Editing KSGU:Volume 1 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 3===

No matter how one walked on the side of the corridor, there was the sound of a fist slamming into flesh. Marida Cruz let go of the moving handle and saw the back of Flaste Schole.

“IT’S BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T CHECK PROPERLY THAT WE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THAT WE WERE USED AS TRANSPORT!”

Right in front of Flaste, who was roaring away, was a young deck crewman whose face was beaten till it was red and swollen. Under zero gravity, both of them had their feet stuck to the ground by magnets, so anyone who’s hit would be hurting. Even if Flaste held back, that hard metal-like punch that can’t be dodged landed straight on his face. The crewman swayed about and stood still, saying, “I won’t give any excuses for this.” While blood was dripping from his mouth.

“THAT’S JUST YOU TRYING TO ACT COOL! WHY DON’T YOU JUST GET ON YOUR KNEES AND APOLOGIZE!?”

Flaste grabbed the front of the crewman’s hair and looked like he intended to deliver a few more punches. However, he was stopped by a voice “Stop fighting.” Marida watched the human wall that was gathered on the passageway scatter, and Captain Zinnerman’s bearded face appeared.

He sounded calm, but the expression hidden under the captain’s hat showed utter distress. It’s been an hour since they got a signal from the headquarters <<Palau>> that ‘she’ went missing. In the large Earth Celestial Sphere, the <<Palau>> itself would be a lone island in the large ocean. If she disappeared, it’s likely that she would be hiding inside the ships that come in and goes out. After having checked the entire ship thoroughly, they found that one of the storerooms that was used as a storeroom had signs of a stowaway inside, which caused a huge commotion in the ‘Garencieres’.

Marida herself joined in the search, but ‘her’ presence wasn’t inside the ship. It seemed that she slipped out during the mess when they docked. It was the crewman’s mistake for not noticing that she left, and he should be punched by Flaste, but everyone knew that they couldn’t solve the problem by getting angry. Marida ignored the men who were staring at each other and went into the cabin ‘she’ looked like ‘she’ was in.

She looked through the window on the wall and out to the central dock, closed her eyes and concentrated. She couldn’t grasp the presence of people moving about, and the messy thoughts that was like heat from a crowd caused her head to spin. Though she felt a little hot on the forehead, she couldn’t detect ‘her’ presence. There were too many people. Marida could only be amazed about how the human presences she could focus on in the battlefield could move about messily at will. As expected, an artificial being couldn’t detect a specific presence—

“She’s inside this space colony…but it’s not good if we take action and get held at ransom by our trade partner.”

Zinnerman said outside the entrance. Marida wiped away the sweat on her hands that came out unknowingly and returned back to the corridor.

“Is it likely that the ‘girl’ made contact with the other party already?”

“It’s likely that ‘she’ was opposed to this right from the beginning. Most likely, she made contact with Vist Foundation…”

Once Flaste pushed the crewman aside and finished saying that, Gilboa Sant continued on. Zinnerman watched his two henchmen, said “Not really” and put on his captain’s hat.

“It’s impossible to make contact with the outside world from Palau. She most likely intends to make direct contact!”

Most likely, she wanted to prevent the deal of the <<Laplace Box>>. Zinnerman let air flow through his hair that’s linked to his beard and put on the old captain’s hat. His eyes showed bitterness and pride. During these past years, he put in his heart and soul to protect ‘her’, and to this man who viewed himself as her substitute guardian, he may be able to judge that ‘she’ would do this, and this was somewhat of a self-defeat feeling. Marida was thinking as such, but decided firmly that she didn’t understand this, and looked away from her master who looked somewhat old now.

She only knows one thing, and that is, this is a huge crisis that would bring about danger to the entire organization. If they lose her, the ‘Sleeves’ will lose their focal point, and the organization they were finally able to build will develop cracks. If she even ends up in the Federation’s hands, the problem wouldn’t be only about the organization called the ‘Sleeves’. It may even bring everything to an immediate halt, the 16 years of war—or even the struggle that originate about half a century ago. All the sacrifice, blood, sweat that were shed for this would lose all meaning. The ‘Sleeves’ and the members of the <<Garencieres>> will lose their support.

‘She’, who was really smart, couldn’t possibly not understand this. This was foolish…but as she thought this, Marida felt that doing this would fit ‘her’ nature, and thus she stopped thinking. No matter whether it was about ‘her’ or the ‘Sleeves’, all the necessary decisions were to be made by her master, and she only needed to obey.  The more she thinks, the more she would hesitate when carrying out the order. It’s something an ordinary person would normally do. After using this logical thinking process of hers, Marida gave Zinnerman a look that showed that she was waiting for instructions.

“Please, Marida. That child doesn’t know about normal life, so she wouldn’t be too far off. She’ll probably leave clues behind.”

Perhaps sensing the stare over at him, Zinnerman looked over at her and said this. This was the minimum transmission of talking and breathing, the familiar voice of her master. After answering ‘understood’ simply, Marida left the scene. After hearing Flaste’s voice “Don’t create any commotion” from behind, Marida took the lift and head towards the bridge area.

The <<Garencieres>>, which had a vertical landing function, has the end of the ship as the floor when it lands; which made it look like a building, and the bridge at the front of the ship was at the highest level. While they’re docked with the port now, the floor inside the ship that’s parallel to the port is lying horizontally. The lift itself is moving horizontally, but under zero gravity, the scenery around would decide how it looked. Marida ‘ascended’ by about the equivalent of 10 levels and entered the bridge. She then entered the bottom of the bridge—or rather—the back—where the server room was. In this small room that’s filled with communication equipment and screens, the crewman continued to stare at the screen all this while, and the sound of the keyboard being typed on never stopped.

Besides the colony news network that anyone could read, they could see the construction progress of <<Industrial 7>>, the blueprint and even the movement of the industrial workers. As they could use the network provided by the port while they were docked and connect to the colony’s network, a highly skilled hacker could check out a large amount of information. After plucking away the coffee tube from the air, Marida asked “How is it?” and the crewman didn’t look back as he tossed a printed paper over. What’s printed on it was the hottest selling news at the moment.

“A mini mobile suit was forced to land in the park. The student who used it insisted that he used it to save someone…is it?”

The sound of things piecing together rang in her mind. Marida looked at the time the news was broadcasted, and confirmed that the time was already past 9. She held onto the printed paper and left the server room.