Chapter 997 Return

  Chapter 997 Return

  This will be an expedition spanning two hundred years of time and space, and the opponents are the souls who have died like them. With

  time stagnant at this moment, they are destined not to see the results of this expedition, and no one will even remember the choices they made in the last second of their last breath.

  But even so, this expedition is not meaningless.

  As Dr. Wu said, they cannot change what has happened.

  But they can still decide what the descendants who open the coffin will see and discover from this dark and cold box.

  That will determine what kind of future they will go to.

  This is the meaning.

  Faced with the destined death, they made a completely different choice from the Gemini –

  and what they chose to leave behind was hope.

  As for the future after that.

  Someone will see it for them.

  …

  Zhao Tianhe is a professional officer, with neither the talent for public speaking nor the eloquence of persuasion.

  He thought it would take some time to convince his comrades to accept the facts and face death, but the facts proved that he still underestimated them.

  When they learned that they were dead or close to death, their reactions were unusually calm, not even as excited as when they learned that the Gemini was sunk by their own side.

  ”So this is what happened after all this time.”

  ”Haha… I didn’t expect I was dead.”

  ”But I didn’t expect that the Gemini had already fired at us before we opened fire.”

  ”What should I say, this may also be retribution, haha.”

  ”There is no retribution that comes first… But I really don’t have any guilt, I’m just glad that we did die together.”

  The bar on the lower deck gathered countless people who came here to have their last drink.

  According to Dr. Wu, no matter how much they drank, even if they died here, when time and space were reset, everything would return to the original state, and only the last memory would remain.

  ”I still can’t accept it…”

  Xiao Yong stood at the door of the bar with his arms folded, looking at the people who were toasting and shaking their heads in confusion, but a colleague next to him hooked his shoulder, smiled and patted his arm and said.

  ”Think positively, man. Do you still want to bring your regrets down there?”

  Xiao Yong looked at him incomprehensibly, and what he couldn’t understand even more was the open-mindedness on his face.

  ”I have no regrets about my own death… but I want to ask why we don’t upload our thoughts?”

  The colleague shrugged.

  ”It’s too late. Didn’t you hear what the people in the fifth department said? Those who couldn’t hear the explosion are dead, such as you and me.”

  Xiao Yong’s face still had an expression of unacceptability, and he tried to argue.

  ”Aren’t there 227 people left? These people are enough.”

  Just at this time, Wu Xinghuan, who was drunk, walked over from the side of the bar.

  He was holding a bottle of whiskey in his hand, and he was staggering like before.

  But unlike last time, he was no longer decadent and depressed at this moment.

  He discovered new physics.

  And he witnessed its existence with his own eyes.

  In this respect, he might be luckier than the respected “Professor”.

  He no longer had any regrets.

  ”Maybe, we don’t even have to do it ourselves. Didn’t that kid say that the ‘celestial beings’ 200 years later have used some technology to make replicas of us…even your good brother ‘Luo Yi’ is on this starship hunting down our children, including you, and you all…even me who is useless.”

  When he said this, Wu Xinghuan grinned and took a sip of the spicy and sweet wine.

  ”Then the question is…do we really want to become another group of celestial beings?”

  ”Or, if they have done a good job, do you really have the confidence to do better on their behalf? As an old antique from 200 years ago.”

  Looking at the grinning guy, Xiao Yong was stunned, lowered his head and thought for a long time, and suddenly laughed out loud.

  ”Hahaha! Interesting!”

  Although he still couldn’t accept the idea that the universe would be full of those little ghosts driving spaceships around and wearing all kinds of messy prosthetics, it might not be a bad thing if he thought about it from another perspective.

  The children of the future are more courageous and adventurous than them, more confident and aggressive than them, and have the ability to take charge of their own affairs.

  They need three thousand people and ten departments to face the challenge, but the children of the future only need two people.

  If they think so, it seems that there is really no need for them to stay.

  Just like before, Xiao Yong snatched the bottle of wine from Wu Xinghuan’s hand and took a sip despite the latter’s protest.

  The difference is that this time he wiped his mouth happily and stuffed the empty bottle back into Dr. Wu’s chest.

  ”Let’s go! Let’s drink to our heart’s content!”

  He smiled and hooked the shoulders of this gentle guy and patted his arm hard.

  ”Don’t stop until you are drunk!”

  There is still a lot of inventory in the bar.

  If they want, they can even drink here for a year, and then leave after they have had enough and sober up.

  However, they did not do so.

  The child from the future… the child of all of them is lying on the treatment bed.

  While they are drinking to their heart’s content, the child may be suffering from darkness and helplessness.

  Infirmary.

  Lin Youyou, who was standing next to the intensive care unit, was staring at the girl from 200 years later lying on the bed.

  Although she wanted to chat with her, it seemed that she would not wake up.

  ”We…will be like her?” The young nurse next to her whispered softly.

  When she thought that she was about to die, there was a bit of regret and hesitation on her beautiful face.

  Lin Youyou did not speak. The medical director next to her nodded and said with a complicated expression.

  ”It should be…but fortunately, it happened in an instant. If you hadn’t heard the explosion, you might not even feel any pain and it would be over.”

  ”Then I’m relieved…” The beauty-loving girl suddenly smiled and said jokingly, “At least you can’t see your disfigured face.”

  ”Death…” The doctor on duty next to him sighed and pressed his index finger on his forehead. “The ten departments all have work to do… Is there nothing we can do?”

  Everyone exchanged glances, and Lin Youyou, who had been silent, suddenly spoke.

  ”There should be…”

  Seeing everyone looking at him, Lin Youyou closed his eyes and thought for a while, then continued to speak.

  ”Is there any way to extend the shelf life of the hemostatic gel to 200 years later?”

  The doctors looked at each other, and finally a slightly older doctor raised his hand.

  ”I heard that freezing can… But you need to be very careful when thawing to prevent crystal precipitation.”

  This is quite unpopular knowledge.

  After all, most of the inventory will be disposed of and replaced with new ones before the shelf life is halfway through.

  He also learned this knowledge point because he happened to study related topics when he was studying for his doctorate.

  Lin Youyou’s eyes lit up and a smile appeared on his face.

  ”Is it frozen storage? Are there more specific operating methods for thawing?”

  The slightly older doctor said cautiously.

  ”I can teach you how to operate it. It shouldn’t be difficult for you, but the problem is that even if you remember it, it won’t mean much, right?”

  ”How could it be? As long as there is a way, it’s fine. I will write down the operation process… before I swallow the last bite.”

  As she spoke, Lin Youyou looked at the girl lying unconscious on the treatment bed.

  She lovingly reached out her hand and gently stroked the few strands of hair left on her forehead.

  It should be a beautiful face.

  Even if the smooth skin has rotted, she can still see the pure soul buried under the radioactive dust.

  ”… You will survive.”

  ”Your partner is a brave child… and his bravery is not inferior to any of us.”

  ”I believe he can definitely cure you, using the method I left behind.”

  …

  The last dinner lasted for three days, and the rehearsal after that lasted for nearly half a month.

  During this non-existent time, everyone was clear about what they were going to do.

  Whether they were dead

  or alive.

  Finally, the moment of parting came, and all the crew members tacitly returned to their respective positions.

  That was their position when they entered the hyperspace channel, and also their position when the neutron bomb exploded.

  In addition to the soldiers of the three space combat teams.

  Before returning to their positions, they still have to do one last thing.

  That is to return to the scene of the accident, put the dormant capsule that does not exist in this time and space back into the landing craft, and cover the overturned “box” again.

  Two soldiers wearing power armor carried the coffin-like dormant capsule through the isolation belt.

  Looking at the spaceship lying in the gym, Xiao Yong grinned and said.

  ”It’s really strange…”

  Luo Yi asked.

  ”What’s strange?”

  Xiao Yong replied with a smile.

  ”All of us are dead, but we can still perform tasks with the ‘living people’.”

  ”The living people you are talking about are me, or the child 200 years later?”

  ”Both.”

  Looking at the teammates walking in front, Luo Yi thought about it and gave an ambiguous answer.

  ”This is indeed a bizarre experience, but I think since it happened, there must be a reason for it to happen.”

  He is not a physicist, so it is difficult to give a reasonable explanation from a physical perspective.

  Must say why.

  Maybe it’s because they all believe it.

  When facing a desperate situation, they all planted the seeds of hope.

  This in itself is not something difficult to explain.

  The two carried the hibernation capsule into the room and put it back into the twisted landing craft.

  Then, they closed the hatch, left the room, and removed the isolation belt outside the room… as if they had never been there. After

  returning the equipment in the duty room, Xiao Yong took a deep breath, saluted with Sergeant Luo Yi, and then strode out of the door.

  From the moment he returned to his room and closed the door, everything would return to the original point.

  The stagnant time will continue to move forward.

  Their bodies will decay in the radioactive dust, and their souls will go to the battlefield 200 years later.

  It will be a duel between ghosts.

  Borrowed by the hands of the living.

  No matter what the final victory or defeat is, they will not let their children face the ghosts from the old times alone.

  They will fight side by side.

  On the bridge of the Orion missile cruiser, Zhao Tianhe, standing in front of the French window, adjusted his officer’s hat on his head, and then cast his eyes on the deep galaxy in front of him.

  ”I suddenly found that… the stars outside seemed to have stopped a long time ago.”

  Although the stars seen in the universe do not flicker as frequently as in the atmosphere, they are not completely still, and they also alternate between red and blue light.

  Especially when their relative distance changes.

  Also looking at the brilliant galaxy, Wu Mengke smiled softly.

  ”In fact, I discovered it before, and then I realized that it was not that they were still, but that we stopped…”

  Zhao Tianhe smiled and squinted his eyes.

  ”It seems that there are still many things hidden in this universe that we don’t know…”

  Indistinctly, his eyes seemed to see that the solidified galaxy flickered again.

  And it was different from the past.

  It was a brilliant light he had never seen before.

  ”It seems that time is almost up.”

  ”Colonel.”

  Hearing the voice from the side, he turned his face slightly and moved his eyes away from the twinkling stars.

  I saw that the old friend who had worked with him for many years was now putting his raised right hand on the edge of the brim of his hat.

  Her expression was more solemn than ever.

  ”Thank you…”

  ”It’s my honor to work with you.”

  Looking at Wu Mengke, who looked solemn, and the people standing with her, Zhao Tianhe smiled with relief and raised his hand to return a military salute.

  ”I am the one who should say that I am honored. It is my greatest honor to work with you.”

  ”Thank you all for your sincere cooperation over the years.”

  ”See you in the cemetery.”

  …

  A shining light that no one could see suddenly bloomed in the silent universe.

  At the moment when the Orion missile cruiser left the hyperspace channel, the raging neutron plume penetrated the indestructible armor, and then the sound waves of the explosion spread to every cabin along the shattered steel.

  Just as Dr. Wu said.

  It happened in an instant, so fast that there was no time to react. More than 2,700 of the 3,000 crew members were killed, and only 227 survived.

  Even the 227 survivors were severely injured without exception.

  The high-energy neutron rays destroyed the cell structures of their organs and tissues, as well as the macromolecular proteins floating between cells. Fortunately, the bionic prostheses in their bodies were only affected by the electromagnetic pulse, which briefly pulled them back from the brink of death.

  However, the crisis was not over.

  The exploding neutron bomb not only killed the crew on the Orion, but also severely damaged the Orion itself.

  Without rescue, they had no chance of survival or self-rescue.

  Death was only a matter of time!

  At the same time, the intelligent program on the landing craft began to work.

  Taking advantage of the chaos of the Orion missile cruiser, the landing craft’s shipboard AI, according to the preset program, mercilessly launched an electronic warfare to fight for the control of the Orion.

  Under normal circumstances, the information security engineers and artificial intelligence experts of the tenth unit would never let it succeed.

  However, now the number of engineers who survived in the entire tenth unit can even be counted on one hand, and it is almost impossible to have a slight chance of winning against the well-prepared electronic warfare invasion.

  The intelligent virus from the Gemini will undoubtedly break through the firewall of the Orion, and by the time the survivors on the Orion come to their senses, it will be too late.

  The intelligent program carrying the will of all the crew members of the Gemini missile cruiser will take over the entire starship and use the latter’s shipboard server to “resurrect” and continue to implement the plan called “Final Battle”.

  The whole plan can be said to be perfect.

  Even as early as five light years away, the bullet has hit the target!

  However, the fire of civilization did not go out, but bloomed with unprecedented light. In

  the power room of the lower deck, the engineer who collapsed on the ground rubbed the ground with his elbows and crawled forward with difficulty.

  Blood kept oozing out of his mouth and nose, mixed with sticky blood clots and flowing on the alloy floor, and his clothes on his chest rubbed a shocking drag mark.

  His legs have failed, and only his two prosthetic arms can move.

  But even so, he still endured the burning pain all over his body and crawled into the operating room of the power room.

  The fusion reactor of this starship was only separated from him by a wall, and the power supply was right in front of him.

  Like a ghost crawling out of the abyss, he used all his strength to prop up half of his body, stretched out his trembling right hand, put the bloody key into the keyhole, twisted it hard, and opened the protective cover on the safety gate.

  The guy who designed the Aerospace Forces starship operation safety manual probably didn’t know that the 27th rule he wrote after repeated consideration back then accidentally saved the lives of everyone on Earth.

  According to the 27th rule, before entering the hyperspace channel, at least two power engineers must be retained in the reactor to confirm the core operation status and report to the first department at any time.

  And he is the one who survived, and also one of the 227 survivors!

  The trigger is already in his hand, and he will fire the first shot of this Jedi counterattack!

  ”My spaceship… do you want it?”

  He grinned, coughed up a mouthful of blood, and then gathered all his strength and pressed down the handle of the switch in his hand.

  With a slight “hum”, the reactor that was running stably went out in an instant, and the entire power room soon flashed with red alarms.

  The reactor was shut down.

  The power supply facilities of the entire starship quickly switched to the backup circuit and entered energy-saving mode.

  In energy-saving mode, the shipboard server that provides information services is the first facility to be shut down. Soon, only the wired intercom will be usable on the entire starship.

  The guys on the Gemini probably never thought that their old friend would unplug the power supply. It seems that no matter how powerful the hacker is, he can’t hack into the power-off server.

  The engineer breathed a sigh of relief after completing this task.

  And as the tense nerves finally relaxed, his consciousness that could barely stay awake gradually began to blur.

  But it doesn’t matter.

  His mission has been completed.

  Next, it depends on the remaining 226 brothers and comrades 200 years later-

  they have an appointment.

  As the gravity device lost power, he felt his body floating from the floor, and floated to a corner of the room with the work tablet and office chair that floated up together.

  Looking at the key that was flying away from his fingertips, a trace of unyielding smile appeared on the bleeding face.

  ”If you want it…”

  ”Then… take it from my dead body!”

  　I have a stomachache and can’t finish the second half. I’ll post it tomorrow ==

  　　
  　

  (End of this chapter)