Nadesico Fan Fiction ❯ Chasing the Darkness ❯ [14] This Will All Be Over Sometime... ( Chapter 14 )

PART FOURTEEN: This Will All Be Over Sometime…

******

"Ms. Fresange, are you getting all of this?" It was Ameko's nice way of asking her to pay attention. The blonde was staring off into space, only half-listening, but she nodded and motioned the other woman to continue.

Ameko sighed. "We think that the function we could change to break us out of this loop is in one of these areas." Three windows popped up with big red circles marking the indicated areas. "But we have no way to test our theories short of actually attempting a boson jump, which could very well wipe us out anyway. Now, if one of these variables has been tested before, chances are that Remmy encoded that into the program and we should be able to find it like we found the recording..."

Ines snapped her fingers. "I've got it," she announced.

Ameko jumped. "What?"

"Yurika jumped the Artifact into itself in an attempt to destroy it, which seemingly worked. But space has never meant anything to the Artifact, so why would that matter now? The Artifact hasn't been destroyed."

Ameko blinked. "But...but...but..."

"But it's not there," Remmy insisted, coming to Ameko's rescue. "If it's not destroyed, then where is it?"

"I suspect that it will be boson jumping into itself forever," Ines returned caustically. "Because for a boson jump to work, there has to be a departure and a destination. Be it a difference in time or a difference in distance, there must be a change in location. But my theory is that Yurika attempted to destroy the Artifact by jumping it to the exact location it was already. The result would be something like an infinite loop. Since the variables don't change, when the Artifact tried to run the program again it had to run the same jump. And then the variables still didn't change. The program is running still."

"But what about the condition of the boson jumpers?" Remmy asked, more as a devil's advocate than a skeptic.

"All boson jumps tax our strength to some degree, but since jumps usually only take a matter of seconds to complete, the effects aren't lasting. I suspect that the boson jumpers went into comas because of the constant activity from the Artifact."

Ameko's face lit up like the sunrise. "You are the most brilliant mind of all time!"

For the very first time, Akito watched Ines flush in acute embarrassment.

"Well...." she said, "Well...never mind that. The important thing is, I don't believe that time starts over because of an error in a single Artifact, because the Artifact is perfectly capable of handling more than one jump at a time. Time must start over because putting two Artifacts into use at the same time causes an error."

Ameko's sunrise quickly set. "But that still puts us back where we started."

"No, it doesn't." Ines countered. "The solution is much easier now. All we have to do is write a code to manually break the infinite loop that Yurika caused, or destroy one of the Artifacts while simultaneously putting another one into use."

"Oh, is that all?" Akito said sarcastically.

"It's easier than it sounds. If Yurika is trapped in the loop with the Artifact, then she can change the coordinates of the jump to ones that we can supply her with."

Akito blinked before his face hardened. "If you think I'm going to let her be put in that Artifact again, you are desperately mistaken."

"Actually, Akito, this time you don't have a choice. By the time you get there, she'll already be in it."

Akito opened his mouth and closed it again. "You...tricked me!"

"Nonsense," she sniffed. "Think about it carefully and you'll see I'm right. All I've done is given you this extra time while we're here to pull yourself together, as I told you before."

Akito bared his teeth and sat back against the couch, crossing his arms over his chest. "Fine. You've found out what you wanted to know. Let's go back."

"One last thing," Remmy interjected. Akito shot him a death glare. "There is a chance that it isn't the Successors who activate the new Artifact. We can't be positive, but from reading Ines's journals, there's someone else who might come first."

Akito blinked in confusion, but Ines stiffened visibly. "Ai."

Ameko frowned. "I'm sorry."

"No, it's all right," Ines waved away her concern. "It's already happened-- I can't change it now. But it shouldn't be a problem as far as boson jumping goes. Two people guided me on my jump when I got here. Obviously, you two will just have to make sure that you use the Artifact that already exists, and don't start up the new one."

Remmy and Ameko looked at each other sadly. Then Remmy tore at the collar of his shirt, exposing a shimmering blue series of vertical lines that looked suspiciously like a bar code on the bare skin of his neck. "The Successors have the new Artifact, and we can't get to it because of these," he covered the mark once again. "They're identification stamps. But you don't have them, so you won't set off the alarms."

******

Aritomo's smirk seemed to have become an indispensable part of his expression. Yurika wanted to punch him, but settled for planning revenge.

"Of course, you wouldn't dream of trying to betray our good faith," he was saying, "But just in case, you should know that the entire holding area has been surrounded by a material that disturbs the frequencies of the boson retrospect particles, courtesy of Yamasaki Yoshio. It's called a bionet, and unless you are directly in contact with a person and a certain amount of TC, you cannot jump them through it."

Yurika made sure her face did not change as she threw plans C through E out the window and made major modifications to plans B and G.

"What is my guarantee that Lapis and the others will be released?"

"Well, technically there isn't one, but what use would it be to detain them once we've achieved our agenda? The only one we need is you, and chances are if we killed them you would cease to cooperate."

Yurika frowned slightly. "Let's get on with it."

******

Doomsday: 28 hours

"Coming up on the chulip, Captain," Minato reported.

"Are you sure it's wise to take them on by ourselves?" Megumi inquired. The Nadesico, being much faster than most other ships in the solar system and not tied to any specific fleet, would arrive at the battle scene long before the UE or the Jovian fleet.

Ruri was staring quietly out the main window. "No." She turned her gaze to Megumi's indignant one. "I don't know if it's wise to attack them ourselves. I don't even think it's wise to be boson jumping when the Successors have the Artifact. But we don't have much of a choice. We have to take out as much of the weakened fleet as we can. Hopefully the Jovians and Yurika can handle the rest."

"And if they can't?" Megumi persisted.

"Then we'd still have to do the same thing. Minato?"

"Hai, hai, leave it to me, Ruriruri," Minato cracked her knuckles. "Mayumi, you ready?"

Mayumi nodded, holding two bottles of water on a tray and carrying a stack of towels over one arm.

"Then... let's go!"

Mayumi was the only one with a mundane enough job to have the opportunity to see the blinking light go on in the operations console. However, she didn't really feel like now was the time to report that one of the escape pods had been launched.

******

The silence in the decrepit War Room was suddenly broken by the sirens that came crashing through the ship, accompanied by red flashing lights and a single window, the only sign of Omoikane's lingering presence. "Battle Alert!"

The letters were replaced by a stern woman wearing dark glasses and no expression. Her skin was still smooth, but her complexion was pallid and her hair was a bright silver, giving her an ageless aura. "Pilots, please report to the hangar. All units, prepare for the incoming attack."

Ines started. "Was that...?" but she couldn't bring herself to believe that the woman she had just seen was little Ruri. Ameko and Remmy stood in unison, the former toying nervously with a small object that had suddenly appeared in her hand.

"We have to go," she said, and pressed the all-too- familiar disc into Ines' fingers. "You remember what to do?"

Ines's grasp tightened until the knuckles were white. She realized she was about to attempt the hardest thing anyone would ever ask of her. To knowingly put herself and Akito through more pain than imaginable. And yet...did she even have a choice? No. She knew what had to be done.

"Akito, we have to go," she said, meeting Ameko's shining eyes with a bitter resolve. He didn't know exactly what was going on, but he sensed its significance and nodded tightly.

"There's jumping equipment in the lift outside," Remmy said. "If you use it, then you should be able to avoid activating the new Artifact even if you are inside it."

Ameko pressed the pads on her shoulders and was covered by a jumpsuit similar to that of an Aestivallis pilot. Remmy did the same, the tight suit covering him from neck to toe. Ines smiled vaguely, realizing how mistaken her seven-year-old memory had been. Her eyes scanned the now-familiar jumpsuit, stopping at the nametag that had not been visible on Ameko's earlier uniform.

Yamasaki Ameko. Yamasaki? Then "Daddy" was...

Ameko saw her staring in astonishment and smiled. "Thank you, Okaasan," she whispered. Ines's mouth dropped, but then they vanished completely.

******

Lapis stared in horror at the scene before her. She wanted to run up and try to drag Yurika out of the Artifact, to break the stone shell surrounding her, but of course she couldn't. She was too weak to do anything but watch. If she had been stronger, then Yurika would not have had to sacrifice herself for Lapis's sake. Aritomo was shouting orders, but she couldn't hear them through the glass. In fact, she seemed to be trapped by an unearthly silence. When the hand suddenly clamped down on her shoulder, her scream was more from surprise than pain.

"You are watching one of the greatest events in history," a deep voice told her. "Greater than the empire of Alexander the Great, stronger than the rule of the Romans, more powerful than the pitiful United Earth coalition ever was. This is a New Order, and a new way of life."

Lapis wanted to ask if he'd practiced that speech, but she saw the glint of steel at his side and knew better than to insult and armed man.

"Who are you?"

"Kusakabe Haruki."

Lapis's eyes widened. "You... you're supposed to be incarcerated on the Moon!" This man was behind every catastrophe, disappointment, every obstacle she had ever faced.

"I would not leave such a grand plan in the hands of incompetent fools," he returned. "My men, while enlightened, are sadly still almost as ignorant as the JF usurpers. Only I and a select few can realize the full potential of what is happening here today."

"You really think that just because you can bring in extra ships for your fleet that you'll beat the Nadesico?" Lapis returned hotly, perhaps rashly. However, she was not prepared for the deep laughter that answered her accusation.

"You are as foolish as the rest," he chuckled. "This is not about something as petty as rulership over humans."

"What?"

"Come now, do you really think that these 'Successors' have any more right to rule than anyone else? Men are essentially flawed-- all they do is destroy the natural order of the universe."

Lapis got a sinking feeling in her stomach. "They aren't going to transport a fleet, are they?"

Kusakabe laughed. "Oh, if they used the coordinates they are now, then yes, they would transport something from the future. But the coordinates that Ms. Misumaru is receiving are from me, and not from them."

"What are you planning?"

"Look," he pointed to the star map in the corner of the room. "Do you see how the Earth is passing Jupiter? And we on Mars are on the other side of the sun."

Lapis nodded, watching Kusakabe's calm expression warily.

"With Mars and its ruins safely on the opposite side of the solar system, only the sinners will be destroyed. And the asteroid belt will shield this planet from the aftermath of the destruction of evil."

"Destruction?"

"When Earth plummets into Jupiter, the resulting explosion will take out the moon as well. And then Mars and its ruins-- the only true example of animate perfection-- will be free to rise from its oppression and give way to a universe governed solely by natural laws."

"You're kidding, right?" Lapis asked incredulously. Kusakabe's set face told her otherwise.

"It will be a glorious day for the New Order." he said euphorically.

She blinked. "That's so ridiculous it's almost anticlimactic."

For the first time, it hit Lapis full force that she was dealing with a truly insane man. To jump the Earth into Jupiter's path-- she couldn't be sure but wouldn't such a thing cause a chain reaction to destroy everything nearby, including Mars? That was more like the Doomsday Akito had seen.

"Come on," he said roughly, shoving her forward and breaking her reverie. "It's time to go.

******

"Nice of them to tell us where the Artifact is," Akito muttered as he yanked the suit up over his pants.

"It's on Mars, where it's always been," Ines returned vacantly, putting on her own suit as if in a daze, her motions hindered by the silver disc clutched tightly in her left hand.

"Convenient," Akito's voice was muffled as he pulled his cloak and shirt over his head. "Convenient that they had these things on hand, too." He tossed the pile of black fabric back in the lift.

Ines looked up suddenly. "Seems strange that they would have them at all, if they never expected to use them."

Akito had a suspicious feeling about the whole thing, but as of yet he couldn't put his finger on it directly. Besides, he had gathered from the small bits of the conversation he had been paying attention to that they would be going to get Ai. He would have a chance to save her. That alone made him set aside his unease for the time being.

Ines shook her head, pulling the helmet neatly over her hair. It was outdated equipment, but that was probably because all the advanced stuff would be hooked up to the new Artifact. "Ready?" she asked, looking up. It gave her a start to realize that she recognized the being in front of her. With the black and silver reflective helmet and the cables and connections stuck in a seemingly haphazard fashion over a white jumpsuit turning yellow with age, she could tell it would be easy for a confused and terrified seven year old to turn them into strange alien creatures.

The creature in front of her nodded, and reached out its gloved hand. "It's hot in this thing."

"Try not to think about it," Ines answered, taking the hand in her own gloved one, and then with almost seamless precision the smooth walls of the Nadesico were replaced with the familiar patterns of the Martian ruins.

******

"Jump complete!" Harry announced, swiveling in his chair. "Successor fleet, dead ahead."

"This is crazy," Megumi sighed.

"What?" Mayumi leaned in towards Minato, who had been muttering something.

She smiled. "'Let's Gekiga-in,'" she repeated. "It seemed like the right thing to say."

Mayumi smiled back and handed her one of the water bottles.

"Have they noticed us yet?" Ruri asked.

"Not yet, but they've probably picked up the jump on their scanners," Megumi answered.

"I see. Minato, take us up and over. Aestivallis, prepare to launch..."

******

"...And Akito," she continued, a little puzzled. "Where's Ines?"

Akito sat back in his cockpit. "She's back on Earth," he said quietly.

Ruri blinked, and the window wavered for a moment. "Give me a full report when you get back," she said. Akito met her gaze through the dark lenses he wore. It was a clear message, and it had nothing to do with reports. His orders were not to die.

******

"They've got us, Captain," Megumi brought the attention of the crew back into focus. "They're demanding our surrender."

"Launch Aestivallis," Ruri said.

******

"Wake up, Yoshio, we have a major problem," Ines shook the sleeping scientist.

"I'm awake, I'm awake!" he shot up like a bullet, blinking heavily. "Ai...?"

"Here's the latest: Yurika is going to try to destroy the Artifact, which is going to stick boson jumping in an infinite loop and screw up the universe. We have to stop it from happening."

Yoshio blinked some more. "Build a new one?" he suggested. Ines choked.

"No!"

Three cups of coffee and two rounds of explanations later, a sketch of a plan had formed in Ines' head.

"Unfortunately, the only way to break out of an infinite loop is to stop the program entirely," she began, "This will theoretically re-start time, which is the thing we don't want. So the only chance we have is to stop it before Yurika begins it. Unfortunately, I don't even know if that will work because all the time travel research done in the past couple of years seems to show that we cannot change the past. Still, there is that chance that we can succeed since for us the future has not yet happened." Actually, that was the very thing she had claimed impossible when Ameko brought it up. She had her suspicions about the "future" she and Akito had been presented with.

Yoshio muttered something under his breath. "So I guess we have to scrap the plans for the new Artifact."

"On the contrary, we're going to build it right now."

Yoshio turned bloodshot eyes on her. "Make up your damn mind already."

Ines smiled tightly and adopted her Explanation Lady look. "We're going to create an incomplete Artifact and substitute Yurika's coordinates with our own right as she jumps. Time and space mean nothing to the Artifact so theoretically it should be possible for two Artifacts to inhabit the same space at the same time. So if, instead of jumping the Artifact into itself, she jumps it into a new Artifact, then there will be no infinite loop. And if we write the codes correctly, we can erase all duplicate commands and meld the two Artifacts into one."

"That's crazy," was Yoshio's reaction. "More than crazy. That's the talk of a psychopath. There is absolutely no research to back this up. You're being a philosopher and hoping to high heaven that you're right. It would be easier just to search under every rock on Mars for Misumaru Yurika's whereabouts and then ask her nicely not to destroy time."

"No, no, I'm right," Ines insisted. "The Artifact isn't part of nature. It doesn't follow some vague natural law. It is a computer, and therefore by its very nature is governed by logic. As long as every command we make is found true by the program, then it will work."

Yoshio remained unconvinced. Ines sighed. "Besides, even if Yurika doesn't try to destroy the Artifact, the Successors will take over and all of us will be dead anyway." Still no reaction from the other man. "Look," Ines was rapidly losing patience, as well as wasting precious time, "I'm not asking your permission or opinion. I'm going to do this whether you agree or not. I'd just like you to know that if you aren't here proofreading my work there will almost certainly be double the chance for errors, at least. And the more errors I have, the more likely it will be that this will fail altogether."

That may not have converted him to her cause, but it certainly motivated him to look over her shoulder and make sure she wasn't accidentally spelling out their doom in her programming.

******

"Hurry up, hurry up, hurry up!" Yukina snapped impatiently.

"This is the stupidest plan you've ever had, Yukina!" Jun said as she pulled him by the arm. "This is going to get us both killed and won't help anything!"

"How do you know that?" Yukina smiled deviously. "There's a method to this madness."

Jun remained unconvinced. Yukina sighed. "Trust me," she said, lowering her eyelids seductively.

Jun turned bright red and pulled backwards even more, and remained unconvinced. Yukina sighed again and went back to the more effective method of getting what she wanted-- dragging.

******

Dustin Harrison was a guard with a mission. He was the top of his class, top of his division, never beaten in battle, cream of the crop. He had a minigun and a uniform; he had a red headband. No one would ever get past him, because he was just that good. He smiled at his reflection in the window as he passed it before turning around to walk back the way he had come. Yes, he was a good-looking man.

He was also knocked out because he hadn't been paying attention.

"Come on!" Admiral Jackht's gruff voice said. "You think you can spend a war sitting on your rears in a cushy cell? Get up!" He told the amazed crew when he opened the door.

Araragi remembered to take Dustin's minigun on the way out.

******

Akito glanced around the ruins, shifting his weight to one foot and back as he took it all in. "What now?" he asked finally.

Ines settled on a strip of stone that jutted out from the wall. "Now, we wait." Her voice buzzed strangely because of the suit. "Sit over there, and don't take your helmet off."

Akito complied, tapping his foot impatiently as time went on.

"Where is she?"

"She's coming."

As if on cue, a pulsating spot of energy began to gather in one corner. After a few seconds, a crying little girl fell through it.

Akito was on his feet and at her side immediately. "Don't cry," he said. "It's okay."

Ines flinched in unison with Ai at the buzzing half-words coming from Akito's suit. She could hear him speaking normally over the radio in her suit, but their actual voices were probably distorted by the polarized retrospect particles being emitted by their suits to block boson waves from the new Artifact. But even though she realized that, the distortion of Akito's voice was terrifying.

Ai was even more scared, and burst into tears. "I want my Mommy! Mister! Mister!!"

Akito knelt beside her and took her trembling hands in his gloved ones. "He's not far away," he said slowly and carefully, to make himself understood.

Ai sniffed and stopped crying. "He's not?"

"He's very close," Akito said. "We're going to send you to see him."

"Really?"

"Really," Ines knelt as well. "We'll send you to him soon, but first we need to tell you some stuff, okay?"

Ai sniffled again. "Okay."

******

"Okay," Ryoko told the pilots, "Standard formation. Hikaru, Akatsuki and Tenkawa, take the left. Izumi, you and the Jovian follow me up the right."

A loud cough emanated from the general area of Tsukai's window. Ryoko blinked.

"You bring up the rear," she added as an afterthought.

"Anything for the most lovely commander," Tsukai declared. "Let's go kick some Successor ass!"

"Not till my signal," Ryoko snapped. "Then we can move in."

"Aw, Ryoko-chan..."

"That includes you, you perverted cheat! Don't you dare try to sneak on ahead again."

"'Cheat?'" Saburota gasped in mock horror. "Now, now, Ryoko, you know our relationship is casual."

"I will casually kick your ass if you don't shut up-- then we'll see what kind of relationship problems you have!"

"Bad break up?" Tsukai asked Hikaru.

"It was Mortal Combat," Izumi answered.

I won fair and square. It's not my fault you suck at video games." Saburota said primly.

"I may suck at video games but I'm going to kick your ass right now."

"You're on," Saburota replied cheerfully. "But if you're worried about cheating you should keep an eye on Mr. President over there."

The pilots wheeled around to see Akatsuki's Aestivallis disappearing into a large knot of enemy drones.

"Akatsuki, what the hell do you think you're doing?!"

"Don't shout, Ryoko, I can hear you just fine."

"Answer my question!"

"I'm blowing up drones, in case you couldn't tell. Care to join me?"

"No, we don't care to...Tenkawa!" Ryoko growled as Akito and Tsukai followed Nergal's chairman. "Wait for the rest of us!"

And so, like always, the pilots began the battle with a sufficient bang.

******

"Are you sure she has everything right?" Aritomo asked anxiously.

"Yes, sir," the attendant replied, glancing up at Yurika briefly. "But we can't begin the jump until the appointed time."

"So..." Aritomo began, as the attendant went back to his work, "We wait, then?"

"Yes, sir, we wait."

Some minutes passed. Aritomo stood staring dramatically at Yurika, who remained-- well, statuesque.

Aritomo frowned. "Someone didn't plan the timing of this story very well."

(Gomen ne!! says the author)

******

"Fire beam cannon," Ruri ordered. The beam sliced straight through the Successor's front flank, but left the majority of the ships unharmed.

"Captain, they have a distortion field!" Harry wailed needlessly. The Nadesico lurched to the side under heavy fire from the fleet, depositing Mayumi in Harry's lap and Erina on the floor against Minato's chair.

"This is insane, Captain!" Megumi cried. "It's a pointless suicide mission unless we can weaken their fleet without taking any more damage."

"The PT Engine," Erina offered, pulling herself to her feet. "It would be too expensive for the Successors to equip every ship with a separate distortion field, even ignoring the dangers of having so many fields in such close proximity. If we can take out the ships carrying the field boosters, we can make it out of this alive."

"We can't use the PT cannon on people," Ruri answered mechanically. With Yurika, it had never even been an issue. After the first time she had never used it again and no one had tried to make her.

"Why not? I have to remind you that this fleet is attempting to destroy the peace that we fought for. And what does it matter if we kill them with the beam cannon or the PT Engine? In the end, they'll be equally dead."

Ruri stared at the fleet spreading almost endlessly in front of her. Was Erina right? Was it truly any less humane to destroy them with the PT cannon? Fleetingly, she remembered the Nadesico's first mission; one that ended disastrously with the annihilation of all the refugees on Mars. And yet, how many lives had the Nadesico's subsequent missions saved? Was it worth it?

"Captain?" Harry brought her focus back to the bridge. "What do we do?"

One glance at his face made up her mind. If she didn't fight to save her loved ones, then what was the point of fighting at all?

"Aestivallis, pull back," she directed. "Fire the PT cannon."

******

Aritomo had retired to a couch to one side of the room, enjoying the last of a bagel and some coffee. It irked him, of course, every time he looked up to see the Artifact totally prepared for everything, but with hours still before any jumps could be attempted with the future.

"How's the fleet faring?" he asked an attendant as she walked by. The last four times, she had simply rolled her eyes and replied that the ships were standing by with no change in circumstances. This time, however, her news was different.

"The Nadesico is challenging the fleet single-handedly!" she announced. "So far the shields are holding, but Admiral Machida says he cannot count on an victory unless his forces can dispose of the ship faster. The Nadesico is the greatest threat the enemy has against us, sir."

Nergal UE had, of course, refused to accept the terms of surrender. Aritomo glanced up at the Artifact again. It was entirely plausible that Misumaru Yurika had come to them of her own accord, even disobeying orders from her superiors, in an attempt to save Lapis or the Lilac's crew or both. That act in itself still left the advantage in Successor favor.

"Bring me the girl," he ordered, and the attendant nodded and moved to leave.

"Hold it right there!" a voice shouted. "Your nefarious scheming will not succeed!"

The doors burst open and the crew of the Lilac poured into the room, many holding guns pilfered from the unconscious guards stacked behind them in the hallway. The attendants raised their hands unconsciously, clustering together near the base of the Artifact. Aritomo's gun was immediately in his hand, but he knew very well that if he fired he would be dead before he got the second shot off. It might have been worth it if he thought he could take out Admiral Jackht, but as it was the treacherous turncoat was standing behind Araragi and just out of Aritomo's line of fire.

"On behalf of the Joint Peacekeeping Forces, I place you under arrest," Colonel Araragi continued, his men arranging themselves aesthetically behind him. "We've been authorized to take back the Artifact at any costs."

There was a silence while the two groups stared each other down.

"We will die before we surrender our cause, JF fools," a Successor technician stepped forward, lowering his hands.

"You're the fool. You cannot help anyone if you are dead," Aritomo remarked, and dropped his weapon.

The revolver hit the ground with a loud bang, magnified tenfold by the ensuing silence. It took everyone a stunned moment to realize that pistols falling on carpets do not make loud bangs.

"Tch," a deep voice chided as Aritomo sank to the floor in shock, holding a hand over the patch of blood spreading across his chest. "I always knew you were a weakling."

Kusakabe Haruki emerged from the shadows, his arm wrapped around Lapis's small form. The gun, still smoking, was now being held to her temple. Kusakabe smiled smugly at the JF troops. "Don't move or I'll shoot her. You wouldn't want that, would you? She's an amazing little thing. And she's one of the four known A-class jumpers in the universe. In fact, you can't afford to kill her. Not that it matters."

Colonel Araragi realized that they were surrounded. Apparently, they had escaped just as the guards were changing shifts, and the relief crews were coming from all sides.

Kusakabe moved sideways slowly, until he was standing at the base of the Artifact.

"Ms. Misumaru!" he called, "I know you can hear me in there. The coordinates for the jump have been sent to you, yet you refuse to cooperate. Make this jump happen or I'll have everyone here killed."

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