Chapter 24 Chapter Twenty-Three

Quinn aimed at the dark lair, pushing the weapon with both hands to bounce off the wall.He used his head to trigger the sensor installed in the helmet, and the launcher strapped to his body was activated immediately. Unfortunately, the thrust of the launcher is too small, and the mass of himself and the weapon is so large, so it seems to fly very slowly! But the queen is as fast as lightning! Although she was already crippled, she spread her black wings and rushed towards Quinn angrily.Her black claws frantically pressed on the ground, using the elastic force to throw her body high, so as to reduce the effect of the weak gravity of the rock as much as possible.

Seeing that she was about to rush in front of her, suddenly the spaceship fell vertically with the momentum of Mount Tai.Quinn knew that Mindy was doing everything possible to disturb the Queen's attention.He saw the queen's mouth open wide, and her tongue popped out like a poisonous snake.The spaceship rolled several times in the air, and the engine caught fire.Fortunately, a puff of thick smoke spewed out at this moment, and Mindy escaped with his life. Taking advantage of Mindy risking his life to intercept the queen, Quinn pushed the weapon and flew into the dark cave.An unpleasant smell emanates from the cave. The diameter of the cave entrance is about 200 meters. The cave wall is cast from nickel-iron, and the place where the sun shines is shining black and bright.The cave was so big and dark that he could see nothing in it with the headlight.

He accelerated his push and sank.The last ray of sunlight had disappeared behind him. He realized that he was too close to the iron wall by the dim light from his headlights, so he changed his direction. When he looked back, the crescent-shaped wall had disappeared. It turned out that the hole The path in is a curved line. It was pitch black in the cave.One night long ago, Clay took him into a dome with red lights on, showed him astronomical instruments, and told him that space aliens were stalking them from other planets.He has disliked the dark ever since.He couldn't help shivering for a while, thinking that it would be great if he had the courage of Jason!Although he knew that the thickness of this asteroid was only more than ten kilometers, but the black hole with twists and turns seemed to be bottomless.

He was afraid of losing his way, so he kept turning and looking back, but what he saw was boundless darkness.Only darkness! If Ruen Sang and Mindy can hold off the queen as much as possible, give him more time. Suddenly, the front was no longer so dark that he couldn't see his fingers. He could clearly see the shape of the weapon in his hand, and the metal launcher of the weapon was shining with a ghostly red light.He also found that a large curved wall was also dyed a faint red. Mindy and the others' efforts to hold back the Seeker Queen apparently failed.For the queen was coming up from behind.The red light on the weapon grew brighter, and Quinn knew she was close, so he made a sharp turn and was about to lunge at the wall.Just as he was making a sharp turn, he found a place that was darker, so he hid there.It turned out that at the bottom of the gloomy cave, there were several large groups of dark things piled up on the ground.He tucked his weapon behind his back, switched off the transmitter strapped to his body, and ducked among the piles.

Only when Quinn got closer did he realize that these ten-meter-high objects were some metals.Are they excreted by the queen?Or did she distill it from the ore she dug for food for her hungry children?The red light flashed around twice and then gradually dimmed.The queen did not see him.Quinn knew she was searching somewhere ahead, or waiting there for him to come out. "Careful!" came a bird's song from the tiny zinc plate in his helmet. "The caloric load is too heavy, urgent reminder: reduce exercise and avoid heat sources!" How can we avoid the heat source?He was very confused and anxious.The asteroid itself is a source of heat, and with the nuclear power possessed by the queen and her child, he is trapped in it, and the thermal overload is inevitable.

He's not Jason, but he has to pretend to be Jason this time.He moved his weapon from behind to in front of him and was about to flee elsewhere.Then he noticed that the dark walls were glowing red again, and his heart sank suddenly, knowing that the queen was back again. The first thing he saw were her large eyes, glowing an angry red, searching the darkness.She turned around in front of a black smoke-colored cave wall, and cast her eyes on the pile of metal that Quinn was hiding in. Quinn held his breath and clung to a pile of spherical metal.The queen's gaze rested on the pile of metal for a moment, and then slowly moved away again.Quinn breathed a sigh of relief, stood up boldly, and found that the queen was flying towards the entrance of the cave.Maybe the queen, he thought, was crazy; maybe she suspected that such a small thing was not a real threat to her child; maybe she was worried that a greater threat came from the spaceship; smashed to pieces.

When the queen's figure disappeared, Quinn immediately got up and rushed towards the place where the queen had just looked for him.Just ahead there was another glint of light. Although it is very faint, it is redder than the red light in the queen's eyes.Quinn floated over cautiously. "Be careful!" Another bird chirping reminded him in the helmet. "The heat load is too heavy, please use emergency coolant, the use time is only one hour. Urgent reminder, keep away from heat sources." He flipped on the launcher switch and flew up at full speed.The red light below him illuminated the jet-black cave wall in front of him, revealing a large black metal frame.

Beside the black shelf, Quinn found the Seeker's Den. The Seeker's Nest is at the bottom of an abyss.The abyss was so large and dark that he could not estimate its size.In the very center of the bottom there was a high hill of round, glowing red things.Quinn thought to himself, it must be an egg that has not yet hatched.Around the hills, there were swarms of newborn little seekers. Among these fiery monsters, some were shaped like wasps, with huge stomachs and shining blood-red light, Quinn thought, these must be princesses; and those shaped like ants with huge jaws must be warriors; Shaped like white moths with green wings, they may be raiders adapted to the air of the earth; some are like reptiles; What role it will play in the lair, Quinn does not know.

Afraid of wasting time, he picked up his weapon and aimed at them.The weapons were not equipped with sighting devices, perhaps because the Newlings could rely on their electronic senses to aim at targets. He half-closed his eyes and aimed at a launcher, aiming the warhead at the largest princess. He pressed the fire button with a trembling finger. The missile exploded silently!The recoil of the weapon knocked Quinn's shoulder achingly, and smoke rose to engulf everything.He waited for the thick smoke to dissipate, corrected his firing posture, and fired a cannonball at a warrior with his mouth wide open.

He then fired five bullets in succession at the attacker with wings, at the seeker who looked like a dragon, at the seeker who had just come out and half looked like a two-headed snake, and at the hill-like eggs.The missile hit, and when the smoke slowly cleared, he saw that the virus carried on the missile began to take effect. The biggest princess, furious, spit blue flames on the dragon-like seeker.The samurai clung tightly to the two-headed snake-like seeker, and opened its bloody mouth fiercely.The assailant jumped up and pounced on the unhatched egg.And a reptilian seeker sprays red liquid into the air.The scene suddenly became chaotic, and finally the lair became a sea of ​​flames.

"Be careful--" Quinn vaguely heard a reminder that the emergency coolant was about to be used up, and they should retreat in time.He dropped his weapon and flew the way he had come.The thermal system had failed due to overload, and by this time his whole body was drenched in sticky sweat.The air was getting worse and worse, and he could only gasp for air. A pair of blood-red eyes flashed ahead, and it was the queen returning to see her children.He hurriedly flew to the side, and found the place where he was hiding, maybe another place, full of mysterious metal blocks.He hid among the piles of metal and waited for the Queen to pass by. "Be careful!" The bird chirped suddenly. "Urgent Reminder: Out of Coolant! Please find a safe place immediately without delay!" As soon as those blood-red eyes flashed, he jumped up and flew along the way.He thought that was the way to go.At this time, his mind was already dizzy, and he was severely deprived of oxygen wrapped in a space suit.He wanted to take off his spacesuit, but he couldn't live a minute without it. The darkness seemed boundless.He wants to fly back to the spaceship, to a place with air, and to Mindy, but there is still a boundless darkness ahead!He bumped into the iron wall in a daze.He lazily changed direction, continued to fly forward, and hit the iron wall again. Wrapped in the sweltering heat of his space suit, he collected himself, but he didn't know which direction to fly, and he worried that he had lost his way.When he saw a pair of big red eyes running towards him in front of him, he realized that his worry had become a reality. Red light has shone on him.He seemed to have seen the queen's bloody mouth open, the bright red tongue popped out, and the fingers on the black paws were like little snakes. One of the snakes had entangled him! He suddenly felt a relief.The Seeker's lair has been destroyed by him.With any luck, Ruensang and Mindy will make it to Jannot in time to save their friends at the Aperture Station.No matter what will happen in the future, his mission has been completed, no pain, no regrets, only relief. She was defeated by mosquitoes! The queen stood by the delivery room, watching in agony her mad children slaughter each other. Those pompous mosquitoes! Her heart was full of desolation!She thought of her dead prince, how absurd it had seemed to her then, when he had driven out the mosquitoes, and how ridiculous these impudent little idiots were still clamoring for revenge. It was ridiculous then! She couldn't bear to watch the children die one after another, so she turned and left resolutely. The group of defiant mosquitoes really didn't break their promise, and even secretly moved their weapons in. Is that annoying mosquito that rushed in from behind her when she was not prepared to attack the small spaceship, is it the murderer?Just a mosquito?A mosquito can kill all her children?Cut off her future?Killed her hopes?What kind of weapon does it use, so powerful?Her heart was on fire, and she suddenly jumped into a rage.However, she had lost her stomach and could not vent the anger in her heart.The best part of her body was gone, she was dead like her poor children. Pain numbed her mind, and she flew toward the cave entrance in a trance.Suddenly, she found that the murderer of her child was flying towards her from the front. She rushed over like lightning. She held back her tongue, because the delicate mosquito seemed to be dead, and because she remembered the etiquette of war that the dead prince had taught her.The defeated party is carrion and food for slaves; the winner wins respect and has the right to entertain his peers, and even if he dies in the war, he will enjoy a grand funeral. And at this time, this hateful mosquito is the winner! She stretched out a finger and gently lifted the mosquito out of the hole. The boat was still parked against the wall, as if waiting for her attack.She walked over, and the boat flew up in a start.She placed the lifeless gnat where the ship was parked, and slowly crawled back into the cave. The spaceship immediately fell from the sky, and a small animal with silver wings flew out, bringing the mosquitoes back to the ship.She watched the spaceship go up into the sky, fade away, and fly towards the nebula.She stood at the entrance of the hole, her empty eyes fell on the place where the spaceship had landed. Her stomach is gone, her fire of life is rapidly going out, her limbs have already started to become stiff, and her body will soon become stiff too, but no one of her kind will come and eat her body, giving her She had a dignified and holy funeral. However, she felt more pity for the mosquitoes.They are the victors in this war, but deserve no respect at all.They won the war by cowardly sneak attacks.They broke all the etiquette of classic warfare.They were too young to know courage, dignity, pride, beauty, and truth, and they did not deserve her respect. The fire of her life was gradually extinguished, and she began to croon and sing the broken music, these ancient heroic hymns contained her lost pride.She seems to be a newborn child, growing up happily at home, bathed in the love of her brothers and sisters, and lamenting the glorious deeds of a heroic mother. It was as if she had learned to fly again, carried into space by the disgruntled Seeker. It was as if she had met her prince again, who bravely and fearlessly defeated his fierce rival in gold and red armor, and won her heart.She seemed to be teasing her lover again, dodging his fiery erotic passion, until in a moment of madness between them, she found his proud head crushed between her jaws, and his life poured from his withering body. All the joy in her body disappeared in an instant. Faced with the anger of the prince's companions and the discrimination from her sisters, she chose to run away from home, and she was confident in building a nest of her own in the vast and dark universe.It was as if she had experienced the sweet pain of childbirth again, sacrificing herself to feed her precious child.She seemed to encounter those uncivilized mosquitoes again, and saw her first child dedicate his short life to this family. However, the biting cold at this time shocked her back to reality.The heroic movement she composed herself is drawing to a close.She is going to change the ending from the original high-pitched grandeur to a solemn and sad one. Although her body was frozen and her thinking was dull, she thought she still had enough time to finish it. She finally got it all done. Quinn woke up. The air was cool and comfortable, something he could not have wished for, and he took a few greedy breaths.He saw Lu Ensang at a glance, her golden wings were shining, and her slender body was wrapped around his upper arm.He vaguely remembered that she had brought him into the spaceship, Mindy, and he smelled the fragrance of ancient wood on Mindy.Mindy was undoing his spacesuit. "Quinn! Can you hear me?" He nodded feebly.Mindy's lips were on his face and he knew she was kissing him. The Seekers are defeated! "What a strange animal!" whispered Mindy. "The queen took you out of the cave, and you were wounded and unable to move. She sent you to where the spaceship landed, and let us take you away." "I thought she was dead, but she saved my life." His tense nerves relaxed, and he soon fell asleep.He dreamed that he and Mindy were children again, learning to fly in a balloon in faraway Jannot. When he woke up again, he found himself alone in the room.He wasn't too happy about the victory. He still finds it inconceivable that so many strange beings have been killed by him, and that their dying mothers would choose to save his life.He suddenly felt sorry for the defeat of such a great creature. And Jannot, can they still arrive?Despite Thorsen's engine, they still can't necessarily succeed.The designed voyage of this spacecraft is far from meeting such a long flight, and they have consumed a lot of precious energy since they left the earth. Shouldn't they be looking for some refueling?It's a silly idea, he thought.The Trojan asteroids undoubtedly have rich ice layers suitable for fueling their engines, but they have neither the tools to detect them nor the tools to refine them. He got up and walked into the cabin, and found Mindy sitting in the driver's seat, with Tianyu beside her.She threw herself into his arms, willingly letting him be tender.However, Quinn felt her body tremble when she said that she had not yet been able to contact Earth. "I know we can't—never go back!" Her voice was hoarse. "But I'm having a hard time letting go. My whole world, my friends, I'm afraid most of them are dead, but I still want to know how." Her trembling fingers clenched Quinn's shoulder. "I feel so lost, terribly lost!" "Maybe we can go back one day." Quinn squeezed the painful shoulder from her scratch. "But now we have to get the engine to the aperture station, hopefully in time." "If it's too late—" Mindy shook his head and said to himself, "how lonely it must be—" In order to save energy, they let the spaceship float freely as much as possible.It's been a long time, but Quinn felt it was very short.With their loved ones by their side, they put all their troubles and pains behind them, and lie quietly in the guest room, forgetting the suffering earth and the horror of the aperture that they may face. At least they forgot everything for a while. Ruensang was anxious to tell her people the news of the Seeker's death.When the spaceship was in free fall, she flew out of the cabin and spread her silvery wings to try to get in touch with her tribe. When she flew back to the spaceship again, her face was shining with joy. "I have been in touch with my sister Xiyangen. She sent a welcome message from Constellation 1, where there is also a friend from Earth named Renard. She said she has interceded on your behalf, asking Accept you." His mother's voice on the monitor reminded Quinn of the happy times she and Clay lived together. "White Wing is a member of the Newlin tribe. At first she thought that you would not be able to adapt to space and refused to contact you, but Xiyanggen pleaded hard and asked to accept you. Until they received the news that the searchers' lair had been destroyed by us At that time, White Wing agreed to submit your matter to the parliament. But many members still objected to contacting you on the grounds that killing the searchers was a clear proof that you were still at the primitive stage and had not yet evolved.” West Seeing that the decision of the council is not good for you, Yang Gen turned to seek the support of the Elder clan chief.The patriarch overruled the decision of the council, and to the surprise of the council, he pardoned you for genocide because he believed that you had eliminated a genocide that was larger, deeper, and more harmful. "The most telling justification for the patriarch's decision comes from a report just received. The report was submitted by the famous astronomer Searle.When he was on duty at the new monitoring station established at the original site of the Vermeerun Observatory, he found a shiny disc crashing towards the black companion. "The predecessor of this disc was a planet, which was finally swallowed by a black hole. Foreseeing that the life on the surface of your planet may be extinct because of this, the patriarch gave you a chance with special permission." His mother's voice sounded soft, reminding him of the fifth birthday, at home in the ice pit at Aperture Station, when she made him his favorite candy and Clay gave him a snowman sycophant toy. "The council adopted the opinion of the patriarch and decided to contact the humans on Earth. So we recommended the two of you as the best spokespersons for your clan. "We were instructed to ask you whether you would accept peaceful means of contact." They looked at each other in surprise. "We—we accept!" Quinn said with a dry throat, taking a deep breath, "We are very grateful to you, the council and the Elder clan chief. We believe, please tell them, we believe their decision is Wise and correct." The two of them sat together, staring for a long time at Lu Ensang's shining wings spreading their message. "Everything—everything is so amazing!" Mindy whispered softly, turning to him. "I can't imagine what it means to be the voice of humanity on Earth!" "I can't even imagine it." Quinn shook his head lightly. "But it's certainly something to be thankful for." No sooner had the fuel been used up than they began their descent toward the aperture station.They yelled once, twice, three times... After three times, they finally heard the echo. "Who is it?" was Jomo's surprised voice. "Are you still alive?" "Not dead yet—" Quinn asked anxiously, "Are you—the person at Aperture Station okay?" "Everything is fine, Captain Brunn is here." Clay soon appeared on the screen, followed by Noel, and finally Captain Brunn. After they told what had happened at Aperture Station, they listened carefully to the news from Quinn and Mindy, how Skynet had crashed, how the Seekers had been wiped out, and the hope of humans connecting with the Elders. "We're all fine," Clay told Quinn. "It's all credit to Captain Brunn." Bruen's cruiser was severely damaged after encountering the searchers, and received news that Skynet had crashed while drifting in space.She repaired the most traumatized part of the cruiser, and flew towards the aperture station. "You came just in time," Clay said. "Despite what Jomo can do, our last engine died, and if it's another day, we'll be out of ammunition." As the ship was about to land at the Aperture Station, Quinn and Mindy promised to escort Ruen San back home once the ship was refueled.As soon as the spaceship landed, Lu Ensang happily jumped out to contact the Elders. They disembarked from the spaceship, and as soon as they entered the plastic tunnel, Clay and Noel greeted them.Noel was looking tenderly at Clay's son in his arms. Little McLean! They stayed at the aperture station for a month.Using the technical information brought by Quinn, Jomo rebuilt a laboratory to manufacture and improve the engine designed by Thorson. "Okay!" He smiled, and the golden sun mark on his face looked even more eye-catching at the aperture station. "Finally we can make our own Thorson engine. Whoa! Whoa!" When Quinn and Mindy were about to pack fuel for the long-distance flight, Lu Ensang circled in the air to indicate that they had received new information. "It was sent by my sister Xiyanggen. She said that Leonard felt that he had been away from his compatriots for too long and wanted to leave the aperture, so she asked you to rush to Constellation 1 to replace him as a human on Earth in the Elder Council Speaker's seat." "I didn't expect it to be so fast." Quinn turned to stare at Mindy. "Why?" She chuckled, kissed him and said, "If we join the Elders—" The spaceship was ready to go, and Lu Ensang entered the cabin.They bid farewell to their friends at the aperture station and flew towards the depths of the nebula. The last note of the tragic movement gradually faded from her fading memory, and the queen crouched at the entrance of the cave, suddenly ashamed.She looked towards a distant planet, and there was a little bit of starlight in front of her eyes, but this light warmed her cold heart like a spark. There is her home!She thought of the heroic deeds of the whole family, and a rush of pride surged in her heart.Although she was defeated by the shameless gnat, her sisters will avenge her - and the stars will shine brightly! The bright starlight was like a sharp knife piercing her heart, and she knew that the black hole had swallowed that planet.She would never go home, never to see her mother, her sisters, and those proud princes who would have dedicated their lives to her. The light was fleeting, and the queen saw the death-like darkness in front of her eyes. She suddenly felt lonely, unforgettable loneliness!