A common tavern that connects all fantasy worlds

Most of the crew members of Keweiland-Tangu Co. are busy moving between the orbital station and the alien planet, busy bringing the ore produced by the colony back to the earth and transporting the earth’s materials to the colony. This "world" is very important to them. On the contrary, it has become a home that I seldom return to.

Leaving aside all the romance in the "space exploration" thing, you can guess how the pilots who do it for a living really feel.The freshness at the beginning will be quickly replaced by mental stress such as fatigue and loneliness, and then become habitual and natural numbness during the long journey.

another world?For an "old sailor" like Ripley, he has seen it countless times.At least the guests in the tavern are still humanoids, and the wine served to entertain the guests is not lava or radioactive elements, and it is normal that there is no sense of "another world".

It wasn't until the alarm clock rang in her ear that Ripley, who woke up again, gradually realized what happened last night.

She held the bottle cap Boss Xue gave her in her hand, rubbed her hair in deep thought, and didn't even pay attention to the "beep-beep-" sound of the communicator.

A minute later, the communicator "clicked" to the automatic message, and the voice she hated the most rang again: "Ripley, we really need to talk. This is your personal opportunity, you understand? Are you going to be a porter for the next few decades? Don't you want to get back in the driver's seat? The team packs up in a few hours...if you figure it out, please do call me back."

Ripley, who was thinking about her own affairs, was so irritated by the voice that she almost wanted to throw the bottle cap in her hand at the communicator.

Opposite the communicator is Carter Burke, the company's henchman, a fool who hides his knife in his smile, and always thinks that others can't see through his hypocrisy.

Before going to sleep last night, it was this Burke who came to the door with a soldier.

Something really happened to the extraterrestrial planet, LV-426. She has been trying for a long time to prove to the company that there are really dangerous creatures there. Every statement she made about the original incident was true, but what she got was negative. Taunt and dismissal.

Now there is no contact there, and the company has come to the door in a condescending manner, asking her to serve as a consultant and cooperate with the interstellar colony marines to carry out the rescue.

Not to mention whether she still wants to face those monsters, the company's attitude is already very unpleasant!

But since all the crew members of the "Nostromo" have died, and even the bionic Ash has not been recovered, Ripley is the only one who has seen the monsters and knows their characteristics.

In a few hours, these marines will step on LV-426 without knowing it, and they will probably encounter her nightmare from 57 years ago, which seems to be just yesterday.

While thinking about it, Ripley held the bottle cap tightly in her hand until the jagged teeth on the bottle cap pierced her palm, and she woke up from the pain.

She pocketed the bottle cap, called Burke's number back, and said simply, "I'll go with you."

"Great, Ripley!" Burke replied, "I assure you, this is purely a rescue mission, there will be no..."

Before he could finish speaking, Ripley hung up with a snap, covering her face with her hands and sighing deeply.

She really didn't want to go, didn't want to face those monsters that would only bring fear again.

But those marines are also regarded as "assets" by the company, no different from her in the past... If their fate is also abandoned by the company like the crew of the Nostromo, then at least she is still alive. Give them a glimmer of hope.

Only, this decision has absolutely nothing to do with the company or Burke.

She exhaled, stood up and looked out the porthole into the darkness.

The sun has risen on the other side of the horizon, but the sky as far as the eye can see is still black, only the stars that are a few light-years away transmit their light to this small planet across an "astronomical" space outside.

This is the universe.

She has lived here since she got her spaceship pilot's license, and became what people call a "cosmic person". She has never set foot on that blue planet for 71... [-] years.

And a few hours later, she will set off again, heading for LV-426, which is dozens of light-years away.

The vast space makes the transmission of information a big problem. Once the superluminal spacecraft departs, it is impossible to keep in touch with the low-earth orbit station or company before returning.It was her childhood dream to sail to the unknown without hesitation, and the doomed loneliness is the price of the dream.

Thinking of this, Ripley suddenly wanted to have another drink.

It's just that there is not enough time now... Otherwise, she really wants to go to the bar in the rest area again, say hello to the strange boss, and tell him that she may not come back.

His wine was pretty good.

Ripley touched the beer bottle cap and went to take a shower and change clothes.

Before leaving the house, she saw the orange cat that had lived with her for 57 years in cryo-sleep and had always been with her here.

"You're lucky... You can stay here this time."

After taking a shower and changing clothes, before she had a few mouthfuls of breakfast, the company staff found her in the room.

"Ms. Ellen Ripley, we are ordered to inform you that your spaceship piloting qualification has been restored, and you have been appointed by the company as the on-board consultant and backup flight officer of the battleship Sulaco. We will arrange for you in one hour. Board the ship, and now you will be issued two sleep suits, two flight officer uniforms and one regular uniform. From now on, you have to organize all your personal belongings that need to be carried, and the total weight of clothes and clothing should not exceed 1 kg. Put them in this box and bring them on board the spaceship .”

After finishing speaking, the stern-faced company internal staff put down their clothes and boxes at the door, turned and left.

Ripley, who was holding a plate of cereal, sighed through her nose. This is the usual attitude of Wieland-Tangu to its employees.When your basic necessities of life are in the hands of the company, it is really difficult for you to ask them to have any "service spirit"... The company is not serving you, you are serving the company.

She rubbed the head of the orange cat next to her, and dropped the spoon thoughtfully.

A few hours later, a huge battleship set off from the air port of the low-Earth orbit station, and after half an hour of sublight flight, it switched to the FTL engine and disappeared into the dark void between the planets of the solar system.

All the crew members have entered the cryogenic sleep cabin to avoid the time debt caused by traveling faster than the speed of light. The driving of the spacecraft, the handling of emergencies, and the operation and maintenance of the cryogenic dormancy system will all be entrusted to someone with an infinite lifespan who will not be affected by the time debt. Bionic Human Handling.

On the Sulaco battleship that departed this time, the bionic man code-named "Bishop" was in charge of this position, and the appearance was designed based on the average face shape of the priests of fifty churches in America.

After the FTL engine started, the "Bishop" checked the frozen cabin for the last time, stared silently at the silent room, walked slowly outside, closed the lights and the hatch, and turned back to the bridge.

For the next 100 years of somatosensory time, he will spend alone in this battleship.

Contrary to what many company employees imagine, he has emotions and feelings... but those emotions and feelings are irrelevant to humans.

Ever since the overly emotional David-level bionics and the 120-A-2 type bionics who were completely order executors had caused a lot of trouble, the thinking program carried by his model has been pre-implanted with strict The blockade does not allow him to harm human beings in any way. Even if the company executives with higher authority order him to kill, he will never execute it.

It is also because of this that even if the "bishop" is incorporated into a military unit, he cannot enter the combat sequence.He is a mechanical creation specially created to serve human beings. He regards service work as fun and helps human beings as his mission.

However, when leaning on the driver's seat and looking at the starry sky, he still couldn't help but wonder, if those human beings were sitting here... what would they be thinking?

What does time mean to them?Why are they, who only have a limited life, more eager to waste time than any other creature?

There is still a glass of unfinished wine on the bridge bridge. It is the "convenient compressed food" launched by the company. It is solid and cube-shaped. Put it in a special cup and shake it and it will be reduced to 100ml. liquor.Employees who were lucky enough to taste the real booze called it "industrial waste," but even this portable alcohol was only available in limited quantities on the battleship and sold for $50 a glass in colonies far from "home."

Why do human beings like and pursue such things?

The Bishop tilted his head and looked at the glass of wine. The impact of the FTL engine blocked the exchange of light between the hull and the outside world, and the portholes turned into an empty black, as if they were about to rush in and swallow everything.

"Enter FTL for 2 hours. Everything is normal on the Sulaco spaceship."

He pressed the recording button of the voyage log, and recorded with a steady voice.

Chapter 3 pilot

"I'm a pilot!"

In the tavern, the blond woman stood on the table and announced enthusiastically to all the guests.

Xue Li leaned on his chin with his palm, looking helplessly at this pretty girl who was drinking madly.She seemed completely unaware of her beauty, and she was also unaware that she was wearing quite bold clothes at this time. She was just bragging about herself excitedly on the table with bare legs and a bottle of wine in her hand.

Fortunately, the people in our tavern are all honest and gentlemen. The most ruthless Max just stared at his glass and didn't turn his head away.He has been hit so much that the beauty has turned into a sharp knife, as if every time he looks at it, it will poke him in the heart, making the past that he tried hard to forget come out together with the blood.

On the contrary, the ladies looked at this new customer with great interest. The clothes on her are really avant-garde and have a unique sense of beauty. The design from the color to the shape is so eye-catching, bold and unrestrained. It is full of artistic tension, which is probably the effect of wearing the clothes on the runway into life.

She smiled playfully, her cheeks were flushed, and her tone was drunk: "The president of the Earth Federation once received me, because my love ship and I have saved the universe more than once. I like fluffy things, so he sent I have a carpet... You must come and see my ship. It is the shape specially designed for me by the Milan master of the earth..."

"Guest, come down first." Xue Li had to remind, "It's very dangerous to fall off the table."

"Ha, you still don't believe in my strength!" The girl raised her chin and jumped off the table. Her agility didn't seem to be affected by the alcohol... But when she came to the bar, she was already gone. It is impossible to walk in a straight line, as if the same cerebellum was not used just now.

Qido helped her to sit down on the bar stool, and she straightened up, pressed the wine bottle on the bar counter, looked at the little wine left in it, and said with a pout: "This kind of 'wine', It's pretty tasty. I'm going to have some extra in my ship..."

That's right, I don't know what's going on in the tavern, another new guest this time is also the pilot of the spaceship.Does Xue Li know which world has the rule that spaceships can only be driven in tight leather jackets, or is this just her personal hobby?

This guest is more active, more outgoing, and has a bigger heart than Ms. Ripley.

According to her, the door of the tavern appeared directly in her spaceship, but because "there are still many technologies in the universe that I don't understand", she didn't take it seriously, and just opened the door and entered; the rules of the tavern , She also said that "the main theme of the universe now is love and peace, and there is no need for additional regulations not to hurt each other."

Such a personality and such a statement will of course make people wonder what her world is like, and why it always sounds a little childish...

But she could no longer answer.

Before she had time to say her name, she had already slumped down on the bar counter, falling asleep under the influence of alcohol.

"She said about the spaceship, right...wouldn't dying here cause the spaceship to crash?" Max asked, looking up.

"... I stay in the space between galaxies... There will be no problem." The guest lying there suddenly replied, and gave a thumbs up with his eyes closed, not sure if he was talking in his sleep or he was not drunk at all.

Just as Cheetos was about to help her into the chair with difficulty to sleep well, Ripley in the uniform of a pilot came in.

"... How long ago was the last time I came here?" She asked immediately as soon as she sat down at the bar.

"Three days ago." Xue Li didn't know why she asked this, but she answered it well.

The speed of time passing and the alternation of day and night in this tavern are basically the same as the positions of the guests in various worlds. After having the electronic clock and sunlight, he even specially counted them.

But Ripley's next sentence overturned this idea. She stared at the electronic clock on the bar and said thoughtfully: "Then it means that the time here is neither synchronized with the earth nor synchronized with Sura. On the contrary, it is closer to my subjective point of view... or my biological clock."

Xue Li stopped pouring wine for her. He thought carefully before asking in a low voice: "Can you explain in detail, guest?"

"It's hard to explain, but you just need to know that time is defined by people," Ripley said. The journey takes 28 year; from the perspective of the Sulaco, more than 1 years have passed. The closest to 'three days' is the somatosensory time for me and the rest of the crew, because we have entered cryogenic sleep when we boarded the ship, until we arrived at The target galaxy and the spaceship woke up after turning off the superlight engine."

"Does your spaceship not have a space warp?"

The guest who was lying there raised his head at some point, and asked a sober question with his mouth full of alcohol: "Why do you have to increase the speed unlimitedly in three-dimensional space... Do you think that time and space are always flat and continuous?... Really? Amazing."

After finishing speaking, she slammed her head on the bar counter again.

Ripley looked at the new customer, then turned to the owner of the bar and asked, "Who is this?"

"From a world different from yours, another spaceship pilot. The rest she hasn't said, and we don't know."

"Well... I thought she was a model, entertainer, or something older." Ripley looked at the blonde's clothes and shook her head calmly.

This kind of spaceship pilot...probably only existed in those "space movies" in the 20s. After all, hippie culture was popular at that time, carnival and hedonism had just begun to rise, and human morality was undergoing a subversion .

She never imagined that such a world really existed, and the other party seemed to understand the theory... at least better than her.

But she put this matter aside for the time being, she didn't come here to meet new friends today, but had more important matters to discuss with the bar owner.

"Boss Xue, I came here this time to ask you... can other people in our world enter this place besides me?"

She asked.

Boss Xue knew what she wanted to do as soon as she heard it, and wanted to use this place as a safe house.This is not the first time, it seems that smart people always have a tacit understanding.He nodded, and replied simply: "Of course, but that person must be under your control... You are the guest of our tavern. If you want someone to come here, you have to grab someone by hand He sent it in."

It's just that under normal circumstances, the guest wants to find a safe house-it means that her world is about to face danger.

Ripley didn't say anything clearly, but just nodded: "I see...then this is at least a way out."

When the voice fell, she stood up and wanted to go back.Now that she's with the Colonial Marines, it's best not to disappear for too long for no reason... and she's going to give a pre-event speech later.

Without even drinking a glass of wine, the resolute flight officer came and left in a hurry.

The drunken blonde girl also straightened up, closed her eyes and took out a medicine bottle from the bag she was carrying, took a piece of medicine with the water Xue Li handed her, the blush on her face faded quickly, His eyes also visibly became clearer to the naked eye.

"...I'm sorry, it's rare to drink such a good wine. I wanted to get drunk for a while, but it seems that the guest has encountered some trouble, and my curiosity has overwhelmed my desire for enjoyment. By the way, my name is Barbaria, just spent the seventh year of the new era 120...or in other words, in the summer of 40000 AD, I departed from the A01 galaxy under the jurisdiction of the Earth Federation to go to the ocean planet 'Leanda' in the M87 galaxy for vacation. Can I ask the woman The name of the flight officer?"

"Her name is Ripley... I can't disclose other information, but you should ask her yourself. Maybe you can become friends?" Xue Li said.

"She is too serious and serious, like someone who lived tens of thousands of years ago, maybe she doesn't want to be my friend. Speaking of which, she may indeed have lived tens of thousands of years ago... After all, she looks younger than me more familiar with these grain alcohols."

As Barbaria said, she knocked on the wine bottle she drank.

Xue Li picked up the thing she used to pay the bill before, pinched the translucent crystal and asked, "I still want to ask you, guest, what is this? What are you and your world like?"

"This is an energy crystal. I don't have anything that can be called a 'currency' on me, so I have to pay the bill with this. If you bombard it with lasers... Oh, your technology may not have developed to this point. Sorry to accept it first Come on, next time I will bring some gold, that stuff is everywhere in the G-series galaxy."

Barbaria first explained that she didn't want to renege on her debts, and then began to describe her world: "I guess our universe is not too different, and all kinds of cute little planets are far away, and they can only be reached through warping." Arrived. In my place, humans from the earth have established a federation, and have mastered most of the galaxies within the current exploration range, and have developed them; many commercial companies are doing this, and I was one of them from the beginning It turned out that it was involved in the production of illegal happy potions, so I had to arrest all members of the company’s board of directors and hand them over to the federal government, and I have since become a freelancer to help people solve problems.”

"...Are you a mercenary? Why didn't you see a weapon on your body?" Xue Li asked.

"Weapon? Why do I need a weapon?" Barbaria looked more surprised than Xue Li, "Mercenary? What is a mercenary?"

Boss Xue blinked his eyes, feeling that he couldn't keep up with the other party's train of thought: "It's just... the kind of mercenary who takes money from others and fights for them."

Blonde Barbaria exclaimed, "'War'! Oh my God, what a terrible word! Your universe should be plagued by this selfish, violent, group... 'war'!"

"...Great, I understand, you come from an ultimate idealistic universe." Xue Li nodded, "Maybe I shouldn't be pessimistic about the future of mankind..."

Before Chapter 4 Landing

Ripley, who had just returned to the Sulaco, heard a loud urging voice from the communication terminal at her waist.

"Ms. Ellen Ripley. Ellen Ripley! Hell, this thing won't break."

"It's not broken, Sergeant Apon. I just went to the engine room to check the operation of the conventional engine." Ripley responded, grabbing the terminal.

[42. No. 42]

As a backup flight officer, this is also part of her responsibilities... It's just that the spaceships of the Wieland-Yuntani company are so exquisitely designed and highly stable that they often don't need to check the engines frequently.Then again, there are genuine pilots and co-pilots, so what else can backup pilots do if they don't do this?

Sergeant Major Apeng couldn't say anything, and could only remind again: "All the team members have assembled, and it's time for you to come forward and introduce the situation, ma'am."

"almost there."

said Ripley, hanging up the call.

The Sulaco has switched to the interplanetary flight status and is approaching the asteroid LV-426.The stars of this galaxy burn quietly more than 2 million kilometers away, bringing long-lost light and heat to Sulaco.

In the dizzy artificial gravity field, Ripley finally appeared from the second floor, followed Lieutenant Gorman down the stairs slowly, and came to the soldiers of the Colonial Marine Corps.

Strictly speaking, these soldiers are privately armed and employed by the Wieland-Yangu company; but they are still professional soldiers and have military membership on Earth.