In the Orion guided missile cruiser's infirmary, Jiang Xuezhou, covered in bandages, was lying quietly on the medical bed, while the intensive care equipment beside him made a slight beeping sound.
The person is still alive, but not awake.
Facing the gentle electrocardiogram ripples on the holographic screen, Luo Yi, who had taken off his power armor, frowned slightly, looked at the doctor aside and said.
"Aren't you awake yet?"
Before the doctor spoke, the nursing staff on the side couldn't help rolling their eyes. "It couldn't have been that fast. It's a miracle that this child is alive, right?"
Luo Yi smiled bitterly and said, "I didn't mean to rush... He may indeed be a little impatient.
After all, everyone is confused about the situation in front of them.
Not just him, many people want to quickly figure out what happened and what went wrong.
Staring at the screen of the vital sign monitor, Lin Youyou, who had been silent for a long time and thought about it, suddenly raised his head. "It sounds a little strange."
Luo Yi looked at her and asked, "What's weird?"
The knuckle of her index finger touched her chin, Lin Youyou said thoughtfully.
"After we used the tissue repair gel, her wounds were indeed healing, but there was no change in metabolic levels and heart rate..."
When she said this, she suddenly remembered something, and another sentence came out of her mouth. "It seems to have been the same before."
Luo Yi asked. "Before?"
"That child named Ye Shi." Lin Youyou said truthfully while recalling the situation at the time, "We cured his injuries and repaired his prosthetic body, but his metabolic rate and heart rate did not show any symptoms.
Signs of recovery... By the way, so is his body temperature, which is not a normal human body temperature at all. I'm always worried about him fainting."
Luo Yi's brows wrinkled slightly.
At this time, a message from the Eight Department staff suddenly popped up on the communication channel. Without thinking much, he immediately pressed the button to connect.
"Hello?" "Are you free now?"
"I'm free at any time. Let's talk directly." The other person didn't waste any time and said immediately.
"Come to the reserve warehouse on the lower deck...the emergency escape supplies warehouse. We found new clues here." "I'll be there."
Luo nodded, hung up the phone, and then quickly left the infirmary and went to the warehouse that his colleagues from the Eight Departments mentioned on the phone.
The warehouse was not far from the room where he was on duty, but it was still a little far away from the infirmary.
It took him about five minutes to arrive at his destination, where he saw eight security personnel standing at the door of an open cabinet, and the warehouse staff who reported the crime were standing next to them.
"what happened?"
The security officer who called him earlier raised his hand to greet him, and then walked up to him with a tablet.
"We just received a report from the staff of the emergency supplies management warehouse that a sleeping cabin was lost in the storage warehouse, and the lock of the storage cabinet was violently broken."
Luo Yi asked. "Did you just discover it?"
The security officer nodded and said.
"That's right, it was fine when I checked it yesterday, but it was gone when I checked it again today. But the strange thing is that the security system failed. Is it very similar to before?"
Luo Yi frowned.
"Could it be that the colleague in charge of the warehouse made a mistake?"
This is a hyperspace passage where no one can get out, and the lost sleeping cabin must still be on the starship. And the most important thing is that he can't figure out who would steal that thing.
The security officer shook his head.
"I don't think it should be...because we have found the lost sleeping cabin." Luo Yi was stunned for a moment and looked at him confused.
"...Then are there any questions?"
The security officer looked at him with a subtle expression and continued.
"The problem is... we found the lost hibernation module at the accident scene."
···.
In the security office on the lower deck, the main participants in the "Dawn" project were all standing with expressionless faces. Including the captain Zhao Tianhe, the executive officer Wu Mengke, and Dr. Wu from the fifth department, etc.
Their plan is obviously perfect.
But I don't know why, it still failed in the end.
Looking at the sleeping girl on the screen, Zhao Tianhe stretched out his index finger and thumb to pinch the tired forehead, sighed slowly and said.
"It seems that the universe is more cruel than we imagined..."
Wu Mengke looked at him, with a hint of sadness hanging from the crow's feet at the corners of his eyes. "So we......have we failed?"
Zhao Tianhe did not answer.
What they were going through now was more complicated than any battle he had ever encountered. His experience was of little use here.
"No, no..."
At this time, Dr. Wu, who had been silent until now, suddenly spoke. A pair of eyes looked at him.
Including Zhao Tianhe, his cousin Wu Mengke, the navigator and many other senior officers, as well as Sergeant Luo Yi who was standing at the door about to report the situation, etc...
He turned his attention to the monitoring terminal, looked at the unconscious girl on the holographic screen, and swallowed hard.
"We succeeded, but the final result was different from what we originally imagined..." Zhao Tianhe frowned.
"What's the meaning?"
Wu Xinghuan moved his eyes away from the holographic screen and looked at the captain intently.
"You judge that the Gemini will definitely launch a neutron torpedo after confirming that we refuse to execute the order... right?" Zhao Tianhe nodded and said in a tone that left no room for doubt.
"Based on my understanding of Gemini Captain Song Yuchuan, he will definitely do this." Wu Xinghuan asked immediately.
"What kind of person is he?" Zhao Tianhe replied without thinking.
"That guy is a wolf. He is cruel to others and even more cruel to himself. If there are ten radicals among a hundred civilians on a ship, he will consider the other ninety innocent people as necessary sacrifices."
Wu Xinghuan said step by step.
"So you opened fire without hesitation."
Zhao Tianhe did not shy away and simply nodded.
"Yes, there is no other way to deal with the beast. In that situation, it's either you die or I live... Do we want to discuss this issue at this time?"
"We must discuss this issue, because this is the key to our current situation." Wu Xinghuan stared at him intently and continued in a serious tone.
"Then now you are the captain of the Gemini, or you are Song Yuchuan himself... You are in front of a person who understands you very well. That guy will not show mercy. He will abandon all illusions and make the final decision at the first opportunity.
Bad choice...if you were him, what would you choose?"
Zhao Tianhe's pupils dilated slightly.
That was an answer that almost didn't require thinking. The option automatically appeared in his mind. "...I will make the first move."
Wu Xinghuan stared at him and asked.
"You will definitely strike first. You know that your opponent knows very well that you are a beast. You know that your opponent will not have any hesitation or guilt in killing you... So, how do you plan to strike?"
The atmosphere in the security office became quiet, and all eyes were fixed on the two of them. No one said anything.
Zhao Tianhe was silent for a long time and turned his gaze to one side. "I will hide the neutron bomb in the landing craft..."
Wu Mengke's eyes widened in astonishment, staring at Captain Zhao in disbelief.
The same goes for the other officers on the side, who all had expressions of astonishment on their faces. What they were astonished about was not the commander's choice.
It was the best possible judgment made by their commander who put himself in the other party's shoes. At that time, the landing craft was probably unmanned from the beginning...
Wu Xinghuan was not satisfied with this answer and continued to press forward.
"Is that just that? Die together with your opponent? You still have an unfinished mission. You should be cruel not only to others, but also to yourself..."
This time Zhao Tianhe was silent for a long time.
But in the end, he still said the last resort.
"...I will upload the thoughts of the entire crew of the ship to the shipboard server. Before the neutron torpedo the opponent is about to launch hits us, I will kill myself first, making us invincible from the beginning.
, and ensure that the orders of the Lagrange Point Space Station can be correctly executed even after our death."
to be honest.
They are not fighting for profit, just for their different beliefs. They are not enemies.
Even after everything is over, he will consider atonement for what he has done——
For example, you can use the files and data backed up on the server to resurrect teammates you have killed with your own hands.
There is no need to continue to deduce what will happen next. They already understand the whole story, and the truth is far more cruel than they imagined.
Zhao Tianhe's Adam's apple moved.
At that moment, he seemed to have aged more than ten years.
"...I'm sorry, comrades, I still underestimated their determination."
"You don't need to be sorry. This has already happened... It's just that we in the superposition state don't know."
Wu Xinghuan shook his head slightly, then continued to cast his gaze on the girl on the holographic screen, and continued as if muttering to himself.
"To be honest...I understood everything the moment I saw her."
"We are all superposition states, and they are two different superposition states, coming from two completely parallel timelines a and β. There are two intersection points in our entanglement, one is the starting point and the other is the end point."
"The young man named Ye Shi is our starting point, and the girl named Jiang Xuezhou is our end. And in their own cycle, everything is reversed. The girl named Jiang Xuezhou is the starting point of everything, and that girl named Jiang Xuezhou is our starting point.
The young man is the end."
"And we are already dead."
He eventually discovered new physics.
The spread of information can not only exceed the speed of light, but can even travel through time and space. Their encounter across time and space is the best proof.
Whether this memory is ultimately interpreted as a dream, a sense of instant vision, or some kind of psychological effect... they have left proof of their existence on each other's timelines.
He wanted to give this amazing discovery a name, but after thinking about it, he gave up in the end. He left it to future generations to summarize...
Regarding this special field of entanglement between information and information, the room was quiet for a long time.
The person who finally broke the silence was Wu Mengke, the executive officer or second-in-command of this starship.
"...I don't know why, but after hearing you say that we are dead, I suddenly breathed a sigh of relief." She smiled bitterly, looking at the screen of the monitoring terminal with complicated eyes and continued.
"At least...their existence proves that our choice was not wrong." Zhao Tianhe glanced at her, with a hint of surprise in his eyes.
"Which aspect?" "Every aspect."
Wu Mengke thought for a while and then said.
"The boy we saw before was a resident of the shelter...this kid should be a wastelander." Zhao Tianhe nodded.
"maybe."
Wu Mengke looked at him, and a kind smile suddenly appeared on his always serious face.
"Actually...it's pretty good, isn't it? Although they are obviously different from us, I still see many things in them that we once praised, such as love and courage...and there are many others that I don't know either.
Something that knows how to describe it.”
Luo Yi understood what the executive lady was thinking. He pondered for a moment and said, "What you want to say is... hope?"
Wu Mengke smiled and nodded.
"Probably. Anyway, I think it's good to leave the future to them." They have not turned into beasts.
They are still people.
In this case, there is nothing to be afraid of. As for death.
That's just a destined thing.
She is like a kind old grandmother at this moment.
Although she is not that old, she is only middle-aged.
"Maybe you are right." Zhao Tianhe was silent for a while and then said slowly.
According to Dr. Wu's theory, there was no one on the Gemini landing craft from the beginning, only a fully loaded neutron bomb warhead, and there might even be bionic humans or intelligent programs that came to take over the starship.
In other words, it is not them and Gemini that form the superposition state, but themselves.
And whether they died at the exit or entrance of the hyperspace channel, their death was destined to happen. In this case, the "Dawn" plan could not succeed from the beginning.
And they are destined to be unable to go to the future 200 years later to fulfill their agreement with the child. After a pause, Zhao Tianhe looked at Dr. Wu Xinghuan.
"So according to your theory, we can't do anything...right?" Wu Xinghuan shook his head.
"No, even if our death is doomed... there is still something we can do." Seeing a pair of eyes looking at him, he took a deep breath and continued.
"As I just said... we are in a superposition state at this moment. Even if our superposition state has collapsed in the future, there is still something we can do in the remaining time that does not exist.
matter."
Zhao Tianhe asked in a deep voice. "What is that matter?"
"Our exit." Wu Xinghuan stared at him intently and said decisively, "We can decide which future we go to..." Everyone looked at him.
The expression may be surprised, heavy, surprised, or unbelievable... Zhao Tianhe continued to ask.
"...Can you give a detailed explanation?"
At this moment, Wu Xinghuan was calmer than ever before, and he connected all the confusing clues together.
"...We did receive information from the future, right? Because of the quantum entanglement of superposition states, and because of some kind of field that we don't know. In short, we did see them."
"We have this common memory, even if this memory has not appeared in our timeline. We know that in 200 years there will be an organization called the Alliance. With ideals and enthusiasm, they will end the Wasteland Era and bring
Sweep everything of the old era into the grave, and then take our children with us to the new era!”
"That shared memory is their coordinates, and that's where we are going - the future where those children exist!"
Although this sounds like a dying fantasy, that shared memory is not completely fictitious, but a memory that actually exists in their minds.
And it is a memory that resonates with all of them! It is precisely because of that resonance with the future that they have not given up until now. Zhao Tianhe looked at him seriously.
"How do we get there?"
"It's very simple...and it's not simple either. We must form a closed loop with their timeline!" Looking at the dark-colored people who were getting serious, Wu Xinghuan turned his attention to Luo Yi who was standing at the door. "I remember you did statistics. I heard
There were a total of 227 people who made the explosion.\n.\n.\n.\n.\nIs that correct?" Luo nodded and said.
"Yes...and I have one more thing to report. The sleeping cabin we found in the landing craft is the sleeping cabin we lost."
Wu Xinghuan snapped his fingers and looked around energetically.
"This is the most direct evidence that the timeline has changed! And at the moment we sent the child away!" "That's why I just said that our Dawn Plan did not fail, it was just different from what we expected!
"
"We didn't know we were dead at that time. We thought there would be a group of heavily armed soldiers on the landing craft. It wasn't until we discovered there was nothing there that we realized we were wrong. Our opponents were more serious than we imagined.
Cruel and tenacious!”
Zhao Tianhe already vaguely understood what he meant.
"The timeline has completed the first interlacing...it still needs a second intersecting to form a closed loop, right? Is that what you mean?"
"Correct!" Wu Xinghuan looked at him with bright eyes, and then looked around at everyone present, "We have successfully received information from the future. We already know our own death, and even know how many people will survive and how many will survive."
Personal death."
"A total of 227 people heard the explosion.\n.\n.\n.\n.\nThe speed of neutron radiation is much faster than the transmission of sound waves. Under what circumstances can the explosion of a neutron bomb be heard?"
"...Although this is nonsense, I still have to say that only living people can hear the explosion of a neutron bomb." Luo Yi's eyes widened in an instant, including many people standing at the scene.
He had this vague feeling a long time ago, but it was just because he was ignored among the trivial clues. Zhao Tianhe stared at Wu Xinghuan intently, and suddenly laughed out loud.
"It seems that I am the ghost." It's not just him.
Including almost all senior officers who were on the bridge at the time, they did not hear the explosion or the alarm triggered by the explosion.
It wasn't until someone came up to report that they realized something was going on on the lower deck. At this moment, he finally understood why.
The equipment did not malfunction.
It's just that they can't survive the "next second" when the alarm sounds.
However, in this hyperspace channel where time stagnated, they still completed the exchange of information with the help of an unknown field.
In other words.
In fact, they are not just exchanging information with the future, they also have a certain resonance field with each other.
After adjusting his expression, he looked at Wu Xinghuan without changing his expression and continued fearlessly.
"Go on, tell us.\n.\n.\n.\n.\nWhat else can we dying people do for the new era 200 years from now."
"There is only one thing you can do - that is to go back to the moment you entered the hyperspace channel, stay where you were at that time... and then wait for death."
Looking at his cousin, Wu Xinghuan reluctantly said these words, and then turned his attention to Luo Yi who was standing at the door.
"And you.\n.\n.\n.\nIncluding me, and all the 227 people who heard the explosion, we are survivors of neutron radiation. Although we were lucky not to be killed directly, death is inevitable.
It’s just a matter of time.”
"But even so, there will still be some time before we die of suffocation or starvation... During this time, we have to complete the closed loop of time, guide the girl lying on the treatment bed to us, and also give them
Prepare weapons to help them defeat the enemies we have not defeated."
"It seems that what we should keep is not the 'celestial being'," Wu Mengke joked, "but something else." Luo Yi raised his hand and said seriously while looking at everyone.
"I will be in charge of the sleeping cabin... The emergency equipment management warehouse is next to my office. If I hear the explosion, I will open the warehouse as soon as possible and drag the sleeping cabin to the landing craft at that time."
Koala was silent for a while and then raised his hand.
"Leave the guidance to me... I heard that they hit the lower deck. My repair room is nearby. I will make a holographic guidance device to guide the girl... uh, to the dormant cabin.
The room you’re in?”
"This is not enough." Zhao Tianhe shook his head and looked at Wu Xinghuan who wanted to say something, "She must start the ship's warp engine, right?"
"Yes, and it's more than that," Wu Xinghuan nodded and continued calmly, "Tianren occupied our starship two hundred years later and took control of the starship...at least including the weapon system.
She has control over most of the equipment inside, and we have to help her and her friends regain control of the starship."
Koala said with sweat profusely.
"This...this is a bit too difficult for me."
He didn't even know how long he could live without the hyperspace channel.
"Haha, it's okay, brother," the artificial intelligence expert from Shibu put his arm on his shoulder, smiled and patted his shoulder, "There are us too! You are responsible for designing the navigation device to help her find the warp speed.
As for the engine switch, we are responsible for leaving a surprise on the engine for the tomb robbers."
Koala breathed a sigh of relief and smiled weakly.
"That's good... I'm really not good at hacking, especially when the opponent is a master." Suddenly someone raised his hand. "I have a question, can't we design it in stagnant time? Or even...
Let dead people participate in the design of the program."
It's always good to have an extra helper.
Besides, there are many talents on this starship, not just the programmers from the 10th Department. However, Dr. Wu shook his head and denied their plan to fix the bug.
"It's useless. All the changes we made in the hyperspace channel will be erased. Except for the memories that have been proven to be preserved... nothing can be left."
But looking at the disappointed expressions of everyone, he suddenly changed the subject.
"But it's okay to practice it several times... and it doesn't matter how many times it is. After all, information can be retained through the resonance field. This does not violate the rules we have explored."
Seeing everyone brainstorming and thinking of more and more solutions, a faint smile unfortunately appeared on Zhao Tianhe's stern face, and he made a rare joke.
"I didn't expect that dead people can do so many things." Wu Mengke said with a smile.
"After all, we won't die until the next second, and this one is not dead yet."
Zhao Tianhe was silent for a while, with a look of relief and melancholy on his face.
"But when I think about it, I still feel a little regretful. I have made an appointment with the person I met online... to go to Schlon City for vacation together after the war is over."
It is said that in 200 years, it should be called French Fries Port. I heard that the scenery is quite good.
Wu Mengke looked at this normally stern officer in surprise, as if he were looking at a strange species in the wasteland. Sensing the strange sight, Zhao Tianhe looked at her with a strange expression.
"Any questions?"
"No..." Wu Mengke shook his head blankly, "I just never heard you say it." Zhao Tianhe said with a smile.
"Hahaha, why do you say that kind of thing at work? It will make you think that I am such an irregular person." Okay.
In fact, he is indeed not a serious person, just an ordinary human being.
He also has his own life where his colleagues can't see it, and there are some inventory stored in the virtual machine that he wants to delete but probably doesn't have time to delete.
The reason why he always has a serious expression on his face is just because of work needs.
But after knowing that he was going to die soon, the burden on his shoulders was lifted and he lived his true self.
"I've begun to feel this way..." Wu Mengke raised his index finger and pressed it between his eyebrows with an unbearable expression. "You should take this secret to your grave. I thank you."
"You're welcome! Just think I was just farting, haha."
Zhao Tianhe smiled and turned his gaze to the terminal screen. The smile on his face suddenly became much more relieved, and the original melancholy also disappeared.
"But having said that, after chatting with you for a few words, I suddenly have no regrets." Wu Mengke sighed.
"...What do you mean?" Zhao Tianhe said with a smile. "Don't you think that girl... and that young man are just like our children?"
Wu Mengke was stunned for a moment and raised his eyebrows slightly.
“Do you also talk like this when you’re having sex online?
Zhao Tianhe coughed.
"Okay... I'm serious."
Wu Mengke turned his attention to the girl lying on the treatment bed on the holographic screen and said slowly.
"I have always thought that if I had a granddaughter, or a great-great-granddaughter, she would probably be as brave and strong as her."
"It seems that I am slow," Zhao Tianhe smiled, "But now I have come to my senses. In fact, there is no need for us to go two hundred years later. They are our continuation... We can't see
They will see the world for us.
Wu Mengke joked.
"It would be great if everyone was as open-minded as we are."
"That is impossible."
He put away his kind smile, and his determined eyes reappeared on Zhao Tianhe's face with sharp features.
At this moment, he seemed to have become the unsmiling captain again.
Determination is not something only beasts possess.
However, the beasts always seem to misunderstand again and again, thinking that as long as they are more ruthless and have no bottom line than humans, and scare the standing people, they will eventually be able to put them in the cage.
He would let the guy on the Gemini and the lunatics at Lagrange Point know how wrong they were and how ridiculous their dreams were.
Bar."
"A group of old immortals want to take over Nestlé and dream about replacing it after everything is over... What a sweet dream.
"Whether it is 200 years or 2000 years, I will drag them into the coffin even if I have two feet in the grave! Let's lie down together!"