"People? What people?"
Mo Jia's reaction was somewhat sluggish.
Tai Yu could roughly understand why. He snapped his fingers and projected an image beside the "virtual workspace" she had been using to explain the situation.
At first, it was still rather blurry, consisting only of several mottled blocks of color that rippled and twisted. But as the rendering continued, within a few breaths, Mo Jia could confirm that they really were several human figures. She could even roughly identify the environment they were in.
It appeared to be an abandoned factory complex. The space was extremely enclosed, with no daylight in sight. Broken, nearly decayed machinery lay everywhere, and the only illumination came from portable light sources.
Several people were gathered around a narrow ground-level entrance resembling a shaft. They had lifted its heavy cover and were using equipment or some other means to scan and reconstruct the interior of the "shaft," carrying out technical work.
Since they were all wearing exoskeletons and interstellar protective suits, it was impossible to distinguish even their genders, much less their faces or identities.
Identifying the people was secondary now. Mo Jia recognized this place; she had come here many times over the past week.
In fact, before meeting Tai Yu, she had just returned from here.
And when she left, these people had not been there.
There was also...
Mo Jia turned to look at the star map ahead and to the side of the Command Seat. A section displayed the real-time distance between this Fast Ship and the target star region.
They were indeed very close to the "Screen Eight Zone-8995" star system, but that was close in the sense of "hyperspace." Converted into the actual distance in material spacetime, there were still roughly two or three light-years between them.
Mo Jia