Departure again Star Map Draftsman I: Federation War

Sandra told Dawn Lucius to take a break and said that they were going to set out for the North Pole, where the shield, when closed, had left some unstable places from when it was built, and where they might find an exit to get out. Sunlight, cut into six pieces by the iron frame of the window, fell slanting across the living room floor, and Stacean Lucius rolled around in those broken pieces and told Dawn Lucius it was warm there. It was just about the time the Earth’s splice base was being rushed, and with the sound of the rock crusher pounding rocks, the clashing between the drill bit and the big iron arm, and the rustle of stirring cement, the beautiful morning was like a piece of soft music being played in a vegetable market. But it didn’t spoil Dawn Lucius’ mood, or his drowsy sleepiness, just like this moment.

He was thinking about where to build a small house, with a small yard in front and behind, so that he and Stacean Lucius, or Norm Quentin, could sit in the sun in the yard and chat, and also find a clear night to observe the stars. Dawn Lucius had always felt that the lower half of the flower was beautiful and that the dense flower buds of the upper half were like the hope of certainty. The main point was that the checkerboard flower is particularly attractive to bees. Its yellowish stamens have thick pollen. Dawn Lucius had planted it before, and from morning to night, there were bees lining up to collect the pollen, covering their heads, paws, and the backs of their wings with the sweet scent, and then discreetly flying back to the hive.

“Wake up, Dad, wake up.” Norm Quentin was gently pushing Dawn Lucius’ arm.

“What’s wrong?” Dawn Lucius asked, holding Norm Quentin’s hand as he glanced again at the wound on his chest, which he could clearly feel hurting.

“Dawn, we’ve got a new problem.” Sandra ran over from the cockpit, her face full of worry.

“What’s wrong?”

“Visadio Planet’s rotation speed has been increased, and it is still increasing. The further we go toward the two poles, the greater the centrifugal force and the greater the gravitational force we feel on the planet. We’ll be injured internally and won’t be able to keep moving.”

Yes, as Dawn Lucius had noticed when he came, Visadio Planet’s planetary makeover was complete, with Madam Winifred giving it a bulletproof vest on the outside and a motor on the inside.

“So what do we do?”

“We’ve got to get back to Bourlo City,” Norm Quentin replied.

“Isn’t there still a war going on over there?”

“Suspended.” Sandra shook her head; it seemed “suspended” wasn’t quite the right word. She explained the current situation to Dawn Lucius. After Jonathan wounded Carlson, the whole Strath army went to war with Jonathan’s army, and with the Everlasting Army’s stronger counterattack, Jonathan organized his army to evacuate. The Ninth Legion and Jonathan took the Centaly to the South Pole, but the Strath people didn’t intend to let him go. Burt commanded all the Strath troops in pursuit, but the fighting didn’t slow down the Centaly’s escape. They were now confronting the Strath army in the wide area of the South Pole.

“Where’s Madam Winifred?”

“She should be recuperating in Bourlo City. The shields were closed by her, and making Visadio Planet spin faster is something only she has access to.”

Dawn Lucius felt as much pain as if the wound had reopened. Centrifugal force was throwing them toward the edge of the planet; the farther from the equator, the greater the gravitational force they would feel. If it exceeded the limit the body could withstand, first the body’s physical energy would be depleted, then the heart’s ability to pump blood would be reduced, and with each labored breath taking in less oxygen, the brain would begin to grow drowsy, vertigo would draw a curtain down in front of the eyes, and the hangover-like drowsiness and the genetic instinct to survive would pull at the body until it went into shock. As the airship struggled to get to Bourlo City, the troops at Visadio Planet’s North and South Poles were facing these problems, and most of the wounded fell down and never got up.

“Dad, are you not feeling well?” Norm Quentin asked when he noticed Dawn Lucius breathing weakly, and he shook Dawn Lucius’s arm.

“Nope.” Dawn Lucius sucked in a hard breath, which almost made him cry with pain.

“Dawn, hang in there. We’re almost at Bourlo City.”

“Is it ...... serious?” Dawn Lucius asked through clenched teeth.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find a way.” Sandra took Dawn Lucius’ other hand and put it to her mouth, kissing his arm, and then Sandra checked over his wound and treated it again.

The dirigible Sandra was flying was from Moreth Federation, triangular in shape, and especially good for flying in bad weather or in battle. But they had been hit by the Ninth Legion on their way out of Bourlo City and had flown almost to the Arctic Circle, and the hole near the tail of the dirigible was getting bigger and bigger. Now flying back against the strong centrifugal force, Sandra had to choose a lower speed to avoid the disintegration of the dirigible. While Sandra was still worried about running into Jonathan’s army on the way back, Jonathan and his men had already returned to Bourlo City, but only a small number of those who had been on attack planes or airships had returned; those who had gone down to the land had not returned. When the three arrived outside Bourlo City, the excessive gravitational force had not done much damage to the buildings. There was no Everlasting Army anywhere in the city, but the city gates were closed again. The three carefully went around the city walls without encountering any obstruction. Dead soldiers lay on the ground; while alive they had fought each other, but after death they lay quietly together. How ironic.

Dawn Lucius felt better; after all, Bourlo City was near the equator, and the centrifugal force didn’t affect it that much. When he opened his eyes, the blimp had stopped outside Madam Winifred’s palace, in the same square where the treasurer had intended to cut off his arm. Originally, there had been the most corpses here, but now it had been cleaned up, and the huge statues on either side of the square looked down on everything that had happened here, and they did nothing and said nothing. Dawn Lucius felt himself lying on a stretcher. When Dawn Lucius looked upward, Sandra was smiling at him, and the tenderness in her eyes was like a book Dawn Lucius loved, with all its excitement and tenderness.

“Where are we going?” Dawn Lucius asked.

“To get someone to heal you.” The corners of Sandra’s mouth pulled back, and her smile grew a little larger.

“Is there danger?”

“No,” Sandra said with a shake of her head. Norm Quentin turned his face to Dawn Lucius and nodded to him before walking quickly towards the building.

When they saw Madam Winifred again, her hair, which had been braided into many thin strands, had been completely unraveled, the ends of her hair no longer shone like fireflies, and she was dressed in black, which made her look more distant. She was half reclining on a throne, and two rows of soldiers surrounded her in a semicircle, the row of soldiers close to her holding energy shields and the outer row of soldiers holding guns. Jonathan and Burt were each watched by several soldiers to keep them at a distance, but this could not stop their war of words, and Lord Winifred, like a child who had made a big mistake, sat on the floor without saying a word. The two medical officers examined Dawn Lucius, took out Sandra’s original stitches, applied a cold liquid, and swept back and forth over it with a pale yellow light.

“Thank you, ma’am.” After seeing that Dawn Lucius was able to sit up, Sandra bowed toward Madam Winifred and thanked her.

Madam Winifred gave Sandra a look but did not answer her, and looked directly at Jonathan. “Jonathan Moreth Steader, what else do you have planned?”

“It’s none of your business, is it?” Jonathan glanced at Madam Winifred before continuing ungraciously. “Give me back my army.”

“That’s a little hard.” Madam Winifred shook her head and looked toward the soldiers next to her, several of whom walked over toward Jonathan, and she added, “Visadio Planet’s rotation will slow down, but only many years from now. I’ve turned off the rotation acceleration, but really, it will have to be corrected by the galaxy’s gravitational system to slow down, and maybe it never will.”

“What do you mean?” Jonathan pointed at Madam Winifred and was ready to rush forward when the soldier behind him struck him directly with the butt of his rifle, sending Jonathan stumbling a few steps forward, and he was held down on his knees by several soldiers before he could steady himself. “You dare to touch me?” Jonathan struggled hard several times to try to stand up, but was unsuccessful.

“You can be a good leader and bring the Moreth Federation peace and prosperity, or you can be a bad politician and make everyone pay for your worthless ambition. Now let me tell you: it is not that I don’t dare touch you. Moreth Federation is not yours to command, and if I did touch you, I would still be able to settle things with Moreth Federation. But you are different: apart from the Centaly and the Ninth Legion, no one will stand on your side.” Madam Winifred turned her back to Jonathan and continued after a sigh. “Moreth Federation’s old Moreth Steader was not respected because he had the Star Source. When he didn’t have the Star Source, he was willing to lead a bunch of suffering people to resist and help them get a fairer living environment. When he had the Star Source, he did not abuse the ability of the Star Map Draftsman. He let Ashton Federation master White Crystal technology and let Moreth Federation master Star Bridge technology. This is the gap between you and him.”

“I told you, it’s none of your business ......” Jonathan raised his voice in anger as he jerked to get up, and the soldier behind him slammed another rifle butt into his back, causing him to start coughing.

“I will say what follows only once.” Madam Winifred paused as she lowered her voice and pressed her hand to her waist on the uninjured side, trying to ease the pain of her wound, and readjusted her stance before continuing. “Your army is finished. You can take the rest of your men back. I’ll let you go, and when you get back, you can think about how to be a good Moreth Steader. But if you try to go to war next time, then you won’t go back. Now, answer me: do you want to go back and be a good Moreth Steader? Or do you want to continue to be enemies with my Ashton Federation?”

“I’m not making an enemy of Ashton Federation. I want ......”

“That?” Madam Winifred asked, interrupting him and pointing to the Star Source on Dawn Lucius’ arm.

Jonathan didn’t chime in.

“If that one came into your hands, it would be better to burn Orion Arm clean with fire. Don’t even think about it. I might have promised you before the war, but now it won’t come into your hands.”

“It’s useless for him to have it,” Jonathan argued.

“That is not your concern. I can let the matter of your attack on and destruction of Ashton Federation go, but you have to tell me where you have hidden the Sane ship.”

“I’m not the one who hid it.” Jonathan was full of resentment as he shot Lord Winifred a quick glance.

“I believe you.” Madam Winifred raised her hand to signal the soldiers to let go of Jonathan, and after Jonathan stood up completely straight, she continued. “Go while it’s not too late. Remember what I said.”

“Wait.” Madam Winifred had just finished speaking when Burt shouted loudly, “What about the fact that he injured my big brother? You’re just letting him go?”

“So what do you want to do?” Madam Winifred asked, looking at Burt as she walked in his direction, her voice lower, but loud enough for anyone close enough to hear.

“So what do you say?” Burt asked rhetorically.

“You wanted White Crystal destroyed; now it’s done. If you want to develop technology to explore the universe, Ashton Federation can give you technical support.”

“But you’ve destroyed Malea Planet and all the technology. How can you give technical support?”

“You don’t have to worry about that. I can tell you that my Ashton Federation has not been idle these thousands of years; we have built many bases like Malea Planet in distant galaxies.”

“So you have more White Crystals?” asked Burt, looking at Madam Winifred in surprise.

Madam Winifred shook her head and replied after a pause. “I didn’t invent White Crystal. The person who invented it is no longer around, and that person kept the White Crystal technology hidden on Malea Planet; he used that planet as his safe.” Madam Winifred glanced at Lord Winifred.

“That’s fine, ma’am. The Strath Federation wants ultra-fast spaceships, that’s all.”

“You can always come and browse Ashton Federation’s library of astronautics technology, and the Strath Federation can also build spacecraft together with our Ashton Federation.”

“Well ......” Burt had not expected such an offer from Madam Winifred. He swallowed, and his mouth opened wider and wider, but he did not know what to say, until he closed his mouth without saying anything. He shook his head after bowing deeply to Madam Winifred.

“Prince Burt, your people can leave now.”

“Thank you, ma’am. What about the shields?” Burt asked with a slight bow.

“I’ll open them now. You’d better assemble in Bourlo City first, where the centrifugal force is less, and then leave together.”

After sweeping the hall around and glaring at Jonathan, Burt turned and walked out of the hall.

After watching Prince Burt’s figure disappear from view, Madam Winifred walked back near Jonathan and asked, “You don’t want to go yet?”

“Okay.” Jonathan paused and stared at Dawn Lucius for a moment. He walked towards Dawn Lucius, and when Sandra and Norm Quentin saw him approaching, they rushed to shield Dawn Lucius.

“What are you doing?” Sandra asked in a stern voice.

“Hey, please give me back the Star Bridge starter I gave him,” Jonathan said, pointing to Dawn Lucius’ chest pocket.

“Dawn, give it to him.” Sandra didn’t take her eyes off Jonathan as she spoke, and she watched his every move.

Dawn Lucius held out the starter, and Norm Quentin bent down, took it from his hand, and handed it to Jonathan. Jonathan took it and dropped it straight to the floor, stomped on it a few times, and kicked the already deformed starter far away. When he had done all this, he stretched his neck around Sandra and Norm Quentin to look at Dawn Lucius, and when their eyes met, he looked at the floor, whispered a “sorry,” and then turned and walked quickly out of the hall.

“What are your plans?” Madam Winifred asked as she walked up to Lord Winifred and looked out the window.

“Can I have plans?” Lord Winifred sneered.

“You have plans other than assassinating your own mother?”

“I have one intention, to manage Ashton Federation, but have you ever given me a chance?”

“Ask yourself: do you currently have that ability?”

“If I have no ability, it’s all because you forced me. The whole Ashton Federation, the whole Orion Arm, is under the control of your White Crystal. Who would listen to me?”

“So you colluded with an outsider to seize the White Crystal?”

“Call it what you will, didn’t you also murder your husband and take possession of Ashton Federation?”

“Scum ......” said Madam Winifred as she kicked towards Lord Winifred.

“Am I wrong?” Lord Winifred, who had been kicked down, sat up again and taunted.

“Don’t forget that he was going to kill you, and I was just trying to protect my child, to protect you.”

“That’s what you think. That’s not what my father told me.”

“It was your father who made Ashton Federation lose its original splendor, who indulged in sensual pleasures, who disregarded the safety of the people of Ashton Federation, who watched weak planets being usurped by bureaucrats, who acquiesced to wars between lords. Even when a lord threatened him with re-electing the Ashton Federation’s emperor, he thought the proposal was good. If Ashton Federation really did re-elect the emperor, do you think you and I would survive?” Madam Winifred asked in a stern voice.

“That’s your side of the story. You’re the one obsessed with power. All Father wanted was a warm family, but in your eyes, we’re nothing but your responsibility.”

“Obsessed with power? You need to get it straight: how can the emperor of Ashton Federation protect his family if he isn’t obsessed with power? At that time, half of the lords had already formed an alliance, don’t you know?”

“Say what you will. Anyway, all of Father’s friends became victims of your sword.”

“That’s what they deserved for trying to take away Ashton Federation’s power.”

“That’s what you condemned them for. Because of you, Ashton Federation has the Justice Sector as a political group. How many of the people imprisoned by the Justice Sector on Sivastia Planet are really guilty? You use horrible criminal-law methods to suppress people who don’t agree with you, and their families are implicated too. If my father were here, he wouldn’t have done it.”

“Your cowardly father would only have made Ashton Federation more chaotic. What is wrong with my ruling Ashton Federation? Ask yourself, under my rule, has Ashton Federation had a horrible interstellar war? Are there any planets in the realm that are starving? Ask yourself.”

“Aren’t these just the results of your suppression?”

“Suppression? Don’t you know that to avoid war, I could sacrifice Duncan; to avoid war, I could blow up the White Crystal technology and the whole planet? And you, claiming that I suppress people, not only didn’t help avoid war, but even urged others to attack Ashton Federation. Do you think you are qualified to judge me?”

Madam Winifred took a long breath, pressed a hand to her waist, and turned and walked a few steps in another direction. Dawn Lucius had heard about the history of Ashton Federation; Sandra and Sandra’s father had told him about it. The Ashton people were the first to master advanced astronautics, flying around Orion Arm in their pride-filled spaceships, trading, and helping to build cities and develop agriculture on the planets of lower civilizations. These services were paid, but the civilization being helped needed to pay very little in return. At that time, the Ashton people were like a wise man full of justice in Orion Arm, wandering around Orion Arm and helping everyone he met. The Ashton people became the evangelists and rulers of the space age. But the original sin of business emerged: those who benefited developed better and felt that the money earned in Orion Arm was obtained by exploiting them, and interstellar wars began to develop. The first to break with the Ashton people were the Strath people. After the Ashton people failed to suppress them, they withdrew deep into the Ashton Federation one by one. During the retreat, the Ashton people destroyed all their civilizational facilities in what is now the Strath Federation’s star field and burned their technical literature. This led to the slow development of the Strath people’s technology. Later, the Centaly began to propose a policy of dividing and ruling, which is the re-election of the emperor that Madam Winifred mentioned, and more and more people sided with the Centaly. The Centaly were then the army led by the old Moreth Steader of what is now Moreth Federation, and their methods were not very honorable either. In the beginning, they killed and conquered the surrounding planets, and they used this strategy to expand to more distant star fields until they were able to fight the entire army of Ashton Federation. Then a full-scale war broke out, and when Orion Arm was almost worn out by the war, Datheon appeared, and this was the beginning of the official formation of the three Federations.

“If Ashton Federation were given to you, how would you make sure you managed it well?” Madam Winifred asked.

“Why should we worry? Just abolish Sivastia Planet’s prison, disband the Justice Sector, let everyone build cities and grow crops, give the people their rights back, and have Ashton Federation give them the technology to build. Won’t that work?”

“Ignorant.” Madam Winifred sneered and shook her head. She turned to look at Lord Winifred and continued. “The Sane ship. Hand it over, and I’ll keep you alive.”

“I don’t have the Sane ship. Besides, how are you going to keep me alive? The people of Ashton Federation will know sooner or later that I tried to assassinate you, and those White Crystal believers of yours might get me at any moment too.”

“Afraid of death? Then why didn’t you think about it before you did it?”

“Come on, Mother, kill me if you have to.”

“Tell me ......” said Madam Winifred, not pursuing the matter of killing Lord Winifred as she walked closer to him. “Where is the Sane ship? I will arrange for you to leave Ashton Federation. There is an old colony of Ashton Federation on the Sagittarius Arm; you go and manage it.”

“The Sagittarius Arm?” Lord Winifred glanced out the window in surprise, then turned his face back to look at Madam Winifred and continued to ask, “I thought Orion Arm’s astronautics couldn’t span the barren zone between the spiral arms?”

“That’s what you think. All right, say it.”

“The Sane ship is at the North Pole, and now, well, nobody can get it.”

“You don’t need to worry about that.” After Madam Winifred finished speaking, she raised her hand to signal a soldier to come forward, and the soldier handed the star map in his hand to Lord Winifred, on which he marked the location where he hid the Sane ship. By now, Dawn Lucius understood why Jonathan would help Lord Winifred. Jonathan’s plan was to kill Dawn Lucius and take the Star Source, then help Lord Winifred seize power in Ashton Federation, in exchange for Lord Winifred giving the Sane ship to Jonathan. The soldier took the star map and picked a dozen soldiers in the hall, then rushed out of the hall.

“There.” Madam Winifred walked over to Dawn Lucius, pointed to the Star Source on Dawn Lucius’ arm, and continued. “Jonathan sort of repented in time, didn’t he? He stomped on the device that restricted your ability to use the Star Source.” Madam Winifred turned around and pointed to the Star Bridge starter that Jonathan had kicked away, then turned her face back to Dawn Lucius and continued. “I’ll give you the Sane ship. Go on with the Star Map Draftsman mission.”

Dawn Lucius noticed at that moment that the Star Source on his arm was glowing faintly, and he asked after glancing at the device, “How do you know that one is inhibiting my abilities?”

“I’ve seen a lot of these clumsy maneuvers. Don’t you yourself feel a slight physical change since you got Jonathan’s device?”

“Not really. But ma’am, do I have to go and do the Star Map Draftsman thing? I was thinking ......” he continued after getting up from the floor and glancing back and forth between Sandra and Norm Quentin, “of being a regular guy, that’s all.”

“You’re thinking of living with your kids, and Sandra.”

“It’s ......,” Dawn Lucius stammered.

“The Star Map Draftsman’s mission is a must. Although, historically, Datheon has never punished anyone for not fulfilling the Star Map Draftsman’s mission, you know they will recall the Star Source, which could get you killed. And doing it makes life safer for the people you care about. Not to mention, there are plenty of crazy people in Orion Arm, and if they find out you didn’t fulfill your Star Map Draftsman duties, they might well go and attack the solar system to punish you.”

“But if I become a Star Map Draftsman, I won’t be able to live with the people I care about. A person’s life is short ......” Dawn Lucius continued, pointing to Norm Quentin. “When he was born, I was his world, and when he was three and had friends, I was his day and night. By the time he went to school, I was merely his weekend, and later, when I went to work on the moon base so often, I was merely one afternoon of his, which is my biggest regret, I think ......” Dawn Lucius choked up a little, not knowing what to say, except that Norm Quentin was very important to him. He walked over to the two, patted Norm Quentin’s shoulder, and held Sandra’s hand tightly.

“Dad, what’s wrong?” Norm Quentin couldn’t understand the language Dawn Lucius was speaking, but he could sense that what Dawn Lucius was talking about concerned him.

“Your dad ......” said Sandra, looking at Norm Quentin after seeing Dawn Lucius in tears. “He doesn’t want to be a Star Map Draftsman. He wants to live with us.”

“I get it,” Norm Quentin said as he held Dawn Lucius’ hand tightly and patted him on the arm. “Dad, you always aspired to the stars and the sea, so you named me ‘Stacean Lucius.’ I know it’s important to you that I’m your tether, but I’m not your tether. I didn’t understand you before, but after I had Katherine, I realized how torn men are between being fathers and being who they want to be. If you aspire to the starry sea, then take Sandra and go be a Star Map Draftsman.”

“But I just got you back, and I don’t want to just leave,” Dawn Lucius said with a sniffle.

“I will wait with Katherine in the solar system for your return. Maybe, while working, Dad, you can discover new planets, the kind suitable for the people of the solar system to live on. Then remember to come back and tell us, and we will move there to live.”

Norm Quentin was right. As long as he didn’t become a pure energy body and continued to live in his current transitional state, there was no difference between him and a normal person, and he could continue to live with Sandra. Besides, no one said a Star Map Draftsman had to be alone. Sandra also encouraged Dawn Lucius; she wanted to go with him to see more distant galaxies. All along, although she had been able to travel back and forth between Ashton Federation and Moreth Federation, the route was the same every time, and she was like a lonely signal in the galaxy, unable to connect with other signals or change routes. In the end, Dawn Lucius chose to fulfill the responsibility of the Star Map Draftsman.

As the three chatted, Madam Winifred sent Lord Winifred away. The matter of going to the Sagittarius Arm sounds simple, put simply: the Sagittarius Arm and Orion Arm are close together, so close when the star map is scaled down. But in reality, the distance between the two spiral arms is far beyond imagination. When first boarding the expedition ship, a life form may imagine that it is a fresh journey, and the heart builds up a kind of anticipation, as before sweet food enters the mouth. When the spacecraft had spent a long, long, long time reaching the middle between the two spiral arms, the astronauts had forgotten what had gone before, forgotten food and carnal desire, and the past and the future were just two words in their hippocampus, two words that defined something; what the future was, they didn’t know, or couldn’t feel. Some people went crazy. Duncan later explained these phenomena: even though the expedition ships had advanced refrigeration equipment, and a living body could be frozen for a long, long time before waking up with its face not aged and its body still intact, the heart might have died a thousand times.

“It’s time to say goodbye,” Madam Winifred said as she interrupted the trio.

Madam Winifred arranged the Star Bridge and sent a spaceship to take Norm Quentin back to the solar system. She seemed to be having a particularly emotional day, full of ups and downs; she told Norm Quentin and Dawn Lucius solemnly that she had never wanted to destroy the Earth or any civilization. Dawn Lucius and Sandra accompanied Norm Quentin to the ship, and he and Norm Quentin hugged; as usual, Stacean Lucius liked to rub his chin in the hollow of Dawn Lucius’ shoulder, and they both laughed and cried. They watched the ship disappear from view, and half of Dawn Lucius’ heart went away with Norm Quentin. Afterwards, the soldier who came to report told Madam Winifred that the Sane ship had been towed outside Bourlo City, and Madam Winifred arranged for some soldiers to escort the two of them to board the ship. Although so many things had happened, and Dawn Lucius still resented Madam Winifred in his heart, he did not want to do anything to her.

“That’s right,” Madam Winifred called out behind them when the two had gone just a few steps, and after seeing the two turn around, Madam Winifred added, “You’d better go to Planet Maoti first and say hello.”

“Say hello?” Sandra asked, puzzled.

“Well, I have arranged for your brother and your family to go to that planet. You’d better go and let them know you’re safe.” Madam Winifred turned around and walked towards the palace after she finished speaking, leaving Sandra’s tears of emotion behind her.

The Sane ship was working fine. Dawn Lucius had been worried that he wouldn’t be able to fly it, but fortunately he had Sandra with him. The Sane ship worked just as Madam Winifred had said: when Dawn Lucius and Sandra boarded, the sleeping Sane ship awakened. Sandra was an excellent pilot, and not only was she technically excellent; she taught Dawn Lucius how to pilot it, and his ticket to map the stars had been obtained. But he now had a concern: he wanted to spend the rest of his life with Sandra, but would the difference between his and Sandra’s life forms create more problems in the future? The two of them piloted the ship through the star fields of Orion Arm. Looking out the overhead windows, he saw gas being compressed under pressure into new stars, and the scarlet light of the burning lit up the surrounding area. Looking out the windows at the tail of the ship, the receding nebulae surged and spread out in every direction, like white milk poured into coffee. Dawn Lucius knew that this was a visual compensation effect caused by the ship’s great speed, and that the nebulae, which had been hovering there for hundreds of millions of years, had never moved from beginning to end.

“Thank you for staying with me,” Dawn Lucius said as he put his arm around Sandra’s shoulders after the ship settled into steady flight.

“And thank you for making me feel like there’s still warmth in this Orion Arm,” Sandra said as she looked up and kissed Dawn Lucius on the neck.

“I thought I would never see you again, and when they were planning to cut off my arm, what I felt with my whole being was not fear, but regret, regret that I hadn’t gotten to marry you.”

“So, happy now?” Sandra asked as she squeezed Dawn Lucius’ waist and looked at him with a smile.

“Glad.” Dawn Lucius kissed her forehead before letting out a long sigh and looking at the twinkling star chart in front of him, sweeping it around before fixing his eyes on her temple.

“Don’t worry about it,” Sandra said after glancing at the star map, shaking Dawn Lucius’ arm.

“Yeah, I didn’t expect ......” Dawn Lucius quickly wiped his eyes and wrapped his arms around Sandra’s shoulders and continued. “Life, or call it fate, I really can’t guess the logic behind it. I thought I would never see Stacean Lucius again, but after seeing him, I’m happy, right, and sad too.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Happy, because he’s alive and well and has a family of his own. But he’s not the little man I remember. He’s Norm Quentin now, and he’s a very mature politician in his way of doing things. The first time I showed up in the solar system, he didn’t come to me, and then later, he confronted me with a frozen clone ...... How can I put it?” Dawn Lucius paused; he wanted to express his feelings, but the words wouldn’t squeeze out of his mouth.

“You should be happy. He is already a mature and wise man; no matter how far you go, you don’t need to worry about whether he can protect himself. And you have to admit, he became the leader of the human race, and under his management, humans can survive even in a place as barren as the solar system. He is no longer a starry sea for you alone, but for many, many people. Besides ......” Sandra added as she pushed Dawn Lucius out of the cockpit. “The politics of the solar system are so complicated. When I went to find him and he heard that you were still there, he didn’t hesitate to bring his own trusted soldiers. It’s just that people’s hearts in the solar system are much more complicated than in these major Federations, so he had to be careful. What I value more is his ability to see the big picture, don’t you think?”

“Am I being a little childish?” Hearing Sandra out, Dawn Lucius felt less upset.

“Not at all. It’s just that you are a loving father who still thinks he hasn’t grown up; in reality, he is so much better than us.”

“Really?”

“What really?”

“I mean, you think I’m full of love in my heart?”

“Isn’t it?” Sandra pinched Dawn Lucius hard on the waist and the two pushed and shoved their way into the lounge.

Dawn Lucius and Sandra finally took that step. Looking at Sandra sleeping, happiness grew in his heart into a rainforest. Dawn Lucius pulled the blanket up to cover Sandra’s exposed shoulders, moved closer, and sniffed her hair; he remembered the bamboo forest after the rain, the fresh air, the mushrooms growing happily out of the earth. Dawn Lucius didn’t feel very sleepy. Sandra had been looking after him from start to finish while he was injured; she must be exhausted by now. Dawn Lucius tucked the blanket around her again, got up, put on some clothes, and wandered around the ship. He went back to the ship’s former cockpit, where nebulae were cascading outside the portholes, and a mushroom-shaped nebula was marked on the screen, the first stop on Dawn Lucius’ Star Map Draftsman journey, where he needed to go to mark out the newborn stars. It is amazing, too, that if a star doesn’t get blown up, it will capture its own planets and give them light, and then simple life forms will emerge, such as the first single-celled bodies to appear on Earth, which perhaps can feel the warmth of the sun and the cold of snow and ice, although at this point they don’t know what they are either. A more complex life form is the human, and according to the Star Map Draftsman manual, if there is a human-like life form already on a planet around a star, that planet cannot be blown up, which is simpler. According to the Star Map Draftsman manual, if single-celled organisms appear in a new star system, the star needs to be observed by the mapper, and if no more advanced life evolves within a thousand years, the Star Map Draftsman has the right to mark the star as ready to be blown up. This is a difficult problem, which means that if Dawn Lucius encounters such a star, he will need to spend more time near it, visiting its planets from time to time to record the evolution of life on them.

Dawn Lucius entered the Mushroom Nebula, marked the places he could reach on the chart, set the spacecraft on its mission, and started investigating the stars from the nearest one. As he flew near the first star, the data showed that the gravity there was unusually strong, and Dawn Lucius calculated that this star was almost a thousand times the size of the sun. The newborn star was like a greedy child, constantly sucking in the nebula around it. The upper part of the star was faint, and the lower part was like burning firewood. The gas spun out by its rapid rotation formed two bands of light, and because the density of the gas above it was not uniform, distant starlight reaching the star was refracted at different angles, so that in Dawn Lucius’ eyes it was a gradient-blue, high-temperature ceramic ball.

Dawn Lucius circled the star a few times without finding any captured planets, only a mass of meteorites floating around the equatorial plane, hot and hard as an old man’s heart, where no life forms could be found; even heat-resistant bacteria like those on Earth would be torn apart by the gravity. Dawn Lucius opened the hologram of the star chart and recorded more than 200 groups of data on the star, with dozens of physical data points for the star alone, such as diameter, density, spin speed, gas composition, etc. The most important thing was that it had no planets around it, nor any life that had formed.

Dawn Lucius examined the equipment for dropping the explosives and understood how it operated. He intended to press the drop button, but he was not sure how much explosive was needed to blow up a star of this size, not to mention how much courage it took to press launch. His hand stopped in the air for a long time, and he could feel his right arm begin to ache, the muscles as uncomfortable as a towel roughly wrung out. Dawn Lucius took a deep breath and moved half a step forward. He was ready, and that was when an audio message arrived in the message channel in front of him. The autoplayed message was only seven characters long: “Hello, Star Map Draftsman!”