Cat and Rose - Cat & Rose - Chapter 51 - limitless (4)

Chapter 51 – limitless (4)

The cold pierced deeply into their bones. Over thirty hours had passed, and the planet welcomed daytime once more. It was fortunate that this was a planet where normal day and night existed; hypothetically, if it was a planet with polar day or polar night, then they could only borrow gravity to feel out the direction of the surface—and the gravity was minimal here.

A faint light could be seen through the ice layers. Inside the cave, the Colonel’s Skeleton turned around with difficulty, then excavated facing upwards. In the past few years, the Skeletons played important roles, such as right now. If they did not have this kind of miraculous robot, it would have been impossible for them to come out alive.

During the period of undefined tremors, the ice layer fractured and restructured itself, resulting in deep cracks and crevices. They recalled back to the mysterious marks they found below the ice—so it was caused by this.

It was miraculous, yet terrifying, just like this entire universe they were in.

Digging towards the outside was much more difficult than blowing up a deep hole, after all, blowing up the ice at this time was essentially an act of suicide, so they could only use particle oscillation weapons and ways of physics to break the ice. The ice layer above became thinner and thinner, they moved nearer and nearer towards the light of day, and after a final “snap”, the cool and dry air flooded in. They finally returned to the surface.

The iron arm broke through the final layer of hard ice. The mechanical giant climbed out of the deep ice cave, then pulled Ling Yi out along with it.

On Ling Yi’s body and hair were gleaming ice flakes that crystallised. He was very weak, his entire body was ice cold. After shaking off the ice droplets, he almost could not stand upright.

The Colonel placed him on his own back and attempted to send signals to the Expeditioners.

The earth’s magnetic field was in disorder, so was the compass. The signal remained poor, the calls did not connect even after several times.

Whether the people at the temporary base had received Lucia’s assistance and successfully evacuated, whether they attempted to save them after evacuation, whether they gave up, everything was an unknown factor right now.

Suddenly, fine white feathers drifted from the sky.

It was snowing.

All over the skies, covering the earth.

Ling Yi reached out to touch the hexagonal snowflakes he had never seen in real life, in his eyes a very faint smile.

The Colonel saw him turn on his sound recording system.

“It’s the fourth year since I left home. This is Galaxy 8-TUW857, there is no signal. The Colonel and I are in danger, maybe we’ll die.”

“If I can’t be saved, I hope everyone else has smoothly evacuated and restarted the voyage. I hope my soul can return to Lin Si’s side.”

“It’s snowing so beautifully.”

His voice lowered softly, “I miss Lin Si so much.”

This was a long-standing tradition and rule, where if you were in a dangerous and life-threatening situation, you would record your will, your teammates would find it, then bring it back to your homeland and return it to your family or lover.

The Colonel silently held the half-conscious Ling Yi against the Skeleton’s chest, attempting to block out some of the cold winds, and then, he activated the final emergency call for help—the entire robot emanated a bright, red light over a large area.

They did not know their location, and could not connect the communicators. The only way of calling for help was to make themselves brighter against the snow.

A long, long time passed. The Colonel did not want to look at the clock anymore. Ling Yi’s body temperature lowered further and further; apart from his weak breathing and heartbeat, he was almost like a corpse.

***

On the Expeditioner.

The people had gathered in the main hall. The main screen projected lines of many programs that were running.

“Calculation failure.”

“Analysis failure.”

“Definition failure.”

The error reports popped up again and again. It was Lucia, who was attempting to predict their location through calculating the flow of the ice layers according to these odd geological phenomena.

“Team 7 returns, no signs of life.”

“Team 3 has yet to discover signs of life.”

It was the seventh day.

Everyone was already in disbelief the moment the survival rate curve reached zero. Now it was continuously moving lower and lower, infinitely approaching zero.

Various rescue functions on the ship were activated to the maximum, even reaching the working limit for machines. It was not enough to send dozens of teams for a blanket search; the Expeditioner itself also hovered around in the skies.

“It’s hopeless,” sighed one of the Lieutenant Colonels.

Everyone else thought the same in their hearts.

When the Lucia system determined the survival rate to be zero, the search would be stopped, and the Expeditioners would set off to their next destination.

But this verdict had never been carried out in the end.

“Continuing search, generating solutions.” The robotic female voice sounded emotionless and ice cold.

“Alert, discovered an unknown light source.”

“Begin landing.”

The voices of Lucia’s different programmes alternated in speaking; when heard, it was as if several people were in a conversation.

When that red light that evidently did not belong to the planet appeared in their field of vision, everyone cheered.

Hearing the engine’s roar, the Colonel used the last of his strength to open his eyelids. “Lingling?”

Ling Yi did not reply, or perhaps his response was too weak and could not be detected by the stereo system.

Lucia stood at the cabin door. “Welcome back.”

“Thanks,” said the Colonel.

Lucia said flatly, “You’re welcome.”

The Colonel lost consciousness in the next instant.

Although he lost consciousness later than Ling Yi as he did not suffer from the cold, Ling Yi still ended up waking earlier.

When he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was Lucia.

“Welcome back to consciousness. Your vitals are functioning well.” It was a familiar voice without any accentuation.

“Thanks…” Ling Yi’s eyes were somewhat out of focus. He moved his four limbs, then sat up against the medical cabin. “I feel fine.”

He continued asking, “Where’s Colonel?”

“Confirmed survival.”

Ling Yi puffed out a breath of air, his eyes curving up. “That’s good then.”

He moved his finger, gradually regaining feeling and control over his body. It all appeared to be well.

“I had a dream,” he said. “I dreamt that it was snowing. Very heavily. Someone was building snowmans with me. Zheng Shu, very young…and another person.”

He recalled with all his might. “Ling Jing, my sister…she looked a lot like the photo.”

“Then…I went to look for things that could act as the snowman’s nose, and when I came back I saw them kissing in the snow.” Ling Yi looked at his palm and let out a laugh. “When they saw me, they separated. They must’ve loved each other very much.”

Nobody would speak with the voyage system, apart from Ling Yi.

When Lucia’s image appeared at his side, he would one-sidedly ramble to her without limit.

Lucia supported herself with her big sword, standing next to the medical bay cabin, and simply listened.

After a long time, she suddenly said, “Your survival rate was previously determined to be zero.”

“I also thought I was going to die,” Ling Yi told her earnestly. “Thank you for continuing to search for us.”

Lucia did not say anything more. She only stood there expressionlessly.

Speaking of which, this was the first time she actively replied to his talk.

Ling Yi looked at her, and suddenly fell into an instantaneous trance that felt like an electric shock. This trance came swiftly yet peculiarly, and when he finally reacted, he was already unable to grasp what feeling struck him just now.

During this planet exploration, although they encountered great danger, they fortunately did not suffer a huge loss. Ling Yi’s location was near the origins of the tremors, his message was sent just on time, which bought enough time for the military officers on the ground camp. Upon receiving the message, the first thing Lucia did was control the Expeditioner that was hovering in low air to land and intercept the staff of the ground camp. As such, apart from several large-sized machinery that could not be retrieved, there were no casualties among the members.

In the end, both he and the Colonel returned safely. Due to their strong physiques that went through modification, their vitals did not develop any long-term aftereffects, and everyone was happy.

The planet’s terrain had changed, the extraction work could not be continued, so after they recorded information regarding the planet, they leapt into the subspace once again, beginning a three-month long voyage.

They landed on over ten planets that were potentially habitable, extracted many precious minerals and resources, but could not find a truly suitable place. The next destination was the final destination of the Voyage, and also the most complex in its elemental composition, which meant it was most likely to have a habitable environment.

After they finished exploring this planet, they would embark on the journey back home.

***

“Preparing to exit subspace.”

“Leaping in 3, 2, 1.”

After a mild turbulence, they reappeared in the vast sea of stars of the original cosmos.

The cabin door on the side opened and several smaller ships flew out, preparing to place satellites in the destination planet’s outer layers.

This was a purple-coloured planet. Very beautiful, like it was shrouded in a misty satin.

As they got closer, when looking at it broadly, it was complex and variegated, the deep and pale purple colours overlapped and interweaved with white.

After eleven satellites were placed, the Colonel took a deep breath, opened the screen, and said, “I have a special feeling.”

Ling Yi was on the co-pilot seat, also moving his gaze towards the screen.

Their field of vision descended straight down, then expanded infinitely.

The Colonel said, “…Fuck.”

He was unable to recover in an instant, simply leaned on the back of his chair and breathed in deeply several times. Then, he looked at Ling Yi, “We did it.”

Cheering noises from the other teams emitted through the headphones.

Although the words these soldiers used to convey joy was somewhat crass, just like how the Colonel was, the true happiness they felt within was inexpressible.

“Please stay calm.” Svena’s voice rang out from the command room. “I can see what you’re all seeing. You must stay calm. Please confirm invisibility mode is operating normally, please confirm the invisibility mode is operating normally.”

They could see—

Rivers, dark purple jungles, hills that rose and fell continuously.

Water, plants, appropriate temperature.

Life existed on this planet.

Likewise, Ling Yi’s heartbeat quickened and only calmed down after a long time. He looked at the control panels of the silver spaceship, confirming they were in invisibility mode.

The presence of life meant the presence of danger. If intelligent life forms existed, then their tracks could be discovered.

However, Lucia’s signal capture system did not receive significant waves from this planet, therefore intelligent lifeforms most likely did not exist, and everyone was relaxed for now.

The Colonel could not hold himself back anymore, “Please request the landing operation.”

Svena sounded like she was smiling. “Please commence landing.”

Needless to say, the landing process was joyous; the entire spaceship was filled with excitable conversations. In the short span of two to three hours, they fell madly in love with this planet.

Ling Yi quietly put on his protective clothing.

The Colonel raised his eyebrows. “Why’re you wearing it this time?”

Ling Yi said, “Lin Si said that this kind of planet with life may have bacteria our immune systems cannot fight against.”

“What a good boy,” said the Colonel.

Their team landed in a spread of dark purple jungle. The plants were odd-looking, its branches and leaves seemed to be twisted from various shapes, and dangled from them were vines that leaked a sticky, slimy sheen, as well as fruits that were transparent to the point of emitting light. The leaves were very thick and sturdy, unlike the light and thin ones on Earth, and had a translucent, flesh-like quality to it. When observed closely it looked a little terrifying, or some people would find it cute instead. This jungle was humid and wet with its winding river, in fact, it looked slightly similar to the scenery of a rainforest on Earth.

When their two feet stepped upon the moist, soft grass, that feeling they yearned for so long almost drove them mad, made their legs numb, and caused them to tremble unstoppingly.

Two members of the team even hugged each other and laughed until they cried.

“Thank you God!”

After they revelled in the bushes and shrubs, one of the team members ran to the riverside.

“I don’t even remember how long it was since the last time I saw a river,” he said.

“Wow—” he suddenly exclaimed, ”there’s something alive in the water!”

He used his energy gun to kill it, then from the water, fished out a thing with a long-shape, his voice suddenly rising in several pitches. “It sure is ugly.”

“I feel like vomiting.”

“Same.”

They crowded together, observing that thing.

It was an oval-shaped living creature around the length of a forearm. It had no scales, no organs were visible, as if it was just a piece of flesh. It was deep purple in colour, and was peppered in dense black dots like the seeds on a strawberry’s exterior.

Ling Yi gave it a glance from afar, very unwilling to go forward.

The crowd of people expressed their desire to vomit as they fiddled with that thing.

This living creature that was killed by the energy beam was currently transforming.

It softened, then melted, like a snail that encountered salt.

Lastly, a deep purple liquid flowed all over that person’s hand.

“It…it burnt…” His voice trembled.

The gloves of his protective gear—that were made from the top materials and would not even be damaged by thousand degrees of hot temperature or extreme acid—gradually turned yellow in the areas it came into contact with the liquid, then began to turn black.

“Take it off right now!” the Colonel shouted sternly.

At this moment, Svena’s voice rang out. “Many teams have encountered abnormal native species. Lucia is currently doing a risk analysis. Please be careful and cautious, explore conservatively for now.”

Even before her voice fell, Lucia’s voice rang out. “Danger level: unknown, please immediately return to the ship, please immediately return to the ship, wear Skeletons and await the next command.”

They heeded Lucia’s instructions, returning to the ship; the person at the start cut off the entire sleeve of his protective wear and threw it on the grass. Within the next five minutes, that sleeve transformed into a puddle of sticky black water.

At that moment, everyone fell quiet.

Unknown life systems should not be probed too carelessly to begin with, as these things already surpassed normal comprehension.

The team of over ten members shared a communication channel. At this moment, a voice derived from an unknown member rang in their ears. “My body feels a bit hot.”

*

The author has something to say:

A new storm!

I have an exam on Wednesday, so I won’t update tomorrow. This week is midterms.

But today’s chapter is very fat =w=

Thank you for reading on myeasynovel.com