73. Special Chapter : The Chronos Crystal Mission

73. Special Chapter : The Chronos Crystal Mission
Inside the cockpit, Rose sat with a thoroughly sour expression. Her arms were folded tightly across her chest, and her eyes glared at the expanse of stars as if she intended to blow one of them up. Beside her, Liuz was busy proffering a tray of food, trying his best to coax his wife, who was still in full "supernova" mode.
"Sandwich? Or perhaps a salad?" Liuz asked in his softest possible voice.
"Forget it! I’ve lost my appetite!" Rose snapped without so much as a glance.
"My dearest, you must eat," Liuz tried again, his tone shifting into that clinical, logical manner so typical of an alien. "The temperature on our destination planet is extremely low. You need a bit of a 'fat layer' on your body so you don't freeze to death."
Rose let out a sharp scoff. What a terrible way to persuade someone. However, since her stomach was indeed starting to scream for help, she finally snatched a sandwich and began to chew it with sheer aggression—as if she were biting off Liuz’s head.
"Good wife," Liuz remarked, smiling with satisfaction at the sight of Rose eating. "As a reward, I shall grant you several baby girls later."
Rose nearly choked. She forced herself to swallow the bread and immediately protested, "We already have three children, Liuz! Don't you start making crazy plans about baby girls!"
"But they would surely be adorable," Liuz countered casually. "I want children who look exactly like you. Mini versions of yourself—talkative, fond of eating, and prone to grumbling all the time. Wouldn't that be delightful?"
Rose rolled her eyes and muttered to herself, "It’s truly my fault for marrying an alien. He doesn't even know how to comfort an annoyed person. He only succeeds in making me even more furious!"
She continued to grumble under her breath, while Liuz returned his focus to the monitors, observing the planetary formations they passed with an innocent face, as if he had just said the most romantic thing in the world.
Liuz nodded slightly as he watched the screen, speaking as if he were merely reading a mundane weather report. "Planet Lustra-9 apparently still has an atmosphere filled with diamond rain. No wonder the surface looks so brilliant from here."
Spontaneously, Rose whipped her head around so fast she nearly gave herself whiplash. Her eyes widened. "Diamonds, you say?! Liuz, let's turn back! Let's go grab some!"
Liuz glanced briefly at the navigation panel, his expression blank. "We’ve already passed it. The planet is now far behind the ship's tail."
"Good grief! Why do you never have any initiative?!" Rose cried in frustration. "You’ve been an inhabitant of Earth long enough, Liuz! You should know by now that diamonds are precious and could make us incredibly wealthy!"
Liuz looked at Rose with an irritatingly innocent face. "But... aren't we already incredibly wealthy?"
Rose went silent. That sentence hit her logic like a freight train. "Erm, well, yes, you're right. We are rich. But those were diamonds! An entire atmosphere’s worth!"
Rose turned away again, grumbling to herself. "Good heavens, how exactly does the Orvantis race program emotions into this man's body? He truly has zero ambition!"
Liuz let out a low chuckle, a sound filled with deep adoration. "You are truly adorable when you nag like that. So, won't you reconsider the baby girl idea? I’ve just discovered a method to deliver X-chromosome sperm into your system far more effectively. Would you like to try it now?"
"Liuz! You are absolutely insufferable!" Rose shrieked, her face flushed a deep crimson—a chaotic blend of irritation and sheer embarrassment.
Without waiting for a reply, Rose bolted from her seat. She turned away and marched out of the cockpit, needing to distance herself from her husband before her head literally began to smoke from his absurd alien logic. She chose to seek out her triplet sons in the capsule chamber, hoping that, at the very least, her children still possessed some remnants of Earth-human sanity.
"Goodness, how cute," Liuz murmured, propping his chin on his left hand. His eyes followed Rose’s back until she disappeared behind the automatic cockpit doors.
To Liuz, Rose’s anger was never a threat; he saw nothing but perfection in her. Turning back to the navigation screen, a faint smile played on his lips. "A baby girl with eyes like those... that is definitely an idea I must bring to life," he whispered softly, before pushing the ship back into light-speed toward Planet Kaelum.
Meanwhile, inside the soundproof capsule chamber, the three triplets were drifting in the center of the room due to the low gravity they had intentionally set. They were lazily tossing a small metal ball to one another with bored expressions, but their faces instantly brightened the moment they saw their mother walk in.
"Mom!" they shouted in unison. Their small feet quickly touched the floor as the gravity returned to normal.
"What are you boys doing?" Rose asked, trying to push her frustration with Liuz to the back of her mind.
"Nothing important, Mom. Just having a discussion," Alaric answered with a mock-adult tone.
"And playing a bit of ball, of course," Bastian added with a wide, mischievous grin.
"More accurately, we are analyzing the species that inhabit Planet Kaelum," interrupted Cygnus, the youngest and ever-serious one. He looked at his mother with a calculating gaze. "For us, it might not be an issue. But it seems you will need some time to... adjust."
Rose pulled up a chair and sat down, observing her three sons closely. Her scientific curiosity was piqued. "Alright, tell me. What kind of species are we going to face there?"
"Just insects, Mom. No problem at all," Alaric said, offering his most reassuring smile to keep her from panicking.
"They're smart insects, too! You can command them to run and fetch a ball. They’re quite cute and very obedient!" Bastian added enthusiastically, imagining a game of fetch with a bug.
However, Cygnus’s brutal honesty shattered the pleasant imagery.
"In reality," Cygnus interjected in a flat tone that was a mirror image of Liuz’s, "the species are giant cockroaches, roughly the size of a Great Dane. They are quite docile, but they have a tendency to be slimy and very much enjoy sniffing and kissing every newcomer they meet."
Rose froze in her seat. The vision of a waist-high giant cockroach scurrying toward her with twitching antennae, ready to deliver a "slimy kiss," made her want to bolt back to Earth that very second.
"Alaric, catch me... I think I’m going to faint," Rose feebly murmured.
Cygnus let out a sharp sigh. "Just as I thought. This wasn't a good idea," he said with an innocent, deadpan face.