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Monday, June 21st.
Tatsuya had been staying on Miyakishima since last night. Not to mention, Miyuki and Lina, in spite of it being a weekday. As expected, both of them took a voluntary leave of absence from the university today.
The three of them stayed in one of the several buildings in the northwestern part of the island that were privately owned by the Yotsuba Family. This building housed the offices of the leadership of the Yotsuba Family during their stay on Miyakishima, which was located adjacent to and integrated with the building that housed the information processing and communication facilities (known as the "Command Control Room"), which was used for the administration of the island, monitoring of the island proper, the surrounding waters, and self-defense. The adjacent building also housed a magic research facility in the basement, which was currently used as Tatsuya's personal laboratory.
Presently, the three of them including Tatsuya were in the Command Control Room, and not in the living room nor the laboratory. The three of them weren’t the only ones there. Sitting in front of the communications equipment, where a full-time operator usually works, was Fujibayashi Kyouko at the console.
"Managing Director, the line has been secured. We can transmit at any time."
As such, Fujibayashi addressed Tatsuya.
"Alright. Now seems to be a good time, so please send it."
While seated in a chair at the conference table, Tatsuya gave his response.
It's currently 10:30 in the morning. It was about the time when even the departments that worked until midnight would have started their work. There might be some who were at a meeting or out of the office, but those people could still just listen in at the most convenient time.
"Roger. I will send the message."
At Tatsuya's instruction, Fujibayashi sent the voice message with the time limit for playback set to 17:00.
◇ ◇ ◇
10:40 A.M. The Ministry of Defense was scrambling around trying to deal with a message that arrived out of nowhere, having cleanly slipped through their firewall, as if one didn’t exist at all.
At today's intelligence scene, there were practical applications of video and audio that could be used to cause psychological damage or implant suggestions by merely watching or listening to them. Being ordinary video or audio files in itself, it couldn’t be detected as a virus. For this reason, from the Ministry of Defense down to the other central government agencies, there exist systems in place to quarantine and inspect video and audio files, as well as to block real-time communications once they have been recognized as harmful.
And that system had easily been breached. Moreover, the sender was far from being an ordinary person.
The sender of the audio file was labeled as that "Shiba Tatsuya."
Tatsuya's message, which wasn’t censored at all, was heard not only by the Administrative Vice-Minister and the Chief of the Joint Military Command (※ the equivalent of the Chief of Staff, Joint Staff), it even reached the Minister of Defense.
The resulting disarray within the ministry came from a lack of consensus on how to address the message.
Despite the advocacy for severe legal action to be taken against Tatsuya, that idea was quickly shot down. There was no evidence to determine that said message involved unauthorized access. As far as the network logs were concerned, it was nothing else than a legitimate email. What could be concluded from the remaining logs was that the firewall had coincidentally crashed at the moment the message was received. A coincidence too convenient for Tatsuya, but there was no evidence to contradict this data.
As for the contents of the message itself, there was nothing criminal about it. It just made no sense.
In summary, the message read, "Tomorrow at 4:00 A.M., please observe the night sky at the heliocentric ecliptic coordinates of 60°-61° ecliptic latitude and 121°-123° ecliptic longitude. However, direct observation with a telescope may result in blindness."
At one o'clock in the afternoon, Inukai and Onda were summoned to the Director’s private room in the Army Intelligence Department.
"Deputy Director Inukai, what are the results of your investigation into the unsolicited message from Shiba Tatsuya."
"Yes, sir. First of all, we didn't find anything suspicious in the message itself. There's no evidence of any malware embedded, and there are no indications of any processing in the voice."
"I guess we don't need to worry about a ridiculous situation where a cabinet minister ends up in the hospital after accidentally playing it."
The Director muttered this as if spitting the words out. Inukai didn't lose his serious expression while Onda had a faint wry smile on his face.
"As for the point of origin of the message, it was sent from a private house in Fuchu City. It’s a single-family house that Shiba Tatsuya lived in until the spring of three years ago, the owner is Shiba Tatsurou. He’s the father of Shiba Tatsuya's fiancée."
Inukai continued his report, making no mention of the Director's soliloquy.
"On the surface, there is nothing questionable about it. That is, unless the IP address has been falsified, in which case we could use that as an excuse to investigate."
"Although we suspect that the point of origin is different, as you pointed out, we couldn't find any illegality."
Inukai's back-channeling caused the Director to furrow his brow.
"Anything else?"
"That's all."
Inukai was unwilling to end up leaving his superior in a sour mood, but he had no choice since he had no more information to report. It has only been about three hours since the message in question arrived to begin with. There was just not enough time to investigate.
With his disappointment evident, the Director moved his gaze from Inukai to Onda. "The spot in space specified by Shiba Tatsuya matches a recently discovered comet."
Onda began his report with the wordless request.
"A comet?"
"It is an astronomical object that is presumed to be a comet, for which the precise orbital calculations have not yet been concluded. According to the present calculations, it’s expected to cross paths with the Earth at a distance of one and a half million kilometers in approximately one month."
"One and a half million kilometers… Isn't that four times the distance to the moon?"
Having done some rough mental arithmetic, a frown crossed the Director's face.
"Isn't that… pretty close?"
"Yes. The experts said it was exceptionally close for a comet."
"And that's a month away? Why didn't the information about this thing come to our attention?"
Recognizing the seriousness of the situation, the Director raised his voice.
"Don't worry, sir. They also said there's almost no danger of a collision."
"But it wouldn't be zero! Was your source of information the Japan Spaceguard?" "Yes."
"Were the researchers over there withholding this information!?"
"No, it doesn't seem so. They explained that the announcement of the discovery was delayed because the object reflected almost no light."
"I don’t suppose the media knows about this!?"
"I immediately made sure they didn't share it. And they seem to be fully aware of the gravity of the situation, and are keeping a tight control on the information regarding this comet."
Upon hearing Onda's answer, the evident urgency on the face of the Director of the Intelligence Department eased if only slightly.
"If the general public gets wind of this, it may cause widespread panic. I want you to keep an eye on the media as well as the Spaceguard."
"Leave it to me, sir."
Onda asserted confidently as he took on the Director's instructions.
"Please wait a moment, sir…"
Inukai raised an inquisitive voice, though he probably didn't mean to sound petty about it.
"The fact that the coordinates specified by Shiba Tatsuya in his message correspond to that comet means that at least Shiba Tatsuya's party is privy to that information, doesn't it?"
After Inukai pointed this out, the expressions on the Director’s and Onda's faces grew tense.
"……"
"……"
Inukai as well as Onda remained silent as they watched the complexion on their superior's face.
"…Is that man planning to do something?"
After the short silence, the Director let out a grunt.
Of course, if they knew the answer then they would say it, but unfortunately they don’t.
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