The captain of the Interstellar Merchant Ship Flywheel has served the Qubo Trade Alliance, the second largest commercial alliance in the Storm Field, for a long time, which has brought him power, reputation and a lot of wealth.
But personally, it just brought him a name.
‘Narwhal’ Philipchi Monk.
He used to be an officer of the Star Army. After many cruel battles, he retired to become a merchant ship captain with the help of a certain Chaodu family.
Even now, twenty years have passed, he would rather not remember the ins and outs of the name he obtained—he thought that under the system he devoted his life to, sentimentality that was attached to family relations would disappear—but he was still forever grateful for his name.
Even in the aristocratic class in Chaodu, only those who are considered valuable will be named: the vast majority of people are almost nameless from birth to work, with only code names.
"Owner?"
The narrow space of the command cabin was filled with rows of crowded bird servant monitors and communication operators. Except for the void surveillance personnel, they were staring at their screens seriously.
Philipchi Monk showed a bitter face, and on this route, the bird servant report was always the worst.
But this is also the fastest route to reach the Nassen Galaxy.
There are many types of merchant ships in the empire. Large merchant ships can often trade between stars and carry Geller force fields to conduct subspace navigation. Trade between galaxies and within galaxies often uses small and medium-sized merchant ships. This kind of merchant ship does not have Geller force fields or subspace engines, and can only "slowly" travel in the void.
In this process, besides pirates, the biggest threat is various cosmic phenomena.
"What's the matter?"
"It's getting closer and closer to the asteroid belt, my master."
“Visibility?”
"The scanning device cannot penetrate, my master."
Captain Filiche Monk sighed sadly. Although the route is basically fixed, the route is not necessarily fixed. Sometimes it is to avoid pirates, and sometimes it is to avoid certain possible "co-travels" - the relationship between merchant ships often switches between the plunderers and the plundered, and they rarely reuse a route.
This voyage is newly developed and can reach the Nassen Galaxy faster. The disadvantage is that it must cross an asteroid belt.
In the experience of Filiche Monk, he knew that merchant ships would always have accidents when they crossed complex asteroid belts: huge debris could cause irreparable damage to the hull, not to mention the faulty machines, which would be on his desk in the future.
But there is no way. The market in the Nassen Galaxy is now very good. A mysterious buyer ordered a large amount of supplies from the trade alliance, and the price was very cost-effective. His profits could be exchanged for a big ship after this trip.
The premise is that he can arrive before the others.
“Start low visibility protocol.”
The captain issued an order.
"I'll go to the observation window to take a look."
The operator of the Bird servant system sent the commands to the communication line - due to the inhibitory effect of radiation, he could already hear the sound being dispelled and hissed.
Philipchi Monk opened the door and walked into the cabin of the observation window, his goggles flashed, then dimmed, cutting off the initial light.
The captain glanced slowly and stopped when he turned to the right.
There, the void is filled with various pieces, forming an invisible, moving whole, an occasion that is a favorite of pirates.
He sighed, snapped his fingers, and a wandering adjutant stepped forward and pushed the others away with his elbow.
"Captain, your order?"
"Go and tell all the guards to get into alert and make sure they are ready to deal with emergencies at any time."
"OK."
The adjutant turned around and hurried towards the gate.
Philipchi Monk turned around again, looking at the approaching asteroid belt, who had seen battles in twenty worlds and three sectors, participated in the Space Jump Gang operation, and trekked in the trenches.
However, his least favorite form of war was to fight where there was no sight of the enemy.
Two hours later, Captain Felice Monk understood that this was exactly the battle he was going to participate in.
"Try the communicator again!"
He shouted to a group of communication operators.
"You can contact anyone, anyone."
Then he turned his face to the guard with a nervous face.
"Are you telling me that none of the messengers came back? None of them?"
"No... Captain, there is no one. Now we have completely lost half of the contact in the cabin. There is silence and everyone says it is haunted."
"Damn it! Send someone to get your weapons, go to the nearest cabin, and see what's going on there! Then come here to report! I don't believe that someone can jump silently to help us! This is impossible!"
The guards walked towards the door of the cabin in pairs and disappeared into the darkness.
Turning his head, Captain Filiche Monk saw his occupant squatting in a corner, his hood draped over his head—a lunatic who had brought him good luck for years, but now did nothing to warn him of what the coming threat was.
He climbed onto the pile of silences and kicked it.
The pile of things made a harsh sound, shaking, and their eyes appeared, blue and shocked.
"You, go out and see what's going on."
"Me? My sir?"
The astrologer shook his head.
“I-I’m not suitable for doing this.”
Philipchi Monk bent down at him.
"You need to make up for your failures, or I promise you will never have the chance to know your future."
"Yes-yes, my sir."
The astrologer stood up staggeringly, walked towards the door of the cabin, where he suddenly stopped.
The sky blue eyes turned to his master.
"Dark is surrounding, my captain, fate-"
“It’s very helpful, go out and do what I told you.”
The astrologer's face turned pale.
"I, I cannot follow the footsteps of fate, my master."
"You don't need it."
The astrologer mumbled and drooled, and walked out of the hatch.
The captain signaled a small team leader to come.
"Take five people with him, I suspect it's some sub-space stuff, a psychic is a very good bait, see what he attracts, and then kill it."
“Yes, sir.”
The captain gathered his men, took shotguns, grenades and knives, and left the door within a minute.
Since there was no reply on the communication channel, the captain decided to go outside the cabin in person. He always liked to observe the battlefield with his own eyes - now he no longer doubted that it was a war.
Just ten minutes ago, the first cabin lost contact, and soon the second one.
But he received no attack reports, nor any intrusion reports, which was like the nonsense the crew said - haunted.