Tasriel
I know that Sarah’s family is crashingly rich, but I often forget why they are so rich. Still, did not expect that she’d just waltz right in to a fucking military base of all pces, and I definitely didn’t expect that they’d just let me in like that.
Taking a look out of the car's windows, Norah saw what was on the other side of the center’s walls for the first time. Heavily armored transport trucks, tanks & aerodynes all neatly parked around the pce, 5 meter tall mechs carrying crates and containers around, and rge amounts of soldiers in power armor along with a few suits and b coats sprinkled in amongst the military personnel.
With the kind of people around this pce, I’m about as out of pce as it can get… but then again, Sarah isn’t someone you’d expect to see here either, at least at a gnce.
Looking over to Sarah, she noticed that she still has the same neutral happy face as when they departed from BTG.
Makes sense that she is used to this, considering what her family does for a living…
They pulled into a parking lot, and parked in front of a metallic building with a view to the harbor, and the brand new Gunnug css.
“There we go... Follow me, alright?”
“Uhh, yeah. I’ll do that.”
Of course I’m gonna follow her. I’m obviously not gonna wander around a military base uninvited without company. That’d absolutely be a terrible idea.
They both got out of the car, and began walking towards the building, where an older man was speaking to another guy in an SMB uniform. The older man noticed them, and looked their way.
“Ah, there you are, my little Sarah!.. Oh? There she is.”
The familiar old guy, Alfonse Kromberg, is one of the richest people in Scandinavia and the founder of Kromberg Tung Industri. And he is now staring directly at Norah.
Uhh... He was expecting me? huh?
“Seems like you brought Norah along, eh? Well, the new Gunnug is quite a marvel to look at. Make sure to keep an eye on her, eh?”
“Ok, papa!”
Right, that’s her dad.
However, the SMB guy he was talking to earlier suddenly interjected.
“Letting your kid and her friend run around a military base without a handler… That seems a little irresponsible, no? They’re bound to stumble into something they aren’t supposed to, possibly something dangerous.”
Ya, that’s quite the valid concern. Kinda weird that no one here thought of that until now, though, just letting us drive right in like it’s no big deal…
Alfonse turned to the SMB guy.
“Yes, that may be a cause for concern. How about assigning one of the soldiers to them? Most preparations for the Gunnug css are complete, and some of them could use an extra task, no?”
The SMB guy thought for a second. “Well, it’s certainly better than nothing. Let’s see…”
Suddenly, the SMB agent spoke to no one in particur.
“KS, I need an escort for two civilians who are touring the Gunnug css. One is a VIP, the other her guest.”
Huh. Communication magic, maybe?
The SMB guy stood there for a few seconds, before…
“...Good. Hm? Huh… Wait, what!? That shouldn’t be possible, our scanners are military grade… No, I haven’t heard of any project like that…”
The SMB agent suddenly walked up to Norah, and stared down at the significantly shorter girl.
“Huh… The plot thickens, then…”
“Huh? What?”
Whoah, and now he’s suddenly all up in my personal space!
Stepping back slightly, Norah was now up close and personal with this SMB guy. Suddenly, he reached out and poked her shoulder, before immediately recoiling as Norah felt magicules flow into the void within her.
“!!The fuck!?”
The SMB guy, visibly spooked by whatever just happened, stared at Norah for a few seconds.
“...Well, I’ll be damned. Never seen or heard of anything like that before. Got any idea what’s going on with you, kid?”
“Uhh… No… I..”
“Come on then.” the SMB guy said, verbally nudging her along.
“W-Well, I know a… a little bit. I can’t execute spells properly without getting this weird chill, and I absorb magicules when people touch me… I mean, I’ve got a doctor’s appointment, so they are going to get it che-”
“Hold on a second there. Whatever’s up with you blocked a military grade scanner. Do you even get how crazy that is? Even just considering that alone, it’s something quite significant that we really should know about before you entered this pce… However, from the way you are describing it, your little scanner blocking phenomena might be some sort of magic based anomaly, which instantly makes things significantly worse. Because of all these factors, I cannot in good faith let a giant unknown magical anomaly like you waltz around on a brand new battleship. Not just for our safety, but for yours as well. Us two are going to get you checked out right this instant, and we are going to figure out what’s going on here, alright?”
“Uhh… Sure.”
Alfonse turned to the two while stroking his beard with his metallic hand. “Now, that’s something new… Say, when did these… effects occur? Last time you visited my little Sarah, you seemed perfectly healthy…”
“I’m not little, papa…” Sarah sighed. “Like you’re ever going to realise that…”
“Now, now! You will always be my little girl, no matter what happens!” Alfonse walked up to Sarah and stroked her hair.
The SMB guy interjected. “Sir. We've got a little situation here to tend to, yes?”
“Right. As I was saying, the few times I have seen her recently, she seemed perfectly healthy, and did not have the strange effects she is apparently experiencing.”
The SMB guy turned to Norah. “Right, when did you begin experiencing these effects?”
“Uhh… Since st weekend?”
“Hmm…”
“...”
Sarah, looking more and more worried as the conversation carried on, spoke to her father. “...Is everything going to be alright?”
Sarah’s father continued to pat her on the head. “Now, now… Everything is going to be fine. The SMB are the best of the best, and they will surely sort out your friend’s sudden little issue, alright?”
“Right… But what about the tour of the battleship?”
The SMB guy’s face turned thoughtful for a second. “Hmm… Yeah, she’s not going. Not much we can do about that, with security protocols and such.”
“Oh…”
Well, shit. Guess I don’t get to go look at a brand new battleship all up close and personal. Not that I was expecting any of this anyway.
“Either way, we should get going. Go ahead and follow me… Norah, right?”
“Right.”
Norah turned to Sarah before following the SMB agent.
“See you ter, I guess.”
“Uhh, alright!.. Good luck? Something like that!”
The two walked away from the Krombergs as they went deeper into the center.
△▽△▽△
“Uhh… What’s a kid like her doing in here?”
“Dunno, but she is being escorted by the SMB. Must be something important and way above our pay grade.”
The two soldiers snickered for a second. “Probably, heh.”
All the soldiers are looking at me funny… Yep. Definitely not supposed to be here. At least not under normal circumstances.
Norah was following the SMB guy through the central complex of the center as they walked up to a heavily reinforced door with two soldiers guarding it. The scanner above the door activated, and scanned the two standing before the door.
After the scan finished, one of the guards, probably the one managing the scanner, let out a sudden “Huh?”, and dispyed a confused expression that was hidden behind the thick metal of his helmet.
“Don’t worry about the funny scanner readings. It’s the reason I’m taking her here anyway.”
The soldier stood there for a second, mentally processing what was going on.
“Uhh… Right. Whatever you say, sir. Come on through.”
The metal door slid open with an audible clunking sound as the reinforced mechanisms moved the giant brick of reinforced metal out of the way. Immediately after the door clicked into pce, the SMB guy continued walking, with Norah following him shortly after.
“So, uhh… Where are you taking me? What’s going on?”
The SMB guy paused for a second. “Well… I’m taking you to a little experimental project of ours. Before we continue, and if you want me to answer your question, then I must make one thing clear first: Do not touch anything you aren't told to. And especially no taking things. Stealing government property is a serious crime, and could even be considered treason, as with any other theft of items reted to experimental SMB projects. Understand?”
Whoah, treason, scary!
“U-understood… sir.”
“Right, good. Well, to answer both your questions, we are taking you to an experimental ultra high power scanner to have you thoroughly scanned. Afterwards, you will be questioned by yours truly. Understood?”
I am tempted to, but I absolutely won’t be saying “and if I refuse?” cause I know that’s not a good idea in this kinda situation.
“Y-ya…”
“Good. Right, let’s get this over with, shall we?”
“Uhh, ya, alright…”
The two proceeded further into the complex, finally arriving at a gss sliding door that led into a rge room with a massive machine in the middle.
“Right. Just go ahead and sit on the chair in the machine, and make yourself comfortable.”
“...”
Whoah, just look at that thing. A lot of the internals are exposed, probably since it’s a prototype, but… since when did a scanner need that many giant capacitors?
“Uhh… Sir?”
The SMB guy turned to Norah as he stepped through the now open gss door. “Yes?”
“You said that it’s a prototype, right?”
“Right.”
“And it has at least 20 of those giant capacitors attached to it, right?”
“Oh, you’ve got a good eye. That’s right. And?”
“...Wouldn’t that blow me into a million tiny pieces if something malfunctioned and the energy went the wrong way?”
The SMB agent paused for a second, before motioning for Norah to follow as he walked around to the side of the massive machine. As Norah followed, she got a better look at what the capacitors were connected to.
Going off looks alone… A power connection, a massive, proprietary power supply of some kind, the capacitors, and… What were those again? Going off the info that this thing is a mega-scanner of some kind, probably emission arrays. But they are also connected to what looks like some sort of computer with significantly smaller cables, so maybe dual purpose emission/collector arrays? Hold on… Huh…
“Huh. Even if the capacitors overload the emission arrays and they explode, they’d just harmlessly bounce off the armored walls around the seat?”
The SMB guy was visibly surprised by her answer. “Well well well, looks like someone knows their stuff. That’s right. Which makes this big guy quite safe, even if it does decide to get explosive. Though we have tested it at up to 500% of the rated energy throughput, and it managed to survive without rapidly and explosively disassembling itself, so it’s quite unlikely that it’ll malfunction and explode itself. Either way, do you go to a technical school or something?”
“Uhh… yeah, BTG.”
“I see, still a gymnasium kid, huh?.. Either way, deducing that those are emission arrays is quite something for a mere student, especially since they look nothing like normal arrays on ordinary scanners.”
“Wouldn’t they also be collector arrays? I don’t see any specialized collector arrays, and they are connected to what I assume is the computer…”
“Yeah, quite a swanky design that the b coats cooked up there. Managed to get around energy leak interference with microscopic emitters, and somehow made the power supply stable and precise enough to not immediately explode the tiny things under their massive energy throughput, while making the collector array part significantly bigger so that it doesn’t experience much interference. Of course, there will always be some errors with a design like that, so there has to be some AI to filter out the bad data… But hey, at least this design doesn’t completely rely on AI like the ordinary emitter/collector array, right?”
“Ya, stuff can get quite inaccurate when you just use AI to interpote your data from an error-prone mess. Don’t get me wrong, AI is nice, but overusing it is just zy and sloppy, along with messing up your data.”
“Man, I get that. A lot of new engineers think that AI is some sort of silver bullet that will solve all their problems, and then when it gets data from their subpar data collection, it of course gives subpar results… Wait, if you’re still a gymnasium kid, then how the heck do you know about all this? It feels like I'm talking to an actual engineer...”
“!..Uhh…”
Shit, I really got into it and the conversation kept going… What do I say here?
Luckily for Norah, a guy in a bcoat came walking into the room.
“This the one you were talking about, J?rgen?”
The SMB guy, now known to be J?rgen, turned around to look at the b coat guy. “Right, yeah. She’s the one. With the scanner anomaly, and all that.”
The b coat guy turned to look at Norah. “Right… Well, go and sit yourself down in the scanning chamber.”
“R-Right.”
Phew, saved!.. I’ll probably still have to expin that afterwards, though…
Norah walked off towards the seat, walking over a metal bridge before taking a seat in the LED lit chamber.
“Right. It is going to feel strange, but do not resist it. You will be showered in high-intensity magicule radiation, and while that may sound dangerous, it is entirely harmless in short bursts, which is how this scanner operates.”
Thus, the capacitors. I see.
“In the event of catastrophic failure, the reinforced walls will absorb any excess magicule radiation, keeping you safe. Do you understand?”
“Uhh, ya. Go ahead and begin, doc.”
“...Right.”
The slightly grumpy b coat guy walked over to a terminal in a shielded room, and began typing on a keyboard. Suddenly, mechanical sounds began coming from every direction as the metal bridge pulled back, and the area she entered through closed with more reinforced walls and emitter/collector arrays behind them.
Suddenly, a distinct buzzing sound began as tingly pulses rapidly spread through Norah’s body.
Whoah! ‘Strange’ is quite the understatement…
However, as suddenly as the sensation began, it stopped as the mechanical humming sounds around her began lowering in volume. Immediately after, the… for the ck of a better word, “door”, untched with an audible ‘clunk’, it began moving back down, letting the metal bridge extend back to the scanning chamber.
“Whoah…”
J?rgen called out to Norah from the other side of the bridge. “Pretty neat, right?”
“Well, it’s certainly something…”
The b coat guy walked out of the room with a couple of cans of f?xe-kondi. “The computer and AI will take a minute or two to sort through the data. Care for a drink?”
“Sure.” Norah said, as she took the f?xe-kondi and cracked the metal can open to consume the soda within.
f?xe kondi, huh?.. Hmm, it says “skapt i Danmark!” on it… Guess they also have it in Norway in this world, huh? Which kinda makes sense, with how the Kalmar Federation seems to mix shit together a lot more compared to the Scandinavia of my past life…
“Right. Now that that’s over with, we will have a look at the data and figure out what’s going on with you. We’ll get back to you once the data is processed into something readable. Now, how about I get you back out on the street?”
“...That would be nice. Let’s go.”
“Aye aye.”
The two began walking out of the room, leaving the bcoat guy to figure out the data.
And as they were leaving the room with the giant scanner…
“Shit, this data is all sorts of fucked. So that’s why the thing did so many fucking scans…”
The bcoat guy got to work getting the data into a usable state as the other two left the room.
△▽△▽△
“And she just took you straight to the navy center? Without telling you first as if it was the most normal thing in the world? Damn, I know an airhead or two, but that’s on another level entirely.”
“Right? I thought we were just going to go to the waterfront to have a look at it from a distance along with all the other normal people, but nope. Straight into the military base, of all pces.”
The two, an older SMB guy and a young civilian girl, walked through the navy center to make their way out of the pce.
“Heh, quite a situation to find yourself in. Well, at least it’s over now, right?”
“Right… Not exactly a fun experience, I’ll say that much. But hey, at least I am getting answers to what is going on with my body.”
J?rgen looked thoughtful for a second. “Yeah… Not everyday you see someone completely block a scan like that. From a military grade scanner, no less. Heck, even the big guy in the basement had a bit of trouble with you.“
The two approached the gate to the outside, as J?rgen walked up to the guard standing on the inside.
The guard, upon spotting J?rgen, nodded as he said “Sir.”
“Right, then. Time for you to skedaddle. We’ll contact you through e-box when we find something.”
“Right. Thank you.”
As Norah turned to leave, J?rgen said one st thing.
“Have a good day!”
“Same to you.”
Tasriel
