Chapter 16 Chapter 15 The Enemy Who Disappeared

The "Golden Eagle" patrol spacecraft gradually slowed down, and the unknown spacecraft became bigger and bigger.At midnight, the detector showed that it was only three thousand kilometers away from the "Golden Eagle"-already within the range of the "Golden Eagle".Anders wondered if the Golden Eagle had also come within range of some deadlier weapon.However, there was no sign of life on the unknown spacecraft.Its luminous half glistened in the sun, and it was vastly larger than anything man had ever made. The "Goodbye, Jane" spaceship was far behind, and the Sam alarm could no longer detect it.

Just after midnight, Anders couldn't resist calling them. The beam from the main phone of the Golden Eagle spacecraft pointed half a million kilometers ahead, and if they kept slowing down, they should be there.Rob McKee called back quickly, and Anders, relieved, called Rick Drake to answer the phone. "Hello, Drake." Anders tried to calm himself down, "I guess you're going to say you don't know anything about this particular object? No matter what you say, I think it's CT. Legal The security perimeter is in effect. If you come within a hundred kilometers of it, I will open fire on you without warning you again. Do you understand?"

"I think I get it." But Anders stopped the spacecraft a hundred kilometers away from the unknown flying object.He watched the slow rotation of the huge spaceship, his eyes were sore all the time, but he didn't notice any movement. "A Guard ship, sir," Muadori reported. "Maybe a wreck of a ship...on that thing!" Anders strode over to the telescope.The mysterious spaceship appeared huge in the camera, but he didn't see any man-made spaceships. "Where?" "It lay flat," Muadori said, "on the northern half near the rim, half in the shadow of the long needle beside it—"

"I see." Anders took a deep breath. The ship looked like a small broken toy lying flat on the dark part of the mysterious ship.They touch each other - but they don't react!That means the mysterious thing isn't a CT, at least not the darker half.However, will the bright part be CT?Maybe the two parts are connected together by the chassis that those asteroid people have found. Anders adjusted the focus of the telescope, blinked, and continued to observe.The huge spaceship turned slowly, and the wreckage slowly emerged from the inky black shadow of the golden needle.He could see that it was a patrol ship of the Guards, the same class as the 'Persius'.Its thin black skin had cracked, its landing gear was in useless fragments, and a cloud of grayish-white smoke filled the air.

"Still smoking," Anders said softly to Muadori. "Maybe it just crashed here. Let me ask." "Hey, landed patrol ship!" he said as calmly as possible. "Can you please identify yourself? Can you hear me? Please call back—" The wrecked ship spoke back, but not in a friendly way.One of its turrets had been crushed, but the other was turning.A long-range space cannon was slowly lifted up, pointing at the "Golden Eagle" spacecraft like a black finger, and suddenly spit out red flames from the cannon. "We're being shot!" Anders yelled at Muadori. "Put the ship sideways!"

Muadori grabbed the control stick and turned the ship sideways.He yelled into the microphone: "What do you want? Looting? Betrayal? Plotting to overthrow the Trusteeship? I don't know where you got this Guard ship, but you don't want to keep it for too long. I order you to surrender immediately or we'll open fire !" The answer was a violent gust of flame. "Test bomb ready, sir!" Muadori reported. Anders put a filter between the telescope lenses and watched anxiously.Those little iron bullets were invisible from space, and the iron bullets hitting the darker half of the thing produced no visible flash.However, other iron bullets hit the bright side and the long golden needle, bursting into dazzling fire.

Anders felt his knees go weak, the sweat was breaking out on his face, and his throat felt tight and tight.He moved away from the telescope and lit a cigarette with shaking hands, trying to calm himself down. "The test report is out, sir." Muadori said weakly with a trembling voice, "the dark part didn't respond, sir. But the bright part and the golden spire are CTs!" "Thank you, Muadori." Anders wiped the sweat from his face. "We have to be very careful. The two distinct parts of the thing seem to be separated by some kind of chassis, but as long as we have a If the shell lands in the wrong place, it will cause a big explosion."

"Yes, sir," Muadori said with difficulty, "now I understand why you didn't order a return fire." "Now we're going to return fire," Anders said. "Warn your men, if one round hits the CT surface, we're all screwed. Let's hope they hit that gun right." The "Golden Eagle" spacecraft fired twenty rounds at the flaming cannon.Anders watched the first few rounds land dangerously near the rim but not on the CT side.However, his men quickly found the target, the wrecked spaceship exploded, and the cannon fell silent. After the thick smoke cleared, Anders looked at the hostile spaceship and couldn't help being stunned.Because of the distance, it looks small in a telescope, but Anders can still see it standing upright.It's clear that those on board are desperate to escape to the safety of space.They failed, and the cannon gave no more fire.

The phone on the desk rang suddenly. "Talk to them," Anders said to Muadori. "Maybe they're ready to surrender." Muadorui picked up the receiver and was about to talk to the other party, but a vigilant look suddenly appeared on his face. "What? They don't want to surrender?" "Listen, sir!" Muadori handed the receiver to Anders blankly, "Listen..." Anders listened carefully.What he heard was the strange voice he had received on Liberty Star, which sounded a little like a human voice, but he didn't hear a single familiar syllable.

"What's the sound, sir?" Muadori asked in a low voice. "What language—" "It's not a human voice." Muadorui froze for a moment, but did not speak. "This—this machine was made by the CT people." Anders' voice was hoarse and trembling, "Before the invading CT planet collided with the Adonis star, they lived on the CT planet. On. Maybe they had foreseen the collision. This thing could be their Noah's Ark." "Colonel, what do you mean—" Muadori fell silent before finishing his sentence.He licked his thin lips and stared blankly at Anders.

"Those CT people probably survived on top of it," Anders said, "probably only a small number—that collision happened about a hundred thousand years ago. But the asteroid people found them and managed to Get in touch with them." "CT people?" Muadore blinked. "Can they enter a spaceship made of matter?" "This requires the use of engineering knowledge, but they are all engineers." Anders nodded sadly, "Maybe they let their asteroid friends suck up all the air on the spacecraft and put It turned out that those astronauts were transferred to the "Goodbye, Jane" spaceship. They probably put a kind of chassis on their feet so that they could walk freely in that spaceship. As long as they were careful at all times, there would be no danger. " The wreckage slowly turned with the huge spaceship, but the cannon never fired again.The mysterious sound also fell silent, and the "Golden Eagle" spacecraft was not attacked by anything else.Anders watched the huge, strange spaceship through the telescope, thinking.He couldn't guess what the asteroids had found there, and finally he decided to talk to Ann O'Barian. Ann must have heard his footsteps in the corridor, and when he was about to knock on the door, she had already opened the door. "Colonel. What's the sound of those guns?" Ann asked tremblingly. "I heard sirens, heard your men running around, and felt the cannon fire. It was—" "Don't worry, it's not the 'Goodbye, Jane' ship." "Great." Ann smiled at him comfortably, "I thought—" Ann stopped talking before she finished speaking, as if she was afraid to express her earlier worries.Ann stood so close to Anders that he could smell her faint fragrance.Her slender figure is full of youthful vitality, and her hair falls beautifully around her shoulders.Anders looked at her, thinking he couldn't really blame Popov for guessing. "We fired at a combat spaceship just now," Anders carefully observed Ann's reaction. "It was a patrol spaceship of the Guards, and it has fallen into the enemy's hands. I think it fell into the hands of those CTs." in human hands. What do you think of that?" "Spaceship?" Ann asked. "Is that thing a spaceship? It's all made by CT?" "Half is CT." "Paul, you have to let me go—" "You haven't seen that... machine." Anders told Ann seriously, "I don't know what it is. Maybe it's the Noah's Ark that survived from the invading CT planet a long time ago. But it looks rather unfriendly. Remember, it's half CT, and that's not where you should be, goblin." "Be careful, Mr. Interstellar Corporation." Ann smiled mockingly, "but you must let me go with you-I can take care of myself. You don't know it, but I helped Drake and Mackey on the road to freedom." Star built that CT hammer." Anna's gray eyes stared defiantly at Anders. "Have you ever manipulated CT material yourself?" Anders shook his head.He admired Ann's bravery.The ladies of the Interstellar Company he knew even had other people help them wear their clothes. "Never," he admitted honestly, "I've been trying—on paper." "CTs look the same as matter," Ann reminded him solemnly, "When you enter that spaceship, how do you judge what you can touch and what you can't?" "We can use test bombs." "But you can't fire test bombs at everything it touches. You'll blow yourself up. You'll probably blow up the whole ship!" Anders stared into Ann's eyes and asked, "Can you confirm the CT substance without touching it?" "That's only Captain Robber can do," Ann said, "but I know how to do a safe close-range test. With some special rounds, and a launcher on my spacesuit. This is Mr. Drake in Freedom." Invented on the star." "What kind of bullet?" "These are alpha particles, helium nuclei released from a tiny bit of uranium. They can react with CT matter like those larger test bombs. Mr. Drake has designed a special Geiger counter to measure these little explosions." produced gamma rays." "It makes sense." Anders nodded, "It should work." "It does work." Ann smiled triumphantly, "Now you know you have to let me go too." "Maybe I really need you, honey," Anders admitted reluctantly, "but I think you'll change your mind if you see that ship. It wasn't made for humans." "I'm going," said Ann, after looking at him silently for a moment, "whatever we find, and whatever happens to us, I'd rather be with you than be alone with your noble officers." stay together." She was still his enemy, but it made him feel very bad.After he pressed the cigarette out in the ashtray uneasily, he found Ann's hair clipped in it. "Sorry, goblin." Anders regained his composure, and smiled teasingly at Ann, "However, you won. If you are really eager to help me win the CT chassis for Interstellar Corporation, then come on. I I'm glad to have a beauty like you by my side." Anders heard Ann take a sharp breath, and he thought she was going to say something, but she suddenly tightened her trembling lips, and tears welled up in her eyes .She restrained herself, turned around silently, and opened the door. "I'll come and get you," Anders promised, "but first we need to be able to land safely on that machine. There are still thousands of kilometers to go, and we might run into trouble along the way." Ann closed the door behind him. For the next hour, Anders let the "Golden Eagle" spacecraft approach the mysterious spacecraft cautiously.He was nervous all the time, but there was no movement except that the ship was slowly spinning on its own axis.The strange, unfamiliar voice did not appear again.The wreckage of the guard ship was still in place, slowly turning with the huge ship. "Muadore, speed up." Anders suddenly turned his head from the telescope, with a resolute smile on the corner of his mouth, "Now we have to get closer—before those asteroids catch up with us .” "Yes, sir." Muadori gave him a furtive glance, "Colonel, have you been worried about getting into trouble?" "I don't know what to worry about," Anders said, "but you go get all the equipment in front of you and put new hands on it, and have the artillery ready to fire." The "Golden Eagle" spacecraft increased its speed and approached the mysterious spacecraft.The spaceship got bigger and bigger, but nothing happened.The distance is getting closer and closer, eight hundred kilometers... eighty kilometers... eight kilometers.The mysterious spaceship has become huge in the lens of the telescope, and Anders can no longer see its whole picture.Suddenly, the phone rang. "Colonel, that spaceship of the Guards." Anders heard Popov's hoarse voice, and he could hear the lieutenant colonel very panicked, "The spaceship that was fighting us! It went around behind us , is now rushing towards us!" "Lieutenant Colonel, meet and shoot!" Anders ordered. The Golden Eagle turned around, and Anders felt the floor shake as Popov fired the first shell.He clutched the barrel of the binoculars, searching for the attacking ship, but all he could see was a cloud of smoke. The people on that ship must be crazy.The spaceship crashed into the "Golden Eagle" wrapped in thick smoke.Anders could even see the faint sunlight reflected on the black shell, as well as those black turrets and long space cannon barrels... Anders' eyes were dark. The "Golden Eagle" spacecraft shook violently, and the barrel of the telescope hit his face, throwing him to the ground.Anders held his breath in pain. He touched his bleeding cheek and slowly realized that he was still alive. The phone rang. "It's gone, sir!" Popov's gruff voice rang in Anders' ear. "That spaceship, I saw it rushing towards us. I think it must be trying to crash us. I felt the shock , but our ship is safe and sound. However, the enemy—” Anders heard him take a sharp breath. "But the enemy is gone, sir!"