Chapter 10 Chapter 9 The Sleeping Astronaut

On the way to Burroughs II on the Guard's service ship, Paul Anders found himself feeling even more urgent to solve the mystery of the giant CT golden needle. Anders has always considered himself a pragmatic space engineer.In his eyes, the planets and CT meteors formed by the material of the earth exist objectively, and he seldom thinks of their origins.The theory of Adonis and the CT's invasion of planets seemed too far back for him to be an impossible fantasy.However, this sudden explosion and its disturbing aftermath clearly reproduced the ancient cosmic catastrophe. Anders closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, thinking about the situation.Adonis star was the fifth planet of the sun at that time, and its orbit was between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. German scientists believed that it was slightly larger than Mars, but it is not known whether there was life on it before the birth of life on the earth—earth matter constituted life.And the invading CT planet must be slightly smaller than Mars, which can be deduced from the situation of the CT meteor stream.It must have been separated from its own CT sun by some earlier explosion, but no one could tell how many centuries it had wandered through the void of space before colliding with Adonis.

There must be CT life on this CT planet, and the roll of Van Falkenberg's film seems to be enough to prove this point.Anders still doesn't understand why such a narrow passage and such a high handrail were built in that hollow needle.And his imagination couldn't picture the CT creature that had walked down the passage. The "Golden Eagle" spacecraft was ready for him.This is a brand new patrol spacecraft equipped with two large-caliber space guns.It was made of hard metal with the latest technology, it weighed twelve thousand tons, it was extremely powerful, and it was faster than other spaceships.Anders suddenly felt less confident, but he figured at least it was faster than any ship made of Earth stuff.

He wasn't too happy with the crew of the "Golden Eagle" spacecraft. Lieutenant Colonel Ivanovich Popov was from Callisto, a tall, stocky man with a bear-like wobble.Anders thought his broad, greasy face looked treacherous and clumsy.His voice was hoarse and harsh, which was very uncomfortable. Lieutenant Luigi Muadori was a small, dark Martian with wandering black eyes set in a dry face.He walked with a limp, but made no sound. Warrant Officer Omega is a bespectacled Venusian, short and dapper.This task made him very excited. The other crew members also come from various planets, as any organization of the Guard is required to be formed in accordance with the statutory ratio.

Hood arranged twenty or so people on the spaceship who were willing to be loyal to the Star Corporation for money, but Anders didn't think they would be so loyal. He decides to just take advantage of the gang and doesn't trust one of them.During his alone time with Popov, he said to Popov: "Colonel, our official mission is to observe the new CT meteors from the last few collisions. You can tell those you trust that we will Test a new device for remote analysis of CT objects." Popov nodded, a gleam of alertness in his small eyes.Hood's insider on the ship had told him that the real mission of the operation was to track down a group of Martians who were busy trying to rebuild the Free Space Party.So he echoed hoarsely and intelligently: "Misdirection is a wise precaution, sir."

Halfway to Albania, the phone in Anders' cabin rang, waking him from his sleep.He reached for the microphone and asked sleepily who it was. The Omega on duty said apologetically, "Colonel, I'm sorry to disturb you. But the captain of a civilian spaceship ahead called you. I don't know what's going on, Colonel, but the captain said you knew him. He also said Saw him in Port Burroughs the night we set out. He insisted on speaking to you personally. Forgive my stupidity, Colonel, but I really don't understand." "I don't understand either." Anders yawned and sat up from the cot, "Put the phone in."

The civilian ship was far ahead of them.Anders waited impatiently for almost a minute, fully awake and inexplicably annoyed.At this time, he heard a gentle voice in his ear: "Colonel Anders, this is Rob Mackey, I am on the 'Goodbye, Jane', never mind how we got here without FM diamonds, Only now we're coming back to meet you. Twenty-eight people on my ship are survivors of a wrecked Guards patrol ship. A few were injured, but they were all unconscious because they inhaled the Ami Ding - a new drug. Amidine can reduce the body's consumption of oxygen, but at the same time it can cause serious complications. These people will soon wake up from the coma, and they need to be treated immediately. We will Slow down and wait for you to come."

"Impossible." Anders replied angrily and abruptly, "We are on an important mission, and it is impossible to stop to meet you. But who are those people? What is the number of their patrol spacecraft? It is How did it go wrong?" "Ask yourself when you wake them up," Mackey said still calmly. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you. But they need immediate medical attention, and we're two days away from Burroughs." .When you know who they are, you'll be glad you stopped." "I'm so tired of your way of saying things!" Anders said impatiently. "I don't have time to play games with you. If you rock rats use CT energy illegally, I warn you that you will be in trouble! "

"We're not playing any games," interjected Rick Drake, "and we don't need CT power to get ahead of you—although we were delayed two days for lack of FM diamonds. But you These people really have to be picked up. When they wake up, they need immediate medical attention. Heaters, pacemakers, oxygen, blood plasma, some need iron lungs. If you know who they are and You don't want them dead for what they know." "Okay," said Anders reluctantly, "we'll meet you." Twelve hours later they were all at the meeting place, millions of kilometers from Albania.Anders carefully looked at the spaceship opposite, and couldn't help cursing in a low voice.It was indeed the dilapidated "Goodbye, Jane" spaceship.

The two spaceships glide side by side. The astronauts on the "Golden Eagle" connected the two air cabin doors with a pipe, and then transferred the unconscious person from there.Anders stood by, looking at the bearded, zombie-like people lying on the stretcher, they were still asleep under the influence of Amedine, their faces were pale, and their expressions were strange.Slowly he felt a little uneasy.Some of these people looked familiar, like people he knew. "Mike!" he heard one of the astronauts whisper in fear, "Look at that man, he looks like you." "Smiti!" replied the other, "isn't that you?"

Anders made his way to the "Jane" through that tube, climbed into Mackey's crowded cockpit, and saw Mackey and Rick Drake there, both sunken-eyed and exhausted . When they heard his questioning, Rick couldn't help asking angrily: "Since when has it become a crime to rescue astronauts in distress?" "It's just a matter of time, Colonel Anders." Mackey was much calmer, "Some of those people are already showing signs of waking up, if they get timely treatment at this critical moment, they will soon I can tell you their identities." "Don't they have any papers?"

"Nothing," Mackey replied immediately. "When we found them, they were unconscious and had nothing belonging to them." "Rooted?" Anders asked coldly, "Who did it?" "It's not us anyway," Mackey argued mildly. "This is so strange!" Anders turned to Rick suddenly, "How did the spaceship crash?" "have no idea." "I'll figure it out," Anders said coldly. "Now let me see what drives your ship." Rick silently walked with him into the small reaction room below.Rick waited patiently while Anders inspected the ancient uranium reactor and anti-gravity drive.Anders didn't find any CT reactors, but the FM diamond on the driver made him whistle in surprise. "A perfect eight-carat diamond!" He stared at Rick's weary face, "as big as the one on the Golden Eagle, and five times bigger than the diamond you need to drive this ship. Where did you get it? " "You'll know," Rick said quietly, "but if I tell you now, you'll never believe it." Anders frowned in disbelief, but he didn't have much time to linger.Although the FM diamond was suspiciously large, he found nothing to suggest that they had snatched it from one of the Guard ships.He also reminded himself that those helpless astronauts were still alive after all. "I don't have time to play games with you now." He said to Rick coldly, "I have a lot of things to do besides figuring out what the survivors will say. I will let you go for a while , but I still have to settle accounts with you.” "Fine." Rick Drake smiled wearily but easily, "Goodbye." The "Goodbye Jane" spaceship departs, its presence not satisfactorily explained. The Golden Eagle arrived in Albania four hours later with those unconscious.Anders was given permission to land on the two-kilometre-diameter planet after speaking with guards stationed there.His eyes widened in surprise when he saw the spaceship "Persius" moored next to the guard base. "Strange," he whispered to Popov, "I've been expecting those unconscious people to be Van Falkenberg and his men. Looks like I was mistaken—I've got a good idea." !” he said with a smile, “my old Martian friend will pick up these patients, and we can continue our mission.” Anders called Van Falkenberg.As expected, he refused to accept these sleepy people.He was polite but firm, saying that the Purseus was not a hospital ship, and that he was waiting for special orders, and that Anders could take the patients to the small hospital on the base, or take them to the hospital himself. Back to Port Burroughs. But Anders called Hood.His terse message must have caused immediate action by Hood's inner line in the Guards, for Van Falkenberg soon called and said angrily that he had to go back to Port Burroughs once.He whined (Q*书*网*.*全*改*provided) but told Anders he was going to bring the damned survivors back. The potency of aminidine gradually wears off.Those who were asleep remained lethargic, though their blood pressure, pulse, and body temperature all slowly approached normal.They were breathing more evenly, too, and here and there someone groaned or moved a little. They were still unidentified people, and none of them woke up to say their names.They had nothing on them but some close-fitting guard clothing.Although twenty-eight was nearly the full number of crews for a ship like the Purseus, Guards Command on Burroughs insisted that no ship of that class or any other was missing. These people made Anders feel deeply uneasy, their flabby, bearded faces seemed familiar.He couldn't help feeling that they were part of some kind of prank by Drake and Mackey, of which he was the victim. When he transferred those people to Van Falkenberg, he couldn't help feeling a little complacent.They would hold up the Martian for days while he started his own investigation.When they came to, he would also know what they had said from Hood's inside line. Anders left Popov in charge of transferring patients to the "Pousius" spacecraft, but he himself stepped out of the "Golden Eagle" spacecraft to investigate some situations. Anders felt relieved to be able to unload.He breathed in the fresh air with big gulps, walked quickly and vigorously, walked through the military area, and walked towards the commercial area. However, when he entered the business district, his conqueror's pride disappeared.The shops and warehouses here are abandoned and dilapidated, and the row of idle ore barges is also covered with rust. Anders stopped hesitantly, frowning.Here, humanity's glorious victory over space has brought economic depression and decay.Anyway, he felt that everything the space engineers had won for the people here had been cheated out of them. Two ragged old men were throwing silver coins for fun on the broken sidewalk. When he approached, the old man hurriedly picked up the silver coins and stood there looking at his black uniform with obvious hostility. "Do you know anyone named O'Barian?" Anders asked. "There is a girl and her father." "I think you mean Bruce O'Brien and his daughter," grumbled an old man reluctantly, "and they live in the old house up there on the hill. But the girl's car is parked there, and she Must be on board the 'Galaxy' spacecraft." The old man shook his head towards the car, and Anders stepped forward to check.It was an oddly shaped little car that looked like it had been put together from old parts, but it was shiny with a fresh coat of CT blue paint.Somehow it made Anders wonder what kind of girl Ann O'Barian was. Just behind the row of rusted barges was the Galaxy spaceship.It was a smaller and older ship than Mackey's Goodbye Jane, its rusty hull dotted with bright craters where it had collided with some miniature atomic bomb-like CT dust. Mark of. On the dilapidated platform next to the Galaxy's open door, there were crates and cargo packages piled high with green letters: Drake and Mackey, Freedom Stars.Next to the cargo stood a tall man with a blond beard who was shouting at a girl in blue overalls. "One thousand dollars!" The tall man shrugged, apparently he was the owner of the spaceship. "A million dollars! Remember, I don't like CT." "But you promised, Captain Erikson." The girl's voice sounded hopeless. "I've got to get these supplies up to the Liberty Star. Poor old Mr. Drake's out there all alone. Food, air and water are needed. You must-" Eriksen shook his head stubbornly: "I don't like CT." "I can take you across," the girl said eagerly.She moved her head, and Anders saw the silver pilot's logo on her hat. "You won't run into CT motes again. And, you promised Captain Robo that you'd deliver Mr. Drake's necessities—" "What did Mackey himself do?" Ericson asked coldly.That's exactly what Anders wanted to know, but the furious captain didn't give the girl time to answer his question. "Let him play hide and seek in their CT cloud, I don't want to die yet." "Captain, wait a moment." The girl was extremely anxious, "I'm afraid Captain Luobo is in trouble—" But the captain had no patience, and he turned around and got into his dilapidated spaceship.The girl was behind him, but the hatch of the spaceship closed heavily in front of her. The girl turned slowly, her gray eyes filled with tears of anger and sorrow.A lock of black hair fell out of her red space hat.Her face and her round, bare arms were brown and blotchy with the sun.She was tall, but not very beautiful.In Anders' eyes, she was naturally different from those delicate beauties in the salons in Sun City, but she looked healthy and energetic.Now she is burning with anger, and she doesn't have the slightest sense of regret for being born and raised on Albania. "Excuse me, are you Miss Ann O'Barian?" Anders suddenly felt a little uncomfortable as he introduced himself.He didn't know what was wrong with him, because he knew the social etiquette of the four planets well.But he suddenly realized that if he escorted the tall girl to Burroughs IV, he would be very, very upset.