Chapter 1384 — Echoes

Sir Scott's apparition spread his hands, a smile suffusing his face, and spoke as though proclaiming to the whole world. Though seven hundred years of vicissitude lay between him and Gao Yang, Dai Lan, and the others before the apparition, though when he left this message he was deep in dire straits and the world outside the sanctuary had already crumbled, at this moment he seemed to burn with a blazing fire, and the heat of that fire seemed almost to pierce the barrier of seven centuries and scorch Gao Yang's face.

"They are there! They are at the focal point of those stars!" Sir Scott declared, speaking as if to emphasize once more. "Dai Lan, this signal comes from among the stars, and just as we boldly guessed at an anniversary dinner back then — the Grand Scholar Alphonse gnawing on roast meat, you changing the alchemical oil in your brass core, and Baylro rising drunkenly to his feet and saying, 'Perhaps we are not alone in this universe'...

"We are not alone in this universe! Dai Lan, when we finally understood the meaning of this image, Alphonse and I, and Baylro while he still lived, were all set ablaze with tremendous fervor — though the world outside had already fallen apart and the order of civilization seemed utterly gone, in this little sanctuary we had still found work that we, as scholars who studied the stars, could continue, and it was the only work we could do here — to decipher all the signals the Vipranton Observatory received between Gondor 1730 and 1740!"

Sir Scott's apparition spoke in a loud voice. He raised one hand, and a hazy screen of light surfaced in the air beside him. Countless points and lines leaped within it, extending and connecting before Gao Yang and the others, gradually forming one basic geometric figure after another, one mathematical symbol after another, one calculation formula after another — and these were precisely the coded patterns that Thorin Hub and Winter Hub had received more than once, and the "greeting" from between the stars that the Dragon God Enya had personally confirmed.

"This is their 'introduction' of themselves — an identity certificate passed among the stars. With mathematics, that 'standard language,' they declare their identity to every civilization capable of receiving the signal, declaring themselves an intelligent civilization capable of logical thought, capable of using the language of mathematics..."

Then Sir Scott raised his other hand, and upon the screen of light on his other side condensed a far greater quantity of more complex information — intricately structured characters, a script utterly unlike any writing on the continent of Loren.

"And these are their written words — a 'letter' they sent in an attempt to communicate with other civilizations. Of course, we had already recognized this possibility when we first received this portion of the signal and successfully converted it into figures, but for a long time we were at a loss as to how to decipher a stranger's 'alphabet' out of thin air. Add to that the Observatory's heavy observation duties, the research on the 'thing from beyond the stars,' and the Empire's tightened investment and talent requisitions across every field of research in recent years, and we never had enough energy to spare for these mysterious alien symbols. But now we have such ample time, and the Grand Scholar Alphonse and I have finally uncovered the secrets of this script amid those immense listening records...

"They carry their own 'explanations' — in the signals of those mathematical figures, the sending and ending of each geometric figure bears a 'stamp' corresponding to a passage of textual description, and those basic mathematical symbols, numbers, and operations each have corresponding annotations as well. Moreover, this script possesses a certain 'self-interpreting' quality. Given enough samples accumulated and enough time, an excellent linguist could slowly deduce their probable meanings... Combining these two methods is enough to crack half the message and slowly reason out the other half...

"I am not an excellent linguist, but Baylro was. He completed seventy percent of the decipherment, and after he died, Alphonse and I finished the rest...

"Regrettably, even having deciphered this script from beyond the stars, we still do not know how to establish contact with the civilization that sent the message — we do not understand the principle by which the signal travels among the stars, and with the Observatory's present limited functions, the only thing Alphonse and I could determine is that by the time this signal reached our planet it had already undergone a 'secondary evolution.'

"That process is complicated to explain. To put it simply: some high-energy, high-velocity wave of energy crosses the vast sea of stars to reach our planet and reacts with the magical environment of our world; the waves released after that reaction are the information recorded by the Observatory's listening system. This method of transmission may have deliberately accounted for the 'receiving capacity' of lower-grade civilizations, since a lower-grade civilization like ours may be unable to capture the 'original pulse' of this signal. Correspondingly, to emit such a signal that can dart swiftly among the stars is extraordinarily difficult...

"Of course, in the present circumstances, even knowing the principle of emitting the signal would be meaningless — most of the Observatory's functions have ceased, and outside there is only a terrible purgatory twisted by chaotic magic. We once tried to contact other stations, and once tried to explore farther afield after taking every precaution, but all in vain. No response, and no survivors... We have confirmed the collapse of the civilized world. In such a situation, all the knowledge we hold... is likely meaningless now.

"But Alphonse and I still hold on to hope, because we are certain you will escape safely, and that one day in the future you will return here with new companions. Moreover, on one expedition we found traces of habitation and of facilities violently broken open at Depot No. 2 to the northwest of Vipranton — proof that at least one group of survivors once passed this way and fled north...

"We are already sunk deep in this corrupted land, barely surviving by relying on this little pocket of sanctuary. To leave the Observatory is death, but the traces of those survivors have kept hope alive in Alphonse and me. We choose to believe in... the resilience of civilization.

"Dai Lan, it is now the twentieth year since the Observatory was sealed. After leaving this image, Alphonse and I will leave this sanctuary for the last time and carve that 'star chart' on the most conspicuous wall of the Observatory's lower level. Then we will return here, close the gate, and never leave again. In the time that follows, Alphonse and I will keep company with the starry sky overhead and quietly await the arrival of the final hour.

"Perhaps when someone next comes here, no one will understand the meaning of the star chart in the ground-floor hall; perhaps this Observatory will be utterly destroyed and no one will ever visit these ruins again. But we hold that knowledge is always of value. Even if civilization perishes, even if the last intelligent life closes its eyes beneath the stars, knowledge — as the footprint of civilization's quest into the unknown — will always have its meaning.

"Goodbye, Dai Lan. Perhaps it is many years too late to say this now, but this is what I never had the chance to tell you back then — you have gloriously completed your service. Now, you are off duty."

(End of Chapter)