New Captain Star Map Draftsman I: Federation War

“I was on a video call with my wife. We’re expecting a baby; we’ve lost seven children to miscarriage, and I’m so afraid that I’m never going to be a parent in this life.” Rodney Cruise lifted the device in his hand and shook it.

Dawn Lucius and Kenny Jr. Clooney had heard about Rodney Cruise’s family matters. The couple was fifty years old, and apart from the space agency, nothing was as important to them as wanting children. The two did not know how to answer, and the three were at a stalemate. Rodney Cruise’s smile faded; he sighed and continued. “Let’s start with the hologram, which was captured by our second satellite, and there’s more than just that coffin. At first, the camera robot on the satellite entered the dormancy room of the Sane ship, but no other door could be opened, no matter how hard the smartest scientists on Earth tried to crack it. Later, the robot’s energy was almost exhausted, so the space agency simply parked the camera in a tube in the wall behind it and turned on energy-saving mode, with no real-time data transmission, to save energy. It transmitted data to Earth once a week, only pictures, so that the files would be smaller.” Rodney Cruise sat down on the floor obediently.

“Nobody had much hope, and after a year or so, the space agency had pretty much forgotten about it. Then one night, I was in the hospital at the time, and my wife ......” Rodney Cruise paused for a moment, sniffled a little, and continued. “I received a red message to rush to the space agency, because Chief Kenny Clooney had happened to find changes on the Sane ship. A year earlier, there had been no one in the coffin in the hibernation chamber, but the data from the following months showed that someone had repeatedly entered the coffin, someone with appearance characteristics similar to humans. We guess that coffin can not only hibernate; the point is, that coffin is also a repair chamber, capable of repairing an injured body.”

Dawn Lucius gulped as he glanced at Kenny Jr. Clooney, who seemed to have forgotten to breathe at this point.

“So began the vast space project, your father ......,” Rodney Cruise continued, pointing to Kenny Jr. Clooney. “Your father, Chief Kenny Clooney, said it was his greatest regret that he didn’t give you a full childhood.”

Kenny Jr. Clooney touched his nose and didn’t say anything.

“The Dawn ship was originally designed to be an expedition ship with room for two hundred people, but our rivals left early and we were forced to make a one-way trip. It became a Daredevil ship, not what it was originally built for, and at that point, we thought the Dawn ship was the new hope.” Rodney Cruise frowned, the corners of his mouth squeezed out of shape. “Dawn was right. The Dawn ship doesn’t have enough supplies to get us back to Earth, and there was no time to install hibernation equipment on the Dawn ship. We have no way to hibernate while supplies are scarce, so we would starve to death before we got back to Earth.” Rodney Cruise started laughing; he did not look like a qualified engineer.

“We’re on this mission, and the three of us are the sacrifices.” Rodney Cruise pointed at the two men and laughed, as if laughing at the stupidity of whoever had arranged it, and he continued. “We don’t know if the people on the Sane ship are friends, let’s call them people for now. Sending us there is the purpose of this mission. We may have a chance to collect useful information, or we may be taken away by the aliens and kept as pets, or dissected and studied, or crushed for fun like ants, hahaha.” Rodney Cruise was like a man raving drunk, laughing and drooling.

“Get up and act like a captain! The Dawn ship is your masterpiece, and you are the captain of the Dawn ship for life. What are you doing?” Dawn Lucius yanked Rodney Cruise up and held him upright. Rodney Cruise was like a puppet on a string and let Dawn Lucius shake him, his feet swinging like a pendulum.

“You let go of him.” Kenny Jr. Clooney pulled Rodney Cruise from Dawn Lucius’ grasp in an attempt to bring him back to normal.

“Get out of my way. This isn’t over until he talks.” Dawn Lucius pushed Kenny Jr. Clooney hard and continued to tug on Rodney Cruise’s collar.

“You’re sick ......” Kenny Jr. Clooney stormed up and pushed Dawn Lucius to the floor while Rodney Cruise wobbled like a puppet and started crying like a child again.

“Tell me, what do you mean by ‘they’?” Kenny Jr. Clooney deadpanned as he nudged Rodney Cruise, pressing the question. “Who are ‘they’?”

“I ask you, what do you mean by ‘they’?”

Rodney Cruise was like someone out of his mind, the smile on his face frightening. One moment he pointed at Kenny Jr. Clooney, the next at Dawn Lucius, and the next he pounded his own chest. He let out a loud laugh, and tears, snot and saliva soaked a large patch of his clothes over his chest.

“What’s ‘they’?” Dawn Lucius asked, looking at Kenny Jr. Clooney.

“Are you deaf?” Kenny Jr. Clooney yelled at Dawn Lucius, who turned his face back to stare at Rodney Cruise. “What did you say ‘they’ were?”

“Can’t you talk properly?” Dawn Lucius got up from the floor and forced his way over to Kenny Jr. Clooney, who was still fixated on Rodney Cruise, still shoving him.

“Who are you to ask me to speak properly?” Kenny Jr. Clooney stared at Dawn Lucius with the look of a man-eating beast ready to make prey of anyone.

“What’s wrong with you? Do you have to take everything so personally?” Dawn Lucius wasn’t about to give in.

“You bastard, you could have saved my father back then. What did you do? Huh? You could have disconnected his welding gun, but you didn’t do anything, and when he finished welding and floated off into deep space and exploded, you just stayed out of the way.” Kenny Jr. Clooney turned around and shoved Dawn Lucius. Who knows why; does deep space really drive people crazy? At this point, all three of them were showing different symptoms of insanity.

“Who are you to mention Chief Kenny Clooney? You don’t deserve to, you ungrateful son.” Dawn Lucius pushed Kenny Jr. Clooney back, and the two of them wrestled together, their fists going back and forth like a tug of war. Besides the pain that filled their faces, they also discovered that Rodney Cruise had run away and the isolation door had been locked. The entire screens of the devices on both their wrists showed a red alert: the oxygen level in the room was dropping, now only seventeen percent. If the oxygen content fell below ten percent, their brains would first become confused, and with continued low oxygen, the body would go into shock, leaving the oxygen to the brain, which is the more advanced organ in the evolution of the species.

The two men searched the room but found no way to get out, and the carbon dioxide level in the room began to rise. The two men collapsed at the foot of the wall, sweat rolling down their foreheads in large drops. At first, only their backs were soaked with sweat; as the oxygen level continued to drop, their bodies no longer felt anything but exhaustion. The two men looked at each other, and Kenny Jr. Clooney turned his head away. Dawn Lucius turned his head and then slowly crawled toward Kenny Jr. Clooney, the sweat on his clothes mixing with his saliva and dragging a long trail of water on the floor.

“Kenny Jr. Clooney, I’m sorry.” Dawn Lucius said with all his strength, vaguely. “Back then, before Chief Kenny Clooney ...... and the engineering truck were lost, he asked me on the channel to tell ......” Dawn Lucius swallowed and continued. “He loves you ...... he ...... is sorry.” Dawn Lucius went limp as his body began to twitch. Kenny Jr. Clooney stared blankly at the ceiling as his hand began to twitch slightly.

“I hate ......,” Dawn Lucius said vaguely. “It’s hopeless ......”

Rodney Cruise, a competent engineer, but only in conditions where everything is certain, hid in a corner and looked back on his life, only to realize that he had spent most of his life in space and little of it trying to be a father. The older he got, the more he wanted to be a father, and he hated the way this was set in his genes. The walls of the pure white room were as cold as the cliffs of an Arctic iceberg. Probably because he had cried too much just now, he kept hiccuping, even though he was calmer now. His call with Earth an hour ago had been a farewell of sorts to being a father: his wife had gone into labor, and the unborn child was gone. Rodney Cruise was a rigorous scientist and did not believe that people go to a place like heaven after death, but then where do they go?

“Honey, where did you go with the kids? Where should I go to find you?” Rodney Cruise was at a loss. He regretted being a scientist; he regretted putting most of his life into his career only to be unable to find his wife and children. He hated the ship, he hated the mission. Rodney Cruise felt cold, and he thought of his mother: no matter what difficulties he encountered, his mother’s embrace could make him feel safe. Rodney Cruise curled up on the ground, clutching his knees, thinking of his mother’s embrace, and fell asleep.

“Who owns the Sane ship?”

“Why exactly did they come to the Kuiper Belt?”

“Are they a threat to Earth?”

“Will Stacean Lucius forgive me?”

These four questions rolled around in Dawn Lucius’ mind like a pot of stewed old tea. Forget it, he was tired. He missed Stacean Lucius’ wet kisses, missed Stacean Lucius’ fleshy palms, missed Stacean Lucius’ hands dancing when he talked in his sleep. He always slept sideways across the bed, his feet always on Dawn Lucius’ face, pressing so that Dawn Lucius’ face hurt a little, kicking his face until it hurt.

“Doctor Lucius, wake up.” Dawn Lucius opened his eyes and found Kenny Jr. Clooney’s palm resting just above his face.

“I thought it was my son who kicked me.” Dawn Lucius said, sweeping around.

“Get lost. If Chief Kenny Clooney is your uncle, what does that make me to you?”

“Son!” Dawn Lucius said teasingly. Kenny Jr. Clooney’s hand, which had just stopped, came down in a slap that brought tears to Dawn Lucius’ eyes, and he yelled, “What’s wrong with you, hitting your cousin so hard?” Dawn Lucius rubbed his face and stood up.

“How did the oxygen come back?” Kenny Jr. Clooney muttered to himself as he surveyed the house, even sniffing the plants on the floor.

“What are you, a dog, sniffing around?” Dawn Lucius covered his face and walked to the front door.

He raised his hand, woke up the screen, brought up the door button and clicked it, and found that the door opened smoothly. He walked straight out and rushed to the watchtower. Dawn Lucius hurriedly checked the ship’s data; everything was normal, which made him breathe a sigh of relief. At least for the time being, their lives were not in danger. Kenny Jr. Clooney followed Dawn Lucius’s example and checked the data, and then looked at his own vital signs. Suddenly he asked, “What about Psychopath Cruise?”

“Chang E,” Dawn Lucius said, cocking his head thoughtfully.

“I’m here!” The sweet female voice hadn’t changed.

“You saved us?”

“Yes!”

“It saved us?” Kenny Jr. Clooney questioned loudly after hearing Chang E’s answer.

“Why?” Dawn Lucius ignored Kenny Jr. Clooney as he continued to ask Chang E.

“For the mission!”

“In your setup, the mission is the highest priority, right?”

“Yes!”

“Who is the executor of the Black Knight program?” Dawn Lucius asked.

For a while, Chang E did not respond. An artificial intelligence actually playing dumb? Wasn’t its calculation speed supposed to be the fastest? Dawn Lucius’ heart tied itself in a knot.

“Chang E!” continued Dawn Lucius.

“I’m here!”

“Tell me, how did you save us?”

“I detected a threat to the mission, removed Rodney Cruise’s access and restored the oxygen.”

“So who is the captain of the Dawn ship now?” Dawn Lucius changed the way he asked the question.

“No one!”

“And will the mission be completed?”

“There is a twenty-seven percent chance that it will be completed.” Chang E still answered sweetly.

“Would it improve the completion rate if there were a captain?”

“It would. The probability of completing the task would be sixty-four percent.”

“Can I be named captain?” Dawn Lucius asked, looking at the camera.

Chang E fell into contemplation again.

“Chang E?”

“Yes!” Dawn Lucius was relieved to get an affirmative answer, and Kenny Jr. Clooney’s face was covered with questions.

“Now appoint me captain of the Dawn ship.” Dawn Lucius straightened up in front of the camera, familiar with the process because it was his design.

“Logbook 20591029, Dawn ship change of captain. The former captain Rodney Cruise is no longer suitable for the mission; engineer Dawn Lucius, No. LZL0104, is appointed as the new captain. The appointment has been confirmed by Dawn Lucius himself. Engineer Dawn Lucius, please acknowledge receipt of the appointment.”

“Acknowledged!” Dawn Lucius raised his left hand to shoulder level and straightened his whole body, the formal ritual for accepting an appointment.

“Dawn ship captain appointment is officially effective.” Chang E uploaded all appointment logs and Dawn Lucius became the captain of the Dawn ship.

“Chang E.”

“Commander Lucius.”

“Access the Black Knight program and change the rules.”

“Is that how you use your power?” Kenny Jr. Clooney ran up to Dawn Lucius and shoved him.

Dawn Lucius gave him a look and said nothing.

“Commander Lucius, you have been granted access to the Black Knight program. Do you need to cast it to the hologram for playback?”

“Please play clips with multiple people appearing.” Dawn Lucius said.

“No!”

“How can you ask that?” Kenny Jr. Clooney couldn’t help but say.

“So how do I ask?”

“Chang E,” Kenny Jr. Clooney shouted to the camera.

“I’m here, Kenny Jr. Clooney, the engineer.” Kenny Jr. Clooney grimaced when he heard Chang E add “engineer.” Yeah, he was still an engineer. He continued. “Please play the most watched clip.”

The hologram began to play, and what was in it sent chills throughout their bodies: two light-and-shadow-like creatures, no, light-and-shadow-like things, floated past the dormancy pod where the alien lay. The image froze, and a chill ran down the back of Dawn Lucius’ head, as if someone had just shot his soul out of him.

“Is that ...... what?” Kenny Jr. Clooney stammered.

“‘They’!” Dawn Lucius said as he looked at the framed light.

“When he said we were sacrifices, he couldn’t have meant giving us to these two monsters to eat, could he? Have we become their strawberry-flavored cake?”

“Nonsense. Monsters eating three humans sent all the way there? If we were really that delicious, they would have come to Earth long ago and started eating.”

“And why is it that they know about Earth civilization, but they don’t come to intervene or to guide?” Kenny Jr. Clooney asked, looking at Dawn Lucius.

“I don’t know. Do you know how a zoo is run?” Dawn Lucius asked as he turned to look at Kenny Jr. Clooney.

“What does zoo management have to do with humans?”

“The keepers fence off an area and put the animals in it, with trees to climb and swings to swing on. The keepers don’t care what the animals do; all the keepers have to do is make sure there is no killing between different species, and the animals can play however they like, right?” Dawn Lucius glanced at Kenny Jr. Clooney, saw that he seemed to understand, and continued. “But if an animal gets smart and goes over the wall to escape, or goes over the wall to reach another species, the keepers come out and exercise their authority. As long as the animal is well-behaved and doesn’t break the rules, the animal is safe.”

“Oh!” Kenny Jr. Clooney nodded his head. “The light-and-shadow people are the keepers, we’re the animals in their zoo, and the Sane ship animals came over the wall from another area looking for us and got stopped.”

Kenny Jr. Clooney drew his own conclusion, rubbing his chin hard. “So what do you think ...... does what we’re doing now count as escaping over the wall?” he asked, looking at Dawn Lucius again. “And will the keepers eat us?”

“I say, you ......” Dawn Lucius was a bit impatient, but there was already one person on the ship who had lost his mind, and he couldn’t let another be driven crazy by this problem. Dawn Lucius put on a smiling face, the kind of smile he wore when telling Stacean Lucius stories, and continued. “Think about it. That form of creature, light-like, means that their life form has become an energy body. If they eat, they may be eating space radiation, eating solar energy, or drinking bottles and bottles of energy drinks, right?” Dawn Lucius saw that Kenny Jr. Clooney did not understand, and continued. “So they will not eat organic organisms like us. First, the energy they would get is very low, and second, it is too much trouble. Put that way, you understand it.”

“Hahahaha, cousin, you’re so funny.” Kenny Jr. Clooney burst out laughing; he had just been playing a trick on Dawn Lucius.

Dawn Lucius raised his hand, paused for a few seconds and then dropped it as he headed straight for the door.

“Where are you going?” Kenny Jr. Clooney asked in a loud voice. Dawn Lucius ignored him, and Kenny Jr. Clooney followed.

Using data from the flex device, Dawn Lucius found Rodney Cruise locked in a room with artificial gravity and stable biometrics. Dawn Lucius summoned Chang E and learned from the conversation that Chang E had restricted some of Rodney Cruise’s access so it could restore the oxygen and save them both. But on reflection, Dawn Lucius realized that Chang E was not on Dawn Lucius’ side either; it would only be on the mission’s side. This also meant that if Dawn Lucius and Kenny Jr. Clooney became a threat to the mission, Chang E would lock them up too, and whether Chang E would reassess the mission completion rate and release them was unknown.

“Commander Cruise,” Dawn Lucius and Kenny Jr. Clooney asked Rodney Cruise, who was curled up on the floor, after opening the door. “Are you better?”

The two men waited a few seconds, but the man on the floor still did not move. Dawn Lucius went up to check first. He pushed Rodney Cruise’s shoulder, and when there was no response, he turned his face to Kenny Jr. Clooney and shook his head. Kenny Jr. Clooney approached with a disdainful face, pulled up his sleeve, and reached for Rodney Cruise’s collar; after getting a firm grip, he said, “Let’s get him into bed.”

The two men heaved together and lifted Rodney Cruise up, but just as they did, Rodney Cruise, who had been faking, sprang up, viciously pushed the two men down, darted out of the door and locked it. But what he did not expect, thinking that Dawn Lucius and Kenny Jr. Clooney had died of oxygen deprivation, was that while he slept, the ship had changed captains.

“Whoa ......” Kenny Jr. Clooney stormed up and kicked the door, cursing. “This beast is out to screw us both.”

“Chang E,” Dawn Lucius called out.

“I’m here.”

“Please release Rodney Cruise from all privileges.”

“Refused.”

“Why?”

“Rodney Cruise’s rights are granted by the moon base, which ranks above me in the hierarchy of rights, and I have no right to overstep my authority to modify its orders.” Chang E was right, Dawn Lucius thought to himself.

“What does that mean?” Kenny Jr. Clooney was not amused, and he yelled into the air. “You’re just going to let that maniac hurt us?”

Chang E did not speak. Kenny Jr. Clooney was so angry that he threw a few punches into the air.

“Chang E,” Dawn Lucius said.

“I’m here.”

“Due to the threat that former captain Rodney Cruise poses to this mission, I order you, as the current captain, to disable all of Rodney Cruise’s permissions on this ship; Rodney Cruise’s permissions may be restored only with my consent at the end of this mission.”

“Logbook L20591030, Commander Dawn Lucius exercising commander’s rights: all of Rodney Cruise’s privileges on the Dawn ship are restricted until the mission is over and cannot be restored until authorized by Commander Lucius. Executed!” The sweet female voice, like a shrewd businessman, made everything clear, a bit like reading out a contract in which you had nothing to lose.

While Dawn Lucius and Chang E were talking, Rodney Cruise had escaped to the medical bay, where he wreaked havoc with the equipment inside, taking drugs out and mixing them together, leaving bottles, glass, and a watery mess of liquid drugs scattered on the floor. He did not intend to stop there; Rodney Cruise intended to destroy the antenna. He came to Area D, the storage room, which besides food had a small window at the top that could be opened from the inside, and beside the window two suits and traction ropes were locked away. He put on a suit, checked the traction rope, and was ready to open the window when Chang E’s orders took effect. Rodney Cruise couldn’t pull the bolt with all his strength, so he punched the door in anger and punched himself, and after falling to the ground, Rodney Cruise used his spacesuit as armor and beat up the food in the storage room.

After Dawn Lucius discovered the alarm that the ship had been sabotaged, he and Kenny Jr. Clooney rushed to the storage room. If the food was destroyed, they would not make it to the Kuiper belt at all, and at the current rate, they would die of thirst for lack of water before they reached Jupiter. Kenny Jr. Clooney yelled through the door at the room inside, but all the doors of the ship were soundproof; not even air could get in or out, so he could only vent his anger one-sidedly.

“Chang E,” Dawn Lucius yelled.

“I’m here.” The female voice was not the least bit worried.

“Access all cameras on Dawn ship.”

“The captain is not authorized to access the camera.”

Dawn Lucius slammed his fist on the door in anger; the skin over his knuckles cracked under the impact, and his joints turned white.

“Chang E.”

“I’m here.”

“Access security protocol LJH1201.”

“File accessed.”

“Modify the priority of the security command. Damage to the ship will prevent the mission from being completed. Priority adjustment: when damage to the ship threatens the mission, the engineer has the responsibility to reduce the damage, and the engineer has the right to access the cameras to determine the degree of damage. Execution code: LJH1201.”

“Execution code verification successful, priority modification completed.” The female voice replied.

“What are you? How do you know all the files and instructions in Chang E’s brain?” Kenny Jr. Clooney wondered.

“Don’t forget, I don’t believe in AI, so when I designed the AI back then, I secretly put in some instructions that only I knew about.” Dawn Lucius poked his temple.

The cameras turned on, and the two men’s hearts clenched and their necks swelled with anger when they saw the wrecked state of the medical bay and storage room.

“The bastard ......,” scolded Kenny Jr. Clooney. “What’s he doing in an astronaut suit?”

“He must be trying to sabotage the antenna.” Dawn Lucius raised his hand and pointed to the top of the ship.

“Whoa ......” Kenny Jr. Clooney was even more furious as he cursed again at the metal door. “You want to destroy the antenna I designed? Do you think I’ll let you get away with it?” Kenny Jr. Clooney turned his head viciously to look at Dawn Lucius and said, “Open the door.”

Before Dawn Lucius had a chance to say anything, Kenny Jr. Clooney clicked the open button on the flexible device. The door pulled upward, and drinking water churning with food rushed out like a mudslide, knocking Dawn Lucius down so that he hit his head hard on the floor. They did not expect Rodney Cruise to rush out the moment the door opened. He pounced on Kenny Jr. Clooney, straddling him and using his fist as a hammer, smashing Kenny Jr. Clooney’s head while roaring, “That’s for stealing my place, that’s for stealing my place, that’s for stealing my place ......”

Dawn Lucius shouted himself hoarse. Kenny Jr. Clooney did not move, and where he lay, a red stain spread out.