Mob #13 “Could you lend me a ship?”
My 8 hour shift of guarding and assisting with debris removal ended, so after properly switching shifts I returned to the management colony.
The first thing to do when getting back is peel off the polymer applied to the ship.
They supposedly break down and melt the micro debris and anything else adsorbed to the polymer that can be reused as material.
After getting it all off, I topped up the fuel and did a quick inspection of the ship before I could finally take a break.
Then I headed to the capsule hotel-style accommodations in the colony.
I could sleep on my ship but I figured I’d make use of what they provided.
These lodging capsules have soundproofing, TV, climate control, communications, and can serve as escape pods, so they’re widely used in colonies.
Thankfully there seems to be bathing facilities too, so after securing a room, leaving my luggage, and locking up, I headed to the baths.
Besides normal tubs and jet baths there’s also saunas and onsen, but for busy people there’s particle mist shower capsules that refresh you without even taking your clothes off.
By the way, there’s capsules with these particle showers built in for lodging, but I don’t use them since I don’t like bathing and sleeping in the same place.
After refreshing myself at the baths, I went to the cafeteria for a meal and the selection and taste were both pretty good.
Then after the meal, while absentmindedly watching TV in a lounge area, a loud voice suddenly echoed.
“That’s bullshit! What part of this is an adventurer’s work!? Adventurers are supposed to be killing pirates and rampaging on battlefields!”
“It can’t be helped. There’s no battlefield work and the pirate subjugation requests we got were too high rank for us to take.”
Probably a raw rookie who just became an adventurer, and the archetypal one with a cute girl partner.
And the girl’s response means they’re definitely the protagonist’s side.
There’s about 500-600 adventurers in the Ytts branch I belong to, but his type probably stands out a lot there too.
Though I’ve never seen him inside the branch building so they must be a group from a different guild who came here, but I saw him during the briefing so we must’ve gotten the same shift.
Anyway I don’t wanna get involved with them so I headed back to my room early.
After locking up and putting on an eye mask, I set an alarm and started reading a light novel I brought, then somehow fell asleep before I knew it, probably because I wasn’t used to the work.
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The next morning.
Or rather about 3 hours before the shift change, I woke up, finished breakfast, and was inspecting my ship at the dock when
“Please, please, please, please! “
I heard a voice pleading about something but apparently being refused.
Getting abrasive responses like “No way!” and “Don’t mess with me!”
Before long, the voice grew closer.
The one going around pleading turned out to be the girl from that pair making a racket in the lounge.
Seeing me, she desperately called out
“Um, excuse me!”
“Wha…what?”
“Can I borrow your ship, I plead you?”
What’s this girl saying?
Bringing your own ship is mandatory for this job.
And they properly participated with a ship for the first shift, right?
“I mean…asking to borrow a ship…”
“You had a ship properly for the first shift, right? What happened?”
“Fiduc took it…saying he was [Going to go kill some pirates, see ya] and left on it…”
I see, so that’s a breach of contract, big time.
It was written in the contract.
You must respond and sortie even during standby break in emergencies.
Due to the above, leaving the colony during standby break is prohibited.
“You didn’t stop him?”
“He left a note while I was sleeping…”
The girl makes a woeful expression.
“Please! Lend me your ship so I can carry out my guard duties!”
And bows her head to me, but since I need my ship for work too, I can’t lend it out.
It seems they didn’t accept the debris collection job.
“Can’t do it. It’s rare for an adventurer to lend their ship, and above all we’ve got the same shift so no way. At least ask someone with a different shift.”
As I tell her that, the girl heads to what I guess is the break room, where the other shifts probably are, with drooping shoulders.
And so the next shift began.
Repeating coordinated work with the nice debris removal guys, I realized the debris count was gradually decreasing.
It seems that girl wasn’t able to borrow a ship and got thoroughly scolded by the gate management staff and her guild staff.
Considering her partner’s personality, maybe there was some monetary circumstance that led her to take this job even with that kind of guy.
I think they should disband sooner rather than later…
While I was thinking that, the end of shift time approached.
At that moment, a communication came through the open channel.
It was the first time so I panicked a little.
Since it could be pirates, I had the debris guys stop work.
“This is guarding the Sadal star zone gate replacement work. State your ship name, area of approach, and reason for nearing the work zone.”
[This is the container ship Seed-1 of the Crystal Wind planet race team. I wanted to get gate use permission and pay but…I didn’t know replacement work was going on?!]
The monitor showed a middle management type uncle.
“Pretty sure notices went out a good while ago?”
[Was busy with one thing after another…didn’t check for info sorry~]
The middle management uncle deeply sighed with a tired expression.
[I wanna get to Planet Dapeton soon too…]
Incidentally, Planet Dapeton is the destination of the gate being replaced now.
Gates are basically one-way, so while there was a direct route from Planet IYtts to the Sadal star zone, you had to transfer 3 times on the way back.
Roundtrip tickets accommodate that of course.
But the Crystal Wind planet race team huh.
If possible I’d rather not get involved with this planet race team.
Because one of the other two survivors of the incident I got dragged into with Lior Burnnext is a pilot on this team.
Her name’s Schoona Noswile.
Navy blue hair, ponytail when she was a student but went short after graduating.
Likely tall at 180cm with a great figure, super popular with girls more than guys since her student days, the so-called handsome beauty.
Called the prince of the planet race scene for dominating numerous top races despite her tall height said to be disadvantageous for pilots.
She and Burnnext became overnight sensations after the incident, constantly hounded by the media as the handsome duo, but I continued my normal everyday life as always.
I only spoke to her for a short time after the battle in that incident.
Afterwards we were in different classes so we didn’t interact.
So while I don’t feel irritated seeing her like with Burnnext, I somehow can’t easily approach her since she became a celebrity.
If someone as plain as me tried talking to her, the super popular male-female ace pilot, her fans would absolutely not allow it even if she wouldn’t mind.
By the way, planet races are battles with interference allowed, raced within the atmosphere of uninhabited or low population (under 1 billion) habitable planets.
There are conventional lap time races competing on set number of laps, and so-called endurance races competing on set durations, both popular.
Anyway, we can’t have them approaching the work zone and causing accidents or getting caught up in one.
“Please contact the management colony for now and decide what to do after going there. It’s dangerous to approach the work zone.”
I decided to contact the management colony and have them take over.
When I did, the colony staff were quite surprised at the appearance of the famous racing team, but such things apparently happen often during normal maintenance too.
Well maintenance only takes up to 2 hours I hear, but the replacement work still has over 16 hours to go.
I hope they can take a detour if one exists that’s faster.
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feel bad for the girl since her companions gonna just make what woulda been a routine situation into a defense problem situation