"Aftershock . . ." Esmeralda murmurs "Please . . . before you come, I hope rescue will come first . . .""Praying, Hag?" Samuel exclaims. "After you pray, I need you here."
Esmeralda had been trying to push the fallen concretes, searching for those which should be brittle enough to crumble and fall. She had laced the force she exerted with prayers. She was certain any moment there would be blocks falling towards her unnoticed. She was subconsciously thinking of her last will—
"So, what can I do to help?" Asks Esmeralda, and then eyes the floor covered in concrete dust. Samuel, with his index finger, had been writing something down to the dust.
"There," he says. "the axis where blocks have fallen. "Well, I think it"s a bit wrong though. But I gave it a shot,"
"Wh-what"s that?" Esmeralda asks.
"Newtonian physics." Samuel answers. "Gravity is constant, therefore g = -9.8 m/s2. The distance the object falls, or height, h, is 1/2 gravity multiplied by the square of the time falling. Velocity is defined as gravity multiplied by time."
"I . . . what . . ." Esmeralda states.
"This is High school physics, Hag," Samuel says. "I have a good retention rate. I remember formulas in my head. I never thought about applying them, though,"
Esmeralda kneels, "so . . . um, what can I help?" she asks as she stares at the formula written on the ground.
"For starters, we have to state air resistance as null," Samuel exclaims, as he continues to solve and write the equations.
He crossed the equation out. "I can"t use Freefall as the basis. I think the stress force would do the trick. Continuum mechanics. Stress is the force per unit area on a body that tends to cause it to change shape. Stress is a measure of the internal forces in a body between its particles,"
Samuel writes down the formula, ". . . in SI units, force is measured in newtons and area in square meters. This means stress is newtons per square meter, or N/m2. . . ."
"Um . . . I-I"ve read on a textbook about earthquakes, they"re unprecedented, right? Peru"s in the ring of fire, after all."
"Well, technically you"re correct," answers Samuel. "But we aren"t talking about fault lines or elastic-bound theory; it isn"t the earthquake we"re studying but the physics behind how the rocks fell."
"B-but you can reverse engineer that on your mind, right?"
"Yes, but since I blacked out when we got thrown off, I didn"t see the whole enchilada," Samuel says. "I"m trying to figure it using physics, though."
"O-oh . . ." Esmeralda says. "W-well I"m not really good at math, so I don"t really know how I could help . . ."
Samuel, for a second, stared at her.
"Wh-what?" Esmeralda exclaims. "Are you going to tease me why I can"t do math? For your information—"
"Nope," Samuel answers. "Not going to tease you. I was just thinking of . . . the formula, I mean."
"O-oh. Okay.��
"Yeah,"
Silence.
Beep . . . beep . . . beep.
". . . the beeper."
"Yes, I can hear it," Samuel says.
"No . . . wait," both Esmeralda and Samuel paused.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
"It"s . . ." Esmeralda exclaims—
". . . getting louder?" Samuel continues.
Both of them instantaneously stood up and then focused their whole senses on their ear. For a few deafening-silence, while pressing their ear to the blocks of different angles of concrete, they finally heard where the beeper was louder the most.
". . . am!"
"That voice . . .!" Esmeralda says, her voice trembling.
"Sam! Esmeralda!"
Both Esmeralda and Samuel stare at each other.
"Berthold!"
**
Ephraim grunted as he gasped heavily, pulling away from the water. He panted, trying to catch his breath. He stood up; this lagoon was different from where he had woken up. The depth had reached the top of his head.
"No," Ephraim utters breathlessly.
Before him was a vast body of turquoise-cyan water with flowers floating atop it. It was calm, and unhindered until he came. He couldn"t see the end of the lagoon—and he was guessing it might be more than fifty feet or so (he"s uncertain HOW in the world would there be such thing underneath ANDROMEDA.)
Ephraim mustered to evoke some of the certain happenings—such as his missing task force, the job they must complete in ANDROMEDA, and the earthquake that sufficed. However, he couldn"t exactly remember how he had ended up "here."—and how did he get injured?
"That"s the problem," Ephraim answers as he floats on the water. "It would be gone now—you said thirty years had pa.s.sed ever since they botched your system! And they threw it here! The bottom is unreachable, and without proper equipment—"
"Why didn"t you search for it for the past thirty years, so that you could just tell me where the location is?" Ephraim asks.
"Okay," Ephraim says. "I"ll try to search again."
Ephraim found himself submerged and diving towards the bottomless depth of water again. His eyes were a blur, but he somehow could see enough detail for quite a bit. The voice told him the chip would be about the small diminutive size and was inside in a container. The voice also told him she couldn"t remember what the container was like (because she was just a "fragment," her data/memories were limited and she had to preserve the most critical information).
Ephraim went deeper, diving down to the depths of the waters where only little light could pa.s.s through. He was holding his breath back for several minutes now. He knows he had to breathe again—but had to go further. He couldn"t dwindle.
He extended his arm, reaching the obscurity in search of the ground.
His head twitched and ache in pain, making him temporarily wince as he dives deeper. He gnashes his teeth from the inside as if it would do something to ease the pain.
Until he touched something.
And it wasn"t any container—
A hand.
—and it had touched his own.
"eeph. . . rraai . . .mm . . ."
Ephraim"s eyes widened, as he tried to pull his arm away. The hand had pulled him to the abyss, more and more until he couldn"t see light—he exhaled the air away, as he sees nothing but the void as he drowns to seemingly perpetual darkness underneath him.
Whose voice was that?
"EPHRAIM!"
Ephraim coughed, exhaling the water out of his mouth as breathed heavily. His gaze was now a blur, gradually clearing out as his lungs respire all the air he was deprived of.
When everything was almost crystal clear, he sees two figures—one familiar, and one foreign to her.
Someone, the familiar figure—hands him his gla.s.ses—which he soon accepts. And as his vision started to be crystal-clear, he blinked several times in confusion, seeing the "familiar" and "unfamiliar" figure standing before him.
"Aah~ finally I can talk and interact with you!"
"Y-you"re . . ."
"Right! Nice to meet you. My name is Anna or more likely Project A. NN3331a. But to be short, I"m called Anna,"
". . . Anna . . .?"
Ephraim peers at the girl; she had a distinct curly blond hair, and a set of electric blue eyes. She had a small stature, and wore only a white dress with frills, complementing her fair skin. She was also barefoot.
"You"re . . . that voice. . .?"
"Aye," Anna answers. "Thank you for getting the chip!"
"I . . . I got the . . . chip?"
Anna tilts her head, "well, not alone, that is!"
Ephraim then eyes the "familiar" figure. He blinked several times—how come he noticed the "unfamiliar" one first before this one—who he should have recognized the moment he opened his eyes?
"H . . . Hiroaki!" Ephraim exclaims. "How in the world . . ."
Hiroaki Mochizuki eyed Ephraim for a second until he walked away. Ephraim stares at his appearance—he still was wearing his black gear, but this time he sees beads of water dripping out from him. He was wet all over.
"What . . . happened?"
Anna pouted, "you don"t remember? Ah! Your head"s bleeding still!"
"Oh . . ." Ephraim then drapes his palm around to the top of his forehead, and then he sees a crimson liquid from it.
"From what I can see, the wound isn"t that deep! But of course, you still need some bandage, or else it"ll get infected."
"Right . . ." Ephraim mutters. "I . . . how is Hiroaki here?"
"Oh, you two arrived here together; however, in distinctly different sectors!" Anna says, trying to touch Ephraim"s head only for her hand to slip right through (she was a Hologram, after all).
"We arrived here . . .?"
"Yes," Anna says. "He saved you from drowning and when he recovered your body, you were holding the container of my chip!"
"He . . . saved me?"
"Yes," Anna smiles at Ephraim, as she gestured to pat his head. "Now does that answer your question why he"s wet all over? He saved you from drowning."
Ephraim winced, as he clutched his head, his hand pa.s.sing through Anna.
"Ah! Careful~ I"m pretending to have a material body here~" Anna pouts, and then stares at Ephraim worriedly. "Are you okay . . .?"
"I . . . I . . ." Ephraim shuts his eyes tightly as he winced in pain. His head was now throbbing and his gaze started to spin.
"H-hey, are you alright?" Anna asks worriedly. "Your name"s Ephraim, right? Do I have to open the doors so we could ask for help—"
"I . . . remember it," Ephraim says, as his eyes fluttered open. He slowly lifted his gaze to meet Anna"s eyes.
"Eph . . . raim?"
Ephraim then stood up, readjusting his gla.s.ses.
"I remember." He flashes his usual smile. "Now. . ."
Anna blinks.
"Remember what . . .?"
Ephraim saunters towards Anna and then smiles at her. Anna started to take a few steps backward, frowning over Ephraim. He stops walking towards her and kneels to level his head to her height.
"E-Ephraim . . .?"
"Open the door to the laboratory," he says to her nonchalantly as he smiles. "There is something I need to find."