Space does not carry sound. Plum's bridge was utterly silent, except for the operating sound of the machine emitted by the hull itself towards the interior.
Hold your feet with your arms and squat small, Taro. And Xiao Mei looking down at it. Crying humans and faceless androids.
"The outlook was sweet..."
Taro growls in a powerless voice. That was one word I would say to myself, so I kept saying it even if there was no response from Xiao Mei.
"I've been safe for hundreds of years, or the Wainds in protection haven't attacked me... I guess it was just an aspiration. It sucks."
A small, fine voice, coming out of a rough throat. He has seen so many deaths before, but there is no such thing as a very familiar person. I was therefore struck.
"Why did you leave me... why..."
Tears that should have flowed overflow, creating stains in his pants again. He was eating too much and his jaw was paralyzed, and a terrible headache was attacking him.
".................. Hmm"
Sounds like an intriguing voice, out of place. As Taro turned his blurred vision upwards, a small body android stared at him seriously.
"So, is this all right, Mr. Taylor?"
Leaning his neck, his blinking eyes stare at Taro. Only his mouth moved fluently, and Taro remembered the bottomless creeps. More importantly, I don't know what you're talking about.
"Over?"
Taro asks back in return. Xiao Mei replied, "Well, yes," and turned to Taro.
"Xiaomei is AI and I'm going to understand the concept of saying death, but I have to say that there is some ambiguity"
The word "death" shook Taro in horror. Taro, who says something with his smug mouth, is blocked by Xiaomei, who opened his mouth again saying, "What is death?"
"I say a state of cessation of life activity, if you will, and there is no prospect that it will be restored. This would also be the difference between cold sleep and death."
Like a professor who teaches poorly done students, Xiao Mei talks slowly while walking.
"Let's think about the status quo again. Miss Marr was ejected from the ship with an escape device and 120 hours have already passed. On the other hand, coverage by the manufacturer who created the escape device is assumed to be ninety hours, and I see, indeed, this is the situation in which Miss Marr's death is presumed"
Xiaomei stopped her leg a little far from Taro and turned around.
"But it's just a guess. Mr. Taylor, have you recovered Miss Marr's body? You didn't? If so, there is no reason why we are still drifting through the Wyoming system designated as a danger zone."
Xiao Mei starts walking again, looking at Taro.
"You know the term Schrodinger's cat, Mr. Taylor. According to quantum mechanical thinking experiments, cats in boxes seem to exist in both life and death until they are observed."
It's like, "Interesting, isn't it?" But Xiao Mei said so. Taro said to Xiaomei like, "Are you trying to tell me that Marl is the same?" He replied with a mixed voice of irritation.
"Yeah, that's right, Mr. Taylor. Xiaomei had conceived from all the information that the current situation showed, but she could not obtain as much material as she could determine that Miss Marr was already dead. She's simply missing."
In the words of Xiao Mei, the anger of Taro, who was about to explode, subsides. That it's too ridiculous.
"You're playing with words... that's enough"
"Oh, is it? I don't think so for Xiao Mei."
"Oh well. Whatever you want."
"Yeah, of course I will, Mr. Taylor. Are you sure this is the end of this?
"... you said that earlier. What's the end of it?"
Taro answers powerlessly. Xiao Mei comes to such a thick, contemptuous gaze.
"It's about this search activity, Mr. Taylor. If you end this, I will take over command of your activities."
…………
"Xiaomei is AI, not human. Rejecting the top priority cannot be done except when that desirable probability is zero. Miss Marr's life is categorized as a top priority, and this is no exception. In the formula in the quantum brain, the numerical value assumed to be infinite returns an infinite solution multiplied by any number except zero"
"... in short, you're never gonna give up?
"Oh, that's a boulder, Mr. Taylor. Excellent summary."
"That's ridiculous... I don't care what you think. Isn't there a zero chance? How the hell am I supposed to live if I'm wrong? Hey, tell me!! Marl can live in space, can't you?!
When caught by Xiaomei, Taro rocks it with a scream.
"I'm not here!! I'm nowhere!! The direction, angle and everything that was ejected are all on the record. I'm supposed to be here, here!! But he's not here!!
…………
"I've calculated it many times already!! Over and over again..."
Kneeling, collapsing taro. Calculate, make corrections, go on the ground, and despair. It was repeated. It was sharpening Taro's heart greatly.
"Again. Let's do it again, Mr. Taylor. It should be worth it."
Xiao Mei knelt beside Taro when she fixed the messy clothes a little. Rub Taro's back and take his hand all the time asking him to stand up.
"Now we're going to gather more information for you. Fortunately, a large number of records are kept during combat, and it is possible to aggregate them with Plum's neural net relay feature. It's a huge amount, but..."
As you peek in, Xiao Mei stares at Taro.
"You can do it, Mr. Taylor. Xiao Mei will do everything in her power to support you. So let's do it again."
"Again......"
"Yes, Mr. Taylor. It is in the micro world that the uncertainty principle demonstrates that uncertainty. Ultimately, with all the information at hand at a certain point, it should be easy to anticipate the future. Where the ball of billiards moves is all determined the moment you play it."
"From information... the future?
"Something must have happened, Mr. Taylor. collision with the wind, stray bullets, debris, and injection of internal gas. I don't know what it is. But after the ejection, something must have happened. Something that will only modify the orbit of the escape pod. Find something about it."
"... all of it, are we going to calculate? What happened on the battlefield? Like billiards and pinball?
When Taro stood up urged but remained, he saw Xiao Mei's face just saying he couldn't believe it. But the face was serious in itself, and she seemed to have no suspicion whatsoever.
"Yeah, that's right. If that's not impossible, it should be worth the challenge."
"It's impossible to do anything... I might be able to do something close. And..."
"............ is it horrible? We might find Miss Marr's body."
Taro looks up all the time. He had an excuse. He tried to say something, but it didn't come true. What she said was a rare truth.
"Mr. Taylor. Xiao Mei presumes that Miss Marr is alive"
"... alive? How?
"Yes, Xiaomei is well aware of Miss Marr's depth of knowledge and experience in mechanical engineering and is confident that if she is, she will improve her life support device in some way"
"Of course I thought about that!! But it's impossible to ask anyone!!
"No, it's not impossible, Mr. Taylor. Xiao Mei can predict its improvement method. And I'm not going to dwell on that, but unfortunately, we don't have time right now."
Xiao Mei turned around and raised her arms gently toward the large screen. Then an indication of the counting timer function used on the screen was shown and the hour began to carve precisely: 8 hours, 22 minutes, 54 seconds. I am dizzily changing the display while the units of milliseconds draw the remnants.
"It's Xiao Mei's expected, life-support device operating limit time. If Miss Marr is making the improvements the way Xiao Mei thinks, she is considered a living thing if she is within this time."
Taro stared at the time limit, which was going to be one second, and one second less. One second would have been such a short object.
"Battleships, civilian aircraft, stations. That's why we're aggregating all of our combat information from all sides to nearby information stations. Information will continue to increase in the future. It was the next best thing you could do if you couldn't find Miss Marr in this search."
"... is now the only possibility? I can't help but say there were a thousand of them."
Taro threw up like that and stared at the floor. Drawn in the back of my brain are the days I spent with Marr. That is, all the time since the beginning of the second life until now. Whether it was fun or hard, I always had a girlfriend.
"... Okey, I guess I did. Xiaomei, I believe in you and Marl"
Taro jumps onto a seat where he can sit. Close your eyes and focus all nerves on your brain.
"Think about moving and retrieving, actually, five hours is a toco, right?
Launch BISHOP and fully open the communication capability of the plum. Immediately a huge amount of information begins to gather, compressing inside the data bank of the plum. How much load will it take to handle all of this?
"Isn't it just the beginning of being unscrupulous... OK, I wonder what it would be like to burn your brain out, do you mind? I'll do it."
As Taro wandered over his chest, he searched for the key accessories that were in his pocket.
"I'll do it."
Etta, who was riding into the plum for perimeter vigilance, was in a deep sleep to exert her full power. She didn't wake up most of the time once she fell asleep, but she jumped out of bed trying to jump up when the moment came.
"... tornado?
Etta's vision, which differs from the normal human visible rays, allowed him to see with his eyes the flow of information swirling aboard the Pram. The swirls of red and black light mixed together, and it showed a paradoxical movement that was chaotic but orderly.
"Neural Net...... undone, back?
To the best of Etta's knowledge, the closest thing to the phenomenon in front of her was that of the old neural net that connected the entire galactic empire.
"No. One way. It's all here."
Turning her eyes, she saw a wave of information flying in from all directions. It wasn't a two-way thing, like general communications, and roughly everything was coming toward this ship.
Etta tried to figure out what the hell that information was, but realized it was impossible just to stare a little. Too much information, if I did poorly, I was going to get drunk. It was like drawing water to a cup and using the earth and rock streams generated by heavy rainfall. Her brain can't stand it.
"Beautiful... Wow, beautiful"
Etta looked at the swirl of light with her blurred eyes and walked out flustered with a lukewarm face. The vortex seems to be headed for the bridge, and Etta walks towards you as well. Even as she hit the door several times along the way - there was no room in BISHOP's communication bandwidth - she reached the bridge.
"I knew it, just like I thought"
Reaching the bridge, Etta found a very strong light at the center of the vortex. The disastrously beautiful runoff was exactly where she expected it to be.
It was in the form of a person.