[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

Chapter 547: Crossing (1)

“What? You’re saying there’s a precedent?”

Someone had apparently stolen a planet without permission two thousand years ago.

Even to Yeongwoo, that sounded like the kind of thing the Planet-Ship’s owner—just like Maon said—would do.

-Well, sure. If someone stole a planet, they must have taken it to use it for something, right?

Jiseon lent weight to Maon’s speculation.

-But who would ever use a whole planet? Other than the owner of a planet-ship, who else would do that?

Then Jeonggu muttered with an innocent expression.

“Um… what would you even do with a whole planet? Don’t we already have a bunch of planets?”

Yeongwoo answered as if he’d been waiting for that question.

“It completely depends on which planet it is.”

“Which… planet…?”

“Imagine having two Earths.”

“Ah.”

“If it were me, I’d steal a planet that can support life. Then you effectively double the usable land. That means you can put twice the number of tenants on it.”

In other words, you’d dramatically increase habitable space.

“Of course, we can’t know whether whoever did that crazy theft two thousand years ago had the same idea as me.”

Maybe it was an adventure to raise their prestige level, or maybe they truly needed a new planet.

Either way, the important thing was that planet theft was possible.

Then Yeongwoo suddenly remembered something and asked Earth.

“But how would you steal a planet? Aren’t planets bound to their stars?”

『…….』

At that question, Earth finally put on a look that said the inevitable had come.

『That’s the tricky part.』

“What do you mean, tricky?”

『Because we have tremendous mass and gravity, it is theoretically possible to intrude into a target planet’s orbit and pull it toward us. However…』

Earth cleared its throat, glanced at Moro, and lowered its voice to a whisper.

『Before we intrude, the target planet’s system will have its central star, right?』

“That’s right. Like our Sun for our system.”

『Right… you’d need to temporarily weaken that star’s influence—the central gravitational pull of that planetary system—so the target planet can be captured into our gravitational domain.』

In plain terms: you’d have to weaken the gravitational influence of the star that holds the target planet, so the planet could be incorporated into their gravity.

“How could you even do that?”

When Yeongwoo tilted his head and asked, Earth answered cautiously.

『Drive the star to the brink of death.』

“What?”

『Theoretically, if you push a star to near-death, its gravity weakens.』

“Are you saying we have to beat a star until it’s about to die?”

Yeongwoo uttered something close to a scream.

Moro shook her head.

『Even though I agreed to transgress our limits, I cannot permit this. This is sacrilege.』

As a natal star, Moro refused to condone abusing another star and forcibly taking its planets.

“Hmm.”

Even Yeongwoo — a walking embodiment of sacrilege — raised a hand in surrender this time.

“It’s not easy. Even if you manage to weaken the star, a planet you drag away won’t willingly follow you.”

As the Solar System shows, planets have reverence for their central star.

In theory planet-theft might be possible, but practically, you couldn’t put a captured planet to use because it would hate you.

“I may be a gang leader, but I don’t want to bring a depressed planet into my system.”

Yeongwoo’s remark made the celestial bodies around Moro look surprised.

『Seriously? You’re not that kind of guy. So you’d give up on raising your prestige level?』

Earth asked on behalf of the other bodies; Yeongwoo shook his head.

“No. This is obviously the kind of crazy stunt that would skyrocket prestige — I wouldn’t give up.”

At least one planet-ship owner must have tried something like this before, after all.

『Then? But there’s no way to get a planet without tormenting the star.』

“We don’t have to torment the star.”

『……?』

Earth looked completely baffled.

Yeongwoo said something that stunned everyone on the bridge.

“We’re going to steal something even bigger than what the predecessors stole.”

『What…?』

“We’ll steal the star itself.”

『…What?』

Earth’s mouth fell open, and Moro and Parina were dumbstruck.

Yeongwoo accelerated his pitch.

“If we steal the star, the planets will come along as extras, won’t they?”

In other words, steal the whole planetary system.

『…what?』

At the unimaginable suggestion, Earth’s jaw dropped; even Moro and Parina could not find words.

Yeongwoo pressed on.

“If there are two stars, that’s like having two engines. Then maybe we could move faster and fire our guns more often?”

Foolishness is often boldness.

Because planet-ships were so rare and unprecedented, even Earth and Moro could not answer—there simply wasn’t precedent.

『I… don’t know. Is that possible? First of all, the idea of two gravitational sources is…』

“Wait, does the idea of a planet-ship even make sense? Originally the planet-system’s central star is Moro, and you would be replacing her as the central pivot.”

『…well, that’s true.』

“You see? Then why can’t a planet-ship have two stars? It might be more complicated, but there’s no guarantee it’s impossible.”

『But……』

Earth hurriedly checked the internal processes of the planet-ship, searching for any reason why two power sources would or would not work — and found none.

“There’s no proof it can’t work. So it can work. I believe in the potential of the planet-ship.”

『Don’t be insane and stay quiet. You’re losing your mind.』

Earth anxiously looked at the solar-mother Moro, silently begging for wise counsel.

But Moro was sweating too.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

『Two stars…?』

When Moro muttered in a daze, Yeongwoo approached and said seriously.

“Moro, the only obstacle to this project is your pride. Adding a star to the Earth-ship would be unpleasant for you.”

He lifted a finger with his Katangdal prosthetic.

Swish.

“But Earth only has one Sun. I’ll make sure the new star is inferior to your mother.”

Of course — the Earth-ship couldn’t handle a star larger than the Sun, nor would persuasion be easy.

As expected, Earth quickly intervened.

『No, no. Why are you even talking about bringing one in? Two stars are nonsense.』

Surprisingly, Yeongwoo had an insightful retort.

“Why is it nonsense? Centauri is a multiple-star system. It has three stars.”

『Uh, that’s…』

Earth was momentarily at a loss.

Yeongwoo had a point.

“Besides, we’re called the Earth-ship, but we are effectively a celestial body too. We should be able to replicate natural celestial structures.”

『This guy suddenly sounds a lot smarter.』

“Well,”

Yeongwoo grinned and Maon on the screen finished for him.

― It’s because we’ve grown a hundred million years every day.

“Now you understand.”

― So my duty is done; our covenant has been realized.

“That was certainly some great information.”

― Well then, I should get out of this mess quickly.

Maon cut the communication as Yeongwoo nodded.

With that snap, the bridge was left with only the troublesome question of turning the Earth-ship into a binary-star system — a colossal challenge whose feasibility was still unknown.

『No matter how you think about it, it’s ridiculous. If a naturally occurring binary star system implies a planet-ship could also have two stars, then what’s impossible? Next you’ll be saying we can drag whole galaxies.』

“Of course.”

『…what?』

“We could theoretically assemble galaxies too. The problem is persuading celestial bodies at that scale — making it practical would be difficult.”

Yeongwoo spoke earnestly.

“Isn’t that what the universe told us when we launched the Earth-ship? It said we had become the main stage, right?”

『…….』

“It said we had the right to be the center of the universe. You just need the courage and effort to realize it.”

His gaze drifted toward the relay sector outside the bridge and out beyond — to the deeper cosmos.

“Why dismiss it as impossible before we try? Once you leave natural orbits, you agree not to be limited anymore, right?”

Moro listened quietly and slowly nodded.

『You’re right. We have transcended our birth limits. Yet now we draw another limit ourselves.』

『M… Moro-nim.』

『We no longer revolve on fixed orbits. We can go wherever we want. Of course, there will be consequences for our actions.』

Moro then turned to look in the same direction as Yeongwoo.

『As the universe is endless, so are our limits. If a star is needed, then we’ll take one.』

“Exactly, Mother!”

『But most other celestial bodies are still natural objects. How easy will it be to find beings that will accept transcending their limits?』

“Of course it won’t be easy. That’s why there are so few planet-ships in the universe.”

Still, Yeongwoo had an inexplicable confidence.

“But somewhere out there, there’ll be candidates as ambitious and adventurous as Mother.”

At that moment, Mantero, who had been quietly helming the ship, spoke to Yeongwoo.

-Um… excuse me during this important conversation, but there’s a checkpoint ahead.

“A checkpoint?”

-Yes. We’re about to enter the next galaxy, and they seem to be doing basic inspections.

Yeongwoo turned to Kubu.

“Can we go through the checkpoint?”

Kubu blinked twice, then scanned the prisoners in the bridge.

―There are four reasons you can’t.

“What?”

―Right here we have a seal thief, stowaways, and a rebel weapons dealer.”

“What, why are you naming them? That’s only three. What’s the fourth reason?”

―The three problems you brought aboard.

“Oh… so we can’t be inspected, then.”

Yeongwoo made the decision; Mantero’s face fell.

-Then we’ll have to breach the checkpoint.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]