The Dragon of Dreams

Chapter 401: Realizations

N/A - N/A : Orbiting Over the Cabinet

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"So.. this is that antimatter stuff you were talking about?" Father spoke somewhat cautiously as he used his aura to inspect the inside of a massive satellite.

"Yeah, that battery you're looking at could probably flatten a small city if it was detonated properly." At the time, we were inspecting a new type of satellite we believed could be intended for optical observation, the type of satellite I specifically came into orbit to find. -It certainly looks promising...-

Looking far more traditional than the previous hundred or so satellites we had messed with, it had a relatively small black box at the center, with four long panels absolutely lined with lenses, lasers and sensors, all aimed toward Delphi's surface. -I just hope this isn't one of those stupid atmospheric condition observers...-

Quickly getting to work, I helped guide Hera and Father through some of the details before letting them repair the outer panels while I focused on the central control module. -Let's see what we're working with...-

It had been several days since we went up into orbit at that point, and because most of the satellites didn't have operational communications systems, we had flown up to about five thousand satellites to judge what was and wasn't worth repairing, taking our time to fix whatever seemed promising, and getting quite lucky every now and then.

While many of the things we took the gamble on turned out to be useless, we also managed to get things like atmospheric radar satellites, and interplanetary object trackers online again, giving me the ability to track anything flying in the atmosphere or floating through space, even if it was hundreds of millions of kilometers away. -If something like an abyss eater wanders too close to Delphi.. at least I'll know now...-

After all, even if I was nowhere near strong enough to deter something at that level, some warning was better than none.

But those still weren't the kind of satellites I was looking for.

Finally managing to get the reactor and battery repaired, I moved to the computing module, carefully ensuring the antimatter battery wouldn't try to incinerate us when we'd inevitably turn it on.

"Okay, I think I've fixed the wiring in the panels." Closely inspecting the back of the array plates, Hera looked around as if she were looking through the metal before speaking somewhat idly. "This one was in pretty good condition... For the most part the damage is limited to scratches, and wear on the electronics..."

"Yeah..." -We got pretty lucky...- Unlike this one, most of the satellites we had seen were more seriously damaged, missing chunks of electronics or even being nothing but a cloud of scrap where a satellite used to be. -But I'm not gonna complain...-

*Click* *Pop-Pop-Pop-HHHHMMMMM* Finally starting up the reactor after finishing my repairs and glossing over what Father and Hera did, I connected my OOM to the satellite and started doing a diagnosis to see what it could do.

And sure enough, it was exactly what I was looking for.

'All Optical Systems: Online'

-Fuck yeah...- But, after hastily jumping through some tabs on the OOM to see if I could pull up a view from the cameras... *Beep* 'Unable to view data outside of official ARX facilities'

"Ugh..." Letting out a groan, I felt the excitement on my face fade a bit.

"ARX again?" Hera tilted her head as she floated over to look at the OOM's display.

"Yeah," It was the name of an Acardi company or technology related to systems involving a mix of runes and quantum computing. -The issue is I've never heard of it...- Prior to working on the satellites, I had never heard of ARX, it wasn't in any of the research directories in the Lab, nor in the language translations. "I really hope the AI at the laboratory knows something about it, but.. I'm a bit doubtful to say the least..."

"Well, we can only hope... You can still pair it with the OOM though, right?" Father quickly came over as well.

"Yeah, but that's just to connect it to a relay. Not to view it's data." Like many of the other satellites, each satellite had a code or signal that, when given to a relay satellite, would let it sync up with everything else in orbit, and theoretically communicate with facilities on Delphi or the moon. "If we find a more modern relay satellite, I might be able to pair it with the relay tower in the Death's Gape, but I'm not sure if the laboratory can process the information from these satellites regardless."

But, there was only one way to find out.

After continuing to a few more satellites that were relatively close by, we started making our way back to the ocean surface beneath us, before heading all the way down to the Acardi laboratory.

Thankfully, after all the training I made Father do to survive in space, he didn't seem to have any issue in the water, even at depths close to seventy kilometers.

But as we entered the colossal entrance to the dungeon and swam past the antimatter pylons, Father's rather carefree, and curious attitude ceased. "What the..."

*Hhhhmmmm* With a gentle hum filling the water, Hera and I swam over top of the lab before shrinking down and more carefully navigating the sea of cables.

However, Father was hesitant. "What.. is this..." Looking at the reactor with an anxious, almost feral expression, he suddenly stopped moving.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

By then, we had already spoken quite extensively about what he should expect, what he needs to be sure to not touch, and generally how to handle himself around old Acardi tech.

But even though we spoke about the reactor quite extensively, hearing about something was quite different from seeing and feeling it. "That... Is that really a reactor..?"

Having become familiar with the much smaller reactors in the satellites, he had grown used to them being tiny. "It is."

"And you.. built that..?" He seemed to go more pale the longer he looked at it.

"There's no need to be afraid of it. If you don't mess with it, it'll be fine, I promise you." Using a bit of my aura to ease his nerves, color quickly returned to his face.

But he was still antsy, especially as he shrunk down and followed Hera and I into the web of cables. "So.. the battery in the satellite.. you said it could flatten a small city..."

"That's only if the antimatter was detonated perfectly. Even if there was a catastrophic failure it wouldn't detonate like that." Wanting to ease his nerves, I tried to dodge his question.

Because I didn't want him to think about the fact that he was swimming next to something that could flatten central Atlas. "I.. see..."

"Now come on, you can't be getting awestruck before you see the cool stuff, right?"

Fueling his curiosity a bit, he finally started to lighten up. "A-Alright." But it wasn't until we finally got inside that his worries really started to ease. "Woah, what is all this?"

Taking a moment to show him around the side rooms like I did with Hera, I showed him how to use the tablets and tried to give him some rough translations so he could start learning the language, while letting him stroll around and look at the different skeletons of animals long-since lost to time, and read up on what was once displayed.

But the longer he looked around, the more he understood the reaction Hera and I had to the satellites, and the more reality set in.

But he seemed to mostly keep it to himself.

Eventually making our way into the main room, I got to asking the AI several questions I had about the satellites, but unfortunately it didn't know much.

*Beep* "I have not been supplied with data related to satellites."n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om

-Damn...- "What about ARX? Do you know what an ARX facility is?"

"Yes. It is a facility that specializes in ARX format data transfer. Few such facilities exist, and require special clearance, but can be found aboard the Mothership, and in the lunar colony."

-The lunar colony again...- It was a place I was both excited and nervous to visit. "Do you happen to have a breakdown of the format?"

"Because of storage and computational limits, such data was never allowed in my directory."

-Excuse me..?- I felt a bead of cold sweat form on my forehead instantly. -Maybe I need to.. reconsider trying to make a computer for that...-

"If I am reconnected to the server, it is possible to remotely use these facilities with your clearance, however, you must grant this laboratory special system permissions to do so."

-Fuck...- Biting my nail, I leaned up against the desk and fell into thought, letting Hera and Father start asking their own questions

With every trip I made to grow my knowledge of Acardi technology, my need to restart the server grew. -But I don't have any alternatives...- If I wanted to make use of Acardi tech on any kind of scale, I would need something that connected everything.

And unfortunately, no matter how much I wanted to, I simply couldn't create my own connection. -There's a chance I can just power the ARX facility and connect it to the spire so the lab can use it, but if I can't edit the labs permissions locally, I won't be able to do that either... Plus, stuff involving the Acardi is never so simple...-

But it wasn't like I was just going to give up on it. "~Hera.~"

"~Hm?~" Pausing her conversation with Father and the AI, she curiously looked over at me.

"~How much prep is left for the Festival?~"

Looking away to think for a moment, she was quick to respond. "~I'll have to be present in Bahamut at least a week before the festival. Why?~"

-Hm.. that's not ideal...- "~I want to go to the lunar colony, but if we continue working on the satellites, we won't have time.~"

Bringing a warm smile to her face, she turned back toward the AI while holding her head high and shoulders back. "~I can make time whenever you wish to go.~"

"~It's alright. Let's just get back to the satellites. If we can find some older optical satellites that are fixable, they'll do for now.~" -As long as I can get the laboratory to start processing some data, I'll be happy...-

And I figured that, since we had at least ten thousand more satellites to fix, we'd likely find at least a few useful, non-ARX satellites that I could modify to communicate with the laboratory.

Which was indeed the case.

However, among those we found, a few were especially horrifying.. to the point even Father had a chill pass down his spine. "What the hell is this thing..."

Floating around a massive cylinder-shaped satellite half covered in what looked like the shell of a colossal dungeon core, I read the text on its side with a look of concern. -'Final Evening's False Sun'...-

Spanning several hundred meters, it was a satellite housing a series of giant lenses, each completely covered in runes meant to amplify the light passing through it, and focus it into a beam of light akin to a laser that was only a dozen meters across.

"I'm.. not sure we should repair this one..." It even made Hera uneasy. "It's turned on my simply removing that light shield, right?" Looking up at the top of the satellite facing away from Delphi, she set her eyes on the layer of metal blocking light from entering the lenses. "What if Odin managed to remove it and turn it against us?"

It was a fair question, and one I honestly agreed with.

If my numbers were right, the laser, if fueled by the light of the sun, would be more than strong enough to heat up the air to a point where fusion was possible. -And if I do have to turn the server back on, I don't want any weapons like this online...-

If there was a chance it could be used by anyone other than me, I didn't want it.

I simply couldn't take such a risk.

And so, that was the first fixable satellite we decided to discard, punching a hole through the center of the lenses to ensure it would never be usable unless someone at least at Hera's level came up to fix it.

But it was far from alone.

The longer we flew around, the more doomsday weapons we found aimed at Delphi, and the more Hera and I had to question why none of them were ever used. -They clearly weren't planning on leaving Delphi intact, so.. why...- Looking up toward the moon hanging over us, I squinted my eyes. "Just what brought the end of the Acardi for them to not even have a chance to drag Delphi down with them..."