31 Rain of debris

Two interceptor devices converted from space shuttles ignited and set off, following a set route to intercept the oncoming space mines.

"Goodbye, owl, chariot." On the radio, Miller's voice could be heard, but it felt far away from the microphone. Maybe it's not that you forgot to shut it down, but you want to let everyone on the station know what's going on.

What follows is a painful 20 minutes, and if the interception fails, it means that all the stories here will be over. The space station is silent, even the movements and breathing of people are quiet, everyone's nerves are tense, and the slightest movement will make people's already accelerated heartbeat board the roller coaster again......

People did not reject Miller's voice on the radio, and although the voice was vague, it still gave everyone an unprecedented sense of reassurance.

“…… Eight minutes to go......"

“……”

“……”

“……”

“…… There are 3 minutes left until the interception......"

The interval between the two time signals is like a long time......

……

Ryan suddenly turned to PDA: "Hey, Shilka, Gao, look at this." "The PDA is showing a pitch-black screen.

"What is this?" Shilka squinted for a moment and asked, puzzled.

Gao Jie seemed to see the clue and replied: "This should be the picture of the external camera of the space station, and it is now facing the direction of the interception point." Because the space mole cannot be detected by radar, Miller can only confirm the success of the interception in this way. ”

"Bingo!" Ryan held out a thumbs up, "That's right." ”

"Can you show me?" Gao Jie stretched out his hand to get the PDA.

"Give." Ryan readily agreed.

The voice on the radio continued: "...... 1 minute to go, God forbid......"

Shilka checked her harness again, even though she had checked it no less than five times before. On the other side, Gao Jie took Ryan's PDA to check, but apparently the footage had cut from the space station camera to other content, and after a while, a dark cloud appeared on Gao Jie's face.

"Gao, are you okay?" Ryan asked with concern, but there was no answer. Something seemed to have disappeared from Gao Jie's eyes, and her face was dull and melancholy, as if she had just heard bad news.

“…… 30 seconds, you must succeed, you must succeed, you must succeed......" The voice on the radio sounded again, and these 30 seconds also gave people a terrible feeling.

"High!" Ryan shouted loudly, this time finally "waking up" Gao Jie, and scared Shilka next to him. "Are you okay? High? ”

As if waking up from a half-asleep experience, Gao Jie shook his head and said, "Oh, it's okay...... I'm fine. Thank you, thank you......" she handed the PDA back to Ryan. The latter took over his PDA and found that the screen was showing a communication log, and the latest news came from the Watcher on the other side of the wormhole......

“…… 10 seconds...... 9、8、7……”

Hearing the voice on the radio, Ryan quickly switched to the camera feed, and he took advantage of the gap to glance at Gao Jie: she was sweating profusely, and there seemed to be tears in the corners of her eyes......

"Intercepting!" Miller on the radio shouted!

Ryan stared at the picture, Shilka next to her craned her neck to look, her hands were trembling - in the center of the pitch-black picture, two sparks faintly flashed, and then a huge ball of light appeared in the dark night sky! From the observer's point of view, this ball of light resembles a small sun, and the emitter is a strong and dazzling light, but in a flash, the ball of light is like a flash in the pan, retracting its own light, quickly dissipating, and being swallowed by the surrounding darkness...... All this, from happening to ending, took less than 10 seconds.

"Interception successful! Interception successful! Miller's voice came over the radio, followed by "Smack!" Syllable! Syllable! He couldn't suppress the excitement in his heart at the sound of three slaps on the table, and then the cheers of the people resounded through the space station!

But it was too early to rejoice, and the alarm sound of the AI suddenly remembered: "Emergency alarm!" Emergency Alert! Emergency Alert! A large number of unidentified objects have been detected approaching at high speed! It is suspected to be a meteorite rain or space junk fragments, and the collision time and probability are being calculated...... "Everyone has expected this situation for a long time, and although the space mine that caused 100% destruction has been avoided now, the upcoming debris impact is not a joke.

“…… The impact time is calculated, and there are still 1246 seconds left...... "After the AI report, this countdown began to appear on the screens in all rooms, and the red number began to count down, followed by the heartbeat of everyone continued to accelerate.

In the broadcast, Miller issued an order to the AI: "AI, turn off the power facilities in the space station within 10 minutes, and only keep the power of the basic survival power and the power of the self-test repair module." ”

"Understood, Commander."

The lights in the room dimmed, and the minimum standard of lighting made Ryan and Shilka feel extremely uncomfortable. But what made the two even more uncomfortable was Gao Jie's dim eyes, which made people very uncomfortable in this darkness.

Ryan knew that it was useless to ask, and he remembered that it was the content on the PDA that made Gao Jie instantly depressed, so he was about to pick up the PDA and prepare to check-

Miller's nervous voice came from the radio: "Gao, Shilka, Ryan, the AI analyzes that your room has a high chance of being pierced by flying debris, you guys now hurry up and move to Research Room 2, hurry!" ”

"Hurry, hurry, hurry!" Ryan reminded the two of them, and then began to frantically untie the security straps on his body with multiple dead knots, only to get more and more hectic the more anxious he became in the near-darkness...... It took more than five minutes for the three of them to untie the harness, during which time Miller reminded the occupants in the other room to move immediately.

After untying the strap, the trio had to slowly grope their way to Research Room 2 in a weightless and dark environment, but as soon as they exited the hatch, they collided with several other people who were moving to the room. In the dark, I couldn't tell the direction, I couldn't tell the people around me, only the back and forth pull and the noise of the language, when several people finally stopped entangled, the time passed another 5 minutes.

"Let's go, it's too late!" Ryan led the way in front, and he even took out the PDA to turn on the lights to illuminate the guide for the two people behind.

The rest of the journey was relatively smooth, and the three of them were getting closer and closer to Laboratory 2. Before approaching Research Room 2, the three of them were about to pass by Research Room 3, where Gao Jie's speed slowed down, she knew: Lucien was in there at this time, a few hours ago, she wanted to ask Lucien about the situation of the clone Sevia, and persuade him to continue to cooperate with the development of the N-particle control command, but now- she just wanted to stab the other party.

"High, keep up!" Seeing that Ryan was about to reach his destination, he found that Gao Jie had left the team, and quickly turned back from the front to find her, and under Ryan's urging, the three finally entered the No. 2 research room. At this point, there are 321 seconds left until the collision time. Ryan helped the two ladies tie up their safety straps and then tie their own—this time without tying the knot, with only 38 seconds left.

"God bless us!" Ryan prayed. Shilka on the side closed her eyes tightly and clutched at the safety belt with both hands.

On the radio, the AI warned: "A collision is coming!" Please take precautions as soon as possible! "That's when the countdown on the screen is over.

The three of them could clearly hear the "clanging" sound coming from the outer wall of the space station, which was the first to arrive with fragments as small as sesame seeds, and the frequent impact sound was like fine rain hitting the glass, although dense, there was not much risk. Subsequently—

The violent crash pierced through everyone's eardrums, accompanied by the sound of metal colliding and tearing, even with the safety straps, people felt the intensity of the impact, and the strong vibration even reminded some people of what they had for lunch, and those who were lucky enough to look out the window at this time could even see the picture of huge fragments passing at high speed......

"Bang-" There was another loud bang, this time not for long, followed by the next, and then the next...... The constant sound of impact proved that the debris had pierced several layers of bulkheads.

“…… Oh God! We've lost two storage cells......" Miller on the radio said to himself, followed by an AI fuzzy electronic voice reporting the damage to Miller.

The sound of the collision continued to "clang" and "clang" sounds, and the vibrations caused by them shook people's bodies and nerves from time to time, and Miller continued to report the damage to everyone: "...... Transmission Pipeline No. 1 and No. 2 are gone...... The exterior wall of the meeting room was damaged...... The battery compartment was shocked...... Oh God! It's a big guy—"

And then—

"Bang-" There was another loud bang, but it was much closer than before! The bodies of the three of them clearly felt through the vibration that the impact had occurred very close to them, followed by a violent shaking of the ground and the wall!

"Somewhere has been penetrated!" Gao Jie judged that they had all been trained before, "Ryan, hurry up and see where it is." ”

"I'll see!" In the midst of the shock, Ryan took out the PDA to check the overall situation of the space station, "Oh no! There is a big hole in the outer wall of Research Room 3, and the air is tilting outward! ”

"Lucien is still inside!" Gao Jie shouted, "You must save him!" With that, she quickly untied the straps on her body and asked Ryan, "Give me the PDA!" ”

"Don't risk it, high!" Ryan couldn't believe that Gao Jie had made such a crazy move, "The impact is not over......" Before the words fell, the PDA in his hand had been snatched away by Gao Jie!

Regardless of the frantic shouts of Lucien and Shilka behind her, Gao Jie opened the hatch and came to the door of the No. 3 research room next to her - in front of her was a thick sealing plate, Gao Jie quickly manipulated the PDA in his hand and ordered the AI to open the sealing plate. As the sealing plate slowly retracted, Ryan chased him out of Research Room 2.

"Please don't stop me." Gao Jie said with a vigilant attitude.

Ryan raised his hand in front of him: "I'll help you and save people together." ”

"Thank you! Hurry up! Gao Jie didn't relax because he had more companions, they all knew what it would take to rescue the people inside.

The sound of the impact continued, but the loud "bang" did not happen again.

The sealing plate of the No. 3 laboratory was completely retracted, and Gao Jie clicked the "Open Hatch" command on the PDA, and a warning prompt immediately appeared: "Do you open the room with low air pressure and external wall rupture detected?" ”

Gao Jie was about to press the "Open" option, but Ryan next to her grabbed her shoulders and said a witty line: "Age before beauty."

The moment the hatch opened, both of them felt a strong suction from the room, and their bodies were involuntarily sucked into the room, and each of their hair seemed to be detached from their bodies and flew towards the crack in the outer wall of the room - fortunately, the two of them were highly vigilant and grasped the handrail in advance to avoid being sucked outside.

As we often see in movies, the air is rushing out of the crack in the outer wall of the room, and the resulting suction force will throw everything in the room into the universe, and the two of them look at it: the crack is half the size of a person's body, and the air will flow out at a very fast speed. And Lucien in the room was using all his strength to grab the central table to avoid being swallowed up into the endless darkness of the universe, his face was red, his eyes were wide open and bloodshot, his whole body was tense and stiff, and he was only one step away from exhaustion—

"Grab my legs, high!" After Ryan finished speaking, he jumped directly to where Lucien was, but fortunately Gao Jie grabbed his leg in time, otherwise he would have been sucked directly into the rift. But in the middle of the room, the huge suction force prevented Ryan from speaking, and he grabbed Lucien's arm and dragged him with both hands—only to realize that Lucien was about to fall into a coma due to suffocation.

Seeing this, Gao Jie immediately climbed back into the corridor with all her strength, and with both hands she used all her strength to pull the two men outward, but the suction and the weight of the two people far exceeded her strength, and the lost air also made her fall into pain, and she was already on the verge of exhaustion...... But she soon felt a force pull her up from behind, then Ryan was pulled out of the hatch by her, and finally Lucien! As soon as everyone came out of Lab 3, Ryan pressed a button on the PDA to close the door to Lab 3 and lowered the seal again - the flow of air stopped.

Gao Jie took a few deep breaths, and finally eased up, and then turned back to find out what force pulled her just now: it turned out to be Shilka, she was not worried about Gao Jie and Ryan, so she came out to check. On the other hand, Ryan was giving CPR first aid to Lucien, who had fallen into a coma, and because it was extremely inconvenient in a weightless environment, Gao Jie and Shilka also stepped forward to help.

"Wake up, Frenchman...... Don't say you can't breathe......" "You'll be fine, friend! Wake up, wake up! "Hold on, don't die, you still have to tell me the truth!"

The three of them rescued Lucien together, and gradually, Lucien's breathing recovered, and his heartbeat stabilized - "cough, cough......" He coughed a few times and slowly opened his eyes.

"Great!" Ryan and Shilka smiled reassuringly. Lucien was temporarily out of danger, but his body was still weak, and Gao Jie took the opportunity to tie his hands and feet - also for the safety of the space station.

The sound of the impact coming from the outer wall reminded them that the danger continued, "Go back to avoid danger, you can't stay in the hallway." Shilka said, quickly returning to Research Room 2, followed by Ryan, but they noticed that Gao Jie hadn't followed, only to find that Gao Jie was pulling the immobile Lucien and sliding in the other direction.

Ryan was taken aback, but Shilka gave a reasonable guess: "She's afraid that Lucien will take control of the N-particles in Research Lab 2, so she will take them somewhere else." Although the two of them were still a little worried, they had already determined that Lucien's hands and feet were under control, so they were not so worried.

……

Gao Jie dragged Lucien to his room, and along the way, he could hear the crashing of the outer walls far less dense than before, and the rain of debris should end soon. Gao Jie fixed Lucien to the bulkhead and sat firmly on the seat, she took a wet towel and wiped Lucien's face, which had been flushed for a long time, and the latter was also relieved by the moist coolness, and he also somewhat understood his situation.

"Looks like you saved me, thank you." Lucien thanked Gao Jie, but soon saw the other party's gloomy face and seemed to understand something, "You...... You told me earlier through the radio in the room: you want to know what I did to the clone Sevia, right? ”

"Yes." Gao Jie replied coldly, his cold gaze as if he was about to pierce the other party.

Lucien nodded and said, "I passed on to him my feelings of disappointment and despair about humanity. ”

"Is that all?"

"That's all." Lucien's attitude was very sincere, it seemed that he had no need to hide it, not to mention that Gao Jie and the others had just saved her life, "I hope that Saivia can take revenge on the human race for me, and even let the human race perish...... So, the Stars Project must fail! I'm sure Sevia would think the same way...... So, sorry ......"

Regarding Lucien's decision to let the Star Project fail, Gao Jie tried his best to restrain his anger, still coldly speculating: "So the control instructions sent back may have been manipulated by Saivia?" ”

"Probably, it's up to his own consciousness how he acts, but as you can see, the instructions sent back are effective, but they don't have much effect. This was mostly his strategy, proving that he had more or less control of the Watcher. ”

"Control the Watcher?" Gao Jie asked rhetorically, as if she didn't think so, "Then destroying the Overwatch is also part of your plan?" She uttered the words with a blank face.

"It can't be!" Lucien was incredulous, "Destroy the Watcher? Sevia would never do that, he was the one who would use all the resources, and the Overwatch was an important tool to destroy the fugitive fleet. ”

"Maybe Sevia won't, but more than half an hour ago, we received some information from the wormhole—" Gao Jie prepared to say the message she had just received that had made her almost depressed and hopeless.

"What's the message?" Lucien had a sense of foreboding.

Gao Jie took a deep breath -

"—The Overwatch initiates the self-destruct program."