Chapter 30

Chapter 30 is the thirtieth chapter of the Astra Lost in Space manga. It is the fourth chapter of the Icriss arc and, in the compiled volumes, the second chapter of the fourth volume.

Synopsis
Polina explains to the crew of the Astra how she came to be where they found her. In a flashback, the Ark VI suffers a communications system failure, and its crew decides to lands on Icriss with the intent to make repairs to the comm system on the ground. Before they can land, the trees attack the ship, heavily damaging its bridge and crew quarters. Soon after landing, the rest of the crew leaves to look for supplies on the surface, leaving Polina alone on the ship; they are attacked and killed by the planet's hostile trees and never return, prompting Polina to move the ship underneath an overhang in a cliffside and place herself in cryosleep to wait for a potential rescue party.

Charce commends her choice to place the Ark VI in a sheltered position, while Kanata asks Polina what the purpose of her crew's mission was. After a few long moments of struggling to remember, her mind still suffering from the effects of cryosleep, she recalls that they were a survey team searching for habitable planets. She asks if their mission is similar, as they have a ship almost identical to her own, leading Zack to posit that their model of the ship was purpose-built for survey missions. Luca awkwardly dumps a rushed summary of their being stranded in space, finding the ship close by, and planet-hopping toward home, but only succeeds in confusing Polina further. Quitterie berates the others for their poor explanation, drawing a laugh from Polina and a tearful expression of hope that she can finally return home.

An awkward silence falls over the crew, who exchange knowing, terse glances with each other. Kanata and Luca tell Polina that they are stranded as well, and cannot return home either; the news shocks Polina, who falls unconscious as a result of the shock the revelation causes. After Quitterie makes sure Polina is alright and returns her to her quarters, the crew turns their conversation to their situation. Luca admits that finding another ship like their own had briefly sparked his hopes of escaping the planet again, while Quitterie comments on the luck they must have had to actually stumble on Polina's ship at all. Zack counters that, given the small portion of habitable ground on the planet and the concentration of aggressive plants in the area, two ships passing through the same space and being grounded by the plant life is more likely than not. To make his point, he takes fruit and cuts it into three slices, using the middle slice to represent the narrow habitable zone.

While Ulgar comments about the two ships being coffins and the others berate him for it, Aries, staring at the cut fruit, has an idea. She borrows the idea from a cautious Zack and uses it to illustrate her idea. She asks him to confirm something about the Astra, and he confirms that the build of their ship is modular, allowing for separation from a portion of the ship in the event of an emergency. Using the three sections of fruit, she posits that the same applies to the Ark VI, and offers the fact that the two ships, while damaged, are damaged in different areas. She theorizes that, by taking the working fore section of the Ark VI, whose bridge and crew quarters are damaged, and replacing the damaged fore section of the Astra with it, they can create a fully functional ship which they can use to leave the planet.

Realizing the validity of her plan, the newly hopeful crew jumps into action to fix the Astra. After flying the Ark VI out from under the cliff, Zack lands the Astra next to it; they disconnect the nose from the Ark VI and slowly maneuver it into place in front of the Astra, docking the two and completing the repair. On the bridge of the Astra, Kanata and Zack discuss their newfound hope of returning home, and Kanata renews his promise to become a ship captain, as well as his offer to make Zack a member of his crew when he does.

In her quarters, Polina talks with Yun-Hua, who has informed her that the docking is progressing well. When she tells Polina that she cannot wait to return to her home and her normal, peaceful life, Polina, muttering the word "peaceful" to herself, asks what the year is, and Yun-Hua replies that it is September of 2063, twelve years after she went into cryosleep. The information drives Polina into a panic; desperately, she demands to know if anything has happened during that time, but Yun-Hua has no idea what she may be referring to. Internally, Polina reasons that the information regarding the true purpose of her mission was never made public, and wonders if the danger somehow passed without incident, prompting everyone to simply keep living as if nothing happened.

Polina begins to cry again, and Yun-Hua briefly panics herself before being assured by Polina that nothing is wrong. Reasoning that it is better to withhold from the crew what they do not know, she assures Yun-Hua that she is fine, and Yun-Hua leaves her room after promising to check in with her later. Pulling herself into a kneeling position on her bed, Polina folds her hands and offers a prayer to God.