Chapter 45 Chapter VII

At that time, Hyperion did not have a super-luminous emitter.The revolving spaceship "Farox City Overlord" is also unable to carry out super-light communication.So, it wasn't until the Overlord Consulate in Parvati sent the academy a super-light message that Saul and Sarai heard for the first time that something had happened to Rachel, their daughter was injured but in a stable condition, just unconscious, Arriving at the Web's Restoration Arrow from Parvati with the Medical Torch Ship.The entire journey will take more than ten days on board and bring a five-month time debt.Those five months had been an agonizing one for Saul and his wife, who had prepared a thousand times for the worst before the medical ship finally arrived at the teleportation point on Planet Revival.It had been exactly eight years since they had last seen Rachel.

The medical center at Da Vinci is a floating tower supported by direct wave energy.The scenery overlooking the sea of ​​Como is very exciting, but Saul and Sarai didn't bother to stop and watch it. They went from house to house to look for their daughter.They were received by Dr Singh and Melio Arundez at the Intensive Care Unit.The introduction is briefly skipped. "How's Rachel?" Sarai asked. "Asleep," said Dr. Singer.She is a tall woman with aristocratic air, but her eyes are very gentle. "As far as we know, Rachel has not suffered any physical... um... harm. But she has been comatose for about seventeen standard weeks now, as far as she is concerned. Only in the past For the first ten days, her brain waves showed signs of deep sleep, not in a coma."

"I don't quite get it," Saul said. "Has there been an accident at the site? Did she have a concussion?" "Something happened," Melio Arundez said, "but we're not sure what kind of accident it was. Rachel was in a civilization...alone...her comlog and other devices were normal Record. But there was a wave of turbulence at that time, which is the phenomenon called anti-entropy field..." "Time Tides," Thor said, "we know. Go on." Adranzi nodded, and stretched out his hands, as if he was making a model out of air. "The... anti-entropy field turbulence that came out...was more like a tsunami than a tide...and the Sphinx...that's the ruin where Rachel was...was completely submerged. I mean, When we found Rachel, she wasn't physically harmed, but she was comatose..." He turned to Dr. Singer for help.

"Your daughter was in a coma for a while," said the doctor. "In that state, we couldn't put her into a frozen slumber..." "So you put her through the quantum leap without the freeze sleep?" Thor asked.He had read relevant information and knew the mental damage that direct exposure to the Hawking effect would cause to travelers. "No, it's not," Singer reassured, "her coma has exactly the same effect as the frozen sleep, protecting herself." "Is she hurt at all?" Sarai asked. "We don't quite know yet," Singer said, "all the vital signs are back to near normal levels. The brain wave activity is close to waking. The problem is, her body seems to absorb the ... I mean, she seems to be Infected by the anti-entropy field."

Thor rubbed his forehead. "Is it like radiation?" Dr. Singer hesitated. "Not quite the same ... uh ... this case is totally unprecedented. Geriatric specialists from the Whale Center, Luthers and Metakosia will be arriving this afternoon." Saul met the woman's gaze. "Doctor, are you saying that Rachel contracted an aging disease in Hyperion?" He paused, searching his memory. "Is it like Methuselah syndrome or early Alzheimer's disease?" "No," said Singer, "the fact is that your disease has not yet been formally named. Our physicians call it Merlin's disease. Specifically...your age is still at a normal rate...but as far as we know As far as we know, her age transition is backwards."

Sarai pulled away from the crowd and stared at Singer as if the doctor had gone mad. "I want to see my daughter," she said, her voice calm but firm. "I want to see Rachel, right now!" Saul and Sally waited for nearly forty hours before Rachel awoke.She sat on the bed for a few minutes, and the doctors and technicians were still busy beside her. She blurted out: "Mom!! Dad!! Why are you here?" Before they could answer, she looked around again, Blinked. "Wait, where the hell is this? Are we at Keats?" Her mother holds her hand. "We're in one of Da Vinci's hospitals, dear. On the Arrow of Renaissance."

Rachel's eyes widened almost comically. "Fuxing. Are we in the ring network?" She looked around, completely lost. "Rachel, what's the last thing you can remember?" Dr. Singer asked. The young woman looked at the doctor incomprehensibly. "The last thing I can remember...was spending the night with Merio, just..." She looked at her parents, then touched her cheek with her fingertips. "Where's Merio? What about the others? They all..." "Everyone on the expedition is safe and sound," Dr. Singer reassured, "except that you suffered a minor accident. It was about seventeen weeks ago. You are now back on the Ring. You are safe. Every member of your team Everyone is safe."

"Seventeen...weeks..." Rachel's tan had faded and she looked pale. Sol took her hand. "How are you feeling, kid?" The grip he sensed in his fingers was rather weak, and it ached him. "I don't know, Dad," she said finally, "tired. Dizzy. Not sure why." Sarai was sitting on the bed, wrapping her arms around her. "It's all right, baby. It's going to be all right." Merio came in stubbled, his hair disheveled from a nap in the outer room. "Aqiu?" Rachel watched him in her mother's arms. "Hi," she said, full of shyness, "I'm back."

Saul has always believed that today's medicine is still essentially the same as in the era of bloodletting and plastering, and he still maintains this view; although today's technology can spin a person in a centrifuge and rearrange The magnetic field of the body; it can bombard poor patients with sound waves, connect into every cell to interrogate RNA, but they have to admit that if they don't get accurate results through such means, they will be completely ignorant, facing patients Nothing can be said.The only thing that changed was that the pills got bigger and bigger. He dozed off in his chair when Rachel's voice woke him up.

"dad?" He sat up straight and reached out to take her hand. "Here I am, boy." "Where am I, Dad? What happened?" "You're in a hospital on Renaissance Planet, baby. There was an accident in Hyperion. You're fine now, it's just that the accident may have affected your memory a little." Rachel took his hand firmly. "Hospital? In the network? Why am I here? How long have I been here?" "It's been about five weeks," Saul said softly. "What's the last thing you remember, Rachel?" She sat back on the pillow and touched her forehead, the tiny sensor there. "Merio and I are in a meeting. Discussing how to install a search device in the Sphinx. Oh... Dad... I haven't introduced you to Merio yet... He's..."

"Well," Saul said, handing her Rachel's comlog, "here you are, kid. Listen to this." He left the room. Rachel touched the touch display, heard her own voice talking to herself, and couldn't help blinking her eyes. "Okay Qiu, you just woke up. You're confused. You don't know how you got here. Uh, something happened, kid. Listen carefully. "The time of the recording is the year 457 of the Era of the Exile, which is traditionally the year 2739, October 12th. Yes, I know, that is a full half standard year from the closest thing in your memory. listen. "There's something going on in the Sphinx. You're trapped by the tides of time. It changes you. You age backwards, which is really weird as it sounds. Your body changes every minute. Young, but that's not the most important thing right now. When you're asleep... when we're asleep...you forget. You lose the memory of the day before the accident and the day before it, and all the memories after it ...don't ask me why. Not even the doctors know. The experts have no way of knowing. If you want an analogy, think of the tapeworm virus... the oldest one... that gradually eats your comlog The data in ... is devoured one by one in reverse order, starting from the last entry. "They don't know why you lose your memory when you sleep. They also try to force you to stay awake, but after thirty hours you have a period of nervous tension, and the virus continues to eat you during this time memory. So leave it alone. "You know what? Talking about yourself in the third person like this is kind of therapeutic. I'm actually just laying here and waiting for them to take me up for clairvoyance, and I know I'll be asleep by the time I get back… ...and must have forgotten about everything again... It makes me pee my pants just thinking about it. "Okay, switch the touch display to short-term storage and you'll hear what I'm about to tell you in detail, from which you'll learn everything since the accident. Oh... Mom and Dad are here Well, they all know Merio. I don't know him as well as I used to. When did we first make love to him, huh? Second month in Hyperion, right? So we'll Only a few weeks left, Rachel, and then we'll be casual friends again. Come back while you can remember, girl. "I'm Rachel from yesterday, over." When Saul entered the room, he found his daughter sitting upright on the bed, clutching the comlog tightly, her face pale, as if frightened. "dad……" He walked over to sit beside her and let her cry... This is the twentieth night for the past few days.