Chapter 3 Chapter two

Supply ships for the Aperture Station come up every two years.Supply ships were always delayed for reasons that never satisfied investigating officials.Even without trouble, it would have taken months for the old Alderbaren to come aboard. Captain Cafodio is delayed again in space this time.The linguist Aurelia Zion came with the ship, with a signal device designed to detect the presence of intelligent animals in the aperture.3 AU away from the aperture station, her detector detected an unknown object. Since there was no response from the other party, Captain Cafodio decided to stop the ship to see what happened.

It turned out that the object was the wreckage of the lost spacecraft Spica, still floating near its orbit.Closer, he sent Dr. Zion and her husband and two crew members aboard the wreckage in the tiny airship.They found no obvious signs of a struggle, but the ship had been broken up. The safety compartment is gone, the cargo door is open, the barometer is gone.The temperature is close to absolute zero.The crew was missing, supplies, record sheets, and the steering wheel were all missing, and even a large part of the fuselage was not spared. In order to find clues, Zion came to the back cabin.

It was there that she saw the alien by the headlamp.It's busy dismantling its engines and ion thrusters.The disassembled parts are neatly bundled together with plastic ropes, "the ropes are so thin that they are almost invisible, but they seem to be stronger than Kewanlong wires."Seeing the light, the alien immediately shrank into a ball and fled towards the fuselage hole, propelled forward by a transmitter compressed into a cloud of white vapor. Perhaps because of being blinded by the light, the alien slammed into the bulkhead.Several people went forward to grab it together, only to find that it was very weak and obviously not carrying any weapons.They escorted it back to the ship Alderbaron.Cafodio locked it in an empty supply box and took it to Jannot.Quinn's mother sees the aliens because Cafodio asks her to come aboard to help check.She came back pale and dizzy, and Quinn saw her swallow a pill that was supposed to help her recover while living in space.

After a little more comfort, she told them about the "alien bird"--named by Aurelia Zinn.There was a strange smell of ammonia in the supply box, which made her dizzy.She noticed that the thing huddled as far as possible to avoid the light that shone into the box from the outside.When she jumped in, it stood up with a whoosh and turned to face her. "So it stands so tall! Taller than a human!" She was still shaking, Quinn thought, she should swallow another pill. "But not strong, seems to be weak. The body is almost round, covered with scales or something, maybe metal, with black and white patterns. It has three lower limbs, not like legs, but more like tentacles-- The doctor said those lower limbs were empty. It operated the transmitter with its fingers.

"Its eyes—strange eyes! Like mirrors, really, big and round. I imagined they were telescopes. That thing must have come here from a dark place far, far away. I guess it wants to talk to us, but not with sound, because it has no air in its life. "It took a step towards me, and its big eyes flashed, and I seemed to see a rainbow of colors. I think it was talking with light. It must have understood that I couldn't understand its language. Presently it retracted again, and closed its eyes—the word 'eye' was a bit funny, for it was only a membrane that closed like the withered petals of a flower.

"I'm so sorry—" She shook her head, her eyes moistened. "It wanted to talk to us, and we wanted to talk to it, but we didn't have a chance. The smell of ammonia on it made me jump out of the box. But Dr. Zinn got the mask, so I went back into the box with her. I told her to turn down the lights a bit so they wouldn't poke the thing's eyes. "We stayed in the box for two hours and tried everything. Sound, radio, laser, microphone, colored lights, but it just didn't do anything. Even touched it with our hands, and it didn't respond. I think it is uncomfortable, and I feel sick myself when I think about it—"

"Did you get hurt?" Clay asked. "They hurt it when they scratched it." "I think he was poisoned." She nodded. "Poisoned by our oxygen. He must not be used to it." Cardifoo lived on the station for a few weeks, overhauling the thrusters and filling up the supply boxes. After the flight command heard about the alien, it ordered the captain to bring it back to the sun alive so that it could be studied in the Kirwan laboratory.Aurelia's husband, Tiken Zion, will serve as the new signal officer at the Aperture Station. Aurelia will also stay on the station for four years. She will shoot some information codes into the Aperture, and then wait for any The response of intelligent organisms.They began to set up the equipment, and Quinn's mother returned to the spaceship to look after the alien.

She lowered the lights and let the air out of the box.She put on her space suit and went back inside to take a closer look at it again.It seemed alive, but she couldn't tell if it was sentient. "Cafodio thought I could communicate with it, so he asked me to go back to the sun and take care of it." She looked at Quinn, her eyes were darkened, and she looked very sad. "Quinn, I'm leaving, I'm going home." Home!This word made his imagination explode: space antennas, space cities; the earth, everything warmed by the sun; the sea, blue sky, white clouds, lightning, and seagulls flying in the sky... He looked at Clay's Face.

"We're all going to—" He choked, "I'm going to—" She hugged Quinn in her arms without saying anything. "We don't know, Quinn." Clay frowned forcefully. "Your mother will decide. The ship is still a few days away." Quinn hugged her tightly, still speechless. "Your mother has to go," Clay's voice was shaking too. "It's not just because of the aliens. She shouldn't—she shouldn't have come out at all, and she shouldn't have stayed for so long, because her genes—her genes are not suitable for space life at all."

"So—" his mother sobbed, her frail body trembling. "So we don't know—" Clay came over and hugged the two of them together.Such strong arms.The star mist on his red neckerchief smelled good, and Quinn inhaled it. "Son, it's your genes that need to be tested," Clay told him. "Because half of your genes come from your mother and the other half from your father. Your father's sun gene must be great, because you have always been in good health, but you can't guess about this kind of thing. You have to go to the laboratory and let your mother test it. "

Quinn stared up at him, still not understanding. "That's how it is, boy," he explained carefully, pulling them closer together. "Genes are codes that determine what you can do when you grow up. Your mother's genes are generally good, otherwise she wouldn't be able to live here for so long, but some - some of her genes are not so good .” His tense face contorted, and Quinn thought it was time for him to inhale some star mist. "It's hard for her, Quinn. She keeps her head down and rarely complains, but here she never feels better. If the genes are not compatible, space can damage the body in every way. You'll feel nauseous, cramp, Stomach pain. Worse, it could kill you." "But mother—her—" Quinn looked at her pale and thin face, unable to speak any more. "That's hard, child, especially for a woman. She almost died in childbirth to give birth to you. It's been seven years since she left Earth—" His frown deepened. "It's been too long for her. If she doesn't go now, I'm afraid she won't be able to wait for the next ship." During dinner the next morning, Quinn saw that her face was very bad.Nothing like how she looks in the photo.Her eyes were red and swollen from crying, and she couldn't eat.Clay wanted to help her pack, but she didn't want to take anything. After breakfast, in her lab, she asked Quinn to take off his shirt.The room was a little cold, and he found her sullen.He watched her turn on the computer and turn on the machines that would tell his parentage, solar or terrestrial.Her hands were shaking. He shivered, suddenly afraid of knowing his life experience.He really wants to go to the side of the sun, ride the sky network cable, find his father, and rely on himself to earn a golden sun mark, but he doesn't want to be of earth blood, he doesn't want to be sent out of the Sun Empire and live in Clay In those small towns where I grew up, I didn’t want to watch rocks fall from the sky all day long, let alone eat other people’s cold meals. There was a strange smell of medicine in the laboratory, and the sensors on his face and chest were as cold as ice and snow.He first played a strange computer game that asked him to draw graphics on the screen, but his drawings never disappeared as quickly.Then he answered some questions about the bright spots that flickered in the image.He ended up sitting in a chair with his eyes bandaged and blindfolded, and she kept rocking the chair while she asked him the direction of the sun. She later used a small needle to take a blood sample.He stared at the black and red blood in the test tube, wondering if she would conclude that he was of Earth blood just by the color.She smiled at him plaintively, put the test tube into a machine, stared at the numbers flashing on it, and sat by the computer for a long time. He waited, already sweating despite the cold air. When she finally looked up at him, her eyes were watery, but she tried to put on a smile. "All right, Quinn." Her voice was thin as a gossamer. "Your genetic test score was as high as Clay's, and none of the genes that hurt me are there. You were born for life in space, so you have to stay." He almost wanted to cry, because how much he wanted to go to the sun with her! "Quinn! Quinn! I'll miss you so much." She wrapped her thin arms around him. "I also want you to go back, just for a few years. But once I go back, I won't be able to take care of you. There are too many troubles on the earth, and you will encounter problems when you go back—problems..." Before she could say what the problem was, her voice was lost.He took a sharp breath and then held it, asking his mother if he could have the golden sun-mark. "Your genes are good," she said, looking even sadder, shaking her head, "but now it's not the same as before. Genes alone are not enough. You must bring the proof of paternal Sun blood, and register your genes until Sun Safety Just do it." He had never heard the word "paternal." "That means—" She gave him a hug and let go. "You must have a father." As soon as she finished speaking, she hurried to turn off the machine. "It doesn't really matter. You don't need markers, especially out here." It was important, more than anything else, but he didn't want to tell her. Before the Alder Barron took off, she sent Clay and him up to see her cabin. The cabin looks small and empty, but if she is healthy, she will be the main doctor in charge of the alien bird.Quinn wanted to catch a glimpse of the alien, but she wouldn't let him disturb it. He held back tears and said goodbye to her.She hugged Clay for a long time, then kissed him again before boarding the ship.After she left, Aperture Station looked extremely cold and lonely. Then Clay told him to meet a little girl.The little girl was very thin, with long black hair, and blue-black eyes that looked sad, and she was standing there clutching Papa's fingers. "Quinn, this is Mindy, Mindy Zinn. Same age as you. Her parents are here for work, so she's your new friend." Her parents were saying goodbye to everyone on the ship.I saw her biting her trembling lower lip tightly, with tear stains, her face was pale, and she looked cold and frightened.Quinn felt sorry for her, but she refused to shake his hand. "I don't like you." She raised her chin stubbornly. "I don't like the aperture station, I'm going home." Her mother bent down to tell her that Aperture Station was an exciting new home, but she wouldn't listen, crying and watching as the last of the crew came on deck and slammed the valves shut.Alder Barron left.But she still didn't want to look at Quinn. Yet at last they became friends.Her parents were very busy, her father was responsible for laser and radio contact with the sun, and was responsible for finding new small apertures, and her mother was responsible for finding all intelligent animals on the aperture.They were busy and couldn't take her with them, so they had to let her go to the gym with Clay. She was shy at first, and she was always thinking about the world beyond the sun, and she was always depressed. Later she asked Quinn to teach her to spin cages, wear hoops, and play rope and stick games.He showed her the aperture station, and she told him about Empire of the Sun, her old home, and the Skylab where her parents used to work. One day she smiled and said that she liked him. The laser communication with the sun is only for official and air personnel, not for Quinn's mother.Two years later, when Quinn was nine years old, Aldebarron came back with a letter from his mother.The letter stated that neither she nor the alien bird died during the flight, but the alien bird never woke up from its lethargy, and finally died. "It doesn't belong on the side of the sun," she wrote, "any more than I belong on the side of the stars." She added that she misses him terribly and is recovering.Her new job is at the Kirwan Laboratory in Zurich, where she processes the dead bodies of alien birds. "Actually, there is nothing to study. The whole thing is soft and decays quickly. Only by finding new aliens can we understand them more deeply." Jomo Uru is the new engineer whom Quinn met in his math and science classes.He speaks strange English because he spoke Chinese when he went to school on the other side of the world. But he is very patient and meticulous in everything he does.He called Quinn "my boy", and Quinn grew fond of him. Like Mother Quinn, he was reluctant to talk about earthly affairs.This may be because his compatriots are of earth descent.After passing the genetic test and the inspection of the Ministry of Security, he has already received the sun mark.Even though his dark skin dulled the logo's laser-like sheen, he was proud of it. After Quinn learned something, Jomo began taking him to the engine room of the Capala spaceship to teach him about nuclear fission. At first he just sweeps the decks, but he likes going there anyway.Later, he learned more and more about the nuclear transformation engine, but he couldn't be happy. The three engines had been running as the ship landed, but Jomo said he couldn't keep them spinning forever. Engine No. 3 has been dismantled for parts to repair the other two.A single engine would suffice to light and deliver air to the aperture station, he said.The condition is that this one should work normally. But what if all three fail--"One day, one engine, the aperture station is safe enough." Quinn had long been used to Jomo's way of speaking. "Maybe two days, safe enough. Three or four days—" He shook his head. "The hydroponics garden is gone, the pits are empty of water. Eight days, maybe ten days, and the big trouble starts. There's nothing in the processor. No food, no water, no oxygen." He kept both engines running almost all the time, and whenever one broke, the pipes and processors stopped, or the lights in the hydroponic garden went out, Jomo would keep running until it was fixed.At this time, Quinn stayed with him, passing him tools or watching him busy. Jomo is calmer than Quinn. He never panics, but he never rests either.Sometimes he hums softly songs his mother taught him when he was a child, sometimes he says a spell he learned from his grandfather when parts slip out of place, and sometimes he talks to Quinn. "Things are dangerous!" he often muttered. "One day there will be no electricity, one day the lights will go out, one day everyone will freeze, and one day we won't be able to live. So we must not stop the atomic furnace." , while working non-stop with his dexterous hands, he turned his head and smiled at Quinn. "Don't worry, my child. It's better to die on the aperture than to go back to the earth alive." When Quinn was 11, the supply ship was supposed to return, but it didn't.Flight Command did not say why. "The enlightener is looking for trouble." Jomo guessed. "Revelation is making trouble with the sun giants. They're making countless troubles. The Sun Security Department is very busy, and the flight command forgot the aperture station." There has never been any official news about the troubles that the Enlightenment was looking for, but after more than half a year, the spaceship still hasn't arrived.There wasn't enough built out of the processor, not even enough to replace Jomo's super conductive cables for the motors. Quinn secretly rejoiced every day the spaceship was late, because by then Mindy's father had finished his military service, and her mother had stopped trying to lure aliens to respond to her signals.They would take Mindy back to the sun, and there was no way he would follow. Mindy liked him, perhaps as much as he liked her.They go to school together and play together at the gym.As much as her mother didn't want her to go to the observation deck, Clay sent them both along when he went there to repair the equipment.In his spare time, he also taught them how to use the signaling equipment. Mindy is growing up and becoming more beautiful day by day, but she doesn't seem to know it herself.She hated wearing sunglasses, thinking they were a burden; she thought her eyes were too dark; and she didn't like the thick black hair her mother made her wear. When Quinn was twelve years old, both atomic furnace engines stopped.He and Mindy were biking around the gymnasium track when all the lights flickered on and then went off.They flew off the runway and into the lifeline.The emergency lights weren't on, and it was still dark around them when Quinn recovered and dropped the bike. "Quinn—" he heard her gasp in horror, "are you all right?" Following the sound he found her.Suddenly she threw herself into his arms. "Kiss me!" she said softly. "If we must die, then—" The Volmeron outpost is a solitary snowball on the northern edge of Numarch, almost a light-year from the sun. Newmarch is where the people of Newlyn used to live.The group worked and lived in a long, narrow, hollow cylinder that pierced through the center of a small aperture, providing them with food, fuel, and other reactive substances. They are all well-known experts from all over the Elder, "exiled" to the edge of the aperture to guard against the comeback of the black companion.Before the appearance of the black companion, they were also very busy. Some detected the black holes growing in the core of galaxies, and some kept their eyes open to observe the entire evolving universe. The origins of their race are varied and extremely ancient, but most of their ancestors have descended from the arduous evolutionary process of jumping from the surface of a planet into space.The family where the patriarch belongs to call themselves the "patriarch", and they came here from the Anjue galaxy in a deep sleep. The Queen of Calorie Seeker, who flew over in a hurry, was discovered by Jin Jini. She was a novice, and her compatriots were from Newlyn.They just arrived at the Aperture because the original galaxy was taken over by the Seekers and they came to take refuge.Jin Jini rushed to report to the patriarch in a panic. "The Seeker?" To her surprise, the Patriarch seemed delighted to hear the news. "I believe they have come to form a friendship with Elder." "Sir!" She was so frightened that her face turned blue. "They are more likely to come to destroy us!" "Okay, kid." He winked at her kindly. "Why do you say that?" "That's never a friendly sign, sir." Her voice softened in awe of him. "It's a bright spot flying over from our home planet. The spectrum shows that it's a typical ion jet for a seeker, and it also shows that she is slowing down for interstellar travel. But it's still flying fast, and it's very close to us. , and now it has changed direction again, rushing straight towards us!" "Lovely boy," the patriarch's name was "Wise Old Man," but his subordinates misinterpreted the name as "Stubborn Fool."He and his compatriots were born in the vast waters of the long-disappeared planet Anjue, and they moved the environment of their birth into space.Now he lives in a zinc sphere, replicating a sea similar to that of his ancestors, and swimming in it. "Why are you in such a hurry?" Jinjini has no shell, but her kin still bear the appearance of their water-dwelling ancestors: thin tails, golden fur.She rode a tail-mounted ion thruster, her feet shimmering with silent words. "I think that thing is the Queen of the Seekers, and I'm afraid of the Seekers." "Son, child! Calm down." He was shining with peaceful light all over his body. "The Seekers never hurt Elder, and we must assume they never hurt us." His people had also escaped, raiders no different than seekers, but that was a billion years ago.Gone are the days when the nations of the world used indiscriminate violence as their ancestors did. "Sir, you don't understand the Seekers, who are as persistent as their ancestors." "My sweet little boy," he said, all glowing with gold. "You have to trust Elder's principles of life. If these seekers are as naive as you say, and still so lost, we have a responsibility to help them find a better destiny for them." "Fate?" She suppressed the anger in her heart. "What they're after is heat, the temperature of the food in their mouth. Their infrared senses are very keen, and they can catch any Newlin man hiding in any corner of the small aperture. Sir, if you have encountered our experience— —” There was a black light shining on her as she spoke. "They took over our planets, and then swarmed over our apertures. They were too fast for us, they had their own timing standards. They drove us around, apparently just for fun. We Distress signals were sent to all the stars around, but they were all too far away. It took too long to pick up the signals. When we were desperate, we decided to resist—” "Wait, boy, wait!" he scolded, flashing azure light, "you should know that nothing can be solved by means of war. On the contrary, if you try to understand the newcomers—" "Sir, we tried." She tried to hide her impatience. "We observed them, and even learned their language, but they never communicated with us. We found that, despite their size, they could be killed. When mating they killed each other. The last survivors of our people invented a weapon." The dimming of the light on her showed that she had no confidence in herself. "I think—I'm told that if we had been allowed to hold on, no matter how terrible they were, the weapons would have saved our Aperture. However, after the first failed use, the Elder agreed to let us take refuge, on the condition that We had to give up the use of force. Most of the people had died by then. The last few people were very desperate. Weapons were not allowed to be used. We had no choice but to agree. "Before leaving, the inventor of the weapon sent a warning letter to the searchers, saying that we have weapons and that we will not be polite if they chase after us. I will go and warn the guy who is flying towards us now!" "Can't go, kid!" He shimmered softly. "If you play childish games like that, you're only doing yourself a disservice. Someone should teach you that it's not Elder's way to use weapons." "I don't have a weapon, I'm just trying to scare that guy away." "Son, at least you have to wait until you report to the Patriarch King." "We in Newlyn are a free people." Her whole body lit up with pride. "We have leaders too, but they don't call the shots. Sir, the guy is here now, and the way she clocks it, she won't give us time to 'talk'. We'd be committing suicide if we let her build a nest .” "Don't, kid, really don't—" Ignoring his objections, she said goodbye affectionately to her friends present, and single-handedly rushed out to deal with the intruder.The intruder slowed down and rushed towards her.The family got intermittent signals, but none of them understood the seeker's language.When she was about to hit a piece, she also slowed down and passed it. The intruder turned sharply and ran after her. "Jin Jini at Fumirun Outpost—" the family members heard the last bit of information. "—the way she radiates light changes suggests she understands, but—" Her voice broke, then resumed. "—big mouth, can swallow a warship—" The final sound was fainter, but very shrill. "—Please Patriarch—" Only Jin Jini screamed, and the message was interrupted. Cowan line is a synthetic fiber of monomolecular zinc and graphite.It has excellent toughness and can be stretched to the maximum extent, so it is used as an antenna cable.Untreated Cowan wire is an insulator, but after proper treatment, it can become a super conductor, and its performance is still stable at 80,000 degrees.Kewanlong wire is used as winding for electric wires and nuclear nuclear furnaces. Skynet is a "spider web" woven with Kewanlong thread, which is tied to the equator of the earth and rotates with the earth, supported by the centrifugal force of the ballast part.The ballast part extends to the space berth 100,000 kilometers away.Cities, factories, laboratories, and space defenses hang vertically like beads from space antennas.Elevator cables and gravity lines branched from the equator to the ends of the Solar Empire at various latitudes.