History of Human Space Exploitation

Chapter 29 Reunion·Lights Dim

For some reason, in Xiong Ping's mind, the gender of the person who almost saved his life has already been defined as "she".This is enough to make people like him who have never had any real contact with the opposite sex think about it...Xiong Ping knows that this is the tragedy of the times, and it is also the biggest injustice to people like him in this era, but it seems that in this place he is , or in his dispensable position, how difficult it is to change or to use some method to get a certain degree of relief from it.

But that distant "she" gave him such a space and opportunity.

In that era, during the years when Xiong Ping communicated intensively with her, although the average communication time between the two was 43 hours, Xiong Ping could roughly judge the distance between himself and her at the ideal speed of information transmission. , should be within the communication range of about fifty light hours centered on oneself.At such a distance, if he used the fastest civil-grade spaceship at that time to sail, he would need at least seven to nine months of sailing time to reach her possible location in the farthest case.

He didn't know what the situation was like for other people, since he decided that the person communicating with him on the opposite side must be "she", he has been looking for evidence to support this point in every text and every sentence that the two sides exchanged.At the same time, because Xiong Ping seems to have secretly fallen in love with her in his heart, he also seems to be imagining the other party's possible attitude and feelings towards him in those conversation sentences that now seem to be quite neutral and without too much meaning.

These conjectures are all from the concise diary that Xiong Ping left in his implanted chip and was uniformly transmitted to the military quilt database.Judging from these simple record entries that he said to himself, his thoughts about her should have started before receiving the data chip of the "Rachmaninoff" piano piece.

Here are a few excerpts of what Xiong Ping said to "her" recorded in the chip during the half a standard year before the communication was interrupted:
Universal Era 695 May [-]th

Every time I talk to you, I still want to express my thanks again for giving me "that". Yes, I know you are tired of listening, but I still want to say it repeatedly.Hahaha, I don't know what kind of psychology this is.In addition to annoying you with thank you for that matter again and again, I still want to greet you more, you know, I really want to know who you are and where you are...

But, I also know that thinking like this is meaningless. As far as the current reality is concerned, we should have no chance to see each other in a short time. However, as long as we can keep in touch, I believe there will always be such a day , we can definitely wait for such an opportunity!
May 695, Universal Era [-]
Hey, I still can’t stop the word processor in my brain to compile the words of thanks to you, even if I am very determined in my subjective consciousness not to bother you with these old-fashioned words, but... a few words of thank you must still appear in the post in the message to you.Although the information you gave me is only seven or eight words, but I think you are living in some kind of inconvenient environment?It's all right, as long as I can see your reply every time, I'm already very satisfied.

May 695, Universal Era [-]
Forget it, it’s better to thank you at the beginning every time.do you know?I have never tried to talk to something like air like this before, and your reply seems to be so short that it feels like artificial intelligence is talking to me.But, I know it must be real human beings talking to me, do you know why I'm so sure?Although "that" did not leave any biological traces that could be traced, there were no particles left by the exchange with common substances in the human living environment, and there were no traces of human manipulation and infusion data visible to a computer blind like me, and of course there would be no There is anything like fingerprints, but I know that this kind of thing with such strong humanistic care can only be done by human beings, and it can only be done by human beings.

May 695, 23 Universal Era

Thank you, thank you, thank you.do you know?Today the supervisor came to my house to "visit" me again. After all, I am a habitual offender, and it is normal for people to come to take care of me at any time.At that time, they lived from death to life for almost half a year, and then they were sent to the compulsory behavior correction center for half a year. After returning, they were not as frizzy as others, thinking about things they didn't like all the time, which of course would arouse suspicion.This matter may sound a bit like the irreversible damage caused by opium and morphine to the human body in the earth age, but I believe it must not be the case.If it is what they think, then how can so many great names in history, Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, Liszt, Chopin, Zhu Xiaomei, Dupre, Barenboim, etc. Being praised by the world and passed down for thousands of years?

May 695, 27 Universal Era

I don’t know what’s going on with you at your house. I can only get a few bytes of reply from you each time. I always imagine that you are sending the first message in an extremely difficult situation. Then should the message I send you be How about something more concise?I wanted to simply write a few words and send them out, but as soon as I thought that I was writing to you and the person who received this sentence was you, I couldn’t help but stop writing, just like stopping when talking. No mouth and throat the same.Sometimes I imagine, are you just listening like me?I always feel that you can use your own hands. Although it may be a bit exaggerated to say that it can be reproduced, at least you can use your hands to make music that pleases you, right?I don't know, I really want to see you, see your room, see the way I guess you love music, classical music?
May 695, 31 Universal Era

Suddenly remembered, before "this", have you ever been to Poet Star?Before that, I could see the advertisements of Poet Star every now and then. Half of them seemed to be for the production crew of movies and space dramas, and the other half should be for ordinary people like us.I'm not interested in the crazy things there, but I heard that somewhere in the northern or southern hemisphere of that planet, there is a statue of a monster covered with thorns. In the base of the statue is a pianist playing "Rahmani" almost 1000 years ago. Live hologram of the Nove Prelude in C-sharp Minor.Judging from the data, those builders are still very careful. It is said that the fidelity rate of the holographic image can reach the level of that SH teacher's original performance, and it is indeed basically comparable to the middle and upper-grade fully enclosed music appreciation room.

Universal Era 695 June [-]th

In fact, I have never understood the connection between "Rachmaninoff Prelude in C-sharp Minor" and the image of the thorny monster. For those of us who love classical music, isn't it a kind of blasphemy?In the past few days, I have also checked some information, but I can’t find out why. Those artists, in order to allow people to go to their broken planet in person, actually made it impossible to find relevant in-depth data on the entire universe network... I did my best, I found a little bit of clues, it seems that "Prelude in C Sharp Minor" appeared at the very beginning of a science fiction novel, and that monster seems to be the protagonist of this novel.It's really hard to imagine how a monster like this can be the protagonist... I know your favorite is not "Prelude in C-sharp Minor" but mine is, just for this, I must find a chance to go to this place called Poet's Star Look, what is going on here!In addition, I heard that many young people go to that place for their honeymoon...

Universal Era 695 June [-]th

The day before yesterday I heard that there was something going on at Sosbelti Star, you have to be careful.But it seems that I should be more careful. After all, it is only two star tunnels away from me. In general, it is only more than ten astronomical units to reach the edge of our atmosphere.I don't know how the situation will develop. Will our place be affected by their rebellion?I don’t know if there is any change in the situation near your planet?Be sure to pay attention to safety!
June 695, Universal Era [-]
do you know?When I dream, I often have a strange dream. I think this dream is worth sharing with you:

When we were young, we had a few encounters with ourselves, anyway, we didn't meet or interact with people too much.Although this person and ourselves have only met a few times, we can chat with ourselves very well, and we can’t say that we are very intimate, but in short, we are very comfortable with each other when we communicate.Later, due to various reasons, I no longer had any contact or communication with this person, the length of time I lost contact...

Well, my dreams are generally at least decades.Decades later, I met this long-lost friend in a place at least not familiar to me.When they saw each other, both of them were speechless, feeling a sense of confusion in their hearts... I don't know if you have ever felt this way?

It may be a bit abstract to say it like the above, so let me be more specific.For example, we met two years ago. Although we didn’t communicate much, we feel good with each other. The appreciation of ancient music is a strong bond between us.But... I haven't received any reply from you recently, so I don't know if there has been any change on your side, or if this is the beginning of the interruption of our contact?
For example, from now on, we will not be in touch for the next three to forty years, and we will not know where each other is.However, in the past few decades, terrible wars have begun and then ended, and then there have been various shifts and changes in society.Later, at some point in the past few decades, I left here, went to a sparsely populated Gobi or desert planet, and bought a small supply station with the credits I had accumulated over the years.At that supply station, the daily job is to sell the small things they need to sporadic customers, and then look at the rolling yellow sand in the distance and the more distant horizon, and there may be something in my mind, or it may be blank.

One day when I was guarding this supply station, a lady came into my store and said she wanted to buy something.But I will notice that from the moment she enters the shop and hears the classic prelude albums of "Rachmaninoff" played repeatedly, the expression and eyes of this dusty lady have changed.At this time, the four eyes met, and I would ask, are you the so-and-so who did such-and-such a thing decades ago?Instead of answering, you asked me if I am someone who does a certain job on a certain planet...

Then the two stared at each other, and the dream was over.

Did you say there will be such a day?In this original dream, it seems that you need to know each other's appearance to be able to recognize each other in the vast crowd decades later, but when thinking about the "encounter" with you decades later, the appearance seems to change. dispensable.Do you think this is strange?

September 695, [-] Universal Era

It's time to come.

They came to us a few months ago, but they treated us well.It’s just that I have been conscripted to be an aircraft operator, and I have been doing ground training for the past two months, and maybe after a while, I will really run around with the army.

I don't know if I can survive the war, and I don't know if we can meet again in that ideal and bleak place decades later.But I think it's always good to have hope.

best wishes.In space, all sending and receiving of messages is of course subject to military control, and maybe I won’t be able to send you messages for a long time...

(End of this chapter)