Chapter 19 Chapter Eighteen

It was six hours ago that Carly and his party escaped from the warehouse on the Omega space station. Rhyme linked to the commnet, scanned the latest news, and finally found the current location of the Quary fleet.The Wandering Fleet is traveling through a Volerian-controlled star system on the edge of the distant Citadel world.According to news reports, several Waller diplomats are petitioning the council to do everything within its purview to get the quarians out as soon as possible. Carly doubts their political petition will have any noticeable effect.The council is still struggling to deal with Saren and his geth army.Their main focus is also on extinguishing the flames of geth rebellion that are burning sporadically across the galaxy; an extraordinary coalition led by humans and the Alliance is pursuing this goal.After fighting the geth army back into the Perseus Nebula, she figured the next thing she would be busy with was rebuilding the council world, with all the political fallout that would come with it.No one in the council is willing to provoke the wandering fleet now.

Carly knew that even for a long time before human beings stepped into the interstellar space, the various races in the galaxy did not regard the various activities of the wandering fleet as just when they were about to pass through their star system. A little inconvenience or nuisance... The most effective way is to take some idle resources such as scrap battleships, raw materials and spare parts to send the Wandering Fleet Command. The quarians are usually content with such gifts, too, knowing that they'll leave right away, and then it's no one else's headache. Kali hates drawing final conclusions, but can't help but think of quarians as interstellar beggars.

In less than forty hours' time, she thought, we might join their fleet.She shook her head in disbelief as she recalled the string of events that had occurred over the past few days. Rhyme had already programmed the forward course into the autopilot.Their spaceship leaped into the FTL state, and Rhyme went back to the rest cabin behind the spaceship to sleep.Callie still has plenty of questions for Rhyme—like how he knows who she is—but given what Rhyme has done for them, Callie can wait a little longer.She would give him a few hours to rest from the pain before asking him these questions.

And, now that Gillian was awake, she was anxious to check. The first thing Gillian said after waking up was: "I'm hungry." Handel took out two set meals from the spaceship cabin and prepared them, and gave them to Gillian, easily solving this problem. The spacecraft flies according to the pre-programmed route, and there is no need to keep people on duty.So all three—Carly, Gillian, and Handel—are grouped together in the passenger compartment, with the two adults sitting facing each other next to Gillian, who gorges on a hard plastic dinner plate on her lap. Now she's almost finished with the last few bites left.Usually when she was in the academy, she would concentrate on eating slowly, never stopping, not interrupting the way of eating with a bite of each food item.Carly notices, though, that she's not sticking to her old eating style of taking a bite out of each item on her plate.In fact, the baked apple crumble was left untouched after everything else was eaten.

After she finished eating, she carefully placed the plate on the seat next to her, and said the second sentence after waking up. "Where's my dad?" Her voice was still emotionless, flat and monotonous, like a primitive speech synthesizer used in the twentieth century. There is no easy answer to this question.Luckily, Gillian and Handel had already discussed what to say while the slaver was sedated and asleep. "He has something to do, so he's leaving." Carly felt that the current situation was difficult for Gillian, so she lied. "He'll catch up after a while, but it's just you, me and Handel, OK?"

"If we drive his spaceship, how will he catch up?" "He'll find another one," she reassured Gillian. Gillian squinted at her slightly, as if suspicious, trying to see the truth in her eyes.After a while she nodded, accepting the status quo. "Are we going back to school?" "Not going back yet," Handel said to Gillian. "We're meeting the other ships. Quarians. Remember what you learned in history class last year?" "They made the geth," Gillian replied curtly. "Yeah." Carly admitted, hoping that this wasn't her only impression of the race of saviors. "Do you remember anything else about them?"

"Driven from their homeland by the geth about three hundred years ago, the vast majority of quarians now live on the rogue fleet, which consists of about 5,000 warships, ranging from small manned spaceships to giant mobile space stations," Gillian replied.Carly remembered that this was the exact words in the history e-book, word for word. "The Wandering Fleet is the home of 17 million quarians, so it is understandable that the fleet resources are scarce." Gillian continued, "so, every quarian needs to pass the so-called A coming-of-age ceremony for Yunyou. They have to leave the fleet and not come back until they find something of value..."

"That's enough, Gillian." Handel interrupted her softly, otherwise Gillian would have memorized the entire chapter. "Why are we rendezvousing with the Querry ship?" Callie didn't know how much Gillian remembered the rough reception they had landed on the Omega space station, so she kept her answer intentionally vague. "While you were sleeping we met a quarian named Rhyme. He's going to help us hide from our pursuers." "Cerberus," she said, and the two adults exchanged puzzled glances, wondering how Gillian knew the name. Gillian bit her lip and frowned.She was quiet for a moment, then asked another question that had been troubling Carly.

"Why should he help us?" Neither of them had an answer ready for that question. "I figured I could ask him when he's awake," Carly finally admitted. Fortunately, they didn't have to wait long.Within an hour, she heard Rhyme's limping, clumsy footsteps in the corridor.His legs were wrapped again in air-tight hard-shell sealed boots, which protected him from toe to knee and provided support.Of course, he's still wearing an environmental suit and a face mask; Carly doubts he'll take those off until they get to the Rogue Fleet. "Lyme," Carly introduced when he stopped in the passenger compartment, "this is Gillian. Gillian, this is Rhyme."

The quarians took a step forward, leaning forward slightly, extending their gloved hands in a gesture common to both races.To Carly's surprise, Gillian held out her hand, too, and shook hands. "Nice to meet you," Gillian said. "I'm glad to see you too. I'm glad to see you get better." Rhyme let go of Gillian's hand, and carefully sat on the seat next to Gillian, facing Carly and Handel . "Why are you helping us?" Gillian asked Rhyme. Carly's expression changed.They hadn't had time to tell the quarians what was going on with Gillian, so she hoped Rhyme wouldn't take offense at Gillian's lack of maneuver.

Fortunately, he answered the question with aplomb. "You want to know the answers to your questions, don't you?" he said, laughing from behind his visor. "I'm autistic," Gillian replied, still speaking without emotion. It is not known if Rhyme fully understands the meaning of the word autism, but Carly thinks he is smart enough to understand the basic concept of the word.Before he could respond, Gillian asked the previous question again. "Why are you helping us?" "I'm a little weird too." Handel said again, lying back on the back of the chair, lifting his right leg and placing it on his left knee. "I'm in the wandering phase right now," the quarians began. "I met two crew members from the Edena Cruiser Fleet on the planet Knuuk. They belonged to the frigate Bavia. They told me that another frigate The Sinai Ard went to Omega Station to make a deal, but didn't return." "I came to Omega Station to search for the crew of the Sinaiad. I hoped to rescue them, or at least know their fate. On Omega Station, another quarian named Glo told me about the Sinaiad Made a deal with a group of humans." "I burst into their warehouse, hoping to find the crew. But it was you." "But why risk your life to get us out?" Handel asked. "I suspect that your captors are slave traders. No race deserves to be sold. It is my moral duty to set you free." Carly had no doubts that he meant it, but she wanted to know more. "You know me," she said, "you know my name." "The Carlie Sanders name has been pretty well known around here for the past few months," he admitted, "and I found an old photo of you on the supernet, so I recognized you Here you go. You've changed little in the past eighteen years." In Carly's mind, the pieces were coming together one by one.Eighteen years ago, she was involved in an illegal alliance artificial intelligence research project led by Dr. Qian Shu.But Dr. Qian betrayed the project, and Carly was forced to flee for her life.That's how she met Captain David Anderson... and Turian Ghost Saren Atreus. "Because I'm related to Saron," she said, waiting for Rhyme's confirmation. "You have a relationship with him, and he has a relationship with the geth," Rhyme clarified, "The rebellion of the geth is the biggest thing in the history of our people. They displaced us, they were an army of robots — ruthless, ruthless, and unstoppable." "But Saren led the geth army against the Citadel. He found a way to get them to follow him. He found a way to control them, to obey. We are very interested in him and those related to him. Is this a Is it a strange thing?" "Carly?" Handel asked, straightening his legs and standing up, muscles tensing. "What is he talking about?" "That was when I was in the League. Saren was a Ghost agent sent to investigate a research project I was working on." She hadn't actually spoken to anyone else about the mission outside of Anderson. , and it is not ready to start talking now. "How do the quarians know this?" she demanded aloud.She was a little scared, and a little angry because she was scared. "These coalition documents are classified." "As long as the price is right, you can get any kind of information," the quarians reminded.It's hard to see what's going on under his mask, but his voice is calm. "Like I said, our obsession with geth is totally understandable." "As soon as we knew that Saren was leading the geth army, we collected everything about him: personal history, previous missions. We found out that he had a relationship with a human female scientist who was working on an illegal artificial intelligence project. After close contact, it is natural to dig deeper into the background of this female scientist." "Illegal artificial intelligence?" Handel whispered.He shook his head in disbelief at Rhyme's words. "That was a long time ago," Carly said to Rhyme. "The captain of the Edenna wants to speak to you." "I can't help you," she insisted. "I don't know anything about Saren or geth." "You probably know more than you think," Rhyme replied. "You say that as if we have no choice in this matter." Handel's voice was dark and gloomy. "You are not prisoners," the quarians assured them. "If I take you to the fleet, then you will be our VIP guests. If you don't want to go, we can change the course now. I can take you anywhere you choose." "However, if we rendezvous with the fleet, they may not allow you to leave immediately," he admitted. "When it comes to protecting the safety of the fleet, our people sometimes go too far." Handel glanced at Carly. "You decide. You're a big shot." "This will put an end to your wanderlust, won't it?" Carly wanted to know the answer. "Meeting with me is your gift to the captain." He nodded, but said nothing. "If I don't agree, then you can't go back to the fleet, can you?" "Then I'll have to continue my journey until I find something of value for my people. But I won't force you to do something. Also, this gift cannot be earned by hurting or torturing others—no matter what Is it a quarian?" "Okay," said Carly, after thinking for a moment, "I'll talk to them. You saved our lives, and it's just one little thing I can do. And—" she went on, "We're not necessarily safer going anywhere else." Forty hours later, they jumped out of superluminal flight, only 500,000 kilometers away from the wandering fleet.Rhyme sat in the pilot seat again, with Carly beside him.Handel was still in his old position, standing inside the hatch, staring back at the passenger compartment on the other side.Even Gillian got up and joined them in the tiny cab afterward, just behind Rhyme's chair. The little girl seems to have taken a liking to Lyme.She started walking around him, or sitting and watching him, whether he was sitting or sleeping for hours.Gillian didn't initiate conversation with him, but whenever Rhyme asked her, she was always quick to answer.It's unusual, but it's very encouraging to see her interacting well with other people.So neither Carly nor Handel stopped Gillian when she came to the cockpit. The thousands of warships of the Wandering Fleet flew in dense formation, but as they gradually approached, only a large red mass appeared on the navigation screen.Rhyme pushed the joystick, the thruster power increased, and the spaceship flew steadily towards the fleet.When they were only 150,000 kilometers away from the fleet, the navigation screen showed that several small airships flew away from the main fleet, drew an arc, and flew out along the interception route. "Navy patrols come to question every ship that approaches the fleet." Rhyme had told them that. "They fire fiercely. If any spacecraft does not identify and refuses to return, they will open fire." From what Carly knew of Qualian society, this behavior was perfectly normal.At the very center of the Wandering Fleet are three huge lifeships: huge agricultural ships that are the main source of food for the 17 million quarians in the fleet, and the granary is also on these three huge ships.Should an enemy damage or destroy one of the living ships, a catastrophic famine would inevitably result, and millions of quarians would starve to death slowly. Rhyme pressed the comm channel and responded to the fast-approaching patrol fleet.A few minutes later the channel crackled with a few words in Quari, and a tiny translator in a pendant around Carly's neck automatically switched to English. "You are entering the restricted area, please identify yourself." "I am Rem Shal Nar Teslia, requesting to rejoin the fleet." "Permission confirmation." Rhyme had explained to them earlier that the vast majority of quarians who left the fleet for a wandering tour wanted to return to the fleet with a newly acquired ship.But new ships have neither registration records nor calling codes, so the only way to identify a ship's membership is through a system of specific code phrases.When leaving the fleet, the captain of the spaceship Teslia, where Lyme was born, asked him to memorize two special phrases, one is a warning phrase, warning that something is wrong here, for example, there are enemies on the spaceship, forcing the pilot to try Invade the fleet.The alert phrase will cause the reloaded patrol to immediately fire on the ship.The second phrase was the everything-normal phrase that would get them safely past the patrol and back among the other ships, ships, and cruisers flying in formation. "The quest for knowledge took me away from my people; now the wisdom I have discovered brings me back here." The patrol team forwarded the exchanged password to the Teslia deep in the wandering fleet for confirmation, and waited for a long time.Carly's palms were sweating, but her lips were dry.In the silence, she swallowed hard and held her breath.The Grayson ship was built for high-speed, long-distance flight, with no weapons, no Guardian defenses, and no actual piece of armor on the hull.If Rhyme mixed up the alarm and safety phrases, or something else went wrong, the patrol would tear them to pieces in no time. "The Teslia Fleet welcomes you home, Lime." A reply came from the communicator, and Carly let out a long, low breath. "Tell them it's good to be back," he replied, before adding, "I need to get in touch with the Edenna." Another long wait ensued, but this time Carly didn't feel unbearably tense like the last time. "Sending Edenna's coordinates and welcome frequency," they finally replied. Rhyme acknowledged receipt of the message, then disconnected the comm channel.They continued to fly towards the main fleet. The huge red dot on the navigation screen slowly resolved into countless red pixels, densely packed together. Carly couldn't help but wonder how the spaceships represented by these pixels avoided collisions. Rhyme's flight was extremely professional and stable, and he led them closer to the main fleet group, slowly finding the position of the Aidena among the other Querry fleets.Twenty minutes later he switched on the comm channel again, sending a welcome signal. "I am Rem Shal Nar Teslia, requesting to land on the Edenna." "I am the Edenna, and you are allowed to land. Please sail to the No. 3 landing dock." Rhyme's three-fingered hand darted across the control panel, making the necessary adjustments for landing.Twenty minutes later they felt a slight jolt as the docking station's calipers clamped down on their ship and held it in place.Then there was a high-pitched click, the sound of the Edenna's airlock docking with the Grayson's airlock. "Now I'm asking the security and quarantine team to come over," Rhyme said on the comm channel. "Please make sure they're wearing environmental suits. This ship isn't clean." "Your request granted. The team has already departed." Rhyme had told them this before.Quarantine squads are a required step anytime a new ship comes to the fleet for the first time.The quarians couldn't take the risk that the ship's previous owner might inadvertently introduce bacteria, viruses, or other impurities into the fleet. Likewise, among the quarians, it's considered common courtesy to ask for a security team to inspect your ship upon first arrival—a sign that you have nothing to hide.Typically, the security team would board the ship, introduce each other, and not actually conduct a search. However, this time the situation is different from the usual typical situation.In their three hundred years of exile, no non-Quarian came to the spaceship of the fleet. Although Rhyme wanted to bring Carly to the captain of the Edenna, it was obvious that Rhyme did not have this authority .And if the patrol ships of the fleet unexpectedly find humans on board, they are likely to knock the mountain and shake the tiger. There is no protocol to follow for something this unprecedented.But Rhyme explained that general procedures can be followed so that the potential risk of conflict between the quarians and humans on the ship is minimized. "Let's meet the distinguished guest," said Rhyme, rising to his feet and walking on one leg in an awkward position. "Remember, just stay calm and everything will be fine. We need to take our time." The four of them returned to the passenger cabin, the three humans sat down on the chairs, and Rhyme came to the airlock to welcome the security team and the quarantine team to board the ship. Carly felt again the tension of being forced to sit and wait.What if Rhyme was wrong about how other quarians reacted when they saw humans?What if someone panicked after seeing a human being?In the eyes of humans, the Lime they trust is not even an adult. But considering what he's done for us, I think we can still trust him. Carly could not argue with the infallible logic of the deepest part of her mind, but that did nothing to calm her fears.She could hear voices coming from the airlock, though it was too far away to hear what they were saying.A loud voice, either anger or fear.A voice—it sounded like Rhyme's, but Carly wasn't sure—tried to calm down the man who was talking loudly and uneasily.Then footsteps passed through the airlock and came inside the spaceship.Immediately, four masked quarians, a woman and three men, all entered the passenger compartment with assault rifles slung over their shoulders.The woman walking in front was stunned for a moment when she saw these humans, but then she turned her head and talked to Lime who was standing behind her with a look of sudden realization. "I thought you were joking," she said, "I really thought you were joking." "It's unbelievable," murmured another. "What the hell are you thinking?" The woman was clearly a boss, wanting to know the answer. "They may be spies!" "They're not spies," Rhyme insisted. "Don't you know who this woman is? Look closer." The Qualian woman stepped forward to take a closer look, but the three humans just sat. "No, it's impossible. What's your name, human?" "Carrie Sanders." The other quarians couldn't help but marvel.Carly thought she heard Lim giggling. "My name is Eslie Fay Wass Aidena," said the woman, leaning her head forward, as if bowing, in what appeared to be a gesture of respect. "It has been a great honor to meet you. These are my crew, Yoggho Quar Vas Aidena, Eldra Zandor Vas Aidena, and Hito Hoda Na El Edenauer." Carly returned a nod and bow. "These are my friends, Handel Mitra and Gillian Grayson. We are honored to be here." "I'm bringing Carly here so the captain can talk to her," Rhyme interjected. "This meeting is my gift to the Edenna." Easley glanced at Rhyme, and then the mask turned back to Carly. "Forgive me, Carly Sanders. But I cannot allow you to board the Aidena. Only the captain can make this decision. He must consult the ship's civilian council before making a decision." "What does that mean?" Handel asked.He felt that the atmosphere of the conversation was very peaceful and that others could join in. "Do we have to leave?" "We can't allow you to leave now." Isley said after thinking about it, "You can't leave without the captain's permission. Your spaceship must remain in the dock, and until a resolution is issued on this matter, you must You must stay in your ship." "So how long are we going to stay?" Carly asked. "A few days, I suppose," replied Easley. "Then we need some supplies," Handel said, "mainly food. Human food." "And environmental suits are required when the captain makes the final decision to let them aboard," said Rhyme, who is optimistic about the situation. "We will do our best to provide you with food and lodging," Easley told them. "We don't have any non-Quarian food reserves aboard the Edenna, but we'll be in touch with the rest of the fleet to see what we can find." She turned to Rhyme again. "You have to come with me. The captain wants to talk to you face to face." Then she turned to the humans and said, "Remember, you can't leave this ship. Yoggho or Hito will be there There's a constant guard outside the airlock. If you need anything, they're there to help." After saying these few words, all the quarians left, even Rhyme.A moment later they heard the door to the Edenna airlock snap shut, locking them all inside the ship. "Well," muttered Handel, "it is rare to welcome a great person in this way."