CAT Chapter 43: Endless Cycle (5)

Madam Chen believed that Lin Si should not leave the Voyager.

Her meaning was clear: these ten years were extremely precious for a scientific researcher. If Lin Si stayed on the Voyager, he could achieve results that were no less impressive than “Limitless.”

“My energy will be spent on helping the Voyager explore new planets,” Lin Si said. “Its significance is no less than that of scientific research.”

“But Lucia can replace you,” Mrs. Chen said. “Moreover, interstellar exploration always involves sacrifices. Even during the Voyager‘s journey, nearly a hundred researchers have died on planets with harsh environments.”

“You cannot sacrifice,” she said, her tone becoming more severe. “You, Tang Ning, Zheng Shu, and the core personnel from each region—you guys especially cannot sacrifice. Your talents are one in a million, you graduated from the top universities on Earth, and you were nurtured by the greatest educational resources and societal rules of that time. But we no longer have that environment. Our new generation will never have people like you.”

“Our people, like our resources, are finite—once used, they are gone,” Madam Chen sighed. “If something were to happen to you out there, where could I find another person with your level of ability?”

**

Ling Yi was writing in his journal.

Since his last conversation with Lin Si about the second law of thermodynamics, he had started keeping a diary.

— Ling Yi thought this way, he could preserve the things he feared forgetting.

“Today, Lin Si found out that a few days ago, I was playing a dangerous game without my exoskeleton, fighting with the Colonel. Lin Si was not happy.”

“Lin Si asked me what to do when my intuition differs from the machine’s calculations. I still want to choose my own intuition because Tang Ning’s program sometimes has bugs.”

After writing these two sentences, he rested his chin on his hand and thought about what else to write.

— It seemed there was nothing else.

So he wrote another line: “Lin Si still hasn’t returned, I miss him,” and then closed the paper journal.

After finishing this, with nothing else to do, he memorized a few chemical equations and decided to go find Tang Ning to ask about some math problems.

After learning the Fourier series, he started studying multiple integrals, which was quite annoying.

He left the training field, following the familiar path through several corridors and arrived at Tang Ning’s usual lab.

Tang Ning’s lab and Zheng Shu’s office were both at the end of this corridor, facing each other. During working hours, the doors were usually slightly ajar.

Inside Zheng Shu’s lab, a woman’s voice could be heard, likely someone from another area, explaining some work-related matters, followed by casual conversation about daily life.

Zheng Shu was very popular among the ladies, but this popularity was different from the way Ling Yi was received. The ladies saw Ling Yi as if he were their child, while Zheng Shu was treated with a bit of subtle, flirtatious attention. Such an elegant and refined man was rare aboard the spaceship.

At that moment, Zheng Shu’s attitude towards the woman inside was also very considerate and proper, making it easy for others to develop a fond impression of him.

Meanwhile, from Tang Ning’s room came the hum of the artificial intelligence’s main computer and the soft sound of paper and pens. It was clear that Tang Ning was alone in the lab.

Ling Yi knew not to disturb Tang Ning at this moment, so he didn’t knock. He quietly entered—if he wanted to, he could make no noise at all, and ordinary people wouldn’t notice.

Upon entering, he saw Tang Ning sitting at the computer, calculating something—what exactly, was beyond Ling Yi’s current level of understanding.

Vivian was sitting next to Tang Ning, and when she saw Ling Yi enter, she placed a finger to her lips, signaling him to be quiet.

Ling Yi winked at her, passed through the holographic projection, and sat in the chair next to her. Vivian quickly understood what he meant, gave him a sweet smile, changed her posture, and sat on Ling Yi’s lap, wrapping her slender arms around his neck and contentedly squinting her eyes.

It wasn’t until Tang Ning filled several sheets of paper with calculations and finally arrived at a string of results that he quickly typed several hundred lines of code. Only then did his attention shift slightly, and he noticed Ling Yi sitting beside him.

“Are you done writing?” Ling Yi asked.

Tang Ning hummed in response, “I’m optimizing Lucia.”

“Isn’t Lucia already impressive?” Ling Yi asked.

“She will go with the Expeditioner to the distant stars,” Tang Ning said. “The notice I received was that only a team of engineers will be assigned to maintain her. She will take over all the ship’s equipment and life support systems.”

Ling Yi nodded, “Lucia is really impressive.”

“She’s not quite where we expected her to be,” Tang Ning said coldly, “She has a self-learning system. After accompanying you to distant stars, she’ll learn a lot. In the future, she might be able to control the entire spaceship by herself and complete all exploration tasks.”

Ling Yi blinked, processing this information. He thought that Tang Ning, the person who created Lucia’s core program, was really an amazing individual.

Vivian, hearing Tang Ning praise Lucia, immediately became unhappy. A cloud appeared above her head, and raindrops fell. “Lucia is better than me in every way.”

Tang Ning’s tone was very calm as he said, “I don’t like Lucia.”

The cloud immediately disappeared, turning into a white cloud.

Ling Yi observed the interaction between them.

When Tang Ning said he didn’t like Lucia, it was genuine dislike, not an attempt to comfort Vivian—Tang Ning was somewhat slow to pick up on emotions in people, let alone comfort someone.

Was it because Lucia had set up her own image? Ling Yi knew that Tang Ning didn’t like anything that was out of his control. He had never loaded an emotional system into Lucia up until now.

He didn’t dwell on this question, because people’s preferences were always strange, and others couldn’t understand them. Just like how Zheng Shu was so kind to everyone, but only cold to Tang Ning… there were many things in this world that weren’t beautiful.

Tang Ning asked him, “Is there something?”

Ling Yi nodded, taking out a few math problems he couldn’t solve earlier.

If he asked Lin Si questions, he would just be teased, so he preferred asking Tang Ning.

— Tang Ning would never find fault with him for not being smart because, in Tang Ning’s eyes, aside from himself and Lin Si, everyone else’s brains weren’t as sharp.

After finishing the problems, Ling Yi continued studying math on the desk next to him. Tang Ning resumed writing his program, and Vivian, resting her chin in her hand, watched them. The atmosphere was harmonious for a while.

After finishing today’s study, Ling Yi took out his journal and continued writing about what had happened today.

“Today, I asked Tang Ning some math problems. Tang Ning is very smart, Lucia is also very impressive, and Vivian is very cute.”

“But if one day Lucia really becomes, as Tang Ning said, capable of completing the exploration tasks of distant stars alone, will she be very lonely?”

**

Lin Si walked out of Madam Chen’s office, his brow slightly furrowed, feeling a little frustrated.

As he was about to reach Zone 6, the communication device rang again. This time it was Seth, requesting a highly dangerous reagent.

They were working on a highly corrosive solvent. If successful, it could quickly decompose and extract metals, improving the efficiency of mechanical manufacturing.

Lin Si returned to his office, where Seth was already waiting with an application form in hand.

Lin Si casually asked about the project progress, signed the application form, sent it to the Zone 2 for archiving, then led Seth into a storage room.

This storage room was located at the lowest level of the entire Zone 6, equipped with the strictest security and protective measures. It stored dangerous reagents and samples.

When the door opened, a dry, cold air hit them. Since some special chemicals couldn’t be exposed to bright light, the storage room was very dim. Metal shelves, reaching up to the ceiling, lined the walls, and in each compartment were various reagents and chemicals, most of which had skull and crossbones labels.

The walls also had compartments, holding items with even higher danger levels. These were securely fastened with braces to prevent them from falling.

Seth, using a cold light flashlight, moved between the shelves, searching for the reagent he needed according to the index.

The white light from the flashlight passed through the test tube racks, casting long, continuous shadows on the floor.

Lin Si remained silent, as if he were the only one in the room. Seth felt a little uneasy, unconsciously speeding up his pace.

He reached the area where the reagents were stored and was about to search carefully when he suddenly heard Lin Si’s voice, “Stop.”

Seth hadn’t reacted yet when he heard Lin Si’s footsteps—he was suddenly right next to him.

The steps were fast, unlike Lin Si’s usual pace.

Seth’s cold light flashlight was taken by Lin Si, who directed it at the white ceiling.

At the junction of the ceiling and wall, there were more than ten black ultrasonic vibration tubes in a row.

Cleaning, sterilization, monitoring… many tasks could be accomplished through these ultrasonic tubes.

Lin Si directed the flashlight at a spot where two thin black tubes had been misaligned.

Originally, they should have been arranged in a neat horizontal line, but now the two tubes were skewed—one slanted left, the other right, forming an incomplete V-shape. The scene looked abrupt and strange.

...In this case, the two sound waves from these tubes would definitely intersect at some point.

Seth was still thinking when he heard Lin Si’s cold voice quickly say, “Lucia, record.”

The ever-present Lucia received the command, and a mechanical voice said flatly, “Photo taken.”

“Cut off the power.”

“Power cut off.”

The room immediately plunged into complete darkness, leaving only the flashlight’s beam.

The cold white light from the flashlight moved away from the ultrasonic tubes and shone toward a sealed compartment on the wall. Inside was a test tube—its color was very unusual, a pale flesh color, like a gel-like substance.

The label read “Berlin-III.”

— It was a sample of the Berlin virus!

If… the two ultrasonic vibration tubes were triggered at a special frequency, causing resonance, and the glass shattered…

Seth’s eyes widened, and the hairs on his body stood on end.

Lin Si quickly stepped forward, unlocked the compartment with his fingerprint, removed the test tube from its holder, and placed it into the low-temperature locked box that Seth had originally intended to use for the reagents. He tightly closed it.

Afterward, Lin Si quickly activated his communication wristband and dialed.

“Marshal, this is Zone 6, there’s a situation.”