Chapter 17 Chapter Sixteen

Quinn was so frightened that his limbs went limp, and he sat down on the ground.He turned to look for the celestial fish in the cage. "Hi, Quinn!" His mother's voice came from the monitor, begging him urgently, "Please stay where you are. You have to listen to the command of the monitor, because I can't make a sound, so I have to rely on you." Mom's voice came from the monitor." The cage is still at the end of the room, a little space in the middle, where his mother's desk used to be, but it has been moved away.He finally found Tianyu.Tianyu was staring at him with big mysterious eyes.The big eyes blinked to the rhythm of the sound, and its fin-like wings were spread out, glowing with fluorescent lights, and it was swimming towards Quinn.

"Stand up, Quinn," Tianyu begged him, "Look at the display screen and listen to me." Quinn was very surprised. "I'm listening." He stood up tremblingly, eager to know the terrible secret he might discover, and turned his head to look at the display screen on the wall. "But you have to tell me what happened." "After I told you about the space predators, you're going to be scared." "We're afraid, of course," murmured Quinn, "but we're afraid of you, too." "Dear Quinn!" His mother's voice, slightly impatient.That's how his mom used to talk when she couldn't explain what Empire of the Sun was all about.For a moment, the shadow of his mother appeared in his mind, she was wearing a yellow sweater, bent over, shivering all the time, because she was afraid of the cold.

"You said you were afraid of us, but in fact we are more afraid of you." His mother's voice sounded aggrieved. "However, the arrival of space monsters is a colossal disaster for the entire aperture." "Is it—" He was too scared to speak, "Is it the monster I saw? The monster I saw just outside the aperture station!" "She has indeed been near your aperture station, and she is much larger than your spaceship." "she!" "That's right, the monster is a female animal who has come to make a new home for her kind. She occupies a place - a den, you might say - in the middle of what you astronauts call the Trojans , where she will breed."

"Is it—is it eating metal?" His tone was full of curiosity. "It was the luminous body she was looking for." His mother's voice sounded very gentle now. "Like heavy metals, because her metabolism is based on nuclear reactions. She will fly anywhere that emits heat. On the way here, she attacked our monitoring station near the aperture, and also attacked your equator Relay station. Now—” His mother's voice was suddenly very sad, the same way she used to talk about the solar empire far away from the earth. "And now her children have flown to attack your planet."

"You—" he shook his head in disbelief, "how do you know?" "I can see through the radiated electromagnetic spectrum. Although the air in this place affects our vision, we can still use the Skynet as an antenna to receive information." The sky fish's shining wings gradually dimmed. "Now Skynet is destroyed." "Destroyed?" He was overwhelmed by the news that Tianyu with a pair of mysterious eyes opened on the screen said. "You mean Skynet connected to Earth has been destroyed?" "See for yourself—" After the Skyfish disappeared from the screen, it was replaced by the entire Earth, an image seen from the port of Kodo.A bright spot appeared in the boundless darkness around the earth.The highlights are constantly expanding.

"That's the monster." His mother's voice was eerily calm. "Here's the image from your Kodo Harbor Fleet Monitoring Station. It's orbiting the Earth, cutting Skynet wires to grab balloons full of energy." "Why would it do this?" Quinn gasped, and glanced at the Skyfish in the cage. "why?" Sky Fish's wings flapped silently twice.It lay on the floor and still used his mother's voice to communicate from the monitor. "Because the balloon pulling Skynet has radioactive substances left after the nuclear reaction, this is exactly what it is looking for. It cuts the network cable, grabs the balloon, and seizes the opportunity to use inertia to send the balloon to the lair where its mother is. , as food for its mother."

The bright spots on the screen slowly blurred and became wobbly.After Quinn zoomed in on it, an image that surprised him was immediately displayed on the screen.It was the image his father, the Sun Giant, had shown him: the silvery wings half-open, the bloody maw opening and closing, the huge eyes belching fury. "It's just a visual image." His mother's voice is very gentle, as if teaching him to read when he was a child. "If you want to hear the sound, we recorded it too." Intermittent orders came from the microphone; hoarse roars; the military band was playing the song "The Empire on which the Sun Never Sets"; fragments of the voice of the Revelation, clamoring for the evil seed of Satan to throw the souls engraved with the sun mark into the eighteenth hell; A scream of people; a hoarse jeer.

"Report sir, we are fighting back." A very nervous and sharp voice came from the microphone, "The situation is not good, the situation is urgent, the monster is not afraid of missiles at all, it throws back the missiles we fired like candy!" There was dead silence on the microphone.His mother explained: "This is a fierce battle over the Pacific Ocean. The monster follows the rotation of the earth and cuts the skynet cables connected to the major cities on the earth. Kodo will be its last target." "Is there no way to stop it?" Quinn asked, staring at the disaster on the display in bewilderment, "Don't you—they have no way?".

"We tried. We have a weapon—" There was helplessness in his mother's voice, a sigh like there was no one to help when there was a problem. "But it was defeated by you." "how can that be possible?" no answer.At this time, the image of the terrifying monster on the monitor continued to magnify, mixed with the hiss of missiles piercing through the air, the sound of metal impacts, the dull sound of missiles exploding, and the sound of Muslims chanting prayers from the Koran. "We're Newlyn," came Quinn's mother's cheerful voice again, as if recalling those sweeter days. "Among the Elders, we are newcomers. The Elders allow us to live at the edge of the Aperture—"

Her mother's voice stopped abruptly.The image of the searchers coming all the way on the display screen was getting bigger and more terrifying, and Quinn immediately stumbled and ran towards the Skyfish in the cage. "If it came and attacked Codo now—" "Don't be afraid, Quinn, don't be afraid." Tianyu raised his wings and patted his shoulder lightly.It was still his mother's calm voice that came from the monitor. "There is no way to stop it." He suddenly had unstoppable sympathy and admiration for Tianyu.It is far from home, imprisoned here, suffering from trauma and torture, but still so calm and strong.

"Maybe—" he whispered, "I think I can open the cage and let you out. If you could fly—” "I can't fly anymore. They destroyed my flying organs after they caught them, and damaged them again during the torture process, and they haven't recovered yet." "You're suffering—" he choked out. "There's a spaceship here, and I think I can launch it. If I can find enough food and fuel, maybe I can get you home." "Quinn, Quinn!" his mother seemed to scold him.That was the voice she used to scold him for nonsense. "Don't expect to send me anywhere anymore. Your Admiral Jason Cowan has already destroyed our nuclear star base, and you don't know how far Newmarch is from here." "I'm going to do my best! Before the monsters come—" "Unfortunately, there is no time." There was a trace of regret in his mother's serious words. "It's too close to here. It's going to kill all of us small animals, because it gets a lot of pleasure from killing indiscriminately. Once we walk out of this laboratory, we will be swallowed by it." "Is there nothing we can do?" He stood up, stared at Tianyu and asked, "Can we use the weapon you just mentioned?" "We tried." A sad sigh. "My sister Snow Gray was flying with this weapon to attack the Seeker's lair, but was ambushed, and the ship was destroyed and she was seriously injured. When we finally found her in the ruins, the weapon was gone." "What about the Elders? Do they have a way?" "You don't understand them," said his mother's helpless voice on the screen, "and neither do the Seekers. To them, killing is the worst crime. But the Seekers are bloodthirsty, and they take pleasure in it. " Quinn clenched his fists, trembling all over.He was even angrier when he thought that he had nowhere to use it even though he was strong.He turned around slowly, and looked at the ever-expanding scene of disaster on the screen again. "Even though the Elders tried to stop me, my sister Snow Gray took two companions to sneak into the searcher's lair. The only reason why she behaves differently from the Elders is that she is not perfect by nature. ’” his mother said quietly, as if referring to the photo his father had taken of her. "Unexpectedly, when my sister was about to approach the searchers' lair, she was ambushed by your Admiral Jason Kirwan—Quin was taken aback. He was embarrassed to say that Jason was actually his brother. The luster on the Sky Fish's wings had faded completely, but Quinn could hear no pain in his mother's soft voice. "Sorry," he murmured, "I guess I'm not like Jason." He fell into deep thought, until the voice from the screen woke him up again. "You're different. There's something Elder about your mother that's endearing to us. We used to want to talk to her as freely as we talk to you now, but back then we weren't allowed to. " "How many sisters do you have?" "Four. Big sister Jin Jini was killed by the searchers outside the edge of the aperture. Second sister is Xi Yang Gen, we left her at the nuclear star monitoring station, trying to talk to the people you live there. Her purpose is to study whether you are suitable for being accepted by the Elders. " "Is there a chance?" "It might have existed before, but it's a pity that this hope was killed by Jason himself. For some reason, Jason attacked our monitoring station, and the whereabouts of the second sister have not been known since then." Quinn couldn't bear to listen any longer, so he turned his gaze to the display screen again.The searcher opened his blood red eyes and opened his bloody mouth, almost occupying the entire screen.The image was blurred for a while, and then became clear immediately. The searcher seemed much smaller. At this time, his mother's gentle voice came again. "Snow Gray is my youngest sister. Her genes were born with defects, so her development was delayed. When the searchers passed by outside the aperture, she was taking care of our old mother—" Quinn suddenly saw the image of the seeker disappear from the screen. "It's gone!" "It's still there," his mother's voice was calm, "it's just too close for the camera to see." He waited for a while, then asked anxiously, "What about you? What's your name?" "I—" His mother's voice hesitated slightly, but she was still unhurried, as if wondering if he would understand what she said. "We haven't clearly stipulated who should speak. In fact, we speak with one voice, which represents the voice of all of us. This is different from yours. But to make you understand, you can call me Lu Ensang." "Luen Sang." Quinn nodded, expressing his interest in the name.He tried to sound his mother's calm voice and said, "If we could launch that ship—" he said softly, "if we could find Snow Gray's lost weapon—" A colorful flame suddenly flashed in the air! "Be careful, Quinn!" was his mother's anxious cry. "A monster comes—" Before she finished speaking, the lights were turned off.The shaking floor threw him high. "Lu Ensang!" Quinn yelled in the darkness, "Lu Ensang, did you hear me?" He didn't hear the echo.Tianyu could no longer speak to him, even if she wanted to, the display screen was turned off.All he could hear was the rattling and rattling of surrounding buildings under the pressure of shifting.He knew Skynet had been cut.He was floating in the darkness, holding on to nothing. The emergency lights came on.He noticed that the spaceship was shining dimly not far above his head.The lab is spinning.He turned sideways to find the sky fish, and found it hanging like a rainbow in the cage where it was imprisoned.He thought maybe Skyfish was yelling at him in a voice he couldn't hear. A baffle floated slowly toward him.He waited for his moment, jumped up and grabbed it, and then, using a technique he learned from elementary school, he kicked his feet against the fender and hurled himself towards the cage.He opened the cage door and jumped in to find the portable microphone that was there.He quickly found the books that were put together. But the microphone is gone. "Quinn, dear." It was his mother's voice, like his mother's soft comforting voice when he accidentally hurt him. "I'm here." He looked down—it seemed to be right below him—and saw the sky fish.Tianyu's face turned to him, his mysterious eyes wide open and gleaming.She holds the monitor in her arms.The sound came from the display, and a pattern was flashing on the display. "Is it a space lab?" "yes." "Where's the searcher?" "It cut Skynet. Kodo Lab is falling." "us--" "It was the network cable below us that was cut. We are still connected to the port. The huge inertia dragged us towards the Trojan asteroid group, which is the nest of searchers." Although Jason's raid destroyed the nuclear star monitoring station, Xi Yanggen escaped in a lifeboat, and she also rescued a man from Earth, Leonard Carbon. They were the only two survivors of the raid. Leonard was badly injured, and while he was recovering, he asked to see Earth. "Most of my life has passed," he said to Xiyanggen. "Before I die, I want to see the earth again." This wish is difficult to achieve.The distance between the stars is too far, relying only on this primitive lifeboat, even if he spends his whole life, he cannot return to the earth.Xiyanggen told Leonard about her sister Lu Ensang being brutally abused by humans on Earth. They are now heading towards Constellation 1. "The colony of the Elders," she told Renald, "there is no government. The dwelling of the Elder chief is our center." Although the journey is as far away as the earth, Xiyangen already feels that there is no danger. She will never be attacked by the sympathetic Renard again, and she will never meet the searchers again. She only hopes that the spaceship of the Elders will come. Nearby, rescue them back. They stayed alone together, and gradually developed a good impression of each other.Xiyanggen had a better grasp of human language, and Leonard began to tell his life story. "I am a recruit in the fleet," he told Xiyangen, "and my father was an officer. Wherever he is stationed, we will move there.We've lived at Kodor base, and at the most remote pole stations. " "Every time we move to a new home, we always go back and take a look at the earth. In Empire of the Sun, almost all my relatives live in the lowlands of Kilimanjaro. Usually, if my father has a long cruise mission, my mother and I will live in the Kilimanjaro lowlands. There. Dad comes back from vacation to live with us. I think our family is happy, but my mom complains about life in space." "I used to work on computers, and my mother wanted me to do it as a career. Then I decided to follow my father into the Solar Fleet. She divorced my father and lived alone on the earth, collecting art for museums." "I went to see her once and met a girl who was an Aztec, a gifted artist, and beautiful. We were madly in love. She had no sunmark. We weren't married, and we didn't live together in space, but we had a baby, a daughter—" She saw tears glisten in his eyes. "I only saw my daughter once, the last time I asked for leave and left the aperture to return to Earth, but that was a long time ago, and she is probably in her twenties now, maybe she has a child of her own. I don't know What would they do if the monster rushed to the earth." "I don't know, maybe I will never know." Xiyanggen stretched out his three-fingered hand sympathetically, gently stroking Leonard's face.She also told him of their painful Newlyn family history and of the misfortunes of her sisters.The Seekers are invincible, she said, and all the interstellar planets will soon be colonized by them. "If the monsters attacked the Earth," he said, "and a few people escaped and fled to the Aperture, do you think they would be accepted by the Elders?" He saw the sad look on her face. "Your atrocities have ruined the hope left to you," she explained, "because you attacked our frigate; you killed the people we sent to visit you; you took my little sister Ruen San , tortured her speechless; you also destroyed our monitoring station, and completely cut off the attempt to form a friendship with you." "If we'd known—" he said, "we're afraid because you're so secretive. If we'd known—" He burst into tears like rain, sobbing choked up.She could feel his regret and pain. "Some of us," Leonard murmured, "have never tried to really get to know you." "We will try our best to forgive you." Xiyanggen also had tears in his eyes. "Because some of you are very promising to be Elders. They are intelligent, selfless, and creative. Your highly advanced technology has paved a way for you to us-only you have made this path with your own hands. Blocked." The bright luster of her wings faded away, and the shadow of regret in her eyes grew stronger. "You are still children," she said generously, "The nuclear star station incident should be regarded as a painful experience, and you have received education from here to prepare for entering the aperture in the future." "But now—" Leonard asked tearfully, "are we hopeless?" Xiyanggen patted his dull wings, reached out and stroked Leonard's haggard face and said, "We can't see your hope." Mexico America: An important political entity that emerged in North America in the solar year 69. It is nominally independent, but actually controlled by the Solar Empire to which the Kirvan family belongs.By the year 100, the out-of-control population of Mexico and the United States is estimated to have reached 9.7 billion.Due to the depletion of ground resources, serious soil erosion, and the prevalence of epidemics caused by hunger, almost all people rely on artificially synthesized nutrients for a living.