After a delay of several minutes, Fred's voice reached the Bridge precisely at the moment Wolf and the others officially set sail.
It was as if Fred were communicating with them without any barriers.
Fred's mastery of timing was evident.
"Understood, officially setting sail."
Upon hearing this, Wolf's previously tense face finally broke into a slight smile.
Meanwhile, inside the cabin, a group of researchers watched the gradually departing Transport Ship with expressions of unease.
"Do you think this attack is real or not?"
Someone sighed and asked a colleague beside them.
"Have you lost your mind from too much research? If there weren't a real problem, would they have activated the emergency evacuation protocol?"
The colleague replied disdainfully.
"But in that case, the others…"
The researcher looked toward the receding Mendel, unsure of what to say.
"I heard the action team set up alarms in advance. They'll have enough time to seal the shelters."
The colleague also sighed.
Such measures couldn't guarantee saving everyone.
But in a situation where they themselves were barely able to protect themselves, they had already done the utmost they could.
In these chaotic times, they were merely unfortunate expendables.
For these Clyne Faction researchers, having a benevolent patron was already a stroke of luck.
As for the others, they couldn't afford to worry about them.
"Instead of worrying about that, you should worry about whether we can return safely."
"Will there still be danger?"
Hearing this, the researcher grew tense as well.
"If Blue Cosmos is taking such action, they probably don't intend to let anyone leave. They won't make it easy for us to escape."
Upon hearing this, the others around nodded in agreement.
Without power, they could only be at the mercy of others. But even with power, it didn't necessarily mean they could fight back.
"Don't worry, I heard a high-ranking figure is personally directing our evacuation this time. It should be fine."
Another person straightened their back, looking confident.
"What high-ranking figure?"
"…"
In response to the question, the researcher fell silent and offered an awkward smile.
"So you don't know either."
"Obviously, otherwise they wouldn't be called a high-ranking figure."
The researcher recovered and rolled their eyes.
"But I've heard they're really impressive!"
"Let's hope so."
Hearing the researcher's confident words, the unease in everyone's hearts eased slightly.
However, they still didn't fully relax.
After all, their lives were now in the hands of that unknown 'high-ranking figure.'
And so, time passed steadily yet tensely for the next several hours.
Everything remained calm, but Fred and the others in the room showed no signs of letting their guard down.
"It seems like there's no problem~"
Lacus's voice broke the silence in the room.
After several hours, they had already covered one-third of the journey and successfully left Mendel's vicinity.
Meanwhile, Fred was multitasking—reading a book while observing the situation.
He had maintained this posture for hours.
According to Lacus's observation, this Fred could talk about everything from Aerospace Engineering to Cosmic Agriculture without repeating himself.
But then, that was just the kind of person Fred was.
At that moment, Fred looked up upon hearing Lacus's words.
"Mhm, but we can't let our guard down yet."
Fred shrugged, his thin, sword-like lips pressing together slightly.
Just as Fred finished speaking, the machine in front of him emitted an alarm.
Immediately after, a message popped up alongside the alarm sound.
"Ten minutes ago, a contaminant leak incident officially occurred on Mendel."
Looking at the message before him, Fred turned off the alarm and frowned slightly.
"What's the extent of the damage...?"
Lacus, who had just witnessed the incident actually happening, didn't have time to be surprised and quickly followed up with a question.
"Most people have already entered the shelter facilities in advance. Those we left behind are safe."
Fred took a detailed look and also breathed a sigh of relief.
However, this relief didn't last too long.
Being able to save so many people ahead of time this time was partly due to his spoilers to Clyne and partly due to Clyne's own power being mobilized.
In any case, it could be considered a success in protecting most of the innocent people.
And what came next was the real challenge.
"Since the attack has begun, they'll probably start their encirclement outside as well."
Fred said.
"We'll need to stay completely focused from now on."
"Lacus, you should head back first."
The journey back would take over a day.
For Fred, treating it as just another day of research and study in the office was nothing out of the ordinary.
But Lacus was quite busy, after all.
Of course, the more important reason was that the scenes to come might turn somewhat bloody.
Even though it was just space warfare, which might appear cleaner than close combat, people would still die in the end.
"I want to stay here."
But this time, Lacus didn't agree. Instead, she looked at him with bright eyes.
Her gaze, like a torch, reflected the faint light from the screen, shining brilliantly.
"Mhm, that's fine too."
Fred didn't refuse any further.
Perhaps he had indeed underestimated her resilience.
But compared to the plot he had seen in his previous life, the two of them here had already spent several years together.
His actual impression of Lacus had long since overwritten his impression of the Lacus from the storyline.
To him, Lacus was like a cute younger sister, someone he wanted to protect above all else.
But it was clear that she was still that Lacus—the Lacus who, in just three more years, would decide the path to peace.
She had to grow up eventually.
Fred muttered to himself and gave up any intention of stopping her.
Watching the two of them and recalling their back-and-forth conversations along the way, Alec twitched the corner of his mouth. Why did he feel like an outsider?
But he kept that thought to himself, knowing better than to voice it.
Fred had no idea what Alec was thinking beside him. He quickly put away the tablet he had been reading on and focused intently on observing various data across the monitors.
As for Lacus, she also sat back down, her expression serious as she observed the monitors they had set up along the navigation channel.
In the small room, with no sunlight from outside to mark the time, only the ticking of the timer reminded everyone that another three hours had passed.
However, this calm, just as Fred had anticipated, did not last long.
"It's appeared."
Fred's voice drew the gazes of the two people around him toward the screen in front of him.