Chapter 29 Chapter nine
"Zarqawi..."
"don't want."
Still the same rejection.They were standing in a park, on the edge of a large, neatly mowed lawn, under a tree that had lost its tip.A warm breeze brings the smell of the ocean with a hint of floral scent, whispering across dead trees.The dissipated morning fog still obscured the two suns.Sima shook her head angrily, turned and walked away for a short distance.
He was leaning against a tree, holding his chest tightly and breathing hard.Skaven-Amtisko floated nearby, watching the man carefully, but also playing with a bug on another tree trunk.
Skaven-Amtisko thought to himself that the man was crazy;He never really explained why he was wandering through the devastation of the attacking fort.When Sma and the robots finally found him and took him away, the bullet-riddled, dying man babbling on the fortress wall insisted on stabilizing him, and that was all.He didn't want them to heal him.He wouldn't listen to reasons, but the Outlander - when picking him up - refused to declare the man insane and incapable of making his own decisions, so the ship dutifully put him into a slow-metabolic sleep to cope. What followed was a fifteen-day voyage to the planet where a woman named Lifyeta Zarqawi currently lives.
He wakes up from slow sleep just as badly as he did when he fell asleep.The man appeared to be a walking mess and still had two bullets in his body, but refused any medical treatment until he saw the woman.That was extraordinary, Skaven-Amtisko thought, using an extended force field to block the path of a bug that had fallen from a tree trunk and was trying to find its way back.The worm changes direction and waves its tentacles.Another kind of insect climbed up the trunk, and Skaven-Amtiskov tried to make them meet and see what would happen.
Extraordinary, even - indeed - abnormal.
"Okay." He coughed (one lung was already filled with blood, the robot knew). "Let's go." He pushed himself away from the trunk.Scarfin-Amtisko remorsefully gave up the game with those two worms.The droid finds it strange to be here; civilization knows this planet exists, but hasn't fully investigated it yet.It was discovered through research rather than physical exploration - and since there is nothing particularly strange about the place, only a very preliminary investigation has been carried out - technically this is still uncharted territory, Skaven-Amti Skoye was also on fairly high alert for any dastardly surprises in this place.
Sima walked towards the bald man and stretched his hand over his waist to help him up.Together they walked up the slight slope of the lawn to a low ridge.Skaven-Amtisko watched them go from the shade of the trees, and then slowly descended beside them, following them to the highest point of the hill.
The man staggered when he saw something in the distance on the other side.The robot suspects that if Sma hadn't held him up, he would have fallen to the grass.
"D-dead," he gasped, trying to straighten up, blinking in the slanting sunlight that suddenly pierced through the evaporating fog.
He staggered a few more steps, shrugging off Sima, and turned toward the parkland; there were sculpted trees and manicured lawns, ornamental walls and detailed gazebos, stone-edged pools and quiet A dark path in the orchard.And in the distance, among the strong trees, was the dark figure of the torn Starblind.
"They made a fucking park for it," he panted, standing there, turned, bending slightly to look at the wrecked silhouette of the old battleship.Sima walked over to him.He seemed to wilt a little; she put her arms around his waist again.He grimaced in pain.They continued walking, towards the path leading to the battleship.
"Why are you looking at this, Charidian?" Sma asked quietly as they crunched across the pavement.The robot floated behind and above them.
"What?" the man asked, turning his eyes away from the battleship for a second.
"Why did you come here, Shadi Ryan?" Sima asked. "She's not here. She doesn't live here."
"I know," he gasped. "Of course I know."
"Then why do you want to see this wreck?"
He was silent for a brief moment.He didn't seem to hear, but then took a breath -- and it hurt to do so -- and shook his sweat-shiny head, saying, "Oh; just... for the sake of the past..." They passed Several other dead trees.He shook his shaved head; they left the grove, where the battleship could be seen more clearly. "I just didn't expect ... they would do this to it," he said.
"What?" Sam asked.
"This." He nodded to the black hulk.
"What did they do, Charidian?" Smart said patiently.
"Take it," he began, and then stopped, coughing, his body tensing with pain. "Turn the damn thing...into a decoration. Save it."
"What, this ship?"
He looked at her as if she had gone mad. "Yeah," he said. "Yes; the ship."
As far as Skaven-Amtiskau could see, it was just a large old warship anchored in concrete in the dock.It made contact with the Xenophobia, which was making detailed maps of the planet to pass the time.
──Hello, ship.Zarqawi seemed very interested in the park with the wrecks.Just wondering why.Want to do some research?
──Wait a minute; I still have a continent to do, and a deep ocean floor and subsurface to do.
──They'll be around later; it might be interesting now.
──Be patient, Skaven-Amtisko.
Show off, the robot thought, cutting off the communication.
The two humans followed a twisting path through trash cans, benches, picnic tables, and information points.Skaven-Amtisko activated one of the ancient information points as he passed by.A slow and crackling tape began: "The ship you see before you..." It would take a lifetime, Skaven-Amtisko thought.It accelerates the machine with an electromagnetic controller, raising the sound to a high-frequency vibrato.The tape broke.Skaven-Amtisko's controllers crackled angrily, letting the computer smoke and drip flaming plastic onto the pavement below, while the two humans stepped into the shadow of the wrecked ship. .
The battleship remained the same; bombed, shelled, strafed, blasted and torn apart, but never destroyed.Where hands can't touch it, and where rain can't hit, the soot traces of the flames of two centuries ago are still printed on the iron armor.Turrets torn apart like tin cans; gun barrels and seekers perched askew across deck brackets; tangled shrouds and downed antennas strewn about cracked searchlights and drooping radar dishes; a single massive The chimney appears to be lying on its side, with metal potholed and stripped.
A small canopied staircase led to the main deck of the ship; they followed two young children.Skaven-Amtisko floated ten meters away, barely visible, slowly rising with them.One of the toddlers screamed at the sight of a limping, bald-headed man with staring eyes.Her mother picked her up and took her away.
When they reached the deck, he had to stop to rest.Sima took him to a bench.He sat and bent up for a while, then looked at the ship above his head, and all the scorched and rusted wreckage came into view.Shaking his shaved head, he whispered something to himself, then laughed quietly, coughing into his chest.
"Museum," he said. "A museum..." Sima put her hand on his wet forehead.She thought he looked terrible, and baldness didn't suit him.His plain black clothes were torn and bloodstained when they found and took him from the walls of the fort; Wear brightly colored clothing.Even Sima's hakama and coat looked somber compared to the cheerful clothes most people wore.
"Is this your old place, Charidian?" she asked.
He nods. "Yes," he gasped, looking up to watch the last wisps of mist drift by like gaseous pennants on a leaning mainmast. "Yes," he repeated.
Sima turned her head to look at the park behind her and the city in the distance. "Is this where you came from?"
He didn't seem to hear.After a while, he stood up slowly and looked into Sima's eyes distractedly.She felt herself trembling, trying to remember how old Zarqawi really was. "Let's go, Da...Desert." He showed a smile as light as water. "Take me to her place, will you?"
Sima shrugged and supported the man with one shoulder.They descended the stairs and returned to the ground.
"Robot?" Smart said to a brooch on his lapel.
"What's up?"
"Is our lady still where we've heard lately?"
"Indeed," said the robotic voice. "Want to take the cockpit kit?"
"No," he said, staggering and falling on the first step, and Sma hugged him. "No cockpit kit. We'll... take a train, or a taxi, or..."
"Are you sure?" Smith said.
"Yes; I'm sure."
"Zarqawi," Sma sighed. "Please get some treatment."
"No," said the man, now that they had reached the ground.
"Turn right twice and you'll be at an underground station," the robot told Sma. "To Central Station; take the train from platform eight to Kuraz."
"Okay," Sma said reluctantly, glancing at him.He stared down at the pavement, as if contemplating which foot to put before the other.He turned his head as they passed the bow of the wrecked battleship, squinting at the tall, curved V of the bow.Sma watched the expression on his sweaty face, but couldn't tell whether it was awe, disbelief, or some kind of horror.
Underground trains galloped through concrete-lined tunnels, carrying them into the city center; the main station was crowded, tall, reverberating, and clean.The sun shone through the vaulted glass roof.Skaven-Amtisko, disguised as a suitcase, hangs lightly in Sma's hand.The wounded man was much heavier in her other hand. The electromagnetic levitation train comes in and drops off all the passengers; they get on with a few others. "Can you hold on, Charidian?" Sma asked him.He was splayed out on a chair, with his arm on the table, looking somehow broken or paralyzed.He stared at the seat opposite, ignoring the passing cityscape as the train sped along the viaduct towards the suburbs and countryside. He nodded. "I will survive." "Yes, but how long?" said the robot, lying on the table in front of Sma. "You are in terrible condition, Zarqawi." "Better than looking like a suitcase," he said, glancing at the machine. "Oh, that's funny," said the machine. ──Have you finished the drawing yet?It asks xenophobia number. ──Not yet. ──Couldn't you spare some of your amazingly quick mind to find out why he's interested in that ship? ──Oh, I think so, but... ──Wait; now what?Listen to this. "...I thought you'd know. I told you before," he said, looking out the window but speaking to Sma.The city flew by in the distance, glistening in the sun.His eyes widened, his pupils dilated, and Sma somehow had the feeling that while looking at one city, he was actually looking at another, or the same, but long ago, as though the scene had been punctured by some kind of time. A polarized light, visible only to his sad, burning eyes. "Are you from this place?" "It was a long time ago," he said, coughing and bending over, one arm at his side.He breathes slowly. "I was born here..." The woman listens.The robot listens.The ship listens. He began to tell a story about a big house that stood between the mountains and the sea, up the river that ran through the big city.He told them of the grounds that surrounded the house, of the beautiful gardens, and of the three, and later four, children who had grown up in the house and played in the gardens.He told them about the summer house, the stone ship, the labyrinth, the fountain, the lawn, the ruins, and the animals in the forest.He told them of two boys and two girls, and two mothers, a stern and an invisible father, who were imprisoned in the city.He told them about the visit to the city, which the boys always thought was too long, and about the time they were forbidden to go to the garden without a guard following them, and how they stole a gun one day to take it to the manor Shooting, as far as the stone ship, surprised the assassins who came to assassinate their family, and saved the day by warning the house.He told them about the bullet that had hit Duckens, and about the fragment of her bone that had nearly pierced his heart. His throat started to dry out and his voice became hoarse.Sima saw a waiter come in pushing a cart at the far end of the carriage.She bought a few soft drinks; he gulped at first, but coughed painfully, then took only sips. "Then the war broke out," he said, watching the last suburbs sweep by without actually looking; they sped up again, and the country was a blur of green. "And those two boys, they became men ... fell into different camps." ─That's interesting, the Xenophobe sent a message to Skaven-Amtiskau.I figured I'd do some quick research. ──It's about time, too, the robot responded, listening to the man talk. He told them of the war, and of the siege involving the Staplelinde, and that the besieged troops broke out... He also told them of the man, the boy who used to play in the garden, who one dreadful night contributed to A deed had been accomplished that made him crowned the Chairmaker, and that morning Dakens's sister and brother discovered what Elsioma had done, and the brother tried to commit suicide and relinquish his leadership, Desperate and selfish, he abandoned the army and his sister. He also told them that Livretta had never forgiven him, and followed him—even though he didn't know it at the time—on another hibernation ship, through the difficult, calm, slow real universe for a whole century, To a place where icebergs swirled around the polar continents, and the ice calved and smashed and screamed all year long...but she lost him too, and the trail was apparently broken, so she stayed there searching for years, completely unaware of him Already left for a different life, taken away by a woman who walked through a snowstorm as if she wasn't there, with a tiny starship perched behind her like some loyal pet. And Lifyeta Zarqawi finally gave up and chose another long journey to escape the burden of her memory, and her final resting place (the ship asked the robot for the location; Scarfin-Amtis Kao gave it the name of the planet and galaxy, located tens of light-years away), which is where they tracked her after he completed the last mission for them. Skaven-Amtiskov could remember.The grey-haired woman, approaching old age, worked in a clinic in a slum, a flimsy little town like rubbish spilled on muddy and tree-covered hillsides, above a tropical metropolis overlooking a sparkling lagoon of a vast ocean, Estuary sandbars and churning waves.When they first went to her, she was slender, with black lines under her eyes, and a child with a belly as big as a clay pot was cradled at the waist, standing in the middle of a crowded room, crying her skirt. The robot has already learned how to recognize all human facial expressions; and when it saw Lifyeta Zarqawi's expression when he saw Zarqawi, it thought that it was a nearly unique experience.So surprised; yet filled with such hatred! "Charidian..." Sima said softly, placing a hand gently on his.She rested her other hand on the nape of his neck, rubbing his head as it dropped to the table.He turned his head and watched the pasture flow by like a golden sea. He raised one hand and ran it slowly and smoothly across his forehead and shaved skull, as if combing his long hair.
Kuraz covers it all; ice and fire, land and water.For a time, this vast isthmus was filled with rocks and glaciers, then a forest, and the world and the continents moved, causing climate change.Later it became a desert, but then endured things beyond the capacity of the entire planet.A mountain-sized asteroid hit the isthmus like a bullet into flesh. It crashed into the granite core of the landmass, shaking the planet like a bell.For the first time in history, two oceans meet; the soot of a massive explosion obscures the sun, sparking a mini ice age that wipes out thousands of species.The ancestors of these creatures seized the chance of drastic upheaval and later took over the entire planet. The crater melted into a dome in response to the planet's million-year response; the oceans were parted again, and the rocks—even these seemingly solid surfaces, flowing and curving across vast distances and time—were removed. Pushed back, it's as if a billion-year-old bruise emerges on the world's skin. Sima found the tourist brochure from the back of the seat.She looked up from the booklet for a while, and looked at the man sitting across from her.He fell asleep.His face was distorted, gray and old.She couldn't remember ever seeing him so old and unhealthy.Hell, he looked much healthier when he was beheaded. "Zarqawi," she murmured, shaking her head. "What's wrong with you?" "Death intent," the robot whispered quietly. "What an explicit and complicated idea." Sima shook her head and went back to read the booklet.The man sleeps fitfully while the robot watches over him. Sima read Kuraz, and suddenly remembered the old castle when she was picked up by the cockpit of the alien-hating alien. That sunny day seemed a long time ago and far away from this place.She looked up from a picture of the isthmus taken from space, sighed and thought of home below the dam, and began to feel homesick... Kuraz had been a fortified town, a prison, a fortress, a city, a goal.Now—perhaps more correctly, Sma thought, looking at the wounded, trembling man beside him—the great dome of rock that encloses a small city is almost taken over by the largest hospital in the world. The train galloped into a tunnel dug out of outcropping rock. They passed the station and took the elevator to one of the hospital reception floors.They sit on a couch, surrounded by potted plants and music, while robots lie on the ground at their feet, hacking the nearest computer workstation in search of information. "Found her," the robot whispered. "Go tell the receptionist your name; I've got you a passport, no verification required." "Come on, Zarqawi." Sima got up, picked up her passport, and helped the other party stand up.He swayed. "Listen," she said. "Charidon, at least let me—" "Take me directly to her." "Let me talk to her first." "No; take me to her. Now." The wards are located on the upper floors, shrouded in sunlight.Light streams through the bright, soaring windows.There are white clouds floating in the sky, extending beyond the mottled land and woodland to the horizon, and the ocean is a hazy blue under the sky. The old people lie quietly in the large, separated wards.Sima helped him to the bottom, which is where the robot said Livietta would be. Lifyeta Zarqawi looked older; her hair was gray and her skin was soft with age.Her eyes were not dimmed.Standing up a little, she was holding a deep saucer full of little boxes and jars. Livuetta saw them; the man, the woman, and the little white suitcase that was actually a robot. Sima glanced around and hissed. "Zarqawi!" She straightened him up a bit. His eyes were originally closed.They blinked open, squinting uncertainly at the woman standing in front of them.He obviously didn't recognize her at first, and then slowly, understanding settled into his mind. "Xiao Li?" he said, blinking quickly and squinting at her. "Little Li?" "Hello, Ms. Zarqawi," Sima said, seeing that the woman did not respond. Lifyeta Zarqawi turned her contemptuous eyes away from the man half-slung in Sma's right arm.She looked at Sima and shook her head, and for a split second Sima thought she was going to say, no, she wasn't Livuetta. "Why do you keep doing this?" Lifyeta Zarqawi said softly.Her voice was still young, the robot thought, just at this time the Xenophobe had some interesting information for it, gleaned from historical records. (──Really? Robot messenger. Dead?) "Why are you doing this?" she said. "Why did you do this to him... to me; why? Can't you just let us go?" Sima shrugged, a little embarrassed. "Xiaoli..." he said. "I'm sorry, Ms Zarqawi," Sma said. "That's what he asked; we promised him." "Lily, please; talk to me and let me explain—" "You shouldn't have done this," Livuetta told Sma.Then she turned her gaze to the man, who was grinning wildly at her and blinking, rubbing his shaved head with one hand. "He looks bad," she said flatly. "He is," Smart said. "Bring him here," Lifyeta Zarqawi said as she opened another door, leading to a room with a bed.Skaven-Amtiskau still wondered what the truth of the message received from the ship was, and was still amazed that the woman was so calm this time.The last time she tried to kill this man, it had to intervene quickly. "I don't want to lie down," he protested, seeing the bed. "Sit down, then, Charity," said Sma.Lifyeta Zarqawi made a roundabout movement of her head and murmured something that even the robot could not understand.She put the plate containing the medicine on the table, stood in a corner of the room, folded her hands, and watched the man sit on the bed. "I'll leave you alone," Sima said to the woman. "We're just outside." Get me close enough to eavesdrop, thought the robot, and stop her from another murder attempt, if that's her intention. "No," the woman said, shaking her head, looking at the person on the bed with a strange expression. "Don't; don't leave. There's nothing—" "But I want them to leave," he said, coughing and bending so hard he almost fell out of bed.Sima went to help him and moved him a little into the bed. "Why can't you say it in front of them?" Lifyeta Zarqawi asked. "What don't they know?" "I just want to... want to talk privately, Lily, please," he said, looking up at her. "Please..." "I have nothing to say to you. You have nothing to tell me." The robot heard someone outside the door; the man knocked on the door.Livette opened the door.A young female nurse who went by the name "Sister Livretta" told her it was time to prepare for a patient. Lifyeta Zarqawi looks at her watch. "I have to go," she told him. "Xiaoli! Xiaoli, please!" He leaned forward on the bed, with both elbows pressed tightly to his side, fingers sticking out in front of him, palms facing up. "Please!" His eyes filled with tears. "It's pointless," the elderly woman shook her head. "You are also extremely stupid." She looked at Sima. "Stop bringing him to me again." "Xiao Li!" He fell on the bed, curled up and trembling.The robot could feel the heat coming from the shaved head, and see the blood pooling from the neck and hands. "Charidian, it's okay," Sma said, walking to the side of the bed and knelt down on one knee, wrapping her arms around the other's shoulders. There was a loud crash, and Lifyeta Zarqawi tapped her hands on the surface of the table beside her.The man sobbed and trembled.The robot reads weird brainwave patterns.Sima looked up at the woman. "Don't call him that," Lifyeta Zarqawi said. "Don't call him what?" Sima asked. Sma can be pretty dull at times, the robot thought. "Don't call him Charidian." "why?" "That's not his name." "No?" Sima looked confused.The robot monitored the man's brain activity and blood flow, thinking trouble was about to happen. "no." "But..." Sima said.She shook her head suddenly. "He is your brother; he is Sharidian Zarqawi." "No, Miss Sma," said Lifyeta Zarqawi, picking up the medicine tray again and opening the door with one hand. "He is not." "Aneurysm!" said the robot quickly, and the man began to shake convulsively through the air and beside Sma to the bed.It scanned the man more carefully and found a large blood vessel ruptured in the man's brain. It turned him over, straightened his body, and used the controls to knock him unconscious.Blood continued to flow through the opening in his brain, flowing into the surrounding tissue and attacking the cortex. "Sorry, ladies," said the robot.It creates a cutting force field that slices through his skull.The man stops breathing.Skaven-Amtisco created a force field in the other direction to keep the opponent's chest moving, and the controller gently persuaded the muscles to let the lungs work again.It sliced off the top of his skull; a fast, low-energy CREW charge detonated, bounced off the other side of the force field, and cauterized the correct blood vessel.It set the skull aside.The blood was already clearly visible, winding and flowing through the gray folds of the man's brain tissue.His heart stopped; the robot continued to drive it with the controller. Both women stopped, simultaneously fascinated and disgusted by the machine's behavior. It tears apart the man's brain according to the brain's senses; cerebral cortex, limbic system, optic neuromast/cerebellum, gradually penetrates the defense and equipment of the opponent, explores the avenues and paths along the way, passes through memory storage and landscapes, searches, Record, puncture and cauterize. "What do you mean?" Sima asked, speaking almost dreamily to the woman who was about to leave the room. "What do you mean 'no'? You say he's not your brother?" "I mean, he's not Sharidian Zarqawi," Lifietta sighed, watching the robot's extraordinary surgery on the man. she's... she's... she's... Sima frowned at the woman's face. "What? Then..." Go back; go back now.What should I do; go back.The point is to win.go back!Everything has to surrender to the truth. "My brother, Sharidian Zarqawi," Lifyeta Zarqawi said. "Died two hundred years ago. Not long after he received a chair made of our sister's bones." The robot drained the blood from the man's brain, carefully threading force fields into the damaged tissue, collecting the red fluid in a clear ball.A second thin tube spins back the ripped tissue.It draws more blood to lower the man's blood pressure, and uses the controller to change the settings of the glands so that the blood pressure doesn't soar again for a while. It rests the tubular force field in a small sink under the window, pours the blood down the drain, and briefly turns on the faucet.The blood was washed away with a gurgling sound. "And the man you know as Sharidian Zarqawi—" Facing it by facing it, that's what I do; Studboring, Zarqawi; that name hurts, but what else can I do" - just take my brother's life The man who took his name, he also took my sister's life—" but she "—he's the commander of the Starblind. He's the Chairmaker. He's Elsioma." Lifyetta Zarqawi went out, closing the door behind her. Sima turned around, her face was almost drained of blood, looking at the man's body lying on the bed... while Skafin-Amtisko focused on continuing to fight, hoping for a good ending. end As always, the cloud of dust followed them, though the young man said several times that he thought it might rain.The old man disagreed, saying that the clouds on the mountain can deceive people.They drive across a barren landscape, past charred fields, wrecked huts, ruined farms and burned villages, and still smoking towns, until they reach an abandoned city.They rumbled through deserted streets in the city, ramming down an alleyway filled with empty market stalls and crooked columns supporting torn shade cloth, only to be wrecked by the car into completely splintered pieces of wood, and crazily flapping fabrics. They chose the Royal Park as the best place to plant their bombs, since troops might live comfortably in the park's wide spaces, and command headquarters might occupy a grand pavilion.The old man thought they would want to occupy the palace, but the young man convinced him that the invaders were desert peoples at heart and would therefore prefer parks to sprawling fortresses. So they plant the bomb in the big gazebo, activate it, and argue about whether they did it right.They argue over where to wait for things to end, and what to do if the army ignores the entire city and goes right around, and whether the army will shudder to retreat after the expected "big event", or break up into smaller units Continue the invasion, or know that only one weapon is being used, and so maintain the push steadily, with a no doubt more relentless vengeance.They debated whether the invaders would bomb the city first, or send out reconnaissance troops, and—if they did—where the targets would be.They made their bets. About the only thing they agree on is that what they're doing is wasting the only nuke their side -- indeed either side -- has; because if they guess right, the invaders do as they expected. Their best hope was to annihilate one army, but that would still leave three others, any of which might have the means to complete the invasion.So just like people's lives, this bullet was wasted. They sent messages to their superiors, coded to tell them what they had done.A short time later they received a blessing from the higher command, expressed in a single word.Their superiors were not convinced the weapons would work. The older man's name was Callis, and he succeeded in persuading them to stay and wait, so they camped in a high, sprawling fortress, and found lots of weapons and wine, where they drank, chatted, joked, and bartered without restraint A story about boldness and conquest, and at a certain point one of them asks the other what happiness is and gets a rather flippant answer, though no one can remember who asked the question and who gave the answer. They fell asleep, woke up, drank again, told more jokes and lies, and a light rain swept gently across the city somewhere.Sometimes young men will lay their hands on shaved heads, although the long, thick black hair is no longer there. But they were still waiting, and when the first shells started to fall, they realized that they had chosen the wrong place to wait, so they rushed out in a panic, rushed down the stairs and got into the halftrack in the courtyard to escape, fleeing into the desert and the desert beyond , didn't camp again until dusk, got drunk again, and stayed awake at night to watch the flash. Watching the soldiers walk by from the room I think you should be able to tell if they ever come home just by leaving a gap in the ranks I say: you're a fool and turn away, maybe just make a drink for the skilled man Throat down like all my best lies I look to the dark side of things You lean at the window looking into nothingness.
Underground trains galloped through concrete-lined tunnels, carrying them into the city center; the main station was crowded, tall, reverberating, and clean.The sun shone through the vaulted glass roof.Skaven-Amtisko, disguised as a suitcase, hangs lightly in Sma's hand.The wounded man was much heavier in her other hand. The electromagnetic levitation train comes in and drops off all the passengers; they get on with a few others. "Can you hold on, Charidian?" Sma asked him.He was splayed out on a chair, with his arm on the table, looking somehow broken or paralyzed.He stared at the seat opposite, ignoring the passing cityscape as the train sped along the viaduct towards the suburbs and countryside. He nodded. "I will survive." "Yes, but how long?" said the robot, lying on the table in front of Sma. "You are in terrible condition, Zarqawi." "Better than looking like a suitcase," he said, glancing at the machine. "Oh, that's funny," said the machine. ──Have you finished the drawing yet?It asks xenophobia number. ──Not yet. ──Couldn't you spare some of your amazingly quick mind to find out why he's interested in that ship? ──Oh, I think so, but... ──Wait; now what?Listen to this. "...I thought you'd know. I told you before," he said, looking out the window but speaking to Sma.The city flew by in the distance, glistening in the sun.His eyes widened, his pupils dilated, and Sma somehow had the feeling that while looking at one city, he was actually looking at another, or the same, but long ago, as though the scene had been punctured by some kind of time. A polarized light, visible only to his sad, burning eyes. "Are you from this place?" "It was a long time ago," he said, coughing and bending over, one arm at his side.He breathes slowly. "I was born here..." The woman listens.The robot listens.The ship listens. He began to tell a story about a big house that stood between the mountains and the sea, up the river that ran through the big city.He told them of the grounds that surrounded the house, of the beautiful gardens, and of the three, and later four, children who had grown up in the house and played in the gardens.He told them about the summer house, the stone ship, the labyrinth, the fountain, the lawn, the ruins, and the animals in the forest.He told them of two boys and two girls, and two mothers, a stern and an invisible father, who were imprisoned in the city.He told them about the visit to the city, which the boys always thought was too long, and about the time they were forbidden to go to the garden without a guard following them, and how they stole a gun one day to take it to the manor Shooting, as far as the stone ship, surprised the assassins who came to assassinate their family, and saved the day by warning the house.He told them about the bullet that had hit Duckens, and about the fragment of her bone that had nearly pierced his heart. His throat started to dry out and his voice became hoarse.Sima saw a waiter come in pushing a cart at the far end of the carriage.She bought a few soft drinks; he gulped at first, but coughed painfully, then took only sips. "Then the war broke out," he said, watching the last suburbs sweep by without actually looking; they sped up again, and the country was a blur of green. "And those two boys, they became men ... fell into different camps." ─That's interesting, the Xenophobe sent a message to Skaven-Amtiskau.I figured I'd do some quick research. ──It's about time, too, the robot responded, listening to the man talk. He told them of the war, and of the siege involving the Staplelinde, and that the besieged troops broke out... He also told them of the man, the boy who used to play in the garden, who one dreadful night contributed to A deed had been accomplished that made him crowned the Chairmaker, and that morning Dakens's sister and brother discovered what Elsioma had done, and the brother tried to commit suicide and relinquish his leadership, Desperate and selfish, he abandoned the army and his sister. He also told them that Livretta had never forgiven him, and followed him—even though he didn't know it at the time—on another hibernation ship, through the difficult, calm, slow real universe for a whole century, To a place where icebergs swirled around the polar continents, and the ice calved and smashed and screamed all year long...but she lost him too, and the trail was apparently broken, so she stayed there searching for years, completely unaware of him Already left for a different life, taken away by a woman who walked through a snowstorm as if she wasn't there, with a tiny starship perched behind her like some loyal pet. And Lifyeta Zarqawi finally gave up and chose another long journey to escape the burden of her memory, and her final resting place (the ship asked the robot for the location; Scarfin-Amtis Kao gave it the name of the planet and galaxy, located tens of light-years away), which is where they tracked her after he completed the last mission for them. Skaven-Amtiskov could remember.The grey-haired woman, approaching old age, worked in a clinic in a slum, a flimsy little town like rubbish spilled on muddy and tree-covered hillsides, above a tropical metropolis overlooking a sparkling lagoon of a vast ocean, Estuary sandbars and churning waves.When they first went to her, she was slender, with black lines under her eyes, and a child with a belly as big as a clay pot was cradled at the waist, standing in the middle of a crowded room, crying her skirt. The robot has already learned how to recognize all human facial expressions; and when it saw Lifyeta Zarqawi's expression when he saw Zarqawi, it thought that it was a nearly unique experience.So surprised; yet filled with such hatred! "Charidian..." Sima said softly, placing a hand gently on his.She rested her other hand on the nape of his neck, rubbing his head as it dropped to the table.He turned his head and watched the pasture flow by like a golden sea. He raised one hand and ran it slowly and smoothly across his forehead and shaved skull, as if combing his long hair.
Kuraz covers it all; ice and fire, land and water.For a time, this vast isthmus was filled with rocks and glaciers, then a forest, and the world and the continents moved, causing climate change.Later it became a desert, but then endured things beyond the capacity of the entire planet.A mountain-sized asteroid hit the isthmus like a bullet into flesh. It crashed into the granite core of the landmass, shaking the planet like a bell.For the first time in history, two oceans meet; the soot of a massive explosion obscures the sun, sparking a mini ice age that wipes out thousands of species.The ancestors of these creatures seized the chance of drastic upheaval and later took over the entire planet. The crater melted into a dome in response to the planet's million-year response; the oceans were parted again, and the rocks—even these seemingly solid surfaces, flowing and curving across vast distances and time—were removed. Pushed back, it's as if a billion-year-old bruise emerges on the world's skin. Sima found the tourist brochure from the back of the seat.She looked up from the booklet for a while, and looked at the man sitting across from her.He fell asleep.His face was distorted, gray and old.She couldn't remember ever seeing him so old and unhealthy.Hell, he looked much healthier when he was beheaded. "Zarqawi," she murmured, shaking her head. "What's wrong with you?" "Death intent," the robot whispered quietly. "What an explicit and complicated idea." Sima shook her head and went back to read the booklet.The man sleeps fitfully while the robot watches over him. Sima read Kuraz, and suddenly remembered the old castle when she was picked up by the cockpit of the alien-hating alien. That sunny day seemed a long time ago and far away from this place.She looked up from a picture of the isthmus taken from space, sighed and thought of home below the dam, and began to feel homesick... Kuraz had been a fortified town, a prison, a fortress, a city, a goal.Now—perhaps more correctly, Sma thought, looking at the wounded, trembling man beside him—the great dome of rock that encloses a small city is almost taken over by the largest hospital in the world. The train galloped into a tunnel dug out of outcropping rock. They passed the station and took the elevator to one of the hospital reception floors.They sit on a couch, surrounded by potted plants and music, while robots lie on the ground at their feet, hacking the nearest computer workstation in search of information. "Found her," the robot whispered. "Go tell the receptionist your name; I've got you a passport, no verification required." "Come on, Zarqawi." Sima got up, picked up her passport, and helped the other party stand up.He swayed. "Listen," she said. "Charidon, at least let me—" "Take me directly to her." "Let me talk to her first." "No; take me to her. Now." The wards are located on the upper floors, shrouded in sunlight.Light streams through the bright, soaring windows.There are white clouds floating in the sky, extending beyond the mottled land and woodland to the horizon, and the ocean is a hazy blue under the sky. The old people lie quietly in the large, separated wards.Sima helped him to the bottom, which is where the robot said Livietta would be. Lifyeta Zarqawi looked older; her hair was gray and her skin was soft with age.Her eyes were not dimmed.Standing up a little, she was holding a deep saucer full of little boxes and jars. Livuetta saw them; the man, the woman, and the little white suitcase that was actually a robot. Sima glanced around and hissed. "Zarqawi!" She straightened him up a bit. His eyes were originally closed.They blinked open, squinting uncertainly at the woman standing in front of them.He obviously didn't recognize her at first, and then slowly, understanding settled into his mind. "Xiao Li?" he said, blinking quickly and squinting at her. "Little Li?" "Hello, Ms. Zarqawi," Sima said, seeing that the woman did not respond. Lifyeta Zarqawi turned her contemptuous eyes away from the man half-slung in Sma's right arm.She looked at Sima and shook her head, and for a split second Sima thought she was going to say, no, she wasn't Livuetta. "Why do you keep doing this?" Lifyeta Zarqawi said softly.Her voice was still young, the robot thought, just at this time the Xenophobe had some interesting information for it, gleaned from historical records. (──Really? Robot messenger. Dead?) "Why are you doing this?" she said. "Why did you do this to him... to me; why? Can't you just let us go?" Sima shrugged, a little embarrassed. "Xiaoli..." he said. "I'm sorry, Ms Zarqawi," Sma said. "That's what he asked; we promised him." "Lily, please; talk to me and let me explain—" "You shouldn't have done this," Livuetta told Sma.Then she turned her gaze to the man, who was grinning wildly at her and blinking, rubbing his shaved head with one hand. "He looks bad," she said flatly. "He is," Smart said. "Bring him here," Lifyeta Zarqawi said as she opened another door, leading to a room with a bed.Skaven-Amtiskau still wondered what the truth of the message received from the ship was, and was still amazed that the woman was so calm this time.The last time she tried to kill this man, it had to intervene quickly. "I don't want to lie down," he protested, seeing the bed. "Sit down, then, Charity," said Sma.Lifyeta Zarqawi made a roundabout movement of her head and murmured something that even the robot could not understand.She put the plate containing the medicine on the table, stood in a corner of the room, folded her hands, and watched the man sit on the bed. "I'll leave you alone," Sima said to the woman. "We're just outside." Get me close enough to eavesdrop, thought the robot, and stop her from another murder attempt, if that's her intention. "No," the woman said, shaking her head, looking at the person on the bed with a strange expression. "Don't; don't leave. There's nothing—" "But I want them to leave," he said, coughing and bending so hard he almost fell out of bed.Sima went to help him and moved him a little into the bed. "Why can't you say it in front of them?" Lifyeta Zarqawi asked. "What don't they know?" "I just want to... want to talk privately, Lily, please," he said, looking up at her. "Please..." "I have nothing to say to you. You have nothing to tell me." The robot heard someone outside the door; the man knocked on the door.Livette opened the door.A young female nurse who went by the name "Sister Livretta" told her it was time to prepare for a patient. Lifyeta Zarqawi looks at her watch. "I have to go," she told him. "Xiaoli! Xiaoli, please!" He leaned forward on the bed, with both elbows pressed tightly to his side, fingers sticking out in front of him, palms facing up. "Please!" His eyes filled with tears. "It's pointless," the elderly woman shook her head. "You are also extremely stupid." She looked at Sima. "Stop bringing him to me again." "Xiao Li!" He fell on the bed, curled up and trembling.The robot could feel the heat coming from the shaved head, and see the blood pooling from the neck and hands. "Charidian, it's okay," Sma said, walking to the side of the bed and knelt down on one knee, wrapping her arms around the other's shoulders. There was a loud crash, and Lifyeta Zarqawi tapped her hands on the surface of the table beside her.The man sobbed and trembled.The robot reads weird brainwave patterns.Sima looked up at the woman. "Don't call him that," Lifyeta Zarqawi said. "Don't call him what?" Sima asked. Sma can be pretty dull at times, the robot thought. "Don't call him Charidian." "why?" "That's not his name." "No?" Sima looked confused.The robot monitored the man's brain activity and blood flow, thinking trouble was about to happen. "no." "But..." Sima said.She shook her head suddenly. "He is your brother; he is Sharidian Zarqawi." "No, Miss Sma," said Lifyeta Zarqawi, picking up the medicine tray again and opening the door with one hand. "He is not." "Aneurysm!" said the robot quickly, and the man began to shake convulsively through the air and beside Sma to the bed.It scanned the man more carefully and found a large blood vessel ruptured in the man's brain. It turned him over, straightened his body, and used the controls to knock him unconscious.Blood continued to flow through the opening in his brain, flowing into the surrounding tissue and attacking the cortex. "Sorry, ladies," said the robot.It creates a cutting force field that slices through his skull.The man stops breathing.Skaven-Amtisco created a force field in the other direction to keep the opponent's chest moving, and the controller gently persuaded the muscles to let the lungs work again.It sliced off the top of his skull; a fast, low-energy CREW charge detonated, bounced off the other side of the force field, and cauterized the correct blood vessel.It set the skull aside.The blood was already clearly visible, winding and flowing through the gray folds of the man's brain tissue.His heart stopped; the robot continued to drive it with the controller. Both women stopped, simultaneously fascinated and disgusted by the machine's behavior. It tears apart the man's brain according to the brain's senses; cerebral cortex, limbic system, optic neuromast/cerebellum, gradually penetrates the defense and equipment of the opponent, explores the avenues and paths along the way, passes through memory storage and landscapes, searches, Record, puncture and cauterize. "What do you mean?" Sima asked, speaking almost dreamily to the woman who was about to leave the room. "What do you mean 'no'? You say he's not your brother?" "I mean, he's not Sharidian Zarqawi," Lifietta sighed, watching the robot's extraordinary surgery on the man. she's... she's... she's... Sima frowned at the woman's face. "What? Then..." Go back; go back now.What should I do; go back.The point is to win.go back!Everything has to surrender to the truth. "My brother, Sharidian Zarqawi," Lifyeta Zarqawi said. "Died two hundred years ago. Not long after he received a chair made of our sister's bones." The robot drained the blood from the man's brain, carefully threading force fields into the damaged tissue, collecting the red fluid in a clear ball.A second thin tube spins back the ripped tissue.It draws more blood to lower the man's blood pressure, and uses the controller to change the settings of the glands so that the blood pressure doesn't soar again for a while. It rests the tubular force field in a small sink under the window, pours the blood down the drain, and briefly turns on the faucet.The blood was washed away with a gurgling sound. "And the man you know as Sharidian Zarqawi—" Facing it by facing it, that's what I do; Studboring, Zarqawi; that name hurts, but what else can I do" - just take my brother's life The man who took his name, he also took my sister's life—" but she "—he's the commander of the Starblind. He's the Chairmaker. He's Elsioma." Lifyetta Zarqawi went out, closing the door behind her. Sima turned around, her face was almost drained of blood, looking at the man's body lying on the bed... while Skafin-Amtisko focused on continuing to fight, hoping for a good ending. end As always, the cloud of dust followed them, though the young man said several times that he thought it might rain.The old man disagreed, saying that the clouds on the mountain can deceive people.They drive across a barren landscape, past charred fields, wrecked huts, ruined farms and burned villages, and still smoking towns, until they reach an abandoned city.They rumbled through deserted streets in the city, ramming down an alleyway filled with empty market stalls and crooked columns supporting torn shade cloth, only to be wrecked by the car into completely splintered pieces of wood, and crazily flapping fabrics. They chose the Royal Park as the best place to plant their bombs, since troops might live comfortably in the park's wide spaces, and command headquarters might occupy a grand pavilion.The old man thought they would want to occupy the palace, but the young man convinced him that the invaders were desert peoples at heart and would therefore prefer parks to sprawling fortresses. So they plant the bomb in the big gazebo, activate it, and argue about whether they did it right.They argue over where to wait for things to end, and what to do if the army ignores the entire city and goes right around, and whether the army will shudder to retreat after the expected "big event", or break up into smaller units Continue the invasion, or know that only one weapon is being used, and so maintain the push steadily, with a no doubt more relentless vengeance.They debated whether the invaders would bomb the city first, or send out reconnaissance troops, and—if they did—where the targets would be.They made their bets. About the only thing they agree on is that what they're doing is wasting the only nuke their side -- indeed either side -- has; because if they guess right, the invaders do as they expected. Their best hope was to annihilate one army, but that would still leave three others, any of which might have the means to complete the invasion.So just like people's lives, this bullet was wasted. They sent messages to their superiors, coded to tell them what they had done.A short time later they received a blessing from the higher command, expressed in a single word.Their superiors were not convinced the weapons would work. The older man's name was Callis, and he succeeded in persuading them to stay and wait, so they camped in a high, sprawling fortress, and found lots of weapons and wine, where they drank, chatted, joked, and bartered without restraint A story about boldness and conquest, and at a certain point one of them asks the other what happiness is and gets a rather flippant answer, though no one can remember who asked the question and who gave the answer. They fell asleep, woke up, drank again, told more jokes and lies, and a light rain swept gently across the city somewhere.Sometimes young men will lay their hands on shaved heads, although the long, thick black hair is no longer there. But they were still waiting, and when the first shells started to fall, they realized that they had chosen the wrong place to wait, so they rushed out in a panic, rushed down the stairs and got into the halftrack in the courtyard to escape, fleeing into the desert and the desert beyond , didn't camp again until dusk, got drunk again, and stayed awake at night to watch the flash. Watching the soldiers walk by from the room I think you should be able to tell if they ever come home just by leaving a gap in the ranks I say: you're a fool and turn away, maybe just make a drink for the skilled man Throat down like all my best lies I look to the dark side of things You lean at the window looking into nothingness.