The Sierra Prime colony appeared to be the same torus-type colony as the Termaine Prime colony where I, Mimi, and Elma met… but it was a genuine tire-shaped supercolony with high-performance mobile elevators and a large-scale low-gravity port block.

It was considerably larger than Termaine Prime, and the number of “tire spokes” as well as the thickness of the tire-shaped ring section were at least twice that of Termaine Prime. Just how many tens of thousands of people can this thing accommodate?

“It resembles the Termaine Prime colony a lot.”

“They’re the same colony type after all. But the interior facilities are vastly different.”

Mimi and Elna were talking, but Mimi’s voice lacked its usual vivacity. She might have been struck by a wave of nostalgia after seeing a colony that resembled her home.

“Mimi, send a docking request.”

“Ah, yes!”

Mimi followed my instructions and sent a docking request to the Sierra Prime colony’s port administration. After a short while, a reply came back. We were allowed to dock in hangar number thirty-two.

“Yosh, let’s go. And we should pay attention to driving safely.”

“I guess. Drive safely, huh.”

Elma’s gaze seemed fixed on something far away. I guess it’s because she was reminded of the debt she incurred when she caused an accident some time ago. Well, it’s not entirely her fault… Nah, actually, it kind of is, huh. Yeah, it definitely is. Come to think of it, what kind of treatment does a spaceship with a fatal defect receive in this dimension? If it were a car, every unit would definitely have to be recalled. I’ll look it up later.

Now then, even though there was a lot of traffic in this port, we were able to successfully dock without incident. Well, I guess this was child’s play for someone experienced like me. Most newbies in Stella Online couldn’t dock their spaceships well at first, flitting precariously here and there, scraping their bottoms on the walls, mistakenly reversing and hitting something or other, among all sorts of clumsy blunders.

Once you’re a bit more experienced, docking safely inside a hangar becomes second nature. Just like me. Well, in other words, you finally discover the wonders of automatic docking.

“The use of auto-docking is utterly evil…”

“What did the auto-docking function ever do to you? Did it kill your parents or something?”

“Now, now, isn’t it fine since it’s convenient?”

Mimi comforted Elma, who was totally against auto-docking for some reason. Just why does Elma hate the auto-docking function so much? Maybe something traumatic happened to her in the past.

“Where should we contact to arrange the cold sleep pod?”

“You can just inform the port administration. They also handle space travel law enforcement, after all.”

“I see. Please handle our temporary residence application, Mimi. I’ll take care of informing the port administration about the cold sleep pod. Please offer support as you see fit, Elma.”

“Yes!”

“Yes, yes. I got it.”

Saying yes once is enough, you know. I didn’t voice that opinion in the end and called the port administration office. The call connected immediately. It was a woman’s voice on the other line.

『This is the port administration office.』

“This is Captain Hiro, a mercenary affiliated with the Mercenary Guild. My ship’s name is Krishna. We are currently docked in hangar number thirty-two.”

『Please wait while I verify… Verification complete. Do you have any inquiries, Captain Hiro?』

“Well, I guess you can call it an inquiry. We were attacked by pirates when we arrived in this system and managed to defeat them, but we found an unopened cold sleep pod among the wreckage.”

『Understood. So you rescued the survivor, correct? So you need a witness before opening the pod. Are you familiar with your responsibilities as the rescuer?』

“Yeah. We’re required to shelter the survivor for a week, right? But what happens if the rescued person has no idea where they’re from?”

『We will confirm the person’s identity within the week, so you don’t have to worry. If the person is an imperial citizen, we will have almost 100% certainty of determining their identity.』

“…And what happens if the person isn’t an imperial citizen?”

『In that case, the empire will take custody of the subject. But we are unable to disclose their future treatment if that happens.』

The lady from the port administration office continued to speak cheerfully. It was a bit frightening imagining what would happen if they took custody, so I didn’t ask. I’ll just pray that the person inside the cold sleep pod is an imperial citizen.

“What procedures should we follow? Are you going to open the pod inside our ship’s cargo hold?”

『No, we have a specialized area for that. I’ll send you the cargo transfer application. Please fill it out and return it. The transfer code is…』

I entered the cargo transfer code dictated by the port administration staff on the cockpit’s main console and initiated the transfer procedures for the cold sleep pod. With this, the pod will be delivered to the designated area inside the colony using the cargo transfer system. I do feel a bit awkward about treating a living(?) person still inside the cold sleep pod as cargo, though.

『I’ve confirmed the required documents. Please come over as soon as possible. We would like to begin the opening procedures for the cold sleep pod immediately.』

They aren’t even considering our circumstances! Well, the longer a person stays in a cold sleep pod, the worse the memory lapses become, after all. So I guess it was only proper to open the pod as soon as possible.

“You guys heard that, right? I’ll have to go to the port administration office now. One of you should come with me.”

“Wouldn’t Elma-san be better? I’m not very experienced in these situations, so I think Elma-san, who can handle unexpected situations better than me, would be more suitable.”

“That may be the case, but… Oh, alright. Let’s go then.”

Elma thought for a moment and then nodded in agreement. I don’t know what she was thinking earlier, but it didn’t seem like she was reluctant because she thought it would be troublesome.

“We’ll be going then. Go ahead and dispose of our cargo and the loot while we’re out. I’ll leave it to you.”

“Yes, please don’t worry!”

After being entrusted with the cargo and loot, Mimi displayed a sweet smile. The cargo I was referring to was the goods we brought from the Alein star system. I didn’t know the functions of most of the items, but Mimi and Elma seem to have chosen them with the Sierra star system, which is classified as a resort system, in mind.

Although it wasn’t very large, the Krishna’s cargo hold still had a lot of unused space, so Mimi and Elma thought it was a waste not to utilize it. So they actually came up with the idea of trading goods between systems to take advantage of the free space. I, as the ship’s captain, will receive fifty percent of the profits, while Mimi and Elma will share the other fifty.

I would have been okay even if my share was a bit smaller, but since trading goods between systems wouldn’t be possible without the Krishna in the first place, I guess that profit allocation can be considered justified. In any case, I did bring up the idea of reducing my share, but I lost the argument in the end.

I and Elma exited the cockpit and disembarked from the Krishna. We then headed to the port administration office inside the colony.

“Why’d you hesitate earlier?”

“I was thinking that we would probably encounter more situations like this in the future, so I wanted Mimi to gain some experience. But I also considered that letting you gain some experience first, and then letting Mimi tag along with you next time would be more efficient. So in the end, I agreed to go with you instead.”

“I see. Well then, I will be in your care once again, Elma-senpai.”

“It’s been a long time since you last addressed me like that.”

We walked while chatting like that and finally reached the port administration office.

“The buildings all look the same.”

“It’s because they prioritized efficiency. All the units are prefabricated, so all they had to do was assemble them. On the other hand, having something ‘unique’ is considered an unnecessary luxury. We have to make efficient use of the limited living space and resources here, after all.”

“I see. So that’s it.”

I actually thought this style was just copied and pasted from the game since this world resembled Stella Online so much, but there was actually a logical reason for the monotonous buildings.

When we entered the port administration building, I saw a wide counter with several staff members, as well as many visitors with different appearances. There were people dressed in typical mercenary style like us, and others in suits like the counter staff. Of course, there were no weirdos in power armor here.

“I’m Captain Hiro, the one who called about the cold sleep pod earlier.”

“Cold sleep pod… Yes, I’ve confirmed it. It has already arrived. Please go to the first pod opening room. It’s the first room down that hallway.”

“First pod opening room. Okay.”

We walked down the hallway the staff pointed to and reached the first pod opening room. Several port administration staff were already there when we arrived. There were also people attaching cords to the cold sleep pod and connecting it to a console.

“Hello there. You’re Captain Hiro, I take it?”

The one who called out to me was a middle-aged man, likely in his mid-thirties or early forties. His manner of speaking was relaxed, but his physique was well-built, and he didn’t look like a typical government employee. He had a bit of a tough-guy uncle vibe.

“Yeah, that’s right. And you are?”

“Just a port administration staff member. The name’s Bruno.”

He offered his hand for a handshake, so I obliged. He has quite a grip.

“And this lovely lady is?”

“She’s Elma. My crew member.”

“…Hee. How enviable.”

Bruno looked at Elma and said so with a voice that sounded like he was truly jealous. Well, since she was a crew member of a merc like me, he assumed we were in “that” kind of relationship. Well, he was right about that. I wonder how this guy would react if he found out there was a beautiful, big-breasted loli crew member as well?

“Well, let’s get down to business… The one inside the pod seems to be doing alright. We’re in the middle of the thawing and revival process right now. And it looks like the one inside is a girl.”

“A girl, huh… Well, I have Mimi and Elma with me, so I guess taking care of her wouldn’t be too hard.”

“Yeah. It’s also more convenient for us if it’s a girl.”

We would have had some trouble if it turned out to be a brawny uncle instead. Well, I guess we could still handle him somehow. Mimi and Elma could have rented accommodations inside the colony while I stayed with the uncle inside the Krishna. The reverse was also an option.

“Any other information?”

“Let’s see. This cold sleep pod was ejected from a luxury passenger cruiser three months ago. It was a luxury cruise ship, so the passengers were mostly well-off individuals or imperial nobles. There’s a good chance this girl is the daughter of one of those passengers.”

“…This is going to be quite troublesome, huh?”

“I feel for you. But since you rescued their daughter, you can probably expect a possible lavish reward, so it’s not so bad.”

Bruno shrugged as he said so. It would be fine if the young lady in this pod was meek and obedient, but if she were the selfish, entitled brat type, then we’re going to have a problem.

“Well, she’s a girl, so I’ll just leave her to Mimi and you, Elma.”

“Hey!”

“I’m counting on you.”

“Oh, come on.”

“I’m counting on you!”

“…”

Elma rolled her eyes at me as I forcefully shoved all responsibility onto her. But it can’t be helped, right? Regardless of whether she was an obedient child or not, a young lady of high standing like her really shouldn’t be in contact with a classless guy like me.

“Vitals are stable. Ready for opening.”

“Yosh. Here we go. Are you ready, Captain?”

“I’m always ready. There’s no point in delaying things, so let’s just get this over with.”

“That sounds promising. Begin the unlocking process.”

“Yes. Starting process.”

The hatch of the cold sleep pod slowly opened, releasing cold, white vapor into the room. I approached the pod and took a look inside. I found a cute young girl with shiny black hair in a princess-style bob cut lying inside the pod.

Thinking it would be unfortunate if the first thing she saw upon waking up was the face of a rough guy like me, I started backing away.

“Mm!?”

Suddenly, the delicate arms of the young girl inside the pod reached out and grasped the hem of my clothes. She looked confused and started shaking.

“Please don’t leave me, Father…”

“Eh?”

“Well, now…”

The eyes of the young girl clutching my clothes began to well up. It looked like she would burst into tears at any moment. I turned to Elma, Bruno, and the rest of the port administration staff for help, but they all just shrugged their shoulders and smiled wryly at me. It seems no one is planning to rescue me.

“…Haa. Okay, I understand.”

I placed my hand over the young girl’s delicate hand that was tightly gripping my clothes. She grasped my hand back, smiled sweetly, and then fell unconscious once more. It seems she fell asleep. She was still holding my hand.

“…So what should I do about this?”

“I guess you should stay like that until she wakes up again, right, Bruno? I’ll go ahead and fill out the forms for you in the meantime.”

“That’s right. It’s a good thing that the relationship between the rescuer and the survivor seems to have started out quite favorably.”

I looked up at the ceiling as my hand continued to be grasped by the peacefully sleeping raven-haired princess in front of me.

Just how did this happen?