Chapter 11

**Chapter 11** is the eleventh chapter of the *Astra Lost in Space* manga.

## Synopsis

Kanata assigns jobs to everyone on the crew in an effort to streamline the process of powering up the gravity generator. Zack is to stay in the pilot's seat and fly the *Astra* when the power returns, Luca will fix the hole in the generator room and turn the machine back on, Funicia will stay on the bridge with Zack, and the rest will split into pairs (Charce and Aries, Yun-Hua and Quitterie, Ulgar and Kanata). Each of the pairs will take one of the three extension cables and work to connect the cables from the backup power source to the gravity generator. Aries identifies two connection points for the three cables: by the B-block stairs in the crew's quarters and by the entrance to the engine room.

The crew heads out to complete the mission. No sooner has a determined Yun-Hua spun to go with them than a floating blob of water hits her in the face: in microgravity, the water's adhesive action causes it to cling to her face, and when she opens her mouth in shock, the fluid forces itself down her throat. As she begins to drown, Aries notices what has happened; none of the others has no idea how to save her but Quitterie, who grabs a towel and shoves it in Yun-Hua's mouth, wicking the water out of her esophagus. As the crew wonders about the blob being a leftover from the breaking of the water distributor and Quitterie informs them of the behaviors of water in microgravity, Yun-Hua thinks of her mother and her biting criticisms of her own daughter when she failed, demanding that she stand back and stop being a distraction.

Quitterie breaks Yun-Hua out of her reverie and is immediately critical of her failure to activate her helmet, as all the others did, but Kanata takes the blame for not ordering a clean-up of the water in the room first. He asks Yun-Hua to stay behind and catch her breath, reassigning Funicia to take her place in the pair with Quitterie. Now with only seven minutes left, the rest of the crew leaves Yun-Hua alone on the bridge.

In rapid succession, Luca seals the hole in the generator room, Charce plugs cable A into the panel, Aries and Funicia connect cable A to cable B, and Quitterie and Ulgar connect cable B and cable C. Kanata takes the end of cable C into the generator room, where Luca helps him connect the two lines and bring the power back on, but an error message appears: Charce has collected a number of eggs from Vilavurs to study its fauna, and one of them has hatched into a small flying creature, which is now flying loose around the generator room. Its presence, which the onboard computer is not calibrated to recognize, has triggered an emergency shutdown procedure.

To deactivate the safety lock, Zack tells them they will have to catch the creature, even as their time continues to wind down. With under a minute remaining, and Kanata and Luca being easily out-maneuvered by the creature, Ulgar enters the room, demanding that they give him Luca's glue gun and hold him steady: he tells them he has experience handling firearms and plans to shoot the creature out of midair with a blob of adhesive. As they brace him against the core of the generator, Ulgar takes aim.

## Characters

* Aries Spring
* Kanata Hoshijima
* Yun-Hua Lu
* Charce Lacroix
* Luca Esposito
* Zack Walker
* Quitterie Raffaeli
* Wei Lu *(Flashback)*
* Funicia Raffaeli
* Ulgar Zweig