"About three million kilometers."
He Xuan said, "Waking us early...?"
"Meals are ready for all crew members. Please collect them at the food counter," Mom's voice announced.
"Ladies, stay seated. Leave it to us." The older man moved freely, without the slightest sign of anything wrong.
Lin He was a little unsteady on his feet. "Let's see what there is to eat..."
Qi Siyu, the man in glasses, rose with a cool, aloof air-only for his legs to nearly buckle beneath him!
"Can you even stand, you scrawny weakling?" Wang Xiaofei immediately covered her mouth and lowered her head. "Oops, my bad..."
She couldn't help it. He was standing next to Li Yunran, an older man who looked as if he'd been pumped full of air.
One was burly and powerful, while the other looked so slender.
"Hmph!" Qi Siyu snorted coldly and left with his right hand pressed to his temple.
The three men disappeared down the passage.
A projection suddenly appeared on the cream-colored wall.
It showed an identical lounge with an identical round table. Seated in the middle was Gu Tianming, a middle-aged man with short hair.
As the lead supervisor of this project, Gu Tianming sat calmly in his seat and said, "This is Section Two. Six personnel have awakened. All are experiencing aftereffects from hibernation."
The projection split in two.
"Long time no see, Gu. Five of the six personnel in Section No. 4 have awakened. Mom dealt with the remaining one. The others are also experiencing hibernation aftereffects of varying severity and need some rest."
Zhao Gaofei, a thirty-year-old woman with her hair pinned up and another veteran astronaut, occupied half the projection.
Resting her chin on both hands as she sprawled over the table, Wang Xiaofei widened her eyes, her clear black-and-white gaze darting from side to side. "Oh dear, big sis isn't feeling well, and our brooding girl is lost in thought. Guess it's up to me!"
Her lively gaze swept over them before she volunteered to join the video call and report their situation. "Six personnel have awakened in Section No. 1. We're also experiencing hibernation aftereffects, and everyone still feels like throwing up."
"We lost someone..." The steady forty-year-old man's expression darkened slightly.
As for nausea? They'd been asleep for several damn months. Anyone would wake up dazed and wanting to puke.
A young man set a meal tray in front of Gu Tianming. Gu Tianming nodded and said, "Everyone, get some rest first. We'll wait for a response from Section Three."
Lin He and the other two returned with the trays and handed out the food.
"Wow, it's not mush after all! There are even stir-fried greens. Mm, rice porridge, beef curry, corn kernels, and orange juice too. Most of it's pretty light..."
Wang Xiaofei inspected her food happily and gave it a sniff. The delicious aroma and rising steam instantly stirred her appetite.
The older man set the tray in his left hand in front of He Xuan and looked at the projection. "Nothing unexpected happened, did it?"
The wall projection remained on, allowing them to see and hear everything happening in the other sections.
As they ate, the people in the other sections celebrated having awakened successfully.
"Section Three has not responded."
"This really suits my tastes!" The older man looked at his tray and dug straight in.
Braised lion's head meatballs, fried chicken cutlets, roasted chicken legs-the spread was so meat-heavy that the three women couldn't bear a second look.
Qi Siyu said, "Aren't you afraid of getting nauseous?"
The older man said, "What's a little turbulence like this? After all, I'm a veteran astronaut... Nom-delicious!"
Huang Qi said, "You know, I keep getting a bad feeling..."
Lin He glanced at her, then looked at his own tray. "It's all stuff I like. I feel like I could finish everything. My name's even stamped into the tray."
Wang Xiaofei said, "Mine too. Is there a chef aboard?"
Qi Siyu said, "Robots controlled by Mom, the ship's AI."
He Xuan said, "Mom was already collecting all our data and information during training."
"Every aspect of it. Thank you, Mom."
"I'm merely doing what I can, Ms. He Xuan." The AI's voice came from overhead.
The familiar food made Lin He a little homesick. Between training and departure, it had been a long time since he'd eaten his mother's cooking.
His contribution on this mission would earn his family contributing-citizen household status, giving them more benefits, wouldn't it?
"I wonder how my mom's doing." Wang Xiaofei pouted.
Lin He reassured her, "Don't worry. You're already a contributing citizen. Your parents must be doing just fine on Water Blue Star!"
Luo Qi didn't know the transport ship was approaching Orange Star. Orange Star Base had no reliable contact with the outside.
Aboard Tianhe 1, everyone remained in their respective sections.
Tianhe 1 received a communication from Water Blue Star.
The recording was from several minutes earlier. The transmission delay was considerable.
In the projection on the wall, a middle-aged man in a white military uniform spoke.
"Contact with Orange Star Base has currently been lost. Tianhe 1's mission remains unchanged."
"After entering Orange Star's orbit, proceed with industrial replication according to the original plan. Hibernation Section Three is to remain sealed for now."
"Remember your mission! For the Alliance, for humanity."
The recording ended.
Everyone answered, "Yes!"
Headquarters already knew about the changes on Orange Star.
"All of Orange Star's communications were destroyed. Could aliens have done it?" Stars seemed to sparkle in Wang Xiaofei's eyes as she imagined movie scenes of laser swords going whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Qi Siyu said, "If they really encountered aliens, everyone on Orange Star would already be dead. Losing contact would be perfectly normal."
Lin He scratched his head. "Then if we just head onto Orange Star like this, aren't we basically serving the aliens another meal...?"
After hearing everything, the older man kept eating as if it were only natural. "How could it be aliens? Stop imagining things. The River Domain Alliance has invested enormous manpower and resources. Objectively speaking, either everyone dies or this succeeds."
He Xuan said, "I agree. Only after Tianhe 1 unloads all its cargo containers will it have enough fuel left to return to Water Blue Star."
"We could just keep drifting back!" Lin He said earnestly.
The older man shook his head. "That's far too idealistic. It's true there aren't many forces acting on you in space, but don't forget the gravity of large celestial bodies."
"Most of a ship's fuel isn't consumed during the long voyage. It's used for acceleration at the start and deceleration at the end. Almost no fuel is consumed in between."
"For the former, you need to control fuel expenditure. For the latter, you need sufficient reserves. Otherwise, if you overshoot..."
Watching the older man's face grow steadily grimmer, Lin He felt goosebumps rise all over him. "You'll run out of supplies and die in despair..."
The older man's gaze deepened. "On one mission, a crewmate went outside to make repairs and failed to use his safety clip properly. He became lost in the vastness of space. I watched him with my own eyes, listened as his voice faded away... In those circumstances, finding someone is almost impossible..."
R-r-rattle-Wang Xiaofei watched Lin He trembling beside her, then suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
Lin He jolted in fright. "You can scare someone to death doing that!"
He Xuan added, "Whatever happens on Orange Star, Mom, the main system, won't simply let us order her to abandon the mission and return."
"Besides, the contract we signed before departure clearly stated a two-year mission term. Didn't talented people like you volunteer precisely to secure better living conditions from the Alliance?" Her tone was a little flippant.
"Nonsense. I just wanted to experience another planet and see humanity's hope, as the publicity calls it, for myself," Qi Siyu promptly protested.
"Ugh... These days on Mercury, a bachelor's graduate can't even get a job washing dishes at a restaurant... You graduate straight into unemployment!" Lin He kept grumbling. "If I'm going to be doing nothing anyway, I might as well come."
Wang Xiaofei said, "Exactly. The Orange Star Transformation Plan lets us make a contribution, immigrate early, and go on an adventure with my senior..."
"Advances in technological productivity inevitably replace what's obsolete..." Holding his chopsticks, Qi Siyu recalled the great transformation recorded in their textbooks. He continued, "Given the current situation on Mercury... have any of you heard of the Co-Governance Society?"
He Xuan's gaze shifted, and she changed the subject with a teasing remark. "Hah. The Alliance's free healthcare fixed your eyes ages ago. Why are you still wearing glasses frames, pretending to be some refined scoundrel?"
Qi Siyu pushed up his frames, his expression turning cold. "Shut up, woman. It's a habit! The next generation will probably forget glasses ever existed! I'm helping them remember history!"
But at the mention of the Co-Governance Society, both Lin He and Wang Xiaofei froze for a moment. Even the older man stopped chewing, yet no one pursued the subject.
"Huh...?" Huang Qi looked up from her meal, somewhat puzzled.
"Heh heh heh..." The older man set down his chopsticks, a slight smile curling his lips, and slipped his right hand into an inner pocket. The jumpy Lin He shuddered again.
"Kid, I'm just getting a deck of cards. What are you so nervous about?" The older man gave him a chilly glance and pulled out a specially made deck.
Lin He grumbled inwardly, He's huge, and his face suddenly went cold. He looks way too damn much like a TV villain pulling a gun from his coat. How could I not be scared...?
"Come on, come on! Let's have a game after dinner. One extra-meal voucher per round, double for a bomb. We've got nothing else to do anyway-" The older man deftly opened the deck and shuffled it, beaming at everyone.
"We'll keep a tab and settle up when we're back on Water Blue Star. No interest."
"A habitual offender, huh-" Lin He was rather speechless. He Xuan looked disdainful, Qi Siyu fiddled with his fingers without any expression, while Wang Xiaofei and Huang Qi looked eager to try.
Wang Xiaofei said, "Cards-"
Huang Qi said, "Cards-"
Lin He shouted, "Hey! Mom! He's breaking the rules! I want to report him!"
Everyone instantly fixed Lin He with hostile looks. Feeling he'd angered the entire group, he bristled with unease. Why's even Qi Siyu staring at me like that? Lin He panicked inwardly.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Lin He. Astronaut Li Yunran's personal hobby does not violate the relevant regulations. On the contrary, an abundance of personal recreational activities helps maintain mental stability during monotonous deep-space travel," Mom explained to Lin He.
Lin He stuffed food into his mouth and pretended he knew nothing.
Before you continue