Part 143: [continued]

Listen in: [English/Japanese]


Yes.


What on Earth was that?


Any ideas...?

VLR OST: [Desperation]



I got only frowns and shaken heads in response.
Only one person showed a reaction other than stunned confusion...
Tenmyouji.
Long after the audio ended, he stared at the screen deep in thought.






Yeah, I think I know what that was.
It's probably a transmission from the Mars mission test site.


Mars...?


I'm sorry, what?


You mean some kind of space travel?


What kind of a test site was it?


Hmmm...




These ships would be able to get humans to Mars a lot faster than old chemical rockets.


But they don't want to just send a manned Mars mission off half-cocked.
That was the idea behind this test.
They built a whole complex on this old Air Force base in Nevada.


The idea was that it would be a simulation of a manned mission to Mars, with a crew of nine men and women. They'd monitor the whole thing and use that data to plan the real mission.


So what we just listened to was a transmission from that project?


Yeah.


Why is something like that here?


Donno why.
We found it in the safe, no explanation.
Dollars to donuts it's got something to do with Zero's plan.


You mean we were meant to hear what was on that card.


Yeah.




About the simulated Mars mission?


Yes.






The intent was to create as accurate a simulation as possible.
That meant we'd need to simulate the radio silence we'd experience during conjunction.


What's a "conjunction"?


It means two things in space are close to each other. In this case, we're talking about a superior conjunction, where Mars and Earth are on the exact opposite sides of the sun.
So unless we've got some sort of relay, there'll be a period of time where we won't be able to communicate with each other.
What we heard on that card was when the simulated conjunction was scheduled to end.


That's when they died...


No,we don't know that. They could have died long before that conversation.
All we know is that's when it was discovered.


So six of the test subjects died, right?


Yeah.


Well...do you remember what she said?
There was something about how she didn't just kill six people...
She said six billion.
What the heck did she mean by that?


Just what the hell happened there?



Tenmyouji frowned and looked down at the floor. We were all silent as he paced slowly back and forth across the room.

At last he stopped, raised his head, and spoke.






A virus...? Wait, you don't mean...


Yeah. Radical-6.




Wh-What? How can that be?


I'm just telling you what I know, okay?
Nobody's sure how Radical-6 got in there in the first place, but...


One of the subjects might have been infected when they entered, or the virus itself might have been an intentional part of the simulation.
The test site deaths became the index case for a pandemic.


...
...


Anyway, prevailing wisdom says it got out somehow, and once it was out it spread pretty quick. All across the planet.


And it killed six billion people?


Well, not directly.
Best numbers put only a third or so of those deaths as directly caused by Radical-6.
The other four billion died from the collapse caused by the deaths of that first third. The whole world just...fell apart.


...


...


...


...




I don't even know where to start knowing where to start.
Well, no, take that back.
Explain that date.
Unless I heard this wrong, the day the Radical-6 got out was December 31st, 2028.


Yeah.


But the day I got grabbed by the guy in the gas mask was December 25th, 2028.


Me too. Christmas Day.


I was kidnapped on Christmas too.


Clover and I were taken three days earlier, on the 22nd.


Yeah.


Then you see what I'm saying, right?
That recording was made close to a week after we were all picked up.
What the hell is going on here?
That thing is from the future!


You see...

[Music fades out]




All players please enter your votes.
If no vote is recorded before the deadline has passed, any non-voting parties will automatically ally. Results will be displayed in the warehouse.

VLR OST: [Eeriness]




Wait!
You haven't answered—


Don't care.
I'd need more than 10 minutes to explain everything.
Half-assing it is just going to make you more confused. Now get moving.


But—


That's enough!
Shut your damn hole or I'm picking "betray"!


H-Hey, c'mon now...


...
...


Fine. Do what you want, but I need to get back to the AB Rooms.
I'd like to stay with Quark, but he seems to be doing all right...


I'll stay here with him.
Phi can do the voting for our pair.
I can trust her. Is that all right with you?


Yeah, sure.


Well, if you'd be willing to do that, I'd be much obliged.
Thanks, Luna. Take good care of him.


Of course. I'll make sure everything goes fine.



Tenmyouji gave her one last nod, then turned and dashed out of the infirmary.




Well, that's that, I guess. We should probably be going too.


Yes. We'll just have to wait to hear the rest of what he has to say later.


I'd rather just get it all out in the open now, but there's not much we can do.


Let's get going, then!