Chapter 22 Chapter 21

The process of growing up is not easy for any organism anywhere in the universe.Insects wrap themselves in cocoons and emerge fully winged, their larval stage forgotten.Crustaceans must undergo the painful process of moulting, and are often eaten by predators before the new shell can grow.Snakes molt, birds leave the safety of their nests, and young predators are driven away by their mothers, the growth process is often painful and sometimes fatal.In humans, the process isn't much better, although the physical changes are only part of it.A human child's journey to adulthood is as painful and dangerous as any soft-shell crab.Moving from immaturity to maturity is hard for anyone, but it may be especially hard for someone who thinks he's already grown up, like Lasander Washington.

Lassander was not surprised to find them at the Guoan mansion. "Would you like to show me any other pictures of that Heckley structure?" "I won't watch it this time." Margery said, flashing the medal to the guard. "It's still under construction though, and it's progressing quickly." "Do you think that's a weapon?" She gave him a strange look. "No, I don't think so any more. Lysander, don't mention that, you'll know later. Here comes Ham Boyle." Hamilton Boyle was a little different too, this time he didn't smile when he saw Sandy.There was an unyielding expression on his smiling face at the moment.Routine inspection, opening the door, and getting on the elevator, he kept silent.Lasander noticed that instead of going up, the elevator went down, and not just one or two floors.Margerie and Hamilton kept staring at the numbers flashing on the elevator floor display as if they were stock indexes in a bear market.

"Here we are," Boyle said finally, leading them into a small room.Lysander entered warily, noting that the room was not much larger than a prison cell. "Sit down," Boyle ordered, pointing to the sturdiest-looking chair in the room.There was another, smaller chair next to it for Margery to sit in, but she didn't.Without looking at Sandy, she walked across the room to a table with a keyboard and a monitor, and stood behind a slatted wall like what they called a shutter.The slats were all down, and no light came through from the other side.But there would be no light, Sandy thought, because these buildings had no windows facing outside.

Sandy frowned.All his senses are on high alert.It's a hostile place.Now and then there was an almost inaudible sound, like a distant wail, which disturbed him, and he was not sure what he heard. "What secret do you have that you don't want the Haikeli people to know?" he asked. Boyle blinked in surprise. "You've got it upside down. We're talking about secrets that the Hekri don't want us to know, and they're plotting to attack us." Even though Margerie had pumped him with such ideas, Boyle's words struck Lysander as utterly absurd. "They don't have any plans for that," he said affirmatively.

"But, Sandy," interposed Margery, "they do have them. They want to stay here, and they want to take over the continent of Africa. They'll start by proposing to build habitats in orbit above the Earth, but that's Just an excuse. Their real purpose is to settle here. At least for a start, to settle in Africa.” "What do you mean by 'habitation module'?" "It's a huge metal shell in space," Boyle said grimly. "Like a spaceship, but much bigger. Lasander, they have millions of eggs waiting to hatch. They Looking for a place to lay eggs."

"I don't believe a word of it!" Sandy cried, leaning forward.The chair creaked warningly, but he ignored it. "Even if it's true, what's wrong with that? As long as they stay in space, they can't hurt anyone or anything on Earth, can they?" "But, Sandy darling," said Margerie softly, "they won't just stay in space. Once those eggs hatch and grow up, they'll be transferred to Earth. That's what Polly told us." of." Lysander stared at her, completely stunned.It was the most ridiculous thing the two of them had ever said.Some things they have to figure out. "Polly? Impossible! She'll never tell you anything she shouldn't—if there's any secret."

"She doesn't have a choice," Margery said gloomily. He stared at her. "What are you talking about? You force her to speak, and she won't. What are you going to do? Threat her? Torture her? But I told you none of that would work!" Margeley sighed. "But you also told me what works." Her tone was heavy.She stood up and tugged on a string that held the shutter. Behind the shutters was a window with apparently one-way glass.Behind the glass was Polly. Lysander's eyes widened in disbelief.Polly!Live Polly!But he had never seen Polly like this before.She squatted in front of a communication screen with snot and tears.Margerie turned on a voice switch, and the faint wail that Sandy noticed as soon as she entered the room grew louder. It was Polly's voice, and she begged alternately in Highkley and English: " Please! My eggs! Don't destroy them!"

Lysander trembled in amazement.He stood up suddenly, and the armrest of the chair was also cracked under his forceful support.He staggered, glaring up at Boyle and Margerie. "You beasts!" he cried, "how could you do this?" He could find no other words to express his anger.In this way, even Margery betrayed him; in that case, there was no one he could trust! Boyle flinched from Sandy's anger for a moment, but then hardened again. "We have no choice," he said sharply. He denied nothing.Sandy listened to Polly's wailing and was shocked by what they had done.Threatening a Highkleigh woman with the destruction of a fertilized egg - that's unbelievably cruel!But how did they manage to fertilize their eggs without a male Hyklei?

Marge Li told him the answer with a pale face and no expression. "Sandy, we have a male Heckley, your friend Obiye." It was getting more and more absurd--and worse! "Obiye is dead!" She nodded. "But the body is still there. We didn't tell you the truth. Instead of cremating his body, we sent it to a laboratory for examination. Well, an autopsy! What else can we do? We must have everything we can to understand what I got!" She looked at Sandy pleadingly, but he had no tenderness left for her, and she continued: "We preserved all the tissue samples from him, including the sperm. After Polly finished eating, he entered In a coma, we—we just picked her up, brought her here, and artificially inseminated her."

"Show him the video," Boyle ordered. The imagined horrors are no more exaggerated than the real ones.The screen came on, and what Sandy saw was even more disgusting than he'd guessed.The first is a post-conception shot of Polly Xingwei, who has already started laying eggs, clump after clump.She was still dazed just after waking up from a coma, and she became even more dazed after discovering this.It was the most excruciating spawn Lasander had ever seen. He then heard Boyle's voice speaking to her through a microphone. "Hippolyta, listen to me, you are now our prisoner of war and cannot leave this room. We will give you food, but you cannot leave or communicate with the outside world."

Sandy looks from the screen to the sad reality behind the glass. "Polly!" he cried, "here I am! I won't let them do this to you!" "She can't hear," said Boyle coldly, "and you can't help her. Listen!" On-screen, Polly is bravely saying, "...our people will know in a minute!" Boyle's voice says, "We'll tell your people that you insisted on diving alone and drowned. Your body was never found." "They won't believe it!" "They will believe you have done something foolish and risky, Hippolyta. Think of Aubie, and they won't doubt it either." Lysander saw Polly trembling with terror and rage on the screen.She yelled frantically: "My egg!" Hamilton Boyle's icy voice: "There are some nutrient solutions prepared next to the freezer. You can do the necessary treatment for your eggs and store them in the freezer. I believe our equipment is as good as the one on the spaceship. .Your egg will be fine - as long as you say what we want to know." "Shut it off!" Sandy yelled. "Margerie! You're a scumbag!" He glared at her coldly and furiously.She met his gaze and remained silent.Boyle came forward to defend her. "Son, she's an Earthling," he said heavily, "to do her duty as an Earthling. Aren't you an Earthling? Don't you want to protect humans from harm?" "What harm? The Haikeli will not harm you!" Boyle shook his head. "Before you say anything more stupid, listen to what Polly said. Margery, fast-forward to the important part." The images flickered, buzzing and fast-forwarding.Then Sandy heard Polly's account, and the more she listened, the more frightened she became. She admitted everything Margeley mentioned.Yes, the Senators were determined to take Africa for themselves.Yes, all the refrigerated eggs are going to hatch and fill the continent.Yes, if that didn't work, they'd insist on using asteroids to build huge habitats, which, Polly admitted, was just a stopgap.And when the eggs are all hatched, grown, and ready, how can the Earthlings stop the Heckley from getting whatever they want?It all sounded so terrible to Lysander... However, when Polly spoke wearily of the landing ships preparing to enter low Earth orbit, he sat up in shock.He glanced at Boyle in bewilderment. "But—what are they going to do there?" Boyle said curtly, "Bomb." He turned off the tape and waited for Sandy to speak. "You mean like the bombers that bombed Hiroshima? But the Heckleys don't have any bombs or anything - I'm sure of that! Pretty much sure," he corrected. Boyle shook his head again. "Lasander, they don't need bombs, they're already there. Don't you remember that possibility we talked about at the science center? There's 18,000 massive objects in low Earth orbit that the Heckleys can steer Let them all hit the city." "Like Albuquerque," agreed Margery, "like what happened last time in Perth." [①Albuquerque: A city in central New Mexico, USA. 】 "If that doesn't bring us to our knees," Boyle said, "you know what their stockpile is, the entire asteroid belt." He was silent for a moment, then sighed and looked directly at Sandy. "There's more if you'd like to listen." "I don't want to hear it," said Sandy bitterly. "I've had enough bad news in a day." Margerie said cautiously, "It's not all bad news, you know. Remember that thing they were building? It was just a comms antenna, Polly said, and they hadn't heard from home in hundreds of years ...they hope they can at least hear something through a big antenna, if people on their own planet are still transmitting." "You know, they're lost," said Boyle gruffly, "and hopeless. What's the news, Lasander? Now it's your turn to act. Make up your mind where you're going to stand." side?" "What choice do I have?" Lysander asked angrily. "There aren't many options. As I warned Hippolyta, it's easy to get into an accident if you want to. But if you'll help us..." "Help you guys for what?" Boyle hesitated. "We have a plan," he said, "and we can carry it out with or without your help. Of course, things will be much better with your help. The starship is now vulnerable. But we don't have much time, and the Hackley landing ship is probably now preparing to move a large object to target Seattle or Hudson." Lasander looked at Boyle, then at Marzhi, and finally fixed his gaze on Marzhi.Nothing could be read on her face.She just waited blankly for him to speak. "Tell me what the plan is," said Lasander at last.This is the first step in his adventure into the devious adult world.