Ultima Ratio

Chapter 64: Laws of Magnetism

It was called the South Atlantic Anomaly.

According to an irate Izzy, it was a large region in central South America and the adjacent Atlantic Ocean where the magnetic field was abnormally weak. Its effect was primarily on anything in low Earth orbit, and after Concordia's destruction of anything related to space travel, the UN took their heads out of the clouds to deal with bigger problems. Evidently, they had looked away too soon.

"What I'm saying is that I'm a disgrace," Izzy grumbled as he began to take off his lab coat for the fifth time. "Decades of school and research wasted because I didn't bother to think that Concordia was using magnetic anomalies to hide themselves from our pathetic sensors."

Once again, the Aegis Squad and Sam exchanged wary glances across Izzy's small lab.

"You know you're only twenty-two, right?" Quyen said. "And you're not the UN's only researcher."

"I meant more like what does that mean in terms of the war," Akira gently clarified her original question.

Izzy growled when the lanyard around his neck became tangled in his coat collar, and he fought futilely against them both. "It means that we could've ended this ages ago if I wasn't such a failure!"

"If it's any consolation, it took a non-human to figure it out," Sam tentatively said, then glanced around during the resulting silence. "Danny's technically a cyborg, right? I know I'm not the smartest person here, but that probably gives her some sort of advantage. Maybe. Somehow. I don't know how science works."

Despite Sam's self-proclaimed inexperience, his initial argument was apparently still good enough, and Izzy paused before quietly shoving his spindly arms back into his large sleeves.

"How did you think of this anyway?" Quyen asked, turning to Danya.

Danya, sitting on top of a plastic bucket, shrugged. "It was something Verus Rex mentioned before. Not to me, at least, but more to himself. Something about..." her eyes narrowed in concentration, "certain areas being his havens? No, his sanctuaries."

"Places where he'd be safe from danger?" Elodie asked.

Quyen scoffed. "Or something more delusional. A holy place, one blessed with the presence of a god."

"Did he say anything else?" Jivan asked.

"I..." Danya began, her face furrowing even further. "I don't know."

She continued to think for a few more seconds, her expression gradually contorting all the while. As soon as she hunched over and ran her fingers through her hair with a relentless grip, Akira quickly knelt down in front of her.

"Hey, it's okay," Akira whispered, gently holding one of Danya's tense wrists with her lone functioning hand. "You've done more than enough."

"But it's not enough!" Danya hissed. "I was there! I should know this!"

"Some cyborg you are," Izzy grumbled.

Akira turned to glare at him, but he was more focused on having his face two centimeters away from a computer screen as he typed.

"Can we access the nanobots' memories somehow?" Jivan asked. "Or maybe a mind reader, perhaps?"

"No mind readers," Akira said as Danya flinched beneath her touch.

"The nanobots are heavily encrypted too," Izzy added, still not looking at any of them. "I think the commodore sent some off to real scientists."

Akira grimaced lightly at the mention of the commodore, but she kept her grievances self-contained and turned back to Danya instead.

Within the shadows of her curled body, Danya's face was contorted with fury. Akira could see her racking her mind for her own memories, and she could feel the burn of Danya's glistening eyes as if they were her own. But Akira was powerless to do anything that mattered, and she gently brushed her fingers back and forth over Danya's wrist.