"There's something I don't quite understand."
In the dining hall, Reno was cutting a piece of beef with his knife while asking Sarah.
"What?" Sarah didn't lift her head, focusing on the potato soup in front of her. Claire was seated beside her.
"Since you said psychic factors are the core of generating abilities, why do people's abilities vary?" Reno speared a piece of beef with his fork, slowly chewing, savoring the tender taste. The beef wasn't synthetic; it was raised in the starship farm, succulent and delicious.
Sarah replied, "That's something we were curious about as well, but now we have a rough guess. Your abilities are formed by the interaction of psychic factors with cells in your body. When different cells interact and function differently, the resulting psychic field varies, hence generating different abilities."
"Different cells? You mean..."
"The psychic factors in your body only react to one type of cell, the Purkinje cells."
"Purkinje cells?" Reno was puzzled. "I don't know much about human biology. Can you tell me what kind of cells these are?"
Sarah explained, "Purkinje cells are a type of neuron located in the cerebellum, mainly responsible for coordinating movement. The psychic factors in your body only interact with these cells. So, we believe that psychic factors may react with different cells and generate different abilities. However, we currently have no evidence to prove this point, and we can only wait until Teikos and the others also manifest their factors for comparison."
Claire said, "But the types of cells in the human body aren't actually that many, yet we have quite a variety of abilities."
"So I believe, besides the cells that react, there may also be a matter of how they manifest, but we'll have to wait until others manifest their factors to compare," Sarah concluded.
Ultimately, Sarah lacked sufficient experimental targets. And to make psychic factors progress was not an easy task. It required repeated life-and-death struggles, extreme outbursts to enhance them. Normal training had little effect, as confirmed during the days of intensive training. No matter how Sarah tortured Teikos, she couldn't force even half a factor out of him.
Psychic power was the power of the mind. Without mental pressure, even training to death would be useless.
After thinking for a while, Reno nodded and replied, "We don't need to worry about progression. In the future, we'll have plenty of battles to fight, and I believe many people will manifest. You'll have enough experimental targets. But there's one thing I still don't quite understand. If psychic factors only need to reach one hundred to manifest, why hasn't the Federation Research Institute discovered them? I mean, they also have psychic warriors, and it's impossible that none of their warriors have progressed. In fact, from the legends we've heard about psychic warriors, some are quite powerful. Why hasn't the Federation Institute found psychic factors in them?"
"Do you remember Clarice?" Sarah suddenly said.
Reno was startled, and the image of that beautiful woman appeared before him. Thinking of her dying in his arms, Reno's heart couldn't help but ache a little.
Sarah continued, "You are different. All the psychic warriors on the Abradie are different! In the Dawn Plan, the success rate of the relic's transformation on the human body is only five percent, but none of the soldiers on the Abradie have died from the relic. I think that's why psychic factors haven't manifested in the psychic warriors under the Federation's control. Because they are not sound, they used the wrong methods. Even with great energy, they cannot explore the source of that power. Only the people on the Abradie, only you, are correct."
With that, Sarah sighed lightly, "In fact, you have known the biggest secret about the relic from the beginning, Johnny Reno, but you never said it. What really happened on the Abradie? If you're willing to tell me, maybe we can find the correct way to use the relic."
Reno remained silent, while Claire just looked at Reno.
"That's also what I want to know."
A voice suddenly sounded behind Reno.
Turning around, Russell Hill was standing behind Reno.
He walked up to Reno with a tray in hand.
Standing beside Reno, Russell Hill looked at him and said, "Johnny Reno, you deceitful guy, are you finally done with your excuses? You promised me something. When are you going to fulfill it?"
Reno leisurely took a sip of synthetic milk, glanced at Russell Hill, then calmly said, "There's something I don't quite understand."
"What?" Russell Hill was taken aback.
"You're no longer a starship investigator. Why are you still so determined to find out the truth about the incident?"
Russell Hill froze.
Yeah, he wasn't a starship investigator anymore, so why was he still so determined?
He looked at Reno for a while before saying, "I've asked myself that question before. This is the Abradie, your ship. Everyone on this ship belongs to you. Even if everything was done by you, what does it matter? I can't arrest you, and even my life is in your hands. But I still want to know. It's my duty! You said I'm no longer a starship investigator? Maybe. But before that, I have the right and obligation to do what I should!"
He looked at Reno, his attitude resolute. "Regardless, I want to know the answer, Johnny Reno, just like you want to save your soldiers no matter what."
Seeing his expression, Reno smiled.
He said, "I can understand that sentiment, so... do you think I killed Captain Jeram?"
Russell Hill thought for a moment again and shook his head, "No, I don't think so anymore. Ever since you spared no effort to save your soldiers, I knew you weren't that kind of person. I absolutely believe you didn't kill Captain Jeram. But precisely because of that, I need to understand even more why you chose to hide the truth and what truth you needed to conceal."
Upon hearing this, Reno deeply looked at Russell Hill.
Then he stood up, walked over to Russell Hill, and said, "You're an excellent starship investigator, good at finding problems, skilled in deduction, and most importantly, committed to justice. But you have a flaw, you're too emotional, which sometimes leads you to be influenced and make wrong judgments."
Russell Hill looked at Reno in astonishment.
Reno sighed.
He said, "You want to know the answer? Fine, I'll tell you. They were killed by me... Captain Jeram, I killed him with my own hands."