The Court of Madness
《Archive Ark》

“History is driven not by truth, but by design.”

I came to meet the greatest genius in the galaxy—
yet before I realized it, I myself was standing trial before the state.

“Originally, Ei Psai Marell had been nothing more than a heat-treatment technician. Who could have predicted that he would one day become the right hand supporting Lambda Griss’s Chrono-Bloom? Lambda loved him as though he were his own double and trusted him deeply. Marell died at the age of fifty-five. — And that very ‘double’ was, in fact, myself. Even now, I still do not fully understand what Lambda saw in me during the remainder of his life.”

— The Life of Lambda Griss, by Hugh Donack

What an absurd situation.

I had traveled all the way to Planet Lilinas in order to use my talents to assist the galaxy’s greatest mathematician. Yet I had spoken properly with Professor Griss for barely thirty minutes before becoming entangled in a trial.

I came here because I was drawn to Professor Lambda Griss’s “Chrono-Bloom Theory.”
Or rather—to be precise—the strange talent sleeping within me resonated with his research.

Long ago, deep within a mysterious ancient temple, I once discovered two skeletal remains. Inside each coffin lay a short sentence and a thin sheet of paper. Fragments meaningless to everyone else—yet from them alone, I perceived clues leading to the location of humanity’s primordial homeworld.

It was no coincidence.

The month before I was born, fragments of an interstellar comet struck my homeworld, Planet Naxel. After that event, an unexplained encephalitic illness began appearing among one in every hundred thousand inhabitants. I, too, was one of the afflicted.

There had been no symptoms during childhood.

But once I reached adolescence, something strange began happening whenever the attacks came.

My consciousness transcended ordinary perception, allowing me to perceive things invisible to normal people—structures, connections, hidden meanings—with startling clarity.

Every attack revealed something.

That talent caught the attention of El Homogene.

And Professor Griss’s Chrono-Bloom Theory also resonated deeply with what I perceived.

It was not merely a theoretical framework.

It was a vast, universe-scale execution plan—a grand attempt to approach the very origins of humanity itself.

And now, just as I was about to touch the core of that theory, this happened.

Mokchi Lao—the infamous Chancellor who controlled the Galactic Federation’s security apparatus—had personally appeared in court.

The Grand Consul himself. The man who governed the Federation.

This was no ordinary matter.

Not even El Homogene had warned me.

No matter how many credits remained in my bag, I could no longer even see a path back to Planet Naxel.

The spectacle unfolding before me was unbelievable.

Professor Lambda Griss—the man once chosen by the great statesman Phase Alterna to carry the burden of governing the Federation—was now imprisoned here alongside me.

Why?

What in the galaxy was happening?

Would I be thrown into prison forever?

Or executed publicly as an example by the Federation?

Amid my confusion, the professor’s voice suddenly echoed back into my mind.

Just before the authorities stormed in, he had whispered:

“This is something I arranged myself.”

—Arranged?

What madness was this?

How far had this bald old man lost his sanity?

What could he possibly intend by making an enemy of the Federation itself?

Fear and anger swirled within me.

Yet at the same time, another feeling emerged—

an irresistible premonition.

Like a single beam of light piercing the darkness.

—That this was merely the prologue to an event that would shake galactic history itself.

“In truth, Homogene had explained Professor Lambda Griss’s Bloom Theory as follows: a theory capable of predicting the galaxy’s future through demographic mathematical analysis, and thereby avoiding the worst possible outcomes and their timelines.

Yet I possessed another perspective.

From Holk Miles, an acquaintance of my cousin, I had received investigative reports from Planet Saint Marc.

Their contents were shocking.

Historient particles arriving from the Small Magellanic Galaxy were increasing, and a clear correlation had been observed between them and relics of the distant past.

In other words, Lambda Griss’s Bloom Theory—which sought to predict and control the future—and my own Flower Theory—which attempted to decipher the structure of history through echoes of the past—pointed in completely opposite directions.

How could these two theories be adjusted? How could they be unified?

A new and far from simple challenge had appeared before me.

At this very moment, perhaps a monumental event capable of shaking history itself was about to begin.”

To be continued…

📖 Previous Episode Summary

⚡ Ultra-Short Summary

Meeting a genius was only the beginning of the trap.

🔭 Next Episode Preview

Episode 12: The Legacy of the Forbidden Move

Is the trial merely a farce—or a calculated move in the manipulation of history itself?

At last, Griss’s true intentions will be revealed.

Question

If you were the protagonist—

would you pursue the truth even against the state itself?

Or would you choose silence in order to survive?

🏷️ Hashtags

ScienceFiction

FutureHistory

CourtroomDrama

Conspiracy

Genius

PsychologicalWarfare

GalacticFederation

PhilosophicalSF

ChronoBloom

HistorientParticles

FlowerTheory

HolkMiles

ArchiveArk

LambdaGriss

HughDonack

📚 Glossary

Chrono-Bloom

A theory—or perhaps a technological concept—dealing with temporal phenomena and the branching and convergence of history. It is a core technology tied to predicting and reshaping the future of civilization. It also represents the universe-scale execution plan Professor Griss devoted his life to constructing.

Chess Homogene

A mysterious figure who coordinates and manipulates events on a galactic scale, silently placing necessary individuals in necessary locations. His identity and true purpose remain unknown.

Hugh Donack’s Talent

A rare perceptual ability born from an unexplained encephalitic illness caused by interstellar comet exposure. During seizures, Hugh can perceive structures, connections, and hidden meanings invisible to ordinary people.

Mokchi Lao

The Chancellor who controls the Galactic Federation’s security and political systems. A symbolic embodiment of power and surveillance.

Lilinas

The planet serving as the setting of the story. A politically and academically important world where the Chrono-Bloom Research Institute is located.

🔗Substack