Zeroth Directive

Archive II

The Urbicas descend from a long line of Gaulish astrologers who emigrated to the Columbian South after being ostracized by the orthodox astrologers there, and thus unwittingly escaped the destruction of Gaul. They are now an enormous family that possesses significant social prestige, and the sisters Astesia and Astgenne are among the family's newest generation. Their parents had an arranged marriage, but nonetheless loved each other deeply, and it wasn't long after their marriage before their mother became pregnant. Their father then used his astrological research to predict their future, and found that they might only have a single child in this lifetime. As such, he picked a grandiloquent name for their only daughter: Astesia. Which is why he was completely blindsided when on the day his wife gave birth, they ended up with two baby girls. Regardless, he was overjoyed, and named his unexpected younger daughter Astgenne in the hopes that, just like the stars, she would come to be the genesis of the family's good fortune. Astgenne has been fond of learning from a young age. Although she does not possess her sister's ability to intuit and learn by inference, she made up for it with hard work and diligence. Because of this, even during their childhood her Originium Arts were far more radiant than her sister's, and her mastery of astrological lore flabbergasted even their father. In his words, she 'could've become a pillar of the family's bright future alongside her sister.' But she didn't. Astgenne first started to change because of a broken astrolabe. She came upon her parents, two experienced astrologers, throwing out an astrolabe that could still be repaired in favor of buying a new one. That was when she discovered how impractical the knowledge she had been studying truly was. She couldn't tell her parents, 'we can still use this if we get it fixed,' so instead she brought it back to her room, poured over a few instruction manuals and assembly guides, took it apart, talked to the craftsman who made it, and finally repaired it after tinkering with it for a few months. She then showed the globe to her sister, who happily took it, praised her handiwork, and shared candy with her. But when she showed it to her parents, she was met with only cold, harsh responses: 'Why did you waste your time on this hunk of junk?' 'Astgenne, I want you to spend your time on things that matter.' She quietly went back to her room and looked at the rows and rows of astrological literature on her shelf. Then, she looked out the window at the endless nomadic city plates, and that was when she finally realized. It didn't matter how well she knew the stars' periods, or how confidently she could tell those around her about their distant, impractical changes. This field of study does not benefit the lands whatsoever. If she continued to study her family's pointless chicanery, she would simply become a stargazing con artist who couldn't even fix her own equipment. What she really wanted to master was the thing that could truly make the world a better place. What her father saw as useless trash. Science. From that day forward, Astgenne lost interest in the astrology lessons from her parents and teachers. Instead, she shifted her focus to her classes at school. She tried to use her good grades to prove that she made the right choice, but her parents' disdain toward this only made her more stubborn. Considering her temperament, if it weren't for Astesia calming her down, she probably would've immediately left home without a second thought. In the end, after she received an acceptance letter from a university and made sure that she had enough savings and a stable source of income, she moved out for good, never to return to the home that had tormented her for so long. To prepare herself for a new life, she also gave herself a new name when she enrolled at college: Elena. She didn't want to be an illusory, insignificant star. She wanted to become a shining light.

Archive III

As the land's leading tech company, Rhine Lab's hiring standards are stringent enough to discourage most would-be applicants. Even Elena, with her double degrees, wouldn't be worth mentioning in that corporation full of people with master's degrees and PhDs doing odd jobs. Fortunately—or at least some would say so—she had a good teacher. Even in college, she had already been participating in Rhine Lab Energy Section Director Ferdinand's experiments. Seizing this opportunity, Elena worked and studied under the industry groundbreaker for years, at last becoming his proud protégé. It goes without saying how painstaking and laborious this process was. Ferdinand had several dozen researchers working under him, and the students he taught as a guest lecturer likely numbered in the thousands. Naturally, Ferdinand took notice of Elena due to her academic accomplishments, but what really made him take a liking to her was her decisiveness and quick response under extreme circumstances. A few years prior, a disastrous liquid Originium leak occurred in the Energy Section's laboratories. At the time, the main Energy Section members were working away from Rhine HQ, and the Defense Section dealt with the incident according to their contingency plan. However, the leak affected other departments, and there were multiple experiments that, once shut down, had to have their materials disposed of lest they become an even more dangerous problem, which greatly slowed the rescue process. If it weren't for Elena, who was merely an intern at the time, taking on the responsibility to explain to Defense Director Saria the situation at the accident site and even leading the rescue, Ferdinand would likely have had an even greater mess on his hands. Of course, thinking only of saving others, Elena headed into the high-risk environment without a full set of safety equipment, and this left her infected with Oripathy. As for her sister Astesia, Elena brought her into a safe house when the accident occurred, but after they made physical contact, Astesia began to show signs of developing sympathetic Oripathy. They were then transported to Rhodes Island for treatment together. 'We have yet to understand the specific causes of developing sympathetic Oripathy. It's only in recent years that we've even identified cases of this exceedingly rare form of infection. We have managed to narrow down a few commonalities though: the patients are all the identical twins of an already infected patient, with whom they've learned and used the same kind of Originium Arts since childhood. They also all shared a close emotional bond, and experienced a strong emotional fluctuation when they came into physical contact with their newly infected twin. And, speculatively, time and space may also play a factor, as in all cases the patients had physical contact with their twins within hours of their infection. So far, we have not found any cases where this occurred after more time had passed, or where a patient suddenly became infected from afar.' 'How many cases have there been?' 'Just one on the landship, and two reported from our branches across the lands.' 'That's way too few. Even trying to speculate based on that sample size may be overzealous.' 'This sort of infection is rare to begin with. We can only work with the data we have.' 'I know you're in a hurry to get results, and to give the people suffering out there a treatment plan, but please. You're not usually this reckless. Look, we have plenty of cases where an Infected infects others with Originium Arts because of their emotional outbursts, and we also have cases of patients becoming infected after prolonged exposure to their family members.' 'Well, that just lends credence—' 'It means that every single guess of yours can be accounted for by other special cases.' '...... (Annoyed sigh)' 'Oripathy is not a normal disease. The kind of logic that works with other diseases doesn't apply here.' '...I won't give up.' 'Of course you won't, but before that, I want you to come up with a treatment plan for these patients.' 'All done. Three files on your desk, all ready to go.' 'Thanks, good work.' ...... 'Anything else?' 'I'm just thinking that if science and logic can't explain these patients' Oripathy, then maybe it's time for a different approach.' 'What do you mean?' 'I heard the Rhodes Island case comes from a family of astrologers. Maybe common logic won't work here, maybe we need to appeal to the supernatural. Their father once predicted that he would only have one daughter. What if his prophecy wasn't wrong?' 'You're still just making wild guesses... but if you're so sure about this, do as you please.' —Selected excerpts from a meeting between high-clearance medic operators, Medical Department Meeting Room

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