Son of the Stars

Chapter 85 Backlighting
Humans have always clashed with each other in all sorts of weird realms.From the salty sweetness of tofu nao to whether to add coriander, from whether to eat eggs first, to whether to wash your hair or face first when you take a bath.

As long as some of your behavior is different from some people, it may become the fuse of conflict.

Humans are a race obsessed with cannibalism, as long as they can kill legitimately, any reason is actually acceptable.

Among the various reasons, the most likely to cause conflicts are "cognitive" differences.Especially the cognitive differences related to human beings, which can cause the most cruel and bloody violent conflicts.For example, the neighboring village believes that the village does not belong to the same clan, but a group of outsiders who have stolen the land.For example, certain groups believe that their own preferences should override the basic needs of their people, or impose the title of "non-human" on certain groups and reinforce this perception.

Human society is an organic whole composed of countless individuals, and the first basic requirement for integration into human society is cognitive conformity.Just like in traditional sci-fi doomsday works, the Mad Max-style punk warlord slave society on the wasteland will not accept a third-generation resident in a "nuclear war shelter" with advanced technological knowledge.A wasteland punk warlord wouldn't consider the odd-looking sissy his own kind, and the third-generation resident couldn't possibly admit that these brutish, ignorant lunatics who feed on human flesh and blood are like himself. .

Cognition is the basis for the connection between human beings and society. Integrating into and maintaining social relations requires all people to have a basic common cognition-we are all human beings, we can all communicate, and we all need to follow basic social and laws regulations and so on.

But now, this basic consensus has gone wrong.And it's a big problem.
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"We are an academic committee, not a joint parliament! Let the coalition government do what the legislature needs to worry about." Academician Yuan patted the back of his chair in the academic hall and shouted, "Comrades, friends, please calm down!"

Academicians engaged in agronomy always have extra face in the academic committee.This is an unwritten tradition - academicians in the field of agronomy are not many, so they are especially respectable.After all, research in this field is boring and always tiring, and some researchers don't have any particularly impressive results throughout their lives.

But as long as he can become an academician in the field of agronomy, it means that this great "farmer" has improved the lives of hundreds of millions of ordinary people through his own research and creation.Such people are certainly worthy of respect.

This kind of respect has nothing to do with the fact that each of them is a hard-working man who has been soaked in the farmland all year round.

But the topic discussed today is too serious, even Academician Yuan can't hold back the situation.The other twelve academicians were accurately divided into four groups of 3V3V3V3, and began to have intense language interaction with each other.

There were vastly different attitudes among the various groups.There are those who think that "only one brain is left, of course not a living person", and those who think that "although there is only a brain, but consciousness exists, so they are still alive".

And the "Only the brain shows that he should be a person with limited rights" and "Are you sick, why worry about this stuff" faction.

Anyway, the scene was so chaotic that it made one's scalp tingle, and this kind of debate seemed to have no hope of ending in a short time.

Academician Yuan tried several times in a row, but he still couldn't stop his colleagues from arguing.He sighed, then pulled out his cane, and slammed it on the table in front of him.

A sharp sound like a long whip ripping through the air resounded throughout the meeting room.The security personnel standing outside the door quickly rushed into the scene. After confirming that it was only Academician Yuan hitting the table with his crutches, they quickly withdrew out—as if they had never entered.

"Since you want to debate, then make it clear." Academician Yuan grabbed the microphone and said in a neutral tone, "If you want to debate, then follow the rules—everyone, we formed this forum to reach a consensus." I hope that everyone can participate in the meeting with a responsible attitude. The fundamental purpose of all arguments and debates should be to reach a consensus, not to silence the other party's arguments, and then you will be relieved of victory. "

Academician Yuan knocked on the table, and a huge clock floated above the table—but the picture was slightly unstable, it looked like a TV that had just been hit by a cane.

"The research team we assigned will arrive at the landing site in 15 minutes." Academician Yuan said calmly, "Since we are going to discuss a problem created by them, I personally suggest that at least they should be involved. Let Yang Weimin The professor and his students explain to us why they created this dilemma for us."

He raised his hands and pressed down, "I understand that some of you want to be able to talk directly to Watanabe and that No. 14, but please think about it with yourselves - your own brains may not be Being able to sit in the orbital module without the skull. Watanabe and NO.14 can only reach the scene by a more gentle way, which will take time."

"Let me put the ugly words first - you are all academic committee members, symbolizing the highest level of the entire human intellectual world, at least the science and engineering intellectual world. Come out with the highest level." Academician Yuan frowned and reprimanded, " If any of you intend to mess around, then don’t blame me for being rude. I assure you that in the tenure report of this academic committee, I have to write down every word you say even if I go all out.”

"Before you go crazy, give me a brainstorm." Academician Yuan stepped on the stool like the king of the mountain in a drama, intentionally or unintentionally showing his well-developed dark biceps and triceps , a pair of calloused fists cracked, "I don't think you all want to be regarded as representatives of stupidity and brainlessness, and be remembered forever in human history, right?"

In order to protect the research team, Academician Yuan is doing his best to suppress this group of academicians who are about to bite, and the research team he wants to protect... is now being carried out of the orbital module.

It might be a little polite to say it.Anyway, Giuseppe, who had a large piece of blood-soaked gauze on his nose, was dragged out of the landing cabin by the staff directly by his legs.

This group of ground staff who usually deal with the Union Guards who have just joined the army don't know what "gentleness" is.When the fastening buckles on Giuseppe's body were undone, he fell face-down on the non-slip floor of the landing module.After the ground staff determined that he was still alive, they really didn't bother to turn the person over-so Giuseppe was dragged face-down for a full 27 meters.

The bright red nosebleed also drew a 27-meter-long trace on the ground.

The others are in slightly better condition.Lu Chen gritted his teeth the whole time, but after landing, his face was almost green when he vomited.Yang Weimin fainted from the overload in the ascending stage, and woke up for a while in the middle of the weightless stage——and then he was scared to death by his hands floating in front of him.

In the subsequent landing stage, Yang Weimin grabbed Lu Chen with one hand, and Tang Qinglong who was rolling his eyes vigorously with the other hand.After calling out for seven or eight seconds, he passed out again in the blink of an eye.

Tang Qinglong's condition wasn't very good either. Although he was a good man, even though he was an Academician of Four Materials, it was a fact that he was not in good health.In order to allow Academician Tang to pass through the high-load state smoothly, the officers of the Union Guard who arranged the orbital module also specially prepared a load suit for Tang Qinglong, and connected him to an oxygen supply.

Academician Tang remained awake during the take-off and landing phases, but to be honest... he might as well pass out.The load suit was placed on his waist and legs to pump air at a high intensity to prevent the blood from being thrown to the lower body by acceleration, which would cause insufficient blood supply to the brain and cause him to lose consciousness.Tang Qinglong, who was wearing a load-bearing suit, felt as if a heavy-duty truck was parking on his lap.

He also didn't expect that this kind of pressurized load suit would not let off steam after being fully charged!When Yang Weimin grabbed his hand and yelled, Academician Tang almost yelled along with him.It wasn't because of the sudden acceleration that frightened him, it was simply that Yang Weimin pulled him too hard, and the load-bearing suit tilted a little along with it.

It was like a heavy-duty truck parked on Tang Qinglong's lap, and then the idle driver felt a little bored, so he turned two directions on the spot - the wheels twisted the skin on Tang Qinglong's thigh, causing Tang Qinglong to turn over in pain. I rolled my eyes.

The two ladies are in the best condition in the entire orbital module.Mu Zhiran's face was pale, but overall he was fine.And Director Li Xiaohui...she even had the time to care about Mu Zhiran's mental state.

She felt that Mu Zhiran looked so nervous because she was somewhat claustrophobic.

In short, except for Giuseppe, everyone else walked out of the orbital module by themselves.Although the few people who walked out of the orbital cabin on their own were all grinning, looking extremely embarrassed.

"Although I really want everyone to take a break first, but...before I set off, the academicians are already fighting. So we have to hurry up." Standing outside the orbital cabin, Fujimoto was wearing a black suit. In a spirited manner, "Mr. Giuseppe may need some medical services. He will meet with you later. Now, let's go to the academic committee first."
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"Squad leader, what is that?" Outside the empty North American Research Institute, several recruits of the Union Guards got together to study for a long time, but they still couldn't figure out the area hidden under the bushes, faintly emitting blue and purple. What the hell is the shimmer.

The squad leader who just came back from that strange hand-made machine picked up his assault rifle, looked through the optical sight on it for a long time and said uncertainly, "It seems... like a piece of paper?"

"Paper can still glow? This color doesn't look like the color of luminous paint." The recruits became more curious. They watched for a while, and then made a request to their squad leader, "Can you let us go Take that thing back and study it?"

This request was agreed by the monitor - he also wanted to know why this thing that looked like ordinary printing paper was glowing.

Soon, two recruits came back with this thing.It was indeed a piece of paper, but it did glow.And it just looks... weird.

Everyone got together to study for a long time, and suddenly a young recruit pointed at the squad leader and shouted, "Squad leader, your clothes are also shining!"

The squad leader frowned and looked at his chest.

As a veteran squad leader, he has a little more privilege than ordinary recruits in the choice of clothing-the clothes under his military coat are bought by himself from the sporting goods store outside the station.

Looking down at his chest, the squad leader found that his white T-shirt was also glowing with blue and purple, it looked as if his clothes had changed from white to lavender.

"What is this?" The old squad leader was also stunned. He frowned and looked at his clothes, then at the glowing paper, and suddenly realized, "Where is the black light turned on here?"

Looking up at the sky, the old squad leader followed the empty sky and gradually turned to the incinerator without any smoke.Afterwards, the expression on the old squad leader's face gradually became tense.He quickly opened the communicator on his chest and said loudly, "There is a fluorescent reaction around the incinerator, and there is abnormal ultraviolet radiation here!"

The release of ultraviolet light is one of the main manifestations of quantum release syndrome.This is also what the higher authorities repeatedly educated and reminded the Union Guards to pay close attention to before arriving at the North American Research Center.Of course, due to the lack of sufficiently sensitive ultraviolet monitoring equipment, the way of reminding the troops is relatively rough and direct.

If any of you suddenly feel uncomfortable and can't open your eyes, and you are very uncomfortable with tears in the face of the wind, then report to your superiors and evacuate.

"Evacuate immediately." The commander on the other end of the walkie-talkie quickly made a decision, "All units near the incinerator, give up their equipment. Immediately retreat to the west - march five kilometers at full speed!"

The soldiers of the biochemical reaction company, the engineering battalion and the reconnaissance company turned around and ran away without hesitation-the superiors clearly asked them to give up their equipment, so they don't have to worry about the still burning incinerator.

The seized strange crawler machine, as well as the area of ​​the underground laboratory where the search work has not been completed, were all decisively abandoned.Nothing is as important as orders from above.

The staff officer of the regiment was a little lucky, he felt that his response and order were already very fast.He listened to the specific situation of Quantum Energy Syndrome reported by the intelligence department.The mass of a person can release the energy of hundreds of tons of TNT.

He didn't want the soldiers to take risks in such a senseless place.It is better to find out that it was a false alarm than to inaction lead to serious non-combat attrition.

The staff of the regiment left the temporary staff headquarters-this is a temporary "house" built in the forest with canvas and trees, and the height is relatively limited.This location is about three kilometers away from the North American Research Institute.If it is deployed according to normal combat, the width of a regiment's expanded position must be about 8000 meters.But now, the combat units were sent out to conduct fire reconnaissance, but the special units were on the move.The group finger was too close to the battle position, this anomaly made the staff very uncomfortable.

After all, it is one of his jobs to ensure that the troops are in the correct combat situation.

He looked in the direction of the North American Research Institute. The trees covered the house, but he couldn't see anything.

Then, a brown-gray smoke column suddenly appeared from the top of the treetops.It occupies almost one-third of the regimental staff's field of vision, and it is rapidly becoming wider and taller.

The white mist flashed past, and the regimental staff officer felt his body shake slightly, and then he didn't know anything.

In the town of Rotsville, 14 kilometers away from the North American Institute, all the houses began to tilt, tear, and even collapse towards the west almost at the same moment.Twenty-two seconds after the house was damaged, there was a loud bang, which destroyed the eardrums of the victims trapped under the house.

The loud noise continued to spread outward, and even in the fishing port of Houghton, [-] kilometers away from the North American Research Institute, the glass of buildings was shattered by the loud noise.

Twenty-three minutes and 23 seconds later, all coalition government seismic monitoring facilities detected a strong quake approximately equal to 47 on the Richter scale.But the depth of the earthquake is 6.7 km, and this is a typical artificial earthquake.

Twenty-five minutes later, an orbiting Earth exploration satellite reported an anomalous discovery.A huge mushroom cloud with a diameter of about 25 kilometers high and 12 kilometers wide appeared above the North American Research Institute.

(End of this chapter)