-1-
About two weeks before the water planet Aquarius was due to approach, a panic broke out on Earth. An urgent evacuation order was issued, and people rushed to the space airport practically undressed. There was only a short time left before the first evacuation convoy was to be launched.
Sick people and others were to be flown out to space in a separate special evacuation fleet. Various spacecraft were waiting at the spaceport, ranging from large to small. All civilian spacecraft were also used for evacuation.
Evacuees with their baggage boarded the ships one after another. The line of people from the airport gate went on forever. Some were mothers with babies in their arms, others accompanied elderly people. Most were organized as family units and boarded the same ship together. However, some families were separated from others, and the staff was beleaguered by their complaints. Spaceport speakers constantly barked announcements.
Outside the gates, speakers on air cars blared announcements to the lines of passengers.
“Personal belongings are limited to five kilograms per person. You are not allowed to carry dangerous items. There will be a baggage check, so make sure you go through it.”
Some were obviously carrying more than five kilograms of luggage. All of them were inspected, but it was not easy for anyone to throw away the belongings they had brought. Whatever possessions they couldn’t take with them would end up underwater. Thus, everything they’d brought was extremely important. Baggage checkpoints were filled with a constant barrage of arguments between the evacuees and the staff.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s a little overloaded!” a middle-aged man said to an attendant behind the counter.
“No, we can’t allow it,” the attendant responded, shaking his head. “That isn’t how it works. If the weight goes over, the ship can’t take off.”
“There’s room for a little more. It’s just one more kilogram. The things in this trunk are more important than life…”
“No, I can’t let you do that. Everyone is carrying as much as they can. Even if it’s only one kilogram over, it is not allowed,” the attendant said firmly.
The middle-aged man looked like he was about to cry.
“Are you telling me you can’t do this no matter what?”
“That’s right. Reduce your luggage quickly and board the ship. We’re running out of time!”
“Damn it…I told you that these things are more important than life!”
The attendant became angry. “Then put your luggage on the ship and stay behind!”
“Okay, if that’s the way it is, I’ll do this!”
The middle-aged man suddenly began to take off his clothes in front of the counter. The people standing in line were astonished.
“What are you doing?”
The attendant tried to stop him in a hurry, but the man was soon down to just his underwear. He shivered and sneezed. He put his clothes on the counter and dropped his shoes on top of them.
“Weigh these. The shoes, too.”
“What the hell are you…?”
“What do you think? I’m reducing my baggage.”
The attendant was puzzled, but seemed to have gotten tired of it, and put the man’s clothes, shoes, and other items on the scale.
“One kilo and ten grams…”
“Yes! Yes!” The man smiled, standing there in his underpants. “Throw them away!”
The attendant nodded his head and waved his right hand as if telling him to go. Laughing triumphantly, the middle-aged man walked to the spaceship with a trunk full of luggage in his right hand and nothing on but his underwear.
“Next, please,” the exhausted attendant yelled.
There were more arguments at several other counters. People in line were also fighting with each other.
“Hey, don’t push me!”
“I’m not pushing!”
“What are you talking about, ugly?”
“Who’s ugly?”
There was a scene at every counter. The spaceport was in a panic.
“Hurry up!” staff members shouted. “The next ship will launch in 20 minutes! Please hurry!”
A second wave of evacuees began to arrive. Of course, this was not the only space airport. Similar panics were occurring at all of them. Some even decided not to evacuate. They gathered around spaceports and held a demonstration.
“You’re abandoning Earth and running away!”
“People born on the Earth, let’s share our fate with the Earth!”
Police cars immediately arrived and people were arrested. Then the spaceships roared off one after another. Their destination was another planet in the Solar System, or a colony floating in outer space.
On top of a green hill looking down on such a spaceport, Daisuke Shima and his brother Jiro were kicking a soccer ball to each other. There was no one there but them. They stopped and looked at the spaceport.
“There are so many spaceships,” said Jiro, looking up at his big brother. “And so many people…”
“I hope they all evacuate…” Shima puts his right hand on Jiro’s head. His left foot was poised on the soccer ball. Shima had been the first to recover after being rescued from Yamato.
“Brother, when is our turn?”
“Don’t worry, all the citizens of the Federation will be evacuated.”
“Hmmm…” Jiro turned his face upward and narrowed his eyes. “It’s so sunny, but a lot of water will fall and flood the Earth. I can’t believe it…”
Shima joined Jiro in looking up at the sky. Jiro was right, the sky was indeed clear. White clouds drifted through the sky like a painting. He imagined the water planet Aquarius filling in the sky.
“Hey.” Jiro pulled on his arm and Shima looked down.
“What?”
“After we evacuate in the spaceship, can we ever come back to Earth?”
Shima smiled. “We’ll be back. When Aquarius releases the water and drifts away, Earth will go back to normal.”
“Then we can practice soccer here again.”
“Hmmm…” Shima popped the soccer ball up with his toes and grabbed it with both hands.
“What do you think? Want to go again?
“Yes!” Jiro ran backward in anticipation. “Okay, brother!” He waved his hand from about 20 meters away.
“All right! Here we go!”
Shama kicked the ball toward Jiro. It arced into the blue sky. Jiro cheered and ran after it, and Shima started running toward him. He smiled at Jiro, but his heart was cold with anxiety.
“Will we have to launch Yamato soon?”
He was sure of it.
-2-
While Earth was overcome with dread by the threat of Aquarius, the planet Galman-Gamilas, where Dessler’s palace was located, lay in ruins.
Yamato had investigated the planet before it was attacked by Dengil’s battleship. Its condition was the result of a dimensional slip that had wreaked havoc on the galactic frontier. The edge of another galaxy emerged from an unstable interdimensional fault, crossing over into the region of Galman-Gamilas.
That phenomenon alone was significant, but now that the threat of Aquarius was more critical, the effect of the great anomaly was not even noticed by most people. After all, it had no effect on Earth.
The ruins of Dessler’s palace had been reduced to a heap of rubble by the many changes that had occurred since Yamato had launched to investigate. A strong wind blew over the rubble with an eerie rumbling sound like the growl of a monster.
In the dark sky, a dreary yellow aurora resembling a huge curtain was swaying soundlessly, and slight tremors were constantly shaking the ground. It was as if the planet itself was wracked with disease.
The remaining Galman-Gamilas fleet, which had temporarily escaped to another star system, had just returned. An air car had descended to the surface and was blown by a strong wind toward Dessler’s palace, which was now completely deserted. It awkwardly navigated over and around rubble and came to a halt in mid-air.
The canopy rose slowly, pushed upward by an arm belonging to the driver. When it was completely raised, a man stepped out among the debris. A strong wind lifted the cloak on his back.
With his left arm up to ward off the wind, he walked precariously forward over the debris as if looking for something. Finally, he found what he was looking for and picked it up with his right hand.
It was a bright red flower that had fallen under a pile of rubble, sheltered from the wind. It was from the bouquet Susumu Kodai had dropped from the deck of Yamato.
“He makes such gestures,” Dessler said, staring at the flower.
Dessler was still alive. He had lead the remaining fleet to temporarily occupy another system.
“Kodai, I learned from the automatic recorder that you had come while I was away. I am not dead yet…”
Dessler laughed weakly. He bent over and coughed, perhaps from exhaustion. His body seemed to be weakening considerably. He took in the scent of the flower, attached it to his chest, and glanced around.
“Look at this mess, Kodai. This was my palace. This is the end of my Galman empire…”
It was so dark that he couldn’t see very far. An eerie rumbling came from underground. In the distance, he heard something crumble and fall.
“Kodai, you came all the way from Earth to witness this. What a man you are…”
Dessler shook his head with a wistful smile.
“Yamato must have returned to Earth by now, and must have told everyone Dessler is dead…”
He coughed again.
“Kodai, I am going to use the last of my strength to greet you. I will take the survivors and the rest of my fleet to Earth. I must thank you for the flowers.”
He looked up at the eerie aurora in the sky.
“That’s when I will die.”
With these final words, Dessler staggered back over the rubble to his air car. Suddenly, a big jolt almost knocked him over. After steadying himself, he got back into the air car, laughing for some reason. The vehicle did a U-turn and headed back in the direction of the surviving fleet.
“The Dessler ship is ready to launch!” the helmsman turned and announced.
Dessler, who had been slumped in his command seat as if asleep, slowly opened his eyes.
“Launch!”
The man turned around once again and said, “Energy level?”
“We’ll manage…”
Everyone on the bridge crew looked tired.
“All right, let’s launch for Earth!”
“Yes, sir!”
The helmsman looked forward.
Again Dessler slumped like a ragdoll and closed his eyes. His fleet rose swiftly into the sky’s roiling aurora. His palace was now completely deserted and in ruins. This was the end of the Galman-Gamilas Empire. Dessler departed for Earth, completely unaware that the planet was in danger.
“Farewell, my Galman-Gamilas Empire…” he muttered to himself as he watched his former home planet recede rapidly on the video panel.