"Uh, what, just that?" Milanor waited for further instructions from the traffic controller.
But it seemed that they had already cut off communication. It was staggering, that simple one-line confirmation was.
"…So, um, Miledi? I guess that means you can just uh… park wherever you want?"
"Indeed, it appears to be. The other ships in the area do not seem like they are following a marked trajectory either."
"This is… Qwattor…" Milanor heard a soft murmur from beside him.
It was Naya, standing just a little bit away from the captain's seat. She looked around in wonder at the scenery outside the bridge, toward the dusty, rusty red alien planet's landscape.
"You haven't gone to a planet like this before?" he asked her.
Today, she was wearing something more suited to harsh environments. A long-sleeved radiation-resistant turtleneck and pants, instead of her usual casual garments like yesterday.
Milanor had told her that, unlike starships or space colonies that had radiative shielding, a small planet like Qwattor probably had insufficient protection against stars' rays. He guessed she took his advice seriously.
"…The only worlds I had been to are the Imperial Capital and Runanthor," she answered him.
"For real? Not even like, you know, for leisure?" Fianna who heard what she said chimed in.
She shook her head at the question. Seemed the answer was no.
Well, Milanor could maybe understand if the super-rich being born, raised, and living on that fancy capital planet would want nothing to do with the other, less-fortunate worlds out in the cold and dark void of space.
"This planet may seem habitable, but the environment is apparently still harsh for humans. In the data of the net, the average lifespan was lower by as much as fifty years," explained Miledi, still busy piloting the ship at the helm.
It was just like her to manage gathering data while focusing on doing something else entirely.
"It doesn't look that bad once you actually arrived here, does it? I mean, the sky does look disturbingly reddish, sure…" Milanor gazed at the view of the sky that could be seen from the bridge.
It was reddish, giving the whole place a sense of… tension. Likely it was hard to not feel uneasy living in such an environment.
"From space, the planet appears to be red in color. However, once we entered the atmosphere, the scenery changed into that yellowish-orange, is it? It seems to be the result of nano-sized dust particles called ferric oxides that are suspended in large concentrations in the atmosphere.
"Nevertheless, Master and Milady, both of you do not have to worry about anything. The terraforming effort on this planet was complete and up to the standard, as it was done before the war.
"As long as you do not spend the whole of your life living here, your health will not be impacted severely."
'Gee, thanks for the reassurance, Helmswoman,' Milanor silently thanked the maid's lengthy exposition.
He had gone to places more extreme than this planet before so he wasn't that much concerned about it, to be honest.
The two human girls in the room couldn't be said to feel the same way, though.
Even when Miledi explained all of this to them, she still piloted the ship as dexterously as ever and they would soon touch down on the spaceport.
The Helm Maid prepared the landing gear and activated the acceleron-powered gravity module to help stabilize the ship. With the relatively low mass of the planet, Milanor doubted they would need to use it after the landing.
The ship would be light enough to support its own weight.
"Then let's go to the hangar airlock," Milanor said after standing up from his seat. "Naya and… Miledi. We'll disembark first to search around this port, and after you're done with the ship, go meet with us."
"Huh!?" Surprised at what he said, Fianna let out a yelp. "Wait, what about me!?"
"Hold the ship for us, of course. Couldn't very well leave this baby alone in this weird place, right? Contact us immediately if anything happens," he replied calmly.
This was something Milanor decided hours ago.
"Wha—Why is it me this time!? Wasn't it always Miledi before? Why now?"
"I mean, she could prove very capable in this sort of uh, search, you know? If there's something digital we need to figure out, Miledi could be very useful in that situation, no?
In truth, he was relying on her combat capability.
For some who-knows-what reason, Milanor's mother had designed Miledi to be an expert in battle. She was a master in all the weapons stored in the armory, as she told him before.
That was more than enough reason to bring Miledi instead of Fianna. But honestly speaking, he just didn't want to bring her to a place this dubious.
Deep down, that was what he wanted to avoid the most.
"I can't believe this! Do you know how much I prepared since like, uh... three hours ago!? I even went out of my way to wear this combat uniform!"
No, that was not uniform for battle. It really was just uniform.
'Don't tell me that's the reason she wears it in the first place. What does she think my mom created them for?'
"Well, I prepared for this 'since' yesterday. My opinion here is more valid than yours. And that's that. We'll try to be back before sundown," Milanor told her.
It was already afternoon in standard time but on this side of the planet, it was still around morning. If they still hadn't come back after it was dark, that meant they were awake for way longer than what was considered healthy. Milanor had to keep watch on that front.
"This isn't fair, Mil! I want to look around too!"
"Maybe tomorrow if we don't get much progress today. Right, see ya."
He hurriedly left the bridge before she could get any more grumpy. While he told her that last part, he still wasn't sure if he would let her leave the ship even if they were to stay here again tomorrow.
"You sure that's okay? Leaving her here alone?" Naya asked as she followed him out of the bridge.
"It's fine. She knows how to operate the ship since I had taught her the basics. She wouldn't be as good at it as me or Miledi but, eh, capable enough, I guess," he replied.
They headed to the hangar since they would be using the sub-airlock to exit the ship. The isolation chamber hissed as it adjusted the air pressure to the one just outside. Soon, the heavy door slid open, revealing the hot, dusty atmosphere of Qwattor.
Sunny weather. Not quite scorched, but it felt rather arid. Qwattor's red dwarf sun hung up high in the sky, the combination of its rays and the atmospheric concentration of iron particles dyed the sky in reddish color.
It was around 09.00 local time, six hours before sunset. According to the Net, one day on this planet was 20 hours long.
"Hmm…"
"…Khh."
Milanor glanced at Naya beside him. Just as he expected, she was unaccustomed to the foreign environment. It looked like she was trying to hold back a cough.
"You okay? Miledi said that it's completely habitable here, but maybe she didn't account for pollution," he asked her in concern.
There were tons of smoke-producing factories around the port. Probably for mineral processing. Qwattor wasn't a developed world so maybe mining for resources was the main industry there.
"…I'm fine. It felt like this when I first arrived in Runanthor too, probably worse," she reassured, although her expression still looked uncomfortable.
'Yeah, I bet… From the S-Class Imperial Capital to that claustrophobic city in the middle of nowhere… I can't imagine what that would feel like.'
"Well, we got time. Let's take it slow. Or rather, where do we even begin…?"
He did anticipate that looking for a person who was missing a whole seven years ago would prove quite the challenge, but he also assumed that the professor would leave behind a record somewhere.
Passengers' logs, the checkpoints in port terminals, and so on… But looking at this place, he started to doubt whether they kept any record at all.
"…Should we try the terminal either way? Naya, stay close to me alright?" Milanor gestured toward the building located a bit far from where they landed. Nodding her head, Naya followed him as they walked to that place.