Chapter 48:
Operation Aleph
The atmosphere around the Infinity Labs was bustling and determined, as the kids and Digimon searched for possible solutions to the problem of the Dark Seed bases.
“You guys found Projection machines?” Tian asked incredulously.
“We did,” Jun answered, “On the Special Projects floor. I figured, based on your experience, they might come in handy.”
Tian eyed them warily. “I see.”
“Problem is, we only have a few of them,” Jun said.
“How many do we need?” Mana spoke up.
“At least one for each of us,” Jun replied
“But the Special Projects floor is closed,” Mana said, “and having to look through that rat’s nest again gives me the creeps!”
Jun said nothing, continuing to examine the Projection machines.
Mana sighed. “All right, all right, we’ll look for more!” She turned away and yelled across the room. “Yuu! I need you to break into Special Projects again!”
“Coming!” Yuu hopped up and followed Mana.
Meanwhile, Jun walked over to Seita and Yuka, who were looking at a pile of small electronic devices.
“What are these?” Jun asked, “They look just like D-Coders!”
“They’re called Code Generators,” Seita answered, picking one up. “According to the readme, they convert written code into real-world functions.”
“Like a Digivice for someone who doesn’t have one!” Yuka added.
Jun nodded. “That’s really useful. I wonder…” He thought for a moment. “These, and the Projection machines…” He walked over to his laptop, pulling up the map. He looked over it for a few moments, thinking, then turned to the supercomputer housing Naoko’s image.
“Naoko,” Jun said, “We know from Tian’s experience that the Projection machines can send you from the Digital World to the Real World. Will they work in reverse?”
Naoko nodded. “They will. As long as the connection with the person’s physical body is strong, they can be projected from the Real World to the Digital World with no problem.”
“Anywhere in the Digital World?”
“Yes. As long as we have the coordinates.”
“Good to know,” Jun answered. “What about projecting to different places in the Real World? Ones that are too far away for us to get to?”
“You would need to project into the Digital World first, but it’s possible,” Naoko said, “The connection would be slightly weaker, though.” She looked at him for a moment. “I see where you’re getting at!”
Jun nodded. “Right.” He typed furiously on his laptop. “This might take some time,” he said, “but I think I have something. The beginnings of something, anyway.”
“All right,” Ryou said, getting up. “Who wants to go for a food run?”
“Me!” Kei shot a hand up.
Rion raised a hand. “Me, too!”
“I’ll come along,” Tian spoke up.
Ryou looked back at her, blushing and stammering. “O-okay then. Anyone else?”
No one else answered. Jun was busy typing on his laptop, and Mana and Yuu were retrieving more Projection machines from the Special Projects floor. Yuka was looking at the Code Generators, and Seita was sitting off by himself. The adults and Cai-lin were sitting at one of the tables, typing on laptops.
“You coming?” Ryou asked Seita.
He shook his head. “Not this time.”
Ryou nodded. “All right. We’ll be back soon.”
After they left, Seita sighed and got up, startling Gazimon.
“What’s up?” Gazimon said.
“I need to get some fresh air,” Seita answered, walking out of the lab.
“Wait for me!” Gazimon said, catching up to him.
They exited the building, and sat on the steps leading to the entrance. The afternoon sun painted the sidewalk orange, while a humid summer breeze blew down the deserted streets. The cracks in the road and on the nearby buildings were still visible despite the city’s efforts to fix them.
Seita put his head down on his knees and sighed.
“You too?” a voice came from nearby.
Seita and Gazimon looked up to see Kodamon sitting next to them.
“I had to get away from all the hustle and bustle,” Kodamon said, “Everyone has something to do, except for me.”
Seita and Gazimon kept silent, not knowing what to say. Kodamon, however, didn’t notice.
“I’ve always been bad at doing nothing,” Kodamon continued, “Gazimon, you know that firsthand. I’d rather punch the walls down than sit around doing nothing. The helplessness of it… it crushes you.
“And now, Akira may not wake up. I may not see her again. What can I do about that? What happens when a Digimon loses her partner?”
Tears fell from her eyes.
“Everyone tells me to be strong, and not to worry. That Akira will be fine. But I can’t help thinking about it. I feel like I’m falling into an abyss, and I can’t do anything about it!”
Gazimon pulled Kodamon into a hug as she cried. Seita hugged both of them. No one said anything, just letting Kodamon cry herself out and providing a listening ear.
There has to be a way, Seita thought, a way to wake Akira up. Maybe Tian’s right, and Akira’s trapped somewhere, and can’t come back. We need to find her and bring her back!
His thoughts were interrupted by Ryou and the others, returning from their food run carrying plastic bags. The smell of adobo and lumpia was appetizing.
“We’re back!” Tian said, carefully holding a bag of food. She looked back and forth between them. “Is everything okay?”
“Yeah,” Kodamon said hastily, wiping her eyes with her paws. “I just had a moment. But it’s okay now.”
“Hey guys!” Mana called out from the building entrance, “We’ve got something!”
“What something?” Seita called out.
Mana made a face. “A plan, of course! Everyone inside, we need to talk it over!”
As everyone settled down to eat, Jun started to outline his plan.
“All right, so the next two Dark Seed bases will appear within the next two days, in these locations here and here.” He pointed to a point on the map in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, then to a point somewhere in Central Asia. “These two points are going to be very important.”
“How?” Seita asked, “One’s in the ocean, and the other’s in the middle of nowhere!”
“The ocean currents,” Tian answered, “Assuming the Dark Seeds don’t dissolve in the ocean water, the currents will take them all over the world, and they could infect anyone they come into contact with!”
“Right,” Jun said, “And as for the other point, it’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, in Kazakhstan, where the Russians launch their rockets into space. And there’s a rocket launch there in two days. If any Dark Seeds end up on that rocket…”
“They’ll launch into space and mutate, and could come back down to Earth worse than when they started!” Tian finished.
Everyone was silent for a moment.
“So how do we get to those places in just a day or two?” Kei asked.
“We’ll use the Projection machines,” Jun said, “If we project ourselves back to the Digital World, we can use Digital Gates to take us anywhere in the Real World, as long as we have coordinates for them.”
“And since we’re sending projections of ourselves to different places,” Mana added, “we won’t get hurt if something happened. Our actual bodies stay here!”
“Okay, that works for us kids,” Seita stated, “But what about the Digimon?”
“I can easily send Digimon back and forth between worlds,” Naoko said, “They’re native code, after all. They would only need to use the Digital Gates to get to where you’re going.”
“That’s good,” Tian said.
“So, as for who’s going where…” Jun continued, “Mana and I will handle the ocean point. Ophanimon and Seraphimon will handle any attacks in the air, while we search for the Dark Seed base underwater.”
Mana nodded, then her eyes widened. “Wait, what? How? It’s the middle of the ocean, and we’re not expert swimmers!”
“That’s where our resident wizard comes in,” Jun answered, thumping Yuu on the shoulder. “Yuu gets a Code Generator, and he gets to build and program a submarine for us.”
“You’re actually serious,” Yuu said faintly. “I can’t build a-” He quickly caught himself. “Ahem. Yeah. Sure, I can do this. Just another programming challenge!” He laughed hastily.
“Tian and Rion will go to Baikonur. Ryou will go too, for language help.” He turned to Ryou. “I hope you know Russian.”
“Uh… nyet?” Ryou asked.
Jun sighed. “Well, then you’ll need to negotiate on your own. I believe in you!”
“What about us?” Kei asked.
“You and Yuka have a special mission,” Jun said, “You’ll go to the Digital World and seal off the rest of the points before they have a chance to open. And destroy the rest of the Dark Seed bases before they come through to the Real World.”
Kei and Yuka nodded. “You can count on us,” Kei said.
“And last,” Jun looked over at Seita. “You, Gazimon and Kodamon will have a different mission. Find Akira and bring her back.”
Seita’s eyes widened. “Akira…”
“Judging from how Kodamon evolved earlier,” Jun continued, “Naoko thinks Akira’s consciousness might be somewhere in the Digital World. Maybe even somewhere in the Edge.”
Seita nodded. He looked over at Kodamon and saw the hopeful look on her face. “We’ll do our best,” he said.
“In the meantime, while all you young’uns are running around both worlds,” Nami put in, “Us adults will be here, monitoring your vitals. Nothing will happen to you all while we’re around!” She looked at Takashi, Taira, Souichi, then at Cai-lin.
“All right, then,” Jun concluded. “Operation Aleph commences in 12 hours. Let’s all get some rest. We’ve got a big couple of days ahead of us.”
As the clock counted up to 6:06 AM, the lab was in a flurry. Several cots were laid out on the floor, and the kids laid down in them, wearing metal headsets connected to briefcase-sized laptop computers. The Digimon stood in front of them, waiting for Naoko to transfer them back to the Digital World.
“All right, everyone,” Takashi said, “Projection in 20 seconds. 19… 18…”
Each of the kids tried to relax as Takashi continued counting down. Mana had to keep herself from fiddling with the headset on her head. Tian squeezed her eyes shut, trying not to remember the last time she had used the Projection machine. Seita stared forward with a determined look on his face.
“5… 4… 3… 2… 1-”
Connection Complete.