"Energy exhausted, are you ready for an emergency landing?"
"Energy exhausted, are you ready for an emergency landing?"
"Energy exhausted, are you ready..."
Red lights flashed in the cockpit and mechanical sounds warned over and over again.
The man in the main driver's seat crossed his legs and leaned back in the driver's seat. Even in such a critical situation, he did not seem panicked. He stared at the slowly rotating gray planet in the view of the driver's window for a long time.
After a long time, as if he had finally made some difficult decision, the man combed his hair behind his forehead with one hand, leaned forward slightly, and slowly covered the eye-catching red button with his muscular palm and pressed it.
A deep voice echoed in the cockpit: "Emergency landing!"
"Emergency landing procedure initiated, please fasten your seat belts..."
The high-speed shuttle ignited the last of its fuel, the thrusters roared, and it rushed towards the gray planet at full speed—
On the garbage planet B3024, a meteor streaked across the night. Then, from deep within the mountain-like garbage dump, a loud explosion was heard.
The residents at the edge looked up, then looked away as if nothing had happened. On this planet, such a sight was not surprising.
As the name suggests, b3024 Garbage Planet is the waste treatment center of the Capital Planet. The piles of waste transported from the Capital Planet are always processed late at night, and there are often explosions that disturb the residents. They are no longer surprised.
Only one person was attracted by the explosion. He hesitated for a while and groped his way towards the source of the sound.
Ruan Shiqing trudged through the mountains of waste, taking one step deep and one step shallow. When he got tired, he stopped to rest for a while, and then continued on his way after he had recovered.
This body was severely malnourished and had various skin injuries. Ruan Shiqing had only been here for three days and had not yet adapted to this unfamiliar feeling of weakness.
After forty minutes of trekking, his violently beating heart began to contract and ache, protesting, and he had to stop again to rest. Fortunately, not far away was the source of the explosion he was looking for - a crashed aircraft.
The shuttle-shaped fuselage was broken into several pieces by the explosion. The silver-grey paint turned into a burnt black due to the explosion and high temperature. The glass window in front of the cockpit was completely shattered. The door was wide open. There was no one in the driver's seat. The air was filled with the smell of burnt gas from the explosion and a strong smell of blood. A clear bloodstain meandered to the right, as if someone had left the cockpit.
I didn't expect that someone could survive such a violent collision. After a little thought, Ruan Shiqing decided to go and take a look.
In the huge waste disposal site, abandoned aircraft shells were stacked into tall towers, casting dark shadows that bared their fangs and claws under the cold moonlight. In the interweaving shadows of light and dark, a figure lay diagonally, his head lowered, his face blurred by the shadows, as if he had fallen into a coma.
Ruan Shiqing approached, and the faint light of his homemade flashlight dispelled the darkness around him, and he could see the person in front of him clearly. There was a fist-sized blood hole in the waist and abdomen of this person, and the skin and flesh were rolled up, and the edges were faintly burnt and blurred. It was very likely that the abdomen was pierced by some kind of weapon, and the rolled skin and flesh were caused by the high temperature of the weapon.
The white military uniform on his body was covered with blood and dust in such a miserable situation, but it was still worn very neatly, and the discipline buttons on the collar were neatly bitten, without any looseness.
He must be a very disciplined soldier, but I don't know what happened to him that led to him falling here.
The closeness and trust in the soldier made Ruan Shiqing move closer, and he squatted down to feel the other's breath.
But as soon as he stretched out his hand, it was strangled by a hand like an iron clamp. The man who should have been unconscious suddenly raised his face and glanced at him with a hawk-like sharp gaze: "What do you want to do?"
Caught off guard, Ruan Shiqing's gaze moved from the man's unusual dark golden eyes to the black horns on his forehead and the long white hair neatly tied behind his head. Only then did he realize that the man in front of him was not of the same species as him - even if he was a soldier, the other party might not be a good person.
His wrist was pinched in great pain, and he couldn't understand the language the other party was speaking. Ruan Shiqing pursed his lips and could only shake his head, trying to act harmless to show that he had no ill intentions.
Rong Heng narrowed his dark golden eyes and examined the person in front of him.
The restrained man was skinny and had a sallow complexion. His resistance was very weak and he did not know the interstellar language. It was most likely that he was an illegal immigrant who was born and raised on this garbage planet and was attracted by the noise of the shuttle crash. He had nothing to do with the group of people who assassinated him.
He sneered, let the man go, and gestured for him to leave: "Go away."
Although I can't understand the other person's language, I can understand their actions.
Seeing that he asked him to leave, Ruan Shiqing didn't want to bother this man of unknown origin any more, so he quickly got up and left, in case the other party suddenly changed his mind.
Rong Heng kept staring at his back until he was sure that he had left. He then frowned and looked at the hideous wound on his waist and abdomen. After thinking for a moment, he staggered to his feet and turned back to the shuttle...
***
After returning from the depths of the garbage mountain, Ruan Shiqing was always thinking about the crashed aircraft.
Although the damage was very serious, such a large aircraft could still be disassembled to have some usable parts. If the valuable parts of the aircraft were disassembled before being discovered by others and resold, it should be possible to exchange them for some coins or food.
The technology in his original world was highly developed, and humans had broken through the limitations of the Earth to explore the universe. He was a researcher at the military weapons research institute and was familiar with the structures of various high-tech weapons and vehicles. Although it was not clear how advanced the technology in this world was, as the saying goes, "A master of one thing can master a hundred", these basic operations were not difficult for him.
The only problem now is the language barrier. He cannot communicate with the indigenous people here and get the information he wants.
Moreover, the original owner of this body was extremely poor. Not only did he not have a place to live, but even the stored food was only enough to last for three days.
From now on, he has to find a way to make a living on his own.
After much thought, I couldn't help but set my sights on the aircraft.
The man was so badly injured yesterday that he might not survive the night; or he might have contacted his companions and was taken away. In any case, the crashed aircraft was most likely abandoned at the spot.
Thinking of this, Ruan Shiqing ate the little remaining food, avoided the crowd, and walked deeper into the garbage mountain along the same route as last night.
He deliberately made little noise and first took a look at the place where the man had hidden last night. Seeing that there was only a pool of oxidized black blood left there, he breathed a sigh of relief and walked briskly towards the direction of the aircraft.
The aircraft landed headfirst, and because the head was the most severely damaged, the middle and tail parts were relatively intact. Due to occupational disease, Ruan Shiqing did not rush to dismantle the aircraft, but first roughly inspected the entire aircraft. He was like a child who had just received a new toy, and would study any part that he found new and interesting for a long time with great interest.
It’s a pity that the technology here is very different from that of his original world. Although he is eager to see it, he can’t figure it out for a while.
After spending most of the day studying the general structure of the aircraft, he began the disassembly work.
The most core components of an aircraft are the drive and engine. The drive ensures the flying speed and the engine generates propulsion power. These two are naturally the most valuable parts of the entire aircraft.
He first removed the drive and engine and hid them carefully, then began to disassemble the remaining parts. This aircraft had been overloaded for a long time. Although the damage to the middle and tail parts was not very serious, many parts inside were damaged due to excessive load. Ruan Shiqing couldn't repair it, and couldn't move so many things, so he had to give up reluctantly.
By the time he finished his work, night had enveloped the planet again. Two crescent moons hung symmetrically in the sky, shining coldly and intimidatingly.
It seemed to remind him all the time that this was no longer the world he was familiar with.
With a soft sigh, Ruan Shiqing rubbed his protesting stomach and searched around in the aircraft, trying to find some food to fill his stomach. But he found no food, and his fingers touched something. The smooth bottom of the aircraft suddenly split apart, and an elliptical sealed cabin rose up.
The purpose of the sealed cabin was unclear, and there was only one button. Ruan Shiqing pressed it with desire and anticipation for food.
The three-meter-long elliptical sealed cabin slowly opened from the middle, revealing an empty interior.
—In fact, it wasn’t completely empty, there was a bloodstained white military uniform thrown carelessly inside. But it made no difference whether it was there or not.
Ruan Shiqing: …
It's a waste of time.
He was about to close the sealed cabin, but suddenly he noticed that at the other end of the cabin away from him, there was a small, fluffy, snow-white ball curled up, its snow-white fur almost blending into the snow-white cabin wall.
Ruan Shiqing walked to the other end, bent down to take a look, and was surprised to find that it was a weak animal cub.
The cub has fluffy snow-white fur, with its small head hidden under its belly and its fluffy tail wrapped around its entire body, tightly rolling itself into a snow-white ball. Only a pair of triangular ears are visible on the top of its head. The ear tips are round and blunt, and they feel soft to the touch, much like the pet dog Snowball he once had.
Snowball is a Samoyed. He was also a snow-white and fluffy ball when he was a child.
The familiar feeling made Ruan Shiqing feel soft in his heart. He carefully picked up the puppy and found that he was not asleep, but injured. There was a fist-sized blood hole on the puppy's tightly curled abdomen, and the skin and flesh were rolled up. The oxidized blood stains coagulated into black blood clots on the fur around the wound... Such a horrible wound almost occupied the puppy's entire abdomen. If it weren't for the warm body temperature and the imperceptible rise and fall of the abdomen, people would almost think he was dead.
Ruan Shiqing thought of the man he had seen last night. He also suffered a very serious injury in the abdomen. However, he might have been rescued by his companions at this time, while this poor little cub could only be abandoned on the aircraft, struggling alone and finally dying.
Just like he was struggling alone in this strange world with no future, Ruan Shiqing felt a pang of pain in his heart. He held the puppy in his arms and said softly, "Since no one wants you, come home with me."