Turning point (7)
In the past, what used to be flat land had now risen tall, camouflaged as Mithrim Montes.
So then, where is the real Mithrim Montes? Where is it located?
I waited for Licorice to resolve that mystery for me. However, all I could hear was her breath quivering in panic, with no answer forthcoming. It seemed even Licorice was now deep in thought.
At first glance, the disappearance of the real Mithrim Montes seemed like no big deal. It was common for terrain to change as terraforming progressed.
There was no possibility that, due to the restructuring of the data, the name Mithrim Montes had simply been attached to another place. No matter how it was done, traces always remained.
Before we came here, we had combed through the entire database, cross-validating all data, but found nothing of the kind. If there had been, Licorice would have mentioned it first.
Mithrim Montes disappearing, of all places, was something we simply couldn't ignore. No, to be more precise, it was because Licorice mentioned there was something related to the Archive that I couldn't just pass it by.
I unconsciously thought that Mithrim Montes and the Archive must be connected somehow. Either way, our next destination, and our final goal on Titan, was the Archive.
"Licorice, you said you discovered a new record. What's in it?"
- ... Give me a moment. It came up while I was sorting through data, so I need to check.
I heard a taut, elastic sound as she tapped her cheeks. It sounded like she was trying to snap herself out of it. While she finished her work, I shared with Celestia what I'd figured out so far.
"From what we can tell, this place isn't Mithrim Montes. The observation post here wasn't set up by the Earth government. It was a pureblood supremacist group masquerading as them."
- Ha, no wonder. There were so many suspicious points.
"And there was also mention of pilgrims. They were clearly anti-mining activists. The mention of Titan Station suffering from an attack by radicals suggests that these radicals could very well be the pilgrims."
I didn't bother mentioning things like Adam being a member of the pureblood supremacist group, or that Nox had been swayed by them. While those elements might be important for piecing together the sequence of events, what mattered most right now was conveying the key information.
- Pilgrims, huh... Are they the opposing force to the pureblood supremacist group? They seem to be affiliated with the Earth government. Anyway, I've just finished sorting the rest of the data. Since what you saw happened earlier, let's look at those records first.
Data Licorice shared appeared as additional holographic screens in the air. Only the parts relevant to our discussion were extracted.
「"You're saying this crap is the new material for a new era? That's total nonsense!"
"This is your chance to be a good father, nox. You've always wanted that. If you just accept, we can save your daughter. Miracles are real. Our god too."
"Damn it... Adam, you bastard. You get that? You goddamn bastard."
"There's no need to emphasize it, I already know. So, what's your answer? I'll tell you now—this is my final offer. There won't be another one."
"... What exactly do you want me to do?"
"Ha, you never disappoint. Soon, under the Earth government's leadership, terraforming will begin here, but it won't be completed. This place will never be freed from being an ice moon.
Roughly 28 years from now, something will happen on Mars, and the Earth government will use that as an excuse to tighten surveillance. Even Titan can't escape it.
Your task is simple. Just leave this in the underground vein beneath Mithrim Montes, in preparation for that time. Easy, isn't it? Don't bother asking what it is. By then, decades will have passed, and nothing will come back to harm you."
"As if you can see the future."
"I told you, miracles are real."」
「This station will accept Adam's recommendation and form a professional response team. That team will ensure that the planned operations proceed without issue.
The station will further reinforce information-filtering activities so we can hide more effectively at night, and additional support from higher-ups will be requested to aid this process.」
「We can no longer withstand the attacks from outside forces. The Earth government has decided to establish a colony on Titan. Continuing to deplete resources any further is pointless. The Titan base is being abandoned. The seed has already been planted.」
「- Ha, of course. I should never have come here. Blinded by damn credits—scrchh...!
- ... Nox, foolish night. We won't forget your sacrifice. As promised, we'll bestow grace upon your daughter. Not in the way you wanted, but as agreed. Our job here is done. We'll withdraw before the Earth government's dogs arrive.」
- That's the last record from the observation post. Originally, they'd planned to blow up not just the server room but the whole post, but the explosion never happened. Those who sensed something was amiss tried to return, but even that failed because of an Earth government fleet. It seems that was Nox's last bastion.
"That's...tragic."
Celestia, expressing her feelings about Nox, who was tossed about and ultimately lost his life, steadied herself as she listened to Licorice's next words.
- Yes, it is tragic. No less than for us.
Licorice bluntly said that there was no room to wallow in the past of others, even the dead. It was true. Who is without their own troubles? We weren't in a position to worry about others, given we stood at a crossroads—escape or perish.
'The incident that will happen on Mars must be the Immortality Experiment.'
As expected, the pureblood supremacist group was involved. No, they were the ringleaders. What we'd newly learned was that the whole incident had been intentional, not accidental. Whether it was to gain something or to divert attention, I didn't know.
Licorice shared additional records.
- Records from another time were also found. You'll see, they're not just plain records—they're more like messages to someone. To exaggerate a little, it's as if they're aimed at us.
「I did my best, but couldn't stop the flow. In the end, it came to this. I tried to reverse what those who left this place did, but the seed had already been planted and it was too late.
All we can do now is prepare and respond as best we can. I'll buy you some time. Right now, with our limited technology, we can't do more, but once conditions are met, we'll build a surveillance base here.
That will probably be after terraforming starts or is completed. During that time, the geography may change, or data could be lost. To prevent that, we'll turn the observation posts on Titan into beacon signals.
Find the other observation posts. If you activate them, the veil that obscures your view will be lifted. We're ultimately outsiders, so you'll have to handle it yourselves, with your own hands when you finally arrive here.
Well then, ...good luck.」
It was certainly strange. Normally, records are saved to convey information to someone else. But this approach of speaking directly was unusual. Usually, records contain either personal insights or verified data.
However, the voice in the record sounded like soliloquy, but it wasn't. There was a clear intended recipient.
"The pilgrims... Who are they, really?"
I couldn't even guess their true nature. When I first heard "pilgrim,"
I thought they were a group similar to the pureblood supremacists.
It wasn't just that Adam, confirmed as a pureblood supremacist, spoke as if foreseeing the future, but the record left by a so-called pilgrim had a similar tone, making it hard to deny the similarities.
But apparently that wasn't the case. The perspectives each side held of one another were different. The pureblood supremacist group viewed the pilgrims as the Earth government's dogs, while the pilgrims seemed to view themselves not just as the government's hounds, but as yet another force using the government as their shield.
It meant the direction of their factions differed. That they called themselves outsiders just added to that.
- There's no such keyword in the database I can access right now. It's not just that it was deleted; it was never there to begin with. Maybe if we could access the Archive, we might find more traces, but that's impossible right now.
"Maybe we can find it on Earth, not Titan. They seem related to the Earth government."
- Either way, it means we can't find out right now.
The surveillance base claimed to have been set up to monitor the seed that the pureblood supremacist group planted... Licorice suspected that this surveillance base might be the Archive itself.
Titan's Archive was modeled after Earth's. And not just Titan—Archives elsewhere were similar too.
An Archive serves as a black box for planets and moons. It must exist, but is invisible to us—just as this is not the real Mithrim Montes.
At the real Mithrim Montes, now erased from maps, there should be a surveillance base. Likely the Archive, and it was still shrouded in a veil.
Until now, we hadn't been able to find a way to lift that veil, dedicating ourselves to scanning various candidate locations. Now, though, things had changed.
According to the pilgrim's record, the observation posts disguised as Mithrim Montes serve as beacons. To reach the Archive, we might have to activate those beacons. No—surely we must.
There was no point in even asking whether such technology was possible. We'd already witnessed things that defied belief. My own supernatural power, the Purification Protocol's orbital gravity gun, for instance.
Technologies that weren't even commercialized, barely conceptual, were already hanging over our heads. A base operating in a permanent stealth mode wasn't the least bit strange.
Suddenly, a name floated to my lips.
"... We need to call Roxy."
- Ah, right. Let's see... Done. I just sent a transmission, so he'll come right back upon seeing it.
Roxy had gone out in a high-speed reconnaissance craft to scout the candidate locations Licorice had identified. If the clues we found here really did point toward the Archive, we needed to call him back.
'The final battle is about to begin.'
We absolutely needed Roxy for that fight. If he was there, we'd at least have a little more breathing room.
Just as I was thinking that I should combine Licorice's clues into a report for the people at Albatross and Griffin—
- The repeater installation is complete. The controller will be done soon. Communication can be initiated at any time.
Canna reported that her work was almost finished. I felt a bit sorry to say this after all her hard work, but with the situation changed, we couldn't activate the transmission right away.
Originally, we planned to punch through the satellite blockade and send the message before escaping this place. Given how much the signal would be amplified, hiding it was impossible, and the pureblood supremacists would instantly detect it, inevitably bringing a fleet down on us.
But if the Archive wasn't far, we could only send the transmission after confirming that the base had been found. If we rushed and sent the message first, we'd be overrun by the enemy fleet before even finding the Archive, meaning death.
Even if we fled, the end would be just another form of death, not an escape route. If we failed to use the Archive to lift the satellite blockade and escape, it would all be pointless.
Celestia, realizing this, swallowed her anxiety and spoke.
"Canna, thank you for your hard work. But I think we'll need to delay activating the repeater for a while."
- Huh? But... ... Hmm, understood.
Canna seemed puzzled, but didn't press further. Licorice's transmission reached her soon after.
- Finish installing the controller. We'll use that before the repeater.
- Understood. I'll have it done within five minutes.
- Let me know when it's done. Lee Hyun-woo, you should leave the observation post now. Once the beacon is activated, there's a chance it might collapse.
To be safe, Licorice said she would leave only Beta inside the observation post. Like she said, Celestia and I had nothing left to do in there. We'd checked all the records, and there was nothing more inside worth seeing.
'Did she bring me here just to see the pilgrim's record?'
I silently addressed the seedling nestled in my belt pouch. Naturally, there was no reply. How inconsiderate, I thought, sighing as I tapped Carry.
"Carry, let's go."
「ヽ(•̀ω•́ )ゝ」
Leaving Beta behind, we entered the icy corridor that led outside. Although the observation post was powered and giving off heat, there was no sign of the ice melting. If anything, the chill had grown even stronger, forming hard crystals.
Stepping outside with Carry, the stuffiness vanished as a stunning view opened before us. The light reflected off sheer ice cliffs dazzled my eyes.
We retraced our steps up the same path we'd descended and climbed to the top of the peak. There, all the work needed for boosting the communication signal had already been completed.
Huge hexagonal pillars were driven into the solid ice, supporting their own weight, and a controller was being erected to one side.
The device was quite large and heavy, so three Beta Series units were working together to install it. Whenever a strong gust of wind blew, it swayed dangerously—but thankfully, they managed to steady it each time.
I thought about helping, but Celestia must have sensed my intention, because she grabbed my hand and shook her head. When she fixed her gaze directly on me, all I could do was nod. I felt a silent pressure that I needn't overexert myself.
Soon, the Beta Series finished installing both the repeater and the controller. Canna reported this, and a moment later Licorice, who had stepped away, returned.
- Good. The work was finished quicker than expected. Now everything else can be controlled from my end, so board the shuttle first.
Following Licorice's instructions, we boarded the shuttle. We powered up the core so we could take off at any moment.
- Whew... Will this work? It has to. It'll work.
Contrary to her usual self, Licorice sounded a bit tense. The existence of the Archive was public knowledge, but no one had ever actually seen it.
Though a joint project between the Earth government and SSTC, no one knew who actually built it, nor how long construction took.
Built under the pretext of preventing a recurrence of the Martian Immortality Experiment incident and clarifying accountability, the Archive was a record-keeping facility.
With its true form about to be revealed, even Licorice seemed nervous. After a brief pause, she gave us a short warning and steadied her breath.
Then, in a low voice, she announced:
- Activating the controller.
As soon as the order was given, the controller—still as stone until now—suddenly sent out a faint vibration. It quickly transitioned into a mechanical hum, signaling it had activated correctly.
Additional locking pins fastened the controller base, and then the pillar began to expand. It felt as if energy was being siphoned right from the icy ground.
Bzzz—
Clunk!
The sensor had been moving actively, as if searching for something, but suddenly locked in position.
「Coordinate signal confirmed. Executing the command to open the specified coordinates.」
At the moment the controller had fully activated, a section of the ice-capped peak covering the observation post collapsed. Simultaneously, a beam of light shot out.
It was so bright it was visible even in daylight—cutting in a straight line, pointing somewhere.
That line reached beyond the horizon, causing a ripple. The previously fuzzy silhouette became even more indistinct, and a massive presence suddenly became apparent. The light fired from the observation post had brushed the veil.
"... The Archive."
I murmured, almost without realizing it, as I watched the wavering energy barrier. I was convinced—the Archive was in there.
We'd only come to the highest accessible peak to install a repeater, but ended up uncovering an unexpected bounty.
***
**New Names, locations, skills, and Techniques**