"Ah, Mr. Horatio, welcome to my laboratory, but you'd best not touch anything, lest you cause irreversible effects~."
As he entered, a vivid, sweet, and enthusiastic female voice reached his ears, but Father Lati, still busy at her workbench, neither turned her head nor stopped her work.
Horatio was already accustomed to her perfunctory politeness, cloaked in a so-called lady-like demeanor; after witnessing the bureaucrats revising public relations strategies, he even found Father Lati's simple contrast somewhat endearing.
Due to certain transactions, Horatio possessed her access identification information.
The mentors were once again traversing the void, so during this period, no one in Abyss Port, except Horatio, could automatically pass through the access control and enter.
"Father Lati, good day. Do you recall the experimental sample I gave you last time, containing small mercury-like objects? Is it still with you?"
"I submitted it to my mentor, but unfortunately, he went out with Campius the Wise."
The woman smiled, her mechanized modifications not detracting from her delicate features, but rather adding a cold, metallic beauty unique to them: "But I retrieved it through some means."
"Have you researched anything?" Horatio stepped forward, getting straight to the point.
"Have you discovered anything?" Father Lati skipped the usual pleasantries, responding to Horatio's question with a question of her own.
"Indeed, I have made a discovery. This thing is related to the incident on the Retribution-class Sacred Will. I imagine you already know what happened yesterday."
"Mm-hmm~" The woman smiled faintly.
The flagship's major overhaul required the cooperation of almost all Adeptus Mechanicus personnel on the planet.
And the Sacred Will's predicament was being widely discussed by everyone in Abyss Port, from high officials to common folk, so she likely already knew.
"I found this in the skull of a mutinous Sailor; it's also a mercury-like amorphous liquid. I want to know if it's the same substance as the sample I gave you earlier."
Father Lati stepped forward and used the bionic arm behind her to grasp the sealed container Horatio handed her.
She opened the container, took out the slide inside, and placed it under a massive nanometer-scale analysis microscope. After a moment of machine hum, Father Lati moved from her still position; clearly, the observation data directly transmitted to her had already been analyzed.
"Your conjecture is correct; they are indeed the same substance."
"What is it?"
"I think it's a... nanobug."
"Biological? Or a construct?"
"Both."
Father Lati looked at the data images projected onto her bionic eye.
Under the microscope, these nanobugs formed twisted, irregular, and unsightly angles and shapes, one after another:
"But if you want me to dissect the structure of this thing, to fully grasp its mysteries, I'm afraid it's beyond my current capabilities in the short term. The technical threshold for studying it is very high, at the nanometer differential level. Perhaps Mars has this technology, but Abyss Port certainly does not."
"Is that so? It's a pity, I don't have time to wait for you to figure out the essence of this thing either. But can you tell me what its purpose is?"
Horatio's gaze fell on the sample on the table, and on a condemned prisoner whom Lati had bound to a restraint chair, with his eyelids and lips removed.
In the Imperium, the Adeptus Mechanicus handled the subsequent processing of most condemned prisoners in relatively good physical condition.
For the Imperial authorities, handing condemned prisoners over to the Adeptus Mechanicus was a method far more cruel than execution.
The condemned prisoner's eyes were bloodshot, filled with fear and pain, and foam dripped from the corners of his mouth; he appeared to be unconscious.
Lati used a mechanical drill to bore open the criminal's skull and inserted an optical microscopic periscope into the opening.
This way, the Goddess Priest only needed to walk behind the chair and align her bionic eye with the periscope. Through double microscopic magnification, she could see what was inside the human brain.
This could not be done with the naked eye alone.
"You can guess first."
"Brainwashing? Parasitism? Manipulation? What else could it be besides these?"
"Fourth dimension."
"What?" When Horatio heard Lati utter the word 'fourth dimension,' he frowned, half-confused, half-puzzled.
"I believe it's the influence of the 'Fourth Dimension.'"
The Goddess Priest moved her mechanical bionic eye away from the periscope and looked at the young man as she spoke.
'Fourth Dimension' was too unfamiliar even for a Hammer-wielder like Horatio, who had transmigrated.
"Can you explain it simply?"
"When these nanobugs receive a certain command signal, they can form various twisted, irregular shapes within the human brain that completely defy the laws of the physical world."
The Goddess Priest took Horatio's hand and led him to the external display screen of the nanometer microscope.
On the screen, Horatio saw these nanobugs constantly changing, forming various twisted and unsightly shapes among themselves.
Just one glance, and this indescribable illusion and distortion made him feel extremely uncomfortable, his body subtly nauseated.
This power was much stronger than the effect of Farida's Untouchable physique on ordinary people.
"I'm not sure if what I'm saying is absolutely correct, but I believe these nanobugs distort physical laws through some mechanism I don't understand, forming a fourth-dimensional micro-space in the human brain, causing severe physiological discomfort and hallucinations in beings from the three-dimensional universe, ultimately making them unable to distinguish friend from foe."
Lati's explanation exceeded Horatio's expectations.
Initially, he thought it was merely a parasite that controlled people through infestation.
But unexpectedly, after Lati's analysis, she spoke of something so complex, unheard of, and incredible.
"If someone has these nanobugs lurking in their brain, is there a way to eliminate this hidden danger without killing the person?" Horatio became concerned.
If the people around him were simply corrupted by hostility towards the God-Emperor and the Imperium, then at least by observing their subjective emotions, one might find a clue.
But if it was this forced distortion of fourth-dimensional space, causing physiological discomfort and thus forcibly controlling people, then it would be difficult to deal with.
No one could be sure how many people around them, or even themselves, had been infected.
"Ah, Mr. Horatio, for a Gentleman, being too impatient is not a plus~ You've given me too little time, even I..."
Father Lati had just uttered half a sentence.
Her gentle, natural eyes suddenly widened, a sharp gaze overflowing with displeasure and hostility.
She looked towards the door.
"A certain pill made from the ashes of a psyker, according to a specific formula, can destroy this thing in the brain." A mental voice directly echoed in both their minds.
Only the voice was heard, the person unseen.
Hiss—the access control opened again.
A man walked in.
"Inquisitor Ravenor...? How did you find me?"
Behind him followed his Inquisition acolyte, a man whose eyes were entirely bionic, whose head was riddled with neural plugs, and whose body modifications were no less extensive than those of a Machine Priest. He dropped the neural plug he had pulled from the access control Servitor's brain and followed him in.
"It just so happens I had something to discuss with you, but it seems you've discovered something quite interesting."
The Inquisitor's clever words made it seem as though he had merely solved a small problem for Horatio through his vast knowledge.
The four-dimensional nanobugs, in the Necromancy incident, were what caused the accompanying Imperial Guard to suddenly attack Inquisitor Eisenhorn and his party without warning.
As a crucial part of the Necromancy incident, the leakage of information about it would lead to irreversible consequences.
Even Eisenhorn himself had studied it privately, risking assassination by the Officio Assassinorum.
These research findings were preserved within his faction, eternally guarded by his successors to prevent danger and calamity from resurfacing.
It was also a key focus of Ravenor's investigation in Abyss Port.
"In this matter, our interests are aligned, Mr. Horatio." He extended his hand to Horatio.
Horatio looked at him, then finally reached out and shook it.
"Due to confidentiality requirements, I cannot tell you what this is, especially with outsiders present." He looked at Father Lati, bowing politely like a Gentleman and apologizing.
This made Father Lati's natural eyes vividly demonstrate what an expression of wanting to turn someone into human slices looked like.
Coming to her confidential laboratory, then calling her an outsider, and refusing to tell her the secrets of this miraculous creation.
"You are truly ill-mannered, sir."
Father Lati was so enraged that she activated the emotion inhibitor in her brain, her metal bionic hand, gripping the omnissiah's Axe, creaking.
She maintained a dignified smile, uttering a curse devoid of emotion, expressing the utmost displeasure and malice a 'Lady' could convey.
"Please forgive me, after all, I am just a bastard abandoned by parents after a night of pleasure, raised in the Lower Hive. I don't know what manners are." Clarence Ravenor seemed completely unfazed by the verbal attack, accepting Lati's words with a hearty laugh.
"It is precisely because of this that I have survived to this day and serve the God-Emperor faithfully." He narrowed his eyes, as if Lati's words were a compliment to him.
'Squinty-eyed people are all monsters.' Horatio silently complained internally, feeling a bead of cold sweat trickle down his temple amidst their unspoken conflict.
He looked at the mysterious man and took a deep breath.
"Are you sure, Inquisitor? A... medicine made from psyker ashes?"
Horatio tried to consider the feasibility of this matter using the scientific methods and rational logic he had cultivated in his previous life.
After all, aren't psyker ashes just ordinary calcium?
But he quickly gave up.
In this world, if pure science were useful, the Imperium of Man would not have developed to its current state.