wandering planet

Commander Volkonski is the commander-in-chief of the "Great Retreat", and the AI ​​on the three vanguard ships was only used on the vanguard ships after he personally checked and accepted them.

Both Feilian and Clara Lessing's artificial intelligence have human forms, and Feilian is about the same age as Commander Volkonsky's youngest son, so he likes Feilian very much, and he comes to find Feilian from time to time, and he Chat and talk.

Commander Volkonski has a bald head. He tried many methods of hair growth, but after several years, his hair still fell out one by one.Seeing that he cared very much, his wife persuaded him to get a hair transplant.Commander Volkonski weighed in for a long time, but in the end he didn't go: because several children in the family liked to touch his bald head.

He is a middle-aged man who loves Russian literature, and he likes to start his speeches with sentences from the works.This makes him feel a little gentler, not like a cold soldier.Changing the name of Homer's AI caused serious conflicts between Homer's manufacturing team and Volkonsky.Although Volkonski is the captain of the Homer, his move really disrespected the artificial intelligence manufacturing team.The team that was supposed to create a physical form for Aeschylus went on strike, and Homer became the only one of the three Vanguard ships without a physical AI form.

"I think Tolstoy should have a big beard, and the beard must be at least this long." Fei Lian gestured on his chest, "You know, Tolstoy himself has a big beard."

Pierre: "No, I don't know. Who is Tolstoy?"

Fei Lian's system paused for a moment, and he responded immediately.

"Is there no Tolstoy in the curriculum of the Maasai?"

"I don't have much impression of him." Lin Ni, a top student, recalled the courses he had studied. "In the history of the earth, we generally only study politics and economics. Religion and literature and art are elective contents in middle school. You should understand, middle school For many people, the elective content of the era means that they don’t need to read it.”

Fei Lian stared at him: "Then what do you study?"

"Learn the 500-year history of Marseille, and learn the origin of the 'Great Retreat'." Linney could see that Fei Lian was not satisfied with this answer, so he had to continue, "Fei Lian, we have already lived in Marseille. 5 centuries. Maybe this is not a big deal for a planet, but in the history of human development, 500 years is already a relatively long period of time."

Humanity arrived in Marseilles with a certain degree of civilization.For Marseilles themselves, they can be said to start from scratch, but on the other hand, in human history, they are by no means "starting from scratch".

The Maasai do not need to go through a long period of exploration and repetition. The existing level of civilization is enough for them to quickly gain a foothold in their new homeland and create a new human history.

"In our history books, there is such a point of view. The moment when the human fleet left the earth in the 'Great Retreat' is the dividing point, and it is divided into two parts: the old history of human development and the new history of human development." Pierre also gave Fei Lian added, "The new humans are those who sailed and lived in space, and finally developed in Marseilles. Our main learning content is the history of the development of the new humans, the history of the old humans and the earth...it's too far away, and we don't know how to do it." of."

Because it is too far away, it is of little reference value to the current Marseille.

This "far" is a long distance in time and space.The history of mankind was split into two parts, the old and the new, by a great migration, and they have been completely isolated since then, with no further contact.

Fei Lian turned around twice, looked at Lin Ni and said, "Then your view of history is incomplete."

Linney: "You know about this too?"

Fei Lian: "I'm not an AI who does humanities research, but it's easy to understand—you think the 'Great Retreat' and the part of human history in Marseilles are worth studying, but there are still a large number of people who can't evacuate. remain on Earth."

Linney couldn't help being taken aback.

He knew what Feilian was going to say.

Such problems often cause disputes between students and teachers in the classroom.They used terminals to teach, and they didn't feel real when arguing, but Lin Ni found the content of the argument very interesting.He also does not study the history of humanities, but he vaguely noticed that such a debate seems to be able to pry open a solid iron plate, allowing him to glimpse the universe on the other side of the far side beyond the iron wall.

"Humans on Earth are still continuing their own history." Fei Lian said, "Are the Maasai people not interested in this part at all?"

Those who are strongly interested in this question are Tang Mo and Jiang Che.

They all bear the imprint of that distant planet: one is a person who grew up on the earth, and the other is a child living in an "old human" family that is too old-fashioned.

But the shocked Fei Lian completely lost interest in teaching them, and completely ignored the bunch of questions Tang Mo and Jiang Che raised, just wandering around in the cockpit.

The power drawn to maintain the signal transmitter is only a part, and the impact should not be great.But the Phoenix is ​​too old, and this Birog ring has been used on the Marauder's ship for an unknown period of time. Fei Lian must stop and rest after continuously emitting signals for an hour.

Jiang Che couldn't suppress his curiosity, and asked him if he knew about the "purification" incident that happened in the "Great Retreat".

"I've never heard of it." Fei Lian, who had entered a resting state, sat on the ground, imitating Tang Mo and Pierre's way of crossing his legs.

Jiang Che was opposite him.Fei Lian felt that when Jiang Che asked this question, the atmosphere in the cockpit changed somewhat.

He is an artificial intelligence and cannot perceive the emotions of other humans, but he can interpret the other person's emotions through the other person's pulse, heartbeat, degree of pupil and nose constriction, and various body language.

Jiang Che and Song Junxing explained to him the meaning of "purification".

Fei Lian didn't look too surprised.Only when Jiang Che mentioned his sister, he showed sympathy and pity: "I am very sorry... Fortunately, she is safe and sound."

This is just a corresponding expression in the artificial intelligence program.But Jiang Che still nodded his thanks.

"Do you think Commander Volkonsky knows about it?"

Fei Lian didn't answer Song Junxing's words immediately, but closed his eyes and began to search for information from a long time ago.

His search and analysis was too long, and there was even a moment in the middle when the form completely disappeared, but fortunately it recovered immediately.

"It's too scary..." Jiang Che and Song Junxing almost broke out in a cold sweat, "You must never disappear."

"Sorry, I'm comparing and analyzing all the messages left by Commander Volkonsky. He and I have talked many times, but we didn't talk about 'purification' or similar issues." Fei Lian spread his palms , a small segment of unclear image was displayed in his palm.

What appeared in the video was a middle-aged man with a bald head.He has a scar on the left brow bone that starts at the forehead, goes through the brow bone and left eye, and disappears under the eyelid.

Although the sound of the image was noisy, Jiang Che could still hear it clearly.

[There is still half an hour before the fleet is about to set sail. ] Commander Volkonsky seems to be sitting in a large cockpit, and some people in uniform can be faintly seen walking around in the background, 【Tolstoy, Fei Lian, Eve, get ready Ok? 】

Three AIs reported to Admiral Volkonski from different vanguard ships.

Tolstoy's voice is deep and slightly hoarse, while Clara Lessing's AI Eve seems to be a young girl with a low and clear voice, very moving, although she has a little French accent, but she rolls her tongue a little The accent made her sound very cute.

[When necessary, the preservation of the Phoenix is ​​the top priority. 】Commander Volkonski said,【Phoenix is ​​the hope of the fleet. After arriving in Marseille, it can also become the hope for mankind to continue to explore the universe. 】

Both Tolstoy and Eve stated that orders had been received.

【Fei Lian, remember, your task is to lead the fleet smoothly and bring the fleet to its destination. 】The bald man stared straight ahead, his serious and stern expression fell into the eyes of Jiang Che and Song Junxing, as if admonishing these two future strange crew members,【Even if everyone on the vanguard ship is dead, As long as you can still run, you must not abandon the task. 】

The image disappears.

"This is the most well-preserved part." Fei Lian retracted his hands into his sleeves, raised his head slightly, and narrowed his eyes, "The Phoenix is ​​the most important of the three vanguard ships, so the ship that had an accident in the Ios star field at that time At that moment, the Homer sacrificed itself and pushed the Phoenix back to its correct orbit."

But Volkonski himself did not expect that, instead, the Clara Lessing, a pioneer ship that had not received much attention, successfully brought the remaining fleet to Marseilles.

Although it eventually crashed in Virgil, it has led the survivors through the most difficult part of the "Great Evacuation".

The extremely human-like expression on Fei Lian's face quickly disappeared.

Commander Volkonski is not an emotional person, he follows logic, and is not afraid of sacrifice and blame, and always wants to come up with the best answer.

"I think logically, people who carry out the 'purification' program are understandable. They are not for self-interest, but like Commander Volkonski, they are all pursuing the best answer."

Jiang Che thought, no matter how similar Fei Lian's thinking and feelings are to humans, he is still just an AI.

"In addition, I think Commander Volkonski should not know about the 'purification' plan." Fei Lian said, "His mission is to bring everyone in the fleet to Marseilles, not some of the elite. He is loyal to the The commanding soldier is the most reliable of all the fleet."

Jiang Che: "..."

very strange.He thought, sometimes it looks like a pure artificial intelligence, but sometimes Fei Lian's words reveal other things.

Something more like human emotion: dependence, trust, and the firm belief that comes from it.

In the video played by Fei Lian just now, since the commander and the three AIs are speaking in English, Jiang Che can understand it.But Song Junxing is different.

"Would you like to play it again?" He urged Fei Lian enthusiastically, "Who is that girl? The crew member or the captain? Why does she have such a nice voice? She looks so much like my first girlfriend, oh my heart... what did she say? what?"

Fei Lian hurriedly stood up and quickly moved away from Song Junxing.

Lin Ni looked up from the voyage notes, and asked Song Junxing coldly: "Are you so free? If you are free, go cook."

Song Junxing: "Jiang Che is the one who cooks."

Linney: "You are in charge of cooking today. This is the captain's order."

Jiang Che reminded without losing the opportunity: "The mushroom chips are finished, let's bake some more."

Fei Lian has started sending out search signals again.

Compared with participating in the complex social interaction of human beings, it is obviously a hundred times easier to do AI's own work.

The search for the Homer lasted more than half a month.

They couldn't stay in the Ios star field for too long. Linney recalculated the time and decided to give the Phoenix another 72 hours.

"If we can't find it, we will leave." He said, "We can't go too deep into the Ios star field, so as not to fall into the gravitational swamp and be unable to escape."

"Gravity Swamp" is a new term that Tang Mo is talking about.Song Junxing couldn’t listen to Fei Lian’s “Star Cemetery” that he said dozens of times every day; but the “White Dwarf Delivery Room” he proposed was not pleasant and the pronunciation of the word “White Dwarf” in Maasai language was very complicated. People would like to say that in the end it was Tang Mo who settled the dispute.

Jiang Che and Ovid discovered that the term "gravitational swamp" was not created by Tang Mo on a whim.

"What are you writing?" Jiang Che asked Tang Mo, "Didn't Lin Ni write the voyage notes? You also want to record them?"

"He wrote his records, and I wrote my own diary." Tang Mo raised his head from the electronic recorder, "The content recorded by the captain is different from the content recorded by the passengers. And I am A person who knows nothing about ships, what I record is actually what I saw, heard and ate along the way.”

She clicked on the recorder and brought up the content written before for Jiang Che and Ovid to read.

Tang Mo started writing when she owed usury loans and couldn't repay them.

This is the first time Jiang Che knows that she earns a lot of money singing in Faust's bar, and people often send flowers and wine.

Like the guests in the bar, they all enjoyed listening to Tang Mo sing.She knows almost any song, and she can sing anything, even the song Jiang Mu sang, she has learned it exactly.It's just that he never sang in front of Jiang Che. Occasionally, when Jiang Che passed the cultivation room, he would hear her and Pierre talking in a low voice, and then he would hear Tang Mo's singing.

"It turns out that you decided to go with us because a customer pursued you, saying that he would pay off all the debts for you and get married after Faust?" Jiang Che watched with relish.

Tang Mo frowned: "Although I wrote him here as a handsome and extraordinary young man, in fact, he is a mafia."

Jiang Che: "It's not just him, you also write yourself beautifully. What's the matter with the long satin hair? Isn't your hair always short? I have to cut it for you once a week. And what kind of silk is it? ...Look, what a mess it has become."

There are not many daily necessities on the Phoenix. What they are using now are the things they got from the lifeboat and the Egret space station. Everyone uses it very sparingly.Ovid’s tube of toothpaste was cut open with scissors after he finished squeezing it, and the thin residue stuck on the tube was also scraped off. A little bit at a time can last for two days.

Jiang Che had the impression that Tang Mo's hair was really beautiful at first.He often wants to touch it.She has short hair, a small face with a pointed chin, and big round eyes. She looks like a innocent and harmless adolescent girl—no one would have guessed that she would be in huge debts.

After such a long journey, the black hair of Tang Mo, Song Junxing, and Jiang Che gradually changed color, and the black was mixed with brown, red, and gloomy yellow. Running around.

"Proper artistic processing is inevitable." Tang Mo took the recorder back, "You say it again, I won't show it to you."

"I like artistic processing, especially your artistic processing." Ovid said quickly, "You processed me into the most handsome and beautiful person you have ever seen. I really like it."

Tang Mo was surprised: "Didn't you see the next sentence?"

Ovid: "Didn't see it. See it and forget it."

Jiang Che: "What's the next sentence?"

Tang Mo: "Among the killers I've seen, the one that doesn't look like a killer."

Jiang Che laughed.Ovid quickly changed the subject: "Have you seen many killers?"

"Because I owe too much money." Tang Mo pondered for a moment, then replied calmly, "So loan sharks have sent many killers to hunt me down. Some of them couldn't kill me because they fell in love with me, but I didn't have any." I like it... For various reasons, I bought a Faust ticket and fled Marseille."

Ovid: "..."

Jiang Che: "Tang Mo, write quickly. Really, you have too much to write in your life."

After dinner, Ovid and Jiang Che were washing the dishes, arguing with great suspicion whether the story of Tang Mo and the killer was her personal experience or an art process.

The topic got farther and farther, and when Ovid shared his boss's 89th beard weaving pattern with Jiang Che, the communicator above his head lit up.

"Everyone is here, Fei Lian has received a reply from the Homer."

Jiang Che and Ovid almost dropped the plates.Before they had time to wash their hands, they rushed out of the kitchen and rushed to the cockpit.

In the cockpit, Fei Lian had finished his search and interpreted the message returned by the Homer.

"The Homer is a bit far away from us, and what we received was the message it replied three days ago." Linney said, "The message comes and goes, at least six days. If it sails over, it may take another half a month. "

They are not familiar with the situation in the Ios star field, so they dare not make subspace transitions here.

"Just drive in the opposite direction." Fei Lian interjected, "It can shorten the time we meet each other to about a week."

At this time, the decoding was just completed, and a voice that Jiang Che had heard echoed in the space of the cockpit.

"Hello, Feilian, long time no see."

Tolstoy still has that slightly hoarse male voice.

"The Homer is surveying around the stellar cemetery in the Ios star field, and the Birog ring is still available. I will set sail now and meet you."

The sound was temporarily interrupted.

Jiang Che suddenly had a strange feeling in his heart.

If this AI has the same emotional processing system as Fei Lian, would he be more excited or surprised at this moment?

It is a pity that they cannot capture any emotion in Tolstoy's calm words.

After a while, Tolstoy's voice sounded again.

"The vanguard ship Homer has a specified service time of 200 years, and the actual service time is 518 years. The rated crew is 6000, and the actual crew is 5036. The bodies of all crew members are well preserved, and all voyage records are well preserved.

"Because the service time is far longer than expected, most of the equipment on the Homer is already unusable. I can only maintain basic operations with the help of the Birog ring, and I cannot provide more help to the Phoenix. Commander Volkonski The order given to me before I died was to explore the center of the Ios star field, as close to the stellar cemetery as possible, and to preserve all the exploration data as future research data.

"I'm ready to hand over the data, and I can execute the handover order at any time. Fei Lian, if possible, please introduce the basic situation of Marseille to me. Before the crew passed away, they were all very concerned about the situation of the new homeland.

"In addition, the following is a command from Commander Volkonski. Since the communication was interrupted when it fell, it could not be sent to the Phoenix. Now it is transmitted to you, please accept it."

After a moment of silence, Commander Volkonski's voice came out.

"Don't look back, don't look for us... hurry up... safe journey."

Then there was a loud noise mixed with screams and explosions.

They instantly recalled the moment when Copernicus pushed Faust away at the galactic nucleus.

It was a horrific collision, a boost premised on sacrifice by a ship.

The Phoenix had been repaired, and there were no marks of impact visible on it—but the Homer must still have every scar it had.

During more than 500 years of loneliness, all the crew members of the Homer died one after another.Their bodies are well preserved, waiting to be discovered and recovered later.

The only survivors are Tolstoy and the Homer on which it was loaded.

They faithfully fulfilled the captain's last-minute orders and wandered around the stellar cemetery for 500 years.

Tolstoy did not send any further messages.Or it has sent back a message, but Fei Lian has not been able to receive it yet.

"It must have thought we were looking for it, or recovering the Homer." Fei Lian said, "This is too cruel. We simply don't have the ability to read the data of the Homer, and it is impossible to take the Homer with us." to Marseilles."

It's odd to hear the word "cruel" coming from an artificial intelligence.But the rest of the cockpit was silent, no denial.

"Let's go." Linney said, "Full speed ahead. Let's pick up Homer and return to Earth together."