" Cooper, pack your things, let's go."
Jody knocked on the open door, poked her head into the small single room, and waved to Cooper.
"They've arrived."
Cooper jumped out of bed, put the photo back in his pocket, habitually put on a long-sleeved jacket to protect against the sand and dust, and immediately went outside.
They are still at the Moyulan Base of Support Team No. 0. After arriving here yesterday, the base assigned them single dormitories, and their treatment is the same as that of the staff at the base.
And it was yesterday that Cooper ate something other than corn and okra for the first time in years... tomatoes, eggs, beef, chicken, fish...
Although they didn't have any of the legendary rare and expensive ingredients, the ordinary food they ate at the base was enough to make them feel quite grateful.
Even Jody and Amelia, who had always lived at the NASA base, were no exception.
Despite the top-notch amenities at NASA bases, they are still not immune to the effects of Blight; extinct crops will never be available on their tables again.
Therefore, many common foods are still unavailable even at NASA bases.
"Are we going back now?" Cooper asked Jody, who had called him out and then gone to the other dorms to call everyone out.
Jody didn't turn around, but still answered him:
"Yes, the data we brought has been backed up, and Professor Brand has finished discussing it with the physicists here."
Jody gathered everyone together and led them to the base's elevator.
Professor Brand and Amelia were already waiting nearby with the others.
But what puzzled Cooper was the presence of several unfamiliar faces beside him, some appearing excited, others dejected.
Their trip was supposedly to travel through a perpetually open Spacetime Tunnel beneath the base to other timelines, and then return to their own from there.
These people with conflicting emotions seem determined to follow them down, also wanting to use the Spacetime Tunnel?
Cooper glanced around and noticed that most of these people were thin, and many were disabled, seemingly suffering from long-term malnutrition.
In particular, there was one rather special robot among them.
A head shaped like an orange-red papaya, with two cameras
The robot, with its head serving as eyes, is awkwardly embedded on both sides of the "papaya," with no protective panels on its exterior. Numerous cables and pipes are exposed, making it look quite dilapidated. It is also holding a small dog in its hands.
Although it looks worn out, Cooper can tell from the oily sheen on the robot's joints that it must have used a lot of machine oil and lubricant regularly.
As he was observing, Jeff suddenly turned around, and Cooper could hear the beeping of the motors running. He became suspicious, knowing the dangers of robots.
But the next second, the burly, strange robot extended its hand to him. "Hello, I'm Jeff, nice to meet you."
"... My name is Cooper, Joseph Cooper. It's nice to meet you, Jeff?"
"Yes, my name is Jeff."
Jeff's synthesized voice is quite strange, but it doesn't come across as malicious. It's more like a child learning to speak, with unclear pronunciation, yet its program manages to pronounce every word with perfect intonation...
Cooper, wanting to test Jeff's intelligence, deliberately asked Jeff, "Are you going to go underground like us next?"
Jeff nodded. "Yes, we'll use the Spacetime Tunnel too."
She actually answered the hidden question in his question directly.
Cooper raised an eyebrow slightly, becoming even more curious about the robot. He had a gut feeling that Jeff was different from ordinary robots.
He had seen robots before. In their timeline, their country had many military robots, which, when folded up, resembled a large, square stone slab.
During his brief stay at the NASA base, he saw a robot named TARS, which was retired from military use.
Those robots also have intelligence; they can even be programmed with a humor level, so when you're bored out of your mind, you can have the robot joke around with you and relax.
However, he clearly sensed a special difference between Jeff and TARS... Xxs 1 2
Especially after Jeff, holding the puppy in his arms, started asking about their origins, Cooper became increasingly suspicious of the robot.
The TARS -type robot wouldn't ask these questions proactively; its programming restricts it from taking such actions.
For some reason, Cooper always felt this
Jeff is sometimes just like a real person.
While waiting for the underground elevator, Cooper answered Jeff's questions and explained their origins, and Jeff, in turn, revealed their own origins as well.
Jeff comes from No. 5 Spacetime, a world largely destroyed by a solar storm. Lacking an atmosphere, Earth is directly exposed to intense solar radiation, and humanity can only survive in buildings, scrambling for resources from the old era to eke out a living...
It's strangely similar to their world.
Jeff and the other "people" were slaves or Gipsy rescued by the Mutual Aid Society Association in North America in No. 5 Spacetime, and were sent here for treatment.
They had completed their treatment, so Taylor personally escorted them here, preparing to return to No. 5 Spacetime via the Spacetime Tunnel.
After listening to Jeff's story, Cooper also asked Jeff about the situation in North America in No. 5 Spacetime.
However, Jeff shook his head, indicating that it wasn't actually very familiar with these situations.
At this moment, the well-dressed old man Finch, dressed in a suit and top hat, who was standing next to Jeff, spoke up, "Before the Mutual Aid Society, North America was a place full of killing and fighting. The situations you see in all the bloody apocalypse movies can be applied to our place."
Cooper hadn't seen many apocalyptic movies, but those filled with killing and fighting—wasn't that just like their place?
As expected, the Mutual Aid Society was right; the situation in North America across different timelines was indeed far too bad.
Finch suddenly asked a strange question, "Mr. Cooper, how is the Golden Gate Bridge in your timeline?"
Um?
Cooper blinked. " The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco?"
"Yes, doesn't your timeline have this bridge?"
"Yes, there is..." Cooper scratched his head, recalling news he had seen before, "I remember it was destroyed by enemy drones more than ten years ago during the global unrest."
Hearing this, Finch was somewhat disappointed.
But before they could think any further, the elevator doors suddenly clicked open, and several scientists pushing glass jars stepped out.
Cooper glanced at it and felt that the biological tissue inside seemed rather strange.
"Let's go, the elevator's here, it's time to go back to our time!" Jody waved to the people behind her.