Chapter 5: You Can’t Change the World Alone

“Full speed ahead, men!”

The pirates’ cries echoed throughout the main bridge. The ship raced through the open gate to planet Estashion, heading straight for the central energy storage facility.

“So, the whole place has been taken over by a pale lump of flesh?” I asked Iris.

“That’s right. What is this stuff? It’s disgusting!”

It wasn’t long before we could see it for ourselves on the cameras. The new pirate ship’s hull and the storage facility were connected together by a lump of bluish flesh. It was bubbling up in places, and there were veins visibly running along its surface.

That was probably... Squallow. The Berserker Cells could change a body into anything. Shirley was probably using the master chip to fuse his body with the machinery like some kind of twisted cyborg.

“Even if she’s got the know-how as an engineer... that’s crazy,” Raul whispered.

“Yeah... You’re right.” I nodded.

To be honest, it was awful to look at. But we had to press on.

“But why aren’t the other warships around attacking us? We’re a pirate ship, too. I don’t understand why they don’t think we’re together.”

“Shirley is probably down at the bottom of her ship right now. She’s busy taking over the facility and tuning up the master chip amplifier. Those aren’t things she can leave to the pirates, after all.”

“But her men can still see us, right?”

“Everyone on Estashion, including the pirates, is currently under her control. But that doesn’t mean that Shirley sees everything they see. Until she gives them orders, they’re no different than dolls.”

“...Dolls, huh?” Rosalind looked disgusted.

I didn’t say anything, but I felt the same way.

Was this really the world that you wanted, Shirley?

“This gives us a chance though, right?” Raul asked. “Let’s head right up next to it and dock, Fam.”

“I know that!” Fam yelled. Her eyes were fixed straight ahead—she was staring at what used to be Squallow.

The pirate ship broke through the clouds, flew through the sky, and eventually reached the hijacked ship above the energy storage facility.

“What do we do now?”

“We get up on top of it so it can’t take off. Then we fire anchor rails for boarding and use them to break inside!”

There was a rumbling, and our ship landed directly on top of the one Shirley had stolen.

“Men! Let’s go!”

The pirates cheered as they headed for the transporter on the main bridge. Just like the short warp that had taken us from the dock to the coast on Berano, this transporter could instantly teleport us to the anchor rails.

“Iris, we’re about to board Shirley’s ship! Get out of the storage facility and save as many Estashionians as you can!”

“Got it!”

“I’m counting on you!”

I ended the call and turned towards everyone on board.

“Okay! Are we ready?”

“Indeed.”

“Yup!”

“...!”

Rosalind, Tetra, and Rain all looked ready to go.

“Yeah! But... this is a little hard to move in.”

Fam answered boldly, but she was looking a little uncomfortable in her tight outfit. I’d had her change into what she needed to wear for the job I wanted her to do, but she didn’t seem to like it much.

“Raul, Garnet, I’m counting on you, too.”

“Of course.”

“Sure, sure. I’ll make it happen, I guess.”

I’d asked both of them to do an important job, too. Garnet had undergone some repairs during the warp, and could now just barely run. It would be tough, but I asked her to do her best.

“Okay, here we go!”

We got inside the transporter and instantly moved to the bottom of the ship we were on.

“What’s this slide thing?”

“The anchor rails. We use them to get inside the enemy ship.”

Fam gave me the rundown, briefly explaining how they used large tubes that they fired right into the enemy ship in order to board it. One after another, people were hopping into the slide, which was almost a sheer drop, by the way.

“Nwaaah! Wait, huh?!”

Halfway down, I realized that I had no idea how I was going to land. But just before the slide came to an abrupt stop, I felt like I passed through a thin membrane, and I ended up landing on the floor with very little impact, as if I’d been caught by a cushion.

“Space technology is always so amazing... Bwuh!”

“Don’t stand at the bottom of the slide, dummy!” Fam, who was the next one down, yelled as she landed on me.

And with that, we were inside the enemy vessel.

“Okay, let’s head for the bottom where Shirley is.”

Garnet and the pirates who’d worked on the ship knew its layout well. Since Garnet couldn’t run, we had the pirates take the lead, but the path there wasn’t without its obstacles.

When we turned the corner, we were faced with men and women silently staring at us like zombies. Shirley’s pirates were blocking our way.

“Tch. I guess she felt the impact from when we landed on top of her,” Raul said.

The Seageists with us set their blades and laser guns to non-lethal and began to fight.

“Everybody, don’t forget to hold back! Just keep them busy here until we can save the boss!”

Fam, me, the other girls, and a few of the pirates split away from the main group and headed for the lower floors while the rest of the Seageists kept Shirley’s mind control subjects distracted. Our job was to save Squallow.

“Please come this way. There is a teleporter in this room that will take you to the bottom.”

“Gotcha.”

I followed Garnet’s lead and entered the room she indicated. Sure enough, there was a teleporter in the corner. We stopped for a moment to catch our breath. Once we used the teleporter, we’d be face-to-face with Shirley and Squallow.

“Tetra, Rain... are you ready?”

I was most concerned about the two of them. Their stamina wasn’t as good as the others’.

“Yes... I’m all right.”

“Let’s hurry.”

Neither one looked like they were ready in the slightest, but they both nodded assuredly at me.

“Don’t worry. I’ll always be there to bail a girl’s butt out when she’s in trouble. Oh, but I don’t mean that in a dirty way.”

“Maybe you just should’ve left that last part out? Well, whatever. Thanks, Raul. This plan depends on you.”

“Sure thing. Want to go over it one last time?”

We went over the plan again and finished the last of our preparations.

“All right! Here we go.”

I slapped myself on the cheeks to fire myself up, then got inside the teleporter.

▽

The bottom of the ship’s hull was lit, but it certainly didn’t seem bright. It wasn’t cramped, but it wasn’t too big, either. And most importantly, in the center of the room were Squallow and Shirley.

“Guuuuuh...”

Squallow seemed to have grown even bigger than the last time I’d seen him at first glance. But when I looked closer, I realized that I could only see the top half of his body. The lower half seemed to have gone through the floor and fused with something else... probably the energy storage facility.

Behind him was a machine that looked like a tiny tower, and it seemed to be running right now. Was that the master chip amplifier?

“Boss.”

“Captain.”

“Captain Squallow...”

Fam and the other pirates all called out to their now disfigured leader. Some were gritting their teeth, and some were just too shocked to react much at all. But then everyone looked at the person who’d done this to him—Shirley. She was wearing a white lab coat and had her hair down now. Behind her glasses, cold eyes indifferently observed all of us.

“Rekka... So, you survived, huh?” There was a slight tone of shock in her voice.

“I was lucky, yeah.”

“Was it Raul there who saved you? I thought the only thing he was good for was keeping himself alive. I guess I was wrong. I think I even remember using a Time Stop on Rosalind, too, or was I mistaken?”

No one answered her question.

“Hmph. Well, it doesn’t matter. Now that you’ve come back from the brink of death, what are you doing here? Did you come to stop me?”

“I came to save your story.”

“My ‘story’? That’s a strange way to put it. You make it sound like a fairy tale.” She giggled at me. “But you know, Rekka, if you really mean that you want to save me, then leave this planet now. Or do you want to be mine after all?”

“Are you asking if I want to join your ideal world? I already said no.”

“That’s why I’m asking again.”

“It doesn’t matter how many times you ask. The answer is still no.”

Her eyes narrowed as she glared at me.

“Then...”

“Shirley! Stop it!” Tetra took a step forward and yelled.

But all that did was annoy Shirley.

“Tetra, you’re going to refuse, too, aren’t you? Even you don’t want to join my ideal world. There really isn’t anyone I can trust, is there? So all of you can just disappear.”

“Guuuuuh...”

Squallow began to move.

“Raul, take care of Tetra and Rain for me!”

The noncombatants moved back while everybody else spread out and made a break for Shirley.

“Squallow, first aim for that gremlin.”

Man, I knew Shirley would go for Fam. Fam had already succeeded in destroying part of the master chip, even if it was only after her powers had gone out of control. Of course she’d be cautious about her. But I’d expected this.

“Hmph! That was the most obvious move you could’ve made.”

Rosalind blocked Squallow’s blow before it could reach Fam. Since I knew she’d be a target, I’d assigned her an escort ahead of time. And since she was focusing on Fam...

“Shirley!” I shouted.

“Get her!” the pirates all cried.

The pirates and I kept our distance from Rosalind and Fam, spreading out in a wide fan as we charged for Shirley. Destroying the master chip wasn’t the only way to put an end to this. If Shirley was knocked out, she wouldn’t be able to control Squallow anymore, and we could destroy the amplifier. To that end, we were using Fam, the greatest threat, as a decoy.

“Did you really think it would be that easy?”