Chapter 9: A small planet called Earth

Two days had passed since Cassian began his journey. Along the way, he had shut off all forms of communication, making it impossible for anyone to locate his ship through its energy signature alone.

"Still no signs of anyone trailing us?"

During the last two days, he hadn't lowered his guard. His gaze kept turning toward the radar every other second. Fortunately, other than a few stars and meteorites, there were no signs of any other ships.

"Did we really lose them?"

He was worried that the person who had initially attacked him might be sent after him again. But so far, everything was unusually calm.

If this were the past, Cassian would have been happy with this. But now, the calm felt unsettling. Everything was going a little too well.

"Captain, your heart is beating slower than usual. I can also sense some signs of anxiety. You also haven't slept in two days. You also show signs of developing a fever."

"Are you worried about me?"

There were dark circles under Cassian's eyes. His body felt sleepy, and even his mind told him that he needed to sleep. But for some reason, he was unable to. The more he stayed awake, the worse his body felt and the harder it became to sleep.

"Protocol Seven states that the Captain's health is of the utmost priority."

"Hah," Cassian smiled weakly. "I've helped so many people in my life. So many of them even owe their lives to me. I never thought that in the end, all I would have is an AI to worry about me."

"Don't worry. I'll take a little nap. Wake me up if you find something suspicious."

He pushed himself up and went to the Medical Bay. His gaze searched across the room until he found a specific shelf. He wanted to sleep but couldn't. The only solution was to use medicine to induce it.

He opened the metallic shelf, on which a code was carved.

"Esme? Where is the Stardust?"

His fingers searched across the empty shelf, but there was nothing there. Not only the Stardust but every other medicine that he had kept there was missing.

He checked other shelves, but it was the same situation. There was not a single medicine left in the Medical Bay.

"Reporting to the Captain, everything was recycled to create Ether Points for emergency repairs."

Cassian raised his head in disbelief. The situation was worse than he had thought. It wasn't only the weapons that were recycled, but also life-saving medicine?

"Wait a minute." His expression soon darkened as he thought of something. "Esme, please tell me that you didn't recycle our food."

"Instruction received. I will not tell you that most of the food has also been recycled."

Cassian sat on the white bed in the Medical Bay. If they had run out of food, he could have used medicines to force his body to keep going. But in the absence of both, what was he to do? He couldn't last until he reached the Empire.

"How many days' worth of food do we have left? For just one person's consumption, we should be fine if even a fraction of the stockpile was left."

"Answering the Captain. Calculating the minimum calories needed by your body, the food stockpiles will last for two days."

"And when were you planning to tell me that?"

"Reporting to the Captain, the information was also in the data transmitted to your brain. You were already informed."

Cassian raised a finger and tried to say something, but no words came out of his mouth.

Now that he tried to recall it, he did see that the information was included in the overwhelming data transmitted to his mind, along with the status of the ship.

He had only focused on the repair status of the ship and the areas that were entirely salvaged. He didn't focus much on the rooms that were intact.

His mind was further distracted by Fenrir's features and the thought of trying to get to the Empire, so the information was buried in the back of his mind.

"We can't keep going like this."

He needed to stop by trade stations and buy some things. But where was he going to find Imperial Coins?

Without the currency used in the space stations, he couldn't buy anything. He didn't even belong to a Union to buy something on credit.

"Esme?"

"Yes, Captain?"

"I think we might have to become the bad guys."

"Unclear instructions. Please elaborate, Captain."

Esme's melodious voice was as charming as ever. Even though she wasn't a real human, her voice perfectly conveyed confusion.

"We might have to rob someone... or rather, an entire planet. Locate the nearest planet to our location. It's preferable if it's a weaker planet with barely any threat to us."

A screen materialized before Cassian. It merged with the universal map of the galaxy and pointed to their current position based on the positioning of the stars.

"Reporting to the Captain. According to the available data, the nearest planet to us is a small planet called Earth. It will take two days to get there."

"Two days? That's barely passable," Cassian nodded. "Is it affiliated with any Unions? What's their security situation like?"

Cassian could also search for all that data, but Esme was generally faster and more efficient than him. He left the task of research to Esme, who could access the records that Cassian carried throughout his time in the union.

"Reporting to the Captain, Earth is not protected by any Union. It's considered an underdeveloped civilization. There are millions of such planets that are not resource-rich and are therefore ignored."

"As long as they have something to eat, who cares if they have an advanced civilization or not? If anything, it's better for us if they are weak."

"Change our destination. We are going to Earth."

He already couldn't sleep. And now that he had decided on a planet that he was going to rob of some food, he returned to the Control Center and started preparing for descent.