The moment she saw Yaya, Song Chen understood.
Yaya was an artificial intelligence that Song Chen and Zhao Chen had built aboard that T3 Fox-Hunter-class Medium Interstellar Destroyer.
When the starship went down, the artificial intelligence should have died with it.
But in that short time Zhao Chen had moved Yaya onto this USB stick and given it to Song Chen.
And it was Yaya, too, who had been sending out a distress signal all along.
You really did think of everything.
Song Chen noticed now the odd looks all around her.
"Ahem. It's an advanced artificial intelligence I built. It likes to take me for its mother," Song Chen explained.
As reasons went, it would pass.
And naturally no one paid it any further mind.
Song Chen, for her part, gave Yaya a look that said she should mind what she said.
Yaya was very clever; she caught Song Chen's look and clapped a hand over her mouth.
But Yaya still flew up onto Song Chen's shoulder.
And leaned close to her ear.
And asked in a small voice, "Mama, where's Papa?"
Song Chen's heart gave a jolt.
For some reason, she missed that man very much now as well.
Was it from fighting side by side? Or because the two of them shared the same plight?
But whatever it was, he was a comrade she could rely on.
"Your papa has gone very, very far away. But I believe that one day we'll see him again!" Song Chen said softly.
Yaya blinked, as though she did not understand what that meant.
Song Chen looked out at the stars beyond the bridge's viewport.
Zhao Chen, I believe you aren't dead.
You must have gone back to your own universe.
But I believe that one day we will meet again.
It's a promise. See you at the top, Zhao Chen.
…………
In a certain star system on the Angel Race's border, one that should have been busy with trade.
At this moment it seemed very 'depressed'; or more exactly, silent.
A huge star gate and a huge star port both told how important this star system had once been.
But on this day, this star system, once so important to trade, was about to see a day out of the ordinary.
On a planet from which that dazzling star port could be seen.
A husband and wife, both angels, held their child and looked up at the sky; in their eyes was no arrogance, but rather a great deal of sorrow and worry.
"Can this war truly not be avoided?" The woman looked at her husband.
They were not in fact ordinary people.
Her husband had been the governor of this planet.
But not long ago, an interstellar warship had announced that it was taking over the planet.
And the planet's leading figures, such as they were, had all been put under house arrest.
Mercifully, they had come to no harm.
The man said nothing, but the worry in his face already showed what he was thinking.
"Why must His Majesty the War Angel King make war! Was the way things were not good enough? We traded with the other interstellar races, did business with them. The life on our planet was far better than it had ever been. After all we went through to end the thousand-year war with the Demon Race, and to come through the threat from another universe, now we must fight a war among ourselves?" The woman was grief-stricken; she held her child quietly.
The little angel understood nothing yet, and did not know what was happening.
"We have lived through a great many wars already. My father and my three older brothers, and your parents and brothers too, all died in those wars. I thought the wars were over at last. And now my child will face war as well…" There were tears in the woman's eyes.
Only those who have suffered the pain war brings know what a terrible thing war is.
For them, for ordinary people, war is a two-edged sword; even in victory, they come out of it covered in scars.
"His Majesty the War Angel King has always held, deep in his heart, the belief that we of the Angel Race are supreme above all. When he was willing to join the Owl Dragon Empire before, it was only because the Owl Dragon Empire of that time had a power the Angel Race could never match. His Majesty the War Angel King is warlike and proud, but he is no fool; he, too, will follow the strong. But now the strong one is gone. And so the chain that held this beast has naturally gone too." The man's voice was full of helplessness.
"Then… can we win?" the woman asked weakly.
The man did not answer.
And at this, alarms sounded across the whole planet.
"Alert! Alert! Alert! War is very likely to break out in the star system this planet lies in. All persons are to go to the shelters for emergency refuge. Repeat: war is very likely to break out in the star system this planet lies in. All persons are to go to the shelters for emergency refuge."
The piercing sound of the alarm echoed through every city on the planet.
The underground shelters, sealed a long while, opened one after another.
The people who lived in those cities came crowding down into them.
On their faces could be seen worry, panic, anxiety…
Seldom any excitement.
Only a few angel citizens shouted slogans of victory at such a time.
And what they got for it, as often as not, was the cold looks of those around them.
Whatever the interstellar race may be,
what the people at the bottom long for is always a life of peace and quiet.
And in the time since they had joined the Owl Dragon Empire, they had indeed known such a life.
So they had nothing against that life,
nor anything against the Owl Dragon Empire.
And so this sudden shattering of that peaceful life was something they hated in their hearts.
A thousand years of war had long since made them sick of war.
The man held his wife and child and looked up at the stars,
as though he could already see the battlefield far away.
The warships of the two sides facing each other.
On the one side, the mighty fleets of the Owl Dragon Empire; on the other, the angel legion fleets led by the War Angel King.
The two sides at daggers drawn.
Once this war began,
whoever won and whoever lost, the end would be a sorry mess.
The Emperor…
The Emperor…
If only the Emperor were here.
As long as the Emperor was here, none of this would happen.
In that moment, who knows how many hearts were calling out for that man.
The man who had sat upon the throne with every eye upon him.
Perhaps, back then, they had thought of him as no more than a man standing at the summit of power.
But now it was different.
They felt deeply how much the Emperor's presence mattered to this universe.
"War Angel King. Do you truly mean to betray the Owl Dragon Empire?"
Charlotte's image appeared on the bridge of the War Angel King's flagship.
The War Angel King looked at her coldly.
"The Angel Race acknowledges only a king."