Chapter 19 Chapter 18 Coincidence

Anders turned his head quickly, noticing the moving thing.It was on the ground near the circle of iron pillars in the center of the cave, but it was very blurry because of the dim light.Before Anders could see what it was, it had slipped behind a pile of waste ore. That's a CT guy. Fear kept Anders immobile.He stood there trembling and unable to speak.The vague shadow he saw slowly transformed into a terrifying creature that was taller than a human, smarter, and untouchable in his mind. "Ann!" Anders was finally able to make a sound.Ann saw nothing, and she didn't understand why Anders was so terrified.Anders suddenly started to move his limbs. He grabbed Ann's hand and pulled her down on the platform.

"What's the matter?" Ann asked puzzled. "I thought it was a CT person at first." Anders felt a little funny about his nervousness, "I'm so stupid, that thing hid in the iron ore pile on the earth, how could it be a CT person? It scared me One jump. I guess it's just a guy like you and me." "One is bad enough," Ann warned him softly, "a man like Van Falkenberg." Anders had to nod to agree with her statement, but he was still greatly relieved.He couldn't even imagine what the CTs looked like, but he was used to working with Martian secret agents.

"Turn off the light on your head," he whispered. He turned off the lamp over his head and drew out a pistol.The darkness and silence around him made him suddenly feel intensely alone, and he was glad to have Ann's hand on his shoulder.For a while, their eyes were all pitch black, however, a red dot appeared and moved towards them, and a person's voice rang in their ears. "Ann?" The voice was drawn, but full of anxiety. "Ann O'Barian?" The light on Ann's helmet came on immediately. "Captain Luobo? Is it really you?" She flew off the platform, and Anders turned on the lights on his head, and flew down with her, landing next to the high pile of waste ore, where Robo Mackey stood waiting.He walked eagerly towards Ann, and held out his arms.Anders saw his unshaven face, pale and pained, but now it was smiling happily.

"Are you okay?" Ann was almost out of breath, "Rick he—" "Stand still, Mackey," Anders cut her off. "Hands up." Mackey stood there motionless as Anders searched for his weapon. "Paul!" Ann called, "what are you doing?" "Arrest an offender." Anders tossed Maggie's old-fashioned test gun into the giant chute. "Munchie," his voice was cold, "I ordered you not to land here." "We were forced to, Colonel," Mackey said apologetically. "Van Falkenberg was chasing us on board the Purseus and demanding information we didn't know." He threatened If we refuse to answer, he's going to knock us out. We've got to hide here."

"Where is your spaceship?" Mackey pointed with his finger, and Anders looked in the direction of his finger, and he saw the spaceship "Goodbye, Jane".It slanted against a pile of ore, hiding behind the circle of iron pillars. "Fine," Anders moved the beam of his headlight over Mackey's visor, "Is Rick Drake on board?" "No, sir." "Where is he?" "I don't know." Mackey blinked uncomfortably with his eyes on the beam. "I was sick when we got here. Just when we needed to land, I don't know why Uncomfortable. Rick left me here, he went off alone. He came back once and went out again. It's been a long time. He still hasn't come back and I—"

"How long?" Anders interrupted. "How long?" "I can't tell." Mackey writhed uncomfortably. "You know, I've never needed a watch. I know the time myself. But when I first saw this thing, I felt it Something's not quite right. Since we've been here, I can't tell what time it is..." "I have a watch," interrupted Anders mercilessly. "It can prove you're lying. I know you haven't been here long. Fifteen hours ago, I last warned you to stay away. You were half a million kilometers away at the time. What I want to know is how you managed to get ahead of us in that dilapidated spaceship."

Mackey shrugged. "Are you sure you didn't use a CT reactor?" Anders demanded. "Or some kind of hyperdrive? You must have looted something from here when you changed its orbit last year!" "You're wrong, Colonel." Mackey looked hurt. "When you changed its orbit, it wasn't a ship at all. It was just an ordinary CT planet, and the last explosion changed it. .That's when it started to feel wrong—” "Then how did you get here so quickly?" "We're not fast." Mackey narrowed his eyes. "We've never seen a machine like this before. We still use that old uranium reactor to power the ship. I don't know what time it is, but we're Landed here on the morning of April 1st—"

"How long ago was that?" "I can't tell, Colonel." Mackey's sickly face was blank, "I just know it was a long time ago. I can't tell how long. I can't make out anything, because this movie The machine made me very uncomfortable—" "Me too." Anders smiled mockingly, "but I can tell you that April 1st was about a year ago, because my watch shows it's still March." "I think my watch is wrong," insisted Mackey gently, "because I know it was the first of April when we got here, and I remember a lot of things that have happened since. I was sick and had to stay at on the ship. But Rick went back to the trap door to spy on the rebels, and he found out they got here before us—”

"What's the meaning?" "I don't understand, sir." Mackey shrugged uncomfortably again. "I know they were still out when we came in. But somehow they got here first. Rick found out they killed himself , here and there—" "Perhaps Van Falkenberg found this place before the last explosion, and lost those men," Anders interrupted him suddenly, "I don't know how he managed to fool our scouts— Unless he bribed them by promising to give them some loot. That might make sense. If Van Falkenberg did get away from here—” "But they didn't take anything away," Mackey said slowly. "Rick said he died on his ship."

"Oh? What happened to that patrol ship?" Mackey silently shook his head towards the giant chute. "Impossible!" Anders exclaimed in disbelief. "Although I believe that thing can crush armor plates as easily as crushing meteorites, how do you know?" "Rick picked up a video camera." Mackey waved his hand into the darkness. "It was sitting next to an astronaut who was somehow crushed by an automatic door. The videotape is the spacecraft 'Persius', which is broken Terrible, but Rick recognized it. He figured it must have fought you."

"We did shoot at some people." Anders nodded in bewilderment. "But what happened then?" "Rick thinks you're the ones who drove the Perseus in here," Mackey said. "The tape shows three people getting out of the ship with the test kit first. The three of them got in here, and the ship Follow them. The ship goes down the chute. I guess Van Falkenberg doesn't know it's an ore mill." "I...I see." Anders still had doubts.Although the timing is extremely incoherent, Mackey's account of the fate of the rebels seems to be true.He turned uneasily to scan the black ore piles with the beam of his headlamp.He looked at the "Goodbye, Jane" spaceship leaning over there, looked at Ann who was silent, and then turned his gaze back to Mackey's face. "What did Rick do?" "I don't know." There was a worried look on Mackey's weather-beaten face. "He went out for a long time and then came back with the video camera. We watched the video together and he made me a pot of tea and something to eat for himself before going out again. I was still feeling sick and I couldn't do anything but lay down and wait for him to come back and then I fell asleep. After I woke up I felt better. I guess I got used to that... that Something was wrong. I stepped out of the ship to find Rick, and I saw the light of your headlamps." "Where did he go?" "It's down there," said Mackey. "Of course he knows the chute is dangerous, but he believes he can find a safer passage. But he's been down for too long. I don't know how long .” Anders stood there watching the two asteroids.McKee's wildly illogical story said nothing, but he felt that Ann believed what McKee said.Ann didn't say anything, but he was very sensitive to her hostility and vigilance.He didn't know what to do next, but he knew he couldn't look the slightest bit at a loss. "Interesting," Anders said calmly. "It might even be true. But I'm going to take a look on your ship. Please turn around." He waved his gun. While I'm away, I'd like to borrow the power wires from your spacesuit drives so you don't get into any trouble. I need to use your keys, Mackey. I'm sorry, Miss O'Brien." Mackey and Ann turned away obediently.Neither of them uttered a word as Anders removed the power leads from their suit's drives.Anders was inexplicably annoyed by Ann's cold silence. "Wait here," he ordered, "I shall not be gone long." After entering the "Jane" spacecraft, Anders carefully searched the cabin.He didn't meet Rick Drake.On a table in a small cabin, he actually found a video camera and a videotape.He took the time to watch the tape from beginning to end, and sure enough, he saw the "Persius" spacecraft slide down the huge chute and be ground into a fine powder.Mackey's story is thus confirmed, but still unbelievable. Anders mused, feeling that something had been overlooked in the tape.He rewound the tape and played it again.The rebel with the video camera and their two companions left the then-undamaged spaceship "Persius".The three of them carefully approached the CT spaceship with test guns and other special equipment. Anders couldn't help but feel a little uncomfortable when he realized that all three of them were dead now.The man with the video camera is crushed by an automatic door.The short man was split in two by an invisible knife.The tall man who had to wear the number five space suit had also died for his deadly victory. What particularly disturbed Anders, however, was the feeling that he knew the tall man and the little man.Both of them were wearing bulky space suits and helmets, so their faces could not be seen clearly.But Anders felt familiar with the clumsy movement of the tall man aiming and firing the test gun, and the cowardly look of the smaller man hiding behind. Anders frowned, rewound the tape and played it again.He tried to get a good look at their faces, but the sneaky little man in the zero spacesuit kept lagging far behind.But once the sun shone right into the big tall visor, Anders saw his fat face.Anders nodded in disbelief. The tall guy looked a lot like Lieutenant Colonel Popov.The little one, then, might be Muadori.What a strange coincidence, Anders thought, but a mere resemblance.He had left his two friends, for whom the Interstellar Corporation had paid a lot of money, safely aboard the "Golden Eagle" spacecraft.Anders shrugged impatiently and put the tape in his pocket.Then he hurried downstairs to the reactor. In that small room, what Anders saw was still the old uranium reactor, just like the one he had seen the last time he transported the comatose astronauts away. Strangely, however, the FM diamond on the ship has changed.The large eight-carat diamond he remembered had been replaced.Mounted on the drive was the same one-carat diamond that he had persuaded the port inspectors to confiscate and then had Karen Hood irresponsibly return. It wasn't safe for the Jane to continue using the little diamond, but he'd take care of that right away. Anders found a wrench to remove the small diamond, so that the asteroids could not move freely.And, he began to wonder what they had done with that large eight-carat diamond.And is this whole reactor they're using to hide some sort of CT overdrive?The big diamond is probably used in this CT driver. Anders examined the levers.Meters showed that the dilapidated little reactor was indeed working, producing enough power to maintain its own commutation field and keep the lights and ventilation running.However, the energy it produced was so low that it was not enough to drive the "Jane" spacecraft here ahead of the "Golden Eagle". Anders told himself that there was a way to find out what was actually driving the ship.He first turned off the switch of the drive unit.Then, while observing the large and small dashboards, he yanked the air brake lever to the maximum position.When he saw the pointer on the instrument panel swing violently from side to side, he immediately realized that he was too reckless. Anders slammed the airlock lever shut again before the little craft lifted off the ground, but it was still too late.The little FM diamond exploded in a fiery blue arc, sending out a puff of acrid smoke.Anders took a staggering step back, feeling a little out of breath, and his eyes were dark. The backup device on the spaceship was activated with a "click", and several dim lights came on.It was only then that Anders saw what had happened.He pulled the air brake lever too fast.The little diamond couldn't take the sudden increase in load, and the wires shorted out, burning it to useless black carbon and, at the same time, burning out the switching coils in the reactor itself. "Damn it!" muttered Anders. "I didn't expect that." Still, he told himself, the accident wasn't anything too bad.He had intended to disable the "Jane" spacecraft.If he wanted to replace the ruined FM diamond and damaged coil, there were spares on board the Golden Eagle.But he could not help feeling a little apprehensive as he thought of Ann O'Barian's reaction to the incident. Outside in the huge metal cavern, Anders found the two asteroids still standing where they were.Ann turned to look at him. "How is it, Paul?" Ann asked in a low voice, half dissatisfied, half teasing, "Have you found the CT person?" "Not yet," Anders replied, "but I stopped the Jane from flying." He told himself that there was no need to explain the accident, "I'll fix it when I'm leaving. It, or take you both aboard the 'Golden Eagle'." "What about Rick?" Anna's concerned tone made Anders feel a tingle in his heart. He was almost jealous of Rick, "Can't we wait for him to come back?" "How did you know he'd come back?" Anders heard Ann gasp, and he immediately regretted being so blunt, even though he was pretty sure Rick Drake was dead.Like the rebels, he died of curiosity. "But we'll stay here for a while," Anders promised hastily. "I'll go down there. I'll find him." "Thank you, Paul," Ann whispered. "Can we go with you?" "If you want to," Anders gave Mackey a look, "but if you want to act rashly, please remember that I have burned your reactor and drive unit." Mackey nodded calmly.Ann looked at Anders silently, his heart tightened under her gaze. "Turn around," Anders said hoarsely, "and I'll fix the power wires of your space suit's drives." He put the wires back in place. "Thank you, Colonel." Ann said coldly, "Are you ready?" "Not yet," Anders replied, "please wait a moment. I have to go and see if something happened to the 'Golden Eagle' spacecraft." "Why?" An's low voice was full of sarcasm, "Don't you even trust your own loyal officers?" "I trust them." His tone was less crisp than he intended to sound, "but I watched the tape. Two of the unfortunate rebels looked a lot like two of my officers. Of course, Just a coincidence. However, I still want to communicate with the people on the ship. Please wait here for me." As Anders left Ann and Mackey and flew up toward the half-open trapdoor, he thought he saw something slip past the starlit crack overhead.It appeared to be a figure in a spacesuit.He flew towards it, but it was gone before the light on his head caught it. Anders, pistol gripped tightly, slipped cautiously through the half-open trap door.Nothing assaulted him there, but the strangeness of the huge lifeless CT ship surprised him as if he had never seen it before. For a while, Anders couldn't find his way.He had to choose the shining tip of the golden needle as a reference to figure out which way he should go.Then, he walked anxiously around the rust-red half of the spaceship until he saw the long shadow of the "Golden Eagle" spaceship.Suddenly, he thought he saw a figure in a spacesuit flash into the airlock. "Anders is calling the 'Golden Eagle'!" He turned on the communication device, ready to talk to the people on the spacecraft, "Anders is calling the 'Golden Eagle'!...Please call Lieutenant Colonel Popov." The black, ghostly spaceship was silent.Anders waited for a long time and still didn't hear back. He couldn't help but suspect that he was delusional. In fact, no one entered the airlock at all.Moreover, he suddenly began to worry that his own men were on the road to rebellion.He descended and hid behind a large supporting iron bar. "Anders called the 'Golden Eagle'!" he shouted hoarsely, "Anders called..." Popov's hoarse voice suddenly sounded in his ears. "What do you want to do?" "I'm Anders," he said, trying to soften his tone. "I saw someone in a space suit enter the spaceship. Did you let anyone leave the spaceship?" "Only Omega is out," Popov replied. "He just came back from a filming assignment." "What?" Anders knew he had to stay calm, but his voice rose an octave. "Don't you remember that I ordered you—" "I remember," interrupted Popov, "but I have the sad news for you that we are no longer working for your dirty money." "Are you—are you going to mutiny?" Anders held his breath. "Treachery and disloyalty." Popov laughed. "Your superiors will learn that you were stunned by a female asteroid spy and plan to sell the 'Golden Eagle' spacecraft to a group of Free Space Party members." Popov must be beaming with joy now. "High Commissioner Hood will be informed that you have been helping the Asteroids to steal military information from classified government files. He will also learn that you were involved in an attempt to create a CT weapons to overthrow the mandate government." "Listen, buddy!" Anders pleaded desperately, "If you have any legitimate grievances, I can take them into consideration. If other forces try to win you over, you have to remember that the Star Corporation can outbid them." More money to buy the CT technology you have mastered. I will return to the spaceship right away, let’s have a good talk.” "I'm sorry, Anders—" Popov's mocking voice suddenly died away.Anders saw the cannons of the "Golden Eagle" start to move, and he quickly hid behind the huge support bar.He saw that the cannon was not aimed at him, but was slowly erected, clinging to the black hull of the spaceship, as if preparing for takeoff. "Wait!" he yelled, "let me get back on the spaceship!" No reply. "Open the hatch!" Anders said desperately, "Lieutenant Colonel, it's best to let me back on the spaceship, because I have a videotape here, you should watch it. After watching the videotape, you will know Van Falkenberg Gethin worked so hard and earned something for himself. Still no reply. "Better let me in! Better watch this tape before you have time to regret it. Look at what happened to those other rebels! Lieutenant Colonel, one of them may even be you, and now, sitting there dead , holding a CT chassis!" Still no reply. "You'll wake up," insisted Anders hoarsely, "when you see what happened to the Purseus—" Suddenly, Popov spoke back. "I'm sorry, Anders," he said mercilessly, "but nothing happened to the Perseus. Our instruments have just detected it, and it's heading for Port Burroughs. Other times, we might stick around and watch your tapes. But we don't want to run afoul of Van Falkenberg. We're going to fly to Callisto." Anders shuddered. "Let me talk to Muadori," he said, "or Omega." "Too bad, Anders. Neither of them is someone who needs to suck up to you anymore. We are no longer enslaved by you. We will never work for you again. Our money for Star Corporation has No interest, because we all look forward to its depreciation soon!" Popov laughed triumphantly. "My wise colonel, can't you see the tide of history clearly? Your rich old empire is already decayed. Don't you know that the trusteeship government is useless? We have mastered CT technology and possessed endless CT energy, Interstellar Corporation is about to collapse!" The "Golden Eagle" spacecraft started. "You're horrible!" cried Anders, "Listen, I'm not alone—" "I know you're not alone here," said Popov sarcastically, "but we're leaving you now, my brilliant Mr. Colonel. If you really believe that Van Falkenberg is dead— " Popov's harsh voice suddenly broke off. The "Golden Eagle" spacecraft has risen more than ten meters above the ground.At this time, it was hit by a shell fired by the spacecraft that launched the surprise attack. The spaceship came silently and quietly, and suddenly opened fire to knock the "Golden Eagle" back to the ground. The "Golden Eagle" spacecraft was suddenly enveloped in a cloud of smoke and flames. Anders stood close to the big cold iron bar.Above him, the smoke is constantly spreading.The smoky sky was reddened by the flames of exploding shells and the return fire from the Golden Eagle.He felt the metal floor vibrate under his feet, but he couldn't hear it because there was no air. For every second he was still alive, he knew that no shell had hit the CT material yet.However, one misfired shell can ruin everything.As the fight continued, Anders felt a piece of shrapnel hit him.He heard the sound of the suit shattering, but he felt no pain.The smoke of this silent battle finally subsided, and Anders moved carefully to a place where he could clearly see the "Golden Eagle" spacecraft. The "Golden Eagle" spacecraft has been smashed and is lying hopelessly on its side.Below it was a shallow crater from the material part of the bombing CT ship.Its black hull was hit by at least three shells.Air leaked from a hole in the center of the spaceship, and a thin wisp of white air curled up. One of the "Golden Eagle"'s cannons was facing the sky, and it must have fired the last shell to return fire, while the other cannon and its turret were blown to pieces. Anders watched the wreckage of the "Golden Eagle" spacecraft vigilantly.Its bridge compartment was dented.A shell penetrated its middle and exploded in the reaction chamber. The "Golden Eagle" was obviously impossible to repair. In the hopes of finding a FM diamond and switching coil and fixing the Goodbye Jane, Anders walked around the still-smoking wreckage.He found that the stern of the "Golden Eagle" was also hit by a shell.Its landing gear also flew off, and the hatch was crushed and could not be opened. Anders anxiously inspected the holes in the hull of the spacecraft. They were too small for him to climb through in his spacesuit.He felt a sudden fear that unless he could go in and find what he needed to restore the Jane, his rashness would have fatal consequences. He can't get in. Anders began to knock on the broken shell of the spaceship, trying to get help from the survivors.He pressed his helmet against the shell, trying to hear the reaction inside.He heard the thin hiss of leaking air, but he didn't hear someone inside answering him beating on the hull of the ship.If there were really survivors in the spaceship, they must have used Amedine to delay the speed of death. Anders continued to walk around the wreck of the Golden Eagle, knocking, but all he heard was the sound of the leak. Then he suddenly noticed that the hiss of the leak seemed to follow him.He remembered the piece of shrapnel that hit his spacesuit.He raised his wrist to look at the barometric gauge.It's only seven pounds... Anders knew what was going to happen.His mind was gradually dulled, his reactions slowed down, and he was drowsy.He tried hard to save his life.He left the wreckage of the Golden Eagle and flew toward the cylinder, toward Robo Mackey and Ann O'Barian. Anders was almost at the opening of the cylinder when he heard some noises.At first, the sounds were fainter than the sound of a leak in his spacesuit, but when he turned his head to look in the direction of Burroughs, he saw a spark and heard them clearly. Or maybe Anders thought he heard it.He was already too sleepy to keep his eyes open, and those voices were still far away.They float mysteriously in the starry night sky, resembling human voices, but completely unconscious.It must have been the voices of the never-seen CTs who had defended their ship and so cunningly destroyed the military ship of matter, but he was too sleepy to care about that much. Maybe he still cared, at least for Ann O'Barian.Now, she has also fallen into the trap of the CT people, and like those rebels, she has no hope of surviving.It's all because he was too reckless.He should find a new FM diamond for her... Anders yawned and fell asleep.