- Chapter 7 - Departure -

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Ares laid on a rock-firm bed in his ship's living quarters, savoring the mellow aftertaste of his partner's body. The cat-eared "angel" had accepted everything of his with open arms.

On the day the repairs should've completed, there was an unexpected problem. Although the superluminal drives should have been restored to optimal conditions, the attempt to re-ignite the drives had failed.

Syntia apologized profusely after declaring that another three days were added to the wait to rectify the issue. Ares forgave her as it would be better if the drives were thoroughly patched up instead of possessing a risk of catastrophic failure.

That night, he finally broke his abstinence. There was absolutely no reason not to enjoy the exquisite meal presented right in front of him. He was no saint, nor was he foolish.

— If only this moment of bliss could last forever…

Ares swore to take full responsibility of commanding and piloting <Synthesis> as well as to preserve the wellbeing of the living core. He knew that damage to the ship, no matter if caused by internal overheating or external strikes, would be felt by Syntia as well. That placed a significant limit on the decisions that he could make.

In the seven days of patient waiting, Ares had nothing to do other than research on the ship's systems and recount his exploits in <EPO> to the intrigued living core.

He felt a little bad when Syntia clapped and cheered at his exaggerated boasting. Game logic no longer applied in reality, and he was unsure if he would be able to demonstrate his self-proclaimed abilities.

Furthermore, the starship he ended up with was several magnitudes larger than anything that he had experienced piloting before.

— Who said that he wanted a battleship? Yes, that was me. How silly. I must be careful of what I wish for from now on.

<Synthesis>'s hull was a little longer than two kilometers. In <EPO>, a starship of that size was categorized as a capital-class ship and was only operated by NPCs.

The ship had a unique tri-hull design. Ares found that most of the armaments were mounted in the side hulls. Some of the weapons were hidden deep inside the spaceship, which made him wonder, how would these weapons be deployed?

Despite its bulky size, <Synthesis> was surprisingly maneuverable. The turn rates were comparable to the most nimble starfighter in the game.

After the thrusters were fully repaired, Ares tried to familiarize himself with the ship's steering. The variable thruster output levels allowed for precise movements but also made the learning curve extremely steep. Nevertheless, the skilled pilot got the hang of it within a few days’ practice.

The energy distribution management was another trial that Ares had to overcome. Such a mechanic existed in <EPO>, but it was far less sophisticated. Back then, he just needed to decide the priority in which of the three energy capacitors — system, engine, and weapon — would receive the power plant's output.

For <Synthesis>, it was way more complicated. Mana was dissolved in a liquid solvent and pumped through the pipes. Thus, the location of the components needed to be factored in when routing the energy flow. There were sixteen mana reactors and more than twice as many energy tanks, contributing to the complexity.

To Ares, it felt like playing an intricate puzzle game. He appreciated the existence of Syntia to help with the operations as one mortal human being simply wasn't enough to handle all the troublesome processes.

Ares continued to rest while recollecting the experiences of the last few days. The ship was capital-class. The weapons were capital-class. Even its living core's avatar's "bulkheads" were capital-class. However, the habitability and logistics capability of the ship were not capital-class.

Based on the specifications, <Synthesis> was designed as a gunship and nothing else. The creators did not even expect the crew to survive the grand battle against the enemy mothership. Despite the loss of the entire human crew, the ship's living core had managed to keep the ship running before she passed the baton to her successor.

The result was an extremely compact cabin equipped with sub-par facilities.

Before learning of the cold, hard truth, Ares thought that the ship's cabin would be luxurious. Such a starship should be operated by tens or even thousands.

But no. It was packed with a large array of reactors, energy tanks, and weaponry. The effective inhabitable space was only the spherical bridge area and one rectangular box-shaped compartment in front of it, which contained the dormitory area.

Ares felt that it was even worse than a residential college room. There were two sets of triple bunk beds and two rows of personal lockers, separated by a 2-meter-wide corridor. At least, there were curtains so he could at least have a little bit of privacy. Still, it was worrying if he were to acquire more crew members.

Furthermore, if he compared this room with a stable, then the rations were hay. The food was palatable, but after having had the same meal for a whole week every day in a row, it became torture.

In the pantry located right below the upper floor of the bridge, there was no sign of electrical appliances other than a single water dispenser and a garbage compactor. A dining table with six seats was installed in the middle of the room.

Adjacent to the pantry was a small and cramped washroom. The first time Ares had to use the facility, he was appalled by the awful design where a shower head was placed right above the sitting toilet. Only the most "intelligent" starship architect would do that, he complained.

There existed a hatch door at the end of the living quarters, but Syntia had advised against exiting the inhabitable area. Environment regulators and inertia dampeners were not turned on in any of the other compartments to save energy.

Thinking about having to disembark from the ship made Ares feel concerned about the future.

— Do extraterrestrial civilizations actually exist like what was depicted in <EPO>? If true, how do we, as the crew of <Synthesis>, identify ourselves? What about money?

Thinking about the possible adverse outcomes made him sweat even though the cabin was air-conditioned.

Ares decided not to be a worrywart and just make the best of things. He closed his eyes and relaxed his senses.

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"Captain, reactors 14 and 16 have been successfully repaired. Diagnostic tests, 'all green'. <Spatial Drive System (Infernus)> is now ready for deployment."

"Great, now we can start a brand new adventure."

Ares and Syntia sat on their respective seats and cooperated on preparing for their voyage.

[[<Spatial Drive System (Infernus)>, online.]]

Through the touch panel, Ares entered the flight path of their journey into the system. They did not have a galaxy map nor have any ability to identify stellar objects around them. Thus, they could only point to a direction and ride the currents.

Ares once raised the concern if they could get caught by the gravity well of a massive star, get pulled out of hyperspace, and end up in an inescapable collision course. Syntia assured him that such an accident would not happen as <Synthesis>'s superluminal drives were not prone to the interference of gravitational waves.

"Syntia, what's the maximum range of the jump?"

"300 light-years, Captain. That will consume a large amount of manarium. We only have 3620 points left after the repairs."

"That's an impressive jump range. Hmm, about the manarium consumption…Does it imply that the jump will overload the reactors?"

"Affirmative. According to the calculation, it'll be best if we perform multiple jumps successively. The first jump will be approximately 48.32 light-years long, consuming approximately 1120 points."

"Not even one-fifth of the entire distance, yet it consumes more than one-third of our resources, uh. What if we jump the entire journey in one sitting instead?"

"It'll definitely deplete our reserves, Captain. Wait… Ah, sorry. We don't have enough manarium to reach the 'ether star' we were targeting…"

Syntia lowered her head and sulked. Even if <Synthesis> spent the entirety of the manarium stored, they wouldn't reach half of the distance.

"That's quite unfortunate…but it's okay. I believe that lady luck will shine upon us. Just perform the jumps. It's better than not trying at all. By the way, what is an ether star?"

Ares had learned the classification of stars based on their spectral characteristics from the game he had played. He was required to memorize the type of stars whose stellar corona could refuel his starship. He had also doused himself in the jet stream of neutron stars to increase the ship's hyperspace jump range temporarily. But ether stars did not exist in the universe of <EPO>.

"An ether star is a hypothetical celestial object that emits 'ether waves' instead of light, or maybe both. About ether… It's the primal form of mana."

"Yup. Guessed that it had something to do with mana."

"It was observed that intelligent beings could convert ether to mana, store mana, and then harness mana as spells and abilities. Some naturally occurring minerals and metal alloys also exhibit such properties."

"That's interesting. Did our homeworld have an ether star?"

"It was not confirmed, but according to the records, the atmosphere was constantly bombarded by ether waves. In fact, the Seven Arcs were built to shield against these waves."

Ares realized that the "toxic radiation" that annihilated his original body was ether. Those without aptitude for mana dropped like flies as if they were vaporized by a gamma-ray burst when the city's barriers went down.

"I see. So, we're heading to a sector with high ether concentration, right?"

"Affirmative, Captain. We believe that on a planet exposed to strong ether waves, we could find manarium, especially in its ore form."

"Mm, understood. Alright, let's get started with the departure."

"Acknowledged, Captain. Now executing the first jump."

Ares felt that having Syntia by his side was certainly cheating. He did not need to perform the required steps himself. The information display and input windows just appeared and disappeared on their own.

It was like using auto-docking modules in <EPO>. Eventually, he would need to consult her about the procedures as a contingency plan.

[[<Spatial Drive System (Infernus)>, shift to high energy mode.]]

"Destination locked. Unknown location, 48.32 light-years ahead. Overshoot allowed, no throttle adjustments."

"Alright, let's go!"

[[Thrusters, offline. Seat belt deployed.]]

[[Target destination vector aligned.]]

[[<Spatial Drive System (Infernus)>, charging.]]

The energy management interface was flashing red. The reactors have started overloading, even exceeding the usual maximum to provide bursts of energy to the superluminal drives.

300%…400%…500%…

Looking at the blinking warning signs, Ares acknowledged the tremendous manarium consumption of the superluminal drives. Nothing comes without a price, after all.

[[Five, four, three, two, one. Engage.]]

With a loud boom, <Synthesis> had entered "hyperspace."

Ares found that the visual effects were a lot different compared to the hyperspace that he woke up to. From the observations, he speculated that <Synthesis> had summoned a miniature wormhole. The superluminal drives could've ripped open a tunnel within space to shorten the journey. Hundreds of light-years could be made through within a couple of minutes.

"Wow…"

Energy waves and light rays were pulsating out of a black hole in front of the ship. Ares felt that the scenery was even more intense than in the game.

"Captain, we will return to normal space in 30 seconds. Then, we need around ten minutes to cool down and reload our reactors before initiating the next jump."

"Alright. I'll get a quick shower during the downtime."

[[Reaching destination in three, two, one…]]

*BOOM!*

[[<Spatial Drive System (Infernus)>, shift to low energy mode.]]

After exiting from hyperspace, <Synthesis> emerged near a blue gas giant with a thin but wide planetary ring.

— Great, it's a star system.

Ares turned his head and found a fiery orange star in the 3 o'clock direction.

While the ship was gradually decelerating from superluminal speeds to perform a "safe disengage," the starship pilot unbuckled his seatbelts and hopped down the stairs towards the washroom.

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"Captain, we picked up distress signals."

"Huh, how did you know?"

Garbled words came out of Ares's mouth. It was stuffed full of food that he had picked up on the way back from the washroom.

"Our systems captured electromagnetic pulse patterns composed of three short, three long, and three short. According to the database, it's a distress signal known as 'SOS.'"

Ares did not expect that they would encounter a civilization that soon.

"Syntia, is it possible to triangulate the source of the signals?"

"Sorry, although we were able to confirm the direction of the pulses, we couldn't estimate the distance. Our rangefinder isn't working for now."

"Damn, what a bummer. Sadly, we will have to give up on this contact."

Without the ability to obtain a precise location, it would be very unfeasible as if they were looking for a needle in a haystack. Though regrettable, Ares has to make a hard decision.

"Acknowledged…Wait, Captain, great news. We've captured mana signatures that originates from the same direction as the distress signal."

"What? Mana?"

"Yes. There is a high chance that manarium is present in the sector."

"Great, that's what I call interesting. This way, even if we can't pinpoint the exact location…"

"Successfully identified the source location. It's around 5500 light-seconds away."

"Oh, we did?"

Ares checked the coordinates displayed on the touch panel. It was a little off-course, but they could recover pretty easily.

"Alright. Change our course towards the distress signal."

"Understood, Captain. Now engaging 'supercruise.' We'll reach the destination within three minutes."

As the ship accelerated past light speed, Ares stretched his arms and began to anticipate what awaits him at the point of interest.

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