Chapter 184: A Secret Meeting
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
"Yao Yuan, I heard youāre leaving the Hope for a mission."
This was the second day after Yao Yuan released his two orders, and he sat in command central waiting patiently to be peppered with opinions and criticism. However, he didnāt expect the first one to visit him to be Qi Xiao Niao.
Yao Yuan frowned and said, "You heard wrong. Iām the captain, why would I assign myself an outstation mission? I need to be here to keep the ship afloat and the government running."
"Huh? Really?" Xiao Niao said in an excessively surprised tone. "But donāt you need to evade the crowd for a while after the release of the Containment Order and Logging Order? Arenāt you afraid the parties that want to get down to the surface and the nature lovers are going to crowd your office and question your decision? What do you say, shall we go down there for a temporary reprieve?"
Yao Yuanās frown deepened as he activated his Thinker power. He tried to tease out the underlying meaning in what Xiao Niao was saying.
For one, Xiao Niao was personally present when they were discussing the release of those 2 orders. He should understand that the release was necessary to protect humanity from the dangers of their human desire. With Xiao Niaoās brilliance, he should know as much.
For another, even though Yao Yuan would be annoyed by those parties that would come bearing opinions and criticisms, he wished to meet them. He preferred to discuss his decision with these parties face-to-face to calm and inform them instead of allowing them to spread false rumors around the ship. As the captain, how could he have escaped due to fear of criticism? Where was he going to put his face then?
However, since Xiao Niao had purposely come to say such things, he must have something else in mind. As one of the only two Thinkers on the Hope, he couldnāt not see the two ordersā actual purpose. He must have been vying for another angle, but what could it be?
Is itā¦
Yao Yuan asked suddenly, "Why? Do you intend to follow me if I go on this reprieve?"
Xiao Niao snickered and said, "Of course. I too have the desire to see the blue sky, green grass, and plants. Instead of going on some mission, Iād rather follow you on a holiday."
Yao Yuan thought about it before adding with a nod, "Alright, weāll go on this āholidayā as you call it, but to be sure, I want you to go for a body check. Thereās no medical help out there if you suddenly fall sick."
Xiao Niao laughed as he pulled out a medical report from his coat. "Iāve predicted as much. Since weāre going on a holiday, there has to be a body check, so here you go. As you can see, Iām not down with any āvirus.ā"
Yao Yuan read the report wordlessly. He focused on the part about Xiao Niaoās genetic mapping. The report was signed by Ivan and a few other scientists. Xiao Niao was clean as a whistle.
(It is as Iāve expected, he has some secret that he wants to tell me, something that canāt be revealed while weāre on the Hope. Since the report states clearly that heās not under the control of some alien monsterā¦ Fine, he probably has something important to say.)
Yao Yuan thought about it some more. Currently, the Hope was running along just fine, there were no reports of emergency disasters, and Guang Zhen had a good hand over the military. The cleaning crews were going through the motions, and the Hall of Communications was handling the administrative part of the government well. It was absolutely fine for him to excuse himself for a few hours, even though it might disappoint the few parties that wanted to meet him to discuss the 2 orders. Yao Yuan laughed, thinking they would end up believing he was running because he was too afraid to meet them in person.
The two of them moved to the hangar and put on their space armor. After Yao Yuan put on his red space armor, Xiao Niao said, "How about we take one of the newer transport shuttles? They are the updated models that havenāt been field tested yet. We can take one and kill two birds with one stone."
Yao Yuan frowned and his brain started churning, but he didnāt voice his thoughts out loud. He merely nodded. He noticed that unlike him, Xiao Niao hadnāt reached for his weapons or gear, and it didnāt appear like he was going to do so. "Thatās not a bad idea. Wait here, Iāll go fill in the required forms."
With Yao Yuan piloting, the pair left the Hope in the biggest transport shuttle the ship had. It moved further and further away from the Hope until the blue sea came into their view. Yao Yuan landed the shuttle on an isolated stretch of the beach and stared intently at Xiao Niao.
To his surprise, Xiao Niao said, "Arenāt you going to activate the creatorās particles generator? Arenāt you afraid those people are able to locate you? In the meantime, Iām going to go for a stroll. I wonder if this planet has crustaceans, like crabs."
Without waiting for a response, Xiao Niao strode towards the exit.
Yao Yuan took the hint and activated the shuttleās creatorās particle generator. The shuttle was a new model and was still in need of modifications. It was more of an armored shuttle than a transport shuttle. It had a built-in creatorās particle generator and a small polymerized reactor.
After Yao Yuan descended from the shuttle, he realized that Xiao Niao had wandered outside of the 100 meter range that was unaffected by the creatorās particle. He walked to him wordlessly until he was within 1 meter of Xiao Niao. Only then did he ask, "Get on with it; what is it that made you act so weirdly? Could it be that you feel youāre being monitored on the Hope?"
Xiao Niao checked his status using his space armor, and after he made certain that they were in the creatorās particle coverage, he admitted, "I amā¦ no, we are being monitored, but Iām not sure who or what is doing the monitoring."
Yao Yuan frowned and asked, "What do you mean?"
Xiao Niao structured his thoughts and explained, "Iāll reveal everything to you in detail. It started way before you realized I was a Homo Evolutis. That day me, Qiu Qiu, and Dan Dan were playing a game of Star Craft 3 in the internet cafĆ© whenā¦"
Xiao Niao spoke at length until he concluded, "I have no idea what this is ZERO. To be honest, I thought she was just a random troll before this war we had with the mother nest. After all, what she was saying was simply impossible.
"However, she made true to her words, and we did stumble into a Zerg-like alien. It is impossible to tell whether this mother nest and the Zerg were one and the same, but you have to admit that their unique characteristics were way too similar. Even my latest conversation with ZERO proved that ZERO herself believed the mother nest was the Zerg. Can you believe this was all a coincidence? Or to put it another way, do you think a random nobody could make something that was obviously said in frustration a reality?"
Yao Yuan frowned and asked, "Do you mind if I ask what is this Star Craft 3? Is it a video game?"
Xiao Niao rolled his eyes, but he still patiently explained the game, especially emphasizing on the Zerg, their image, and their unique combat system.
"ā¦Like I said, the Zerg in Star Craft 3 is an alien species that relies on absorbing genes from multiple species to evolve its own body to adapt to the space environment. Its battle mechanics is almost the same as the mother nest that weāve countered, which is a heavy reliance on the advantage of numbers."
"In other words, you suspect that this ZERO was behind our latest warp? She made us come into contact with the mother nest to prove to you that she is not a noob and that the actual Zerg exists in space?"
Xiao Niao shrugged. "That is why weāre here. There is obviously something that I donāt know about the Hope. Do you know how much pressure I was under to schedule this meeting? On one hand, I needed to make sure ZERO couldnāt find out what I was up to, and on the other, to persuade you that I have important things to tell you but only in secret. The preemptive medical report to ensure I wasnāt infected by the alien and the deliberate motion to leave my weapons behind, the hoops I had to jump through. So how about it? Are you going to tell me the Hopeās secret?"
Yao Yuan hesitated only slightly before saying, "You do have the clearance to know about it, but I need you to promise that you wonāt reveal anything to your two friendsā¦"
Xiao Niao answered immediately, "I never intended to tell them in the first place. I didnāt even tell them about my latest conversation with ZERO."
Yao Yuan continued, "In a hidden compartment underneath the Hopeās mainframe, we found the source of the shipās future-tech devices for things like the anti-gravitational system and space-warping technologyā¦ It was an UFO, the one initially found by the US government in Tennessee."
"UFO? Inside the Hope?" Xiao Niao was shocked, then he questioned, "Are you pulling my leg? Why didnāt the eloped government official take off with it if itās something that important?"
Yao Yuan replied with frustration, "Iāve been bothered by that too. There are still many mysteries surrounding this UFO, but one thing is certain: the UFO is real, and it is definitely the source of all the future-tech currently on the Hopeā¦"
"Could it be thatā¦ ZERO is the UFOās AI?"
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