Chapter 17

Chapter 17 is the seventeenth chapter of the Astra Lost in Space manga. It is the tenth chapter of the Shummoor arc and, in the compiled volumes, the tenth chapter of the second volume.

Synopsis
On his way to the base of a pole-tree, Kanata trips and falls. Realizing the consequences of his helmet accidentally deactivating, he locks it on and continues onward. Back on the Astra, Quitterie suddenly collapses in the middle of talking with Yun-Hua, having stepped outside briefly without a helmet while the others were gone. Yun-Hua desperately asks her what she can do to help her, and Quitterie responds that all any of them can do is wait for Kanata.

Reaching the base of a pole-tree, Kanata is horrified to find it is utterly devoid of the flower-mushrooms containing the antidote. He digs through the moss covering the base for a few moments, wondering if animals have eaten all the flowers. He comes to the conclusion that the plant is actively withholding the antidote from him, as if it knows he is not dying and has no reason to supply it to him. Seeing no other way forward, he lowers his helmet and deeply inhales the spores, collapsing a handful of seconds later.

On the ship, Quitterie ponders her previous conversation with Aries and Yun-Hua, in which she criticized Yun-Hua's lack of self-confidence and her refusal to tell them what, if anything, she was good at. Quitterie apologizes to Yun-Hua for her coldness, telling her that she has wrongly acted like a know-it-all despite knowing only basic first-aid information. She further states that there are some things that people are simply incapable of handling alone. Yun-Hua counters that they would not be in their current predicament if she had stayed on the ship, again shifting the blame onto herself. In the middle of the silence that follows, and deep in the throes of hopelessness, she remembers Kanata's words to her about acting strong when things seem hopeless. She remembers his anecdote about being lost in the woods after his teacher died, specifically his remark about the maddening boredom being the only thing he and his friends had to think about. She then considers the end of their conversation on the plain; following her insistence that she wanted to be invisible, Kanata responded that Aries knew otherwise, and that talking to Aries revealed that Yun-Hua does aspire to be something. Her eyes widen as she remembers these things, and, hesitantly and quietly, Yun-Hua begins to sing, her song a metaphor drawing a parallel between the singer's story and that of a caged bird.

The flashback to her talk with Kanata continues: he relays his shock at realizing Yun-Hua wanted to be a singer, confused as to why that, specifically, was what she wanted to be. Embarrassed, she tells him that her mother is a singer named Lucy Lum; his shock deepens, as Lucy Lum is world-famous to the point of being a household name. She elaborates, describing her mother's insistence that Yun-Hua tell no one she and her mother were related, and forbidding Yun-Hua to ever sing in front of anyone. Kanata wonders silently what the purpose is behind raising a child to be completely emotionally suppressed, as Yun-Hua's mother has; Yun-Hua reveals that she believes her mother hates her, but that she loves her mother despite her treatment of her, and that she would occasionally sneak out of the house to sing to herself, alone, in the woods near their home.

On the bridge of the Astra, Yun-Hua's song continues, her voice deepening in passion and power as she sings of leaping into the unknown to discover what lies beyond what she can see. Hearing her voice, the poisoned crew begins to relax, their minds taken off their affliction and pain by the sheer magic of her voice. Yun-Hua sings of flying free, leaving the world she knows behind, toward a distant lemon-colored "star of hope." Closing her eyes, Aries, moved deeply by her singing, weeps silently.

Struggling to move, Kanata claws his way up the side of the mound, where the flower-mushrooms, which have appeared in response to his collapse, now cover its surface. He grabs one and shoves it in his mouth, relaxing slightly as the symptoms retreat. Unfortunately, his stamina does not return, leaving him so weakened as to be unable to walk. As he lies there, horrified by the prospect of failing to return and dooming the rest of the crew to die, the gloopie he and Yun-Hua saved before returns to his side; he pulls himself onto its back, and it begins carrying him in the direction of the distant Astra.

With the rest of the crew now at ease, Yun-Hua's song draws to its end, the singer no longer afraid of what may come. Squinting her eyes against the blinding light ahead, and excited by the prospect of the journey that awaits her, the singer breaks into a run, her runway the flowers beneath her feet as she takes flight for the first time.