Imperfections Chapter 7
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Chapter 7
SilverFortress, the First Galaxy.
The suspension door slid to both sides. Admiral Wolf and Secretary GeneralGolden got off the car one after another. Golden politely let Admiral Wolf gofirst whilehe held the door gracefully, bending down and reaching inside, givinghand to Mrs. Goldon who was still in the car. He leaned towards her and gently whispered:“Do you still feel bad?”
Jingshu Lin noddedwith a pale face. Space transferring is requisite if you do not want to spendthirteen days on the way from the capital planet to the Silver Fortress likeCommodore Lin. People had been troubled by carsickness, seasickness andairsickness since ancient times, it was not a big deal that Jingshu had aspacesickness now.
Golden said: “AuthorizeEden please, let it help you by adjusting the balancer.”
Jingshu Lin shookher head silently.
After her brother,Commodore Lin’s death, Jingshu had shielded most functions of Eden.
The network ofEden was not accomplished in a short time. In the beginning, it was simply usedin a very limited area including helping people controlling domestic applianceand playing holographic games. The technology developed in hundreds of years,providing more and more convenience in the daily life. As a result, peopleconstantly gave authorization to Eden in the same way as the ancientsinstalling applications in their cellphones.
The SpiritualNetwork Protection Law stipulated that Eden must fully inform citizens of thepossibility of the disclosure of their privacy; only after being given theauthorization can the application be connected. However, people seldom readthose terms and conditions which were detailed in millions of words. Anyhow thelegislation and supervision were quite strict since the establishment of Eden sothat no one had heard of any scandals about privacy disclosure.
Nowadays,openness, tolerance, frankness and the freedom of expression wereunquestionable political correctness. Except for a few religious who believedthat penances is the way of cultivating themselves, only Jingheng and his TenSquadrons shielded Eden. It was once a crime of Commodore Lin before his death –an unequivocal witness of his dishonesty and conspiracy, but now it became amerit in his posthumous praise by the government of the Interstellar Union, sayingthat he was “the first to embrace the pain for the purpose of sharpeninghimself and his army”.
Jingshu memorized her dead brother like anascetic vegetarian in this way, about which Golden had no objection . He lenther his arm considerately so she could have a rest. His gentleness was a show inthe Silver Fortress in some sort, but it is sincere as well----no matter whatconflicts he had with Commodore Lin privately in the past, he was still veryaffectionate with Jingshu Lin.
After all, as sucha beauty, she had the privilege to be loved even if she was like a piece of furnitureplaced coldly at home.
Commodore Li, thenew commodore of the Silver Fortress, had been waiting for Admiral Wolf and theSecretary General as well as his wife for a long time. Two rows of guards stoodbehind him in a solemn and neat way, young and handsomewith slender legs and thin waist.if looking more carefully, however, there were some strange details which couldnot be ignored. If ignoring the numbers on their military uniforms, they were souniformly handsome that they seemed to be hatched from the same egg. They couldalmost arouse a feeling of trypophobia.
Admiral Wolf is aveteranwho belongs to the established powers in the army. He frowned when he saw thesehonor guards. Commodore Li explained in a whisper: “There are few Ten Squadronsleft now, and the others......the others are all unruly dignitaries as well asrebels, very difficult to control. Therefore we have to transfer a group ofartificial humans for the safety of the Silver Fortress. What do you think of......”
Commodore Wolfinterrupted him in a voice dripping with sarcasm: “Excellent idea. I will writea letter to the IU parliament and advise them to send an artificialintelligence to govern the Silver Fortress. From then on, robots will command themselvesto fight the battles. How civilized and convenient! They don’t even need to intrigueagainst each other.”
Commodore Li wasplanning to take the robot model honor guards to welcome them, so as to show offhis flexibility and open-mindedness. Being satirized by Admiral Wolf, he wasnot dare to say anything more, and led the way listlessly.
They went into theSilver Fortress, walking straight into the ground and entered the deepestunderground. Admiral Wolf opened seven sealed doors with the supreme authorityof the IU Armed Force. As the last heavy metal door slowly lifted, a huge mechfell into their eyes.
Near glorious perfection,its icy body shining resplendency; itlooked like a sleeping dragon.
Secretary Generalraised his head, sighing in admiration: “This is Zhanlu.”
“Yes.” It seemedthat Commodore Li was afraid of waking up something, so he lowered his voiceunconsciously, “After Jingheng’s… no one can awake Zhanlu again. It rejectedany spiritual connection, including Eden. Zhanlu is a treasure to all the humanbeings, and the oriflamme of the Silver Fortress. We don’t want to force it to connect,you know, avoiding potential damage by doing that. Butthe star pirates are growingrampant, the IU really needs it. There is no other way so that we have tobother Mrs. Golden.”
Commodore Li saidto Jingshu, bowing to her slightly: “You are the only blood relative ofJingheng and shares the same excellent genes with him. Maybe you can convinceZhanlu.”
Jingshu Linstepped back to refuse the formality and gave him an appropriate smile.
Admiral Wolfwalked forward and touched the hull of Zhanlu, pressing his hand on the cabindoor and tried: “Request connection.”
He felt somethingextremely powerful crushed over him. The underground space shook with a buzzwhile the sound frequency went beyond the resolution of human ears, like asilent roar, resounding like waves. The sleeping mech was like a trapped beast,and it was ready to bite once it opened eyes.
Admiral Wolf wasshocked and let go immediately, holding himself after stumbling back a fewsteps.
“ADMIRAL!”
Admiral Wolf waved his hand and blocked theflattering hands of Commodore Li, starring at him with his cloudy eyes, said ata measured and slow pace:“In 260, Jingheng Lin was commanded to fight battlesagainst the combination of the interstellar terrorism and the star pirates. Inthe most famous battle, he single-handedly invaded fifteen enemy armies andtook over their authorities AT THE SAME TIME.”
Commodore Li blushed and turned pale at thesame time.
“Jingheng Lin did not command the SilverFortress by a mech. It is logical for Zhanlu to reject any connections. Linkingto you rubbish is a shame on itself. If the spiritual threshold cannot bereached, then use blood and gene to compensate? Preposterous! ” Admiral Wolfsaid coldly, and then turned to Jingshu politely and aloofly, “There is no needto bother Mrs. Golden. You are not in a good health and have not been militarytrained, way too easy to be injured by Zhanlu. It will be a colossal loss tothe capital planet to hurt such a beautiful lady. I apologize for bothering youto have this trip. Please.”
The Secretary General was just here for ashow but not really ready to offer a help, so he was gloating to see themilitary upset. Following Admiral Wolf’s stride he held Jingshu’s hand and ledher leaving the Silver Fortress without saying a word.
He did not notice that herweak andsoft wife turned around and cast a look at Zhanlu. Her feather-liked eyelashesdrooped, hiding her quirky smile.
At the same universal time, in the Beijing-ßplanet, the Eighth Galaxy,.
It was just dawning. B4 washed his handcarefully for three times, and decided to clean his face as well.
The robot hand on the wall was stillsleeping. B4 shaved and dressed himself; then opened the windows and doors of theSpeakeasy.
Chill feeling and the sound of wind passedthrough this house. The Beijing-ß planet had woken up from the shivering coldnight.
B4 poured a cup of overnight coffee forhimself, and found a lump of sandwich that was a kind of specialty of the EighthGalaxy from a fresh-keeping cabinet. B4 had a look at it and failed to find outwhat was in it, but he did not care about it. He started eating in the coldwind with all doors open, and casually fed the lizard some mealworm.
The noises outside were rising. There weresounds of hurried footsteps, loud complaints of housewives, swearing naughty children, mixed with thewhistles of the gay sportevery five minutes. It was the vitality that onlycould be found in the Eighth Galaxy.
The Speakeasy was clean and fresh. Spiderhad disappeared already.
B4 was neither brisk when he was energeticnor listless when he stayed up all night like this time. He was just like a pinewhich always kept an unchanged look no matter in winter blizzard or in springsunshine.
As firm as iron, he seemed to have no feelings.
“You had better not to have breakfast inthe cold wind, for it will cause gastrointestinal problems.” Three hours later,Zhanlu on the wall transferred into the handsome man in time.
B4 seemed to be attracted by something outof the window and he gazed at it without looking back, “No.”
He had not finished his words when the doorsand windows closed. The temperature indoor rose rapidly, shielding the coldmorning of the Beijing-ß planet from the house like a fortress.
Zhanlu said seriously: “Yes, it will. Thereis a significant positive correlation between having cold food in the wind andgastrointestinal problems.”
B4: “......”
Zhanlu took away his extremely simplebreakfast and discarded the overnight coffee.He made a cup of hot coffee, andheated the sandwich, “You interrogatedSpider.”
B4 did not need to speak to Zhanlueuphemistically: “I did. The Toxic Nest ran into a gang of dubious people onthe periphery of the Eighth Galaxy three months ago, and they claimed that theyhad one hundred mechs and two armed starships, hoping to have a munition dealwith them. It was those people who brought the chips. Implanted in the heartandhumans and artificial intelligence in a 200-meter radius will be affected expediently.Besides, they can also strengthen the implanted humans, turning them intoinvulnerable supermen. As far as I know, even Eden cannot do this.”
What does “one hundred mechs” mean?
Five years ago, the IU government only sentfive hundred mechs to siege the Silver Fortress in secret.
Zhanlu said: “They are not the local gangsof the Eighth Galaxy.”
“I suppose not.” B4 said，”They offer a quite low price. The first batch of munitions arenearly free. What they required the Toxic Nest to do is to help looking forchildren between two and four, one hundred children per batch, and they havealready had two batches. I speculate that they are doing human experiments. Themysterious people do not suggest them to steal children in the same area toavoid being discovered, or perhaps they are testing biochips on those ToxicNest fools who are rushed everywhere in the Eighth Galaxy.”
Zhanlu waited for B4’s conclusion quietly.
B4 finished the processed breakfast absentmindedly,and then said: “No need to hurry. It is only an attempt of the Toxic Nest ifextraterritorial pirates really want to do something, they will find us soon orlater. Before that, we’d better to find out what the biochips are.”
“I will spare no effort to help HeadmasterLu.” Zhanlu paused for a while, “Well, will you accept Headmaster Lu’sinvitation to attend the opening ceremony?”
“Do I look like have nothing else to do?” B4drank up the coffee.
Zhanlu: “But I notice that you have got insuit.”
B4 said casually: “I threw away that one.It had been stained with blood.”
Zhanlu answerd “I see” and took away theempty cup and tableware. “I will cancel this plan from your schedule later.”
B4 sat quietly for a moment, then he said:“Who asked you to add it to the schedule?”
TBC
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