The key was stuck, naturally, because the Mechanical Insects had not finished their meal. Why would Nie Yun let the Soyuz leave?
But this sent NASA and the astronauts aboard Courage into a panic.
"What the hell is going on? Why can't even the docking port disengage?!" Faced with Trump's displeased stare, the NASA director was close to losing his mind.
"The space station's feedback data is completely normal, but... but the docking port just won't disengage! It really seems to be jammed by something!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?! How can a docking port get jammed? This isn't the Soyuz's first time docking with the space station! Go find out what's causing it!" he roared at his subordinates.
While the ground control center was in a frenzy, inside the Soyuz spacecraft...
"This is unbelievable! What the hell is going on? Have we managed to trip over the exact same spot twice?" Jerry clutched his head in utter frustration.
"Don't lose hope yet. Ground control will definitely come up with a solution!" Buji reassured him.
"Jerry, trust me. I'm getting more and more certain that whatever's inside is behind this!" Tom said.
"Fine, fine. So what if we know? Can we negotiate with it and ask it to let us go?" Jerry said listlessly.
"Hmm... I think we could try!" Tom looked completely serious.
"Fine. Then how are you going to communicate with it? Woodpecker language?"
"Uh... that's exactly what I'm thinking about! Wait! Let me think! Right! Those letters! It understands those two letters, or it couldn't have spelled them out. We can use those two letters to communicate with it!" Tom's face lit up with excitement.
The other two stared speechlessly at Tom, their expressions saying, We won't say a word. Let's see you pull this off.
Tom