980: Gorge

Several more Gawha came. They worked together to lift and hug the robot and moved the robot back to the bottom of the gorge along the same path.

At the bottom of the gorge is a "desert reptile", whose size is exactly the same as the shortness of its owner. This is a car carrying vehicle, with multiple tracks taller than people, supporting the body that stands dozens of meters high on the ground. Its metal shell is covered with bumpy pits due to the attacks of countless sandstorms.

As soon as he walked to the "recrews", the Gaws started chatting again. Although Adu Dedu could hear them, he didn't understand at all. However, he didn't have to feel uneasy about it. Gaws sometimes deliberately used a language that adapted to them. In addition to their internal understanding, even linguists would be at a loss and go crazy about it.

A Jiawa took a disc out of the belt hanging box and put it on the chest of the Adu device. They pushed Adu to the mouth of a pipe that stretched out from the side wall of the huge vehicle body, and then avoided it in all directions. With a short moan, the powerful vacuum straw sucked the small robot into the belly of the "desert reptile", as cleanly as using a wheat bar straw to suck a pea. After doing this, Jiawa finished clamoring for a while, and then hurriedly climbed into the car through the tube and ladder like a mouse returning to the hole.

The straw suddenly spitted Adu into a small room. This was a cell, in which apart from piles of broken instruments and scrap copper and iron, there were about a dozen robots of different shapes and sizes. Several robots were concentrating on electronic conversations, while other robots were moving aimlessly. However, when Adu rolled in, a voice screamed.

"Adu? Dedu - it's you!" Snapier was excited and called out in the dark corner. He walked to Adu, who was still paralyzed, and hugged him - this was not a mechanical hug, but a humane cuddle. Suddenly, he discovered the small disc on Adu, and unconsciously lowered his head and stared at his chest in contemplatively - there was also a same disc here.

The huge, poorly lubricated gears started to rotate. The huge "desert reptile" creaked and turned a corner, and then rumbled into the night of the desert with tough patience.

Eight imperial senators and officers sat around the conference table, their stiff, cold and ruthless faces were like the bright and clean tabletop. The soldiers guarded the entrance of the conference room, and the lights on the table and on the walls radiated a dim and cold light.

The youngest of the eight people was making a generous speech. He showed the unique expression and manner of a man who quickly climbed to a high position in the officialdom. His method of climbing to a high position is not to be studied in depth. Indeed, General Tiger had a certain degree of incompetence. The reason why he was able to achieve success was not only partly due to his ability, but also the despicable hand-gun also played a miraculous effect.

Although his uniform was as clean and tidy as the others in the room, no other seven people wanted to touch him, and there was an unbearable and unbearable smell on him. Despite this, many people respected him, or feared him.

"I tell you, this time he was too much," said General Tiger fiercely, "This Lord Sith, who was hardly put on us by His Majesty the Emperor, will be the bane of us. Our situation remains dangerous until the battle base is fully functional.

"Some of you seem to have not yet realized the well-equipped and well-organized Rebel Alliance. Their ships are superior in performance and their pilots are more skilled. There is something stronger than the engine that is driving them, and that is their unusual reactionary fanaticism. They are more dangerous than most of you think."

An elderly officer wriggled nervously in the seat, and the deep scar on his face could not completely calm it even if the most brilliant plastic surgery was not allowed to do so. "The danger is your Starfleet, not the battle base, General Tiger." His dry eyes looked around the table, from one person to another. "I think Lord Vader knows what he does. As long as those cowards have a shelter, the rebellion will continue. Their pilots can rest there, and their machinery can be repaired there."

General Tiger opposed: "Sorry, I think different from you, Romodi. I think the construction of this base is not so much for some reasonable military strategic considerations as it is for the Governor of Taltin's desire for power and honor. In the Senate, the rebels will continue to strengthen their power, as long as..."

The sliding sound of the door to the side and the soldiers' serious attentive sounds interrupted him. He turned his head like everyone present.

Two people with different appearances but consistent goals walked into the room. Near Tiger was a thin, narrow-faced man with a long and slim face, with his messy hair and slender body making him look like an old broom. He was the governor of countless outer planets of the empire, the noble Moff Talcin. Compared with the tall Lord Darth Vader beside him, Talcin looked short.

Although Tiger was not scared, his arrogance had subsided. After Tartin took his seat at one end of the conference table, Tiger slowly sat down. Vader stood behind the seat of the Tartin Governor General in a prominent manner. Tartin stared at Tiger for a full minute, and then turned his eyes elsewhere as if he had seen nothing. Tiger was very angry, but still said nothing. Tartin's eyes circled the table, with a satisfied smile on his face. "We don't have to worry about the Imperial Senate anymore, gentlemen. I just received a notice that the emperor had disbanded the institution that had gone astray forever."

The sound of surprise spread like ripples among the attendees. "The last remnants of the ancient republic..." said Tartin. "It was finally cleaned up."

"This is impossible." Tiger interrupted, "How will His Majesty the Emperor maintain control over the government agencies?"

"You must understand that the Senate representative system has not been formally abolished," Taltin explained. "It was only for the entire extraordinary period-" he smiled slightly, and continued, "replaced. Now the regional governor will have direct control and free control of his territory, which means that His Majesty the Emperor may finally restrain the shaky planets with the power of the empire. From now on, the deterrent power of the Empire fleet and this combat base will bring submission to local governments that may be betrayed."

"How to deal with the existing rebellion?" Tiger asked with interest.

"Even if the insurgents manage to get all the technical information of this battle base, they will find it difficult to find any weaknesses that can be exploited." At this time, Taltin's smile turned into a false smile: "Of course, we all know that these important information is kept extremely closely and cannot fall into the hands of the insurgents."

"The technical information you talked about in a roundabout way," Darth Vader yelled angrily, "will be back in our hands soon, if..."

Tartin interrupted Lord Black, and no one else sitting at the table dared to do so. "It's meaningless. No matter what intelligence the insurgents managed to get, any attack on the battle base would be to die and destroy themselves, without any benefit. After years of secret construction," he said happily, "this battle base has become the decisive force in this part of the universe where we are. Within the scope of our galaxy, the ending of anything will no longer depend on fate, decree or other forces, but on this battle base!"

A giant hand wrapped in a piece of metal made a gesture, and a drink-filled cup on the table drifted into this hand as if it were a call. Lord Black continued in a slightly advisable tone: "Don't be too proud of the technological deterrent you have created, Tartin. Even if it can destroy a city, a planet, or a complete system, it is still trivial when it competes with the 'power'."

"'power'?" Tiger laughed, don't use your sorcerer technique to scare us, Sir Vader. Your tragic belief in ancient myths does not help you recall lost tapes with spells, nor does it give you enough insight to find the secret camps of the rebels. Hi, this makes people laugh—"

Suddenly, Tiger bulged his eyes and grabbed his throat with both hands, his face turned purple.

"I feel," Vader said quietly, "this lack of faith is annoying."

"Enough, Vader!" Taltin shouted in deep distress, "Let him go! This kind of quarrel among us is meaningless."

Vader shrugged as if nothing had happened.

Tiger fell into his seat, rubbed his throat, and his eyes filled with fear were afraid to leave the black giant.

"When the battle base obtains a certificate of operation, Lord Vader will provide us with the location of the rebellion fortress." Taltin said, "Once we know this place, we will attack it, destroy it completely, and smash this pathetic rebellion in one fell swoop."

"Since the Emperor's Holy Will," Vader added sarcastically, "it will definitely be like this."

If anyone among the powerful people sitting around the table was displeased with this disrespectful tone, then just a glance at Tiger would be enough to silence him.

The stale smell of oil and lubricant in the dark cell was a veritable metal morgue. Snapier tried his best to endure the stench. To prevent every accidental shaking it against the wall or other robots, it was a constant battle.

In order to save energy and to avoid hearing the constant complaints of the tall companions, Adu Dedu shut down all external sensory systems and lay motionless among a pile of spare parts. At this time, he had put aside his own and everyone's fate.

Another violent bump shook the prisoner in the prison hard. Snapier moaned: "Is this over?" He had already imagined more than fifty terrible endings and overturned them. The only thing he was sure was that the final treatment of them might be worse than they thought.

Suddenly, without any warning, something more disturbing than the most violent bumps happened. The cry of the "desert reptile" disappeared and stopped, as if answering Snapier's question just now. These robots, who still maintain human perception, emitted a nervous buzz, and they all guessed the current location and possible fate.

At least, Snapier is no longer ignorant of the guys who captured them and their possible motives. The local captives have introduced him to these half-human and half-beasted chariot migrants—the temperament and species of Gawha. They took the huge mobile fortress as their home, riding it on the most desolate grounds of Tatooin to search for valuable minerals and waste machines that can be exploited. No one has ever seen them take off their protective cloaks or take off their sand masks, so no one knows what they look like. But they are famous for their astonishing ugliness, which Snapier is sure of.

Snapier leaned over toward his partner who was still lying quietly, shaking his barrel-shaped torso. The epidermis sensor on the Adu device was activated, and the lights on the front of the small robot began to shine one after another.

"Wake up, wake up!" Snapier urged. "We have stopped somewhere." Like several other more imaginative robots, his eyes swept vigilantly at the metal walls, worried that when the hidden panels slipped away, a huge robot would reach in and grop around and grab them away.

At this time, Adu stood up and restored all his activity. "We are bound to be done," Snapier said in grief. "Do you think they will melt us?" He was silent for several minutes, and added, "I feel so uncomfortable with this kind of nervous waiting!"

Suddenly, a metal wall in the cell slid to one side. Tatoo was pouring in from the dazzling morning sunlight, and Snapier's sensitive photoreceptor was forced to respond in a conditioning manner to avoid serious damage.

Several of the abominable Gaws crawled into the cabin quickly. They were still wearing the dirty robe Snapier had seen before, poking the robots one by one with a peculiar hand-held weapon. Snapier noticed that some of them remained motionless.

Gawha ignored the immovable robots and drove the still-movable robots outside to gather. Adu and Snapier were among them. They found themselves joining a ranks of broken robots.

Snapier blocked the dazzling sunlight to protect his eyes. He found that the five of them were arranged next to the huge "desert crawler". He had no idea of ​​running away, which was completely unavailable for a robot. The stronger the intelligence of the robot, the more incompatible it would be with this idea, and the more unimaginable it would be. In addition, if he really wanted to escape, the internal sensor would immediately detect a critical logic failure and burn all the circuits in his mind.

He did not expect to escape, but began to carefully study the small domes and steam energy exposed on the nearby ground, which all indicate that there is a larger human house underground. Although he is not familiar with this type of building, various signs indicate that it is a moderately sized house, although isolated and remote. Snapier's fear of being demolished or driven to a high-temperature mine to do hard work gradually disappeared, and his mood improved accordingly.

"Perhaps, not that bad," Snapier muttered hopefully, "if we can convince these two-legged worms to let us go here, we may once again serve the sane human beings without being melted into slag."

Adu's only answer was a chirping sound of unknown attitude. Gawa began to run back and forth among them, trying to straighten a poor robot with a bent back, and trying to cover up the dents and scratches with liquid and dust. At this time, both robots remained silent.

As the two Gawa hurried over, busy modifying Snepir's dusty skin, Snepir tried hard to resist his disgusting expression. One of his many functions of imitating humans was to react to odor. Obviously, Gawa had no idea what hygiene was, but he was sure that it would be of no benefit to point it out to them.

The little flying insects circled around Gawa's face like clouds, but Gawa didn't care. Obviously, they regarded these little flying insects as appendages to their bodies, just like an appendage that grew out of them.

Snapier was observing it, and did not realize that two people were coming towards them from the largest dome. Adu had to touch him lightly before he looked up.

The first man looked grim and had a tired face. His face, which had been tempered by wind and sand, recorded his unyielding struggle against the harsh environment for many years. His gray hair was tangled on his head, like a spiral made of plaster. His body, face, clothes, and even his mind were covered with dust. Although his spirit may be aging, his body is still strong and powerful.

Compared with his uncle's wrestler-like body, Luke seemed shorter. He followed his uncle with his shoulders down. At this moment, he was not tired, but he looked very depressed. He was thinking about many things, but none of them was related to farm work. What he thought about was his future life and the actions of his close friends. He left his hometown not long ago, flew into the depths of the blue sky, and devoted himself to a more difficult but meaningful career.

The taller people stopped in front of the robot queue and talked to the leader of Gawa in a strange squeak. When they were interested, Gawa could understand the words.’=~,”

Luke stood aside and listened unmovedly. As his uncle observed the five robots, he followed casually. The uncle occasionally stopped to talk to his nephew. Although he knew that he should learn from his uncle, it was difficult for him to concentrate.

"Luke--Ao, Luke!" a voice called.

Luke leaned over and looked inside the robot that was spitting out internal organs. He shouted, "Uncle Owen, the central servo motor of this tillage machine is broken." He reached into his hand and tried to adjust the failed device. But there was a violent electric spark inside, and he quickly pulled his hand back. The burnt insulation and the pungent burnt smell emitted by the circuit emitted in the fresh air of the desert, as if it was the stinking stench of the robot.

I won't have time to think about what others suggest to me, and this situation will be very bad for me when it comes to finding a spouse. So I have to think about it in advance and be prepared. That's what I'm doing now."

He held her hand and put it on his lips and kissed him, "I'm honored, Ingrid. But the difference between us is too big."

"I think that's exactly what attracts me." Her palm gently stroked his cheek, "I want to know you. You're more manly than any man I've known before."

He took out the money to pay the bill, his movements were a little unstable. This was the first time she saw him like this since he met him. He turned off his cigar,

Watch it quietly. "I live in a hotel in Teskabulingken."

He said, "The conditions are very simple."

"I don't mind," she replied. "I don't think I'd notice that at all." The crew took several shuttles to the mothership. From their perspective, the Leonora Christine pointed at the group as if it were a handful of hands.

Star's dagger. Her hull is conical, with a narrow bow and a thick tail. The external equipment does not destroy the smoothness of the hull, but looks like colorful decorations. These equipment include portholes and hatch doors, various sensors, two landing ships (the design of the mothership makes it impossible for her to land on the planets), and the frame of the currently folded Barsad engine. The base of the cone structure is very spacious, and the reactor and many other instruments are located in this part. Because the hull is quite long, this design does not seem abrupt.

There is an extended structure at the tip of the "dagger", which looks like a basket-shaped handguard on the hilt. The edge of this structure is supported by eight slender cylinders, all pointing to the rear - this is the booster tube. When the spacecraft only flies at interplanetary speed, they are used in conjunction with the reactor behind to accelerate the spacecraft. The basket-shaped structure contains the controller and power device of these booster tubes. The "dagger" has the tip of the knife until the top of the hilt, and the entire blade is black in color. The top is a complex sphere - the Barsade engine, and the other parts are shields to protect the radiation generated when the Barsade engine works.

This is "Leonora Christine". She is the seventh and youngest of this type of spacecraft. The mission she undertakes requires her to keep her appearance simple, but like human skin, this simplicity is false, and her internal structure is extremely complex and delicate. Since people just started designing the basic concept of this type of spacecraft in the mid-20th century, many people have put in calculable thinking and efforts to realize this concept, including many of the most outstanding geniuses in human history.

When the construction of the "Leonora Christine" began, people had mastered considerable practical experience and necessary tools, and technical civilization finally truly flourished (fortunately, at least for now, this prosperity was not oppressed by war or the threat of war). Despite this, the cost of building this spacecraft was still astonishingly large, and even caused a lot of complaints. Is it paid so much to allow 50 people to fly to a so-called "neighboring" star that is actually extremely distant?

That's right. Because the universe is so vast.

The spacecraft orbits the earth, while the universe is hidden behind and around it. Turn your eyes away from the sun and planets, and you see a transparent darkness that is so huge that it exceeds your understanding. The universe is densely covered with uncountable stars, which never flicker and emits a cold light like the cold winter. Those are the brightest, and can be distinguished on the ground.

The colored stars are more obvious in space: the iron blue Vega, the golden Five-Car II, and the amber Betelgeuse. In space, many smaller stars in this galaxy become visible. It is difficult for a person who has not received special training to distinguish the constellation that he is familiar with on weekdays. The night sky is filled with countless suns. There is also the jade belt that runs across the sky - the Milky Way, and many nebula that no longer emits only blurred light, but is very bright. After traveling through more than 1 million light years, the light of the Andromeda Galaxy is still so dazzling. You will find that your soul is about to drown in this endless and deep night sky, so you have to turn your eyes back to the small and comfortable cabin that accommodates your body.

Ingrid Lindgren entered the bridge, grabbed the handle, and found balance in the air. "Report to you, Mr. Captain." She said loudly in a very formal voice. Lars Trund turned back and gave a gift. In his weightless state, his originally clumsy figure became like a fish in water, and his every move was very elegant. In addition, he was just an ordinary gray-haired man. According to the requirements, the standard spacecraft work clothes must be worn with a display of badges, but no one on the ship did this.

"Hello," he said, "You must have had a great holiday, right?"

"That's true." A flush surged on her cheeks, "Where are you?"

"Oh... it's okay. Basically I'm pretending to be a tourist and flying from one side of the earth to the other. To my surprise, there are so many things I've never seen before."

Lindgren couldn't help but feel a little sympathetic to him. There were three command chairs around the control and communications operating table in the center of the circular room, and only he had been sitting alone in his command chair, floating around the room. All bulkheads were covered with instruments, reading displays, commanders and various other equipment, flashes, vibrations and constant jumping record tables that highlighted his loneliness. Before she came in, the man could only hear the buzz of the ventilation equipment and the occasional ticking of the relay.

"Do you really have no relatives?" she asked.

"There are, but there are, but it's too far." Trand smiled, wrinkles on his long face. "Don't forget, by the standards of the solar system, I have lived for more than a hundred years. Last time I returned to the small village in my hometown in Darana, my nephew's grandchildren were both in their teens. I don't expect them to still regard me as a close relative." (He was only three years old when the first manned spacecraft flew towards Sagittarius A. Two years after he entered kindergarten, the base on the back of the moon received the first microwave communication from the expedition team. This message made this fantasy-loving inner

Going to the boy on orbit to the interstellar planet. At the age of twenty-five, he graduated from the institute and was selected into the first group of expeditions to Poei for his outstanding performance on the interstellar spacecraft. The group returned after 29 years; due to the expansion of time, only 11 years have passed for these crew members, including six years on the target planet. Their discovery brought them a lot of honor. When they returned to Earth, the spacecraft of the Constellar T project had been basically completed. If Trund was willing to leave Earth again within a year, he would

He could be the first mate. He did this. In his own opinion, it took him another 13 years to return to Earth. When he returned, he had become the acting captain because the former captain died on a very primitive planet. From the perspective of the earth, 31 years have passed, and the "Leonora Christine" has also begun to assemble in orbit around the earth. The spacecraft will take off within almost three years. If he accepts this position, most of the more than a thousand days will be used for planning and preparation... However, it is impossible not to accept it. Besides, he is already very unfamiliar with the current earth.)

"Start work," he said. "Poris Fedorov and his team of engineers came with you?" she nodded. "He will contact you on an internal walkie-talkie after he has packed up. That's what he said to me."

"Ha. It seems that he is quite polite, at least he knows to tell me that he has arrived."

"He was in a bad mood and was depressed all the way from the ground to here. I don't know what happened to him. Is there any problem?"

"We have to spend a long time in this ship, Ingrid," said Trand. "Our behavior does cause some problems."

"Oh, Poris will adjust his condition. I guess he might have been hangover or a girl rejected him last night, and so on. During the training, he gave me the impression that this person might not be able to withstand any blow."

"The same goes for his psychological report. However, there are things in each of us—or potential possibilities—not reflected in the test. You have to get to the distance—"Trand made a gesture toward the optical observation mirror that was covered, as if the instrument represented the distance it looked at—"When it came over, the potential things would be reflected, whether they were good or bad." He cleared his throat, "Well. The researchers have already laid out the schedule, right?"
To be continued...