bioinnovel Chapter 428 The Hand in Space!
Chapter 428 The Hand in Space!
That hand has no joints.
In the images transmitted back by the Suzaku's onboard camera, it looked like a cloud of grayish-white smoke shaped like a hand, hovering about two thousand kilometers in front of Suzaku.
The five finger-like structures are slowly closing together.
It wasn't a physical entity, Zhang Yan immediately concluded.
The finger extending from the first door is in a physical state, possessing mass, temperature, and the freezing effect of absolute zero.
But this hand is different; it is translucent, with its edges constantly disintegrating and reforming, like some kind of projection.
Outside the gate, remnants of the gate network projected a tiny amount of power into space.
"It's intercepting the Vermilion Bird," Nie Qingcheng said quickly.
Zhang Yan is already calculating.
Based on the current footage, the hand is closing in about seventeen minutes.
At its current acceleration, the Vermilion Bird will travel approximately 40,000 kilometers in seventeen minutes, just within the palm's range.
It timed it perfectly.
"Can the Vermilion Bird change its orbit?" Nie Qingcheng asked.
"Yes, but changing course means deviating from the route, which will extend the time to reach L2 point by at least six hours."
Zhang Yan quickly rejected this option, "Besides, if it can project once, it can project a second time; changing course is just a delay."
"Where are the weapons?"
"No, they were all removed during the space terraforming."
Nie Qingcheng was silent for a second.
Zhang Yan stared at the hand that was closing.
The only source of energy for the Vermilion Bird is the three-ring power furnace, but the power furnace is operating at full power.
If the attack is switched to offensive output, Suzaku will slow down or even stop.
No.
His gaze fell on the status bar of the sub-core on the system panel.
The sub-core, a 5% component of the Heavenly Craftsmanship Heart, possesses a miniature version of purification capabilities.
That hand is a projected state, not a physical entity.
The energy density is extremely low; the system estimates less than one-thousandth of the physical and chemical states.
A single low-power purification pulse is enough to dispel it.
Cost: The sub-core consumes approximately 3% of its energy, and the calibration accuracy will decrease slightly after activation.
Zhang Yan did not hesitate.
"I want to access Suzaku."
"What?" Nie Qingcheng's voice suddenly rose.
"Through the quantum entanglement channel, consciousness briefly accesses the sub-core, releasing a purification pulse."
"You're still maintaining the first gate—"
"There's no conflict," Zhang Yan said. "The consciousness access goes through an independent channel. Maintaining the energy output of the portal is passive and continuous, without requiring active conscious participation."
Nie Qingcheng did not answer immediately, and Zhang Yan knew she was weighing her options.
Three seconds later.
"how long."
"The time from access to exit shall not exceed thirty seconds."
"I'm watching your data. If it exceeds thirty seconds, I'll force a disconnect."
"it is good."
Zhang Yan closed his eyes.
Consciousness extends outward along the quantum entanglement channel.
There is no sense of distance—1.5 million kilometers is zero in this corridor.
His perception instantly switched to the perspective of the sub-core.
space.
Absolute darkness and silence.
The Earth is a blue and white dot of light behind us.
The sun is further away, just a slightly brighter star than the others.
The Vermilion Bird's silver-white body was beneath his "feet," and the orange-red tail flame of the three-ring power reactor was the only warm color in this void.
Two thousand kilometers ahead, the hand had already closed up more than halfway.
The grayish-white, smoky structure was slowly tightening, like a cage closing.
Zhang Yan didn't look at it much.
He activated the purification protocol of the sub-core.
Energy surged from the golden sphere, but not at full power; only 12% of the output was utilized.
But that's enough to deal with a projective state.
Golden light burst forth from the carrying chamber on the abdomen of the Vermilion Bird.
The light spreads extremely quickly, without any obstruction in a vacuum.
It swept forward like a silent shockwave.
The hand began to disintegrate the moment it came into contact with the golden light.
There was no struggle, no resistance.
Like morning mist meeting sunlight, the grayish-white smoke begins to disintegrate from the fingertips, peeling off and dissipating piece by piece.
In three seconds, the entire hand completely disappeared.
Zhang Yan prepared to exit the consciousness access.
Then he noticed a detail.
Those scattered fragments... they didn't drift away randomly.
All the grayish-white remnants, every single piece and every wisp, were drifting in the same direction.
It's as if they're being pulled by some unseen gravitational force.
Zhang Yan used the core sensors to track the drifting trajectory of the debris.
They all point in the same direction, all pointing to the same point.
He withdrew from the consciousness access.
Back in the spherical space beneath Shennongjia, Zhang Yan's first action was to bring up the system's star map module.
"System. Calculate the coordinates of the convergence point of the debris in the direction of its dispersion."
A few seconds later, the results came out.
Zhang Yan stared at those coordinates for a long time.
"What's wrong?" Nie Qingcheng's voice came. She had been waiting.
"After that hand disappeared, all the fragments drifted in the same direction."
"What direction?"
Zhang Yan's voice was flat, but Nie Qingcheng could hear the weight in it.
Proxima Centauri.
The communication went silent.
"The location of the seventh gate," Nie Qingcheng said.
"Um."
Zhang Yan leaned against the inner wall of the spherical space.
His hand was still pressed against the door, energy was still being output, but his brain was processing the information he had just received.
That hand wasn't projected through the door network.
The residual connections in the gate network can only transmit signals and trace amounts of energy, making it impossible to support a materialized projectile spanning a distance of 1.5 million kilometers.
It extends directly from the direction of Proxima Centauri.
The entity that exists outside the door, or at least its core entity, is right next to the seventh door.
"As Deng Yin said," Nie Qingcheng's voice was very soft, "the colony is waiting for us to walk into their trap."
Zhang Yan did not answer.
The seventh door is the anchor point.
Instead of repairing it, they chose to build an alternative anchor point at L2.
This decision was correct.
But now he knows a new fact: the core of the community is located right next to the seventh gate, and it is not only waiting, it is also taking the initiative.
"Vermilion Bird state?" Zhang Yan asked.
"The outer casing temperature has dropped. All parameters are normal. There are still 43 kilometers to go to reach L2."
"What about the sub-core?"
"Energy reserves decreased by 2.7%. Calibration accuracy dropped from 99.1% to 96.8%."
Within acceptable limits.
Zhang Yan took a deep breath.
"Continue," he said.
The Vermilion Bird continued its journey through space.
The silver-white machine, trailing an orange-red tail flame, moved toward the gravitational equilibrium point 1.5 million kilometers away.
Behind me is the Earth. Ahead is the void.
And further away—four light-years away—something is watching all of this.
"Zhang Yan," Nie Qingcheng's voice rang out.
"Um."
"It knows what we're doing."
"I've always known," Zhang Yan said, "but I couldn't stop it."
"On what grounds?"
Zhang Yan glanced at the system panel. The Vermilion Bird's flight trajectory was stable, the sub-core status was normal, and there were less than three hours left until the L2 point.
"Because its power projected into space is too weak," he said. "If it had the ability to directly destroy Suzaku, it wouldn't have just extended one hand."
Nie Qingcheng did not ask any further questions.
Zhang Yan refocused his attention on the first door.
Consumption rate: 0.25%, reserves: 67.3%.
three hours.
He can wait.