War of Intelligent Machines

Chapter 30: Unexpected

Chapter 30: Unexpected

To arrange a trip to the space station, one had to undergo a physical check-up at a top-tier hospital and obtain a certificate of no criminal record from the police station.

With their identification cards, medical certificates, and clean criminal records, they could then book the tickets.

The three tickets for the space station’s three-day tour drained nearly all of their savings.

The departure point for the spacecraft was at the foot of the Gongjaga Snow Mountain in the Four Great Rivers area. The Yadong Aerospace Group had developed a space tourism rocket launch base there, specifically designed to send tourists to the Yadong Space Station.

The base's design was unique: almost the entire facility was carved into the mountainside of Gongjaga Snow Mountain, with only the entrances and exits visible at the foot of the mountain.

The launch shaft was a vacuum electromagnetic acceleration tube over 4,000 meters high, built vertically. The four electromagnetic sleds acted as the rocket's propulsion. The top of the tube broke through the peak of the snow mountain, reaching an altitude of 7,522 meters, while the base was connected to the mountain’s interior. Tourists entered the base at the foot of the mountain, traversed the internal mountain facility, and then entered the vacuum tube at its bottom before boarding the rocket.

For Jiang Hui, traveling by rocket was nothing new, but for Jiang Yuecheng and Weng Mu, it was an entirely unfamiliar, thrilling, and exciting experience.

The night before their launch, the two of them were so excited they couldn't sleep a wink.

Riding on a civilian tourism rocket didn't require wearing spacesuits, but there were strict rules about what passengers could bring. No bags were allowed, and passengers couldn’t wear extra clothing. They couldn’t bathe, brush their teeth, or wash their faces for the entire three-day journey—only wet wipes were permitted, and their supply was limited. Meals were also strictly rationed, and if they got hungry, they could request a few pieces of compressed biscuits.

There were fifty-six passengers on this flight, all gathered in a room for a briefing on space travel. Then, everyone took a shower and changed into standard attire. The clothes they had worn were sealed by the company and sent back to their homes.

Next, they were led into a sealed room for a sanitation procedure. After the disinfection, they entered the launch cabin, where they would await takeoff.

Before the launch, the cabin and rocket were separate. Once all passengers were inside, the cabin door was sealed, and large equipment pushed the cabin into a sealed transition chamber.

The transition chamber connected the tourist base on one side to the vacuum launch tube on the other. Once the chamber was fully sealed and the vacuum was created, the cabin was pushed into the launch tube and docked with the rocket.

After docking, the cabin underwent over an hour of routine checks before the official countdown began.

The rocket was clamped by four large electromagnetic sleds, and as the countdown ended, a massive current powered the sleds to propel the rocket upwards through the vacuum tube.

The immense acceleration forced everyone’s bodies to endure incredible pressure, and the cabin was filled with screams and groans of discomfort.

As the speed increased, the pressure lightened slightly.

Suddenly, there was a violent shake as the rocket burst out of the launch tube. The force of the air resistance made it feel as though the rocket had slammed into a wall, shaking violently for a moment. However, the turbulence soon settled as the rocket quickly broke through the dense atmosphere.

About four hours later, a flight attendant’s voice came over the intercom: “Dear passengers, the spacecraft will soon dock with the space station. Please remain calm, keep your seat belts fastened, and do not unfasten them. Once docking is complete, please follow instructions and exit in an orderly manner.”

Soon, the spacecraft stabilized. Jiang Yuecheng felt his seat sway slightly, then, with a jolt, he began to float.

Looking around, he realized that all the passengers’ seats had detached from the floor, and, under the guidance of the flight attendants, they were floating and moving towards the hatch.

Before long, it was their turn. After being guided out of the cabin by the flight attendants, they were hung on the wall of a long corridor, each passenger tethered like a duck hanging in an oven.

A male attendant floated by, holding onto a rope with one hand and pushing against the wall with the other. He called out to everyone: “Please grab hold of the rope.”

Everyone obeyed and grabbed the rope. The attendant floated back and checked that everyone was holding on tight, then shouted: “Unfasten your seatbelts.”

With a series of “clicks,” all the seatbelts unbuckled, and everyone’s bodies began to separate from their seats, slowly floating upwards.

“Please hold onto the rope. We are going to the gravity simulation area to check in,” the attendant instructed.

So, everyone began to float toward a larger cabin. It turned out they were heading to the elevator that would take them to the gravity simulation room.

Before long, they arrived at the gravity simulation room, where gravity was restored, and they could resume their normal postures.

As planned, they would first find their rooms in the gravity simulation area, then participate in a series of sightseeing activities.

However, Jiang Yuecheng’s family couldn’t join these activities. They were to be guided by space station staff to a zero-gravity chamber where they would finally meet Jiang Yuecheng’s long-missed mother.

Guided by the space station personnel, they floated through several compartments before arriving at a large observation chamber with transparent glass. The chamber had a diameter of about ten meters, and about twenty other tourists were there, gazing out at the vast cosmos.

“What is that?” Weng Mu asked, pointing excitedly at a massive black disk that obscured much of their view.

“That’s our home, Earth!” the attendant explained. “Since the side facing us is in nighttime, it looks dark.”

“Earth?” Weng Mu exclaimed in disbelief. “It looks completely different from the beautiful blue sphere in the photos!”

“If we were facing the daylight side, it would look much more beautiful!” the attendant explained. “The moon is currently behind Earth, so we can’t see it. It should be visible in about two hours.”

“Mr. Jiang Yu should be arriving shortly!” the attendant said to Jiang Yuecheng. “Please wait here and hold onto the handrails.”

After the attendant left, Jiang Yuecheng began to feel increasingly nervous. This would be the first time in his life he would meet his mother face-to-face.

He loved his mother but had never been able to hug her.

Suddenly, Jiang Yuecheng saw a female attendant floating in from a round exit, followed by a slender woman who seemed to glide like a fairy. Her body was about twenty or thirty centimeters taller than the attendant in front of her.

“Mom!” Jiang Yuecheng instantly recognized her.

“Son! Mom! Weng Mu!” Jiang Yu called, excited, as she floated towards them, pushing against the handrails. It felt as though the air in the entire chamber had frozen.

At that moment, a figure quickly flew from an inconspicuous corner toward Jiang Yu…

In an instant, the figure reached Jiang Yu, hitting her in the abdomen with their right hand before wrapping an arm around her neck, twisting with force.

The sound of her neck snapping echoed throughout the chamber.

A man quickly floated over and began fighting the attacker, with another man joining to help.

Jiang Yuecheng, seeing his mother attacked, thought he was hallucinating. After a moment of shock and terror, he finally realized what was happening. He rushed desperately toward his mother, with Jiang Hui and the stunned Weng Mu following.

Holding his motionless mother in his arms, Jiang Yuecheng shouted, “Mom!” His voice almost shattered the observation glass.

By this time, the assassin had been subdued. A group of people surrounded Jiang Yu.

“Quick, get Mr. Jiang out of here!” a leader-like person commanded.

A few people quickly pulled Jiang Yuecheng and Jiang Hui away, while Jiang Yu’s body was swiftly taken out of the observation room. The assassin, now unconscious, was also removed.

Everything had happened so quickly that Jiang Yuecheng couldn’t believe it. He clutched his grandmother’s hand and cried out, “This isn’t real! Grandmother, this isn’t real!”

Jiang Hui, equally terrified and at a loss, had a hard time processing the events. Although she was a former pilot with strong mental fortitude, what had just transpired left her shaken. No one could believe an assassin had managed to infiltrate the space station.

At that moment, Weng Mu, terrified, had curled up into a ball, clutching Jiang Hui’s clothes, shaking uncontrollably.

A little later, a few attendants took the family to their room in the gravity simulation chamber. They provided drinks and towels before leaving.

On the third day, a leader-like person came to speak with them. After offering condolences, they informed Jiang Yuecheng’s family that Jiang Yu’s body had been sent back to the Moon, as required by the Moon Base. They advised them to return to Earth and wait for further news.

With heavy hearts, Jiang Yuecheng’s family left the space station, flying back to Earth and landing at the Brave Island International Airport.

While transferring at the airport, they saw the news of Jiang Yu’s assassination on the big screen.

It seemed the whole world knew she was gone.

A generation of lunar pioneers had fallen, and one of the greatest scientists of their time had left them…

Back home at the base, Jiang Hui set up a mourning hall for her daughter in the living room. Every day, she cried as she kept vigil over her daughter's memory.

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