Chapter 17 Chapter Ten War End

For reasons or reasons now unknown, the basic unit of Galactic Standard Time, the "second", was defined as the time it takes light to travel 299,792.458 kilometers time.Based on this, we set 86,400 seconds as a galactic standard day, and 365 standard days as a galactic standard year. But why choose 299,792.458?Eighty-six thousand four hundred?Three hundred sixty-five? Reciprocal historians say it is because of tradition; mystics, metaphysicians, numerologists, and metaphysicians agree that it is due to some complicated and mysterious relationship between numbers; It is firmly believed that since the rotation and revolution periods of the planet where human beings were born are the earliest timing units, the above values ​​must be derived from these two periods.

However, no one knows the real answer. Leaving aside the real answer, let's say that the base's cruiser "Hub Marlowe" encountered the detachment led by Kalgan's "Dreadnought", and was bombarded into a mess because it refused the latter's search party to board the ship. Group powder.The date of this event is 12444, 185th, 12444 in the Galactic Era - counting from the year when the founding emperor of the Galactic Empire from the "Camber Dynasty" ascended the throne, twelve thousand four hundred and forty-four The one hundred and eighty-fifth day after the year.And this day can also be recorded as 185, 457, Seldon Era - based on the year of Seldon's birth; or 185, 376 A.D. - based on the foundation of the base.In Kalgan, it was 185, 46, A.D. of the First Citizen—the year in which the Mule proclaimed himself First Citizen.Of course, no matter what kind of era it is, for the sake of convenience, the same "number of days" will be used instead of counting from the date when the benchmark event occurs.

In addition, each of the tens of millions of worlds in the Milky Way has its own "local time" based on the movement of nearby celestial bodies. However, no matter which chronological system is adopted—Galaxy Era 12444 185, Seldon Era 457 A.D. 185, Foundation Era 376 A.D. 185, the first On the 185th of the 46th year of the Civilian Era, or any other epoch—when historians of later generations discussed the "Steeling War", they all agreed that this day was the day when the war broke out. But to Dr. Darrell, those numbers mean nothing.He only clearly remembered that today was the thirty-second day since Arcadia left Terminus.

These days, not everyone can understand the reason why Darryl can keep calm and not act rashly. But Everett Cemik thought he could guess.He was an elderly man who used to laugh at himself, saying that his nerve endings were calcified and his brain was so rigid that it didn't work.He doesn't mind others underestimating his abilities, and even always takes the initiative to mock himself for being old.In fact, however, his eyesight was as usual, with little decline; his mind was still shrewd and sophisticated, and there was no sign of dullness. Now, he pursed his pursed lips, and said, "Why don't you take action?"

These words poured into Darryl's ears like a bolt from the blue.He trembled and asked roughly, "Where did we go?" Cermick stared at him with serious eyes and said, "You'd better help your daughter think of a way." He opened his mouth again, revealing two rows of sparse yellow teeth. But Darryl said in a calm tone: "The question now is whether you can get a 'Semis-Morph resonator' whose effective range meets the requirements." "Well, I said I could do it, but you never heard..." "I'm sorry, Evitt. The current situation is like this-what we are doing now has a personal relationship with everyone in the galaxy, and its importance far exceeds Arcadia's safety. Even if If there are exceptions, it’s just Arcadia and me, and I’m willing to think for the vast majority of people—how big is that resonator?”

Cermick showed a blank expression: "I don't know, but you can look it up in the directory." "How big is it, a ton? A pound? Or the length of a whole street?" "Oh, I thought you were asking about exact measurements. It's a little thing, it's about this big." He compared the knuckle above his thumb. "Well, can you build a device like this?" He spread out the flipbook on his lap, drew a quick sketch on it, and handed it to the old physicist. Cermick showed a puzzled expression, then giggled.He said: "You know, at my age, the brain cells are all calcified. What are you trying to do?"

Daryl hesitated for a moment.At this time, he really wished that he could keep the physics knowledge locked in the other person's brain for himself, so that he didn't have to bother explaining his own ideas.But this kind of fantasy is useless at all, he has to open his mouth to explain to the other party. After listening to Cermick, he shook his head and said, "You need to use many superwave repeaters. Only this kind of device can respond fast enough, and you need a lot of them." "But such a device can indeed be built?" "Well, of course." "Can you get me all the parts? I mean, without letting anyone talk? Just say you need it for your research work."

Cermick raised his upper lip and replied, "It's impossible to apply for fifty superwave repeaters at one time. I won't use that many in my life." "Don't forget, we're running a defense program today. But can you think of a less sensitive excuse? We've got plenty of money." "Well—maybe I can think of that." "How small can you make the whole thing?" "Hyperrepeaters can use tiny... wires... chips, and... God, hundreds of circuits." "I know, tell me how old it is?" Cermick compared with both hands. "It's too big," Darryl said, "I need to hang it on my waist." Then, he slowly crumpled the sketch and waited until the whole paper became a hard ball before putting it on the paper. Throw it into the soot disposer.The paper ball immediately turned into an incandescent flame, and all the molecules were decomposed in an instant.

He suddenly asked, "Who is at the door?" Cermick leaned over the desk, glanced at the small milky white screen above the door signal, and said, "That young man, Ansor, has someone else with him." Darryl dragged the chair aside vigorously, and said, "Semik, don't mention this to anyone for the time being. If 'they' find out, anyone who knows the inside story will be in danger. We bet our two lives It's enough to go in." In Semik's office, Peiris Ansuo is now the focus of all activities, and his youthful vigor even infected the owner of the office.Ansuo was wearing a loose summer robe, and in this quiet and leisurely room, his sleeves still seemed to be dancing with the breeze outside.

As soon as he came in, he was busy introducing: "Dr. Darrell, Dr. Cermick—Orum Dirigi." The man who came with him was tall, with a straight long nose, matching his thin face, giving people the impression of a traditional devil image.After seeing An Index, Dr. Daryl quickly reached out to him. With another smirk, Ansel went on to introduce the stranger: "Dirige is a police officer," adding meaningfully, "A police officer in Kalgan." Hearing this, Darryl immediately turned and stared at Ansuo. "Officer Kalgan—" he repeated emphatically, and then asked, "and you brought him here, why?"

"Because he was the last one to see Ling Mei in Kalgan—don't be impulsive, man." Ansuo's complacent expression suddenly turned serious. He stood between the two of them, using all his strength to stop Darryl, and then slowly pushed him back onto the chair. "What do you want?" Ansuo brushed back a strand of brown hair that fell to his forehead, and sat down on the desk.While shaking one leg, he said in an inscrutable tone, "I thought what I brought you was good news." Darryl ignored him, and asked the police officer directly, "He said you were the last person to see my daughter. What did he mean? Is my daughter dead? Please tell me directly. "He was so anxious that his face was ashen. Constable Di Riji replied blankly: "What he just said was: I was the last person to see your daughter 'in Kalgen'. Your daughter is no longer in Kalgen and that's all I know .” "Listen," Yasuo interjected, "let me get straight to the point. Doc, I apologize if I exaggerated my performance just now. You've been acting inhumanely about this. I forgot that you still have feelings. First of all, I want to emphasize that Officer Di Ruiji is actually one of us. Although he was born in Kalgen, his father is a baseman. He was drafted to serve in Kalgen by mule. His loyalty to the base. "When Meng En's daily routine report was suspended for no reason, I contacted Di Ruiji the next day..." "Why?" Darryl suddenly interrupted the other party's words sharply, "Didn't we already agree that we should not take any action on this change? If you do so, you will put them and us in danger." Not to be outdone, Ansuo also replied sharply: "Because I have played this game longer than you; because I know a few people of my own in Kalgen, but you don't; because all my actions are based on Deeper intelligence. Can you understand?" "I think you've gone completely mad." "Will you listen to me?" After a pause, Darryl's eyelids drooped. Yasuo pursed his lips and made a half-smile before saying, "Okay, Doctor, give me a few minutes—tell them, Dirige." So Di Raji began to rattle off: "As far as I know, Dr. Darryl, your wife is in Trantor right now. At least when she showed up at Eastern Suburban Space Station, she was holding a ticket to Trantor. ...she was with a trade representative from Trantor who claimed to be her uncle. Ling Ai seems to be particularly fond of gathering relatives, doctor, and she's had two more uncles in a few weeks, hasn't she? The Trantorian He even tried to bribe me—maybe until now, he thought that was the real reason they were able to escape." Thinking of this, he sneered. "how is she?" "I don't see her being hurt in any way, just terrified, which of course was inevitable. All the police in Kalgon turned out and I still don't understand why." Darryl seemed to have been suffocating for several minutes before he finally caught his breath.He felt his hands trembling constantly, and it took a lot of effort to control it. "That said, she's really fine. That trade representative, who is he? Let's go back to him, what role did he play in this incident?" "I really don't know. Do you know anything about Trantor?" "I used to live there." "Now there is an agricultural world, mainly exporting livestock feed and grain, which are all high-quality goods, and exported to the entire galaxy. On that planet, there are more than ten or twenty agricultural cooperatives, each of which has its own trade Representative, they're all sharp and shrewd fellows—I checked the records of the man, he's been to Kalgan a few times before, usually with his wife. One hundred per cent honest, one hundred per cent nice sir. " "Well—" Yasuo said, "Argadia was born on Trantor, wasn't it, Doctor?" Darryl nodded silently. "You know, it all falls into place this way. She wants to get away from Kalgan—as far and as fast as possible—and Trantor is a good choice. Don't you think so?" Daryl said, "Why doesn't she come back here?" "Maybe she was being hunted by someone, so she deliberately wanted to lure the enemy away, don't you think so?" Dr. Darryl was in no mood to continue asking.Well, he thought, let her be safe in Trantor, anywhere in this dark, terrifying galaxy, as long as she was safe.He staggered toward the door, but felt Ansuo lightly grabbing his sleeve.So he stopped, but didn't turn his head. "May I come home with you, Doctor?" "Of course." He replied casually. By evening, the outermost layers of Dr. Darryl's personality—the layer that comes into direct contact with other people—frozen again, and his stubborn temper surfaced.He didn't eat dinner at all, and returned to the complex mathematics of EEG analysis with a frenzy of enthusiasm, hoping to make one more sliver of progress. He did not return to the living room until near midnight. Percy Ansel was still there, fiddled with the hypervision's remote.Hearing footsteps behind him, he immediately turned his head to take a look. "Hey, you haven't slept yet? I spent several hours standing in front of the Supervision, but there were no other programs except news reports. The schedule of the base starship 'Hopper Marlow' seems to be delayed , and have lost contact." "Really? What do the authorities think is possible?" "What do you think? Is it Kargan's fault? According to reports, at the place where the 'Hopper Marlow' last sent a message, traces of Kargan's ship were found in the nearby space." Daryl just shrugged.An Suo stroked his forehead, showing a puzzled expression. "I ask you, Doctor," Ansor said, "why didn't you go to Trantor?" "Why should I go?" "Because you're of no help to us by staying here, and you're left alone...of course it's no wonder. If you go to Trantor, at least one job can be done. In that former Imperial Library, there are The full minutes of the Seldon Conference..." "No! That library has been searched, but nothing useful has been found." "But Ebling Meath has found something." "And how do you know? Yes, he claimed to have found Second Foundation, and five seconds later my mother killed him. Because that's the only way to prevent him from accidentally revealing the secret to the Mule. But She does this, you know, but it is no longer possible to be sure that Mies really knows the answer. Besides, no one can deduce the truth from those records." "Do you remember? Back then, Ablin Meath was working under the mule's mind." "I also know this, but because of this, Mies's mental state is not normal. Once the mind is controlled by others, what changes will happen to the mind, what special abilities will it produce, and what defects will it have? For these Question, do you and I have any idea? Anyway, I will never go to Trantor anyway." Ansel frowned and said, "Well, why get so excited? I was just suggesting... well, man, I really don't understand you. You look like you've suddenly aged ten years, and these days, you obviously It's hard. You can't do anything useful here. If I were you, I'd start right away and bring the girl home." "Exactly! That's exactly what I want to do, and that's why I don't want to. Listen, Yasuo, listen to me, you're—we're dealing with a Enemy of God. No matter how many wild fantasies you may have in your mind, you will admit that it is a fact if you calm down and think about it. "As early as fifty years ago, we knew that the Second Foundation was the true successor of Seldon's mathematics. You must understand the meaning of this sentence, that is to say, nothing that happened in the galaxy Not in their calculation. For us, life is a series of accidents, at any time and place to adapt to the situation. But for them, every event in life has a purpose, and everything must be gradually according to the established plan. implement. "But they also have their weaknesses. Their work is statistical, and only the actions of human groups have real inevitability. What role I personally play in their foreseeable history, I really have no way of knowing. Perhaps I don't have a fixed position at all, since Seldon doesn't consider any individual, so the individual can still have free will, so individual actions are indeterminate. But then again, my position is extremely important, and they - They, you know who I'm talking about - maybe at least tried to calculate my possible reactions. For this reason, I simply don't trust my instincts, impulses, desires, and all possible reactions. "I deliberately made the most impossible decisions, so I decided to stay here, even though I really wanted to go. I'm not going! Just because I really wanted to go." The young man showed a wry smile, and he said: "They probably know your mind better than you do. If they really know you well, they may deliberately ask you to show self-confidence - self-confidence is extremely impossible reactions, because they can predict your reasoning and thinking patterns." "If that's the case, then I'm at the end of my rope. Because if I decide to go to Trantor, as you have just deduced, they may have foreseen this step. It constitutes an endless pro, con, pro. , negative, positive, negative, positive, and negative propositions, no matter how deep I go into this cycle, the result is only two choices: go or stay. They devised such a complicated scheme to lure my daughter all the way to the center of the galaxy, It couldn't have been to keep me where I was. Because, if they hadn't done anything, I was almost sure I'd still be going nowhere. They must have wanted me to go to Trantor, so I just to stay. "Besides, Yasuo, the Second Foundation may not be able to control everything in the universe, and not every event is a puppet show directed by them. Argadia's trip to Trantor may have nothing to do with them, maybe When the rest of us were dead, she was still doing fine on Trantor." "No," Ansuo yelled suddenly, "you're going too far now." "Have you any other explanation?" "I have—if you will listen to me." "Oh, go ahead, I have the patience to listen." "Okay, so I ask you—how well do you know your daughter?" "How much can a person know about another person? My understanding of her is of course limited." "As you put it, I don't know her either, maybe not as well as you do—but at least I see her with an unprejudiced eye. First, she is a hopeless romantic. , is the only daughter of your pedantic ivory tower, who grew up in the adventure world of hypervision and film books, and lived in the espionage conspiracy fantasies of her own making; secondly, she is very smart, at least she has the ability to surpass Us. She planned to eavesdrop on our first secret business, and it succeeded; she planned to go to Kalgen with Meng En, and it succeeded; There is hero worship beyond compare, since Ling Tang once defeated a mule. "So far, I've been absolutely right, I suppose? Well, then, then again, unlike you, I've had a full report from Officer Di Ridge. Also, in Kalgan I have quite good sources of information about the events that have taken place, and all of them corroborate each other. We know, for example, that when Hommier Monn first asked to see Lord Kalgan, that Lord refused him at all to enter the mule. But when Arcadia had a conversation with Lady Carrie, the closest friend of the First Citizen, the First Citizen suddenly changed his mind." Darryl interjected, "And how do you know that?" "Because Di Ruiji once questioned Meng En, this is a routine procedure for the police to find Arkatia. Naturally, I have a complete transcript of the interview. "Let's talk about Lady Jiali again. There are rumors that she has fallen out of favor, but the facts are all there, and the rumors are self-defeating-not only has her status not been shaken, she can also persuade the commander to accept Meng En's request, and even more There is a way to publicly instigate Arkadia's escape. More than a dozen guards in Stilesne's mansion have unanimously testified that they saw the two of them together that night. Although on the surface, the entire Kalgan is trying to find Arkadia's whereabouts, But Carrie was not punished in any way." "You've talked on and on about so many irrelevant things, what's the conclusion?" "The conclusion is that Arkadia's escape was actually arranged long ago." "It's the same as I said." "However, I have one thing to add—Argadia must have known that this was pre-arranged. This clever little girl can see through any conspiracy, and this time is no exception, and her reasoning method must be the same as Naifu's." .She figured they wanted her back on base, so she went to Trantor on purpose. Now the question is, why did she choose Trantor?" "Yeah, why?" "Because Beda - her grandmother and idol - ended up there when she fled the war, and Arcadia imitated it, consciously or not. So I wondered if she was also Flee from the same enemies." "A mule?" Darryl said sarcastically. "Of course not. What I mean is that the same type of enemy also has a spiritual power that she can't compete with. She is escaping the second base, or the second base's influence in Kalgan." "What do you mean by power?" "Their threats are everywhere. Do you think there is any way for Kargan to be immune? We can say that we have reached the same conclusion-Argadia's escape was planned, right? She was hunted, and she did He was found, but Di Ruiji let him go on purpose at the last moment—you let Di Ruiji let go, do you understand? But why? Because he is one of us? But how did they know? This? Of course they can't account for his dual status, eh, doctor?" "And now you're saying they really want to get her back. Honestly, you're getting on my nerves, Ansel. Get over it, I'm going to bed." "I'll finish my sentence right away," Ansuo took out a few photos from the inner pocket of his clothes, all of them were EEG records, and Darryl was all too familiar with these trembling ripples.Then Ansuo said nonchalantly, "Di Ruiji's brainwaves were done after he came here." Daryl didn't need any instruments at all, he could see clearly with his naked eyes.He raised his head, his face turned gray: "He's under control." "Exactly, the reason why he let go of Argatia is not because he is from us, but because he is from the second base." "When he knew she was going to Trantor, not back to the Terminus, he let her go anyway?" Ansuo shrugged: "The control he was under was to let her go, which he couldn't change at all. You know, he was just a tool. However, Arcadia chose the most unlikely destination , so she may be safe now. Or at least she will be safe until Second Base changes its plans and regains control of this new situation..." He stopped abruptly when he said this, because a small signal light on the hypervision suddenly flashed.This signal light belongs to a separate circuit and represents urgent news flashes. As soon as Darryl saw it, he turned on the hypervision receiver without thinking.At this time, half of the express report had been reported, but before the report was over, they already knew the main content. The Hob Marlow—or should I say its wreckage—was found in space, and the base was at war with Kalgan, its first battle in nearly half a century. Ansuo showed a solemn look: "Okay, doctor, you have heard. Kargen has started to attack, and Kargen is under the control of the second base. Are you going to follow in Lingmei's footsteps and set off for Sichuan? To go?" "No, I want to take a gamble, I want to stay here." "Dr. Darryl, you are not as smart as your daughter. I doubt how much you can be trusted." He stared at Darryl for a long time, and then left without saying a word. After a while, Daryl also left the living room.His mood was blank—and almost hopeless. In the living room, there is only a hypervision without an audience, and the image and sound are constantly changing.The content is nothing more than a detailed description of the various tense battles in the first hour after the war between the base and Kargan.