"I don't know if I'll be able to make it up, Maggie"

"The whole operation is your idea."

"I'm pretty sure not."

"You tell me, I quote you, you just need some help overcoming my fear of spaceflight, preferably without any brainwave stuff."

“…… Do you have to say it in my voice?"

It's easily one of the five creepiest things she's ever done since Joe knew her, and it's a highly competitive list.

"I want to make it clear that if you hadn't asked me to help, we wouldn't be here."

"No, but you see, I didn't say I was going on an interstellar cruise!"

"Interstellar," she corrected him.

"That's not the point!"

The man inadvertently raised his voice in public, and he immediately retracted his voice. Thankfully, he and Maggie hadn't made it into the countless queues at the spaceport yet, otherwise his outburst would have given him more and more mean glances. However, he couldn't help but make a lot of noise. He shuddered at the thought of floating in space for three months without ever landing on land. He was sure that he would be in a state of all sorts of fear throughout the voyage. How does this help him with his space phobia? If anything, it could make things worse.

Maggie only had to look at the look on his face to determine what was bothering him.

"Remember three days ago when we discussed a possible treatment for your condition?" She asked.

"Really?"

"Remember which option we chose?"

"Of course. Um," he paused, trying to recall the conversation, "cognitive behavioral therapy, right?"

There were a few other options, most notably drugs, but Joe wanted to avoid anything that would directly upset his brain chemistry. He wouldn't be with Maggie if it weren't for "his way of thinking is mysterious", and as his mom likes to say, he doesn't like to do anything that might ruin that way of thinking. It's not that he's afraid that the girl will leave him, but that it doesn't feel right to change the part of her that likes him. That's why he specifically asks Maggie not to simply wipe his phobia out of his head, and the girl wants to respect his wishes.

"That's right," she nodded. "This cruise is part of it."

"Oh...... Which part?"

Desensitization, also known as exposure therapy. In short, you have to face your fears in order to overcome them. ”

"Hey......"

The process is much more than that, and in order for the treatment to be effective, certain steps and escalations must be taken. However, this crude and basic explanation is enough for Joe to accept it, even if it does sound painfully clichéd. In retrospect, he probably should have expected that overcoming his phobia would not be easy...... It's also unpleasant.

"Alright then," he plucked up. "Let's get started."

"Great," the girl smiled happily.

"You're excited about it, aren't you?" Joe felt something else behind the smile.

"I must admit that as interesting and curious as humans are, lately I've been wanting to observe some stellar sights. Therefore, I am personally very much looking forward to this voyage. ”

"Of course, you are. Who knows? Maybe I'll have some fun with it too. ”

"Your optimism is superfluous, but I'm grateful."

Once again, the couple immersed themselves in the old British tradition of queuing, patiently waiting for their turn to board the shuttle. This time, the spaceship was nowhere near as luxurious as the "Silver Storm" they took on their way to the Lawyer's Planet. The plane they are now flying in is the equivalent of a pre-space-age double-decker bus, and it looks like it too. It was even painted bright red. The inside is as spacious as it looks outside, that is, not at all. At least there is enough space in the cargo hold for luggage. In fact, those briefcases and crates seem to be real passengers, while those people are luggage.

Thankfully, Joe and Maggie don't have to endure the traffic for too long. Their destination is not an interstellar cargo ship docked in the middle of the moon, but a luxury cruiser adrift in orbit. A little over 15 minutes later, the boat appeared in view of the shuttle bus's exterior camera. Joe doesn't usually tune in to videos like this. What bothered him was not so much the near-infinite space as the harsh reminder that the only thing between him and that was a few pieces of metal and plastic. The less he looked at these things, the safer he felt. However, Maggie asks him to pull himself together and not take his eyes off the screen. So, he didn't do it and did his best not to let his anxiety get the upper hand. He did a decent job, although this was mainly due to the fact that the images on the monitor were mostly cruise ships that the couple could board at any time.

The Queen Mary is a yacht-class ship that is about 400 meters long, 150 meters high, and 200 meters wide, if you count its horizontal wing. If it were a military ship, then a ship of this size would be considered a corvette, but this would definitely be a civilian cruiser. Its hull is smooth and beautiful, tapering towards the top and flat at the bottom, with a huge steel fin sticking out. The fact that it has a clearly recognizable top and bottom sets it apart from the more practical and vague designs of battleships. Not to mention that it also has real windows. And, quite a few people. On the side that Joe looked at, there were about fifty of them, unevenly distributed across seven or eight decks, including a viewing dome on the top floor. The last sign that the boat was built for comfort is that its engines are mounted on the wings, not on the hull. Although structurally less reliable, this greatly reduces the vibrations felt by passengers while sailing.

The Quee

Ma

y yacht-class luxu

y c

uise

, by dmaxcustom Show

Still, the sight of the yacht doesn't make much of a difference to someone like Joe who has already seen a cargo ship. Sure, it looks much more beautiful than those flying super skyscrapers, but this smaller ship can't compare in size and scale to those interstellar freighters. On the other hand, the interior of the yacht is also impressive. The room was spacious, well air-conditioned, well-lit and as luxurious as Maggie's apartment when she first moved in. One would think that passengers getting off the shuttle bus enter a luxury hotel rather than a spaceship. It's fitting because Queen Mary is both. Its interior boasts many recreational facilities, including restaurants, casinos, swimming pools, a synthetic park, and a stargazing lounge. As an added bonus, the ship's internal lights are programmed to a day-night cycle to synchronize the passengers' biological clocks.

After all, there is no way to have a traditional English breakfast or tea time without a clear morning and evening.

By the time Joe and Maggie arrived, the distractions would have to wait until later. Before the couple could settle down in the cabin, the girl grabbed the boy and almost dragged him to the observation deck. The position of the ship is such that the view from the reinforced glass ceiling is half the planet below and half the universe in the distance. It was a relaxing and romantic sight that quite a few other passengers seemed to enjoy as well, reclining on the many deck chairs.

Joe wasn't as easy-going as usual, to say the least. It wasn't until Maggie assured him five times that he finally agreed to walk out of the hallway and into the room. The couple occupied one of the available deck chairs, and at the girl's suggestion, the boy lay with his head on the lap of the seated girl. This way, he can look directly at the unforgiving vacuum above his head while maintaining Maggie's reassuring smile. From an outsider's point of view, it was a strange scenario, but it seemed to work. After a few minutes of this, Joe calmed down a little. His heart was still racing, and his desire to return to land hadn't diminished at all, but at least he wasn't twitching and shaking as violently as he had been at first.

That's pretty much how the couple spent their first weeks on their interstellar journey. Stargazing takes up most of their time, and Joe freaks out at different stages, and Maggie does her best to reassure him. Theoretically, this allows the man to gradually get used to spaceflight until he gets used to spaceflight, but the girl is not sure if this will work in practice. Despite the fact that she is an expert at disrupting the brain and has an entire library of psychology textbooks in her head, she is not a psychiatrist. This subtle approach is far from her forte, though it only makes Joe's healing more important to the black hole of knowledge in her mind. Of course, ensuring his mental health is paramount, but she doesn't deny that the learning experience is also welcome.

The voyage itself is rather uneventful, although it is intentional. It was a slow and easy voyage, during which the Queen Mary sailed around the solar system for four or five days before boarding a cargo ship. In the beginning, it will make a few stops to pick up and drop off passengers, while passing through a bunch of so-called "strange worlds" - planets that are interesting from orbit, but very uninhabitable. It wasn't until the third week that the cruise ship showed passengers something truly memorable. It emerges from the appropriately large docking compartment of a freighter and meets the combined light of two pale blue stars dancing cosmic tango to each other, also known as binary star systems. The yacht was as close to the celestial phenomena as possible as far as the safety regulations allowed, and as a result, from the starboard side, an infinite sphere of heat and light dominated the view.

By the way, Joe and Maggie's cabin is also on the other side of the ship. Ever since the couple first saw it, they've been drinking. The girl was naturally ecstatic about all this, because she had never seen anything like this with her own eyes. She was a little uneasy because the windows of the cabin had automatically darkened, and she couldn't see a clear view, but she kept her complaints to herself. After all, as much as she would love to bask in the unfiltered light of a binary neutron star, it wasn't healthy for a flesh-and-blood creature like Joe. Or herself.

As for the innocent young man beside her, he found himself unable to take his eyes off the heavenly scene. It's something he's seen many times before in all forms of media, but there's a magical feeling to seeing it in person. Oddly enough, for the first time since boarding the Queen Mary, he felt relaxed. His mind was momentarily overwhelmed by how surreal his situation was. Between the extremely rare star formations in front of him, the extravagant luxuries around him, and the cosmic girlfriend hanging from his arm, there was no room for him to anxiously ponder questions related to the indifferent emptiness of space.

This moment of silence lasted for almost an hour, and then the ship spun on its own, allowing the other half of the passengers to take a good look at the cosmic phenomenon. The view from the couple's window was soon gradually replaced by a strange bright red gas giant. The view is indeed nice, but not as spectacular as the previous one. As the source of their fantasies disappears and the opacity of tempered glass returns to normal levels, the couple returns to their usual selves.

"Ahh That's remarkable, isn't it?" Joe said.

"Indeed," Maggie said with a smile. "My only regret is that I don't have the strength to get up close."

"Oh, good. I'm sure you'll succeed one day. 4th and 5th grade or something. ”

Joe inadvertently reminds her that he won't be by her side if such a moment comes, and the girl's smile falters instantly, but Maggie leans on her budding humanity and puts those unpleasant thoughts aside for the time being.

"That's my hope," she replied.

"Hey, what the hell is level 5 like?"

"It's a state of being that I can't understand, almost entirely a mystery."

"Wow. Turns out there are some things you don't know!"

"Absolutely. I'm not omniscient," she frowned.

"However, you can also stand where I stand. Seriously, do you know how reassuring it is to have a girlfriend who knows everything?"

"Judging by your tone and overall level of excitement, I bet the answer is 'very.'"

"Exactly! I never felt like I was lost, or those things always lingered in my mind when you were around me. I mean, it's still going to happen, and I'm just not worried about you're around. ”

"Why?"

"Well, take those weird sparks that pop up every now and then."

As he pointed out the window, Maggie's gaze followed his fingers. A few minutes later, in the seemingly empty space behind it, a tiny, barely visible white light appeared.

"Yes, that's it."

"What's wrong with them?" The girl turned her gaze back to him again.

"I don't know what they are at all, but I'm not going to let it bother me because I know you have, and you're not going to be silent about what I need to worry about."

Maggie's cheeks flushed slightly from the shameless trust. Of course, she knew that Joe relied on her for a lot of things, but she was really happy to hear him say it out loud. So much so that she couldn't help but want to show it off.

"Do you want me to tell you what those sparks are?" She asked happily.

"Of course, let's hear it," he accommodated.

"They are a by-product of the ship's kinetic energy barrier that deflects micrometeorites."

The last word was one Joe had never heard before, but even he wasn't so stupid as not to notice its obvious meaning.

"Do you mean space rocks that are too small for me to see?" He asked, just in case.

"Indeed."

"Hmm. It seems like a waste of effort, doesn't it? He scratched his head.

"What do you mean?"

"Like, why put up the ship's shield for this?" Can a pile of space dust make a spaceship this big? Scratched a little bit by the paint? He said confusedly.

"Micrometeorites can reach speeds of up to 25,000 kilometers per hour." The girl said.

"Oh?"

"Even with their small mass, at such a high speed, it is easy to break through the hull. Windows are particularly susceptible to this effect. ”

"Oh."

"Without a kinetic barrier interception, every compartment on this ship would have undergone explosive decompression in a matter of minutes. In this way, all the passengers on the ship, including you and me, will be pulled into the vacuum of space. ”

Oh......"

With each word, Joe's expression and face changed a little for the worse. By the time Maggie finished her lesson, he looked as pale and panicked as they had been on their first interstellar trip. It was only then that the girl realized that she probably shouldn't say this, as it could lead to a recurrence of phobia in men. Thankfully, he managed to control his anxiety with a few long breaths. He still regretted very much that he had asked the question about micrometeorites, but he was able to think rationally.

"Hmm. Thankfully, the barrier has been erected, right? He choked up, his voice shaking.

“…… Truly. ”

Maggie felt a strange relief that her rush to say trivia did not adversely affect Joe's treatment. She also felt bold because his response proved that the treatment was working.

"Can we go to brunch?" He suggested. "I think I need some tea right now."

Same.

The rest of the day passed leisurely and nothing happened. Except for the time Maggie was denied entry to the casino. Apparently she had been banned the day before for card counting. The girl was a little angry when she heard this. If the optimal strategy for success is not allowed, then why is this fact not explicitly listed in the rules? She calmed down when she realized that the problem wasn't her potentially illegal technology. The casino lost a lot of money because of her, and they couldn't continue to operate without her. It's a bit of a pity, but she concedes on that point. As much as she loves to calculate probabilities and win in games, closing the place would be unfair to her fellow passengers who also want to entertain themselves.

The next morning, the Queen Mary docked on another freighter, ready to do another wormhole jump. It's a bit unusual and a bit unfortunate, as the yacht has only been in the binary system for one day, but there is no way around it. The cruise ship's routes and schedules have been set months in advance, and the crew's options are either short-term or very long-term visits. The former is the more attractive option. Even if the passengers are disappointed that they can't stare at the binary system for a long time, they might be annoyed if they are stuck here for the next 13 weeks.

As a result, the Queen Mary drifted to the ship's oversized dock and was held in place by a dock clamp. Shortly thereafter, the ship issued a notice that the wormhole was about to open and that passengers were requested to fasten their seatbelts for their own safety. Maggie and Joe sat down in the armchairs in the cabin as instructed. The automatic straps and cuffs then gently and firmly hold them in their place so that their bodies do not float away when artificial gravity temporarily fails. A few minutes later, there was a distinctive "shhhh When gravity kicked back, Joe's wits returned to slamming his back against the cushions of the armchair. He looked to the left, and saw a blank look in Maggie's dull eyes, not a single hair writhing. Jo calmly waited for their seats to get out of the way, then walked over and gave her a big kiss on the lips.

For the couple, this once-bizarre series of events is now commonplace, including the final part. Whatever the reason, Level 3 entities are unable to resist the consciousness of being expelled during interstellar travel, leaving empty spaceships, largely autopilot. She would find her way back on her own in about fifteen minutes, though Jo always sped up the process with a kiss. It's not necessary, but I'm grateful. This time, however, when Maggie woke up, there was a slight divergence in the "standard procedure".

"Are you feeling okay?" You're all back, okay? The man sounded worried.

"Yes, I'm fine," she replied.

"What's going on?"

There was no usual half-smug smile on her face, but a look of extreme discomfort.

"Looks like we're going to have guests soon."

“…… All right? Who?"

"Mine," she paused, "my siblings." ”

"Ah...... Wait, wait. "I thought you didn't have a family like we did."

The girl had previously explained that a cosmic entity like her sprouted from a primordial creation or something like that, and was not born from other such beings.

"It's a bit misleading, but 'siblings' is the most accurate word to describe our relationship," she insisted.

"Oh, okay. Why is this a bad thing?"

"Because I'm not sure what the purpose of this visit is. All I know is that my siblings intend to board the ship when it enters the Midpeak system in eight days. ”

"How do you know this, but why are they here?"

The girl paused again, her answer simple enough for Joe to understand immediately, if not entirely accurately.

"When I just got home, there was a message waiting for me. That's all it says. ”

"So, an email?"

"Indeed."

"Can't you just use your brains?"

"It's very difficult to communicate through the veil. And, that's not the point," she pouted at Joe. "I don't want this meeting to happen, but there's nothing I can do to stop it."

"Oh, don't do that. I'm sure the weather will be fine. I mean, you're great, apples don't fall far from you...... Actually, no, the metaphor doesn't make sense in this case, does it?"

"Absolutely not."

"I'm not worried, though. I'm sure you won't let things get out of hand. ”

“…… Thank you," she finally smiled, albeit a little.

"By the way, what's the name of this sibling of yours?"

“…”

The girl's smile disappeared, as did her voice.

"Maggie," Jo asked.

"Uh," she shouted. "This is Kelogh 'the

yl。 Kellogg: "Devourer."

"Ah...... Well, now I'm starting to worry. ”