Leveling Up Wives In The Apocalypse

Chapter 249 Bigger Than The Local Gas-Giant (Double Chapter)

The Vitarian Sanctuary vessel was one of the smaller spaceships operated by the Vitarian Hegemony. All of its engines, fuel storage, living quarters, and other necessary compartments were fitted into a ship barely the size of what the destroyer ships coursing through the waters of the planet below.

In terms of space vessels, it was no bigger than an Antraxan fart.

"Fuck, they are coming," Castor cursed, clenching his teeth as he checked up all the straps that held him stuck on the chair. "Get ready!"

Auditor's ship wasn't anywhere near the sanctuary. And yet, the small ship already started to creak as its structure wasn't designed to withstand the massive changes of gravity preceding the approach of a true monster of space travel.

All holoscreens and other mana and electrical applicancies within the sanctuary turned blank when the ship's artificial management system redirected all its power into the integrity support program.

The sanctuary started to violently shake like a beast doing its best to free itself from the chains.

'The engines are up,' Castor thought, gritting his teeth when the vibration threatened to undo all the tiny screws keeping his mechanical parts together.

Despite Sanctuary's engines quickly turning on a full burn, its orbit or position didn't change at all, save for the natural movement within the gravitational equation of the local star system.

And the reason for that was simple.

The energy passively generated within the ship was nowhere near enough to keep it from breaking apart.

The shaking quickly came to a stop when the full power of the sanctuary's engines was redirected to the integrity support. Coupled with the increased intensity of the gravity distortion, it gave the two passengers a moment of peace.

And then, the shaking started once again when even the full power that the sanctuary could generate proved to be insufficient to make up for the violent changes in the space it was in.

"They are here," Castor muttered through his gnashed teeth.

The holoscreens of the sanctuary came back online once Auditor's capital ship got so close the sanctuary entered its gravity exclusion zone.

The screens came back online, showcasing the beautiful view of the space... now replaced with a singular color of the capital's ship hull.

"I can never get over just how massive it is," Catlea muttered, staring at her pagebook while gulping her saliva down.

Yet, neither of them was happy with the sights. Because the magnificence of the second largest type of ship within the entire hegemony was countered by the meaning behind its presence here.

[Launching transporter. Dock upon arrival.]

A voice appeared in the mind of the two passengers of the sanctuary. Then, they could see a ship fifty times more massive than their small space kayak. Its only source of acceleration came from the launch itself. And as it reached the outer parts of the gravity exclusion zone, it gradually came to a stop only several kilometers away from the sanctuary.

"I will leave the maneuver to you," Castor muttered, gulping down his saliva.

The sanctuary jerked when the power of its engines once again worked in the way the laws of the universe intended. And within two short minutes, their ship docked at one of the extendable ports of the transporter.

In the end, their sanctuary was way too small to directly approach the gas-giant sized-vessel of the auditor. As such, they had no other way but to dock to the intermediary which was actually the tiniest version of the weakest teleported in the entire known universe.

"This is going to be bad," Castor muttered once he moved past the narrow corridor of the connector and walked down the equally as narrow corridors within the ship.

The transporter's interior design was the effect of the collaborative genius of the greatest minds from several galaxies combined. Yet, its relatively tiny size came at the cost of extreme inconvenience to those using it.

'Using such a small transporter...' Castor thought, pretty much aware of the meaning behind this. 'We are fucked.'

Auditor's Capital ship housed hundreds of transporters of all kinds. And given the cost of moving the entire monstrosity of a vessel right to them rather than summoning them to the ship instead would make the cost difference of using a bigger, more comfortable transporter less than the marginal error.

Castor and Catlea took roughly an hour to reach the middle of the teleporter. Upon reaching the core, the two of them grabbed special handles before inserting their feet into designated shoes.

A single explosion of light later, the two of them appeared in a much bigger area. Rather than holding onto the handles to their dear lives, they simply fell down on soft cushions.

"The auditor is awaiting you," a high-ranking officer of the fleet nodded his head as soon as Castor turned his head to look at him. He then pointed his hand to the side at the entrance to a small inner-ship entrance. "You took long enough to get here so we shouldn't make him wait any longer," he added in a voice so cold it nearly made the air around him freeze.

'There goes nothing,' Castor thought. His hand involuntarily moved to the side, searching for the warmth of Catlea's fingers.

They argued a lot and didn't see eye to eye quite a lot. But right now, she was the only support that he could hope for in the entirety of the local pocket of the universe.

Castor took a few steps before climbing up the steps to the ship and turning around to help Catlea up as well.

'She might have all her mind upgrades but she is lacking in physical enhancement quite a lot,' he thought, helping the girl up.

"Please, take your seats," the officer pointed them towards a wide, black sofa made from the skin of an ancient space monster. He then proceeded to take a seat on the other side of the interior of the ship before raising his hand and knocking on a wall behind him.

The doors to the ship slid shut without even the tiniest of the noise.

'This quality...' Castor thought, biting down on his lips.

His audio blockers weren't tuned in for the vehicle he was in. In other words, it operated without making even the tiniest noise.

'This doesn't make any sense,' Castor then thought. 'Why put us through the torture of that transported if you are going to bring us closer with such a ship?' he thought.

Yet, Castor was aware of his own mental limits. Just like he had an easier time climbing the steep step of the ship, Catlea should have easier time figuring the situation out.

He turned his eyes to the girl, hoping to see an expression that would calm her down.

Just as expected, there was no sign of fear on the girl's face. Yet, what shocked him, was that she didn't appear to be calm either.

If there was one word to describe Catlea's expression... it was bewilderment.

'She doesn't understand it either?' he thought, a hint of innate terror ringing in his mechanical soul.

Castor could do nothing but gulp down his saliva again. Knowing he had no chance of figuring out what was going on, he turned his eyes to the officer.

Yet, the man's empty expression made it obvious he wasn't here to humor them with small talk. Castor then turned his eyes towards the ship's window, observing how they rose above several levels of the industrial infrastructure of the ship.

Then, the market areas came. On its own, it held more workers than the entire population of the planet below. Then, the lodging levels, the development levels, science levels, military levels...

For several minutes, Castor's face continued to darken as they prose to the higher portions of the ship over and over again. And with each level that they passed by, the importance of the person they would meet with increased as well.

'This is getting pretty worrying,' Castor thought when they passed by the military level. 'No, dangerous,' he changed his mind when they moved above the intelligence areas.

His mind went blank when they moved even higher, to the area where tribunes operated.

And by the time the ship came to a halt and landed in front of a small area of greenery with a mansion in the very middle of it, Castor's mind left the room, leaving his body to the auto-drivers.

"The auditor is awaiting you in the main hall," the officer announced as soon as the two of them got out of the ship right by the mansion's doors.

The auditor. The quasi-owner of the ship that was bigger than the most massive gas giant in the local system. The person directly below the universe's hegemon.

"This is a good day to die," Castor muttered, turning his eyes to the girl by his side. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this," he said, smiling sadly at the sight of terror reigning on Catlea's face.

He picked her as his assistant because of the years of history they shared. In a sense, it was his revenge for the girl breaking up with him two centuries prior. It was also the reason why they didn't seem to merge well during the mission.

But now, at the end of his line, all Castor felt was regret for dragging her into this mess.

"Don't talk to me," Catlea barked in a small voice.

'So she wants to cut her ties with me as much as she can,' he thought, swallowing the bitter pill.

He couldn't judge her. She was already dead anyway. Her aim, right now, was most likely to make her passing as painless as possible. Maybe even stop her punishment from affecting all of her kin.

Castor closed his eyes. He then took a deep breath.

Surprisingly, the officer that led them here didn't bother to hurry them up.

Castor opened his eyes.

'I made a lot of mistakes... but I can't complain about the life I had,' he thought.

And then, he stepped forward, pressing the doors to the mansion open.

With his heart in his mouth, Castor stepped inside the most luxurious room he has ever seen in his entire life.

The walls were made with materials that lost their name to history. The carpet on the floor was at least half as costly as Hegemony's standard battle fleet.

'As expected from a commander of a capital ship,' Castor thought, not daring to swallow his saliva anymore.

Yet, as he brought his eyes up...

"What are you waiting for?" a calm, sympathetic voice reached his ears.

There was only a single person inside. And that person was sitting at one end of a relatively small table with only four chairs by it.

And that person, no one else but a fucking auditor, reached out with his hand, pointing the two of them towards the chairs by his table.

"Don't stand there shocked; the food will get cold!"