On the bridge of the USS Orion missile cruiser, a man with a majestic face is standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window of the cockpit.

The resolute facial features are well-defined, and the jet-black hair is neatly combed without a trace of messiness.

His name was Zhao Tianhe, with the rank of colonel, and he was in his early forties, the captain of the starship, and the supreme commander of the ship's 3,000 crew members.

Staring intently at the starry sky outside the window, he spoke after a long time.

"Haven't you moved yet?"

The navigator's face showed a look of embarrassment.

"We've entered the hyperspace passage, but ...... I don't know why, but we seem to stop. ”

He said it very tactfully, because he couldn't really decide what was going on.

Normally, when they entered the hyperspace channel, the starry sky in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows would instantly turn a deep blue-purple color, and after a violent tremor, a flash of daylight would emerge from the black field in the center of the front.

But none of that is happening now.

The strange thing is that the warp engine has obviously started, and all the data shows that they are standing in the hyperspace channel, but they are "stuck" at the entrance of the channel.

Zhao Tianhe didn't speak, and a woman in her thirties next to him had a stunned expression on her face.

"How is that possible? It has entered the hyperspace channel but has not moved...... Can the hyperspace jump be stopped? This kind of thing...... It's unheard of! ”

Her name is Wu Mengke, and she is the executive officer of the Orion missile cruiser, which is the so-called ship command department.

This position is generally referred to as the captain's deputy, responsible for assisting the captain in managing the daily affairs of the ship, as well as arranging the work of the service department, etc.

The establishment of the People's Union Aerospace Force is very similar to that of the navy of the old era, but there are differences in specific functions.

Zhao Tianhe fell into deep thought, and the expression on his face gradually became solemn.

As his deputy said, nothing like this has happened since the founding of the Aerospace Forces of the People's Union.

Nope-

Strictly speaking, it should be since human civilization moved towards the interstellar age and developed the warp engine!

The navigator spoke slowly and continued.

“…… The strangest part is here, we have checked, the engine is in good working order, and nothing out of the ordinary has been found. As you said, it's as if we're stuck at the entrance to a hyperspace passage. ”

"Are you sure it's the entrance?" Zhao Tianhe suddenly spoke.

The navigator was stunned for a moment, and just wanted to nod, but shook his head with an embarrassed face.

"This ...... I can't say for sure. ”

Hyperspace is not a classical universe, but a tunnel between massive celestial bodies.

Only point-to-point movement can be carried out in this tunnel, and the coordinates in the classical universe and the distances of relatively massive objects cannot be determined.

There was silence on the bridge.

The crew present looked at each other, and no one said a word.

After a while, Zhao Tianhe looked at Executive Officer Wu, who was also contemplative, and asked in a deep voice.

"What do you think might be?"

"I don't know, if it's a pure imaginary guess, there are too many possibilities," Wu Mengke, who had calmed down, shook his head and said with a complicated expression, "Maybe the scientists of the fifth department can give us a reasonable explanation." ”

Zhao Tianhe nodded, looked out of the floor-to-ceiling window, and said with a solemn expression.

"I hope so."

He had a sense of foreboding.

And as time went on, the sense of foreboding grew stronger......

At this moment, there was the sound of hurried footsteps at the entrance of the bridge, and an officer strode in through the open alloy door, and hurriedly reported.

"Report! There was a collision on the lower deck! A UFO has crashed into us! ”

There was a sound of surprise from the bridge.

Zhao Tianhe did not hesitate, walked quickly to a terminal, and looked at the holographic screen.

The staff sitting in front of the terminal swallowed and said with a panicked expression.

"No structural damage to the hull was found...... Are you mistaken? ”

The officer said immediately.

"Impossible! My people are on the spot! We have closed the damaged area in accordance with the emergency plan on the safety manual! ”

Staff: "But ......"

Without listening to the argument between the two, Zhao Tianhe stared intently at the screen, and a stunned expression appeared on his serious face at the same time.

The deflection shield works well.

The hull integrity check is also normal......

But he believed that his crew would not lie, especially since they had no need to lie at all.

Walking up to him and standing still, Ms. Wu Mengke's face was also a complicated look.

"Strange things are really one thing after another...... Do you think it will be a trick of the twins? ”

Zhao Tianhe said in an unquestionable tone.

"They're dead."

Wu Mengke asked rhetorically.

"What if not? No one really went up to confirm it. ”

“…… There's no need to confirm that we've broken through their shields, and that's a sure thing, so let's not talk about it. ”

Saying these words expressionlessly, Zhao Tianhe paused for a moment and continued.

"And take 10,000 steps back, even if they do get away with it, there's no chance of locking us up in the hyperspace lane."

There is a way to close the hyperspace channel, as long as you get a large gravity well to interfere with the nearby gravitational field, which is not a difficult task.

But it is simply impossible to close the hyperspace shipping lanes that have already been opened.

At least not with the technical means currently known to mankind.

Wu Mengke sighed and said.

"It could only be that aliens intervened in our war."

"I don't want to make such baseless assumptions unless there's solid evidence that they exist."

Leaving these words, Zhao Tianhe looked at the officer standing at the door of the bridge and said.

"Are you sure what hit us?"

The officer was obviously also confirming, and it took a long time for the index finger to be pressed next to his ear before he said with a strange expression.

"It's a ...... Uh, lifeboat-class civilian spacecraft? My subordinates are not sure...... However, there is no friendly markings on the ship. ”

"Civilian spaceship?"

Wu Mengke's eyebrows were slightly raised, and the crow's feet opened up a shallow surprise.

"How can there be civilian ships here?"

"Maybe it's a KB member of a radical group, or maybe it's some hapless journalist...... Is there anything on it? Zhao Tianhe looked at the officer and continued to ask.

The situation at the scene was confirmed through the communication system, and the officer looked at the captain and said.

"We found a hibernation pod on the spaceship, and in it lay a boy who looked to be seventeen or eighteen years old...... He...... Claiming to be from an organization called the Alliance? Subordinate to the Burning Corps ......"

"Alliance? Burning Corps? Wu Mengke's face changed slightly, and he muttered to himself, "Is it really an alien......

Zhao Tianhe's expression was also a little weird, staring at the officer and continuing to ask.

"What else did he say?"

"A lot of ...... said"

The officer was silent for a while, his face suddenly changed slightly, and he raised his head and said.

"He got into a fight with our people......"

……

In the prosthetic repair room of the engineering and maintenance department, Luo Yi, who had successfully subdued a teenager, was leaning on the operating table, letting the mechanical arm hanging above his head fiddle with his left arm.

Standing next to the control terminal, the koala, dressed in overalls, skillfully operated the tablet, cut through the bionic leather on Luo Yi's left arm, and pulled out a burnt black metal tube from it.

"The capacitor burned out...... Gotta get a new one. ”

"Seriously?" The big guy who was standing with his arms crossed asked, frowning.

His name is Xiao Yong, and like Luo Yi, he belongs to the space combat group under the jurisdiction of the Sixth Department, and his military rank is also sergeant.

"Serious...... It's not serious, it's just a capacitor, and the last thing I lack is a capacitor," Koala grinned, shook her head, and said, "But these young people are ruthless enough, and when they make a move, they are dead." ”

"The young man really didn't take it seriously, and the person who gave him prosthetic surgery was also very tired." Xiao Yong couldn't help but scold.

According to the Prosthetics Act, it is forbidden to install harmful plug-ins on biomimetic prosthetics, especially on minors who are not fully developed.

They have saved the evidence and will prosecute those involved when they return to Earth.

Luo Yi, who was sitting on the operating table, looked at his newly replaced right hand prosthesis, and was silent for a moment before suddenly speaking.

"That guy was on the battlefield."

Xiao Yong, who was standing next to him, raised his eyebrows.

"You mean he's a soldier?"

"Yes."

Looking at Luo Yi, who nodded, Xiao Yong was stunned and put down his arms that were hugging his chest.

“…… Do we have such young soldiers? ”

At the age of eighteen, I should still be in high school, and I must at least graduate from college to join the army.

As for the rebels in the colonies......

Those guys should have turned to ashes by now.

Luo Yi raised his head and looked at him and said.

"Didn't you hear him say he's from the Alliance?"

Xiao Yong frowned.

"Do you really believe what he says?"

Luo Yi's expression was a little complicated, and he shook his head.

"I don't know, but his reaction speed and fighting qualities are not weak, even ...... If it weren't for the fact that he had just thawed, I might not have been able to subdue him alone. ”

Xiao Yong looked at him in surprise.

"Are you kidding? Just that kid? ”

Luo Yi looked at him seriously and said.

"I'm not kidding, I'm serious."

The guy could anticipate his attack and reacted instinctively, but his body didn't keep up.

This is by no means a skill that has been honed on the training ground, and it can only be learned in a hand-to-hand fight.

There is only one doubt.

As his comrades said, this kid was too young, and he looked like a child who hadn't grown up to them.

Just then, an unexpected voice came in from the door of the repair room.

"I have the same opinion as Sergeant Luo Yi, that kid is not a civilian at all, he is a soldier, and he is different from you...... He was killed from the wasteland. ”

The three pairs of surprised eyes drifted to the door, only to see their "chaplain with the ship" carrying a pot of whiskey, drunkenly walking in from outside, and even burping as he crossed the threshold.

Xiao Yong frowned.

"Wasteland? Is that what kind of movie it is. ”

The fifth division is the department with the lowest presence on the entire missile cruiser.

This department is said to have been set up in response to the treacherous and changeable cosmic environment, but since its establishment, I have not heard of any of the five parts on a starship coming in handy.

The scientists who move with the ship don't know how to fix engines, they don't have much to say about strategic deployment, and their only use is to produce a pile of academic junk called papers.

He doesn't deny the physicists' credit for the Age of Prosperity, but simply wonders if "a research team on every starship" is necessary.

Faced with Sergeant Xiao Yong's questioning, Wu Xinghuan couldn't help but burp again and wiped his mouth embarrassedly.

"Movies? Not that kind of thing...... This kid is from our future, or he is our future. ”

Koala looked at him with a strange expression.

"What crazy are you talking about?"

Xiao Yong also sneered and said disdainfully.

"Just that kid? If he were our future, then humanity would be hopeless. ”

"Haha, don't say that, who doesn't have a young age? I'm willing to bet you were a lot more bastard than him when you were younger, and you don't necessarily have what he can do. Wu Xinghuan laughed twice, glanced around at everyone present, cleared his throat and continued, "In addition, I will tell you the unfortunate news that our spaceship is stuck in the hyperspace channel...... And that time traveler may be the reason why we get stuck. ”

There was an eerie silence in the room, and the three pairs of eyes looked at each other blankly, exchanging bewilderment in their eyes.

Hyperspace Passage ......

Stuck?

Seeing the other two people looking at him, Koala hurriedly raised his hand and said.

"Don't look at me...... I've never heard of anything like this, and it's not my job to fix FTL engines. ”

Xiao Yong couldn't help but ask.

"Aren't you the head of engineering?"

Koala coughed and explained.

"The full name of the fourth department is the engineering and maintenance department, and the hyperspace engine is the work of the maintenance department, and there are special engineers in charge...... And this kind of critical equipment is directly managed by the first department, that is, the captain's side. ”

Xiao Yong's head was a little big, and he patted his head.

"We have too many departments, it's time to cut some."

Koala snapped her fingers.

"Good idea, I also think the five parts are redundant."

"Ahem," Wu Xinghuan hid the wine bottle in his hand behind him, and said embarrassedly, "Is this the time to talk about this......

"I have to take care of it," Luo Yi pressed his index finger to the center ......of his eyebrows, frowned and thought for a while, "You mean, that child is from the future?" And our future ...... Is it a wasteland? Other words...... Is our world ruined? ”

"The world has not been destroyed, but our civilization has entered the next historical stage from one historical stage," Wu Xinghuan finally got back on track with this topic, and quickly picked up the topic and continued, "Have you noticed the clothes on his body?" That's the coat of the refuge, not a high imitation. ”

Xiao Yong sneered.

"If he's just a cosplay, you're embarrassed."

Wu Xinghuan looked at him with blazing eyes, with a hint of uncontrollable excitement in his tone.

"But he apparently isn't, we found spores of a mutant slime mold in him, and spores we haven't seen before!"

The room was quiet again.

This time it was not only Xiao Yong, but Luo Yi's face also changed.

However, Wu Xinghuan didn't care, and continued to chatter.

"I know it's a bit hard to accept, but that's what the future holds! In the distant future, people have achieved a symbiosis with mutant slime molds, which are no longer fatal to us, and we no longer treat them as enemies, but become part of each other. ”

"Rip some eggs, you." Xiao Yong scolded, "According to what you say, isn't this battle in vain?" ”

Looking at this reckless man who couldn't accept it, Wu Xinghuan shrugged his shoulders and said with a smile.

"This may be true from an individual point of view, but at the height of civilization, when is it not so? We cannot look at the problems of civilization from the level of individuals, nor can we look down on individuals from the height of civilization, and the problems of the same dimension must be studied from the perspective of the same dimension. Believe it or not, that's the way it is...... I need to refine my theory, and you should be honored that you are in the same boat as the rising stars of the future world of physics. ”

"What does this have to do with a physics nova?" Koala scratched at her shaggy hair and asked, puzzled.

"Isn't that obvious?" Wu Xinghuan smiled and opened his arms, revealing the wine bottle hidden behind him again, "Time is reversible, so is the movement of matter, so is entropy, I have discovered new physics." ”

"I think you're crazy."

Xiao Yong snatched the wine bottle from the guy's hand and took a sip despite the latter's protests.

He still couldn't accept it.

This is the result of this war that lasted for three years, and in the distant future, the spirit guys not only have no scruples about loading combat prostheses, but also drive quasi-spaceships with anti-gravity devices to scurry around the universe like cockroaches.

If that's the end, it's better to be destroyed.

Luo Yi sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose with his index finger and thumb.

"You just said we were stuck?"

"Yes, that's right."

Seeing that the wine in the bottle was drunk, Wu Xinghuan gave up in disappointment and snatched it back.

Luo Yi looked at this smug guy speechlessly, the so-called future academic bull.

"I'll take you for granted, but I think that's the way it is...... Let's think about how to help us get out of trouble. ”

Hearing this, Wu Xinghuan's face once again showed a confident smile.

"It's actually quite simple, although I don't know if that guy fell into a black hole or something like a neutron star, but he stumbled into our timeline by mistake."

"So what?" Luo Yi didn't think it was easy at all, and even started to feel a headache.

However, Dr. Wu, who was standing in front of him at the moment, obviously had a completely different view.

"So we just need to figure out what happened before he came here and send him back."

After listening to his statement, the three people in the repair room were stunned.

Is it really that simple?

It sounds like putting the overturned box back in and then closing the lid again.

Luo looked at him with a little suspicion, but looking at Dr. Wu's blazing eyes, he couldn't help but believe a little.

At least this guy is a professional.

"It looks like our five are finally going to do something," Koala shrugged, "on the eve of the end of the war, saved a child from the future, and saved more than 3,000 crew members." ”

"I have achieved much more than that, and I am sure that many years from now you will recall this meeting...... And, that approachable me. ”

Wu Xinghuan made a pompous bow, as if his feet were already standing on the podium.

Xiao Yong snorted coldly with his nose, still with that disdainful expression.

"It sounds silly, but let's try it first......"

Although the home planet has been affected by the war, it is far from sinking to the extent of a wasteland.

Especially to reconcile with the slime fungus variant......

Isn't that tantamount to saying that the radicals who have screwed everything up have won the final victory?

Don't even think about it!

"Let's solve the problem at hand first."

Luo Yi didn't really want to think about things so far, he had been away from home for too long, and he just wanted to go back early.

Reconcile and reconcile.

The universe is so big, and there are countless galaxies besides South Gate II, so it's not impossible for them to have a star.

Letting the other party live is also letting go of yourself.

Besides, that planet originally belonged to "Gaia", and they lived there well, if it weren't for the human colony ships that disturbed their dreams, they would probably continue to play with themselves until the whole universe passed away.

From the standpoint of the People's Federation, the three-year war is undoubtedly glorious, but in the other side, it may not be.

Getting up from the operating table, he moved his arm and set his eyes on Dr. Wu who was standing at the door.

"That's called ...... What about the boy at night ten? Where is he now? ”

Wu Xinghuan said with a smile.

"In the infirmary, Kobayashi checked his body and was basically fine."

Luo nodded.

"Let's go see him."

"I'll go too." The koala raised her arm, hurriedly turned off the device, and followed behind the trio.

Although the security on the ship is the work of the three departments, how can he miss such an interesting thing?

Besides, as someone has said, this is a moment to witness history!

The four of them came to the door of the infirmary, and saw that there were already many people gathered here.

Not only the doctors and nurses in the Medical and Life Support Department, but also people from other departments, and even senior officers in the ship's command department.

Luo Yi even saw artificial intelligence experts in the "Robotics and Artificial Intelligence Department" here.

Even the people from the ten departments came to join in the fun, which he really didn't expect.

Luo Yi's heart sank slightly, and he couldn't help but glance at Dr. Wu next to him.

This big mouth......

There was no doubt that word had spread that the kid was from the future, and now all the crew knew that a future visitor had come to their ship.

"Let me in......"

Wu Xinghuan raised his arms and squeezed towards the center of the "stage" like a star.

Seeing this guy from the fifth department, the people around him got out of the way, curiously watching what he was going to do.

Walking straight to the young man who was sitting on the treatment bed, Wu Xinghuan half-squatted beside him with a kind smile on his face.

"Let me introduce myself, my name is Wu Xinghuan, and I am a scientist here."

Night Ten looked at him and always felt that this person was not a scientist, but a clown.

But thinking of those people in the academy, he was relieved again, and nodded expressionlessly.

"Oh."

He's having a mess of his mind right now.

On the one hand, after so much time, he was not sure if Jiang Xuezhou was still alive.

On the other hand, he couldn't figure out what his situation was.

Two possibilities.

Either I'm on a copy of a life now, or I'm really crossing over.

Although it was a bit silly to think seriously about the latter situation, he couldn't help but panic.

Ah Guang has not responded to him so far, and the friends of the forum can't be contacted because they haven't gone offline.

He even regretted a little that he should have let Fang Chang stay in the cockpit instead of himself.

If it was Elder Brother Fang, the problem would definitely be solved in minutes......

Or Lao Bai is fine.

At least that guy might be a little more mature.

Ye Shi carefully recalled his gaming career, as if most of the time he relied on "recklessness" rather than brains.

"I might be able to help you." Wu Xinghuan looked at the young man in front of him with a sincere face, trying to win his trust.

"Help me?" Ye Shi turned his face slightly to look at him, and the corners of his mouth suddenly turned into a playful smile, "You? ”

As he spoke, he could already smell the smell of wine.

This guy reminds him of mosquitoes, and no one is more unreliable than that guy.

In contrast, Ah Wei may have been slightly more reliable, at least he didn't really mess things up.

However, this guy probably didn't realize that he hadn't woken up yet, and continued to talk endlessly.

"Based on my reasoning, you're probably having some trouble moving in hyperspace, and I might be able to help you...... It's good for you and me. ”

Yashi looked at him with a playful expression.

"In this way, your reasoning doesn't seem very reliable, my research ship doesn't have a warp engine, and at most it uses anti-gravity devices to take off and land on the surface, but it can't sail in hyperspace."

Wu Xinghuan gestured with his fingers and continued.

"I know, but the anti-gravity device works similarly to a warp engine, just a different use of graviton. And...... Uh, maybe it's just an escape boat, you have other boats not far from there-"

This guy is probably too drunk to even speak.

Yashi pouted and continued.

"It's a scientific research ship organized by the academy, and I don't have any other ships, only this one. You've probably heard of the Academy, and I remember that this organization existed before the war. ”

"It's an academic organization...... Wait, you mean they played a lot of use after the war? Wu Xinghuan looked at him in surprise, as if he had discovered some big secret.

Night Ten could guess what he was thinking, and this guy had probably figured out which tree to climb when he returned to Earth.

But this guy is obviously overthinking.

To say why......

"We hit a neutron torpedo, even if we didn't...... That guy exploded near us as well. I'm not sure how much the deflection shield is blocking, but the ship got out of control and crashed into you guys......"

As he said this, Ye Shi paused for a moment, looked at the excited eyes of the so-called scientist, and said something that made the latter's hands and feet cold for a moment, and even everyone present.

"What do you think I'm going to do? Or why did it hit you? ”

"That's right, I'm digging a grave."

"Your grave."