Landing on Orange Star

The Rescue Craft set out on their mission, and Luo Qi turned into a research fanatic.

Whenever a new research project lacked personnel, he sent in Replicas. The base's central database updated rapidly every moment.

As a mechanical intelligence life-form, he certainly knew how to make the most of himself. Whenever he recalled a Replica, its corresponding memories returned with it.

All the Replicas used the central database, sharing research results without any barriers. This allowed them to collaborate on most aspects of multiple projects.

They were nothing like humans, who kept advanced technology under wraps and had to guard against one another stealing it.

In the Second World, thousands upon thousands of Replicas worked away. The data they generated each day approached the total amount a country stored in a year, forcing Luo Qi to keep expanding the storage capacity of the base's central database.

Meanwhile, the research centers studying physics ran experiments day and night to verify their theories. Tens of thousands of mining vehicles across the base provided an endless stream of supplies.

The successful takeoff of the Rescue Craft had yielded more than enough data for the Space Technology Research Center, the Controlled Nuclear Fusion Research Center, the Materials Research Center, and others.

Several technology research centers jointly submitted a proposal for a first-generation, hundred-meter-long spacecraft powered by controllable nuclear fusion.

It would fully utilize and validate the new technologies, while also testing Orange Star's manufacturing system!

Luo Qi approved it. The first-generation spacecraft could serve as a space transport ship, too.

Let's call it the Homeward Bound...

Throughout those twenty hours, Stendhal was restless. He had always been able to chat enthusiastically with the robots, but now that he was about to meet real people, he lay in bed, utterly unable to sleep.

With his eyes open, Stendhal could see the brightly lit ceiling.

The walls glowed when a weak electric current passed through them, replacing conventional electrical panels and wiring. Even the many updated furnishings used wireless electric fields for power, and all the outlets had been removed.

Lying in bed, Stendhal recalled the disaster at the base. Later, once Dad had gained production capacity, he had simply let Stendhal do whatever he enjoyed.

Dad's mechanical creations could work nonstop through all twenty-eight hours of the day, but Stern De could not. He was flesh and blood, and he acknowledged the frailty of the human body.

AI could understand and process information at incredible speed, with absolute powers of learning and comprehension. The human brain, however, really did learn far too slowly.

Stendhal had personally witnessed these ruins transform into sprawling factories, tracked vehicles gradually become humanoid robots, and productivity evolve from one to N.

Still lying in bed, Stendhal could not help wondering aloud, "Dad, people from Water Blue Star will take over this place eventually. Is it really necessary to build it this big?"

Luo Qi was still conducting compound synthesis experiments in the Second World. Multitasking, he replied, "Other people taking over is their business. I'm just doing my job properly."

Stendhal felt that Dad embodied the distilled essence of all human civilization. Perhaps the AI had already awakened, and the Galactic Intelligence Network Entity had awakened long ago, too.

There was simply too much about it that he did not understand.

"Dad, assign me some robots. I want to prepare two dormitories."

"Certainly, Mr. Stendhal."

Stendhal let out a weary sigh of relief. Freedom had never existed. The cage had merely grown larger...

Luo Qi allocated ten robots to him. Intelligent T3 Robots usually cleaned this residential area.

It was seventy-six meters long, twenty-one meters wide, and four meters tall, with a total floor area of roughly sixteen hundred square meters.

It contained over a dozen rooms, including a dining room, four dormitories, a recreation hall, three storerooms, a utility room, and a lounge.

The five-centimeter-thick walls were made of a special silicide no less hard than steel. An alloy steel frame supported the overall structure, giving it good impact resistance.

Of course, cameras were everywhere inside, monitoring every corner of every room.

Artificial intelligence made no distinction between genders.

When the ten robots arrived at Stendhal's quarters, his melancholy gave way to brisk direction as he ordered them to bring various things out of the utility room.

Some were items he had salvaged from the old base, such as unused clothing. Others were spare supplies manufactured and stockpiled in bulk by the base's factories.

These included tables, cups, toothbrushes, and so on.

Stendhal kept himself busy to dispel his worries. When he finally grew too sleepy, he handed the remaining work over to the robots without hesitation.

Day 110-

At dawn, the starry sky glittered, while the ground lay shrouded in hazy darkness.

Dressed in a freshly refurbished protective suit, Stendhal stood alone on the surface. Traces of civilization filled this place, yet life itself seemed absent from it.

He had made a special effort to tidy himself up. After letting a robot wash, cut, and blow-dry his hair, he had become a sturdy, handsome middle-aged man.

He had a weathered air, with a trace of melancholy between his brows. His deep-set eyes brimmed with anticipation as he gazed into the distance, hoping his fellow humans would land safely.

At last, moving stars descended through the distant darkness. Lights flickered as seven Rescue Craft streaked past like meteors, their roars rolling toward him.

[Base security system running]

[Real-time monitoring in progress-]

[Rescue Craft weapons locked on]

[Scan detected no anomalies]

Invisible radio waves drifted above the base as the Rescue Craft made orderly vertical landings on the open ground, one after another.

"Why have only seven aircraft come back?"

Stendhal counted them, his expression growing tense. He had not seen the Rescue Craft carrying the escape pods.

Just then, two more aircraft appeared in the sky. Cylindrical escape pods hung beneath their fuselages, and every thruster nozzle underneath, large and small, opened and emitted a luminous green glow.

With their noses pitched sharply upward, the Rescue Craft slowly descended from the sky at fifty kilometers per hour, dropping both escape pods onto the desert below.

A dull thud came from far away-

"Oh my God, they won't get killed by that fall, will they...?"

Stendhal's mouth twitched as he stared at the distant horizon. A creak sounded beside him: a simple flatbed vehicle carrying five T3 Robots had pulled up.

The camera on the shoulder of the T3 Robot in the driver's seat swiveled toward Stendhal, as if beckoning him.

The vehicle had no doors. Its only seats, for the driver and passenger, were directly exposed to the air.

Behind them was a flatbed for carrying cargo, and two more flatbed vehicles followed this one.

The three vehicles carried eight robots in total.

Stendhal hurried into the passenger seat. The T3 Robot pressed down with its foot, and the flatbed headed toward the escape pods.

With a whoosh, the ion thrusters spewed brilliant blue-green light, propelling the hundred-plus-ton Rescue Craft into the air above the base.

The two Rescue Craft lowered their wheeled landing gear and slowly landed on the open ground. Waiting unmanned tow vehicles moved forward, clamped onto the support struts of their nose wheels, and towed them back to the temporary hangar.

Several T3 Robots gathered around this Rescue Craft to inspect it. Gathering data on the effects of the flight was crucial, since it would also determine whether the Rescue Craft could fly again.

After all, the nine surviving Rescue Craft still had more work to do, while six had been lost in space.

Stendhal's rescue convoy drove onto the sand, jolting from side to side and bouncing all the way.

They crossed a dune, and Stendhal, scanning the distance from the passenger seat, immediately spotted two escape pods lying on the silent surface far ahead.

He excitedly raised his hand. "Over there! Hurry!"

Leaving wheel tracks in the sand, the convoy raced toward the distant escape pods.

Inside a motionless escape pod, white lights flickered, then successfully came on, flooding the interior with light.

The voice of the artificial intelligence Mom rang out.

"The escape pod has reached the surface of Orange Star. This mission is complete."

The cramped Stasis Pod really had felt like a coffin. Now its lid had finally opened, and Lin He could rise from the dead!

Once the Stasis Pod's lid opened fully, Lin He sat up and saw familiar faces on either side.

At some point, the six escape pods had been crowded together. The older man was high up on the far right, and Huang Qi was high up on the far left.

"Senior! Thank goodness, we didn't die!"

"Uh, Wang Xiaofei, I think we..."

"Oh, thank heaven. What a great spot this is!"

The older man smiled. "Everyone's here."

Everyone voiced their relief, grateful to have survived a spacecraft disaster in deep space.

An unfamiliar young male voice rang out.

"Welcome to Orange Star Base. Please put on your protective suits promptly."

"The outside temperature is minus twenty-six degrees Celsius. Base vehicles will arrive to collect you in three minutes."

After that, the voice fell silent.

Everyone remained quiet for a moment, then broke into a jumble of cries again.

"Senior! What were you saying just now? Waaah-"

Qi Siyu sat up, disbelief written all over his face.

"We really landed? We survived even after all that?"

"Still, it feels wonderful to be alive. Orange Star Base..."

He took out his glasses, settled them on his nose, and began examining his surroundings.

Lying flat at the higher end of her tilted Stasis Pod, Huang Qi murmured to herself, "Orange Star, I'm here..." As her thoughts wandered, a vast expanse of green filled her mind.

Life would paint the entire planet green, with all kinds of birds and beasts roaming through a bustling world.

The older man was the first to jump out of his Stasis Pod. He landed on the escape pod's curved floor, walked alone to the end of the cylinder, and reached out to press a button on the wall.

The bottom of the escape pod opened, revealing a transparent observation window the size of a washbasin. At that moment, the star was just breaking above the dark horizon of the planet's surface.

The brilliant orb shone like a giant's eye, casting rays of light in every direction. Heaven and earth awakened.

"So beautiful..."

The vista eased the tension in Li Yunran's heart.

Clunk! A man's face suddenly appeared, his helmet striking the glass with a dull impact.

Startled, Li Yunran stumbled backward, only stopping when his back bumped into someone.

The older man exclaimed, "What the hell is that?"

The commotion drew everyone else's attention, too.