Chapter 155. EPILOGUE

 *** Two years later. ***

"Ciri, are you ready?"

I looked at the girl. She threw me a slightly annoyed look, but in the depths of it I could see gratitude.

"Yeah. (chuckles)"

"Then..."

I grinned and took my position behind her back, Becca did the same. We were wearing our usual black suits today. In two years, we'd earned some reputation in this world, and suits like that didn't elicit a chuckle. More like apprehension and wariness.

And now Becca and I, acting as bodyguards for Ciri, stood behind her. She was about to be crowned Empress of Nilfgaard. And all because her father had gotten a little cocky and was simply poisoned by his own people.

He was not poisoned, but he could no longer fulfill his duties as Emperor. Of course, we uncovered the poisoner and he was put on the stake, but Emgyr's health did not return, and Ciri decided to play on it and depose her father from the throne, and then send him to Vika for treatment.

And we finally took the first steps...

 *** Three months later. ***

"Ciri, you could have sent me straight to treatment..."

Emgyr looked at his daughter with both pride and resentment. He was offended that he was without power, and proud that his daughter had taken power herself. She took advantage of the situation and did what she needed to do.

"Could have..."

Ciri sat on the throne, and her father stood before her as a petitioner. He wasn't exactly a petitioner, but he wasn't exactly in charge.

"...but then I wouldn't have taken over and stopped this senseless war."

"You don't understand."

"Yeah, I don't get it, the empire has enough problems as it is, and you went on a stupid, unnecessary war."

"Ciri, they'll all tear us apart if..."

"They'll tear us apart if I don't start solving the problems within the Empire. There are three times fewer men than women! Three! Do you realize this will lead to a drop in the birth rate if nothing is done?"

"Ciri..."

"No, Father, I've made up my mind. I will not, of course, disband the army, though I will reduce it a little. I will deal with the main issues within the Empire. The corpse-eating creatures in the new lands have multiplied, poverty, hunger--

Ciri shook her head.

"And how do we solve the issue of hunger?"

"David will help... he can get seeds of other crops that we can spread around."

I nodded, confirming that if that's what Ciri wanted, I would definitely do it.

"So, what, you're gonna give it away for free?"

Ciri only shook her head at such a question asked in a mocking tone.

"Well, whatever you say. Of course not. I'll rent out the land, and give seeds to it. The payment will be eighty percent of the harvest from the land. Of course, it won't solve poverty, but at least there won't be hunger. And there will be fewer bandits, if everyone can get a piece of land and seeds... why risk being caught and staked?"

"And then what?"

"Then, if people save some of their crops for planting, the land rental fee drops to sixty percent."

"Where are you gonna put all that food?!"

"Well, Triss and Ian will help. and, again, David won't be left out. We'll sell it to the dry worlds where there's a lot of gold or other useful but poorly valued items, and we'll get what we need."

"And how did you..."

"I'll find it myself!"

Ciri couldn't stand it and shouted at Emgyr.

"I'm not that little brat anymore! I can bounce around the worlds on my own, and then I can go home. I'll make a couple dozen jumps, and then I'll take Ian or Triss to the right world, and they'll do the portals."

"Don't you think you're on top of them."

"It doesn't seem like... if that's all you want to talk about, you can go..."

Emgyr burned Ciri with a displeased look, but he did not interfere and turned around and left the throne room with his head held high, except that he did not know that the entire palace had long been packed with cameras, as well as all the capital residences of various Aristo. So we learned about various conspiracies before they could turn into something dangerous.

 *** A year later. ***

The treaty with the elves was still in effect, they still hadn't visited this world or the cyberpunk world. And that was a good thing, though I didn't deny the possibility that they were just preparing...

But I'm not just sitting on my ass. And right now, I'm on my way down to the very shipyard where SUZI laid down the cruiser we'll be using to leave the planet's atmosphere. This ship is to be the Aldecaldo clan base.

"So..."

I went downstairs and noticed a large panoramic glass window. I was immediately speechless for a few minutes. SUZI, who was working on the ship almost single-handedly, aside from a couple of clan engineers.

"...that reminds me of something."

Those were the first words I uttered upon seeing the panoramic glass.

"I don't know what you're talking about..."

SUZI snorted, then turned away slightly as the lights on the other side began to come on and my ship became visible.

What can I say...

Seeing a picture and a drawing is one thing, but in person... in person, it's something else. There were no words, no emotions or anything. I just stood there and watched.

"Uh, David?"

SUZI's voice was strained, and I realized that I had to react somehow, but there were still no words, so I did the only thing I could think of, which was to turn to the girl and pull her close to me and embrace her.

She flinched. Her arms wrapped around me tentatively, and we just stood there for a couple minutes, until I could finally start to say something.

"SUZI, what you've built. it's unbelievable."

The ship itself was partly reminiscent of the hammerhead from Star Wars, only flatter...and yes that comparison is fundamentally wrong.

"The ship must be given a name..."

"Unearthly Beauty."

"Pfft..."

SUZIE snorted.

"You don't like it? Anyway, it's just my suggestion, and you can..."

"I like... Extraterrestrial Beauty."

SUZI nodded and pulled away from me to look at the ship.

"And now it's time for the captain to board the ship."

"Well. let's go then."

And SUZI gave me a tour of the ship, to which all the equipment that could be installed had already been transferred.

During the whole excursion I didn't know what to say, I had no words at all, I just wanted to open my mouth and look at everything that was here. On the one hand I saw nothing new, similar technologies were used in manticores, which I dismantled together with the clan, in basilisks, equipment of ranners, in general, everything was familiar, but at the same time ...

Anyway, I just walked around and looked at it. and look and walk around.

"And this is your quarters..."

I looked around the large room, with a large bed, in a small partitioned off nook there was a shower room, also there was a large aquarium partitioned off was a study area... The cabin reminded me most of the one in Normandy, only if there the aquarium was in the wall, here it occupied the place where in the game there was a shelf for ships.

"SUZI... tell me what I can do for you."

"Well..."

Susi shrugged.

"...I've said once before, I'd like to visit my home world."

I opened my mouth to agree, but she wouldn't let me say anything.

"I remember you saying it probably wouldn't be my world, I remember all that and still would like to try to visit at least a world similar to mine."

"Okay..."

"Oh, really?"

"Yeah, but you have to realize."

"I realize..."

SUZIE smiled.

"...for the last year I've been developing a technological device to create portals. So it's no problem to create a portal for Unearthly Beauty to pass through. The problem is finding my world."

"Well. we could take the easiest way."

"The easiest?"

"Yeah, you take a clipboard and draw Liara, Tali, Joker, Citadel, Anderson, in general draw as many personalities and landmarks as you can, but not of Earth, but of galactic scale. With that we go to Ciri, she studies it and jumps around trying to target those images. She jumps right in with Triss, who opens a return portal and when they come back she gives us the coordinates."

"Are we already checking in on the ship?"

"Exactly."

"And you're okay with that?"

"Well..."

I shrugged.

"...Part of the clan will have to be left near Ciri as guards, a couple groups as monster hunters in this world, and a couple groups in the cyberpunk world as solos. But overall, yeah, I wouldn't mind flying down and checking it out."

"That's great!"

SUZI was very excited that I had agreed to go to her world, or a world that would be very much like it.

"By the way, who took the pilot's seat?"

"Panam..."

SUZI shrugged. By the way, I can tell you that she's not inferior to Joker, so she's a first-class pilot. And considering that the cruiser as a whole is not adapted for maneuvering combat, so and so at all...

"Okay...when will the ship Belle be ready to take off?"

"Even now. We just need to get the crew in here, since there are a minimum of them on the ship now, mostly engineers who are currently controlling the reactor and other systems."

I nodded.

"Well, then invite the people. We'll get the ship ready for takeoff."

"Okay..."

 *** Two months later. ***

Despite the fact that the ship was ready for takeoff the same day I boarded it, I decided to spend two months practicing all the actions to the point of automatism. Since a coffin with a virtual is good, of course, but the real world is better.

And now...

Now the ship was finally ready for takeoff. I was standing in the control room, next to the pilot's chair where Panam was sitting. Not far from her, Kiwi was sitting at the REB chair, connected to the ship's systems through a neck jack. Across from her, Becca was connected to the weapons systems in the same way. Triss sat in the co-pilot's chair, but she was responsible for controlling the portals to set everything up and using magic to control its direction. Lucy sat next to Kiwi and was the second REB operator and Judy was Becca's assistant.

There was also room for me, as the captain of the ship, as well as room for SUZI, who had made herself the chief engineer. Even though she couldn't do anything on her own, she could do everything with the help of droids that were also connected to the ship's systems and that she could easily control.

"SUZI reactor to take off."

"Roger that, I'm putting the Rector in takeoff mode."

"Panam, breakaway by team."

"Got it."

There was a tense atmosphere in the control room, but we tried to ignore it, we had practiced many times both in virtual and in real life, and nothing new for us was happening now. For now...

"Reactor on mode."

I nodded to SUZY.

"Panam, breakaway in three, two, one... breakaway."

The ship shuddered and broke away from the surface of the shipyard.

"Kiwi, Gateway..."

"Transmitting command to open the airlock. And when she did."

That's to say, as the airlock gates began to open, into the long tunnel that would take us ten kilometers from Caer Morhen to the surface.

"The airlock is open."

"Panam, small forward."

"Got it."

The ship slid smoothly down the long tunnel and soon after leaving it also slowly began to rise, leaving the planet.

"We're in a stable orbit... What are your orders?"

I looked around...

"Well, first, a test flight through the system, and then we'll activate the portal and go to the coordinates of the world SUZI is supposed to have come from. I think our friend will be pleased that we're keeping our promises..."

"Thank you..."

SUZI nodded to me, after which the Unearthly Beauty set off on her first flight through space, and after that, her first flight to another world...

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