Since the super-light communication between the two planets has been interrupted, the Loren Alliance seems to have once again returned to the lonely and cold time in the vast sea of stars. There are no more distant greetings in the dark night. A lonely planet faces this vast universe and quietly counts the time before the coming of the magic tide.
Antavien's superluminal communication array no longer transmits signals, and the antenna array of Thorin's giant tree no longer receives sound. The star solvers temporarily returned to their original research fields. The servo brains that were used to assist in translating foreign languages The array is also temporarily distributing computing power to the rest of the neural network. Everything seems to be returning to square one, but everything has quietly changed.
The Loren, still prostrate under gravity, had their heads raised, ready to face the stars, for there was another swarm of sentient beings waiting to hear them again.
When the heat of the earth turns to winter, a grand project is finally coming to an end.
In the depths of space far from the surface, in the ancient giant structure "Sky Station" built around the planet, Nicholas was leading the engineering inspection team through a grand and heavy gate, and the lights from the dome shone on his bright and clean. Metallic brilliance appeared on the outer shell, and a low and soft humming sound was occasionally heard from nearby compartments or under the floor. In a sense, these low and soft voices were the reason why he led the engineering team here. One of the biggest achievements is that this ancient space station has gradually awakened in the hands of mortals. Although it may be far from its heyday, at least, there is now a "safe route" around the world in the sky station.
In front of an open viewing window, Nicholas stopped. He carefully sensed the energy flow and metal tremors in the depths of the nearby bulkhead. In this way, he judged whether the recently activated cabin was stable or not. Operation As the commander-in-chief of the engineering force, he knows better than anyone the current state of this ancient space station. Although it looks good from the current state of the hardware, the long sleep time has caused some damage to its deep layers. The failure of its self-healing function has led to the hidden danger of sudden failure or even secondary offline even in the area that has been successfully repaired and restarted, which is extremely dangerous for the engineering team that has lived and worked in the space station for a long time.
This dangerous situation is fatal to ordinary creatures, but fortunately, the huge engineering team led by Nicholas has a certain ability to resist risks. The powerful vitality of dragons allows them to survive even if they are thrown into the space environment. For a long time, it can support until being rescued by teammates. At the beginning of its birth, Iron Man was designed as a working machine in extreme environments. It is not a problem if the shield is supported outside the vacuum butterfly. Danger can also be "interested" at any time and go to all kinds of strange places to die of the wonderful race that sacrifices to the sky. After working together for so long, Nicholas has long been surprised by the death of those deep-sea salted fish. .
His Majesty Gawain once said that life is the currency of the alliance, but some deep-sea salted fish have been sending in unlimited quantities to disrupt the market.
However, even if the engineering team itself has a very high risk resistance capability, the sudden failure and secondary offline of the repaired cabin are still situations that Nicholas must try to avoid, because the "closing" project of the mother star barrier has come to an end, and the magic tide has also come to an end. Gradually approaching this planet, at this critical juncture of fate, he did not want anything to cause delays in the construction period.
Beside Nicholas, the Iron Man Commander Alice-6, who shared the inspection mission, turned to look outside the bulkhead. Through the transparent high-strength polymer porthole, she could see the scene of the inner ring of the sky station. To the faraway land of Loren, suspended like a jewel in the dark and deep space, the ring structure of the sky station extends and warps infinitely in the distance like a dome. This area is constantly shining brightly, and some small construction machinery or orbiting vehicles are walking lightly in the dark space and between the bulkheads of the space station, carrying engineering components or performing welding tasks.
"...The last three sets of forwarding broadcast devices will be installed in the next few days," Alice suddenly said in a deep voice after staring out the porthole for a long time, "In the Tarash Plain, the final debugging of the data bus has begun, connecting the surface and space broadcasts. The air-to-ground communication link of the array has also been tested, and all three sets of lines meet the expected parameters.”
Standing on the other side, the dragon-marked witch Asarena looked up at the little planet in space, and after a long time sighed softly: "I can't see the Loren continent..."
"Because we are on the back of it," Alice-6 explained, "we set off from the orbital elevator in the southwest waters of Loren, and the follow-up engineering teams began to carry out the transformation of the sky station from two directions, and finally on the planet. The orbital module on the back has completed the rendezvous, and we are standing in the rendezvous module at the moment, and we cannot see the Loren Continent from here."
Asarena glanced at Miss Iron Man next to her with a helpless expression on her face: "Of course I know, I just sighed."
"...Sorry, I still don't quite understand the difference between 'joke', 'emotional' and 'discussion'," Alice-6 was stunned for a moment, her tone apologetic, "I hope this didn't cause you any trouble."
"Ah, don't worry, I'm used to your serious attitude anyway. In fact, I quite like your serious attitude. People have all kinds of personalities. This is your character as an iron man. There's no need to forcefully change it. Asarena smiled and waved her hand, then she raised her head thoughtfully, looking at the vast, dark starry sky outside the porthole. , "You said... Is that 'witch' still watching our direction from the satellite? Are she and her clan still safe?"
Alice-6 was stunned for a second, then hesitantly raised her finger in another direction: "Although...but...Actually, the Frost Sky is in this direction, Miss Asharena."
After she finished speaking, she quickly retracted her hand and asked cautiously, "Is that a feeling just now?"
Asarena: "...Yes, I'm just sighing."
So Alice-6 laughed, she can now use her expression module very skillfully: "I see. I believe that Miss 'Witch' must still be watching us at this time, and she and her clan must also be Peace, Miss Asharena, we will hear them again after this storm is over."
"Yeah, after this storm is over..." Asarena withdrew her gaze from the distant starry sky, but looked in another direction outside the porthole. On the edge of the porthole, she could see a magnificent And the brilliant arc is gradually rising.
Even with the shading filter, the radiance from the arc still gave her the illusion that her eyes were burnt. She saw clouds and mist rising above the huge arc, consisting of heat waves containing high-energy reactions. The crown shining in space, and under the heat wave, a gaseous star with a faint wood grain is slowly rising and falling. The scene is magnificent, but it is more attractive than the heat wave and the crown of light. Instead, it was those blood-red luminous bands that slowly undulated between the light and the clouds, like some kind of aurora curtain.
"The storm is coming." Asarena whispered to herself.
On the surface, 90% of the Loren Continent is being shrouded in the deep night. This boundless night is like a gentle curtain, so that the world does not have to witness the scene where the sun is gradually covered by blood-colored patterns at this moment, but Gawain is still surrounded by it. Awakened by the news of the impending storm, in the early hours of the morning, he put on his coat and left the room, onto the terrace.
The news of the impending storm did not come from the engineering team of the sky station, but from the ancient satellite broadcast in his mind: "Alert, the activity of giant planets has risen sharply."
With just those words, he tossed him out of his rare sleep in recent days.
There were some dark clouds in the sky, covering most of the starlight, and the sparse stars were only faintly visible from the gaps in the dark clouds. The wind completely dissipated, and he took a deep breath, feeling that his chest was gradually filled with cold air, and when he spit out the air a little bit, he began to tentatively call a distant voice in his mind: "Omega, are you here? Is it?"
"I'm listening," Omega's response came almost immediately as a "free machine soul" that didn't need to rest, and the other party could obviously respond to calls on the data connection anytime, anywhere, "According to the time on your side, at this moment There should be an hour or so before dawn, are you sleepless, my friend?"
"I was woken up by the siren from the satellite," Gawain said helplessly. "The satellite reported that the sun's activity is rising sharply... I think it's the sharp arrow of the magic tide that has gradually approached Loren."
"Yes, it is rapidly approaching," Omega's voice was very calm, he directly transmitted a picture to Gawain's mind, so Gawain directly "saw" a scene on a strange planet. He saw a piece of The barren plains full of boulders are ushering in the sunrise, several small walking machines are busy running among the boulders, and on the horizon, a blazing star is gradually rising into the sky, which is the "sun" of Omega's temporary residence. "The most striking thing on the sun is the red pattern spreading from its edge. "I think you should be able to see such a sunrise soon."
"...As the influence of the magic tide keeps getting closer, the natural magic focus in space will react first, and the magic focus represented by the 'virtual celestial body' will produce optical phenomena visible to the naked eye due to remote disturbance, and its initial disturbance will occur A few years ago, the magic tide officially arrived, and it continued to strengthen as the magic tide's front arrow approached, until the **** sun rose into the sky and the stars twinkled..." Gao Wen whispered to himself, "This time is only two months away from the last time. , it seems to be very close indeed."
Omega was silent for a moment, and then suddenly said: "In Loren's time, I will close my main thinking array next month and start a one-year hibernation."
Gawain was stunned for a moment, but he didn't have many surprises. He already knew about Omega's dormancy plan, but when the other party solemnly informed him, he was still a little stunned: "I didn't expect it to be so fast... But yes, it's time to count. It's almost there, you don't have any protective equipment on your side, it's safer to go to sleep earlier."
"Yes, I learned from you guys the qualities of moving forward cautiously," Omega said quietly, then suddenly changed the conversation, "But before I officially go to sleep, I have something I want you to see."
Gawain was a little curious: "What?"
As soon as he finished speaking, he sensed that Omega was beginning to transmit a new image data to him. In a trance for a moment, a picture translated from the satellite system appeared in Gawain's mind. He "sees" his own perspective. It turned into a surveillance drone and was flying low through a brightly lit corridor. Then, a huge dome structure and an open, proving ground-like facility appeared in front of him. Countless cube containers made of transparent polymer were neatly arranged, and he was surprised when he saw the contents of each cube container clearly.
There are all kinds of creatures in there, all kinds of creatures are strangely shaped flowers and plants, algae undulating in the culture medium, moss growing along the bulkhead, and some small animals, even embryonic flesh that has not yet been formed , they are surrounded by electrodes, cables and pipes, and monitoring robots as small as mosquitoes tend to these strange animals and plants in containers one by one, while the bright sunlight shines down from the dome to ensure their natural grow.
"This is…"
"I... 'made' them," Omega seemed to be looking for the right words to describe her work, "this is just the first generation, a simple tweak created from biological samples brought from Loren. I am sampling samples from time to time, they still have a long way to go to fully adapt to the environment of this planet. I am trying to find a way to make them able to produce nutrients or absorb external nutrients under the light conditions of this planet. When the time comes, the automaton here will continue to grow them and be ready to grow the second generation before I wake up.”
Gawain was stunned and speechless for a while, and then suddenly thought of the previous conversation between Omega and Enya, he fell into thought, and after careful consideration, he finally said, "So this is what you found for yourself. Does 'something meaningful' make you feel good?"
"Yes," Omega replied immediately, "although I wasn't sure about it at the beginning, but now I can be sure that the birth and flourishing of life are indeed things to rejoice and look forward to, looking forward to their changes and future. , is as rewarding as exploring the stars, and it seems much more interesting to share one's journey of discovery with all kinds of beings than to go alone, and..."
Gawain: "And?"
"And I've finally confirmed one thing," Omega said with a smile, a very obvious smile, this was the first time Gawain felt a clear emotional reaction from his calm tone, "I The creators of me, although they regarded me as a weapon from the very beginning, they must have been full of expectations and kindness when they created me. I responded to this expectation and lived up to this kindness. I am very, very lucky ."
Hearing the voice in his head, in the last night before dawn, Gawain took a light breath.
On the distant horizon, a faint line of red light has gradually lit up, and a rising cloud-like crown came into his sight.
"Yes, responding to expectations and not betrayal of kindness is the luckiest thing in the world."