Chapter 1028 - Lost in the Skies
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
historical
In the beautiful but lonely night sky, a silver warship cruised silently. This was one of the most advanced explorer warships in the galaxy, designed to explore unknown planets.
Currently, it was on a planet far away from the human world.
Meng Tian rose from sleep. She took a deep breath and lightly waved her hand, awakening the lights in the bedroom and dissipating the dreams in her mind.
The Skylink, connected to the outside of the warship, repeatedly flashed, indicating the current situation.
Warship time: 23:30.
Simulated environment of late night.
Mission time: 24:00 cockpit.
Meng Tian came down from the bed. Her snow-white feet treaded on the icy floor, driving away the fuzziness of sleep.
She had been dreaming a lot lately. The further she was, the less composed she felt. Meng Tian smiled at herself mockingly.
Shedding the close-fitting battle armor, Meng Tian walked into a square bathroom that could only fit one. Even when sleeping, one had to maintain a state where one could enter battle, alert, at any moment. Only in the bath could one relax a little.
Water rolled down her nubile body, bringing true wakefulness.
Ship time: 23:55.
Meng Tian arrived in the cockpit punctually.
“Meng Tian.” The ship captain Cameron nodded to her with a smile.
“Major General Cameron.” Meng Tian saluted, pencil straight and without a hint of slack. In the military, if female commanders wanted to gain the status that they should be accorded, they had to be even stricter, even stronger than the men.
“At ease. From zero hours to five hours, you will pilot the warship. The course has already been entered into the automatic navigation system. Your mission is to adjust the fine controls according to real time circumstances.” Cameron delegated the mission.
“Yes, Sir.”
Meng Tian watched the time. Only when the second hand jumped exactly to zero hours did she step forward to commence the change of command with ship captain, Major General Cameron.
Standard checking procedure, confirmation of ship course, confirmation of the automatic navigation safety lock, emergency state authorization...
After the handover, Cameron confirmed everything again before leaving the cockpit.
Meng Tian sat down on the main pilot seat. She again confirmed the situation of the entire ship and then opened her planetary map. As a temporary captain’s responsibility, she constantly recorded the prior course, as well as the interstellar landmarks and references.
Recording at the same time was the co-pilot Noam.
Each meticulously kept to their post.
Because this was a completely alien planet, and they were the first humans to set foot here.
Three weeks ago, an explorer troop had discovered a wormhole signal from this starfield. The warship that Meng Tian was on had been delegated to do the first reconnaissance.
Each wormhole was a major discovery. It was a shortcut that could traverse planets. In a matter of seconds, one could cross hundreds, even thousands, of light-years. Of course, this was if it was well-formed.
And travelling on a foreign planet, blackholes, interstellar magnetic explosions, etc. were all extremely dangerous.
Losing the course was the most terrifying thing that could happen. The moment there was an error in the recording pattern, and one was unable to confirm the original reference point on the stellar map, the entire universe would become an enemy. This was the same logic as when humanity had first lost their course in the ocean. Only, oceans had ends, the universe did not.
That was why the captain and vice-captain recorded at the same time, in addition to the warship’s automatic records. This was the standard navigation procedure, but it was still not foolproof. A stellar storm could cause the crew to diverge from the course and throw off the stellar reference points. Many times, it depended on the captain’s ability and experience.
Noam looked at Meng Tian with complex emotions. Normally, when Cameron rested, he was the one responsible for piloting.
But as Meng Tian displayed her ability more and more, Cameron had come to respect her ability more and more. As a captain, he admired Meng Tian’s calm and undistracted mind. On such a dangerous voyage, only Meng Tian had always maintained her focus.
Noam was still uncomfortable. He felt that his own authority was severely threatened.
But she was an elite from the college, with no shortcomings in many aspects. And she was pretty, and popular. In a few simulations, she had far surpassed him in score.
Noam’s only advantage was seniority. And clearly that had little use.
“Discovery of ER-type fixed star that can serve as a stellar reference mark. Preparing to raise energy panels. Level two shield test, results good. Raising shields to highest level...”
Meng Tian methodically recorded this fixed star’s radioactivity’s reference statistics.
Flitting pass the fixed star, the energy panels absorbed the radiation from the fixed star, converting it to standard energy and storing it to replenish the energy source. It was the insurance of a deep exploration flight. An exploration ship would not pass up on any opportunity to store energy.
After 10 minutes, the warship completed the stellar map record and began to pick up speed. The warship circled on a one-track orbit, trying to utilize the gravity of the fixed star to pick up speed.
“Approaching departure speed.”
Everyone kept their eyes wide open and carefully completed their own missions. No one could confirm that this was a safe route. One must know that each safe route in deep space was formed through the blood and tears of countless explorers.
The warrant officer in charge of radar sweeps constantly wiped his forehead, which was already free of sweat. The motion helped him feel better.
The warship circled the gravitational line of the fixed star. Just as the warship was about to leave, the cockpit viewfinder flashed. The optical telescope captured some large mass. HUM-
A shrill alarm rang in the cockpit. “EXTREME DANGER! EXTREME DANGER!”
“Enlarge!”
Following the command, the captured image from the viewfinder became clear. A belt formed of debris barred the path in front of the warship. Caught by the sway of the fixed-star’s gravity, the debris was flying towards the fixed star. And the warship had just accelerated in the opposite direction, towards this debris belt.
Kaneki jumped up and shouted, “How could such a huge belt of debris not have been detected?!”
“A blind spot caused by the hugeness of the fixed star!”
The warrant officer in charge of the radar sweeps paled upon seeing his screen. The whole thing was blank. He could not see the presence of the debris. In theory, he had done this countless times. But when seen for real, he still felt like it was a fatal disaster.
The warship continued to pick up speed. In one minute, the warship would collide with this debris field.
This was completely different from a normal debris belt. This debris field was high-velocity debris, attracted by the fixed star’s gravity. Even the smallest piece at that speed would be like a cannon shot from one of the superpowers’ warships’ main guns.
Seeing this scene, the entire cockpit was stunned. Among the field, there was still high-damage debris. When close to the fixed star’s unstable situation, these volatile debris would explode like bombs under the slightest shake.
They were finished. At this distance and this speed, they would definitely collide with this debris field charging towards the fixed star.
They could not avoid it! Given the defenses of a main god-tier warship, just high-velocity debris alone was fatal. In addition to the unstable energy debris...
The shadow of death numbed all their tongues.
“Alert the commander!” He had neither the time nor the effort to spare to reprimand the radar warrant officer. Noam immediately pressed the communication device of the commander, but all he heard was static from the receiver.
The fixed star storm had interfered with the sweep, as well as the transmission of the communicators.
“Commence standard evasion procedures. Circle the debris field, continue the orbit of the fixed star.”
Noam’s face was white. He gave the order. Only after the words had been spoken did he realize that he was sitting in the copilot chair, and did not have the authorization of the commander to complete it.
Seeing Noam unable to fulfil the command, everyone in the cockpit came to their senses and looked to Meng Tian, who should be taking control at this moment.
What was she doing? Was she petrified with fear? Besides her order to enlarge the image at the onset, she had not made any other sound. Was she just a bookworm from the college? She had become senseless when faced with real danger!
At this moment, Meng Tian was still frantically drawing on a screen...
The entire cockpit was in despair!
They were doomed. No way to contact the commander, and the only representative with the commander authorization was still doing math for her college homework.
Could this wench be depended on?