Editing City Series:Volume6d Chapter1 (section)

===Part 4===

Something creaked like a wooden ship periodically.

That something was a giant vertical cylinder filled with white light.

Specifically, it was the column of black metal running down the center of the cylinder.

That was the word weapon barrel of the Gard-class aerial warship that had been remade into a part of Tristan.

The Lives needed to pressurize the Vaterlands through the ley lines were launched from the loading area up above the column and then accelerated through it.

The central column was the barrel and the cylinder was the exterior armor.

The column ran through the cylinder from floor to ceiling, but they were actually 4.5 miles long.

It continued well below the floor and well above the ceiling.

Several girders extended from the inside of the cylinder to the central column and people wearing lab coats or black uniforms were walking and talking along those.

The people were tiny compared to the column.

One girder was located almost at the ceiling.

It was more than 8 yards wide and two people currently stood on it. Both were old men.

One wore a lab coat and the other wore a suit. The one in a suit looked down over the girder’s railing. The hem of his suit flapped in the wind that blew up through the cylinder.

The one in a lab coat rested against the opposite railing.

“Is the view really so interesting, Witzmann? You keep looking down there.”

“No, I just like high places.”

“Silly child,” said the lab coat man with a bitter smile.

The man in a suit, Witzmann, replied with an exasperated nod. That was when a loud, deep reverberation came from the center of the cylinder.

The column had caused it.

The two men leaning against opposite girder railings turned their eyes toward the column.

Once they were both looking straight down the girder at the column, their gazes separated to view their surroundings.

The girder’s floor was about 5 yards from the ceiling.

Two things were attached to the surface of the column in that limited space.

One was a window.

It was a yard wide and two yards tall and it gave a view of some plastic pipes that shook whenever the column gave a roar.

The second was a desk-sized control panel made of a copper-colored metal located below the window.

The panel should have had a few keys and controls, but it was all shattered.

The left half had melted away and there was a fist-sized hole suggesting something had crashed into it.

“Heiliger slammed his Tragisch fist into it and used his Beweisen instead of operating it normally, didn’t he?” said Witzmann when he saw the hole. “And that gave it temporary life.”

“A life that lasts until the bearer of Tragisch dies. Its Ober Beweisen uses Tragisch as an intermediary to break its owner’s Tons down and fuse them with a machine. A variation on the Schreiben device, really.”

[[Image:City_v06d_083.jpg|thumb]]

“I see,” said Witzmann, looking again to the hole on the left side of the control panel.

Another sound came from the column. The roar sounded somehow unstable.

“So Elrich. Be honest with me about the Tristan.”

“It is unstable. It doesn’t yet have the power needed to fully boost all of the Vaterlands around the world and let us oppose the Allies. The Panzerpolis Project is still missing something.” Elrich sounded sure of that. “The Tristan’s basic design was Marsch Gant’s idea, but he died before he could complete the final phase design. What we have her is the 5th Phase Tristan.”

“I had a feeling.” Witzmann slowly nodded his head and took a closer look at the hole in the control panel. “Heiliger seems like the sentimental type to me. Is he?”

“Definitely. Tragisch uses two Phlogiston Plattes built into it as fuel. High power ones created from Heidengeists. But those ones in his right shoulder…”

“Were made from his Heidengeist wife and daughter who were eliminated in ’37? He really is sentimental.” Witzmann smiled bitterly. “But there are a lot of things I don’t understand of late. For example, I am unsure what the Ober Beweisens of a few Eingeweide devices are. Like our commander’s Neue Erde, or the Messiah.”

“I can’t tell you about the latter, but our commander’s must be for prophesying.”

“But you haven’t seen it for yourself, have you? She always prophesies deep below the old HQ, so no one can say for sure that’s what her Ober Beweisen does.”

“What are you getting at?”

“Neue Erde was developed by Marsch Gant. Records from the time say he only told our commander what its Ober Beweisen does and the development division cannot predict what it does based on the designs left over from back then. And with the Messiah, only that girl knows what its Ober Beweisen does. Am I wrong?”

“Are you suggesting our commander may be keeping the truth from us? Aggressive as ever, I see.” Elrich snorted. “Let me guess: there’s more you don’t know. Like the meaning of the plate you took from the Karlsruhe knowledge storehouse.”

Witzmann’s head drooped forward, but after a pause, he started laughing.

“Ha ha ha. You noticed?”

“I could tell at a glance the material had changed. Not that I blame you. I wouldn’t have given you permission if you’d asked.”

“I still can’t read it, but it has expanded the breadth of my predictions.” Witzmann nodded. “My biggest question is ‘why’. Take the Unreif Germane’s 6th section for example. The previous five sections carry a hint of glory while leading to ruin. Those songs were apparently prophesies about events back then, but the people began to spread them after the Messiah went to sleep at the end.”

“And the final line isn’t a record – it’s calling out to someone.”

“She could see the ruin coming after the millennium of peace and she cried herself to sleep after encountering a goodbye and a wall, so why did she sing a song of new hope in the middle of all that tragedy?”

“The thing is…” began Elrich. He groaned as he tried to figure out if he should give an answer or not.

Witzmann smiled bitterly.

“Only one person out there can answer that question. And you know who, don’t you?”

“The Sylphide. The one excavated from the Alfheim Meteorite Pit in ’39.”

“Actually, I meant the Messiah from a thousand years ago,” said Witzmann. “You know what it means to find the Sylphide there, where it had been sealed for a thousand years, don’t you? It wasn’t being enshrined there.”

“Cryogenic storage.” Elrich nodded. “It has to be in a sealed container with conditions similar to deep sea or a vacuum, but the life of the passenger could be preserved. It would have to be set to thaw on a timer or with external controls. If the Sylphide was set to only power its self-repair function and the cryogenic storage, it could preserve the passenger for a thousand years – or even several thousand years.”

“The same conclusion I arrived at. The question is who spent a thousand years inside there.”

“A question we can never answer since the AIF stole the Sylphide.”

Both Witzmann and Elrich stopped talking there.

Instead, an emotionless voice spoke from the opposite direction of the column.

“Seeking that answer may be going a step too far.”

They both turned toward the voice where the door leading out onto the girder had opened and a man walked out.

He was tall and pencil thin and he wore a Geheimnis Agency Air Force Division combat coat.

“Bermark Vier,” said Elrich.

Bermark stopped walking and saluted.

“I have new orders from the fräulein. I know the Messiah will be visiting soon, but she asks that you two head to the old HQ.”

“Why there? That place is nearly deserted.”

“You are being given a month of leave to help you recuperate from your hard work and prepare for the true battle to come. Unfortunately, the Allies have entered Germany, so you must remain inside the old HQ for your own safety.”

“Ha ha!” laughed Elrich. “So we’re under house arrest!”

“It would seem so. I was thinking of stopping by there soon anyway. I have a historical interest in the phase space lab built below that building. Our commander may intend to lock us in there, but that simply gives me the time I need to investigate.”

Witzmann’s comment stopped Elrich’s laughter.

Witzmann nodded when Elrich gave him a puzzled look.

“Bermark’s presence is all the answer I need. I do not blindly trust our commander. After all, she more or less gave the Allies our Wort Bombe research document in exchange for having the Messiah sent to Germania.”

But…

“I may come to trust her depending on the answer I find for my question of ‘why’.”

He stepped away from the railing and walked toward Bermark.

“What about our men?”

“She has already had Sir Heiliger arrange for replacement chiefs to the development and intelligence divisions. We are always training for such eventualities, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“I see.” Witzmann stopped next to Bermark and slapped his shoulder. “Sounds like we have a busy vacation ahead of us.”