บท 176: Moving Lights
Looking over to the right side out of the bridge window, I could see the giant hole on the side of the Fort Unity. The air stream from the inside of the cylindrical structure was no longer there, since the all the air inside Unity city had already leaked out into outer space. But there was something else I hadn't noticed before, a cloud of lights all around the perimeter of the nearly-circular hole. The edges were illuminated with thousands of moving light sources.
"What are we looking at?" I asked.
"No idea." said the commanding pilot of Delta Rubycon. "But the blue lights weren't there a few moments ago, I can say that for sure."
"I concur." said the copilot.
"I want to get a closer look." I said. "Can we? Can we, please, with utmost respect, get a closer look?"
"Not because you wish so, but because it has my interest as well." the copilot said. "Captain, shall we?"
"We shall." said the pilot in command, and slowly started maneuvering us closer to the hole.
As we got closer to the edges of the hole, I started noticing some occasional orange, red and blue flashes. Small and large shadows were being projected onto the space-facing underside of the city, suggesting some… things were moving near the outer hull.
"Maybe a debris cloud strike?" the copilot suggested. "It sure looks nothing like a regular debris cloud, though."
"No." I said. "I don't think so."
"What else might it be?"
"Patience, my friend. Patience…"
Delta Rubycon started slowing down as it got down to a few kilometers distance from the hole. Through the hole, we could see the interior of the city, or rather its atmosphere-facing side, if it still had an atmosphere. One could also call it the inner-side, or even the upper-side of the city, since the center of the cylinder acted as the upward direction in relation to the artificial gravity by rotation.
"What in the-"
A tiny robotic spacecraft came into view just from the side of the bridge window, scaring me and the copilot. It did not react to our presence, and continued on its course to the edge of the hole. On closer inspection, the nature of the glow near the hole was revealed: Thousands of such robots were moving around the edges of the hole.
"Halt." I said. "Hold us here."
The pilot in command brought us to a stop relative to the hole.
"What are those? What are they doing?" asked the copilot.
"Could this be…" the pilot in command started talking, apparently deep in his thoughts. "Could this be what happened to Fort Unity? Those robots… Someone with malicious intent or… Someone incapable of correctly controlling these robots could have had these things open up a hole on the side of the city! This could explain the ever-growing nature of the hole!"
"I'm pretty sure the architect mentioned an explosion, though." I said. "Not a disassembly like this. I think the robots are related in some other way, or not related to the incident at all."
"Why don't you ask him?" the copilot asked me. "That architect. You talked to him, did you not? Didn't he tell you about any robots?"
"He didn't." I said. "We were oblivious of their presence until just now, too. But regardless, I will ask him, and see if he has any knowledge to share."
I walked to exit the bridge, stopping just before going through the door.
"Guys, I'm sure you have an acceptable reason to stay here longer than your company wishes you to."
I said that trying to imply that Delta Rubycon should stay in position until at least my investigation about the robots was over.
"Well, Delta Rubycon isn't exactly a fast ship, so nobody in the company HQ would even notice the delay if we parked here for a while." said the pilot in command. The copilot nodded in agreement.
"But the moment we are done with this…" the copilot added, "…I will remain here not even for an extra second."
"I'm sure we will have more opportunities to fight over that later on." I said. "Thanks anyway, for the time being."
I went downstairs to lower decks, searching for the architect. Asking other passengers about him seemed to be the best option.
"Hey there, excuse me, do you happen to have seen Terry Myo? He is a man about this tall, white hair, short beard… No? Oh."
"Hi there, do you know Terry Myo? The architect? Did you see him recently? O-okay, welp."
"Excuse me, have you seen a man with white hair, short beard- You think he went this way?"
"Hey, hello, have you- Oh, sorry, didn't mean to interrupt."
"Hi th- Hey- Hello, miss. Have you- Hello?"
"Mr. Myo! Finally! Mr. Myo! Terry Myo! Miste- Oh, sorry, I thought you were something else. Sorry."
Eventually, I found the architect in the room where Mei, Tachibana and the other command crew members who were in the stolen Lodos IV were being held. In addition, in the room were four other passengers who were currently tasked with preventing the captives from trying something stupid. This was a voluntary duty that was established by the Fort Unity rescuees themselves.
The architect was apparently talking to Tachibana. When I entered, Tachibana went silent and they both looked at me.
"I hope I'm not interrupting anything important." I said.
"Not at all, if anything, I'm happy you are here." said Terry. "This son of Satan was trying to talk me into testifying in favor of him in court. To which, of course, I said no."
I looked at Tachibana, who immediately looked away, staying silent.
"I had originally come here to ask him whether there were any other experiments of his that could cause a secondary catastrophe in case we tried to repair Fort Unity in the future, or do something about it at all." Terry Myo said. "To that, his answer was that there wasn't anything else that could cause a second catastrophe, but seeing the scale of the destruction here today, I would take that with a grain of salt."
"Do you really have zero trust in me, after all those years?" asked Tachibana, to the architect. Or was it to me? I could not really decide.
"Even if we were the closest friends in the universe, after what you did here today, I don't believe you could rebuild any trust ever again." said the architect. "Might as well not even try."
"Mr. Myo." I said, preparing to talk.
"Oh yes, I thought you were here for a reason." he said. "Do you wish to speak to me, or do you need me to leave you alone with the devil?"
"I wanted to speak to you." I said. "About the robots."
"About the… robots?"
The architect was surely confused. This, I thought, was a clue supporting that the robots also had something to do with Tachibana's experiments.
"Tachibana." I said. "You know about the robots."
"So they did work after all!" he said with excitement. "All this work… Maybe it wasn't for nothing after all!"
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