As Sir Scott's voice trailed off, the image stored in this space came to an end. In a silent moment, the hazy light floating in the air quietly drifted away like an avalanche, turning into tiny particles of light and quickly disappearing into the air. This seemed to have triggered a chain reaction. The moment the light dissipated, a glow suddenly flowed across the ground of the platform. The glow condensed into bright white lines and quickly converged toward the central area. The fog-like light that had always shrouded the central area quickly dimmed and weakened in the next few seconds.
Diana stared blankly at the spot where Sir Scott had disappeared. The ancient core of her mind was operating somewhat shakily as if it was processing a huge amount of emotional information. Gawain even heard an abnormal noise from her body. He could not help but ask worriedly, "Madam Diana, are you alright?"
"I'm fine." Diana blinked and woke up from her daze. "We can continue with the mission."
Her voice was still indifferent and distant, as precise and calm as a machine, and calmer than usual.
Gwen looked into Diana's eyes, nodded after a moment, and turned to look at the central area of the observatory. The white light that shrouded the central area had completely faded, revealing the things hidden in it. Gwen reached out and pointed there. "Let's check those things. If I'm not mistaken, that should be the 'relic' that Sir Scott left for you."
"It's for all of us." Diana said softly as she walked over. Gawain waved to the people behind him. The group of people followed the white light flowing on the ground and came to the center of the observatory, where they could see the scene clearly.
There was only a circular platform of about one meter in the center of the observatory. The center was slightly concave, and the surface made of some unknown material reflected the brilliant stars above. A palm-sized "crystal" that seemed to be stacked with layers of pale blue crystals was placed in the center of the platform. This "crystal" was surrounded by stars, and its surface was floating with a mysterious glow. Six chairs were placed symmetrically around the platform. Four of them had dark urns on them, while the other two chairs were occupied by Grand Scholar Alphonse Hall and Sir Scott Plantin.
In this different dimension, the bodies of the two scholars of antiquity had not decayed, but turned into completely dried corpses. They sat quietly in their last position, their heads still in a raised posture. Their sunken eye sockets were still staring at the crack at the top of the dimension, and the clear starry sky that emerged from the crack after 700 years.
Diana came to the front of the two scholars of antiquity and bowed her head silently. The others around her also subconsciously held their breaths and expressed their respect in a short silence. Then Amber noticed a gesture that Sir Scott maintained after his death. His dry and stiff finger pointed directly below the chair, as if he was deliberately letting everyone's eyes fall on the place where his finger was pointing. Amber looked in that direction and finally widened her eyes slightly. "Ah, there's something on the ground!"
Everyone's attention was instantly drawn over. Only then did they realize that the ground near the six chairs was actually densely engraved with words and symbols! With the round platform as the center, the engravings spread out in a very orderly manner, almost covering one-third of the ground of the observatory. Due to the stable environment in the different dimension, these engravings were still clearly visible to this day. It was just that everyone's attention was attracted by the round platform reflecting the starry sky, the "crystal lattice" in the center of the round platform, and the bodies of the scholars of antiquity. Before Amber spoke, no one had noticed that the coarse "lines" on the ground were actually words!
"This is …" Philip's eyes widened in an instant. What he saw was a large number of specious characters and another language that he did not recognize at all. He felt dizzy just by looking at it, but Gwen next to him recognized at a glance that some of the words were the human common language of the Kingdom of Gondor, and some of the words were the alien signals that the Thorin Hub and the Austere Hub had received!
"This is the 'legacy' left by Sir Scott," Gwen said in a low voice. "It's the 'alien dictionary' that they have translated over the past 20 years."
Philip stared at the densely engraved engravings on the ground and said softly as if he was talking to himself, "Engraved on the ground … It should be engraved on the ground … There is no more stable and lasting way of recording than this. After all, spells will disintegrate with the passage of time, and storage devices will become unusable due to the loss of civilization. Only these engravings on the ground can withstand the erosion of time …"
"Record all of this," Gwen ordered in a low voice. "Do not touch anything here before the recording is complete. This is to prevent the sanctuary from collapsing prematurely."
The entourage immediately got to work. They used the equipment they brought to record the symbols and words engraved on the ground and made several backups stored in magic crystals on the spot. In addition to recording the magic images, several mages and scholars took out the enchanted parchments and quills that they carried with them and began to transcribe all the characters on the ground into thick scrolls. There was no need for Gwen or Amber to remind them. These scholars could understand the meaning of the engraved characters on the ground. In the face of a knowledge heritage passed down from 700 years ago, they all treated it as the most precious treasure in history.
After the experts and scholars began to record these things, Diana, Gwen, and the rest took the initiative to leave the central area. They stepped on the ground that Sir Scott had measured with his feet for 20 years and slowly walked to the edge of the entire observatory. Philip looked up at the edge of the observatory and saw the huge floating building fragments slowly rotating in his sight. Beyond the fragments was a vast and seemingly endless illusory light. It made him sigh. "It's hard to imagine being trapped here for 20 years."
"Fortunately, there is still a starry sky above them." Gwen looked up at the huge rift right above the alien dimension. He did not know the principle behind the rift, and did not know how the two ancient Gondor mages' introduced 'the starry sky of the real world into the sanctuary. But he believed that the starry sky must have inspired Scott, Alphonse, and Barlow 700 years ago, especially when they knew that there were other civilizations that could think and communicate among the stars. The cold starlight would also be the only comfort after the end of the world. Because they knew that even if the world around them had fallen apart, there was still a world full of vitality light years away.
"Speaking of which, when you led a large group of people past Vipranton, you did not find anyone in this observatory." Amber seemed to have suddenly remembered something. She looked up at Gwen. "At that time, they were probably hiding in this sanctuary, right?"
"Even if they were not hiding in this sanctuary, it would have been difficult for them to meet us." Gwen shook his head gently. "Vipranton is not just an observatory. It is a large area with large-scale towns and many research facilities, observatories, museums, warehouses, and research institutes. The Gondor people had studied the extraterrestrial here for many years, and the observatory was just one of the core facilities here. But for the refugees who were in desperate need of supplies at that time, the observatory was obviously not as attractive as the ruins of towns and imperial warehouses along the way."
"An extraterrestrial object..." Amber muttered thoughtfully. He then turned his head to look at the "crystal" placed on the round platform in the center of the observatory. "If I'm not mistaken, that thing should be the 'extraterrestrial object' that Sir Scott mentioned. To be able to continuously release energy and maintain such an otherworldly shelter for seven hundred years, that's an amazing thing. What do you think we should do with it?"
She was reminding Gwen and Diana. What Sir Scott left behind was not only the 'knowledge' engraved on the ground, but also a tangible 'object'. The crystal that emitted a faint blue light was undoubtedly the key item that protected the observatory when the Deep Blue Well erupted. It was also the reason why the observatory was not attacked by various dangerous things in the wasteland for the next 700 years. Its value was self-evident, and how to deal with it was a problem.
As Gwen's loyal lackey, Amber certainly hoped that the crystal would belong to Cecil. After all, the entire Vipranton area was now under Cecil's control. The observatory was first discovered by Philip's men, and the entire exploration was now led by Cecil. Adhering to the two principles of 'everything in the wasteland is ownerless' and 'first to discover, actual control', the relics found in this ancient facility should belong to the first discoverer.
But logically speaking, this thing was not really ownerless.
Sir Scott had left a message saying that the inheritance was left to Diana, which was a little awkward. His heir was here now, and everyone had seen the video recording just now. He could not be thick-skinned and deny it, could he?
It was a messy and troublesome account. Amber felt dizzy after thinking about it for two minutes. In the end, she could only sigh and whisper, "Sigh, it's still easier to dig up a dead man's grave …"
Gwen did not hear Amber's whisper clearly, but he could guess what was going on in the guy's head. And on his side, this messy account could be even more complicated. The 'meteorite shower' that fell in the Vipranton area was essentially the space station debris that fell from Amoun's space station after he crashed into the Firmament 3000 years ago. And he, the 'satellite spirit', was now the heir of the voyager's legacy. If that was the case, did the debris that fell from the Firmament Station count as his? The Vipranton meteorite shower had caused a lot of economic losses in the Kingdom of Gondor. Should the responsibility be borne by Amoun or Gwen? If Amoun was to bear the responsibility, then now that Amoun was the senior advisor of the Empire, and his direct responsibility was Gwen, it was even more unclear. After all, although the Kingdom of Gondor was now gone, there were still many descendants of the Kingdom of Gondor …
This was a meaningless round of accounts. Anyone who felt that they had too many brain cells could calculate it. However, Gawain had always felt that his brain cells were severely depleted, so from the beginning, he did not intend to spend too much energy on this messy account.
He had an entire Firmament Station, and soon, he would begin the repair and exploration of the Firmament Station. In the long run, sirens, Dragons, elves, and humans would all have to come into contact with the Firmament Station. Unless Gwen wanted to fundamentally overthrow his own creed and principles, he could not avoid this development. Unless he was determined to let the races of this planet continue to lie in the gravity circle, and no one touch the voyager's legacy in the sky, and then one day in the future, he would slowly die with the races on the ground.
He needed to truly grasp the secrets of the voyager, and he could not repeat the old path of the Tidetide Empire. He needed the intelligent races of the world to be his support, and he needed to achieve this goal through open, transparent, and rational research and development, not through "elite contact and deification". He needed (and at the same time had to) let all the mortals on this planet break free from the spiritual shackles and step out of the cradle, because only in this way could he avoid the future of extinction.
Then, the voyager's legacy was destined not to be hidden. In the past, when he was not strong enough, he had to hide it well because many things were not under his control. But now, he was strong enough, and the Cecil Empire had the ability to become the helmsman of this era. He had to think in the way of the helmsman.
Therefore, the only thing he needed to ensure was that everything was under his control. Research and exploration of the Firmament Station had to be open, but the authority of the Firmament Station had to be in his hands. The mortal races on this planet would definitely rise and eventually step out of the cradle, but this process could not be out of control. This was not only a responsibility to himself, but also a responsibility to his companions who had followed him, trusted him, and supported his ideals.
As for the "crystal", Gwen also had the same attitude: it did not matter who the crystal belonged to, but the knowledge belonged to everyone. After all, everyone had to develop, and he also needed everyone to develop. In the whole process, he just needed to ensure that Cecil's research share was enough.
He looked at the center of the observatory. The small square, which was emitting a faint blue light and seemed to be made of layers of crystals, was particularly eye-catching in his field of vision. He closed his eyes slightly again. The crystal was still floating in his field of vision, and a line of annotations appeared around it. "Damaged ion energy unit. Key components missing/tampered with. Not recommended for recycling."
It seemed that because Kassandra and Asalena had rebooted part of the system on the Firmament Station, Gawain's control of the space station had been further strengthened. When he saw the crystal just now, he noticed the additional "annotations."
He could even directly sense the "existence" of the crystal now and vaguely perceive the "energy trace" that extended out from it.
But that was all. He was not an expert in this field, and his authority as a Voyager did not allow him to obtain the corresponding knowledge out of thin air. He did not understand the principle and control of the crystal, and he probably would not be able to figure it out even if he was given another hundred years.
But it did not matter. There were many smart people in this world, and these smart people could be of help to him.
"Lady Diana, this crystal is the 'relic' that Sir Scott left for you." Gwen opened his eyes and looked at the ancient machine lady beside him. "In theory, it should belong to you. But for the long-term development of the entire Alliance, I hope that we can share the mysteries that may be contained in this crystal."
"I understand what you mean." Diana's expression did not change. "Before we set off, His Majesty Rosetta had also discussed this issue with me about how to distribute the 'relic' that may be found in the Vipranton Observatory. We can discuss the specific items slowly, but the knowledge … knowledge should belong to everyone."
She looked up at the center of the observatory, and her voice became a little low.
"Personally, I don't really care about the crystal. I just hope that … I can take away the remains of Sir Scott and the others. That's all I want. "
"Of course." Gwen stood up straight, and his expression became solemn. "It should be so."
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