Earth: The Second

Database

‘I came from the past, but I know a lot more technology than your people.’ is basically what Adma tells Hepaetus, the Master Forger. Usually, the ones who came from the past have less knowledge, either it’s about technology or social advancement that has happened in the human civilization.

But Adma’s knowledge can’t be compared to people like that. While indeed, he has moments where he sees new things for the first time. Adma already has the basic mindfulness of an intelligent species. This is sparking curiosity inside Hepaetus’s inventor soul.

“How about it then? Would you let us in?” asked Adma. Suddenly, Hepaetus’s train of thought is stopping, realized that he still has three guests in front of him. 

“Of course! Let’s come inside, we’re don’t want to speak in a dark place like this, aren’t we? asked Hepaetus.

None of them has realized that the sky is starting to darken. At the horizon, they can see the sun shining its last light for the day before it completely set.

Hepaetus lead the three of them, along with Clare to come inside the iron gate. in front of them, is a panel that seems separated by the floor. The panel has iron rails with adult waist height and is used to hold on.

“Step inside please,” asked Hepaetus. After the three of them come inside, he presses the button on the controller that is located on the rail, clanking sounds appeared from the panel, together with vibration on their feet. It surprised Gon and Rika which are quickly grabbing the iron rail to maintain their stability. 

“I see,” said Adma to himself, he noticed that the true facility of Hepaetus is located underground, and they are on their way toward them. 

As the platform goes downward, Hepaetus use this waiting time to talk.

“I want to tell the story, about this mountain.”

“I think it has been eight or ten years since the last time I worked to make swords for the royals. Fulfilling the weapons quota, making fancy swords for the nobles… Once you are able to reach my level at forging, all of it is easy money.”

Hepaetus lean to the rail and fold his arm in front of his chest. 

“It started rather boring that time. Not even commission from nobles sparks my interest. After all, they tend to want the same thing all over their sword: gold, diamond, pearl, anything that sparkle will work for them.”

At the same time, the platform leaves the stone wall around them. What they see is a huge gap inside the mountain, filled with huge manufacturing things for this era. Forger, workshop tables, and shelf to store materials located at the bottom. Meanwhile, Hepaetus’s personal things, such as books, bed, and sketching tables are put on the platforms on the wall. Those can be reached through a staircase that spirals to the top of the mountain. Basically, this place is his factory, and also his home.

While Adma, Gon, and Rika are drowning in awe, Hepaetus let out a smirk.

“Magnificent isn’t it? Not even the royals know about the existence of this place,” he said.

“Not even the royals? But how can you even get this place?” asked Gon.

“Come, I’ll show you,” replied the Master Forger.

After they arrived at the bottom, Hepaetus lead them to the spiraling staircase.

“Come on! Stairs again?” complaint Gon.

“If you don’t strive for it, you’ll lose the surprise you know?” said Hepaetus. Adma and Rika continue to follow that man, and Gon has no choice but to do the same. Not long after that, they arrived at another same but smaller iron door. On the side is something that looks like window glass, but none of them can look inside.

“That window is connected to this door,” said Hepaetus. “The first time I come inside, I met this various machine that I don’t know about. It shining with language I do not understand, although I was able to use some of its functions.”

Hepaetus is pressing the button on the door panel, but it won’t budge. He sighed, and muttering “Again?”

“This is happening once in a while. When that happened, I have to ask my Fetchers to do the job.”

Hepaetus is whistling, and three fetchers come out of nowhere. They have a small module attached to their claw, with small robotic hands. The fetchers quickly tending the platform, one is open up the panel keyboard, and one is conduct electricity straight to its component.

Eventually, the door is opened and the fetchers return to where they come from.

Musty smell coming out from inside the room. Apparently, this is one room with the worst ventilation possible.

“Ugh! What is this?” cried Gon from behind, he and Rika cover their mouth together, while Adma casually walked inside. 

Right beside the window that they see outside, there is one huge screen together with the keyboard panel, and tube-like devices that are connected to each other by an iron pipe.

“Who knows? Maybe you are the one that this machine is looking for?” commented Hepaetus.

Adma walks closer to the device. This is the first time he sees the device from his era that is preserved completely as if time has frozen in that place.

“Report, this device is a previous-gen computer by the name of CT-092, used to store research data and managing networks,” said Navigator inside Adma’s head.

“Wait... Do you say storing data? Is this what we are looking for?” asked Adma.

“The question needs extra effort to answer,” replied Navigator.

‘Extra effort’ is that a sign for him to try for himself? Whatever the answer is, Adma has placed his hand on the keyboard and started pressing the button.

But it won’t activate. 

“Suggestion: look for a symbol that is similar to this,” Navigator showed a picture of a round symbol with a line that crosses on top of the circle. That symbol used to be a sign for turning on and off.

“Oh, you mean this?” Adma found it on one of the keyboards. When he presses it, suddenly the screen is shining with the words and pictures.

‘ICHI OS’ is shown in front of them, together with the startup animations

“What is that…” Gon is muttering from behind, while his student looked at the scene in front of them with fascination.

“That is… so beautiful…” said Rika.

On the other hand, Hepaetus is smiling. knows that he has made the right decision to bring Adma to this place.

***

Although the screen looked familiar, the device is familiar, and Adma understands what is going on. He is just standing in confusion. At first, he knows that they have to gather the data but at the same time, he doesn’t know what he has to do.

“Um… Navigator? maybe a little help?” asked Adma.

“At this moment, my capabilities to help you surfing the database is limited, But if you can connect me to the computer hard drive, we can dive into the server and get to the destination that we needed. Attention: you may risk yourself to a virus attack,” replied Navigator.

“We don’t have any other choice, aren’t we? I’ll just leave it to you and come back when I’m needed.”

“Is that mean you would handling over your consciousness to me?” asked Navigator.

“Alright… Navigator, take the wheel.” 

Navigator goes quiet for a moment. Adma has prepared some weird sensations, but nothing happened.

“Navigator? You there?” 

“Confirming consciousness take-over command. Stating the primary objective: retrieving data. Setting firewall needed. Preparing countermeasures against foreign threats: software virus, checked. Biological viruses: checked. Final confirmation before shifting. Would you like to confirm?” 

Another question window popped out on Adma’s vision, simply stating ‘yes’ and ‘no’.

“Yes,” said Adma.

“Commencing shifting control.”

Adma’s vision goes hazy, and he feels like pulled to the back without he noticed. He had braced for the fall, but it never happened. Instead, now he is floating in the nowhere space, where he can only watch the friction of his vision through the window that seems far away.

“Navigator! Navigator!” shouted Adma.

“Please don’t panic. Right now, you’re inside the subconscious part of the brain. While you are here, I would take command of your entire body until some period of time,” said Navigator. 

“Oh, so this is where you are all of this time, huh?” asked Adma.

“Correct. Now, let’s back to the objective.”

At the outside, Gon, Rika, and Hepaetus watched what happened to the man in front of them. At first, they only see Adma talking to himself about something that they do not understand. And suddenly, when Adma finished with saying ‘Yes’ his body twitched for a moment.

“Do you think he is going to be ok?” Rika asked Hepaetus, but he just lifts his shoulder.

“Who knows? even I don’t understand what just happened to him. The best thing we can do now is leaving him alone, so we don’t mess anything up.”

Although Hepaetus is right, Rika still can’t shake her feeling. What if something happened to Adma and they do not understand it? There are always the possibilities that Adma will be trapped inside a life-or-dead situation, and she will be no use to help.

At the same time, Adma’s body started to move. It stretched his hand to the direction of the computer, and Adma’s finger changed into something that looked like a rope or string. 

The string that comes from Adma’s hand then comes inside the hole on the computer panel, that used to be called USB Port.

Inside Adma’s head. Navigator told him the final warning.

“I’ll start to open the channel inside the computer. You may see a new door over there, where you can use it to transfer over the server’s database. Please remember that there are a lot of dangerous possibilities that could happen. When you discover any threat over there, just call my name, I’ll transfer you back, and cut the connection altogether.” Said Navigator.

“I see. I understand,” replied Adma.

“Opening channel.”

On his back, Adma can see light, coming from somewhere he has never seen before.

The cyborg’s data body is gulping, imagining whatever could happen in this cyberspace.

But he has no choice to turn back. He has to keep moving on to find the answer.