Chapter -9

* TKB

"**The Galactic Patrol Spaceship**" (銀（ギン）河（が）パトロールの宇（う）宙（ちゅう）船（せん）, *Ginga Patorōru no Uchūsen*; *Viz* "The Galactic Patrolman's Spaceship") is the third chapter of the *Jaco the Galactic Patrolman* series.

## Summary

While Ōmori is working on the repairs for Jaco's spaceship, the alien offers the engineer some barley tea, to which he declines. Ōmori is truly impressed by the machine, saying it is something that humanity could not even dream of creating. Jaco agrees, stating its only natural as the spaceship belongs to an elite member of the Galactic Patrol. Because Jaco keeps bringing that up, Ōmori inquires if its difficult to become a member of the Galactic Patrol. Jaco says its very difficult, as the Galactic Patrol operate under the Galactic King, and only a handful of chosen, privileged individuals can become members. When Jaco himself applied, they were recruiting five new members and nine people applied for the position. Ōmori, however, is less than impressed, as a 55% chance of being hired is nothing to be proud of.

While Ōmori hasn't quite gotten a grasp on the mechanics of the ship, he's come to an understand about the fundamental problem with Jaco's ship; it creates power by blasting a laser beam at a certain substance. This substance, however, was broken off and damaged by Jaco's lunar impact, and only a fragment remains. He says he'll analyze it, to see if the substance even exists on Earth; if it doesn't, Jaco will have to simply give up on returning to the Galactic Patrol. Jaco doesn't want to accept this, as he can't even call for help, and he has to return the movie he rented by the next break. Ōmori says he's going to analyze the substance first, so Jaco should just take a stroll around the island while he waits.

Jaco makes a leap across the island, lifts a heavy metal object, tosses it over the horizon. Drawing his blaster, he destroys the object in a single blast, and tries to holster his weapon, but drops it, and claims he blew the finish of his pose set. Wandering around the island, Jaco tells Ōmori he's going to go get some milk. Pouring himself a glass, the Patrolman turns his eyes to the television set, and sees on the news once again, the announcement of the Twinkle 8 rocket, which only has two days left for launch. Even the news anchor states that he would not choose to ride in the rocket, as the first, second, and fifth failed, and Twinkle 8 only has a 60% success rate. The news then turns to focus on An Azuki, the idol to ride the rocket herself, as she begins singing. Jaco deems the song stupid and walks out to sit outside, only to find himself singing the song under his breath.

Ōmori rushes out of the house to tell Jaco that he's not only discovered what the substance that powers his ship is, but its something that exists on Earth. Jaco excitedly hugs Ōmori, claiming its wonderful news. Ōmori, however, says not to get too excited; he said it exists, but its something thats impossible to get ahold of. The material is an extremely precious metal, blue in color, called 'Sky Gold'. Ōmori determines that, judging by the size of the spaceship, Jaco would need around two pounds — and this would cost them seventy-six million yen or so. Ōmori then asks, after Jaco recovers from the shock, how long he can fly when the ship is full. Jaco says that he could probably do two laps from Earth to his headqaurters. Determining that Jaco would only need a quarter of the full amount to make it back to his headquarters, it would still cost nineteen million yen. While mulling over their money issues, Ōmori decides that he should go to the Capital and get food.

As Jaco wants to tag along, so he can observe humans, Ōmori lends him some clothes — a trenchcoat and a hat — so he can disguise himself. Unsure whether he looks alright, Ōmori tells Jaco that the Capital contains quite a few weird people, but he should simply avoid standing out.