October 5th, Tuesday night.
While looking over reports and requests for approval concerning the Stellar Reactor Plant project at his home in Chofu, Tatsuya received an encrypted message from Minoru, relayed from Miyakishima.
It read, "I'd like to talk in person," and nothing more. The lack of details was enough of a statement that the topic was of great importance, as well as a sense of urgency.
With this interpretation, Tatsuya immediately sent a response, "I'll be waiting at the platform of the Virtual Satellite Elevator tomorrow at 8 in the evening," through the same encrypted channel via Miyakishima.
◇ ◇ ◇
Putting into practice the technology of the Stellar Reactor and working on its commercialization has kept Tatsuya off from the Magic University for the most part since his enrollment. The addition of the Magian Company's operations to his schedule this year has made the sight of his figure on campus even rarer.
This week, however, for the surprise of many, the famous AWOL student was on campus for three consecutive days,on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Although, his visit didn't extend to the lectures, or even his circle room, which is the established Yotsuba family's hub on campus. For the duration of his time on campus, he spent most of it holed up in the Higashiyama Laboratory of his seminar group.
But not even his fellow seminar members were lucky to interact with him. He stayed in an isolated seminar room, where his main concern was the development of a new magic in Professor Higashiyama's laboratory.
Tatsuya has his own laboratory for the development of new magics in Chofu, and then one in Miyakishima. For him to come to the university to work on this project, it was either because he felt that he could not handle it on his own or that he would not have finished in time for an emergency. And, at the moment, he had to fully develop a magic to countermeasure the magic left behind by a prehistoric magical civilization, [Gjallarhorn].
This hollering horn that begets large-scale riots and destruction is a threat to the order of modern society. If left rampant, its reverberating effects may destroy the social order and regress society into a state of chaos and disorder.
And that fear was by no means unwarranted. The recent incident in the West Coast region of the USNA is testament to its capabilities.
There were examples of what happens to areas where the social order has been destroyed in various parts of the world during the period of Multipolar Global Wars. Societies were dominated by violence, dictatorships arising through the rule of violence. Societies in which no victor emerges to dictate, let alone rule. Even now, after the wars died down on the international scale, some areas of the world still remain in active conflict.
[Gjallarhorn] should not exist in today's society. The most intuitive, and quickest, remedy would be to prevent the ones that are able to cast it from ever being able to use it. In other words, neutralize and exterminate Rocky Dean.
However, Tatsuya knew that this alone would not solve all problems. If the effects of [Gjallarhorn] escalate to the level of causing a riot, killing Dean would accomplish very little in the way of restoring peace and tranquility.
As it operates, this magic doesn't actively manipulate people, so much as stimulates and disinhibit destructive impulses.
Even once the effects of [Gjallarhorn] wear off, the mob pushed into a destructive drive will continue to roll downhill from there. Besides, due to how the prehistoric magic is transmitted, by implanting an independent information body in the same class as an artificial spirit, denomination "daemon," even if Dean were to be dispatched, the daemon containing the magic [Gjallarhorn] would remain in this world, still able to grant it to the next magician.
Therefore, in order to address the threat of [Gjallarhorn], it is necessary to develop a means to quell the destructive impulses unleashed by this magic.
There are two possible countermeasures.
Using psychoactive drugs that affect the brain or nervous system to calm the mob;
Or a mental interference-type magic that has a reverse effect of Gjallarhorn;
Tatsuya is tackling the latter.
Incidentally, both options follow a similar experimental principle. Just like drugs that would have been used, magic research development, like any other science and technology, requires testing to verify the efficacy of the magic for its intended purpose. In that aspect, Tatsuya is limited in his compatibility with mental-interference magic to be able to bring the developed sequence into practice. At best, with the formulation, it's possible to test its activation, if only in form.
However, this is a group mental interference-type magic, meant to counteract [Gjallarhorn]. Given the fairly unprecedented challenge that comes with this form, cooperation with a magician with a high aptitude in the mental interference field is necessary to obtain an observable effect.
That's where Tsukuba Yuuka's high aptitude for mental interference magic comes into play. She had also been a member of the Higashiyama Laboratory up until last year. With Yuuka and Professor Higashiyama as the objective evaluator, being the head of the laboratory, the three of them have been working together in the development of this new magic.
These two are collaborators in the development of new magic. These circumstances were the primary reason for Tatsuya to opt for Higashiyama's lab instead of his own.
Though said conditions could have easily been provided by Yotsuba's main house. Tatsuya deliberately chose the common link of the Magic University, in worry of the risk of exposing the relation between Higashiyama and Yotsuba, so well kept until now.
With the help of Yuuka and Higashiyama, Tatsuya spent the morning in the latter's lab working on the development of crowd mental suppression magic.
At 5:00 p.m. Tatsuya left Professor Higashiyama's lab and called out to Miyuki and Lina, who were waiting for him in the seminar room, "Sorry to make you wait."
Before he even said a word, Miyuki was already standing up, turning her attention, eyes and whole body to face Tatsuya.
"Thank you for your hard work," she spoke softly, with a light bow.
"Then, let's go home," said Lina, who stood up with Miyuki, slugging a large shoulder bag over her shoulder.
"Really?" the other remaining seminar students cried in disparate voices. They were a group of six, evenly split between male and female students.
"I thought you said you were coming to the mixer today, Lina." Seems like Lina had made some plans for a get-together.
"Oh, my bad! Forgot to tell earlier, something came up last night. I won't be able to go."
The vocal disappointment was in unison this time.
"'Why don't you go, Lina?" Tatsuya cut in from the side.
Lina looked back at him, "Eh?". The group of seminar students shared glances of revitalized hope.
"It'll be just me and Miyuki tonight."
"Don't worry about us, we can make the trip to Miyakishima by ourselves tonight."
Whatever misunderstanding arose from Tatsuya's line among the seminar students was dashed with Miyuki's prompt and clear follow-up.
"But…" Lina looked back weighted by hesitation and doubt.
Tatsuya and Miyuki both gave her a small nod.
"No problem. I hope you have fun for me there."
Miyuki just said it out of courtesy. The party in question was supposed to be more than a get-together for the seminar members, they will be meeting and mingling with other groups halfway through. And Miyuki, having a fiancée of her own, was never planning to join in the party.
"I'm sorry, but we'll be making our leave now. If you excuse us," Miyuki addressed her fellow seminar colleagues and left the room together with Tatsuya.
◇ ◇ ◇
8:00 p.m. Miyakishima. Virtual Satellite Elevator platform.
Minoru landed in front of Tatsuya and Miyuki at exactly the appointed time.
Next to this seemingly unremarkable clearing, which hides a gigantic engraved magic circle of pseudo-instantaneous movement 30 centimeters underground, sits a small control facility to oversee the delivery of supplies to Takachiho. This single-story, inconspicuous building provides a high level of strength and secrecy. With the communications systems turned off, there is no danger of even a magician from the Yotsuba eavesdropping on what happens inside.
That's where Tatsuya decided to have this conversation with Minoru.
The discussion Minoru brought with him was something that even Tatsuya couldn't help but be troubled by.
"…For starters, I don't think there will necessarily be a problem for Parasites to return to Earth once they become human again." He gave his response, after a few moments of pondering. "Which is why I intended to bring you and Minami back to Earth if you made the decision to transform back."
"That was my idea too," Miyuki happily interjected from beside Tatsuya.
"…So the problem is the other Parasites, after all?"
Tatsuya shook his head, "The problem is the craft that Raymond Clarke is on."
"What's wrong with his craft…?" By his expression, this point of concern caught Minoru by surprise. "You didn't know?" Tatsuya also felt a sense of surprise, "NORAD must be keeping track of Verona, the spacecraft with Raymond Clark and the rest of the Parasites."
NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, is one of the organizations that kept its original title after the USA became USNA. It was already originally a joint USA/Canada agency, and it didn't need to change its name when Mexico was added to the mix.
"Verona", the designation of the spacecraft Raymond Clark and the remaining parasites were shipped off Earth in, derives its name from the goddess, young sister of the Roman god of war, Mars, rather than after the asteroid with the same name.
"─Oh, right. Raymond and the others were on a round trip between Mars and Venus orbits, even though their ship may have been heading out of the solar system… In that case, it would be weird if the USNA didn't keep an eye on them. I should've thought of that…" Minoru mumbled the last bit. In form, he was still speaking to Tatsuya, but that part was in essence a self-rebuke.
"USNA can't do anything in the event they find Verona on a course back to Earth. So that's not the biggest issue with this idea."
"The issue is the risk this brings of Takachiho being discovered if it tries to rendezvous with Verona?" Minoru filled the gaps. The way he looked Tatsuya firmly in the eyes was a confirmation he finally grasped the situation.
"Yes. Takachiho's existence must be kept a secret, no question."
"I know." Tatsuya wasn't just concerned with his and Minami's safety. And Minoru didn't find it cold-hearted on his part. Takachiho is an extraordinary existence given the current level of space exploration technology. So much so to border an OOPArt (Out-of-place artifact) designation.
For starters, it's size: it's a 180-meter-long, max 20-meter-wide behemoth of a station.
Modern rocketry technology simply does not enable the launch of such a massive structure into Medium Earth Orbit at an altitude of 6,000 kilometers. There have been space stations of similar size in the past that have been launched in modules and connected in orbit. But even those only orbited at 400 kilometers altitude.
Which leads to the next point: Takachiho is a single complete structure. Even if it were to be assembled in space, the degree of challenge would be far greater than a modular design.
Aside from its impressive size and the altitude of its orbit, Takachiho boasts of an interior that is kept at the same 1G level as on Earth due to artificial gravity without the use of centrifugal force. It's thanks to the abundant surplus of energy provided by the stellar reactor, ensuring Takachiho will remain operational even if the solar panels are damaged by debris, micrometeorites, and so forth.
Another point, and less relevant to the performance of the Takachiho itself, is the beyond groundbreaking delivery method of supplies that does not rely on rockets. Once what might have been described as "magic", breaks free from the metaphor and becomes in an honest to goodness way.
As soon as USNA learns of Takachiho's existence, there will come another wave of pressure on Tatsuya, as well on the Japanese government, so they also pressure Tatsuya to cooperate with USNA's space program. "We'll have to come up with a way to get Verona off the USNA's surveillance."
"…That sounds like a complicated task."
At a long distance from Earth, it would've allowed for some plausible deniability when interfering with the tracking signal that is sent from the spaceship. As they come closer to the planet, it'd become increasingly harder to prevent detection from USNA.
"It's a challenge, for sure. But there's still time." Unlike Minoru, Tatsuya seemed to be less pessimistic about the odds.
"Yes, you're right. Then, I'll give it some thought on my own.“
Meanwhile, I'll talk with Raymond and see if he can find the equipment that emits signals, such as a transponder, and tell him to stop it from transmitting as soon as he finds it."
"Yes, if he can do that, that may help." Tatsuya nodded in support of the idea.
Seeing that the discussion was over, Miyuki spoke to Minoru in a lighthearted tone, "Minoru-kun."
"I assume we still have a little time before you have to go back up there, right?"
It was still surprisingly early. And, as Miyuki pointed out, there would still be about an hour or more before Takachiho would be back in a good position for transit.
"I have something for Minami-chan. So, if you don't mind, can you come with us to our apartment?"
The apartment Miyuki mentioned was their Miyakishima accommodation, her and Tatsuya's second home. Minoru had no reason to refuse the request.
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