When I met Dr. Petrovsky, it was a May day.

I walked along a normal path on the Pampas to my scheduled meeting place--- a pig farm, where the doctor was waiting for me, dressed in synthetic fabric, looking like an ordinary farm worker.

"It's not like, it's just." Nikolai. Petrovsky interrupted me describing the beginning of the interview as he placed a glass of cold boiled water in front of me.

"But you can still see the traces of war." I replied as I held the cool-smelling cup in my hand.

"That's true, but how many people don't have the slightest trace of war in this day and age?"

"Well, I'll get straight to the point."

"Ah, I really came into contact with him three months after the Battle of Noah, in Rio de Janeiro, and I was still an ordinary doctor who was not very good...

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Rio de Janeiro, April, three months after the Battle of Noah.

The streets of the city still smell of war, and the debris that could not be removed due to lack of resources and manpower, and the remains of fallen mobile suits still haunt the city like landmarks that constantly stir up people's painful memories. The people on the street were in a hurry, and apart from looking up at the stressful sky from time to time, another thing that all of them had in common was the sorrow and pain on their faces.

Union jeeps drove through the streets, blaring curfew announcements from their horns, occasionally attracting annoyed or angry glances from passers-by. But the Union soldiers, who locked themselves in their cars and wielded their on-board machine guns, used invisible walls to block the glares of their protectants, and then drove to the few places where they could still light up under the control of the energy supply, and where they had to guard after dark.

"This is Boar Patrol 03, call headquarters, we have completed the established route, and now we are on guard duty at Santa Sachariah Hospital," a federal soldier sitting in the passenger seat in a patrol car hung up his contact with headquarters and shouted to his colleagues who were on guard at the machine gun position, "Sandinistas, get down from above, it's not safe, use remote control instead." ”

"Right now." Augusto. Sandino looked again at the blurred expressions of the hurried people on the street, and retreated into the carriage after being stung by the aggressive eyes of some of the youths.

"I'm glad you're obedient this time, and I'll feel distressed if I get shot again." After Corporal Sandino sat in the back seat, Christina sat in front of him. Santos punched him as he handed over a piece of military rations.

"Jerry, is it okay for your wife to care about me like this?"

"She's not Christina yet. Santos. Symond, so you're ok. The federal soldier sitting in the driver's seat replied.

"We'll have to take care of this, you and me." Hearing her fiancé say this, Christina held out her finger and shook it between her and her fiancé.

The teasing, which used to cause laughter, ended in silence again, and the female soldiers of the Federation sat up in silence and began to set up the remote control of the machine gun, and Sandino turned his attention to the night vision screen of the machine gun. There was silence until the spot they were going to guard again that night came into view.

"The hospital has arrived." Jerry. Symond said as he drove the car towards the gate.

"Damn it." Sandino, who had received a notification that he could finally take his attention off the monitor, suddenly cursed as he shook it off.

"I know what you're trying to say," said Jerry, the leader of the patrol detachment, Federal Sergeant. "But after we disobeyed orders like we did in Dhaka, we should be glad to have such a job." ”

"He's right, and you know I'm not saying it from the perspective of saving face for my man." Christina, who was in the front seat, turned around and looked at her comrades, "Guarding the hospital is also a necessary job, can you imagine what it would be like inside if we weren't here?" ”

Looking at the shark-like crowd around the perimeter of the hospital that could light the lights, Augusto. Sandino nodded heavily:

"Yes..."

"People seeking medical treatment, gangsters who are dissatisfied with the federal government, gangsters who want to take advantage of the chaos, and even a group of guys who want to find the [Rainbow Bird]。。。。。。 Damn it. "Christina. Santos cursed as he jumped out of the car.

"I'm kind of wanting to be one last of the guys."

"Count me in." Jerry. Simmond said as he turned off the car, and he jumped out of the car one last time, and after briefly resting his gaze on the glowing window of the hospital, the federal sergeant drove the vision of the bird out of his mind and joined the guard.

Where his gaze had once stayed, in a hospital room, Nikolai. Dr. Petrovsky looked in amazement at the patient, who was lying on the bed, dressed in bandages, and who had been unconscious since he was transferred to his care, opened his bare eyes:

"You're awake!"

The patient lying on the bed twisted his body, and then his lips moved, but in the end he did not make a sound. As if haunted by the fact that the patient, dressed in bandages, cast a puzzled gaze on Nikolai.

"It's only been a week since you removed your breathing tube, I'm sorry, but," Nikolai clicked his mouth a few times, and finally let out a helpless sigh before reopening his mouth, "It's already the limit here for your throat to be able to contribute to breathing and eating again, and your vocalization is still ... I'm sorry... ”

There were also burn marks in the eyes and face drooped a little, Nikolai's heart ached, and he pushed a small terminal to the hand of the person on the bed:

"Use this whatever you want, I'm sorry, we wanted to read it with brain waves when you were awake last time, but I don't know why the device doesn't work, so we can only give it to you."

Hearing Nikolai say this, the person on the bed shuddered for a moment, and the eyes radiated shock, but the eyelids soon seemed to droop tiredly, and he moved his bandaged fingers to the screen and tapped lightly, and soon the text appeared on the screen in the room:

[What time is it?] 】

"April 1st, April Fool's Day, don't worry, you haven't slept for ten years, it's only been three months, but I may hope you have slept for ten years." Looking at the questions on the screen, Nikolai replied with some loneliness and self-deprecation.

Where is this and why do you say that? 】

"Rio de Janeiro, Santa Zacharias Hospital," Nicola replied as he pulled down his chair and adjusted his medical equipment, "since you're awake, it means you'll be hospitalized or transferred soon, and it's not the best time to be outside." ”

[Why do you say that?] 】

"Hehe, well, I'm just a doctor, but I know a little bit about it... The Federation Army was completely defeated, although the head of the Federation made a speech that the army still has the ability to defend the Earth's sphere, but I don't know how much credibility there is," Nikolai inserted the liquid delivery pipe into the mouth of the patient in front of him, "The cosmic colonies are united under the leadership of that empire, and now they are fully beginning to control the supply of resources to the Earth, and some free press has mentioned that the Federation is completely at a disadvantage... The Universe is theirs ... Oh, there is only one broken pillar left in the solar power generation system, and the orbit is still full of wreckage... I don't know how to tell you systematically, maybe I just don't want to say it... ”

[The colony is in... 】

"Choking the Confederacy? If you want to ask this, yes, they are doing it, the military superiority of the Federation is gone, and the earth, which is useless in terms of population and resources, now has no power to resist," Nikolai glanced at the screen and interrupted the question of the patient he was caring, and after receiving the patient's silent approval, he stood up and walked to the window to look at the lights in the courtyard outside and the dark street, "The whole world has entered the energy control, medical supplies, and daily necessities have all entered the rationing control, Even in some places far away from the export of agricultural products, even food has begun to be controlled, even if it is a wounded soldier like you who participated in the war, all the government can give is not to let you die because of the trauma suffered in the battle, and the rest of the combat-ready people may not be able to return to the army to eat military rations, let alone you... It's not the right time for you to wake up ... Well, although you are a special case, there are too many wounded soldiers who have been forcibly kicked out of the hospital by me... ”

[Why, know that I am a soldier?] 】

"The report says that when they first found you, your whole body was burned, and what was burned with your skin was the fragment of the MS Universe pilot's suit, plus the place where they found you was near the MS wreckage, so they deduced that you fought in the space above the orbital elevator, are they wrong?"

[Nope.] 】

"Well, I don't want to save an Empire, because I've got to be honest with you, you really are... "Nikolai sat down on the edge of the bed, and after a few searches for the right words before he spoke again, "you are... Very peculiar luck ... ”

[Because I didn't fall to my death?] 】

"No, there have been a few examples of MS falling but not falling to death before, because of the relationship between the MS's buffer device and the falling speed, but you are different---- you almost all the bones in your body are broken or broken at the beginning, and the most important thing is the most severe burn in your body," Nikolai shook his head, "You didn't die of infection in the bad emergency hospital at the beginning, and later, when the skin burned all over your body and you couldn't repair it, you didn't die because you couldn't control the temperature in your body through your skin, And that's not even counting the damage to the lining of your blood vessels... ”

Under Nikolai's gaze, the patient on the bed turned his head slightly to look at his bandaged arm.

"There are a lot of nanomachines in your blood, and they damage your blood vessels as they follow the flow of blood, but these nanorobots seem to form a subtle symbiosis with you to maintain your survival--- the heat in your body that can't be expelled through your pores through some kind of means that this hospital can't parse... Uh, it seems to be some kind of amino acid energy conversion... It provides the energy for those nanomachines, these little things are now flowing in and out of your body, constantly damaging your body, but also sucking away the heat that you can't excrete, and also maintaining your nervous system in some parts, you should not be able to feel anything but your head now, well, maybe you shouldn't even be able to open your eyes, because your nervous system is like an overloaded circuit, not to mention the collapsed spinal nerves... ”

[It's not yet time for me to die. 】

"Haha, I like this attitude, it's rare to have such an attitude now, this world that is caught in self-destructive emotions, well, rare," Touched by the words typed by the patient in front of him, Nikolai laughed for a while, "Now that you're awake, I'll go and report, you should be an elite, I used to be an army doctor, your state is unusual, and the federal military department also gave you an order to report when you wake up." ”

[Did the Federal Military Department send someone to pick me up?] 】

"No, that's not true, the army is in disarray, and there is a shortage of manpower everywhere in the world, unless I think it's Amuro. Soldiers like Li are unexpected, there will be no special real-time monitoring and pick-up treatment, rest, I will write a report tomorrow, maybe the military department remembers you, maybe not, but you finally survived. ”

After saying that, Nikolai walked out of the room after inspecting the medical equipment, and behind him, a word was displayed on the small screen:

【Thank you】

As the door closed, the patient on the bed, dressed in bandages, closed his eyes in the darkened room.

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"That was the last time I saw him in that contact, I don't know how he left, although the hospital was not on guard, but apart from the fact that the three soldiers on duty at the gate remembered to talk to a man in a federal uniform with a bandage on his face, he disappeared like a ghost into the pre-dawn darkness." Nikolai. Petrovsky put down the glass and looked the interviewer in the eye.

"Have you ever had a chance to question him in the future?" Charlotte. E。 Jaeger also looked at Nikolai with interest.

"Unfortunately, no, when I realized that it was the one, he was no longer in my reach, and this could only be a permanent mystery for me...

"Did he make any impression on you?"

After listening to this, Nikolai. Petrovsky was silent for a long time before breaking the silence, he raised his left hand and rubbed it back and forth on his head as if to remember something, and finally the friction slowed down, and the rough fingers of the former doctor and now the farmer slid down his forehead, and then stopped at the place of his eyes:

"His eyes, when he typed the phrase 'not before I die'--- his eyes, I can't describe those eyes to you, but I know that in the years since, in the hard years, I have thought of those eyes several times when I was in a desperate situation where I wanted to give up, and maybe to this day, I can feel those eyes sometimes...