-1-
Susumu Kodai was lying on a bed in a room at the Federal Central Hospital. It was a private room, so there was no other bed. The air was motionless as if time had stopped, quiet and still.
A bouquet of red flowers brought by Yuki sat in a vase by the window as in a painting. Susumu turned onto his left side and stared at them. He did not know what kind of flowers they were, but the color reminded him of the flowers he dropped from Yamato‘s deck onto Dessler’s ruined palace.
“Dessler,” he muttered, “you may be dead, and I’m just like you now. There’s nothing I can do. A captain who allows his crew die has no right to do anything…”
Of course, Susumu had no way of knowing that Dessler was currently on his way to Earth.
Behind him, there was a small knock at the door. He remained still, not replying. The door was gently opened and Yuki Mori peeked into the room. She looked at Susumu’s back and stepped inside, trying not to make a sound. She closed the door silently, padded toward the bed, and sat down in a nearby chair, staring at him throughout.
“Are you asleep, Kodai-kun…?”
A moment’s pause,
“No, I’m not asleep, Yuki,” he said. But instead of turning toward her, he remained still.
“Well…. How are you feeling?”
“I’m…okay.”
“The doctor said you should be able to get up now.”
“Maybe. But even so, there’s nothing I can do.”
Yuki kept her eyes down.
“Kodai-kun…”
“Yes?”
“I gave it to the Commander. The white envelope you left for me.”
“All right.”
“He received it.”
“Okay.”
Yuki looked up, about to cry. Her long eyelashes were trembling.
“Why have you become so helpless? The Defense Forces are in a lot of trouble right now. It’s not just Aquarius, an unknown space fleet is attacking us.”
“What?”
Susumu finally turned toward Yuki, alarmed.
“Yes,” she said. “Bases on Pluto, Neptune, and Uranus were destroyed by an unknown space fleet, and then we lost the first evacuation fleet and the space colony near Saturn!”
Susumu sat up.
“Really? That’s true?”
“That’s right. No one could tell you that when you were sick,” she said sarcastically.
“Is this miserable man really my beloved Susumu Kodai?” she thought to herself as she looked at him. Susumu’s face was somewhat pale with hollow cheeks, but the doctor said that physically he should be almost back to normal by now. It was his mental condition keeping him in bed.
“I’ll turn on the 3D TV for you. Every program is reporting on the enemy fleet and the Earth fleet.”
Yuki got up from the chair and walked over to flip a switch on the wall. The 3D TV’s stereoscopic screen immediately displayed a tremendous space battle. A flat, triangle-shaped enemy ship appeared, laser beam continually firing from its turret.
Susumu’s eyes widened at the sight. He sprang off the bed and ran to the screen.
“That battleship!”
“I heard it was the same type that attacked Yamato,” Yuki said.
Susumu turned around.
“The surviving crew of Yamato told me right away,” she said. “If that were true, you should have been the one to say so.”
“Damn…why did they come to Earth? That missile is different from a normal type. They have to be careful!”
Susumu clenched his fists.
“This time I’ll hit them with Yamato!”
He turned away from the screen and ran to the door, barefoot in his pajamas.
“Kodai-kun!”
Susumu stopped in front of the door.
“That’s right…I’ve already given up Yamato…”
He hung his head and looked down at the floor. Yuki only gazed at him sadly.
In a room in the protective care center of the same hospital was the Dengil boy saved by Susumu Kodai. Like Susumu, he was staring intently at the 3D TV screen built into the wall.
Rescued from Dengil, a planet on the verge of flooding, he had come to Earth with Yamato. Earth was still unaware that the invading fleet had come from Dengil. And no one knew that this boy with the light grey skin was no ordinary boy. He had a girlish face and wore oversized pajamas. He’d been standing in front of the 3D TV for a while now, his long-lashed eyes wide open and staring.
The door opened and Sakezo Sado entered with a toy air car and clothes in his hands.
“Hey, kiddo. I brought you something to play with.”
He noticed the boy staring at the 3D TV.
“Hey, hey, that’s not something for children to watch. It’s not a movie, it’s a real fight.”
He touched the boy’s shoulder but the boy shook off his hand, still staring at the screen.
“There’s nothing you can do about it, so hurry up and get dressed. I brought you some clothes.”
The boy turned his head to face Sado for a moment, but then quickly turned back to the screen again.
“We’re going to evacuate to the underground city. Do as I say.”
When Sado tried to grab him, he quickly ran away.
“Come on!”
Sado chased him around the room with the clothes in his hands. When he tried to grab the boy, he slipped away. Sado tried to jump on the boy, but tripped and fell to the floor.
“Ow, ow, ow!”
He sprawled on the floor with his arms and legs flailing, like a breaststroke.
“You little monkey…”
The boy was right back in front of the 3D TV screen, intently watching the battle between the Dengil and Earth ships. Sado stood up, hands on his hips. The boy looked back at Sado with serious eyes and said something in his native language.
“Huh? What did you say? I don’t have an automatic translator here, so I don’t understand your language. I’ll put a small one on your belt later. That way, you’ll be able to understand what we say…”
The boy pointed to the Dengil battleship on the screen and chatted incessantly.
-2-
The Earth Defense Forces commander sat in his office, his elbows on the desk and his head in his hands. The chief of staff and his top officers stood around the commander with Yuki among them. They were all silent with a somber look on their faces, as if it were a wake.
A staff member rushed into the office in a panic, without knocking. He was holding a paper memo in his hand. Everyone cleared a path for him as he approached the commander’s desk and stood ramrod straight.
“Commander, we have received a message!”
The commander’s head remained propped in his hands as he answered darkly. “What is it?”
“The Earth fleet, which was to intercept the enemy in the vicinity of Mars, appears to have been wiped out.”
The commander looked up. The officers around him were crestfallen.
“Moreover…” the officer looked at the memo and squeezed his voice out of his throat. “…communications from the Mars base were cut off. It appears to be under attack by the enemy fleet. Or…”
“Are you saying it’s already been destroyed?” the commander asked.
“Yes.” the officer dropped his gaze to the floor.
“Unbelievable…”
With both palms, the Secretary wiped sweat from his face. At that moment, the door was opened again and yet another officer came running into the room with a pale face.
“Commander!”
“What now?”
He stopped in front of the desk and looked at the memo in his own hand. “Enemy aircraft carrier approaching Moon Base! Furthermore, we have visual confirmation of the enemy fleet!”
“They finally made it to the moon!”
“They’ve put a blockade line in orbit!”
The officer lowered his memo and took a respectful step back. The commander folded his arms and closed his eyes in thought. Everyone waited for his next words.
His eyes still closed, he asked, “How close is Aquarius to Earth?”
“Nine days to go,” one of the men replied.
“Commander…” Yuki said timidly.
He opened his eyes and looked at her, his arms still crossed.
“What is it, Yuki? Speak.”
“Could Aquarius’ approach have something to do with this enemy?” she asked.
“Hmm. I’ve been thinking about that too. Looking at the enemy’s behavior, it seems that they’re trying to keep the entire human race contained.”
“Which means…”
“That’s right. All humans are confined to Earth, which is about to be obliterated in one fell swoop by a massive flood caused by the approach of Aquarius. That’s the only conclusion I can draw!”
Yuki turned pale. All the men groaned.
“Is the enemy using Aquarius? Perhaps Aquarius itself is a weapon…”
“That’s it,” someone said. “The enemy hastened the approach of Aquarius…”
“Hmm. That’s quite possible.”
“Oh my god.” An officer shook his head in shock.
The door had been left open by the last officer, and now Sakezo Sado walked in. The commander rose from his chair. Whenever Sado came into this office, it signaled the discovery of something important. Everyone was tense.
“What is it, Dr. Sado?”
“Commander, it’s the boy.”
“The boy?” The commander raised an eyebrow.
“The boy Yamato rescued from the submerged planet.”
“Ah, the one who looks like a girl? That boy?”
Sado nodded. “He was watching the battle between the Earth Fleet and the enemy fleet on 3D TV with great enthusiasm. I thought it was odd. So I fitted him with a small automatic translator so he could talk freely with us. Then I found out something terrible.”
Sado looked around at the people staring at him before continuing. “The boy claimed to know the enemy ship on the 3D TV.”
Voices were raised.
“What?”
“What’s that?”
The Commander held up his hands to quiet everyone. “What do you mean?”
“The boy said the enemy ship was from Dengil.”
“Dengil!”
“He wasn’t very specific, no matter how many questions I asked him. Apparently, the boy and this enemy are deeply involved. A submerged planet and an enemy fleet.”
“So you’re saying that fleet is from the submerged planet?” the commander asked seriously.
“It seems so.”
“Amazing. Then, in other words, they plan to exterminate the human race and migrate to Earth afterward! But with the power to manipulate water planets, why did they let their own planet get submerged?
The director shook his head as if he didn’t understand.
“Maybe they didn’t have time to prevent Aquarius from submerging their planet?” Sado postulated. “Or maybe they abandoned it on purpose…”
“On purpose?”
“That’s just my guess…”
“Perhaps there were still women, children, and other vulnerable people left on the submerged planet,” the commander said grimly. “Are you suggesting that they abandoned those people and deliberately submerged them?”
“I don’t know.”
“Of course not. Thank you, Dr. Sado, for your valuable report.”
They all let out a deep sigh. The commander tensed as he returned to their most pressing issue.
“Anyway, the immediate problem is to defend Earth from the enemy fleet! And the only way to do that is to get Yamato out there!”
“But Yamato is currently in dock,” an officer said uneasily.
“We just got word that Yamato‘s repairs will be finished shortly,” another man offered.
Yuki looked at the commander anxiously. Her concern was not whether Yamato was repaired or not. Now that Susumu Kodai had resigned, Yamato had no captain. The director noticed that she seemed to want to say something, but was keeping silent.
“Yuki.”
“Yes!”
He took out a piece of paper and scribbled on it with a pen. “Please contact this person.”
Yuki took the memo and gasped when she saw it. She stared at the commander in surprise.
“This person…impossible…”
The commander nodded. “There’s no cause for concern. He’s really there. I’ve kept it from you until now, and I intended to keep it that way. But now only he can save the planet, Yuki.”
“Yes, sir!”
“I’ll say it again. Contact that person.”
“Yes, sir!”
Shocked, Yuki clutched the memo as she left the commander’s office.