Chapter 7 Chapter Six

The surprise attack was carried out cleanly, and it can be called a classic of special warfare. Under the cover of night, it took less than a minute for a hundred well-trained marines to descend through the crater of Mount New Olympus to the center of the Quinn village.Under the double attack of a large number of tear gas and flash grenades, those unsuspecting and dazed Quinns were disarmed by the Marines who fell from the sky and put on plastic handcuffs before they even figured out what happened. Then drove them to the square in the village like cattle.During the entire operation, a total of four Quinns were killed and more than a dozen people were injured. The only casualty on Ronan's side was a Marine who accidentally sprained his ankle during the rope descent.

"Aha, it's really time for you to come." When Han Bi, Ralph Trent and Buck rushed to the square, Ronan showed a smile mixed with mockery and complacency, "It seems that your It's really a relief that your Quinn friend didn't hurt you and Professor Trent, Dr. Han." "Damn it!" Han Bi couldn't help exclaiming when she saw what the marines behind Ronan were doing—on the surface of tens of thousands of memory crystal arrays neatly arranged like a hive in the "Sanctuary" It has been covered with a layer of clay-like yellow-brown plastic explosives, and several marines are busy inserting cylindrical fuzes for detonation into this layer of plastic explosives, "What are you doing? You are you crazy?"

"Crazy? Of course I'm not crazy. I know exactly what I'm doing." Ronan stood in front of the low wall surrounding the inviolable "sanctuary", looking down at those who were wearing plastic handcuffs and were arrested. The Quinmen escorted by the marines to the square looked like the King of Assyria who was inspecting the prisoners of war. "They, these so-called 'saints' are the real lunatics—spending their lives guarding a pile of worthless garbage, and even killing innocent people for it, what is this not madness? As a civilized person, I have the right and the duty to end this madness and let—”

"You're right, Lieutenant Colonel," said Ralph Trent. "You're right. Buck just provided me with some reliable information. Said, out of fear of the dangers lurking in it. So I beg you not to destroy anything stored in the 'Sanctuary'. Doing so is quite dangerous, and it is likely to release those Quinns who have been trying to avoid... " "I'm afraid I don't think so, Professor Trent." Ronan shook his head lightly, "We all know that these so-called memory crystal arrays are just information storage devices of the ancient Quinn people, not sealed by Solomon Magic bottles, they are no different from the tapes and discs we use. And as far as I know, if I tear a tape, or step on an old hard drive, there will be no ghosts and ghosts in it. of. Right?"

"Yeah, oh no, you don't know..." Trent's voice faltered with panic, "it's not like you think... there are some devices here, some... other devices. It's Some kind of... fail-safe system or something like that. You can't..." "It's illegal for you to do this! Lieutenant Colonel!" Han Bi said sharply, "The "Law on the Protection of the Indigenous Intellectual Race in the Colonies" clearly stipulates that without the approval of the Colonial Department, anyone who destroys the religious holy places and worship of the indigenous people things or—”

"I know those rules as well as you, doctor, but it's always easier to ask for forgiveness afterwards than to get consent and approval in advance." Ronan shrugged, "Trust me, my approach is the best for everyone of." "Now, detonate!" In an instant, it seemed as if someone had ignited ten thousand supernovae at the same time in this cave, and the intense but cold light flooded everyone here in an instant, depriving them of their vision, and turning the world in their eyes into A mass of grotesque, distorted and coiled mottled colors. Han Bi heard countless voices—some of them were the screams of panicked marines, but more were the desperate cries of the Quinns.She felt some sharp objects flying around at a very high speed, and some of them scratched her cheek.She was in pain, and something hot ran down her cheeks and down her neck.

When Han Bi's eyes finally stopped weeping because of the stinging pain, she found that the memory crystal arrays that were once neatly arranged in the "sanctuary" had turned into blue fragments all over the ground, like birds or reptiles The broken shell left behind after the eggs are hatched.Most of the marines were still squatting together in groups of three or four, rubbing their tearful eyes vigorously, while the Quinns who were escorted to the square and forced to watch this scene-including Buck and his Including the apprentices—they all fell on the basalt floor of the square, curled up like a baby in a mother's womb, only the slight rise and fall of their chests showed that they were still alive.

"What...what's going on?" Ronan wiped his tears with his sleeves, and looked at everything that happened around him in disbelief, "These...these...what happened to them?" "You just killed them." Ralph Trent said with a dead face, "or rather, you killed them." "I... what?" "It's all clear now." Trent shook his head and muttered to himself, "These so-called 'sanctuaries' were created by the ancient Quines in order to save their civilization from the so-called 'Pulse'. The last insurance set-they accurately predicted the time of the latest "pulse" and separated from the brain before that, or at least copied their own consciousness, and stored them in these special memory crystals. In the crystal array. When the "pulse" is over, the computer system in charge of controlling the "sanctuary" will automatically release these stored consciousnesses from the crystal array, and re-implant them in a way that we still cannot understand In the brains of the Quinns."

"But," Han Bi asked, "since the consciousness stored in the crystal array has not been... er... released, why do the Quinn still have wisdom?" "That's the same reason we have wisdom," Trent replied.At this time, several Quinns had already started to tremble slightly, and the yellow pupils behind the transparent nictitating membranes rapidly and repeatedly zoomed in and out. Consciousness and intelligence were regained due to an accidental quantum event - just like the early Homo sapiens on Earth 80,000 years ago, and this event also prevented the control system of the "sanctuary" from releasing the stored state Consciousness - I think that the ancient Quines probably did not fully agree with the theory of 'pulsation' and the theory of the nature of the quantum superposition state of consciousness, so they also gave it some detection means when designing the control system of 'Sanctuary': If the Quinns really lose their intelligence in the 'pulse', then it will operate as usual, otherwise it will continue to be in a standby state."

"'Pulse'?" Ronan was still confused.Now, more Quinns have moved, and it looks like they will wake up at any moment. "What the hell are you talking about? I don't understand—" Trent ignored him, "According to the records in the set of memory crystal arrays, the control system of the 'Sanctuary' also has a set of damage management mechanisms. If it is severely damaged by external forces, it will automatically implement consciousness reimplantation Action. Later, by chance, the Quinn who re-evolved civilization found the memory crystal array and information readout device that Buck gave me, and figured out how to use it..."

"That's why Quinn strictly protects every 'sanctuary'!" Han Bi suddenly realized and nodded, "The reason why they don't hesitate to kill people in order to protect the 'sanctuary' is because they are worried that the 'sanctuary' will be damaged. will release its stored consciousness, or 'soul' as they call it - they know that once the 'spirits' of their ancestors occupy their brains, they are dead." "Not exactly," said a hoarse voice.Buck was on his feet again—although he was the same gray-haired Buck with the plastic-bag loincloth around his waist and platform heels, even Ronan could notice that something had changed in him. , and the change made him shudder. Several marines standing beside Ronan obviously also felt fear, and instinctively raised their electromagnetic assault rifles, but only a moment later, they all dropped their weapons in panic and painful screams— —The art-delicate titanium casings of these killing tools went from gleaming silver to fiery red to molten gold in mere seconds.Finally, as Burke raised a gray scaled finger, all the assault rifles let out a toothsome "hiss" sound, and their outlines began to melt and disappear, and finally transformed into She lost pure energy and disappeared like salt in water into the warm air inside the New Olympus mountainside. Then, suddenly, the interior of the mountainside dimmed, and the light stopped pouring out of nowhere—at least in most places.The light source is now concentrated in the small square in the center of the village, and it seems to be getting brighter and warmer.Under the shroud of dazzling brilliance, more and more Quinn people are waking up from their coma, like a group of reborn gods. No, they were originally gods.Han Bi subconsciously took a few steps back.Yes, to the ignorant, all technology so advanced that it cannot be understood is magic.And the one who performs magic is naturally a god. "I was released." Buck—or, the "soul" that returned after sleeping for 80,000 years—continues to speak in standard English.It was purely declarative, no gratitude, resentment, excitement, or any other emotion could be heard," but instead of what I expected, I am now overlapping with another consciousness. I—he—we...we can now be seen For a unified and complete consciousness. There were unexpected errors in the original plan, but the conclusion is still correct." He finished the sentence without emotion and routine, and then closed his eyelids and nictitating membrane, as if Thinking about some incomprehensible esoteric philosophical question, "We now have one final link to complete." "The last link?" Ronan asked, "What does that mean?" Buck's thin lips twitched, as if trying to reveal a sarcastic smile.Then, he disappeared. In fact, it is not appropriate to use the word "disappearance" to describe the scene that happened just now. A more appropriate term should be "evaporation" or "sublimation"-the substances that make up his body collapsed and decomposed quickly amidst a hoarse hissing sound, and blinked. Time vanishes into nothingness.Then, a second, a third... More and more Quinn stood up, smiled at them, and one by one they disappeared like ashes in the wind, as if they had never existed. "Where did he go? Where did they go?" Ronan shook Han Bi's shoulders vigorously, as if to remove her arm from the shoulder joint. "What are they going to do? You are studying the Quinn people." Expert, you must know—” "I'm studying the social psychology of the modern Quine people, not the psychology of the ancient Quine people." Han Bi shook his head, "The modern Quinn civilization and the ancient Quine civilization are two completely independent civilizations that have nothing to do with each other." .I cannot deduce the latter from any understanding of the former." "Perhaps I know," interposed Ralph Trent hastily, "that, if I'm right, the so-called 'last link' is probably—" "No!" Ronan's scream cut Trent off.As if suffering from some terrible infectious disease, he found that his body began to collapse from the bottom up just like those Quinns who were "evaporating"! First the feet disappear, then the legs, pelvis and lower back.The blood ejected from the section of the blood vessel turned into a pale mist in an instant, and muscle protein, calcium carbonate, and keratin protein screamed like solid metal sodium falling into the water and disappeared into nothingness.Ronan couldn't even feel pain—before the bioelectric signal representing pain was transmitted to the brain, the free electrons that made up the signal had already disintegrated together with the nerve tissue that carried them. "Yes, yes!" murmured Ralph Trent excitedly, as the painless destruction reached his waist, "that's it! I should have known—" He couldn't finish the sentence, because his lungs and windpipe had disintegrated into countless subatomic particles before then.Darkness descended from all directions like a velvet curtain, enveloping what remained of his consciousness into an abyss of peace and tranquility.