Ch.206Prequel Chapter 11. The End (1)

# Tedious Days Continued

Tedious days continued.

After the captain died, we started a three-person watch system.

That means while one person sleeps, the other three stay awake.

Everyone was so terrified that we had to minimize the number of people sleeping to prepare for unexpected situations.

Ash was the first to fall asleep, followed by Guss.

And when Guss woke up, it would be my turn to sleep.

After going without sleep for over 20 hours, with a throbbing headache and continuous contemplation, I reached one conclusion.

‘Knight seems suspicious.’

Knight was suspicious.

Suspiciously suspicious.

Knight claimed to be an android, which removed him from the list of suspects and made him the only one who could freely move around the ship.

He would come and go from the cargo hold at all hours as if he had some robot girlfriend hidden there.

On top of that, he frequently went back and forth, saying he needed to check if the OK Zion was functioning properly.

How the hell does a blind bastard check if something’s working properly?

“Hey. Knight.”

“Yes?”

“You’re distracting. Sit still.”

“I don’t have what you’d call a mind, so I’m fine. Thank you for your consideration, Jin.”

“I, I…”

And above all, while the humans were huddled together in the navigation room, terrified, how dare a mere robot wander around without any consideration?

It’s not like he was trying to provoke anyone.

It was too outrageous to ignore anymore.

Already irritable from exhaustion, all my nerves were focused on Knight.

I was determined to find some fault and teach Knight a lesson.

Before I knew it, my mind was completely filled with that thought.

“Damn. What’s wrong with this now?”

“What’s the matter?”

“Look at this, Ash. The OK Zion’s black box records. Everything from four years ago has been completely erased. It was definitely intact when we first received it. Someone deleted it.”

“Who on earth…?”

Ash’s expression turned strange after checking the records.

Someone had deliberately erased the OK Zion’s black box records.

I didn’t know why, but I had a pretty good idea who the culprit was.

Knight, who wandered around at all hours, could have erased the records anytime.

Of course, this was 140 percent pure conjecture, so I was a bit hesitant to tell others.

“Jin. Go to sleep now. It’s your turn.”

“Just a moment. I have something to say when all four of us are awake, and when Knight isn’t around.”

“What is it?”

“Knight is suspicious.”

“…”

Everyone opened their eyes wide and stared at me silently.

Their looks seemed to say, “Has this woman gone crazy from lack of sleep? What nonsense is she talking about?”

Well, just listen to what I have to say.

“Knight is suspicious? What kind of ridiculous statement is that?”

“You seem to be saying this because you don’t know what kind of android Knight is, but Knight’s role is to assist the captain—”

“That’s exactly why he’s suspicious, Allen. Of course, as a machine, his actual rank is lower than ours, but Knight was delegated authority by the captain to access all devices.”

“What exactly are you trying to say…?”

“When we split open his head, the captain turned out to be human. A man who couldn’t even properly fill his own pockets because he was always thinking about the crew suddenly tampers with the controls and burns Ranger to death? That’s strange. So we need to look elsewhere for the culprit. The culprit narrows down to one. Someone who knows enough about solar wind warnings and the structure of the controls to deceive both the captain and us perfectly, and who has access to the navigation system. It can only be Knight.”

“…”

Silence followed for a moment.

Allen couldn’t seem to accept it and just stood there with his mouth open, muttering, “Uh, uhh.”

Guss and Ash seemed to find it plausible, exchanging glances and slightly nodding.

To be honest, while I might have been digging in the wrong places a bit—just a tiny bit—until now, this time my reasoning was flawless and perfect.

This was all thanks to my determination to catch and punish that annoying robot bastard.

“That can’t be. Why would Knight? For what reason?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he was hacked, or perhaps there’s something in his design that prioritizes certain values over the crew’s lives. You know, like in those AliX movies.”

“Damn. Knight killed Ranger…?”

Everyone had spent quite some time with Knight, but it seemed no one had developed any emotional attachment to the robot.

Thanks to that, everyone appeared to be making rational judgments quickly.

Even Allen, who was initially perplexed, soon agreed with me.

“We don’t know exactly what purpose Knight is operating under, but we can’t keep a tin can that kills teammates on the same ship.”

“Doesn’t Guss know Knight’s weakness?”

“I do. There’s a forced shutdown button on the back of his neck.”

Oh.

So the back of his neck is his weakness.

Just like a cat…

Suddenly Knight started to seem cute.

Maybe we shouldn’t kill Knight?

Maybe he had a reason for killing Ranger.

Come to think of it, the ship seems more peaceful now that that cowardly bastard is gone.

“If we fail to subdue him, we could lock him in a room and isolate him.”

“That would be the safest option.”

“Then we could just send him on an errand to bring something from a room.”

But I couldn’t suggest stopping in the middle of such a serious discussion.

It couldn’t be helped.

For the peace of the cargo ship, die, Knight.

With tears in my eyes, I had to pronounce the death sentence for the adorable robot with an erogenous zone on the back of his neck.

Creeeeak…

“Oh. Everyone’s awake, I see.”

“…”

Just then, the navigation room door opened, and Knight appeared with a cloth wrapped around his eyes.

He wore a somehow eerie smile, slowly turning his head as if looking around at all of us.

Guss quickly hid the spanner he had picked up behind his back.

“I actually have something to tell you all.”

“What is it, Knight?”

“Ah. I misspoke. I have something to show you. I’ll show you that first, then tell you what I need to say. Would you follow me?”

Creeeeak…

Knight opened the door again and gestured for us to follow him.

For a moment, our four gazes met.

There were no words exchanged, but we were probably all thinking the same thing.

It’s dangerous.

We instinctively felt that way.

“Ah. I’m dying of sleepiness. But since Knight has something to show us, let’s follow him.”

“Y-yeah, let’s do that. Wonder what it is.”

“I’m curious too.”

Each of us uttered awkward lines as we slowly followed Knight.

The worst-case scenario would be Knight subduing all of us, entering the navigation room alone, and taking control of the cargo ship.

Just in case Knight showed any suspicious signs, we kept a slight distance from him so we could all run back to the navigation room.

Knight was at the front.

About 10 yards behind him was me.

Then Ash, Allen, and finally Guss, all following closely in formation.

But suddenly Knight sharply changed direction and disappeared.

“This way.”

“…”

Knight’s head popped out from an alley as he called out.

The place Knight was heading was none other than the inside of Docking Pad 1.

That is, the passage where the OK Zion was connected.

What business could he have in the OK Zion…?

I glanced back once to check my companions’ reactions.

Judging by their expressions, everyone seemed to be thinking along similar lines.

We had to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

We couldn’t rule out the possibility that Knight had set a trap to kill us all.

“Are you lost? This way. Follow my voice.”

“Go a bit slower…”

Our progress was inevitably slow.

We had to search everywhere to make sure Knight hadn’t hidden anything.

After entering the OK Zion, we took at least 5 seconds for each step before finally reaching the laboratory where Knight was waiting.

It was a familiar laboratory.

This was the place where, in the video, my baby wolf had been infected by the alien parasite.

The place where the baby wolf had been humming a song in German, happily tinkering…

‘Come to think of it, that pot-bellied guy…’

Suddenly, the bloody scene in the isolation ward came to mind.

The ward where the pot-bellied man was lying in a miserable state.

‘That fatty had a surprised expression…’

I remember that man’s face clearly.

Normally, someone with that many knives stuck in their stomach would die with an expression of pain.

But the pot-bellied man’s expression wasn’t so much painful as it was startled.

As if someone he never expected to kill him had appeared…

If that someone had been an android rather than a human, it would somewhat explain why the pot-bellied man maintained his startled rabbit eyes until the moment of his death.

“So what is it you wanted to show us, Knight?”

With all five of us inside, the laboratory felt cramped.

Knight, who had been floating around waiting for all four of us to enter, finally smiled and spoke when I swallowed hard and asked.

“You’ve all probably noticed how busy I’ve been recently.”

“Yeah. Thanks to you, I’ve had many sleepless nights.”

“I’m truly sorry. I’ve gathered you all here to explain the reason.”

“…?”

Clatter.

Knight’s hand felt along the wall and opened a drawer.

Then he pulled out an unidentifiable machine with wires tangled all over it.

At that moment, we were all startled and stepped back slightly.

“What is that, Knight?”

“It’s a non-destructive testing device using gamma rays.”

“What the hell is that in plain language, you nerd?”

“It’s an X-ray.”

“What? This thing?”

Holy shit.

Just looking at it, it was exactly like an IED.

If Ranger had seen it, he would have already run away.

“An X-ray?”

“Yes. I made it using the OK Zion’s equipment. Since I’m blind, precise work was impossible, but I solved the problem by increasing its size and finally succeeded in creating it.”

“Wow. Woooow. Crazy. An X-ray. That means we can look inside the head without cutting it open, right?”

“That’s correct.”

I couldn’t help but exclaim in amazement.

Damn, if you were making this, you could have at least said something.

Our cute Fe… Fe… what was it again?

Whatever-Fe died for nothing.

“W-wow. Well done, Knight. Amazing. Hey.”

“Gustave. Please remove your hand from my shoulder.”

“What?”

“I have a question for Gustave. The OK Zion had sufficient environment and materials to create an X-ray. As an engineer, you must have known the structure of an X-ray, which even college students understand. So how far along was your X-ray equipment production?”

“W-what are you talking about? X-ray? I never even thought about making such a thing.”

Guss stammered and smiled.

That smile clearly revealed undeniable embarrassment.

“I heard from the captain. You had already begun creating an X-ray. Gustave, I’ll ask once more. Where is your X-ray equipment? Why was your production slower than mine, even though I’m blind? I demand an explanation that makes sense.”

“…”

Guss, with his hands hidden behind his back, froze in place.

As if a cold wind had passed through the lab without a light, the atmosphere suddenly turned chilly.