Chapter 13

Translated by SkyTL Edited by SkyTL

Chapter 13: Little Riza

I think it was only two seconds when the room was completely dark.

Then the lighting system came back on, but now the light was less than half as bright and dim, and I intuitively understood that it had switched to some kind of emergency system.

“Power outage…?”

I pronounced the words as they came to me, and was horrified at my own mumbling.

…A power outage?

In space, electricity is the basis of all life. Food factories run on electricity, water purification systems run on electricity, waste disposal systems run on electricity, and even air circulation systems run on electricity. In this harsh world of emptiness, our life is like a light in the wind. It is energy that sustains it.

Without energy, humans could not survive in space.

Of course, the loss of this energy would mean a severe life crisis.

“Riza, please report on the situation at… Riza?”

I was about to give an order to Riza, who was standing by my side, when I noticed that something was wrong with her, because normally she answered me with a resounding tone.

As I turn around with a cold feeling on the back of my neck, I see Riza with glazed eyes and a blank look.

I knew something was wrong.

At first glance, she seems to have human-like emotions such as joy, anger, sadness, and grief, but she is just a kind of computer called a quantum brain. Her ability to make decisions in times of crisis is truly beyond human comprehension, and it is almost impossible to imagine her in a state where she cannot respond to me. When I ask her something, she literally responds within the blink of an eye.

I shook her shoulder with one hand in confusion, and she turned her head toward me like a rusty metal doll.

“…Lyle-san, the connection to the main system has been severed. We’re running through a subsystem now.”

“Subsystem… Are you a ‘little Risa’?”

Little Risa.

The Eos management system, R. Elizabeth, is the quantum brain of a large ship.

Its main body is housed inside the Eos ship, and it not only controls all the systems built into the Eos ship, but can also remotely control many of its children, from multi-legged ones called rovers to flying ones called drones.

And the little girl body of Riza standing in front of me now is one of the child machines remotely controlled by Eos.

But this body is different from the rover in that it is more than just a remote-controlled machine. It contains an additional miniature quantum brain that can make its own decisions in emergencies and even send commands to surrounding children on behalf of the main system.

The crew of the EoS nicknamed this subsystem “Little Riza”. Although it was sometimes called out when a crew member was in a bad mood, it rarely showed itself in public, and its personality was somewhat less distinct than that of the main system, probably due to its lack of interaction with humans.

The fact that little Riza appeared in public without being called shows that this was not a common situation.

“What happened to you?”

“The communications network in Astoria has broken down. We can’t reach the main computer.”

Inside the spacecraft, visibility is poor and radio range is limited. In Astoria, the main communications network is wired, and only the end of the network is wireless. Since it is not possible to communicate wirelessly directly from Eos to here, Riza also remotely controlled the child’s devices, including this body, by routing them through the wired communications network in Astoria.

In other words, we’re not talking about a light outage in this room, but a large-scale power outage that would cripple the relay system.

Fortunately, little Lisa’s independent super-dense battery and her spare quantum brain seem to be intact. Her presence will be our lifeline.

“Okay. Let’s just get to a place where we can communicate. Lacey, Charlotte, you guys too.”

“Wait a minute, Lyle-sama.”

As I was about to stand up, Lacey stopped me.

Surprisingly, she didn’t seem to panic during the power outage; on the contrary, she seemed upset that I was getting upset.

” Lyle-sama, power outages like this are normal. It will be restored in a short time. During a power outage, the traffic control system doesn’t work, so it’s dangerous to move around.”

“Is that normal?”

Her words were hard to believe. A power outage is a serious accident, not an everyday event. It can’t be. At least in Eos, when a power outage occurs, we should immediately assume it’s a life-threatening situation and act accordingly.

But Lacey didn’t seem concerned at all, and I was able to calm down again. Lacey continued.

“There is an emergency power supply here for the cryosleep system. It should last for forty-eight hours. The power is always back in less than an hour, so it’s safer to stay here than to move.”

“Always an hour?… Are power outages frequent enough to say always?”

“Maybe a couple of times a year. It’s nothing special.”

“…It’s called normalcy bias.”

Lacey and I exchange a few words, to which Little Riza casually replies from the side.

Normalcy bias is the psychological phenomenon of underestimating the damage in an accident or disaster. It means that we become too calm when we should be panicking. This is a human instinct to avoid panic, but it is also known that this often leads to more damage.

Little Riza’s argument was, of course, an issue to consider.

On the other hand, it is also important not to panic and make the problem bigger.

…I started to stand up, but then slowly sat back down in my chair.

“…Wait and see, and if there is no improvement within three hours, we will move on.”

“ Lyle-san, that’s…”

“They’ve been on this ship a long time, so we should do it their way. As long as we’re not airtight, we’re not going to run out of oxygen in three hours or so.”

“…I understand…”

Little Riza nodded hesitantly and cast a sideways glance at Lacey, at which I let out a small sigh. I beg you, please get along with each other.

Well, it’s not hard to understand Little Lisa’s point of view. She wants to get back into a situation where she can manage on her own as soon as possible, because being separated from the main group has added to the uncertainty, which she can’t comprehend. In Eos, for example, she has almost everything under control. From a human point of view, little Riza is worried about this situation, which she does not understand.

On the other hand, Lacey and her friends have lived here for many years, so they must know the dangers. I wouldn’t want a catastrophic situation like a power outage to be brought on so lightly, but that being said, I think it makes sense to accompany them.

With such a large ship, some inertia is to be expected due to its size. In the short term, that would be air and then heat. Most dangerous would be a drop in pressure or an air leak, which Riza would notice immediately if the pressure dropped even a little.

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