Chapter 3 Chapter 2 Flame in the Sky

On the street near the airport, Rick saw Karen Hood again.It was a noisy, dirty little street lined with repair shops and warehouses.The streets are filled with lumbering trucks, dangling cranes, oily mechanics and shouting stevedores.At the time, Rick couldn't believe his eyes, this wasn't where she should be. When Karen turned around, she saw Rick's admiring smile.She stared at him suspiciously, looking at his tall figure, straight and bristly brown hair and the worn backpack, his deja vu expression puzzled her. He was only three steps away from her when it happened.A blinding light suddenly appeared, silent but as terrifying as a scream.In this glare, the stained glass doors of the warehouses became pale and colorless, the spaceship seemed to be wrapped in hot blue flames, and the shadow became as thick as frozen ink.He didn't look into the bright light, but he knew what it was.

That's CT, reacting with something.Atoms split into non-atoms, which in turn evolve into new atoms.In this process, CT material fissions to release uncontrollable and extremely destructive energy, which is a thousand times stronger than plutonium fission.Rick put his head down and ran.He didn't look back, but he knew the direction those huge shadows were pointing. The light was in the southwest, where his father and Mackey were trying to prevent the two planets from colliding.It means they failed.They had lost the asteroid that Ann O'Barian had christened the "Star of Liberty," and maybe both of them.He came back too late.He can't help them.It is too late to see everything.

Without thinking, Rick dropped his pack and sprinted for cover, knowing how intense the flames could be from such a devastating explosion.He also knew how the light from the flames would penetrate the human body, burning muscle, blood, and bone, causing that radiation sickness that astronauts called "CT radiation." The stevedores around him knew it too.They yelled in fear, the roar of the machine stopped, and the footsteps of "haha" sounded on the concrete floor.The side street was suddenly so quiet that Rick could hear Karen Hood's curious voice distinctly. "That light—what the hell is it?"

He was hiding in a dark alleyway between two interstellar warehouses.He turned around and saw her standing alone on the street, the strong light blinded her eyes, but she was trying to put her fingers on them to see where the light came from. "Don't look!" Rui Chong yelled, "That's CT." That simple word was enough to make the point, but Karen didn't move.He charged into the light again, dragged her off the sidewalk, and pinned her down into the alley.She wrenched his hand violently, punched him on the jaw, and ran back into the street.Rick reached out and grabbed her hair, dragging her back into the shadows with difficulty.

"Let go of me!" Karen struggled.Rick gets another punch under the eye.There was no fear in her angry voice, "You know, it will kill you!" Rick was thinking to himself: "You will die too." Unexpectedly, she punched her again in the lower abdomen, and the pain made him almost lose his breath.He grabbed her by the elbow and pressed her against the iron wall with his body, hoping to breathe slowly and speak. "Barbarian!" Karen stepped on the heel of his leather boot hard, "You better let me go!" Rick ignored her, still holding her tightly until he caught a glimpse of the cold blue flame turning red and white.The danger was over, and he let her go carefully, not to be attacked by her.

Karen ran screaming into the street.At this time, people began to slowly emerge from the shadow of invisibility, their eyes still squinted from the stimulation of the bright light.Suddenly, a tall, high-ranking Space Guard officer stepped out a few trucks behind, and Karen stopped shouting as soon as she saw him. "Paul! That's great—" She flung herself at him, trembling, and turned her head to glare at Rick. "That man attacked me!" she said, pointing at Rick, accusing him of his "crime." "I saw him staring at me first. Then when I turned to look for the source of the light, he grabbed me and dragged me into the alley. What a strong head beast, luckily I escaped."

"Maybe that's not the case." The officer turned to Rick calmly. "How do you explain, sir?" "I'm sorry," Rick said awkwardly, "I knew there was a big CT explosion, but Miss Karen was standing in the street looking at the flames. I warned her loudly that it was a CT, but she didn't care, so I had to put She dragged away from the fallout. I think she misunderstood." "Obviously, this is the truth." The tall earthling smiled at Rick's handsome face, "Anyway, thank you very much." Karen stared at Rick blankly. "Thank him?" she screamed. "What's a CT?"

"A kind of non-matter," the guard officer told her, "just now the CT reacted with matter 25 million kilometers away. Do you think that the distance is so far that there is no danger at all? But, you have to remember There's no air to block radiation in space, and there isn't much air here in Port Burroughs." "You mean—" Karen shook her head in disbelief, blushing, "the light just—" "That's gamma rays," the officer said patiently. "It's invisible to the naked eye, and can only be measured with a Geiger calculator." He said as he revealed a small instrument not much bigger than a watch on his hand, " But these rays can cause radiation sickness."

"Oh," Karen said, winking at Rick and biting her lip, "then, then he—" "Maybe he saved your eyes," the earthling told her gently, "maybe he saved your future child from being deformed. If the radiation just now was stronger, maybe he saved your life." "Oh," Karen shrugged, "I've actually heard people talk about CT a lot, and I even knew its full name, but I wasn't allowed to think about it at the time. Who would have thought that being in the capital of the Trustee District would be in danger? ?” She stared anxiously at the Geiger calculator on his wrist.

"Don't worry, he stopped you from staring at the flame in time, you'll be fine, the radiation isn't strong enough." The earthman glanced at Rick, and smiled again, "It seems that he is the only one injured. people." Karen walked quickly towards Rick, who raised his hand defensively, much to her embarrassment. "I really hurt you!" She gasped, "It was my ring that hurt you." She squeezed her right hand, on which she was wearing a diamond ring, shining brightly in the sun.A small silver-white spaceship is inlaid on the surface, which is the symbol of the shareholders of Interstellar Corporation. "I'm so sorry," she whispered, "you just tried to save me, but I—how can I thank you?"

"Don't take it to heart." Rick gently wiped the blood from the wound on his face with a handkerchief, "I'm fine." He turned to look at the sky to the southwest. The flames had disappeared.There, his father and Robo Mackey tried, and failed, to deflect the iron asteroid's orbit.He wasn't injured, but they were probably dead. "But I have to do something for you, or I'll be very guilty." Karen took Rick's arm, "Don't you want me to know your name?" " Rick turned to face her, frowning. "Rick Drake," he told her, "I was also on the planetary ship. I was introduced to you when I disembarked. Please forgive me for staring at you." Karen's pale face flushed again, but she held out her hand. "Nice to meet you, Mr. Drake. Please allow me to introduce you to Colonel Paul Anders." She smiled at the tall officer. The special assistant is an old friend of mine." "She gave me a blue eye at a birthday party when we were five years old, and we've been friends ever since." Anders smiled and shook Rick's hand, "She's always been strong. It's very big. Mr. Drake, it's a pleasure to meet you, a friend from Earth." "Colonel, I'm an asteroid." Rick took a step back. "I'm just studying engineering on Earth. Of course, it's nice to meet you, but I'm from an asteroid, and now I have to go." "Is your place of birth important?" Karen looked at him, as if he was sure that a person's place of birth really didn't matter, "You are a space engineer who just graduated, have you found a job yet?" "found it. "Working in Interstellar Corporation?" Rick shook his head. "Ha, now I can help you." Karen smiled eagerly, "This time I came to Port Burroughs to work for the Star Corporation. My uncle Austin is in charge of the business here, and he can Have Max Vickers hire you as a Space Engineer for Interstellar Corporation. "Thanks a lot," Rick said, "but my dad started a small company of his own, and I'm going to work there." "Drake, thank you very much for saving Karen." Anders said, "If you need help, please call me anytime." Rick had already packed his bag and was about to leave, but Anders' sincere words warmed his heart, and he stopped involuntarily. "I need your help." He blurted out.After saying this, he felt very embarrassed, and stood there silently, not knowing what to do. "Really?" Anders nodded, "You want me to do something for you?" "My family lives on the planet Albania, which is on the side of the big bang." Rick regretted saying this, but he needs to know something about the explosion, "Can you--" He hesitated and didn't know what to do It's good to say it, worried that I will slip up, "Can you find out if someone was hurt there?" "Come with me." Anders nodded cheerfully. "I'm going to call the CT Patrol." Seeing Karen looking at him inexplicably, he added, "The Patrol is part of the Guard. Their mission is to monitor the CT meteor stream and maintain the CT markers. I know the officer of the spacecraft that docked on Albania—the Martian with the little pouch, and his name is Van Falkenberg." Anders took Karen's hand and motioned for Rick to follow. "I don't think you have to worry about the inhabitants of Albania at all," he said casually, "because the collision was another uninhabited asteroid, and it's a long way from your house—about four hundred million kilometers away. " Rick followed them silently, not daring to tell that his father was on the asteroid.At this time, Karen Hood asked: "Are you sure that is the case?" "The CT Patrol issued a warning last week," Anders told her. "Van Falkenberg told me that there was an engineering company of Asteroids who found that the small star was going to collide with the CT material, and they wanted to change that." Its orbit, and thus its ownership. But he was sure they couldn't do it all. "You mean there are people on that asteroid?" Karen looked at him in disbelief. "They would think of stopping that explosion!" "They want that pile of nickel-iron, which is almost worthless." Anders shrugged. "If they had the tools to change the orbit and enough time, they might succeed. But Van Falkenberg said there was no time at all. Come and do something else. People just have time to find a place to hide." "But those people still go there!" "They probably went there," Anders said casually, turning to Rick, "although Albania is sure to be safe. Van Falkenberg went there on the Purseus, just in time. The alarm was sounded. I'm sure no one was hurt, except those two daredevil rock rats, Drake and—" He paused and glanced at Rick. Rick looked at him and nodded slowly. "That's my father." "Ah—?" Karen's face turned pale, "It's so sad, he—" "What you want to know is about your father?" Anders nodded sympathetically. "I'll do my best, but I'm afraid there won't be any good news. The explosion was too strong to kill the asteroid on that asteroid." Everyone on board. No one will be spared within the nearby half a million kilometers." They walked to where Anders had parked, Karen and Rick were waiting in the car, and Anders went to the nearby Guards command center to make a call.Rick sat there dumbfounded, feeling the scar on his face, and remained silent in concern until Karen asked some questions about the CT. "I've actually heard about CT meteors," she said, "but there's an atmosphere a hundred miles thick and it's safe there, so I don't think CT is dangerous at all. It's really more powerful than plutonium." some?" "Of course, CT itself cannot fission," he replied, "you need matter to contact it. But once the reaction occurs, all matter is converted into energy. The best nuclear reactor can only release its One-thousandth of the energy. She looked at him and said, "You mean to use CT energy in the future?" Rick nodded solemnly: "Yes, and soon. Mars, the moon, and any asteroids are out of coal and oil. When the uranium and plutonium run out, we will only use CT energy." "But how is it possible? As soon as the material touches the CT material, there will be a big explosion like just now." "We can't touch it," Rick frowned thoughtfully. "That's the problem. We have to find a way to connect the CT matter to the matter without making them react." "That's what the brave do." Karen turned around and looked at him as if she'd never seen him before. "Mr. Drake, would you try—try yourself?" Rick felt he was talking too much, and he smiled lightly, trying to reassure her. "To study CT, you need a trustee government charter and a lot of money, and I don't have any. "What if you had both?" "Then I'll give it a go," he said seriously, "because our moment of truth has come. We have to make a CT chassis and build a power station on it for a whole new world, or we have to wait This old world is being destroyed under our feet, and people will fight to the death for the remaining old energy. "You mean—war?" "Yes, war with CT missiles. "Missiles?" Karen shook his head, "How can we manufacture CT missiles without a CT chassis?" "Someone can make it, and will do it," said Rick gloomily. "To produce useful CT power, people need a whole bunch of CT machines to mine ore, smelt metal, and make more CT machines— These are impossible to touch. However, any blob of CT material could be used as a missile if a way to send it could be found. I bet every major planet has its engineers working on it Send research work on CT matter methods." "I see." Karen stared at him, the smile gone from her blue eyes. "Can you tell me anything else?" Rick worried that he had told her too much, so he kept silent. "You're an Asteroid," she said quietly. "I've heard that most Asteroids are unhappy under the Trusteeship. Is that true?" "We were betrayed by your interstellar company." Rick said seriously. "In the previous Star Wars, we stood by your side. Asteroid warriors like Bruce O'Barian saved the earth and the interstellar company. We The inhabitants of the asteroid deserve their own freedom, but you have established a trusteeship government that deprives us of our rights and has not fulfilled your promise at all. "Then you are the enemy of Interstellar Corporation?" Rick shook his head and said, "I'm just an engineer. Karen looked at him suspiciously, brow furrowed. "If Interstellar Corporation offered you a position as an engineer and asked you to design this CT chassis, would you agree?" "Your company won't do that." Rick smiled, "You have so much uranium and plutonium, you just need to protect it from cheap CT energy." "That may be the truth." She nodded without expressing any objection, "but I want you to talk to Uncle Austin." "Talking about CT?" He shook his head, "People like my father and Martin Blaine spend their entire lives trying to get people interested in CT energy, but no one is interested. "I'm very interested in this." She couldn't help smiling at him slightly, "I'll talk to Uncle about it—" Rick didn't listen to what she was saying, he saw Colonel Anders walking out of the guard command building.He turned away, anxiously awaiting news about his father and the CT blast.