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About ten seconds later, Tatsuya was floating in the void in front of what was originally a gigantic submarine. It was the Takachiho. This satellite orbital residence facility was once a large-sized New Soviet Union submarine that Tatsuya had sunk, which had been salvaged and repurposed for space use.
[First of all, please come inside.]
As soon as he heard Minoru's voice from the communicator built into his helmet, the airlock opened. It was located where the missile vertical launch system used to be when it was a submarine. Activating his flight magic, Tatsuya moved to the airlock, and through it into the Takachiho.
"Welcome, Tatsuya-sama."
Minami was waiting for him behind the inner door of the airlock.
Minami's choice of attire hadn't changed since the time she had lived with Tatsuya and the others. It was a black one-piece dress and a white apron. Considering that the Takachiho's habitation blocks were under artificial gravity, a skirt wouldn’t be a problem. But still, she wasn't a maid anymore, so there should be no point in sticking to this outfit.
Was this a matter of Minoru's personal preference?
Tatsuya secretly wondered on his own, but chose the obvious route of not mentioning it.
With her guidance, Tatsuya entered the information center that had been converted from the submarine's command center.
And there was Minoru at the console, standing up and waiting to meet Tatsuya.
"Welcome, Tatsuya-san. We've finished identifying the target comet from the data you gave us."
Being originally a submarine, the Takachiho was able to repel space dust and space debris to some extent. However, the same couldn’t be said for meteorites and large-sized debris, which the ship couldn’t withstand unscathed. In order to avoid such threats, this information center collects observation data from all directions of space. Not limited to data obtained from their own observation equipment, but also data provided by
Miyakishima, and data obtained by intercepting radio waves traveling through space that were processed by the electronic brain here.
"I'm fairly certain, but please confirm it yourself."
The main monitor had the image of the telescope, while the sub-monitors displayed a wide array of data.
The fact that the target comet barely reflects any light was already established. In order to observe it, a highly focused infrared laser was aimed at the comet, but the object itself lay 300 million kilometers away. Even light would take more than thirty minutes to travel there and back.
Even so, with the result of precise tracing, the telescope captured the reflected infrared light of the irradiated beam. The main monitor showed only a faint dot. But there was no mistaking a visual confirmation. The vacuum of space made optical observation a possibility. Undoubtedly, he wouldn’t have been able to directly observe the reflected light on the ground, whether or not he used infrared. It was precisely because he was aware of this that Tatsuya had come all this way.
"No doubt. Can you send the data from the sub-monitor over to me?"
While saying this, Tatsuya put the helmet he had taken off back on.
"Sure, I don't mind, but…"
Minoru gave Tatsuya a quizzical look.
"I'll go outside and take a firsthand look."
Answering the unspoken question, Tatsuya backtracked into the airlock.
The jet-black expanse of outer space. Yet, by no means void. To the left, it was the dead of night on the Earth. The light of the sun had yet to arrive, but it wasn’t entirely covered in darkness either. The city lights twinkled like a cluster of stars.
To the right was the glow of real stars. Unlike the stars seen from the ground, these didn’t twinkle waveringly. Even though the light was distant and small, it asserted a certain existence. ──Or, perhaps, that they indeed existed in the past.
Once again in the vacuum of space, Tatsuya turned his face to the point where the target comet should be according to the observation data. He manipulated the settings on the visor of his helmet and applied a filter that adjusted to the frequency of the reflected light of the infrared laser being emitted from the Takachiho.
(That’s it?)
A tiny dot of light like a grain of sand was displayed on the visor. Although it was optically processed, the light reflected by the comet was reaching Tatsuya directly.
An informational path was established between the comet and Tatsuya.
Using this path as a trail, Tatsuya made visual contact with the target comet with his Elemental Sight.
(Got it.)
With that, Tatsuya was now able to observe the Information Body of the target comet at any time.
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