Chapter 1592 Five: Zero

..,!

Since the super-light-speed communication between the two planets was interrupted, the Loren Alliance seems to have returned to the time when it once traveled alone. The vast sea of ​​stars is silent and cold, and there are no more greetings from afar in the dark night. , facing this vast and boundless universe on a lonely planet, and quietly counting the time before the arrival of the magic tide.

Antaveen's FTL communication array no longer transmits signals, and the antenna array of the Sorin giant tree no longer receives sound. The star breakers temporarily returned to their original research fields. The servo brains that were used to assist in the translation of alien languages The array also temporarily allocated computing power to other places in the neural network-everything seemed to be returning to the same place, but everything has quietly changed.

The Lorenites were still prostrate under gravity, but their heads were raised, ready to face the stars—for there was another group of intelligent beings waiting to hear their voices again.

When summer comes to the earth and winter comes, a grand project has finally come to an end.

In the depths of space far away from the surface of the earth, in the ancient gigantic "Sky Station" built around the planet, Nicholas is leading the engineering inspection team through a grand and heavy gate, and the light from the dome shines on his clean and bright There is a metallic brilliance on the outer shell of the machine, and a low and soft humming sound comes from the nearby compartment or under the floor from time to time. In a sense, these low and soft sounds are his leading engineering team here. One of the biggest achievements - this ancient space station has gradually awakened in the hands of mortals. Although it may be far behind its heyday, at least there is now a "safety route" around the world in the sky station.

In front of an open viewing window, Nicholas stopped. He carefully sensed the energy flow and metal tremors in the depths of the nearby bulkhead, and in this way judged whether the cabin that was activated not long ago was stable. Operation——As the commander-in-chief of the engineering force, he knows the current state of this ancient space station better than anyone else. Coupled with the failure of its self-repair function, even in areas that have been successfully repaired and restarted, there are hidden dangers of sudden failure or even secondary offline, which is extremely dangerous for engineering teams who live and work in the space station for a long time.

This dangerous situation is fatal to ordinary creatures, but fortunately, the huge engineering team led by Nicholas has the ability to resist risks to a certain extent - the strong vitality of dragons makes them even if they are thrown into the space environment. It can survive for a long time and can last until being rescued by teammates. Iron Man was designed as a working machine in extreme environments at the beginning of its birth. It is not a problem to swim butterfly in a vacuum with the shield on the outside, and the Siren is even more. There is no danger, and it is possible to go to various strange places to die and sacrifice to the heavens at any time. After working together for such a long time, Nicholas has long been familiar with the death of those deep-sea salted fish. up.

His Majesty Gao Wen has a good saying - life is the currency of the alliance, but some deep-sea salted fish have been sending unlimited amounts to disrupt the market.

However, even if the engineering team itself has a very high risk resistance ability,

The sudden failure of the repaired cabin and the second offline situation are still situations that Nicholas must try his best to avoid-because the "closing" project of the parent star barrier has come to an end, and the tide of magic has gradually approached this planet. Node, he doesn't want anything to delay the schedule any more.

Beside Nicholas, Iron Man Commander Alice-rs6, who shared the inspection mission, turned her head and looked beyond the bulkhead—through the transparent high-strength polymer porthole, she could see the scene of the inner ring of the Sky Station, She saw the distant land of Loren floating quietly in the dark and deep space like a jewel, and the ring-shaped structure of the sky station stretched and warped infinitely above the planet like a dome, and inside the ring, There are several areas that are constantly shining with bright lights, and some small engineering machinery or orbiting vehicles are swimming lightly in the dark space and between the bulkheads of the space station, carrying engineering components or performing welding tasks.

"The last three sets of forwarding and broadcasting devices will be installed in the next few days." After staring out the porthole for a long time, Alice suddenly said in a deep voice, "In the Tarash Plain, the final debugging of the data bus has begun, connecting the surface and space broadcasting arrays The space-to-ground communication link has also been tested, and the three sets of lines all meet the expected parameters."

The Dragon Seal Witch Azalena standing on the other side looked up at the small planet in space, and sighed softly after a long time: "I can't see Loren Continent."

"Because we are on the back side of it," Alice rs-6 explained in a straight-forward manner, "We set off from the orbital elevator in the southwestern sea area of ​​Loren, and the follow-up engineering team began to carry out the reconstruction of the sky station from two directions, and finally in the The orbital module on the back side of the planet has completed the confluence, we are standing in the confluence point module at this moment, we cannot see the Loren continent from here."

Azarena glanced at Miss Iron Man next to her, with a helpless expression on her face: "Of course I know, I just feel emotional."

"Sorry, I still don't quite understand the difference between 'joke', 'feeling' and 'discussion'," Alice rs-6 froze for a moment, with apologetic tone, "I hope this didn't trouble you."

"Ah, don't worry, anyway, I'm used to your seriousness—in fact, I quite like your seriousness, people have various personalities, this is your character as an iron man, there is no need to force it Change," Azarena waved her hand with a smile, and then raised her head thoughtfully, looking at the vast and dark starry sky outside the porthole, and after an unknown period of time, she finally looked at a certain position deep in the starry sky He opened his mouth softly, "Do you think that 'witch' is still watching our direction from the satellite? Are she and her clan still safe?"

Alice rs-6 was stunned again, then raised her finger hesitantly and pointed in another direction: "Although the Frost Sky Constellation is actually in this direction, Miss Azarena."

After she finished speaking, she quickly put her hand back, and asked with a cautious expression, "Did that just feel emotional again?"

Azalena: "Yes, I'm just feeling emotional."

So Alice rs-6 laughed, and now she can use her expression module very skillfully: "That's it. I believe that Miss 'Witch' must still be watching us at this time, and she and her people are also looking at us." Be safe, Miss Azarena, and we will hear from them again—after this storm is over."

"Yeah, after this storm is over." Azalena withdrew her gaze to the distant starry sky, but looked in another direction outside the porthole. On the edge of the porthole, she could see a magnificent and The glorious arc is gradually ascending.

Even with the processing of the shading filter, the vast light emitted by that arc still gave her the illusion that her eyes were burned. She saw clouds rising above the huge arc, composed of heat waves containing high-energy reactions. The crown shining in space, and under the heat wave, you can see a piece of gaseous stars with wood grains slowly rising and falling. What people see is the blood-red luminous bands that slowly undulate between the light and the clouds, like some kind of aurora curtain.

"The storm is coming soon." Azalena whispered to herself.

On the surface, 90% of Loren Continent is being shrouded in deep night—this boundless night is like a gentle curtain, so that the world does not have to witness the scene where the sun is gradually covered by bloody patterns at this moment, but Gao Wen Still awoken by the news of the approaching storm, he put on his coat and left the room in the early hours of the morning, onto the terrace.

The news of the approaching storm did not come from the engineering team of the Sky Station, but from the ancient satellite broadcast in his mind: "Alarm, the activity of the giant planet has risen sharply."

Just such a sentence, tossed him from his rare sleep in recent days.

There were some dark clouds in the sky, which covered most of the starlight, and the scattered stars could only be faintly seen through the gaps in the dark clouds. Gawain put on his coat and looked at the stars for half an hour, but he only let his drowsiness be overwhelmed by the cold night. The wind blows away completely, he took a deep breath, feeling that his chest was gradually filled with cold air, and when he exhaled the air a little bit, he began to tentatively call a distant voice in his mind: "Omega, are you here?" Is it?"

"I'm listening," Omega's response came almost immediately—as a "free machine soul" that doesn't need to rest, the other party can obviously respond to calls on the data connection anytime, anywhere, "according to your time , there should be about an hour before dawn, are you insomnia, friend?"

"I was woken up by the siren from the satellite," Gao Wen said helplessly. "The satellite reported that the sun's activity is rising sharply. I think it's the front of the demon tide that is gradually approaching Loren."

"Yes, it is approaching rapidly," Omega's voice was very calm, and he directly transmitted a picture to Gawain's mind, so Gawain directly "saw" a scene on a strange planet—he saw A barren plain full of boulders is welcoming the sunrise, several small walking machines are running busy among the boulders, and on the horizon, a round of blazing stars is gradually rising into the sky, which is the place where Omega temporarily lives. "Sun", the most eye-catching thing on the sun is the red lines spreading from its edge, "I think, you should be able to see such a sunrise on your side soon."

"As the influence of the magic wave approaches, the natural magic focus in space will react first. The magic focus represented by the 'virtual celestial body' will produce optical phenomena visible to the naked eye due to remote disturbance. The initial disturbance will occur in The magic tide officially arrived a few years ago, and it continued to strengthen as the front arrow of the magic tide approached, until the bloody sun was in the sky, and the stars were twinkling." Gao Wen whispered to himself, "This time, the interval between last time is only two months. It's really close."

Omega was silent for a moment, and then suddenly said: "Based on Loren's time, I will close my main thinking array next month and start a one-year hibernation."

Gao Wen was stunned for a moment, but he wasn't too surprised. He already knew about Omega's dormancy plan, but when the other party notified him solemnly, he was still a little dazed: "I didn't expect it to be so fast, but it's okay, and the time is about the same." Now, you don’t have any protective equipment on your side, and it’s safer to enter the dormant state earlier.”

"Yes, I have learned from you the traits of proceeding cautiously," Omega said quietly, and then suddenly changed the topic, "But before I officially go to sleep, I have something I want you to see."

Gao Wen was a little curious: "What?"

As soon as he finished speaking, he felt that Omega began to transmit a new video data to himself. In a moment of trance, a picture translated by the satellite system appeared in Gao Wen's mind - he "seeed" his own The angle of view seemed to be a surveillance drone, flying low over a brightly lit corridor, and then, a huge dome structure and an open facility like a testing ground appeared in front of his eyes. There are countless cubic containers made of transparent polymer neatly arranged in the middle, and he was shocked when he saw the contents of each cubic container clearly.

It was full of creatures, all kinds of creatures-- there were strange-shaped flowers and plants, there were algae undulating in the culture fluid, there were mosses growing along the bulkheads, and there were some small animals, even unformed ones. Embryo flesh and blood, surrounded by electrodes, cables, and pipes, and monitoring robots as small as mosquitoes tended these strange animals and plants in containers, while bright sunlight shone down from the dome, ensuring that they of natural growth.

"This is"

"I 'made' them." Omega seemed to be looking for the right words to introduce his work, "This is only the first generation, which was born after simple adjustments using the biological samples brought from Loren Sampling specimens, they are still a long way from fully adapting to the environment of this planet, I am trying to figure out a way for them to produce nutrients by themselves or absorb external nutrients under the light conditions of this planet, when I perform hibernation , the automatic device here will continue to cultivate them and prepare the second generation before I wake up."

Gao Wen was stunned for a while and was speechless, then suddenly thought of the previous conversation between Omega and Enya, he fell into deep thought, and finally said after careful consideration: "So this is what you found for yourself. 'Something meaningful'—does that make you happy?"

"Yes," Omega replied immediately, "although I was not sure about this at the beginning, but now I can be sure that the birth and flourishing of life is indeed something to be delighted with and look forward to, looking forward to their changes and future , is as meaningful as exploring the stars, it seems that sharing one's exploration journey with all kinds of life is far more interesting than going alone, and"

Gao Wen: "And?"

"And I've finally confirmed one thing," Omega said with a smile in his tone, a very obvious smile, this is the first time Gawain felt an obvious emotional reaction from his calm tone, "I Although they regarded me as a weapon from the very beginning, they must have been full of expectations and kindness when they created me——I responded to this expectation and lived up to this kindness. I am very very lucky."

Listening to the voice in his mind, Gawain took a light breath in the last night before dawn.

On the distant horizon, a faint red light has gradually lit up, and a crown of rising clouds and mist has come into his sight.

"Yes, respond to expectations, and don't live up to goodwill, this is the luckiest thing in the world."

(Theoretically it will end in these two days)