Chapter 77: The New Chief Researcher (３)

****

[Blue Rose-0]

[Filed by: Admiral Hourani]

[First of all, thank you for asking the Foundation’s Far East Fleet for its opinion. But that’s that. I cannot agree with this policy from the Overseer Council.]

[Why are you sending Blue Rose-0 to Jeju Island? Is it because the artificial sun deployed in the Gulf of Aden was built in Korea?]

[Of course, I know the Foundation’s heart has secrets it must hide. And I know there’s a need for that.]

[I’m begging you, Overseer.]

[Please stop. Stop the assembly of Blue Rose-0, or at the very least, send it somewhere else. This region is one of the most densely populated areas on Earth.]

From the outside it may look prosperous, but it’s also a powder keg — one problem and war could break out immediately. Have the anomaly research organizations of the three nations been consulted?

[No, why are you assembling it at all?]

[I know it’s outside my authority to question Foundation policy. But isn’t this too much? Why assemble Blue Rose here — and of all places, in Foundation naval facilities.]

[Where is Blue Rose-13? Why do the Blue Rose numbers keep increasing? Why do you keep making these things?]

[I know I’m risking my life by filing this. But I must offer this honest counsel.]

****

[Re: Blue Rose-0]

[Filed by: 8th Overseer]

[Thank you, Admiral Hourani.]

[The reason Blue Rose-0 is being reassembled there is because there is a need to reassemble Blue Rose-0 there. Thank you for your question.]

[I will think of a better way to manage Blue Rose-0. Ah, right. Blue Rose-13 is being managed at the Foundation’s Seoul Branch.]

[Admiral Hourani. I understand this is a document filed at the risk of your life. I’ll exercise a bit of my authority and pretend this document never existed.]

****

Dr. Min of the Special Machinery Department looked to be in a very good mood. Well… I hate to say it about Dr. Min, but madmen looking happy is never a good sign.

“Director! Come take a look at this.”

“What is it this time?”

“I’ve built a machine that explores dimensions. It can send probes to other dimensions, and the probes can send information back to us.”

He really builds the strangest things.

“Why did you make that?”

Dr. Min ignored my question.

“There are anomalies that enable communication across dimensions, aren’t there? The mirror and laptop that were handed over to the Precognition Division.”

I nodded.

“Yes. I used those anomalies as materials to build a machine that explores other worlds. It can send basketball-sized objects into another world.”

“Can you bring things back?”

“Not yet. There’s no way to build a machine on the other side that can cross dimensions back. Well… it seems to be the limit of our technology.”

“I see.”

“But we can receive information.”

I’d have to see it for myself.

There was the machine in question.

A strange object about the size of a refrigerator. On top of a circular transmission plate sat a probe machine with legs. Was that what gets sent to another world?

“That’s what gets sent to another world.”

“Does it have to be that one?”

Dr. Min nodded.

“Only that probe can transmit information back to our dimension. Well, these are mass-produced models, though.”

“Why mass-produced?”

The answer to my question was obvious once I thought about it. He must have made as many as — or more than — the number of dimensions he wanted to explore.

“The Seoul Branch has already sent over 15 probes to other worlds. We’re currently receiving transmissions from 20 probe feeds.”

“…”

Let’s do some subtraction.

“Where did the other five come from?”

“We don’t know the specifics either. It seems one probe can sometimes glitch and shift across multiple dimensions at once.”

Strange.

“Can you send a person?”

“We can send any object, but I don’t know if there’d be a way to communicate, or whether a human could survive in another world. For now, we’ll only be sending probes.”

I think I’ve seen enough.

“Activate it.”

****

We put on our goggles and stared at the inter-dimensional travel device through the thick double-layered ballistic glass. Computer screens surrounded us.

“Begin transmission.”

“Understood.”

Dr. Min grabbed the microphone.

“Core 1 Osmium Engine, initiating mirror homogenization.”

“Core 2 Osmium Engine, initiating laptop homogenization.”

“Initiating probe superposition state.”

“Activating the Feynman reality anchor. Reality density will now be lowered via feedback loop.”

“Reactor core online.”

“Beginning energy charge.”

“I’ll activate the Hawking spacetime coordinator.”

“Countdown will now begin.”

A button was pressed.

“10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.”

*Blip.*

With a strange sound, the probe vanished.

****

We stared at the screens.

“Is that… the other world we found?”

“We don’t know. There’s no way to control where it goes. But from what we’ve gathered, it seems there’s distance between other worlds too. Some are close, some are far.”

“If a person broke through the dimensional wall and came over… would that world count as a close one, or a far one?”

“A close one, I’d think?”

I thought for a moment. Maybe, just maybe, we could send An Yuri back home? Though she still had value to the Foundation.

I’d need to think about it.

I looked back at the screen.

“Where is that?”

“I don’t know. It looks like human buildings…”

Damn it.

“Check the dimensional density.”

Dr. Min squinted.

“Uh, reality density is abnormal. This isn’t part of any world. It seems to be some kind of inter-dimensional space, but what it is…”

“I think I know what it is.”

“What?”

The probe looked around.

An endless corridor, endless rows of bookshelves, and a floor, walls, and ceiling made of bizarre materials.

“The Infinite Study.”

The subspace of the God of Knowledge.

The homeland of Cosmos and Kairos.

****

It was a shocking research result.

The Head of the Precognition Division stood with arms crossed, staring at the screens. The Foundation’s other scientists were deep in thought too. Screens, probes, research data.

On one screen, blue plants were growing. On another, a moon-like desert. On another, an abandoned concrete forest.

And the most recently launched probe—

Had arrived at a library.

“It seems the Librarians were telling the truth.”

“Ah.”

Cosmos and Kairos, locked in the Foundation’s containment cells. The Librarians I killed in Yulje-myeon. The Librarians Nanami killed while chasing Cosmos. All of them.

The library was a real place.

I let out a sigh.

“Life sure is strange.”

While the researchers in the control room debated, argued, and stared at the feeds coming in from other worlds, the Head of Research walked into the control room.

Without anyone noticing.

“So, when does the invasion of the other world start? The Research Department is already stockpiling weapons.”

“Isn’t that a shooting offense?”

“Ah, my mistake. The Research Department is not stockpiling weapons.”

Lee Seah avoided my gaze.

I sighed.

“Why would we invade another world? It’s possible, sure, but wouldn’t we just end up importing their problems?”

“Not at all. The Foundation’s power comes from the anomalies it manages. If we gathered the anomalies of multiple worlds, wouldn’t we grow stronger?”

“Lee Seah, you have a very strange idea of what the Foundation does.”

I placed my hand on top of Lee Seah’s head, and she reluctantly bowed it to me. Well, as long as she could be controlled, it didn’t matter.

“Fine. Put together a proper large-scale exploration plan for the other worlds. Whether we’ll actually execute the operation is something I’ll have to think about.”

Honestly, everyone must have thought about it at some point. It was true that, under my command, the Foundation had started oil drilling in the Garden.

It wasn’t strange for me to press the issue.

“Head of Research, come with me.”

****

I led Lee Seah out of the control room. For some reason, she followed without a word. Today, I was going to settle this.

Let’s draw out as much as possible of the mystery Lee Seah was hiding. There was no need to drag things out any longer.

“More importantly. Where is the work you’ve hidden away, Ms. Lee Seah? And—I already know there’s something on Jeju Island.”

“Director—”

I pressed down on the Head of Research’s throat.

“Fine. I’ll talk.”

I released her. Lee Seah coughed for a moment. It was probably an act. She’d taken a bomb blast without a scratch, after all, Head of Research.

“It’s about time we resolved this problem.”

It was ironic.

The Foundation prided itself on controlling anomalies. But the worst abnormality I’d ever seen in my life, the greatest mystery, was the Foundation itself.

Reality benders, monsters, clockwork dragons, the Garden—all of it. Before the Foundation’s power and its anomalies, they were nothing but a joke.

I crossed my arms. The Head of Research sank to the floor and looked up at me.

“Which of my works do you want to know about?”

So it wasn’t just one or two, then.