He found it interesting. . . standing there as he surveyed the still burning wreckage of the airship Vendetta. It's a wonder how the large, several hundred foot monstrosity had made it this far into the canyon; but it's even more amazing that over 80 percent of the 37 man crew was still alive.
"Inspector Illia!!!" a young man said from the southern direction. Jonas Marks, the inspector figured. . . remembering that he was to be expecting an intern one of these days. Still, this one arrived rather swiftly. . . they usually take about 2 weeks longer than they should to find him. Maybe this one actually had a half of a brain.
"Marks?" Alfred Illia asked, as he slowly half-turned to face the approaching youth. This one wasn't as heavyset as the last intern he had received from the home office in Arillia, but that wasn't saying much.
The younger man came to a rest as soon as Inspector Illia engaged him. This man was definitely not heavyset, but rather, he was actually somewhat scrawny for his age. "Inspector Illia, my name is Jonas Marks. . . I am fro--"
"I know who you are." Alfred said flatly in his deep, sharp, aged voice, interrupting the potentially long speech from his new intern, "Tell me, Jonas. . . how did you find me so quickly?"
This question caught Jonas off guard, "Um, err, w-well. . . I was listening to the CAF (Collective Array Frequency) and I-I heard about the crash. . . so I figured you'd be here, it's what you do, after all."
That was right, Alfred figured. . . it was his job-- well, sort of, anyway. He was, as mentioned earlier, an inspector. . . but what he inspected was. . . of a rather different sort. 62 years ago an occurrence happened in the space station Nalidia. It's crew had been assigned to research the effects of 'Mana Synthesis in a Zero Matter Environment'. The Project was reaching it's final stages when a problem occurred in the navigational computer.
Lt. Lilia Vanoa was the lead researcher on the site, and consequentially the only survivor. At the time, she was refueling SANS 31-I (one of the many defense pods that orbited Nalidia and protected it from sabotage) on the port side of the giant Research Cruiser. Within seconds after she had completed her task, her maintenance craft's sensors detected high amounts of radiation pouring from nearly every entrance of the ship. Then. . . after 4 minutes of dead silence, the radiation was completely gone.
When the young Lieutenant reboarded the ship to investigate, she found the entire crew dead, completely and utterly destroyed by the heat; there was not a single survivor. It was about at that time that the ship's autopilot took control of the ship, sending it straight into the Vertiga Ocean.
Lt. Vanoa escaped, of course. . . there being an apparent abundance of escape pods left on the ship; and her report was soon formed and released to the public. . . unfortunately, it was not to be the last of it's kind.
That's what brought Alfred Illia to this current situation. . . a major in Psyology (the study of matter altering waves emitted by the human brain) and Psychology from the Military College of Al Chora in the West, Alfred took a strong interest in this phenomena that had come to be called Vanoa's Curse, the same phenomenon that plagued Nalidia some 60 odd years ago.
After all this time, the cause of "Vanoa's Curse" is still quite unknown. . . the only thing really known about it is that, on occasion, for no apparent reason, the mana-fueled engine drives that power all large vehicles such as airships and spacecraft suddenly send a weird form of radiation throughout the ship. They do this by using the power supply cables, effectively killing everything organic inside. . . like a microwave. But that's not the only weird part about the supposed curse. . . it only seems to occur on ships that are equipped with a conventional or emergency auto-pilot feature; that and the fact that it happens on all types of craft; regardless of type, use, manufacturer, maintenance, and mana type.
Normally, these occurrences only happen about twice a year to unrelated craft. . . but, recently they've been occurring twice a month, and when the crash sites are put together, a disturbing pattern is formed. All of the crashes seem to take place in a crude spiral. . . centering on the original Nalidia crash site, out in the violent seas of Vertiga.
Inspector Illia, the now foremost expert on these cases, had been assigned by the Hallitora Central Investigation Office 3 years ago to "discover the cause of Vanoa-related accidents in Airshipping traffic and neutralize the problem if at all possible". And now he found himself here, at Naota Canyon, staring down this new intern. . . who didn't really come across as impressive, in the detective's eyes.
"Humph, you sure are a bright one, aren't ya?" Alfred muttered with exasperated sarcasm as he turned back to the wreckage.
"Is it. . . Vanoa, again?" Jonas stuttered as he took a place next to his new mentor.
"Probably not." Alfred muttered, his eyes scanning across the wreckage at the aptly bodied survivors that were now sifting through the ruins of their still burning chariot, "See them? They're still alive. . ."
"W-which means, it wasn't Vanoa! Right? I-I mean she kills all of her victims!" the intern started, before quickly stopping; due to the very harsh look given to him by Mr. Illia.
"First of all, I will NOT tolerate that superstitious bullshit. There is no 'SHE' involved, this is NOT a curse. . . merely a phenomenon. And it is our job to discover what that is!" the dark haired, thicker built, 43 year old man scolded as he promptly went back to his survey, ". . . now here is what I want you to do, Mr. Marks."
"Yeah?" the bright green-eyed 21 year old man said, pushing his glasses up his nose discreetly with the back of his index finger.
"I want you to find the Captain of this ship for me. . . I have some questions. . ."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"So. . . what you're telling me is. . . that the ship TOLD you to evacuate!? Is that not correct?" Alfred said, sitting at the makeshift Captain's table; that was set up inside a tent that the crew was using as a temporary refuge.
"I know it sounds weird--" Captain Mark LaFuere began to retort--before being interrupted by Alfred's fist, crashing into the desk.
"It sounds insane! Look, if you do not tell me EXACTLY what happened in that ship, RIGHT now! I will PERSONALLY have you court-marshaled!!!" the Investigator said in a rough, harsh voice.
"I-I'm not lying to you, sir! Right after the system crashed the alarm system went off! I'm the only person that can order an evacuation!!! Who else could do it, if not the ship itself!?!"
Alfred stared the man directly in the eye, and then sat back down, his emotional level set back down to it's usual calm, ". . . and you are telling me that the auto-pilot managed to maneuver itself into the canyon. . . without ANY help?"
"That's right. . . it did things-- I've never seen done in an airship. . ." the Captain responded.
"Ha! I'll bet! I-I mean look at that positioning!!!" Marks piped up boldly and suddenly from the doorway, holding a silver data-pad in his left hand.
"Marks. . . sit down, what were you doing out there?" Illia said sharply, glancing down at the blue and black NeoTech Data-pad.
"Oh, I was just analyzing the Mana frequencies. . . but--"
"Did you find something of interest, Jonas?" Alfred queried, analyzing the look on Jonas' sweaty face.
". . . that's what I came in here to talk about!" the youth said excitedly, catching himself just before he broke into a yell. "That ship. . . it's mana frequency is not one that you'd find here. . . or anywhere for that matter!"
"I can explain that." Captain LeFuere piped up, glancing between both of the other men in the tent. . . "You see, we were carrying a shipment of Aegis Mana that we picked up in Cordia and well. . . we had used much more Titan than we had expected and--"
"And you used Aegis in it's place? Grrrr, you DO realize that is extremely illegal, don't you!?!" Alfred barked, glaring angrily at the young officer.
"Yes. . . I do. But I had no choice. . . you see, we couldn't have stopped. . . we have important 'cargo'."
". . . and what 'cargo' would that happen to be?" the detective said in cynical tones as his dark brown eyes bore deeply into the Captain's own.
"Noble Maiden Darla was with us. . ."
"What do you mean, 'was'?" Illia eyed suspiciously, glancing over at Marks, who possessed an equally interested expression.
"Well. . . we couldn't find her after the crash. . ." the Captain answered, before staring down at the ground.
"Tch. . . who cares?" Illia, a seasoned vet of the 'Ingron War' (a small border conflict that occurred 15 years ago, over a then-new type of mana called "Ingron") he didn't have time to care about the loss of a person, not even a Noble Maiden, "What I'm concerned about is your Mana Drive. . . I assume since you were still operating when you made the addition, that there was still Titan in the drive, is that not correct?"
"There was a little. . ." the Captain started, before being again interrupted by the elder investigator.
"Do you know what happens when you mix Mana?" Alfred asked, not masking the annoyance in his voice, knowing that the Captain had no real legitimate idea.
"Well. . . um. . . don't the two type negate each other?"
"NO. . . when you mix Siren (water mana) and Titan (earth mana) they negate each other. . . but you didn't do that. . . you mixed Aegis with Titan!!!" Alfred scolded, strongly irritated with the lack of responsibility displayed by these 'kids'.
"Well, what happens when you do that?" the Captain asked, his young face red from the embarrassment of being verbally disciplined.
"That the thing!" Illia shouted, his eyes piercing those of LeFuere's, "NOBODY knows what happens!!! Aegis is a healing mana, it possesses NO elemental qualities of it's own, and it's purpose is to repair and replace damaged cells, it's not MADE for synthesis. . . it's not even supposed to be used on Airships!!! Now, Titan mana on the other hand, is HIGHLY combustible, like most elemental mana, and it was MADE to work in your drives." Speeches like these annoyed Alfred. . . it made him remember his short tutorship at the Academy, he hated teaching.
"I think I understand what you're saying. . . but putting that aside, what do you think happened? Was it the Vanoa Effect?" the Captain asked, his face still red from the lecture.
Again, Jonas Marks pipped up, "I can answer that for you. . . as I was scanning the Vendetta I came across something very interesting; when I got to checking your inner plating, I found that it had mana radiation scars. There was no radiation left, of course, Mana Radiation is very fleeting. . . but I'm sure that it was Vanoa's handiwork, no doubt about it!" he boasted, suddenly catching and scolding himself. . . for referring to the phenomenon as an entity again.
Besides the stupid remark about Vanoa, Alfred found himself becoming increasingly impressed by this young man. . . silently praising the Main Office for sending a person that possess some measure of competence, Illia's mind returned to studying the current information; the elder investigator sighed, "You are free to leave, Captain. . . I will decide later whether or not to mention this in my report. . ."
"Of course, Sir." the Captain replied, quickly rising from his chair. . . signs of relief were apparent all over his face.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Later. . . as the two investigators wrapped up their findings. . . Alfred and Jonas began to walk back to Alfred's car. . . Jonas had taken a relief transport to the scene, but it had already left hours ago.
"So. . . what do you think, Mr. Illia?" the younger, blond-haired man asked as he walked alongside his aging counterpart.
"Hmmm, well I know for certain that they were, in fact, washed in radiation. . . due to you findings." he said, noting the silent pride that suddenly appeared on his intern's face, "My guess that the radiation consisted of few Titan waves, but many more Aegis waves-- from reading the ship's logs I found that they really used an ass-load of the shipment. . . so I figure that it was, in fact, the Vanoa Effect. . . what I don't understand is all of the strange readings that suddenly appeared at the end of the logs." he sighed again, "Well, it's getting late, we had better head back to my place. . . we'll go to Arillia in the morning, we'll need to analyze these findings."
"Of course, Sir." Jonas responded as he started to walk around to the other side of the car.
"Oh, and one more thing." Alfred said, catching the attention of the youth, "No more of this 'Mr.' or 'Sir' crap. . . this is going to be a long investigation. . . now get in the car, let's go. . ."
"Of course. . . errr--"
"Alfred. . . call me Alfred."
"Heh. . . alright, AL. . . let's go home." Jonas said with a joking smile.
Inspector Illia merely let out a humored snort as he started the car. . . and started to drive across the wasteland.