Turning point (19)
'... For the next world?'
I frowned as I read the translated phrase. Didn't it feel strangely meaningful?
But upon consideration, it wasn't all that odd. After all, the purpose of the Archive was to prepare for catastrophic disasters severe enough to render planetary or lunar colonies inoperable.
It also served as a monitoring system, to make sure something like the Immortality Experiment incident—which once turned Mars into a dead planet—would never happen again.
There was probably an Archive on Europa, even though it was already destroyed. Since the Pilgrims were the designers of the Archive, it was likely to have withstood even attacks by the satellite gravity cannon.
Although it couldn't be recovered now, I figured one day the Earth government would extend its influence to the Saturn sector and retrieve it.
Licorice muttered with her arms crossed.
"Stasis Vault, huh... Another place where who knows what technology has been applied. I have my guesses, but I can't be hasty in confirming anything."
"Right."
"Just from the explanation, doesn't it sound like some kind of ark? The Archive's structure is like that, and that lone phrase set apart as well."
Licorice said that whether they were Pilgrims or whoever, every one of them seemed suspicious, and then manipulated her hacking-assist gloves and brought them close to the crystal. She tried using the crystal control method she'd learned on the way here to manipulate the crystal on the door.
Nadia and I waited for the door to open—and were caught off guard. It was because the usual reaction from the crystal did not occur.
The control crystal turned red as if saying that this method would not open the door. Thinking she might have made a mistake, Licorice tried again, but the result was the same.
"Maybe it's because it's a different sector—the password feels like it's changed."
"What should we do?"
"Why ask me? It's for times like this that Woof-woof made her gear."
Licorice motioned to Nadia. Specifically, the guys mounted on the support arms. It was thanks to Multipurpose Unit 1 and 2 that we'd gotten through the data sector quietly and undetected, so Licorice meant to use them again this time.
Maybe understanding this, Nadia stepped forward.
"Hoo... Looks like it's my turn again. Multipurpose Unit 1, Multipurpose Unit 2. Get ready. We're going with Plan B."
Plan B. I'd never heard of such an operation. There was a faint acrid smell, as if from burning material. Licorice asked, just in case.
"... What's Plan B?"
"Bomb."
"What? Wait, you're blowing it up again? Didn't you set off enough explosions earlier?"
Licorice quickly uncrossed her arms and blocked Nadia. Nadia just looked confused.
"Why are you stopping me? Isn't this exactly why you asked me to do it?"
"No! Analyse it! You did a good job earlier!"
"I'll start by getting the materials out."
"... Are you ignoring what I'm saying?"
Licorice was dumbfounded, but Nadia didn't care. She just nonchalantly took out the materials and began assembling the explosives.
"Honestly, analyzing things like this isn't exactly our area of expertise anyway."
"But it is! It is our area! Woof-woof, if you're not going to do it, I'll do it myself! According to my scan, the door is way thicker than before, so explosives won't open it."
"If it doesn't open, maybe it just needs more firepower."
At Nadia's words, Licorice eventually grasped her head in defeat. Even when she complained, Nadia paid no attention.
"I picked the wrong team..."
"That's not true. You're part of the best team. You're teamed up with demolition specialist me and Hyun-woo."
"I wanted an operating specialist...! Not at a time like this! Just this once—at least just this once...! We're in a sector we've never seen before! The method should change too!"
"I finally realized it. The timid me is gone now. I kept showing you, didn't I? I'm totally different these days."
"Ahh, this is driving me crazy..."
Not an operation specialist, but a demolition specialist. Hearing that, I was reminded of an old incident and ended up muttering without meaning to.
"So that's why you trashed the circuits in the Heaven security sector before."
"... You still remember that? Forget about the old days, Hyun-woo. I'm telling you nicely."
"... Okay."
Nadia gave me a chilling glare, and behind her, Multipurpose Unit 1 and 2 snapped their pincers threateningly, their mood matching hers. I shrank back in response. Sometimes, I did miss the old Nadia and her shy charm.
"I think this is better. It's better to maximize your strengths than to clumsily cover up weaknesses."
"But your strength was operation!"
"That's why I use the power loader, too."
Before I knew it, Nadia had finished setting the explosives and stepped back, taking plenty of distance. Behind her, the number of explosives had grown. And then, they exploded all at once.
KWAANG—!
The heavily reinforced door, hit by a massive shockwave, began creaking and falling backward. Expecting shrapnel to fly, I pulled Licorice further back as she began to chatter anxiously, but it wasn't necessary.
"See, Hyun-woo! My skills are still sharp, aren't they? Since there are samples inside, I made sure not to send too much shrapnel inward! I feel so refreshed—it's like discovering something new in life. I've wasted all my life up till now, except for the time spent with you."
"... Yeah, impressive."
When I gave a thumbs-up, Nadia smiled slyly. I knew I shouldn't say it, but looking at her half-immersed in the smoke, arms outstretched in excitement along with 1 and 2 running wild, she really looked like a villain.
Even if a monster showed up, it felt like it would disappear back into hiding. There was this strange air of crossing the point of no return.
"Let's go in!"
Nadia charged inside, as if unafraid of anything.
"... I guess calling her Woof-woof actually made her into a real woof-woof."
"Don't say that in front of Nadia. She already insists she's a fox—and if you keep calling her Woof-woof, she'll start—well, collecting bomb ingredients, not a knife. Just accept it if you wake up and find something stuck to your ceiling."
"... Are you saying that to me?"
"Who else? You're the only one that calls her that, Licorice."
Licorice shut her mouth tight. She always warned herself, but never seemed to intend to fix it. This time was no different.
I followed Licorice through the newly opened door.
"But nothing's come out, even after all this. We've come deeper than when we broke through the data repository, and the explosions were much stronger."
"I know. That woman might've done something, but... Still, don't let your guard down. If the internal defense system suddenly activates, we'll have a headache."
"I haven't relaxed since before we came in. Don't worry."
Perhaps because Albatross and Griffin's diversion worked, there had been no reports of the pureblood supremacists intercepting us, despite the time that had passed. The channel was always open, so it wasn't a communications issue.
I glanced over at Licorice walking beside me. She frowned for a moment when she noticed.
"What?"
"Just looking."
"Yeah, right. I can tell you're worrying about something again."
Licorice scoffed as if I should talk sense.
"I'm not."
"I've told you—don't lie in front of me. I can always tell."
"Geez, you have such good intuition..."
I grumbled quietly. It was always like this. For appearances' sake, I tried to hide things, but not once had I fooled her. To be exact, Licorice always saw right through me. Her intuition was almost scary.
That intuition was why she never got into trouble during her time as a broker. At least, that's how I saw it.
Seeking to break the mood, Licorice suddenly thrust out her arm, opening and closing her mouth like she wanted to shout something, which was unlike her. Maybe realizing it herself, her exposed skin grew rather red. I didn't point it out. I only had one life, after all.
Eventually, Licorice mustered up her courage.
"F-follow this captain alone!"
"I will, but... To use your analogy, the ship has a hole that no one's noticed below the waterline right now, right? That worries me."
"Abandon ship...!"
"But you just told us to follow you."
"I said abandon the ship, not the captain."
Licorice said it was fine even if the ship sank—they could just get a new one. As I stared in bewilderment, she flicked my nose.
"Lee Hyun-woo, don't overthink it. That's enough trouble for me to handle alone."
Licorice started walking again after a brief pause. It left me speechless, coming from the person who must have the most on her mind. I sighed softly and followed behind her.
"Ha, look at this."
Licorice snorted as she looked inside. She now understood what the 'stasis' in Stasis Vault referred to.
Inside, a blue energy field ran along the walls, and within it were specimen samples and seeds.
"It's cold in here."
The Archive's average internal temperature was around 5°C, but since entering here, it had dropped well below freezing. A white chill spread shallowly along the floor.
The suit's heating unit triggered to counter the rapidly plunging temperature. Warmth quickly spread through the suit, erasing any sense of chill.
"Supercooled freezing system... is that what this is?"
"No, it's different. It's like time itself is slowed to a crawl... This looks just like stasis technology."
"Stasis?"
"Suspension, stagnation, stasis fields, inhibition—there are lots of meanings, but the common point is it's stopped. This must be a fusion with cryogenic tech."
Licorice explained that this kind of tech had never been commercialized. While it had been developed, it had never reached such an advanced level.
"There's all sorts in here. I don't see anything dangerous at Level 1, though."
"What could be dangerous? Titan doesn't have any native lifeforms."
"Well, even so, they might have viruses or something. Infectious samples. There could be records of forbidden research, not just confidential stuff. Heck, there might even be real OOPArts in here. This place is really different from anything I know."
Licorice just observed the stored items inside the stasis fields and didn't touch anything. Since it was an energy field, touching it rashly might result in severe injury due to the repelling force.
"A place like this, for storing physical documents instead of just data..."
"Conspiracy theorists would love this place."
"They'd go past loving it and just lose their minds. They'd talk about it until they died—never get bored."
"Hyun-woo! Over here!"
Nadia was hopping up and down a short distance away, signaling that she'd found something.
"What's with her?"
"Let's check it out."
We approached where Nadia was. There, wedged between cracks in the wall, was what appeared to be a security robot, currently powered down.
Rather than having been broken over time, it looked like its defenses had activated after detecting a problem, then stopped midway. The robot was in perfect condition, and the stasis vault was still fully operational.
"Can you hack this? It'd be nice if you could. Robots like this usually have tight integration with the facility systems, right?"
Nadia addressed Licorice. What she said wasn't wrong. All the crystals we'd seen so far were independent for each sector—their control authority tied to only that area.
Security robots weren't just for surveillance; they maintained the facilities, too. Since this Archive was fully automated, they'd have many duties.
Of course, it wasn't certain. It was just a guess pieced together from what we knew and general logic. One thing was for sure: failure would carry a huge price.
Even though it looked inert, as soon as the system detected an intrusion, it could become hostile. Most people would hesitate in concern.
But this was Licorice. She'd never back down from a challenge.
She put on her hacking-assist goggles and adjusted her gloves. Click. Thin cables popped out from the wrists as the attachments locked into place.
"Alright, I'll handle this. Woof-woof, don't go blowing things up this time, okay?"
"I know when and where to use my skills!"
"Yeah, sure. Consider yourself lucky nothing's blown up till now."
"Grr..."
"See? This is why I keep calling you Woof-woof."
While Nadia and Licorice bickered, I said I'd inform Celestia's team of the stasis vault and temporarily stepped away.
I tapped my bracelet to connect with Celestia. Since the channel was always open, the connection went through immediately.
"Celly, are you making good progress?"
—Ah, Hyun-woo. I was just about to call you. We just found a new sector.
What timing. That was exactly why I'd contacted Celestia.
"Same here. Stasis vault. Security level 1. After checking it out, looks like they've applied stasis technology. All the records inside are physical. There are mysterious lumps of metal and some seeds, too."
—Level 1 stasis vault... Then it looks like your side is more dangerous. Ours is Level 3.
Celestia explained that there was a sign saying restricted and quarantine sector. They'd gone the opposite way and found a Level 3 stasis vault. I guessed there must be a Level 2 between me and Celestia's location.
"Don't go inside for now. There's nothing much on my side, but with Level 3, the risk of something dangerous is much higher. Who knows what could be in there?"
—Hmm... I'm still considering it. It might be worth the risk for the information. Also, unlike elsewhere, this place has a biometric authentication entryway—so there must be something for sure.
"Celly, listen to me. Even if you need confirmation, let me come and check. Licorice is hacking a security robot now, so I'll get you some basic information soon. I'll share it right away, so you focus on finding the data terminal or the core room just like you planned. That's more urgent."
—Got it.
Celestia let out a small laugh. It wasn't that I didn't trust her. I just thought there was no need for us both to do the same work.
Since Licorice would extract information from the security robot here, we'd soon know what was inside the stasis vault anyway.
Major tasks could be handled by Celestia's larger team, minor ones by my smaller group. That was just right.
I truly believed in our side's capabilities. It wasn't a lie that we'd come all this way together.
"Hey! I told you to back off!"
"I said I'd just watch quietly! That's not asking much! I'm operating, not demolishing!"
"Just keep an eye on your little woof-woofs! They keep getting in my way!"
"Don't talk about my babies like that!"
I genuinely had faith in them. Even when they argued—no, bonded like this, they got things done.
Licorice kept hacking into the security robot while Nadia interfered with the circuitry beside her to prevent any unexpected activation.
Multipurpose Units 1 and 2, not allowed to go far, tapped at the stasis field nearby. It didn't seem meaningless—they were testing how strong the repulsion was.
Each person stuck to their role. That was being carried out perfectly. It was reassuring—really, it was. And yet, I squeezed my eyes shut.
'Carry...'
I miss you, Carry! Where are you now?!
'... Oh, right. I left you behind.'
I sighed and waited for the hacking to finish.