Chapter 15 Chapter 14 CT Spaceship

Anders hesitantly agreed to let Jim Drake stay to tend the ancient reactor and the dangerous CT hammer.Old Lake embraced Ann O'Barian as if he were his own child, and limped off the bridge in silence.When he left the spaceship, Anders nodded at Ann.An calmly put his eyes on the telescope, and began to drive the spaceship through the CT cloud. Ann finally put down the joystick in his hand and told him calmly: "It's safe now, Colonel." "Thank you, Miss O'Brien." His casual tone must have seemed to her to be sarcasm, and there was a sudden wariness in her tired eyes.

"I have kept my promise," she said anxiously. "I will also keep my promise." Anders switched the spaceship to the state controlled by the robot pilot, and set a route to intercept the unknown object. An hour later, Anders spoke to Senior Commissioner Hood.He reported to Hood about the interception of the unhuman voice signal and the mysterious findings.Then he asked about the comatose astronauts he had transferred to the Purseus. "No news, Colonel." Hood's voice finally came. "Since they took off, I haven't heard from my own people. And they won't arrive until noon tomorrow. But I have to apologize to you."

Hood's voice suddenly became hoarse. "Karen admitted to helping the two asteroids. She gave them back the FM diamonds we confiscated and sent them what they needed. My own niece—I don't know what happened to her. Now just when we needed her, she quit her job at the company. She said she was going back to Earth. I thought she was engaged to you, but she said it was just a misunderstanding." "Maybe." Anders nodded slowly, "Maybe she's not for me." "I can't understand her," Hood's angry voice came back. "She lost her temper, and I'm going to send her back aboard the 'Planet'. I hope you don't mind what she's doing. You go on with your mission, Colonel."

"I'm working on it, sir," Anders replied. "I think I can handle Drake and Mackey. But I'm still worried about the astronauts. I want to find out who they are, what happened and what happened. How the asteroids got them. As soon as they can talk, tell me what they said." Lieutenant Colonel Popov was on the bridge checking the droid pilot's work as Anders emerged from the communications room.He straightened up, a curious gleam in his eyes. "Lieutenant Colonel, we've left Liberty," Anders told him, "and now we're going after the object ahead, which was registered as a CT planet before it exploded and escaped its orbit. on the register."

"So it's not really a CT planet, sir?" Popov's stupid face showed admiration, "Those Martian spies and their asteroid pals are trying to turn it into a secret against the Trusteeship Military base? How stupid! Colonel, what a game you play! Now I understand why you put that lovely asteroid pigeon in your cabin." "Lieutenant Colonel, this operation is dangerous." Anders became serious. "No matter what help and information we have received from Miss O'Brien before, there is a high probability that we will encounter hostile forces on or near that object." Action encounters, so we must be extremely vigilant!"

"Yes, sir." "It is very likely that we will encounter the crashed spaceship, which has fallen into the hands of the enemy. If any spaceship is found, report it to me immediately and notify the whole ship to enter combat readiness." "Yes, sir." "Also, Lieutenant Colonel, we have to prepare for another encounter with the 'Goodbye, Jane' spacecraft." Anders paused, frowning, "I... I don't know what those rock rats are trying to do, but I can see They are extremely unfriendly to Interstellar Corporation, we have to prepare to blow them out of space!"

Throughout that day and most of the next, Anders waited for news of the unconscious astronauts as the spacecraft tracked the shimmering object ahead.He knew they would wake up; at least enough of them would wake up to say who they were and why the ship had gone down.Even if Van Falkenberg found out about his men working for Interstellar and kept them quiet, he would land at noon.However, noon came and went. At seventeen one hundred, Trusteeship time, Anders finally received a secret call from the senior commissioner. "I'm Anders, sir." He shut himself in the comms room, "how are those people, sir?" His voice sounded anxious, "what did you get from the Purseus Any news?"

He waited a long time to hear Hood's reply, and Hood's voice was hoarse. "No good news, Colonel. I'm afraid there's going to be a catastrophe for the company, but the details are unclear. Your Armedine victims woke up and spoke to Van Falkenberg. I don't know them Told something, but turned him into a rebel. He turned the ship around, disregarding orders from the base to land him here. He's following you now, Colonel, and those men are still on his ship, Those who survived, of course. "There was a battle aboard the ship 'Persius'. On board the Venusians and Lunarians had their own agents. When Van Falkenberg defected, they formed an alliance with our insiders to control the The ship. They took the bridge, they took the signal room, just long enough to send back an incomplete report of the incident—but even then, our people couldn't tell who the unconscious men were. Finally Van · Falkenberg puts Amedine in the signal room and knocks out everyone there.

"A semi-comatose insider told us they were defeated and that Van Falkenberg had taken over the ship. He said the Martian was after you and wanted a piece of the CT chassis. He wanted to say something else, but Appeared to be on the verge of losing consciousness completely. "He concluded by saying: 'They're chasing the Golden Eagle, chasing...themselves...' "I don't know what he meant, because these were his last words. Then he laughed wildly, but he stopped suddenly before he finished laughing. It may be the drug effect of Amedine. The sound of electromagnetic waves is still ringing A minute or two, then the rebels must have turned off the transmitter, and there was no signal at all. We haven't heard from the Pousius since."

There was a pause in Hood's hoarse voice. "What's the matter, Colonel?" he continued in a low voice. "I don't understand at all myself. The identity of those comatose astronauts earlier is still not clear, only that they are enemies of the company. Now they are chasing you , but you'll get to that object a day or two before they do - unless they invent the CT drive. "You're out on a mission alone, and I don't know if you're dealing with Martian rebels, or renegade asteroids, or invading CT monsters—or all of them. But our insiders can't help anymore." You. You're on your own now, Colonel. If there's any CT chassis, you'll get it for Interstellar."

"Yes, sir." Anders assured with an uneasy breath, "I'll keep trying." Later that same day—already close to midnight on March 28th, in the mandate zone time, the Sam alarm on the spacecraft detected a faint heat source far behind. "Maybe a ship, sir," Popov reported. "There are no meteors behind us. I think it's a ship about the size of the Golden Eagle. Data shows it's about 80,000 kilometers behind us. And it’s gradually catching up.” Anders frowned, trying to hide his uneasiness. "We will continue on our original course," he decided, "and we will maintain signal silence and total blackout until they come within range of us." When the data showed that the spaceship was only 40,000 kilometers away from them, Anders ordered the whole ship to enter combat readiness, and began to use infrared detectors to conduct a positioning search. The results showed that the spaceship behind was only 9,000 kilometers away from them. "It's not a patrol ship of the Guards." Anders smiled at Lieutenant Colonel Popov, and he breathed a sigh of relief, "It's a small spaceship, and it's already within our range." He said Turning around and walking towards the communication room, "We'll find out who they are soon." The gentle voice of Robo McKee came from the receiver. "We are the ship 'Goodbye Jane' from Albania. We are traveling from Port Burroughs to Liberty Star. Please tell me your identity." "Guard patrol ship 'Golden Eagle'!" Anders replied sternly, "ready to fly you at any time! I think you seem to be far away from the route to the Star of Liberty. But what I want to know is what are you doing? Where did you get those people?" Mackey doesn't know anything about the twenty-eight comatose astronauts, and neither does Rick Drake.And they never landed elsewhere or met anyone else after leaving Port Burroughs. "If I warn you that you're going to see those people again, will it help you recall what happened?" Anders said. "is this necessary?" "You asked for it, Drake." Anders tried to put on an air of relief, "If I were to be robbed of everything on me—maybe even a CT chassis, I think I would go after it. Those damn robbers. And, it looks like those guys are going to tell us you robbed them." Rick Drake looked innocent, "I really don't know what you're talking about." Anders tried his best to hide the confusion and anxiety in his heart. He warned them and hung up the phone. "Colonel," Popov winked at him, "are we going to blow them up?" "No," Anders said exasperatedly, "Looks like the high commissioner's niece has a crush on Rick Drake, and I haven't proven that he broke the law." He shook his head, then added, "We just need Be wary of them." Mackey's spaceship flew closer to the "Golden Eagle" spaceship, and then began to back away slowly.Although its speed is still high, it is already slowing down.Anders hesitantly let it out of range, but the dilapidated little spaceship still clung to it. At noon the next day Anders had lunch in the dining room with Ann O'Barian—Guard discipline forbade him to dine with his officers, but he invited the asteroid girl to join him.Ann looked cheerful and charming at moments, as if this strange mission had been nothing more than a cruise and they were no longer enemies.But now Anders found her staring at him silently, sadly. "What's the matter, goblin?" An smiled at him, shy and confused, as if she didn't know how to accept his semi-sarcastic appreciation. "I don't know either." An lowered her head and whispered, "However, I don't like those people under you very much." Anders froze. "If any of them dares to be rude to you—" "That's not what I meant." An interrupted him hastily, "I can take care of myself. It's you I'm worried about." "Oh? What do you mean?" "That little Muadori—" Ann hesitated, then said hastily, "I think you'll think it's just me being nervous and suspicious. But yesterday I saw him spying on you as if he was going to Shot you in the back. And Omega, he's always polite--too polite, a little too much--but you can't tell what he's thinking. And there's Lieutenant Colonel Popov , his hoarse voice, his stupid giggling, just gave me goosebumps." "Colonel, how can you trust such people?" Ann whispered anxiously, "especially when you are looking for the secret of the CT substance. If you find it, don't you worry that they will kill you for the secret?" murdered?" Anders felt a little warmth in his heart, and he couldn't help laughing when he saw her so worried. "I don't trust any of them at all," he admits easily, "but you can see they don't trust each other either. Divide and conquer—that's how StarCorp manages trusteeships. Send a Spy to catch another spy. I guess we can't be murdered in our own ships, so smile, beauty!" Ann didn't smile. "So, I guess High Commissioner Hood doesn't even trust you?" Ann looked at him innocently with wide eyes. Lake and Mackey won the CT chassis, so all your men will fight against you?" "Little fairy, you are such an optimist!" He said to her gently, "Three generations of my family have been loyal to the Interstellar Company, how do you think you can tempt me to become a traitor?" "I'm not a goblin!" Ann exclaimed angrily. She shoved the plate in front of her sharply and ran out of the restaurant. Anders drank tea alone, thinking about An's childish words, he couldn't help shaking his head.After he finished eating, he returned to the bridge of the boat.He saw Popov leaning over the telescope.Popov turned swiftly around at the sound of his footsteps. "That object is just ahead, sir!" Popov's voice became hoarse with excitement. "I used to think it was a planet of ordinary matter. I thought someone mistook it for CT. planet, so they plan to use it as a secret military base." "That object is not like any ordinary planet," he nodded calmly. "There is evidence that some kind of new engineering principle has emerged. Lieutenant Colonel, I am going to tell you now that our real mission this time is to obtain that object for Interstellar Corporation." principle." Popov beamed with joy. "So the rock rats are arming this fortress with their new discoveries against the Trusteeship?" Popov said, "and the asteroid girl knows their secret—will she reveal it to you? "His fat face is really ugly when he smiles.He clapped his hands sharply, "Ah! My clever Mr. Colonel, no woman will stand against you!" Anders smiled reluctantly. "Please forget about Miss O'Brien," he said gently, "that object is enough for us, and I'm afraid of hostilities. And, although we're ahead of the asteroids, they're not Didn't fall very far. Don't forget, the traitors aboard the "Persius" followed. The ship where the astronauts were stunned by Amidine is also a mystery. The object must be guarded-perhaps not human biological and CT weapons." He smiled at Popov again: "All of this could cause us trouble. Every lookout must be manned. I will operate the binoculars myself. Those who are not on guard should rest as much as possible, Then go and replace the person on duty." Popov saluted awkwardly like a trained bear and walked off the bridge.Anders eagerly moved his head to the binoculars and found the gray glowing object in the lens.It was getting bigger and bigger, and Anders waited anxiously, trying to see its shape. Anders anxiously refocused the telescope, waiting impatiently for his eyes to adjust to the darkness.At last he saw its shape; he couldn't help but shudder because it wasn't a jagged rock. It still looks small, but it glistens in the sunlight.Against the blackness of space behind it, it suddenly became very eye-catching and clear.Anders almost stopped breathing as he looked at it. It roughly resembles an egg, and Anders has a more technical term for it—oval.Soon, he saw clearly the features on its surface.Along its shortest circumference runs a broad rim, from which protrudes a number of rough, curved supports, which converge towards its two extremities, each of which has a Protruding cylinder. It was also an odd color, half dark red and half shiny silver, as if it had just been chromed. A CT spaceship?It certainly looks alike, though it can only be determined by touch.The protruding cylinder at the top could be the hatch.And its color—half dark, half light—is likely to regulate temperature. But Anders couldn't figure out what the gold needles were for.They were four thin yellow needles, each the same length, approximately equal to the object's smallest diameter.They stick straight out from the bright part of the broad rim.What are they for? Maybe they're just some radio antennae.However, Anders's characteristic intuition as an engineer rejected this hypothesis.He felt they were the work of an unknown science.Suddenly, he recalled that strange voice. Are they CT weapons? He stared blankly.At this time, because the object was slowly turning, a fifth golden needle appeared in front of his eyes.He suddenly remembered that he had seen something very similar to it before - the hollow, broken CT tower on Van Falkenberg's roll of film! The yellow spire must have been blown off the object.But all the golden needles he saw were intact.Strangely, he could not find the slightest trace of the previous explosion on this object. Anders stood there in a daze, trying to imagine the beings who built these urn towers at least a hundred meters high, which is what they called their asteroid friends on Liberty Star.They must have been tall and thin, because the CT tunnel was so narrow and the rails were so high. However, all of this is still so incredible.