Slide

"Here we are, the Lower Observation Lounge. It's practically the same as the upper one on the main deck, just a bit smaller." Milanor led Naya in after the door slid open. They had come to the lower deck to continue her tour after the hyperjump was engaged. Before they left the bridge, he took the opportunity to register her biometrics such as palm print, iris, and voice.

"It's... quite big," Naya muttered as she walked in after him.

"Hmm? You didn't see the upper one with Fia before?"

"No, we skipped it," she replied while looking around. "Seriously, why is your ship so big? That huge room and hangar are totally empty. It's a total waste of space."

She was talking about the cargo hold and hangar they passed by when they walked there. True enough, even Milanor had to admit that those rooms looked pretty desolate, especially since they saw them from the high vantage point of the walkway.

Those compartments were not 'totally empty' though, as she put it. "You saw the shuttle that is in the hangar, didn't you? It's not a waste, I don't think," Milanor reminded her.

"It only took up what, ten percent of the room?"

"Fifteen, I'm sure."

Whether they use it much was irrelevant, but clearly, that meant the hangar was being used to store something, at least.

Naya walked toward the wide observation window that showed the view of the contracted space the ship was traversing. Trace lights wheezed by the ship, originating from the stars of the galaxy.

"..."

"Beautiful isn't it? I know that non-spacers find FTL travels to be quite mesmerizing, especially for the first time... Wait, this is not your first time, isn't it?" Milanor quickly corrected himself after recalling that Naya wasn't originally from Runanthor.

"Does it matter? I'm not like you, seeing something like this every day. The last time was seven years ago."

"Ah, yeah... I guess that's true."

Even so, it was still true that space travel was not an everyday thing for a lot of people. Spacers numbered billions, which of course was a huge number, but if you look at the whole population of the known galaxy, the majority of people had never even gone to space.

"Well, this is the last place I wanted to show you on the lower deck. Fia only guided you through the main deck, hadn't she? You want to go back up?"

Fianna herself was now in the kitchen, cooking a grand dinner for the occasion of Naya's welcoming party. Milanor had munched on sandwiches earlier, so he was not that hungry... But it looked like no one aside from him had eaten any meal since this afternoon (Fianna was asleep at the time), so he decided it would be fine.

"I'll... I wanna stay here, is that a problem?" she asked, turning her head to him.

"Oh, no, no way. Feel free to stay here as long as you like!" he reassured her. Naya was now his major benefactor, a top-priority VIP on this ship. He had intended to spoil her as much as possible, within reason.

It was not an exaggeration to say that the continued operation of this ship depended on her.

"So, uhh... Mind telling me the real reason why you gave me that amount of money?" Milanor broached the subject.

He might act nonchalant about it, but deep down, he was still uneasy being the recipient of such fortune. Particularly so since he was so financially desperate hours ago.

When something was too good to be true, more often than not it was neither good nor true. Milanor was still on the watch for fraud.

"I'll tell you when you find the one I'm looking for," Naya answered.

"You won't tell me now?"

"No." She was starting to sound irate as she kept being subjected to this line of questioning.

"Not even a hint?"

"You're not going to drop this, are you...?"

Behind the window, Naya's figure looked downcast, like she had given up. Apparently, Milanor's "VIP" treatment included an inordinate amount of pestering. Definitely worth the 15k per day price tag.

"There's... something out there, between the stars," she said as she turned to him. And for once, she faced him not with indignation, but an expectation. "You'll help me look for it, simple as that. Satisfied, Captain?"

That was still too pretty dang vague to be called an explanation. Yet, he felt badgering her further would be unwise. "Uh... Sure, that's fine." He closed it with that.

"Look, let's go to the table here," Milanor indicated to a circular table and seat in the center of the lounge. There were three sets of them on the floor, while the small bar at the corner also had several chairs placed at the counter. "Each table had an integrated computer console, feel free to use them."

"Ah, sure."

Star Cruiser Helios had a centralized computer system with the mainframe located inside the engine room. Each console and terminal on the ship functioned as the interfaces to access this system, so they were all basically the same.

Wait, speaking about computers...

"Oh, that's right!" Milanor remembered something important. "Those videos I saw on your device! I want to see them again."

"..."

She was frowning at him the moment he mentioned it. Due to all the chaos earlier, he had forgotten about them, but this is the perfect time for Milanor to inquire Naya about it.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Uh, please?"

"No way. Why would I let you see my personal data? I still haven't forgiven your intrusion into my room," she curtly rejected.

"Ugh, I truly regretted that, really. I mean, if I hadn't done that you wouldn't have met this reliable freelancer and his awesome ship, right?" He had to give her this boastful excuse or he would feel pretty pathetic. As you can see, Milanor's self-esteem was on the low end recently.

"Reliable? Have you forgotten your wailing at the café?"

"Um... yes? By which I mean, could you forget that too?"

That was a truly miserable display, now that Milanor thought about it calmly. Let's just forget that ever happened.

Clearing his head, he implored her again. "Those are videos of the First-Founder, right? I didn't know that anything other than pictures still survived today. That means it's a treasure worth of records!"

Naya's frown turned into a glare as she heard that. "Are you intending to upload those vids and make credits from them? Is that what you're after?" Her tone sounded hostile.

"...Ah, n-no! Well, I DID think something like that... But of course, I won't do anything without your permission..."

The mood had become volatile. Milanor immediately regretted running his mouth, seeing the result. After all, if she became any angrier than this, then it could put everything in jeopardy! Especially those ten million credits!

"L-Look, sorry about that. If they're that important to you then say so... I promise I won't ask anything like that. But..." He still wanted to at least watch it again.

Milanor wasn't a man that easily gave up.

"..."

Naya seemed to notice his internal wish from his intense pleading gaze. If she thought that Milanor seemed a bit obsessed with those videos, then it was because he was. His parents had a strong curiosity about the First Founder, as well as the old home planet. That curiosity naturally spread to him. Miledi's uniform, as well as the design of Helios, were direct products of those inclinations.

The Origin Database could be said as the culmination of this curiosity, the pinnacle of years of research into those ancient human ancestors. It spoke volumes about the Milestone family's interest.

"...Hah. Fine, I suppose I can't keep them hidden forever, especially from you," Naya relented, seeing that he wouldn't back down from this anytime soon.

"Yes, thanks so much!"

She picked up her tablet from her sling bag again.

"Ah, can you connect it to the ship's network? The console on this table could display a much larger hologram."

"Fine."

She connected her device to the system on the ship, enabling them to view the data directly from the table's projector.

"Yeah, the number of these videos is amazing..."

"What do you wanna watch?"

Milanor had looked through some when he barged into her home before, but it couldn't even be called a fraction of the total amount.

"Erm, from the second row? What is this one about?"

"It's a record from the founding of Centurion Empire's predecessor, the Interstellar Kingdom of New Britain."

"Wha!? That's amazing..."

He wasn't born in the Empire, but his mother was, so Milanor was technically half-Centurion. Of course he would be very interested in the history of his ancestral home.

He knew that the country was one of the oldest states in the known galaxy. Second-oldest, in fact. But to think a very hard record of its predecessor, not to mention its founding moment, still exist...

"What year was this recorded, I wonder? Do you know, Naya?"

"I think around Star Date 689. An explanation in the video mentioned the year AD 2790."

"That's-That's the old calendar, isn't it!? This was that long ago!?" Milanor was flabbergasted.

That was practically 8.000 years ago! Right after the Mass Flight Event!

"New Britain was one of the very first nations to be founded. Their sleeper ship Albion found a habitable world-Avalon-a mere 685 years after the first event," she told him.

"Wow, really...? I had read that the sleeper ships had an average speed of 0,002 parsecs per day. Which, compared to today's starships, might as well be crawling. Hmm, that must mean..." He quickly did a calculation in his head. "They traveled around 1.500 light-years from Earth...?"

As an experienced captain, Milanor was capable of calculating travel distances. Give him a medal for math.

"Hold on, couldn't this be a clue for finding Earth?" he spoke aloud his thought to Naya.

"That just means that we know the distance. It's been 10.000 years, the star systems had moved quite far from each other at different velocities in orbit around the galaxy. Who knows if tracing the ship's trajectory would lead to its origin? What's more, nothing in the videos or other records I have mentioned one thing about the ship's log or anything like that. The ship itself was immediately scrapped for material in constructing the new city, and almost everything was lost. It was a miracle that this one video even survived to this day. The same could be said for every other Ark. The American's Freedom, the Chinese's Kunlun, the German's Brandenburg... It was the same everywhere. Albion actually has the best-preserved records out of any other ships. The First-Founder were too busy trying to survive and adapting to their new worlds that they had no leeway to record their history. Even this data hidden by Centu-"

"..."

"...Um, nothing. I'm just saying that it's impossible to locate Earth from these videos."

What the heck just happened?

She had suddenly started a very long rant about something. Her speech just now could more than compensate for the lack of conversation when they were heading to the ship before.

"I see," Milanor nodded with understanding. "You're very passionate about this. Considering this was one of the very few things you brought with you and the fact that you are very possessive of it, can I take it that the reason you want to find the professor is also related to this?"

"...What about it?" she admitted it easily enough.

"Nothing much. I'm also very interested in ancient history, you could say. If this missing professor holds some knowledge about the First Founders, then I think I'm going to enjoy this job myself."

That was his honest feeling. The pay was a lifesaver, sure, but if he could learn more about Earth and the lost history through this job, then he could consider this one of the best employment he ever had.

"Anyway, let's watch the videos thoroughly. Do you understand much of what is being said?"

"Mm, somewhat. I studied English before, and it's not that unintelligible to Universal, is it?"

"Hmm... I guess? They're related, after all. But even so, when they speak that fast it's hard to make out the words."

They went back to focus on the holographic display. Milanor occasionally asked Naya some questions when he was lost in what was going on in the video. It looked like the first king of the new country, King Arthur II, was being crowned at the coronation ceremony.

"Wait. He was the first king, but his name was the Second?" he asked, finding that weird.

"The record said he was a direct descendant of the old British monarchy, so the dynasty was a continuation of the previous one. Maybe there was a King Arthur before on Earth?"

"Heh, fascinating..."

He learned quite a few trivia like that by talking with Naya. They kept watching the vid for a while after that until Miledi came over telling them dinner was ready.

"Well, we can continue this tomorrow! Let's get this dinner party started," Milanor declared before he stood up.

"What have you two been watching, Master?" Miledi asked since she saw them huddled together watching a hologram of something.

"Um, nothing much, just some documentaries. I'll tell you all about it later," he answered promptly, although he was a bit hesitant before he saw Naya's unperturbed reaction. He figured it was okay to tell the two of them, namely, the maid and Fianna.

"We'll go to the caf-" Milanor suddenly stopped and looked down at his body. "Ah, hmm. You two can go ahead there. I want to take a shower first."

He just realized an uncomfortable feeling in his body. He had been running around all day in that hot, stuffy artificial atmosphere in Runanthor. Of course, he was sweating heavily under his clothes, not to mention with that baggy dark-colored cloak earlier. He definitely needed a shower.

Milanor couldn't believe he had been so close with a girl while being that nasty. Naya didn't say anything, so he probably didn't smell bad... right? Although, she was with him almost the whole day so maybe she just grew numb to it. It was inexcusable, nonetheless.

"I'll be quick, sorry." Milanor walked quickly and left them behind.