Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 114

Chapter 114 – Troubled Times

With the help of both galaxies’ governments, completing construction on the connecting terminal between the Seventh and Eighth Galaxies didn’t take long. Soon after, using a transfer portal as the border, both sides stationed their own troops nearby the portal and prepared to trade supplies. The first batch of supplies were ready almost as soon as Ankur left the Eighth Galaxy. The Seventh Galaxy also sent over a batch of recording robots to invite Prime Minister Edward to sign the supplies and attend a ribbon cutting ceremony for the reopening of the terminal, as if both galaxies were ready to shake hands and call each other friends.

Yet Lin Jingheng’s request to connect to the Seventh Galaxy’s network and share long-distance communication kept getting delayed. Ankur gave plenty of excuses from the network getting hacked to the Seventh Galaxy was fighting an intelligence war with the AUS.

The fact was that despite making a dramatic scene for sharing supplies and rebuilding connection with the Eighth Galaxy as if the whole world had been at peace for 500 years, the moment the question of sharing communication networks got brought up, Ankur would turn his back as if pirates were suddenly knocking on his door.

“The feeling they’re giving me is like they’re purposely keeping us from receiving information from the Union.” Lu Bixing said, “This time I’m with Commander Lin: anyone that purposely keeps you blind and ignorant must have other plans behind your back.”

Monoeyed Hawk spread his hands out: “What ‘this time, that time,’ when were you ever not on his side? I bet you’d still be on his side if he farts at you.”

Prime Minister Edward asked: “Commander Lin, did you not receive any messages from the Silver Ten?”

“I did, they all know about the first time the Glory Troops mentioned me. But after Yelvich’s death, I could only get a gist of what happened that matched up with what Ankur said. I’m assuming only the higher ups in the Union government and Central Militia know the details, but sometimes it’s exactly these details that can cost a life.” Lin Jingheng thought about it for a few moments before adding, “And if my guess is correct, then the leak of Commander Lu Xin’s case was intentional by someone’s hands and Yelvich was just unfortunate collateral damage. If the reports on Lu Xin’s case was that easy to obtain, I would’ve already gotten my hands on them when I was still in the Silver Fortress.”

The Prime Minister asked; “What kind of details?”

“For example, why the Eden Committee was willing to risk everything to get rid of him,” Lin Jingheng said, “I’ve fought with them for many years, and even though they’re a bunch of shameless bastards, they were alway very careful. They would never let anyone grab a hold of their rat’s tails and were very careful about their public image. Would they really go to such lengths because Lu Xin ignited the fire for military autonomy? I don’t think so; there must be something else in this that Ankur is hiding from us.”

Prime Minister Edward was still confused after all of these explanations. When he still attended the meetings on Wolto before the war broke out, he would feel as if his brain juice would spill onto the floor of the Union Parliament from all these political battles and complained: “Do any of you high-ranking politicians in the Union have anything else better to do?”

“I’m quite fond of your innocent heart, Prime Minister, but the central government of the Union is like a small stage in theater. People that climb up the stage all have their own ideals, but the people already standing on there want to expand their territories; at the same time, the people below you all want to drag you down and climb up themselves. In the end, everyone can only spare energy to fight for their positions. So those people that are ‘all talk and no work’ would disappear from the stage very quickly.” Lin Jingheng explained calmly, “The point is, I don’t agree that you should attend Ankur’s waste-of-time ceremony. Tell the Seventh Galaxy that if they have any bit of sincerity, they will send a merchant fleet with the supplies and I’ll ask someone to pick up the goods at the border.”

Prime Minister Edward let out a long sigh: “Commander Lin, do you always keep this attitude when you are borrowing money from someone?”

Lu Bixing interrupted: “He’s had this attitude even back when he was sweeping the grounds of Beijing-β, don’t worry about it, Prime Minister.”

Monoeyed Hawk couldn’t even stand to look at him and gave him a kick under the table. He didn’t understand why there was a need to flex about something like that. The old cat suspected that this brat got spoiled to the point where he grew to crave some harsh words, and purposely found a partner to step on the old cat tail when he grew up.

“Commander Lin, we can’t just do that, otherwise wouldn’t all the treaties and contracts we signed with the Seventh Galaxy turn into jokes? It would defeat the whole purpose of that paperwork.” The Prime Minister explained heavily, “the pirates have their eyes on us, we can’t simply ignore a potential ally or enemy like Ankur.”

Even the infamously rude Commander Lin had to hold in some of his insults and didn’t straight-up toss something like “fuck that Ankur” on the table.

He frowned slightly instead and asked: “Prime Minister, Ankur spent over a century of his life in the military. He can tell from the positioning of our patrol teams that something is off; if he really thought hard about it, he would know that we’re planning on cutting off all transfer portals in case of an emergency. Have you perhaps thought about a scenario where he would keep you and a few other government officials hostage there and then send more pirates to the Eighth Galaxy? What will we do? We don’t have that many troops – do we protect you or the Eighth Galaxy? Should we blow up those portals or not?”

The Prime Minister couldn’t answer his question.

Lu Bixing took this opportunity to interrupt: “How about I go in place of you, Prime Minister? I’m young and can run; Lin can be with me, and I can even hack into their network while I’m there. Their long-distance network system and passcodes are very complicated, I want to try my hands at it, and in case…”

The other three men in the room responded all at once: “No.”

Lu Bixing: “……”

The old Prime Minister sighed and tapped on the young man’s hand in defeat: “I’m getting old, so even if I make a mistake and get held hostage, you all can leave me. Blow up the portals if you all need too…but you’re different.”

He looked at Lu Bixing deeply and thought to himself, you and all other unreliable young adults here are the future of the Eighth Galaxy.

“The day we were evacuating the residents, Ankur blocked off our terminals and rejected all our requests to communicate. They later said it was a misunderstanding but I’m doubtful of that. As for the situation in the Seventh Galaxy, it has always been more talk and rumors than action, so I think we should consider the worst case scenario…for example, what if Ankur is actually working with these pirates behind our backs?” Lin Jingheng tapped lightly on the meeting table and a real-time galactic map appeared on top. He reached over to change the date to Ankur’s invitation while the stars shifted on the map with his touch. “I have two proposals. First, clean up all transfer portals leading opposite the direction of the Union.”

The little dots representing the transfer portals on the map disappeared as Lin Jingheng spoke: “Most of these portals were remnants of old smugglers from generations ago, and should have already been cleared out. Engineering department, take Saturday and Weasel out and quickly get rid of all these half-hidden and hidden transfer portals, leave only one for the Silver Ten to use. Then send out a small fleet of terminal guards to watch, that should be enough.”

Lu Bixing: “Sure, no problem.”

“Second, no matter what Ankur wants to do–whether it’s filming for publicity, holding a ceremony, or getting married, we will be the ones to decide the location. Let Ankur bring his unarmed mercenary fleet to the Eighth Galaxy, we won’t be entering his territory.”

The Prime Minister nodded slightly: “Of course, this would be the best case scenario, but they may not accept this request. Last time General Ankur already visited us without arms. Commander Lin, as diplomatic courtesy and etiquette, we should be visiting them this time or else how will we show our sincerity?”

Lin Jingheng answered without hesitation: “My profession is war, not diplomacy. I never even had a single bit of sincerity toward Ankur in the first place.”

Thus, the problem returned to square one–Lin Jingheng was only concerned about the safety and security of the galaxy, and all these other friendly treaties were like a joke to him. He didn’t care if anything went through or not.

But the Prime Minister cared, and the Minister of Finance cared.

The noble master Lin was someone who didn’t know responsibility unless he was put in charge; for him, having enough food to not starve and enough missiles to fight his battles were all that mattered. Everything else was secondary on his priority list. However, the problem the Prime Minister currently faced was rebuilding the economy of the Eighth Galaxy, reestablishing the trust in the government and monetary system. It wasn’t something as easy as huddling up and handing out nutrient syringes to the population to make sure people weren’t dying of hunger.

To put it simply, the current supply of nutrient syringes the government could provide would solve the general issue of starvation, but the syringes themselves had more meaning in the current economy than a simple meal for the next two months. Thanks to the mess left by the late Prince of Cayley, nutrient syringes were also the current currency of the Eighth Galaxy—before the weak economic system of the Eighth Galaxy could flourish and enough trust could be earned to circulate fiat money, the system of nutrient syringes would be the core of the Eighth Galaxy economy for a long time to come. However, nutrient syringes themselves did not even fit the physical criteria to be a commodity currency; they can’t be stored for a long time and were a perishable item used in everyday life. It would be difficult to find a replacement for them during a time like this, and in order to find a way out, the Prime Minister needed to cling onto the help from other galaxies.

Ankur had already shown his cards and given his offers; in addition, his status as an ex-subordinate of Lu Xin and bold personality struck a chord with the Eighth Galaxy. Lin Jingheng’s suspicion that Ankur was associated with the AUS was almost starting to sound unreasonable–what could Ankur even get from the pirates?

Aside from Lu Bixing who insisted on staying by Lin Jingheng’s side, everyone under the Prime Minister wanted to keep the relationship with the Seventh Galaxy.

Lin Jingheng was like a stern legal worker in the office that was so obsessed with security to the point he nitpicked at every little threat, making it hard for the office to function normally under his suspicion.

“How about this,” Monoeyed Hawk broke the stalemate, “since we’re now allies, we still need to attend his ceremony if we were invited to go. But we will need to outline an emergency plan just in case. If Ankur really has connections to pirates, then during the ribbon ceremony, we’ll….”

While the Eighth Galaxy was struggling internally with their actions moving forward, Ankur’s hostile message passed through spacetime and arrived at the City of Angels.

“To make sure Lin Jingheng doesn’t close off the Eighth Galaxy, there needs to be someone outside the transfer portals whom he can’t give up–I think that Prime Minister of the Eighth Galaxy is a good candidate. Even though I still don’t get why he can’t just get rid of that old man and take charge if he really plans on staying there long-term. If this old man isn’t enough to stop him, we’ll try and physically drag Lin Jingheng out himself; he can’t possibly isolate himself outside of the Eighth Galaxy, right? The Eighth Galaxy Galactic Forces were born from the Silver Ten; they are quite something, yet even a ferocious tiger can’t stand against a pack of hungry wolves. They may be elites but they are also lacking in numbers – don’t you guys pride yourselves on the size of your troops? You can split up the fleet into two, have one side hold the Eighth Galaxy forces down while the other sneaks in from the back, and then charge in before they can isolate their galaxy. I’ll send in a cargo of supplies and work with you guys as a bait to lure them out.”

Wang Ailun turned off the screen after he relayed the message and turned to Woolf, “Ankur is an old and sly fox who won’t hesitate to sell out anything or anyone around him. He only wants to benefit himself with minimal effort. Lu Xin scolded him back then for this and tried to send him out for a few years, yet unfortunately these few years outside didn’t turn him into a better soldier, only a better parasite that latches onto whatever benefits him. He can calculate behind Lin Jingheng today, see the tides turn the next day and turn against us; he’s not trustworthy.”

Woolf shook his head.

Ankur might seem harmless and easy to manipulate, yet Woolf was well aware that he had at least three different connections behind his back right now. He had more faces than the social butterflies of the Union, and could cry by the graves of Lu Xin while holding hands with pirates behind his back.

Wang Ailun added: “His plan to deal with Lin Jingheng also won’t work. You should know the boy, he’s been a ferocious wolf ever since he was a kid who won’t trust a single word from any man alive. Why would he fall into Ankur’s trap so easily?”

Woolf commented lightly: “Neither of the siblings took after the Lin family, they’re both more like Laura Gordon–how’s the situation with Harris?”

“Harris is already on the move in the shadows. If this plan goes well, we can finally engrave Lin Jingheng’s name on the memorial of heroes in the Union and clean out the toxic pests inside the organization with his hands. It’s to kill two birds with one stone.” Wang Ailun pulled out a biochip as he spoke, “Also, I decoded his personal device while he was unconscious in the medical capsule and made a copy of the data inside.”

The modern human lives for too long, so human memory can become unreliable sometimes. Therefore, some people would choose to use digital devices to record their memories like how ancients wrote diaries. For people like Hope who were constantly engaging in intellectual activities, it was an especially good tool that could record all his memories and interactions in real-time.

“Harris used the fake name Hope in the Eighth Galaxy. He deleted a lot of his memory records when he was first captured in the Eighth Galaxy, so we only received information during the times he was kept hostage. There is quite a bit of information on here that we just finished decoding; there’s a lot of interesting people, one of whom is a young man who seemed to be naturally immune to the Rainbow Virus called Lu Bixing.”

Woolf was slightly shocked: “His last name is Lu?”

“Oh, his father is an admirer of Commander Lu Xin so he changed his name to Lu.” Wang Ailun said, “RV-II-type Rainbow Virus is highly contagious, and while we discovered that vaccuocerebrals tend to have some sort of immunity stronger than the average person, we’ve never run into a case where anyone who was in close range with the virus would not be infected. Isn’t that quite interesting? However, the person I wanted to show you today is not him.”

Wang Ailun inserted the chip into his personal device as he spoke and the photo of someone popped up before Woolf–it was Saturday.

Woolf asked: “Who is this?”

“This person is one of the core members of the Eighth Galaxy Galactic Forces named ‘Saturday’. He used to be from a family of smugglers that coincidentally ran into Lin Jingheng; he seemed quite fond of Harris and would often come chat with the old man. He’s quite young, and it seems like he does have some of his own personal issues.” Wang Ailun said, “After going through the history of his conversations, we discovered something interesting…this young man called Saturday’s whole family was killed for being engaged in human trafficking, which was related to a horrific experiment constructing human pets that would threaten the ecosystem of the black market.”

Woolf’s head slowly lifted.

Wang Ailun gave a courteous smile: “That’s right, they were the errand boys of the Nuwa Project in the Eighth Galaxy. And the young man doesn’t seem to know that the person who took him in was the same person who outed his whole family. His friends that raised him were all the same people who chased after his father; and one of his best friends, the Mister Lu I mentioned earlier who was immune to the Rainbow Virus, also has some strange connections with the Nuwa Project–say, isn’t this quite interesting?”

December 20th, NSC 276—-the first year of the New Era.

It was a time of trouble.

The Union found the directors of the Eden Committee and its higher level staff guilty; at the same time, the Parliament and Highest Court of Justice announced that they would uphold the justice and right of the late loyal Commander. They called for the unity of the people to fight against their common enemy.

At the same time, the General of the Seventh Galaxy Central Militia signed the treaty with the Eighth Galaxy and officially opened up the terminal between the two galaxies. On the outermost planet of the Seventh Galaxy, Planet Sabien, the grand red carpet and ribbon cutting ceremony was held as if they were celebrating a galactic holiday, earning a crowd of curious residents to watch.

Ankur proposed to rename Plant Sabien to Planet Peace.