Chapter 992 The Crossroads of Destiny

  Chapter 992 Crossroads of Destiny

  Near the power room on the lower deck.

  The orange-yellow holographic isolation belt was suspended in the corridor, marking a large isolated area.

  This was the location of the collision.

  A lifeboat-class civilian spacecraft broke through the hull of the Orion cruiser, and half of the hull was directly inserted into the hull of the Orion cruiser.

  Even in the short history of space exploration of human civilization, this was considered a very explosive accident.

  What was particularly confusing was how this small boat penetrated the defense of the deflector shield and broke through the hull that was almost impossible to break. Fortunately

  , the gym in the living area of ​​the lower deck was damaged, and because the spacecraft was about to enter the hyperspace channel, such entertainment facilities were in a blocked state, so no one was injured.

  This was also the reason why many people ran to watch later.

  The ship’s safety and maintenance department immediately shut down the exchange air system in the damaged area and isolated the damaged area according to the plan in the safety manual.

  Although only one cabin, which was not very large, was actually damaged, the security director still sealed off the entire related area based on the assessment report of the engineers from the four departments.

  At this moment, engineers wearing aerospace exoskeletons were standing around the isolation belt, operating the tablet in their hands.

  Seeing Luo Yi coming over, one of the engineers stepped forward and said.

  ”Hey, this is a controlled area. You have to change into a space suit before coming in.”

  Luo Yi hung the respirator around his neck and showed his three department certificates at the same time.

  ”My modified prosthesis has the function of resisting low-pressure environment. Is there a risk of secondary explosion?”

  The engineer turned around and exchanged glances with his colleague standing next to the isolation belt, then looked at him and replied.

  ”That won’t happen. We have shut down the reactor and chemical battery of the spacecraft that caused the accident.”

  ”That’s fine. I’m just looking outside to understand the situation here.” Luo Yi patted him on the shoulder, crossed the isolation belt, and walked to the door of the room with the sign [Under Repair].

  The alloy door was tightly sealed, with a layer of folded titanium alloy reinforcement plates pasted inside and outside.

  The staff standing next to him handed him a tablet. The screen of the tablet was connected to the camera of the repair robot.

  Through the screen on the tablet, Luo Yi saw the situation in the room. He saw that the fitness equipment had been hit into a corner of the room by the huge impact force, and the hull of the ship was hit by the spacecraft and sunken inward, leaving a gap with a radius of about 1 to 2 meters.

  The scene can be described as tragic.

  Luo Yi frowned.

  To be honest, this is not the damage that a lifeboat-class civilian spacecraft can cause.

  ”It’s just like an explosion, right?” The engineer looked at him and shrugged, grinning and said, “But in fact, no, we didn’t find the armor-piercing warhead on the spacecraft. This is indeed a civilian spacecraft for scientific exploration, and there are obvious signs of oxidation on the surface of the spacecraft… From this, it can be inferred that this ship should usually work in the atmosphere.”

  The staff next to him also said.

  ”Anyway, we rescued the people as soon as possible. The other damage cannot be handled by the repair tools on the ship, so we can only hand it over to the construction personnel at the starport.”

  Luo Yi nodded, recorded the information on the memory chip, and then continued to ask.

  ”The kid you rescued said that there was another person in this… research ship, probably a little girl. Did you find out?”

  The staff standing at the door exchanged glances in confusion, then looked at him with a strange expression.

  ”How is it possible?”

  ”At that time, the rescue team of the Eighth Division rushed in directly. There was only one hibernation capsule in the entire ship.”

  ”Did he hit his brain?”

  Luo Yi didn’t say anything. He tapped the screen twice with his index finger, controlled the repair robot to move forward a few steps, and aimed the camera at the deformed cockpit.

  There was indeed nothing there.

  Just as he was thinking, the engineer standing next to him suddenly spoke.

  ”Speaking of which, a strange thing happened.”

  Luo Yi looked at him.

  ”What strange thing.”

  The engineer continued.

  ”Some people heard the explosion, and some people didn’t.”

  Luo Yi was stunned for a moment.

  He remembered that he heard it, so he rushed to the scene as soon as possible.

  But there were indeed people who didn’t hear it, such as his comrade Xiao Yong, who came after hearing the alarm.

  It was strange. The alarm should have sounded immediately after the explosion, but it failed. Instead, it was manually sounded by the first unit after the relevant units on the lower deck reported the damage information to the first unit. This was also the

  main reason for the gathering of people at that time.

  After all, according to everyone’s previous experience, if the alarm didn’t sound, it meant that the matter was not serious, and it was normal to want to check it out.

  What was abnormal was that some people heard the explosion, while others didn’t.

  Luo Yi carefully recalled the scene at that time. There were indeed not many people in the room, only a few dozen.

  Compared with the thousands of people on the lower deck, this number was indeed too small.

  ”Is there any pattern in this?”

  ”I can’t see it,” the engineer shook his head, “I want to ask if you have any clues.”

  The staff member next to him laughed and joked.

  ”This should be the job of the Fifth Department. The war is over, so that department should play a role.”

  ”Didn’t that guy say that he was a time traveler?”

  ”Haha, according to what he said, we should buy ourselves personal accident insurance now.”

  ”Personal accident insurance is fine, but will the ‘Alliance’ pay for it?”

  ”Hahaha.”

  Obviously no one believed that the child came from the future. After all, it was an indisputable fact that they were all still alive.

  At this moment, the engineer suddenly spoke as if he had thought of something.

  ”By the way, there is one more thing.”

  Luo Yi, who was thinking, raised his head.

  ”Can you finish your words at once?”

  ”I just remembered it…” The engineer looked at the adjacent rooms and pointed to the one at the end of the corner. “That’s the cafeteria in the living area. There were several people in there at the time, but they didn’t react until our people came in and realized that something happened.”

  Luo Yi was stunned again.

  His duty room was far away from here, and everyone heard the violent explosion, but people near the center of the explosion heard nothing?

  ”It’s weird, isn’t it? The sound insulation there is not very good. More than once, people have complained that the people eating there are too noisy,” the engineer shrugged and said in a joking tone, “Maybe we should find a real priest.”

  ”That makes sense.”

  Luo nodded, returned the tablet in his hand to the staff beside him, and then looked at the engineer and said seriously.

  ”This information is very important… I want to circle the people who heard the explosion and those who didn’t hear the explosion on the lower deck, and then mark what they did and where they were when the explosion occurred. This may help solve the dilemma we are facing now.”

  ”Good idea,” the engineer snapped his fingers, “You go and discuss it with the people in the Eighth Department. This is their job.”

  The Eighth Department is the ship safety and maintenance department, which is equivalent to the public security management department on the entire starship, including security supervisors, sheriffs, and emergency rescue teams, etc.

  Although the name of the Fourth Department (Engineering and Maintenance Department) also has the word “maintenance”, it is mainly responsible for equipment maintenance and outer space operations and other technical work.

  A starship with 3,000 people is like a small town sailing in space, and almost everyone has a specific job assigned to them.

  However, sometimes Luo Yi couldn’t help but complain. They have too many departments, and even they have to think for a while about who is responsible for which task.

  But fortunately, everyone is very responsible. At most, there is not enough work to be done, but no one is passing the buck.

  Luo Yi wrote down the intelligence he collected, nodded neatly and said.

  ”I will go.”

  …

  As the weapons and defense department of the Third Department, it is the quasi-combat department of the Orion missile cruiser and also the emergency response department.

  Although the Eighth Department is responsible for general public security incidents, the Third Department usually intervenes in major accidents that are so serious that they cause damage to the hull, threaten the lives of all officers and soldiers on the ship, and cannot rule out the suspicion of KB attacks.

  As a professional soldier, Luo Yi acted quickly. After checking the accident site and the torpedo library, he immediately went to the Eighth Department to exchange information and retrieved the access control usage of various functional facilities.

  This method can easily determine the location of everyone at the time.

  The Eighth Department also showed considerable attention to the information provided by the Three Departments, and sent almost all security personnel to visit and investigate all 1,600 crew members on the lower deck.

  The results of the investigation were beyond everyone’s expectations. Only more than 200 people heard the explosion, but because the alarm did not sound, most people did not take it seriously. In

  the conference room of the Eighth Department, a three-dimensional holographic image of the lower deck of the Orion cruiser was suspended on the conference table.

  According to the opinions of the combatants of the Three Departments, they marked the area where the people who heard the explosion were at the time in red, and the area where those who did not hear the explosion were in yellow.

  The light blue holographic image was almost filled with red and yellow. The winding red spread like a long dragon on the inside of the hull, but unfortunately there was no obvious pattern.

  But what’s interesting is that there is no situation in the same area where some people heard the explosion and some did not.

  In other words, there is no third possibility between red and yellow.

  ”It seems that the problem lies in space.” Looking at the map full of marks, Luo Yi said thoughtfully, “I think we should focus on checking these rooms marked in red.”

  The security director of the Eighth Department stood beside him, with a subtle expression on his unshaven face.

  He seemed to have thought of something, but felt it was too far-fetched, but finally coughed and said.

  ”Do you know what I thought of?”

  The pairs of eyes around the conference table looked at him, and Luo Yi asked for everyone present.

  ”What?”

  The security director said immediately.

  ”Schrödinger’s cat.”

  The whispering sound spread around the conference table, and this statement was recognized by some people.

  Looking at the silent Luo Yi, the security director continued in an uncertain tone.

  ”Aren’t we stuck in the hyperspace channel now? Such a strange thing happened again… Do you think we will be trapped in a place similar to quantum space?”

  Luo Yi asked seriously, not liking this ambiguous statement.

  ”What is quantum space? What is its specific definition?”

  The security director was speechless for a moment, rubbing his index finger on his stubble, and said with a wry smile.

  ”I’m just guessing, I’m not studying physics… I’m studying logistics management.”

  The security officer standing by whistled and said teasingly.

  ”It seems that there is no one on our ship with the right professional counterpart.”

  ”Isn’t the one in the fifth department the right professional counterpart?”

  ”Yes, but it’s useless.”

  Unexpectedly, someone here also persecuted Dr. Wu, and Luo Yi made a helpless expression.

  ”I plan to ask him for his opinion later… about the quantum space you mentioned.”

  The security director coughed awkwardly.

  ”That’s a name I made up… Anyway, it means something similar, you can ask.”

  Jokes aside.

  That guy is a top student after all.

  He actually believes in Dr. Wu’s professional knowledge and diploma.

  After the meeting.

  Luo Yi rushed to the fifth department without stopping, but found that Dr. Wu was not here. There was only an intern he brought on duty. After asking, he learned that the guy went out to drink again.

  The Research and Technology Department had too little work to do. It was a marginal department that was completely useless. Most of the people working there were casual and lazy.

  Luo Yi had no choice but to contact his friends in the Eighth Department. He eventually found this drunk guy in a bar in the corner of the middle deck.

  Looking at Dr. Wu lying on the bar, Luo Yi sighed and walked to sit next to him, then looked at the bionic robot bartender in front of him.

  ”Two glasses of lemonade.”

  ”Is it iced or room temperature?”

  ”One iced and one room temperature.”

  ”Yes, sir.”

  The bionic robot replied in a gentle voice, and soon there were two glasses of water with lemon slices on the table.

  Pushing the hot glass in front of Dr. Wu, Luo Yi picked up the glass with ice cubes and drank it.

  From 8 a.m. standard time to now, he had been busy for ten hours without eating a single bite.

  But it wasn’t entirely because he was busy, part of the reason was that he had no appetite.

  Looking at Wu Xinghuan who was reaching out to touch the cup, he said in a casual tone.

  ”Is it appropriate to drink during work hours?”

  ”It doesn’t matter…”

  Wu Xinghuan grabbed the cup and took a sip. He found that there was no smell of alcohol and it was still hot, so he frowned.

  Seeing this guy’s attitude of giving up, Luo Yi raised his eyebrows.

  ”What do you mean it doesn’t matter? Didn’t you discover new physics? And you said we would miss you… the you who never let go of the bottle of wine?”

  Hearing this, Wu Xinghuan laughed self-deprecatingly, shook the lemonade in his hand, and cast a dazed look at the wine cabinet in front of him.

  ”It doesn’t matter anymore… No one will remember us. I didn’t discover new physics, and the old building didn’t collapse. It was even more stable. We are still in our cages, just the hamster that happened to stop on the wheel.”

  This guy was obviously drunk. Luo Yi didn’t understand what he was saying at all. He just heard that he seemed to deny the previous conclusion.

  ”So… now you think that guy is not a time traveler?”

  ”Is it important?” Wu Xinghuan shook his head and took a sip from the cup.

  Luo Yi frowned and stared at his eyes seriously.

  ”Listen, you are the only one on the ship who can help us understand the current situation. We need to know what happened to us. I don’t know what problems you encountered in your research, but I hope that at least now, you can cheer up!” This

  sentence seemed to have some effect. Wu Xinghuan looked up at him and stared at him.

  ”Let’s make an assumption.”

  Luo Yi looked at him and signaled him to continue with his eyes.

  Wu Xinghuan put the cup on the table, took two seeds from the lemon slice and threw them in.

  Looking at the sinking lemon seeds, he said slowly.

  ”There is a video game with many, many people in it… Let’s assume there are 10 billion.”

  Luo Yi frowned.

  ”Then what?”

  Wu Xinghuan continued.

  ”Our eyes have limits, and of course the lens also has limits. Now assume that this lens can only see 100 million people, and our game console supports 100 million people on the same screen.”

  Without waiting for Luo Yi to ask, he said non-stop.

  ”Then the question is, what about the 9.9 billion people outside the camera? Where did they go?”

  Confused by this question, Luo Yi was stunned for a moment and answered with a strange expression.

  ”Of course they are outside the camera.”

  ”Smart!” Wu Xinghuan gave a thumbs up and grinned, “It’s a pity that you only see the surface… The truth is that they are all quantum existences.”

  ”You know they exist, and the host also assumes that they do exist, and even records the names of each of them, but they are not actually generated directly in our program, right? Or it is saved in the cache, and only when we move the camera over will they be generated in real time and be seen by us.”

  ”People in the old era used this method to make games at a low cost. As long as the perspective is limited to a certain range and the screen loading is cleverly used, only a few textures are needed to make a planet.”

  ”I can probably understand what you mean,” Luo Yi frowned and said, “But what does this have to do with the situation we are facing now?”

  Wu Xinghuan did not answer directly, but overturned the cup on the bar.

  Looking at Luo Yi with a stunned expression, he said slowly.

  ”Now there has been an explosion outside the camera, and it really has. You’ve even seen the number of casualties, the aftermath of the explosion, and the subsequent impact… but did the explosion really happen?”

  ”Do I even need to ask?” Luo Yi looked at him in confusion, “You said it yourself, there really was an explosion there.”

  ”I’m the host, I’m the narrator, and I told you about the explosion.” Wu Xinghuan stared into his eyes and said with a smile, “But you should be clear that before you moved the camera over, the special effects of the explosion, people’s screams, and what someone saw and did before they died, were not actually generated in my program, right?”

  ”Maybe when the explosion happened, someone was giving you the middle finger outside the game. I bet you would be shocked when you saw it, because a certain NPC not only awakened self-awareness but also broke the fourth wall… but you didn’t have the chance to see it, because when you moved the camera over, you might not even be able to find his body.”

  Luo Yi looked at him blankly, as if he had understood something vaguely.

  ”Event horizon,” Wu Xinghuan slowly uttered a word from his mouth, and then continued, “We call the space-time interface where an event can be observed the ‘event horizon’, and in this exaggerated example, the edge of your lens is what I call the event horizon.”

  ”And for us sitting here, we who are in the hyperspace channel are just outside the ‘event horizon’. The same goes for that misguided kid, we are all put into a black box that cannot be penetrated by the outside world. Our ending is a fait accompli for him, and his ending is irrelevant to us, because no matter what he tells us or what happens in the future, we are already dead in his timeline.”

  When he said this, Wu Xinghuan smiled self-deprecatingly again.

  ”The universe is much crueler than we imagined, isn’t it? According to this theory, no matter what we do now, it is meaningless. Even if we carve words all over the wall and write down our legendary experiences, what should be erased will be erased.”

  ”Maybe we have encountered time travelers countless times in history… but there is no exception. They are just like the NPC who stood outside the camera and gestured the middle finger to the player. No one knows that he broke the fourth wall. When the God who was overlooking us came to his senses, he had been completely erased. And the reason is exactly what we saw… because we didn’t hear about this time traveler at all.”

  Luo Yi couldn’t help holding his breath, and after a long time, he slowly said.

  ”But… how did we get in?”

  Just because of hyperspace travel?

  But since the outbreak of this war, there have been countless hyperspace travels, and no one has ever heard of any starship encountering such a…

  and so on.

  It may not be that they haven’t encountered it

  before. A drop of cold sweat slowly crossed Luo Yi’s forehead and dripped onto the bar counter of the bar.

  Maybe someone has encountered it, but no one knows it.

  It’s like no one knows what the afterlife is like, whether it’s reincarnation or going to a place called heaven.

  The only information they leave to the outside world – or “inside the horizon” –

  is indisputable death .

  ”How did we get in? Haha, only God knows how we got in.”

  Wu Xinghuan laughed out loud, looking at Luo Yi who seemed to have come to his senses, and said slowly, “This kind of thing is not important at all. Maybe a big explosion killed us all in an instant, but we don’t know it…”

  When he said this, he burped, stared at Luo Yi’s eyes drunkenly, and said word by word.

  ”So why do I say you are doing something meaningless? Because that guy is telling the truth! We may have… No, not maybe, but definitely!”

  ”We are already dead!”

  ”And you and I sitting here… are just ghosts.”

  There was silence at the bar.

  Only the bionic robot was wiping the cups skillfully, making a chirping sound.

  Luo Yi stared at Wu Xinghuan in a daze, staring at that face for a long time, and finally looked at the robot bartender.

  ”…Two glasses of ‘Fountain of Life’.”

  The bionic bartender said in a gentle voice.

  ”I don’t recommend you to drink during your shift, especially strong cocktails.”

  ”But you gave it all to him.” Luo Yi pointed at Wu Xinghuan who was sitting next to him.

  A troubled look appeared on the face of the bionic bartender.

  ”But this gentleman said he was from the fifth department, and you all said that the fifth department didn’t have to work…”

  Luo Yi’s eyebrows twitched, but he still said calmly.

  ”I asked for it for him.”

  This statement seemed to be recognized by the bionic bartender, and two glasses of clear and transparent liquor were quickly placed on the bar.

  Luo Yi pushed one of the glasses in front of Dr. Wu, and then sprinkled a few grains of salt into his own glass.

  ”Everything you said is just your inference. I can also speculate that we are actually in different timelines… just like the parallel universe theory.”

  Wu Xinghuan shrugged.

  ”You don’t understand what the parallel universe theory is. If you really understand it, you should know that it is actually no different from what I said. The fate of our part of time and space is destined, almost destined-”

  ”I think there is a difference. The difference is that I am still breathing, my heart is still beating, at least I am still alive now.” Luo Yi stared at his eyes intently and continued word by word, “The living should do the things of the living, and as for the things after death, let other living people think about it.”

  ”But I have to apologize for my previous prejudice. It’s not that you have done nothing. In fact, you have done far more than each of us.”

  In front of Dr. Wu, who was surprised, Luo Yi drank the strong liquor in the glass and stood up with his hands on the table.

  ”I still have things I can do. Although it may seem meaningless to you, I don’t want to give up just like that.”

  Just as he was about to leave, monotonous applause suddenly came from the door of the bar.

  Including the android standing behind the bar, the three of them looked at the door together, only to see their captain standing there.

  ”Hello, Mr. Captain.” The bionic man behind the bar greeted with a smile.

  As for Wu Xinghuan, he hid his glass behind his back awkwardly, and then slid down from the bar stool.

  Because just behind the captain stood his cousin Wu Mengke.

  He could already feel the sharp eyes staring at himself who was drunk.

  ”Well said.”

  Zhao Tianhe put down his hands that were clapping, nodded to the bionic bartender, and then looked at the two standing in front of the bar with a smile.

  ”This is the attitude that a human alliance soldier should have, never give up until the last moment.”

  ”You are too kind…” Luo Yi said stiffly after giving a military salute.

  Zhao Tianhe simply returned the military salute, then looked at a guy who couldn’t stand up straight because he was drunk, and continued with a smile.

  ”Dr. Wu, I noticed that you used the word almost when you mentioned ‘our fate is predetermined’.”

  ”It’s like this…” Dodging Wu Mengke’s sharp eyes, Wu Xinghuan touched his nose and said awkwardly.

  Zhao Tianhe said with a smile.

  ”So there is actually a way to change it, right?”

  Wu Xinghuan was stunned.

  Before he could speak, the captain paused for a moment and continued.

  ”For example… keep the established future unchanged and only change the unknown part.”

  Wu Xinghuan said with a wry smile.

  ”But how is this possible…”

  Zhao Tianhe looked at him and said.

  ”The Gemini is the sister ship of the Orion. We are from the same design drawing.”

  Wu Xinghuan looked at the captain with a strange expression.

  ”You mean…”

  Zhao Tianhe said logically.

  ”The spacecraft that hit us does not have the ability to cruise in the stars. We reasonably suspect that the accident occurred near the earth… At least a place that can be reached by a working fluid engine.”

  Wu Xinghuan glanced at Luo Yi standing next to him and saw the latter nod, so he whispered.

  ”It seems… that’s the case.”

  Zhao Tianhe continued without paying attention to his little movements.

  ”We are in a hyperspace channel. According to what I know, a hyperspace channel should not have an end or a beginning in the sense of classical space, but only an end or a beginning in the sense of time… Am I right?”

  ”Not exactly, but it’s about the same. We can’t calculate the distance between us and two massive celestial bodies… Wait, what do you mean-” When he was halfway through, Wu Xinghuan’s eyes suddenly widened, and he looked at the captain in astonishment.

  Zhao Tianhe stared at him and stated his hypothesis.

  ”Is there a possibility that this time traveler who claims to have boarded the Orion actually doesn’t know whether he is on the Orion or the Gemini.”

  Luo Yi frowned and asked.

  ”But didn’t the Gemini return-”

  Zhao Tianhe raised his hand to interrupt him.

  ”They were sunk, and we sank them.”

  The air in the bar was strangely quiet.

  Luo Yi and Wu Xinghuan were both stunned, and then the former subconsciously looked at Wu Mengke standing behind Zhao Tianhe-the second-in-command of this starship, the administrative officer.

  There was no expression on his face, not even a hint of surprise.

  It was clear that the captain was not talking nonsense.

  Luo Yi’s Adam’s apple moved, and he stared in disbelief at Zhao Tianhe, the officer he once respected so much.

  ”…Why?”

  Zhao Tianhe looked at the young soldier, sighed slowly, and said in a complicated voice.

  ”Because…we have to do this.”

  ”You…killed people…” Wu Xinghuan stared at his cousin in a daze, and squeezed out the last half of the sentence from his trembling lips, “…Three thousand people?”

  His eyes were fixed on her, but this time she looked away and did not look at her brother.

  Zhao Tianhe coughed lightly, breaking the stiffness in the air.

  ”We must stop the Aerospace Army from committing crimes. As for the specific process…all are recorded in the black box. When I return to the space station at the Lagrange point, I will accept arrest and explain my actions to the military court. In addition, this is my decision alone and has nothing to do with all of you.” “In

  short, there is a lot of water behind this ‘accident’. I don’t want to shame my glory, but we have to make a choice. If we don’t do it, not only will we die, but many people will die, including many survivors who have finally survived these three years…”

  Luo Yi stared at the captain in a daze, and he couldn’t accept this sloppy statement in his heart.

  The Gemini was the sister ship of the Orion, and the personnel of both sides would often rotate, and there were many people he knew on that ship.

  However, now his most respected superior told him… those guys were all dead.

  And they killed them.

  And most people were unaware of it…

  Wu Xinghuan took a deep breath and tried to pull himself out of this bad news.

  He did see some hope –

  he muttered in a voice that no one could hear.

  ”There are two cats in the box… Only one is dead, and the other is unknown.”

  ”We saw the person who opened the box, but the person who opened the box only saw a dead cat… As long as they die, we are alive.”

  Luo Yi couldn’t hear what he was saying, and he didn’t want to listen.

  Looking at this distraught young man, Zhao Tianhe’s slightly vicissitudes of life showed a trace of fatigue that he had never shown before, and he slowly spoke.

  ”I will explain the matter about the Gemini and the order from the Lagrange Point Space Station later. Let’s discuss how to solve the current problem first.”

  …

  (Thanks to “Aurora_” for the reward!!!)

  (End of this chapter)