Planetary Museum

"Voyage record, day 3546," Changbai still remembers. On that day three years ago, when he came to the command room, he heard the captain, as usual, making a voyage log with voice, "We have entered the outer solar system. , the life support equipment inside the ship is normal, the communication equipment is normal, the 29th rescue operation from the Federation also failed yesterday, and we received a message from the Third Fleet 2 hours ago that we were abandoned."

Changbai was stunned at the time, and subconsciously wanted to shrink back when he just stepped into the command room, but the captain had already turned his head at this time.

"Changbai," the captain called out his name for the first time, instead of the battle number, "go pour me a drink."

"Captain!" Changbai shouted.During the battle, alcohol is not allowed on board.He is not trying to stop the captain's violation, he is afraid of the captain's despair.

"We have been kicked out of the combat order," the captain smiled wryly. "From now on, our military status will also be automatically revoked. The commander of the Third Fleet told me that we can voluntarily surrender to the rebels."

"But they..." Changbai screamed, "Will not accept any surrender!"

"So," the captain nodded, "we all understand what this means. This is a battlefield, Changbai, you should be able to understand, this is the fate of soldiers."

"From today onwards, you don't need to come to the headquarters to report every day," the captain said, "An attack ship without power and weapons...in the outer solar system, it is like a floating wooden sampan in the sea...we Dead."

"No, it won't!" Changbai became excited, "There will be a turning point in the war! Our current drift speed is not fast, and the life support system can last at least 20 years! We can definitely win this war in 20 years! By then The Federation will send someone to rescue us!"

Now, three full years have passed.

Changbai woke up as usual, worked at the desk for a while, but didn't turn on the computer as usual.He stood up, opened the hatch, and walked out.

The captain is not in the command room. Half a year ago, the captain locked himself in the room.

Many times Changbai thought he was dead, but the food circulation system showed that the normal food and drinking water consumption of two people was still maintained on this ship.

The captain just didn't want to see himself.

Changbai can understand the other party. In desperation, seeing the same kind does not help the mind at all. On the contrary, the desperate eyes of the companion will remind him of the terrible situation all the time.

It's better not to look at it at all, as long as you don't look in the mirror and don't take pictures of yourself, life here seems to continue as usual.They can play games that are never updated, and read books that can never be finished... For a great civilization, spiritually rich products are enough to pass enough time for them.

Changbai remembered that the last time he walked out of his living cabin by himself was half a month ago.

In order to save as much energy as possible and make the life support system work longer, they turned off the irrelevant cleaning system as soon as they determined that they would survive on this ship for a long time.In the past three years, the command cabin, which was originally brand new and clean, is now covered with a thick layer of dust, and there is an unpleasant smell in the air—the captain must have eaten and drank here. Alcohol, not cleaned afterwards.

In fact, he has also been here, the only difference is that he has better control over himself.

All authority on the ship has been shared. From the moment he was abandoned, there is no difference in authority and responsibility between him and the captain. He used to be a combat operator, responsible for all power and weapon systems.The captain is a battle commander who is responsible for confirming that his operations are in accordance with the battle order.But now, they are just two small beetles floating with the waves on a sampan in this sea of ​​despair.

Changbai turned on the communication system, just like before, there was not a single message in it.

Sometimes Changbai wondered if the captain had deleted the information privately, but then he dispelled this malicious guess—because the frequency of the captain's visit to the command room was much lower than his.

Unwillingly, Changbai turned on the radio search, and maximized the communication drink in the command room.

He heard nothing.

"It's impossible!" Changbai said to himself, switching frequency constantly, but still the same.In the command room, only Changbai himself was breathing heavily, and it was as quiet as a grave.

Anyone with a little common sense of communication knows that in a galaxy with a huge civilization, it is easy to receive various messages from civilization by using radio.Various radio stations, communication stations, needless to say, in the half a year after their accident, they could even listen to the voice messages sent by their family members from the home planet - with the help of a few people close to the edge of the galaxy It is transmitted from the scientific research station of our country, about every two months, and only a few days to hear it.

But as time passed, as the distance between them and the solar system became more and more distant, the frequency of this became less and less. Changbai himself forgot when was the last time he heard his father calling his voice up.

However, even in areas where there is no signal, as long as he turns on the communication station, he can still receive the sound—it is the noise made by the mixture of countless radio waves from the parent galaxy, which is completely meaningless to the ear, even if the ship is turned on. All the computing resources on the Internet are devoted to analysis, and there is no information at all in the noise.

But now, even the noise is gone.

"No, it's impossible!" Changbai kept passing through the command center, controlling the command system to check the communication system again and again, and the answers he got were all the same—system failure.

"This is the communication silence mechanism..." The captain did not know when he appeared, his voice came from the door.Changbai raised his head to look at him, and found that the captain was leaning against the door, staring at him with a pair of fierce glasses, looking at him with fur all over, as if he was a beast that had just emerged from its lair, After a period of time, all internal communication protocols will be automatically destroyed, and permissions will be disabled...to prevent being used by the enemy. You were lazy in the technical lessons."

Changbai was drained of all his strength by these words, and sat down slumped.

The two stared at each other. After looking at each other for a long time, Changbai got up and was about to leave the room, but the captain sat down in the direction of Changbai, just like he did when he was the captain, and opened many function pages on the ship.

"How long do we have?"

"It's very long, hum," the captain spat out a syllable disdainfully, "It's so long that I'm afraid I don't have the confidence to live to that time."

"We still have..." Changbai paused, "Is there any chance of being rescued?"

"Of course, there will always be," the captain said coldly, "0 percent, do you want to hear the main source of this probability?"

Changbai stopped in his tracks.

"If the Federation wins a big victory, the rebels are about to flee to other galaxies from our direction, and the Federation's pursuit fleet passes by... Moreover, we happen to be within their visual range and send out a distress signal in time, and the other side can bear it The tactical loss caused by the speed reduction... Then, we may be saved after at least 13 years." The captain said, "Do you know why this probability is calculated so small?"

Changbai didn't speak. They had discussed similar discussions countless times. Although he didn't admit it once, he had already agreed with the captain's judgment in his heart.

"Because we have no hope of winning!" the captain suddenly shouted nervously, "Thousands of years of intelligent life, we have been bred into another animal! We are lying on the technological heritage left by our predecessors , Endless enjoyment, use the resources of the entire 15 planets in the solar system to build games instead of exploring new worlds!"

"On the contrary, our greatest enemies are working for us all the time. In the name of work, we continue to empower them with more technical details! From mining to smelting, from manufacturing to weapons, from science to war, We hand in hand and taught them everything about civilization, hoping that they will take over the burden of civilization and support us for free to continue this kind of life!"

"What is left of the entire Federation now! Except for a few fleets, there are four earths! Do you know the resources needed to maintain a virtual earth, and how many fleets can be built? Why haven't we been authorized yet? Because those people They don't care at all! They don't care about this civilization, let alone this war!..."

The captain yelled frantically for a long time, and finally stopped when his voice became hoarse.Then he acted like a normal person, returning to the actions when he first sat in the captain's seat, and calmly started one operation after another...

Changbai really wanted to leave this room that made him uneasy, but because of a certain kind of faint loneliness, he didn't take a step forward.Going back to his room, although he didn't have to face the captain's resentment and the despair of reality, but the boundless loneliness and the imagining of the terrible situation in the future were more unbearable for him than the two.

"Hehe," the captain sneered, "The last battle report, two months ago, we lost our long star."

Changbai walked to the seat where he sat during the battle, but he didn't open the operation interface, just sat down and looked at the captain.He was still muttering something, it was a curse to the fleet, contempt for the citizens of the mother planet, or a "praise" to the brains of the rebels...

Changbai was annoyed when he first heard these complaints, but now it sounds kind of friendly.In fact, why didn't he repeat these endlessly in his room, in his personal computer, in his own virtual game, to himself, to npc, and to everything he could face.

Changbai stood up and walked towards the captain, because he suddenly felt that he and the captain were both very pitiful.

At least, in this desperate space, there should be more trust between the two desperate people.

Changbai patted the captain on the shoulder, the captain didn't look up, but his voice stopped.

"Changxing," Changbai called the captain's name, "Don't look."

"No," the captain's voice was filled with strange, excited tremors, "No... wait, wait!"

"Changbai, what's wrong with you?"

"There's a ship!" the captain began to shout, echoing through the room like a storm. "Spaceship! A very large spaceship!"

"Spaceship?" Changbai stared blankly at the captain, feeling scared, "This is the outer solar system... There is no source of gravity, how could a spaceship pass by here?"

"No, I saw it, no, it was the spacecraft that saw it, just 23 hours ago!" The captain quickly operated on the interface, and after a while, the combat optical surveillance system dropped the suspicious target that had been discovered on the on the porthole.

The captain didn't go crazy, it was indeed a ship, and it was a big ship. From the analysis of the computer alone, it can be concluded that the volume of this ship is nearly a hundred times that of theirs.This shows that the other party is likely to be a colonial ship-then, almost subconscious vigilance appeared in the minds of the two soldiers-who are they!Why come to the solar system?

"No matter who it is!" The captain reacted immediately, "We must call them! Tell them, we surrender!"