Chapter 88 — The Ship That Never Looks Back

What Mom Knows

The old equipment warehouse on the edge of Dong Sang, where Ngan Thuc Vy had arranged for them a private corner to chat safely, lit only by a small lamp powered by a backup battery, enough to see each other's faces clearly but not enough to be detected from afar. Lam Vinh Chi sat with his back against an equipment box, Khe Lam sat opposite, and Bach Van, who had just rushed here as soon as she received an urgent message from Trinh Yen My, sat next to Khe Lam, still in shock at the real presence of the legendary woman they had been searching for many months.

"Tell me about that night." Khe Lam said, her voice was both urgent and gentle, not wanting to put more pressure on her mother but also unable to wait any longer. "About the Night the Roots Fall, about what really happened."

Lam Vinh Chi closed her eyes for a moment, as if mentally preparing herself to step back into a memory she had tried to bury deeply for nineteen years. "Ding Khac Bat and mother discovered an anomaly in the Protoplasmic Core data nearly a year before that night." She started. "We had no intention of overthrowing the Council, no intention of causing a riot. We just believed that the people had the right to know the truth, and we tried to take the official route first — reporting to our superiors, demanding a transparent investigation."

"What happened?" Bach Van asked.

"Our report was intercepted at an intermediate level, never reaching the Council Elder's office, or perhaps it did but was purposefully ignored." Lam Vinh Chi said. "After three months of waiting in vain, Dinh Khac Bat decided we had no choice but to go public directly via the internal radio system. Mom warned him about the risks, but he believed that once the truth was told, the people would force the Council to act more transparently."

Her voice began to tremble as she continued to speak. The memory of that night was clearly still painful even though nineteen years had passed. "The Guards arrived before the broadcast was halfway over. They didn't come to arrest, at least not initially — they came to completely extinguish it, by force. Dinh Khac Bat was shot on the spot while trying to protect the radio equipment so the warning could continue to be transmitted for a few more seconds."

"He died right there." Khe Lam spoke softly, not a question.

"That's right." Lam Vinh Chi confirmed, tears rolling down her face. "Mother was right next to him when it happened. She hugged him in his final moments, before she herself was arrested, along with dozens of others who had gathered to listen to the broadcast. They took us to a temporary detention area, saying we would be 'resettled' for security reasons. But she had heard enough whispers among the Guards to understand that 'resettlement' was just a euphemism for something worse." much."

"Bui Dac Sinh helped his mother escape." Bach Van said.

"He worked in the logistics team of the temporary detention area, a lowly position that no one paid attention to." Lam Vinh Chi said, a deep respect in her voice when talking about her deceased friend. "He risked his life, opening a small escape route through the old ventilation duct system on the third night, getting Mom and three others out before the first 'transfer' took place. Mom never knew what happened to the remaining people who were kept, even though she tried to find out for years afterward."

Khe Lam squeezed her mother's hand, feeling the full weight of the story slowly emerging, not like a distant legend she had heard through indirect accounts, but like a vivid wound still bleeding in the soul of the woman in front of her.

"Why did Mom never find a way to come back?" She asked, not to blame, but because she needed to fully understand. "Even if you can't stay, why don't you contact me just once to let me and grandma know mom is still alive?"

Lam Vinh Chi was silent for a long time, fighting with himself before answering. "I tried, once, when you were five years old." She spoke finally, her voice choked. "I managed to send a discreet message through an intermediary I trusted in the Vault of Silence, hoping it would reach your father without being detected."

Khe Lam felt like her heart stopped beating. "I never knew this."

"Because it never reaches its destination." Lam Vinh Chi said. "The intermediary I trusted was discovered trying to move information out of the surveillance area, and I received word, through the remaining secret communication channels, that there was a new investigation opened shortly after, focusing on your father. I panicked, thinking that it was my attempt to contact him that put him in danger, so I cut off all contact completely, vowing to myself never to try again, even if it meant living out the rest of my life." like a dead man to his own family."

A heavy silence enveloped the small warehouse. Khe Lam looked at her mother, then at Bach Van, both realizing the terrible connection between what they had just heard and the eight-page file she still carried in her pocket.

"Your father died eleven years later." Khe Lam said, her voice trembling. "In a 'pressure accident' near the Primordial Core. I just found out, his death records show many unusual signs, and Sun Keyu, who now holds almost the greatest enforcement power in the Council, was present at the scene from the beginning."

Lam Vinh Chi froze, her face turned pale in the dim light. "No." She whispered. "No way."

"Do you know anything, Mom?" Bach Van asked, realizing that her reaction was not simply the usual sadness at bad news.

Lam Vinh Chi took a shaky breath, then began to speak, her voice now carrying a new terror. "About a year before he died, I broke my oath again. I had heard, through the network in Ham Lang, that there was an engineer in the Root Layer who was quietly investigating old technical problems related to the Protoplasmic Core, asking very similar questions to what Dinh Khac Bat and I had asked ten years earlier. I suspected it might be Viet Khiem, and I took the risk of sending a warning, not directly, just a short note through the same intermediary network, saying he was going down a dangerous path, that he should stop for his daughter's sake."

"He didn't stop." Khe Lam said, understanding the entire tragedy that was gradually becoming clear.

"No." Lam Vinh Chi said, tears welling up again. "And I believe that your very act of contact, even if it was just a warning, unintentionally confirmed to those watching that network that there was a connection that still existed between Viet Khiem and me, between his investigation and what happened on the Night of the Broken Roots. I may have been the reason why they decided he became a threat that needed to be eliminated."

Khe Lam hugged her mother, both crying in silence, carrying the weight of a truth that had just been completely pieced together — not a series of discrete accidents, but a tightly interconnected web of loss, each death the direct result of the same desperate attempt to protect a secret that went deep into the very roots of this ship's power.

"We need to face Chuong Khac Dinh." Bach Van spoke last, his voice firm even though his eyes were still red with emotion. "With everything we know now, not only about the Night of Broken Roots, but also about Khe Lam's father. He must answer for all of this, directly, there is no way to avoid it anymore."

Lam Vinh Chi looked up, looking at both young people in front of her, a new determination gradually formed in her eyes, replacing the fear that had dominated her for nineteen years. "If you're going to do it," she said, her voice steadier now, "I'll come along. It's time for this ghost of nineteen years to step out of the shadows, to face the person who tried to erase my existence from this ship's history."

"This will be very dangerous for mom." Khe Lam said, a new worry mixed with newly rekindled hope. "If we face Chuong Khac Dinh without any protection, he could absolutely order my mother to be arrested on the spot, claiming that she is still a wanted fugitive."

"I've been living with that danger for nineteen years, daughter." Lam Vinh Chi replied, a strange calmness in her voice, the kind of calmness that could only come from someone who had learned to accept risks as an inevitable part of existence. "But you're right, we need to be a little more cautious than just barging into his office. Is there anyone on the Council you can trust who has the standing to ensure the meeting takes place under safer conditions?"

Bach Van thought for a moment, then nodded slowly. "Ying Bao Zhong. He is currently the chairman of the newly established independent committee, and has enough authority to convene an official meeting without going through Ton Khac Du's security channels. If we can convince him to act as a bridge, we will at least have a neutral witness, reputable enough to prevent Chuong Khac Dinh from acting hastily."

"So that will be our next step." Khe Lam said, a new light of determination in her eyes. "Find a way to approach Ung Bao Trung, discreetly, before anyone in the hard-line faction realizes what is being prepared."

Lam Vinh Chi looked at her daughter, then at Bach Van, a quiet pride crept into her eyes as she witnessed two young people facing a big decision with calmness and strategy, instead of just acting on outbursts of anger. "You kids have grown up a lot more than I imagined." She spoke softly. "And I think, although the road ahead is still dangerous, this time we will not walk alone like Dinh Khac Bat and mother did."