After the captain vanished from the Galaxy, 864 days, 57 hours, 12 minutes, and 8 seconds had passed by system time.
The girl, who had glanced at the clock floating at the edge of her monitor out of habit, pushed the virtual keyboard to the corner of the screen and sank back into her plush chair.
“Haaah, where on earth are you hiding, Captain?”
At first, she had thought he had simply slipped out in secret.
After all, living as the captain of the Galaxy, a dreadnought-class space cruiser, was a fairly exhausting job.
There was an automated control AI, a first officer, and numerous operators to help ease that burden, but in the end, the final decision always had to be made by the captain.
Perhaps because of that, the captain would sometimes leave without saying a word, and though the first officer and crew knew about it, they never said anything.
It was his own way of catching his breath.
But this time was different.
Because there was not a single record in the Galaxy’s database of the captain having gone out, and the corridor CCTV from the day he disappeared had not captured so much as an ant.
One person had vanished as if evaporating into the vastness of space.
That was impossible unless he had something like a personal interstellar warp system.
In any case, once the crew of the Galaxy learned that the captain had gone missing, a great commotion broke out among them.
In truth, every single crew member aboard this ship had gathered because they had been drawn by the captain’s reputation.
In a sense, the captain had been their center of gravity, and now he had disappeared.
Quarrels and disputes among the crew that the captain would have stepped in to stop before now flared up into major incidents every time, because there was no one to mediate them.
In the midst of all that, the first to leave the Galaxy was a crew member with a very unusual background: a former space fugitive.
“If that guy’s not here, I’ve got no reason to stay on this ship.”
With those words, the man disembarked without hesitation on a terminal planet where they had briefly docked to replenish supplies.
The next to leave the Galaxy was the Thirteenth Imperial Princess of the Human Empire, who harbored special feelings for the captain.
“If Oppa isn’t here, then I have no reason to travel with you people, do I? I’ll find Oppa even if I have to do it alone.”
With those words, the girl disembarked on the Human Empire’s Third Colony Planet.
As one person after another began leaving the ship, each giving their own reasons, by the time a year had passed, the crew that had once numbered close to sixty had dwindled to only twenty-five.
By that point, everyone who was going to leave had already left, and after a meeting, those who remained came to one conclusion.
They would find that bastard of a captain who had disappeared without a word and drag him back.
And so their interstellar journey began.
***
There was something the captain used to say like a habit whenever he went to a resort planet.
It was, “When I retire, I’m going to go to some quiet rural planet where nobody knows me and live freely.”
In truth, it was not all that strange for him to say such a thing, because by that point, the captain of the Galaxy and his crew were already revered as heroes of the Human Empire.
Single-handedly destroying a swarm of space ants that dragged around a planet-sized nest while invading resource-rich planets, defeating a high priest chosen by an Outer Space god and possessing power comparable to a deity, bringing down Metatron, the leader of the machine angels who had rebelled against the Human Empire.
The captain’s life was, quite literally, no different from the sci-fi adventure action stories she had read when she was young.
Naturally, his face had been used in the Human Empire’s propaganda, making him nothing short of a galactic celebrity, and because he knew that fact well himself, it was something he always said as a joke.
But for the moment, that was their only clue, so the remaining crew members, including the Galaxy’s first officer, began traveling around outer planets beyond the influence of the Human Empire, focusing especially on planets where the captain seemed likely to be hiding.
Over the course of about two years, they visited a total of thirty-one planets, but in the end, they could not find even the faintest trace of the captain.
Not even on Terra, the thirty-second planet they had stopped by this time, and her homeworld.
“……”
At this point, she honestly began to have doubts.
Had the captain really disappeared of his own will?
What if someone from a hostile force had kidnapped him?
Or there was also the possibility that someone who adored him had secretly bundled him up and carried him away while he was asleep.
That guy planted flags practically as often as he ate.
But in the end, all of that was nothing more than speculation without any evidence, so she decided to end her rest.
“…Hm?”
And when she opened her eyes, for an instant, she wondered if there was something wrong with them.
Because before her eyes, there was a window of white light that had not been there a moment ago.
It was small, almost the size of a personal terminal.
‘What is this?’
It had been almost five years since she began living on this ship.
But she had never once witnessed a phenomenon like this.
Wondering what on earth it was, she rubbed her eyes and looked again, but the window of light still had not disappeared and remained before her.
It was at that very moment.
“Captain?!”
Beyond the tiny window of light, she saw the face of the captain who had gone missing nearly three years ago.
Which meant that what was in front of her might be an extremely small portal.
‘What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?’
Under normal circumstances, this was an important matter that required calling the others.
But no one knew when the window before her would disappear.
What if this extremely small portal vanished while she was away?
Then they might never find a way to locate the captain again.
Her judgment was swift.
‘I’ll send a message first.’
She pulled up the virtual keyboard she had set aside for a moment and sent a messenger message to the first officer.
「Sorry to bother you while you’re resting, but could you come to my room for a moment? It’s very important.」
The reply came back soon after.
「I’ll be there shortly.」
‘Good.’
With this, even if she disappeared from her room, the first officer would take care of the aftermath.
If things went well, they might even be able to trace the warp portal’s destination.
The faces of the other crew members aboard the ship flashed through her mind as well, but she shook her head.
In a situation where every second counted, she could not send messages to each of them one by one.
‘Right now, securing the captain is what matters.’
Having made up her mind, Yang Bibi touched the window of light before her with her finger.
***
The moment of warp was truly over in the blink of an eye.
Yang Bibi, who had warped from her room aboard the Galaxy to some unknown place, opened her eyes and, the moment she spotted a personal terminal falling toward the floor, instinctively lifted the top of her foot.
Tak!
The device landed gently on her instep.
‘Ten points.’
Feeling a strange sense of satisfaction, she greeted the captain she had met again for the first time in three years.
“Yo, long time no see, Captain.”
At that, the captain’s face filled with shock.
“Yang Bibi?!”
No matter how she looked at him, his expression said he had never imagined she would suddenly appear.
‘Judging by the look of things, connecting a warp portal to my room wasn’t something he did on purpose.’
In a way, for her, who had been searching for the captain, this was a stroke of heavenly luck.
“So, where is this? Captain?”
“Uh… the bathroom in my house.”
“No, that’s not what I mean.”
She almost flared up for a moment, but she forced down her anger.
After all, it had been about three years since she had last seen him, so hitting him the moment they met seemed a bit much.
“I’m asking what rural planet this is.”
Only then did the captain seem to understand, and he answered.
“This is Earth. It’s a planet with a civilization level very similar to the past version of Terra, your homeworld.”
“Aah…”
It was a planet that had never been included among the planets the Galaxy had traveled to.
To be honest, it was even her first time hearing the name Earth.
‘He really was hiding thoroughly.’
“No wonder your personal terminal felt strangely retro, Captain.”
Saying something different from what she was thinking through parallel thought processing, she returned the personal terminal she had just picked up to the captain.
‘More importantly, aren’t we way too close?’
Because everything had happened so suddenly, she had not been conscious of it, but at the moment, she and the captain were facing each other at a distance close enough for their noses to touch if either leaned forward.
Of course, the captain was sitting on the toilet, but because he was tall even while seated, it did not really feel as though he was looking down at her.
If anything, their eye levels were about the same.
Belatedly feeling embarrassed, Yang Bibi told the captain that they should go outside and talk.
“Shall we?”
At that, the captain nodded with a strangely dazed expression.
“Could you move aside for a second? There’s not much space.”
“Ah, yeah.”
Even if it had been three years since he retired, the way the sharpness he had possessed in his active days had disappeared felt somehow unfamiliar to her.
Rubbing his jaw, where his beard had grown out however it pleased, the captain rose from the toilet and opened the bathroom door without hesitation.
It was at that very moment.
Her eyes met those of a black-haired woman who had been staring intently in their direction from outside the door.
‘Is she the captain’s girlfriend, by any chance?’
That thought occurred to her, so she glanced sideways, but she did not see any particular sign of that.
At that very moment, the woman opened her mouth.
“Teacher, who is that girl?”
The instant Yang Bibi heard those words, she instinctively understood.
‘Ah, this one’s the jealous type, like that princess.’
So she decided to respond in kind.
“Captain, what’s with that woman?”