The drowsy darkness was like a thick blanket, wrapping his consciousness deep inside. All the while he was sinking, sinking and sinking, into the endless darkness, the silent depths where there was neither fear nor pain.... Only the vague, lingering presence of something always flickering ahead, and again and again, irritatingly, drawing him back from the depths.
When he forced his eyelids open a slit, a strong white light pierced into his pupils. He immediately closed his eyes. As tears welled up in his eyes, he gradually regained consciousness.
When he opened his eyes again, the bright light was gone, and there was only the night sky in front of him. Woyu blinked slowly, and the memory came flooding back like a tide. He ordered Silas to bring him to the open-air garden, and then … he fainted.
He slowly raised his head, and he soon understood what was going on. In the dark sky, he could vaguely make out a strange-shaped pure black shadow following closely above Exodus. The strong light that woke him from his coma must have come from it.
Lin Sanjiu did not give up. But why did she stop calling him?
Woyu opened his mouth, but no sound could penetrate the transparent barrier above the open-air garden. So, he closed his mouth again.
'No matter what, she can see that the communicator is missing, and she should know that we can't communicate anymore. What should I do now? '
'If she can't get in, the man behind me will not give up. '
Just when he was hesitating, the black aircraft in front of him suddenly swooped down and hovered over the open-air garden. Like a small fish attached to a big fish, it flew close to Exodus for a while.
It seemed to be Morse code.
"Are you kidding me?" Woyu gasped. "How many people out of a hundred can understand Morse code? This is not addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. You guys really have faith in me … "
The aircraft dimmed, as if it was anxiously waiting for him to respond.
"Consider yourselves lucky." He sighed and endured the waves of pain. He raised his head and fell back down.
The Committee's funds were always strained, and the special articles for secret communication were expensive; to save money, several of them had learned Morse code. Woyu did not expect that he would have to use it again so soon after the death of his companions. The faint sorrow and anger in his chest made Woyu stop what he was doing.
Seeing that he nodded, the aircraft immediately lit up again. Although he had been squinting his eyes, when all the light returned to darkness, his eyes were filled with tears.
The message that Lin Sanjiu wanted to convey was very simple. First, the communicator could not be used anymore. Second, the log-in gate.
Landing port?
Woyu frowned and thought for a moment. He roughly understood what they meant. For a mothership the size of Exodus, taking off and landing was not an easy task. When it needed to transport people and cargo between the ground and the cabin, it would use a ferry. If there was a ferry, there must be a log-in gate.
If they could open the port from the inside, Lin Sanjiu and the rest would just have to circle around the outside and they would be able to find their way in.
"Silas," Woyu called out to her in a hoarse voice. His voice was not as forceful as before. He was afraid that the System could not hear him. Fortunately, he got a response very quickly. "Yes."
It was nice to have such a spaceship.
"That man … Where is your former commander?"
"The unregistered personnel is moving toward the bridge on deck 1."
Woyu blinked his eyes blankly.
'Where is deck 1? What is the bridge? '
However, compared to these questions, there was a more urgent order that he needed to give. "Wherever he is going, stop him." He suddenly coughed violently. After a while, he gasped for breath and said, "Stop him. Trap him."
However, as soon as he finished speaking, Silas said, "The target has arrived at the bridge."
Woyu's heart skipped a beat. Before he could think further, the System continued, "The bridge is on lockdown."
"Wait, wait —"
"The target has been trapped in the bridge area."
Woyu wanted to let out a long sigh. After all, Silas was not a human. What was the point of trapping him where he wanted to go? Besides, why did the man run to the bridge instead of chasing after him? The word "master" in the name was really unpleasant.
He bit his lip for a few seconds and swallowed the ominous feeling in his chest. He raised his head and glanced at the night sky outside. The spaceship had risen some distance into the sky, but after two encounters with it, he could already tell its location from the night sky.
"The log-in gate, or the access gate … Where is the place where the spaceship and ferry can land?" he asked, choosing his words carefully. His ribs must have been broken. Every time he raised his voice, his chest would tremble, and the pain would make him break out in a cold sweat.
"The front section on the right side of deck 1."
It was deck 1 again.
"How far is it from the bridge?"
"780 meters."
In the eyes of a posthuman, if the door of the bridge was opened, it would be a distance that could be crossed with a single step. Woyu swallowed a mouthful of saliva that reeked of iron. "Then … Can the door of the ship be opened by anyone other than me?"
The answer he was hoping to hear was "no". However, Silas answered, "It depends on whether the operator has the emergency recovery code or not. Even without the permission of the commander, all the mechanical devices can be operated manually after the emergency recovery code is entered. "
"What is this emergency recovery code?" Woyu's heart was clenched tightly in his chest.
"I'm sorry, I can't tell the commander about the emergency recovery code."
He was stunned. He never expected to hear such an answer. "Why?"
"According to the Star Map Group's Starship General Rules, Chapter 10, Article 171, Section A, the commander has no right to know about the emergency recovery code."
Woyu felt like he had just been kicked in the head. "Star … Star Map Group? What is that? "
"You seem to lack basic information." Silas might not be human, but she was very observant. "Exodus belongs to the Star Map Group's Planet East Colonization Company. The carrier number is 07. The year of construction is 2338, and the service period is eight years. The number of decks, 10 floors, crew capacity, 800 … "
Silas continued to introduce the ship, but Woyu's mind was occupied by one thought.
This was not only a starship from before the apocalypse, but it was also responsible for the transfer of interstellar colonization in an unknown world. The man was either the captain hired by the company, or he got the ship from the real captain. No wonder he was able to change the man's authority with just a bunch of keys. The real ownership of this ship belonged to the Star Map Group of some unknown world that might no longer exist.
The man was just a commander, so Silas would not tell him about the emergency recovery code.
In other words, the ship was now in his hands, and he was the only one who could command it.
Woyu blinked his eyes and raised his hand to wipe his forehead.
The aircraft outside the open-air garden had already disappeared into the night, and no one knew where it had gone. Without his help, Lin Sanjiu could not enter the ship, nor could she follow Exodus. The ship could leave the planet's surface and enter space at any time.
Without his order, the man could not come out of the bridge. No matter how many tricks he tried, he would be locked in that place that didn't seem to have any food until he turned into a skeleton.
Woyu could feel sweat trickling down his forehead. He and his buddies had been struggling in the Twelve Worlds Centrum for several years, but they could only survive on the dregs of the big shots. They had never reaped such a huge fortune … When they first started following Lin Sanjiu, they never even dreamed of getting their hands on her house.
"Bring me to the bridge," he ordered hoarsely. "I want to have a look outside."
If possible, perhaps he could talk to that man.
"Okay."
The deck of Exodus had seven floors, but before Woyu became the commander, it only opened the top floor to Lin Sanjiu and the others. As Silas opened one door after another for him, the levitating pod went all the way down to the seventh floor of the deck.
When they passed by a wide gray iron gate, Woyu slammed on the brake without giving Silas any instructions. The gate was as large as a warehouse, and there were three words written on it with white paint. As long as they walked past the gate, he would be able to open the gate for Lin Sanjiu.
Woyu sat in the levitating pod and hesitated for a long time. Beads of cold sweat seeped out of his skin, quickly drenching the clothes on his back. He didn't know if it was because he was seriously injured, or because his heart was filled with struggle and entanglement.
The bridge is not far ahead … He raised his head to look ahead, and then turned to look at the port. Finally, he gritted his teeth, and his face contorted into a grimace.
"Silas," he called out, "Silas!"
The system did not respond.
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