wandering planet

"Eating mushrooms!" Tang Mo's shout came from the whole ship's radio, "Jiang Che made mushroom chowder... Linney? Captain, where are you?"

After she finished speaking, she seemed to turn her head and ask the people around her: "Is he not in his room? Why didn't Fei Lian let us go to his room to find him?"

Before the ship-wide radio was turned off, Pierre added: "Song Junxing was not found either."

Lin Ni was lying on the bed, and heard Tang Mo's "Oh" when the radio was turned off.

It seems to have suddenly realized, and at the same time, there is a smirk.

Linney rubbed his head.After returning to the room yesterday, Song Junxing came to him with two bottles of wine, saying that it was the 500-year-old wine on the Phoenix, and no one else knew about it.Lin Ni is the captain, and he is not allowed to drink alcohol during work, so Song Junxing occupied a corner of his room and poured himself a drink.

What happened next, Linney felt horrible when he thought about it.

The room was still filled with the smell of alcohol. Song Junxing finished a bottle by himself, and someone knocked over the other bottle, and the liquor dripped onto the floor and seeped into the carpet.

The ground was littered with various things, his sketches, hand-held measuring instruments, and clothes.

Cicero's coat of arms, still worn around his neck, had been thrown back in the violent struggle.He remembered that Song Junxing kissed him several times, whispering "hot" over and over again as if he had touched the scorching heat on the badge that lasted for years.

Lin Ni sat on the bed for a while, and decided to continue to perform the duties of the captain, not to show any abnormality because of this blow.

When he lifted the quilt, he found that Song Junxing was still lying on his back and sleeping soundly.

He directly lifted his leg and kicked the man off the bed, and then in Song Junxing's dazed eyes, he pointed to the door and said, "Before I finish taking a shower, you'd better disappear from my room."

But Song Junxing hasn't disappeared after washing.

He even got dressed, cleaned up the messy floor, and sat obediently at the desk.

Linney felt smoke coming from his ears: "Why are you wearing my clothes?"

"My shirt is torn." Song Junxing replied obediently, "I borrow the captain's clothes to wear, and I will change them when I return to my room."

"It's not even 100 meters from your room to my place, you just have a problem with your coat, run back!" Lin Ni said sharply, "Take it off, give it back to me!"

"Not good?" Song Junxing said, "There are surveillance cameras in the corridor outside the captain's room, and Fei Lian is watching."

"So what?" Lin Ni threw down the towel to dry his hair, and roared angrily, "Do you think Fei Lian would be interested in your naked upper body!"

His hair had grown long ago, longer than Ovid's, and had to be tied back to keep it from falling loose.However, Lin Ni didn't like cutting it, so he simply put it on after washing it. It was wet and messy at the moment, and the water droplets from the end of his hair soaked his clothes, revealing water marks.

Song Junxing looked at him with interest, tilted his head, and showed a naive and innocent smile.

"Fei Lian might be interested in the scratch marks on my back." He laughed, "The Phoenix is ​​all his own people, who hurt our respected Black Sea garbage? He will definitely think so, and then Let's start to track down-"

"Okay, you can put it back on." Lin Ni suddenly lost his momentum.

He stood in the middle of the room for a while, and found that because he had no experience in dealing with similar incidents, he was very nervous and at a loss.

Turning to pour a glass of warm water to drink, Lin Ni pondered in his mind how to discuss what happened yesterday with Song Junxing.

But Song Junxing spoke first.

"I know that Jiang Che and Ovid had a special reaction because of the spores." Song Junxing rubbed his chin, "I see...it's really hard to say."

He looked at Linney: "Captain, it's all the fault of the spores."

"Of course." Linney replied immediately, "Of course it's all the fault of the spores!"

"So, you don't have to blame yourself." Song Junxing said.

Lin Ni didn't expect him to comfort himself like this, and he felt a little moved in his heart.This touch is about as thin as the lichen plant on the spider that clings to the ground.

Song Junxing muttered: "So I don't have to blame myself."

Linney: "..."

Lichens are gone.

"I don't think it's a question of whether you or I blame myself." Linney finally came to a clear idea. "We are all responsible for our actions. This is just a simple... helping each other. We It is necessary to eliminate the adverse reactions caused by the spores for the other party while reducing the impact. No one should be responsible for anyone, you helped me, I helped you, and there is no delay or debt.”

Song Junxing seemed to be in a momentary thought.

"What does the captain mean, that this was just an accident, a meaningless... act of pleasure?"

"Yes." Linney thought, yes, accident, so it doesn't make sense.

Song Junxing stood up, nodded with a smile.

"I understand." He raised his hand, stretched it out and patted Lin Ni's shoulder quickly, and quickly retracted it before Lin Ni changed his face.

Linney: "Don't touch me!"

"Since there is no other meaning, and it's just pure pleasure, Captain Linney, we can still do it frequently in the future." Song Junxing pushed the sliding door, "Don't you think there are too few entertainment items on the Phoenix? I'd be more than happy to have fun with you--though exploring planets is just as much fun, you know, I don't mean that."

He spoke very quickly, and immediately closed the door with a smile and slipped away after speaking, leaving Rulini alone in the room in a daze.

The mushroom chowder in the kitchen is already on the table.

The fungus picked from the spider was too thick and too big. Jiang Che took out two, cut one and threw it into the pot to cook, and the other was divided into two parts, one half was used to make mushroom sauce, and the other half was used to make mushroom sauce. to steam.

He cut the mushrooms for steaming into square palm-sized pieces, carefully placed marinated minced meat and diced vegetables on top, and mixed some minced silver foil peppers.

The steamed mushroom slices are thick and have a special toughness, which tastes very refreshing.At the same time, the mushroom slices absorb the juice of the meat and vegetables, and the taste is extremely delicious.

Ovid used bowls as big as his face to fill a bowl of soup for each of the six people, then looked at his own bowl, couldn't hold back, and took a big gulp first.

Jiang Che didn't know what was added to the mushroom soup. The soup was a bit thick. He recognized the shredded pork, the chopped fungus picked from Greia, and the chicken and duck brought directly from the Black Sea to the Phoenix. Plumeria of goose eggs.The fungus was cut into long and thin slices, floating in the soup like noodles, but it tasted a bit crispy and interesting, mixed with the complex umami taste of the soup, Ovid drank a few gulps, completely can not stop.

Tang Mo helped Jiang Che grind the silver foil pepper. He had nothing to do, so he wandered around the kitchen, and suddenly found a large pot of transparent thick golden liquid beside the cauldron for cooking diced mushrooms.

She picked up a spoon and scooped it up a few times, and found that many small round golden particles had settled at the bottom of the basin. The liquid was originally colorless, and it was all because of these particles that the extremely thick golden color she saw now became. .

"What is this?" Tang Moqi asked.

She scooped up a spoonful of the round pellets and poked them with a fork.Each granule is about the size of a little fingernail, as if it was directly wrapped in a film, it feels very soft when poked, and it is all liquid inside.

Tang Mo's strike was not light or heavy, and he accidentally punctured one, and the particle suddenly shrank, and the golden liquid inside dripped out.

"It's sweet, try it." Jiang Che said.

Nothing that has been cooked in this kitchen is inedible.Tang Mo trusted Jiang Che completely, and immediately picked up one and threw it into his mouth.

Biting through the outer film, the inside is really a sweet and slightly sour liquid, and the taste is very similar to fruit juice.

Tang Mo even ate a few of them, still unsatisfied: "Is this also found on a spider?"

"Fei Lian found it." Song Junxing, who had been sitting at the table waiting for something to eat at some time, approached Tang Mo in a few steps, and pointed to the fungus in the kitchen. Many of these small particles were found in the folds, presumably the eggs of some kind of bug on the spider."

Tang Mo: "..."

Jiang Che: "It's not that he lied to you....Well, if you want to vomit, just vomit."

When Lin Ni walked in, he bumped into Tang Mo who was rushing out.

In the kitchen, Fei Lian was seriously criticizing Song Junxing: "I told you just now, these are not insect eggs, but special nutritional crystals. Don't scare her."

Lin Ni walked into the kitchen with his usual expression on his face. Song Junxing glanced at him, turned his head and focused on Jiang Che's steamed mushroom diced meat, everything was the same as usual.

Lin Ni breathed a sigh of relief, and was thinking "this is good", when he looked up and saw Fei Lian walking towards him slowly.

"Captain Linney." Fei Lian spoke in a very low voice, "Are you in good health? Do you need to rest? I can make the transition to the crab shell today and tomorrow. I can fully handle the cockpit. You have a good rest."

Lin Ni was confused, but soon remembered that Fei Lian was the monitor of the entire Phoenix, and he could detect abnormal data in any room.

"..." Lin Ni lowered his head and supported his forehead, "Fei Lian, tell me frankly, is there a surveillance camera in the captain's room? What did you see?"

"There is no camera, just some temperature testers and vital signs detection tools." Fei Lian said seriously, "I can't see what you and Mr. Song Junxing did in the six hours yesterday, so don't worry."

Linney: "...Thank you so much."

The short stay in the "Spider" is over.

The Phoenix completed five warp hops over the next 48 hours, reaching the planet known as Crab Shell.

Before the naked eye could see the crab shell appearing ahead, the Phoenix's system had already issued a warning.

[Please choose your login method carefully.After observation, the planet's atmosphere has disappeared. 】

"Huh?" Fei Lian and Jiang Che asked surprised questions at the same time.

Fei Lian immediately retrieved the information of the Feijing ship.

"...On June 6th, we arrived at a strange planet. It is on the route, it is the planet that the 'Great Retreat' must pass through, and it is also one of the 14 planets orbiting the star 'Light Tide'.

The original name of the crab shell was MJJ12365623, but we thought the original name was too complicated to remember, so after observing the topography of MJJ12365623, we named it the crab shell (by the way, the Russians on the Yekaterina disagreed with our The way they named it, they called it the 'khaki gem'. We all thought that was even weirder.)

Crab Shell is a very deserted planet. There is not much vegetation on the surface, but some kind of fruit trees that are rich in water and nutrients grow.They were all very tall, and birds built their nests at the top of the trees.There are 52 hours a day on the crab shell, of which about 2/3 are during the day, and the heat is unbearable.

But every evening, when the huge stellar 'light tide' slowly sinks to the horizon, we will step out of the ship and enjoy the most suitable temperature.The young people on the Ekaterina will invite our young people to dance, they will light a bonfire on the plateau, they will wear the most beautiful clothes and let their hair down, just like I did when I was young.

The sky is full of flame-like colors, and birds fly back from afar and fall into their nests.

This moment is so similar to Earth. "

"The records of the Feijing Ship and the Ekaterina should actually be their captain's voyage notes." Fei Lian looked at the files and said in a low voice.

The young crew would light a bonfire, wear nice clothes and let their hair down.

There are clouds in the sky, and the clouds form the sunset due to the effects of water, dust and light refraction.

"This shows that when the Flying Scene and the Yekaterina landed on the crab shell, the crab shell still had an atmosphere." Jiang Che said, "and the composition of the atmosphere is similar to that of the earth, otherwise they would not be able to get out of the protective clothing. case, exposing the body, clad only in ordinary clothing, to the atmosphere of the crab shell."

In fact, all the planets that can be landed on the "Great Retreat" route were explored one by one by the predecessors.Even if some planets are dangerous, humans can still land.

They followed the "Great Retreat" route back to the way they came, and the planets they passed must also be planets that can be landed on.

Although 500 years have passed, 500 years in the human timeline is just a moment in terms of the universe and stars. Even if there is a change, it will not change so fast.

What's more, the time when the Feijing Ship left these records was only a few decades ago.

Fei Lian made a judgment: "Some kind of abnormality has appeared on the crab shell."

All the information and the judgment made by Fei Lian arrived in front of Lin Ni.

"What mutation can cause the atmosphere of a planet to disappear?" Linney asked Fei Lian and Pierre.

No one can answer this question.

The reasons for the disappearance are varied and complex.But the most incredible thing is that the crab shell was originally supposed to be a nascent planet without civilization. The creatures living on the crab shell are at least tens of thousands of years away from mastering the technology that can make the atmosphere disappear, and the premise is that the direction of evolution is not the same. Something went wrong.

Everyone looked at Linney.

Of course, he can choose to bypass the crab shell and go directly to the Ios star field to find the Homer.

But the Phoenix will not only return to Earth, it will also start from Marseilles, from the end of the "Great Retreat", to re-examine the entire route to see if the route has changed and whether there is any danger in the past 500 years .

A mutated crab shell is a dangerous thing, and the Phoenix cannot bypass it.

On the contrary, the Phoenix needs to find out why it has such a mutation.

"Since the organisms inside the crab shell can't create the technology to disappear the atmosphere, it must be an external reason." Lin Ni asked Fei Lian to slow down the speed of the Phoenix, and they needed to spend some time slowly approaching the crab shell.

"Go around." Linney ordered, "See if there are traces of meteorite or asteroid impact on the crab shell."

"Lin Ni, have you read a science fiction novel written by Mr. Malt, which is also about interstellar travelers." While waiting for the Phoenix to orbit the crab shell, Song Junxing slid his chair to Lin Ni, "called "My Hundred Billion Stars."

"No." Lin Ni gave him a strange look, and before his head reacted, his body subconsciously turned to the side, away from Song Junxing, "What did you say?"

Song Junxing's relationship with him was exactly the same as usual.Linney suspected that he was only kidding himself when he said that he "often engages in hedonic behavior".

Linney seemed to have a little impression of the name Mr. Malt, but it didn't look like he had read the author's book.

"That is to say, there is an interstellar traveler who obtained a machine that can make him exude the aura of a heartthrob. He traveled all the way and captured many men and women in every planet he reached." Song Junxing smiled, "Mr. Malt said, a I can’t write [-] million planets, but [-] is still possible.”

In Lin Ni's eyes, his smile was the very specific word "obscene".

At this moment, Lin Ni also remembered that Mr. Malt was the author of a certain kind of novel that Song Junxing loved very much.

He sneered: "Street stall literature!"

"Hundred billion stars have published 99 books." Song Junxing wondered, "Don't you know that he is among the top ten richest writers?"

Linney was taken aback: "What?!"

I can't even rank in the top [-]!He was overwhelmed by the great achievements of Mr. Malt, and one of the solid fortresses of values ​​in his heart was crumbling.

"Writing Xiao Huangwen... so easy to sell?!" He gritted his teeth, "This world..."

Fei Lian, who has sharp eyes and ears, turned his head from the screen: "Mr. Song Junxing gave me the 53rd book of Hundred Billions of Stars. If you want to read it, you can get it."

Lin Ni stayed for a while, calmed down, put on the airs of a serious literary author and captain, smiled coldly again, and lowered his voice: "Song Junxing, what is your intention of mentioning this kind of street literature at this time? I can't talk to you again. you……"

"My God, dear captain, what are you thinking?" Song Junxing was very surprised, "I just want to tell you that the reason why the traveler in the billions of stars left his planet is because of his planet. Without the atmosphere, everyone will go underground. He didn't want to be an underground man, so he ran to be an astronaut."

Lin Ni knew in an instant that he had been tricked.

But the annoyance vanished in an instant, and he grasped a more important point: "How did the atmosphere disappear?"

"Because the gravitational force disappeared." Song Junxing replied, "After the gravitational force disappeared, the planet couldn't hold on to the atmosphere, and it escaped."

Lin Ni nodded, leaned back in his chair, and waved at Song Junxing.

First the atmosphere disappears, followed by possibly gravity.This hypothesis put forward by Song Junxing complicates matters further.

Linney decided to wait for the report after a week of monitoring around the crab shell.

At this time Song Junxing came over again: "To be honest, you really thought that I mentioned Hundred Billion Stars just now, because I wanted to do something with you?"

Lin Ni moved his eyes and stared at Song Junxing.He looked serious, but Song Junxing saw it, but found it funny and cute, even the cold expression was the kind of strength that just hit his heart.

"I don't want to sleep with you anymore." Song Junxing grinned and said in a low voice, "I never want to."

Linney moved his lips: "To each other."

Song Junxing opened his eyes artificially again: "My God, my captain, do you believe it? Do you think what I just said is the truth or a lie?"

Linney took a deep breath and clenched his fists.

Tang Mo threw a slice of dried fungus into his mouth, and opened his hands to the people around him: "Make a bet. Do you think Lin Ni will beat Song Junxing next?"

Jiang Che, Ovid and Pierre all chose to be beaten.

Tang Mo shook his head: "I bet I won't beat you up. The loser will give the chips to the winner."

The four of them ate mushroom crisps and mushroom sauce, and watched carefully from a corner of the cockpit.

Linney's fist was clenched and then loosened, loosened and then tightened, but he really didn't punch down.

Pierre and Ovid were both surprised, and reluctantly gave Tang Mo the mushroom crisps in their hands: "Why didn't you beat him up? It's been a long time since Lin Ni beat Junxing Song, no wonder I always feel deserted recently."

"...Didn't you two notice it?" Tang Mo instructed them to pay attention to the key points of observation, "When Song Junxing and Lin Ni were talking, they got so close."

Pierre: "Yeah."

Ovid: "Couldn't it be closer?"

Tang Mo gave up: "You really don't have the potential to be a killer, and you don't have observation skills."

Jiang Che laughed, and gave Tang Mo the crisps in his hand.He completely understood what Tang Mo meant.

Half an hour later, the data returned: no traces of meteorites or asteroid impacts were found on the surface of the crab shell.

After seeing the picture of the whole picture of the crab shell, everyone finally understood why it was called "crab shell".

This is a very flat planet, with only one broad plateau that is abnormally raised.On both sides of the plateau, there are four thick mountain ranges extending outward.

The mountains, together with the plateaus, look like the shell of a crab.

"There is no impact...that's another reason." Ovid interjected, "Could it be that gravity has disappeared?"

Lin Ni was very surprised: "Why do you and Song Junxing have the same thoughts?"

"Because it's weird." Ovid pointed to the photo of the planet on the screen, "There aren't even any larger rocks on it."

Fei Lian has been standing silently by the side with his arms folded, waiting for the next data from the system.

"There is an abnormal place." He flicked his fingers, and a spot of light appeared on the broad plateau. "The Phoenix found an abnormal energy response here."

The author has something to say: Spoiler: Huh, we meet again.

Tang Mo, Song Junxing, Jiang Che: Yes, we meet again, Yachang.

The marauders fled.

The Phoenix won without a fight.