Chapter 34

Chapter 34 is the thirty-fourth chapter of the Astra Lost in Space manga. It is the eighth chapter of the Icriss Arc and, in the compiled volumes, the sixth chapter of the fourth volume.

Synopsis
Several of the "parents" of the children, their originals, meet privately in the VIP room of a cafe. Luca's original, Felice Genma, apologizes for arriving late, remarking sadly that Wei is absent, while Gert opines that her absence lowers their chance of being noticed. When Felice asks if "the Vixian gentleman" will be joining them, Gert scoffs at the very suggestion.

When Felice refers to their meeting as intended for conducting "nefarious plotting," Olive bluntly confirms the conspiratorial nature of their situation, and that Jed's idea of cloning themselves nearly led to their arrests. Jed retorts that Olive made Funicia as a spare without consulting them in any way, and Gert adds a complaint of his own, still upset that he had to concoct an excuse to place a ten-year-old in a high school group camping trip. Angered, she retorts that she is the head of the hospital which conducted the cloning and that her position grants her the special privilege of having a backup.

Rei remarks on the roundabout nature of their plan, making their clones disappear in an accident in space. Jed brings up the Genome Control Act, which prevented the creation of clones and necessitated that every strand of DNA from the clones be destroyed to ensure that their illegal activities were never discovered, a feat which the acquisition of the orb allowed them to do. While none of them knows how it came into being, sending a drone through it sent it 5,000 light-years away into deep space, providing them with a means to erase the evidence against them.

Gert summarizes that, while they have failed to regain their youth, the public has lost interest in their case and the chances of arrest are minuscule, and he declares that they should end their association. Rei asks Jed to confirm that the memory transfer was really impossible to do, and he replies that it works best between the ages of 22 and 35, beyond which the memory transfer had a high potential for failure; scrapping the clones was the most cautious approach.

With the group regretting their lost opportunity, Felice remarks wistfully on losing Luca. Olive takes exception to this, pointing out the hassle involved in creating an intersex clone, and he replies that he intended to make himself into what he perceived to be a higher class of being, one he believes would have transcended the concept of gender. He then mentions that he had Luca adopted to prevent himself from becoming emotionally attached to Luca, and asks the others how they treated their "children." Olive mentions she had Funicia adopted intentionally and left Quitterie to be raised by her servants, and Jed kept Zack under close observation but soon realized Zack, like himself, preferred to be alone. While Rei had to train Kanata firsthand to hone his athletic abilities, he tells the group explicitly that he never once saw him as a son.

Back on the Astra, Zack brings up the Genome Control Act, and Charce mentions that the government discovering they were clones would have led to the arrest of their originals. As the downcast students bitterly realize that their "parents" have discarded them, Aries interrupts, adamantly declaring that her mother would never do such a thing to her. Zack, while not fully aware of Aries' situation, mentions it might be possible that Aries was intentionally kept ignorant of her situation and that her mother may be adoptive rather than biological. Kanata, disturbed by all the facts before them, tells the others that not one of their parents truly feels love for them.

Shattered, Quitterie slams a nearby table with her fists and bursts into tears, sobbing that they were meant to be empty vessels and voicing that all she ever wanted was for her mother to love her back, a desire that she now realizes will never be fulfilled. Saying the words out loud cuts the crew deeply, causing the rest of the group to either break down in tears or stare angrily at the floor. Abruptly, Kanata interrupts, yelling angrily that their relationships with their "parents" no longer matter; he asserts that the nine of them have sailed the cosmos together and escaped death together, and they themselves have become a family of their own. He proposes that they continue to work together to return home, expose their originals' crimes to the world, and be officially recognized themselves as independent humans, setting in motion their own plan to take vengeance on their originals.