Day 348 Until the Trial Gates Open
The first sign that something was wrong was the silence.
Aboard the Argonaut, the usual background hum of the engines continued uninterrupted. Crew members moved between stations, technicians monitored reactor temperatures, and the navigation officers checked their calculations for the third time that morning.
Everything appeared normal.
Yet Captain Roland Rolf had spent enough years commanding warships to recognize when his instincts were telling him something his instruments could not.
He stood at the forward observation window, looking into the darkness beyond Neptune.
"How much longer?" he asked.
Rika looked up from her console.
"Approximately twenty minutes until we reach the coordinates recovered from Lyra's archive."
"And our sensors?"
"Nothing unusual. There's an enormous concentration of ice and metallic debris ahead, but that's expected in the Kuiper Belt."
Rolf glanced at her.
"Expected?"
Rika smiled faintly.
"Expected for the Kuiper Belt, sir. Not necessarily for a location containing an ancient alien gateway."
"That's reassuring."
"I do my best."
The captain returned his attention to the stars.
Somewhere out there, hidden among billions of kilometres of ice, was a structure that might have been built before humanity had even developed agriculture.
He wondered how many other wonders lay beyond the limits of their maps.
And how many of them had been destroyed by the Ascendancy.
"Bring the fleet to half speed," he ordered. "I want every sensor we have pointed forward before we get any closer."
"Aye, Captain."
The Argonaut slowed, its escort vessels spreading into a defensive formation around it.
On the hangar deck, Leon Ardent received the change in orders while performing a final inspection of Gundam Sentinel.
He looked up from the maintenance display.
"Half speed?"
Flint, who was checking the Gundam's updated control systems, nodded.
"Captain Rolf doesn't want to blunder into something we don't understand."
"Reasonable."
"Try not to sound so disappointed."
Leon grinned.
"I wasn't disappointed."
"You were absolutely disappointed."
Before Leon could answer, the hangar lights flickered.
For half a second, Sentinel's eyes illuminated themselves.
Green light washed across the hangar floor.
Then the Gundam went dark again.
Leon stared at the machine.
"Flint?"
The engineer was already examining his tablet.
"I didn't do that."
"That's becoming a worrying sentence."
"I agree."
Flint checked the power distribution system. The reactor was stable, the control systems were functioning normally, and no external signal appeared in the telemetry.
Yet the Helix crystal embedded within Sentinel's psycho-frame had registered a brief pulse.
One pulse.
Then nothing.
Flint slowly lowered the tablet.
"Leon, I want you to keep your helmet on when you launch."
Leon looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because if that crystal starts doing something unexpected, I'd prefer you to have every safety system available."
"That's not exactly comforting."
"It's not supposed to be."
Leon climbed the access ladder toward the cockpit.
"You're getting worse at encouraging people."
"And you're getting worse at following instructions."
"Then I suppose we're both improving."
Flint watched him disappear inside the cockpit, his expression becoming serious again.
He had a suspicion about what the crystal was doing.
He simply wasn't ready to say it aloud.
Not until he understood it himself.
Twenty minutes later, the Kuiper Belt opened before them.
The Argonaut's forward displays filled with a dense field of drifting ice, ancient asteroids, and frozen fragments left over from the formation of the Solar System.
At first, there was nothing remarkable about the region.
Then Rika noticed a gap.
"Captain, I'm detecting an area of unusually low particle density."
Rolf approached her station.
"Explain."
"The debris field should be considerably denser here. Instead, there's a nearly perfect circle where nothing is drifting."
She expanded the image.
A dark void appeared amid the surrounding asteroids.
Its boundaries were almost geometrically precise.
Flint joined her at the console.
"That's not natural."
"How certain are you?"
"Certain enough that I'd be willing to bet my entire laboratory on it."
Rika raised an eyebrow.
"That's a remarkably specific wager."
"My laboratory is insured."
Captain Rolf ignored them both.
"Magnify the image."
The display zoomed inward.
At the centre of the empty region, a thin silver line became visible.
Then another.
And another.
The lines joined together, forming a vast circular structure.
A ring.
It was so enormous that the Argonaut's computers initially mistook its outer edges for the curvature of a distant planetary orbit.
Rika stared at the measurements.
"One hundred and twelve kilometres in diameter."
Nobody spoke.
The ring was covered in intricate silver panels, each etched with symbols that glowed faintly blue. Its interior was completely empty, save for a handful of smaller structures suspended around its circumference.
There were no engines.
No visible weapons.
No docking facilities that the Federation could identify.
It simply hung in space, waiting.
Lyra entered the bridge just as the image stabilized.
She stopped so abruptly that Captain Rolf turned toward her.
For several seconds, she couldn't speak.
Then she approached the main display.
"No..."
Her voice was barely audible.
"That's impossible."
Leon, listening from Sentinel's cockpit, activated his communications channel.
"Lyra? You know what we're looking at?"
She stared at the ring.
"I know what it is."
Her eyes filled with tears.
"I never thought I'd see one again."
She pressed a hand against the edge of the console.
"The Asteri called these structures Threshold Gates. They connected our colonies, research stations, and great libraries across the stars."
She swallowed.
"This one connected the Solar System to the outer Archive network."
Flint leaned forward.
"How old is it?"
"Older than my civilization's surviving records."
"That's not an answer."
"It's the only one I have."
Lyra turned toward the fleet.
"But it should not be here."
Rolf frowned.
"Why not?"
"Because this gate was abandoned before the Asteri Concord fell. Its central intelligence was removed, and the transit system was permanently disabled."
She looked back at the ring.
"If it has awakened..."
"...something must have restored it."
A new transmission appeared on the bridge display.
No signal had been received.
No antenna had activated.
The message simply appeared across every screen.
WELCOME, SUCCESSORS OF HELIX.
A second line followed.
ARCHIVE ACCESS REQUEST RECOGNISED.
Then a third.
IDENTITY CONFIRMATION REQUIRED.
Leon sat forward in his cockpit.
"Well, that's certainly welcoming."
Flit answered over the secure channel.
"Don't touch anything."
"I wasn't planning to."
"You were thinking about it."
"Maybe a little."
Lyra stepped closer to the display.
"The gate is asking for the Helix inheritance."
Flint's eyes narrowed.
"The crystal."
He glanced toward the hangar telemetry.
"Leon, don't activate anything manually. Let the system respond on its own."
Leon looked down at Sentinel's controls.
The Helix crystal began glowing beneath the Gundam's chest armour.
A soft emerald light spread through the psycho-frame.
Then Sentinel's main monitor changed.
HELIX INHERITANCE DETECTED.
PILOT IDENTIFICATION: LEON ARDENT.
ARCHIVE ACCESS: CONDITIONAL.
Leon frowned.
"Conditional on what?"
The screen went black.
For a moment, the cockpit was completely dark.
Then a single sentence appeared.
PROVE THAT YOU ARE MORE THAN A WEAPON.
Leon stared at it.
"Flint, I think the gate wants to give me a test."
Flint's reply came immediately.
"Then don't fail it."
"Excellent advice."
The ring began to move.
Not physically. Its outer structure remained motionless.
Instead, the empty space within its circumference shimmered, as if an invisible ocean had begun to ripple.
The stars visible through the centre slowly disappeared.
In their place appeared a landscape.
Blue skies.
Green hills.
A distant city beneath a golden sun.
Leon felt his breath catch.
It looked like Earth.
Not exactly as he knew it, but close enough to make his heart ache.
A peaceful world.
A world without warships or mobile suits.
A world without the Ascendancy.
Then the image changed.
The city burned.
Ships fell from the sky.
Buildings collapsed beneath the light of orbital weapons.
People ran through streets filled with smoke while enormous machines advanced between the ruins.
Leon watched, horrified, as the landscape transformed into a battlefield.
The transmission reached every ship in the fleet.
No one spoke.
They were witnessing the destruction of an entire civilization.
Lyra slowly covered her mouth.
"I know this world."
Her voice trembled.
"It's Asterion."
Flit looked toward her.
"What happened here?"
"The first world my people lost to the Judgment."
On the display, a small mobile suit appeared among the ruins.
It was white and blue, with a rounded head and a single glowing camera eye. Its armour was damaged, and its right arm hung uselessly at its side.
Yet it continued fighting.
It protected a group of civilians as they fled through the ruins.
One enemy machine approached from behind.
The white mobile suit turned to intercept it.
It had no chance of winning.
Leon watched as the machine's pilot abandoned an opportunity to escape, instead placing himself between the enemy and a transport carrying wounded civilians.
The white suit was struck by a beam.
Its shield shattered.
It fell to one knee.
But it did not move aside.
The image froze.
A voice emerged from the gate.
"The pilot could have survived."
"Instead, the pilot chose to defend others."
The image shifted again.
A second battlefield appeared.
Then a third.
Different civilizations.
Different machines.
Different pilots.
All faced with the same decision.
Save themselves.
Or protect someone else.
Some chose to flee.
Others stayed.
The gate recorded every choice.
Leon slowly understood.
"This isn't a combat test."
Flit answered quietly.
"No."
"It's testing our values."
The final image appeared.
A Federation colony.
Leon recognized it immediately.
It was a simulation of a civilian settlement near Mars.
Thousands of people moved through its streets, unaware of the enormous Ascendancy warship appearing above them.
A warning flashed across the display.
HOSTILE FORCE DETECTED.
DEFENSIVE RESOURCES INSUFFICIENT.
AVAILABLE OPTIONS:
PRESERVE THE MOBILE SUIT.
OR DEFEND THE CIVILIAN POPULATION.
Leon stared at the choices.
The answer seemed obvious.
Then a third line appeared.
WARNING: SELECTING CIVILIAN DEFENCE WILL RESULT IN PILOT CASUALTY PROBABILITY EXCEEDING 97%.
The cockpit fell silent.
Leon thought of Jupiter.
He remembered Harbinger One's attacks, the ships destroyed, and the helpless feeling of facing an enemy that could manipulate space itself.
He remembered the Keeper.
He remembered Lyra waking aboard the Argonaut, alone after centuries of silence.
He thought of everyone who had trusted him to protect them.
Then he selected the second option.
DEFEND THE CIVILIAN POPULATION.
The simulation began.
Sentinel appeared above the colony.
Enemy machines descended through the atmosphere.
Leon fought desperately, using every trick he had learned against the Ascendancy. He redirected attacks away from residential districts, intercepted incoming missiles, and used the fin funnels to shield evacuation transports.
The simulation adapted.
Every time he found a solution, the enemy changed its tactics.
His ammunition ran out.
His shield was destroyed.
One by one, the fin funnels were disabled.
Finally, Sentinel stood alone above the colony, its armour torn open and its reactor approaching critical levels.
A final enemy machine appeared.
Its weapon charged.
Leon knew he couldn't win.
But he could still buy time.
He pushed Sentinel forward.
The Gundam spread its arms, positioning itself between the enemy and the last evacuation vessel.
"Come on, then."
He tightened his grip on the controls.
"If you want to get to them..."
The enemy fired.
"...you go through me."
White light filled the cockpit.
Then everything stopped.
SIMULATION COMPLETE.
Leon stared at the display, breathing heavily.
"Did I pass?"
The gate remained silent for several seconds.
Then the message appeared.
RESULT: ACCEPTABLE.
Leon blinked.
"Acceptable?"
A new line followed.
A WORTHY GUARDIAN DOES NOT MEASURE VICTORY BY SURVIVAL ALONE.
ARCHIVE ACCESS GRANTED.
The landscape vanished.
The Threshold Gate illuminated from within, and a corridor of blue light extended through its centre.
Rika stared at her instruments.
"Captain, I'm detecting a stable transit field!"
Flint hurried toward the navigation station.
"The gate is open!"
Lyra was crying now.
Not from fear.
From relief.
For the first time in centuries, the road to Archive Prime was open again.
But before the fleet could celebrate, another warning appeared across the Argonaut's bridge.
Rika's face went pale.
"Captain..."
Rolf turned.
"What is it?"
"Something is approaching from the far side of the gate."
The display magnified.
A vessel emerged from the blue corridor.
It was smaller than the Argonaut, perhaps three hundred metres long, with a sleek silver hull and a pair of glowing blue engines.
It carried no visible weapons.
Yet its arrival caused every sensor aboard the human fleet to activate simultaneously.
Lyra stared at the vessel.
"No..."
She stepped closer to the screen.
"I recognise that design."
Flint looked at her.
"Another Asteri ship?"
Lyra shook her head slowly.
"Not exactly."
The vessel transmitted a message.
A woman's voice emerged from the speakers.
Calm.
Clear.
And unmistakably alive.
"This is the Archive Sentinel, guardian of the outer network."
"To the civilization bearing the Helix inheritance..."
A pause.
"We have waited a very long time for you."
The vessel turned toward the Argonaut.
"However, you are not the first to reach this gate."
Behind it, deep within the blue corridor, several enormous silhouettes began to appear.
And every one of them carried the unmistakable markings of the Ascendancy.