Story Reader / Main Story / 21 Spiral of Chronos / Story
21-1 His Life Behind the Scenes
>Babylonia, 08:00 a.m.
Commandant Office.
The pure white blackout curtain rises automatically with the sound of the door opening, allowing the cold daylight to dip in through the window panes. The artificial sky outside is now a clear, early-morning blue.
Sensing a sound coming from the doorway, a little robot seated at the center of the table blinks its round electronic eyes—but it trains them at the source of the sound.
All vital signs confirmed to be normal.
Entering the room, the young man stops at the table as usual. Placing his half-finished coffee with sugar on the table, he starts checking his terminal for new missions.
The Operation Logistics Center doesn't assign special battle missions—and when there is no mission for him, the young man, as a commandant, can either be found working on battle reports or reviewing all sorts of test requests.
More often, however, the young man carries on with his role as a military tactician—specifically, he allocates intel and resources accordingly. Like his fellow strategists, he works with Babylonia's enormous intel network—but unlike others, he enjoys access to more parts of the network.
With his gentle touch, the electronic screens come to life one after another, each brimming with tasks to be done. The robot stands up and spins around once before moving aside so the young man can work.
Ever so gently, he pats the robot on the head. It sits in his hand, watching the young man smile at it.
Alright... One thing at a time.
Now, first things first...
Two hours have passed by the time he finishes the final test report on the new remote connection device.
The robot moves to the edge of the table, tapping his arm with moderate force—something it's been doing for the past five minutes.
Oops... five minutes too late, huh?
Rubbing his sore wrist, the blonde man swallows two white pills with his cooled coffee.
Heavy footsteps can be heard from the doorway, and in the mirrored reflection of the wall ornament, Murray catches sight of a scarlet figure.
Closing the screen before him and looking up at the doorway, he waits as the breezy figure makes a beeline through the reception room and straight into his office...
All the while without so much as a knock on the door.
With a thud, she drops a somewhat old folder and a memory drive in a zipper bag on the table.
All the "process" was a real pain in the butt, but I'm giving it back to you now.
Vera speaks with her usual mocking smile, her mind impossible to read.
It's got the mission log and the thing you need.
With a glance at the folder, Murray looks knowingly back at Vera.
Thank you.
Murray sounds sincere enough—except Vera bursts into laughter.
We have you to thank, Murray. You're doing a good job as Nikola's "agent."
And I need to say I'm impressed by how well you've removed yourself from the radar.
Kurono needed an excuse to do what they do above the table, and the Parliament needed this chance to justify what they got—that's why I was sure they'd help.
I'm sure it wasn't easy on your part, but you got what you wanted, all the same, right? I only did what little I could as the Cerberus Commandant.
...Ha.
The man before Vera looks harmless enough, but Vera knows he is anything but.
As Cerberus' official commandant, Murray does not plan his strategy around orders from the HQ, setting him apart from the other commandants.
He has a way of bringing out the best in Cerberus and never holds them back from what they do—in fact, he would even help his team get off the hook on occasions when they get in trouble.
Or propose "cooperation" as if they were his equals.
No one cares about some weakling commandant who can't go down to the surface—said Murray when they first met.
The typical thing to do when taming a group of wild beasts is to collar and muzzle them—except it never seemed like something Murray was interested in doing.
And that was when it dawned on Vera that this man, despite his gentle smile, is someone the old-timers in the Parliament would deem "dangerous," whose "insanity" is different from Cerberus'.
Vera, however, is no fan of restrictions herself, nor is she one to fear hidden fangs.
You're all for your team members, while I... am all for my own benefits.
Murray looks down gently at a little robot that spins around his hand.
...It's times like this that Vera finds Murray weirdly friendly.
You can do whatever you want to do starting now, and I'll support you however I can as I always have.
I guess I'll do just that, then, if Nikola has given me the green light.
Anyhow, I'll be on my way now.
With it, Vera waves at Murray as she turns around to leave.
It was nice working with you.
Seeing Vera off, Murray picks up the folder from the table, takes out the content inside, and puts it in a common folder with the World Government's logo on it.
Babylonia, 11:30 a.m.
Parliament Square.
With the folder in his hand, Murray heads toward the square right outside the Parliament building.
The artificial sunlight is warm and gentle; it's nearing midday in Eden time. The square, however, misses its usual hustle and bustle and is now cordoned off with light strips and autonomous machines that stand in the way to the entrance.
Apologies, Sir, but passage through here is temporarily prohibited.
...What's going on?
We've identified a technical issue on the Bridge of 13-C Module. With emergency maintenance underway now, all residents are prohibited from passing through.
Oh... but I actually need to head down to the Parliament Hall...
The temporary elevator on the left can take you up. You can head down to the hall from there.
Right, of course. Thank you.
The elevator is packed with staffers trying to go to the Parliament.
While waiting for the elevator to arrive, Murray overhears a conversation.
What's up with all the emergency maintenance these days?
Last time something like this happened, I literally had to walk around Babylonia to get to where I wanted to go...
It's just a cover-up...
A worker lowers his voice.
Some resident caused a scene and triggered Babylonia's autonomous alarm system in the process. They've sent some orderlies over to take care of it.
The guy said the Punishing Virus is a conspiracy that the World Government came up with to control everyone. He went on to say that Earth was long gone, and that Babylonia was well on its way to another planetary system.
That's absurd... We just saved a whole bunch of refugees from down there a while ago!
Ain't nothing we can do about that. It's a closed chamber up here and people only listen to what they believe in.
There are even people who know nothing about the recent earthquake and the damage it's done but think we're winning the war... Boy, the data is brutal, to say the least.
What happened to the guy, though?
Heard the guy is a retired commandant... He came down with symptoms of M.I.N.D. damage and refused to believe in any visual recordings they showed him. He took the weapon from one of the orderlies, rushed down to the hangar, and tried to fly an aircraft back to Earth.
I saw him a few days back at Star of Life. He wasn't doing well then, but I never thought he'd lose himself altogether...
Speaking of which, many retired soldiers seem to be having mental health issues lately...
...Something seems a little off here.
Boy, I've been feeling pain in my head for quite some time now... It's probably got to do with lack of sleep, but I guess you wouldn't know how it feels since you don't ever need to sleep.
Wrong, my friend. We still sleep when we should.
...
After getting off the elevator, Murray heads straight down to the meeting room, which is located at the very end of the corridor.
...
At the end of the corridor stands someone Murray has never met. Hearing Murray's footsteps, the person turns around this way.
For a moment, she seems caught off guard—before the wary look on her face quickly turns into a radiant smile.
She doesn't seem exactly adept at masking her feelings.
Hi...
Moments later, Murray recalls a name that matches the face.
Sica—the student who recently graduated as Chief of her class at F.O.S. While Murray has never interacted with her, he hears about her every now and then from Task Force's Constructs.
Unlike the previous Chiefs, however, Sica is under fire because of some controversy.
Commandant Sica.
Murray greets Sica with a polite smile. Sica quickly greets Murray back, apparently having been caught by surprise.
Oh my, Sir! I didn't expect you'd still remember my name... Oh, just call me "Sica", if you don't mind. The honorific actually makes me feel a little uncomfortable...
Scratching her head, Sica tries to put herself at ease.
But you deserve all the respect as a Chief.
And it just hit me... that I didn't graduate from F.O.S. myself.
Looking slightly uneasy, Murray changes the topic.
I see you came to pay Commander Nikola a visit. What's the matter?
Right. I actually came to submit my application for a surface mission... It's been approved without hiccups, fortunately, and I was just on my way to the hangar.
—Murray can tell the process must have been anything but easy from the look on her face.
Smiling cheerfully, Murray gives Sica the thumbs up.
Good luck with the mission.
Thank you. I'll do my best!
"This is your last chance, Sica," says Sica quietly to herself as she turns around to leave.
...
Parting ways with Sica, Murray paces down the corridor until he reaches the room at the end—through the crack of the door, he can see a solemn figure standing by the window.
Taking a light breath, Murray knocks on the door.
Come on in.
There is still an hour to spare until the adaptation test of the day starts, but Lee already finds himself in the Science Council's classified laboratory.
Asimov, on the other hand, sits in the middle of countless projector screens as usual, frowning at the ever-changing data before him.
Behind him is a chamber partitioned by bulletproof glass walls, with several pods storing Construct frames lined in parallel. The pods are empty—except for one that holds a frame.
The pod is cordoned off with red light strips, telltale of how important and dangerous the frame inside the pod is.
...You're early.
We're still in the middle of fine-tuning the equipment and initializing the frame here, which is going to take a while.
I know. I actually came for something else.
With it, Lee puts a memory drive on the table in front of Asimov.
I came across some data, and... I have a new hypothesis about the "Heteromer Shards".
Meeting no objection from Asimov, Lee inserts the memory drive into the system and opens up several encrypted files.
Punishing... Language...
Seeing these words, Asimov jumps to his feet.
These... are data left out of Kurono's trial record, and I'm also seeing the part missing from Shome's research data that's been retrieved... How did you get your hands on these?!
Do you still remember how there was a data anomaly from the 20th adaptation test that happened because a wrong parameter was used for enemy simulation?
I do, and that's because whoever was in charge back then screwed up by adding the data of a Heteromer Shard... Wait, is it because of that garbled message?
With a nod, Lee pulls out a code on the screen.
This is no garbled message, but an encrypted message that you can only decrypt with a special key, which I did a week ago.
And the key is?
...
I'm afraid I can't tell you what it is just yet until I have all my points of concern sorted out.
...Right. Well, tell me what you saw in there first, then.
Babylonia, 01:00 p.m.
Walking out of the Parliament, Murray lets out a sigh of relief.
Nikola stopped questioning him about his source of information after that, which in turn made it easier for his "work" to progress.
With the issue off his back, Murray now feels more cheerful than ever.
...I'm not going to look into your source of information, as I said.
But I do still want you to keep in mind that everything you've done will mean absolutely nothing if you ever get busted.
Thank you so much, Commander. I'm just doing my job.
With a mixture of emotions in his expression, Nikola keeps his gaze on a smiling Murray and the black folder sitting squarely on the table.
With your complete trust, I now see it as my duty to do the best I can.
I have the original now. You are to categorize the rest of "it" as a "Mission Recycled File" through the special channel like you always do.
They'll know what to do with it.
Of course.
The rest of it...
...should help make Lee's frame more compatible.
For all he cares, anything could go wrong—but this. After all, he wants more than anything to be of help to Lee.
He vividly remembers the time when he could do nothing but watch as Lee soldiered on, carrying the weighty burden of life, and that time felt like an eternity.
Lee would always tell him that things would get better in no time—except what he said was mostly just lies.
Murray looks up at Eden's midday sunny sky.
Thanks to the artificial sun, Eden is perpetually sunny with blue skies. When Murray recalls his times with Lee, however, their memories together would always begin with one certain night from many years ago.
It was right after Lee started working that high-paying job as an engineer that Murry found that his brother became very busy—to the point that he stopped coming home on time.
There were times when Lee would come home early and amaze Murray with all sorts of obscure but interesting engineering knowledge.
Very often, though, Lee would leave home with some weird boxes late at night when Murray was fast asleep, and then come back home again by dawn, before Murray woke up.
It wasn't something Murray was aware of to begin with—until one day a celebration was held for the first time in years downtown where they lived.
The day wasn't exactly ideal for holding a celebration because it seemed on the verge of rain—except it never rained, and the celebration took place as planned.
The celebration lasted late into the night. For the entire time, Murray was waiting for Lee to come home to go to the celebration together, but he never did because of work.
Murray took his medicine before going to bed. When he next opened his eyes, he heard the bangs of fireworks and the hubbubs of people out there.
Uhm... Lee?
From the crack beneath the door that opened into Lee's room, Murray was seeing light. As far as Murray could remember, though, Lee never closed his door.
So Murray got off his bed, tiptoed to the doorway, and pushed the door ajar ever so lightly.
Through the crack, Murray could see Lee. Sitting by his workbench, Lee was calmly wrapping a roll of gauze around his arm.
...
The table was strewn with used pieces of gauze and all sorts of homeostatic medications—each of which was as red as blood itself, horrifying a young Murray to no end.
It hurt. It's got to hurt, and Murray knew that it's got to hurt more than when he himself came down sick, yet Lee didn't even let out so much as an ouch, as though he was perfectly used to it.
Against the ear-splitting bangs of fireworks out there, Lee didn't notice that his door was ajar.
The next morning, Lee woke Murray up as usual—and showed Murray a gift as he apologized for not being able to make it to the celebration with him.
Looking at Lee, Murray wasn't able to ask any of the questions he wanted to ask.
It hit him that, as he was then, he wasn't able to help Lee at all. Rather, he was one of the things that caused Lee to worry.
It wasn't until Murray saw a long sealed-away Construct dossier in the Babylonia database that Murray finally learned about what Lee had to go through.
The weight of every single word bone-deep, the dossier was a testament to Lee's suffering Murray has never been able to let go of ever since.
Would things have turned out any differently if he had walked into Lee's room that night? Would what he had to say to Lee have stood a chance of changing his mind, if he had found what Lee had been doing just a little sooner?
All the what-ifs, however, mean absolutely nothing; Lee has never stopped moving, and to really be of any help to Lee, Murray has to catch up to Lee.
Which is why he has jumped at every possible chance to get his hands on any resources there were, no matter how slim the chance. There is no going back now, and he has to make sure everything goes as planned.
Murray couldn't be there for Lee when Lee was going through all the suffering—so he promised himself to always be there for Lee going forward, no matter what might stand in the way...
Tightening his grip around the dossier, Murray turns around and heads toward the Science Council.
