Twenty-four hours later, the Adriana returned to the east coast of Hale's lone continent.
"By the way, does this continent have a name?"
It was a bit late to be asking, but the thought had occurred to Jin, so he posed the question to Taisei.
『Yes, My Lord. It seems the Progenitors never gave it a specific name. Perhaps they felt no need to distinguish it since it is the only continent on the planet.』
That made sense. If there were no other landmasses, a name for the continent itself was redundant.
"Hmm..."
Jin also knew that the naming conventions of the Progenitors—also known as Origin—were unique. Or rather, they simply didn't seem to care much for nomenclature in general.
"I’ll want to give it one eventually. Otherwise, it’ll be hard to tell it apart from the continent on Ars."
He was also well aware that his own naming sense was somewhat unconventional.
For the time being, Jin set the matter of the continent’s name aside and waited in the void of space for the Atlas, which was scheduled to arrive shortly.
『It will arrive in approximately ten minutes,』 Taisei reported.
"I see. It’s almost here, then. Were there any anomalies during the flight?"
『They report that everything is fine. The barriers functioned without issue.』
"That’s good to hear."
Ten minutes later, the Atlas appeared, coming to a relative halt one kilometer away from the Adriana.
"Now we can finally put the plan into motion," Jin muttered with anticipation.
The Atlas sat silently in the void, waiting for the moment to unleash its hidden power. Stationed beside it were the guard ships Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse.
Jin contacted the management magi-brain of the new ship.
"Kintoki, how was the journey? Any problems?"
《None at all, My Lord. Everything went perfectly. We are ready to begin the operation at your command.》
"Good. Zipart's current position isn't perfect, but it's decent enough. First, head toward it slowly. Report the situation as you go."
《Understood. The current distance is approximately 34 million kilometers. I suggest we approach at a speed of 100 kilometers per second, which will put us at the target in about four days. Does that meet your approval?》
Currently, if one viewed the orbital plane from the celestial north pole—the ecliptic north pole, to be precise—and set Hale at twelve o’clock and Ars at six, Zipart’s position would be between ten and eleven. In other words, it was at an angle of roughly forty-five degrees from Hale.
Since the direction of revolution was counter-clockwise when viewed from the north pole, Zipart would move further away from Hale as time passed. This was why Jin wanted to begin the operation without delay.
"Yes, that sounds fine. Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse, escort the ship as far as you can. However, if the environment begins to affect your navigation, turn back immediately and stand by at the closest safe distance."
《Understood.》
And so, the operation to procure resources from Zipart finally began.
For the first two days, there were no notable incidents. Having little else to do, Jin spent his time wandering the Adriana, performing maintenance under the guise of killing time.
The Adriana was so massive that even Jin couldn't inspect everything in just two days, so the work served its purpose as a distraction.
However, on the third day, a report came in.
《My Lord, the guard ships Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse have halted their progress. They are experiencing malfunctions due to a sharp increase in free ether concentration.》
Jin immediately hurried to the central bridge—the ship's command room.
"I see. So it’s not noise?"
《Yes, My Lord. There is no doubt about it. It is a sharp spike in free ether levels.》
"I see..."
The information left by the Progenitors had mentioned free ether noise. Jin wondered if they had simply been mistaken, or if the environment had changed over the long millennia. Although he had predicted this possibility to some extent, the Progenitors’ records were sparse. This was the first time they were obtaining raw, live data.
"What does it look like?"
《It is similar to when we encountered the Free Ether Cloud, though the concentration appears to be even higher.》
"I figured as much."
The Free Ether Cloud had possessed an incredible concentration—one thousand times the standard levels around Ars—which had caused force generators and other magi-devices to malfunction across the board. The fact that the guard ships, which had been modified specifically to handle such environments, had sensed danger and withdrawn meant the levels were even more extreme.
《Precisely. The concentration is roughly ten thousand times the standard.》
"Ten thousand..."
At ten times the density of the Free Ether Cloud, even reinforced magi-devices and magi-machines were at risk of going haywire. The guard ships had been right to withdraw.
"I see... It really is different from the records."
It was unknown exactly when the Progenitors had conducted their survey, but it was only logical to assume the situation had shifted since then.
"What is our distance from the Star Celane?"
《Approximately 120 million kilometers.》
Since Ars and Hale were roughly 150 million kilometers from the sun and Zipart was at 108 million, they were currently slightly closer to Celane than the midpoint between the two orbits.
"I wonder why the concentration rises so sharply."
Jin felt it was unnatural for the intensity to change so abruptly.
"I don't suppose—and I know this is a stretch—that this aggregation of free ether is artificial?"
Jin worried about the possibility that a civilization existed on Zipart and was gathering free ether for some purpose.
《That is unknown at this time.》
They wouldn't know for sure until they reached Zipart.
《However, there are several indicators suggesting it is a natural phenomenon.》
"Such as?"
《First, the scale of the area. It is far too vast. We believe the entire spherical region with a radius of 120 million kilometers may be at this concentration.》
"If that’s the case, it certainly doesn't seem man-made."
Filling such an unfathomable expanse of space with free ether would be an act of madness. More than that, Jin could hardly believe such a feat was even possible.
《I have the Sirius, Procyon, and Betelgeuse measuring the boundaries. So far, it is confirmed that free ether is aggregating in a spherical range.》
"Hmm..."
Given that the fundamental nature of free ether was still not fully understood, speculating on why it had reached such a concentration was a dead end.
"All right. Continue the measurements. At least the Atlas is safe, right?"
《Yes. While it is not free ether noise, the countermeasures we implemented are proving effective.》
"That’s a relief."
Jin then voiced one more concern.
"Does the concentration get even higher the closer one gets to Zipart?"
Taisei answered immediately.
《No, that does not appear to be the case. We are communicating with the Atlas via sub-ether waves, and they report that while the concentration rose suddenly, it has remained almost constant since then.》
"Hmm..." Jin groaned again. "Have the Atlas cut its speed in half and tell them to heighten their vigilance even further."
《Understood. I shall contact them immediately.》
Since they didn't understand the cause of the ether spike, Jin felt they had no choice but to proceed with extreme caution.
《The original schedule had us arriving in just under a day, but this will extend it to two. Is that acceptable?》
"Of course."
Jin fell into thought.
There was little doubt that the Star Celane was the source of this high-concentration free ether. Free ether was a clean energy source that could be converted into various forms of physical energy. He couldn't help but wonder what kind of reactions were taking place inside that distant star.