Can Ci Pin - - - Chapter 130

Chapter 130 – The Passcode

“I found a recorded message by accident that Laura sent to the AUS right before she died.” Lin Jingheng turned the mech on autopilot–the Freedom Corps mech was equipped with a well-rounded navigation system that allowed pirates to find the best hiding spots within the depths of the universe. “She said that your criminal charge back then was ‘anti-humanity, allying with foreign pirates, and human experiments.’ Because of you, registration to Eden became obligatory and therefore eradicated the concept of ‘missing persons’ from human society. Doctor, are you going to tell me that all of these charges have been fabricated by the Eden Committee?”

Doctor Hardin’s expression stiffened when he heard the phrase ‘recorded message.’

“You told me that your students were the ones that joined the crazies in the AUS and that you had nothing to do with them but that wasn’t what I heard.” Lin Jingheng continued, “There was another secret file inside the AUS headquarters that recorded a portion of the organization’s funding sources; Doctor Hardin, I’ve seen your name on that file. You surely can’t say that this was a conspiracy against you between the Committee and the AUS, right?”

Doctor Hardin answered hoarsely: “You’ve already retrieved the data from the AUS, that’s why…you’ve known that I was keeping things from you since the moment you opened your eyes on that small planet.”

Lin Jingheng gave him another sneer; the blood stain still remained at the corner of his eyes.

For fourteen years, this man had not leaked even the slightest hint that he already knew the doctor was hiding something. He simply acted cautiously around everyone and developed a cooperative relationship with Doctor Hardin while remaining a difficult person to get along with most of the time. Yet despite his shithead personality, sometimes he would display vague hints of kindness that made it seem as if the harsh reality was slowly chipping away at his hard shell as the two non-chip carriers lived interdependently.

Once again, that was all a facade.

The doctor had a sudden realization; when Lin Jingshu locked up the galactic prison and fled from the dwarf planet, he remembered visiting Lin Jingheng inside the ecopod who at that time had barely woken up. Lin Jingheng had a change of attitude from a single line by the doctor and immediately blew up a bottle of liquid with high conductivity…looking back now, perhaps that was also an act he put on.

The man purposely painted himself as the dangerous prisoner of the planet and shaved away the suspicion inside the old doctor’s heart.

Now, they were the only two living beings inside the mech. Lin Jingheng controlled the mental network and was finally in a position of power, so he lowered his gaze and faced Doctor Hardin without any reserve: “Right–so, Doctor, perhaps you can tell me now. Why did you choose not to contact the AUS after you ‘died’ and instead went off to start your own campfire?”

Doctor Hardin answered lightly: “What will you do if my answer doesn’t satisfy you?”

“Nothing. Don’t worry, Doctor,” Lin Jingheng spoke in the old Woltorian tone that they both hadn’t used in years and answered nonchalantly, “after living through the hands of the AUS and Freedom Corps, I’m sure you’re an extremely valuable asset who already has the core technology of the opium biochip in his hands. Almost too valuable, so even I have to keep you safe ‘with care’.”

“Commander Lin.” Doctor Hardin let out a long sigh. He felt that even as a top researcher from the White Tower, he was no longer in a position to call him ‘Jingheng’; he had grown used to standing on top with the elites, always thinking he was the smart one among a sea of foolish people. He always felt that he was the overseer of the game while everyone else was pawns and players…yet he forgot that these ‘players’ on the board were all people who had once stood in the eye of the storm on Wolto’s political stage. This was the same for Lin Jingheng and Woolf–even Lu Xin wasn’t as foolish as he’d imagined, but the late commander had taken too much under his wing and couldn’t manage to protect everything he fought for.

“Let the medical capsule take out the biochip for you first,” Doctor Hardin shrunk back into an old and tired ball as he spoke calmly, “the opium biochip is very dangerous. It will cause irreversible damage to your biological buildup up to a certain extent; do you really want to become a crazy addict of that chip?”

Lin Jingheng rested his head upon one arm and looked at him unfazed: “I thought the initial biochip you researched wasn’t an addictive drug, but a tool leading to ‘human evolution’.”

Doctor Hardin was shocked: “How did you know?”

“I’ve spent quite some time in the Eighth Galaxy before and learned about the history of the Nuwa Project, even came in close contact with the mutated Rainbow Virus. I’ve also had a reliable researcher with me,” Lin Jingheng said. “What, am I wrong?”

Doctor Hardin closed his mouth.

“I’ve heard that the Rainbow Virus can regress cells back into stem cells and trigger DNA evolution, so if there are ways to utilize this particular characteristic of the virus it’s possible to rebuild the human body into a base for artificial ‘evolution’. With the support of the biochip, humanity will become a species of infinite potential for evolution,” Lin Jingheng waved off the robot arms on the medical capsule after they finished sewing up his wound. He refused the sticky anti-scarring gel from the capsule and buttoned up his shirt while he spoke in a somewhat playful tone, “The Nuwa Project in the Eighth Galaxy had successfully created a birdman, I’ve seen him before. You can’t tell me that as the first director of the White Tower, you were less skilled than those self-taught scientists in the Eighth Galaxy, right?”

Doctor Hardin answered dryly: “That was…that was only a theory we came up with. It’s impossible for the Rainbow Virus to fully manipulate the human body. We’ve never successfully raised the ideal base body for evolution, and the biochip was…”

“A foundational theory.” Lin Jingheng interrupted him as his venmous gaze rested on the doctor’s throat. “That can’t be right, Doctor, you’re too humble. If it was only a foundational theory, why did you hide for so many years?”

A chilling sense of fear crawled up Doctor Hardin’s back; those slightly cold but occasionally spirited grey eyes of Lin Jingheng that he had grown used to seeing for over a decade were suddenly darker than a black hole. The doctor saw through those eyes and realized that this man also wanted the core research of the Nuwa Project.

Neither of the twins were characters that deserved to be looked down upon. Though compared to Lin Jingshu’s mad terrorism, the former Union Commander Lin Jingheng’s schemes were much more fearsome.

“Doctor, you’ll be very safe in my hands. None of your secrets will be exposed and I can provide you with all the necessary tools Jingshu gave you for your research. I even know a whole group of vaccuocerebrals that would be more than happy to become your test subjects.” Lin Jingheng lowered his voice gently and spoke into the doctor’s ears, “You also have me; my mental strength is constantly stable at the human limit. For almost a whole century, nobody in the Union could compete against me in this department. I can even help you examine the limits of mankind–aren’t we supposed to be constantly striving for more power?”

Doctor Hardin had a sudden change of expression: “What are you talking about? Are you being controlled by the opium chip!?”

Lin Jingheng looked at him calmly.

“I won’t give the core research of the Nuwa Project to anyone! Whether it’s the AUS, Lin Jingshu, or you! You can kill me right now if you want!”

Lin Jingheng pressed on the doctor’s shoulder with a faint smile on his face: “Shh–chill out, Doctor. Neither of us are scared of death, I know.”

Doctor Hardin was pressed into the medical capsule by the young commander. Even if the old doctor had the greatest mind in the world, he didn’t have a body fit enough to fight back. His whole life had been an endless game of escaping from trap after trap.

“When I left the White Tower, I destroyed all my research materials and cut off connection with the AUS…that was because I discovered that they tried to use me to monopolize the technology behind the Nuwa Project. They wanted to determine who could evolve into a superhuman and who would make up the class below that would serve the superhumans. That was when I understood why evolution must be a natural process: artificial evolution would only create great calamities in human society, so I refused to work with the AUS…and let myself take the blame for everything. In the end, I couldn’t even determine who betrayed me. Was it the loyal followers of the Eden Committee or my students that allied themselves with the AUS? I really don’t know! I had nowhere to entrust Jingshu to and could only let her stay with the Committee because I believed that they were at least better than the pirates!”

His voice grew more agitated and desperate as he spoke, almost as if he were questioning his past self across a quagmire of guilt: “But how did she turn out like this? How did we manage to trudge down this path? Why did we end up like this?”

His old friend Woolf was the pillar of the Union. The doctor had always been concerned that his friend was too loyal to the Union and would end up becoming a pawn of the Eden Committee; that was why he added Woolf’s name onto the forbidden fruit back then, only to realize now that he had unknowingly planted the seed of tribulation for this world.

Lin Jingshu had forced him to watch her twisted ‘experiments’ on the opium in order to probe the old doctor’s knowledge and threaten him, forcing him to watch her slowly build up her crazed underground kingdom.

In the pit of despair, Doctor Hardin met the legendary Commander Lin who almost gave his life away for the Seventh and Eighth Galaxy. He thought that Lin Jingheng would be different from others, only realizing that everything had been another elaborate lie.

The truth was that everyone in the world was the same in pursuing their own desires for power and authority.

“Tell me, what should I do? Is this the punishment I received for touching the forbidden area of Eden? Was I supposed to be a fool that worked for the Committee, properly managed Eden, and lived in the fever dream of Wolto? You…”

Doctor Hardin suddenly stopped as his eyes widened. He saw Lin Jingheng take out a bloodied piece of biochip from his pocket and tossed it onto a small tray beside him.

“You…already…”

“Get some rest, I’m sure you’re tired.” Lin Jingheng retracted the cold and avaracious expression on his face as he finally let go of the old doctor. He gave the medical capsule a simple order as the capsule shot a small bit of sedative into the doctor’s veins.

Doctor Hardin stared dumbly at him: “You…”

He vaguely saw a bit of pity on Lin Jingheng’s face before his eyelids grew heavy from the sedative, dragging him into deep slumber.

After the doctor finally fell asleep, Lin Jingheng pulled up the record of the doctor’s blood pressure, heart rate, and hormone levels from earlier and sent it to the supercomputer on the mech. He studied the truthfulness of every word the old doctor said as he tossed the biochip into the trash.

Doctor Hardin passed his initial test–Lin Jingheng summoned a robot as he rolled the capsule back into the medical chamber and cleaned up all the corpses left on the mech. He then pulled out some hidden wine left on the mech; he did need to bring Doctor Hardin back to the Eighth Galaxy because Lu Bixing’s Rainbow Virus-built body had always been a worry of his. He needed to make sure Monoeyed Hawk and his half-assed lackeys hadn’t left any aftereffects on this child’s body.

The mech sailed quietly along the stars as Lin Jingheng was finally given a short moment of rest from gunfire and the battle of wits. The longing thoughts that he’d suppressed in his heart grew like weeds in a field, ready to pierce through his chest.

He’d promised that person that he would return, no matter how long it would take.

He’d lost contact with the Eighth Galaxy for over a decade after the ambush of the combined fleets. Turan had given that person a dose of anesthetics under his silent approval…

What would Lu Bixing think when he woke up?

Would the young man think his commander was dead?

Would the young man hate him?

Would the young man…forget about him?

Lin Jingheng’s heart ached slightly at the last thought while the bitter taste of alcohol rolled down his throat. The burning sensation of the wine in his stomach pulled his mind back to reality, making him feel slightly light-headed– perhaps due to the blood loss from his injury.

Lin Jingheng forced himself to focus when the first response to his long-distance message arrived: “Who are you!?”

The commander packed up all his overflowing and unchecked emotions back into his heart and locked it up, returning to his immovable demeanor as a commander. He placed the empty wine glass on the rack and responded: “Who do you think I am, fool?”

On the other side of the channel, Thomas Young, who was secretly chasing after a fleet of Freedom Corps pirates felt his eyes watering as he yelled into his own team’s channel: “Fool! I can’t believe he called me a fool again! Am I really that stupid? He hasn’t contacted us in sixteen years, we didn’t even know if he was dead or alive–he could’ve at least left a message for us! I almost fucking disbanded our squadron! What kind of shitty boss and commander is he!?”

The Third Squadron’s communication channel was completely silent as everyone listened to their captain rant.

Poisson let out a sigh.

Thomas hollered back at his boss with a hoarse voice: “Silver Third Squadron received! Heading over to the Heart of the Rose immediately and will be on standby!”

“Silver First Squadron received.”

“Silver Tenth Squadron is on our way to the Heart of the Rose.”

“Silver Sixth Squadron is fully assembled, we are on standby at your order. It has been twenty years, Commander.”

“Silver Fourth Squadron’s casualty rate was extremely high; the entire Squadron is now left with only three people and two mechs. We haven’t given up our fight in sixteen years; it’s a pleasure to hear your voice again, my commander.”

August 15th, NSC 290.

The Glory Troops that had taken over Wolto for over fifteen years finally fell to their knees and broke down from the inside out under the pressure of the combined Union and Central Militia forces. The President was still stubbornly living his fever dream of a great empire and refused to surrender until he was assassinated by his own subordinate in his backyard.

Two days later, the Glory Troops announced their surrender and that they would retreat all forces from the First Galaxy without any underlying conditions. They also promised to hand the crystal ball of the Union, Wolto, back to the Union.

The City of Angels celebrated in tears of joy when the news came in. People pinned the Azure Sea to their chests and hugged one another. From NSC 275 to 290, they had been kicked out of Eden, their hometown, and lived in fear day and night. They didn’t dare to look up at the night sky or reminisce about the beautiful horizon on Wolto until now when they could finally see a ray of hope.

September 1st, thousands of superdimensional heavy mechs landed on Wolto and held a grand celebration of the pirate’s surrender as the Union once again reclaimed the planet. On the same day while the world’s attention was on the capitol planet, the Freedom Corps suddenly charged in during this time of weakened First Galaxy defense and took over planet Serbia, holding the entire planet hostage.

A dark mist once again clouded the ray of hope before the celebration ended, foretelling that this crisis of human history was nowhere near the end.

At the edge of the First Galaxy, the Union and Freedom Corps troops gathered up silently in a stalemate that lasted days.

Planet Serbia lacked natural resources and wasn’t an ideal location for living. Once every six years, the planet would orbit near the forbidden land of the Heart of the Rose. Even though the Union called it a danger zone, the real forbidden area wasn’t deep inside the Heart of the Rose and was actually the edge of the territory that was still under human control. Therefore, many tourists would visit the planet during this time to get a close look at the rumored forbidden zone of the First Galaxy. Serbia became a popular tourist location with very few permanent residents, with tourists making up most of the population on the planet. Most of the planet’s resources were outsourced from other planets, so the pirates skipped the method of a massacre and instead ‘accidentally’ blew up a supply of nutrient syringes. Without proper communication with the rest of the galaxy, the planet quickly ran into the problem of a food and water shortage.

The pirates didn’t block off the signals of their hostages and let these desperate people send out cries for help.

The morning of September 10th, the Parliament of Wolto was filled with people seated in silence like the normal state of the government prior to the war.

This was day ten of the planetary kidnapping incident on Serbia.

On closer inspection, the Parliament was still visibly different from how it was before the war. Before the war, the center seats of the Parliament were reserved for the Eden Committee; every politician from their respective galaxies had their own section in the Parliament around the Committee. The flashy politicians took over the most important seats while the Military Council were placed in the outermost corner of the hall like a bunch of outliers.

Now, the entire hall was filled with intimidating people in different military outfits.

Old Chief Commander Woolf arrived late to the meeting.

“Chief,” an old general broke the silence, “the people of the First Galaxy are gathering up to call for more action. We can’t simply continue the stalemate and give verbal condemnations, you must give us a plan of action to deal with this situation.”

The current First Commander of the First Galaxy added on: “Serbia will soon leave the danger zone in the Heart of the Rose, I’m afraid the pirates may make a move when that happens.”

The door to the Parliament opened as he finished. Secretary Wang Ailun walked in and said: “They’re already on the move.”

He moved his wrist as he spoke and sent news footage from his personal device onto the main screen inside the hall: “The pirates just announced that they will be holding a public poll on the hostage planet for the next week.”

“Pirates are organizing public polls? What a joke! What can they even vote on?”

The answer was displayed on the footage before Wang Ailun answered–Did the old Chief Commander Woolf commit a crime against humanity?

Chattering flooded the Parliament as everyone turned their gaze to Woolf standing on the chairman’s seat.

Woolf gave a small gesture to calm everyone down.

“You vote or you die, that’s their threat.” Wang Ailun said in a stern voice, “We already know the result of the poll; this isn’t just a personal offense to the old Chief, it’s a mockery to the Union’s foundational democratic spirit. We must take immediate action by force. In ten days from now, Serbia will leave the danger zone inside the Heart of the Rose; according to strategist analysis, the pirates will fully take control of the planet by then so we must reclaim the planet before that happens. The enemy didn’t block out communication signals in order to openly put pressure on and threaten the Union, so the stationed troops on the planet have been contacting us in code. I’ve heard that some citizens have attempted to break out by sailing further into the Heart of the Rose and some have even successfully escaped the planet. This proves that even the pirates have their reserves toward the Heart of the Rose and don’t dare to sail deep into the area; therefore, I suggest we detour around the Heart of the Rose and ambush the pirates from the back.”

“The disruption and noise have disappeared, we’ve confirmed the coordinates of our missing teammates as well. Our guards are making their way over right now, we estimate that we should be able to meet up within half an hour.” Mint lifted her head. “We’ve also detected energy reactions from transfer portals, requesting to relocate our signal–have we sailed out of the depths of the Heart of the Rose yet?”

Their connection with the far-away Eighth Galaxy was still unstable, it took at least ten tries to successfully send out the message. Thankfully due to the nature of this expedition, the entire Engineering Department was very patient about the inconsistencies.

“Received communication request–”

“Is it our escorts?” Mint mumbled to herself, “I thought I sent our coordinates to them already…wait, Captain, this seems like…”

Before she could finish, the rest of the team also noticed that an unexpected small starship was sailing towards them–unexpected because the starship was virtually destroyed and was barely functioning. Perhaps it was due to luck or a very skilled technician on board, but the starship’s main body was still untouched like a giant messenger bottle floating in the sea. It flew towards the Expedition Team with a broken engine as if it was ready to blow up the next second.

“People from the other galaxies?” The captain seemed a bit excited. This discovery meant that they had once again entered a zone of human activity after a decade. “Accept their request and greet these people.”

Mint picked up the request and was immediately greeted by countless voices from the other side. The voices ranged from old to young; a few children’s screams pierced through the channel, shocking Mint for a split second, unused to this sudden noise: “What’s going on?”

A weak but calm man’s voice passed through the countless cries in the background and explained clearly: “Hello, unknown fleet. We’re from the corner planet Serbia of the First Galaxy; everyone on this starship are unarmed civilians that include six elderly over the age of 250 and four children. We don’t have any weapons and our starship’s engine has completely broken down. We were pulled in by the gravitational forces in the Heart of the Rose. Our friends, regardless of which forces you belong to, are you able to give us a helping hand, out of humanity? I’ll repeat, we do not carry any arms…”

Eighth Galaxy, Planet Qiming, the Milky Way City Military Base Command Post.

“Prime Minister, we’ve just received a report from the wormhole area that the Expedition Team ran into a fleet of refugees from planet Serbia of the First Galaxy.”

Lu Bixing lifted his head: “What happened, I thought the Glory Troops were quite courteous to the people of the First Galaxy?”

“Apparently the pirate organization Glory Troops have surrendered. The First Galaxy had already been out of war for a while, so the pirates will officially drop their arms and leave the First Galaxy within sixteen hours and turn in their letter of surrender to the Union.”

Lu Bixing’s expression remained flat as he commented: “So it’s peaceful now? That’s pretty good. We barely found our way out and the Union dropped their guns; what kind of luck is this?”

“I’m afraid that isn’t the case,” Zhanlu said, “according to the information we received from Miss Mint and her team, an unidentified pirate fleet invaded planet Serbia and took the entire planet hostage. They are currently streaming their act live throughout the universe.”

“How lively,” Lu Bixing said. “Do they not have any navies stationed around, why did a whole planet fall so easily into enemy hands?”

Another unstable message was sent back to the Eighth Galaxy from the escort of the Expedition Team.

“Prime Minister, the panicked citizens are starting to flee into the Heart of the Rose, the escort team is awaiting your order…”

“Stay on standby, don’t mind unarmed starships.” Lu Bixing said, “The pirates and the Union can fight however they want, but I’d rather they don’t go near the Heart of the Rose or we’d have to welcome them.”

“Understood,” Zhanlu responded kindly, “let General Turan increase the troops…”

Turan barged in to the command post before he could finish.

Her whole body trembled while she breathed heavily in rhythm with the vibration.

Zhanlu: “General Turan, I’ve detected that your heart rate…”

“Pas-passcode!” Turan interrupted him frantically as she ran towards Lu Bixing’s desk and placed her hands on it. “The escort I sent to the Heart of the Rose detected from the transfer portals nearby…”

Lu Bixing pushed a cup of water towards her and spoke kindly: “Slow down a bit, what passcode?”

“C-communication passcode. Eleven…no, sixteen years ago…” Turan couldn’t even properly distinguish between the two calendars under her overflowing emotions. She even forgot her own position and grabbed the Prime Minister’s collar as she said, “Commander…”