An alarm didn't pierce the quiet like shattering glass, nor did the bed shake. Since Sōfu-iwa was a place with neither glass nor beds, the trackers' attack plan differed considerably from the one back at Idaho.
“Terra-san! Kanna! Get up! Now!” Terra and Diode simultaneously woke up and threw on the lights the moment they heard yelling. Naturally, since voices didn't carry between pits, it must have come from the communication system. Rock broke in over the comms again. “Run, the trackers are here! Get over to your boat!”
“R-really?!” Terra fumbled for her quickmask, but it wasn't there. She reached for her shotgun next, but it wasn't there either. She started to panic.
Diode gave her pit a hard kick. “Wake up, Terra-san. Rock! Where are they? Above or below us?!”
“Above you. They're rappelling down from the observatory. It's a bunch of the usual tightsuits. We're boarded up in the supply room, so we're fine as long as they don't blast the top off Sōfu-iwa. We'll be okay. But don't worry about us, you two are the targets. Get moving already!”
“You're okay with us just abandoning you here?”
“When did you become such a saint?” Rock sneered. Then, in a somewhat gentler tone, she said, “Well, I'm happy to hear that. Come visit another time.”
“...If the wind carries us here," Diode said bluntly. Then, she yelled at Terra rudely, “What are you smiling about? We're supposed to be fleeing! Escaping!”
Terra had received a message from Linia on her minicell. When she looked at it, she saw the passcode for in-board cable communications, probably to help them escape. There was a memo attached: “Please take very good care of Kanna-san.” She wondered if Diode and Linia also had a history.
“Thank you, Linia-san. Ma'am, keep well!”
The two leaped out of their rooms and began running downstairs. But at the landing Diode, who was leading Terra, abruptly stopped. Turning around, she murmured, “I figured out their little trick. I'm certain they won't treat us like amateurs and underestimate us again. If they've announced their presence above us, they must have already set a trap at the lower exit. Let's go back.”
“Wouldn't we just be running straight into their hands?”
“Yes. That's why we'll take a different route.”
That route was the dust chute. They didn’t hesitate to use the vertical duct, which carried the trash Diode used to watch fall with both fear and fascination as a kid—
“D-Die-san, this is really scary...”
“Please just look up. Just focus on my butt!”
—and in their bubble pits, ascended like slime backwashing up a drain
The dust chute went through the whole ship, up to the telescope room on the top floor. The two thankfully didn't find any threats when they climbed out. When Terra quietly looked down from the observatory window, she accidentally let out a chuckle that was completely disconnected from their situation.
“I thought this when we first got here, but that besshu-shaped streamer is kinda cute.”
“That's the Gendō national flag.”
“What's a national flag?”
“Who knows? It's a mysterious tradition. Maybe leaving it up tricks them into thinking she's loyal.”
“But aren't the trackers here anyway? I guess its usefulness wore out, then...” As Terra looked down at the streamer, she caught sight of a small armed shuttle flying around the lighthouse room like it had just arrived. “Gah... They came armed. If that's the case, I guess it means they want to take me down. Since you're the only one who's valuable to them and all.”
“They won't be taking you down. Please summon the pillar boat, Terra-san.”
“Will it get a signal? Wouldn't they jam it, or tap the systems maybe?”
“We'll summon it by cable. The boat's moored to the pier down there. There's probably also a control line connection, so look for it, please.”
So that's the purpose of a cable connection—impressed, Terra used her minicell implant by sticking her left hand out of the pit and placing it against the observatory’s wall. Not only was a communication circuit guaranteed to run through the walls no matter the building, but since the walls were made from AMC clay, anyone, anywhere, could tap into the circuit as long as they had the passcode.
Her minicell located the pillar boat docked below within ten seconds. “All right, I have it on the line. Come up here!”
The boating system could respond to assigned tasks as long as they were simple. The pillar boat, which had been moored as a sphere to reduce crosswind while on station, slowly began to rise on its jets. Another aircraft, a shuttle, approached it from below. Just like Diode predicted, the trackers had set an ambush.
“We don't have the luxury of boarding normally, Terra-san. We're going to have to jump!”
“Whaaat?! Weren't you scared of falling?!”
“It's better than getting caught.”
The two smashed the observatory window and jumped, aiming for the boat hovering beside the Tsunami Search. They didn’t have to worry about suffocating in the hydrogen and methane atmosphere since they were in the bubble pits. If they slipped and fell, though, that was that. As they fell through the skies under a 2G acceleration, Terra worried she wouldn't make it out alive.
“AIEEE...!” She felt a soft landing as the familiar sensation of the pillar boat’s interior enveloped her, then let out a huge sigh of relief.
They shed their living pits and made for the control pits. While Terra noisily worked her way down the slimy tunnel, only a single point was lit on the VUI in the cockpit. A sharp command echoed from there. “Cockpit, lift up! Run away!” With that, the pillar boat massively accelerated, and Terra’s pit tumbled all the way aft. The boat’s jet plume singed the rock tower Rock and Linia had barricaded themselves in as it began to climb.
“Diiieee-saaan!”
“Quick! Give the lift up command to the rear pit!”
The jets were at full throttle, running without any vector tweaks or power reallocation. As a result, the nozzle configuration blasted out huge plumes around them, which provided a visual reference for the resulting thrust vector. Almost immediately, the two were moving in the opposite direction. Diode quickly opened and set virtual throttle panels to her left and right and started adjusting each nozzle—or so it seemed, until she killed the power to every throttle within reach on the right.
In astonishment, Terra shouted, “What are–” then acted on reflex to avoid an emergency. She lived up to the name Terra Tell-Tale and decompressed before she could even think to curl in a ball and scream. In an instant, she flattened the boat, which had started yawing right due to the idle jets. A moment later, a cloud of sparks shot past with almost no room to spare.
“They're actually shooting.” Diode frowned.
Terra once again used her imagination to grasp the entirety of the boat and began stretching it into a shape with high speed and maneuverability. However, something rolling around inside the ship obstructed her—the previous day's besshu catch still seemed to be alive, and it prevented her from changing the boat's form. She wanted to align the squid with their flight direction, but it insisted on rolling sideways. Giving up, she made due with a shape that wasn't quite flat, resembling the rays of the shallow ocean world Centomica.
She pulled up the multi-frequency fish scanner VUI and assessed the situation behind them. In the night-vision footage, Sōfu-iwa was already a speck in the distance. A single rhombic shape stood out —the deep black muzzle of an armed shuttle aimed right at them. By the time Terra noticed it was glowing, they were already dodging the shot. Diode scowled at the projection of the scene behind them. She dodged the two follow-up shots with an agile maneuver, hoping to use the moment to break the pursuit. It failed, and their pursuers followed.
The two took stock of the trackers. There were a few seconds between each shot, which meant were probably using physical bullets instead of laser or particle guns. It was impossible to tell how much firepower they had, but judging from the barrel's caliber, it wasn't enough to sink them in one shot. At most, it might break a nozzle or shave off some clay. It suggested they plannned to make contact once the pillar boat stalled and began to sink.
Terra and Diode were at a disadvantage when it came to maneuverability. They were in a big fishing boat, and no matter how capable a decomper might be at shapeshifting, there was nothing she could do to change that fact. While their boat had the thrust to give them an advantage in straight-line high-speed flight, they couldn't fly at full power in the dirty atmosphere. Their only choice was to keep evading their pursuers as long as possible.
“Let's put out a mayday. The Gendō are unreasonable, but at least half of the other clans should be willing to help us.”
“Will the signal get through considering an E-storm just happened?”
“Hm? Aaargh, this microwave belt weather is awful! Why did it have to be now...?!”
“That's precisely why they decided to attack now, no?" The dust suspended in the atmosphere didn't just degrade the flight conditions, but communications, too. That was probably what prompted their attack; the poor connection would allow them to abduct Diode without anyone noticing. “We really are at a disadvantage with all this.” Steeling herself, Terra continued, “I'm going to make a hard shield behind us.”
“Wait, it's too late for that. Check this out instead.” Interrupting Terra, Diode sent one of her VUI panels to the back pit. Terra looked and nodded. It was a file she'd made the day before—their fishing strategy for black-veined squid. “The school's an obstacle. Let's blend with them.”
“Nice idea! I do feel bad for the besshu, though...” The pillar boat turned sharply and plunged into a thick, majestic cloud wall in the Left Eyeball.
Black-veined squid were large-class besshu. Even the smallest measured fifteen meters in length, and some grew up to sixty meters long. The squid were shaped like fishing sinkers. As their innumerable, muscular tentacles pumped in flight, the eyeball located at their pointy end would dart around. Although they were comparable to bachi orca in terms of their besshu size class and their resemblance to their Anno Domini namesakes, they differed in two major ways. The first was that the squids' mouths were in the back, not the front. The second was that the squid didn't swim much laterally. They swam vertically instead. Like a cartesian devil, they floated up to the altocumulus clouds at eighty kilometers above sea level and sank down to the middle layers one hundred kilometers below sea level. To the Circs' knowledge, the squid weren't intelligent, but their vertical swimming required an entirely different fishing technique.
Then the pillar boat, for the second time, and the enemy boat, for the first time, headed towards the black-veined squid habitat. As they broke through the clouds, they found themselves leaping right in.
The sky was almost pitch black as blue-black rain fell across the whole area. For a moment, everything lit up from a lightning flash. Tens of sinker-shaped figures as far as the eye could see, their sizes easily rivaling a spaceship big and small alike, stood completely still as if frozen to the sky. It was a spectacular view.
Terra screamed in delight. “Woah! Doesn't it look like there are more of them now?”
“It does. I wonder if they take shelter in this area. Mm!”
Diode focused her eyes on the darkness and quickly rolled the boat. A moment later, something big and heavy brushed against them. Once again, lightning flashed, and the besshu they had seen earlier were now at different altitudes. The two suddenly realized that the besshu were actually moving. Their apparent stillness was an afterimage.
“How does it look behind us?”
“They're coming–”
High speed, poor vision, and obstacles. Diode had to keep her full focus ahead of the ship to maintain her situational awareness, so Terra kept watch behind them. They're here—A lone rhombic shape flickered in and out of sight among the school of black-veined squids with irregular flashes of light. That figure never lost sight of the two or ran into any squid. Irritating though it was, the pursuing pilot was also incredibly skilled.
“They're following us. We didn't shake them off! They have to be using something besides radar and visuals.”
“Insistent, huh? Ah well, we'll have a heat signature as long as the engine keeps running...”
“That's it!” Terra clapped her hands together and adjusted her breathing to decompress again. She opened small holes all over the thermonuclear engine.
“We lost thrust and it's like the throttle is choking. What are you doing, Terra-san?!” Diode's shout had an uneasy edge to it.
“It's fine!” Soothingly, Terra said, “I created an intake to mix our exhaust with the cold air outside. I think it will make it harder to detect heat from behind us!”
“You can do that?”
“I'm not done yet! I thought of one more thing!” Next, the sides of the hull started to undergo a huge transformation. The structure evoked Terra casting a net, but the shape spread into several thin bags that quickly filled with air. As they expanded, Terra closed them off using her specialty in ribs and strands. They were empty inside, but the outside was specially crafted to resemble a pillar boat. One-by-one, she separated them from the main boat as she finished them.
Diode's breath hitched as she watched the scene unfold. “Incredible...”
Terra formed four boats with the same shape around them but didn't let go. One moved like a dolphin bobbing up and down, the second spun around, the third darted left and right in a frenzy, and the fourth flew straight at squids before dodging them masterfully. All four looked just as real as the boat the two were in. Once the decoys all looked accurate, Terra cast them away from the main boat and controlled them with a wire connection.
“CLONE FIGHT!!”
The trackers' moves became erratic. They chased the first clone, which suddenly switched places with the third. When the trackers seemed to get a lock on the second, the fourth came rushing at them. In the midst of it all, a fifty-meter black-veined squid suddenly emerged, forcing the trackers to swiftly turn to avoid the floating obstacle.
“Ahaha! Terra-san! Terra-san!” Diode burst into unhinged laughter. “You're the best. You're seriously the best! Ahaha...!”
“Fuhehehe, I am? I am?! Bwah!” Terra had gotten a little too happy, and the third clone exploded before her eyes. A flash of light, different from lightning, had raced up behind and blown through it. Wider clouds of light followed that shot and started raking across their boat. Their opponents had ditched the barrel and were using buckshot.
“Ahhh, was my trick no good...?”
“No, you're doing great, those guys are wasting their bullets. Please keep it up!”
“Okay!”
It was now a matter of life or death.
Rain and dust, lightning bolts and alien lifeforms, black and white. Spray and steam filled the air. Diode pushed her piloting skill to her limits as she flew hither and tither. The 16,000-tonne mass whirled, rolled sideways and back, and weaved amongst the squid like it was knitting them together. The OMS nozzles lined up along the hull spouted flames that flickered like fairy lights as Diode alternated between diving and climbing.
Terra kept tight control over the decoys. It was fine for them to get shot, in fact, her strategy planned for that possibility. However, the amount of clay she needed to make those fragile imitations wasn't zero, and their pursuers might get some lucky hits. She had to operate them with nothing less than her full attention. She pulled the remaining three to and fro, using them as a decoy at some times and putting them on the offensive at others. She was improvising as much as possible while maintaining their intricate dance.
They never would have imagined how the game of tag came to a sudden end. Several squid trailed black gas as they sank around the fleeing pillar boat, suddenly creating a wide opening around it. The trackers had lost patience and involved the squid in the conflict. Terra frowned a little and whispered, “Squid-san, I’m sorry for getting you caught up in this.”
“I don’t think we have much room to talk.” The two had come to catch squid to begin with. Although they were just making idle comments, the next thing that left Diode’s mouth was nothing short of genuine astonishment. “Terra-san, look!”
“Huh, what?”
The squid closest to them was pointed at the trackers and rushing towards the shuttle. It obviously took the enemy boat by surprise, but they swiftly evaded it and shot. That seemed to be a bad call, though, as other squid swarmed towards the enemy boat, racing to be the first there. They repeatedly rammed the shuttle from the front, rear, and sides.
“Black-veined squid can do that?! They can actually move like that?!”
“I had no idea. It's my first time seeing this, too. Maybe they got mad about being shot at.”
“Why? They didn't react at all when we caught one, did they?”
Even if they couldn't comprehend why, the fact was the squid were treating the armed shuttle with unmitigated hostility. The constant barrage of violent impacts smashed the shuttle's antenna and broke its radar.
“Looks like they can't shake the squid off. Ah, are they snared in the squids' tentacles? Ah, ah... the gun's broken, too...”
The two slowly brought their pillar boat about and watched the shuttle being surrounded by the squid school. Terra looked anxious, so Diode whispered, “Do you want to help them?”
“...Huh?”
“You're kind, Terra-san. And because you're kind, you don't just want to abandon them, do you?” Despite what Terra might think, Diode wasn't teasing her with that question. She had a gentle, faintly sympathetic look in her eyes.
Terra used all of her willpower to shake her head in spite of it. “No, I can't forgive the people who tried to steal you away back there. Let's leave them—who knows, they might actually have another trick up their sleeves.”
“...You're trying too hard.”
“What? Woah–” The pillar boat came about sharply. Squid were coiled around the shuttle like a ball, so the boat's trajectory was aimed slightly above them.
“Trying to act tough doesn't suit you. If you feel sorry for them, just be honest and say so, please.”
“Die-san–”
“Fly the remaining decoys fly into the school of squid. The shuttle can use the opportunity to escape if they're lucky... Well, their gun's broken, so they'll surely need to retreat.”
“...I'm sorry!”
Since another one of their decoys had been shot down, only two remained. Terra positioned the decoys to the left and right underneath the pillar boat, and the two flew extremely close to the enemy boat in that formation. One of the decoys snagged on the squid ball, untangling some of them. Propulsion flames rapidly emerged from the gap the two opened.
“How was that?”
“It worked, but it still wasn't enough!”
“One more time, then?”
Diode once again brought the pillar boat about. Terra centered the last remaining decoy directly underneath, then decomped again to harden and reinforce the pillar boat's hull. Diode's decision to rescue them felt crazy, so Terra, alert to the possibility of a surprise attack, was preparing to keep the girl safe.
“Let's go!”
The pillar boat was on a precise trajectory. They raced towards the enemy ship, or rather, a soon-to-be shipwrecked shuttle. At that moment, before their very eyes, the entire squid school balled their tentacles and swung.
☆☆☆☆☆☆
<What is your name? Can you say your name?>
<Terra... Intercontinental Endeavour...>
<Do you know where you are?>
<Fat Beach Ball... Inside, a cloud. There were a lot of squid... Sōfu-iwa... I smell gel.>
—Pah! A zap ran through the sensitive fingertips in her left hand and suddenly brought Terra back to her senses. A doctor, a woman, was in her face and asking questions.
“Do you know who I am?”
“T-the first aid avatar! Boating, end emergency stationkeeping mode! Return crew control!” Terra shouted. The doctor nodded once before disappearing. That virtual image, an interactive tool, appeared when crew members passed out from accidents, seizures, or other health events. Its shutdown plunged the pit into murky darkness.
Terra was in a daze. She was aware of passing out but couldn't remember the moment itself. Her pit had sustained an incredibly violent impact, no doubt. Her head felt like her brain was divided into bags and every single one was being squeezed. She felt fingers pressing into her eyes and ears. It was hydraulic pain from the collision bending her pit inward.
Terra sensed the dark scenery outside quickly racing upwards. Gravity also felt weak. The realization dawned that both she and the boat were in freefall.
“Die-san! Die-saaan!” There was no response. Terra shuddered. What happened? Where's Diode? What about the boat? What about the trackers' ship?
There were only two reasons for a partner to go missing while flying a pillar boat. The first was that the partner died instantly. The second was that they were physically separated from the pillar boat. A wave of nausea and grief crushed Terra the moment she thought of the former. It was possible. They were flying through an obstacle-filled squid nest, or the tracker’s ship might have done something to them at the very last moment. Sinister, repugnant thoughts spilled from Terra’s mind. Diode might only exist as a single cubic centimeter, or she might have been pulped into 38 liters of juice and mixed with AMC clay. She did her best to stop thinking.
Wait, wait, before I do that...! There are still plenty of ways to try contacting Diode. She restored a multi-wavelength antenna outside the hull and tuned the radio. She broadcast a signal hailing her boat from her own boat, a signal type that under normal circumstances would absolutely never be used.
<Intercontinental to Intercontinental, please respond.>
Not even two seconds passed before a small planet icon began spinning on the VUI. “Terra-san, Terra-san!!”
Terra was relieved from the bottom of her heart. The voice was urgent, but it was familiar. The response meant the second reason, that an accident split the boat, was what really happened. The pillar boat had broken in half somewhere between Terra and Diode. The accident was serious but could have been much worse. It was at least possible to put the pillar boat back together. That said, she still didn’t know where the boat had split, or why.
“Terra-san, are you alive?!”
“Yes, I’m alive!” Terra answered emphatically and paused before she continued, “I was about to cry, though! I’m not hurt and just feel a light headache. My boat is falling. Do you know what happened?”
“I'm glad you're unharmed and proud of you for not crying. As for what got us—if I had to say, it was a squid punch.”
“Huh?”
“Sorry, but let's save the explanation for later. My part of the boat is fine, so I'm going to rescue you. Please open a parachute immediately. The trackers' ship fled, so don't worry about them.” Anxiety peeked through Diode's clinical tone.
“Ah, sure," Terra said, calmly following Diode's instructions. Diode casually avoided sharing information Terra probably didn’t need to know for the moment.
The atmosphere of a gas giant is a bottomless pit, and falling into it took more than just a minute or two to kill a human. Terra was fairly certain they had been flying around thirty kilometers altitude in the troposphere. She could stall her descent to sea level for an hour or two if she made full use of atmospheric drag. The thick but navigable middle levels also continued well beyond that, so with the proper measures she stood a very good chance of rescue.
Terra ordered her pillar boat to use its preset glider form. The available presets allowed the crew to change into that shape on the mere hint of a desire to do so. Its wings spread gently. Terra felt a little weight return, but nowhere near as much as before the accident. Grasping the situation, she frowned. The glider didn’t produce enough lift to really slow her sinking.
“It's not really stopping.”
“Okay, I'm bringing up the radar—damn, that's tiny! Is it a bathtub?!”
“I know, right? I'm pretty much down to just the pit.”
The optical feed that displayed her surroundings looked like a fuzzy memory. The squid were gone, and as far as she could tell, the only thing visible in the total darkness of the cloud canyon was the incessant rain of dark liquid bake. Terra was falling at a leisurely 80 km/h inside a control pit no larger than a bathtub.
“If only the clay lump had been just a little bigger—the truth is, your pit got punched in just the right way to knock it loose when we were attacked by the squids’ tentacles. Can you remember? Ah, it all happened so quickly.”
“Huh?” Terra's voice rose in surprise. “Just the pit? Is that even possible?”
“Haven't there been a number of cases of squids coiling around pillar boats and doing severe damage with tentacle punches?”
“I've heard of squid damaging engines and otter boards, but never aiming for the pit with that sort of precision.”
“IIf that’s the case, then still it’s a mystery why they attacked the trackers like they did. Assuming you’re right, it’s possible punching the pit like that was just a coincidence. But forget it, your clay situation is what’s important right now”
“Yeah, you're right.”
AMC clay is an incredible material. In addition to its use as a pillar boat’s engine and fuel, it is used to manufacture batteries, cables, wings, and pressure-resistant armor. However, it can only be refined on the orbiting base ships. No matter how many besshu one might catch down in the atmosphere, it can’t be converted to clay. Which is why Terra laughed emptily when the boating system threw a warning for the remaining clay. “...Haha, I’ve only got about three buckets with me.” All she had left was the clay still plastered to her pit.
“—I'm hurrying with your rescue.” Diode spoke a little faster. They were in a bad situation. By that point the two were separated by about five kilometers, but they couldn’t see or find one another with lidar scans due to the pitch-black bake rain. Not only that, their microwave and longwave infrared sensors were having trouble getting through to one another. It was increasingly difficult to determine their relative positions.
The pillar boat's core dived in pursuit. Over the day, its clay mass had been reduced from 40,000 tonnes to a mere 13,000 tonnes. However, its form was the real issue. When the pursuit began, Terra had decomped the boat into a wide form that resembled a ray. Its airfoil shape gave them the agility to evade the armed shuttle, but as one might guess, that specialization precluded a nosedive. The shape was the cause of their new crisis.
Diode alternated between rolling the hull left and right to lose altitude, similar to a historical dogfighting maneuver known as the “falling leaf”. In comparison, though, Terra was in a near-vertical fall, so Diode wouldn’t catch up that way. The ideal solution was to decomp the boat into a form with minimal drag, but the decomper was in the clouds far below.
Terra being Terra, she tested several methods to decelerate. She commanded the pit to take a glider form and a jellyfish form before attempting to craft and spin up counter-rotating wings. She also thought of forming a nozzle for propulsion. Rather, the nozzle was the first thing she tried, but she stopped when the boating system flashed the clay warning. For starters, spraying mass through the nozzle wouldn’t leave any for later use, but the rising atmospheric pressure also meant rocket thrust was becoming less efficient. The situation simply didn’t justify her using it.
She ultimately opted for a parafoil, the lightest available gliding form, and molded the clay into cloth and string. Still, it only reduced her fall to 50 km/h. Worse, downbursts began to blow ferociously. The parafoil kept collapsing, and even when she repaired it, it wasn’t long before another gust knocked it out of shape. She couldn't tell which way the pit was being blown at all.
“Hmm, things are looking kinda... This has turned into a really complicated situation.” Terra licked her lips. Outside the two cubic meter pit, the scenery swirled like a turbulent stream of mud painted in the ten darkest shades of an artist’s kit. The pit swayed incessantly as pressure increased by the minute.
“Terra-san, could you extend an arm? A ten-milli rod should do the trick,” came Diode’s alto voice. Maintaining her usual cool, she asked in the same tone as a polite request to pass the salt.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m going to shoot a net at you. I’ll predict when it will get to you and have it open then. So, please, just swing something around to try catching it. Anything works.”
“Got it, something you can go fly fishing with.”
The signal for the shot went out. Two hundred high-density sinkers on an incredibly thin cable fell straight down. The weights were set to burst open and form a net 100 meters above the pit. Terra saw it on her VUI, but they weren’t in reach when the timer went off. Either the net had scattered and drifted away into the skies above due to the violent winds, or Diode hadn’t shot it in the right direction.
“That failed. I'll try again.”
“Okaaay, please do.”
Another shot signal went out, and several minutes went by as they waited for it to arrive. A HIT symbol never appeared.
A dissonant chime sounded to inform Terra of the pressure outside reaching 1 ATM, meaning she had already fallen thirty kilometers. From that moment on, the relationship between the inside of the boat and the atmosphere was reversed. The air and gel inside the pit were no longer trying to get out, they were being compressed. That said, it still wasn’t a problem. The pit could handle up to 50 ATM, the pillar boat 200 ATM. There wasn’t a crush risk yet, and still plenty of time before there was.
That's right—Terra kept telling herself that.
Diode spoke up, “Terra-san, have you thought of anything we could try next?”
“Um, I'm a little ashamed to ask, but would it be possible to contact Sōfu-iwa and see if your mother could come help us...”
“There's absolutely no need to feel ashamed, but yeah, the communication won't go through... We can't reach anyone, whether it's by direct line-of-sight or satellite relay.”
“True. Besides, one of the shuttles stayed there, didn't it? I hope they're okay.”
“Now's not the time for you to worry about others!”
“Ahaha,” Diode’s emphatic delivery made Terra laugh. “So, we’ll have to make it back up to where the radio can get through on our own, huh?”
“Yes. We can restore the boat as long as we make it back to orbit with the pits, at least. So, let’s think of more ridiculous solutions, too.”
“Ah, then... you've more or less told me already, but can you decompress, Die-san?”
“Not very well. I scored eight points on the General Imagination Concretization Exam two years ago.” Terra scored a full 100 points on the test. “Of course, I'll consider decomping as an option, but there's a major risk that I'll break the boat if I'm not successful.”
“Breaking it would be really bad, yeah. Then how about you keep the flat form but put full power into the dive?”
“The truth is I’m already doing that.” Diode shared a VUI panel with Terra that displayed four giganewtons of thrust. For the first time since the ordeal began, Terra broke into a cold sweat. Using that level of output to dive into the atmosphere was not good. In layperson’s terms, Diode had shoved a thin plastic foam board underwater and was kicking it down. “It’s a bit difficult to maintain control. I can’t focus on anything else. I’m pretty much doing the exact opposite of decomping.”
“No! Don't do that, Die-san! Stop! Reduce your thrust!”
“Why should I?”
“Because I'm the boat's owner!” Terra stated firmly. “Limit your thrust to one giga! I'll suspend your twister account if you don't!”
“I don't want to, not until we think of something else,” Diode replied immediately. “I won't be able to keep up with you unless I keep it that high.”
There was something neither of them wanted to bring up, and that was the distance between them. They could track the exact distance by measuring their communication lag, and it was already more than 20 kilometers. Diode was not only not catching up to Terra, she was falling further behind. A moment of suffocating silence passed before the two started speaking with increasing emotion.
“I'll get this out of the way now, but I'm absolutely not going back by myself.”
“I won’t allow it. It would be the worst if both of us died, so please go back, even if it’s just you.”
A huge argument broke out on the edge of hell, then and there.
“Why would that be the worst? Doesn’t a double suicide sound good? I’d go for a double suicide. Going back without you is impossible, but following you in is something I can do. You’re going to suspend my account? Fine, do it. I dare you. Do it knowing that’s absolutely going to blow up the boat, okay?”
“You’re being ridiculous, aren’t you? You need to go back and keep living. You can tell my Aunt Mora, Bonus-san, and Dishcrash-san what happened if you go back to Idaho! And of course, you can meet up with your mother and Linia-san and have a proper talk with them instead of getting into a shouting match! And after that, you hang out there and turn a huge profit catching besshu with the boat!”
“Haah, what do you even mean? You’ve already changed what you said you were going to do, so aren’t you being a little too indecisive about what you want? Please just make up your mind if you’re going to suspend my account or not. You can’t because your true feelings are making you indecisive. You’re telling me a bunch of things you don’t really mean because you feel obligated to send me back alive, aren’t you? Well then, how do you truly feel?! What do you really want?!”
“Stop with the questions about my real feelings or whatever, please. If you start panicking about getting the truth out of me, forget about being rescued or anything else, you know?! My real feelings?! You want to know my true feelings? That’s what you care about right now?! You idiot! Go back! Go back!!”
“Aren’t you basically admitting you have feelings?! When are you ever going express them, if not now? So, you’d better start talking now. But even if you don’t, I already know what those feelings are, ‘kay? You always stare at me plenty, huh? That’s because you want to catch me and pet me enthusiastically, just like a small animal! A small animal!! I learned all about it back at the girls’ school—the big girls always want to pet and pamper the small girls! Tell you what, you can pet and sniff me all you like if you just tell me to come get you already!”
Gh… b-but Die-san, you always stare too. And you weren’t gawking like you were in awe of a rare beast. It was a different kind of look, and I’m perfectly aware of what it meant!”
“—What.”
“See?! You don't even know what to say to that! You had ulterior motives when we started living together, I’m sure of it! Look, it's true that I don't have much awareness when it comes to that, but I'm not so oblivious I wouldn’t notice, you know! You were dead set on living in the attic because you were trying to control yourself, weren't you? The truth is you really just wanted to come down and let me spoil you. And for proof, you even tried to say it yourself... What was it again? Something something big and soft”—"W-wait.”—“It was about these, right?! Boobs! You love them, don't you?”
“What are you talking about?!" There was a shrill quality to Diode’s shouting Terra had never heard from her before. "You can't say something like that, Terra-san! Please don’t say things like that!! M-me? Wanting to... with Terra-san's...? ...OOBS?? Wh–W–Why would I want to do something like–”
“You’re clearly being extremely indecisive about this.”
“I! Am! Not!”
“Yes you are, and besides, you touch them every chance you get! Also, do you really think I never heard about my boobs when I was trying to get married? They've definitely got appeal, don’t they? And you tried to sneak up on me thinking I wasn’t aware of that, didn't you? I could tell even with it being the sort of thing I don’t have any knowledge about! You have experience, don’t you, Die-san? So, you were trying me out. Well, I noticed everything. You were definitely up to something, even if I didn't quite understand what!”
“Stop! Please stop, Terra-san! Sorr—You have my deepest apologies!”
“And then there's the condoms! I looked it up. They weren't for men; they were for fingers!”
“AAAAAHHHH! Okay, I confess! I'm guilty! I'm sorry!” Diode was undeniably screaming at that point. After her shrieks made it obvious she was bending backwards and covering her face, she muttered, “It was just in case...”
Terra let out a long sigh and spoke gently, “I won't forgive you for that. So please, just go back already.”
Diode’s response took a little while to come, but something had quietly grown firmer in it. “I don't want to. I'm going to save you. I don't care about reason or logic anymore.”
“Even if I'll hate you for it?”
“Do you really not want me to?”
Terra opened her mouth, but her voice didn't come out. It couldn't come out. Her silent response and Diode's silent acceptance of it mixed together comfortably. Eventually, Diode began talking again, politely.
“Um, I had an idea. Do you mind?”
“...Okay.” Terra gulped, then promptly asked, “Go ahead, what are you thinking?”
“I released the black-veined squid.”
“Huh?”
“The one we caught first. I still had it on me, so I released it.”
“Why did you do that?”
“I felt it still moving. It’s not the squid that hit you, but didn’t it seem like the other one targeted you for a reason? I thought so, at least. So maybe I’ll be able to pinpoint your location if we track this one.”
“Ahh, well, if that's the case, then we should have released it to begin with. Even then, its settling rate is incredibly fast, right? How are you going to chase the squid?”
“I'm going to decomp into a diving shape.” Terra swallowed her saliva in one gulp. Diode was making a do or die decision. “I can't make very detailed shapes, but I think I can do it as long as it's just a form that'll let me dive. And if it works and I catch up with you, you can return the boat to its previous shape.”
“And if it doesn't work, you're falling straight in. The boat is going to groan, creak and break, and then you'll fall into the deep ahead of me, you know? That's when 4000 ATM will squash you... guuuh.”
“Please stop scaring me! I can't decomp if I don't relax!”
“I'm well aware. Isn't it scary?”
“...I'm not scared.” Terra heard the sound of gel being inhaled deeply. “If it means I can save you, there's not even a millimeter of fear in my thoughts.”
Terra smiled, and what's more, she felt herself loosen up. “Die-san.”
“Yes?”
“Please come get me. I'll give you a reward.”
“...Got it! I'll be claiming all of it. I'm going to start decompressing, so the antenna is going to melt for a moment.”
The communication dropped out.
Terra took a deep breath from her belly and stretched her whole body. At that moment, she heard a violent curtain of rain lash her pit and the parafoil, unable to withstand the gust, silently tore to shreds. She began to feel weightless. Her descent accelerated towards terminal velocity in near-freefall. Terra simply kept watch from her small, tumbling pit as it fell, carried sideways and downwards by the storm’s violent surges. Nobody had ever been calmer.
One more body resided within the storm’s depths. According to observations made by the Circs when they first arrived, a rocky planet collided with FBB around 35 million years ago. It still steadily circled deep within the bulky, gaseous body. That planet, which they named Iron Ball, didn’t just provide the Circs with a variety of elements. Its constant stirring of the deepest layers birthed a variety of structures and lifeforms, which were blown into FBB’s upper atmosphere. It was thanks to Iron Ball that the Circs could catch plenty of besshu, which in turn allowed them to live at a place like this. Isn’t that wonderful? Aren’t you thankful for it? Terra had heard the platitude plenty of times since starting primary cruise school.
Am I thankful? I wonder, Terra thought. No, I don't think I am. This world is stifling. It was a small world with only around 300,000 inhabitants, isolated from wider civilization. It was an old clan society, strangled by old customs. Her path through life was predetermined—marriage interviews, marriage, and bearing children. If she refused, it meant being coerced into something else. Freedom was always a gift chosen by other people, and anyone who refused that gift was taken down a peg. Even after that girl and I ended up in a place like this, we still couldn’t speak our true feelings because of that.
Now that she was here, Terra finally understood they had been hesitating to say something neither of them had a reason to hesitate over.
It was telling the person they loved to come be at their side. It was putting their feelings into words and having them heard. It was something they would never forget, even if they pretended to. It would change the meaning behind, “Why don't you come with me and stay at my place?” Their relationship would become something that obviously didn’t exist within the Endeavour clan, or the Gendō clan for that matter.
What would a relationship feel like? I think it's absolutely expected that we can't be open about it, so will we have to keep it a secret and live in fear no matter what?
No—there’s no need to do that. Diode has been gazing somewhere far away from the start. She wants to go somewhere beyond this planet. I finally understand why that girl didn’t give me an answer when I wanted to hear one. She was afraid I would tell her I didn’t want to leave. If that’s all it was, then I’m okay with leaving together. If she goes to the very edge of the Galactive Interactive in that giant, cross-winged bird, I'm willing to go that far too. I have no reason not to. Terra felt her heart open in a way it never had as she found her resolve.
Decompression—the shell of Terra's pit roiled, and the single liter of remaining AMC clay thinned, lengthened, and stretched into a kilometer-long fiber no more than a micron thick. The fiber drifted and fluttered around inside of that storm, weaving a net no more than 500 meters wide. That net held the two's fate. It was a chance, but only a chance.
Something touched the tip of the net. Not even a moment passed between her noticing and the pit being yanked up. A mineral eyeball, as large as a table for two, stuck to the outer wall and moved around as the squid clung to the pit with its tentacle and took a peek inside. The squid! It touched the fiber Terra had spread, having arrived in pursuit. And the squid being here means—
The very next moment, a violent gust broke from above and a giant, misshapen lump of clay tumbled by, swallowing the pit the squid had just yanked up. Then, the clay slid off.
“—Die-san!”
She didn't get a good look at the big, dark pink thing which just brushed by her, but Terra knew it was part of the pillar boat. She knew the boat disintegrated and that was just one fragment of the 13,000-tonne clay mass. Terra the decomper acutely understood the situation. A girl who had failed to decompress was buried inside and unable to respond.
“DIE-SAAAAAAAAA—” She was hit by the shockwave as both the pillar boat and squid fell away. A loud wind blew and sent the pit tumbling. Terra screamed. Screaming was all she could do. “Die-san... Die-san...!”
Terra's tears mixed with the gel as she watched the dot grow further away. She focused her full consciousness on the skies below her for the sake of keeping track of Diode, for the sake of touching her again. She regretted trying to drive her away, realizing Diode would have been the one stricken with this feeling instead. It had been do-or-die situation, but Diode had committed. All that was left to do now was accompany her.
The last decomping—Terra crushed the soft, thin fiber into a curved shape along the bottom of the falling pit and stretched it into a long tail on the top, molding the pit into a teardrop shape.
“Please wait a bit, okay? I won't be long.”
The pit fell faster, diving into heavy water, ammonium sulfide, and ammonium hydrosulfide clouds. The depth meter continued increasing smoothly, the barometer naturally following suit. The outer shell began to creak. The hydraulic pain returned. Something broke somewhere. Something began spraying out. Something Terra had never smelled before mixed with the gel. Terra clenched her teeth as it all happened, focusing her aching eyes on the dimly swaying spots disappearing into darkness.
After a little bit, the whole scene began to glow. She could still see the glow even when she closed her eyes. It quickly became more intense, engulfing Terra's mind and body—
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“What year is it now?”
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—someone wondered.
Light passed through leaves at an angle, illuminating a thicket from which a small woman emerged, treading the dark soil and undergrowth in sandals. She was dressed in white and appeared to be in her thirties. Her dashing, dignified pixie cut almost sparkled, and she carried herself like she had the most pride anywhere in the universe.
Terra blinked and stared at the woman, repeatedly checked over the lack of injuries on her own palms, then made sure there weren't any stains or tears in her green and gold deck dress. Looking around her, she saw a stone rampart wreathed in ivy, a covered wagon with the carriage slanted from broken spoke wheels, and a horse hurrying away to the one open space carpeted in wildflowers. No matter which way she looked at it, she was in Idaho's media storehouse. She froze as her mind went blank. “What...?”
The woman approached Terra and circled around her once, looking at her with deep interest. She asked, “Was it an accident? A suicide? Or something else entirely?”
“Wha, what...?” Perplexed, Terra could only react by stepping backwards. She was certain her pit had been smashed to pieces, and that she was no longer of this world. She suddenly remembered once hearing that people fast-forward through their memories of life, like a dream, at the moment they died. Is that what's happening?
She didn't know this woman, though. Terra wanted to remember the people important to her, and yet, someone like this was intruding. “What is this? Who are you?”
“Me? I'm Eda. Dryeda de la Lucid, first-rate xenobiologist, one of the first Great Chiefs of the Circs, and father to the besshu.”
“Wh-What?” Her answer didn't clear anything up. Terra felt even more shocked and confused. “Die-san...”
Feeling hopeless, she looked around for Diode in her surroundings. She wasn't sure if there was any point, since it was possible this scene was only an illusion created by her own body as it tried to escape reality. However, her search wasn't totally in vain.
The woman who had introduced herself as Eda spoke up, “Okay, wait a moment. I caught one more person just now. Did you come here looking for this girl?” She walked over to the stone wall and came back with a girl in a diamond and graphite dress.
“...Die-san!” Terra lifted the girl like she was stealing her back, then caressed her pale, smooth face. Her long eyelashes were shut tight, but breath continued to pass through her small nose while gentle warmth radiated from her body. “Die-san...! What a relief...!” Tension completely broken, Terra collapsed to her knees and burst into tears there and then.
“I see, so you came to save this girl.” Eda sat down on the low stone wall nearby and crossed her legs.
After allowing her emotions to spill out for a little while, Terra finally wiped her face and looked at Eda. “Did you save us? ...Actually, were we even saved?”
“I can't talk to anyone except the decomper, so that's why I gave you that girl as a little treat. But if I had to answer—sure, I saved you both. The place you've arrived at is a garden of ideas, where fellow people whose minds aren't constrained by language gather. You're in the middle of decompressing, so no need to worry.”
Terra, however, only started to feel more doubtful. She had just started to think how great it would be if this were real, since she was holding Diode in her arms unharmed. It felt like the woman in front of her was denying that.
“We're in the middle of decomping? So... is this a dream?”
“It's not a dream, just like the pillar boat changing shape isn't a dream. Say some All Mass Convertible clay transformed into a stage and the actors on it started moving. Would you call that a dream?”
“No... I probably wouldn't.” Terra noticed something felt off and opened her mouth. “Am I made of clay, then? What about my real body?”
“Does it feel like either of you aren't real flesh and blood right now?”
“It's... No, not really...”
“Then what's the problem?” Eda grinned so brightly Terra wasn't sure what to make of it. “Anyway, change of topic.” The woman hopped down from the stone wall and crouched in front of Terra. “May I ask what your name is?”
“Terra. Terra Intercontinental Endeavour...”
“Ooh, so the Endeavour clan lives on, eh? Congrats!”
“You said your name was Eda, right? Do you have anything to do with 'Exceptional Eda'?”
“That's me! Ahahaha, it's been a while. It makes me happy to hear that, but a little embarrassed, too. What's the year?”
“We're in CC 304.”
“I see, so I overslept and missed the 300th anniversary. Well, it's good that it's been 15 years since someone fell in.”
“15 years?”Now that she mentioned it, I do remember hearing about something along those lines happening back then.
“So, you've been asleep since...? You wake up when people fall in?”
“Mhm, I'm usually asleep. But whenever something happens, it wakes me up.”
“Who?”
“Iron Ball.” Terra gave her an unblinking stare. Of all the shocking and surprising things that Eda was throwing at her, that one hit the hardest. Eda looked back at Terra and grinned. “Anyway, why don't we have some food while we chat?”
Terra knew it wasn't a time for eating, but she was beginning to doubt everything. Eda guided her to a spot, and Terra took a seat on the stone wall. Eda produced a basket from the broken carriage. Despite Terra's uneasy feeling that something was off about the place, she ate the cucumber-like and cheese-like sandwich she was offered and complimented its incredible flavor. Eda laughed at Terra's praise for the high fidelity of 303-year-old printers, saying it wasn't from a printer.
“This is food, not 'food-like'. It's real cucumber and dairy from the early days, back when those things were still alive and kicking.”
“...All of our ingredients are recycled organic matter now, so everything we eat comes from the printers.”
“Hmm, for people orbiting a place that's starved for elements, I'd say they're doing well. Decomping is what lets us eat this sort of thing here.”
While Eda chowed down on her sandwich, Terra murmured, “What exactly is... What exactly is decomping?”
“What exactly is decomping? Mm, excellent, asking that right out of the gate. So, in exchange for temporarily reducing the capacity for human thought—the driving force of our language centers, in other words—to a minimum, one maximizes their ability to mold, which gives shape to the clay. Decompers—the Circs—believe they 'change the boat's shape to their desires'... but do you really think that's an ability that humans possess themselves?”
“Think? But aren't we really doi–”
“The clay changing shapes like it does makes you think you're the one doing it.”
As Terra realized the alternative to humans molding the clay, she was horrified. “...The clay's alive and in sync with humans?”
“Ex–actly.” Eda pointed at Terra and winked. “Iron Ball, the planet circling in the abyss. In reality, it's a single gigantic life form that arrived at FBB millions of years ago. The thing is though, it doesn't seem to have crashed here on purpose. It's been trying to escape the whole time. Life forms that call themselves 'humanity' arrived here recently, so it's been using that tiny crowd to slowly but steadily work on breaking out of here. 'We let them catch and export us on purpose,' is how it's done, more or less.”
“We've been doing that?” Terra asked, then corrected herself. “They've been making us do that?” Correcting herself again, she asked, “Are they really okay with giving us small amounts of clay that are going to get roasted and turned into building material before it's shipped off in the Dàxúnniǎo?”
“The mola mola, which was introduced from a planet with an ocean, lays 300 million eggs—and of those, no less than 99% are eaten by predators. And yet, the mola mola hasn't shown any sign of being bothered by that.”
“...So Iron Ball is a fish like a mola mola?”
“Ooh, you get it. You know your stuff, don't you?” Eda happily rubbed her hands together. “Its survival tactic does seem to tend towards favoring a large number of births to make up for the high death rate, but biologically speaking, they're not related to fish species from Earth. The reason why they're similar is, well, you know.”
“Like you just said, you're the father of besshu, right?”
Eda laughed happily for some reason when Terra pointed it out and started to brag. “That's right... I am. I poured myself into them. Body plans suitable for fluid migration, drifting, floating, rising and sinking, that sort of information. Before then, Iron Ball only discharged what we call 'bake', but after I got involved, things clicked, and it started to birth besshu in large numbers—that's why I'm the father. Iron Ball is the mother.”
“Shouldn't you call her your girlfriend then?”
“Certainly. Kehkehkeh.” Eda cackled joyously.
Terra stared at the totally unreserved woman, then remembered what the girl she held in her arms told her a while back. “Didn't you have another partner?”
Eda stopped laughing and looked at Terra with interest. “You know about that?”
“You weren't the only Great Chief back then. There was also a woman named Magiri. I heard you two were married.”
“So you do know about her! The last time anyone ever mentioned her was nearly 200 years ago, I think. Where did you hear that?”
“Idaho's Year 10 Ring, in the Antiquity Fan District.”
“Woah, aren't we there right now? What a coincidence~"
“Now's not the time to be wowed. Where is this Magiri-san? You're so focused on Iron Ball... Isn't that like having an affair?”
Eda snorted and burst into laughter. “An affair! Ahaha, an affair! Ahahaha, this is the first time anyone's ever said that! I suppose it is, but I ended up having kids with this other woman because I ended up never going back.”
“That's no laughing mat...”
“Well, the reason I never went back is because I was dead. I didn't call for Magiri either, because then she would have died.” Terra was at a loss for words. “I messed up and fell back in CC 8. Ball-chan picked me up right before I was crushed to death, like it did with you just now. It took a while, but we successfully reached a mutual understanding regarding the ability to decompress. So, it began producing besshu and allowed humans to catch them. But as you might expect, there's a possibility the besshu are an extension of my personality—so if I decide to log out and go back up, they'll probably disappear when I do.”
“That's... that's...” Before, Terra would have probably felt lost and troubled, but now, she had only one possible reaction. “Wouldn't it be better to throw it all away and go back to her?!”
“Ooh.” Eda leaned backwards and said in a bright voice, “I'd single-handedly collapse the fishing industry if I did that, and since the Circs stuck up in orbit make their living off fish, that would be that, don't you think?”
“You can't be sure!”
“If it can't escape from this planet, Iron Ball won't cooperate anymore.”
“And if it stops, so what?” Terra held Diode tight and glared at the legendary Great Chief. “Wouldn't it have been better to go back to Magiri-san, no matter what happened?!”
“Just hearing that, I can tell you're the type to commit, aren't you?” Eda nodded to herself. Her smile looked like a small flower petal. “I wish Magiri could have heard that, too.”
“...”
The meaning behind Eda's words slowly sank in, and Terra turned red and hung her head. She had just chided Eda for something that also applied to Magiri. When creatures resembling Earth's fish suddenly began to appear, there could be no doubt Magiri had sensed the reason why—her beloved partner still existed somewhere at the bottom of the atmosphere. Even if she didn't understand how, Magiri must have known she'd end up the same way as Eda, existing in the veil between death and the unknown.
And yet, Magiri hadn't come. She couldn't be reunited for the same reason as Eda—the survival of the people living in orbit depended on her. That was when Magiri had summoned the Dàxúnniǎo and established their trade. What am I even doing, acting like I know everything—how could I say that about those two?
“Um, Eda-san.”
“Yeah, yeah.”
“I'm sorryyyy.”
“It's okay, it's okay.” Terra started to cry before Eda gave her a big, bright smile. “Hearing that was refreshing. It feels like a little reward after a long 300 years.”
“Okay...”
“And to show there's no hard feelings, I'm happily going to send you two back up.”
“Sending us... you mean we can go back? We can go back alive?!”
“Yep, Iron Ball can lob ejectors into the stratosphere. Sending your boat back is trivial in comparison.” Eda said. For some reason, she turned around and muttered, “The squid punching you two like that was an incredibly embarrassing mistake. Some exception from 'Exceptional Eda', huh? But eh, I mean, a fishing decomper coming to the rescue of someone getting murdered by squid was beyond even my imagination.”
“Um, is something the matter, Eda-san?”
“Nothiiiiing.” Eda turned back to Terra and flashed a cheerful smile. “You two don't have to worry about a thing.”
“Even if you say that, it still feels bad for us both to go back and leave you behind...”
“Ah, you're worried about that? Nah, it's fine. Didn't I tell you the besshu will disappear otherwise? Besides, even if I go back while you two stay here, Magiri is long gone. You two are the ones who will make others sad if you don't go back.”
“I don't really know if they'd be that sad about it, though...”
“Really? Well, if that's the case, then I just don't want your pity. Besides, once the rest of Iron Ball gets scooped up in the end, we'll be leaving together.”
“Is... that how it's going to be?”
“Yep, yep, that's how it's gonna be. Well, going outside is something that I'll do a little later—it’s why Magiri developed the fishing industry, after all.”
“I see. So you lead a sleepy lifestyle, Eda-san.”
“Mhm, that's right. Though I'll be leaving long after you die, in the sense of bodily function.”
Terra had no way to tell if everything Eda said was true, but she replied with a smile. “I see. You're definitely going to make it out in the future, Eda-san.”
At Eda’s prompting, Terra stood and headed for the archive’s exit. A horse with a gorgeous mane accompanied them through the thicket. The sinister feeling that she was in the afterlife had long since faded, and it now felt like nice, breezy place.
Eda quickly glanced at Diode's face. “By the way, Terra-chan.”
“'Chan'?”
“C'mon, I'm 323 years old. Terra-chan, a minute ago you said no one would be sad if you died, so I was wondering... has that girl been giving you trouble?”
Terra turned to stand in front of the woman who looked like she couldn't be more than three years older than her and happily shook her head. “No? She hasn't given me any trouble at all.”
“Good, good," Eda chuckled. “That's nice. I don't usually pick up anyone but the decomper, so a lot of things happened to catch my interest this time around. I like you. Here, take this.” As she said that, Eda grabbed the horse's tail and yanked with all her might.
Woah. Terra stopped herself from running away. The horse stood still, devoid of any anger, while Eda held a single tuft of golden hair.
She handed it to the speechless Terra and whispered to her with a conspiratorial grin, “The Dàxúnniǎo only comes once every two years, right? But isn't it weird how that seems to be the only way out of this system?”
“Now that you mention it, it is. Is there another way out?”
“This is. Did you know women who pull a horse's tail get sent flying?” Eda combed the long, slightly dry fur with her fingers. “If things get too hard to handle and you don't know what to do, to do, go pull the tail on the pony. Use the Great Chief's code in Idaho's Early Ring, and it should lead you to a chamber. If you activate the Guāngguànhuán Drive, you'll arrive in the nearby Zugspitze star system in two weeks.”
Terra gasped in surprise. “That's... Really, um...” She wasn't sure what to say. “If we leave, then won't it interrupt the besshu export?!”
“You can't be sure!”
“...”
“Isn't that right?”
Supporting Diode on her shoulder, Terra extended her free arm to Eda, who sidled into it. “Thank you very much...!”
“No problem, no problem.” Eda gently tapped Terra's arm and stood by the archive's exit. It was different from the one on the version of Idaho up in orbit, looking more akin to a gate of light. “Now, get going. Make sure you don't forget anything, 'kay?”
“Is it okay if I come visit again?”
Eda, both hands still shoved in her labcoat's pocket, walked behind Terra and sent her flying with a kick to her butt with a sandaled foot.
“Of course not, dumbass!”
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Huge debris fell from above Terra like the entire world was crashing down. What little clay remained molded itself around her as the force of the impact sent her pit sailing into the storm.
“Gwah! Ow, ow...” After an intense and uncomfortable sloshing and jostling in the gel, Terra collected herself. The clay indicator on her VUI had changed from deep red to light orange. Wait, more importantly—
“Die-san!” Another pit was visible through the tens of VUI panels that had simultaneously rebooted and were flooding with information. Terra instinctively glued herself to the container wall. “Boat! Synchronize the hydraulic pressure between pits and dock them to one another!” The two pits immediately merged. Terra flinched as the muddy, foul-smelling gel began to mix as she climbed in, but pulled the small, limp figure into her arms.
“Are you okay?! Can you breathe?!” She knew without having to be told that Diode was suffocating in her own vomit. Terra had never gotten into that situation herself, but saw it happen to her classmates multiple times back when she was a cruising student. It was a decomping failure. Diode hadn't been able to change the boat's shape to her desire and give it a new form. When AMC clay couldn't isolate a thought, it changed shape chaotically and caused a boat to shatter into countless pieces. As a decomper's sense of self gradually dissolved, the shock disrupted her proprioception and she lost the ability to tell where her arms, legs, head and body were positioned. When that happened to a person, be they in air, space, or immersed in liquid, the same thing happened: vertigo, extreme seasickness, vomiting, and an inability to move.
“Terra-saa... that's enough.” Feeling her touch, Diode pushed Terra away and wiggled free. “The gel, it's dirty–”
“Who cares about the gel!” Terra made a big spinning gesture with her finger. It was a signal to replace all of the gel. The pump revved up and sprayed gel so forcefully from the circulator nozzles in the wall that it hurt. Terra wrapped herself entirely around Diode and pressed on her belly. “Come on! Let it out! Breathe in!” She was relying entirely on brute strength to forcibly clear Diode's trachea. “How's that?! Are you okay?!”
“Ter... Ra... San," Diode gasped. Her whole face felt sticky, and she angrily glared at Terra. “You call that... completely charmless activity... 'artificial breathing'?”
Terra kissed her without saying a word. She tightly cradled the girl, no more than half her volume, and gave her a long, long kiss before she calmly leaned back to look at her. Diode's eyes were wide with shock.
“Wha, what...”
“That was my first time ever, you know.”
With just those words, Terra quieted a bewildered Diode. She set Diode in her seat and stood in front of her. Bringing the decomper UI over from her own seat, Terra spread out four rows on her VUI and assessed the pillar boat's condition. Although its structure and composition were clearly wrecked, the shape reproduced in her mind was completely faithful to the real thing.
“Thank you for all the effort you put into this despite not being used to decomping. I'm really thankful that you brought the boat this far.”
“O-okay...?”
“I'll be trying my best too, even if I can't compare to you, okay?”
Decompression—Terra gently melted the 2000 tonnes. She rearranged the boat, smoothly molding its mass into a stack. She formed a single large nozzle underneath, sharpened the nose cone, and aimed the ship towards the faint blue at the zenith.
An eighty-meter-long solid rocket booster made itself visible. It didn't have the immense power that was standard for a normal pillar boat, but it was enough to make them a spaceship. Still, it wasn't enough to reach orbit—at best, they would achieve a suborbital arc over the planet instead. But in the time it took between their rise and fall, the odds one of the sixteen clans would come to their rescue certainly weren't bad.
“How's this?” Terra asked, turning around gracefully. Diode rubbed her eyes and started to cry. “What's wrong?”
“Terra-san, Terra-san.” Diode's tears spilled out. The girl, who was so quick to anger, who had tried so hard not to cry the very first day they went fishing only to end up crying anyway, was now reduced to a sobbing, joyous mess. “I-I’m so ha-happy… we didn’t f-fail.”
“Huh?”
“We sank, didn't we? You and me.” Sobbing, Diode quickly pulled Terra into a firm hug. “We-We were separated, and, and we missed each other's hands, and were falling towards that d-darkness—waaaaaah!” Diode buried her face in Terra's chest without hesitation and Terra, dumbfounded, and dumbfounded, let it thump against her. She definitely remembered sinking, and in spite of that, was doing her best to ignore the memory of it. There was no way any of that had been real. However—
“Boat, show the outside pressure log for the past hour.” The VUI responded to her order by displaying the log. It recorded a pressure of 4038 ATM thirty-two minutes earlier. Terra quietly closed her eyes and rubbed the fingers of her left hand together. There was nothing there, but she still clearly felt the sensation of dry fur.
“—Die-san–”
“Terra-san! Terra-saaaannn!”
“Okay, okay, calm down.” Terra hugged Diode's thin shoulders. The feeling of her touch, the vitality of her presence—in the end, they were things that person couldn't get herself. That was what had given meaning to her gift.
"The boat's going to fall, you know. You don't want this to happen all over again, do you?” Diode immediately stopped crying and shook her head. “Then, will you fly us?”
“...Y-yes.” Diode held her hands up like a pianist about to start their performance before timidly setting them back down. She spread out the twister's VUI and allowed the wind to sweep across the rocket's control surfaces to get a sense of its flight characteristics. Even though it was her first time taming a beast like this one, she gracefully nosed it down to aim in her desired direction with a light touch and extreme ease.
Diode was showing the flashes of pure genius she usually did as a twister but still acted a little off. She turned around and peeked over her shoulder as her dark blue eyes trembled anxiously. “Are you... really okay with this?”
“What do you mean?”
“If I go back, they're definitely going to come after us again. Other people will, too.” She looked at Terra, looked down, looked at Terra again, then looked down. Of all the times Terra had seen her face, it was the most vulnerable she ever looked. “...That's what... it will mean to go back with me.”
“Die-san.”
“Yes?” Diode turned around like she had been zapped.
“Mmmm.” Terra presented her lips to the girl. “Didn't you say you were going to claim the whole reward?”
“...You!!” As Terra expected, Diode snatched her up for the first time. She embraced Terra with the ferocity of a small, fiery dragon. Terra felt the warmth of Diode's cute lips, from which she had only heard sass, bluster, and griping, enter her body for the first time. Unbelievable euphoria spread from the top of her head to the tips of her hands and feet, melting the entirety of her being.
“Haah.” Diode pulled away and looked up at her with a supernova sparkling in her eyes. “No complaining, okay? You're the one who asked for it.”
“Ye... yesh...” Terra was no longer standing when she replied. Her large frame floated in the gel like a bouquet submerged in water.
“Well then, let's get going, shall we?” She suddenly turned around and looked at the sky, determined. “This is a garbage planet where we can't even become fishers. But if you're with me, I think I can put up with it.”
“We don't have to," Terra whispered faintly. “There's a horse.”
“Huh?”
Diode turned slightly and a chuckle escaped Terra. “I'll tell you about it later.” It was nothing they hadn't already talked about, and nothing they weren't already looking forward to.
They gave each other a big nod, then reached for scattered panels. Their toes tapped the floor as their arms swept like tracing a comet's tail.
A burst of light kicked against the abyss.