Chapter 11 Chapter 10 The Escaping Planetary Fragments

Sitting in the cockpit of the landed Goodbye Jane with Robo Mackey, Rick Drake draws up a list of items needed for the ship's repairs and supplies.The first item on the inventory is the FM diamond on the drive unit, but diamonds are surprisingly hard to come by. Rick went out to buy what he needed just before midnight when he saw Anders leaving Port Burroughs.Karen Hood took Anders to a Guards duty ship in her new car.Karen looked radiant in her green tracksuit.When Rick saw Anders kiss her goodbye, he turned his head and walked away sadly. Rick took the inventory to the StarCorp store and bought everything he needed one by one according to it, which cost almost half of his savings.When he emerged from the shop, the van had already left and Karen was leaving the landing field.Rick stopped and waved awkwardly at her, but she gave him a slight nod and sped off.But Rick could never forget the hurt and blame look on her pale face.

Rick's spacesuit hangs in a utility storage closet to the landing pad.He put on this bulky suit and returned to the "Goodbye, Jane" spaceship like a small spaceship.He closed the power unit of the space suit, and with great difficulty got out through a slit in the belly of the suit.He saw Robo Mackey leaning against the gangway, looking sad. "Looks like we still can't go." Mackey's gentle voice was full of bitterness. "Someone just called from the Star Corp store and said that our purchase will not be delivered until sometime tomorrow. And the FM diamonds are no longer available." , Said it was out of stock."

"That's a lie," Rick said angrily. "I just picked up some FM diamonds from the company's storage room yesterday, and I know they have millions of dollars' worth of them in stock. It's a conspiracy to put We'll stay here while Anders finds the mysterious CT chassis. I'll try elsewhere and see if there's anything I can think of. Rick came to the trading company run by the Moonman, the sleepy-eyed person on duty didn't seem to understand English, and he listened to Rick's words blankly.Rick explained it to him with gestures, and eventually the man understood, but he shrugged resignedly and pointed Rick to his open, empty safe.

Rick went back to the ship's mooring in annoyance.He knew that some people were abusing StarCorp's authority, but there was nothing he could do.Suddenly, he saw an Interstellar transport truck parked at the hatch of the "Goodbye, Jane" spacecraft.An anti-gravity loading and unloading pipeline is loading the cargo ordered by Rick into the spacecraft, and Karen Hood is manipulating the pipeline. It was the morning of the Trusteeship hours, and it was light, and Karen's red hair glistened in the sun.Her green tracksuit was smeared with oil, and she herself was flushed and sweating profusely.But in Rick's eyes, she was even more charming and lovely at this time.

"Karen, you're so kind!" Rick climbed into the cockpit of the truck excitedly, "I thought—" Karen stopped the loading and unloading pipe in her hand, turned around, and faced Rick face to face.Rick had put all his previous thoughts behind him, and impulsively embraced Karen's tall body in his arms. "This is what you bought!" Karen waved her hands at the pile of goods angrily, "Take them and go." She was angry and her eyes were cold.Rick looked at her, his throat tightened, feeling very sad.Karen took a small black pouch from her pocket and tossed it to him.

"Your FM diamond!" "Karen!" Rick said gratefully, holding the pouch, "Thank you—" "You don't have to thank me." Karen interrupted him. "It's yours. Now you can buy everything you need, but please don't blame Paul for this. He won't deliberately delay your trip. I believe he will not play such a conspiracy!" Rick grabbed Karen's trembling arm. "Karen, please don't—" "You've got your diamonds back." Tears of anger welled up in her eyes. "The rest of your purchases will be brought to you as soon as possible. When you're ready, I'll have the port officials let you fly, From now on, we're done with each other, and no one owes anyone anything. Let me go!"

Karen struggled violently, trying to shake off Rick's grip on her, but Rick was so strong that he held her tightly. "Listen, Karen." His voice was hoarse and trembling, "I really can't work for StarCorp anymore. I have to go find that CT chassis—if it exists. But now—you I did this -- I, I wanted to tell you I love you." "Too late," Karen whispered, "too late, you're too stubborn." "Can't you try to give me a chance?" Rick asked hoarsely, "Even if you think I'm a traitor, can't you try to understand what I've done? Today's unexpected, Karen, it shows that you are not like everyone else. Can you? Can you understand me?"

Karen stopped struggling, her face was pale, and her red hair seemed to have lost its usual luster. "That's no use, Rick." Her voice was low and weak. "I should tell you—I've promised to marry Paul tonight. We'll be married as soon as he comes back from his mission." For Rick, these whispered words came as a shock to him like a bomb.Feeling breathless and cold, he dropped his arms limply and let Karen jump out of the truck.He looked at Karen's back in a daze, until she walked into a store opened by an interstellar company nearby, and then he took the lost and recovered FM diamond and walked heavily to find Mackey.

Mackey was standing at the other end of the loading tube as they loaded the rest of the truck onto the ship.Mackey then drives the car back to the StarCorp shop while Rick goes to install the FM diamond.At noon, they were ready, waiting for the release from the port control center. "Destination?" the center official asked. "Freedom Star." Mackey smiled slyly at Rick. "Please wait a moment." They had to wait patiently, and Rick couldn't help feeling a little worried, fearing that Karen would obstruct it in a fit of anger.But the order to let go came suddenly. "'Goodbye, Jane' spacecraft, agreed to release, the destination is the Star of Freedom, you can take off immediately."

"Great!" Rick exclaimed triumphantly. "Now we can go find the CT chassis." "I don't know if it's too late," Mackey said helplessly, "that damned earthling has been gone for twelve hours." "That's exactly what we expected," Rick told him excitedly, "because as you never said, the latest will be the earliest." Rick was elated and his emotions were running high.He has been obeying orders from others for too long, and this time he can travel through the silent space to pursue his goal, which makes him excited.Through the telescope he discovered the unknown object, which was glowing faintly in the darkness of space.

"Don't look at it," Mackey said softly. "I'm afraid to look at it myself. There's always something wrong with it. It makes me feel uncomfortable and confused. I have to use instruments to determine its direction and speed. I don't know why I can't...feel it." He shook his head uneasily, "I don't even know the time when I look straight at it." Rick laughed. He had no particular intuition he might lose, so he wasn't afraid to look straight at the object.However, when he left the telescope and went to the upper cabin to lie down, a feeling of loneliness emerged spontaneously.Karen's long flowing hair seemed to be flying in front of his eyes, and he still couldn't forget her expression when she was angry.Her generous behavior moved him, and her marriage contract with Anders made him painful. Finally, Rick finally fell asleep.After waking up, he tried to drive away the depression and sadness in his heart.He asked Mackey to tell his father about building the CT chassis; he learned to drive a spaceship; Can't learn. They have been flying for three days straight.Near midnight on the fourth day, January 28, Rick heard the phone ring. "I'm Rick Drake." "I'm Paul Anders." Anders' voice immediately rang in Rick's ears, which showed that he was only a few thousand kilometers ahead of them, even though he set off much earlier, and his spaceship was also older than " Jane is much faster. "Where did you get those people?" Rick was completely confused, "Who?" "Don't pretend to be confused, Drake. You are now within our shooting range, and a small shell of yours can send your little spaceship to Mars!" Anders suddenly lowered his voice and said coldly Ask, "Where did you get those people?" Rick was speechless for a moment, standing blankly.After a long time, he stammered, "I don't really... know what you're talking about." "Then let me remind you." Anders suppressed the impatience in his heart. "You talked with us near Albania two days ago. How did you get there before us? Still need Get your own explanations - I still think you're using CTs as fuel for your ships." "No," Rick said, "and we haven't spoken to you." "Are you going to forget?" Anders sneered. "Have you forgotten the twenty-eight comatose astronauts we took from you? Are you still going to deny it?" "I really don't know what you're talking about." Anders was silent, and when he spoke again, there was hesitation and doubt in his tone.Rick knew he was a little scared too. "Rick, who are those people?" "I don't know," insisted Rick impatiently, "I don't even know what you mean." "You want to say that, but I can't help it, Drake." Anders hesitated for a moment, he was not as confident as before. "I don't want to arrest you just yet - I don't want to waste time, because those you don't remember will soon catch up with us. But, I want to warn you, I'm on a special mission with great powers, I will exercise my authority when needed. Drake, please consider what you are doing - please recall what you have done. If you are locked up in the prison on Burroughs IV, Some of your old friends will be sad." Robo Mackey took the muted receiver from Rick's hand and put it back on the phone.He had a questioning look on his face.Rick shook his head. There was silence in the crowded and cramped cockpit, and the soundless space disturbed Rick.He had envied Mackey's calmness, but now Robb Mackey himself seemed restless, looking around nervously for his pipe.Rick reminds him that the pipe is on the table in the cabin below, but Mackey doesn't get it. "Rick, I don't like these things. Not at all." Mackey squinted his eyes, trying to control his emotions, "I've lived in high space all my life, and I don't think I've ever been easily scared. But these things—" His voice trailed off, "all these things are...impossible." "But they still happen." Rick tried to cheer himself up. "There can only be one answer to this mystery—probably some very simple and obvious facts." Mackey looked in a bad mood. "I can't explain how I feel," Mackey struggled, "but—I never made that call, and we never met those people. And that thing!" He shrugged. "It suddenly There was an explosion and it disappeared so suddenly, it confuses me." Rick nodded slowly, trying to understand how Mackey was feeling.He thought to himself that Meggie's special senses were like some kind of precision measuring instrument, and that strange thing made it malfunction. "It's disturbing," he echoed, "but let's keep trying." He smiled hopefully. "After all, Anders looks as disturbed as we are." They continued to fly forward.A day later—just after midnight on March 29—they saw by their chronometers that they were within half a million kilometers of the thing that was giving Mackey a headache.Rick put his eyes on the binoculars and was trying to make out the shape of the thing when the phone rang again.Mackey patted him on the shoulder and handed him the receiver. "Hello, Drake." Rick recognized Anders' voice, as cold as ever, "I think you still have to say that you don't know anything about this particular object? No matter what you say, I think It's CT. The legal security perimeter is in effect, and if you come within a hundred kilometers of it, I'll fire at you without warning you again. Do you understand?" "I think I get it." "Then don't forget." Anders said this, and his tone immediately became friendly, like an old actor changing roles, "I don't want to be unreasonable, Drake. Personally, I like you. I can even understand you asteroid people's feelings. I admit that I have only doubted you until now, I only have some circumstantial evidence. If you can surrender now, and to the strange things you have done If I explain it, I can promise not to pursue it. What do you think?" "No," Rick said desperately, "I mean, we never did anything that needed to be explained." Anders hung up the phone with a "click" sound from the receiver, and Rick reluctantly put it back. Mackey whispered uneasily, "What does he want?" "Intelligence," Rick said. "He thinks we know things we don't. I believe he's scared of us, and he's playing tough to trick us into telling us." "Maybe," Mackey said, looking uncomfortable, "but a lot of Asteroids were arrested, some of them sentenced to life in prison—and there's only circumstantial evidence, and only suspicion." Rick said nothing more.For a while, the only sound in the cockpit was the soft sound of the robot pilot.The silence of space makes people feel suffocated and depressed. Rick tried his best to concentrate on typing on the computer keyboard, but in fact it was just to make a little noise.Finally, Mackey climbed down the ladder and made himself a cup of tea in the cabin below, while Rick returned to the telescope. The unknown object was getting closer, no longer appearing dim among the stars.Rick readjusted the focus of the telescope and finally saw the shape of the thing clearly.But what he saw was not at all the debris that flew out after the planet was broken.