Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 111

Chapter 111 – Drenched in Blood

After the Eden lab was destroyed, their neighbor City of Angels was in a state of panic.

What remained of the Union Parliament made an urgent decision to place all members of the Eden Committee, aside from the missing Lin Jingshu, under heavy surveillance.

Wang Ailun glanced at his personal device and whispered to Woolf: “The Parliament is requesting to speak to you.”

Like an old turtle that didn’t even want to bother turning his gaze away, he stared off into the distance in silence for a while before responding: “Tell them my old heart is feeling unwell so I’m resting inside a medical capsule, let them wait.”

Wang Ailun nodded and wrote a long but proper response back to the Parliament on behalf of the old Chief.

Woolf turned around to knock on the wall lightly, pulling up a 3D screen from the wall that automatically played a recording. The recording happened to be the segment where Lu Xin’s possession of the forbidden fruit was reported to the authorities. A trembling man’s voice explained: “Before Laura Gordon ran away, she paid a visit to Lu Xin. General Lin Wei wasn’t asleep at the time and stood behind the window as he watched her leave the house…I happened to be on duty that day…he….General Lin asked me to keep quiet. He said that Doctor Gordon had something important, but she doesn’t trust him right now so she could only hand it to someone else…”

“This person was born in the Fourth Galaxy and has a younger brother who was a vaccuocerebral. He was once a personal guard of Lieutenant General Lin Wei. When Lu Xin adopted Jingheng, the boy was still young, so he decided to bring a guard from the Lin family to go along with him in order to stay by the boy’s side. The guard himself also left voluntarily since staying with Lu Xin meant that it would possibly benefit his future career. Lu Xin later gave him a place within his own personal guards and valued him like his own men.” Wang Ailun explained, “There’s a special department for vaccuocerebrals within the White Tower that worked with patients on a daily basis. The patients’ job was to cooperate with brain wave scan testing every day but were treated as full-time researchers within the tower. You should know that in a world under Eden, vaccuocerebrals had no place in society except as these ‘researchers’ in the White Tower. This guard’s brother was 20 years old that year, and with their family background they were almost doomed to be exiled to the Eighth Galaxy. In order to protect his family, the guard decided to betray Lu Xin and negotiated with the Committee behind the commander’s back. However, when he heard bits and pieces of the ‘ghost hunt’ and learned that the result of the national jury was set up, it was too late. He regretted his decision and told Lu Xin about it in guilt; his efforts playing a spy never ended well.”

“Thanks to this two-faced informant, the Committee wasn’t able to find where the forbidden fruit was after Lu Xin’s death. So they began to believe that perhaps the program wasn’t in Lu Xin’s hands, and had perished in Laura Gordon’s hands.”

Wang Ailun nodded: “Correct. The only thing they couldn’t touch was Zhanlu because his backup access permission was in Jingheng’s hands. This child was under heavy surveillance for many years because of this. However, I’ve heard that all his data levels were normal, almost too normal–appropriate levels of societal frustration, appropriate levels of harshness in personality, and even finely touching the bottom lines of Eden and the central government. Even when he got riled up occasionally and reached above the safety line of the ‘potential criminal’ list, his entire character was determined by Eden to be safe. If even this data was falsified, that would be absolutely terrifying; he was only a teenager at the time.”

“All these years, the forbidden fruit system had been operating secretly on Zhanlu and fabricating a complex web of fake data. It seems like Lu Xin never told Lin Jingheng the real functions of the forbidden fruit, letting the child think that it was simply a transmission blocker.” Woolf let out a sigh, “Lu Xin didn’t say anything in order to protect that child, including all the complicated relationships he had with the Committee…including the fact that he had once seen my name on the criminal list inside the forbidden fruit.”

Woolf slowly made his way towards his desk with an arm on his table. The hard wood top of the desk shone under the light of the room as he opened up the drawer and pulled out an old photo frame–it was impossible to imagine that anyone still used these ancient relics during the NSC era.

The photo inside the frame was a group shot of three young boys. A special type of preservation made this over 200-year-old photo look as if it had just been taken this morning.

“That’s me in the middle,” Woolf mumbled, “can you tell? I sure don’t look like that anymore.”

Wang Ailun lifted a slight smile and said: “Of course I can tell, your features hadn’t changed much over time. The other two must be Doctor Hardin and Chief Commander Lin Ge’er then.”

“All three of us grew up together, but now they’re both gone,” Woolf spoke softly as if he was retelling a story, “They’re all gone…the last thing Senior Ge’er told me was to let us see the world for him; see the world flourish and live in the world the Pledge of Freedom once painted so that we can tell him about it when we meet him again. He said he could no longer see the light of the sun shine on Wolto and wouldn’t be able to see the birth of his little Lin Wei; he said that he was only seconds away from dusk.”

Wang Ailun knew that the old Chief wasn’t talking to him, so he stood on the side in silence as if he was a statue.

“The original concept of the forbidden fruit was brought up by the Committee themselves. They wanted to use Eden to keep an eye on everyone, but didn’t want to be watched themselves. They wanted to build a special bypass system for their own people, but didn’t expect Hardin to upgrade it into a weapon that could pierce through the entire Eden system on his own. He came to me at that time and told me that he wanted to build an Anti-Utopian organization using the forbidden fruit outside the Union in fear that Eden would become an unstoppable monster. I was foolish back then and got angry at him; I said that while the Committee was indeed getting too greedy, how could a person like him work with pirates outside the Union, isn’t that an act of treachery? Hardin was like a brother to me – I couldn’t possibly take him to the authorities and endanger his life, so my only choice was to cut off all relations with him.”

“He didn’t argue with me at the time and only said that he would record my thoughts and beliefs back then into the forbidden fruit. If one day I changed, I would still be that model individual everyone sees in the Eden database–he told me that he hoped that he would never have to see that day where the fake data will be used.” Woolf continued quietly, “He was mocking me, but I knew he was right. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t have lived so long.”

His friend, the person he could never let go of for the rest of his life, the child he raised personally, the students he had placed his hopes on had all left him. One by one, they took the handles and steered this giant ship called the Interstellar Union further away from their initial destination.

By the time he could count his regrets, his body had already aged to the point where he could only remember those old beliefs and morals through artificial storage of his memories.

For a split second, a scene flashed and revived inside Woolf’s head. He could still clearly remember that a young boy dressed shabbily speaking to him in a playful manner: “I think I’ll just live to about 200 years old and it should be enough. Imagine if I accidentally made it to 300 years old; I’d have trouble seeing and hearing and become a stubborn old man that couldn’t remember anything. I’m sure I’d think differently by then too; wouldn’t I just be a completely different person at that point? That wouldn’t be me anymore, I’d hate for that to happen.”

Woolf sat as Wang Ailun stood, both remained silent for a long time. Wang Ailun’s gaze scanned over the old photo inside the drawer and remembered Lu Xin.

How did Lu Xin feel when he decided to run away from Wolto?

The man swore loyalty to the Union with his life, only to find out that when all his teachers, friends, and seniors were encouraging others to use Eden, they were secretly trying to block off the system on their own.

He spent his life fighting for the freedom and equality of every citizen, only to have the same people decide he was guilty during the national jury.

Time was running out, he didn’t know how to explain everything to Lin Jingheng, who was still a child at the time…perhaps he never had the time to figure it all out himself and could only put a lock on Zhanlu to keep it all a secret.

Did Lu Xin still believe in everything he had fought for with his own blood and tears the night he escaped out of Wolto?

“It’s not over.” Words were beginning to slur in Woolf’s mouth. “The Glory Troops invaders are still in Wolto, the trash in the AUS still hasn’t been cleaned. It’s still far from the new world that I promised Ge’er and Hardin. The Union still has one last breath left, I can’t give up now…”

Wang Ailun suddenly realized something: “You’re saying…Jingheng.”

“He still doesn’t know what the forbidden fruit is, but he will find out eventually as the unrest continues even if the Eighth Galaxy isolates itself. He will eventually see that list and have all his beliefs shattered like Lu Xin,” Woolf said, “That’s too tragic, I don’t want him to suffer like that. I want him to live like a hero and die like a hero; do you know what I mean?”

Wang Ailun understood and nodded, then learned in toward the old chief and asked: “What about Jingshu?”

Woolf remained silent for a few moments and sighed: “No matter how careful we are, we are no match for the child of the Eden Committee who spent her entire life there. All of us old folks have underestimated her. The Committee sure is a cradle of poison; no flower that was nurtured from it can be non-toxic. We need to find her as soon as possible, we can’t let her go missing–ask someone to make an announcement immediately to say that the Union will be purging ‘opium’ from the inside out. Tell the public that this was the conspiracy of the Committee behind Eden, and order an official arrest for Lin Jingshu.”

The poisonous flower–Lin Jingshu stood before Doctor Hardin and placed her hands behind her back. The smile on her face disappeared as she stared through the glass window towards those heartless killing machines. She tiptoed slightly as she leaned in closer, her nose touching the cold glass window.

“If this world treats you horribly and hurts you, and lets every foolish man that thought they were innocent drink your blood, yet you decide to forgive them and sacrifice yourself to…what’s that called? ‘Doing the right thing’, then you’re also part of the problem.” She said, “Because you let the dead rest in injustice and let the fools of the living bathe in their false sense of innocence. You let history fall into the false narrative where all evil and shameful acts of the past can be saved by tragic heroes. You let the story become a fabricated lie of ugliness by swallowing that hatred and anger down your throat.”

Doctor Hardin’s old figure stood in the shadows as he asked quietly: “My child, do you not have a sense of justice and compassion for humanity in your heart?”

“I am human nature itself,” Lin Jingshu said, “What is human nature? Human nature is to eat when you’re hungry, to drink when you’re thirsty. When someone is good to you, remember them and return the favor; when someone steps over you, you must take your revenge at all cost–this is human nature. Justice, hah, that’s a performative lie that corrupts you, nobody that upholds it ever sees a good end.”

She gently placed her lips on the glass window and left a bright red print as she finished speaking.

“How disgusting.” She turned around and walked away.

All eight galaxies became drenched in blood behind her.

Thomas and Poisson Young originally planned on reorganizing the Third Squadron near the border of the Second Galaxy near a large intergalactic base. The base was the home center for the trading and selling of private starships as well as for repair and supplies for merchant ships. After a while, various supply stations and intergalactic travel services began to gather around this base as it turned into a large community of its own. The Third Squadron was made up of technicians and engineers, so it was natural for them to hang around this area. They expected to take off after a summoning order only to be blocked off by a large crowd of private starships asking for refuge from the base.

“We’re from the Second Galaxy, I’m a professor of the Second Polytechnic University. Our school is located in a satellite base that was a bit further off from natural planets and all our students live on campus.” A middle-aged man took a group of lost young students into the station. He rejected Thomas’ offer for a cigarette and said, “Thank you, but I don’t smoke, there’s quite a few minors among the students as well–one day, a group of people came in and took over our satellite base with mechs and forced us to inject a biochip. They claimed it was a substitute for Eden. Our principal said that while having an Eden substitute was a good thing, it required extensive paperwork and medical preparation for any invasive procedures, and the school couldn’t possibly sign off waivers in place of family members for underaged students…but they didn’t listen and shot the Principal dead! My colleagues and I quickly took the students out to escape, but most of them were shot down and we were the lucky ones. I want to send these kids home, but the terminals into the Second Galaxy have all been blocked off and fights have broken out over there, so I had no choice but to take temporary refuge here.”

A student suddenly yelled as he finished: “Professor!”

A few students connected to the underground networks and pulled up a screen with a shaky recording. It looked like a small space station–the Second Galaxy’s natural resources were not abundant and its economy was mostly driven by intergalactic transportation industries, so over half of its population lived on space stations. Within the next few seconds, a sharp alarm rang out inside the recording as a crowd of people quickly ran for their lives as they screamed “missiles”. A bright white light cleared the screen in the midst of the cries as the video ended.

“This is the Kenny Station near the capitol planet of the Second Galaxy.”

“All connections to stations near the capitol planet were lost.”

People began to panic. Some people frantically attempted to contact friends and family that lived near the capitol planet, and the ones that didn’t receive a response broke down in tears moments after.

Thomas silently put the cigarette he hadn’t managed to give away into his mouth as Poisson walked beside him with his arms crossed: “This place is not safe. A large base like this will soon become a refugee camp filled with people with nowhere else to go. Those pirates selling opium will also have their eyes on here soon. What do you say, Captain, should we retreat?”

Meanwhile, the First Squadron of the Silver Ten had also been stuck in the Third Galaxy for over a week–simply because they saved a group of refugees that were being chased down by pirates along the way.

With the flames of war showing no sign of dying down and refugees increasing at an exponential rate, people who lived near the frontlines lived in fear everyday that a missile would fall from the heavens and land in their backyard. Everyone that could afford a ticket on an intergalactic starship ran for their lives. Rumors had it that these tickets in the Third Galaxy had raised to an all-time high, and not only did it cost families all of their immediate wealth to purchase tickets, larger families often had to decide who they had to leave behind.

Refugees couldn’t handle emergency warping, and high speed in space could cost a fragile life. Now that all detectable transfer portals around the area were blocked by various armed forces, the First Squadron was stuck in the barricade of the pirates with this giant baggage of refugees.

In the Eighth Galaxy, Lin Jingheng didn’t have a chance to let out a sigh of relief after dealing with the wave of AUS forces with the help of Ankur’s fleet before Zhanlu said: “Sir, we received a long-distance communication request. The request is from Captain Thomas Young of the Silver Third Squadron.”

Lin Jingheng turned his gaze over.

The Silver Ten were well-trained soldiers of the military. Normally after confirming that Lin Jingheng was in the Eighth Galaxy, they would immediately make their way over without any delays nor attempts to communicate with anyone along the way. Only when they closed in would they send out a communication request through the transfer portals, in order to avoid exposing their coordinates during travel.

Lin Jingheng: “Bring it in.”

Even with the help of the transfer portals folding spacetime, it was still impossible to do real-time communication between the Second and Eighth Galaxy. It took at least 50 hours for the long-distance connection to be received on the other end and for Thomas to appear on screen.

“Commander.” Thomas’s screen finally appeared. He fixed up the hat resting sloppily on his head and put on a stern expression as he greeted his boss. “The terminals have been blocked off, we’re currently at the Nebula Transfer Station in the Second Galaxy. There are at least six million refugees here with about 50 heavy mechs from the Freedom Corps closing in right now; they’re planning on forcefully injecting the biochip drug opium into everyone.”

Lin Jingheng clenched his fist.

Due to the delay in these kinds of long-distance communication, it was difficult to have a free-flowing discussion from both ends. Thomas thought about it for a second and decided to report everything at once: “Poisson and I have made contact with Miss Jingshu while in the City of Angels, but she refused to come with us. The news we heard right now is that she went missing–sorry Commander, we should’ve forcefully made her come with us back then.”

“The Third Squadron is ready to take off; we can easily escape from the barricade of the pirates if we do multiple rounds of emergency warping. Should we immediately make our emergency warps towards the Eighth Galaxy or stay and protect the Nebula station; please give your orders, Commander.”

Lu Bixing, a few other engineers, Zhanlu, and even Turan who had just crawled out of the medical capsule all had their eyes on Lin Jingheng.

“These pirates forcefully selling their opium call themselves ‘Freedom Corps’ – who are they mocking?” Lin Jingheng paused for a moment before he gave Thomas 50 hours into the future his order, “Did you all forget who the Silver Ten swore to protect back then? Don’t even ask for my order!”

“Sir, long distance-communication request from the Silver First Squadron….”

“Sir, request from the Silver Sixth Squadron….”

……

“Sir, Captain Young responded, ‘hail the Pledge of Freedom’.”

Inside the meeting room of the Seventh Galaxy Central Militia, a notification popped up on Ankur’s personal device while he was listening to the real-time reports of all battlefronts within the Union.

He was caught by surprise and gestured for his secretary to stop. He adjourned the meeting and waited for everyone to leave the room before he locked the door all to himself.

“It’s me,” Wang Ailun’s face appeared from his personal device. “Good afternoon, General Ankur 65 hours into the future. Please make sure there is no one else beside you as you listen to the following message.”