Vow of Silver Dawn Chapter 51

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You know, you know
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Chapter 51: A Single "Thank You" is a Treasure Unto Itself
By 国王陛下, Translated by 74translations

	Once everyone had calmed down, all that was left was a room full of people looking around, not sure of how exactly to proceed.

	Shawn too didn't know how he should comfort them, and just shrugged, before explaining his plan.

	"The freighter will follow us to the wasteland on Xun, when you arrive you'll have to disembark and start a new life there."

	"Start a new life? What do you mean?" questioned one of them, utterly flabbergasted.

	Shawn sighed, "It is no longer possible for any of you to continue living your lives as you are now. The Qiankun Corporation isn't going to let anyone who witnessed what happened here keep on living."

	"But we're victims here, we haven't done anything wrong..."

	"All the fault lies with the Qiankun Corporation, " Shawn said regretfully, "But right now, fault is irrelevant, what's important is survival."

"But, I have a family."

"Then you should turn your thoughts towards survival, so that maybe one day in the future, you'll have the chance to  say goodbye. Die here, and you won't have a future."

"Maybe one day? When exactly would that be?"

"At least until all this blows over," Shawn said, "Once the Qiankun Corporation's attention is no longer on you..."

"Once this blows over!? How long will that take? Three years? Five years? And that whole time we can't see our families, or appear in public!? And then even after it 'blows over,' I suppose we'd still be on their blacklist, to be arrested or killed if discovered, anyways!"

"Correct. But you'd still be alive," Shawn said.

"Then maybe it'd be better if we were dead!"

"Would it?" Shawn asked, "For a hastier escape, you'd give up hope, give up your family, and give up whatever time you had left?"

He didn't have a response for that at first, but a moment later came a more hysterical reply, "Do you actually want to help us? Is this what you call a rescue? Have us live out the rest of our lives like worms hiding in the dirt? Is this just so you can make yourself feel better? If  you really wanted to help, you'd have come with a better plan!"

	Shawn was silent.

It was as though their hysterics had grasped a loose end and was now pulling the entire cloth apart.

"Why didn't you come up with a better plan? This is a Qiankun Corporation Security Bureau military base, and it's even got a force of Qinglong Pirates, and yet you guys slaughtered your way right through them and kidnapped Ning Tao, clearly you guys aren't inept, so why can't you do better for us!? The only answer is that you don't really want to! You aren't saving us, you're just trying to make yourself feel better, just trying to make yourself feel like you've done some good, without caring for what's actually happening! Well, I'd rather take my chances here!"

Shawn was about to say something when the door opened from behind him.

With a nasty grin plastered on her face, Lü Nan walked in and said, "Not going? That's good, I was worried you'd all be wanting to get on, but this way we don't have to worry about escorting you. This works out much better, you can all just die here instead."

And with that, the woman unapologetically raised her blaster.

“Wait!”

At that moment, from behind the hysterical man stepped a young qipao-clad woman.

Despite the danger posed by Lü Nan, the girl, with a trembling voice to match her trembling frame, still managed to say quite firmly, "We're not leaving anyone here, we're all getting on onboard. Please, take us to the Xun wasteland. We beseech you!"

Around her, there were a few quite astonished murmurs, "but..."

Turning around, she shouted to the gathered crowd, "I don't want to die! No matter what happens, I don't want to die! Even if it means living out my life like vermin, I want to live! If any of you don't want to live, then at least wait for me to make it to Xun!"

There were a number who immediately voiced their agreement to those words.

"That's right," a young man said, "I don't care what anyone else thinks, I sure don't want to die here... even though the idea of never seeing my family again doesn't sit well with me, where there's life there's hope."

Another person spoke up, a middle-aged woman, "My family's long dead, and my life wasn't that great beforehand. If I can make a new start, then all the better... if any of you want to kill yourselves, fine by me, but don't hold me back. I don't want to live."

Soon, much of the crowd also stepped forwards.

Even if they were suspicious of the Hongxing Squad, the fact was when now pressed with the very real choice between life and dying here, the majority found it to be an easy decision.

Though there remained a few stubborn individuals, most no longer found it worth it to object.

The disheveled man and the hysterical one were being held back by the others.

Apparently worried they might ruin it for everyone else by speaking out, they were forcibly dragged along.

Most of them wanted to live.

The twenty-seven survivors clambered aboard the Qiankun Security freighter, and on command, fell in behind the Hongxing, and made for their new life on Xun.

Shawn had originally intended to board the freighter to keep an eye on things and help them escape, but that idea was immediately shot down by Lü Nan.

"The Hongxing needs you more than the freighter does. Our escape isn't going to be a leisurely cruise, and we can't afford to be a man down. Your cut of three million was enough to buy our help, it wasn't enough to buy our lives!"

To which Shawn could only silently nod.

Even if he didn't like it, Lü Nan was right. Their escape wasn't going to be easy, and they were going to have to be careful. If the *Hongxing* ran into trouble, then the freighter behind them didn't have much in the way to protect itself. It made sense to strengthen the *Hongxing* as much as possible.

Just before he followed Lü Nan off the ship however, someone grabbed his hand.

Turning around, Shawn found himself looking at the girl from before, and though she still shivered, her voice was steady.

"Thank you for helping us, I believe in you!"

——

When Shawn followed Lü Nan back to the basement, they found An Ping lying on his back doing nothing, looking quite bored, and no trace whatsoever of Uncle Xu.

"What are we waiting for?" Shawn asked, confused, "Shouldn't we get going?"

That immediately fired up An Ping, who retorted, "The hell are you rushing us for? What if I want to stay? It's your fault for getting yourself all twisted with that bleeding heart of yours, and complicating everything with this rescue!"

"What's the matter?" Shawn asked.

An Ping sighed, "Ning Tao's more strong-willed than I thought. Dead or alive, he's not willing to desert, and without him, we could only take the Hongxing; forget about a ship full of escapees. Forget about them, and I can still refund you half of your cut."

While he was speaking, one of the doors slid open and out walked a gloomy-looking Uncle Xu from an adjacent room, "Yeah, he really isn't budging. I shattered a few of his fingers to no avail."

That seemed to draw Lü Nan's ire, "What are you doing playing around with breaking fingers? What good is that?"

"...I'd prefer not to dirty my fingers with other bits, you know how I like to eat with my handsa," Uncle Xu said in his defense, "It seems he's determined to not betray his employers, so if we want his cooperation it's going to be quite hard. I do have some good news, though."

	That got An Ping's attention, "What good news?"

	"With our usual policy of refunding half the payment, without that baggage, we'll be making one-point-five million..."

	Lü Nan kicked Uncle Xu aside, and was preparing to deal with things herself.

	"Wait!" Uncle Xu called out immediately, trying to hold Lü Nan back, "I haven't tried everything, but I wanted to discuss it with you guys first."

	"What haven't you tried?" An Ping asked.

	"Generally," Uncle Xu began, "when we've got someone who just doesn't want to listen, we'd get the Boss to handle it, he's got quite the silver tongue."

	"You should also be aware of the fact that he's got quite the price as well," An Ping said, sighing, "and since we're responsible for our own finances, that'd put quite a dent in our bottom line."

	"We always return half right? One-point-five million credits. But this time, we had a newbie along for his first mission, we leave things unfinished, that'd be a pretty substantial loss of face right?"

	"Would you rather give up?" Uncle Xu retorted.

	Lü Nan silently scratched her head before saying, "Whatever! As long as my cut doesn't fall below five hundred thousand!"

	"Works for me!" Uncle Xu cried, handing his communicator to An Ping, "It's on you now, Captain."


Translation Notes
a Uncle Xu says here, "and you know I like pilaf." Pilaf is a family of rice dishes from all over the world, and I'll spare you the general details, but in Chinese, the term is *Shouzhua Fan*, or "hand grab rice," which is apparently how you're meant to eat the style of pilaf from Xinjiang Province.

肖恩 - xiāo'ēn - Shawn, Jedi Apprentice
莫斯提马 - mòsītímǎ - Mastema, Jedi Master
李钰 - lǐ yù - Li Yu, Commander of the Silver Knights
白 - bái - Bai, Li Yu’s droid
安平 - ānpíng - An Ping, Captain of the Hongxing Squad
吕楠 - lǚnán - Lü Nan, Hongxing Squad Sniper
许伯 - xǔbó - Uncle Xu, Hongxing Squad Medic
庄原瑛 - zhuāngyuányīng - Zhuang Yuanying, Hongxing Squad Engineer
宁涛 - níngtāo - Ning Tao, ex-Qiankun Corp Military big shot
龙头 - lóngtóu - Longtou, ostensibly a title more than a name; the Dragon’s Head of the Qinglong

https://74translations.wordpress.com/

Thanks for reading!