Chapter 13 Chapter Twelve

Jane is full of energy, exuding youthful vigor, and her fair skin shows no trace of death.Looking at her stubborn face and sincere eyes, Jenkins was intoxicated by her enthusiasm.But there are some things he has to ask. Brian and Gast set up the glass partition in the car, discussing their plan in low voices.At this time, the opportunity came. "Jane, tell me, why are you working for my uncle now?" He couldn't help lowering his voice, and asked sharply, "I remember, two years ago, you seemed to hate us very much." Jane turned her head to look at him, her expression seemed a little serious.

"I'm sorry, Nick," her soft voice seemed to be just perfunctory, "at the time, I thought your uncle was a, a scoundrel. You don't know, in one of his schemes, my father lost most of his fortune. I had to come out and work. Then I met him and realized I was wrong. I'm happy working for CT now." Jenkins smiled at her, and the long-lost intimacy re-established between them: "It's great that you can participate in CT research! It's the greatest career that human beings have ever done." "Without a doubt, and the most dangerous." She looked at him with awe, "I never understood you, Mackey, and the others who would die from CT radiation." She lowered her voice, as if it was very Confused, "Tell me, why do you continue to study that terrible thing when you know that a small mistake will kill you?"

"You don't understand? You haven't read my uncle's book?" She nodded: "But I still don't understand." So, Jenkins began to give her a grand blueprint for the fifth freedom. "Think about what meteor energy can do," he was a little excited, "how it can change the whole world upside down!" She frowned slightly, listening to him. "Energy is wealth and the foundation of life." He paused, pondering over the words, "Proper use of energy can produce all kinds of material wealth. But now, people have a lot of material reserves, but there are always famines. This hidden Lack changes some people, making them mean, ignorant, and narrow-minded. At the same time, this lack also causes human beings to kill each other."

"The energy generated by the Bryan Transmitter can completely change the entire human life and eliminate the pressure of people who are afraid of not getting energy. Life will be freer and better." "Nick, this idea is really good." Hearing this, Jenkins thought she really understood, but saw her frowning again, "A lofty dream, I admire you from the bottom of my heart. But human nature is born like this , I’m afraid it will be difficult for you to realize this wish. Fear and greed come from poverty, not the true nature of human beings,” Nick is opinionated, "Energy freedom can change them..."

Just at this point, the car stopped at the edge of the landing field.Jane picked up the small bag, quickly got out of the car, and walked towards a shiny yacht. He understands that his impassioned speech about the fifth freedom has failed and she is not moved, but Nick still wants to win her friendship.She was Brian's secretary and might help him, plus he really wanted her love. Nick followed her up the gangway and into the yacht. "Don't you like the Albion?" She was excited. "I get excited every time Mr. Brian invites me. Let's go on deck, where we can see the mountains of Port Burroughs and the sudden sea." Great views of Rockstar."

They entered the small elevator together.Inadvertently, Jane's jacket touched his arm, and Nick shrank back suddenly as if stimulated, feeling a pain in his arm.This wasn't normal, however, and he didn't mind that much, and he was going to tell Jane the old Drake story at the first chance. The star of Tor is located two hundred kilometers west of Port Burroughs, and Mount De Lan is the only active mountain on this asteroid.The mountains around it, illuminated by the rising sun, looked like chins stuck upside down in a black abyss.Ten minutes later, the yacht landed on Mount Delan.

After getting off the spaceship, Jian pointed eagerly to let him see all kinds of wonders on Toryan.A building with a golden roof and purple glass walls. The large pool beside the building is filled with crystal clear water. From time to time, waves of water overflow across the bright tiles. "Go, watch the sun go out." They walked through the building to the edge of the dark canyon, watching the majestic scene of silent mountain peaks jumping out of the dark night sea following the light. "What a spectacle!" Jenkins nodded, an even more magnificent vision emerging in his mind.With the transmitter.The entire Burroughs group star is the same as the Tor rock star, full of life and vitality everywhere, thousands of asteroids have been transformed, and the money spent to build this derivative is more expensive than uncle's luxurious villa. much less.

He never spoke.He was so tired that he was about to lie down, and he no longer had the energy to think about and describe his dream, and he didn't want to quarrel with Jane.I still need her help to defeat the god of death in my body. "Forgive me, Nick." She quickly noticed her strangeness, "I forgot that you have done so much today, and you are already exhausted." Nick was so moved that he grabbed her hand. So, the two of them held hands, stepped on the lawn, and walked towards a floor-to-ceiling window of the building.Jenkins looked at her gratefully.Jane suddenly held his hand tightly.

"What's the matter?" he asked softly. There was a flicker of fearful concern in her blue eyes. "After this," her lips trembled, "you won't be going back to the Star of Liberty." Jenkins let go of her hand.He still didn't understand her, and her reason for going to space was a simple lie.Besides, she couldn't be made to fall in love with a dying man. Having made up his mind, he replied stubbornly, "I want to go back to the Star of Liberty." They continued to walk towards the purple building, but kept a certain distance.Jane's lips were clenched tightly, and there was an angry gleam in her eyes, but it was better than seeing the pain in Karen's eyes.

After entering the building, a Latin servant took Jenkins to the spacious bedroom with teak wood, and put the bath water for him.Nick took a shower and put on his uncle's loose-fitting white pajamas.The dark-skinned earthman hurriedly stepped forward to fasten the purple belt for him, and told him that dinner was ready. At dinner, Uncle and Gast were still concentrating on the merger plan.Jane has always looked very cold.Nick had to sit silently at the table, eating.The chef cooked several dishes that are rarely eaten in the host area, and the food is no longer important at this time.Nick sat in a chair and dozed off incessantly as the constant barrage of legalese and financial tactics began to give him a headache.

"Go to sleep." After eating, Brian urged him. "Not now." Jenkins straightened up desperately. "I have something to tell you." "Tomorrow." Jenkins shook his head drowsily. "We've been up all night working on this proposal, Nick." "Better listen," he said earnestly. "Maybe you'll change your plans." "Okay, Nick." The uncle finally gave in, "I'll give you an hour, and we'll talk right away." He turned to Gast, "You can work on the first draft while I'm talking to Nick. After finishing speaking, he smiled and took Nick's arm and entered the study. The study room is tall and spacious, and there is a small mahogany bar in one corner of the room.The steep hills look out from the huge windows.There are some easy chairs in the room, and some books and pictures are displayed.On the earth, such a room can only be regarded as an average level, but here, such a decoration is undoubtedly luxurious. Brian poured a glass of wine and asked Nick, "Would you like a glass of the best Scotch whiskey in the Trust?" Jenkins shook his head: "There's no time left, I'm going to tell you what happened to Liberty Star." "Nick, don't worry. Once the tumbler breaks, it will never stand up again." Brian opened the cigarette case, "Here's an authentic Havana cigar." Jenkins pushed the box away impatiently: "There is bad news," his voice was a little hoarse, "it was caused by that explosion..." "Nick, don't be sad," Brian said, sitting in the easy chair.Waving his wine glass, he smiled kindly, "Things are a bit scary, and I know that those who have suffered misfortune are your friends, but we can't just hang on to the past." He shook his glass. "Cheer up, Nick. If you insist on going into the horrific details, I'd like to hear it, but the Star of Liberty doesn't matter to us anymore. We've overcome that crisis this afternoon, and if we get there sooner Combined, we'll be able to oppose everything..." "Except for CT weapons!" "What?" Brian stopped shaking the glass, "Nick, what do you mean?" "CT weapons," Nick said sharply, "I wanted to tell you as soon as I got here. Our special CT laboratory was stolen. The enemy did a good job and left no clues. There must be a thief. I'm afraid It was La Gerina who betrayed us, but it is not known which planet bought him." Jenkins glanced at Brian's puzzled expression. "Whoever did it," he continued bitterly. "They stole a lot of things, tons of manufactured CT missiles, machine tools for making warheads, and more importantly, technology from La Reduana." Jenkins paused, his throat dry and hoarse. "They're going to be easy wins in the new Star Wars, unless we can stop them..." "Listen, Nick," Brian said, regaining his composure, though his voice was lowered, "Drake and the others were injured in the CT explosion, and not some other accident?" Jenkins nodded. "Murdered." Brian's gray eyes narrowed. "Did you tell anyone else?" "No." Jenkins saw his uncle's nervous face suddenly relaxed, "In the clinic, Vorego thought the spaceship had encountered a burst of CT dust, but I didn't tell him the truth." "Nick, you did the right thing." Brian took a sip of his wine and smiled approvingly, "You can definitely become a financial engineer." Jenkins vehemently avoids the new term: "I know that even the slightest rumor about the CT war will affect the trustee. It will cost us the opportunity to complete the transmitter." "Good job!" Brian smiled contentedly, "but we have to forget about the transmitter, forget about it for now." "No!" Jenkins jumped up from his chair. "Fifth Freedom, the endless energy emanating from our Liberty Star laboratory is the only weapon to stop Star Wars." "Nick, why do you think that?" Jenkins clenched his fists involuntarily, as if trying to find more powerful words to break his uncle's indifferent expression: "The loss of machine tool weapons and technology is like a CT radiation to the planets," he shouted almost desperately. Said, "People still haven't realized it yet, but the god of death has come, and will soon show his power!" "Nick, you have an original metaphor!" "The enemy dropped a CT bomb on Liberty Star," Jenkins continued, "and that shows they're not interested in real CT energy, they want control of fissile metals like thorium and uranium." "Nick, what a brilliant piece of political analysis!" "The Bryan Transmitter can prevent wars over fissile metals." Jenkins said still self-consciously, "With energy everywhere, wars won't happen." Brian mocked He whispered, "I'm afraid it was quoted from my book." "That's how it was when you wrote the book." Jenkins kept his voice under control. "This is still the case. We must complete the equipment in the Liberty Star laboratory before the enemy starts war." Brian sipped his wine calmly: "I'm afraid it's a little troublesome." "Our equipment has not suffered any damage. Although the entire asteroid has been contaminated with radioactive isotopes, the machine tool is still intact and the raw materials are plentiful. All that is missing is the conductive alloy to complete the transmitter." Brian smiled apologetically and shook his head: "I promised Drake to give him that alloy, but that was before I knew he wanted 80 tons, and each ton was worth two million yuan! Obviously, it is impossible for us to spend so much money on the equipment of Liberty Star. Besides, the market cannot absorb such a large order..." Jenkins glared at him and interrupted suddenly: "You have already bought three hundred tons of conductive alloy." Brian lowered his head slightly.Gray eyes narrowed: "How do you know?" Jenkins just shook his head. "You won, Nick." The uncle laughed happily again. "Anyway, you're a financial engineer." He stood up lazily. "Would you like to see those things?" Jenkins nodded. Brian walked over to the mahogany bar and moved it away from the wall, revealing a hole in the wall.Jenkins followed him down the narrow steps in the cave. The anti-gravity loading aluminum tube is like a giant python coiled on the ground.On the other side of it, Brian unlocked the combination lock, pushed open the heavy iron door, stepped back, and let Jenkins go in to see the silver-gray metal ingots stacked high in the vaulted iron-walled cavern. Jenkins turned back after reading it: "Since you already have these alloys, why don't you keep your promise?" "I'll tell you later. Go, go back to the study." After closing the door.He still went back to the study.Uncle pushed back the bar and poured himself a second glass of wine. "Nick, cheer up, let's have a drink." Jenkins shook his head stubbornly. "Nick, you've earned my trust. So I'm going to tell you some truths about CT." "The truth about CT company?" "You are a good space engineer, but you don't understand the principles of financial, political engineering. You don't understand that our company is actually contradictory. Licensed to do CT research and feature it, and the conditions for the company to exist But all research must fail." Jenkins froze. "I tried very hard to explain this to old Drake, but he couldn't understand. He insisted on continuing to study CT, as if he really wanted to build a transmitter so that the planets could get energy." "That's how it should be," Jenkins whispered. "Why not?" Brian smiled and drank the wine: "Because Fifth Freedom will destroy CT Corporation while destroying Interstellar Corporation." "Then what is the purpose of our company?" "Expand your influence in the Trust, Nick. If you understand the economic and political forces at work in the Trust, you'll understand." Jenkins shook his head stubbornly. "We should have done it twenty-five years ago during Star Wars." Brian lit a stout cigar. "History says the Asteroid Alliance won. It didn't." "But the asteroids have found their freedom after all." "Actually, not much more than they had before the war," Bryce retorted. "They're still living on selling fission metal from the meteor streams to StarCorp, so StarCorp might be among them." Start a dispute, force them to accept the trusteeship system, and thus slowly control the asteroid people." "But energy freedom can prevent war." "Maybe." Brian nodded tolerantly, "Unless any major planet is willing to give up its superior position, accept the economic and political influence brought by CT energy, and those who can benefit from the status quo are also willing to give up their privilege." "The CT weapon is different," Jenkins interjected distressedly. "Every planet wants to pay for it. La Gerina must have been bought by someone from one of the big planets." "You've jumped to I went to the front of the story." Brian reprimanded softly, "Two years ago, when I returned to the trusteeship, I found that the situation at that time was deadlocked." "No planet has ever won the cold war, or made substantial progress in CT research. Engineers often kill themselves before they have a secret to steal. Only Drake and Mackey Really mastered a certain technology, but was sued. That's what I saw at the time." Jenkins listened uncomfortably. "In order to consolidate their position, those rulers still want to imprison or even execute these two people. I think this is an opportunity, and Gast helped me arrange it." "I..." Jenkins said with difficulty, "I still don't get it." "It just took a little engineering skill to properly analyze and utilize the forces available. All planets want to master CT technology, And this technology, the old Drake has, so I established the CT company. "You don't mean..." Jenkins shook his head in disbelief, "You didn't sell Drake's CT technology, did you?" Brian nodded slightly. "But it is of no practical use to others," he explained, "I sorted out Drake's secret experiment report, removed the really valuable parts, and then sent these materials to the trustees through Gast , so that each of them thought he had obtained a piece of material of special value." Jenkins only felt top-heavy for a while, and he could hardly stand still.He clenched his fist tightly, trying to punch his uncle's mocking face, but Brian just smiled calmly. "Nick, I know how you feel," he said sympathetically. "Twenty years ago, I felt the same way. Our problems come from schooling." Jenkins took a deep breath and slowly loosened his grip. clenched fist. "In school, people make everything extremely simple. They teach you astroflight, nucleics, reverse gravity, and all the other techniques that are useful in space engineering. You think you can turn all the planets into Wonders of science, but, Nick, you're wrong." A scowl crept across Brian's face. "They don't teach you really useful politics and economics, they don't teach you what human nature is, and they don't teach you human weaknesses such as ignorance, arbitrariness, greed, and cowardice." Brian waved the long-awaited gun in his hand Extinguished cigar. "Nick, these are things you must learn now. You must learn, as I have done, to analyze the forces and use their relationships effectively. You will find that this ability is more profitable than space engineering." Jenkins was too angry to speak. "Look at my career today," Brian said, still calmly. "I was just like you, a complete brat. I sincerely propose the establishment of the fifth freedom, and the reward is to be listed Blacklisted. And now, I set up CT Corporation for another purpose, and already have a billion-dollar fortune.” Jenkins clenched his fist unconsciously again, trying to calm himself down: "So, is the whole company a scam?" "I don't like the word scam." Brian remained calm. "Inappropriate. You know, if you steal a billion dollars, you're the most respected financier, not a thief. Invest in our company Everyone believes that we'll be selling power to all the planets soon, but common sense should tell them that once the CT power plant is built, the company dies." Jenkins sat back in his chair.He looked at the stranger opposite him in disbelief, thinking hard, but he couldn't understand him. "I'm not as bad as you think, Nick. The big men in the Trust are our partners, and our directors include all the high trustees of the Trust..." "Speak!" Jenkins' voice was particularly harsh, and he suddenly interrupted, "Since you don't want to make transmitters at all, why buy those alloys?" "To deal with emergencies." Brian smiled frankly. "This is a very convenient wealth. It is expensive and easy to carry." Jenkins bit his lip, almost unable to hold back his anger: "There are other things. You betrayed us, which planet has the highest bid? Whose person is Lagerie?" "Nick, don't do this," Brian seemed hurt, "Even if the cruelest reality in life shatters your ideals, you should still trust me. I will never sell CT weapons to other planets." "Let's put it this way, who bought these CT weapons?" Jenkins snapped bluntly. "Someone is preparing for a CT war, and that's what you're doing! Don't you know that the only way to stop a war is to create Good transmitter?" "Nick, you're so naive," Brian said regretfully, "I'm afraid you didn't catch me. Theft of the CT weapons could trigger an interstellar crisis, I admit. But a practical solution The solution is not in the magical, idealistic experiments of the Fifth Freedom, but in our combined plans based on political and economic engineering." "Nick, haven't you seen the complementary effects of various forces? Don't you understand that the threat of the CT war to humanity will greatly increase the potential value of our company's stock?" Brian looked at his watch. "I have to go, Gast is still waiting!" "You can't..." Jenkins stood up abruptly and stopped Brian. "You can't waste your time instigating yet another deceitful scheme! Now the peace of all planets is at stake! Put your yacht and the eighty Give me tons of alloy!" Brian smiled slightly. "You're crazy, Nick. You've been through too much today. Get Ahmad a sleeping pill if you need it." By this time, he had walked to the door, "Good night, Nick, you'll be fine tomorrow morning. "