Terapolapaneshio's.'

"Think we can find it?"

'Give me a moment. I'll check.'

While Emotion accessed the Federation's database, Kait could only wait. And that data consisted of an enormous amount of observational records from each artificial celestial body. No matter how capable Emotion was, it would take some time.

While he waited, Kait began thinking. If Lufate Gainun was using the space eel as a base, then Lufate Gainun must have gained enough control over the host space eel to manipulate it. That would mean—

Just as he was about to reach a hazy answer, Emotion's voice interrupted Kait's thoughts.

'I found it, Captain!'

"That was fast?"

'Yes. Reactions similar to the space eel's teleportation have been detected in several artificial celestial bodies. It seems a few investigations were conducted, but no space eels were discovered.'

Bingo. Lufate Gainun likely wasn't foolish either, and probably moved via short-distance teleportation right after completing a long-distance jump. Also, the size difference between space eels and Lufate Gainun was too vast. Even a near miss could have gone unnoticed.

'In the past, the Federation analyzed that the space eel's teleportation function might be using some kind of natural phenomenon. This might be the cause.'

"I see?"

The first time a space eel was discovered, Terapolapaneshio defeated it.

Based on that reaction, several artificial celestial bodies mistook Lufate Gainun's teleportation reaction for the space eel's and investigated it.

But they found nothing, and the teleportation reaction was deemed a natural phenomenon.

As a result, it's now believed that the space eel's teleportation uses natural phenomena.

The sequence was backwards, but it wasn't an unreasonable story.

"Can we narrow down the point of origin?"

'If we combine it with existing data, it's very possible. Though there might be some margin of error.'

"That's fine. It's still better than searching tens of thousands of spots."

'Agreed. Then please aim for this region.'

"Understood, here we go!"

They teleported the Queen Bee to the indicated point.

Contrary to Emotion's earlier warning that it might be off by a bit—

"Haha, bingo. As expected of you, Emotion."

'...Perhaps I've learned from the Captain's sharp instincts?'

"Let's hope so."

Kait and Emotion exchanged light banter, but their expressions were grim.

There it was—enormous. Far too enormous.

A Lufate Gainun so massive it evoked visceral disgust was growing out of what appeared to be a space eel.