Gwen was no stranger to Sir Scott Plantin, the director of the Viplandon Observatory and the last director of the observatory. He had heard bits and pieces about the ancient Gondor from Diana, and he knew that it was Sir Scott who ordered Diana, who was then the guard of the observatory, to leave her post and flee to the north at the last moment. In the mind of the Ironman soldier, whose memory was fragmented, Sir Scott Plantin's image should be one of the few things that left the deepest impression on her.
She could not have mistaken him for someone else at this time.
Gwen's heart skipped a beat, and he instinctively took two steps closer to the phantom. On one hand, he wanted to confirm the appearance of the phantom, and on the other hand, he wanted to get closer to protect Diana. After all, this phantom had existed here for many years, and he did not know what kind of mental state it was in. When Kamel was first discovered, it was also in a state of chaos where it attacked indiscriminately.
Just as Gwen approached, there was a new change in the hazy light. The tall and blurry figure in the center of the light seemed to have awakened from its stillness, and a slightly indifferent mechanical voice came from it. "Door has been identified … Default contactor has been identified … Senior Guard Diana … Entering the setting process, starting to play the recorded data."
As the voice trailed off, the hazy light shrunk again, and the figure in the center of the light became clearer than before. The phantom of Sir Scott Plantin stood there, but his eyes did not fall on anyone. He looked straight ahead, past Diana, as if looking at a target that no longer existed. "Diana, long time no see … I don't know how much time has passed outside when you see this record, but since you can see it, it means that you are really back here. Among the several possibilities that Alphonse and I hypothesized, the biggest miracle has happened, you have opened the door to the observatory …"
"This is just an image record," Amber reacted and whispered. "I thought it was the same as Kamel back then …"
Diana did not seem to hear Amber's whisper. She just stared at the phantom in front of her and whispered subconsciously, "Sir Scott …"
But she did not continue because this was just an image left behind a long, long time ago, and it would not respond to her words. The real Sir Scott had probably left this world for many years.
She just wanted to know what kind of message her former master had left for her here, and whether this message had anything to do with the memory she had lost due to the malfunction.
A moment later, Sir Scott's phantom broke the silence. He looked straight ahead and spoke calmly as if he was reminiscing, "You should be surprised that after the disaster, there are still people in this observatory who survived … In fact, this is also beyond my expectation. An ancient artifact, which happened to be stored in the upper storage room of the observatory at that time, miraculously offset the terrible energy surge. Although only a part of it was offset, it allowed a small number of people in the observatory to survive.
"That artifact is part of the Vipranton meteorite shower of the past, which is what people call the 'extraterrestrial object'. Unfortunately, the wisdom of mortals seems to be insufficient to decipher its mysteries. Alphonse and I have studied it here for several years, but we still haven't figured out its operating mechanism and control method. The only thing we can do is to guide the enormous energy that it constantly releases, and with what little wisdom we have, we can build a small shelter in this terrible purgatory and try to survive as long as possible …" "That artifact is a part of the Vipranton meteorite shower.
"Now that thing is in the center of the sanctuary. You will see it later. When you see this message, we obviously don't need it anymore. I don't know what the situation outside is now. Has the earth been healed? Has the order of civilization been restored? This answer seems to be meaningless to me, but since you are back here, I hope everything is better …
"Diana, when I decided to leave this message, it had been twenty years since the disaster.
"At the beginning of the disaster, there were six people in the observatory who survived, but Mark and Melsana only lasted less than a month. They were eroded by fatal magic, and their bodies were seriously mutated. We had to end their suffering prematurely. Yulivan died in the second year. He … did not survive the transformation ceremony, and with his flesh and blood, he could not continue to survive in this predicament. Berlow had lasted longer than any of us. He had even lasted until three years ago. Now … Only Alphonse and I were left here. Many years ago, we had transformed ourselves into magic puppets of flesh and blood. This way, before the material that made up our bodies completely decayed, we could continue to move around. You know, the empire strictly forbids this evil magic. But what does it matter now?
"But even if we transform into life forms, our time is still limited. Alphonse and I can feel that our souls are gradually decaying in the flesh, so … maybe it's time to leave something behind.
"Diana, we don't know if you will really come back, and we don't know if you, as an 'iron man,' can successfully establish a foothold in the barren city-states and closed kingdoms in the north. We are not even sure if any country can survive this disaster, but we still decided to leave everything behind for you. This is the result of all our research in the past twenty years, and you … may be the only 'person' who can understand the meaning of it.
"We have deciphered the signal.
"Diana, do you still remember the signal? The signal that came into our sight a few years ago, frequently sounded in the night sky, lit up among the stars, and conveyed information to us in a wonderful coded way … We know what it is now. "
With Sir Scott's words, Gwen, who was listening quietly, suddenly felt his heart skip a beat. A signal that was transmitted among the stars with a wonderful coded signal. This made him suddenly think of something. At this moment, the illusion of Sir Scott took half a step back. He opened his hands and drew invisible lines in the air, and then a picture appeared in front of Diana.
Dots, radioactive lines, and rings were the pattern stored in the core of Diana's mind, and also the pattern engraved on the wall of the hall on the first floor of the observatory!
"This is the content we first received, and it is also the content we have received and repeated the most in the past few years." Sir Scott's deep voice sounded on the platform. "We have been trying to figure out what this pattern represents, and we boldly guessed that it may be some kind of design drawing, some kind of religious symbol, or some kind of occult symbol, but we were all wrong … It was not until Grand Scholar Alphonse used the power of extraterrestrial objects to open a crack in the sanctuary that we finally understood the true meaning of this picture. Diana, this pattern … it is actually a 'map,' a 'map' among the stars.
"Perhaps we should call it a 'star map'? Grand Scholar Alphonse thought of a good name. What it marks out is actually a star, and this star is right at the intersection of these lines. Have you noticed? Each of the dots at the end of the line represented a star that was blinking according to the C-26 standard frequency, and this ring … it was encircled around the only focal point of the radiation. It represented something man-made. Perhaps it was a mark, a 'characteristic item' that represented one's identity …
"And the only message this pattern conveys to us is that we are here!"
Sir Scott's illusion opened his hands, and his face was full of smiles as if he was making a declaration to the whole world. Although he was seven hundred years away from Gwen, Diana, and the others before the illusion, and although he was in a desperate situation when he left this message, and the world outside the sanctuary was falling apart, at this moment, he seemed to be burning with a blazing flame. The heat of the flame almost penetrated the barrier of seven centuries and scorched Gwen's face.
"They are there! They are at the focal point of those stars! " "Diana, this signal comes from between the stars, and just as we boldly speculated during an anniversary dinner, when Grand Maester Alphonse was chewing on barbecue and you were changing the alchemical oil for your brass core, Beyerlow stood up drunkenly and said, 'We may not be alone in this universe' …" "Yes, it's a signal from between the stars, and just like what we guessed during an anniversary dinner, Grand Maester Alphonse was chewing on a piece of barbecue while you were changing the alchemical oil for your brass core.
"We may not be alone in this universe! Diana, when we finally understood the meaning of this image, Alphonse, I, and Beyerlow, who was still alive at that time, were ignited with great enthusiasm. Although the outside world had fallen apart and the order of civilization seemed to have disappeared, in this small sanctuary, we still found work to continue as scholars of the stars, and this is the only work we can do here — deciphering all the signals received by Vipranton Observatory between 1730 and 1740 in Gondor! "
Sir Scott's illusion said loudly. He raised one hand, and a dense light curtain appeared in the air beside him. Countless light dots and lines jumped on the light curtain. They extended and connected in front of Gwen and the others, gradually forming basic geometric figures, mathematical symbols, and calculation formulas. This was the coded pattern that the Thorin Hub and the Austere Hub had received more than once, and it was also the "greeting" from between the stars that the Dragon God Enya had personally confirmed.
"This is their 'introduction' to themselves, the proof of their identity that is transmitted among the stars. They indicate their identity to every civilization that is capable of receiving signals in the standard language of mathematics, indicating that they are an intelligent civilization that can think logically and use the language of mathematics …"
Then, Sir Scott raised his other hand, and more complex information was condensed on the other side of the screen. It was a series of intricate characters that were completely different from any language on the Loren Continent.
"And these are their words, a 'letter' that they sent out in an attempt to communicate with other civilizations. Of course, when we first received this part of the signal and successfully converted it into a graph, we already realized this possibility. But for a long time, we didn't know how to decipher an 'alphabet' from a stranger out of thin air. Coupled with the large number of observation tasks undertaken by the observatory, the research work on 'extraterrestrial objects', and the tightening of investment and personnel in various research fields in recent years, we never had enough energy to pay attention to these mysterious alien symbols. But now, we have so much time, and Alphonse and I have finally uncovered the secrets of these words in the huge number of monitoring records …
"They come with their own 'explanations'. In the signals of those mathematical figures, there is a 'stamp' for the sending and ending of each geometric figure, which is used to correspond to a text description. The basic mathematical symbols, numbers, and operations also have corresponding annotations. In addition, these words themselves actually had a certain degree of 'self-explanatory' property. As long as enough samples were accumulated, and given enough time, an excellent linguist could slowly deduce their possible meanings … The combination of these two methods was enough to decipher half of the information, and slowly deduce the other half …
"I'm not an excellent linguist, but Baylor is. He completed 70% of the deciphering, and after he died, Alphonse and I completed the rest …"
"But unfortunately, even if we deciphered the words from the alien planet, we don't know how to establish contact with the civilization that sent the message. We don't understand the principle of signal transmission between the stars, and with the limited functions of the observatory, the only thing that Alphonse and I can be sure of is that the signal had undergone a 'second evolution' when it was transmitted to our planet.
"This process is very complicated to explain, but to put it simply, a high-energy, high-speed energy wave crossed the vast sea of stars and reached our planet. It reacted with the magic environment of our planet, and the waves released after the reaction were the information recorded by the observatory's listening system. This transmission method may have deliberately taken the 'receiving ability' of low-level civilizations into consideration, because low-level civilizations like us may not be able to capture the 'original pulse' of the signal. Correspondingly, it is extremely difficult to transmit such a signal that can travel quickly between the stars … "
"Of course, with the current situation, even if we know the principle of the signal transmission, it is meaningless. Most of the functions of the observatory have stopped, and there is only a terrible purgatory twisted in the chaotic magic outside the observatory. We have tried to contact other stations, and tried to explore further after putting up our defenses, but it was all in vain. There was no response, and no survivors … We have confirmed the collapse of the civilization, and in this situation, the knowledge we have … is probably meaningless.
"But Alphonse and I still have hope, because we are sure that you will escape safely, and will definitely come back here with a new partner one day in the future. And during one of our explorations, we found traces of people and facilities being violently demolished in Warehouse No. 2, northwest of Vipranton. This means that at least a group of survivors had passed by here and fled to the north …"
"We have fallen deep into this corrupted land, and we can only barely survive by relying on this small shelter. Leaving the observatory is a dead end, but the traces of the survivors have always kept Alphonse and me in hope, and we choose to believe in … the resilience of civilization.
"Diana, now is the twentieth year of the observatory's closure. After leaving this image, Alphonse and I will leave this shelter for the last time, and leave the 'star map' on the most conspicuous wall in the lower level of the observatory. Then we will return here, close the door, and never leave again. In the following time, Alphonse and I will accompany the stars above, and quietly wait for the final moment to come.
"Perhaps the next time someone comes here, no one will be able to understand the meaning of the star map in the hall on the first floor. It is even possible that until the observatory is completely destroyed, no one will visit this ruin again. But we believe that knowledge is always valuable, even if civilization is destroyed, even if the last intelligent life closes its eyes under the stars, knowledge, as the footprints of civilization to explore the unknown, will always have its meaning.
"Goodbye, Diana. Perhaps it is too late now, and this is something I did not have time to tell you back then. You have completed your service with honor, and now, you are off duty."
(End of Chapter)
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