Chapter 14, Descent

One week later. The Ishimura was repaired to a nominally operable state by its crew and the Unitologist expedition, and Shocked away towards Titan Station, escorted by Ulmok and Skiew; the chunk of planetary mass towed away to a Lagrange point near the planet for temporary safekeeping. Survivors received official instructions on what to say from both Earthgov and the church, even a threateningly reasonable amount of hush money from both too.

Nagate and Shizuka have won a trip to Earth itself, tagging along all the adults with responsibilities to report to CEC, Unitology and Earthgov. Daina Le Guin brought the gestatorial shuttle from the Titan cathedral as an icon of authority - now its passenger capacity was pushed to the absolute limits: Herself, the kids, Eckhardt, Kyne, Issac, Nicole, and finally Kendra as an observer from Earthgov. As well furnished as the shuttle was, it was still built on the same compact platform used by the Kellion.

All of the mutant biomass in Ishimura's hangar have been removed for biodegradation while the molten glass created from the Marker was vigorously tested to be no longer magnetically, radiologically or biologically active. It could be cut apart and melted by human tools freely. Now, the hangar was as sterile as the fresh CEC dress uniforms that replaced the kids' bloodied and torn suits.

"We're coming closer and closer to seeing Earth, Nagate, I'm starting to feel scared." Shizuka said, as the improvised tour group boarded their shuttle.

"It's hard to feel Earth's charm, right?" He tried to understand her way of thinking, "We grew up on Sidonia."

She nodded.

"The Old Man never taught me much about Earth. Classes I took on Sidonia felt hard to grasp too. I'm still hopeful to see for myself, though."

"The tourist handbook dressed everything up in sentimental value." Shizuka waved the expensive-looking physically printed handbook at him, "I'm starting to feel it would take Sidonia's vault to make the planet recover, and it will be as difficult as terraforming a rock."

What remained of Nagate's battered Type 17 was sent to a CEC research center ahead of the unlikely tour group, inside a cargo pod connected to the Kellion; Earthgov took copies of its navigation data, while pieces of its armor and Hyggs collection membrane went to Danik's mobile monastery for study. The long term goal was to establish a stabilized connection between universes, and let the Sidonia enter this Gauna-free world. In exchange, the Hyggs technology could easily solve humanity's energy shortage.

Dr. Kyne has told the kids: This inter-dimensional mutual aid is the real meaning of Convergence and they are clearly its messengers. Daina and Eckhardt gave this interpretation their approval, too.

"See this thing. Extinct Animal Friends!" Once settled into a luxurious recliner seat, Shizuka opened the handbook, showing a page to Nagate on the seat next to her.

"Kemono friends? Wait, they're all extinct. Can you imagine there are no bears on Earth anymore? This isn't fair for Miss Hiyama."

"Sidonia's gene bank will have a lot to do. They don't even have bees anymore! Most farms are hydroponic, outdoor ones use genetically enhanced moths to pollinate."

"Moths?"

"See this one here? Pergesa trademark. It's closely related to the real benisuzume."

"Oh..." Nagate stared at the picture about Earth's high-end organic agriculture. He swore he heard the devil's taunting giggle - and then he looked up, finding out it was Shizuka herself giggling at his alarmed reaction. The only way out was joining her in a hearty laugh!

"Look at this! Natural Japanese seaweed for making nori!" She pointed at another illustration, "Kunato Norio can no longer feel unique!"

He coughed, even dry heaved at the name. Kunato Norio, the human face of hostility on Sidonia - even Nagate could piece together that he was the direct reason behind the mission failure that caused Hoshijiro Shizuka to be assimilated by a Gauna. To be fair, her return as Benisuzume scared him enough, but his lab team also took over a humanoid Ena of her and... Somehow created Tsumugi. Whatever he became, his family was the type to name kids after extinct types of seaweed to show off their wealth.

"Ugh, him..."

"Earth should still have mosugu too, I'll reserve some for Kunato Mosugu." That was the name of Norio's younger sister who lives in his shadow, vastly better natured, a friend to Shizuka. She became a suitable pilot or partner for Tsumugi without any combat training, which the lab attributed to high mental link compatibility. Other than that, she seldomly crossed paths with Nagate or his friends.

"She'll be overjoyed to see you. I know she keeps to herself, but Izana said she's really shut off after... You know."

"I'll make sure! The land of the living should share my joy, there's enough for everyone I care!"

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

Nagate felt the enthusiasm to be infectious. Behind them, Kyne was typing out something on his PDA tablet, and he picked up the pace at Shizuka's claim. On his face was a smile of approval?

"Look who's coming to Earth too." Across the aisle, Issac pulled up a link from his PDA to the seat screen, "Just what I'm waiting for the whole year, and we can catch them ahead of the festival!"

It was a poster for a metal band tour on Earth, from Issac's birthplace of Philadelphia to Green Bay, a town of perplexing importance since the days of Alfred Bester.

"Convergence Rejects again?" Nicole asked; the band was moderately successful among CEC workers, although many complained it was not as hard as late 20th century forerunners. Being an affront to Altman was easier than to the biblical god.

"Hey, I'm just one stamp away from getting their collectors' edition foam hands! We can take a weekend trip before work starts again." He leaned over, "Hey kids, do you want to come experience some real Earth culture? They'd love to sacrifice a real goat to have you two as guests, too."

"A precious creation of the Marker... These heathens." Daina muttered at an intentional audible volume from the navigator's station.

"Don't worry, it's going to die for a worthy cause and feed people who actually appreciate life." Issac grinned, and turned to Nicole, "You want a really good idea?"

"No!"

"I've been watching security cam footage. Once I get back to my band console I'll sample the Hyggs effects. Bands can have them for free, and we'll have free tickets to every Beyond Metal fest."

"Not bad, Issac. Not the worst. Make them public domain."

////

In Sidonia, the Tanikaze house's entrance kept receiving gifts, flowers and well-wishing cards even two weeks after the unexplained vanishing of Nagate. After all, it was his second time missing in action, and last time it took even longer and a trip at relativistic speed to fetch him back.

Izana found assistant commander - and the closest thing to yet another member in Nagate's found family - Midorikawa Yuhata knocking at the door with a tablet. Following her was Mosugu.

"Okay time for us to come in?"

"Sure! Do you want me to call Tsumugi here?"

"I've sent her a message to get here on the confidential channel, I think she'll like seeing this."

They waited next to the pipeline shutter that connected to Tsumugi's hangar. The secondary head was a breakthrough in Chimera Gauna research; regular humans felt magnitudes more comfortable working with a whimsical balloon animal than with a meat-colored armored golem ten times their size. Civilians liked the child-friendly appearance, too, although there always were some people complaining about a "mildly phallic outline" of their demi-human protector.

Sound of friction between the pipeline and squeaking, rubbery Ena was echoing across the house. She was audible excited to see her closest friends, or her support crew gave her too much 1:10 scale antidepressants. The prescription was ordered by central command after Nagate's disappearance which Izana strongly objected to, but every commanding officer except Yuhata approved.

A few seconds later, Tsumugi's secondary head squeezed out of the pipe and waved hello at the gathered humans; Izana hugged her and found her a place next to the family TV screen, which Yuhata was plugging her tablet into.

"Don't tell this to anyone, this is just for you to hear. Our analysis of the anomaly picked up by Izana's Guardian showed a spatial distortion pattern that matched observations seen when... Nagate vanished."

"Really?" Tsumugi slithered out of Izana's arms and moved closer to the screen, "You mean we're getting closer to finding him?

"Scientists at Kunato labs may have a lead." Mosugu nodded. Then she continued, in a precise and diplomatic manner that slightly unnerved Izana, "The computer on the inter-universal ship sent to us for examination could load data from the anomaly as a known pattern in the native universe, although it's not incomplete. Fully interpreting our codes with theirs would take time, and repairing the Shockring requires approval of collaboration with Toha Heavy Industries."

"Wow..."

"The approval would just be a formality." Yuhata shrugged, "The Captain has already decided to start testing our systems' interoperability with theirs. The Shockpoint system uses gravitational beams to open channels in space, and we can translate some technology into those used by our explosive-compression anti-planet guided missile."

"Kunato Development is amazing!" Tsumugi clapped her secondary head's tentacle hands.

"Izana, your new Type 18 Recon-2 model Guardian will be completed soon. Before you board it, we'll first connect it to one of the Foreigners' ships and send them through a short range Shockpoint flight across observable space to see if Hyggs reactions affect it."

"Wouldn't it be too expensive to test with?" Izana wondered, "Have the Foreigners agreed to using their own ship?"

"The estimated possibility of a success is 87.53%! Besides, their cargo provided minerals we can use to make more Type 18 Recon-2s. They're pirate miners and they said it's a good trade for housing and jobs..."

"Tell me about them!" Tsumugi shrunk back to find a cozy sitting place, "The doctors didn't let me follow Mosugu-san to see them. Pirate miners? Don't pirates live on the sea? Are they oil drillers then?"

"Right! Okay, you'll hear from me this ahead of anyone. We'll be putting out official news this evening and say the ships Izana found are from colonist survivors. After some Shockpoint tests, we'll start to talk about a plan to explore a parallel universe. Anyway, the Foreigners are sent here from their universe by accident. It's a universe with different tech from ours, a timeline around 800 years behind, and... Gauna doesn't exist there."

"What?" Izana was as surprised as Tsumugi.

"In some ways they're behind us, but other ways they're far ahead. These people call themselves the Magpies, they're outcasts of society piloting old ships, yet they regularly use a faster-than-light travel method invented centuries ago."

"How do they like life here?"

"They've all went through hard times, all thought the gravity anomaly would get them killed, so most aren't complaining about living in an emergency shelter for now. Some have started to make demands, though, saying they want high class room and board for what they can teach our engineers. Oh, they're all the regular kind of humans who needs three meals a day like Nagate..."

"I remember Hoshijiro talking to Yamano about leaving hardship..." Izana's thought trailed off, too.

"There's good news, too!" Yuhata flipped over a page on her tablet, "Their chartings said Nagate have a high chance of being picked up by military ships trying to catch them in the mining area. Maybe they have already took him to Earth."

"Nagate on Earth?" Tsumugi wrapped her tentacles over the shoulders of the other two listeners in excitement, "It exists over there? Do they have pictures?"

"Here! You should see it ahead of everyone, as a treat..."

////

New Melbourne, Florida. Temple Prime of Unitology. The great hall next to one of the temple's many spiritual aptitude testing rooms was almost packed tight by the tense atmosphere from its handful of occupants sitting in the pews.

"I can't believe our first stop on Earth is this shithole and the first thing the kids experience is the fucking eye needle machine!" Issac muttered to Nicole, who was staring at the intentional recipient - their nominal friend Eckhardt from Ishimura - with unveiled contempt at the obvious betrayal.

"The church's ophthalmologist waiting room has horrible decor and reading material." She nodded, "The plants are all Biosynth weekly package subscriptions. No real flowers when you're in Florida of all places? Hey Warren! Do you even have real oranges in the building, or just plastic decorations?"

Eckhardt awkwardly asked a dull-looking acolyte in all white to fetch refreshments for them, who relayed to some masked guards.

Inside the testing room, Nagate has just left the NoonLight diagnostic machine.

"Your eye's itching? Don't rub it. Here, have some medical gel." Dr. Kyne warned, replacing the optic fiber needle with a clean one.

"I'm fine, but Shizuka..."

"Don't worry, I don't look away." Her reply reminded him of the time they entered separate vertical man-washer machines... No, organic decontamination chambers on Sidonia after their return. He squeezed the gel between his eyelids and watched her enter the machine.

A few seconds of winding up later, the machine began to beep for help. Every screen was filled with error text.

Technical difficulty warning: Exception detected. Input bandwidth exceeded (4.8TB/s), procedure terminated. Please leave machine and contact engineering.