[This is the vessel Prometheus. I am Admiral Nikolai. A pleasure to meet you.]
[Thank you for your hospitality, Admiral Nikolai. We are...]
Come to think of it, I still hadn’t decided on a name for our nation. I couldn’t introduce ourselves as the Legion, so what should I do?
It’s a nation that obeys a queen, so let’s just call it a kingdom. Like the Deneb United Nations, I’ll take it from the name of a star.
The planet Rushaka has a prettier name than the star Tylant, so should I call it the Rushaka Kingdom?
[We are an envoy dispatched from the Rushaka Kingdom, and I am Hihirak, a diplomat granted authority by Her Majesty the Queen.]
[Ah. Diplomat. A fine-sounding title. May God bless this meeting. How will you dock on our side?]
[We will do so.]
The thrusters of the Prometheus soon shut down, leaving it adrift upon the sea of space, and I moved the space whale over to the side of the vessel.
I brought the whale’s head close to the place where bright lights were blinking, as if to indicate the entrance.
But how were we supposed to cross over? Hirak couldn’t travel through space.
Mm. No idea. Whale.
Muuooong?
Bite.
Waang—
The enormous whale, as large as the ship itself, opened its equally enormous mouth. Then it bit down on the entire side of the vessel.
Now there wouldn’t be any gap, so we should be able to walk across.
Perhaps startled by the whale’s sudden, threatening movement, the ship seemed to grow somehow noisy. Ah, did I overdo it a little?
[My apologies. Our species’ docking techniques are somewhat rough.]
[N-No. I understand. Then I will open the door now. Just follow the path straight in.]
Clunk—
“You did well. Wait here.”
Muuumuum—
Taking two Raks with me, I set off.
Once we entered the ship, the open passage was a single path, so it looked like there would be no problem finding our way even without a guide.
The distinct smell that drifted in from every direction, like when riding an airplane, and the cold metallic warmth transmitted through the soles of my feet gave me a nostalgic feeling much closer to home than Rushaka with its blowing sandstorms.
It wasn’t some gigantic battleship like a battlXcruiser, but still, to think I would actually board a human space vessel I’d only ever seen in games—as an SF fan, I couldn’t help but be thrilled.
As I walked, I realized that because I’d made this body however I wanted without an expert, its feet were flat. I hadn’t noticed because the floors inside Rushaka and the whale were soft, but now that I was walking on steel, the soles of my feet hurt.
I’ll have to improve that once I get back to Rushaka.
As I walked along the single path, a door ahead began to open with a sound.
Psssh—
Whiiir, clunk.
A door that anyone could tell belonged to the most important person on board opened, and a man of grand build walked out, accompanied by several adjutants.
With his dignified mustache, the naval cap that seemed to mark him as an admiral, and the uniform draped like a cloak over his massive upper body, he looked for all the world as if he were declaring, I am the admiral.
With even the pipe clenched in his mouth as the crowning touch, he was the perfect image of an admiral.
“Hello. I'm Admiral Nikolai. I'm assigned to protect the southern border of the Deneb United Nations.”
Oh dear, I was supposed to not know English. I shouldn’t understand him.
“It seems the translation isn’t working, Admiral.”
“Umm?”
The admiral, showing his confusion, tried fiddling with the device attached near his neck several times, then struck it with his fist and, satisfied, put it back in place.
“Ahem, ah, my apologies. This translation module keeps causing trouble.”
The question of how we would converse when our languages were different was resolved the moment I actually faced the admiral. As expected, this really was a game world.
I had wondered about it even when we exchanged communications, but apparently there must be something like a galactic common language established by God. To think we could communicate this perfectly through communication waves.
The Legion’s communication waves did not translate into language; they transmitted a kind of thought. Humans shouldn’t be able to sense such thoughts, yet it seemed to be detected as some other kind of signal.
From the Legion’s perspective, since we conversed through thought waves to begin with, even without something like a translation module, speaking normally was practically the same as being translated. It was truly fortunate.
But judging from the admiral’s muscles and all, he was clearly supposed to be a sturdy man, yet his eye level was below mine. It seemed I had made Hirak far too huge. That couldn’t be helped. It was a body I had made by feel, kneading away inside an empty cocoon.
As if proving that immense size, Admiral Nikolai, who stood around two meters tall, was looking up at Hirak.
“Let me greet you again. A pleasure to meet you. I am Admiral Nikolai. I am in charge of the southern border of the Deneb United Nations.”
After saying that, the admiral held out his right hand.
Did that mean he wanted a handshake? Pretend not to know. Pretend not to know.
“Goodness, perhaps I’m nervous, because I keep committing discourtesies. This is called a handshake. In the Deneb United Nations, we clasp each other’s hands to express respect toward the other party.”
“I see. I understand. A pleasure to meet you, Admiral.”
Hirak’s hands had long, powerful claws, making them unsuitable for a handshake, so I instead extended a single long claw in front of the admiral.
Seeing that, the admiral grinned broadly, grasped the claw, and shook it up and down with great vigor.
“Hahahaha! Excellent! An envoy this considerate is rare.”
Soon after, I followed the admiral as he strode confidently back to the bridge, his cloak fluttering as if telling us to follow.
The sight of the bridge looked exactly like the human bridge I imagined when I thought of SF. A galactic map displayed as a hologram. Crew members operating complicated-looking machines. The view of outer space visible through a gigantic glass window.
And when I headed to the seat under the admiral’s guidance, there was a sofa. This was where making the body bipedal really paid off.
“Since we know nothing about your species, we have nothing prepared. I believe we have exchanged enough greetings, so how about we get straight to the point?”
“Very well. First, I should explain the movements of our fleet.”
“Haha, straight to the most important topic, then. Very well.”
I quickly organized it once more in my head. The main points were: the nation had recently undergone a leadership change due to civil war. That caused military movements. Unlike the previous leadership, the current leadership was peace-oriented. Good.
“First, I would like to inform you that the Rushaka Kingdom recently entered a state of civil war, and that it has now ended.”
At the heavy topic brought up from the very start, the wrinkles between the admiral’s brows deepened.
“That is truly unfortunate news. Is it all right for you to tell us such important information?”
“Yes. Since it is already a matter of the past, there is no issue. I will continue. It was a civil war to end the reign of the ferocious and aggressive former queen. Our species possesses powerful reproductive ability and adaptability, so we do not favor leaving remnants behind. Therefore, when it was confirmed that the former queen’s remnants had fled to the planet Solar-03, we were forced to take unavoidable measures to exterminate them.”
After hearing the story, the admiral fell silent, seeming to sort out his thoughts.
By the time the wrinkle between his brows looked as though it might bore all the way down to the inner core, the admiral seemed to finish thinking and opened his mouth.
“I see. That certainly explains things. Then the reason there had been no particular diplomatic contact until now was also...?”
“As you expect. The former queen had no interest in diplomacy with other civilizations. Though she was the former queen, she was still one of our species. I regret that we caused you needless concern.”
“I see. So that was it. In that case, our United Nations’ warning was hasty. I cannot speak on behalf of the United Nations, but personally, I offer you my modest apology.”
“Not at all. I understand.”
The conversation with the admiral flowed smoothly. Rather, it was so smooth that it felt suspicious. I was deliberately speaking in a friendly manner because I wanted to get along with the Deneb United Nations, but did the Deneb United Nations have any reason to do the same?
Since I knew absolutely nothing about diplomatic rhetoric, I was just saying whatever came to mind, yet the flow of the conversation was extremely amicable.
Moreover, even if I gave the reason of exterminating the former queen’s remnants, that did nothing to explain the “inhumane act of invasion committed against the Solar System” mentioned in the warning sent by the United Nations—that is, the matter of the natives’ position. Yet the admiral seemed to avoid mentioning it, as though what I had said was enough.
“Now that the civil war has completely ended, our fleet at the border region will withdraw.”
“Ah, it is quite all right. It is only natural for a fleet to move about within its own borders.”
Was that warning truly just to confirm whether we were intelligent beings? Or did the United Nations not want to make enemies of us?
Whatever circumstances were going on behind the scenes, I had ultimately decided to pursue friendly relations with the Deneb United Nations, so I should just consider it all for the best.
“This is our first time interacting with another interstellar civilization, so I hope we will continue steady exchanges in the future.”
“Mm. Glad to hear it. Our United Nations thinks the same.”
The conversation with the admiral concluded in a warm atmosphere. After that, the United Nations’ working-level officials and our own working-level representative, Hunterrak (which I was controlling), discussed what kinds of exchanges the two civilizations could have.
Since we still could not fully trust one another, we decided to begin with small treaties, such as sharing interstellar maps with each other and opening the borders only to exploration vessels.