Chapter 44

It was estimated to be half an hour before the energy particles arrived at the base.

A lot of people were exhausted after the excitement from the roller coaster chain of events. Bixing Lu taught in the air, step by step, to let them know how to set the auto-navigation and auto-location of the mech in a rather stable environment. The teaching scenario was basically another circus opening — luckily, it was harmless and less scary than the process of launching.

After a brief discussion, the shield was protected by some young and strong guys, taking turns to stay awake. The old and wounded all went to rest, making the noisy mental network immediately quiet.

Bixing Lu breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at his watch, then secretly connected to the mech contact station of the base with his long distance authority.

The intranet of the base with usual power cuts was unstable, and could merely cover the distance of two sailing days before they came. As a geek, Bixing Lu didn't forget the network issue while fixing film screens for the old ladies.

After his maintenance, the intranet nowadays was more stable covering a wider range. Any registered mech could receive muffled signals outside of six sailing days. When the range was four to five sail days, the signals were very stable.

By the time Jingheng Lin replied "copy that", he was estimated to be sailing within the range that the intranet covers. After one whole day, even if he slowed down to let the mech march in a constant speed, he should have entered the range that could be located.

Could be located…

Bixing Lu watched himself moving towards the positioning system unconsciously, wondering, "What's the meaning of it?"

None. The locator covered five sailing days within a tiny screen. No matter how great the mech was, no matter how famous the man sitting in the mech was, it was just a tiny black spot on ite.

If the mech sailed normally on its channel, and the pilot did not perform very high energy consuming operations such as a sudden acceleration or jump, that little black spot would be stationary for quite a long time.

Even if he was bored to death, he could enjoy the view of the base with lights on. Why would he still stare at a stationary little black spot?

Bixing Lu didn't understand himself, strangely enough, he did it anyway.

"Oops," Just when he did such a boring thing like a stalker, someone finally called on his personal terminal. Bixing Lu picked up, and the projection of Saturday appeared beside his hands. Saturday asked, "Isn't Mint an orphan, Mr.Lu?"

It was not hard to guess. No parents would name their girl with such a name like "Mint".

Bixing Lu stared at the positioning screen without even glancing at him, "It is none of your business whether she is an orphan or not."

"Look at you," Saturday put his feet on the desk, "Sounds just like your dad."

"According to the Juveniles Protection Act, for minors under 20 years old, in the absence of legal guardians, their teacher or community staff can act as temporary guardians — I am now her temporary guardian, and my words count. As for Monoeye Hawk," Bixing Lu waved his hands, "I'm just giving him a favor."

Saturday said, "Man, back in ancient days, a seventeen year old girl was old enough to be someone's mom!"

Bixing Lu answered, smiling, "Indeed. But you know why? Back in that time, thirty-six years old was old enough to die naturally."

Saturday, "…"

"Mankind are so greedy of the feeling to be young and strong. The gene revolution in the old sidereal calendar extended youth to two hundred years, making the childhood of twenty years relatively quick as a flash. To compare with a lifetime, it is merely a blink. "

Bixing Lu said, "It is too precious, like a flower that only blooms for five minutes, like a speck of sand that can be blown away by the winds. Any regret of a second can be a lifetime. And it deserves to be protected properly. You need to wait at least three years."

Saturday flung back his head. Anyone who just learned to drive a mech was always constrained in the beginning. It needed time to adjust until one was able to control the second mech through metal network. Right now, Saturday who thought he had adjusted recovered his pirate style in the sky.

The positioning screen was searching mech Beijing in the wild universe, none of them spoke for a moment.

Saturday said suddenly, "My ex was six years old."

Bixing Lu almost choked, "...Do you need to see a doctor?"

"Tch, what are you thinking? I was only eight years old when I was with her," Saturday rolled his eyes, "Her dad was my dad's business partner, and we used to play together. We grew up with a large group of kids, and all the boys liked her, even some girls were making trouble. We were fighting day after day to win the title to be her husband. She told me secretly that she liked me best, but it was hard to explain to them. To be her boyfriend, I had to beat them all."

Fighting over a disagreement to convince the rest. There was a reason of such customs.

Bixing Lu shook his head, then reminded himself of something, "Wait a minute, didn't you say you were adopted? How come there's a big family?"

"Yep," Saturday looked into the night sky, "That's why I said it was my ex-girlfriend — she lived only until the age of six."

Bixing Lu was stunned.

"My father and his friends were quite mysterious those days. It was said that a big deal was made… I was too young to know exactly what the deal was. The only thing I can recall was that they had so much money that year and everybody was unusually happy. At new year's eve, my dad was drunk, talking to another uncle, 'Once we have enough money, let's stop such risky business'." Saturday's vioce turned down, " And on that night, a group of people broke into our home and killed them all. My mother pushed me and herself into two ecological cabins that were linked, with voice recorded and route set, and we were dropped outside the atmosphere and was entrusted to Cow. We were frightened all the way like two insects inside drifting bottles. Then one missile of those people brushed us, leaving her cabin half crushed."

Bixing Lu was shocked and turned to look at Saturday.

Saturday's baby face was unusually covered with melancholy and coldness, as if there was no sunshine outside the atmosphere, showing his true character.

"You know it, Mr.Lu," Saturday said, "If she was blown into pieces, it would be alright, her death would have just been a snap. But it was half of her cabin that crushed. I wasn't dormant that moment, and through the window, I could see her crying in horror, struggling, losing her nutrient solution drop by drop, and the changing of the air pressure little by little. The half-broken cabin was like a mother beast with its belly cut open, unable to do anything but watch the little beast flow away and slowly suffocate…"

"Do you know what I regret the most? What I regret the most is that I didn't dare to fight with other kids for her, because I didn't grow as fast as the others, and I was shorter and weaker. So I told her to wait a few years when I grow stronger…"

"That was the first lesson I learned, Mr.Lu. Some things just can't wait."

His words concluded his ominous past, and indicated some ominous prophecy. As he stopped speaking, the positioning screen jumped out a dialog box.

Invalid search.

Bixing Lu had not put himself together yet from Saturday's words, and his heart seemed to be twisted by a hand.

After searching again, the result was the same.

It meant… that either the communication system of the mech Beijing was broken, or the mech changed its route and left the range of intranet!

At this time, the first group of charged particle flow had arrived, and hit face to face to the shield that was pieced together by 300 mechs. The high-energy charge particle collided with the shield, attenuating. Few particles got through the shield, causing a slight disturbance in the magnetic field of the base. Some light band similar to an aurora appeared above the atmospheric layer, extending to the horizon, so magnificent that it seemed like special effects from science fiction films.

Everybody awoke. Then more and more dense energy particle fell down like waterfalls and dropped on the shield of mechs. The shield was thin as cicada's wings, but solid like an iron bastion. At that moment, in the deepest cores of every pilot driving the mechs outside the atmosphere, some sense of honor arose: I am protecting the base, and I am protecting my home.

Someone started to sing an old gypsy song in the mental network, so old that it seemed everyone had heard of it. Gradually, their voices joined in and passed through. The lyrics and the melody faded away, making the chorus as if a spontaneous oath.

Bixing Lu's hand, who had contributed to all this, were shaking slightly.

He tried to locate mech Beijing three times, and it all turned out to be invalid searches. Unable to tolerate it any longer, he contacted Lin's personal terminal — only then did the intranet tell him, "No such man exists."

Jingheng Lin closed his eyes and rested for a while in his temporary living room.

It was an accident. He expected to face it under torture, but this group of interstellar pirate were madder than he thought—they used the Rainbow Virus as wake-up needle.

In normal circumstances, Rainbow Virus would incubate for 24 hours and then attack. But Lin had injected blocking antibody beforehand, making the Rainbow Virus and antibody meet in advance. Due to the special nature of the virus, he would have a high fever after at most 3 hours, until the virus was wiped out by the antibody.

Not to mention that it was easy to blow his cover. If there was no torture, how could he reveal those underground channels that were made-up and lead them away in a reasonable way?

Someone knocked on his door at this moment.

Jingheng Lin opened his eyes and saw a young man pushing the door to get inside. The young man was good-looking, but for some unknown reason, he walked with a rather strange gesture. Holding some clean bedding, he put a small bottle of pills in front of Lin and gave him a stiff smile.

Jingheng Lin noticed that it was a bottle of painkillers.

The young man might be mute and spoke no words. He pointed at his temple, and pointed to the painkillers, trying to explain to Lin — the mental overload might lead to headache. Lin could make it with those painkillers.

Jinghen Lin thanked him with body language in a way that suited his identity right now.

The young man looked at him. The goods were delivered, but he didn't move. His round eyes were filled with sorrow and fear. Jingheng Lin had to look back into his eyes as response.

Later, the young man mouthed, "Run."

Jinghen Lin: "…"

The young man stared at the bottle of pills then turned to leave.

Jinghen Lin watched the bottle under light for a while and turned the cap off. He discovered a micro screen in the bottom, no bigger than a button. There were two sides of the screen, one side for recording, another for watching video records.

Jinghen Lin hesitated for a moment. He pulled out the instructions of the painkillers. With the cover of reading the instructions, he turned on the screen.

The screen was so tiny that it was like peeping through a little hole in the wall — in the beginning, there was a long and dark corridor, then some light got inside and a basement came into view. There were countless nutrition cabins with various strange creatures such as snakemaid, mermaid, woman covered with animal fur, and young man sleeping within his giant tail…

The camera turned to an operating table separated by sterile glasses. Primalien looked at the operating table and held a little boy with half of his body made of medical arms. The man on the table with his eyes wide open stared into the camera with no feeling or sorrow, like a beast ready to be cut and killed, whose festering arms and legs were cut off. The quiet medical arms were putting animal claws where his arms used to be attached.

Jinghen Lin thought despicably, "What kind of taste is this?"

After despising the sight, he didn't forget to shake in "panic", then spilled the whole bottle of painkillers on the ground — he wasn't sure if it was that young boy being dumb or if it was a trick. But it didn't matter. It was almost like someone sent him a pillow right when he wanted to asleep.

Primalien watched the whole story through the mental network. He considered with his chin in his hands for a while, then called in a minion: "The green bird I fed is being disobedient again. I want you to teach him some lesson — and modify the original pathway. Let's figure it out in which sewer is Cow hiding now… then, we can play a game."

Jinghen Lin — now pretending to be a gang member Hydrophis who was righteous while tricky, circled like a beast in the living room for ten minutes, but couldn't find any tools that were suitable. So, he took the metal decoration on the bed column, and stuffed it inside his clothes since he was skinny anyway, and then slipped out.

The heavy mech was gigantic, capable of holding thousands of people, and it took quite a long time to make a circle. Even if the mental network of the pilot covered every single corner, Hydrophis assumed that they wouldn't pay much attention to such a nobody like himself. He held a deep breath and noticed a pirate on patrol walking towards the bathroom alone. He tailed behind him quietly, then a slight noise came out from the bathroom. A few minutes later, a patrolman with his hat pulled extremely low walked out rigidly — there was no other way, because the uniform didn't fit him well. The pants he wore were hanging on him, revealing his fashionable ankles..

Hydrophis instinctively thought that this "hip-hop" style of fashion wouldn't be too popular here, so he avoided others all the way. All of a sudden, rapid footsteps rushed towards him. Hydrophis stopped. The next minute, he saw a man rushing from the corner in front of him — it was the young man who delivered painkillers.

The young man's eyes were red and his face was full of fear. He was being chased by two pirates. Right before they almost caught him, the young man's feet suddenly lifted off the ground, so light that he was like a piece of paper, and he leaped to get over the handrail.

Hydrophis didn't notice until then, but the reason he walked in a strange gesture was because of the unusual shape of his chest, which was a bird-like bulge. When he kept his arms straight, they were longer than others. The sleeves of his shirt got torn from the pull, revealing his flat arms like wings. His torn shirt hung on his arms like feathers, letting him glide in the air.

Just then, a giant net descended upon the young man. There was an electric current on the net. The moment the net touched the young man, sparks flew off. He struggled painfully and opened his mouth, but he could only scream like a bird.

Jinghen Lin thought, "What a battered-body trick*, I almost believed it."

*the trick of injuring oneself to gain the enemy's confidence

But he hesitated for only a moment — normally, Hydrophis, who had a falling out with Cow but resisted to reveal the underground pathway locations, wouldn't turn away from a dying man.

One of the pirates put down the dying bird youth and knocked him roughly. He grabbed his hair and dragged him on the ground. The charged net was placed in another pirate's hands. He was steps behind his partner and was intending to put back the net.

At this moment, a shadow popped in and patted his shoulder. The pirate who was intending to put back the net turned back, caught sight of the patrolman's uniform, and whispered, "I got it, I am putting it in order."

The next moment, he suddenly realized something, but before he could turn back to see it clear, his neck was reined in by an arm, and then with a sharp pain, he lost his consciousness.

Jinghen Lin, as a master of killing and fighting, caught the pirate falling on the ground silently and took over the laser gun on his hands and the charged net in the air — due to his muscles being broken, he was sort of powerless. Otherwise, he might have twisted the pirate's head off and blew it.

The pirate was dragging the bird youth back. Out of no reason, the hairs on his back stood up suddenly. When he turned around, the charged net covered him and he didn't even had the time to scream out. He was caught by the big net and was electrified on the spot, looking like a breakdancer who couldn't follow a rhythm.

Jinghen Lin slipped around him, at the same time, a thin laser came out from the laser gun, accurately cutting the hair of the bird youth that was being dragged. Jingheng Lin picked him up, then ran without looking back.

The boy was too light for a human. In such circumstances that Jingheng Lin was temporarily stringy, he could still hold him with one hand effortlessly. The boy seemed to be bird-like deep to his bones except for his human head.

But…was this possible?

Could these grafted monsters leave the nutrition cabin?

Bixing Lu's strange bone age and mismatching gene flashed across Jingheng Lin's mind. His hands holding the bird youth suddenly tightened.

The alarms began to spread around the heavy mech. Jingheng Lin — Hydrophis shook the bird youth: "Is there any backup mech? Where is the launching platform?"

Heavy mechs could be used as a "mother ship" and be equipped with a launching platform. According to the differences of capacity, there would be some backup mech.

The bird youth struggled from his hands and coughed heavily. He pointed to a direction.

Primalien let out a "Ha" and said, "It's unexpected that the little guy knows a lot—don't need to fully pursue them, just let him run… well, don't make it too easy to look like we were letting them go. They need some hard time. Pay attention not to hurt his face."

Two drama queens, without having seen each other's script, began to perform a true-to-life contest of life and death under an unspoken agreement.