After being "disinfected" by "Leviathan" and the garrison fleet leaving with the password, its final destination is a giant space station located in Zion's earth-moon orbit.
The shape of this space station is quite peculiar. It is gray-white in color, with a perfect circular structure as the base, and five long "rotors" stretching out around it. At this time, these five "rotors" are approaching each other, showing a kind of closing.
posture, and there are dense streams of light flashing on the inside of these rotors.
"That's the Citadel," Morpheus finally stopped staring at the star map. Instead, he stood side by side with Anderson and looked at the huge artificial celestial body outside the porthole: "The heart and capital of Zion, and the final battleground against the Matrix.
fortress."
"Hmm, it looks a bit like...a tulip?" Anderson commented as he looked at the posture of the castle.
"As expected of the savior, it's already great if people who see it for the first time can say 'like a flower'." Link, who was also unemployed, joked from the sidelines.
"What's that not 'nice' enough?" Anderson looked at the appearance of the castle again, and couldn't think of an adjective other than flowers.
"Chicken feet, eaten bananas, corn cobs, etc." Link shrugged.
"..." Anderson was speechless for a moment. The guy who made these comments must be deliberately targeted by the residents of the Citadel.
"To be precise, those structures are called the 'ring area' and the 'guard area' respectively," Trinity, who also had no responsibilities, explained: "The ring area is mainly an office area with a diameter of 7.1 kilometers, and the guard area is mainly for residential areas.
area, with a length of 43.6 kilometers, and the population of the entire Citadel was 13.2 million at the latest count."
"Seven billion to ten million..." Anderson recalled the numbers he heard before: "So those who live in the Citadel are all elites?"
"It's close, but not exact," Morpheus turned around: "The Citadel has many workers who want to develop further, and the various retro cities on the surface of Zion also need elites and leaders to manage."
This definition of population is really simple and crude, but...
"Retro city? Could it be that -" Anderson shifted his gaze from the castle to the blue planet that had occupied most of the sky outside the porthole.
"It's what you think," Morpheus nodded: "Not all the 'awakened ones' rescued from the matrix can accept the facts, or in other words, most of them can't. Therefore, the original Citadel Council decided to
Build a city that is exactly the same as the one in the matrix to house those who cannot accept the reality and let them live as usual, and define this group as 'laborers'. Those who can accept the reality and have certain abilities are the 'elite', and if you want to become
'Leader' depends on an individual's combat effectiveness, leadership, charisma and determination to make sacrifices for humanity."
Until the end of his speech, Morpheus kept looking at Anderson with trusting eyes, as if he was planning to let him express his opinion, which made Anderson feel a lot of pressure.
"Well, Morpheus, you are indeed an excellent leader." He decisively changed the subject.
"There are many captains and commanders like me," Morpheus did not insist, looking back at the approaching castle: "Get ready to land."
————
The castle's docking docks are located on the periphery of the ring area. There are 42 docks in total, large and small. With the superb control skills of the mouse, the Normandy accurately stopped at the dock No. 37 for small and ultra-small ships.
Since the ship had been sterilized once by Leviathan, the crew left the Normandy under the leadership of Morpheus only after simple scanning and pressure adjustment.
The other crew members were accustomed to the huge machinery, the flying spaceships, and the different styles of clothing worn by pedestrians. As for Anderson, even though he was fully mentally prepared, he still showed a dull look from time to time.
After all, the gap between 1999 and 2199 is too big. If strange aliens appear in his sight again, he may not be able to keep the expression on his face at all.
Fortunately, Trinity was by his side and explained some common sense from time to time, so that the dignified savior didn't behave like a bumpkin.
"Look who is back? Our heroic Captain Morpheus! Hahaha, long time no see~"
Not far from the dock, an old man with snow-white hair, deep wrinkles on his face, and a brown uniform similar to a robe came over, laughing and hugging Morpheus.
"Speaker Hackett, why are you here?" Morpheus's response made Anderson understand that this old man is the most powerful person in Zion currently, but his easy-going and unassuming behavior still surprised Anderson.
.
"Speaker Hackett is Captain Morpheus's old superior, and they have a very close relationship." Trinity explained quietly beside him.
"I can't help it. Those congressmen's bills were vetoed by me again. If I continue to stay there, it's annoying. I might as well come and pick you up." The old man's eyes turned to Anderson: "This is Neo, right? The young man looks quite energetic.
He should be able to shoulder the responsibility of the savior."
Is being a savior some kind of weird job?
"Hello, Speaker." Anderson muttered quietly and saluted Hackett.
"Haha, okay, Morpheus, let your soldiers disperse and rest. You and Neo come and have a drink with me, the old man." The Speaker looked at Trinity again: "The girl can come too."
"this……"
"I'm afraid that won't work, Mr. Speaker."
Morpheus was about to say something, but was interrupted by a cold man's voice.
When Anderson turned around to look, he found that it was a tall, burly young man wearing armor with black background and red edges, holding the same helmet in his hand, with black hair and blue eyes, a solemn expression, and a slightly slender face.
Behind him were a dozen heavily armed soldiers.
"Commander Shepard." Morpheus looked at him and only said hello without saying anything else.
"Lock Shepard, the commander of the Citadel Defense Force, is a person who strictly follows the rules and is basically impossible to be accommodating." Trinity quietly introduced.
"According to the provisions of the Citadel Convention, if there is a betrayer on any ship in the investigation fleet, all personnel on the ship must undergo a psychological evaluation for three to six months. During this period, they are not allowed to leave the Citadel or connect to any social networks," that person
The man turned to Anderson: "The same is true for the awakened person rescued from the matrix. This will not change because he has any special title."
Tsk... Sure enough, the difference between the words and deeds of the two groups who believe in the Savior and those who do not believe in the Savior is so obvious.
"Shepard—"
"Sorry, Speaker, I am not a member of the House of Representatives, and this is not a bill that you can veto."
Hackett was interrupted by Shepard mid-sentence, so he stared and looked angry.
"It doesn't matter, the Normandy has no sailing plan within half a year," Morpheus said proactively: "However, since it is just a psychological evaluation, basic personal freedom will still be guaranteed, right?"
"Unless serious problems arise in the early stages of the assessment, your mandatory quarantine observation will be limited to one week." Shepard took two steps back and motioned to the defense soldiers behind him to step forward.
Seeing that Morpheus didn't say much, Anderson didn't intend to stir up trouble. After making a worried gesture to Trinity, he took the initiative to leave with the guards, taking this time to catch up on some common sense.
