Chapter 7 Chapter Six

"Go back?" Quinn flew up happily. "Here on the ship to take us back to the sun—" Seeing Clay's tense face and Carbon's shocked expression, he quickly fell down and stood on the floor. "Terrible!" Carbon's sickly eyes looked at the printed message again. "It's horrible! They're spying on us, they're coming from space—" "Really, Captain?" Clay frowned. "We don't understand—" "All I know is that they killed my son." "That was indeed a tragedy." Clay nodded solemnly. "But that was twenty years ago. They haven't attacked us since. Captain—" His voice became anxious. "We can't give up aperture just because of a signal we don't understand!"

"I won't give up." Carbon turned and stared at the night beyond the alien. "Never! If I don't find my son, I will never give up! But—" He shrugged and turned around slowly, the arrogance just now disappeared in an instant. "If the giants order us to give up..." Grumbling and panting, he staggered across the dome and down the tunnel.He was old, Quinn thought, and maybe he felt relieved in his heart that the long war with the aliens would soon be over. "I'm sorry, Clay," said Quinn sheepishly. "You know, I've been looking forward to going home—"

"If you call the side of the sun 'home'..." Clay's voice became thinner, and he poured out some star mist on his palm. "I'm sorry for you, boy." "That's where I want to be," Quinn said. "The place I've always wanted." "Don't rush to clean up." Clay smiled faintly at him. "Vera Brunn will be flying for three months. Commander Kirvan may be in contact with aliens during that time. If he does—" He spread his rough brown hands and said, "No matter what happens, I don't intend to leave the aperture."

While waiting for Vera Brunn, they maintained a high level of vigilance.Those mysterious laser beams are gone.Every night, Quinn heard faint hissing sounds from the core of the distant galaxy, but he couldn't figure out the meaning of these sounds. When night fell, he helped Carbon and Clay receive the information from Jason, and then passed the information along the transfer chain to Codobosi.Jason's messages were always short and formal, and they got to Jannott very punctually. "Commander Jason Kirwan to the Flight Command." His concise aristocratic voice was converted into laser numbers, which were still crisp and clear; but Quinn felt that there was a sense of arrogance in it. "Now fly to the alien station." He always gave his flight location, and the format of the ending was also the same. "Send over. Aperture Commander Jason Cowan, servant of the Empire, guardian of the Giants."

As he waited, Quinn sometimes thought that he should go on this expedition with Jason.Regardless, Jason Cowan's guts and charisma are fascinating.He was never idle, but he was firmly tied up by Jannot and did nothing.Quinn couldn't help but bemoaned the loss of an opportunity for adventure. Noel Michael is the new laser liaison, aboard the Solar Kirvan.She is slender, with a round face and a pair of gentle eyes, lively and lovely. Quinn likes to hear the crisp aristocratic taste in her slightly childish voice, and is very interested in the unique temperament of the other side of the sun in her. "She's so cute." Clay was smitten with her. "Cute as your mother. She's the cutest when she laughs when it's not funny."

He invites her to dinner.Quinn had cleaned their quarters and turned the ventilation up wide to relieve the star fog smell in Clay's room.Clay, on the other hand, studied the delicacies that Carbon had taught him to make.He even got a bottle of Cabernet's precious wine. It seems that Noel is very satisfied not only with the food, but also with Clay, and she even said that she likes the smell of star fog wafting in the house.Later, when Clay returned to the dome to pick up Jason's signal, Noel and Quinn talked about things on the other side of the sun. He eagerly listened to her, for fear of missing a word.She had seen with her own eyes on Skynet that great and wonderful world that he had only seen in his dreams.

If——his dream quickly rose from his heart.If this evacuation can bring him back to the sun; if he can get the sun mark and find his mother; if his mother can tell him who his father is; Too many "ifs"!Reason told him so, but the dream is so real, and he can give up! "I've known Jason since I was a kid," Noel continued, "until I knew everything about him." She bit her lip tightly and seemed to shrink back in pain.Immediately she went on. "My father is a relative of Kirwan, and I met Jason at a relative's house when I was a little girl." She explained that Kirwan's relatives were nominated, not related to him by blood.Her grandfather was nominated for flying the Kirvan satellite into Earth orbit, and her father was nominated for designing the laser communication relay system. "Jason had just come back from Aperture when we first met. His dad was the new mogul at the time, so that meant he was the next mogul. When he smiled at me, I was literally blown away. So cool! So passionate— —" Suddenly she said in a sarcastic tone: "That space hero!"

He saw her bite her lip again.After a while, she shrugged, as if everything melted into the action.But he saw genuine pain in her eyes. He thought that Jason must have hurt her badly. "My father said I was too young for him. It was years before I saw him again. He was already famous and liked to do exciting things: run rockets, explore planets, sometimes fight ——He has a hot temper and has killed people. "He was always surrounded by beautiful women—I used to be jealous of them, longing for what Jason gave them. He had magic. Always higher in his circle, more favored by his father than others. First when The general of the Ministry of Security, later became the commander of the asteroid, and was also elected to the Seven-member Committee." Quinn asked what was going on with the Seven-member Committee.He harbored fantasies, desperate to understand the distant and illustrious side of the sun: the Kirwan family, the Chen family, and the Sun Empire.

"The Kirwan Building is a social machine," she said. "Rebuilt according to old Ivan's grand plans. It started with just four people: old Ivan and his three sons, who appraised the mansion's charter. Over time, it grew. In the first hundred years , the building is well run. Constantly weeding out incompetent people and adding new blood. The building currently has 30 members, all selected from relatives - my father tried his whole life to be one of the 30, but was never selected .” She shrugged regretfully. "He didn't know why, and he didn't know who was against him. Kowan kept secrets, and even my father didn't know how the committee of seven was selected from the 30 people. Three of the seven Deputy, three decision-makers and a president. The president must be one of the decision-makers. He interprets the charter, controls the entire building, and has the right to approve and veto. Now he still has the right to appoint the sun giant—of course, he Appoint yourself the sun magnate."

Quinn listened intently. "Kirvan Building—" She tilted her face and shook her head at him, as if laughing at his awe. "It was a machine of power that set up space antennas, occupied planets, and discovered Janoit. Yet any machine would break down if it were started by incompetent men. I'm afraid the Kirwan Building is breaking down." "Korwan?" His eyes widened. "The incompetent?" "Do you think the big shark has the ability?" A fierce look flashed in her eyes. "Korwan has always been a power grabber, a master at perjury and assassination." She moved toward him. "I think you should know Jason, right?"

"Too understanding." "Now he should—should be in jail." He saw her lips quiver. "Or go to trial for treason. His father doted on him and put him in a halo to hide from the limelight." "Crime of treason?" "Jason—" Suddenly she stopped, her eyes were fixed on his back, her face was tense, and it took a while for her to breathe a sigh of relief, and then turned her eyes to him again.She took a sip, and her bright eyes showed that she liked the Cabernet. "He wants to conspire to take the position of the giant." Her voice was calmer, but still mixed with the emotion just now, "With his IQ, he might be able to get this position. As for his competitors, he let them, or Said to help them destroy their future. "There is an opponent named Yuri Chen, who is the son of the giant old Boris that Ferlando overthrew. Yuri is a few years younger than Jason, and he is just as ambitious, but he is not as courageous as Jason, and he is not as strong. Jason is smart—otherwise Jason would have been dead." He listened and drank, listening with gusto, when suddenly he felt a chill, and suddenly felt that the future was bleak.Although he longed for the world beyond the sun, now he understood that the Kirwan Building turned out to be a death maze, full of traps and disasters, more dangerous than the aperture, which he had never thought of before. "He played a game with Yuri," she continued, "and the prize was a seat in the decision makers. Yuri's last move was to plant a bomb in Leonid Chen's Sun Kingdom villa, which had been planned beforehand." Arrange the evidence to put the blame on the Holy Tribe terrorists. "In the end Jason won the game." Quinn didn't speak, just watched the emotional changes on her vivid face.It can be seen that she has not completely wiped Jason out of her heart. "It's been rumored among the Kodo people." She shrugged slightly. "He has always been secretive, even when he talked to me, he didn't tell the truth, but I found out from his few words that he knew about the bomb in advance and even notified the security department, but it was too late. Yuri was arrested and sentenced. "In this way, he wiped out the two competitors Leonid and Yuri in one fell swoop. As for the rumors, Kovan doesn't care. Now, he is using the halo on his head to deal with the enemies in space. But he's still having bad ideas." "Could it be—" Quinn's face was full of horror. "Isn't there a good man?" "My parents are good people." She was silent for a moment, shaking her head. "Sharks never give a good man a chance. But Jason—" Her face tightened again. "I knew—I thought I knew what he was like." Her tone changed suddenly and became painful. "But I love him, Quinn, and I think I love him, so I volunteered to serve here, and I couldn't resist the temptation to spend months with him in space—" After a moment of silence, she opened her red eyes wide. "I've told Clay." He saw her lips tremble slightly. "Now that I've said so much, I think you know it too. Jason—" her hoarse voice choked up. "I was very close to him during the first few weeks of the voyage, and I only heard later that he had other lovers." Clay returned from the dome and poured out the rest of the drink.Noel had quieted down by then, but his spirits were still low.Only then did Quinn tell her that he wanted to go to the sun to see. "Oh, Quinn—don't even think about it. Although the sun people can enjoy a lot, they have to pay a lot for it. Now the situation is even worse, because old Ferrando is not in good health, and the earth people They are also preparing to gather crowds to rebel. People suspect each other, hate each other, and fear each other. Maybe one day your best friend will die in the wilderness. "I'm so happy to be out of that place, so happy!" After finishing speaking, she parted her red lips and looked at Clay with a smile.It was inconvenient for Quinn to stay any longer, so he left. Those short reports came as usual late at night.Jason was already deep into apertures 50AU, 70AU, 90AU. Quinn saw Clay and Carbon getting emotional. The alien base camp seemed too far away to pose a threat at all.Clay began to hope that flight command would cancel the evacuation order. Quinn waited patiently for the sun to rise from the ice every day, and waited for the flight report from Vera Brunn.While waiting anxiously, he returned to the Capala whenever he was free, and asked Tony Cafodio about the politics of the Sun Kingdom, the situation of Olaf Thorsen, and the latest technology of the nuclear transformation project. Clay and Noel always walk together.A month before Mars Kirwan arrived, they decided to get married. "Regardless of how much time we have," Clay said, "we're going to have a good time." Quinn heard Clay warning her that life on the station would be very difficult if the supply ship didn't come. "It will be harder for them to go back to the sun." She shrugged and turned to look at him with a smile. "We're going to be Aperture residents—it's a new word, but I love it. Our kids are the Aperture people of the future." Clay threw his arms around her and smiled, too, but sadly. "Even if we die—" She took his hand, "I will never regret it!" Carbon officiated at the brief ceremony.To make room for them, Quinn moves into the cottage where Jomo used to live.Seeing their intimacy, Quinn faintly felt envious. Vera Brunn was two weeks away when Jason reported that he was on the closest approach to the alien base camp. "We detected an object." His aristocratic nonchalant voice tinged with smugness. "It's a sphere, ten kilometers in diameter, obviously man-made. We detect it at various frequencies, but none can penetrate it. Its nature is still unclear, but engineers speculate that it is an insulating shell to prevent external energy from distorting the aperture inside. The snowball evaporates. "We've been spotted. We're scouting for a laser beam coming our way. Not from a sphere, but from a point nearly a hundred kilometers away, perhaps a satellite station." In less than 3 hours, the report came again. "We got in touch!" Jason's voice quickened due to excitement. "Contacted with the missing person from the Spica, Leonard Carbon - old Carbon's son, who was the laser liaison on the ship at the time. He said that the transmitter he is using now is an alien from the Spica removed. "He said that the loss of control of the Spica was purely accidental, not due to an alien attack. He said that when the crew on board saw that the alien spacecraft was too nervous, they increased their horsepower and tried to escape. As a result, the engine failed. They It can no longer be repaired. "Leynard swears that the aliens were not hostile at all. On the contrary, they rescued everyone on board. Most of the people on board are still alive and well. The alien has begun to learn English and can describe what he calls Pan-galactic culture. The alliance of aliens is called Elder. "He wants humans to join Elder. Our planet is too hostile for aliens to go, but they have been watching our evolution. He has been begging them to contact humans, he said. We can put this place Rare heavy metals sold to them, and they traded us their own science, culture, and art. It was a treasure that Carbon said he could not yet evaluate—or even comprehend. "He wanted very much to see us. He had arranged for us to stop the ship and start negotiating. We can ship some of the crew back to the sun, who have learned enough, and he himself has promised to stay and be the first ambassador to Elder.He believes that some of my ship will voluntarily apply to stay when they meet new friends—" Speaking of this, Jason seemed to gasp. "Sorry!" He suddenly became short of breath. "Can't say any more, Leonard sent another signal. Details later. Send this report to Carbon's father - he should be happy. Pass the report to Codo. Forgive my ambiguity. , because until now I still feel dizzy and can't express my excitement. This is an unprecedented and epoch-making event, and mankind is about to enter a new era!" Overwhelmed by the news, Quinn hastily sent it to Codobosi. "Reynard!" Carbon returned to the dome, holding a wine glass in his hand, his face was ruddy, and he was already a little tipsy. "He's alive and well! I thought he was murdered!" Clay floated in mid-air in a pungent star fog. "It's wonderful! Think about what the future will be like! The aperture station will serve as a transit station between the sun and Elder, and this is the southern gate to enter space from the planets." To Quinn, the news seemed too sudden.The things Elder had promised were too wondrous, too remote for him to comprehend.However—he suddenly became excited again. If the Aperture Station really became the commercial gateway between the Aperture and the Sun, then he would definitely have the opportunity to go to the Sun, at least to understand his own life experience. That night seemed to go by especially slowly.He, Clay, and Carbon never closed their eyes, and stayed in the dome all the time. No one spoke, and they were all immersed in their endless dreams and expectations.Clay kept inhaling the star mist, filling the air with the smell of star mist, and Carbon also drank the wine in his glass. Janenot spun slowly, slowly.The stars are shining and moving slowly.Jason's location, the location of the alien base, slid over slowly.It was just about to disappear under the nearby horizon when the laser communication machine clicked and started moving again. "—Surrounded!" Jason's voice sounded hurried. "They fired lasers at us, from all directions, from bases, from pucks, from space. Someone betrayed us! Fight - for life! "Tricked! We were fooled even though Bella Zall warned us. He warned too late. Remember Bella Zall? The captain of the Spica, now also a prisoner. He thought Way to escape from captivity, rushed to Carbon, gasped and told the truth. Those demons in space came immediately, and I guess killed him. "He told us the aliens for what they are. The devil! Worse than the Revelator. That Leonard himself was a demon, deceiving us with his sweet words.Bella Za said that the aliens had indeed intercepted the Spica and captured all personnel, most of whom had been tortured to death. "No one gave in, but Carbon surrendered. Bella Za said that Caben had been brainwashed and became a lackey of aliens, a shameful betrayal of the giants and all mankind. He betrayed his partners, made up facts, and put Human technology and defense systems were leaked to aliens. He also trained spies for aliens and helped them conspire to conquer human beings—Zha said that aliens could not operate in the vast and hot space, so he asked us to mine heavy metals for them . "Reynard Carbon - a notorious name! He lured us into a hellish trap. The aliens had weapons, strange devices, lasers and missiles from the Spica .Now--" There was a noise at first, and then other voices came after a few seconds. "We were hit—too badly!" Jason's voice was hoarse and desperate again. "But not dead. Not yet. But we can't talk, we have to hide. Wait for the opportunity to report again. ’ His voice grew shriller. ‘Again hit—harder this time—’ The sound cut off. Old Carbon stumbled towards the tunnel.He had tears in his eyes, he drank too much, and he walked like a yellow leaf blowing in the wind.Quinn and Clay continued to wait in the dome, but there was no other signal until Jannot's spin broke the transmission link.Late at night they answered again. All they heard was the faint hiss of galaxies. At the Fumirun Observatory, the commander Sai Ji died, and nearly half of his men were killed or injured. The "seeker" queen captured all the flying ones.Senior Advisor Greenweeney ordered the remaining companions to scatter and crawl, hoping that some lucky ones would escape alive. He was exhausted when he fled to North Point City, and all his companions were dead.The danger signals sent by Sai Ji and others who risked their lives were far behind him.North Point is an important focal point for the people of Newlyn, though it's hardly a city.Six or seven small aperture stars were dragged and placed in a pile, and each star was covered with a veil to prevent the puck from sublimating. It's hardly a capital city at all, and Newlyn's people are too small and scattered to require much organization.They have a proud proverb that they want no master, for every man is his own master.Their loosely allied body sits in a dozen orbital shells. After arriving in North Point City, Greenweene went straight to the place where the Elder delegation lived, where there were all kinds of first-aid facilities for different races.He was relieved to see these facilities, but he was suddenly disappointed by the step-by-step attitude of the staff without any sense of crisis. He wanted to meet with Swift -- the permanent high representative.The people of Swift's race were the sexually asexual Ethellows, and their original origin was doubtless on the planets, for until now they still required atmospheric pressure around them and controlled external temperatures. Swift's complex head is covered with wavy antennae, and it speaks by the flow of light from the antennae.It assured Greenweeney that the last message from Saiji had been received and forwarded, and that the Council of Elder would definitely convene a meeting to discuss whether to take action.It then added that North Point was safe and out of the path of an incoming enemy. "Sir! You said it's safe?" Greenweiny spread his glittering wings without hiding his astonishment. "You can't imagine the intruder. The thing is huge, mighty and terrifying, and shows no signs of evolution to Elder. I saw it kill a Newlyn with my own eyes. The Newlyn is very daring , dare to go to warn it to leave the aperture. I also saw it swallowed the Vermilion Observatory. To be safe, we have to get rid of it!" "It's too difficult, we can't do it." It wrinkled its tentacles, which was equivalent to shrugging. "I believe Parliament may consider a peace—" "Peace?" Greenweeney said angrily. "I saw that unfortunate Newlyn man make peace with him. To save ourselves, we can't sit around and wait for Parliament to wrestle. We must act—" "Action by what?" Swift shrugged again, as if its skin was armored enough to block all external damage. "I think all of our races have gone through a stage where only aggression is the only way to survive — and this aggressor seems to be going through this primitive stage. But in Aperture, we've moved beyond that stage of aggression." "Sir, I'm afraid the thing will come after it. It killed the Newlyn--" "Because the people of Newlyn tried to fight it." Swift ignored the flash of yellow light on him. "It was their mistake, a fatal mistake. Even the Newlyn are sadly naïve, they have only just passed beyond the stage of primitive savagery. It seems to me that admitting them into our society was a mistake in itself. " "At whatever stage, sir, the aperture must be protected—" "We have no defenses here." The rhythmic flow of color on its body made it look rather smug. "There's no facility anywhere for something so primitive." "In that case, sir, can we be allowed to kill ourselves?" "What are you talking about, Greenweeney!" Swift scolded sharply with rounded eyes. "You say that, it shows that you are not patriarchal enough. Tell you, before the council makes a decision, this aperture is enough to accommodate you and me!" "Enough to accommodate?" He didn't hide the anger in his heart. "You don't know these trespassers. They are in a frantic search for heat, and all they do is eat, hunt and reproduce.The people of Newlyn warn us, sir, of the dangers of the Full Aperture, for their pleasure in killing—" "Greenfell—" it interrupted Greenweenie like a bright purple flower unfurling. "Or Greenlight?—You have forgotten the patriarchal spirit, which does not tolerate any violence. When we encounter such uncivilized primitive people, we should try to civilize them!" "Civilize them?" His sarcasm burned him all over. "How to civilize—" "Grintel, if you were patriarchal, you wouldn't ask this question." After speaking, its tentacles dimmed and retracted into its head, indicating that the meeting was over. Elder Patriarch: The founder and spiritual leader of the Elder tribe.Lu Ensang called him the oldest and most authoritative philosopher in history. He was conceived in a celestial sphere with a large mass and a diameter of about five meters. He came to the Milky Way shortly after the stars began to form.In the ten billion years since then, he has started a never-ending drift between the stars, looking for newborn intelligent races, and cultivating their peaceful nature.The earthlings who migrated to space regard him as the god of the future.