Cat and Rose - Cat & Rose - Chapter 54 - Reappearing Yesterdays (3)

Chapter 54 – Reappearing Yesterdays (3)

It was a long night; everyone anxiously confirmed the conditions of their bodies. Even though nobody hoped for the unpleasant symptoms to occur, it still slowly descended upon them in the end.

Majority of crew members who landed showed signs of early infection. Even cases of people who stayed on the spaceship also appeared, as they previously shared a space with the landing crew. Low fever, dizziness, loss of strength—according to Lucia’s calculations, the onset of the illness developed faster for normal people, while those who were modified in the “limitless” programme developed slower.

Those who developed quicker in their illness had already begun to cough blood. Dempsey’s vital signs were in extreme danger—his internal organs were close to failure, and the medical cabin was unable to heal his body. Modern medical technology could cure any disease recorded in its database, but it was completely helpless against unknown viruses.

Ling Yi remembered that Lin Si used to say he wanted to become a doctor the most, and that he walked on the path of research due to Ye Selin’s influence—Ye Selin had said, a doctor could only save a limited number of people in their lifetime, but if you overcame a new disease, countless people would be able to escape from the clutches of Death.

However, Lin Si also mentioned that the diseases they could cure and overcome were limited. Facing multitudes of unknown diseases, whether it were doctors or researchers, they would still face the exact same helplessness. That was why, Lin Si believed that the key to solve this issue was to have a perfected physical body, which was his original intention of persisting through the “limitless” project.

In the present, the nightmares of the past have struck once more. The strong virus from the unknown planet had once again demonstrated to them how fragile the human body was, how it was unable to withstand even a single blow.

The full-cabin broadcast rang out once more. It was the Colonel’s voice. This time, his tone was not as grave, but rather like he was discussing a matter with everyone: “Everyone knows by now that the situation right now is extremely serious. We might all die soon from the virus. Lucia’s solution is for everyone to undergo freezing, while she will enter full autopilot mode and take us back to the Voyager. Freezing can slow down the spread of the virus, so before our bodies are completely damaged, perhaps the scientists on the Voyager can find a way to overcome this type of virus.”

After pausing, he spoke again. “This is, in fact, the only way. We can immediately proceed with it, but I still have an idea. Before we leave this planet, we must bring some things back. Although this damned place is terrible, its environment is too good. I don’t want to give up on it, so I plan to take a team on a trip to the ground to capture the organisms in the water. The Voyagers will definitely be able to analyse its components and whether or not we can still inhabit this planet in the future.”

“I respect everyone’s opinion. Shortly, I will hold a vote. People who are willing to follow me can immediately gather at floor negative one, on the assumption that you have already contracted the virus, but your condition is not too serious. The rest of you who are confirmed healthy, please go to the cryogenic freezing area as quickly as you can. After everyone has entered the freezing cabins, infected people can leave their rooms and proceed with freezing as well.”

—Healthy people went to the cryogenic freezing area first in order to lower the infection rate, maximising the number of survivors. After all, nobody knew whether they would still be alive to wake up after sleeping in the cabins.

The voting interface had already popped up. Many people who chose to follow the Colonel; almost everyone who had mild infections pressed “confirm”.

Even though this planet had welcomed them in such a cruel way, it did not mean they would give up on a place that had water, sunlight, and oxygen.

Ling Yi raised his head to look out of the window. A vast milky way spread across the night sky—it was very beautiful. These stars constantly shimmered, unchanging for even billions of years, but life was different. Compared to stars, it was essentially a speck of floating dust in the cosmos.

But dusts had their own world too. They also wanted to last a long time, inextinguishable like stars. A limited physical body could not withstand eternal life, so as a consolation, they used “continuation” to replace “immortality”, so that they would never give up, however miniscule hope was.

Ling Yi’s various vital signs were considered stable. His body temperature was normal, thus he was unable to confirm infection and did not follow the Colonel down there.

But it was impossible for him to not have been infected. Ling Yi remembered clearly that he even conversed with Dempsey before he went back to his room to sleep. During the nighttime training routine, they also stood very close together, so there was no reason why everyone else would be infected, but not him.

As such, he did not go to the cryogenic freezing area either.

Even amidst the atmosphere of terror that was spreading all over the spaceship, his expression was surprisingly calm.

A better body was equipped with a better immune system, so his own body could be combating the virus right now. He still possessed a mortal body made of flesh and bone, so in actuality, apart from completing dangerous missions and preventing more deaths, it was not of much use in combat or exploration. But at this moment, perhaps it could serve an even greater purpose.

Time flowed slowly within the silence. At the sixth hour, Ling Yi coughed out a mouthful of blood.

He took care of the blood stains expressionlessly, sitting in front of the control station, as if he was looking out at the milky way outside the window, or as if he was simply looking at a vague point in the void.

Lucia stood behind him for a very long time, still silent.

At the eighth hour, the Colonel’s team returned.

They used a giant rectangular container to store two creatures that were over a metre in length.

It was impossible to not mention how this thing was truly hideous. They floated without direction in the water, with deep black and purple oval-shaped bodies, peppered with dense, little black spots. The surveillance imaging was very clear, where magnifying it could allow one to see the details on their bodies. It was as if countless, tiny tentacles radiated from its centre all over, even one glance would make one feel nauseous.

Lucia helped operate the equipment. The Colonel supervised these things to be sent into the freezing devices, while coughing out mouthfuls and mouthfuls of blood at the same time. Only until freezing was complete and the two things no longer moved did he finally lie into his own freezing cabin.

He opened his mouth with difficulty. “Lucia, I’ll leave it to you.”

Lucia replied, “Please rest assured, Mr Colonel.”

The instant before the Colonel closed his eyes, Ling Yi did not know what he was thinking, but he suddenly sighed, “You’re exactly like…”

Ling Yi coughed out another mouthful of blood. He had stayed in the master control room the whole time without appearing in front of anyone, nor sent any messages to the Colonel. The Colonel must have believed he had obediently laid inside the cryogenic freezing cabin already.

If the Colonel knew he did not obey orders, he definitely would have personally stuffed him inside the freezing cabin, and watched him freeze like how he watched those two animals.

Hence, he did not leave, and Lucia did not expose him either. She was not programmed to tell tales.

Until the Colonel’s freezing procedure was complete, he had fallen into cryogenic sleep, and there was no other living person on this spaceship, Ling Yi finally stepped out of the master control room and arrived at the spaceship’s laboratory. This laboratory was built with simple, standard equipment. The equipment was not high-end, and nobody used it before either. But as he mingled in various laboratories over the years, he was long familiar with its basic composition.

From his past experience, he retrieved a series of lab equipment such as syringes and test tubes. After attaching the appropriate syringe needle, he searched up the procedure for blood extraction in Lucia’s database and recalled Lin Si’s movements, jabbing the sharp needle into his arm.

The location was incorrect, and there were issues with the needle’s depth. After he tried again many times and his arm had become peppered with little red dots, he finally found the supposed correct area.

He extracted half a tube of blood, injecting it into the test tube, then opened the freeze dryer to store the blood. The machine ran, and after a few minutes of buzzing, he successfully produced blood that could be stored for several years.

After completing everything, the entire spaceship fell into a deathly silence.

His body started to hurt. It was a pain that spread from the deepest parts of him, as if his entire body was being corroded by acid. But he felt like he could still endure it.

He went back to his own room, took out a pen, and began to write today’s diary entry.

We’re going back, very soon we’ll be returning to Voyager. Everyone has been frozen. I hope the virus can be halted by low temperature.

I hid from the Colonel and didn’t freeze myself. Lin Si said my genes have been transforming this whole time. I always feel that my body is alive, and perhaps it’s even defending itself against the virus right now. The onset of my illness really does seem to be much slower than everyone else’s.

I want to know the extent it can achieve, so I plan to store some of my blood after certain intervals. I won’t do the other tests for now—we can talk about it when the time comes. Even if I don’t survive the virus, I can still leave my procedure for Lin Si to reference.

I hope everything will go well.

After Ling Yi finished writing, he closed his diary, climbed onto the bed, and looked outside the window, hugging his knees.

Time and space set off ripples at this moment, creating a small quiver through the spaceship. The Expeditioner entered the subspace, and the starry sky from outside the window transformed into complete pitch black.

As the time flowed and passed, the pain gradually grew more intense. He curled in on himself.

The approximate duration for this much more lonely and much more painful journey was two years, and it was only beginning now.

—But, no matter how lonely and painful it would be, in the end, he was finally coming home.

*

The author has something to say:

They’re going back tomorrow.

My heart is aching qwq

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