Chapter 37: “Go on.”
Translated by Addis of Exiled Rebels Scanlations
Editor: Karai
The officer on duty had a difficult look on his face, took a few more glances at Lin Xu’s proof of authority and stepped aside to reveal the ward, “Dr. Lin, the intelligent security system will verify the authority, if she opens the door for you, we won’t block anymore.”
Lin Xu stepped forward and placed the permission barcode on the door lock verification, after a drop of confirmation, the horizontal blue light scanned Lin Xu’s face and pupils from top to bottom.
“Permission level confirmed: A. Visitor identity confirmed: Lin Xu. The entrance is open, please enter.”
At the cold mechanical voice, the two officers completely moved aside to either side of the door and raised their hands to salute Lin Xu.
Lin Xu nodded as the white metal door with the Red Cross unfolded in front of him, the vertical light leaking through the crack of the door falling initially on the tip of his nose, then expanding until a cold blue glow enveloped him.
He walked into the room and the door closed behind him. There was a medical bay in the pure white room, opposite two chairs and a round table, made of man-made material, like a high plastic with a uniform sheen.
Lin Xu dragged a white chair and placed it next to the medical bay, and began to insert the program command modifier.
“Access has been granted, what can I do for you?”
A blue ball of light floated next to Lin Xu, the AI voice in the ward was much softer and kinder to ensure the patient’s mental relaxation.
Lin Xu’s face was light, “Open the medical bay door.”
Before the banquet, Ika handed Lin Xu the modifier, in order to keep him safe while Lin Xu moved separately in the craft, as Heinrich had requested.
Unknown if it was intentional or not, but Ika told Lin Xu that this program command modifier had the same level of authority as himself, and that the modifier could override all system commands except that it could not open the highest level system that required joint confirmation from multiple parties.
Ika readily handed over this technical device, which could almost be described as dangerous, to Lin Xu without hesitation or any follow-up instructions.
“The patient in the pod, Garier, has 67% physical damage, the medical pod has forced his consciousness into a dormant state, opening the pod door now may bring irreversible damage, please ask whether to continue?”
“Continue.”
“Okay.”
The AI’s soft voice fell, the cold and hard mechanical medical pod top cover slowly opened, the dark green repair liquid refracted luster leaked into the air, the wounded Garier sank in the liquid. The smell of chemicals made Lin Xu frown.
The wards here looked better than the old unpainted metal labs at apocalyptic base, but it still made Lin Xu feel the discomfort of memories flooding back into his mind and body.
His voice turned colder, “Wake up Garier.”
“Forced stimulation is required to awaken the patient, do you wish to proceed?”
“Proceed.”
“Okay.”
The same conversation was repeated again as a silver glinting needle tip poked out of the medical bay and was inserted into the top of Garier’s head, his face muscles beginning to twitch as the orange-red liquid slowly advanced.
Lin Xu felt his scalp tighten and the chill from the needle tip seemed to flow into his limbs. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing, calming the memory images that kept flashing through his mind.
When a hoarse heave sounded from the medical bay, Lin Xu opened his eyes and regained his icy gaze. Right into Garier’s grimy eyes.
Excessive painkillers could cause damage to the body, and the intelligent medical pod usually chose forced slumber measures to avoid painkiller overuse, but at this moment, Garier was awakened, and great pain swept through his limbs. He stared indignantly at the culprit.
“Garier, do you know me?” Lin Xu sat upright with his legs folded.
Garier’s voice was corroded by the poison and hadn’t been completely healed, currently only able to produce intermittent raspy sounds, “Lin…Lin…”
“Lin Xu,” he helped Garier complete the sentence and saw Garier clench his teeth, “Your companion was also arrested, but he did not commit suicide.”
Garier froze for a moment, his expression suddenly descending into madness, trying to shout with a hoarse throat but ending up with only a noise of scraping vocal cords,, “Impossible! No, no way!”
“He revealed so many details of your plan that Marshal Chu and Commander Hill thought it was enough and were ready to send him back to the Capital Star Imperial Supreme Court for trial.” Lin Xu said, “If we get your testimony, we can have one more piece of evidence in convicting you, but honestly, it’s the same with or without, the facts are in front of us and you can’t continue to hide them.”
Heinrich should be listening to the still-sober Haven tailor at the moment, and Lin Xu staggered to see Garier first. Heinrich did not tell Lin Xu yet whether the trial had yielded a valid result.
The silence also says a lot – they haven’t knocked enough out of the tailor, and the interrogation of Haven’s passengers continued, with no confirmation of how many co-conspirators were on board the Nature’s Evolution.
But that didn’t stop Lin Xu from guiding Garier between his words, who was unable to communicate with his fellow passengers and could only speculate on the status quo from the information Lin Xu gave him. Both sides were walking a psychic tightrope, and whoever was unstable in his foundation would fall into the abyss.
Garier’s bulging eyes stared intently at Lin Xu, his bruised chest heaving and swirling in a circle of water. But not as mad as when he heard the tailor didn’t kill himself. Lin Xu narrowed his eyes slightly, in confirmation that conviction was far more important than profit in this group.
“He defected. I came to ask you if you are still bent on death, even though you didn’t complete your mission to assassinate Marshal Chu? If so, I can help you, if you answer a few questions.”
Lin Xu had to get Garier to spill the beans by leading the way; no amount of torture would make sense to him in his current condition, and he was more than ever begging for his life.
“Or I can help you kill him in advance.” Lin Xu added.
Garier seemed to try to tug at his cheek muscles and ended up with only an oddly shaped expression, “Lin… Lin, I want to know first… what time it is.”
Lin Xu inclined his head, reason keeping him in check with his answer, “You’ve been sleeping for about a day.”
A day at Imperial standard time? Or was it a day in fortress time? Lin Xu did not specify. The vague answer displeased Garier and made Lin Xu doubly cautious about this simple time question. He wouldn’t ask about time without a reason.
“What time is it… What time is it?”
Lin Xu narrowed his eyelashes and glanced down at the terminal. Twenty-nine thirty.
“Just after zero.”
There were thirty hours in a day in the fortress. Garier tugged at his cheeks and started to laugh, pain twisting his expression, but he couldn’t quench the excitement and contempt in his chest.
“No! I don’t need you to help me… The fire that will sweep… here,” some of his syllables became muffled in his broken throat, “they’re coming! …glory of a long sleep in the Star Ocean.”
“Who’s here, Zerg?” said Lin Xu, leaning over to the medical bay. Slightly eager movements made Garier more excited, “They’re coming, from the dark… place, to devour the fortress. Heinrich Chu and Carl… Hill are invisible, success is still… ours!”
Lin Xu suddenly got up and took a step back, opening the terminal, the video’s changing colors reflected on his face, Lin Xu’s face became more and more serious, finally frowning deeply at Garier.
Garier observed his expression and twitched his hands and feet, “You saw that, didn’t you? …Zerg will kill me…without…you.”
Lin Xu turned and walked quickly away, the door to the ward opened automatically when it sensed someone approaching, his face as heavy as water, as if a thunderstorm cloud was about to roll over him, Garier was behind him in a psychotic frenzy of laughter.
The officer on duty saw his face and heard the hissing laughter escaping from the door and asked, “Dr. Lin, Garier is…”
“Keep an eye on him.”
Lin Xu tossed down a sentence and left, jogging towards the docking area of the craft. On the way he dialed Ika’s communication, “Ika, is there any unusual situation around the fortress?”
Ika was awake, with his not-so-large studio in the background, two large dark circles hanging under his eyes, “Ah… I’ll check the detectors… no.”
Ika heard Lin Xu’s ragged breathing as he ran and asked, “Dr. Lin, where are you now?”
“Inside the fortress.” Lin Xu sent the audio clip to Ika, “Send this recording of the conversation with Garier to Marshal for me.”
Garier suddenly becomes excited after hearing Lin Xu’s false time report, and opens his mouth with crazy and confusing words. Lin Xu, however, caught shocking information from it.
“I think there might be a Zerg attack on the fortress, at zero hour today.”
This news was at odds with Lin Xu’s initial intentions for coming, but it was even more urgent at the moment.
“Zerg?” came the sound of something knocking over on Ika’s side, “This is the Silver Fortress, far from Zerg habitat, they wouldn’t come here…”
“I was just going to confirm.”
“Oh, good.” Ika didn’t ask any more questions, thinking he shouldn’t have questioned Lin Xu, “I sent the recording to Marshal, Dr. Lin, do you need anything else?”
“Give me the full map of the fortress, airfield and Abyss Fleet’s armament.”
There was almost no wind inside the fortress, but the airflow from the run lifted the hem of Lin Xu’s shirt, and he squeezed his collar as he leapt into the craft and took off quickly.
Ika located Lin Xu’s location and the craft and remotely projected the Abyss Fleet’s post-entry deployment map into the craft, “This is the Abyss Fleet’s berthing deployment, the remaining two are being captured, give me…ten seconds.”
Ten seconds later, Lin Xu received three full stereo arming maps and a real-time satellite surveillance map, and he quickly dialed in the stereo direction to check.
“Ika, why is there no smart weapon defense in the Delta area?”
Except for the vacancy on the arming map, the satellite surveillance map showed the Delta map was almost in darkness, and no bright shining lights could be seen flashing in the universe.
“The Delta region faces a pulsar in the direction of 1.3 cosmic units away. The pulsar emits high frequency electromagnetic waves that impact the fortress defense barrier, forming a high temperature ionosphere, becoming a vast black barrier area, where wireless communication is blocked and it is inconvenient to set up smart weapon defense. It is also difficult for foreign flying objects to cross the black barrier zone, and the Delta Zone is therefore not set up as a port.”
From the dark… The place to come…
“Ika, I’m going to the Delta Sector now to check the situation.”
“The signal is poor there…”
“I know. There are emergency marker bombs on the craft, so if a Zerg attack is confirmed, I’ll fire them.”
“…Okay. Dr. Lin, be safe.”
The craft kept approaching the blank area on the map.
The distant pulsar was about ten kilometers in diameter, and the people on the Silver Fortress could only see a tiny diamond-like star in the distance with their naked eyes, but the radio pulse it emitted could indirectly cause the Delta Zone to fall into darkness and silence.
Delta Zone ground was no different from the normal area, except that the cold, thick metal surface was almost devoid of man-made equipment and wear marks, and the ground static electricity attracted a layer of dust.
Now the airflow of the craft lifted the dust and pushed open the hatch, Lin Xu’s boots instantly stepping onto the metal ground towards the fortress barrier that constantly crossed the blue-green glow. The human voice on the communication channel gradually turned into a zipping current. The winds grew stronger the further to the edge, picking up the hem of Lin Xu’s shirt and then digging into his sleeve.
The dust caught his eyes and Lin Xu squinted as he stepped over the sign that said “Do Not Approach”. As he approached the vacuum of the universe, the temperature around him dropped. The terminal chimes 29:45, a quarter of an hour before zero.
The eye passed through the fortress barrier, a deep, unaccountable blackness, empty except for a few stars. Suddenly, Lin Xu heard a vibrating buzz, not the buzz of electromagnetic waves…
The next moment, a pair of large Zerg compound eyes emerged from below the ground level of the Delta Zone and were facing Lin Xu’s eyes. It was a bee-shaped Zerg, more than an adult’s arm-length stinger reflecting the cold light of steel from the fortress as he exposed himself to the cosmic rays and zapped his stinger into the barrier.
Author’s comment.
I suspect some of you are fattening me up.
Then I’ll have to tell math stories to the babes who click in.
Someone in the comments of the last chapter asked about Marshal’s dragon’s tail, so for now, listen to me start with the Arab mathematician Flower Lazmi’s first treatise on quadratic equations.
He called the unknown quantity the “root” of the plant, and it is from this that we now call solving an equation for an unknown quantity the root. However, he was using geometric methods to solve quadratic equations, and the now common Vedic theorem was not invented until the 17th century.
Now, we ask a Heinrich Chu equation, let the unknown quantity be X, a = dragon, b = man, c = dragon’s tail.
Then we have the equation ax2+bx+c=0
The values of a, b, and c in this equation are known to be greater than 0 by Veda’s theorem for delta, so the equation has two roots.
Isn’t Mr. Lu’s class great?
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