Ch.221After the Play Ended (4)

#221

There was a bitter taste in my mouth.

“……”

Dexter, who had just come out of the bathroom next to the captain’s quarters, sat on the desk with a bitter expression.

Now the captain’s quarters were empty except for him.

The atmosphere was so quiet that the faint engine noise from Jupiter could be heard.

[Is this right? Dexter? Are you there?]

Jessie’s voice echoed throughout the captain’s quarters.

Startled, Dexter looked at the old microphone on the desk.

He pressed the largest red button among dozens of buttons attached to the bottom of the microphone.

It was a microphone that broadcast throughout the entire ship, but there was no one to stop him anyway, so it didn’t matter.

“…Speak.”

[Thank goodness! Dex, how are you feeling? Are you okay? Can you switch the broadcast to just the room with the orbital bombardment turret at the lowest level?]

While listening to Jessie’s bright voice still resonating throughout the captain’s quarters, Dexter scanned the buttons.

He firmly pressed an orange button labeled ‘Turret Room’ in black letters and answered.

“Can you hear me there too.”

[…Your voice sounds cold, are you okay?]

‘She’s like a ghost.’

Realizing that he was speaking in such a cold voice that Jessie could detect his emotions, Dexter raised his tone slightly.

“I’m fine. Barely any injuries.”

[Really? That’s a relief, truly. Everyone else was worried too. What about the Commander? Did you subdue him?]

“Well, yeah… it’s been taken care of. I’m not badly hurt either.”

Dexter said while looking at the small bathroom attached to the captain’s quarters.

Drops of dark red blood had fallen all the way to the closed bathroom door.

‘I didn’t clean up properly.’

“So, what’s the situation now?”

[It’s going well. No one can use the orbital bombardment turret except from this room. And I’ll soon disable this one too. They probably could have remotely fired at the captain’s quarters before, but not anymore.]

“That’s good.”

Dexter smiled faintly.

While he had been fighting a futile battle driven by stubbornness, the four women had been steadily doing what they could.

Looking at the space visible through the large window, Dexter said:

“The problem now is how to get back home… Have you tried communicating with the ground?”

[Is there a communications room near the captain’s quarters? Emily says there are still crew members on this ship. If we rough them up a bit, we might find out how.]

“‘Rough them up’? You really have a way with words.”

[You’re no better, Dex!]

Dexter chuckled at Jessie’s sharp retort and stroked his chin.

“Where’s the communications room located?”

[Hmm, just a moment. Emily, do you know where it is? Yeah. Oh, she says turn right as soon as you leave the captain’s quarters. Did you hear that, Dexter?]

“Yeah, I heard. But how does Emily know where the communications room is?”

[She won’t tell me when I ask. Just says it’s her technique.]

“That girl. Isn’t she just hoarding a map and not showing anyone else?”

[What? Hey, that makes sense! Wait a minute. Emily, is that true?]

Hearing Jessie’s indignant voice and hurried footsteps, Dexter snickered and left after delivering his final words.

“I’m heading to the communications room now.”

Teasing others to lighten the mood wasn’t exactly a good thing, but Dexter figured he deserved this much after dueling the final boss and disposing of the body.

With that thought, Dexter stepped outside the captain’s quarters, only to be greeted by unfamiliar people holding various weapons.

Their uniforms were identical, but their ethnicities and expressions varied widely.

Some looked at Dexter with fear, others with anger, and some even with tears streaming down their faces.

‘Tsk.’

Dexter clicked his tongue.

He had already anticipated why these people were standing outside the captain’s quarters with weapons.

“Are you the crew of Jupiter?”

“Y-yes! D-did you think you could harm the Commander and occupy the captain’s quarters?!”

A middle-aged man with a short haircut seemed to be the representative of the crew group. While the others remained silent, he shouted loudly at Dexter.

In the middle-aged man’s right hand was an automatic pistol.

The distance between Dexter and the middle-aged man was just two or three steps.

The smile that had been on Dexter’s face while teasing Jessie disappeared, replaced by an expressionless look as he stared at the middle-aged man and said:

“Communications room. Guide me.”

“W-what?”

“Guide me to the communications room. If not, get lost.”

Though a distant relative, Dexter had essentially sent off the last of his bloodline with his own hands.

He had no inner strength to speak of, nor did he possess any exceptional weapons.

He wasn’t even particularly physically trained—just an ordinary person.

He didn’t particularly want to fight against such ordinary people.

“I don’t know how Olivia persuaded you all, but from now on, this ship is mine. Turn it around and land on Earth immediately.”

“Why should we listen to you?”

“Give us back the Commander!”

“Earth must be destroyed!”

“You’ve ruined everything!”

As the crew members each started throwing out comments in response to Dexter’s words, he pressed his temples firmly.

‘God, this is exhausting. And I can’t just stomp them all.’

As Dexter was considering whether he should knock one person down as an example to make the others listen, he heard someone approaching with steady footsteps and turned his gaze in that direction.

“Hey, why don’t you all go back to your posts?”

Himena, holding a rifle, shouted at the group of crew members.

“I heard a lot of footsteps and thought you might be trying to avenge the Commander? But if you wanted revenge so badly, shouldn’t you have come before the Commander died?”

“The Commander was handling everything…”

As the middle-aged man tried to argue, Himena cut him off harshly.

“He was ‘handling it’ until he died. Did any of you try to stop Dexter? Did you do anything at all? Dexy, ignore these idiots and let’s get to the communications room.”

“I-idiots?”

“What else would you call a group that couldn’t even protect their own leader…”

-Bang!

“You bastard.”

The middle-aged man had a pistol in his right hand and had tried to shoot Himena for her sharp reality check.

Fortunately, Dexter had been watching the man’s finger closely and struck down his wrist just as he was about to pull the trigger.

“Aagh!”

Even Himena seemed startled, not expecting the middle-aged man to actually fire, and flinched as the bullet grazed past her leg.

If Dexter hadn’t struck down the wrist, the bullet would have been headed straight for her heart.

Realizing that her life had hung in the balance for less than a second, Himena struck the middle-aged man’s head with the rifle she was holding.

“Ugh!”

“You fucking dog!”

“Hey, hey. People are watching.”

“What are they looking at! Look away!”

-Thud, Thwack, Thud!

Seeing the middle-aged man being brutally beaten, the rest of the crew members looked at Himena with fearful eyes. When Himena glared back at them, they all turned their heads away.

“I’m, I’m sorry… P-please…”

Seeing the middle-aged man, now a mess, begging pitifully, the crew members’ expressions hardened.

“If you don’t want to end up like him, get back to your posts right now!”

If the slender Himena could display such force, what kind of power might Dexter possess with his thigh-sized forearms?

With that thought racing through their minds, the crew members exchanged glances and scattered in all directions.

“I told you not to mess with them…”

“It wasn’t my fault…”

“Who knew she’d be that tough.”

Dexter forcibly pulled up the still-fuming Himena and pointed toward the communications room.

“That’s enough. Let’s go to the communications room.”

“When someone talks like that, they should listen! Why don’t they listen?!”

“Yes, yes. It’s because they’re human that they don’t listen.”

Dexter was tired.

Soothing Himena as they headed to the communications room, Dexter was dumbfounded as soon as they entered and saw the large cathode-ray tube monitor.

“I can’t believe these still exist.”

Sitting in the communications room chair, Dexter looked at the numerous gauges, dials, and buttons in front of him.

Seeing Dexter’s confident appearance and thinking they could finally go home, Himena smiled at him and asked:

“Honey, do you know how to use this?”

“No.”

“…Huh? What do you mean, no?”

Himena’s face froze at Dexter’s straightforward answer.

“I don’t know how to use it. That’s why I wanted to bring one of the crew members, but you beat him up for not listening. Satisfying, but still.”

“No, I thought you knew how to communicate…”

“How would I know how to operate a machine that’s almost 50 years old?”

“Really, you and Jessie are both the same—acting without any plan!”

“Will getting angry make me suddenly know how to communicate?”

“You should know these things!”

Himena shouted, while Dexter quietly looked at the control panel.

‘They say beginning is half the battle, and if you stay still, you’ll at least get halfway there. So I’m practically done, right?’

Dexter approached the task with a remarkably optimistic attitude, thinking that all they needed to do was get back home.

* * *

“The White House has given permission…”

Director Makoa’s assistant, clutching a mobile phone, spoke with a trembling voice.

“What? What permission?”

Director Makoa, who had been waiting for Dexter’s contact after gathering all communication equipment from nearby military bases and even stripping emergency supplies, looked at his assistant and asked.

“Well, to launch a planetary defense nuclear missile at Jupiter…”

Upon hearing his assistant’s words, Director Makoa jumped up from his seat and violently shook his assistant’s shoulders with both hands.

“These crazy bastards! I told them to wait a little longer because Jupiter would contact us soon!”

“Ugh, urk, Director, they said that protecting the citizens on Earth is more important than waiting for an uncertain contact…”

“Insane fools! Are the citizens and OSA agents inside Jupiter not our people too?!”

Director Makoa spewed harsh words as he paced back and forth between the communication equipment with his hands behind his back.

“…When is the scheduled launch time?”

“It hasn’t been determined yet, but considering the fueling and other factors, it seems they’ll launch soon.”

“Hasty decisions always cause problems… Idiots!”

‘How on earth do we contact a spaceship outside Earth… As soon as they heard OSA headquarters was destroyed, all the remaining aliens left with their spaceships, and the remaining ships don’t have cloaking capabilities… Spaceship, spaceship…’

Director Makoa, who had been pacing so frantically it was dizzying, suddenly turned to face his assistant.

“Yes, the only remaining spaceship.”

“Pardon?”

“Never mind. I’ll go look for it now.”

“You’re going to look for it yourself, Director?”

As Director Makoa, who seemed to have found a clue, left the barracks with a confident expression, his assistant followed him in confusion.

“You should at least tell me where you’re going!”

“There’s no time to explain everything, hurry!”

“Oh, for goodness’ sake…”

As Director Makoa rushed off, his assistant followed behind.