Fantasy Galaxy: Why Are There Goblins and Orcs in Space? - Chapter 7

Having acquired the maintenance robots, we returned to the small spacecraft and instructed the robots to check and service the ship.

After that, we continued our exploration of the spaceport. We were searching for water and food. There was a minimal amount of water in the small spacecraft, but we deemed it insufficient. As we proceeded down the corridor of the spaceport, we noticed goblin soldiers from the mobile space fleet crossing our path. Salio and I quickly dove into a nearby corridor to hide.

Once the goblin soldiers were out of sight, I let out a sigh of relief.

“What should we do now?”

I asked Salio through the communicator. Since we were using a frequency that the goblins couldn’t pick up, we were safe for the time being.

“Let’s check further down this corridor,” Salio replied.

We began to move down the corridor and soon found a shelter. As we entered through the airlock, the lights suddenly turned on. It seemed the power here was still operational.

“It looks like there’s air here,” Salio said, removing his helmet.

“Are you sure it’s safe?” I asked in a panic, to which Salio nodded.

“If we smell something weird later, we can just put our helmets back on,” he reassured me.

Despite being a space-dwelling Shiba Inu, he was quite laid-back. I also took off my helmet. It appeared that the shelter was equipped with an air purification system, as there were no funny odors and the air was clean.

The shelter was about twenty meters squared, with around thirty storage boxes secured along the walls. We began to open the boxes one by one.

“More rotten food,” I said, disappointed.

After encountering five boxes of spoiled food, I opened the next one and found a transparent container filled with water.

“Salio, it’s water!”

“Really?” Salio came over to check. Inside one of the storage boxes, there were transparent tanks containing about nine hundred liters of water, divided into smaller containers. It’s said that water stored in such shelters was preserved indefinitely, as the environment contained no impurities that could cause it to spoil.

“This is a lifesaver. I was worried about getting by with just the water stored in the small spacecraft,” I said.

We continued to open boxes and discovered about six tons of water. When I asked Salio, it seemed we had secured enough water for the time being.

In addition to the water, there were also seemingly brand-new information terminals. Although they were technically no longer brand-new, they were still functional. As expected from a Level C civilization.

The terminals were smart glasses-types, which displayed information on the lenses in front of the wearer’s eyes when worn. To operate them, it seemed one needed to use a shorthand language coupled with eye gestures and a glove-type controller.

I didn’t exactly know how to use it, but Salio and I each secured one. While smart glasses existed on Earth, they could only perform simple functions on their own. For more complex tasks, they needed to be connected to a smartphone, computer, or gaming console.

On the other hand, the Anubis-manufactured smart glasses, or Anubis-types for short, had capabilities exceeding those of a high-performance computer and could execute various functions on their own.

Moreover, there were no nose pads or ear hooks; instead, there were suction cups on the bridge connecting the left and right lenses, which were pressed against the forehead for use. Since we were short on time, I decided to ask Salio to teach me how to use it later.

As we continued to search the storage boxes, Salio suddenly exclaimed, “Oh!”

“What is it?” I asked.

“I found a food production device!”

Hearing that, I was overjoyed. This brought us one step closer to freedom. However, a food production device would surely require some materials. It couldn’t produce food on its own.

“That’s amazing! What kind of food can that device make?” I inquired.

“It makes survival food tubes,” Salio replied.

I slumped my shoulders in disappointment. That was the one type of food I didn’t want to eat.

“But what about the raw materials for making the survival food tubes?” I asked.

“This production device type is also known as a monster processing device. The materials are Space Clione and Space Jellyfish,” Salio explained.

So those were actually the raw materials. My enthusiasm plummeted. I had no idea that monsters could be used as food. Since Space Jellyfish were nearby, it seemed possible to hunt them for food. But… those survival food tubes… Ugh.

We continued to search the shelter and found clothes and household items. We secured everything that seemed useful. We then transported the water and the food production device to the hangar where the small spacecraft was located. In the hangar, the maintenance robots were working on the small spacecraft, and it seemed they would finish the repairs the next day.

After receiving a report from the maintenance robots, Salio explained that there were no issues with the ultra-compact nuclear fusion reactor and the small plasma engine. There was a minor problem with the air reduction purification system, but it had been repaired. By the way, this ultra-compact nuclear fusion reactor operated solely on deuterium.

We continued to search the spaceport for food but returned to the small spacecraft without finding anything. After that, we activated the ultra-compact nuclear fusion reactor, which had undergone checks and was now operational. I felt relieved that it was functioning properly.

Since the maintenance robots were also powered by electricity, it was fortunate that the ultra-compact nuclear fusion reactor went operational before their batteries ran out. The air reduction purification system also started working, allowing us to remove our powered armor and space suits inside the small spacecraft.

Salio and I relaxed for the first time in a while without our space suits. We were using clothes we had found in the shelter.

“This small spacecraft can’t take us to another star system though,” Salio said.

I was aware of that. This was an interplanetary spacecraft, not an interstellar one, so superluminal travel was impossible.

“How do we get off this planet?” I asked.

“I don’t know yet. But I believe there’s a chance,” Salio replied.

Salio didn’t seem like he was lying. It was probably true, but I still felt anxious. We continued to search the spaceport, bringing back anything that seemed useful to the small spacecraft.

Among the items were propellants for the plasma engine and additional space suits. The Anubis-made space suits were superior in performance compared to the Goblin-made powered armor, although they couldn’t be used for combat.

With power restored to the small spacecraft, Salio ran the self-diagnostics program for the electronic systems. It seemed there were no issues, so he activated the spacecraft’s control brain next. Once that was done, we registered ourselves as the ship’s crew. Of course, there were security measures. But since it was a fairly old type of ship, Salio was able to deactivate said measures.

***

About three days had passed since we were abandoned by the goblins. During that time, we had only been drinking water and eating nothing.

“Let’s go hunt some Space Jellyfish,” Salio suggested.

We donned our powered armor and headed toward the docking bay. As we approached the exit to the docking bay through the air duct, we peeked inside and saw two Space Jellyfish drifting within. It seemed there were no goblins around.

I checked the remaining ammunition in my space machine gun. I had only fourteen rounds left. Since they were precious bullets, I needed to use them wisely. Salio and I decided to take down one jellyfish each.

As we jumped into the docking bay, the Space Jellyfish immediately noticed us and began to approach. Their movement resembled that of ocean-dwelling jellyfish. They would puff up their bodies and then propel themselves forward by expelling gas from their rear ends.

Fortunately, the two Space Jellyfish split up. Observing the one that was approaching me, I found it was about eight meters wide, with a red core in the center.

I aimed to take it down with a single shot. To do that, I needed to lure it in. It took quite some courage to wait patiently for the massive monster to come closer. My heart raced, and my breathing quickened.

Just as I was about to make close contact with the Space Jellyfish, I pulled the trigger. The explosive round penetrated the jellyfish’s body, hitting the core and causing an explosion. It seemed I had successfully destroyed the core in one shot.

Salio took down his jellyfish in two shots. We called the maintenance robots to help us dismantle the jellyfish carcasses and transported them to the small spacecraft.

The monster processing device we brought into the small spacecraft came with a large number of empty tubes as accessories. We were able to mass-produce survival food tubes using the materials harvested from the Space Jellyfish carcasses.

The number of survival food tubes produced amounted to three thousand servings. With two meals a day, that would last the two of us seven hundred fifty days. The thought of eating this for over two years made me feel lightheaded.

“With this, we won’t have to worry about food for about two years,” Salio said.

“I absolutely refuse to eat this slop for more than two years,” I exclaimed and expressed my honest feelings. Hearing that, Salio laughed.

“This isn’t a laughing matter. Isn’t there any delicious monster meat?” I asked.

“Most space monsters are usually not tasty. However, there are said to be some monsters on planets that can be quite delicious,” Salio replied.

It seemed that to eat tasty monster meat, we would have to go to some planet somewhere.