Opal tied a metal buckle around his waist, pulled out two wide side straps from his belt, went around his shoulders, fastened them with a click, pressed the button on his waist, and the warm white light of the defensive cover lit up with a buzzing sound.
"I'll go out and see." Opal said.
Raymond said casually: "I wish you a long life."
Opal got off the bilge of the spaceship, pressed the exit button, the vacuum door closed, the air blew him out of the cabin lightly against the current, and the field energy space suit cast a light, which firmly attached him to the spaceship. Opal turned around in the universe, filled with an indescribable feeling.
That was the first time he had personally come into contact with this boundless space. Under the effect of weightlessness, he floated out of the cabin, slowly floating and sinking. His body swept through the porthole in the red light, his legs and slender figure Like a scaly fish glowing in the dark.
"How do you feel?" Raymond pressed his index finger to the ear button.
"It's okay, it's a little cold." The surrounding of Opal was full of air, and he took a few breaths slowly. The cold was not obvious and did not hinder his movement.
The temperature is normal, and the real cold comes from psychological feelings - in this empty universe, the loneliness and coldness that the soul experiences. Raymond connected to another communication channel in the cabin and asked, "What are you trying to do?"
Xun's voice replied: "I'm looking for the wreckage of the explosion."
Sid said: "I have looked for it several times."
Opal said displeased: "Please don't make trouble!"
Xun said unceremoniously: "I have my own spaceship, what does it have to do with you? I don't care about your mission!"
Xun Xun searched in space, observed every piece of cosmic dust, they either refracted the light of the red giant star and floated in front of him, or stayed quietly in mid-air, metal, ice and rock scattered in space, Europe. Bo said: "There are at least tens of millions of impurities around, when are you going to find them?"
Xun said: "Only one artificial fragment is needed..."
"Don't be ridiculous." Raymond and Opal said impatiently at the same time.
Opal said: "If there is an explosion, the high temperature can dissolve all the metal, and the shell will be completely blown away. You don't have to think about finding anything nearby!"
Xun didn't answer, he drifted away, stubbornly looking for everything he thought was possible.
Opal finally gave up his plan to persuade him. He pressed his ear button and said, "I don't care, let him find it here slowly and continue our plan."
Raymond said: "No matter what, get him back."
Opal pondered for a moment, turned on the miniature propulsion system at the back waist, flew to Xun, Xun immediately shouted: "What are you doing?! Let me go!"
"Don't fight in space!! You'll kill him!" Raymond shouted loudly, causing the two of them to hum in their ears.
Opal couldn't help but grab Xun's collar and flew him back. The vacuum chamber was inflated, and he threw Xun in the control room.
Xun roared: "What's up with you!"
Raymond said angrily: "This is our commission? What does it have to do with you?!"
Sid rushed forward to persuade them, and stared at them with hatred. Opal took off his belt, put it away, and threw it on the sofa.
Raymond said: "Continue to monitor the route."
Opal stepped forward to open the star map, Xun just got up cursing and was attracted by his star map.
"Where is this made?" Xun said.
Opal said: "It's none of your business, give me some rules, or we will throw you on the Black Ant Star."
Xun said: "You want to murder!"
Opal said: "They're said to be very hospitable and won't make you homesick, eh?"
Era-VI pulled Sid's future lord ship forward again, speeding through the interstellar dust.
The composition of the elements on the light screen jumped indefinitely. No radioactive elements have been found around so far. The route is fixed. Xun wanted to go back to his spaceship, but Opal insisted that he would not allow it. Raymond threw them into the bedroom and locked the door to avoid this. The kid made trouble, and Xun started banging on the door in the room, shouting: "Sid is my friend! What are you doing! Let me out! I want to help him too!"
Opal said loudly: "Oh! I am touched by your friendship! E7! Turn off the anti-gravity field in the bedroom!"
The knocking on the door stopped, and he quickly said loudly, "Let me go!"
When it finally stopped, Xun was still floating in the bedroom and cursed, and Opal went back to the console and sat down.
Raymond still stared at the elemental analysis around him in a trance, and Opal said, "Did you find any remains of an explosion?"
Raymond nodded slowly, and Opal said: "There is something strange, it is likely to be a forced landing, set the route, and go to Black Ant Star to see."
Raymond let out a long sigh, and bowed to open the route setting. The two spaceships accelerated at the same time and flew to the nearest planet here.
There is no space station outside the planet, and there is a beautiful ring of light outside the planet. Countless small meteorites form a halo around the equator. They occasionally collide with each other and shatter into powder, but they cannot escape under the planet's gravity.
The two spaceships docked, Opal discussed with Raymond for a moment, released Xun, and asked him to take Sid back to another spaceship, enter the atmosphere of Black Ant Star, and find a suitable place to start landing.
"The coefficient of gravity is 1.5, God." Opal said: "Is there such a large gravity? Can't see it."
Raymond said: "This planet is very dense, be careful landing."
The topography appeared on the display screen, and there was a huge blue water belt surrounding the entire planet - the only river of Black Ant Star, estimated to be hundreds of kilometers wide. The poles were covered with a crown of ice and snow, emitting many blue lines, tens of millions of them. Small rivers flow radioactively toward the large river in the center of the equator.
Sid said in the communicator: "What a beautiful planet, it should be very suitable for human habitation."
Opal said: "Forget it, the gravity is so strong, you stay in the cabin and don't go out. They don't have a landing pad... Let me see."
The ground of Black Ant Star is approaching, almost all the surface is bare rocky mountains, the mountains are covered with a kind of black moss, the spaceship wanders around, and quickly said in the intercom: "Find a place to land."
Raymond said: "No, I have to find a safe and sheltered place to dock the spacecraft... Is there any landmark building?"
Xun said impatiently: "Just there, thirty-five degrees to your left, I saw a very large statue, landing at the back..."
Opal followed Xun's hope, and Sid said in the communicator: "It's easy to get stuck there..."
Xun said: "Don't worry, I can drive a spaceship better than you..."
Opal and Raymond really lost to him.
The spaceship flew to a plateau area, with towering mountains and rivers passing through the canyons beside it. The surface in the middle of the wilderness showed a gray arc-shaped ditch surrounded by a ring, like a huge annual ring.
In the middle stood a stone statue.
"Is it a human statue?" Raymond asked.
Xun said: "It's full of moss, let it be an abandoned place."
The Future Lord erupted and slowly descended to the ground. Opal saw the stone statue crumbling, and shouted at the same time as Raymond, "Be careful!"
The spaceship landed with a loud bang, and the stone statue tilted at an angle. After three seconds, it fell forward with a thud, making a muffled sound, and fell to pieces.
Opal: "… "
Raymond: "… "
Opal: "Can you stop messing around until you understand the situation!"
Xun said impatiently: "The two of you are still very tender! You have no experience at all. There are no houses and no life around here. There is only a human sculpture. Combined with the surrounding ravines, you can't think of any use?"
Opal said: "What's the use?"
Xun said: "It was built by the predecessors and used as coordinates for the spaceship! If it is broken, it will be broken. Just make a ground beacon again!"
Era-VI followed and landed slowly, and Opal was robbed and silent, and went to detect the oxygen composition on the planet.
The oxygen concentration is slightly higher than 25%, and the air is very humid. It is indeed a habitable planet. Raymond prepared a translator and came out. The four of them looked around in the wilderness. odor.
Raymond was debugging a translator, and a group of black dots below the canyon moved rapidly towards the heights.
Opal said: "Come on! Let me see!"
"Don't go there!" Raymond said: "Be careful they attack you."
The black dots climbed up against the rock wall, and there were thousands of them, and the momentum was very spectacular.
A giant black ant headed by "呲—" grinned at Opal.
Opal: "… "
Raymond pointed the Universal Translator at it and realized a serious problem - the Black Ant's language had not been entered by the Covenant.
Thousands of ants surrounded them, and one ant grinned viciously at Opal, squeaked, revealing its jaws, and all the ants' tentacles were moving, as if there were invisible electric waves passing through the group.
Opal: "What are they talking about?"
Raymond: "I don't know... the language isn't in the translator. Are you sure they're really hospitable?"
Opal: "That's the teacher's evaluation. I... still believe him very much."
Xun finally quieted down and said, "They want to attack us."
Sid said: "Yeah, showing the jaws... What did we do wrong?"
Opal: "Maybe you just misunderstood, the way they say hello is—"
"呲—" Opal tried to make that strange sound towards them.
"呲! 呲! 呲!" Huge black ants with a height of one person came one after another, their emotions were surging, their eyes turned crimson, and they stared at Opal.
Raymond: "What about the tentacles on the head?"
Opal: "This should say hello... wait."
All the ants stopped their rapidly waving tentacles at the same time, and scattered, a group of ants actually lifted two spaceships up! It disappeared after a while.
Opal looked blank: "Hey! What are you doing!"
Xun: "Will you help us park? Interesting."
A small wooden stick was passed into the hands of the largest black ant in the lead, and it watched Raymond as their leader. Raymond was the tallest and the most outstanding, and he lowered his head slightly.
The ants pushed away, and the big black ant used a branch to draw a few patterns on the ground.
Opal: "What does it mean."
Raymond: "It... means that where we landed is their altar."
Opal: "… "
Xun: "…"
Sid: "..."
Raymond: "And smashed their... idols."
Opal: "Xun! I knew there was nothing good about you!"
Xun: "How could I possibly know!"
All the ants came around in an instant, showing their sharp jaws towards the four of them. The leader, Black Ant, waved a branch to drive them away, and then wrote and painted a line of strange things. The pictures were accompanied by strange symbols.
Raymond: "It said, let us be responsible for repairing the statue and apologize to all 'people', so that we have a chance to talk. Otherwise, it will not let us leave this planet easily."
Opal breathed a sigh of relief, Xun wanted to say something, but Sid covered his mouth.
"How do you know their words?" Opal wondered.
Raymond: "Look, it has painted several rows of ants, and everyone is standing neatly, facing this sculpture, like praying, so I understand it is their god, or something very important. , circle the ankles, referring to the fallen deity over there, meaning let's fix it."
Opal: "… "
The leader, Black Ant, waved a branch, and all the ants swooped and evacuated completely. The remaining four stood in the middle of the wilderness in the moss plain, and a cool breeze blew past.
Fifteen minutes later, Opal and Raymond blankly began repairing the statue that had been smashed by Xun. The god is a human, male, wearing a cloth robe with bare feet under the robe. According to the proportion of the body, it is estimated that it is about the same height as Raymond. Should be a very handsome, simple man.
Of course, now the sculpture of the severed head and hands is thrown down in the wet moss field, which is another matter.
Putting the five-meter-high statue on the pedestal and repairing it is simply an impossible task, especially when the spacecraft is removed entirely. Raymond went to the ants to borrow a rope, and Opal went to chop down a tree with a long-handled axe. The axe and the sword were crossed and tied, and a winch was made.
Sid and Xun hugged their knees and sat watching from a distance.
The gravity of this planet is too great, and after working for a while, Opal was so tired that he was out of breath, and said angrily, "Don't just look at it, please!"
Sid said: "I... my physical strength is not good."
Sid felt tired just sitting, and Xun was completely wilted.
"Need adhesive, huh... huh..." Raymond said, "Otherwise it will fall off."
"Forgive me, where did the adhesive come from." Opal panted, "It would be good to recover."
Sid said: "Can I use mud? The mud here is very viscous."
Sid adjusted some clay and handed it to Xun, Xun bent over to patch it on the statue's ankle, and Raymond said, "What occupation did you do in the past?"
Sid said: "Plant breeder."
Opal felt a little strange, how could Xun be so honest in front of Sid? Their relationship seems to have become very good, is it because of the previous reasons? Something must have happened somewhere he hadn't noticed.
Raymond said casually: "Why are you helping Sid so much? There's no money to make."
Xun rolled his eyes at him and said, "A mercenary must have money to earn a living?"
"Yo-yo-" Opal said with a smile, "Are you also a mercenary?"
Xun didn't answer, Raymond nodded and said, "Plant cultivator, sounds very majestic!"
Sid moved a little to the side, letting Xun sit down on his shoulders,
Neither of them commented. Sid was wearing Xun's coat and was shivering a little from the cold.
The planet can't even see the sun. There is only a white moon with a purple halo on the horizon. A dazzling meteorite belt spans the zenith. The planet's halo reflects the light of distant stars.
Opal carried the big head of the statue and pushed it to the front of the pedestal, and Raymond lowered the rope and hoisted it up and put it away.
"I'm talking about you." Opal always thought it was incredible: "How did they get along so well? They were together for dozens of days?"
"What's your business?" Xun asked cautiously.
Sid smiled, "Just a friend."
Xun was not happy right away, Sid looked at Xun with a half-smile but added another sentence, saying, "A good friend to play fantasy paradise together."
Xun couldn't help laughing.
Opal: "!!!"
Raymond nearly dropped the head of the sculpture.
Sid said, "Haven't you two played that thing?"
Opal: "You... what did you say? Forget about it."
Xun laughed: "Look at him, he looks like a country bumpkin, like a savage, I don't know which primitive society came out of."
"Hey!" Opal said angrily, "You are the barbarian!"
Raymond said, "I'm also a hillbilly. I never play that."
Opal's face was flushed, and Raymond said again: "Hold the statue and don't fall down again."
Raymond bowed and stood on the shoulders of the idol and hung his head, which required a good sense of balance so that the newly glued idol would not fall down.
Finally finished, Opal took a few steps backwards and looked at the statue, his hair was a little long, and there was no name on the pedestal.
Opal went to find water to wash his hands and walked away.
But Sid discovered one thing - the sculpted face, the bridge of the nose, the brow bone and the lips, looked like a human being.
"That should do the trick." Raymond stepped back and looked at the statue.
Sid looked up, looking at the statue, then at Raymond, and said, "He looks a bit like you."
Raymond: "?"
Raymond frowned, and Sid turned his head and said, "Opal!"
Opal didn't hear it and ran to the edge of the canyon. Xun said, "Yes, the hair is longer, but the facial features are exactly the same. Hey, are you their god?"
Raymond said: "I've never been here before, look like?"
Sid looked at Raymond suspiciously and said, "You just... It's natural to communicate with the ants, I think it's a little suspicious."
Raymond didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Don't be kidding, if I am their god, how can these guys let the gods repair their own idols?"
"That's right." Xun said, "Have you really never been here?"
Raymond said impatiently: "Really not!" He packed up the rope and returned it. The ants thought Opal was going to escape and took him back. A black ant wrote and drew, indicating that they could follow and talk to the leader. talk.
Ants have no vocal organs, and the only sound is the rustling of rubbing their mouthparts. The four of them walked in the wilderness for a long time. Sid was the first to stop walking, and Xun carried him across the moss plain. The black ants who led the way took them across the river until they reached a clearing and signaled them to get in the car. The four strange The creature is like a wheel, under a large wooden board.
Opal looked down curiously, and suddenly the wheeled creature stretched out something like tentacles against the wooden board. The four of them flicked, and Raymond grabbed his collar to prevent it from falling. Everyone sits firmly, and the wheeled creatures begin to roll, so they carry people forward at a high speed, and when they cross the mountain, they can row back and forth like a propeller in the water when they enter the water, and carry them across the river.
Finally, it stopped in a forest full of strange plants. A tunnel led to the dark underground. The wheeled car rolled in and stopped before it got too deep.
Surrounded by illuminating minerals and tunnels extending in all directions, Opal said, "This is... an ant nest."
The group of four looked at the dense ants that were burrowing around in the empty hall, and their hearts were a little hairy. In another instant, all the black ants dispersed, crawled into various holes, and disappeared without a trace.
A huge black ant stared at them, and Opal said, "Is it the one that just asked us to repair the statue?"
Raymond: "How do I know? They all look exactly the same."
There is a sand table on the ground, which is used for conversation. Opal said: "It should be possible to talk now."
Sid said, "Can you get extra points for looking like their god?"
Raymond's facial expression twitched, and he said to Sid: "In our eyes, they all look the same. In other words, in their eyes, what do we see as humans? Of course, there is no difference."
Xun said: "Then according to their logic, as long as the statue has a head and hands, the face is actually superfluous..."
Raymond motioned everyone to shut up and stop talking. He pondered for a moment, took the branch handed over by the ants, and began to ask questions to the leader of the other party on the sand table.
Raymond drew pictures and learned how the ants expressed when repairing the statue. He used the pattern to say hello first, introduced himself, explained that they had no hostility, and that their previous behavior was purely accidental, and then asked the other party for the names of several big ants.
The big black ant leader drew several ants on the sand table, and the triangular, circular, and spiral symbols radiated from their tentacles to distinguish them from each other.
"What do you mean?" Opal asked.
Raymond pondered for a while and replied, "The meaning should be that they are not distinguished by names like us humans. We all have no names, and we identify each other by the smell of our bodies."
Opal nodded slowly and watched Raymond write and draw, and found that Raymond was still very smart. He did have the ability to be the head of the regiment. He was calm and steady, and he was no better than those senior mercenaries he had seen before. The regimental leaders are inferior. For Opal himself, many things can't be thought of.
After Raymond finished painting, he pressed his left fist on his right shoulder together with Opal, and performed the etiquette of a mercenary.
The big black ant on the opposite side watched quietly, and the last few ants intertwined with their tentacles and bowed slightly towards them. The two sides met politely and reached a friendly relationship. Raymond expressed his question with a pattern: [Let's find a spaceship and a few humans. ] According to Sid's description, Raymond drew the spaceship and the symbols of several villains on the sand table, and there was a suitcase next to it.
The big black ant made a cross on the spaceship, indicating that he had not seen it before, and circled the box again.
Opal: "!!!"
Sid: "!!!"
Sid: "What! They've seen my dad! Where is he!!"
Raymond said: "Don't be impulsive! Opal, hold him down!"
There was a small commotion among the ants, and the chief kept watching them with his compound eyes, and Sid said to the chief, "I beg you, tell me where my father is!"
Surrounded by ants watching the fun, they seemed very curious, Xun hugged Sid and whispered comfort, Raymond drew an adult holding a villain on the sand table, the villain circled and pointed to Sid.
"You're so smart!" Opal exclaimed.
Raymond smiled modestly.
The leader understood and nodded slowly.
It drew undulating mountains and rivers on the ground, and the four held their breaths. The big black ant drew a very complicated map, covering the entire sand table, and finally drew an arch in the upper left corner.
Opal: "???"
He was puzzled, turned his head to look, and walked slowly to the edge of the ants. An ant came over and touched him with his tentacles. Opal touched it with his hand.
Raymond said: "Don't move, I don't want to cause trouble again."
The ants retreated, and the atmosphere was very harmonious at the moment. The relationship between the two parties was so good that they could be called brothers. They were really warm and hospitable. The teacher was right. Watch the sand table with the ants.
The branch of the big black ant returned to the lower right corner of the sand table, and it drew another strange, huge monster. The monster is a bit like an ant, but it has wings and is very large. Finally, this winged ant is attached. The small box circled, hit a line, and flew directly to the arched object.
"What does this mean?" Raymond narrowed his eyes in confusion.
"This thing." Opal looked at it for a long time and said, "Going somewhere with a suitcase?"
Raymond pointed to the pattern, then pointed to his own head, spread out his hands, and made an incomprehensible movement, like a polite gentleman, the big black ant observed them for a long time, then turned to communicate with other ants using tentacles for a moment. .
Opal and Raymond were both confused, Xun said, "Ask it, where is our spaceship."
"No hurry." Raymond said: "Let's make things clear first, there are too many puzzles."
This time, the ants talked for a long time, nearly half an hour, and finally reached an agreement. A group of ants moved out of the way, and the big black ant signaled everyone to follow them.
Opal and Raymond follow the ants leading the way. When they communicate, they can use their front feet to lift up, but when they are on their way, they move with their six feet together. They walk very fast, stop and go, and walk for a long time in the underground tunnel. Far, and finally into a spectacular huge space.
The ants surrounded the four of them, and the leader pointed to the scene in the space, which was full of broken eggshells.
Raymond said, "This is their nursery."
Opal nodded slowly, and there was a shimmer of minerals all around. There was a cloudy, dark red film in the center of the nursery nest, which was wrapped with living objects, and something was slowly pulsing inside.
Raymond became more and more confused, and asked Opal, "Do you know what it means?"
Opal seemed to have vaguely touched something and said, "The one in the middle is their queen...?"
"Queen ant?" Opal murmured: "Queen ant! I understand! This has something to do with the queen! That thing is not the queen! The queen flew away! What is that?"
Raymond understood immediately, there was no sand table around, he signaled to understand, the big black ant took them back, Opal and Raymond quickly began to talk, and now he understood everything.
Sid asked hurriedly, "Where are the people? Where are the others?"
Raymond: "Wait, sort out the information first. The queen ant carried the box and flew up the mountain. What does the arc represent? Are the plants grown in the box? We may have misunderstood it."
Opal: "At least as far as we know, the ship was not destroyed in the explosion."
Raymond nodded slowly, and Opal added: "This is not an accident, it is a human factor, and it has something to do with the person with the box. If you find him, you can find Sid's father."
Raymond hummed, and they returned to the central sand table. Raymond said, "But I don't understand, what does it want to show us?"
Several people stopped, and Raymond began to ask the big black ant. The big black ant drew a small ant next to the queen ant, and then drew a line, circled to the queen ant, and circled back.
Opal finally understood.
"Evolution!" said Sid. "I've learned a bit of entomology, and it must be because their queens are gone, so one of the populations is evolving toward the queen!"
Opal also remembered, he had read in the textbook, this is a natural adjustment mechanism - a method for a group to maintain its self-reproduction ability after the death or disappearance of the queen ant.
He said solemnly, "So we'd better go by the way... and get the queen back as well."
Opal took a deep breath and said, "This commission looks like a lot of trouble, but it's not paid."
Raymond said: "When is it, and I'm still thinking about the reward. I don't really expect these ants to go to the union to entrust any tasks... Forget it, let's go and see first."
Raymond signaled the big black ant to fetch a spaceship for them, but the big black ant did not let several people leave, and painted a fat thing after smoothing the sand table.
Opal: "?"
Raymond: "… "
Opal: "It's so exhausting to communicate with these guys."
Raymond twitched: "What can I do..."
As they were speaking, a group of ants carried a huge, half-dead bug into the ground.
Everyone was dumbfounded.
Xun said: "Is it meant to invite us to dinner?"
The ants came out of the tunnel extending in all directions and flocked to the fat, white worm more than ten meters long. Raymond's handsome face turned green on the spot.
A group of ants gnawed at a bug, the scene was really spectacular, there was splashing mucus everywhere, and the skin of the bug was peeled off bit by bit, Sid turned around in an instant and vomited, Raymond couldn't help but dodge, leaning against the wall Also started vomiting.
Everyone ran to the corner and dared not look again. Opal only felt nauseated. Fortunately, the courses in the mercenary training and the power of faith effectively helped him successfully defend against the nausea.
"I, I, I... I don't eat." Opal said to the big black ant.
Big Black Ant Leader: "?"
Opal drew a little man with long hands and long legs on the sand table, pointed to Raymond, indicated that it was him, and drew a protruding belly, saying, "He is pregnant and can't eat worms."
Raymond roared angrily, "Don't talk nonsense!"
The leader of the big black ant: "???"
Opal began to delay time with the big black ant incoherently, and said: "There is a child in the stomach, here, look. We don't eat this, the spaceship finds it, and goes, we must bring the queen back to you... Goodbye."
A group of ants pulled out the belly of the worm, dragged it over to offer it to Opal, dragged it to the ground, and the intestines with mucus completely and directly penetrated the limit of Opal's tolerance, and he finally vomited.
Half an hour later, Raymond made the big black ants understand that they would not eat these through repeated insistence, and the ants poured out of the cave again to carry their spaceship back, and everyone was spinning and exhausted.
The two spaceships were divided by the ants and carried to the open space outside the woods.
Raymond said to the black ant leader that they were going to take a look. The black ant leader led a group of ants to guide the way on the ground, and the four of them controlled the two spaceships to lift off, fly at a low altitude, and slowly fly to the direction of the black line on the ground.
After flying for a long time, the endless moss plain was surrounded by dense ant people, and the scene was extremely spectacular. The black ants spontaneously gave way to an open space, the spaceship landed, and Opal was stunned when he got out of the spaceship.
In the middle of the wilderness, the ring-shaped building previously drawn by the ants is a lonely starry sky gate.
"Isn't this a device that can only be installed outside the atmosphere?" Opal said in disbelief, "How could it be placed on a planet?!!"