WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 115

──────

April Vengeance (3)

The conversation came in fits and starts. Maybe it was the sailors' chain of command. Everyone below the second mate was very quiet. The captain kept sighing too. The news he had wanted to hear was not good at all: how refugees taken into the U.S. mainland were living.

"We have it better, at least. We are not starving."

He said it like that, but the despair and loneliness he had grown used to still showed.

Corona Triumph was a Japanese-flagged cargo ship, owned by a Japanese shipping company. Operations had been outsourced to a Philippine firm, though, so both captain and crew were Filipino. Originally, it had carried coal between Japan and Australia.

Now there was no company left to claim ownership. The ship belonged to the sailors now. The captain planned to devote himself to his homeland until the day he died. He said he probably would never set foot on land again.

"There is a government-in-exile in Indonesia. Just as incompetent as ever, but at least they pretend they will protect citizens who became refugees."

Lieutenant de Leon gave a bitter smile. He could not say much in his position, but he seemed to feel the same way.

Indonesia was one of the countries enduring the plague. Gyeoul thought they had gotten lucky. Infection spread exponentially. Their huge population and high density could have been fatal weaknesses, but they seemed to have bought time and turned that into a strength.

Lieutenant de Leon said Indonesia's early response had worked.

"They have four million troops. Cities turned into fortifications and steel bars. Strongpoint defense is solid. The problem is supplies, especially food. Why do you think we came all the way here?"

U.S. policy had a kind of consistency. On land, they used refugees as manpower. At sea, they pulled in foreign vessels. Food was the price they paid.

Cities filling with bars and barriers was no different in America. Even before the plague spread, it was common in areas with unstable public safety. Walls and barbed wire went up, private security firms handled policing, or residents organized their own patrols.

"Gated communities, or cities under lock and bar..."

Lately, TV had even started using the phrase "fortified communities." Even ordinary homes were being remade like prisons inside. Housing prices near military garrisons had skyrocketed. Gyeoul saw that as a positive. Experience told him so. Looking back over past runs, infection had not spread easily in those areas.

Beep, beep.

Emergency lights came on, and a siren wailed. The internal line lit up.

Startled, the captain picked up the intercom phone. What happened? Captain Kaysers replied only in short answers, so it was hard to guess the full situation from his side alone. Gyeoul watched his face. The lines in it deepened. The captain also kept glancing at the investigator and the boy officer.

When the call ended, the FBI agent asked:

"What happened? Is this an emergency?"

"An emergency... in one sense, yes. They picked up a distress signal."

"Let's head to the bridge first. Depending on the situation, we may need both of your opinions."

With that, Kaysers led Joanna Gibson and Gyeoul.

Filipino Navy sentries were guarding the pilothouse entrance. After entering under their salute, the first mate on watch reported to the captain.

"The vessel requesting rescue is April Pacific, an Australian-flagged passenger ship of 134,000 tons. It is currently 75 kilometers west of us, heading toward San Francisco at 8 knots. At this rate, it will close to within 1 kilometer in about 2 hours and 40 minutes."

Its route and projected track were displayed on the electronic chart. The captain zoomed in on the console, pushed the map toward San Francisco, then let out a heavy groan.

Crossing paths was not the problem. They could just avoid it. But if the passenger ship was unsteerable, it would charge straight into the bay.

Aerial footage on the news had shown San Francisco Bay packed with maritime refugees from all kinds of countries, despite being several times the size of Seoul. Ships pushed all the way to the entrance would be helpless against collisions. Eight knots was not especially fast, but the mass of a cruise ship was enormous.

This could become the worst maritime disaster in history.

The boy felt tragedy coming.

"Any other information?"

At the captain's follow-up question, the first mate answered crisply.

"Only an automated distress signal. There has been no response to communication attempts, so it seems to have been activated remotely. That is just a guess."

"Hmm... suspicious. Why did they not shut down the engines?"

The captain stroked his chin as he thought. If a ship could not be controlled, shutting down the engines came first by protocol. Gyeoul thought through it too. There were three possibilities.

A simple mistake, no time to do it, or the bridge had already been wiped out.

The last two were bad. Onboard infection, mutiny, or a pirate attack. Any plausible case was serious. Whether it was mutants or pirates, the scale could make it dangerous even for Gyeoul.

Could they expect help from the Philippine Navy?

No. They would never match Jeffrey platoon's combat power.

Gyeoul killed his own hope. U.S. military strength came from outstanding training, expensive equipment, real combat experience, and the belief that no one would be abandoned.

A ship's crew, on the other hand, was basically a group of technicians, bluntly speaking. Their combat strength came from proficiency in operating equipment. It was a completely different domain. They might have basic combat training, sure.

The bigger question was whether they were willing to engage an unknown enemy at all.

"Did you notify the U.S. military?"

Liaison officer de Leon asked, and the first mate nodded.

"Yes. Via satellite communication. Higgins received it. It should move up the chain from there."

Gyeoul read the name on the chart. Higgins was a U.S. destroyer.

After communicating with the frigate Ramon Alcaraz, the captain ordered them to slow down.

"Nothing good comes from getting closer. Slow down first, then watch their reaction. Reduce to 8 knots."

The first mate pulled the lever down. Gyeoul sensed the slight speed change.

Agent Gibson asked:

"What do you mean by watch their reaction?"

"We stay on guard. It could be a planned pirate approach."

"So this has happened before."

"It has. They send a hijacked large vessel as bait, then hide in radar blind spots and close in. They ambush the escort ship and finish it quickly."

In the end, radar detected reflected radio waves. If they spotted this side first somehow, a trap like that was possible. Warships were generally small compared to civilian ships crossing oceans. Joanna Gibson nodded and asked again.

"Did you experience that yourself?"

"If you can call it experience... we had two such approaches so far, but the Coast Guard warned us in advance, so we were not caught. We still could not avoid taking blind shelling, though. This came from the first one."

He pointed to the shattered bridge glass. It had been patched crudely with duct tape. From thickness alone, it looked like it could stop handgun rounds, but against autocannon rounds it was useless. Six scars cut across the interior. Gyeoul measured the width. Roughly 20mm. Fire right on the line between gun and cannon.

This time Gyeoul asked:

"If there is no reaction, then the distress request is likely real... what happens then?"

If pirates were behind it, they would react somehow. They might match this side's slowdown, or realize they were exposed and flee. If they were not in their right minds, or starving to death, they might even try a desperate attack.

"Usually, we end up with non-intervention. Refugees are as fickle as sea weather. Refugee and bandit are no longer clearly separate ideas. I have heard stories of sailors who rescued dying people, then had their ship seized the next day."

The captain kept talking, his face gloomy and his outlook bleak.

"I am worried this time may go worse than that."

Gyeoul understood immediately.

"You mean they might sink it."

"Yes. Left alone like that, it will hit something. We cannot ignore even a small chance of U.S. losses... and we know nothing about the situation inside. In the worst case, the ship could be swarming with infected mutants."

If they left it alone, deaths could reach the tens of thousands. If they sank it, deaths could still be in the thousands. Choosing a lesser evil to prevent the worst one. Maybe it was unavoidable. People had limits, groups had limits, and even the strongest military in the world was no exception.

The FBI investigator stayed cold, at least in expression. But her neck was rigid.

She was uncomfortable. More than when she was on the helicopter.

Gyeoul read her easily. 「Insight」 and 「Perception」 linked up a beat late. At least when it came to reading people, the system could not get ahead of the boy. The Control personality probably wished for that too.

This might be something he could shake.

The first mate received an incoming transmission.

"Message says reduce speed further. They are launching attack aircraft soon and warn us to avoid friendly-fire misidentification. They will enter overhead in 20 minutes."

"I see."

People worn down by the end of the world quietly pressed down the gloom they had grown used to. Gyeoul did not like those faces. Even in the outside world, people exhausted by their era had lived like that.

"Agent Gibson, can you stop the strike?"

"What are you saying? I do not have that authority..."

The Bureau agent was flustered by the sudden request. Gyeoul pressed again.

"Forget authority. Just ask. Ask whether they can send a helicopter instead of attack aircraft. Ask them to put just me aboard April Pacific. Destroyers have helicopters too, right? It should not take long."

"That is absurd! You do not even know what is on that ship, and you are saying this? It is reckless. As your supervisor, I cannot approve it. They will not accept it anyway."

"If you think that, then there is nothing to lose, right? You will feel better afterward too."

I tried. They refused. That kind of self-justification would be possible. The suggestion that even a little guilt could be eased. Joanna bit her lip.

"Lieutenant, I am not that cowardly. Please keep this within reason."

"Then give me a chance to be cowardly instead. I will contact them directly."

The FBI agent hesitated for a moment. He did not need active consent. While her conscience made her waver, Gyeoul had already grabbed the mic. The first mate was pushed aside easily.

"Ah, Agent Gibson. Do we need to hide the fact that I am here? Or is it fine if I at least give my rank and name? It gets difficult if everything is secret."

"...In principle, everything is classified, but communication from here is not going to loop around and leak into the inner bay. They would not even understand what it means over there. Just do not reveal operation details. But... are you really going to do this?"

"Yes. This is how I want to live. There are limits, but still."

Gyeoul answered calmly, then asked again.

"Will they have any way to verify my identity over there? I doubt they will trust me just because I state my rank and name."

It looked like there was a way. But the agent looked deeply conflicted.

Could she not stay cold in front of the deaths of thousands of civilians? Maybe she was not a good agent, but she was a good person.

Without waiting, Gyeoul called USS Higgins.

============================ Author's Afterword ============================

#Q&A

Q. ssm9725: (excerpt omitted) + If it were really true that "people supported someone like Hitler because life got harsh and they became extreme," that would be nice... but maybe real humans are even more full of childlike innocence than novels.

A. I will review revisions, including manuscripts already sent to the publisher. Thank you for the good comment.

Q. Jeonhujwauusangha: Is Gyeoul an Ensign or a Lieutenant? Above it says Ensign, below it says Lieutenant.

A. Lieutenant is correct. The author made a mistake.

Q. Wolhabiyeong: What does it mean to "recall the journal"? I still do not fully understand the journal part.

A. Hmm... the journal is the medium that delivers a summarized flow to Gyeoul when auto progression is enabled. In the story, it proceeded in first person. The one running the journal is a virtual personality that learned Gyeoul's personality.

There is a post that collects Intermission setting material. Since journal-related content appeared in Intermission, it might be worth checking that again.

Q. qoewh: @ Author, I just had something good happen and got too excited, then needed to calm my emotions for practical reasons, so I quickly read The Little Prince. I calmed down right away. It felt like tasting a fragment of childlike innocence.

A. You are using it for that purpose... you are an excellent reader. Enter through your eyes and experience stillness. Overwatch is fun.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried