Grudge Braker - Androids and hard-boiled eggs -

The Ghost of Centauri -3

"Master, Centaur Ⅱ is in two hours."

"Okay, Noel, show me the outside."

Kent was dozing off when Noel's voice woke him up from his reclining seat.The occasional flash of light through the screen is due to the double-barreled laser cannons on the bow doing their job of altering the debris's trajectory.

"This place is as awful as ever,"

"Still, there is a 23% decrease in debris from last year, Master."

Thirteen years after the end of the war, Centaur Ⅱ, whose production capacity has recovered to 70% of its peak, is an agricultural colony that provides half of the agricultural products of this star system.

Centaur II was destroyed in the early days of the War of Independence under the onslaught of the Solar System Space Force.However, due to the super-sized asteroid-based drilling structure and the fact that it had been taken over by the space cavalry's landing operations, the damaged colonies were recovering relatively quickly.

"Noel, what about our assigned scapegoat?"

"It's a 'Cutlass' that is rented to the Storrier Trading Company."

It sounds good to say a transport guild, but Scarlett's convoy, the ’Dragon's Nest Merchant’, is also a smuggler.

Fifteen mass-produced 'Sword Class' transports from the Revolutionary War, three old-fashioned frigates to escort the caravan, and one of her space yachts are the merchant's ships.

"Override the transponder."

"Aye, sir. This ship will now be known as 'Cutlass'."

Of the fifteen ships registered, only eleven are actually in operation. The hassle is done on a ship's register that is supposed to be rented to a dummy company. Of course, the pilot is a lizard's tail.

"How does the terminal look with the strings attached?"

"Right now, the hacking has stopped, the type of handset is high-end home use, do you want to crack it?"

"No, I didn't, just locate the set-up."

The thieves who stole the ghosts were from the mining guild named ‘Talpa’, as we had learned from Richelieu. The Talpa, which is based on Centaur II, mines ice and minerals from the asteroid belt to provide water and earth materials for their livelihood.

"Talpa, what does that mean?　by Noel "

"I'm searching for the most accurate one."

"So?"

"Turns out it's a 'mole' in the language of the Earth-sphere, Eurasia."

"Mole."

§

Kent lands on Centaur II under the guise of buying high-grade apples, and decides to go to the address Noel gave him.

It's a good idea to hit the headquarters of the 'Talpa', but it's also because I'm curious about who the person who came to spy on us is.

"That's a great one."　

Centaur II is mainly based on artificial lighting and hydroponic cultivation, but humans are greedy, and there was a farm in the center of the asteroid that was cultivated with natural light and soil.

A light concentrator stretched across the surface of the asteroid and a gravity-controlled reproduction of the natural environment. No one but the enormously rich can own such an inefficient piece of land and eat what is harvested from it.

"Master, what kind of a place is Earth?"

Noel says to the scenery she saw through the communicator's camera.

"I don't know, since we've lost the war and the only place we can go is to Mars."

"I'd like to go there."

After the war, the inhabitants of the Centauri system were prevented from being inside any more than Mars, for reasons of preventing terrorism.

As Kent walked along the dirt road, tree-lined streets, and a heavenly view of birds chirping, the canopy of the blue sky projected suddenly darkened.

"Oops,"

It starts to rain in drizzles and drizzles.

"What a waste, and the only people the water department polices are poor water thieves."

Kent remembers making it rain in Centaur Ⅲ when he was a child, but since the end of the war, the rain has only been seen in 3D movies. Hiding in the shade of a tree, Kent looked up at the sky resentfully.

"Master, we're 800 meters from our destination, and the weather reports indicate that the rain will stop in 12 minutes."

"That's a big sprinkler."

"I think it's romantic, and I'd love to experience it someday."

"You're too big to wash with a deck brush."

"Master, so mean."

Noel sulks and falls silent, and Kent laughs bitterly.

"Hmm?"

In the rain, Kent saw a small truck coming up from the left.

" Hey, young man, where are you at?"

An old man in the back of a small truck, loaded with apples like a mountain, stopped in front of Kent and spoke to him.

"Oh, that's the farm right there."

"Well, if you're going the same way, you're on."

"........."

"What's wrong?　Young man?"

After thinking about it, Kent climbed into the old man's truck, not seeming to do him any harm. Besides, if this old man is the one who hacked in, he'll know what we look like.

"Thank God for you, old man."

"Ha-ha-ha, never mind, I'm Wolf Lügner."

"Kent, Kent Matsuoka."

"Is this your first time at CentaurⅡ?"

"It's been thirteen years, that's for sure."

On the eve of the ceasefire negotiations, a task force of six ships was formed with the aircraft carrier 'Lafayette' as its flagship.The fleet made a final attack on the enemy forces anchored in the vicinity of Centaur Ⅱ.

The attack, which was intended to damage the enemy and give them an advantage in negotiations, was successful.What's left as a result is a storm of debris still hovering outside.

"Well, it's a nice place, isn't it, here."

" Yeah, really."

§

"Then I'll have to sort out the apples, yes, and the entrance is just past that rose garden."

Waving off the small truck leaving, Kent makes his way to the brick building in the drizzle, I don't know where or who, but the owner of this house must be quite rich.

"Noel,"

"Yes, Master."

"Open sesame."

"Copy that, security level B plus, 6 seconds to unlock."

"Security like a bank vault, that's a hell of a lot."

There's a short electronic sound and the lock comes off.

"Unlocked, need to start hacking into the building?”

"Yeah, hack everything up to security C, wait until I tell you what to do with anything above B."

"Copy."

Security D's lighting, air conditioning, plumbing, and all this equipment could be hacked, but no one would notice. As for Security C's communications equipment, it is unlikely that it will sound an alarm if it is used by ordinary people.Kent realizes that his home has been hacked because Noel is monitoring everythin

As soon as Kent reached for the doorknob...

"Welcome, we've been expecting you, Master Kent Matsuoka."

A door suddenly opened from inside, and a girl in a classic maid's outfit appeared, smiling and saying.

"Shit,"

Kent reaches for his hip holster, at the same time taking a step closer to the petite maid and cradling her waist with his left arm, a gun from his hip holster....

"Oops,"

Just as he was about to draw his gun, his outstretched left arm was taken and Kent's vision glanced around.

"Sir, you can't be naughty, can you?　Please don't touch the dancer, sir?"

"Ouch!"

With a force that was unthinkable in a petite maid's body, Kent was pushed to the floor.

"Noel, it's an android!"

If it's an android, Noel can take care of it.

"Oh Noel, it's been a while. Do you say hello?　I don't remember raising a child like that, do I?"

"Huh?"

"Unique protocol authentication, security code clearing...big sister Chris?"

Kent heard Noel's voice through the communicator.

"Yes, that's right, it's your sister Chris."

In one fell swoop, Kent slammed his forehead against the floor, a dull sound and the coldness of the stone coming through.

"Oh, sir, are you all right?　Please let me see."

The strangely raw and soft android flipped Kent over with idiot power and held him to his chest as if he were pacifying a child.

"Security disengaged, sight synced to Christina, oh! No! No, sister."

"Oh my god, are you jealous?　My little Noel."

Kent cursed God as Chris's small hand stroked his forehead.

"Ha-ha-ha, what are you guys doing here?"

"Oh, Father, welcome back."

Worf, dressed in his work clothes and holding a basket of apples, was laughing with his stomach at the sight of it.

§

"No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry,"

On the recommendation of the laughing old man, the resentful-looking Kent sips his homemade cider.

"So, Wolf Lügner, Mr. Lying Wolf, can you explain to me what's going on?"

Kent thinks that he is the author of Noel, and Chris is Noel's sister type AI.

"Oh, how superimposed that there are human beings who remember that names have meaning."

"Because he's my master."

Noel's boastful voice echoed.

"Noel, Shut the fuck up."

"But, Master,"

Before Noel could open his mouth to say anything, Kent removed the communicator from his arm and tossed it to Chris, who was cutting up an apple pie.

"Have a wellness meeting with your sisters, Chris."

"Oh, you're so sweet, I think I'm going to love you."

"So, no, no, sister."

"Yes, yes, let's talk to your sister, Noel."

Chris plucks at her skirt, bows, and walks into the next room as she speaks into the communicator. Didn't need them, Kent thought, if they could get in sync.

"Now, let's cut to the chase, Mr. Rudolf Boesemann, the infamous wolf."

"Ha, you're smarter than I thought."

Rudolf grinned as he plucked a slice of apple pie. Kent extends his hand to the apple pie in front of him, too. Butter-scented pie crust, non-synthetic custard cream, and fragrant apples, it's an eye-rolling goodness.

"Is that good?"

"Yeah,"

Rudolf nodded contentedly at Kent's admiring look and continued his words.

"Talpa unearthed the ship's transporter gate when he heard about it, and I told Richelieu about it through an old connection."

"But with Plutus involved, the Colonel can't move."

"Yes, I suppose so, and the military police are now a nest of their minions."

Rudolf took a sip of his cider, then set two glasses on the table and poured the pale amber liquid.Kent said as he looked at it.

"But if the ship-based transporter gates fall into the hands of the Plutus, the solar system government will come to strip them of their autonomy using that as a spoiler."

"So we're back to being slaves once more because we violated the Treaty on Control of the Transporter's Gate."

"Besides, this time, we don't have the strength left to fight."

Kent takes a sip of the glass he's been given, apple brandy.

"The technology you call a ghost, I suppose it really should have been destroyed and left behind, but back then we all dreamed of crossing over to the earth's sphere once more as equals."

"So?"

Kent said and glared at Rudolf as he licked his drink.

"Well, don't stare at me like that, I feel responsible too, so I'll lend you a hand."

"I want to ask you one more thing."

"What's that?"

"How many other ghosts are there?"

He thought for a moment and then spoke to the old man.

"There's only one more technology that hasn't gone into the hands of the enemy besides the shipboard transfer gate, and they seem to think there's more to it."

With a bad feeling, Kent didn't ask what the last one was and silently licked his glass of liquor.

There is a story that once upon a time, mankind was expelled from paradise for stealing and eating apples, but they even turned it into alcohol, which is a completely outrageous story.

Kent slowly closed his eyes at the aroma of apple brandy passing through his nose. From behind the door came the amused voices of Noel and Chris.