Chapter 11 Chapter Eleven

Hamid wasn't completely unconscious when they pulled him from the attack plane.He didn't know what the acceleration was, it was unbearable to him anyway.He remembered his last glance at Zhongmei, serene and calm.And then...they took the quack - or rather the corpse of the quack - away.who?One was human, the woman named Ravna; she had tended the wound on his hand, and the bleeding had stopped.And... and quack, get up and walk around.No, the fur pattern is completely different.It must have been the sharp claws.He heard a hiss, and the owner of the sound seemed to be having an argument with Ravna.

The ceiling and walls were flooded with sunlight, and his shadow was reflected on the ceiling in all directions.For the first few hours he had been so dizzy that he thought it was another prisoner.There wasn't a single gap in the wall, but some spots and scratches were visible, as if someone had used heavy equipment inside.He thought there was a door at the top, but he didn't remember it very well: there was nothing there to see now anyway.The room was like an empty bedroom, without any furniture, and through the floor, he could still see the stars beyond the ship—it wasn't like a normal prison cell at all.There was no toilet inside, and even if there were, it wouldn't work at five G's.The air was filled with the stench of himself...it seemed the room was sealed.The transparent floor was probably just a programmed illusion.Maybe flip a switch and Hamid will disappear forever.

Quack is dead, Papa is dead, Larry and Worm are probably dead too... Hamid's uninjured hand lifts up a few centimeters and then clenches into a fist.Lying here, he had the urge to kill for the first time.He thinks about it over and over again...so there's no time to be afraid. "Mr. Thompson." It was Ravna.After hours of rage, the voice of the enemy was finally heard again.Hamid jumped slightly in shock, and he quickly controlled himself, "Mr. Thompson, we will be in free fall in fifteen seconds. Please take it easy." Ah, suddenly polite. He had been pressed to the ground for several hours, and even his breathing seemed to be exercising, and now the strength gradually weakened.There was a "thumping" sound from behind the walls and ceiling.For a moment he panicked, thinking the floor had disappeared and he was about to fall out.He twisted his body, and finally touched the solid ground with one hand... Then, he slowly floated towards the opposite of him - the ceiling just now.A door opens.He went through the door and into a hall.Apart from the intricate pattern of grooves and protrusions on the walls, everything was normal.

"There is a restroom fifteen meters ahead." Ravna's voice came from nowhere. "There are some clean clothes there, you should be able to wear them. When you change your clothes... When you change your clothes, we have to talk." talk." You're fucking right.Hamid straightened his shoulders and walked awkwardly toward the bathroom. She doesn't look like a murderer.Was the look on her face annoyed—or nervous?She seems to have not rested for a long time.He looks like someone who keeps fighting, but has long since given up hope. Hamid floated slowly into the room where Ravna was, trying to make sense of the situation quickly.Is this a conference room or a bridge?Anyway, the room is big, but the ceiling is very low.In zero gravity, walking in this room is not difficult: just lightly bounce from the floor to the roof and back again.The walls on all sides form an arc, most of which are transparent; outside the walls are stars and the night sky.

Ravna had been standing under a lamp, but now she took a step back so that she was no longer in the direct light of the lamp.She hooked her foot into something on the floor to stabilize herself, then waved for Hamid to stand on the other side of a table.Now they are two meters apart, and in the zero-G room, both bodies are slightly bent.But even so, she was taller than she looked on the video call, and should be about his weight.In other parts, she was no different from Hamid's memory, except that she looked very tired.Her eyes flicked past him and then elsewhere. "Hi, Mr. Thompson. You can just touch the floor and it will help you stop."

Hamid didn't take her advice.He clung to the edge of the table and pressed his feet hard against the floor.In this way, if he needs to move quickly later, he will have a support point. "Where is Gualala?" His voice was hoarse, although he was asking, there was despair in his tone. "Your pet died." There is a short pause before the word "dead".She hadn't gotten any better at lying.He swallowed back his anger.If Quack is still alive, he has other things to do besides revenge.He said "Oh" expressionlessly. "In any case, we are going to send you home safely." She gestured to the surrounding starry sky, "The acceleration of six G just now was to avoid unnecessary conflicts with the Roslyn Mal people. Will continue to coast out for a while, maybe even fly with the air-breathing ramjet for a while. But Mr. Talon will take you back to Central America in an attack plane. You may be able to land in the western part of the continent, find a place where there is no one , without attracting attention." Her tone was cold, and Hamid noticed that she never looked him directly in the eye for long; now, for example, she was only looking at half of his face.Hamid remembered the phone call last night, when she seemed to deliberately not watch his video.From up close, she was as charming as she was on the phone—no, more charming.How he wanted to see her smile once.And I was a little uneasy: I would be dazzled by a strange murderer.

If she... "If you could tell me why, I'd think about it. Why did you kill Croak? Why did you kill my father?" Ravna's eyes narrowed: "That dirty liar? He's too scheming to die so easily. He had already run away when we got to the farm. I'm afraid we didn't kill anyone in this operation—Roslyn Marr The barge is still working." She sighed, "We're all lucky. You don't know what the claws have been like these days... He called you last night." Hamid nodded nonchalantly. "At that time, he had a good temper - when I was about to take over the spaceship, he even wanted to kill me. One day later, he will be dead - your planet will probably have to be buried with him."

He remembered the bug's theory about the Claws.Now Guagua fell into the hands of that guy... "So the sharp claws are satisfied?" Ravna didn't notice the tremor in his voice, but nodded absently. "Right now he's dazed, but out of danger. Poor guy, it's difficult to set up, it may take weeks...but he'll adjust, probably better than he's ever been." God knows what that means. She backed away from the table with a slight push, then stopped, propping one hand on the low ceiling.It seems that this meeting is over. "Don't worry, he'll take you home when he recovers a bit, and it won't be long. Now I'll take you to see your—"

"Don't rush him, Love. What reason does he have to go back to Zhongmei?" The voice was a nice tenor, like a human voice, but a little vague. Ravna jumped down from the ceiling: "I thought you wouldn't meddle in this matter! Of course this kid has to go back, that's his home, where he should be." "Really?" the voice laughed.He sounded like a happy - jubilant - drunk. "You've got a bad reputation out there, you know that?" "Uh?" "That's right. You melted down a whole ship of room temperature fusion reactors that the tour group brought. Of course, the two federal policemen helped a little in this matter, but everyone is happy to ignore it. To make matters worse, most of the anti-gravity stuff is gone. Ahaha, fly, fly, fly away. You'll never have anti-gravity until another ship comes from outside—"

"Shut up!" Ravna yelled over the cheerful voice, "Anti-gravity materials are just cheap tricks. Such delicate things won't last long in the reptilian world. After five years they will be gone." useless." "Of course, of course. I understand it, and you understand it. But, Hamid, the people and tourists in China and America think it's your fault. It's a fool to go back in this situation." Ravna shouted something in a language Hamid had never heard. "Speak English, Love, English. I want him to figure out what's going on." "He has to go back!" Ravna sounded extremely angry, almost violent, "We agreed!"

"I know, Love." The excess of joy in the voice was less than before, and it was full of sympathy, "I feel sorry. But I was not the same as I am now, and now I have a clearer mind... Hey , I'll be right down, okay?" She closed her eyes.At zero G, it was still difficult to fall; but Ravna almost did it.She quickly relaxed her arms and shoulders, and slowly floated up from the floor.She only heard her whisper: "Oh, my God." In the hall outside, someone was whistling.It was a popular tune in Margate six months ago.A shadow appeared on the wall, followed by...quack?Hamid moved staggeringly, arms flailing in the air, looking for something to support.He steadied himself and took a closer look. No, not quack.They were definitely of the same species, but the black and white stripes on this one were nothing like the croaks.It has a large circle of black hair around one eye and a large circle of white hair around the other, which looks ridiculous.But Hamid couldn't laugh at all—he finally saw Mr. Claw. The human and the alien stared at each other for a while.He is smaller than Quack, and he wears an orange-red checkered scarf around his neck.His claws didn't seem to be any more nimble than Quack's...but Hamid had no doubts that there was intelligence in those eyes.Mr. Claw floated to the ceiling, flicked his claw deftly, and stopped.There are faint sounds in the air now, squeaks, bird-like chirps, so soft they are barely audible.However, if you get closer, you should still be able to hear that hissing sound. Mr. Claw looked at him and smiled happily—it was the tenor just now. "Don't worry! I'm not here yet." Hamid looked at the door.Two more came, one with a jeweled collar—the chief?They slid through the air and landed next to the first one.Hamid noticed that there were more shadows coming this way. "How many are there?" he asked. "I'm six in one now." Hamid thought it wasn't the first one to speak, but it didn't sound like there was any difference in voice. Three more came in, one of whom was wearing neither scarf nor jewelry... looked very familiar. "Quack!" Hamid pushed the table and wanted to go to the door.He spun around and rushed several meters away from the door.The croak--Hamid was sure it was a croak--turned and fled the house. "Get away!" In an instant, the voice of the sharp claws changed, becoming as threatening as last night.Hamid stood on the wall by the door and looked into the hall.There was Croak, sitting on the closed door at the other end of the room.Hamid's sense of direction suddenly disappeared... He seemed to feel that the hall was like a deep well, and he was trapped at the bottom of the well. "Quack?" Hamid's voice was soft, and he knew that the claws were right behind him. She looked up at him and said in her softest female voice, "I can't play those games anymore, Hamid." Hamid's eyes widened for no reason.Over the years, Quack has said a lot of things that some people think are meaningful, but this is either a coincidence, or the imagination of the people who heard it.But here, Hamid knew for the first time in twenty years that he was looking at an intelligent being before him...he understood now why Ravna said Quack was dead. He backed away from the deep well and looked at the other claws.That's when Hamid remembered that each of them could talk, and it was almost as if they were one and the same individual.He asked, "You're like the same litter, aren't you?" "Kindly." A voice came from somewhere between them. "And has telepathy." Hamid said. His former friend replied in a tenor voice: "Yes, between me. But it's not a sixth sense. You've always known this: Aren't I always talkative? That's why you call me quack." La la." The squeaks and hisses turned out to be just language they used with each other.Or, in their 200,000 hertz range, the part that human ears can hear, "I'm sorry I ran away just now. I'm still a little confused, and I don't quite understand who I am." Guagua gently exerted force and floated back to the bridge.When she reached Hamid, she grabbed the ceiling and stopped.She tentatively put her head toward him, as if he were a stranger.My feelings for you haven't changed at all, Hamid thought.He reached out and touched her neck lightly with his fingertips.She shrank suddenly and hid among the other claws. Hamid looked at them, and they looked at him.He suddenly felt that they were like a group of long-necked rats studying their prey intently. "So, who is the real Mr. Claw? The demon who wants to destroy a world, or the good guy now?" Ravna spoke, her voice tired and cold. "The demon has disappeared... or is disappearing. Don't you understand? His combination was insane at that time, and he almost died." "I had five singles in my set at the time, Hamid. That's not a bad number: some of the smartest sets are quintuplets. But I went from seven to five - two of them was killed, the remaining five cannot form a complete group, and only one of them is female." Claw paused, "I know that human beings can live without contact with the opposite sex for several years, and at most only feel slight discomfort—" A perfect example of "slight discomfort" is right in front of you. "—but the Claws are completely different. If the gender ratio of a combination is too disparate, especially if the skills of the various components do not match, the consciousness will disintegrate... During this period, many terrible things may happen." Hamid noted Now, when the sharp claws are talking, there are two components surrounding the one wearing the orange scarf, constantly untying and knotting the knots on the scarf, untying and knotting again, the movements are very fast and very coordinated.Claws don't need hands at all.In other words, Mr. Claw already has six hands.A person can't stop fiddling with his tie when he is very nervous, and the movements of these two components are probably similar to that. "Ravna said that Quack is dead, that's not true. But I forgive her: she wants you to get off the boat and don't ask any more questions. But Quack is not dead, on the contrary, she is saved... Otherwise, she will die for the rest of her life." An ignorant animal. At the same time, she saved the whole group. I feel very... happy. Even better than when I was seven. Things that I didn't understand for many years now seem to be clear. You Quack is more gifted with language than any other part of me, and I would never be able to speak like I do without her." Ravna had floated to the side of the claw.Now with her feet fixed on the floor beneath them, her head resting on the shoulder of one of them, her eyes on the same level as the other, she said to Hamid: "You can think of gua-la-la as a brain-manager." language hemisphere." "Not quite," said Mr. Claw. "The hemispheres of the brain can almost function independently, but Quack can never be a person by himself." In the past, wasn’t Guagua’s greatest wish to become a real person?And in this guy's words, he can still hear the echo of croaking.What they say seems to make sense...but if you change a few words, you can also interpret it as slavery and rape-like the terrible theory put forward by the worm. Hamid avoided the many pairs of eyes and looked out at the nebula beyond the ship.How much should I believe?How much should I let them think I believe? "There's a tourist trying to sell us a little bauble, an 'ansible.' You know, we used it to inquire about the Claws. Wonder what we heard?" He pulled Larry from the galaxy What the other end heard told them. Ravna exchanged glances with the claw assembly next to her head.For a while no one spoke, only creaking and hissing in the bridge.Then the sharp claws opened his mouth: "You have terrible villains on this earth, and there have been massacres. Believe me, far more terrible things have happened elsewhere... Imagine if that evil force was very powerful and efficient. , and no impartial historian has escaped its clutches. Under such circumstances, what rumors will there be in the universe, in your opinion, about those exterminated races?" "Fine. Then—" "The Talons are not demons. We are no more bloodthirsty than humans in general. But we evolved from some kind of wolf-like creature, and we are deadly fighters. With the right personnel and weapons, we can probably defeat the Any race in the reptilian world." Hamid thought of those attack planes, one component in each attack plane, plus radio communication... The human team can't compare with their cooperation, "In the place where we live In the world of block crawlers, the Claws were once powerful. But even when there is no war, we have enemies, which is not difficult to understand. We are immortal, but as the old components die and new components are added, we have yours. Attitudes are likely to vary from friendly to nonchalant, even hostile. Would you trust such a creature?" Hamid looked at Ravna and the group around her.It was easy for him to believe that the Talons had been mighty fighters.They had met a deadlier opponent, now almost extinct, and he could believe that.Other than that... only a fool would believe what they hear.He might be able to make friends with Claw, and he'd love to be friends with Ravna.But all these words, all these plausible evidence, may all be nothing more than a means of manipulating him.One thing he was sure of: If he returned to China and America, he would never know the truth.He might live a lifetime of safety and comfort, but Quack would never be by his side again, and he would never be able to figure out what happened to her. He smiled at Ravna with his mouth cocked. "Then let's go back to the previous conditions. I want to go to Leap World with you." "That's impossible. I—I made it clear from the beginning." Hamid approached her and stopped a meter away from her. "Why do you never look at me?" he asked softly, "Why do you hate me so much?" She stared at him blankly for a full second. "I don't hate you!" Her face darkened, as if she was about to cry, "It's just that you're such a fucking disappointment!" She backed away abruptly, knocking away the sharp claws behind her. He followed her, walking slowly back to the table.She "stands" there, talking to herself in some language that Hamid doesn't understand. "She's swearing to her ancestors," whispered a claw unit as it floated up to Hamid's head. "Her people take that kind of thing seriously." Hamid stood in front of her, studying her face carefully.She looks very young, seems to be less than twenty years old.But there are ways for those on the outside to stop aging.Besides, Ravna had been traveling at close to the speed of light for at least the past ten years. "You hired me—you hired Hussein Thompson to adopt me?" She nodded. "why?" This time she didn't back away, but glanced at him a few times.Finally she sighed and said, "Okay, I'll try my best to explain... but there are many things that you people in the reptile world can't understand. China and the United States are very close to the leap world, but you are just peeking at it; You know even less about it." She was speaking more and more like Larry the Lazy. "I'd like to start with the five-year-old's version." "Okay." A little smile appeared on her face, although it was only a flash, but it was exactly what Hamid expected in his heart.He wished he could make her smile more, "'Once upon a time,'" and the smile came back, this time with a wider upward curve! "There was a very bright and good man; of the highest intellect and heart of all human or humanoid life: a mathematical genius, a great leader, and a marvelous peacemaker. He lived Five hundred subjective years, half of which he has been fighting against a very evil force." The sharp claws came in: "It's part of that thing that swallowed our people for breakfast." Ravna nodded, "In the end, it swallowed our hero too. He has been dead for about a hundred objective years. The enemy has been vigilant and prevented him from being resurrected. Claw and I are the only ones left Someone who wants him back... What do you know about cloning, Mr. Thompson?" Hamid couldn't speak for a while, Ravna couldn't understand what she meant. “Tourists say that with just one cell, you can create a fertilized egg that can develop into an adult. They say it’s easy, but all you get is an identical twin of the original.” "Basically. In fact, a clone is usually far inferior to an identical twin. The environment in the mother's womb determines most of the characteristics of an adult. Take mathematical talent, for example. Part of it is the excess testosterone that the fetus receives in the womb; and it has to be just right: any more and you go from genius to idiot." "For a long time, Talon and I were on the run. Fifty years ago we arrived at Roslyn Mall—the dead end. We took one of the man's cells, a cell that could be cloned. A cell that could be used to grow humans Not much medical equipment, but we did our best. The newborn appeared to be healthy...” Rustle, hiss. "But why didn't you raise that—kid yourself?" Hamid asked. "Why did you hire someone to take him to the reptile world?" Ravna bit her lip and looked away.Talon replied, "There are two reasons. The enemy wants you to disappear forever, and hiding you in the reptilian world is the best way to avoid him. The other reason is more subtle. Want a perfect replica, memory Copies are essential, and we don't have that. But if we can get you to grow up in similar circumstances...should get similar results." "It's like the original one is back, only with severe amnesia." Sharppaw chuckled, "That's right. And at first, things went very well. We met Hussein Thompson at Roslyn Mall, which was a stroke of luck. The guy seemed pretty smart, And willing to earn the money. He brought the baby who couldn't walk back to Central America, then married a smart woman, and made her your mother." "Everything is planned, and the acquired environment is more matched than we thought. I even gave up a part of myself, a newborn, to let her be with you." "I guess I basically knew what happened after that," Hamid said. "Things went well for the first eight years—"a loving family, a happy time—"until I found out that I wasn't even a math student. Genius. Then, your hired help gets overwhelmed and your plan falls apart." "It shouldn't have been like this," Ravna slapped the table hard. This action caused her body to rush upwards, and the fixation on her feet almost loosened. "Mathematical ability is very important, but even without it, we There's one more chance—but Thompson played us." She glared at Hamid, then at Talon, "that man's parents both died when he was ten. Hussain and his wife Should have disappeared when you were ten too. We agreed! They were supposed to fake a plane crash and—” she swallowed, “we tried to contact him. He wouldn’t interview us. The cunning He's full of excuses. 'I don't see the point in hurting this kid any more,' he said. 'He's not a superman, he's just a good kid. I hope he's happy!'" she Literally choking on his own anger, "Happy! If only he knew what we've all been through, and the stakes—" Hamid's face froze and he was completely unconscious.Wonder what it would be like to throw up in zero gravity?He asked: "Then—what about my mother?" His voice was extremely low. Ravna shook her head slightly, "She tried to convince Thompson. When she found out she couldn't do anything, she left you. It was too late; besides, the trauma that person experienced was not abandonment. But she fulfilled her Part of the obligation; as a reward, we paid most of the money she agreed upon... We were looking forward to finding the person who could perform miracles in China and the United States, but in the end, we only found—" "—a pile of rubbish?" He didn't even have the energy to be angry now. She sighed, her voice trembling. "...no, I don't really think so. Maybe Hussein Thompson has produced a good guy, which is more than most people. But if you're the guy we want, now You should already be a famous figure in Central America: the greatest scientist, the greatest man of action since the founding of the colony. And that was just the beginning." Her eyes seemed to pass through Hamid's body... recalling ? Claw cleared his throat, using a different sound than the last time. "It's not rubbish, and it's not a 'nice kid' either. A part of me lived with him for twenty years; as a single body, Gua La La's memory is pretty clear. For me, Hammy De isn't a broken dream. He's certainly not what we expected, but I enjoy being with him, and I can say that I like him as much as I like...the other guy. And, in a crisis When... well, I saw his reaction, even the original one couldn't have been better. Flying into the sky with unprocessed anti-gravity material, that kind of courage is exactly-" "I admit it, Claw. This kid is really brave and quick to react. But there is a difference between blind recklessness and considered risk. He is already so old that he can only be a 'good guy' in this life. It's gone." When she said this, Ravna's voice was full of sarcasm. "It could have been worse, Love." "You know very well that we have to do much better than this! Come to think of it, it will take two subjective years to fly out of the reptilian world, and our levitation device is broken. Do I have to look at his face every day for the whole time? Two years? Impossible! He must go back to Central America." She kicked her legs and floated towards the sharp claws on Hamid's head. "I don't think so," said Sharppaw. "As long as he doesn't want to go, I won't send him back." A look of anger came to Ravna's face; strangely, she also seemed terrified. "That's not what you said last week." "Hehehe." Larry the Otter laughed. "I've changed. Don't you see?" Grabbing a piece of ceiling, she looked down at Hamid from a height, seemingly calculating. "Boy, I think you haven't figured out the situation yet. We don't have much time to land in a place like Roslyn Mall. We have a last resort, maybe we can bring him back to life, and even his memory." Get it back. We're going to Beyond Limits, do you really want to come? The chances of us surviving—" She paused, a smile formed on her face—it wasn't a friendly smile, " Haven't you ever thought about it? What use is your body to us? You don't understand our plans at all. Maybe we can figure out a way to transform you into a...well, a blank data storage." Hamid tried to return her gaze, praying secretly that none of the fear in his heart was written on his face. "Maybe. But I've got two years to prepare, don't I?" They stared at each other for a long time - the longest eye contact so far. Finally, Ravna said, "Okay then." She floated a little closer, "I'll give you some advice: we're going to be locked up here for two years, it's a big ship, get out of my way." She took a few steps back , floating out from the ceiling, the speed is getting faster and faster.Then, she rushed into the back hallway and disappeared.

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Notes: Pham Nuwen's experiences described in and are inconsistent.