Science/Magic

[Warning, hyperspace engine #2 has failed. Activating emergency engine. Warning, Unable to maintain the hyperspace bubble. The ship will exit hyperspace is two hours.]

"Tito, where are we?!" A woman asked.

[I'm sorry, master. I'm unable to calculate our current spatial coordinates. I lost all contact with the confederation after we fell in the spacetime singularity and there is no information about our current location in my database.]

"Dammit, dammit! Those Devourers bastards! I never expected to meet with a Devourer fleet so far away from the front lines!"

[I'm sorry, master. It was my mistake for not detecting them sooner.]

The woman closed her eyes and sighed. "It's not your fault. This ship was not designed for battle, so it's normal if you fail to detect an enemy fleet."

The AI remained silent.

The woman looked at the empty bridge of the spaceship. Traces of blood and battle could be seen on the floor and walls, but not even a corpse could be found.

"… Hey Tito, how are the others?" The woman asked with a desolate expression.

[… All dead.] Answered the AI in a mechanical voice. [You are the only living human in this ship.]

The woman fell silent. Tears threatened to escape her eyes, and her breathing became ragged. The woman struggled to suppress her desire to vomit.

However, she still had a bit of hope.

"… My daughter, what happened to her."

[…]

"Dammit, Tito!!! Tell me what happened to my daughter!!!" The woman shouted with rage and despair.

[… I retrieved her body and put it in a cryogenic chamber. Unfortunately, her sea of consciousness is gone.]

"… Dammit, dammit!!!" The woman screamed and hit the controls of the ship. Her face was filled with tears, and her body trembled in pain.

It was her daughter, her only daughter. Her only remaining family.

But even she was taken away by the devourers.

Hatred and pain consumed the woman. She wanted revenge! She wanted to kill every devourer in the universe! As revenge for her family!

Unfortunately, it was nothing more than a pipe dream.

Both hyperspace engines were broken, and the ship was lost in an unknown corner of the universe. Even with her powerful S-Grade ESPer abilities, she was powerless.

The woman cried and cried, and finally, she fell asleep.

Tito, the AI controlling the spaceship, looked at its master.

[Warning, the ship will exit hyperspace in one hour.]

The spaceship's auxiliary AI warned again. Tito's eyes flashed briefly before turning dark.

[… Prepare a cryogenic chamber.]

It ordered. Instantly, all the robots in the spaceship were put into action to prepare the cryogenic chamber.

Then, a robot lifted the sleeping woman.

Tito put the woman in the cryogenic chamber and closed it. The woman, feeling the change, opened her eyes.

"… Tito, what are you doing?"

[Protocol D-2530. Freezing master to wait for rescue.]

"… Stop it. I want to spend my remaining life conscious."

[… Master, there is still hope. If you enter the cryogenic sleep, perhaps someone will rescue you later.] The AI tried to convince its master.

"… My daughter is dead. What reason is there to continue living?"

The AI did not know how to answer. It was a machine, not a human. Even although it was programmed to learn feelings, it did not have experience with something like this.

However, it did not want to see its master to die.

Perhaps, it was the only feeling it understood clearly.

So, after searching through its database for an adequate answer, it found it.

[… Revenge.]

The woman's eyes flashed. Her expression contorted in pain, but finally, she closed her eyes.

The AI understood her intentions and started the cryogenic sleep.

Before the woman fell completely unconscious, she moved her lips.

"… Thanks."

The AI remained silent.

Twenty minutes later, the spaceship exited hyperspace.

For three years, Tito remained awake, waiting for a signal of rescue while the spaceship wandered through the remote space.

Three years later, Tito turned off its system, leaving the auxiliary AI in charge of the spaceship.

Three hundred years later, the spaceship fell onto a planet.

The auxiliary AI flashed briefly, but the long years of wait had deteriorated it too much for it to continue its functions.

Four hundred years later, a boy found the spaceship.