Centaly people Star Map Draftsman I: Federation War

While Dawn Lucius was in a coma, the Strath people acted faster than anyone expected, and a series of butterfly-effect events happened. The competition between the two princes of the Strath Federation could be seen from the mere fact that Burt gave Lord Winifred to Carlson. Burt’s goal was to attack Ashton Federation directly. To quickly achieve his ambition of invading Ashton Federation, he needed more troops, or else he needed to reduce Ashton Federation’s resistance to his army. When he caught Lord Winifred on Gyaly Planet, he had a winning plan in mind that could kill two birds with one stone.

“No wonder he wanted us to send Lord Winifred to Carlson.” This is what Sandra said after Dawn Lucius and Sandra reunited and Sandra had listened to Dawn Lucius’ account.

Prince Burt’s plan did indeed work. Lord Winifred was sent to Carlson’s ship, and Burt sent a message to Ashton Federation informing them that Lord Winifred had been kidnapped by his brother. As a result, a third of Ashton Federation’s military forces were drafted toward Carlson, including part of Madam Winifred’s Everlasting Army, which achieved the purpose of reducing the Ashton Federation’s army. There was another interesting purpose in killing two birds with one stone: it would make it more difficult for Carlson to steal his credit. The first thing Carlson needed to do was to go to Gyaly Planet, a planet at the junction of three Federations, before he could head to the star field of Ashton Federation, which led him to take a lot of detours.

But what Burt didn’t expect was that he had done Carlson a favor by giving him Lord Winifred. Before he got Lord Winifred, all Carlson had to worry about was the Moreth Federation’s army, which was a war he had to deal with head-on; but the moment he got Lord Winifred, Carlson even worried that those Ashton Federation allies who took White Crystal would come after him. In fact, the opposite happened. Carlson sent a message from Lord Winifred on his ship to all corners of Orion Arm, with a video of him bound in an iron cage, and the first thing that came to the minds of those so-called allies was that if they really went to war with Carlson, no matter who did Lord Winifred the tiniest bit of damage, there would be no White Crystal in the future. Never mind whether they could still extend their lives; they also had to consider that Madam Winifred would retaliate against them and take their lives early. After this news spread in Carlson’s army, the soldiers no longer worried. They repeatedly reminded the soldiers around them to remember Lord Winifred’s appearance and to protect the amulet from harm.

“White Crystal, hahaha .......” Carlson had approached the defensive fire belt of the Moreth Federation’s star field without encountering any resistance, and when he learned that this was because Lord Winifred was on his ship, Carlson laughed at the army’s Centurio meeting.

Those in the Moreth Federation who did not take White Crystal could only watch Strath people’s ships sail through their star field, but they could do nothing about it. This was where the Federation’s relationship between power and wealth was reflected most fully: the more powerful people were, the more they could buy White Crystal to prolong their lives, and the longer they could hold power; power could bring more wealth, and they used the wealth to buy White Crystal to keep extending their lives and keep their power. The vast majority of the Moreth Federation’s top brass were beneficiaries of White Crystal, and naturally they did not want to interfere with Carlson’s army, saying that the reason was to avoid a war involving the people of the Moreth Federation. In fact, it was also to avoid harm to Lord Winifred, which would cut off their way to buy White Crystal.

Carlson’s army advanced without much change. They would plunder the planets they passed, and if the plundering was delayed, the ships would change speed for a short time and fly on in the direction of Kunek Planet. The planets in their path were asking the Federation to protect them, and Jonathan argued at the elders’ assembly, but there was no way to get the elders to send troops to protect their people. What the Federation elders did not know was that they had lost the hearts and minds of the people while protecting their own interests. Among them, Centaly Planet took the initiative to mutiny, bringing the planet’s ships and soldiers to join Carlson’s forces, plundering the planets under the rule of the Moreth Federation along the way, but they would occasionally clash with Strath soldiers. In Carlson’s view, conflicts during plundering because of uneven distribution were normal, and conflicts arising from jealousy when the army showed off its spoils were also normal, until a few Strath Centurios were killed by the Centaly, and he personally looked into the conflict.

“King Theobald, you will have to explain why you killed my Centurio,” said Carlson, slamming the object in his hand on the table. King Theobald was the chief of Centaly. His ancestors had been generals of Jonathan’s father, and when they chose to leave the political center, they migrated to Centaly Planet with their cronies and their clan, and they have called themselves Centaly ever since.

“Prince, the army plunders to raise supplies, not to slaughter ordinary people for fun. What kind of soldiers are your Centurio? Do you know what they have done?” King Theobald was well-built. His combat uniform looked just the right size on him, his hair was always dry and clean, and if one just looked at his white face, no one would have guessed that he was a prim and proper general.

“We encountered resistance in the process of looting. Killing is to establish authority, which can make the people behind give up resistance. We can reduce casualties while improving efficiency. Don’t you understand this reasoning?”

“Prince, killing the innocent is killing; it’s not as complicated as you say. The Centaly were born soldiers, but they are also ordinary people. When an army raises food, as long as the people are left a way to live, no one will risk resisting. The people on that planet had voluntarily handed over food and laid down their weapons, waiting for us, but your Centurio went in and began indiscriminate slaughter. The military’s responsibility is not only to defeat the enemy but also to protect the innocent, and the Centaly will not sit idly by in the face of such acts.”

“Okay, I won’t argue with you on this one. King Theobald, I ask you to always remember your mission.”

“You need not worry about this, Prince Carlson. My mission is to free Moreth Federation from the hands of the fallen. You need to understand the difference between freeing and destroying. The Ninth Legion under you is wreaking havoc on Moreth Federation; please, Prince, do not ignore this fact.”

“King Theobald, let’s not debate the difference between deliverance and destruction here. If you really want to make such a distinction, then I think you still haven’t remembered your mission. Since you want to deliver Moreth Federation: the fallen ones have been taking White Crystal for so many years that they have already assimilated the planets in Moreth Federation’s star field, or rather, they have made these innocent people abnormally obedient to their nonsense. If you really want to save the Moreth Federation, you first need to destroy the image of the fallen in the eyes of the people through some seemingly unreasonable means. King Theobald, you still don’t understand the importance of your mission.”

“Prince Carlson, you are being sophomoric. You recruit rogue thugs from various planets to form the Ninth Legion, and you let them go around destroying. Yes, if we really follow your logic, this does strike at the image of the Fallen in the hearts of the people. But it also deeply hurts the people of Moreth Federation: the innocent children and the old people who died in the atrocities of the Ninth Legion, who lost their lives in this deliverance. Then it would be better not to deliver them and let them live under the indifferent rule of the Fallen.”

“Hey ......” Carlson sighed. He rubbed his forehead hard and took a deep breath before continuing. “King Theobald, you love and care for all your people and all lives, and that is something I admire about you. But to get a lasting and fair right, certain people will be sacrificed mercilessly, and their sacrifice is not worth it. I hate it when politicians say things like ‘your sacrifice is meaningful.’ When a life is gone, it’s gone; there’s no talk of meaningful or meaningless. On this, I certainly agree with you. But you know, all things and all groups are collections of uncertainties. We want these groups to move in a favorable direction, and as the ones pushing, we need to briefly shed some parts; only through shedding them can we push things in the direction we want.”

“Prince, we can go and scare the inhabitants of the planets along the way, but we don’t need to actually kill them.”

“King Theobald, let me run through the logic of the whole thing with you.” Carlson sat back down and gestured for King Theobald to sit across from him, and after they had settled in, a profound conversation began between Prince Carlson and King Theobald.

When King Theobald left the room and closed the door, he stayed at the door for a moment. He had listened to Prince Carlson’s words, and his heart was conflicted about whether it was worth saving Moreth Federation through such violent means. He wanted to stop and ask himself whether he needed to go back to Prince Carlson and tell him clearly that he, King Theobald, still maintained his own position and could not condone the Ninth Legion continuing to kill at will in the star field of Moreth Federation.

Carlson’s words were not unreasonable. To this day, Moreth Federation’s only progress was the Star Bridge technology, and the Star Bridge technology had been invented by the Centaly within Moreth Federation. Ever since Moreth Federation’s elders chose to start taking White Crystal, Moreth Federation had not progressed. Besides, Star Bridge technology was no longer any secret. Carlson had clearly told King Theobald that the Strath people had mastered the manufacturing technology of the Star Bridge. They wanted to make Star Bridge technology into more widely available facilities, rather than letting the Moreth Federation keep a monopoly on it. There was a secret here that Carlson had made clear to King Theobald: the Star Bridge and the life-extension of White Crystal were both related to the Star Map Draftsman. King Theobald had to think of the big picture; not to mention that Centaly’s mission was to ensure that Moreth Federation’s power was used wisely, not, as they were now, in the hands of a bunch of zombies.

As the Strath people gradually approached Kunek Planet, the interaction between the senior elders of the Moreth Federation and Madam Winifred became more frequent. They hoped that Madam Winifred would understand the Moreth Federation’s position that they would not actively attack the Strath people’s ships so as to avoid accidentally killing Lord Winifred, an attitude that Madam Winifred agreed with, and so the Moreth Federation in effect tolerated the Strath people’s Ninth Legion ravaging all the planets they passed. The people gradually lost trust in the Federation because of its inaction, and as the Ninth Legion passed through the star fields in the south of Moreth Federation, more and more people joined the Ninth Legion. Soon the Ninth Legion became a masterless and undisciplined swarm of locusts that gnawed at everything they passed through and devoured the people’s trust in Moreth Federation. Most planets began to declare independence; some started wars between planets, and others pulled more planets together, intending to march towards Kunek Planet, destroy the existing rulers of Moreth Federation, and re-establish a safer and more responsible Federation.

Now the conflict among the Moreth Federation elders was also getting more and more intense. Madam Winifred was blackmailing them into opening the Star Bridge so that her Everlasting Army could quickly cross the sea of Hoang and hurry to rescue Lord Winifred, but this went against the principle that the Star Bridge could not be used to transport armies for war. Orion Arm had been safe and sound for the most part ever since, thanks to this principle for the use of the Star Bridge. The elders who upheld the principle began to clash with the elders whose White Crystal was about to run out. Some wanted to open the Star Bridge to the Ashton Federation’s army, while others didn’t want to open it now. The way the elders handled things made Jonathan even more disappointed with the Moreth Federation’s political structure. Jonathan lobbied for an army to counter the Strath Federation, paying for the troops and buying them equipment at his own expense, to go to the ravaged star fields and rescue the suffering people. After many efforts, he finally recruited a force of nearly ten thousand, some of them farmers from the outskirts of Moreth Federation’s main city district. They had no experience in combat, no military training, and had never taken part in a war, but they were attracted by the decent military pay.

Jonathan’s recruitment of troops to resist the Strath people was not a concern to the elders at first; they did not think a political mascot could make any big moves. But when Jonathan was planning to leave the Kunek Planet spaceport with 10,000 men, the elders were deeply afraid that he would break their agreement with Madam Winifred, and they began to vote to stop him and to freeze Jonathan’s access to Star Bridge technology. However, since the decision was made by vote, things went much better. At the time of their vote, Dawn Lucius was about to arrive near Mars, and the Centaly were planning to attack an important planet, Sundium Planet, the home of the Moreth Federation treasurer. Jonathan had spoken with the treasurer in advance: he was going to protect the treasurer’s son. If they did not vote to let him go, he, Jonathan, would not care, but the treasurer’s son would probably be mutilated by the Strath people’s ninth legion. The treasurer had seen the information reported up from the planets, and he knew the cruelty of the ninth legion. The result of the vote was no surprise. Jonathan took his army to Sundium Planet, and after assembling with the local garrison, the two forces began to set up a defense line outside the main city. By this time, the Centaly had arrived at Sundium Planet ahead of the Ninth Legion.

Jonathan had arranged for the ship to be almost fully automated, and after flying for some time, Dawn Lucius paced back and forth in the ship, his footsteps getting more and more disorganized, but this did not crush his worries. He rummaged around the ship but did not find anything on paper, and the screen in front of the console displayed text he couldn’t read, completely different from what he’d seen on the Sane ship. He tried to find a porthole to look outside, but the ship was like a sealed iron box. He couldn’t feel the acceleration and deceleration, nor the pressure of overload on his heart, though the pain that the Dawn ship’s accelerated flight had brought to his heart before was still fresh in his mind. Dawn Lucius took out the sphere given to him by Jonathan’s soldiers, and after he touched the switch on it, the sphere became like a hologram, with instructions on how to set the ship’s navigation coordinates and how to start the ship, but there seemed to be only one destination, which, judging from the sphere’s voice prompts, was the planet where Jonathan was: Kunek Planet. The little ball had some shortcuts, for opening the hatch, establishing video communication, and emergency evacuation, much like a simple remote control for the ship. Dawn Lucius also understood in his heart, from what he had seen on Kunek Planet, that the Moreth people’s ruling power presumably looked like a hereditary system; even with advanced technology, there was still a strict hierarchy. Even if he could not guess Jonathan’s intention in letting him go back so easily, this ship had obviously been treated to prevent leaks; the Moreth people would not give their technology to others easily.

Dawn Lucius slumped back in his chair, trying to wake the flexible device on his left hand to see the face, but the screen remained silent. He clasped his hands to his chest, like on that warm afternoon when an occasional breeze blew outside the house, the leaves hung lazily, and the slanting sunlight crossed the roof across the street and shone through the glass window onto the back of Stacean Lucius, who was sleeping soundly on his father’s chest, the side of his face pressed against Dawn Lucius’ chest, squeezed like a freshly baked patty, chubby. Dawn Lucius put his nose to his head, and the warmth from his skin traveled through his hair and into Dawn Lucius’ nasal cavity. Dawn Lucius kissed him on both sides of his head, and when his right hand caressed his back, Stacean Lucius took a deep breath in his snoring, smacked his lips, swallowed the saliva that had dribbled down to the corner of his mouth, and went back to sleep. Occasionally, he would lift his hand up to touch again, touching Dawn Lucius’ nose, touching Dawn Lucius’ mouth, until he reached Dawn Lucius’ chin; then he was relieved to retract his hand and go back to sleep.

Dawn Lucius gripped the flexible device on his left arm and drifted off to sleep. He began to think about what Jonathan had said. Why had he become a Star Map Draftsman by wearing that device? What did a Star Map Draftsman do? He also noticed another problem. Jonathan said he had wanted to be a Star Map Draftsman and had stolen the device on Dawn Lucius’ right arm and then escaped to the Kuiper Belt, so Jonathan had been running there in a Sane ship; but the shape of the Sane ship was completely different from what Dawn Lucius had seen in the Moreth Federation. Had Jonathan lied, or had he flown another civilization’s ship there? And according to what Sandra said, Jonathan was trying to cooperate with the Star Map Draftsman; what was the purpose of the cooperation? Dawn Lucius also wanted to see Datheon. He wanted to get rid of the equipment on his hand and return to Earth, at least not in the so-called “transitional form.” Dawn Lucius sat in a trance for a while, until a danger alarm sounded in the cabin and he bounced out of his chair like a house sparrow scared by a cannonball. At the same time, the porthole at the front of the ship opened, and there were a dozen ships flashing red lights directly in front of him. Dawn Lucius understood what was going on: he was being mistaken for an intruder. The view behind those ships was particularly attractive. There was an artificial star ring outside the light red planet, and the ring looked like it was fixed to the light red planet by many pillars.

Dawn Lucius lifted the blob in his hand and made a video communication request. His own image was constructed first, and after a slight flicker, a young face appeared in the image, looking only in his early twenties. Dawn Lucius’ heart beat faster at seeing an Earthling once again.

“May I ask who you are?” The young man’s tone sounded as calm as a diplomat’s, rather than as stiff as one would expect at his age.

“My name is Dawn Lucius. I am the captain of the Dawn ship, and I am requesting to meet my son on Earth.” Dawn Lucius didn’t put on a smiley face and had nothing to be polite about; it was Stacean Lucius he couldn’t wait to see.

“May I ask what is the purpose of your visit to the solar system?” The young man acted as if he hadn’t heard what he said and continued to ask questions.

“Looking for my son.”

“Please allow me to inform my superiors first.” The young man did not let go with his hands even as he spoke, and what he held in his hands must have been the ship’s weapons system.

The other party cut off the voice, but the video was still connected, and after about two minutes, the young man turned the voice back on and said happily, “Please pilot the small landing module out of the ship you are in, and we will guide you to the Mars base.”

“I do not have a landing module. This is a ......” Dawn Lucius wanted to explain, but when the words came to his lips, he felt that there was no need; he had nothing to explain. He remembered that he had seen spacesuits in the blob. The air that Moreth people breathe is similar in composition to the atmosphere on Earth, so he decided to put on their spacesuit, get out of the ship, and let the young man bring him to the ground. “I will step out of the ship in my spacesuit, and I ask you to take me to the ground.”

Dawn Lucius opened the spacesuit locker, picked out a set that was almost his size, and put it on, casually stuffing the gloves into the spacesuit. He communicated the steps to the young man and opened the hatch, and the air pressure propelled him into space. He was like a runaway bullet, spinning haphazardly. From the direction of the young man’s fleet, a landing pod drove over toward the path along which Dawn Lucius was spinning, and as Dawn Lucius passed by, it captured him. And so Dawn Lucius was taken to the planet with artificial rings. To his surprise, humans had mastered the technology of planet transformation; through the ring outside, they controlled the flow of the atmosphere of Mars, thus transforming the area near the equator of Mars into a habitable environment. Dawn Lucius was not taken to the land of Mars, but to a large ship in Mars orbit.

A line of men with weapons guided him to a room that looked as if it had been temporarily vacated, with papers scattered on the floor that hadn’t been cleaned up in time, and an aisle full of soldiers armed to the teeth, who looked like tin men if you looked at them alone. Dawn Lucius took a seat in the room, and he heard rustling footsteps outside and the sound of metal hitting the door when it was locked. The room was small, no more than ten square meters in size, with several blueberry-sized black devices on the walls. At the other end, a dozen heads were discussing nervously; some were reporting to higher-level agencies, and others were checking the Dawn ship’s records for information about Dawn Lucius seventy years ago. After they finished comparing them, they rushed to the conference room where Dawn Lucius was.

“Commander Lucius, we’re still confused ......” The man who spoke was a tall, thin man who appeared to be the leader of the group. But all of them were wearing hazmat suits, and Dawn Lucius couldn’t see their faces.

“I was not threatened. I lost consciousness after being attacked on the Sane ship, and when I woke up, I was in a healing room of another civilization. They told me that for some rather special reasons, seventy years had passed on Earth. Their Moreth Steader allowed me to come back to see my son ......” Dawn Lucius was having a hard time. Time is a train with no return; everyone has only a limited journey. He now only wanted to know where Stacean Lucius was. He just wanted to know where Stacean Lucius was.

“Commander Lucius, we have had contact with alien civilizations thanks to the video you recorded on the Sane ship seventy years ago ...... Anyway, thanks a lot for your dedication.” The tall, thin man nodded his head.

“Where is my son?” Dawn Lucius looked up at the tall, thin man, and tears rolled down his face like hot iron, drop after drop.

“Commander Lucius, we need to get permission from NASA before we can send you to the surface.” The tall, thin man took a step forward, but he retreated back to where he had been earlier and continued. “The team that can take care of this is on their way from Earth. They’ll be with us in two hours, but before that we need to give you a physical vaccination. Sorry about that.”

From the door, two small men who looked like doctors, one holding a collection device and the other carrying a case, pushed their way up to Dawn Lucius, who raised his left hand, signaling them to stop, as he continued to ask, “Where is my son?”

The two doctors looked at the tall, thin man, who nodded, looked at Dawn Lucius, and said, “Commander Lucius, as you know, it’s been seventy years, and a lot has happened in the solar system. We’ll arrange for you to go to Earth; it’s our pleasure.” The tall, thin man moved forward a few centimeters, leaned down to look at Dawn Lucius, and said, “But before that, please cooperate with us.”

Dawn Lucius took off his helmet and sized them up, gripping the flexible device on his left hand to calm down. He kept his head down as the two doctors began scanning his entire body, not missing a single corner, and they rubbed his hands and the back of his neck for a while. After the collection, the two men stood by the wall. When the doctor handed the report in his hand to the tall, thin man, the man froze in place. He glanced at Dawn Lucius, then at the report, then turned his face to look at the two doctors. Dawn Lucius raised his left hand, and the crowd clamored backwards; some were even pushed out of the room.

“Don’t be afraid, guys. Please help me charge this device; I want to see my son’s video.” Dawn Lucius took the device off and held it up in the air for a long time, but no one dared to come up and take it.

Dawn Lucius stood up and raised his hands. He slowly approached the two doctors and handed it to them, but still no one dared to move. He tried to take the hand of one of them and could clearly feel the man’s trembling and resistance. Dawn Lucius did not force it. He walked to the tall, thin man’s side and took the medical report from him; it showed that Dawn Lucius was not human. Now he understood that the group saw him as a great threat. He walked back to his seat, sat down, and leaned on the table to think of a solution. Why not spend some time giving them a clear picture of the circumstances? But not for nothing: it had to be recorded and analyzed by experts; otherwise, he would have to spend a lot of time explaining to different people.

“Can that one be videotaped?” Dawn Lucius looked up at the tall, thin man.

“...... It can.” The tall, thin man hesitated for a moment.

“Can your superiors see it?”

“...... They can.” The tall, thin man finished and waved his hand gently as he added, “The entire space agency and strategy center can see it. It’s live.”

Dawn Lucius sat up straight again and waved at the camera, starting with “Hello,” and talked about his design of the Dawn ship and why Rodney Cruise had attacked him and Kenny Jr. He mentioned what he saw on the Sane ship and the strange written symbols. Finally, Dawn Lucius told what he had seen and heard on Gyaly Planet and in the Moreth Federation, plus his own understanding and speculation, until the person the tall, thin man had called “the person who can be responsible for this” came to the conference room, and the tall, thin man and his party fled outside the room as if relieved.

“Commander Lucius,” said the leader of those who came inside, who wore no hazmat suit: a capable woman with short hair and a long, thin face with somewhat dark skin. The woman bowed, looked at Dawn Lucius again, and continued. “How can we be sure that you are not a threat?”

Dawn Lucius looked at his right arm, the device under his shirt glowed slightly silver, he stood up, and the woman took a step back. Dawn Lucius pointed outside and asked, “Do you know about the Star Bridge exit by Mars?”

A line of people shook their heads.

Dawn Lucius seized the moment and walked up to the woman. “If I were a threat, with the technology at my disposal, do you think I would be patient enough to explain it to you here?”

The woman did not continue asking; she looked behind her, and another person, who still had not taken off his helmet, walked forward to Dawn Lucius and asked, “Commander Lucius, how do you explain your life traits?”

“As I said earlier, Moreth people claim that my Earthling life traits have disappeared and I am now in a transitional form. What I’m transitioning into, they didn’t say.”

“Commander Lucius, you said a civilization called the Strath Federation is going to attack the solar system. Can you elaborate on that?” The visitor’s attitude was pressing.

“I’ve only seen it on the Moreth people’s surveillance: the Strath people are already preparing for war in the starfield.” Dawn Lucius looked at the woman and replied.

“But how do you prove that what you say is true?” The woman continued to ask.

“Ignorant.” Dawn Lucius turned away in exasperation, walked to the wall and back, put his face almost to the woman’s face, and said loudly, “Where is my son?”

The woman took a step backward, but did not answer his question.

Dawn Lucius could feel a hot breath rising in his chest, blocking his breath at the base of his neck, his head felt like a herd of bison were stomping around, his eyes were sore, and his fists were clenched. Dawn Lucius repeated as he walked towards them, “Where is my son?”

The woman’s face was blue; her rapid breathing made her look as if she were shaking, and her throat was swallowing frequently. One of the helmeted men shouted, and all the soldiers outside the room crowded to the door of the conference room. Dawn Lucius’ fists clenched tighter; he felt as if his whole body was leaking anger from its pores, and he raised his fist, wanting to land a heavy punch on some helmet. Dawn Lucius’ right fist clenched as he searched for a suitable helmet, and he found it on the aggressive tall man, but when he was about to strike, he realized that his whole body was surrounded by a purple light, or more precisely, he seemed to be bubbling with purple light. Dawn Lucius hurriedly stepped backwards, unclenched his ten fingers, and leaned against the wall opposite the crowd, and those people seemed petrified.

“Please tell me, where is my son?” Dawn Lucius asked helplessly as he kept his head down.

After a while, more and more soldiers gathered at the door. Those who joined at the back unknowingly kept quiet, trying to figure out what was going on, while those who had really seen Dawn Lucius did not dare to speak and still stood rigidly. Dawn Lucius walked forward, intending to walk out of the conference room to find another way, and when he was a meter or so away from the woman, she said haltingly, “Stacean Lucius is in the Nv Wa.” After saying that, the woman faltered, tucked her hair behind her ears, and pinched her nose unnaturally.

“Nv Wa?” Dawn Lucius asked, looking at the woman.

“Well, the Nv Wa project.”

“What’s that?”

“Sanctuary.”

When Dawn Lucius heard these words, he didn’t know if he was happy or sad. Stacean Lucius was still there, and that made him happy, but why was it a sanctuary? Dawn Lucius’ heart flooded with guilt; he was sick at heart for not having taken care of Stacean Lucius. Dawn Lucius walked up to the woman and put his hands behind his back, signaling that he was not a threat.

“Speak clearly,” Dawn Lucius said as he looked at the woman.

“Dawn ship ...... twenty years after you disappeared, the space agency deciphered part of the information in your recorded images, and we found that there are habitable planets near Sirius. Do you remember the Home ship?” The woman looked down at Dawn Lucius; she seemed to be waiting for Dawn Lucius to answer, and after seeing that Dawn Lucius did not make a sound, the woman continued to speak. “The Home ship found a planet larger than Earth that was habitable, but then, in the competition for aviation technology, the Earth had a nuclear war. Only 600,000 people hid in the Nv Wa project established by the space agency to escape the nuclear war, but in the end, due to the shortage of supplies and because many people suffered from genetic diseases, only a few people survived.”

“Where’s the Nv Wa project?” Dawn Lucius spoke up.

“At the bottom of the Himalayas, two hundred kilometers deep underground.” The woman relaxed a little.

“What about Stacean Lucius?”

“Stacean Lucius is the object of special care, but his situation is a bit more complicated. He was six years old when he got seriously ill, and medical treatment could not cure him. He said he wanted to wait for your return, and later, your wife asked the space agency to put Stacean Lucius into dormancy. He ...... is now still in the dormant silo, but ......”

“But what?”

“Commander Lucius, he has had no life traits for a long time ......”

After the woman finished, Dawn Lucius turned around; he was so eager to see his son.

“Take me to Earth,” Dawn Lucius said with his back to the woman.

“Commander Lucius, we have orders that we cannot let you go if we do not find out what you are really up to,” the woman explained.

Dawn Lucius turned to look at her and stepped closer, the helmets still standing statue-like.

“My true purpose is to come back and see my son.” Dawn Lucius and the woman were only a step or so apart as he continued. “If I am a threat to the solar system, what ability do you have to defend against it? Tell the stewards to take me to Earth while I still have patience. Get out, all of you.”

Dawn Lucius sat back in his chair and remembered the unpleasantness of his marriage. Mrs. and his father had worked in the same unit, and his father intended to set her and Dawn Lucius up together. Then, when Mrs.’s family passed away, his father forced the two of them together. Mrs. was a virtuous person, but she never wanted to look up; she had no aspirations, and she and Dawn Lucius were moving in two opposite directions, destined not to intersect. Later, with Stacean Lucius, there was a bridge between the two, but his wife said that when Stacean Lucius grew up a bit, the two would divorce, and that what she wanted was to stay home and raise her children, not the sea of stars that Dawn Lucius sought. Dawn Lucius remembered the last time they met; their goodbye was more like one between friends or acquaintances, not like a couple. Dawn Lucius had some regrets in his heart, but he didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t want to admit defeat to his father, and he didn’t want to admit defeat to his wife. Sometimes he knew in his heart that his longing for the stars and the sea might be an illusion, but the truth was that he wanted to escape from Earth and from the part of his life that he had been assigned.

Dawn Lucius walked out of the conference room with a group of soldiers following behind him, deeply afraid that he would run away or something. He found a suitable spacesuit in the quarantine room, changed again, and walked to the deck. Human technology had progressed rapidly; looking around, the solar system was full of floating artificial miracles. Huge artificial satellites orbited the major planets, and advances in clean energy made the environment on these satellites clean. Dawn Lucius also found that a large number of ships had gathered at the place where he had piloted the ship out. Think about it: humans had suddenly found a hole where aliens might appear at any time, so they would certainly put plenty of weapons in front of the hole to prevent it from being broken from the inside.

“Commander Lucius ......” someone called Dawn Lucius from behind. Dawn Lucius turned around, and it was the woman he had freaked out in the conference room who was walking towards Dawn Lucius.

“What’s your name?” Dawn Lucius asked.

“...... me?” The woman probably didn’t expect Dawn Lucius to ask this; she thought Dawn Lucius was more concerned about when he could go to Earth. The woman froze for a moment, then spoke. “My name is Katherine. I was born on the south side of the river. Just Katherine.”

“I apologize for scaring you just now.”

“It did scare us.” The woman didn’t intend to be polite either; she said it with a fake lighthearted smile. “We can go to Earth now, please follow me.”

The woman guided Dawn Lucius into the interior of the large ship, to a warehouse full of small shuttle ships. Dawn Lucius realized that this large ship was a station in the solar system, where a large number of shuttle ships were going in and out; Dawn Lucius had never thought that he would see humans with such advanced technology. The woman led Dawn Lucius aboard one of the shuttle ships, accompanied by two males who appeared to be the woman’s subordinates or bodyguards. After the shuttle ship took off, the group took off their helmets, and the woman told Dawn Lucius that there were almost 1.5 billion humans in the solar system at the moment, that the Earth had cleansed itself over more than seventy years, that some places were no longer affected by radiation, and that the humans who had stayed on Earth still continued to live there.

“Katherine, who is in power on Earth?” Dawn Lucius asked.

“Commander Lucius, after the nuclear war, the Earth became the Alliance. There are no countries. The leader of the Alliance is called ‘Norm,’ and the first name of the current leader is Quentin, so we all call him Norm Quentin. All the big decisions of the Alliance have to be discussed and decided by Norm and the other leaders before they can be implemented.”

“So can I set up a call with him?”

“Yes. The Norm Center has been watching your live video the entire time since you showed up, and to be honest, we’re all scared.” Katherine squeezed her left hand hard.

“Can I see them?” Dawn Lucius asked.

Katherine reached out to another attendant, who handed Katherine a transparent screen. After Katherine opened the call, a conference table over ten meters long appeared on the screen, filled with people on both sides. Dawn Lucius spoke. “Hello, everyone. After I woke up in the Moreth Federation, their supreme leader, the Moreth Steader, Jonathan, told me that another civilization on Orion Arm is already preparing to attack Earth. Are you aware of this?”

“We don’t know.” The man sitting at the far end of the table spoke up, and he paused. “Commander Lucius, until a second before you showed up, we thought we might be the advanced civilization of the galaxy. I mean ......” The man held up both hands to indicate what he meant by this solar system full of technology.

“I understand.” Dawn Lucius interrupted him and continued. “The situation is this: there is a high-level civilization in the galaxy called Datheon. They propped up many Federations in order to reduce the wars between the mid-level civilizations in the galaxy. Ours, Orion Arm, is the smallest, so there are only three ruling Federations with a higher level of civilization. The star fields of the three Federations form a triangle. The Moreth Federation is highly developed, with fewer people and an emphasis on technology.”

Dawn Lucius saw that the crowd did not interrupt, so he condensed the information Jonathan had told him and continued. “Ashton Federation is a little more developed. They value medical technology and have a small population, ruling the largest star field, and they have several planets dedicated to refining medicine. The scary one is the Strath Federation, a Federation ruled by two leaders, one warlike and one vain, but both ultimately express themselves through invasion and killing. That is the Federation that is coming to attack Earth.”

“Commander Lucius, then can we meet them in battle?” the man said confidently.

“Do you have a chance of winning?” Dawn Lucius asked rhetorically.

There was silence on the other end of the video as the shuttlecraft continued to fly, and before a result could be reached in the discussion, it had reached the entrance to Project Nv Wa. There was still radiation on the ground, so several people put on their spacesuits when they left the warehouse. Katherine used her identity card to open the isolation door, and they walked into the isolation room and stood in the designated position. The automatic cleaning system washed their spacesuits and then sprayed a reagent to neutralize nuclear radiation, and when the series of processes was finished, they turned in their spacesuits at the designated location. Following the indicator lights, they took the elevator deep underground and finally came to the belly of Nv Wa after a two-hundred-kilometer descent. The air was full of mist, caused by the high temperature of the ground heating the moisture in the rock layer. Several inspection craft were wandering around in the huge stone crevice, and below the stone wall there was an old city, in the middle of which a huge glass dome was especially conspicuous; it looked like a special space.

“Commander Lucius, that’s where the dormant silo is stored.” Katherine pointed to the large glass dome as she said it, and they went in that direction.

After a while, they came to the glass dome; together with its entrance, this glass structure looked more like a snail. Katherine went on to open the entrance, inside which many dormant silos were placed. At the screen by the door, they searched by name and found the location of Stacean Lucius’s dormant silo, less than a kilometer away from them, but for Dawn Lucius it felt like crossing tens of thousands of light years. He walked to the front of the dormant silo. The little man he had longed for was lying there quietly, as if asleep, with long eyelashes, a round face, and a straight nose. Dawn Lucius unconsciously touched his own nose; his son’s nose looked exactly like his. Even though only a layer of glass separated them, Dawn Lucius still could not touch Stacean Lucius, and his heart felt as uncomfortable as if a large lump of lead were pressing on it.

“Commander Lucius ......” Katherine handed a screen to Dawn Lucius as she gestured for him to view it.

“Daddy ......” Dawn Lucius clicked on the video, and Stacean Lucius sat restlessly in front of the camera as he looked away from the camera toward where his mom was prompting him. “Look at the camera, baby, and say whatever you want to say to Daddy.” Stacean Lucius looked at the camera again, and then he looked at the floor again.

“Daddy, I miss you.” He counted on his fingers. “Mom said you went to a faraway place and didn’t know when you would be back. I think I’ll wait for you to come back, and I want to wait for you to tell me a story.” With his bulging little eyes staring at the screen, Dawn Lucius touched the screen as he began to sob uncontrollably as the video continued. “Daddy, Mommy said that I can’t be cured, but Grandpa General Quentin promised that he would let me sleep here and wait for you. Mom said that Grandpa Quentin is a great general and his word counts, so I just think he’s not a liar ......” Stacean Lucius switched hands to count on his fingers.

Dawn Lucius looked at the little man in the hibernation bin and found it hard to breathe; the feeling of fainting made him lose his balance, and Dawn Lucius squatted on the ground as the video continued. “Daddy, if you come back, make sure you wake me up, okay?” Stacean Lucius turned his face to look at his mother, unhappiness written on his little face, and he shook his head and asked, “Mommy, is it done? I’m going to play.”

“OK, OK, OK, let’s go find the doctor and see if he has any fun toys, OK?” Mrs. Dawn Lucius finished and turned off the video.

After a while, Dawn Lucius got up from the ground, looked at Katherine, and said, “Thank you for protecting my son. Please continue to do so. Moreth people can save him; I’m going to get their help.” Dawn Lucius rushed a few steps toward the exit, then suddenly stopped, and Katherine almost bumped into his back.

“Where is my wife buried? Did she live well?” Dawn Lucius asked.

“She had a pretty good life. After Stacean Lucius went dormant, she taught at the school. Twenty years ago, she had a heart attack, and they couldn’t revive her. Over there ......” Katherine pointed to a building with a spire in the distance and continued, “She is buried in the garden by the school.”

Dawn Lucius pinched his pants on the outside of his thigh and spoke. “Katherine, please get me to my ship. I’m going to beg the Moreth Federation to stop the Strath people and prevent the destruction of Earth ...... for my son ......” Dawn Lucius choked out and continued. “I’m going to beg the grandmother first so she can save my son.”

“Commander Lucius, we’re afraid to let you go back.” Katherine lowered her voice to reply, which Dawn Lucius had expected. He hadn’t had time for Stacean Lucius before, and he hadn’t had time to nurse his injuries while on the Dawn ship, and now he had even less time to explain to the people at the Norm Center that he needed to get Stacean Lucius back. “I’ll meet you at the elevator.” Dawn Lucius clenched his fists and walked straight and fast towards the elevator doors, leaving Katherine time to report to her superiors.

It didn’t take long for Katherine to run up to Dawn Lucius with her two attendants, who looked Dawn Lucius over as if they couldn’t wait for their eyes to see through and scan Dawn Lucius before they would give up.

“Commander Lucius, can you stay?” Katherine asked tentatively, and when she saw that Dawn Lucius did not make a sound, she added, “We can study the Moreth people’s ships and technology, and we can hopefully defend ourselves against the Strath people.”

Dawn Lucius did not speak. He remembered Jonathan’s mother’s words: civilizations wasted their minds on improving weapons capabilities instead of investing in something beneficial, and war consumed too much energy.

Dawn Lucius shook his head and turned into the elevator. The other three could only follow him in and climb up towards the ground, but what Dawn Lucius didn’t know was that Jonathan was confronting Centaly on Sundium Planet.