wandering planet

37 years.Except for the 30 years when Linney and the others were trapped in the galactic nucleus, that is, seven years ago.

Lin Ni and Song Junxing quickly looked at each other.

Seven years ago, it happened to be the time when Cicero died in an explosion.

What the other party said next also confirmed their conjecture.

This "Cicero" was bred to protect the real Cicero.

The Leeswrights were an old military family, and Cicero was the eldest son, who was bound to encounter more danger than the other children, especially after he appeared in public.

In fact, with the exception of the Leeswright family, all the ancient families in the Marseilles have the right to create substitutes by cloning embryos in order to protect the safety of their children or to continue their bloodlines.

That's how "Cicero" was made.

He received exactly the same education as the real Cicero, and knew all the things he had to know.Even a scar on Cicero's face he had to imitate exactly.

General Lees Wright knew of his existence from the beginning, and often visited him at the training base.

He lived with many clones of "noble" blood, and he also called General Lee Swright "father".

At his bar mitzvah, Cicero was given a horse.He went horseback riding with friends and fell so badly that he ruptured his spleen.

This "Cicero" fulfilled the duties of a stand-in and dedicated his organs to the real Cicero.

He thought that he would encounter more similar accidents in the future, and he would donate blood, bone marrow or organs for his brother, or more directly, die in his place.

But "Cicero" did not wait for such an opportunity.

His brother died suddenly.

"I am a double, and the meaning of my existence is to wait for Cicero at any time." The person opposite said, "In fact, I have met him many times, and we talked about many things, about you, about his father Mother. Because I want to learn his habits, I must be exactly like him. If you ask me what he is, I can tell you with certainty: I like Cicero, Linney, as you like Same as your brother. It’s something to be proud of to have such a family.”

This statement quickly made him uneasy.

"Sorry... I call him family, does that make you uncomfortable?"

Lin Ni quickly replied: "No. He is indeed your family... No, you, you are indeed our family."

"But almost, they are going to destroy me. My brother is dead, and as a substitute, I can't reappear." The man said with a smile, "But I'm so lucky, because my brother It's Cicero."

After Cicero's death, General Lee Swright first chose Song Junxing and sent him to the Black Sea to replace Cicero in his duties.

Then he immediately came to the breeding base and picked up "Cicero".

About half a year later, a 20-member team headed by "Cicero" quietly left Marseille and came to the Egret space station.They are not in contact with the Marseille fleet, and are directly led by the joint parliament of the Marseille countries, and all information only needs to be directly reported to the parliament.

This is a secret operation with only one purpose: to preserve the eyes of human beings to watch advanced civilizations.

"I don't know what my father did, but he must have made great efforts to convince the joint parliament." "Cicero" said on the opposite side, "Before sending me away, he had a long talk with me."

"What did father say?" Linney was a little anxious.What General Lee Swright did was beyond his expectations.

"From the time of Cicero's death in an accident, General Lee Swright's powers have been limited, and he can do less and less. And he was already sick, you know? His lungs had... ..."

Linney didn't know about it.General Lee Swright never said it.

The voice from Egret Space Station echoed in the cockpit, and he listened silently, with a depressed expression on his face that he had never seen before.

"He said that before he died, he should at least do something beneficial for Marseilles and mankind. Some things may not be effective at the time, but as long as he persisted, he would definitely be rewarded. At that time, he only devoted himself to doing two things. The first thing is to protect the Black Sea and the Phoenix on the Black Sea, which is the hope of human beings returning to Earth. The second thing is to restart the Egret space station. Egret is the hope of human beings to strengthen themselves, we must get closer to the Arlans star field here The distance from advanced civilizations. Finding a retreat, or allowing humans to master new technologies as soon as possible, are the only two ways to protect Marseille."

There was another pause.

"He actually said a lot, such as my identity, such as the life of a clone." The voice was intermittent, and it was the Egret space station that had begun to enter the communication blind spot of the Phoenix. "He only accepts conservative treatment and is not willing to undergo surgery. I I have occasional communication with him, but it was completely cut off after 518. I only know that he has used artificial means to extend his life since 517. Why did he change his mind, he didn’t tell me..."

The sound was completely interrupted.Fei Lian told Lin Ni that there was still half an hour before Egret Space Station could leave the communication blind zone, and then they could contact again.

Linney waved his hand, but didn't respond.

He knew why General Leeswright had agreed to use artificial means to prolong life.

Because Faust disappeared in 517.He was waiting for his youngest son who had disappeared into the universe and had no news to return home.

Everyone gave Lin Ni the time and space to be alone quietly.

Song Junxing lingered at the door of the cockpit and refused to leave. Lin Ni sat alone in the bright cockpit with his head down, not knowing what he was thinking.

He turned his head and saw that the rest of the people had gradually walked away. He took a deep breath and stepped into the cockpit lightly.

Linney heard his footsteps, but didn't look back.

Song Junxing sat cross-legged on the ground behind him, staring at the starry sky on the huge screen over Lin Ni's head and shoulders.

According to the time set by Fei Lian, the Phoenix quickly made its first transition.

Song Junxing grabbed the back of Lin Ni's chair, closed his eyes, and endured the strange oppressive feeling at the moment of the transition and the loud sound that could almost rupture the eardrums.

Some people are very uncomfortable with the strange feeling of subspace transition, Song Junxing and Ovid are in this category.

He felt like he was going to throw up.

The Phoenix will make three consecutive jumps here, and the Egret Space Station is near the landing point of the third jump.

When the second leap started, Lin Ni suddenly grabbed Song Junxing's hand.

Song Junxing also clenched his hand subconsciously, and the leap began. He closed his eyes tightly, his face almost wrinkled together, as if he was enduring the uncomfortable strong wind.

When he opened his eyes, he found that Lin Ni was looking at him.

"I'm handsome..." Before the words finished, the third leap had already begun.

Even with the ringing in his ears, he could still hear Linney laughing.

All right.Song Junxing thought to himself, it would be good to make him laugh for a while.

After three jumps, the Phoenix finally returned to the recorded route.

It quickly adjusted its direction and began to move towards the egret space station.

Dense stars appeared on the screen again.The starry sky is like a huge and transparent wall, pressing down on him and Lin Ni.

He saw huge planets nearby, small black holes near the planets, and countless stars shining far and near in the vast dark abyss.In the darkness on the front left, there are two huge galaxies very close together, one of which even has a long tail, which makes them stand out among the many stars and star clusters.

Song Junxing stared blankly.

Huge galaxies dragging their tails through another galaxy. The long, bright tails are actually hundreds of millions of bright stars in the galaxy.

"This phenomenon is a bit rare." Linney raised his hand and drew a circle on the two galaxies, "We call this kind of phenomenon the mouse galaxy. Like it? This, especially like a mouse. These two are mature galaxies, in which countless stars gather."

His hand blocked part of Song Junxing's vision.Song Junxing shifted his gaze following his gestures, and asked slowly after a while: "You, are you sad?"

Linney's hand was still moving, this time pointing in a different direction.

"Over there, do you see it? It looks like a black hole, but you can faintly see the starlight inside." Linney explained to him, "This is actually not a black hole, but a dark nebula. It blocks some light, but look carefully. , You can still see the starlight behind it. The dark nebula is the birthplace of stars, which will slowly collapse and then explode to form star clusters. There are many dark nebulae in the Milky Way, and an average of one new star is born in this way every year."

Linney dropped his hand.

"Song Junxing, my brother taught me these things."

Cicero was Linney's first teacher.There are many star maps hanging in his room, as well as his favorite [-]D model of the Milky Way.Tiny silver particles are suspended above the base, moving slowly, like a real galaxy.

Linney especially likes this model.He often played in Cicero's room, lying on his stomach looking at the model of the Milky Way, and fell asleep while watching it.

After waking up, you will find that your brother carried him to the bed full of books.On the ceiling above the bed are the twelve constellations drawn by Cicero.Of course Linney remembered: his brother was very interested in knowledge of the twelve zodiac signs on the earth.

All his interest in the world beyond the sky, in the universe, all came from Cicero.

The three-dimensional model of the Milky Way can be toggled. Linney often stretches out his hand, grabs the bright nuclear bulge, and disperses the surrounding silver particles.

The temperature of the core was a bit high, and when he let go, those silver particles still gathered around the core, still rotating slowly without any change.

Linney was very impressed with this scene.In his later life, he also thought of this scene countless times.

It was as if he had inadvertently glimpsed an important secret of the universe—there was a higher and greater existence, just like his hand, which could disturb the star road and subvert the universe.

But the stars have their own trajectory.They will eventually return to their own paths, follow some tacit laws that are not yet clear to human beings, and continue their paths unswervingly.

At this time, Linney thought of the model again.

He suddenly understood his father's insistence: human beings cannot close their eyes looking into the distance.

When communication was restored, it was no longer "Cicero" who contacted them.

"Fortunately, the people on the Feijing ship left the communication channel codes of all ships including the Phoenix, otherwise we would not be able to recognize your communication request." The person talking to them was a woman with a light voice, "the station master The station master went to observe. There are starships dispatched in the Arlans star field. If you arrive at Egret, you may also be able to see their starship. It’s amazing, it’s a combination we’ve never seen before.”

The existence of the Egret space station and the Allans star field has diluted the sadness of everyone on the Phoenix, and replaced it with indescribable curiosity and excitement.

All human beings are in the universe, whether alive or dead.

They can't spend too much time wallowing in grief because the journey is still going on.

Ten days later, the Phoenix finally saw the Egret Space Station not far away on the screen.