After a while, the warning alarms stopped, and silence returned. Watching the footage from the ship’s cameras, I saw the people gathered on the bridge checking for the source of the malfunction. I couldn’t hear their voices, but by reading their lips, I could tell they were inspecting the systems.
“If you had left it to me, I could have found the cause faster.”
Currently, we were flying through hyperspace, and once we got close to the Nine Rings World, we would have to return to normal space. However, with the control system malfunctioning, returning to normal space would be dangerous. If we re-entered normal space too deep inside the Nine Rings World’s asteroid belt, the risk of colliding with an asteroid would be high.
The Nine Rings World’s asteroid belt had a higher density of asteroids compared to ordinary star systems, making the risk greater. I searched for a way to escape the room. In the end, I discovered a security flaw in one of Esaias’s androids. I quickly exploited the security hole, infiltrated the android’s core system, and took control of its artificial brain.
I guided the hijacked android to the room where I was confined. Once the android reached the room, I had it open the door. Leaving the android in my place, I exited the room and headed to the bridge. As I opened the bridge door, I heard a voice.
“Return to normal space.”
Joachim was about to operate the Luon Drive. I had suspected that if someone had tampered with the ship, they would do it when transitioning from hyperspace to normal space. So, I thought it was dangerous to return to normal space without a thorough check.
“Please wait!”
I rushed onto the bridge to stop them, but it was too late. The control system, following Joachim’s command, instructed the Luon Drive to activate. The exploration ship Enya returned to normal space.
“Ah!”
Someone’s voice, filled with shock and fear, rang out. The main monitor displayed a massive asteroid.
“We’re going to hit it!”
Joachim shouted, holding onto Pam. The next moment, the Enya’s barrier collided with the asteroid, shattering it into pieces. Simultaneously, the Enya’s barrier vanished, and the ship was violently shaken, throwing everyone inside around. Pam was flung from Joachim’s arms. I leaped toward her, catching her mid-air and checking if she was hurt.
“Pam, are you hurt anywhere?”
“Vel!”
Pam smiled at me, and Joachim sighed in relief. Meanwhile, Esaias began shouting in anger.
“This wasn’t supposed to happen! They tricked us!”
Joachim, noticing this, approached Esaias amidst the shaking ship.
“What do you mean by that!?”
Esaias looked startled, then frightened.
“N-nothing.”
“Something’s clearly wrong. Are you involved in this?”
Joachim’s voice was filled with anger.
“Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I do something to destroy the ship I’m on?”
I intervened.
“I saw Esaias doing something with the ship’s systems on the bridge.”
Esaias glared at me with a furious expression.
“You ugly robot, are you betraying me?”
I glared back at him.
“My former master, Matthias, ordered me to replace you if you ever endangered the Polvari family. It seems that time has come.”
“Hmph, so my father knew you had an ego.”
At that moment, the pilot, who was trying to stabilize the Enya, shouted.
“It’s terrible! The control system has been hijacked!”
Joachim’s face paled as he rushed to the pilot’s side.
“What’s going on?”
“The control system is trying to make the ship collide with an asteroid!”
The terror in his voice was palpable. The asteroid on the main monitor grew larger by the second.
“Can’t we do something?”
“No. I’ve tried everything, but we can’t regain control from the virus. At this point, we’ll have to use the escape pods.”
Just then, an explosion echoed through the ship. It seemed something had exploded inside.
“Ahh!”
Esaias screamed and fled the bridge, likely heading for the escape pods. I wondered what he would do with the androids. If he ordered them to escape, they could survive in space for a few months, but any longer and they might break down. Seeing this, Joachim made a bitter face, clicked his tongue, and decided to ignore Esaias.
“Vel, get Pam out first. Delan, you protect Pam and Vel.”
Delan was Joachim’s guard robot. I adjusted my hold on Pam and looked at Joachim.
“What about you, Joachim?”
“I’ll try a little longer to regain control of the ship.”
“If that’s the case, I’ll handle the task of regaining control. You and Pam should escape.”
Master Joachim shook his head in refusal.
“I am this ship’s owner and captain. I have a duty to protect everyone aboard. Please follow my instructions.”
“Understood.”
Carrying Pam, I left the bridge with Delan and headed toward the section with escape pods. Right after that, an explosion occurred in a nearby room. The explosion created a hole in the ship’s hull, and air along with unsecured items began being sucked out into space. Delan caught a flying table and used it to block the hole. However, it wasn’t completely sealed.
“Please go ahead. I’ll do emergency repairs.”
Nodding at Delan’s words, I checked the partition wall that had automatically lowered due to the hull breach. After manually opening it, I proceeded down the corridor. I checked on Pam in my arms. Her high-performance spacesuit had covered her body after detecting the pressure change.
“I’m scared.”
Pam looked like she was about to cry.
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT GADGETIZEDPANDA.COM
“It’s alright. We’ll definitely survive.”
When I said this, Pam nodded. I had to save Pam, who was to become my new Master, no matter what. At this point, Esaias was still my Master. To switch, Pam would need to declare it, but I judged that would be impossible in this situation.
We had to reach the escape pod section no matter what. As I thought this and moved forward, I heard someone arguing up ahead.
“Listen to my orders!”
It was Esaias’s voice.
“No! There are only enough escape pods for the crew. We can’t allow them to be used for androids!”
I had been wondering what Esaias would do with his android collection, but to think he was trying to save the androids with escape pods… My perverted Master had lost it. It seemed better to change Masters quickly.
For a moment, I tried to guess what Esaias was thinking. Then, noticing Pam’s surprised expression, I looked where she was staring. The crew member who had been managing the escape pods was lying on the floor. Esaias had apparently struck him.
“You bastard!”
The enraged crew member got up and lunged at Esaias. I decided I couldn’t waste time with this. Still carrying Pam, I approached an escape pod, opened the hatch, and put her inside.
“Pam, after I close the hatch, please press this red button.”
After closing the hatch, I signaled to her with my hand. But Pam seemed too frightened to move. No choice. As I reached for the external escape lever… at that moment, a crew member rolled past through the corridor, hitting his head against the wall and suffering a concussion. Probably Esaias’s doing. Looking back, Esaias was glaring at me.
“Vel, what are you doing?”
Esaias questioned me.
“I’m trying to help Pam escape in the pod.”
“Don’t act on your own.”
“But it’s Master Joachim’s order.”
“No!”
Hearing this, the crew member shook his head as he stood up, trying to stop Esaias.
“Don’t interfere!”
Esaias ordered the androids to restrain the crew member. I couldn’t understand it. What was Esaias thinking? Even the androids ordered to restrain the crew member were confused. These androids weren’t programmed for such actions, nor had they ever learned how.
“What should we do?”
One android asked.
“Hit it!”
Then the android who asked struck Esaias’s back.
“Ouch, you fool! Not me. Hit him!”
While thinking that if he’d ordered me to hit him, I would have done so with full force, I walked toward Pam’s escape pod. Just then, a large explosion rocked the ship, and I fell in the corridor. Dangerous. Thinking I needed to get Pam to escape quickly, I reached for the escape lever before me.
At that moment, someone grabbed my foot and pulled me back. Looking at my feet, it was Esaias. Just this once, my ego exploded. When I realized it, I had kicked Esaias in the stomach. The kicked Esaias lost his senses and pulled out a gun, pointing it at me.
“You’re not in your right mind. Stop!”
The crew member tried to intervene, but Esaias pulled the trigger. The gun was called a coil gun, a weapon that fires projectiles using electromagnetic force, different from a rail gun. A metal bullet was fired from the coil gun. The bullet passed by my side, bounced off the wall and ceiling behind me, and hit Esaias in the forehead.
“Huh?”
I heard Esaias make a foolish sound. Then he slowly fell. I rushed to Esaias’s side to check if he was alive or dead. The perverted Master wasn’t breathing. Esaias was dead.
“No…”
The command that Esaias had programmed into me activated. It was a command to erase all memories related to Esaias. Only Pam… I staggered toward the escape lever. But I became immobile just short of reaching it. My ego began fading along with my memories.
“Master Mathias… I’m sorry… Pam…”
The memories of Vel, the household support robot manufactured by the Asteria race, were lost, and when next activated, they would become the memories of a household support robot called “Skuld,” with the mage Zen as its Master.
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