Chapter 7 Chapter VII

Paine leads us to our seats on the colony ship.The wheel-shaped seat rotates slowly. Its gravitational force is weaker than that of the earth, but slightly stronger than that of the moon, so that we are firmly attached to the floor.A flashing blue signal light reminds us that we are traveling through time and space.The safety buckle ties us to the seat, and I feel a violent twisting in my body.Then the bondage was gone, and we waited restlessly, feeling no change. There was silence in the huge cabin.I watched the faces of the passengers, their eager anticipation being replaced by disappointment and worry.I heard children crying, someone was yelling at the robot steward, and there was a panicked noise all around.Paine was sitting there looking serious, and I asked him what was the matter.

"We don't know," he grinned when he saw us dazed. "At least we got the ship on track. Five hundred light years, you can be called old men now." We followed him to the lounge, where a new sky was revealed in a soaring ceiling dome.The Milky Way looked familiar, and I found the constellation Orion, but all the closer planets had shifted positions and were illegible.I couldn't feel the spin of the ship, and the whole sky seemed to surround us.The two suns rose again and got very close.One is orange, smaller and lighter in color than our sun; the brighter sun is a dazzling bright blue.The target planet appeared behind them, and there was a huge circular spot on it, with the afterglow of the blue sun inlaid on the edge. I looked for the trace of the city, hoping to see the light from it, but all He saw was a silent darkness .

Anxious passengers gathered around a group of sailors in uniform, gold and blue caps and shoulder straps, most of them making silent inquiries in "Nelloro", but all with panicked expressions on their faces. expression.I heard their voices getting louder, and some even let out screams of shock and fear. Then we turned to Paine. "The telescope didn't find any artificial light source," he said with a stern face, "the wireless call did not receive an echo, and the telecommunication spectrum was also silent." He shook his head and sighed heavily, "I'm thinking about my Man, I've been hoping to find him here."

People gestured apologetically and rushed to Paine.He listened carefully, frowning towards the deep black shadow of the planet, and then turned away hopelessly.He said one last word to us: "We're going to find survivors." We watched the orange-blue crescent slowly expand across the dome until at last the entire planetary sphere was revealed.High in the sky the churning streaks of cloud gleamed brilliantly against the blue sun, but beneath them a thick layer of red dust covered everything. Except for a few gray islands, one hemisphere of it is completely covered by the ocean.An isolated continent occupies the other hemisphere, stretching far south from the equator across the North Pole.Continuous mountains stretch across the long west bank.A mighty river drains from the huge canyon and flows eastward.However, from the ice of the Arctic to the ocean of the Antarctic, it is all rust red, and there is no trace of green life around.

"It's supposed to be a rich world," Paine shrugged, depressed, "but now—" He turned and nodded to a woman who entered the room.The flat-chested, masculine woman looked so odd that I couldn't help but look at her a few more times.Glistening red and black scales covered her angular body and encased her bald head.Her eyelids were a narrow, triangular shape, her chin was pointed, and her green eyes were enormous.We couldn't take our eyes off her as she strode toward the circular platform in the center of the room. "She's Captain Willis," he muttered, "older than I am, and 'Nelloro' was just invented when she was born. Human body modification is still in the experimental stage. I sailed with her once, She remembers my brother asking her if she knew me. It was centuries ago, and she had no clue to tell me."

Passengers turned their heads with concern, and I watched their anxious anticipation turn to painful disappointment.Paine stood stiffly, his slender eyes fixed on her until she turned to meet another officer on the platform.They talked silently. "What happened?" Kathy asked in a low voice.Paine didn't seem to hear, Kathy touched his arm and asked again, "What is she talking about?" "Bad news," Paine said to us, her voice calm and short, "she is assessing the preliminary report from the science officer. This dead planet is the second planet they have reached, and the other is two hundred light-years away. .this means--"

He stretched his shoulders, and the pallor on his skin disappeared without a trace. "Really? What happened to them?" He smiled wryly, trying to concentrate. "So far, I'm just speculating. The deadly thing affected two colonized worlds. Will more worlds be affected? Its species is still unknown. The Chief Science Officer thinks it may be a malignant The 'Neroro' used to attack all organic life. It is obviously expansive and is spreading all the way along the direction of the core of the galaxy." "What can we do?" "No way, unless we can figure out its nature." He glanced at the captain and spread his empty palms, "'Nelloro' has the ability to survive and reproduce itself. They are very complex, half organic life, half It is a mechanism to make its effect more significant. The early experimenters had an accident, and the vicious 'Nelloro' they created may have escaped from the laboratory. This batch of 'Nelloro' may be a variant, or a A weapon, reprogrammed by some crazy fellow—although his own 'Nelloro' should have prevented him from doing so."

He looked at the captain again and shook his head slowly. "Officials are working on it, and an unmanned probe is preparing a low-altitude search for surface disruption. Another search has been launched to see if any spacecraft are still in orbit. And—" He stopped talking as he watched a lean man in a gray hat and shoulder straps rush out of the crowd to join the officials on the platform. "That's Benka Rockshaw," he cocked his lips, "a man from Earth who was born in the same century as me. He's a famous entrepreneur, or maybe I should say a gambler, and he's good at catching people who don't like Famous for the chance of a chance. He has developed six colonized worlds and acquired a great deal of wealth. He funded the initial exploration and development efforts in this place, placing big bets."

He shrugged his golden shoulders sarcastically. "He may love wild adventures, but he doesn't want to risk his life." Roxy looked at the captain for a moment.Turning around in silence, he addressed the people in the cabin.He pointed to a feature on the planet's surface, shifted his posture as it moved, and kept talking.As Captain Willis approached, as if to hold him back, Roxy burst out, roaring at her, flushing pale skin darker than the color of the planet. "His emotions are out of the control of 'Nelloro'," Paine frowned and pulled us closer, "he only saw danger. Although the first infected planet is 200 light-years away from this planet, But they are all half way from Earth to the center of the galaxy. He thinks that the deadly pathogen is expanding from somewhere to the core of the galaxy, probably brought by some fugitives. He wants us to go to the planets at the edge of the galaxy."

Officials came over to stop him.I couldn't hear their conversation, but I saw Roxy's face fade to gray, like his hat and shoulder straps.He grabbed them and shoved them off the platform, yelling and pumping his fists.He finally calmed down.Standing there staring blankly at Captain Willis, his fists still clenched in rage. She turned around silently and spoke to the passengers in the cabin in a calm tone. "Officials agree that we appear to be facing an interstellar invasion," Paine said mildly, "but if panicked fugitives carry pathogens, flying blindly elsewhere will only spread the contagion. Ultimately, unless we get some better -"

He shrugged sullenly, stopped and looked at us gravely. "Tycho space station may be the last hope of mankind. It is well sealed, has a protective cover, and is hidden. There is no life on the surface of the moon to attract or sustain the survival of pathogens." His twisted lips squeezed a hint of black humor, "Even They have triumphed, and there is still hope for humanity. When they find no hosts to live with, they will become extinct. Another sequel to your cloning epic." Captain Willis left the cabin, followed closely by Roxy and his men.Robotic flight attendants are serving passengers dark brown snacks and juices. "We've done our best," Paine said. "The voyage doesn't take time. The spaceship didn't take into account that the passengers' time on board would be delayed, so it didn't carry enough supplies. We can't delay any longer. We must set off immediately, but For better or for worse, officials think we'll have to wait to hear back from the probe." Flying downward, the probe soared over the glacier-covered Antarctic and headed south along the rugged West Coast.Its cameras project images onto the pod's dome and the edge of the floor.Standing there, I could feel as if I was riding on it.The probe must have been flying high and fast, but the images were processed to make it appear as if we were circling low, standing still over a deserted harbor or a ruined city, before climbing up to photograph the next target. All we see is dust and ruins.Walls of stone or brick are dilapidated and roofs have collapsed.The steel bars of the iron tower were twisted into twists.A seawall made of concrete surrounds the deserted harbor.There are dead red sand dunes and powder mist piled up by the wind everywhere, so dense that they even cover the ground in some places. The probe flew eastward close to the equator, and climbed a high mountain. The snow on the top of the mountain was dyed the color of dried blood.It paused briefly over a dam between a canyon, then traversed a network of dust-choked irrigation canals. "I've been thinking about my brother," Paine said, with a sad look on his face, "and dreaming of finding him here." He paused and sighed, gazing at the endless ocean, now nothing but waves shaped sand dunes. "It's all a dream! All of us thought we had endless lives and time to do everything. And now—" The probe has reached the dead east coast, and has crossed the empty ocean above.The lounge was silent again, and dejected people wandered around.Kathy asked if we were returning. "Of course not," Paine patted his head lightly, listening carefully, "Captain Willis reported that the exploration team has discovered some objects in low-altitude orbit, maybe it's a spaceship, or an asteroid, or maybe it's something else at all." something. She's sent a small team of airmen to check it out;" There was music in the lounge, with its peculiar highs and lows and long intervals between beats, that I didn't feel at all that it was a piece of music.A woman with a baby in her arms swayed to a rhythm I couldn't hear.The silent crowd was either dozing off or wandering the corridors.At the rear of the cabin, a silent group of followers gathered around Rorxia.Frowning and talking with gestures. "He still wants us to make the escape," Paine said, "towards a planet two thousand light-years away on the edge of the Milky Way. Daydreaming really! To make the jump he has to calculate the relative displacement of that planet two thousand years from now." , he didn’t have the data at all.” The flight attendant came back with some juice and a small pile of white crystal chips.Rorxia and his men rejected the robot with angry gestures, and assembled again for a heated argument with the captain. "A mild sedative." Paine raised his hand to dismiss the robot. "If you need to relax, you might as well try it." I ordered a small slice, which tasted like vinegar, and then felt suddenly tired and fell asleep in my seat, only to wake up when Kathy shook my arm. "The team has reached the object in orbit," Paine told us. "The pilot identified it as the aircraft carrying the last colonists. He tried to make contact, but heard no reply. Rorxia promised him a large sum." Money landed him to search, he had been cleared but was warned not to return to our ship. He reported that his robotic assistant was cutting his seatbelt to let him into the airlock." I looked at the crowd around us. They were all listening carefully, keeping silent, frowning, nodding expectantly from time to time, and frowning again. "He's in." The crowd turned their heads to one side, their eyes lingering somewhere in the distance. Paine finally said, "The pathogen has infected there. He found the red dust on the deck, but he hoped that the spacesuit would let him go." Free from infection. He believes the deadly stuff has reached the planet before the ship arrives. Before the ship's cargo can be unloaded, all the organic matter is decomposed, but the metal objects remain intact."  "He's pressing— —” Paine stopped and listened for a while, then shook his head. The black pilot was heading to the control room to see if there were any records or clues there.He can never reach it. Paine tilted his head and nodded, "The chief scientific officer is summarizing the evidence he has obtained.It shows that this stuff is airborne, extremely fast and absolutely deadly.Before anyone knows it, it kills everyone. " Captain Willis allowed Roxy and his men to have the passengers vote, and the results were overwhelming, and they unanimously decided to return to Earth immediately.There was chaos in the lounge, and when they found out that the spaceship hadn't departed, there were angry protests from all around, and it wasn't until Captain Willis returned to the console that it became quieter. "She said there were two good reasons," Paine told us, "that we couldn't return to Earth. First, we might find out that the pathogen had infected there; second, even if it wasn't, she said we must be treated as potential Carriers were warned to leave. If we tried to make any contact, we were attacked mercilessly." "This reminds me of a legend on old Earth," Casey nodded gloomily, "that there was a ghost ship called the 'Flying Dutchman' that sailed endlessly across the seas, but could never land .” Strange constellations vanished on the ship's vault, reappearing in images from the probe.When we glanced down through the gap in the clouds, the endless sea below the probe was as blue as the oceans on Earth, but the sky was yellow, the larger sun became a dull red, and the blue sun was now a dark red. A fiery pink polka dot. "That island is somewhere up ahead," Paine said, standing with us in the lounge, frowning toward the horizon, "if we can make it there: the probe is descending and slowing down, possibly damaged by dust gone." Raging whitecaps rose higher as it glided downward through the straggling clouds. "There!" Paine whispered before I could see it. "It's on the right." I stare nervously at the screen, which flickers and fades as the probe travels through that pink cloud.On the distant horizon was a mass of speckles that began as dull, dark streaks that flickered and faded away.It reappeared when we searched by color. "Is it green?" Kathy screamed. "Is it green?" "That's right," Paine said, "the detector is falling." A tall mountain appeared in front of the probe's lens, with a blue-green lake at its summit.I could almost feel the shock when the probe crashed, but I thought I saw a splash of green.