wandering planet

Bering looked at Piemi: "You didn't say who we are when you sent the message?"

"I explained." Pierre replied, "And the sending equipment will automatically supplement the code of our ship, and the receiving equipment at the station will automatically translate it after receiving it. As long as the equipment is normal, it is impossible not to recognize it."

Bering was silent for a moment, feeling that things were a little weird.

She didn't immediately answer the other person's question.

There are so many ships leaving the port in Marseille every day, it is impossible to rely on manpower to remember, so each ship in Marseille has an independent code, which is convenient for the ground port system to identify and schedule and arrange.The Black Sea transfer station is equivalent to a small surface port, and the equipment of the surface port cannot fail to recognize the code of Faust.After the device recognizes the code, it will display the name of the sending ship, departure time and sending content, which can be seen by the personnel managing the device immediately. ——But why did the administrator of the Black Sea still ask such a question?

Pierre had the same doubts.He played the other party's message again.

The content is too short, but if you listen carefully, there are wind noises besides human voices.

"Isn't this replying...in the base room?" Pierre was surprised, "His replying environment does not comply with equipment management rules."

Bering nodded.

She heard the wind from the very beginning.

Why can't the Black Sea transfer station recognize the Faust code?Why does the device that should be used in a closed environment have wind noise?

Bering rested his hands on the console.

Ever since she found out that Faust could not get in touch with Marseilles, she had always had a feeling of unease in her heart.

In accordance with Marseille's aviation safety laws, the captain and fleet management personnel of a civilian ship discover that there has been a change on the ship, but this change does not affect the lives and property safety of the people on board the ship, and if it is disclosed, it will cause great panic among the passengers on the ship. Captains and fleet managers should choose not to inform passengers on board for the time being.People who board civilian ships are ordinary people, and there are too many things to encounter in space. Not every ordinary passenger has enough mentality and spirit to deal with "accidents."

But the conversation between Bering and Captain Copernicus Sylvia who interrogated each other was once activated on the ship's radio, and every passenger could hear it.

Among these passengers, some people have begun to doubt whether Faust is still normal.Dozens of the voting coupons received were blank and filled with dense questions.

In fact, it is clear that the time of Marseille is 30 years later, only those few people who stayed in the cockpit at that time.But there are still people on Copernicus 100 years later, which is not normal.

Bering didn't know what the passengers who had chosen to move on on the voting coupons were thinking, but she was indeed starting to wonder now if she was too hesitant and made the wrong choice.

There are only two reasons why the equipment at the Black Sea Transit Station cannot recognize Faust:

One is that the transit station no longer belongs to Marseilles. Although the "administrator" who answered Faust uttered words they could understand, he is very likely to be some alien creature that has occupied the Black Sea transit station.

Compared with this possibility, the second reason frightened Bering even more: the Black Sea still belonged to Marseille, and the administrator on the Black Sea was still sent by Marseille, but the Faust code was deleted from the device.

Marseille, their hometown, had abandoned the Faust, a civilian ship that had been missing for 30 years.

"In the history of Marseille, there are many examples of ships that have been missing for too long being abandoned." In the kitchen, the well-fed cooks chatted about Copernicus again, "Because Copernicus is a scientific ship, the cost It is expensive, so people are always looking for it and being mentioned all the time. If the missing ship is a civilian ship, the search will be given up after decades of disappearance.”

Jiang Che didn't know about these things. Tang Mo and Ovid were chatting aside, and he leaned over to sit with the cooks.

"What will happen after you give up searching?" Jiang Che asked.

"Generally, it is to pay pensions to the family members, and seal the files of this matter, so that they will not be opened again." A cook said, "That's what my son does. He manages such files in the archives. It is said that there are actually quite a lot of files, and a batch of files of missing ships will be released every once in a while. Most of the files are normal, and the universe, who knows what will happen, will disappear if you are not careful."

He smiled and pointed at the crowd: "Aren't we the same way before? Now we are out of danger, fortunately."

They escaped, so it was easy.Jiang Che was in the cockpit at that time, and he knew that Faust was by no means as simple as "running out of danger".

To those in Marseilles, Faust has been missing for 30 years.An ordinary dolphin-shaped ship, a civilian ship with more than 300 people, how much time and manpower and material resources will they spend looking for it?

Jiang Che felt that something was wrong, and the uneasiness in his heart became more and more intense.He washed his face hastily with water in the kitchen, bid farewell to the cooks, and planned to go to the cockpit to ask Bering.

His destination is Earth, as is the destination of most of Faust's passengers.But they still have to return to Marseille in the end. If Marseille has given up Faust, can they still find the exact route home in the vast universe?

Jiang Che wasn't sure.He walked up the stairs quickly, heard footsteps behind him, turned around, and it was Ovid.

"Didn't you chat with Tang Mo?"

"Nothing to talk about," Ovid said. "I told her the storage shed was nice to live in, and she said she wanted to come too. I'm trying to say no."

Jiang Che: "... Then did you succeed in refusing?"

Ovid: "Not yet. Where are you going now?"

He said, and handed over the things in his hand to Jiang Che.

Jiang Che looked down, it was a cup of fruit tea.The liquid in the cup is transparent, and it is filled with pieces of fruit: green kiwi fruit, red strawberry, yellow peach, purple grape, in short, it doesn't care about the color matching, it looks very random.Jiang Che's first reaction when he saw this cup of fruit tea was - this thing was made by Ovid himself.There are also some black seeds floating in the fruit tea, which are covered with a translucent yellow soft film, which is the pulp of passion fruit.

He casually took it and took a sip. The taste was okay, sour and sweet, but there were too many kinds of fruits, and it was delicious but slightly overfull.

"I'm going to look for Bering. I just heard from the chef that if the civilian ship goes missing for too long, Marseilles will give up the search. I'm afraid they've already given up on Faust." Jiang Che said while eating a piece of peach meat.

"No." Ovid said, "After the civilian ship disappears, the rescue deadline is 50 years. Faust has only disappeared for 30 years at most, which is not yet the deadline."

"The Aerospace Management Regulations do say so."

Following Bering's orders, Pierre sent a message to the Black Sea requesting video communication.

While waiting for the reply from the Black Sea administrator, he chatted with Bering about the regulation on the rescue deadline.

In the various provisions of the Marseille Aerospace Management Regulations, the time limit for the rescue of missing civilian ships is indeed clearly stipulated.However, in practice, due to various reasons, the official search and rescue has often stopped before 50 years.

"Decades ago, the families of a missing ship jointly filed a lawsuit against the department that did not follow the regulations." Pierre recalled the reports he saw, "Although the lawsuit was won, in fact there is no Change."

Bering also remembered the very famous lawsuit.

The civilian ship "Messiah" suddenly disappeared without a trace during a normal voyage. 46 years later, the child of one of the Messiah's passengers was promoted from an ordinary employee to the head of the recovery department in the Marseille fleet.When looking at past documents, he was shocked to find that among the cosmic garbage recovered three years ago, there was a huge steel plate engraved with the independent number of the Messiah ship.

The steel plate was found less than two light-years away from the Marseille fleet's regular patrol route.

The middle-aged man endured and continued to search, and finally found that after 30 years of Messiah's disappearance, Marseille had actually suspended the search for the civilian ship and deleted the Messiah's number from the system.

Therefore, when the recycling department found the steel plate, although it felt that the code on it was very similar to the coding rules of the ship, but because it couldn't match the number, it didn't care, and directly classified it into other garbage.

The steel plate has been destroyed and has become a certain lamp post on the land of Marseille, or a steel bar of a certain bridge.

After collecting all the information, the families of the Messiah passengers jointly appealed and pushed the Marseille fleet to the dock.

The lawsuit was finally won, the Marseille fleet paid huge compensation, and some regular monitoring measures for the search and rescue system were established.

"These measures are meaningless," Bering said. "If you don't want to look for them, just regularly register 'no discovery' on the monitoring system."

"Yeah, that's how the loophole was exploited. We looked for it, but we didn't find anything."

Bering thought for a while, then whispered, "Is the person in charge of the fleet now Linney's father, General Lee Swright?"

Pierre nodded.

The two seem to be sharing a secret that is inconvenient for others to pry into: "General Lee Swright controls the funds very strictly. I heard that many people didn't get their bonuses last year."

The limited funds should be spent on more important and worthwhile places.In the eyes of some people, civilian ships of little value and cosmic disasters that are difficult to survive once they disappear may indeed fall into the category of "not worthwhile" and "unimportant".

While talking in a low voice, the communication indicator light on the console lit up again.

The administrator of the Black Sea replied.

Pierre hastily turned on the video receiver.

Since Faust's current location is still far away from the Black Sea, the video transmission will take a certain amount of time.

Bering looked at the clock: "It took about 10 minutes from when you sent the video application to when he received his reply. It seems that the one-way transmission takes at least 5 minutes. ... It's quite far away, and he has to wait another 5 minutes to watch it. To us. That is, I ask a question and have to wait 10 minutes for his answer?"

Piemi: "Yes, Captain."

Bering: "...too slow."

The screen flickered and finally lit up, showing the image from the Black Sea.

Under the pitch-black sky, there is a messy ground plane.There seems to be a lot of construction going on here, and all kinds of construction waste are placed everywhere that can be seen.A man sits cross-legged on a rough stone pillar, staring at a camera while eating a biscuit.Behind him, the broken steel bars stretched out towards the dark sky.

"Oh!" Pierre happily pointed to the soda cake in the other party's hand, "I didn't expect this cake to exist after 30 years!"

"This is the Black Sea, and I'm the administrator." The administrator took a bite of the biscuit, chewed it slowly, and swallowed it slowly, "What the hell are you guys?"

The man was young, in his twenties, with short black hair and soft, calm eyes.When Bering saw this man, he thought of the cleaner on the Faust ship who also had black hair and black eyes.When he saw the administrator of the Black Sea, Bering thought for a moment that he might not be from the fleet—although he was wearing the uniform of the fleet, he did not wear the badge of the academy, and his eyes and posture did not look like a soldier at all.

But soon, Bering denied his own thoughts: Although he was sitting in a casual posture, he was in a posture that could stand up and attack at any time.The weapon was in his hand, and he remained vigilant all the time, not even reporting his name in accordance with communication conventions.

Bering understood that the administrator was also wondering whether the people on this mysterious ship were Maasai.

She remained silent until Pierre reminded: "The transmission time is up, the other party can see us now, but we will have another 5 minutes to receive the image."

Bering wanted to see what expression the administrator would show after seeing himself and Pierre.

"This is the civilian ship Faust. It left Marseille in 517. It is on route 18 from Marseille to Earth. The ship number..." She announced her identity.Now that it has been confirmed that the creatures on the Black Sea are not aliens, there is only one reason why the equipment cannot recognize Faust.

"I am the acting captain of Faust, Bering." Bering asked the first question, "Administrator, have you never heard of Faust?"

There was silence in the cockpit.

Bering supported his forehead and returned to his seat.

"Dear Pierre, we still have to wait for a long time." She said in a gentle tone, "Go and get me half a roast duck and come back, I think I will be in time."

At this time, the expression of the young man who had been silently watching the camera and eating biscuits suddenly changed, and he smiled in surprise.

"Oh! I saw it! My own!" He patted his leg vigorously, and said with a big laugh, "Oh my god, I was frightened. I thought it was some alien creature that lied to me."

Bering felt again that he really didn't look like a soldier anymore.

The conversation proceeded slowly and arduously.

Bering asked here, eat the roast duck brought back by Pierre, and wait for 10 minutes before hearing Heihai's answer.

It's the same over there, say a word, and then eat the biscuits, candies, cakes, bread, plums, olives, meat, jerky and nuts, and spend a relaxed and happy 10 minutes.

The administrator of the Black Sea is named Song Junxing. He knows Faust, who has been missing for 30 years.

"I don't know why your numbers can't be retrieved from the device." Song Junxing said, "You have disappeared before, and I think this is the most important reason. Marseille has...has given up looking for you."

After thinking for a moment, Bering made his own request: "Song, whether Faust is going to Earth or back to Marseilles, we need to go to the Black Sea to replenish fuel."

While waiting for Song Junxing's answer, Bai Ling had been observing the scene of ruins behind Song Junxing.

Although the Black Sea transfer station is not her usual route, she has also landed several times.The Black Sea Transit Station is a very complete military base. She has never seen such a chaotic place in the Black Sea, let alone near the transceiver equipment.

"Captain." Pierre reminded suddenly, "Cosmic junk is found ahead. It's a very large mass, right next to our route, and may collide."

"Get out of the way." Bering's briefing gave a succinct instruction.

On the screen, Song Junxing was silently and patiently peeling pine nuts, and the pine nut kernels piled up a small mountain on the small white porcelain dish in front of him.

Then, his movements slowly stopped, and he raised his head to stare at the camera.

"There is no fuel." Song Junxing looked very surprised, "Don't you know? There is no fuel here."

He sat up straight, and repeated it earnestly and solemnly: "As a transit station that is about to be abandoned, the Black Sea no longer stores fuel five years ago."

"Don't worry, this kind of thing won't happen." Ovid walked up behind Jiang Che, "Or even if Marseille really gave up looking for Faust, as soon as we reach the Black Sea, they will know Faust immediately It’s still there. I sneaked away from the Black Sea, so you can go back to Marseille. The Black Sea will always be there, as long as you go to the Black Sea, everyone will be safe.”

Jiang Che had already walked up to the sixth floor, and turned around to ask him, "What does it mean to be here forever?"

Ovid was taking the last step of the stairs when Faust's hull suddenly shook.

He couldn't stand stably, and planned to grab the handrail to stabilize himself, but just as he was about to touch the handrail, Ovid saw Jiang Che take a step towards him with a nervous expression.

Ovid immediately changed his mind, turned his palm in a different direction, and stretched it towards Jiang Che.

Jiang Che grabbed his hand, and Ovid hit the snake with the stick, hugged Jiang Che's waist, jumped two steps lightly, and stood on the floor of the sixth floor.

"Oh, Jiang!" He said in horror and gratitude, "You saved me again."

Jiang Che indifferently broke away from his hand, turned and walked forward.

Beyond the porthole, a mass of cosmic junk almost twice the size of Faust was slowly passing by.

Both Jiang Che and Ovid saw cosmic garbage at such a close distance for the first time.It seemed to be moving at a constant speed around a certain point. The old iron skin of the spaceship and the stones made of dust all gathered together to form this huge, lifeless and unnatural star.

Jiang Che put both hands on the window, he felt as if he could touch the cold and hard iron surface.

This was the first time he had seen human remains in the universe.

Discarded parts of the ship, or what remains of the ship itself after it disintegrated, made up the bulk of the trash.In its uninterrupted motion, it attracted more and more impurities, and finally became a mass of moving objects far larger than Faust.Jiang Che wanted to see if there were any traces left on those cold iron sheets, and then he saw a half-round porthole.

He was stunned for a moment, and suddenly a strange pain surged up fiercely from the bottom of his heart.

In the past that he didn't know, there were people lying in front of this porthole, watching the boundless universe curiously?

Jiang Che tightly closed his eyes and squatted down.

The younger sister Jiang Mu disappeared in this kind of ship and in this kind of universe—this fact was so vivid and so sudden, it entered his mind.He had never felt so clearly and truly that his family members died in this way.

The ship she was on.The porthole she touched, the universe she looked at.

There is a voice in Jiang Che's mind screaming to remind him that he knows that the cosmic garbage that is passing Faust now cannot be the ship that Jiang Mu is on.But in his heart, any shipwreck he couldn't identify was actually Jiang Mu's grave.

Ovid didn't know what was wrong with him, so he approached carefully and asked carefully, "Are you feeling well?"

Jiang Che shook his head.He suddenly lost all interest.I don't want to communicate with Bering anymore, Faust can go wherever he goes.Even if Marseille really gave up Faust, what does it have to do with him?He can't do anything, he's so incompetent.

Ovid squatted beside Jiang Che, looking at him worriedly.

Jiang Che was silent for a while, then got up and went to the stairs, going down step by step.

Ovid was confused, and looked back at the cosmic garbage that was gradually moving away. He didn't know what touched Jiang Che on this thing.

He followed Jiang Che all the way to the storage warehouse.Jiang Che entered the tool room and lay down on his bed.Ovid stood by the door, and called him carefully again: "Jiang Che?"

Jiang Che opened his eyes, staring at the light bulb hanging in the tool room.

"Ovid," he said, looking at the light, "turn it off."

Ovid was startled, and quickly went to the bed and squatted down: "Aren't you afraid of the dark?"

"I'm afraid of the dark. It's okay, just shut it down." Jiang Che said, "I did something wrong, and I want to punish myself."

Ovid frowned and looked at him: "You are very bad now."

"Listen to me, go and turn off the lights." Jiang Che finished in a hoarse voice and closed his eyes.

He didn't hear Ovid leave.The switch is by the door, out of Ovid's reach here.After a while, Jiang Che was a little annoyed, and just when he was about to open his eyes and get up, he carefully covered his eyes with one hand.

"Closed," said Ovid, "you rest."

Jiang Che was a little angry, and wanted to scold him a few words, but before he could say anything, his heart softened again.

He heard Ovid whispering to himself in his ear.

"Is there anything I can do for you?" The young killer's voice was low but gentle, "If there is, please remember to tell me."

Jiang Che didn't answer, but the darkness seemed less scary.Outside of Ovid's palm, there is a large piece of light that he left for himself.

At this time, in the cockpit of Faust, Bering and Pierre got a terrible news from Song Junxing.

Marseille not only intends to abandon the Black Sea transfer station, but even intends to suspend the 18 route.

The most important factor for Marseille to make this decision was the disappearance of Faust 30 years ago.

Faust carried more than 300 passengers to the earth. This is the first time that a civilian ship has passed since the development of the 18 route.

As a result, just after leaving the range of Marseille, the surface port of Marseille completely lost the news of Faust.

The disappearance of more than 300 ordinary passengers and a porpoise made the Marseille fleet have to re-examine the significance of the existence of the 18 route.

As a civilian route, it can be seen from the very small number of applicants for the "homecoming trip" that it is not popular.

As a scientific research route, route 18 leads to the earth.What is the significance of investigating the earth?In the Marseille Science Agency, the number of scientific and technological personnel studying the earth is the least.As the cradle of human beings, it has fulfilled its mission, and after the completion of the "Great Retreat", it has become the hometown abandoned by human beings, and there is no meaning for in-depth research.

There are still people living on the earth that has lost one-third of its volume, but for the current Marseilles, the development level of the earth's civilization is already lower than that of Marseilles.What Marseille wants to explore is the nuclear ball, which is newer and more resources, stronger and more abundant energy, and conditions that allow the Maasai people to continue to survive.

These, the earth does not have.

After 16 years of debate and investigation, the Marseille Science Agency finally submitted its report.In this report, the Science Agency used a large number of cases and data including the disappearance of Faust to prove that because the destination is worthless and there are many risks along the way, there is no point in continuing to maintain Route 18.

After deciding to abandon Route 18, the Black Sea transfer station became a very embarrassing existence.

The surrounding environment of the planet Black Sea is very unstable.Although it is an important transit hub for several routes, after losing scientific ships and civilian ships one after another, various countries in Marseille continue to make similar voices: Exploration is important, but ensuring the safety of exploration is equally important.

Shortly after the 18th route stopped maintenance, Marseille made the decision to abandon the Black Sea transit station.

The original routes on the Black Sea were scattered to other transfer stations, and the Black Sea became an isolated island, and Song Junxing, the administrator of the Black Sea transfer station, was the keeper of this isolated island.

Bering and Pierre could not make any sound for a long time.

On the screen, Song Junxing was still talking.He opened a bag of puffed food, pointed to the ruins behind him and said: "The base is completely demolished, only the administrator's residence and some basic communication equipment remain. I was on duty for ten years, and now five years have passed. After five years, I will be able to return to Marseille. I am the last administrator of the Black Sea, and after I leave, there will be no one stationed in the Black Sea."

He leaned closer to the camera and blew off the dust on the lens.

Looking at Song Junxing on the screen, Bai Ling suddenly realized that this young man was born after he left Marseille.

For 30 years, a very, very deep gully has been drawn between her, everyone in Faust and Marseille.

Marseilles abandoned Faust.But Faust must go home.

She made a decision in an instant.

"Song, tell me the current communication channel of Marseille." Bering said quickly, "Faust is going back."

While waiting, Song Junxing had already finished another pack of puffed food.

After he informed Bering of the communication frequency code, he thought for a while, and asked Pierre to send him Faust's location and the current fuel reserves on the ship.

"Wait a minute." Song Junxing didn't eat any more snacks, he took out a paper notebook, "I'll do some calculations first."

After a while, Song Junxing raised his head.

"Captain Bering." He looked very nervous, "With Faust's current forward speed, you can no longer turn your head. In half an hour, you will enter the Sirius planet belt. In the Sirius planet belt, you can only Can go straight, can't turn around."