The song Lacus sang for the souls of Junius 7 and everyone present was "fields of hope."
Her clear, deep voice, amplified by the psionic amplifier and GN Particles, resonated directly within everyone's hearts.
At that moment, regardless of their stance or their thoughts on war, an overwhelming sense of sorrow surged forth from within everyone present.
Reid was no exception. He had personally experienced the final moments of the 240,000 souls of Junius 7. Although not much of the memory remained, he still recalled a little.
Thus, Reid added more fuel to the fire in this chat room enveloping the wreckage of Junius 7. Through his Newtype telepathy, he projected several of the most profound images from his memory.
For the others, the completeness of the images they received varied depending on their own psionic talents, but they could all basically tell that these were scenes from before the colony's destruction.
People like Eileen Canaver, who were already quite familiar with the environment inside Junius 7, could recognize at a glance that these were the final moments of the people within.
And Lacus, though she didn't know why she was perceiving such clear images, channeled her sorrow and released it with twice the intensity into her song.
When the song ended, everyone aboard the Silver Wind had tears in their eyes. A few of the more sentimental women were even holding their heads and sobbing uncontrollably.
But no one would stop or mock them now, because even Reid himself had to take out a tissue to wipe his tears.
The work that followed went smoothly. PLANT temporarily dispatched a GuAIZ R, stripped of all its weapons, to install the stone monument for the Earth Sphere Peace Accord.
The other four nations didn't give PLANT too much trouble, as they had just witnessed what seemed to be a hallucination of Junius 7's destruction.
However, once the sorrow subsided, everyone's rationality came back online. Several ministers and Eileen Canaver approached Reid to ask, "Mr. Reid, what was that song that entered our minds directly? And that hallucination? Is this related to the Diva Gundam your country developed?"
Reid wasn't secretive about this. The New Misurugi Kingdom had already presented the psionic headband, so it was only natural that they would be the first to be suspected of something that could project images directly into the brain.
Of course, Reid had done all this intentionally. The goal was that if his Newtype identity ever had to be revealed in the future, these politicians wouldn't find it too abrupt. This would prevent them from immediately dehumanizing him or treating psionic communication as some kind of supernatural power.
After all, this era valued science. As long as it could be explained by science, the people of the CE Universe were quite accepting—this was, after all, a world where fossils of winged whales actually existed.
Thus, Reid calmly stated, "It's related, but that's not the whole story. The song was able to enter your brains because the Diva Gundam is equipped with a psionic amplifier. This device can unilaterally transmit brainwaves within a certain range, allowing you to listen to music directly with your brain. Don't worry, this technology has no side effects. It's a byproduct of our research on the psionic headband. It's like if someone is blasting music next to you; even if you cover your ears, you can still hear it as long as your hearing is fine. This technology will be used in the field of hearing aids in the future. An electronic ear can receive sound, which is then simulated as a psionic signal to let the brain hear."
At Reid's explanation, the crowd nodded, finding it somewhat acceptable. After all, Dr. Elvira Hill of the New Misurugi Kingdom was at the world's forefront of research in the field of mental conduction. Such an achievement was surprising, but not entirely unexpected.
Of course, these people wouldn't believe Reid completely.
If they could already make the brain hear sounds directly, did that mean the New Misurugi Kingdom had already mastered a set of brainwave compilation technologies?
It was worth noting that in the CE Universe, although brainwashing and memory erasure were explicitly banned, they were already practically applicable technologies. To be precise, this "brainwashing" and "memory erasure" was at best a memory overwrite technology, and it was immature; a person whose memory had been overwritten could recall everything if they received the right stimulus at some point.
So, it wouldn't be too strange if the New Misurugi Kingdom had an iterative technology that could directly read or truly erase memories.
However, Reid was very cunning. He used medical applications as a pretext for developing the technology. Given the demonstration just now, it would be difficult to ban it directly with international law, or else people with hearing impairments would be up in arms against their governments. You could never imagine what a person who cannot hear would do to regain their hearing.
However, Eileen Canaver was more concerned about something else at this moment. She asked again, "Mr. Reid, you don't seem to have explained the hallucination. I'm certain that in the images I saw, the disaster occurred in the original city of Junius 7. It was just like the last thing the victims here saw before their lives ended."
On this question, Reid was about to start spinning a tale. He shook his head directly and said, "This hallucination is the reason I said that's not the whole story. This system has undergone over a hundred thousand tests and has never once caused a recipient to experience hallucinations, let alone such realistic images. I suspect that we have inadvertently triggered a mirage of the psionic realm. Our research into the mind is still in its early stages. There is still no explanation for what the soul is. But now, our country has developed a technology that can produce sound directly in the brain, though we cannot yet generate images directly in the brain. This incident seems to prove that our research direction is correct. There is a high probability that something special about Junius 7 recorded the mental, or soul fragments, of the deceased here. And what the dying remember most vividly is naturally the last image they saw. Now, it's possible that the psionic amplifier activated these spiritual fragments of images, which were then presented directly in our minds. Everyone, this could be a discovery of the century. Let's first compare the granularity, shall we? Let's see if the images everyone saw are consistent. Are there any discrepancies?"
As Reid spoke on this topic, he deliberately displayed the fervor of a scientific researcher.
The people here had seen this kind of demeanor countless times in their own countries, which led to not a single person suspecting Reid was lying.
It was just that no one here understood the professional knowledge in the field of mental conduction. The latter part of what Reid said sounded to them like a fantasy novel.
But their recent experience made it impossible to deny Reid's words.
And so, these bigwigs, equivalent to deputy national leaders in their respective countries, actually began to compare the granularity of what they saw. If this could truly prove that mental energy with memory fragments could be left behind out of thin air, it would indeed be a discovery of the century. Their names might very well be written into the world's history books.
The result was obvious. Although the other four saw varying amounts of images, they generally matched up. Reid, moreover, could describe a thing or two about every single image.
With that, the four people present were thoroughly duped by Reid.
Everyone basically accepted Reid's speculation that memories had truly been preserved here.
Furthermore, a muttered phrase from the East Asian Republic's Foreign Minister instantly cracked the case. He mumbled to himself in a low voice, "Heavens, does this make me the first person in the country to have a confirmed ghost encounter? No, I'm a materialist..."
As soon as these words were spoken, the other three came to their senses, thinking, "Right, isn't this just encountering a ghost? By the way, if ghosts really exist, could the legends of them seeking revenge also be true?"
At this moment, Reid could genuinely feel the fear emanating from the foreign ministers of the East Asian Republic, the Eurasian Federation, and the Atlantic Federation.
So, with a wicked sense of humor, Reid said, "Actually, even if we did encounter a ghost, and a vengeful one at that, it should be coming for me and the people from the Atlantic Federation. But if I could really meet a ghost, I'd actually be a little excited."
There wasn't a hint of fear in Reid's voice as he said this, because Newtypes could genuinely see ghosts. He had seen them more than once during the Zeta Gundam campaigns, and they were almost always beautiful female ghosts.
But the Atlantic Federation's Foreign Minister felt the hairs on his body stand on end at Reid's words.
Because Reid was telling the truth. Everyone present knew the truth about Junius 7. Reid was, at most, a coerced accomplice. The Atlantic Federation was the absolute mastermind, and perhaps the Eurasian Federation could be considered a deceived accomplice.
So if there really were vengeful ghosts seeking retribution, they would definitely go after the people from the Atlantic Federation first.
The Foreign Minister instantly felt unwell all over. His body felt as if a trace of sinister cold was clinging to it, and he broke out in a cold sweat.
He touched his neck and said guiltily, "Hahaha, how could that be? You know, even God is gone in this day and age, how could there still be ghosts? Huh, is the air conditioning on the Silver Wind set too low? Why do I feel a bit cold? Everyone, since the treaty has been signed, I'll take my leave. I need to go back to my warship to put on another layer of clothing. Really, this AC is turned up way too cold. Or maybe, I should just head back to my country..."
As the Atlantic Federation's Foreign Minister spoke, he beckoned his people and fled, leaving Reid and the other three staring at each other.
The East Asian Republic's Foreign Minister glanced at the cabin's constant temperature of 22 degrees Celsius and concluded that if one felt cold in this, they were either coming down with a fever or had been possessed.
And given the recent experience, the East Asian Republic's Foreign Minister felt that the Atlantic Federation's Foreign Minister must have been possessed.
Thus, adopting an "it's not wise to linger here" attitude, the East Asian minister also took his leave.
Seeing that the East Asian Republic had left, the Eurasian Federation and Reid naturally took their leave as well.
As for Eileen Canaver, she felt that even if the souls of her Junius 7 compatriots were truly here, they wouldn't seek her out for revenge. The urgent matter at hand was to have another good talk with Lacus, to see how much she had seen, and while at it, to see if the Diva Gundam could be left on the Silver Wind for PLANT engineers to study.
We'll skip over the conversation between Lacus and Eileen Canaver for now, as nothing conclusive would come of it.
After leaving the Silver Wind, Reid, much like the Atlantic Federation's Foreign Minister, returned to his ship, recalled his troops, and left directly.
He didn't need to worry about Lacus. To avoid suspicion, she hadn't come with him in the first place. This was an official trip for Reid; bringing Lacus along would have been an official announcement of her joining the New Misurugi Kingdom.
Therefore, Lacus had her own small transport ship, and Reid believed that Eileen Canaver wouldn't dare to detain her.
As for the Diva Gundam potentially being studied, Reid indicated that he wouldn't be afraid of it being studied if he dared to give it to Lacus. After all, it was bound to pass through the hands of Terminal, and it would be strange if they didn't take it apart for a look.
GN Particles were something that couldn't be replicated even if discovered. After all, even the doctors on Reid's side were baffled by the principles behind them, even with the technical documents.
As for the psionic amplifier, it was nothing without the accompaniment of GN Particles, being a heavily nerfed version itself. If Terminal were to study it, the final product would probably be on the level of the multi-lock psionic system used in conjunction with the nanoparticle sprayer on the Proud Defender from the movie.
However, given Kira and Lacus's current relationship, that lazy bum probably wouldn't help Terminal develop equipment anymore. Whether Albert Heinlein could build the Strike Freedom on his own was a big question.
Back on Earth, with the official signing of the Earth Sphere Peace Accord, the related handover and inspection work naturally had to commence.
The New Misurugi Kingdom was extremely cooperative in this regard. After all, they were mostly taking things for themselves, so why wouldn't they cooperate?
About half a month later, after the three Earth Alliance nations and PLANT had handed over what they were supposed to, they prepared to inspect the New Misurugi Kingdom's equipment.
Reid threw the doors of his arsenal wide open and, at the same time, publicly announced to the world that the New Misurugi Kingdom had officially achieved a breakthrough in Controllable Nuclear Fusion technology.
This news was more explosive than dropping a nuke on the Atlantic Federation's capital; the entire world was shaken by the aftershocks.
The inspection team, which had originally come to check equipment, was led directly by Reid to a display stand for a miniature nuclear fusion engine for Mobile Suits. He introduced some of the engine's parameters and made it clear that it produced a fusion reaction.
The Minovsky particle fusion furnace, to put it bluntly, used the powerful I-Field of Minovsky Particles to control the fusion reaction.
But the other four nations of the Earth Sphere clearly didn't know about the I-Field yet. So, when Reid only said that Minovsky Particles could achieve Controllable Nuclear Fusion, they were completely unable to comprehend the principle behind it.
However, the facts were laid out before them, and it was even filmed and shown to the whole world. It was confirmed that the New Misurugi Kingdom had achieved a breakthrough in Controllable Nuclear Fusion technology using Minovsky Particles.
Consequently, the various nations of the Earth Sphere recalled their inspection team members, wanting to ask them face-to-face what the situation was.
But this time, it was Reid who wouldn't let the delegation leave.
It should be known that inspections of the signatory nations were to be conducted once every six months. After all, this inspection team couldn't just inspect whenever they wanted; otherwise, if they targeted a nation with daily inspections, the team would become a tool for disruption.
Reid stated that they could not leave without completing the inspection and issuing a report. There was no such thing as stopping an inspection midway to come back later.
Reid's reasoning was sound, and the other four nations couldn't object, so they could only urge their people to finish the inspection quickly and return.
This directly caused the inspection team's morale to collapse.
The main purpose of coming to inspect the New Misurugi Kingdom was to find Mobile Suits using Anti-Neutron Jammers and possessing the Mirage Colloid System, and then to urge the New Misurugi Kingdom to rectify or dismantle them as soon as possible.
As it turned out, all their Mobile Suits were equipped with Minovsky Particle Fusion Furnaces (the Mobile Suits that used AC micro nuclear fusion reactors had their furnaces temporarily swapped).
The Mystic Lightning, which was confirmed to use the Mirage Colloid System, was inspected and found to have no such system at all (it was also temporarily modified by a Factory Module). Its invisibility was a new technology called the Electronic Camouflage System. It didn't even use Mirage Colloid particles, making it impossible to link this system to the Mirage Colloid System.
Therefore, this inspection team returned completely empty-handed. They could only state in their report that all of the New Misurugi Kingdom's Mobile Suits complied with the treaty's regulations and required no rectification.
(End of Chapter)