-1-
The bridge of Space Battleship Yamato was pitching and rolling like a small boat on a stormy sea. As the ship seemed to pitch vertically, the sensation of falling hit the crew. Then came the sideways shaking as if they were riding on the swell of a wave. This turbulence was truly out of the ordinary. The gravity generator was completely useless.
The captain, Susumu Kodai, sitting in the battle command chair, stared ahead with a grim expression on his face, his mouth tight. His hands were white as he gripped the armrests. His face was pale with nervousness.
Pilot Daisuke Shima, beads of sweat on his forehead, was frantically maneuvering the ship on the verge of panic.
“Damn, what a shake,” he muttered to himself, forcibly steering Yamato. He had overcome many difficulties in his career, and was a master at controlling the ship. An ordinary pilot would have lost control long ago. His brilliant maneuvering minimized the pitching and rolling as much as possible.
“Turn 20 degrees to port,” Shima shouted loudly. “Full rudder!”
Susumu Kodai, who had been silent, opened his mouth.
“Shima, keep the bow trim!”
“Roger!”
The bridge vibrated heavily, but the pitching and rolling subsided a little. Shima wiped the sweat from his forehead with his right arm. Kodai looked slightly relieved. His hands, which had been tightened to the point of whiteness, returned to normal. He shifted his gaze from Shima to the right.
“Ota, are we near Galman-Gamilas yet?”
“Yes! I’ll confirm our position!”
Kenjiro Ota, chief of the navigation team’s radar department, looked sharply at his screen. The Analyzer robot was operating the circular radar with dexterous hands that did not match its appearance.
Kodai yelled to Aihara, the head of the communications team.
“Aihara! Is there any response?”
“I’m working on it…”
Aihara continued to send a message.
“This is Space Battleship Yamato of the Earth Federation. Leader Dessler, respond. Leader Dessler, are you safe? Come in, come in…”
A transmission from Yamato cut through the cosmic blackness toward Galman-Gamilas.
“Leader Dessler, come in! This is Space Battleship Yamato of the Earth Federation!”
Kodai closed his eyes, listening to Aihara’s voice calling out. Suddenly, however, he stood up from the captain’s seat and walked toward Aihara. Aihara glanced at Captain Kodai, who stood to his left, and continued to speak. Susumu clenched his fist and finally leaned forward to take the mic in front of Aihara. Aihara flinched at the gesture.
Susumu yelled into the mic, “Dessler! It’s Kodai! Please answer me! Please!”
But there was no response. Susumu stayed there for a while, then lowered the mic with a small tremble in his shoulder.
“Sorry, Aihara. Keep calling Dessler.”
“Roger!”
Aihara turned to the mic again.
“This is Space Battleship Yamato of the Earth Federation. Leader Dessler, come in. Leader Dessler, come in…”
Yamato was traveling toward Galman-Gamilas, the combined world of the surviving Gamilas and the Galman people, who had been attacked by the Bolar Federation. It was now a new empire united by Dessler.
But now Galman-Gamilas was in the midst of a major cataclysm on the galactic frontier. The edge of another galaxy, which had slipped through an interdimensional fault, was intersecting that region of space.
If we compare outer space to a soft, flat piece of paper, and fold or wrinkle a portion of it, it would cause otherwise separate galaxies to overlap. The same thing was happening in the center of the Milky Way. Part of an unknown galaxy had leapt hundreds of light years across dimensions, broke through a dimensional fault, and appeared at the edge of our galaxy. It was truly a collision of two galaxies.
The core star systems in the center of the Milky Way were exposed to the fury of a dimensional storm. Stars collided with each other and exploded, spewing out a tremendous amount of energy. Even the mighty Galman-Gamilas empire was helpless in the midst of the cataclysm.
The unparalleled tragedy spread further. As seen from Earth’s position in the Orion arm of the galaxy, the stars of the Bolar Federation were also engulfed by the cataclysmic event and disappeared one after another. Only one-third of the frontier on Earth’s side of the galaxy escaped the devastating effects.
The headquarters of the Earth Defense Forces was quick to detect the anomaly and dispatched Yamato to investigate. Now, Yamato pierced through a raging magnetic storm caused by the galactic crossing. The stars that were colliding and exploding sent huge waves of X-rays, infrared rays, and radiation swirling around them.
The stormy sea of cosmic rays and gasses tossed Yamato around as it tried to break through toward the Galman-Gamilas home planet.
“Leader Dessler, respond! Dessler, respond!”
Aihara, the head of the communications team, sent a message to Galman-Gamilas. But there was no response. Outside, the wreckage of alien spacecraft drifted by. Yamato sailed through it. The ship was still shaking from the magnetic storm. Analyzer emitted a warning with its body lights flashing.
“Two obstacles in front of us!”
They were huge remnants of a star, burning bright red. Shima maneuvered around them with great skill. Kodai returned to his command seat and meditated. He no longer cared about the obstacles in front of him. No matter how many times they kept calling, there was no response. He was thinking about Leader Dessler of Galman-Gamilas.
At that moment, Ota, who was watching the radar, shouted, “Galman-Gamilas confirmed!”
Kodai slowly opened both eyes and said in a low voice, “Full speed ahead toward Galman-Gamilas!”
-2-
Little by little, Galman-Gamilas gradually appeared in the path of Yamato, which was sailing at full speed. It was dark green. It gradually grew from a ping pong ball to a tennis ball and then to a soccer ball.
“Enter the gravitational sphere of Galman-Gamilas,” Kodai said to Shima.
“Roger!”
Galman-Gamilas filled the window of Yamato. The ground was approaching at high speed. The huge waves of X-rays and infrared rays from the stellar collisions tapered off. Or perhaps the shock waves had all been absorbed by the planet.
The bridge was quiet. Kodai stared out the window in rapt attention. The crew members looked stunned.
Outside the window was Dessler’s palace, shining green. But it was now in ruins. It was so dark that it was almost invisible, and the mesh dome had lost all its luster. The surrounding pyramid city, too, had turned a dark green. It was all in a dismal state.
Above the ruins, planet Starsha was visible in the sky, floating silently, pale as a ghost as if looking down sadly. Kodai and the others could only stare in silence.
The breathless voice of Yamazaki, the chief engineer, was heard. “We should stop the engine.”
“Very well,” Kodai replied in a muttered voice. “Stop the engine!”
Yamato came to a halt above Dessler’s palace.
Sanada, the deputy captain, said to no one in particular, “So this was Dessler’s fate in the end…”
Kodai looked at Sanada’s profile. He moved the edge of his lips to say something, but did not speak. He turned his eyes again to Dessler’s palace outside the window. To Kodai’s left, Analyzer tilted his head and the lights on his body flickered weakly.
“He was scary, but a good man…”
Kodai nodded as Shima walked up to his right.
“By the look of things, the Bolar Federation must have also been destroyed…”
Susumu’s shoulders slumped. After a while, he muttered something to himself.
“Let’s at least give a three-volley shot of condolence for Dessler…”
“Let’s do that,” Shima replied.
One by one, they left the bridge and went on deck, leaving Kodai alone to stare at the dead ruins of Dessler’s palace. He rose and followed the others.
Crew members were lined up on the deck of Yamato. With Kodai in the center, Shima, Aihara, Nambu…the entire main crew was there. Below them, as far as the eye could see, was a mountain of rubble. The closer they looked, the more horrified they became.
It was tempting to look away, but they could not help but continue staring at the scene. The area was quiet and still. Nothing moved. Kodai looked up from the dead world to planet Starsha above him. Then he closed his eyes. Dessler’s determined face appeared in Kodai’s mind. Then it faded away and the magnificent palace of a bygone era came into view. Dessler reviewing his military in grand style…
“Kodai.”
The illusion vanished at the sound of Shima’s voice, and Kodai opened his eyes.
“We’ll fire the salute.”
“Right.”
Shima raised his right hand.
“Funereal artillery salute!”
One of Yamato‘s turrets belched fire three times, then the roar faded away, leaving a lingering echo. The area became even more deadly quiet than it had been before.
“Salute!”
They all saluted Dessler’s palace with their right arms across their chests. Aihara handed Kodai a bouquet of bright red flowers. Kodai held it out in front of him.
“Dessler, you and I hated each other at times. We fought. But you were also an invaluable friend.”
Kodai paused, then continued.
“I…I will never forget your friendship…”
Susumu dropped a bright red bouquet of flowers into the palace ruins. It fell in a spinning motion for a while, but the flowers were caught by the wind and scattered in all directions, eventually disappearing from sight. The wind blew against Kodai and the others. They all bowed their heads in silent prayer.
Suddenly, the space around them shook like a soundless explosion. They staggered and swayed on the deck. A low rumbling began and gradually grew louder. Another wave of noiseless explosions, more intense than before, rushed in.
Sanada’s voice cracked from the speaker, “Kodai! It’s getting dangerous here, too. Let’s get out of here!”
All the gauges started working at once, and lights blinked impatiently. The engine noise rose sharply and roared like an explosion.
“Yamato, launch!”
Yamato began to move.
But then the first of the great shockwaves hit the ship. An intense hot air blast had traveled through space like a tidal wave, and it slammed against the entire hull at once. Yamato was shoved violently to the left and downward.
“We’re inverted 90 degrees to port! Full speed ahead,” Shima shouted as he tightened his grip on the control sticks.
A second wave hit Yamato immediately. The crew were thrown out of their seats by the shock. Kodai slammed to the floor. The gravity generator had gone completely haywire. Yamato was tossed about by the shock wave like a leaf from a tree. The bridge was shaking like never before.
Crew members who had been thrown from their seats were rolling left, right, forward, and backward. Only Shima was barely able to stay at his post. He clenched his fists and endured. Kodai yelled to him as he skidded across the floor.
“Shima! We can’t escape the shockwave if it keeps going like this!”
“What can we do?” Shima yelled back.
The ship shook again, and Kodai rolled like a ball.
“Warp, Shima! Warp!”
“Impossible! I can’t run a calculation!”
“I don’t care, just do it!”
“I don’t know where to warp! It’s not safe!”
Shima almost let go of the sticks, and then quickly regained his grip. Kodai tried to jump up, but was knocked shoulder first to the floor.
“Ugh….we can’t survive if we stay here like this! Warping is the only way! Just do it!”
“Okay, free warp!”
Yamato did a warp while still in a spin. The ship whirled around with the entire hull glowing, its image rippling as if reflected in water. The next moment, Yamato disappeared.
The crew, including Susumu Kodai, were enveloped in a haze like shimmering heat and vanished. Yamato had crossed the dimensional barrier.