After John Bronson fell, the scene that followed could only be described as chaos.
The exploration team members in the restaurant suddenly jumped up and helped restrain John. This was not to prevent him from hurting Lin Xi, but to prevent the old man who was twitching on the ground from hurting himself. It's just that when they did this, their actions were too rough. They even looked like... they even looked like they were going to kill John Bronson.
Lin Xi admitted that he was a little frightened, and he looked at the actions of those people in shock.
They looked like mad dogs, their eyes empty, but glowing with a beast-like light. Any sane person can see that John Bronson has no fighting power. It only takes one person to completely restrain the frightened old man. However, almost the entire exploration team in the restaurant is moving towards him. Pounced.
They suppressed the old man's body, and the blood vessels beat like worms under the blue-grey skin.
In the end, Lin Xi and Bryce even had to step forward and pull the overly excited men off the old man.
"Stop—"
In the end, Alyssa took control of the situation. She stopped the young men's excessive and rough movements, and then ordered Bryce to give Old John a shot of sedative.
This was a smart decision. After giving John the injection, the old man's convulsing body finally calmed down. Once he stopped moving, the exploration team members slowly became quiet while breathing heavily.
However, he still seemed a little confused.
"Ho ho... aliens... will die... we... will all die..."
He lowered his head, his eyes as cloudy as a fish that had been dead for several days. He kept mumbling vaguely, and finally slowly lost consciousness.
"It's like a nightmare."
Bryce was beside Lin Xi, watching others transport the unconscious John out of the restaurant, and then Lin Xi heard him say this in a daze.
"yes… "
Lin Xi replied softly.
But neither of them asked the other whether the nightmare was referring to John Bronson, who suddenly grabbed an ax and tried to kill Lin Xi, or the group of crazy exploration team members - the latter were even more excited than John Bronson. Sen looked even more sick.
Lin Xi had never felt scared because of John Bronson's madness, but when he thought of the actions of the exploration team members just now, he felt a layer of cold sweat break out on his back.
No one wanted to be in a restaurant like that anymore, or to have a conversation surrounded by people like that. Ten minutes later, Lin Xi and Alyssa came to Bryce's medical room together.
In the past few days, Bryce had dealt with many people who had been injured in previous insect attacks, so the medical room seemed a bit messy, and the air after multiple disinfections smelled like metal, which was also very unpleasant.
Strictly speaking, the environment in this place can even be said to be harsh, but when Bryce magically found two coffee capsules and used a medical liquefaction machine to deliver two cups of coffee to the other two people, Lin Xi quickly Changed my mind.
“Where there is coffee, there is heaven.”
Lin Xi sipped the hot coffee cherishedly, full of love for Bryce in her heart.
Of course, at the beginning of every space trip, the aviation administration will fill the spacecraft with as many coffee capsules as possible, but... everyone knows that no matter how many coffee capsules there are, it will not last until the second half of the return journey.
This cup of coffee is precious on the Helios today. Lin Xi was very sure that if he hadn't been almost cut in half by a crazy old man with an ax ten minutes ago, Bryce would have been reluctant to share such a good thing.
"This is the last of my inventory."
Bryce said angrily.
Then he looked at Lin Xi, and the expression on his face made Lin Xi a little stiff—even the coffee in his mouth didn't seem to taste that good.
"You know, Bryce, once you get that straight face, it's like there's a nuclear bomb going off on this ship."
Lin Xi said that he tried to lighten the atmosphere, but obviously his attempt failed.
Bryce still frowned at him.
"Don't be so playful, now is not the time to joke... To be honest, I wish I could relax a little bit, but God doesn't seem to intend to give me this opportunity to relax," Bryce said seriously, "See Are those guys in the restaurant just now? And our chef who suddenly started going crazy. Okay, now we all know something is wrong."
"You mean those exploration team members..."
Lin Xi trembled slightly, and he found that subconsciously he didn't even want to talk about this topic with Bryce, because he... He felt a little scared.
Lin Xi has always seemed a bit cynical in front of others. After all, his mantra is "don't think too much", and he doesn't want to reveal his fear and timidity in front of outsiders anyway.
And ever since the Helios failed to jump, he has been frightened by some inexplicable people and things.
For example, the strange Sonu sculpture, or the exploration team members on the ship.
God knows it wasn't that long ago that he was into playing cards with those people and cheating them out of their hands with calming gel bars.
"There are other people, such as Mr. and Mrs. Ando, and... Mr. Ax just now." Alyssa added, she seemed very depressed. After all, she had worked with John for many years, but now she saw him become Now like this.
When Lin Xi mentioned the Ando couple and John Bronson, Lin Xi felt a bitter taste in his mouth, and he was sure that it was not because of the coffee.
He fell silent for a moment.
Bryce clicked on his terminal, and he displayed the daily physiological reports of many crew members in front of Alyssa and Lin Xi.
"Out of professional ethics, I shouldn't have leaked the personal information of the crew to others. But now is not the time to care about this... I discovered something." Bryce stared at the data on the electronic screen, obviously having studied it carefully He had seen it many times, but every time he saw it, he felt his heart became heavier.
Lin Xi and Alyssa stared at the professional data and charts together.
“Is there really something wrong with this data?”
Alyssa asked strangely after a moment, surrendering.
"I really don't understand these professional things, but from the part I can understand, these people look healthy? Ah, look at this-" Alyssa switched one of the personal records to In front of me, "Antonio Leo, his teeth that were broken more than ten years ago have grown back?"
"Yes, he came to me just to take out his previous dentures because his teeth started to grow again."
Bryce said darkly.
His fingers moved slightly, and more similar cases were projected in front of the other two people.
"The hair has turned black again, old injuries have healed, and the original allergies have completely disappeared... Almost all of these people's biological ages are more than ten years younger. Yes, I admit, if you just look at the data, our ship is It is about to become a dream ship. Even the most injured exploration team members have perfect physiological data - look at this, Coris Luka, he is thirty-one years old, but since the jump failed, he Already grown a full ten centimeters on this damn planet.”
"In space travel, it is normal for height to increase..."
Lin Xi couldn't help but speak softly, but even he knew how weak this excuse was in the face of these cases.
"However, it is not normal for a person to have such a high proportion of cells in the proliferating and dividing stages."
Bryce clicked on a picture, which was densely packed with cells with enlarged nuclei and ready to proliferate, and the rest were connected together and had already divided...
"God, this thing is disgusting."
Alyssa's face wrinkled and she said in disgust.
"Well, these are the biopsy pictures of the exploration team. The crew's are a little better, but not much better-"
Bryce clicked on many more similar pictures. He only moved those pictures away when he saw that Alyssa and Lin Xi were both slightly pale and could not even drink coffee while holding a cup. .
"I now very much suspect that some ingredients in the food bag have reacted with certain substances on this planet. You have also seen what those people look like now. No matter how perfect their current physical data is, but what will happen next What happened must not be a good thing," Bryce said with a serious expression.
"God, this is why you asked me not to touch the food bag..." Lin Xi's face turned pale slightly, and then he quickly looked at Alyssa, "Then, we now need to report this to the whole ship. This is no small accident. The Helios is under your control now - at least that's what I know. That guy hasn't been out of the cabin for a long time, isn't he? serious."
Alyssa's expression changed. Lin Xi had never seen her look so embarrassed.
"No, no, I can't do that."
Alyssa whispered, her tone even sounding scared.
"Why? Our food, or rather this planet, is mutating our crew—"
Lin Xi was puzzled.
"This is a complicated issue," Alyssa said. She paused, then looked nervously at the door of the medical room. She kept her voice low, as if she was worried that someone was eavesdropping outside.
"I don't know if I should say it... but the problem with the Helios is actually worse than you know. The Covenant has burned most of our fuel. If we can't find the coordinates as soon as possible and jump back, sooner or later, One day we will be trapped alive in this damn place, and our food warehouse was the most severely damaged when the spacecraft crashed. Why do you think Taran approved the use of food bags so early? Quite simply, we are running out of food. In this case, if this matter is announced, we will not be able to wait for the so-called mutation to arrive before civil strife."
…
That day, when Lin Xi walked out of Bryce's medical room, his heart was extremely heavy.
It was only after experiencing such a secret conversation that he realized why Bryce and Alyssa didn't seem to care too much about the tragic death of the Ando couple.
After all, the tragedy that happened to that couple became insignificant before the existential crisis of the entire ship.
If I had to find some reassuring information in that conversation, it would probably be about the Sulu fossil sculpture. Lin Xi still remembers the horror that took over Shizuo Ando's precious body when he saw that sculpture in his room. And when Alyssa and Bryce mentioned the obviously deteriorating mental state of many people on the ship, Lin Xi mentioned it with great uneasiness.
Lin Xi always had a feeling that the sculpture had a strange and strange power. However, it was obviously difficult for his brother and Alyssa to understand Lin Xi's fear of the sculpture...
"God, you scared me to death. I thought you were hiding something very important. For example, you actually killed Liz..." Alyssa heard that Lin Xi was hiding something about the Sonu sculpture. Finally, she even looked relieved, and then her tone became a little lighter, "Don't look at me like that, it was just a joke... Shizuo Ando lied to you, since the sculpture had an accident, well, that's As for the accident you know, Taran had its sealing groove re-strengthened and moved to his private warehouse. You know Taran's character, his private warehouse is simply a bank vault in space. No matter how powerful Shizuo is, he can't steal the Sonu fossil sculpture from Taran's warehouse."
"But I clearly saw it..."
Lin Xi murmured.
"As far as I know, before that tragedy happened, Shizuo Ando suddenly became interested in Sonu's religion, so he bought a hand-carved Sonu sculpture from some crew member, and I think that's what you're seeing. "It's a toy." Alyssa said nonchalantly, "That sculpture is just a toy that Ando bought for Liz."
Lin Xi did not doubt Alyssa's explanation. As the deputy captain, she must know the movements of all crew members as much as possible in this crisis-ridden moment. If she said Shizuo Ando bought handmade sculptures to fool Liz, then he really did.
But even so, Lin Xi would still feel uneasy because of the uneasiness in her heart.
If it was really just a handicraft, why did Shizuo Ando beg him so sincerely after leaving the cabin that day
And, there is another question in Lin Xi's heart.
The Andos, John Bronson, and the increasingly weird exploration team members...
Bryce and Alyssa firmly believe that all the problems lie with the food bags that may contain special ingredients, but...
Is that really all there is to it
This uneasiness stayed with Lin Xi until he returned to his own living cabin.
After seeing the petri dish in the room, or to be precise, seeing "No. 1", Lin Xi finally felt better.
He saw "No. 1" building a new nest on the Sunu fragrant tree. It is golden yellow and its shape is rounder and cuter than the previous one. The "treasures" that were carefully hidden by "No. 1" were also dug out by it and placed at the bottom of the nest.
After doing all this, it is not an easy task for a newborn insect. Probably because of this, when Lin Xi approached the petri dish, "No. 1" looked a little tired. It was curled up in its newly built nest. Sleeping among them - Lin Xi knew this because its wings were now a translucent color, without any extra spots or colors.
What made Lin Xi even more gratified was that he checked the feed dish he had placed in the petri dish before leaving, and it was empty.
"No. 1", who was angry and losing his temper before, seemed to have eaten up all the feed in the petri dish.
"That's how you obey."
Lin Xi smiled.
"No. 1" heard his whisper, shook its tentacles, and immediately crawled out of the nest.
It seemed to have forgotten the awkwardness it had with Lin Xi not long ago. After seeing him, it immediately spread its wings and started dancing with enthusiasm.
Only this time its wings very carefully avoided the newly built nest.
Lin Xi looked at "No. 1" for a long time, feeling as if his heart was slowly relaxing as if it had been soaked in warm water.
In such a world full of uncertainty and crisis, it seems that only this corner of his room can breathe.
And only when looking at "No. 1", Lin Xi would temporarily forget the troubles he was facing and become a little more relaxed.
Maybe it was because of his abnormal behavior due to too much mental pressure, or maybe it was his love for Star Butterfly that made him dizzy.
When Lin Xi reacted, he realized that he had involuntarily pushed away the top of the petri dish and then reached in.
He gently touched the body of "No. 1" that was as hard and cold as metal and its huge wings.
According to the records in Shizuo Ando's notes, if Star Butterfly had the slightest dislike for him, his fingers would have been cut into two pieces at this time.
But of course such a thing cannot happen.
As soon as "No. 1" saw Lin Xi opening the petri dish, it became more active. It kept flying around Lin Xi's wrist, and finally stopped directly on the back of his hand. It was motionless except for the top of its head. The slightly curly tentacles were trembling, as if they were smelling his scent.
"So good."
Lin Xi looked at its pair of small red eyes and sighed.
"It would be great if you were always so good..."
he said softly.
…
That night—
On the lower deck dozens of meters below Lin Xi, in the crew's confinement room, John Bronson twitched heavily, and then slowly woke up from the coma caused by the drug.
There were heavy electronic shackles hanging on his body, and several infusion tubes were poked directly into his flesh. The other ends of the infusion tubes were connected to some light green medicine bottles.
John's cloudy eyes focused for a long time before he could clearly see the names on the medicine bottles. They were all powerful sedative drugs.
These drugs often have serious side effects, but at this moment, John Bronson had to be grateful for their effectiveness.
Under the influence of the powerful sedative, he was finally able to regain some consciousness from the crazy state that was on the verge of collapse. Of course, it was only a little bit.
After all, for so long, just fighting against the mutations in his body has almost exhausted all of John's energy.
But now, recalling his mistake during the day, John Bronson's heart was instantly and completely overwhelmed by regret and despair.
"We're all screwed..."
He knew clearly that this small room was called a solitary cell but was actually a prison. There was no one except himself in the small room, but John still pressed his lips together and whispered hoarsely.
"The Mother of Worms will turn us all into incubators for her children..."
His muttering started out very softly, almost like a whisper, but soon, that whisper turned into a growl.
"Lin Xi - you must kill Lin Xi - he is the alien - look at the things he did! He hasn't woken up yet, you still have time! Look at what he did! It was he who attracted the bugs! Because That's his family! It'll be too late when the king insect appears, his children...his children...will kill us all!"
John Bronson raised his head suddenly, stared at a corner of the ceiling and roared with veins on his face.
In that corner, the red dot on the monitor was flashing regularly and slowly.
Two floors above John's deck is the monitoring center. The Helios is a very old spacecraft, so the most primitive monitoring system is still used here. A whole row of surveillance windows were neatly suspended in mid-air in the spherical room. If nothing goes wrong, there will be two monitoring personnel sitting under these monitoring windows. And after they heard John Bronson yelling, they would frown and use remote control to increase the dose of the old man's drug injection to calm him down.
It's just that today it's not the kind of "error-free" situation here.
The two crew members responsible for monitoring people tonight are very unfortunate to be a pair of underground lovers. For some people, the duty in the monitoring room is a boring working time, but for the two of them, it is a rare break - they find a way to give I found a storage room where I could spend the night and ignored the monitoring work they were supposed to be responsible for. After all, the Helios is now stranded. Everything is so boring and peaceful. There is really nothing to monitor. At least that's what they thought.
Therefore, when John Bronson sensed something was wrong, no one on the other end of the monitor responded to his screams and calls for help.
…
At first it was just a subtle "rustling" sound.
Very slight, very distant, almost as unremarkable as a fan in an air duct malfunctioning.
But soon, the "rustling" sound became clear.
John Bronson stopped cursing Lin Xi. He pressed his lips tightly and his body trembled heavily.
Some distant memories began to reappear in his mind. He thought he had forgotten them, but now he remembered them.
Something was crawling towards him.
John was sure of it.
Because that thing didn't seem to bother concealing its traces at all.
Soon, something slowly crawled out from under the air filter.
"Oh no… "
The vital signs monitoring system connected to John's body began to alarm, because John's blood pressure and heartbeat were far higher than what a human of his age should have.
What frightened John so much was not just the impending death, but the thing itself.
The huge and deformed body, the evil compound eyes and the ferocious mouthparts, oh, yes, there are also patterns on the insect, which are scarier than nightmares.
That bug looked like it had crawled out of hell.
"Help—help—"
John started screaming.
"The bug—oh my god—it's already here—it's already—"
More rustling sounds were heard, and the lighting facilities in the confinement room were supposed to be on 24 hours a day, but now they became much darker.
John raised his head and looked at the light tube on the ceiling in shock.
He saw many bugs vying for the first place, squeezing out from the gaps in the wall of the spacecraft like a tide, and then they lined up and climbed onto the lighting tube.
A sweet and slightly fishy smell spread in the confinement room. It was the smell of insects.
The light soon disappeared completely under the cover of the bugs.
Darkness enveloped the entire confinement room.
But in that darkness, two scarlet glimmers seemed so clear, and then, something slowly emerged from the shadows.
John didn't know why he saw it.
He shouldn't have been able to see it.
But that thing just appeared, and its terrifying and abominable appearance was deeply imprinted in his mind like a branding iron. He was frightened, just like it was during the day.
"Help—no no no—help me—don't—don't come near me—"
Even those sedatives couldn't stabilize John's mood.
He began to struggle and scream as hard as he could.
"Shasha... Shasha..."
It's the sound made when the elytra rub against each other.
The thing slowly crawled towards him.
John suddenly couldn't move, perhaps because the fear was beyond his mental capacity.
He wished he could run away, scream, close his eyes, any of those things, but he just couldn't.
He saw it, its head tilted, looking directly at John.
Then John saw its mouthparts twitch.
So good—
The old man heard an extremely weird sound coming from deep in the insect's throat.
No. 1—so good—
It said again.
Then, it came closer.
"Click... click..."
When the sound came out again, it was the clear sound of chewing.
…
If it hadn't been for a minor situation, Lin Xi should have felt refreshed that morning.
After all, it was a blessing to be able to fall asleep smoothly despite so many worries, not to mention that he had a dreamless night and slept peacefully.
However, just when he was contentedly stretching and preparing to get up, some small things fell from his body.
Lin Xi kept lifting the quilt and looked at the extra things on her bed, and for a moment she didn't know how to react.
The lighter ones are leaves, the colors and shapes look familiar.
The heavier ones are small stones and metal parts.
The most puzzling thing is that there is even a pen on his bed that he has never seen before.
Lin Xi picked up the pen and looked at it carefully, and was very sure that it was definitely not his own - after all, no matter how careless he was, he would never put such a pen in his room. , a pen with dark brown stains on its surface.
Of course, he is even more certain that he has absolutely no habit of sleepwalking... In other words, even if he sleepwalks, he will not sleepwalk to the petri dish of Star Butterfly to kill all the babies in the "No. 1" nest. Steal it and hide it under your quilt.
Yes, these things are the ones in the "No. 1" nest.
Lin Xi could already recognize the leaves and stones. They looked familiar simply because "No. 1" put them in his lair yesterday and showed off to Lin Xi for a long time.
Of course, the pen was new and God knows where it came from.
"You better explain what's going on?"
Lin Xi jumped up from the bed, then he grabbed those gadgets and rushed to the petri dish of "No. 1", and asked in a broken voice.
Before that, "No. 1" was lying comfortably in its nest. When it heard Lin Xi's suddenly raised voice, it jumped up quickly, then slithered and hid behind Sulu Xiangmu, Only the head was left outside, with two curly tentacles swinging constantly.
From its flashing red eyes, Lin Xi could tell that it seemed a little confused and panicked.
“…”
Lin Xi and "No. 1" looked at each other for a long time, and then relaxed their shoulders slumped.
"This is what you gave me, right?"
Lin Xi placed the assorted gadgets next to the petri dish.
"Number One"'s tentacles trembled violently, then stopped.
Lin Xi felt that this was probably Xingdie's affirmation.
"All right… "
He sighed.
After getting close to the petri dish, Lin Xi discovered that there was something extra in the lair of "No. 1". From the perspective of "No. 1", Lin Xi should probably congratulate it. Its collection has indeed been upgraded.
"No. 1" never put shabby stones and leaves in his lair again. Now the only ones covering the bottom of the lair were those shiny metal parts. Lin Xi stared at those metal parts in disbelief. Some metal parts looked like It looked a bit familiar, giving him a very bad feeling.
"I really wish you could tell me where you got these things from? God forbid, I don't want my room to be repaired one day because of a pipe failure."
Lin Xi muttered to "No. 1" and bent down. He carefully studied the metal grid he placed above the petri dish like a detective.
After such careful exploration, he finally found a clue. There seemed to be a small displacement somewhere near the edge of the metal grid.
Lin Xi was very sure that "No. 1" escaped from the petri dish from here and then slipped back.
The high intelligence of this little bug was also perfectly demonstrated. It even knew how to move the metal grid on Lin Xi's cover back to its original position after crawling in and out.
Perhaps it was Lin Xi's previous behavior of squeezing its body and throwing it back into the petri dish that made "No. 1" realize that Lin Xi didn't like it leaving this small, cramped area.
However, on the other hand, "No. 1" showed amazing clumsiness.
For example, it attempts to assign its favorite collection to Lin Xi.
Yes, that's what Lin Xi felt. Those things on his bed should have been sorted out by "No. 1" from his collection overnight and moved to his bed.
He really didn't understand the brain circuit of star butterflies at all. Maybe, in their perception, there should be something shiny at the bottom of all nests? This includes human beds as well.
But does this little bug know that the act of dividing its collection has perfectly exposed its ability to freely enter and leave the petri dish
"clatter-"
Just when Lin Xi looked at the metal parts in his hand and couldn't laugh or cry, there was a gentle touch sound from inside the petri dish.
Lin Xi turned around and found that "No. 1" had come out from behind Xiangmu at some point.
It seemed to have noticed that what Lin Xi was holding was the gift it worked so hard to give to the other party yesterday. It seemed a little panicked at first, but it immediately became confident.
It used its two forelimbs to alternately tap the inside of the petri dish, and at the same time made a "sizzling" sound that it had never made before.
It took Lin Xi a long time to realize in shock that "No. 1" was actually gesturing for him to touch her like he did yesterday.
Dr. Ando's notebook has recorded Star Butterfly's clinging attribute, but...
"No, I can't encourage you to do this."
Lin Xi frowned and said to "No. 1".
“…”
"No. 1" suddenly stopped. It looked at Lin Xi blankly, its tentacles swaying above its head.
"Thank you for your kindness, but I don't need this at all, and I really don't like your behavior of dismantling parts-" After saying this, he couldn't help but look at the old pen in his hand again, and he felt very headache. Added, "I don't really like your behavior of picking out the trash can either."
“…”
"No. 1" still looked at him motionless, but this time, not even the tentacles on its head moved.
"Understand?"
Lin Xi said solemnly.
"Wow-"
Of course he won't be greeted by an apology from some highly intelligent alien bug.
But Lin Xi was certain that "No. 1" could understand what Lin Xi said to it. The reason was very simple. It suddenly turned around, then used its hind legs to vigorously lift up the sand at the bottom of the petri dish and plowed towards Lin Xi. direction.
The author has something to say: Number 1: My wife hasn’t hit me for three days.
===========
Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or gave me the nutrient solution~
Thanks to the little angels who threw [grenade]: 28098169 2; A Zhuang 1;
Thanks to the little angel who threw [landmines]: one star, 8 falling into the sea; 2 plush balls; diver passerby A, witty Zhang Ge, Yi Yidu. , Cang Min, Hai Dao, Hui Xiao Duo, Wei Yang, He Zhuo Chu, Dai Yun, Da Kao Qing Mei, Song Yi, Fan Er~Shang Yu 1;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigates [nutrient solution]:
48 bottles of magma sama; 40 bottles of Mufei Fanfan and Elena the Great; 30 bottles of Yebaiye, ray, and nkstefania; 20 bottles of Fusheng Huayang, Luoluo Hongjin, Huachuan Tingyumian, and Red Moles; and black and white mushroom soup 18 bottles; Xiaomanza, Haidao, Yahouhei, Rabbit Fattyuan, Daiyun, Asheng's Little Friend, Kuokui's Cloud, Xuanyeweizhan, Fatjiu, Ah Hanhan, Yuanming, Golden Leg Pendant 10 bottles; 6 bottles of your husband Bai Ge; 5 bottles of Jinsi, Shigu, Nanwanwan; 3 bottles for primary school students; 2 bottles of 25686902; 1 bottle of Little Rye, Xinyu You, Haiyu;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!