Facing the data board placed on the table, Captain Miller shook his head with a wry smile and said to the sluggish crew members at the conference table, "We are like sailors trapped in the storm now. The only thing we can be thankful that there are no mice in our cabin. Doctor Peters, I hope you have calculated the drug reserves, Dr. Will, here you are the only one who knows the dormant cabin."

We are mice, Dr. Peters thought. We can't even pull the sails or turn the rudder, and we are not even as good as mice that bite the cables.

"Our drug reserves can support dormancy, and all of us can support our physical condition. Lieutenant Smith (the driver) contributed so much sweat to the treadmill conveyor belt, which was not without results." Dr. Peters said with a depressed expression. The confidentiality of this mission was too high, and she did not even say goodbye to her son with disabled legs. She was worried that after an accident in space, Houston would never tell her son the high-confidentiality mission she performed, and that if her son would probably blame her forever.

"If you think we can live through this journey by dormant, then I can only say that the decision is not very good. I talked to the turbine unit that we have insufficient fuel to provide enough acceleration when we return, so I think we have to sleep on our return and reduce the consumption of food, medicine, oxygen and water. If we don't do that, we're likely to die in space, from suffocation or starvation."

"What's bad news, guys." Captain Miller sighed long.

"I have no problem," Lieutenant Smith said with a blank expression. "I just want to know when we can get out of this fog. We have not observed this fog on Earth at all, and we need an explanation from physicists."

"My knowledge cannot fully explain this phenomenon. Smith, I am not an astronomer," Dr. Will's tone was still gentle. "By photos alone, I can only judge that it may be the cosmic dust generated by the collision of a comet or an asteroid, or some ionized gas that may affect our navigation system, or even a layer of comet ice crystals that reflect cosmic rays. The specific situation can only be judged by taking samples in a space walk."

"I sign up, I don't want to sit here and wait for death." Lieutenant Smith finally straightened his back, like a hyena who found his prey. The purposeless life in space almost ruined him. "No matter what is outside the spacecraft, we must go out and figure it out, otherwise we will never be able to reach the Event Horizon."

"I signed up, I've been in spacewalk training," Search and rescue technician Lieutenant Cooper, a young and enthusiastic black guy nodded. "If I want to figure out what's out there, I have to join."

"I'll be responsible for the safety of spacewalk," said Lieutenant Stark. "There are all the things that spacewalk needs. Captain Miller, you need to make a decision now."

"Our food stock, Stark?"

"Solid food consumed 60% and pure water consumed 44%." Lieutenant Stark, the first lieutenant, was the person who was most concerned about reserves except Captain Miller. His responsibilities as the first lieutenant were to ensure that fuel and other materials could last until they returned to Earth. In order to carry out emergency rescue missions, the Lewis and Clark spacecraft and the launch vehicle of the last century had to be pulled out from the warehouse of the Tianma Plan. In order to successfully arrive in space for missions, all the supplies on the ship were accurately calculated. "If it weren't for the reduction of rations, our food would have been consumed long ago."

Captain Miller was silent for a while.

"We have to make plans." After a long wait, Captain Miller finally made the decision, "Dr. Peters, Dr. Will, and Stark. Open the dry bags in the bathroom, make full use of the circulating water and the experimental seeds on the ship, and if necessary, we will cultivate edible plants and edible insects here."

"To be honest, have you been waiting for this day long? I know this plot in your favorite space movie." The first mate winked at the captain. The atmosphere suddenly became lively and pleasant, and it seemed that it was the captain's responsibility to make everyone do something. The first mate said, "When will we do spacewalk?"

"Wait until the first seeds sprout," said Captain Miller. When everyone reported, Captain Miller clapped his hands and asked others to do his job. "It's time to get busy, guys. Dr. Will, Dr. Peters, please come with me." When everyone else left the bridge, the smile and excitement on Captain Miller's face disappeared completely, "How sure are you?"

"If we figure out what the fog outside is?" Dr. Will looked into his eyes. "To be honest, there is no certainty, but it is much better than letting them fall into despair. In addition, I can't solve the problem of atomic clocks. Without atomic clocks, we can only stay in orbit when we return, and then contact the command center's school time, otherwise our navigation system can only give the wrong landing coordinates."

"That's it." Captain Miller let out a long sigh, "We can only take one step at a time."

———————

"Check shield integrity."

"The integrity check is completed, and you are ready to turn on the shield."

Tita nodded and walked to the bridge porthole.

The emperor stood here, and since the week he arrived at the Punishment, he had been standing here and watching the portholes getting closer and closer, changing silver fog. Observing alone with naked eyes, this fog was constantly challenging the minds of normal humans. The fog had no temperature, no weight, no visible light spectrum, and would not even have any impact on the micrometeors passing through the fog, as if it was just a deep ghost floating in space. The technicians on the Punishment told the emperor that the radio signals reflected from the fog were filled with noises, and if they listened carefully, they would hear inaudible and creepy screams from it, just like the signals received by the NASA from the Event Horizon spacecraft.

Tita glanced at the fully armed Dinah beside the emperor without a trace.

She heard that when Dinah came to the Punishment Case, she brought a huge suitcase, which was all kinds of daily necessities except for her and the Emperor's clothes. A week passed, and Tita did not see the Emperor take out any exquisite glass to drink—but it was not important. She always wanted to know the Emperor's plan, because the Emperor had arranged everyone's work as a prophecy, and they just needed to execute it step by step—which made Tita very uneasy. This was not because of the lack of trust. The reason why she was uneasy was because the Emperor's protection of her and other humans, which only appeared in difficult tests that they might not be able to cope with. She knew that she loved the Emperor, so this protection became increasingly unbearable.

She stood beside the emperor, and the intimacy of the artificial human beings to the Creator made the question asked in her chatty tone not rejected. "My Lord, can we still leave after we enter the fog?"

The emperor finally moved away from the window and turned to Tita beside him, this cute and loyal artificial man.

His tone was kind and gentle, like a living room with a fireplace burning warm firewood instead of a bridge covered with steel and computers. Outside the window was not the cold starlight but the lights of the houses across the street.

"This is a maze with Minotaonos, with a ball of thread in our hands. After entering the fog, we will soon arrive at the Event Horizon spacecraft. I don't know how long it took for the people on the ship when we arrived. I just hope it's not too late, Dr. Will is the best choice for us to understand the Tenma Plan."

"Dr. Will is worth your risk?"

"We started too late, Asgard could not provide shelter for this species of humanity in the future, and all the key knowledge we want to acquire had to be paid. This is the case with this ship, every aircraft in the hangar, your armor and weapons. Don't worry, I arranged everything and I never waste any opportunities."

"This is what I hate the most."

The Imperial Guard commander cast a surprise look for the first time. He could not have imagined that the fully loyal artificial human would say such willful words. The emperor's smile was still gentle. The soul of the artificial human was born from his alchemy. He could completely erase the emotions of the artificial human, but Dinah's performance made him give up this decision. In his opinion, Tita's emotions were very cute - artificial humans have no childhood, no past, and their minds and intelligence rely entirely on information indoctrination. Some willfulness is the normal manifestation of alchemy life. The artificial human chief completely ignored the reproachful eyes cast by the Imperial Guard commander and said boldly, "Even if you can see the future, you always put yourself in danger. Conquer the earth first, you have more resources to do these things, and there is no need to let yourself take risks."

"It's not the time, Tita, my thoughts are clear." The emperor ended the argument gently, "Now, it's up to you to order."

Although the artificial human chief was a little dissatisfied, she still nodded because her emotions could not affect the task.

"Put down the explosion-proof curtain." With her order, a thick composite armor plate immediately lowered behind the porthole, "Open the shield and let us enter the fog."

———————

The damage to the atomic clock is not the only time related to time on the Lewis and Clark spacecraft. Everyone finds their own data boards, and the time on the watch is completely different. Sometimes when they walk from the cab to the unit, the time on the watch actually jumps forward, and a tacit weird atmosphere spreads in the cabin. Captain Miller insists that this is the fog outside, and Dr. Will uses silence to support this statement, although the latter is clear that the cosmic rays that can affect the discharge of the mechanical watch quartz through the cabin are enough to kill every cell in each of them.

Due to the damage to the atomic clock, the time displayed on different data boards is completely different. Captain Miller can only plan the time with his regular routine. When the scratches of the first standard cycle (seven days) appeared on the notebook, the vegetables planted by Dr. Peters in the plant laboratory finally took root and sprouted, and they might be able to eat fresh potatoes in a while. They had to go through spacewalk before eating the potatoes, and Captain Miller had to question again privately. In the initial plan, the spacewalk mission should be carried out by the search and rescuer, and now the pilot and others are trying to participate, which makes Captain Miller very uneasy.

"I don't think the fog outside the hull is dangerous."

Dr. Will rub his blood-stained eyes. He could only take more duty while others were preparing for spacewalk. Dr. Will was happy that this would allow him to escape from sleep, because nightmares have been attacking his dreams recently, but he did not tell anyone. Dr. Peters would only prescribe him more psychotropic drugs—on this ship, taking psychotropic drugs was the only way to escape the vast void and nightmare, but Dr. Will was proud of his mind that he did not like this vague thinking drug.

"The temperature on the surface of the hull has not increased, and the insulation has not been damaged. As long as we do biological isolation measures and radiation protection measures, those samples will not be in danger. Maybe we will find that they are just tiny ice crystals that can just reflect radio signals, and we are just wandering around in circles." Dr. Will said, "Did you know that the lengths of human legs are not the same. If a person's eyes are covered, he can't get out of a straight line, maybe we are like this now."

"The spacecraft relies on the engine, not the legs."

"Maybe you're right. I'm not an engineer, I can only propose ideas."

Captain Miller closed his eyes and shook his head in pain. "That's all. Doctor Peters, what else do you want to say?"

This chapter is not over, please click on the next page to continue reading! "I'm afraid we won't have to do a space walk." Dr. Peters lifted his short golden hair and his face was full of excitement. She shouted loudly, "The fog has dissipated, we see the Event Horizon!"

Lieutenant Smith was equally excited.

He waited in the cab for Captain Miller to arrive, and then pointed to the void outside the porthole. But without his sign, anyone could see the black giant beast in the dark void bathed in the pale sun. It was a giant cross in space, floating quietly, without a trace of light on the black hull, and the most violent storm in the entire solar system moved at a speed visible to the naked eye below the orbit. Captain Miller was not overwhelmed by the sudden good news, and they came to this place for no reason, and Dr. Will told him that the atomic clock on the ship and everyone's mechanical watch had returned to normal, which made him feel that the fog seemed to be waiting for something, and the invisible giant beast in the void spit them out like seeing another prey.

As expected, bad news followed.

"We found a ship." Captain Miller gestured to the first mate with his eyes and continued, "It's not the Event Horizon. The ship is behind us, and the communication code used is not NASA or the European National Space Administration."

"Is it human?"

Dr. Peters said with some angriness, "Now is not the time to joke, Will!"
Chapter completed!