The return procedure for the lunar module was simpler than he expected, but it was only as simple as he expected. Like a first-grade schoolboy, he operated the instruments under the "command" of two astronauts in lunar orbit, and returned to lunar orbit without danger.

When the airlock opened, he saw the two men looking a little confused.

Because they see almost the same person—the same looks, even the same hairstyle. So Li Zhen smiled, and then took a deep breath. The air in the lunar module smelled a little, but it was much better than the oxygen-deficient environment in his spacesuit. After taking three deep breaths, he spoke, "When will you return?" ”

The response was, "You really...... Was it out of the ship all the time? ”

"Then I can't hide in a rocket." Li Zhen smiled, climbed the bulkhead with one hand and floated towards the two of them, and asked again, "When will you return?" ”

This time, the two of them were stunned for a moment before replying, "It's not certain yet, we have to wait for news from the command center." Something went wrong with the communication. ”

Then one of them pointed to himself: "I'm Qian Suidang." ”

pointed to another person: "He is Wu Jiechao." ”

Li Zhen nodded, but his attention was more focused on the other party's words just now. He thought for a moment, "There's something wrong with the communication – what's going on?" Was it expected, or was it unexpected? ”

Wu Jiechao is a tall and thin middle-aged man, and his appearance looks a bit like the old farmer who has been poor all his life in old feature films. Hearing Li Zhen's question now, he blinked, and the fine lines on his face became more and more obvious. It seems that I have been worried about this all along. He thought about it and said, "Actually, it's expected...... This is not the earth after all, and even on the earth there are times when the mobile phone signal is not good. ”

After saying that, he paused. So Li Zhen breathed a sigh of relief slightly: "I see." ”

But the next moment, Qian Suidang added: "But it's been going on for a while—the communication has been intermittent for the last five hours, and we've lost contact for ten minutes just now." ”

"It's just a problem. It's either a problem on our side, or a problem on the ground. Wu Jiechao nodded, "I've flown so many times, and it's the first time I've encountered this situation." ”

These two speak in this way......

Li Zhen frowned slightly. But apparently now was not the time to complain - he had to patiently ask again: "Is the problem a big deal?" ”

Wu Jiechao grinned, and let his body change from floating flat in front of the console to erect: "Problem, this, I've flown so many times......"

With the experience of the past, Li Zhen asked: "How many times?" ”

"Plus there can be three times this time." Wu Jiechao said with a smile, "That's why I've flown so many times." The first time was when something went wrong with the ship. The second time was not a big deal. As for this time...... This is the first time that such a lunar module has been launched. ”

Li Zhen had to interrupt him: "When you say the first time, the spaceship, do you mean Aerospace II?" ”

Wu Jiechao nodded.

"What about the second time?"

"It's the International Space Station."

So Li Zhen took a deep breath and waved his hand: "Okay, it's none of your business." Old money. What do you think? ”

Qian Sui realized that Li Zhen seemed to be a little dissatisfied with his colleague. Hurriedly smiled: "This." In my opinion, it could have been a sunspot outbreak or something else, and it wouldn't be a big problem. We can wait a little longer. Maybe in a few minutes it will be fine again. ”

Li Zhen had never been an astronaut before. And he, like most ordinary people, felt that this kind of thing was mysterious and serious, and it should be the kind of atmosphere that was cautious and like facing a great enemy. But looking at these two at the moment, it is as if two long-distance freight drivers are about to break down in their vehicles, and they don't feel that the matter is serious.

If he had been in space for the first time, he might have felt the same way as these two. The problem was that he had seen the Ghost Fleet outside.

At such a time, the communication is interrupted, is there really something wrong on the ground?

But he really couldn't think about it, so he sighed softly and said in a low voice, "Okay." Then wait a little longer. ”

I waited for nearly half an hour. At this time, even Wu Jiechao and Qian Suidang's faces gradually became solemn. Although the lunar spacecraft carries a "ship", it is only the size of three lunar modules, and the supplies and fuel it carries are quite limited.

Right now they are in the orbit of the Moon, but they are not as easily as one might think to make a circular motion under the gravitational pull of the planet. Because the mass distribution on the surface of the moon is not uniform, there are "mass tumors" in some areas. The moonship's engines had to be fine-tuned to ensure that the spacecraft's trajectory did not deviate.

With such continuous consumption of fuel, if there is no news on the ground after another ten minutes, they will have to risk returning home.

Fortunately, the anxious wait didn't last long. After another three minutes, communication was finally restored.

The voice from the ground command center wasn't clear, but it sounded like a heavenly sound. But there was some seriousness and urgency in the "natural" voice, so the three people in the moon landing spacecraft all knew that there was indeed something wrong with the command center. From the brief account of the other party, they learned that not only the communication with the lunar spacecraft had been disrupted, but also the communication of other regions of the planet had been disturbed in some way.

Li Zhen frowned slightly. Because what he feared might have happened.

The end of the aurora and the restoration of power did not mean that the familiar world was starting to get back on track, but more like the beginning of some kind of larger-scale anomalous change.

Now the atmosphere in the cabin has finally become as tense and solemn as he had imagined before. Wu Jiechao and Qian Suidang were in charge of controlling the spaceship, and he was an out-and-out passenger.

The flagpole, or the spear of Longinus, was in his hand, but the two men were silent about it, as if they had prepared in advance, and only glanced at the thing from time to time, but could not see anything unusual.

Twenty-six minutes later, the moon spacecraft's engines started and the hull was detached from lunar orbit.

The return process takes a little longer. Over a period of up to 88 hours, the communication outage became more severe. The three of them remained in contact with the ground command centre for no more than three hours in total. During these three hours, Li Zhen had a phone call with Dai Bingcheng to inform the other party of the news of "that one". However, when he asked about the situation in South America, the reply was "not clear".

He thinks it's not perfunctory, it's not deliberately concealed, maybe it's really "not clear".

The information he received was limited, and it was really difficult to get a glimpse of the full picture.

The spacecraft was scheduled to land on a sparsely populated plain in the Northwest Territories. After more than 70 hours of travel, they were the last to contact the ground command center to report on the ship's condition. The Earth had grown larger and the Moon smaller, and he hadn't seen the "Ghost Swarm" on the way back, perhaps the lost bombers had slipped away while they were stuck in lunar orbit.

At this time, the three people in the cabin finally breathed a sigh of relief. Because even if they lose contact with the ground command center again at this moment, they can land safely. Then wait for ground rescue.

And yet—

There are always many, many in this world, however.

What Li Zhen experienced right now. It is undoubtedly the most fatal one.

Just 30 seconds after entering the outer atmosphere, the communication channel sounded an urgent and panicked voice. The sound was intermittent and indistinct by some unknown interference, and then completely isolated by the ionosphere that formed on the surface of the ship.

The only valuable message the three men heard was "change course".

"What the hell?!" Wu Jiechao shouted first. At the moment, all three people are fixed to their seats, and the ship has entered the state of automatic navigation. And at this speed. "Change course" in the atmosphere. Neither Li Zhen nor himself has ever heard of it.

However, the command center would not ignore such an order. All they can do is react as quickly as possible and follow through quickly.

But just as he tried to get up, the vision appeared.

Suddenly, they saw a blue sky and white clouds—

Blue skies in summer. Leisurely white clouds. They were like three trapeze artists, sitting in a seated position and with a look of astonishment on their faces, they found themselves in the sky. Without warning, the entire hull vanished, or the entire hull became transparent. They were still descending at high speed, and they could not hear the wind howling in their ears, only the roar of the hull rubbing against the air in the atmosphere at high speed.

Before the consternation on his face could disappear, the scene changed again. They were once again wrapped in a cockpit that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

The reason why it is "familiar" is because everything is the way it is. And the reason why it is "unfamiliar" is because this cockpit looks as if it has gone through decades of unmaintained.

The surface of the originally clean console was rusted under the eyes, and large pieces of paint were peeling off. And the lights that were flashing were also covered with a thick layer of dust, as if they had been piled up in an unmanned warehouse for a long, long time.

Stunned, Qian Sui subconsciously stepped forward at the moment-

He found that the strap that had held him to the seat fell like flour, and he himself fell headlong on the console with a strong shock. The whole body was weak for a while, as if it had just overdrawn decades of life.

He saw Li Zhen and Wu Jiechao's surprised eyes, and muttered from his dry and sore throat again-"...... What's going on? ”

Then he himself was stunned. It wasn't his voice at all, but it seemed to come from the mouth of an old man who was dying of old age.

Then he saw Wu Jiechao's face more clearly.

Wu Jiechao originally looked much older than his actual age. But by now the fine wrinkles on his face had become terrifyingly deep, his age-spotted skin drooping like shabby cloth, and even his eyebrows had turned pale yellow. The other party tried to widen his eyes in surprise, but his eyes were cloudy and dim, like a dying person looking at the last glance of this world.

In fact, this is the last glimpse he has ever seen. Because just after this moment, in Li Zhen's sight, their faces began to dry up rapidly.

It's like shooting an old man with a camera for decades, and then condensing those decades into just a few seconds. The skin on the face is shriveled, the muscles under the skin are atrophied, and the moisture on the eyeballs quickly dries up and turns into a crumpled gray-white mass, like a dried grapevine.

After a few seconds, the two men remained in the same position as before, motionless. And their bodies no longer seemed to be able to bear the weight of the spacesuits - the bloated clothes made a muffled thud and fell limply to the ground.

The visor of the space helmet suddenly fell into a cloud of gray-white dust.

Everything happens between lightning and flint – no more than ten seconds.

Li Zhen looked at everything in front of him in disbelief, opened his mouth for the first time, and unconsciously shouted a word-"Ah-"

It's like going to the hospital for a check-up of your mouth, trying to open your mouth wide, vibrate your vocal cords, and make a sound.

It wasn't that he was panicking, but that he was trying to do a medical check-up this way to determine his current state. He was relieved by the results. His voice still sounded young, his masseter muscles strong and powerful, and when he closed his mouth, two rows of teeth collided in one place, making a crisp "click" sound.

But the joy lasted only a second. Because right now in this cockpit, all the instruments are out of order. But if he wasn't mistaken......

Now the lunar spacecraft has just entered the outer layers of the atmosphere. Earth's gravitational pull will increase, and the acceleration of gravity will cause the ship to eventually reach a terrifying speed. If he can't open the parachute, can't turn on the engine......

This time, he was really not sure, and he could still let himself survive in this world!

Barely feeling any hindrance, he stood up and threw himself in front of the console.

The return journey was long and boring, so Qian Suidang and Wu Jiechao once explained to him the operating procedures when returning home. But now the text on the surface of those keys has been blurred, and hundreds of keys and indicators are staring at him dimly like rows and rows of dense eyes, but they can't give him the slightest hint.

All he could do was follow the procedure he remembered, fiddle with the stuff in a desperate fit and try to reconnect with the ground command center.

But if even the surface of the console, even the seat belts on the seats, were peeled away, how could he expect those incomparably sophisticated instruments to still be faithful?

Nothing happened, and some of the keys were even rusted in the holes.

At the moment when despair just came to his heart, Li Zhen felt a violent impact. (To be continued......)