Chapter 411: Landing On Borg!

The red night lights shone dimly as Roka and Cero slept.

Around three hours of sleep later, the night lights began to dim further, and the day lights started to shine.

The intervals between each light switch changed every day, and the goal of those lights wasn’t simply to provide a semblance of routine.

Depending on the spaceship’s itinerary, it was Nolan’s job to work the day-and-night cycle within the ship to continuously and seamlessly adjust the crew’s internal clock.

Slowly but surely, the day-night rhythm within the ship changed from Wor’s to Borg’s, and it would later slowly change from Borg’s to Jin’s.

The changes were gradual enough that the crew barely noticed them.

Cero’s eyes opened as the day lights were turned on. Nolan’s voice resonated through the speakers a moment later.

"Attention, everyone," Nolan said. "We’ve entered Borg’s atmosphere and are starting our descent."

Cero stared at the ceiling for a moment before turning towards Roka.

She was sleeping soundly, absolutely exhausted.

Unlike her, Cero did not need more than an hour of sleep to recover his endurance and energy, though sleeping more than that did feel nice.

Cero slowly and sneakily tried to get out of bed without making a sound.

"I’m up," Roka grumbled with her eyes closed. "Are we... Are we landing?"

"Yeah," Cero answered with a smile. "We’re landing in a bit."

"Alright." Her eyes remained firmly shut. "I’m up."

Cero stretched his arms and neck. "I don’t think you are." He chuckled.

"No, I’m... I’m serious, just give me... A second..."

Cero stared at her for a couple of seconds before stepping away to grab some clothes.

"I’m coming... With you..." Roka barely managed to raise her head from her pillow’s soft and cool embrace.

"Suure," he said jokingly.

"I am..." Roka looked around, her eyes barely open. "Where... Are we? What is... This room?" She pushed herself up on her elbows, and her arms started shaking. "I’m so sore... What the hell?"

"I think you need to sleep some more."

"No... I just need to... Think a bit..." Roka stared into the air and nothingness. "Where are we landing again? Wait..." Her facial expression changed immediately, like she just remembered something super important. "We had sex!" She exclaimed, pointing at Cero. "A bunch of times, too!"

Cero held back his laughter, walked back to the bed, and took a seat next to her.

"We did?" He asked with a smile. "Are you sure you didn’t dream it?"

"Nu-uh! We had sex! And it was great! It was... Amazing, really."

"Yeah, we did." Cero chuckled.

Following his confirmation, Roka’s body collapsed back onto the bed.

"Hehe... We had sex... Hehe..." She chuckled with the sort of perverted smile only virgins develop. "Hehe... I’m not a virgin anymore..."

"No," Cero shook his head. "Not after all of that. Definitely not."

"Hehehe..." Roka giggled, and her eyes slowly closed. "Wait... What were we talking about? I was about to get up... What for?"

Seeing her so confused and lost due to exhaustion and sleep deprivation almost made Cero feel bad, if what caused this exhaustion and sleep deprivation hadn’t made them feel so good.

Roka yawned widely, and Cero leaned closer.

"Get some rest," he whispered after kissing her forehead.

"Hehehe..." Again, that same smile appeared on Roka’s face. "Okay..."

Cero pulled the blanket over her and walked to leave the room.

"Cero..."

"Yes?"

"Don’t do..." she whispered, already asleep. "Anything crazy..."

"Yeah." He smiled and opened the door to leave. "I love you, Roka."

Cero walked out of the room and closed the door behind him.

"Hehehe..."

***

"Morning."

Nolan glanced over his shoulder as Cero entered the command room.

"Morning." Nolan nodded. "Roka and the twins not going with you?"

"No."

"I see."

Cero walked to join Nolan’s side.

Even from this distance, Cero could tell that Borg was nothing like VTX, which had greeted them with lights, towers, holograms, and endless artificial glow through enticing darkness.

"Sunny," Cero commented.

"Borg is one of the best destinations to get a quick tan," Nolan said with a nod.

Unlike VTX’s futuristic and cyberpunk-ish atmosphere, Borg reminded Cero a lot more of the numerous planets he and the crewmates had visited before arriving on Wor, before entering the civilized world.

Most of the land below them was covered in shades of brown, orange, and green.

"Forests and more forests, huh?" Cero muttered.

"That works for you, right?" Nolan asked with an inquisitive glance. "I don’t know what your goal is here. I’ve only been told to bring you here and stay for as long as you need."

Cero rubbed his chin as his gaze moved towards the cities, which stuck out like sore thumbs through the one, endless, all-encompassing forest. "What can you tell me about Borg?" he asked.

There was a time when it would be Roka, Raya, or Rea who would do the explaining for him.

Nolan would have to do, for now.

"The first thing I can tell you is that Borg, just like VTX, isn’t part of the Intergalactic Union of the Living, but for entirely different reasons," Nolan explained. "On VTX, foreigners make up the majority of the people walking the planet. Some estimates put their percentage as high as 80 or even 90%. The complete opposite is true for Borg. Well, worse than that. Only about 3% of the population on Borg isn’t native to the Planet."

"So I’ll stick out," Cero sighed.

"That’s a given." Nolan shrugged. "I can also tell you that, just like Wor, Borg does fill the condition of attaining the proper level of space travel to enter the Intergalactic Union of the Living, but they filled that condition in a completely different manner than Wor did."

"How so?"

"Before Wor was united under one banner and one Prime Minister, before it joined the Intergalactic Union, it was divided into multiple countries, multiple powers which competed against one another, and there was no greater edge in that competition than to dominate the space around and over Wor."

’Sounds familiar.’ Cero thought with a nod.