786 Unknown Objects (1/2)
At dawn on the third day, Ye Xuan opened his eyes from his drowsiness. He was still half asleep.
”So fast? And it's still the middle of the night?” He walked sleepily out of the prison door and looked all around. He saw the committee commissioner waiting for him.
”The lab made their official report an hour ago,” the commissioner said. ”The captain is waiting for you.”
”Mmm, thanks.” Ye Xuan nodded and followed behind him. As they left, he heard the guards spit with disdain. He didn't have eyes in the back of his head, but he could guess that the eyes of those looking at him were not very friendly.
Along the way, everyone on the side of the path looked very gloomy. The joy and happiness of the few days before had disappeared.
Naturally.
After the crew, who had been seeking new land's hopes were kindled, they were extinguished by a sudden accident. Everyone on the ship was in poor spirits. Only the captain's suppression was preventing a mutiny.
And as the one who had caused the accident, Ye Xuan naturally understood their hatred and anger.
Even in confinement, he had heard many of the rumors on the ship.
Countless strange hypotheses were circulating among the crew regarding the mysterious ”unknown objects.” Some said that they were a conspiracy by the other colony ships, some said that they were deliberate, and some foolish people said they were alien weapons that were making an attack on humanity.
As for why they had attacked, they simply turned to the ”dark forest” theory from hundreds of years ago.
Science fiction novels that had long been forgotten in databases were poured over. The debate about the existence of ”the mysterious weapon that could flatten the universe into a piece of paper” was a common occurrence in virtual space.
Even though up till now, when humanity had been floating in the sea of stars for 50 years and had not seen so much as a hair of alien life, Ye Xuan was thinking all along the way.
It was not until the elevator door opened that he realized, ”We're going the wrong way.”
”Yes.” The commissioner stood before the door. He looked at him without expression. ”In here.”
Now, there was something good, something bad, and something that he did not know if it was good or bad but that made him uneasy in front of Ye Xuan.
They were supposed to go to the conference room, but the bad thing was that this was not the way to the conference room.
What was good was that it was also not the way to the ”cleaning area.” After the most serious violations, the committee would vote, and the crewmember would be thrown in there, strapped to a metal chair, injected with tranquilizer until they were drooling, and when someone else in the room hit a button, they would be broken down into particles and thrown into the incinerator, never to be seen again.
But the thing that made him uneasy was this: his transgressions were not to be punished by a secret execution. He was not heading towards the conference room to be sentenced, nor the cleaning area for secret punishment.
He was heading for the private area of the ship.
The bridge.
Some colony ships didn't have so-called chief officers and second officers. If everything on board the ship was agreed upon by the committee, then how to sail was the captain's decision.
Even if there was no one to pilot the ship, Nibelungen and Hermes would coordinate with each other to safely pilot it.
Most of the time, it was on autopilot, and the captain only needed to make policy decisions. Because of this, the bridge was the highest embodiment of a captain's authority.
For other members of the committee, not to mention Ye Xuan, they were not even allowed on this level, much less to enter the bridge.
Now the commissioner was bringing him there himself...
Ye Xuan's mind raced. He didn't like political struggles, but that didn't mean he wasn't good at them. He was in charge of the mental control room, and he could instinctively profile and monitor people.
So, there were two possibilities now.
The greater possibility was that someone wanted to kill him and use the situation to their advantage to cause an incident or… a riot?
The hair stood up on the back of his neck.
A riot was possible.
The disaster that had happened on the new land had dampened everyone's mood to the extreme. The situation was a powder keg, and it was only missing a spark.
But he didn't want to be the sacrifice that started the revolution.
Moreover, he felt the current administration on board the ship was quite good, especially after seeing the dictatorship on board the other ship. He would never want there to be another Steve, who would persist in his cruelty till the end.
Even if he was already dead by that point.
But what would Zhangsun do?
So, who wanted to use him? Or… kill him?
Bai Nan? It was indeed possible that it could be that nasty guy, but he lacked intelligence when it came to anything other than technology. He had always been used as a weapon by others. His intelligence was limited, and the reason he didn't like him was that he saw psychology as a pseudo-science. He was a guy who just liked to eat, drink and lie, and probably wouldn't go through the trouble to come up with a scheme to kill him.
Maybe Liu Dongli? He had wanted to put the mental monitoring room under the medical institution's control for a long time. Or Zhao Qian? Whenever you saw that guy, he was smiling, and had money and power to get whatever he wanted, but he was extremely narcissistic and did not care about anyone else.
Or maybe...
He stood there in silence as the commissioner waited outside the elevator. But he did not move.
Even when the elevator's arrival sound rang out he did not move.
”Sorry, my stomach hurts.” Ye Xuan smiled. ”I need to go to the bathroom.”
”Don't talk nonsense, Ye Xuan, use your head.” Captain Xiao Huan's voice was being broadcast from the elevator. ”Either you get in, or get the hell out. I don't want to waste time waiting for a good-for-nothing wretch.”
Fine, the last possibility was that the one who wanted to kill him was the captain.
Ye Xuan shrugged helplessly.
In that case, there was nothing he could do.
If Xiao Huan wanted to kill him, he could do it with both eyes closed.
In short, it was an unavoidable disaster…
He sighed, and prepared himself for the commissioner to pull out a pistol, point it at the back of his head, and pull the trigger at some point as they walked to the bridge.
But as they opened the doors to the bridge, his head still had not exploded.
That was worthy of celebration.
Then he saw the vast starry sky.
Behind the suffocatingly vast floor to ceiling portholes, the darkness of space was dotted with endless stars. Before him, the vast planet shone with a silver light. Silver light flowed, stirring up the sea of stars and showing its iridescent beauty to those who had come.
It was like it had woken from a long sleep, and would no longer be silent.
”It's so beautiful.” Captain Xiao Huan sat in a chair next to the porthole and looked back at him. ”Isn't it?”
”Do you have any hot water?” Ye Xuan found a place to sit and wiped his nose with two paper towels. Since he was there, he might as well make the best of it. Moreover, he was now extremely curious. Why would the captain suddenly call him to the bridge?
”Were you beaten?” Xiao Huan looked at the bruise on his face and gloated in his misfortune. ”Should I arrange a single room for you?”
”Forget it. I've been beaten several times, but at least I feel better now.” Ye Xuan sighed. ”But what are you thinking? The crew's emotions have reached a dangerous level. According to conventional methods, you should have already started forcibly stabilizing their mood.”
”Isn't that because someone in the mental monitoring room has been placed in confinement? Even if the committee passed a vote to enforce stability, wouldn't the crew start a riot if they even saw your face, let alone if we gave you an injection?”
”My mistake.” Ye Xuan sighed.
As a psychiatrist, when the patient saw him as an enemy he had already lost. Although you could force a treatment when necessary, Ye Xuan was not interested in trying that.
If he regarded psychotherapy as an art, then electric shocks and lobotomies were the explosives that would destroy that art. The damage they would do to personality and consciousness made them no different than murder.
A sudden thought occurred to him.
Maybe he should have chosen a successor earlier?
Anyway, after the incident, he hadn't been able to work in the mental control room for long. Looking back, all he could have done was flip through the talent pool of hibernating people and find a successor that way.
”We'll talk about your incident later.” Xiao Huan put out his cigarette. ”Right now, let's turn to the main matter.”
A thick data sheet was placed in front of Ye Xuan.
It had just come from the printer and was still warm.
Unfortunately, just looking over the cover sheet with all its technical nouns made his eyes hurt. As technology developed, every branch of research got farther and farther apart from each other. To some extent, it was not like the different trades were separated by mountains, but rather by solar systems.
”I don't understand.” Ye Xuan rolled his eyes. ”Captain, if you have something to say can't you just say it simply and straightforward?”
”I called you because I want you to hear the lab's analysis of the unknown objects,” Xiao Huan said calmly. ”I thought you'd be interested.”
”Just me?” Ye Xuan looked at the emptiness all around him. ”What is this, the trial round? I've heard those usually aren't too good.”
The captain did not directly answer his question. He just knocked on the desk. ”Don't worry, I've also called someone to explain it to you.”
Then, the floor cracked. A huge container rose from the floor. It was a vacuum container that was nearly three meters high and two meters wide.
Through the heavy glass, he could see some unknown objects collected in a lowering device. They had been deposited in the bottom of the container like fallen snow. They had a certain metallic texture and shone with the luster of mercury.
He saw no traces of movement.
A hunchbacked researcher entered the room. It seemed as if he had not exercised for some time. There were rings of black around his eyes and he was as skinny as a matchstick, which perfectly matched Ye Xuan's impression of people in the lab.
A huge screen was projected from the ceiling and appeared at his side.
”I listened to this specific briefing from Nibelungen. This time the important thing is to introduce you to it. If there's anything you don't understand you can ask directly,” Xiao Huan said to Ye Xuan. He lit another cigarette and waved to the researcher. ”There's not much time, Mr. Roland, let's get started.”
”So, let me explain to you two how great of a miracle the discovery of the unknown objects was.” The skinny researcher held up the data in his hands and his eyes became ecstatic. ”Trust me, sirs, for this, ten times, nay a hundred times as much sacrifice would be acceptable!”