Chapter 5 chapter Five

After Tling was gone, we wandered up the valley, well out of the jungle, keeping our vigilance as far as we could and being ready to call for help. "If Penn lives here," Casey said, "someone else must live here. I hope those people don't think we're robots," We stopped and watched the impala drinking from a small waterhole.They just looked up at us, a cheetah burst out of the bushes, and they fled in a panic.One of the smallest impalas moved so slowly that the leopard pinned it down and dragged it back into the forest. "They don't have Nelloro," Pippi muttered. "Neither do we."

We plodded on, not finding any human traces along the way.At noon, we were hungry again, and there was no one in sight ahead, so we sat on a rock outcropping to rest.Pippi pulled a hologram of Tanya from her breast pocket and handed us her smiling black eyes. "Even if we hadn't lost the radio—" He paused, with a wry smile, "we wouldn't be talking to her. I like hearing her voice and knowing she's in a hurry, but I don't want her to know where we're at Dilemma One" He paused as shadows swung across the hologram.We looked up and saw a silvery-white "glider" craft descending on the grass a few yards from us.The oval hatch slowly opened beside it, and Tling jumped out.

"Finally found you!" she shouted, "Although you don't have 'Nailuoruo' to confirm Fangshi. This is my mother." A slender woman steps out from behind Tling, and she smiles at Pippi as he tries to repeat Tling's told us her name. "She said you can just call her 'Lu'." Tling still wore the baggy blouse and skirt and the wide-brimmed hat, but Lou was naked save for a blue gauze sash over his shoulder.She was as graceful, lean, and gender-indecipherable as Paine.She also has pale yellow skin, and the areas exposed to the sun have turned black.Instead of the smooth fur that covered Paine's head, her reddish-brown curls resembled a thick crown.

"Mr. Duncan," Tling said carefully, so we could all hear her. "Mr. Tovarro, and this Mr. Carl, also known as 'Ai Cheno'. They were all cloned from prehistoric tissue samples on the Tycho space station." "You were cloned for the mission there," Lu looked at us seriously, "how did you get here?" "We tricked the spaceship," Casey said with a straight face, his expression indifferent. "We did it because we wanted to waste our precious lives in that little crater on the moon. I don't apologize for that, but we Now that I'm in trouble, I don't want to die like this."

"You will die," she told him bluntly, "as your ancestors did. You have no Nelloro." "I suppose so," he shrugged, "but first we need a chance to survive." "Mom, please!" Tering took her hand, "Without 'Nairoro', they will be in danger at any time here. Can we help them survive?" "That depends on your father." "I tried to get in touch with him," Tering said, "but he didn't answer." We looked at Lu's frown and saw Tering getting more and more worried. "Wish you guys had 'Nelloro'," she turned to us at last, translating for us, "my dad went out to meet a starship that just came back, and it left 800 years ago. Officials are Tell him a strange story."

She looked up at her mother, as if listening to something. "It carried the colonists to Anfal, 400 light-years from the core of the galaxy. They set out all right. The target planet had been surveyed and prepared for colonization, and it had a rich natural resources, and there is no need to protect the local indigenous population. The flight path has also been tested and the priority occupation of the planet is safe and reliable." She looked up into space, confused and disturbed. "Now the spaceship is back, and the 2,000 colonists are still on board." Kathy asked her what went wrong.We watched their brows furrowed with anxiety and waited.

"My dad is asking," Tling said, turning to us. "He's worried it's some terrible accident." "It must be terrible," whispered Pippi. "Just imagine spending eight hundred years in a spaceship!" "It's just a moment for them," Tling shook her head and smiled at him. "When traveling at the speed of light, time stops, remember? In their own time, they only set off yesterday Yes, but their current situation is still quite bad, their friends have dispersed, their original circle of life has disappeared. They feel very lost and hopeless."

She turned to her mother and asked, "Why can't they land on that planet?" Her mother listened again.In the distance, I saw a small herd of zebras panicking across the valley, but I didn't see what frightened them. "My dad is asking," she finally told us, "that the officials won't tell him and the passengers why the ship had to turn around. They promised to make a statement, but my dad says they haven't agreed on what to say. They're not yet sure what they've found on the target planet, and he thinks they're afraid to say what they know."

The galloping zebra rushed to the side, and I saw the tawny figure of the lion flashing among the zebras, and a hesitant zebra was thrown to the ground.My condyles hurt from the stones rolling under my feet, and I felt as helpless as the zebra. "Don't worry, Mr. Duncan," Tling said, putting her hand on my arm. "My dad is busy working on that ship. I don't know what he can do for you, but I don't want those animals to hurt you." , I think we can keep you safe until Dad comes back. Is that okay, Mom?" Lu pursed her lips even tighter and shrugged, as if she had forgotten our existence.

"Please, Mom. I know they're prehistoric people, but they'd never hurt me. I understand them like I understand the animals. They're hungry, they're worried, and they have nowhere to go." Lu Jing stood there for a while, frowning at us. "come in." She motioned us to board the spaceship, then raised her face, as if she was listening to the voices in the depths of space. We flew towards a rocky mountain and landed on a platform at the top.We climbed out of the spaceship, overlooking the grassy valley.Paine's memorial was just beyond the ridge, closer than I thought, and I saw the bright metallic glint of the space shuttle reconstructed on the boulevard, the dome of the Capitol, the Washington Monument and Egypt in white marble. Pyramids loom in the distance in the verdant forest.

"My dad picked the site," Tling nodded toward the cliff. "He wanted to see the memorial built." As Mom stood there listening to the sky, Tering looked at our stained travel suits. "Before you eat," she said, "you need to take a shower." She led the way, leading us into an arched tunnel in the mountains and ushering us into a room.The room is huge, much more spacious than my bedroom on the space station.When I walked into the bathroom, warm water was sprayed on me from all sides, and then a gust of warm air dried me.When I came out, a humanoid robot handed me the clothes, which had been cleaned and neatly folded.The robot took me to another room, where Tling was already sitting at a table with Pippi and Kathy, and there were piles of delicious fruits on a plate. "Mr Chernow asked me where my mother was from," she smiled up at me, "you've seen she's different from us, she's got a different 'Nelloro'. She's from Galen College The galaxy is three hundred light-years away from us. People there have forgotten where they came from. She wants to know her roots. When she has been following her home star to come here, she found my dad on the Tycho space station Dig, and they work together." Pippi and Casey have already started to work.Kathy turned to Tling, who was nibbling gracefully on a giant purple orchid-like plant. "What do you think our end will be?" "I'll discuss it with Dad as soon as possible." She glanced at the ceiling. "He's still busy with work with the ship's officials. I'm sorry you're scared of my mom. She doesn't hate you, not at all. If she seems right You're cold, and that's only because she's been working on the space station for so long, she's been digging up prehistoric ruins. She thinks you seem pretty...pretty primitive." Seeing us frowned uncomfortably.She shook her head. "You told her you lied to the ship," she looked at Casey, "and that bothered her, because Nelloro doesn't send lies or make people hurt each other. She feels sorry for you. " Pippi shrank back: "We also feel sorry for ourselves." Tling sat there silent for a few minutes, her brows furrowed, and then she turned to us. "That spaceship was causing a lot of trouble for Dad," she told us. "He couldn't find time to take care of you. He said you should have stayed on the moon." "I know," Kathy shrugged, "but we're here, and we can't go back. We want to survive." "I feel your worry," she smiled at us uneasily, "Dad is too busy, he doesn't have time to talk to you. Why don't you come to my room, where I can receive messages from the spaceship." Her room is like a nursery.In one corner stood a cot piled high with dolls and toys, and a cradle stood on the floor beside it.A fascinating holographic video plays on the ceiling.When the tiger came out of the grass to drink, the long-legged bird was startled by the water hole.A male zebra approached cautiously, wary of us.A wandering jaguar stopped, then suddenly charged at a bull.She gestured to the wall. "I grew up here and learned to love animals." The green landscape suddenly disappeared, the wall turned into a wide display screen, and a huge spaceship was suspended in the ethereal darkness.When the sun shines past.It shines brightly.The unseen parts of the ship were hidden in shadow, but I could still make out a thick, bright metal disk slowly turning.What appeared to be tiny glider ships nestled around its raised dome in the middle. "It's parked on Orbit Hill, waiting for a destination," Tling said. "Let me see what's going on inside the ship." A woman glanced at us from the curved floor, where the craft spins to create artificial gravity.Like in an ancient spaceship in a hologram.Passengers sat in rows of chairs, and many more stood in corridors and aisles.I heard the surrounding quiet down, an anxious voice speaking. "...we live on a small island in the Pacific Ocean." The camera is on a woman, her hair like a crown of shining golden feathers, holding a whimpering child in one arm and a stern man in the other.She's answering a question from someone offscreen, and the voice we hear is Tling's translation. "It's hard for us," her lips didn't part, but her voice of pain was shrill, "we're happy there. Mark's a visionary, and I'm a well-paid genetic artist, according to special rules." We are not the pushy type, but we do want to have a baby," she said with a sardonic smile on her lips, "and our dream has come true!" She lifted the child up and kissed the top of his golden head. "Look at where we are," she smiled wryly at the child. "We've spent our life savings hoping to see a paradise on Phages 4. A tropical beach between surf and bamboo forests, with a volcano crest in the background. The snow on the ground. Hundreds of our families, generations of friends.” She sighed and rocked the baby gently. "They wouldn't let us on the boat, and they wouldn't even explain to us why. We spent all our savings and had a baby to look after, and now they're saying we can't go anywhere. We're going to despair." The walls flickered a little, and the scene returned to its original state: monkeys chattering in the jungle canopy. "Here's the problem," Tling said. "There are 2,000 people like them stuck on the ship with nowhere to go. Now it's my dad's problem, and the council has put him in charge." Casey asked, "Why can't they leave the ship?" "If you can't understand—" She was silent for a moment, "my mother said that's exactly how the 'Nelloro' work. They don't allow humans to overload the planet and drain the entire planet's resources. My mother said that in Prehistoric humans made mistakes like this before the big impact. Birth rates had to be balanced by migration, and as soon as they left the planet, those unfortunate settlers lost their place on Earth." "That was 800 years ago?" "According to our time, 800 years," she shrugged, "is just a day or two to them." "What can your father do for them?" "Mum said he was searching for a safe destination." "If he can't find—" Casey frowned, "and it doesn't seem fair that they can't return home. Are you letting 'Nelloro' control you?" "Control us?" She looked confused, turned her head to listen carefully, and then nodded to the wall, "You don't understand. They are indeed united with us, but there is no conflict. They live in everyone's body, Keeping us alive and healthy, guiding us to live freely and happily, but only we can direct ourselves. My mother said it is a bit like what you call the subconscious mind." "The people on the ship," Casey frowned suspiciously, "I think they're still alive, but they're not free to leave, and they're not happy at all." "They're in trouble," she nodded gravely, listening again. "Mother said I should explain to you what 'Nelloro' does. She said that ancient humans lived under the control of what she called 'Jungle Genes', and those who survived back then had to be selfishly aggressive.'Nai Luo Ruo' let us change the genes, prevent the pain caused by a lot of crimes and wars caused by greed, jealousy and violence in ancient times, it guides us to pursue the best interests of all mankind. Mom said that everyone on the spaceship will be happy Follow the 'Nelloro' way, as long as Papa leads them well." She turned her head: "I heard my mother calling." I couldn't hear anything, but she ran out of the room.On the holographic wall, tall-shouldered antelope are leaping from the edge of the cliff and wading in the river.An antelope stumbles and disappears in the rushing water.We were silently thinking, and Kathy turned to face us, her brows furrowed. "I guess I don't like this 'Nelloro'-dependent lifestyle." We begin to understand why Paine says there is no place on earth for us.