Galaxy Express 999 9

GE999 #09


p209
Next stop: 4D-3. The stop will be lasting 48h...

Tetsurou!!!
Hey!!

Why are you wearing sunglasses?

4D-3 is sending powerful radiations.
You should wear some too!

But with those...

... I look like a gangster!!! [ndt: maybe yakuza in Japanese]
It suits you well, though.

Once we'll have crossed those clouds of black gas, we'll see 4D-3.


p210-211
9th stop
Beethoven in the land of water


p212
Is it this planet...?
Weird, it looks like its center is completely empty...


p213
I can't believe it!!

4D-3 is the planet "drop of water"...
It's only composed with water till its center.

It's like a big drop of water floating in space.
But it's impossible!! Such a planet shouldn't exist...

In the universe, there are a lot of known facts that science can't explain!

There are a lot of things you can only believe after seeing them through your very eyes.

But how can men live on a planet entirely composed of water?

They're living underwater.
What?


p214
sfx: tchoo tchoo tchoo
sfx: fwooooon

Waah!!
sfx: gloo gloo
sfx: splash


p215
sfx: bloop bloop bloop


p216
There are many underwater islands spread all around the equator...
They're surrounded by an air bubble...

sfx: flooooooosh

Human beings are living inside them.

It feels like in a fairy tail.
It isn't, Tetsurou!! Such places do exist in the universe.

Besides, some are far from being fay...


p217
We're entering the air bubble.

sfx: tchoooooo tchooo

You can open the window.
The external fields of protection of the train have been deactivated and air can fill in.

sfx: fyoooooo

Wah! This fresh air is really pleasant!!
Here, you can find the best air of the whole universe...


p218
What a beautiful place!!
The Earth used to look like that...

sfx: Fyoooooo

Huh? Is this the station?
sfx: Pssshhh
The rule on 4D-3 is to build everything in the most natural way possible. If a building would ruin the scenery, then it can't be built. That's why there is nothing explicitly showing the location of the station.


p219
And what's the point in having buildings here? You just need to know it's the station.

Oh, look!!!

In a planet of water, there is a bubble of air in where is flooding a current of water... There are even tadpoles swimming in there.

And here, there are plenty of frogs' eggs.
It's spring now.

We can find here all the nature that has disappear from the Earth.

Butterflies!! Only encyclopedia have such wonderful specimen like those!!

We will spend the night here...
... hosted by a local inhabitant.


p220
Where are you from?
From the Earth.

You have a weird face.
Huh?

Ah, Tetsurou, you can take off your sunglasses.
Ah, yes.

Where are you going?
I'm not too sure, but it's a planet where android bodies are free...

I see. Every youngster dream of that lately...

Go take a bath, it will relax you.
I heard that robots are using launderette to wash themselves...

It'a hot spring with stones!!!


p221
Tetsurou...?

Why are you keeping your sunglasses?
To restrain myself from looking too much!!

I see.

You're the most gentle and beautiful person in the world...
Do you mean it?


p222
But I know someone even better than me...
Your mother...
My mother...

I remember myself as a kid, taking a bath with her.

I was a baby, but I can still remember it perfectly...
I have a lot of memories of my mom from that time.

You're too sweet, saying that I look like your mother... Tetsurou.

Someone is playing piano.


p223
It sounds like Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata.

If only the Earth could be like that... Then, I think I wouldn't need a robotized body...

Tetsurou... you shouldn't fall asleep in water!

Get back up.
Aaah!

Yaaaaaah!!


p224
sfx: schlaaaaac
sfx: splaaaaash

Who's there?

Tetsurou, hurry up and go hide our tickets... Don't let them steal them from us!

Bloub...
Maetel has nothing to protect herself!!!

Our weapons are here!!


p225
Just you see!!

Wait, that's my son!
Huh?

He's spending his days writing melodies on sheets music and playing them on piano.

I don't know why he's working so hard...

There's nothing wrong in loving music.
I know it well. One day, I'll be a great composer. I'll earn a lot of money and I'll finally be able to leave this place without electricity or light, where there are only fields and flies...

And I'll move to a place way more civilized, where big cities are...
And I'll live happy there!!

Please give me a ticket!!!
Or at least, let me go on board of the train!

I can't stand this place anymore!!!


p226
We won't give you any.
You have to save enough money to buy one yourself.

I see... There isn't any other way...
Understood! I will do so! I'll become a famous composer and I'll earn a lot of money...

And I'll go in a big city where night never comes!
I will choose the biggest city I could ever find... A city living 24/7...

And I'll play concerts with my own compositions in a huge theater!!
And thousands of people will come to listen to my music!

Just you wait!!
One day, I will do it!!!

.....


p227
Once, there were many young people with their heads full of dreams who were admiring the lights of cities, just like him...
But they understood quite fast that the Earth was a mechanical planet.

Which one of them are the happiest?
I couldn't say.

The nature is magnificent here, but the average age is about 60 years.
And with those human bodies, they can't expect to live more than 100 years...

If they had an android body...
... they could live forever...

Who's wrong? Who's right?
We'll never know until space history won't come to an end.

Ah, 4D-3 is shining brightly...
Maybe it is the hope and the ambition of this young Beethoven that are shining like that...!!!


p228
An old poet who died on Cassiopeia had written: "In the heart of each and everyone is lying dormant a light called 'hope" which awake and shine, just like a fire at some point of life... And even if this light of hope is shining for an hopeless goal, it still remains beautiful..." He added: "There is nothing in the universe as beautiful as that light..."