Cat and Rose - Cat & Rose - Chapter 4 - From the Deepest Depths of the Whirlpool (4)

Chapter 4 – From the Deepest Depths of the Whirlpool (4)

But before their Last Supper could even begin, an unforeseen event occurred.

All of a sudden, the spaceship shook violently, Lucia’s projection vanished, and the alarm rang out:

“Detected Thirring effect. Now leaving the infinite redshift surface, now leaving the infinite redshift surface. Now activating the Lundis protective force field. Now approaching the ring singularity, now approaching the ring singularity.”

The ring singularity was the end point of time and space. If one entered the ring singularity, the only thing that greets them would be eternal stillness.

“Unknown error. Force field generation failed.”

Almost instantly after the first turbulence, the spaceship made a ninety-degree turn, the hull dipped sharply, and the several youths who had huddled together went tumbling to the corner.

Lin Si quickly got up and moved Ling Yi to the side, away from the corner of the table he could bump into.

After the first wave of turbulence, not only did it not subside, it became even more severe. The spaceship kept spinning and shaking, then flipped over after dipping several times. Lin Si grabbed Ling Yi in almost a split-second before they flipped over, his back slamming against the ceiling.

Ling Yi lifted his head from his chest, but Lin Si pressed him down again.

“Hold on tight,” said Lin Si flatly.

The spaceship came to a sudden stop, and then began to spin wildly. Its direction changed rapidly and erratically; the metal walls and ceiling began to deform under enormous pressure, emitting a harsh noise from its friction.

Lucia frantically sounded warnings. “Unable to deploy the Lundis force field. Approaching ring singularity. Countdown to destruction in 7, 6, 5, 4…”

Holding Ling Yi, Lin Si rolled to a relatively safe corner of the room and stabilised his breathing. “Lucia!”

“I’m here, mister.”

“Increase warp speed to nine times. The target is the ring singularity.”

The countdown ended. All remaining energy was no longer conserved, burning wildly, and the warp drive that occupied a quarter of the spaceship’s mass was all turned on with a loud rumble.

The warp drive was the greatest invention of the last century. By bending the spacetime in which the spaceship itself was located, it broke the limit that light speed could never go beyond.

In addition, with high-energy materials and subspace navigation technology, the technology of long-distance galactical travel had been completely matured.

After a single humming noise from far away, all sounds vanished like the ebbing of tides, and the entire spaceship fell into a vacuum of silence.

If, at this moment, someone could look down at the scene inside the black hole from a higher dimension, they would see the nearly-crushed spaceship rushing towards the silent grave of time and space, bringing with it layers and layers of ripples in spacetime, like surging waters rushing towards a cliff.

And right when it was about to fall into a bottomless abyss, it set off a colossal splash!

Ling Yi held Lin Si tight. He felt sick; before his eyes was a blinding white.

Lin Si was not in any better shape either.

He was struck by intense dizziness and nausea, as if his whole body was squeezed into a particle then exploded, scattering to every corner of the spaceship.

Only Lucia’s voice steadily came forth.

“Discovered blueshift radiation. Entered the white hole singularity.”

“The Lundis force field has been activated.”

“Begin charging.”

The invisible force field was activated, protecting the spaceship from destruction by the white hole’s momentum. The blue energy flows surged on the spaceship’s outer shell, gathered, and finally shot towards the engine area; the warp drive that was about to be extinguished was revived once more.

Ling Yi opened his eyes in Lin Si’s hold. In front of him, the infinitely convoluted world was falling apart, indescribable and dizzying, making him feel nauseous.

“Close your eyes!” Lin Si’s cold order faintly sounded by his ear, and then he felt a strong pinch on his upper arm—it was quite painful.

He was struggling in discomfort, and yet he subconsciously hugged Lin Si and refused to let go. Unable to exert strength, he instinctively opened his mouth and bit down hard before his consciousness blurred over.

When he woke up again, he was still in Lin Si’s arms, and the spaceship was already much steadier than before.

Lin Si reached out his hand to touch the crook of his neck and found blood all over it.

“Ungrateful little creature.” 2 When he finished speaking, he reached out to wipe his bloodied hand twice on Ling Yi’s little face.

Ling Yi struggled free from his hold, ran away in thumping steps, and huddled himself in another corner, refusing to speak.

The several youths on the other side of the spaceship had also recovered their mobility. Holding their heads, they staggered to find Lin Si when they caught a glimpse of the view outside the window through their peripheral visions. After a long moment of shock, they could only stammer, “Are we…out?”

Gravity was recovered, the oxygen levels rose once more, and the temperature grew warmer. Lin Si took off his coat and discovered that a large area of his shoulder had been drenched with blood.

As he gave his wound simple treatment, he said, “In the end, I thought—since a white hole is the inversion of a black hole, then why not try hitting the ring singularity? Lucia, sort out the data to submit to Area 1 after we return to the mothership.”

They never thought that colliding with the ring singularity would accidentally open up the white hole. Having just escaped death, they all felt weak in the legs, took several deep breaths, and only then was the elation of survival born. They exchanged glances, then excitedly began to embrace each other.

Ling Yi sat in the corner hugging his knees, completely mismatched with the joyful atmosphere.

He could hear the sound of footsteps coming closer.

A steady pace—the moment he heard it, he knew it was that loathsome Lin Si. Even his footsteps were detestable.

He seemed to have bled a lot from that bite he gave him. Sure enough, he was going to treat him even more terribly!

The little thing shrunk himself against the corner with all his might.

After the footsteps stopped, he could only hear the sounds of steady breathing. That person did not make any movements, to his surprise.

It was only after a good while that Ling Yi heard Lin Si say flatly, ”Raise your head.”

With a heart filled with fear and reluctance, he begrudgingly raised his head. The first thing he saw was not Lin Si, but rather the window in front of him, and was stunned for a moment.

Seeing this little thing—face like a kitten, teardrops still hanging from his widened eyes, looking out of the window in a daze—the corners of Lin Si’s mouth upturned slightly.

The vast sea of stars spread boundlessly outside the round porthole, with the beautiful and profound nebulae hidden in its depths, almost imperceptible. Millions of stars gently glowed, completely different from the darkness and stillness inside the black hole.

Lin Si suddenly asked, ”Can you remember your parents?”

Ling Yi blinked in confusion. His mind was blank. He felt a sense of familiarity, but couldn’t conjure anything.

“Daddy…” he muttered a word, then said softly, “…Where’s my daddy?”

With his unchanged voice, his pronunciation of “Daddy” inevitably came out sounding childish and sweet.

Lin Si gazed at the depths of the stars outside the window. “Everyone on Earth is dead.”

It was hard to tell whether the little one understood. He simply stared at the outside dazedly.

Lin Si ruffled his hair. Suddenly, there was a burst of colours in his vision—a precursor to losing consciousness.

The several youths hurriedly moved him to the bed, then found that he had already passed out.

“Since Dr. Lin had to fly the spaceship with Lucia, he hardly got any sleep these days,” said Seth, injecting medicine into Lin Si. “Let him take a good rest.”

The youths walked out of the room, leaving Ling Yi by himself.

He cautiously walked to the bedside, watched quietly for a while, and after making sure that the man would not wake up, crept to the other side, gathered the soil scattered messily on the ground, and put it into the beaker. He then violently stuffed in the half-dead cat grass, poured in a lot of water, and ran out of the room in thudding steps.

Lucia’s mechanical voice echoed in the hall: “Current coordinates: Second Spiral Arm, Greater Cygnus, Rose Galaxy. Schwarzschild coordinates 24789-78558-67865. Destination: Cetus asteroid TN-III. Distance: 8,700 light years. Energy status: sufficient. Preparing to enter the third-level subspace. Estimated journey duration: 67 hours and 26 minutes.”

Lin Si ended up sleeping for ten hours. As safety crises would not occur during subspace journeys, he regained enough energy to study his experimental sample.

The slight affection Ling Yi had for him due to the navigation crisis was all gone after he was held down twice for blood draws and once for a biopsy, and that cat grass in the beaker that finally showed signs of recovery was pulled out again.

Amidst continuous days of chaos, the subspace voyage came to an end.

Area 6 circled the atmosphere of the asteroid until the giant black hull of the “Voyager” emerged at the end of their vision.

Lin Si sent a “connection request” message to the Voyager.

The call went through. An image of Zheng Shu, the person in charge of Area 5, appeared on the light screen in front of Lin Si.

Area 5 was a very large area where various programmes were carried out, and it was also responsible for the spaceship’s navigation and maintenance. “Lucia” was one such product of Area 5. However, Zheng Shu was not the person in charge of that project—his field was machinery, which also included weapons.

He was about thirty years old and possessed a handsome and gentle appearance. When he saw Lin Si, he looked in disbelief at first, then astonished.

Lin Si said, ”Zheng-ge.”

“Lin Si…” Zheng Shu shook his head, smiling as he said, “We all thought you were dead for sure. How did you do it? It’s practically a miracle.” Then he spoke again. “But…you’ve always been extraordinary.”

Lin Si said, “We have a very detailed logbook. I’ll send it to you when we get back.”

Zheng Shu still couldn’t believe his own eyes. “Surviving a black hole—it’s unbelievable.”

“No welcome for me?” Lin Si folded his arms.

“You’re very welcome,” said Zheng Shu. “Tang Ning was just thinking of you yesterday. We held a big memorial service for you after we left the black hole. Madam Chen was very upset, while Marshal Süss seemed pretty cheerful. I heard that he even ordered an extra glass of wine.”

“Hm,” said Lin Si, “then he’ll probably be so pissed off that he won’t be able to stomach his dinner today.”

Zheng Shu let out a sigh, smiling. “Well, anyway—welcome back. Let’s talk again when we see each other.”

The image vanished. The Voyager’s hull in the distance began to move slowly, preparing to connect with Area 6.

Having become familiar with Lin Si these past days, Seth asked curiously, “Doctor, what kind of conflict do you have with the Marshal?”

“The Marshal ultimately suspects that there is one or a group of terrorists on board trying to hinder the great journey of the Voyager,” Lin Si looked at the hull of the Voyager and said. “Furthermore, he also thinks that if there’s anyone who has reason to hate this spaceship, then that person would be none other than me.”

Seth scratched his head. “You’re a good person.”

Lin Si looked at him wryly and said, ”Do you have some kind of misunderstanding of me?”

*

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