Chapter 31 Chapter Twenty Nine

Slugs on Venus died from a local virus, and that's about all we know.It's unlikely we'll have an opportunity to gather direct information right away, because the old man and I were talking when a telegram came in to inform us that Rexton had finally ordered the Pass Christian to be blown up to prevent it from re-landing. into the hands of the Titans.I think the old man had hoped to get close to the lifeless prisoners trapped in the flying saucer, try to bring them back to life, and then question them. Now there's no chance—they'll have to dig out answers from Mary.Assuming that a particular virus infected by the Venusians is lethal to slugs but harmless to humans (at least Mary has survived it), the next step is to test all the viruses and pinpoint one of them.Absolutely!This amount of work is like sifting every grain of sand on a wide sandy beach with crappy tools!

The problem can be somewhat simplified, because there is no need to test those Venus viruses that are deadly to earthlings.However, there are surprisingly few local Venusian diseases that can kill people on Earth, and there are many viruses that are not fatal but very annoying. In the eyes of Venus viruses, we Earth people must be a strange invasion object. taste. Compounding the problem, terrestrial organisms harbored pitifully few species of Venusian-native pathogens.In other words, the sand we are looking for may not be found on this beach.Of course, this shortcoming can be made up for, but it means exploring and researching on a strange planet for about a hundred years.

At the same time, frost gradually appeared in the air, and the sunbathing plan could no longer be carried out. They had to repin their hopes on Mary, trying to find the answer from her brain.I don't like doing it, but I can't stop it. She doesn't seem to know why people ask her to go into hypnosis again and again.Or maybe she knew, but wouldn't tell.She looked calm, but the dark circles under her eyes showed her tiredness. Finally one day I found the old man and told him he had to stop. He said gently: "My child, you should know what to do." "Damn it, I know! If you haven't gotten what you want from her by now, you never will."

"Do you know how long it takes to search all the memories in a person's brain? Even if you limit the search to a certain period of time? As long as it takes. What we need - if it is there at all - —perhaps very faintly, elusively." "If it's there," I repeated, "even you're not sure it's there. Listen, if Mary miscarries because of this. I'll break your neck with my own hands." "If we really don't find it," he said softly, "you might want her to have a miscarriage. Do you want to raise a child to serve as a Titan host?"

I bit my lip, "Then why didn't you send me to another country as planned, but let me stay here instead?" "Well, here's the thing - first of all, I want you to stay here with Mary to help keep her morale up. But not like you're doing, acting like a spoiled brat. And second, there's no need to go there, Otherwise I'll send you there." "Eh? What's going on? Any reports from other agents?" He got up and was about to leave, "If you have an adult interest in Tianxia News, you don't know about it." I said "uh" again, but he ignored it and walked away.

I left in a hurry and hurried to make up lessons to keep myself up to date with the latest situation.During this period of time, I have nothing else to do, so I have not been interested in the daily news.For my taste, to be distracted by trifles on the other side of the world means to stifle serious thought.But this time, I did miss important information. I missed the news of the African plague in the first place.I ignored the most important, no, second most important news of the century, the only intercontinental epidemic of the Black Death since the seventeenth century. I just can't understand it.I have been in Africa and know that their sanitation facilities are not inferior to ours, and even better in some aspects.Strictly speaking, for the plague to spread, a country had to be filthy—full of rats, lice, fleas, and other germ carriers.In these respects, Africa is doing very well now.Even if the Black Death and typhus occur occasionally, they are limited to sporadic endemic diseases and will not develop into epidemic plagues.

But now, these two plagues are spreading across Africa as fast as rumors.Many governments have come to the point of collapse, pleading non-stop to the United Nations via the space station.What happened? My mind put these pieces of information together, looked up at the old man and said, "Boss, there are slugs over there too." "You're right." "You already know? Well, for God's sake, we'd better act fast, or the whole Mississippi Valley will be in the same crisis as Asia. One mouse, one little mouse—" My mind went back to the time when I was enslaved by slugs, a few days I tried not to recall as much as possible.The Titans never bothered with personal hygiene.My master never let me take a bath, not once.I doubt anyone along the US-Canadian border and New Orleans has showered since the slugs took off their camouflage masks.The extent of lice and fleas can be imagined.

The old man sighed: "Maybe, the epidemic is the best solution, maybe the only solution." "If that's the best we can come up with, we might as well just blow up that big area. That's at least a cleaner way to die." "Yeah. But you know we don't do that. As long as there's any hope of getting rid of the pests without burning down the whole barn, we'll keep trying." I thought about it for a while.We have another adversary, and that is time.Fundamentally, slugs must be too stupid to keep slaves alive, and maybe that's why they keep migrating across the stars - they destroy any slave they come in contact with.After a while, the host dies out and they need new ones.

Of course this is just speculation, and I dismiss the idea.One thing is certain: Unless we find a way to get rid of the slugs soon, what happened in Africa will happen in the red zones as well.Thinking of this, I decided to take the action plan I had considered before—forcing myself to intervene in the psychological torture that Mary was suffering.If there's a way to kill slugs hidden deep in her memory, maybe someone else has failed and I might find it.Anyway, whether Stilton and the Don like it or not, I'm ready to take part.I'm tired of being treated as something between the Queen's husband and the unwelcome child.