Star-Ring Machine Soldier Asterion | Episode 2: The 211 Saved Cannot Sleep Alone

The bodies of the 211 were saved.

However, for them, having lost their connection, a night where they were only themselves inside was a loneliness they were experiencing for the first time.

This is a story that takes place after the rescue operation was recorded as a "success."

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Episode 1

Star-Ring Machine Soldier Asterion | Episode 1: There Were No Fatalities in the Rescue Record

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Episode 2 | The 211 Saved Cannot Sleep Alone

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Star Calendar 218, Third Circular Route Star-Passenger Ship Accident.
The 211 survivors were transferred to the Neutral Medical Zone.
All were successfully admitted to individual treatment compartments.
The number of individual life fatalities during transport was zero.

The lights in the medical ward did not turn off even when night fell.

211 private rooms.

211 beds.

211 breaths.

The same white light falls upon them all.

"Please don't turn them off."

The first to say it was Tia Mel.

When the nurse in charge tried to switch the lighting to night mode, the girl jumped off her bed.

The IV tube was pulled, and a warning sound rang out.

"Tia, go back."

"Don't make it dark."

"If you don't sleep, your body won't hold up."

"If I sleep, I won't know."

"Know what?"

Tia did not answer.

She could not answer.

Further down the corridor, another warning sound rang out.

And next to that one, too.

And further beyond that.

Every time the lights in one room went out, someone else's breathing became erratic.

Those who closed their eyes to sleep realized that there was no one but themselves inside their own bodies.

Each time that happened, a call light turned on.

The 211 had survived.

But most of them had never once slept completely alone since they were born.

Within the Star-Cluster Connection, someone would sleep first, while someone else was still awake.

If someone was dreaming, those who couldn't sleep would touch the edges of that dream.

Even if they woke up in the middle of the night, the breathing of others remained inside their bodies.

Now, there was nothing.

If they closed their eyes, only they remained.

"Maintain lighting in all rooms."

Ilya instructed.

"What about sleep aids?"

The nurse in charge asked.

"Don't use them. Drugs only force the eyes to close."

"At this rate, everyone will be sleep-deprived."

"I know."

Ilya looked at the life signs for all 211.

Their bodies were stable.

Heart rate, breathing, and nerve reflexes had all returned to normal ranges.

Yet, not a single one of them could sleep normally.

The screen displayed that the treatment was a success.



Kai entered the medical ward three hours after the scheduled lights-out time.

Most of the doors to the 211 private rooms were open.

The patients had moved their beds to positions where they could see each other from the corridor.

Some sat on the floor.

Some leaned their backs against the wall.

Some held hands with the person in the next room.

Some touched no one, just staring at their open doors.

They did not try to gather in one large room.

There were those who wanted to get closer, and those who wanted to stay away.

There were those who wanted to hear a voice, and those who never wanted to hear anyone's voice again.

"What did you come here for?"

Tia was standing in the middle of the corridor.

She was wearing a blanket over her treatment gown.

"A check before transport."

"Is that something a rescuer does?"

"Asterion will transport the entire medical ward."

"So you're the one transporting us again."

Kai did not answer.

The transport ship heading to the Neutral Medical Zone was scheduled to use individual treatment capsules.

But if they put the 211 into separate sealed compartments, he didn't know how many would be able to endure it.

Ilya had switched to a plan to transport the entire medical ward as a linked transport module.

Asterion would carry the compartment containing the 211 from the outside.

Leaving those who had been severed in Section 9 together in one compartment this time.

"I have something I want to ask."

Tia said.

"What is it?"

"What Aura said at the end."

Kai's body froze.

"I heard it from Sena."

Sena was standing against the corridor wall.

She wasn't in her pilot suit.

She had also removed the connection aids for Star-Cluster people.

Only the thin terminals running from her forehead to her neck remained black on her skin.

"I didn't tell her the contents of the log."

Sena said without looking at Kai.

"Only that you kept a record."

Tia continued.

"You wrote down Aura's last words, didn't you?"

"Yes."

"Show me."

Kai remained silent.

"Can't you show me?"

"It's a personal voyage log."

"I know."

"It's not an official accident record."

"I know that too."

Tia stepped closer.

"Why do you have it?"

"Because I heard it."

"We heard it too."

"Right before the severance, the connection was collapsing."

"That's why some people don't remember."

Tia's voice lowered.

"I don't remember the last words."

"Fragments should remain."

"Are you the one saying that?"

Someone gasped in the back of the corridor.

Kai lost his words.

Tia continued.

"Since we were cut off, everyone's memories are scattered."

"……That's right."

"And yet, are you the only one who has all of the last words?"

Kai touched the terminal on his chest.

"Is that your memory?"

"No."

Kai gripped the terminal.

"That's why I don't want to give it to just one person and end it."

Tia looked at him for a while.

"I never said I wanted you to make it one person's property."

The weight of the terminal in Kai's hand only increased.



"I don't want to hear it."

A man's voice came from one of the open rooms.

He was a Star-Cluster person in his forties.

He was hugging his own body with both arms.

"Don't give back the last words."

Tia turned around.

"But, Aura's—"

"I was saved."

The man said.

"That's enough for me."

"It's not."

"That's for you, isn't it?"

An elderly woman poked her head out from another room.

"I want to hear it."

In the room across from her, a young woman was covering her ears.

"Stop it. Don't talk about it here."

Tia's voice stopped.

The young woman kept her ears covered and half-closed her room door.

"I want to hear it."

"I don't want to. Anymore—"

"Keep Aura in the record."

"Stop it!"

Voices overlapped, and it became impossible to tell who was answering whom.

Someone started crying.

Someone else pounded on the wall.

"I want to go home."

"I want to connect again."

"I don't want to go back."



"I'll take a vote."

Daren was standing at the entrance of the corridor.

"If the majority wants disclosure, I will share it."

"I object."

Sena said immediately.

Daren looked at her.

"Even if the minority doesn't want it?"

"Not deciding is also a judgment forced upon everyone waiting."

"Please don't make listening to memories the same decision as the transport."

"If we wait for everyone's consent, we'll lose tonight's intake slot."

"So you're going to cut us off by time again."

Daren did not answer.

From the back of the corridor, the elderly woman from earlier said.

"Please stop the majority vote."

No one followed up immediately.



Ilya closed the medical terminal.

"I'll separate the log issue from the transport conditions."

"Can you do that?"

Daren asked.

"I am a doctor. I don't know about the ownership of records."

Ilya paused for a moment.

"This might be a matter outside of treatment. Even so, I cannot put patients who want to hear it and patients who don't into the same procedure."

"Then what will you do?"

"I'll just leave the state where they can choose."

Tia looked at Kai.

"Please put the terminal here."

"Here?"

"Don't put it in anyone's room."

In the center of the corridor was a small shared table.

A water pitcher and unopened medicine were placed there.

"Those who want to hear it will come themselves."

Tia said.

"Those who don't want to hear it won't come."

"The log is my personal record."

"So you're the one who decides?"

Kai took the recording terminal from his chest.

A thin black plate.

No scratches or dirt.

Asterion's fingers were left with burn marks.

On the screen, only the text remained, without a single scratch.

"Who does this belong to?"

Kai asked.

"I don't know."

Tia answered.

"It's not mine either."

"Does it belong to the 211?"

"I don't know that either, right now."

"Then I can't hand it over."

"Why not?"

"I can't record who I gave it to."

"You can make copies, right?"

"I can."

Kai looked at the terminal.

"But once I hand it over, I can't retrieve it."

"Even if they ask you to delete it?"

"It won't all come back."

Tia was silent for a while.

"Is it records again?"

Kai's fingers pressed hard against the edge of the terminal.

"If there's no record, it disappears."

"Even with a record, it disappeared."

Kai looked up.

Tia was not crying.

"Aura is not your sin."

"I was the one who cut it."

"That doesn't mean you should make it your own alone."

Kai walked to the shared table.

He placed the recording terminal next to the water pitcher.

He let go of the terminal.

Tia did not touch it.

No one touched it.

Only the thin black plate remained between the 211 private rooms.



Daren approved the two-hour delay.

In the delay reason field, he entered his own identification name.

The plan to separate the 211 into individual capsules was canceled.

The entire medical ward would be carried in front of Asterion as a linked transport module.

The white machine's armor had been repainted.

The fingertips of the right hand also returned to their original white when seen from the outside.

The burn marks remained underneath.

Kai sat in the pilot's seat.

Ilya was checking the life signs.

Daren opened the transport route.

Only one seat remained empty, waiting for a connection.

"Where's Sena?"

Kai asked.

Instead of a reply, a part of the shared control system opened.

There was no influx of emotion like before.

No saltiness, no anger, no breathing was transmitted.

Only the necessary numerical values flowed in.

"Patient compartment, connection confirmed."

Sena's voice.

She was in the seat.

But she had closed the shared layer with Kai.

"Are you getting on?"

"It's to transport the 211."

"I know."

"It's not because I've forgiven you."

"I know."

Asterion reached out to the linked transport module.

The compartment where the 211 were.

If he gripped it too hard, the outer wall would warp.

If too weak, the fasteners would come off.

"Right palm, lower contact pressure by 0.2."

Sena said.

Kai moved the control stick.

The white fingers slightly loosened their grip.

The vibration in the 7th section stopped.

"Holding pressure, stable."

Ilya announced.

"Transport start."

Daren said.

Asterion lifted the medical ward of the 211.



Inside the transport module, some room doors were open, and some were half-closed.

Kai's voyage log was placed on the shared table.

A while after the transport began, a young boy came out of his room.

He stood in front of the terminal.

He reached out.

But he stopped just before touching it.

The boy did not open the screen and sat down on the spot.

Next, the elderly woman came.

She sat next to the boy.

Neither of them looked at the terminal.

After a while, the boy reached out again.

He only opened the screen.

He did not play the audio.

Tia came and sat next to them.

Only three lines were displayed on the screen.

Saved 211 people.

I don't know if those 211 people were 211 people before the accident as well.

"Both are me."

Tia did not read it aloud.

The boy and the elderly woman said nothing.

Those who wanted to hear it looked at the text.

Those who didn't want to see it remained in their private rooms.

Several doors were closed.

Only the contact lights for those rooms remained on, facing the corridor.



After arriving at the Neutral Medical Zone, each of the 211 was assigned an individual treatment room.

Night lighting.

Individual beds.

Soundproof walls.

Room call devices.

All necessary facilities were provided.

The official record stated the following.

Star Calendar 218, Third Circular Route Star-Passenger Ship Accident.
The 211 survivors were transferred to the Neutral Medical Zone.
All were successfully admitted to individual treatment compartments.
The number of individual life fatalities during transport was zero.

That night, in the 211 private rooms, there were both open doors and closed doors.

There was not a single room where the contact light had gone out.

The number of people who slept alone was zero.

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Afterword

In Episode 1, in order to save the bodies of the 211, the local Star-Cluster personality "Aura" that had been born between them was severed.

What I depicted in Episode 2 is the time that begins after that rescue is recorded as a "success."

Having a stable body and being able to return to the same life as before are not the same thing. For someone who has lived connected to others, being able to be alone is freedom, but at the same time, it is a loneliness they have never experienced before.

Also, who holds the last words of a lost existence? How can we reconcile the rights of those who want to hear them and those who want to live without hearing them? I placed that question at the center of the story as well.

Instead of giving everyone the same answer, I left both open doors and closed doors.

Saving a life might not be about returning everyone to the same state, but about continuing to protect the state where each can choose.

About "Star-Ring Machine Soldier Asterion"

A giant humanoid rescue machine, "Asterion," that heads to rescue sites with no correct answers, rather than defeating enemies.

It is a linked SF series that follows existences that did not remain in the rescue records and the wounds that do not disappear even after being saved.

Would you listen to Aura's last words?

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Episode 1 Production Notes

The Revision That Supported "The Number of Individual Life Fatalities Was Zero" | "Star-Ring Machine Soldier Asterion" Episode 1 Production Notes

https://note.com/tenkai_notes/n/n47fb78868be6

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#SF
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