Chapter 12 chapter Five

They hid for half an hour, and were finally cornered by the Obin. If they split up and diverted the pursuing Obins in different directions, it was possible to sacrifice other soldiers and protect one or two from slipping away.However, to make up for the lack of fusion, they stay together and stay in each other's sight.It was Jared who led the way at the beginning, and Sagan dragged Wegener to the rear.Running, Jared and Sagan switched roles, and Sagan led them north, away from the Obin who were pursuing them. The faint whining grew louder, and Jared looked up, and through the canopy saw an Obin fly past the group, heading north.Sagan in front turned sharply to the right and ran to the east. She also heard the whine of the aircraft.A few minutes later, a second aircraft appeared, caught up with the team, and descended to a height of only ten meters from the canopy.With a loud bang, the surrounding branches burst and fell to the ground.The Obins opened fire.Several large-caliber projectiles hit the ground in front of Sagan, and she hurriedly stopped.The eastward run ends here; the class turns north.The craft turned around and drifted toward them, and when they slowed down or strayed too far east or west, they rained bullets on them.The aircraft is not chasing them, but driving them to a certain destination.

Ten minutes later, they walked into another smaller pasture and arrived at this destination. The Obin in the first aircraft were waiting for them.The second aircraft was preparing to land behind, and behind it was the group of Obin who first appeared. Jared and the others had not shaken off these guys, and now they could be seen in the woods. Wegener, still not fully recovered from the trauma of losing his fusion, broke free from Jared's hand and raised his MP, apparently determined that he could not surrender without a fight.He took aim at the group of Obins waiting in the pasture and pulled the trigger. MP is unresponsive.In order to prevent the enemy from using MP against the soldiers of the Defense Forces, the MP needs to be verified by BrainPal, but it has not been verified at the moment.Wegener screamed in despair, and then a bullet hit his head, blowing away everything above the brow bone.Jared saw an Obin soldier lower his weapon.

Jared, Sagan, Harvey, and Seaborg gathered together, drew their combat daggers, and faced back to back in the same direction.Drawing a knife was a pointless gesture of provocation, and they didn't think the Obin needed to come within range of a dagger to kill them.It was a small consolation to know that they would die next to their companions.Not fusion, but that's all they can hope for. At this time, the second aircraft had landed, and six Obins stepped out of it, three with weapons, two with other equipment, and the last one empty-handed.The empty-handed one wobbled towards the humans with the unique Obin gait, and stopped at a safe distance. Three armed Obin guarded behind him. His blinking compound eyes seemed to be aimed at the human. Sagan, who was closest to him.

"Surrender." The Obin spoke in English, sibilant but clear. Sagan wondered, "What?" As far as she knew, the Obin never took prisoners. "Surrender," said the Obin again, "or die." "If we surrender, you'll let us live?" Sagan said. "Yes," said the Obin. Jared glanced at Sagan on his right, seeing her considering his request.Jared felt that there was nothing wrong with this request. Even if they surrendered, the Obin people might still kill them, but if they did not surrender, they would die 100%.He didn't suggest Sagan take it, he knew Sagan didn't trust him and didn't want his advice on anything.

"Drop your arms," ​​Sagan said finally.Jared dropped the dagger and untied the MP, as did the others.The Obin forced them to take off their backpacks and belts, leaving only the close-fitting protective clothing.Two of the Obin people walked out of the original group, picked up their weapons and equipment and returned to the aircraft.An Obin came up to Harvey, and Jared felt Harvey's muscles tense, presumably Harvey was desperately resisting the urge to kick him. After removing the weapons and equipment, the Obin forced them to disperse, and the Obin carrying the equipment came over and waved the equipment in front of each of them, looking for something, Jared probably was looking for hidden weapons.After the two Obins checked the other three, they came to Jared and stopped checking suddenly. One of them said something in Obin to the leading Obin in a soft and mellow tone.The leading Obin came up to Jared with two armed Obin.

"You come with us," said the Obin. Jared looked to Sagan, wondering if she wanted him to be obedient, but got no response.Jared asked, "Where are you going?" The lead Obin turned and chirped, and an Obin behind him raised his gun and fired at Stephen Seaborg's leg.Seaborg fell to the ground screaming. The leading Obin looked back at Jared and said again, "You come with us." "Fuck it, Dirac!" Seaborg said, "follow the fucking Obin!" Jared lined up, and the Obin ushered him toward the flying machine. Sagan watched Jared list, and for a moment considered whether to pounce on him and snap his neck, take the Aubin and Boutin's booty, and make sure Dirac didn't get the chance to do something stupid.That moment is fleeting, and besides, the chances of success are really slim.If successful, they will all be executed.At least alive now.

The lead Obin turned to Sagan, who he recognized as the leader of the squad. "You stay." After finishing speaking, the Obin skipped away without giving Sagan a chance to speak.She took a step forward, trying to speak to the Obin who was walking further and further away, but three other Obin approached with guns raised.Sagan threw up his hands and backed away, but the Obin kept walking, signaling Sagan and the others to move. She turned to Seaborg, who was still lying on the ground, and asked, "How's the leg?" "The suit blocks most of the force," he said, referring to the suit's ability to harden and absorb the impact of the bullet. "It's not too bad. I can survive."

"Can you walk?" Sagan asked. "As long as you don't make me enjoy the walk," Seaborg replied. "Let's go then," Sagan reached out and pulled Seaborg up, "Harvey, take Wegener." Daniel Harvey walked up to the dead comrade-in-arms and carried the body on his back in the posture of a firefighter. The Obin drove them into a hollow slightly out of the middle of the meadow, where a small clump of trees showed that the bedrock beneath had been eroded.As they entered the hollow, Sagan heard the whine of a craft departing, followed by the sound of another descending.The arrival was larger than the first two, and it landed near the depression, and several identical machines rolled out from the hatch in the belly.

"What the hell is this?" Harvey said, putting down Wegener's body.Sagan said nothing, watching the machines—there were eight of them—take their place around the hollow.The Obin who came with the machine climbed onto the top of the machine and lifted the metal cover to reveal the multi-barreled cannon that fired steel spears.With all the covers removed, the Obin activated the Spear Cannon; the menacing Spear Cannon slowly fired and began to track the object. "The fence," Sagan said, "is trapping us here." Sagan tried to take a step towards a steel spear gun, which turned towards her and began to track her movements.She took another step forward, and the steel spear cannon issued a piercing high-frequency scream. Sagan estimated that this was a warning for crossing the line. It was estimated that the end of taking another step would be at least a broken leg, but she did not take the risk of verifying this conjecture.She backed away from the Spear Cannon, which went off its alarm, but it wasn't until Sagan took a few steps back that she stopped her pursuit.

"They've got these things ready," Harvey said. "That's great. Do you think it's possible?" Sagan looked at the steel spear guns and said, "It's really not big." "How?" said Harvey. "These things come from the scientific research outpost," Sagan said, pointing to the steel spear gun. "It must be. There are no other buildings nearby, and scientific research outposts usually don't have this kind of thing. They used these things to imprison other people." "Oh, well," Seaborg said, "who was held? Why?"

"Special Forces lost six ships," Sagan said, not mentioning the one that was attacked and destroyed by the Obins. "The crew must go somewhere, and they might have been brought here." "It still doesn't answer the why question," Seaborg said. Sagan shrugged, not trying to figure it out herself. The sound of the aircraft taking off resounded all around.The roar of the engine gradually faded away, leaving only the ambient sound of nature nearby. "Very well," said Harvey, and he threw a rock at the spear gun, which tracked the rock's flight, but failed to fire. "Leave us here with nothing to eat and drink and nothing to keep us out of the storm. Do you think the Obinians never come again?" Sagan felt that this possibility was indeed very high. "So you're me," Charles Boutin said to Jared. "Interesting, thought I was taller." Jared said nothing.Once inside the scientific research outpost, he was locked in a holding tank, locked, and pushed through several empty corridors until he finally arrived at what he assumed was a laboratory, full of unfamiliar instruments. Jared was left lying there for several hours before Butin entered the room and strode over to the tank to inspect Jared's body as if he were a very interesting worm.Jared hoped that Butin could get closer so that he could give him a headbutt, but unfortunately he failed. "That was a joke," Butin said to Jared. "I know," Jared said, "but it's not funny." "Well," said Boutin, "lack of practice lately, as you should have noticed, the Aubins are not very fond of wisecracks." "I noticed," Jared said.All the way to the scientific outpost, the Obin were completely silent.The leading Obin had only said four words to Jared: "Get out" after landing and "Go in" when opening the portable container. “The only ones to blame are the Consu,” Butin said. “When they made the Obin, they probably forgot to put the humor module, and of course, they forgot to put a lot of other things.” Jared involuntarily (or maybe because of Butin's memory and personality in his head) concentrated, and he asked, "Is that true? The Consu raised the Obin." "Call it an ascension if you want to," Butin said, "but the word 'ascension' inherently implies good intentions of the ascender, but there's no evidence of that here. From what I've heard from the Obin , the Consu people had a whim one day, wondering what would happen if they gave intelligence to a species, so they came to Obino, found an omnivore in a low ecological niche, and gave them intelligence. Got it? Just wanted to see Just see what happens." "What happened?" Jared asked. "All kinds of unexpected consequences followed, my friend," said Butin. "In the end, for the time being, you and I both came to this laboratory. A straight line connects the beginning and the present." "I don't understand," Jared said. "Of course you don't understand," Boutin said. "You don't have all the data, and I didn't have the data before I came here, so even if you knew everything I knew, you wouldn't know that. You know I How much do you know?" Jared did not answer.Butin laughed and said, "That's enough anyway. I can see that you and I share some of the same interests. When it comes to Kangsu people, I see your ears pricked up. Maybe we should start with simpler things. For example, What's your name? You're kind of my clone, and it kind of annoys me to talk to you and not know what to call you." "Jared Dirac," said Jared. "Aha," Boutin said, "yes, the special forces naming rules. Pick a name at random, and the last name is a famous scientist. I have done things for the special forces-indirect, of course, because you don't like special forces. People from outside the army are in the way. What do you call us?" "Real man," Jared said. "Yes," Boutin said, "you like to keep your distance from real people. All in all, the special forces naming convention always makes me laugh. The choice of surnames is really limited, only a few hundred, most of them are doing classic science European scientists. Not to mention the names! Jared, Brad, Cynthia, John, Jane." He said these names with a pleasant mocking tone, "There are not many scientists outside the West, and it doesn't make sense at all , the Special Forces are not the same as the rest of the Defense Forces, and they are not recruited from Earth. It would make no difference if your name is Yusuf al-Biruni. The collection of names used by the Special Forces reflects the special forces and your Creator's point of view. What do you say?" "I like my name, Charles," Jared said. "Well said," Butin said, "but my name comes from a family heritage, and yours is just a random mix. Not that there's anything wrong with the name 'Dirac.' Dirac must have come from Paul Dirac. Lark. Ever heard of the 'Dirac Sea'?" "No." Jared said. "Dirac's idea that the vacuum was actually a vast ocean of negative energy," Boutin said, "what a beautiful picture. Some physicists at the time found this hypothesis very far-fetched—perhaps it was, but it was poetic, and they didn't appreciate it." ...But they are physicists after all, you can't force them to be full of poetry. The Obin people are great physicists, but their inner poetry is not as poetic as a chicken. They definitely don't know how to appreciate the Dirac Sea. You feel how?" "It's hard being tied up," Jared said, "and needing to pee." "Pee, then," Butin said. "I don't mind. The tank is self-cleaning. Besides, I'm sure your suit wicks away the urine." "That's only possible with BrainPal," Jared said.Without communicating with the user's brain companion, the nanorobots in the fibers of the protective suit have only the most basic protective capabilities, such as hardening upon impact, preventing the user from being injured when the user loses consciousness or the brain companion is damaged.Secondary functions such as wicking away sweat and urine are set as non-essential. "Aha," said Butin, "well, let me help you." Butin walked to a test bench and pressed down an object on it.The thick cotton wool stuffed into Jared's head suddenly disappeared, and the Brainmate regained its function.Jared ignored his physical need to pee, desperately trying to get in touch with Jane Sagan. Butin looked at Jared with a smile, watched Jared struggle in his mind for a minute, and then said, "It's useless. This antenna can interfere with signals within a range of ten meters. You can use BrainPal in the laboratory, But beyond that, your friends are still blocked. You can't reach them, you can't reach anyone." "You can't block BrainPal," Jared said.BrainPal transmits encrypted information streams redundantly through a set of multi-frequency signals. The frequency used for each transmission is different, and the change mode is determined by the one-time secret key generated when the two BrainPals are connected.Blocking any one of these streams is impossible, and blocking all of them is even more unheard of. Boutin went to the antenna and pressed the button again; the cotton wool returned to Jared's mind. "What did you say?" Butin said.Jared resisted the urge to scream.A minute later, Butin turned the antenna back on. "In general, you're right," Boutin said. "I oversaw research on BrainPal's latest communication protocol. I helped design the entire mechanism. You're absolutely right. You can't block communication flow unless Overwhelm all possible communications, including your own, with high-energy sources. "But I'm not blocking the BrainPal signal like this," Butin said, "Do you know what a 'back door' is? A programmer or designer will leave a convenient passage in a complex program or design, so as not to have to go through many checkpoint to reach the kernel, which is the back door. I left a back door in the BrainPal system that can only be opened with my verification signal. The back door was designed to allow me to monitor the functionality of the BrainPal during the last prototype iteration, but at the same time Allows me to fine-tune the system to block certain functions when I find a fault, which includes turning off the signal transmission module. The original design didn't have this, so no one but me knew it was there." Butin stopped to look at Jared and said, "But you should know about the back door. Maybe you wouldn't think of using it as a weapon, because I didn't think of it before I came here, but if you were me, you should know about the back door. Seriously, what the hell do you know?" "How do you know that there is me?" Jared wanted to change the topic, "You know that I am you, but how did you know?" "It's been a long story," said Boutin, biting Jared's bait, "after we decided to use the backdoor as a weapon, I re-coded the weapon—almost exactly the code for the backdoor, it couldn't have been easier This means it checks the functioning of the BrainPal it's affecting, which turns out to be very useful for a number of reasons, one of which is that it lets us know how many soldiers we're dealing with at a time, and allows us to see each soldier's Awareness snapshots - this one turned out to be useful too. "You've been to Kovill Space Station recently, haven't you?" Jared said nothing.Butin exasperated: "Geez, stop pretending. I know you've been there. Don't make it look like you're giving away state secrets." "Yes," Jared said, "I've been to Kervill." "Thanks for your cooperation," Boutin said. "We know Omar has Defense Force soldiers, and we know they've been inside Kovill space station. We put detection devices on the space station to scan the back door in BrainPal, but the alarm was never triggered. .Your soldiers there must have been equipped with differently structured BrainPals.” Butin looked at Jared, waiting for him to respond, but Jared didn’t respond. Butin continued, “But you set off the alarm. , because you have the brain mate I designed. Can you imagine how surprised I was when I got the collected consciousness signals? I am very familiar with my own consciousness patterns, because I have done many experiments with my own consciousness models. I inform The Obin say I'm looking for you, we're picking up Special Forces guys anyway, so it's no problem for them. To be honest, they should have tried to catch you at Kovill Space Station." "They tried to kill me at Kovill Station," Jared said. "I'm sorry," Butin said, "Even if it's the Obin people, they're too excited to be too involved. But after that time, I told them to scan before shooting. Are you at ease now?" "Thank you," Jared said. "Today was meaningful to my comrade. He took a bullet in the head." "Irony!" Boutin said. "Most Special Forces soldiers can't learn it. You got it from me. As I said, Obin people sometimes get too excited. Not only did I let the Obin The guests are looking for you outside and they say they have to be prepared for an attack because if there is a special forces soldier running around with my consciousness, it's only a matter of time before he touches this place. You shouldn't Risking a massive attack, but probably doing something stealthy—and it is. We've been listening for these kinds of attacks, listening for your signal. As soon as you landed, we switched on the system and cut BrainPal." Jared recalled the scene of his comrades in the platoon falling from the sky, and he was very sad.He said, "You bastard, you should have waited for them all to land. Just block the BrainPal signal and they'd be defenseless. You know that." "It's not that you have no resistance," Butin retorted, "Even if you can't use MP, you still have daggers and fighting skills. Cutting off the Brainmate signal will cause most of you to have a panic attack, but some of you can still resist. You are the example, although you are more prepared than most. If you have my memory, you know what it is like to have no link. Even so, six people landing is still too much, we only need you That's all." "Why?" Jared asked. "You'll know when the time comes," said Charles Boutin. "If you only need me, what are you going to do with our comrades?" Jared asked. "I could tell you, but I think you've led me too far, haven't you?" Boutin said with a smile, "I want to know what you know about me, how it feels to be me, and what you know Don't know my plans here." "Now that I'm in your presence, you already know we know you well," Jared said. "Your existence is no longer a secret." "Allow me to say that I really appreciate it," Boutin said. "I thought I covered my tracks pretty well. It's my fault for not formatting the memory device that holds the consciousness model. I'm in a hurry to leave, you Got it, but that's not the reason after all. Blame me for being stupid." "I disagree," Jared said. "That's your fault," Boutin said, "because without that, you wouldn't be here—which makes sense, implicitly and explicitly. What I appreciate is that they teleport consciousness into I got a brain, and even I didn't know what to do with it before I left. Who did it?" "Harry Wilson," Jared said. "Harry!" cried Boutin, "nice guy, but didn't know he was so smart. He concealed it very well. Of course, I had done most of the work before he took over. Back to what you said , the Colonial Union knows I'm here, well, it's a problem. But it's also an interesting opportunity. Opportunities are always made by people. Well, without further ado, let's stop rambling and let me tell you , how you answer will determine the life and death of your remaining comrades-in-arms. Do you understand?" "Understood." Jared said. "Very well," said Boutin, "now, tell me what you know about me. How do you know what I do?" "Only a rough idea," Jared said. "The details are hard for me to understand. I don't have enough similar experiences for that part of the memory to take root." "It's important to have similar experiences," Butin said. "Interesting. That would explain why you don't know about the back door. What about my political views? What about my views on the Colonial Union and the Defense Forces?" "I guess you don't like them," Jared said. "Good guess," Boutin said, "but it sounds like you don't have first-hand knowledge of what I think about it." "No." Jared said. "Because you lack experience, right?" Butin said. "You're a Special Forces soldier after all. They don't teach you to question authority in training sessions. What about my personal experience?" "I remember most of it," Jared said. "I've had enough of it." "So you know Zoe." Butin thought. Jared felt a throb of emotion when he heard the girl's name. "I know her." His voice was a little hoarse. Butin heard this. "You felt it too," he leaned closer to Jared, "don't you? How did I feel when they announced she was dead." "I feel it," Jared said. "Poor thing," Boutin said softly, "made to feel pain for a child he never knew." "I know her," said Jared. "I know her through you." "I see," Butin said, walking to a test bench. "I'm betrayed, Jared," he continued, regaining his composure, "you're like me enough to be interesting." "Does that mean you will spare my comrades?" Jared asked. "For the time being," Butin said, "as long as you cooperate well. They are trapped by the guns. If they dare to approach within three meters, the bullets will smash them to pieces, so there is no need to kill them." "What about me?" Jared said. "You, my friend, are going to undergo a comprehensive and thorough brain scan," Butin looked at the desktop, operating the keyboard with both hands, "to be honest, I want to record your consciousness and check it carefully. I want to know what exactly you are How like me. You seem to be missing a lot of details, and you still need to overcome the special forces brainwashing. However, in terms of important points, I guess we are similar." "I know there's one way we're totally different," Jared said. "Really?" Butin said, "Tell me about it." "I will not betray all mankind because of the death of my daughter," Jared said. Boutin stared at Jared thoughtfully for a minute, and finally said, "You really think I did this because Zoe died in Koville?" "Yes," said Jared, "and I don't think she should be honored in this way." "Don't think so, do you?" Butin said, turning around and pressing a button on the keyboard.Jared's tank rumbled into action, and he felt as if his brain had been clamped. "I'm recording your consciousness," Butin said, "Relax." He walked out of the room, closing the door behind him.Jared felt that his brain was getting tighter and tighter, and he couldn't relax at all, so he had to close his eyes. After a few minutes, Jared heard the door opening and closing.He opened his eyes.Butin came back and stood at the door and asked Jared, "How does the consciousness record taste?" "Damn it hurts," Jared said. "This side effect is terrible," Butin said, "I don't know why it happened, so I have to study it when I have time." "Thank you very much." Jared gritted his teeth. "Sarcasm again," Butin laughed. He continued, "But I brought you a gift to ease the pain." "Whatever it is, I want double," Jared said. "One is enough for me," said Butin, and he opened the door: Zoe was standing in the hallway.