Chapter 1043 — Leaving Something Behind

"By the look of it now, probably a little longer than expected," Bayang'er immediately turned serious. "The core cabin hasn't leaked, and the circulation unit has already purged the toxic gas from the pipes. With the gas control system running normally, it seems our eventual cause of death won't be suffocation or poisoning."

"...Let's call that good news, then," An Qian shook his head. "So it seems we can drift here for a long while yet. We've already recorded a great deal of observational data. What shall we do next?"

In the vast control hall, the three ancient dragons fell silent once more. The silence lasted several seconds before Bayang'er cautiously spoke up: "Shall we have another round of word-chain? We could start with geological terms..."

"I'm not interested." Hragor shook his head and said flatly, his gaze passing beyond the transparent polymer dome nearby to the vast, empty space outside the ship.

His gaze settled on a mass of twisted wreckage that had entirely lost its life and light — over the course of this long drift, that wreckage had drawn a little closer to the ship, though this might have been his imagination.

After all, he had been staring at that wreckage for far too long these past days.

After several minutes of gazing, Hragor withdrew his eyes. He turned around, preparing to return to the central area of the control hall — but at the very instant his gaze shifted, an unexpected flash of light suddenly intruded upon the edge of his vision.

Hragor stopped in an instant and whipped his head toward the source of the flash. Bayang'er and An Qian, who had been discussing which word to start the word-chain with, also stopped instantly, their gazes cast in the same direction — yet all they managed to catch was a fleeting phantom, a blurred and hazy outline.

It seemed to be a massive steel construct, somewhat like a dragon two or three hundred meters in length, and somewhat like the rear engine assembly of the Talonde. The thing flashed past the edge of the polymer dome at a speed that made it impossible to see clearly.

It seemed to have circled around to the side-rear of the Talonde — though Hragor was not certain of this either. And before he could figure out what that thing actually was, a tremendous thrust had already struck the protective wall on the Talonde's flank.

A powerful, violent impact shook the ancient starship's immensely sturdy keel, and the shock traveled straight through the machinery into the core section. The ship shuddered and let out a tremendous noise, and the starry sky outside tumbled along with it. Amid that violent pitching, a seat not far away suddenly swung down toward Hragor's position; even as he thrust out an arm to block the blow, his mind had only enough room for countless questions, which, translated into plain terms, could be summed up in three sentences —

What the hell is that? What the hell is going on? What the hell do I do about it?!

……

The gravity drive performed a splendid "spurt"; the precisely calculated thrust was released flawlessly within the designated zone. Watching from afar as the wreckage began its descent along the predetermined trajectory, Omega tilted his steel-forged jaw slightly upward.

He was thoroughly pleased with his own strike.

The facts had proven that even without the support of the surface calculation node cluster, his own inherent computational capacity was still sufficient for the job.

As for now, the farewell to the Creators was over; it was time to continue this journey.

Omega drew his gaze back from the world below, his attention returning once more to the vast expanse of space. His eyes followed the curve of the planet's atmosphere to the distant edge, and there, at the boundary between starlight and world, the countless ancient legacies left behind by the Pathfinders drifted silently in their respective orbits, watching over this little world like speechless tombstones in the void.

After a brief calculation and a readjustment of his flight plan, Omega once again fired the thrusters all over his body. He traced a graceful arc across the sky above the planet and, with the help of the faint gravity, glided lightly toward the equator.

He intended to make an acceleration burn from there, leaving the parent star's gravitational sphere near the planetary equator, then sweeping close past the "sun" and replenishing his mana in the process. After two accelerations he would truly leave this place behind and fly toward the "center" of this planetary system — the road ahead was long and full of the unknown, yet a surging curiosity emboldened this newborn traveler; his fighting spirit ran high, and his confidence was boundless.

The equatorial satellite cluster left behind by the Pathfinders gradually appeared at the edge of his vision, and even more striking than those ancient inverted-cone satellites was the enormous ring-shaped orbital structure encircling the space above the planetary equator.

The ancient Skyvault Station — a "space miracle" only the Pathfinders could have built.

Omega flew toward those quietly running satellites and the ring-orbit station behind them, and as he did, he carried out a rapid train of thought.

Perhaps he ought to leave something behind — many humans and other intelligent races did something similar when they departed their homeland to travel.

Omega made his decision quickly, then issued an order to one of the craft flying escort behind him:

"Find a satellite in relatively good condition and leave a transmitter on it."

A triangular craft received the order, detached silently from the flight formation in the vacuum, and flew toward a high-orbit satellite near the Skyvault Station……

……

Cecil, at midnight under a clear, cloudless sky.

Gao You woke with a start late in the night.

Strictly speaking, he had leaped up after a satellite suddenly transmitted an alarm signal.

A signal such as had never existed before woke him from sleep; though it subsided quickly, it drove every trace of drowsiness from him. Then the satellite system, so closely linked to his consciousness, automatically relayed some blurry image data, and after seeing those images, Gao Yang fell into utter stupefaction.

Something…… had appeared in space.

He stood by the bedside; bright starlight fell through the wide window onto the floor not far away. On this cloudless midnight, in the mind of the Cecil Emperor, startled awake from his dreams, only three questions remained —

What the hell is that thing? What the hell happened? What the hell are we supposed to do?!

(End of this chapter)