Chapter 6 Chapter Six
Hamid is an adopted child of the Thompsons.As soon as he was sensible, his parents told him.And at a very early stage, he guessed the truth: Hussein brought him back from Feiyue Realm, and he didn't know what method Thompson used to hide it from everyone.Of course, the government knew about it and helped cover it up.In the years before his parents forced him to study math—when he thought they really loved him—it was a happy little secret to him.Many children who are spoiled by their parents feel that they are special, and Hamid is no exception.Knowing that he came from the Leap World naturally made him believe this even more.He is secretly dreaming a sweet dream: he is the version of the "exiled prince" in the Leap World; when he grows up, when the next spaceship from the Leap World lands...he will set off to answer the call of fate.
Going to college at the age of eight seems to illustrate the inevitability of this fate.Although his grades were not much better than average, his parents always had confidence in him...that year was the end of his childhood.He wasn't a genius, no matter what his parents said.They persisted, he quarreled with them, and shed countless tears.In the end, Mom left Hussein Thompson.Only then did Hussein show mercy and let Hamid go back to the regular school he was supposed to go to.His family changed forever.Mom rarely came home to see Hamid, and when she did, the time was short and the atmosphere was always tense.But it was another five years before Hamid really started to hate his father.He overheard a conversation where it turned out that Hussain had been hired to send him to school early, force him to study mathematics, and torture him.Hamid confronted him, and the old man didn't deny it.He tried to 'explain', but it was nothing more than unintelligible mumbling... Worse than a lie... If Hamid was really a prince, he was a prince who was framed.
The memories were old, he'd had them in his half-waking moments...but there was something new tonight, ironic, almost magical.After so many years...it turns out that Quack is the little prince they are looking for!
There was a hissing sound in the house.Hamid struggled to get rid of sleepiness, but the feeling of fear and confusion in the dream remained.He rolled to the side of the bed and opened his eyes hard.There's only starlight around the window, where's the croak?It is no longer in front of the screen.Probably another nightmare.Quack seldom has nightmares, but every time there will be big disturbances.Once, on a winter night, it rumbled in his dream, scaring Hamid enough.The croaking thunderstorm is of course not as powerful as the real thing, but...
He looked at the pile of blankets on the ground, that was Quack's nest.Yes, it was there, facing Hamid's direction.
"Quack? It's okay, baby."
There was no response, only hissing in the room, which seemed to be louder than before.This is not a sound made by croaking.For a while, Hamid's brain seemed to stop working, like when a mouse meets a snake.Then he snapped on the light.No one was in the house.The sound came from the modem, but the screen displaying the image was still pitch black.It's crazy.
"Quack?" He had never seen it like this.Its eyes were wide open, the whites of the eyes were exposed around the pupils, its front legs were exposed outside the blanket, its claws were stretched out, the tips of the claws made deep scratches on the plastic floor, and a stream of saliva was still dripping from the corner of its mouth.
He got up and walked towards it.The hissing became human: "I want her. Human, I want her. I'll have her." She, croak.
"How did you get permission? Why are you bothering us?" It's stupid, but at least it wakes him up: this way of waking up isn't good for the proper functioning of the brain.
"I am Talon." Hamid suddenly remembered the graphic on the logo of Ravna & Talon.sharp claws.It's so cute, "We paid a lot of money and have been patient. But that's a thing of the past. I want her. You're just meat... hogs, and I'm going to have to get you if I kill you all she."
The hiss is mostly gone now, but the vocals are still pretty bad, like coming out of a cheap synthesizer.The claw's syntax and accent mirrored Ravna's.Either they are the same person at all, or they learned English in the same place.There's a difference, though: Ravna sounds pissed off, while Claw is downright insane.His tone was irritable and his speech rate was always fast, he only stuttered when he said the word "meat".The voice gave away his intentions, and Hamid now really understood why he wanted his pet: there was a hunger in the voice, a desire to devour or rape.
Hamid's anger overcame his fear: "Why don't you go back home, you ridiculous monster! We have protections here, or you wouldn't be bluffing-"
"Bluffer! Bravado—" The last word sounded odd, like choking on a wolf.Behind Hamid, the croaks started screaming.After a while, the noise subsided, "I didn't mean to scare you. Hussein Thompson now knows what happens to anyone who pissed me off. If you don't give her to me, you, and all of you Death. I saw a road bike right next to your ... house. Take her fifty kilometers west in one hour; otherwise, you'll end up with Hussein Thompson. To Then you'll know if I'm bluffing." After saying this, Mr. Claw's voice disappeared.
He must be bluffing!If he was really that strong, why didn't he just kill the tourists and snatch Guagua away?Seriously, what a stupid thing they did.A week ago, with a little rhetoric, they could get everything they wanted without breaking a sweat.It seems that these people never thought that anyone would defy them—or else they were desperate enough to put all their eggs in one basket.
Hamid turned and walked towards Quack.He stretched out his hand to stroke the fur on the croak's neck, and it flinched back, its needle-like claws scratching the sleeve of Hamid's pajamas. "Quack!"
It let go of his sleeve and retreated into its own pile of blankets.It made a whistling noise: Hamid had heard the same whistle once when it was hit by a fast-moving tricycle.Hamid's father speculates that this is probably the original sound of gua la la, like a human whimper or tooth chattering sound.He knelt down and murmured to comfort it.This time it let him stroke his neck.Hamid found it wet the bed.Guagua knew how to use the toilet since he was a child, and he learned it almost at the same time as Hamid.It seems that whether Mr. Claw's words are true or not, Quack is terrified by him.Mr. Claw also said he could kill everyone.Hamid thought of the Ansible.A damn phone that dims the sun when you make it.
Bluff or madness?
He stumbled over to the modem and pressed the tour leader's number.Sometimes the bugs only take emails at night and don't answer the phone; God forbid that's not the case tonight.The ring pattern changed twice, and then a panorama of clouds and blue sky appeared.You might think that this is the scene over China and the United States, but if you look down, you will find that the clouds are hovering, and the color is getting darker and darker, and there is no end in sight.In fact, this was taken at an altitude of ten bar on Roslyn Mar.This image pops up every time a human calls in; Bug no doubt thinks it comforts the human, but it also shows his homesickness.His hometown, Roslyn Marr, is a Jupiter-like planet with a diameter of 30,000 kilometers.
The clouds rolled over for five seconds.Get up and answer the phone, damn it!
The image disappeared, and a human appeared in front of Hamid's eyes - Larry Fujiyama!Larry the Lazy didn't seem surprised at the sight of Hamid. "You're in the right place, boy. I've been around the worm. Have made some progress."
Hamid was stunned and speechless, and Larry went on: "Ravna & Claws have been worming since midnight, promises and threats; ever since that guy called Claws took over It's been mostly threats since then... We're sorry about your dad, Hamid. We should have thought of—"
"what?"
"Isn't that why you called? . . . oh, it's on the news. Here—" The image changed to a farm in Eastern Michigan, with a helicopter reporting the news circling overhead.It took Hamid a full second to recognize the hills.This is near Thompson Farm, two thousand kilometers east of Margate.It's past sunrise.The camera was shaking, and it was always aimed at a small stream; the announcer couldn't help boasting, saying that the news was online and even rushed to the scene before the search and rescue team.They crossed a few hills, and there appeared in front of them... Where did those trees go?There were thousands of black lines on the ground, all of fallen tree trunks, all pointing to the center of the explosion.The announcer went on babbling: luckily the meteorite fell in the valley with the lake, luckily the explosion only affected one farm.Hamid swallowed.That farm...was Hussein Thompson's: they'd moved there since Mom left.The center of the explosion was filled with rising water vapor—the only vapor left in the lake.The announcer assured his audience that the crater had completely destroyed the farm where the buildings stood.
News clips disappeared. "It's not a Sino-U.S. nuclear weapon, but it's not a natural disaster either," Larry said. "That thing was launched by Ravna & Talon two hours ago. Just a few minutes before the explosion, Huss called me and said 'The Talon' was coming; he was very scared. You want to see Can I show you—"
"No!" Hamid seemed to choke.Then, in a slightly calmer voice, he said, "No." How much he had loved his father; how much he hated Hussein Thompson when he knew the truth.Now that he is dead, Hamid may never be able to sort out his feelings for him. "The claw just called me, and he said he killed me-Hussein." Hamid repeated the call just now. Put once, "Anyway, I have to talk to the bug. Can he protect me? Is China and America really in danger if I turn them down?"
This time, Larry didn't shrug his shoulders and give him a "figure it out for yourself" look. "It's all messed up here," he said, "Chongchong is just dizzy. He's around here, just wait—" The peaceful cloud appeared again.Damn, damn, damn.Something from behind lightly bumped into his lower back.It's quack.The black and white neck came around him, and the dark eyes watched him. "What's wrong?" it asked softly.
Hamid felt like crying and laughing at the same time.Guagua was still trembling, but at least he could recognize him. "Are you all right, baby?" Guarala curled up and put his head on Hamid's lap.
The cloud on the modem parted, and Larry Fujiyama and the bug appeared on the screen at the same time.Of course, they weren't in the same room—then it would have killed both of them.Roslyn Marr's barge was like a giant pressurized chamber with a pressure and an atmospheric composition just right for bugs—about a thousand bars of ammonia and hydrogen.There is an airtight compartment on the ship, which is specially prepared for humans.In the picture, the worm occupies the most prominent position; part of the end body behind him is transparent, which is the window of the human-only cabin.Larry waved at him, and Hamid couldn't help smiling.Look, who's locked up in the zoo.
"Ah, Mr. Thompson. I'm glad you called. We are facing a very serious problem." Chongzi's English is very standard, and his voice is synthesized, but he sounds like an ordinary Chinese-American man, "Of course , if you can sell your pet to them as soon as possible, many problems can be solved-"
"No." Hamid replied simply, "Anyway, as long as I'm alive, it's okay. This is not a business. You heard how they threatened me, and you saw how they treated me Father's." For the past six months, Bug had been his big boss, the object of his awe, and Hamid didn't even get to talk to him much.None of that matters now, "You always say that the tour leader's first job is to make sure that neither side of the deal is harmed by the other. Now I want you to walk the talk."
"Well, technically, I mean you Chinese Americans and the tourists in my tour group. I know I can keep them in line...but we're only getting to know Ravna & Claws now, and I want to go Confronting them, this, I'm afraid it's not fair." Then, the thousand-kilogram bug turned sideways towards the window in front of Larry.Hamid knew that under Roslyn Mall's gravity the bug would be crushed into a flatworm, and his tassel-like tentacles would stick to the ground one by one.But now, in one G's, he looks like an overstuffed silk pillow with red tassel trim," Larry told me about Scudder's use in the reptilian world The 'ansible' thing. I've heard of this stuff, it's pretty awesome, and it's hard to come by. Just one will cover all the expenses of this tour group, more than enough... Well, Scudder's excuse His organization is struggling financially, begging me to give him a ride... well, Larry's been using this to look up information on gua la la."
Larry nodded. "I started working on it as soon as you left, and the machine is still humming in my office. Scudder is right, it is connected to Roslyn Marr's commercial network, and from there I can connect to Universal Civilization Net. Hehe, Scudder left a pretty good credit account with Roslyn Mall; I spent a lot of communication bills to help them test this thing, hope Scudder and Ortega don't pay for the bill I was angry. I described the appearance of Guagua, and then asked for an in-depth query. There are millions of subnets there, all over the entire Feiyue world, and I am doing a big check in Feiyue world's database right now. I—— He paused, and the enthusiasm on his face dropped by one degree, "Uh, it's Chongchong, I found a description, it's very similar to gua la la..."
"Yes, and the situation is very disturbing, Mr. Thompson." No wonder none of the tourists had heard of gua la la.The only credible clues Larry received came from the other side of the galaxy, a remote corner of Leapfrog World, with only occasional contact with the Universal Civilization Network.They also haven't seen the same kind of gua la la, but they have heard some rumors.A thousand light-years below their planet, in the depths of the reptilian world, there are some stories... The protagonist of the story matches the characteristics of the quack.It is said that the race was of superior intelligence, and soon developed the fastest interstellar vehicle in the world of crawling.They colonized and expanded outwards, controlled a large area of space, and eventually established an empire consisting of tens of thousands of worlds.All of this is done without the possibility of faster-than-light flight.But the Talons—the name seemed to fit it—the empire was not held together by fraternal love.Genocide is common, and they also destroyed many planets with relative kinetic energy bombs.The technology of the Claws is the most advanced in the reptilian world, but also the deadliest.Most of the territory they used to control is now dead.It took centuries for their stories to be carried out of the reptilian world by those slow flies. "
"Wait, Professor Fujiyama said that the bandwidth of Ansible is only one-tenth of a bit per second. In less than twelve hours, how could you find so much?"
Larry made a look of embarrassment.In Hamid's memory, this was the first time ever. "We used Scudder's artificial intelligence system. It helped us fill in a lot of content on both ends of our link with Roslyn Marr."
"Aha!"
"Don't forget, Mr. Thompson, in this data transmission chain, only the first link here needs data compression. The Huanyu Civilization Network is located in Feiyue, and most of the links there are quite good in terms of bandwidth and data integrity. "
It sounds confident, but Hamid has read a lot about UniversalCivilization.com.For him, the Web of Civilization was almost as fascinating as FTL.It is impossible for any one world to be directly connected to all other worlds.Partly due to limited communication range, but mainly due to the sheer number of worlds involved.Similarly, this network is not maintained by any "telephone company", even if there are 10,000 telephone companies, it will not be possible.These messages from all corners of the galaxy probably passed through five or ten relay systems.Most of these transfer stations are not maintained by humans, let alone the race that sent them letters from the other side of the galaxy.As an analogy, it's like asking a question in English, and then someone who knows both English and Spanish sends the question to someone else in Spanish, and then someone translates it into German.The situation at Civilization.com is a million times more complicated than this.Besides, compared to some races outside, even bugs are quite similar to humans.
Hamid poured out his thoughts. "And—and, even if the sender did mean what we understand, it could still be a lie. Just look at what the local historians have said about Richard III and Muhammad Ross."
Larry the Lazy had his tadpole grin again.They must have discussed this, Hamid realized.Larry said, "One more question, bugs, are they talking about the same kind of quacks? From their description, the claws should have organs similar to hands. Hamid's quacks don't have that kind of organ." thing."
The worm's purple tassels spun around three times quickly.Excited?Impatient? "Their replies haven't quite come in yet, but I have a theory of my own. You know, Larry, I've always been a good student when it comes to sexology. Maybe people call me 'he' for men just out of politeness. , but I have always been fascinated by the issue of 'sex'. For countless races, this factor is what the earthlings call 'the driving force that drives the earth'." Hamid suddenly understood Gilly Weinberg's successful Reason, "So, I'm definitely an expert on this. My guess is that the Claws are extremely sexually dimorphic. The forelimbs of the males are probably hands, so they take on the role of killers. Instead, Females like croaks are very friendly and mentally retarded."
Quack looked away from the bug, looked at Hamid, and murmured, "Of course, of course." The timing was perfect, as if to say who the hell is this rubbish bumpkin?
The bug didn't notice this scene. "It might even explain why males can be so vicious. Think back to Mr. Thompson's conversation with him. These creatures seem to view the females of their own kind as property for their own use: much like the ultimate form of sexism." Harmey De shuddered.It reminded him—he'd never forgotten the hunger in Mr. Paw's voice.
"Is the above statement a prelude to your refusal to provide us with protection?"
The bug was silent for about fifteen seconds.During this time, his purple tassels kept shaking up and down.Finally, he said: "I'm afraid that's about it. I don't tell the tourists the analysis, they only know the threats and the accidents reported in the news. But anyway, they are tourists, not explorers. They asked me to refuse admission. You. There are those who want to leave your planet immediately... Is this route safe, Larry?"
Larry replied, "Underground fiber optics, plus laser-encrypted links. Take your luck, Bug."
"Well, Mr. Thompson, I can't promise you much help. I can park over your city; if they want to go straight to kidnapping, I'll try to stop them—unless I find that they're going to fall short. Just destroy your planet. I don't think they'd do that, but if it happened... Let's just say, even you wouldn't Think about your dignity."
"I can't come down to pick you up. That's too dramatic, and I can't blatantly go against a customer's wishes. Still," he paused again, the purple tassels dangling faster, "if you, uh, showed up here Above, I'll let you into my barge. Even if someone sees it, it's a fait accompli, and in that case I'm sure I can convince my customers. In that case, the worst case scenario is probably to leave early empty-handed It's just beautiful."
"This, this is so generous." Unbelievably generous.Bugs are said to be a guy who keeps his word - but he's pretty darn good in business.Even Hamid himself admits that bugs don't have to do him a favour, just for the good name.But now, in order to help him, Bug is willing to risk this twenty-year-long mission.
"Of course, if we really get to that point, I will ask you to work for me for a few years after we get outside. I bet, if you study and study Gualala well, the results you get will probably be enough to make up for all the losses."
A day earlier, Hamid would have nitpicked about contracts, guarantees and what not.Today, alas, other than that, the only option is Ravna & Claw... In the end, Larry acted as their witness, and Hamid set a two-year contract with Worm and the salary standard during this period.
Now, he and Guagua only need to try to climb five thousand meters.He has thought of a way.
Notes:
Notes: