Another World
Summary : A man found himself in another world. Can he survive and go back to his world?
Rating : T
Genre: Adventure
Disclaimer: I don't have Ar Tonelico series, its characters, anything, duh.
Chapter 38 = Last Delivery
"Talks"
'Thoughts'
*Sound Effects*
21:00 Grand Bell Palace
Gilbert walks to Frelia's room, heeding Shun's call. He's accompanied by the rest of the party except Jacqli, whose probably still inside the room that he's headed right now.
"Uh...Why did you all come with me? Shouldn't you guys get some rest now? Especially you Lady Cloche. No offense, but don't you have a speech to prepare?"
"I appreciate your concern, but tomorrow's speech is not something that I can prepare. In fact, going with you will reduce my anxiety better than thinking what words to say for tomorrow. Do you understand?"
"... If you say so," Gilbert opens the door and finds Frelia still telling them some information that no one can understand. Except maybe Hans, if he doesn't understand it, well...
"How about the people in your land? Have they-" The goddess stops talking when she sees Gilbert. "Here he is."
"Shun told me to come here. You've got all the information that you need?"
"...Actually, we're calling you here to send you the last supplies and equipments from us," Hans says. "Stand back."
They stay clear from the center of the room, and a laptop materialized.
"What's that?"
"That's your computer that you're previously requested...Or at least the data in it. We've moved all the data from the hard disk inside your computer to Billy's laptop, and we attach a solar panel on the top of it, so you don't have to worry about the power source."
"Wait, that's Billy's-"
"Yes, that's mine," The person in question responds from Hans laptop. "Consider it as a loan, okay? You have to keep it in good condition and return it when you get back to our world, okay?"
"Billy, you do realize that I probably won't coming back shortly-"
"You will come back and give that damn thing back to me one day, with your own hands. Get it?"
"...Thanks man."
Second item materialized into the room. An... armor or something.
"Introducing, M-2 Exoskeleton. Or as those goons at marine corps called, a 'suit.' It enhance your strength, mobility-"
"Wait, you have managed to create a powered armor!?"
"More like a 'powered suit', because that things is not really that armored. We have tested the earlier versions of the suits for many things, like for loading and unloading heavy stuff, helping disabled patients at hospitals... Problem is, we have to tether it to a power source, and our efforts to put a portable power supply into it doesn't meet satisfying result, since it won't last more than an hour... Until now, thanks to data that we're able to colle-"
Gilbert tries to wear the suit, but he can't even lift it.
"Oi, how heavy is this suit?"
"About 100 kilos, but once you're wearing it, you won't even feel the weight," Hans looks to Gilbert and Cocona, whose only managed to drag that suit. "Put that down, I'll tell you how to wear it. Seach a panel on the back of the body."
Gilbert feels up the back of the armor, and finds a small panel with numbers. Behind him materialize another item: a book.
"That's the manual for the suit, but to make things quick, type the code on the last page of that book."
He quickly opens it and types the number. Immediately, the suit detaches itself into six parts: legs, body, arms, and helmet. Now the weight is more manageable and Gilbert wears each parts until they all fit to his body, then it locks itself, shielding Gilbert inside. All the interface starts powering up.
"How do you feel Gilbert?" Laura asks. Gilbert moves his hands a bit.
"Nothing unusual... Oh, it's kind hot in here."
"Deal with it for now, I'll note that to the designers. Could be problematic if one has to wear it in hot region..." Hans write something on his notebook near him "Now, try to stand up."
Gilbert slowly moves his body and stands up. He moves his arms and his legs.
"You're right, I can't feel the suit's weight once it powers up. I don't feel powerful or something like to that effect..."
"Lift your weapons, and you'll notice the effect."
Gilbert takes all his weapons. Strangely, he doesn't feel the weight much unlike how he used to lift those without the suit.
"The helmet basically mirrored the features that your mechanical eye has, so you don't have to worry about your eye powers can't work while in that suit."
"Wait, isn't this suit a bit... Overkill for me? Since I keep myself mostly hidden when in battle and strike only when needed... Maybe Croix will use this suit more than me."
"Well... Croix, do you know how to speak 'English?'
"'Enggrish?' I don't know..." He looks puzzled.
"...Nope, only you can use it Gilbert. If we have enough time, maybe we can reprogram that suit, problem is..." Hans sighs. "Enough with the demonstration, more details can be found inside that manual. And finally..."
Laura takes the manual book and look inside: many words that she can't understand are written in the book.
'Maybe Gilbert can use this to teach me his language...'
Another laptop materialized into the room, but it has a different look than Billy's.
"Lady Frelia, this is a gift from our world. You have gifted us with lots of knowledge that we don't know, and here we value those knowledge really high. We don't know how to repay your kindness... So we send a device that contains almost ALL knowledge from this world that we know, since you showed a lot of interest in our world. We wish to learn more, but as you know..."
"Uhm... Thanks, but I don't know how to operate it..."
"Gilbert, would you help?"
The person takes the laptop and put it on the bed and push the power button. It was programmed with the language that she can understand.
"If you need any help with the device, consult with the helper program inside the device. We're sorry, we know that it can't fully satisfy your interest of our world, but..."
"This is enough, thank you," she smiles. Gilbert take his PDA from the end of the bed.
"I'll brief some news for you, and I'll be honest: not a really good one," Hans starts explaining.
"Please keep it simple, and in a language that I can understand."
"Don't worry. First, Lady Frelia doesn't know this teleportation device tech; maybe it's from different civilization, maybe its from an era before she was created... However, she shared her knowledge how her teleportation device works, so while we can't duplicate this teleportation device, we could create the Frelia's one."
"Sounds good. How long until you can create one?"
"That's the problem... Her devices, is a song magic, which is a wave science product, that might or might not work back at this world, since the rules of science in that world may be different from the rules of science in our world, this is evident by the lack of-
"Keep. It. Simple."
"...Basically, although we know how Lady Frelia's teleportation device works, our capability to recreate one is... questionable at best. If our interpretation is correct, their technology has reached where one can actually changes the physical structure of individual atoms-" He stops when notices that Gilbert stares through his PDA. "In short, we don't know how long you have to wait until we can create a teleporter. Maybe it would take months at best, or years, or generations..."
Gilbert lays his back on the wall, as if all his strength drained.
"Is there anything more that we can do to help?" Croix asks.
"Unfortunately, nothing. If only the effect of this...'hibernation' didn't reach our world, there won't be any preventive measure from the higher ups, and we can gather more about how technology in this world works..."
"Can I talk directly to your authority? I assure you, there won't be another harmful hymn from us. The worst that can happen now is... the fall of our land, which shouldn't be affecting your world, and therefore, you don't have to cut the connection," Lady Cloche tries to bargain with him.
"Sorry, but they can't ignore the fact that your world almost claimed our... 'souls,'" Hans shakes his head.
"Hey, Gilbert, technology marches on, they already know how to make the teleporter, now its only a matter of time until they make another one!" Billy yells at his friend.
"He's right," Josh also speaks. "I'm not someone who follows every new technology, but we have to admit that our technology grows fast. Remember many years ago, when the idea of personal communicator is only available in science fiction? Now, almost everyone on the earth has a mobile phone."
"I... Well, they have said what I want to say," Karen also talks to him.
"I know. You guys don't have to say it to me," Gilbert takes a deep breath. "So... This is a goodbye?"
"Ten minutes left. Yeah, this is a goodbye," Hans looks to the clock. "You want to open the channel until-"
"Close it now, I don't want to make it hard for us," Gilbert decides before Hans finishes his sentences.
"Fine," his hands moves, commanding some scientist behind him. "Don't lose hope Gilbert, we'll work as fast as we can."
"You hear that Gilbert? Don't lose ho-"
*Click!*
*CONNECTION LOST*
Silence fills the room for a few second, before Gilbert stands up and bows to Frelia.
"Thank you Lady Frelia for sparing some of your time."
"You don't have to bow, we're only helping with each other" she looks through his helmet, to his eyes. "It's better than staying here all day doing nothing."
"Well, let's head back, we need to get some rest for tomorrow," Gilbert and the others walks out from the room.
00000
*INCOMING SECURE MESSAGE, DECRYPTING...*
"Huh?"
The helmet interface flashing a message.
'LOOK UP'
He moves his eyes to the dark sky. The helmet responds again: it marks a tiny dot in the sky, and zooms it. The helmet shows a three dimensional schematic, detailing on the blurry object in the sky.
"Is that... A satellite?"
END OF CHAPTER 38