Can Ci Pin/Imperfections(残次品)BL by Priest

V1 The Star of Wilderness Chapter 2

Volume Ⅰ: The Star of Wilderness

2

Five years later.

NSC 275, the Eighth Galaxy, Beijing-β.

Beijing-β was an exceedingly common name for a planet; there were dozens of "Beijing" planets, "London" planets, or "Zimbabwe" planets in each galaxy. They were quite similar to the Beijing or Nanjing streets in a country called China in the Ancient Earth Era.

Beijing-β really had an eastern atmosphere: Many citizens with Chinese heritage from the Earth Era lived there, probably attracted by the name— nevertheless, you couldn't live a comfortable life in the Eighth Galaxy even if you had the blood of ancient dragons. It was said that ten percent of the news in other galaxies was about their miserable lives.

The Eighth Galaxy had earned itself a nickname: the Wilderness.

The Interstellar Union consisted of eight galaxies. The capital planet Wotto in the First Galaxy was at the top of the pyramid. The further from Wotto, the more undeveloped the planet was— the Eighth Galaxy was already the sewers below the pyramid. The Eighth Galaxy had become the Wilderness for both natural and historical reasons. Lack of resources and inconvenient transportation were the primary causes. However, when it came to history, there was a long and complicated story.

In the old era, more than two hundred years ago, the IU and interstellar pirates were constantly fighting. The majority of the pirates were also descendants of Ancient Earth humans, not alien monsters. The villainous title "interstellar pirates" only caught on in the common vernacular because of the IU.  Once the IU had gained control of the majority of the political powers, it labeled all other groups "interstellar pirates" for convenience.

The Eighth Galaxy was eternally isolated. It was a lonely islet set apart from the other seven galaxies. Anti-government groups had settled in the Eighth Galaxy to fight against the powerful IU long ago. During the beginning of the New Sidereal Era, the Eighth Galaxy remained under the control of interstellar pirates until NSC 136, when it was reclaimed by Commodore Xin Lu— a renowned commander of the IU— and finally recovered communication with the other galaxies.

While the IU developed at full speed under the light of science and civilization during those one hundred years, the people of the Eighth Galaxy were displaced as a result of the endless civil conflicts with the pirates. As time passed, the gap between the IU and the Eighth Galaxy grew and grew. Comparing the IU to the Eighth Galaxy was like comparing monkeys to men.

The IU evaluated the Eighth Galaxy when it was taken over by Xin Lu, only to decide it was not valuable at all. So the IU set up a local government there, a polite way of saying, "Go fuck yourselves."

When there are important events in the IU for which each chief officer from the major galaxies was required to attend, chief officers of the IU each had their own nameplate, except those of the Eighth Galaxy. The Eighth Galaxy went through chief officers so fast that it was difficult for anyone to remember their names, and for this reason, its chief officer's nameplate would just read "The Eighth Galaxy."

People would use any means possible to leave the Eighth Galaxy. Those who could not were left impoverished, suffering in the Wilderness.

Beijing-β was quite nice for its galaxy, being the most highly populated planet. It was messy and poverty-stricken for sure, but there were still a few lingering shipping and industrial routes in operation.

In the evening, an old shuttle ran slowly along a road carrying sleepy passengers. The name "Galaxy Transports" on its surface had worn away with time and now read "Gay sports," the artificial intelligence that had once been tasked with driving it was more like an artificial idiot, and the shuttle had sustained 95% damage. Only the "super-safe mode" was still working, so the shuttle crept slowly along in the night, chiming its bell every five minutes.

None of the shuttle's windows were intact, all had been broken by citizens who had been woken up by the bloody ringing. It was full of dust blown in by the wind, but nobody would maintain it because the Galaxy Transportations Company had been bankrupt for two hundred years. The only thing left was an urban public transport system, automatic and moribund.

It was deep winter here, and winter in Beijing-β was long because of the planet's rotation. It lasted for three sidereal years, but the temperature regulation system had stopped running a long time ago due to a lack of funding. The icy cold wind blew through the unprepared city, attacking its people. All of the poor passengers held their clothes tight against their bodies, like quails hiding their heads under their wings.

It was the poorest of the poor who used this free transportation. Most were beggars who were so filthy they couldn't be identified by age or sex. The one benefit of the open-air bus was that the passengers' stench wouldn't cause them to kill themselves.