Dengil’s Solar System suppression fleet was captured by the Earth Defense Forces’ radar as an unknown space fleet. The Dengil fleet was hidden in the shadow of the asteroid belt between the eleventh planet and Pluto. Each ship was housed inside a mobile fortress carrier, waiting patiently for the order to launch.

Inside the bridge of the carrier, it was quiet and still. The crew members waited patiently at their stations, ready to act as soon as the order was given. Not a single person exchanged a word.

Lugal II, who had been appointed commander-in-chief of the Solar System suppression fleet, sat unmoving in his battle command seat. His arms lay on the armrests, but the fingers of his right hand were moving as if he were tapping keys on a keyboard. His Chief of Staff stood beside him, watching the crew.

“Chief of Staff,” Lugal II began.

“Sir.”

“There was an asteroid field in exactly the right place,” he said.

“Indeed, sir.”

“I’m sure their radar won’t be much use to them here,” Lugal II laughed. “Even the best radar won’t be able to tell the difference between an asteroid and a mobile fortress carrier. Could we have been captured by radar on Earth or any of the other planets before we got here? If so, it’s possible that they are now actively searching for us.”

“Yes, sir. ”

“If that’s the case, things will be a little different,” Lugal II said, glancing sideways at the Chief of Staff.

“Don’t worry about it,” He answered. “In any case, we will soon start conquering Earth. Then it won’t make a difference if we are discovered.”

“That’s right,” Lugal II said with a grin. “I’m sure each ship is ready.”

“Yes, sir. All crews are ready to go.”

“Very good.”

At that moment, a man at an instrument panel in front of Lugal II turned around and spoke.

“We have received a message from Uruk. It is from High Priest Lugal.”

“Right,” the Chief of Staff answered. “Put it on the video panel.”

“Sir!”

The radio operator turned forward and switched on the video panel. Lugal II rose from the battle command chair and stepped forward. A horizontal stripe appeared on the panel, and when it subsided, the upper body of High Priest Lugal was revealed. Lugal II clicked his heels and stood erect. The Chief of Staff assumed the same stiff posture. All noise faded and Lugal’s voice emerged.

“General, how is it progressing?” Lugal said almost without moving his lips. The eyes beneath his broad forehead glowed with an icy cold light.

“Sire!” Lugal II replied sharply. “We are now in the vicinity of the eleventh planet of this solar system and standing by in an asteroid belt.

“Everything seems to be going well.”

“Yes.”

“Uruk and Aquarius have already completed their sixth warp. We are about 2,100 light years from Earth, about a third of the way there. We will arrive in 14 days. Only 14 more days before Earth is submerged.”

Lugal laughed, but his expression was almost unchanged, very similar to that of his son.

“Sire!”

“Therefore, General Lugal II, you will immediately begin to conquer Earth’s human race.”

Lugal II’s cheeks flushed. “Sire! Immediately! I will board the battleship and lead the entire operation!”

“Enjoy yourself. I’m counting on you.”

“Sire!” Lugal II bowed his head.

The image on the video panel disappeared behind horizontal stripes and the panel was switched off. Lugal II relaxed his upright posture and turned around.

“Chief of Staff! The domination of Earth begins!”

“Sir!”

Sirens echoed throughout the bridge, the entire mobile fortress mother ship, and all the ships on standby. It was the siren of the start of battle. Lugal II trotted toward the elevator.

“Let’s board the battleship!”

From the front of the mobile fortress, a huge launch ramp opened like the gaping mouth of a shark, and eight battleships launched one after another. Lugal II was on board the first of them. Behind this vanguard followed six battle carriers and two torpedo carriers. These carried a large number of torpedo boats, equipped with the same Hyper Thermonuclear missiles that had devastated Yamato. Numerous destroyers trailed after them.

Dengil’s Solar System suppression fleet left the asteroid belt and began sailing through space.

On the City Satellite Uruk, High Priest Lugal had turned from the video panel, and now looked out the window at a view of outer space.

“Everything is going well,” he muttered to himself, his hands folded behind his back.

“The universe exists for the strong to prosper. Humanity on Earth is doomed to extinction…by my hand.”

Lugal brought his right hand in front of his face and stared at it.

“The mighty Dengil will destroy the weak Earthlings and settle there to rebuild a new Dengil Empire, the most powerful in the universe.”

Lugal’s thin lips opened into a smile. His right hand, poised in front of his eyes, trembled slightly. His eyes widened, glowing with a mad expression he would never shown to anyone else.

He looked out the window again, toward the gigantic sphere of the water planet Aquarius.

The beds of the Federal Central Hospital were filled with the surviving crew of Yamato. Everyone wearing a spacesuit had survived the Hyper Thermonuclear Missile attack. Nurses rushed back and forth in the hospital corridors.

One glamorous nurse opened the door to a hospital room, swinging her hips as she entered. There were three beds in the room, occupied by Sanada, Nanbu, and Ota. They rose as they saw her. She smiled.

“Everyone, the results of the examination show that you are completely recovered.”

“That means…?” asked Sanada, who was in the first bed.

“All three of you have been cleared for release.”

“Thank God for that,” Sanada said. Nanbu and Ota also cheered. All three had received proper treatment immediately after being admitted to the hospital, and were fully awake just three hours later.

“Thank you,” Ota said, puffing his chest out. “I was sick and tired of lying on the bed, so full of energy.”

The nurse put her hand over her mouth and laughed. The gesture was rather sexy.

“Now, all of you who are in good health, please vacate your beds at once. This is not a rest area.”

“She’s pretty, but she’s got a sharp tongue,” Nanbu said with a laugh.

“I’m glad I was wearing a space suit at the time,” Ota said as he stepped out of his bed. “Sanada’s judgment was very precise.”

Sanada also rose, and they all began to put on their clothes.

“What happened to the other survivors?” Sanada asked the nurse.

“Most of them are awake and have been discharged from the hospital.”

“What about the boy from the submerged planet?”

“He’s fine. He was discharged from the hospital in good health and is under protection. Some of your crew are still here, but most have woken up and are just waiting for their test results.”

Sanada’s eyebrows twitched. “When you say most, you mean there are still some who haven’t woken up yet?”

“Yes…” The nurse dropped her gaze to her floor. “There are three who haven’t woken up yet. None of them were fully into their spacesuits.”

Nanbu and Ota also stared at the nurse.

“Might one of the three might be Kodai?” Sanada asked.

The nurse looked down and nodded.

“I see…”

“Kodai-san is currently in the operating room.”

“What?” the three of them shouted in unison. Sanada approached the nurse and grabbed her shoulders with both hands.

“What’s his condition?”

The nurse looked up, frightened.

“I don’t know the details,” she said. “Surgery just started.”

Sanada realized that he had unintentionally grabbed her shoulders too tightly and let go.

“I see…is Kodai the only one from the main crew in such a state?”

“Yes.” The nurse nodded. “All the other main crew members have been discharged.”

“I see. Thank you very much.”

The nurse left the hospital room, swaying her hips again. Sanada, Nanbu, and Ota also left and silently walked side by side down the hallway.

“Sanada, why don’t we go to the operating room?” Nanbu said after a while.

Sanada shook his head as he looked forward. “No,” he said, “we shouldn’t. But the surgery should go well. Modern medical science has advanced to the point where as long as a patient isn’t brain-dead, it’s still possible to revive them to some extent.”

“That’s true,” Nanbu nodded.

However, despite their words, the faces of the three men showed a palpable sense of anxiety.

Yuki Mori sat alone on a couch before a door with a lit red lamp, indicating surgery in progress. It was as if she’d been abandoned. She sat rigid on the left end of the couch with her knees neatly aligned, staring at a point in the hallway. Her long hair was draped over her face, but she made no attempt to brush it away.

No sound came from behind the door of the operating room. The hallway Yuki sat in was as silent as the depths of a lake. The air was heavy and subdued, unmoving. She moved not a muscle.

Then a faint sound came through the closed, iron grey door. She looked up, but did not hear the sound again. Yuki sighed.

“Kodai-kun… Hang in there…” she muttered in a muffled voice. If it were possible, she wished she could have been the one in that room, in his place.

“Kodai-kun. If you never wake up, what should I do? Yamato has returned and everyone in the main crew is fine now, including Shima. But you…”

Yuki called out to Susumu Kodai in her mind.

“If you, I will die too. I will remain with you on this submerged Earth…”

Yuki closed her eyes. Her mind suddenly went blank as a daydream came to her. A dark and deep hole opened before her. She looked into it fearfully.

In the operating room, three doctors were operating a surgical machine with complicated instruments, switches, meters, and oscillographs. Above the operating panel where they sat, there was a window resembling a recording studio.

Susumu Kodai was lying on an operating table in the next room, his face covered by an oxygen mask. His torso was covered by a metal box-like object. From this box, there were various cords and tubes through which liquid flowed. A red lamp attached to the box was blinking. Only his legs, from the thighs down, extended from the box onto the white operating table.

The three doctors on the opposite side of the glass window all had beads of sweat on their faces. The attending physician was in the center. The two young men on either side were assisting him. All three were silent.

The oscillograph made a small sound similar to the intermittent buzzing of insects. Susumu, on the operating table, was dreaming. He fell into jet-black darkness, spiraling around in circles.

“Ohhhh…”

He was spinning slowly while he fell, as if drifting in weightless space. He managed to move his arms and legs to stop his spin, but couldn’t move as fast as he wanted to. At that moment, a woman’s voice came from somewhere.

“Kodai Kuun…. Kodai kuuun…”

Susumu was startled to hear the voice as he was falling.

“It’s Yuki. It’s Yuki’s voice. Yuki! Where are you…?”

“Kodai Kuuun… Kodai Kuuuun…”

Suddenly, his body stopped falling as if it had hit an invisible membrane. Susumu was floating in the dark space. At that moment, a point of light appeared far above his head. He looked up at it.

“Oscillograph, please,” the attending physician asked the young doctor to his left.

“It’s faint, but it’s starting to show up!”

“Good!”

Susumu’s eyes blinked in his dream. He could hear Yuki’s voice coming from the tiny spot of light above his head.

“Yuki!”

“Kodai kuuuun…”

Susumu’s body floated upward as if being lifted. Then, little by little, he started to ascend. The light above his head gradually increased in size. From a golf ball to a tennis ball. He rose as if being pulled up by a string.

Finally, he saw Yuki peeking through the hole above his head. He craned forward, cupped his hands around his mouth like a megaphone, and called out to her.

“The oscillograph response is getting a little stronger,” the young doctor said to the attending physician.

The glowing hole above Susumu’s head was getting bigger. He could now clearly see Yuki’s face peering into it.

“Come on, Kodai! Come up here! I’m here!”

“Yuki!”

She extended her slender right hand into the hole. Susumu, too, extended his right arm as he continued to rise.

“Almost there, Kodai! Almost there!”

He reached out as far as he could. Now there was a way out of the darkness of death, right above his head. Their fingers trembled as they moved closer and closer to each other.

20cm to go, 10cm, 5cm….then only two. Their fingertips touched. Susumu rose slightly, and Yuki grabbed his right hand.

“Kodai-kun!”

“Yuki!”

Yuki opened her eyes and looked around. She was still sitting on the couch in front of the operating room. She shook her head to clear her mind, then looked up at the door and gasped. The red “Surgery in progress” lamp was off.

“Kodai-kun…”

Yuki stood up from the couch.

Susumu Kodai slowly opened his eyes. His vision was blurred and he could not see clearly. He closed his eyes and opened them again. This time, things were clearer. His sight finally came into focus and he could see Yuki’s face. She was looking down at him as if she was about to cry.

“Yuki…”

“Kodai-kun! You’re awake! You really woke up!

Yuki’s face broke and crumpled.

“Kodai-kun! Thank God…”

She clung to him, and her long hair fell into his face as he lay on the bed. He patted her head and back with his right hand. Her shoulders shook and she began to cry aloud.

“Kodai-kun, Kodai-kun…”

He could smell Yuki’s hair. He looked around as he held her in his arms. He thought she must have been sleeping on another bed in the hospital room.

There was no one in the room but them. It was a bleak private room with white walls and a white ceiling.

“Which hospital room am I in?” he asked.

Yuki peeled herself away from him, brushing her hair behind her ears and wiping her tears away with the back of her hand.

“This is Earth, the Federation Central Hospital…”

“Earth!”

Susumu tried to sit up, but his body was too weak.

“No, you can’t. You still haven’t regained your strength.”

“Earth’s Federal Central Hospital…”

“Yamato saved your life. Yamato came back to Earth on her own with you and the others.”

“Yamato did it all by herself…”

Susumu looked at Yuki’s face in shock. She was smiling, but she looked very pale with dark circles under her eyes.

“Yuki, you’ve been taking care of me all this time…”

He reached out his right arm and gently brushed her cheek with his palm. She nodded.

“How are the rest of the crew doing? Are they all safe?”

Yuki’s eyes were downcast.

“What is it, Yuki?”

Yuki looked at Susumu.

“All the members of the main crew are safe,” she said. “And now you’re feeling better.”

Susumu went pale. “Does that mean many people other than the main crew are dead…?”

“Yes…”

“Because of me…” Susumu’s body trembled.

“No! It’s not your fault, Kodai,” Yuki said in a panic, but Susumu did not hear her words.

“The crew members who were not wearing space suits were all exposed to cosmic rays. The same thing happened to you, and you barely survived!”

“For me…”

Susumu closed his eyes as if thinking about something and remained like that for a while before opening them again. Yuki hurriedly changed the subject.

“Kodai, Earth is in trouble right now.”

“What?”

“The water planet Aquarius is approaching.”

“That water planet? How? I don’t understand.”

“Aquarius is repeatedly warping and getting closer to Earth. There aren’t many days left before it gets here.”

“That’s…I can’t believe that a planet could warp…” Susumu shook his head in disbelief.

“People are now evacuating to other planets and space colonies…”

Susumu was speechless. Yuki continued.

“And an unknown space fleet was also detected by radar.”

“An unknown space fleet?”

“I’ve been watching you all this time, so I don’t know exactly what’s going on…”

“I see.”

Susumu tried to get up again, but his body would not let him.

“No,” she said. “You just have to be patient. You’ll regain your strength if you stay in bed a little longer. That’s what the doctor who operated on you said.”

Susumu stopped trying to get up. Instead, he stretched out his arms and grabbed Yuki’s shoulders.

“Thank you, Yuki,” he said. “Thanks to you, I survived.”

“It’s thanks to your doctor.”

Susumu shook his head and smiled.

“No, it was thanks to you. I was about to fall into the abyss, into the world of death. But you pulled me up. You leaned down from a bright hole and reached out your hand.”

She was startled to hear his words. It was the same strange daydream she experienced on the couch. Yuki looked into Susumu’s eyes.

“Yuki, come here.”

Susumu pulled Yuki’s arm and pulled her close. She lay her upper body over his, closed her eyes, and brought her face close to his. While they kissed, Susumu put his arms around her and hugged her tightly. They stayed like that for a while.

“Kodai, I see you’ve finally woken up.”

A loud male voice made Yuki quickly pull herself away from Susumu. A doctor in a white coat was standing by the door, looking at the two of them with a gentle smile. It was the doctor who had operated on Susumu. Yuki blushed and turned her head down. Susumu wiped his lips with the back of his hand. The doctor laughed aloud.

“If you have that much energy, you’ll be fine.”

Yuki blushed.

“I’m going to examine him now,” he laughed as he approached the bed. “The only thing I can’t cure is lovesickness.”

Continue to Act 8

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