Stacean Lucius Star Map Draftsman I: Federation War

General Les aside, the journey on the Tekken ship went well. By the time they arrived at Smyrni Planet, the veterans were enthused that they would have another chance to prove their worth to the Ashton Federation. The new recruits, on the other hand, looked conflicted, a sense of happiness of being needed surfacing on their faces, while fear grew deep in their bodies. Sandra presented her father’s token to the old lord and explained her plan to come to Smyrni Planet, which, naturally, was supported. On the way here, they had thought that Visadio Planet was still safe behind its outer layer and that Madam Winifred was still negotiating with Carlson to confirm the terms of the Strath people’s retreat, and it was said that Madam Winifred had accepted many harsh conditions. But unfortunately, when Burt arrived at Visadio Planet and rendezvoused with Carlson, Visadio Planet’s traitors opened the force field shield from the inside, briefly creating a gap in Visadio Planet’s defenses, and the Strath people struck Visadio Planet near the equator. So it seemed that Carlson’s use of Lord Winifred to blackmail Madam Winifred into negotiating was just a delaying tactic, to buy time for Burt and his army to rendezvous with him.

“If this is the way things are going, then odds are Ashton Federation won’t be able to hold off the Strath people,” Dawn Lucius said as he sat worriedly on his bed in Smyrni Planet’s lounge, clutching a flexible device with a photo of Stacean Lucius on it.

“That’s what I was worried about,” Sandra said as she sat down next to Dawn Lucius and held his hand tightly.

“I want to go back to Earth first and get my son settled before anything else. Even hiding him somewhere in the solar system for now would be okay.”

“Good.”

“The solar system is so big. Even if we can’t resist the Strath people, they won’t necessarily be able to find him quickly after they attack it, and as soon as the technology is ready, he’ll wake up.”

“Right.”

“Then I want to go back now.”

“Good.” Sandra stroked Dawn Lucius’ head, and her gentle eyes showed infinite encouragement.

Dawn Lucius walked quickly to the command room, and when Duncan and the lord heard his concerns, they also agreed that Dawn Lucius should return to the solar system first. “If the solar system is not safe, take him to Cavnos Planet. My father will protect him.” Duncan called this out to Dawn Lucius from behind as they parted, which made Dawn Lucius feel much more at ease. The lord of Smyrni Planet paid galaxy coin for Dawn Lucius’ trip home, so he could use the Star Bridge many times. As for Sandra, she intended to go with Dawn Lucius, thinking of the attack on the way to Cavnos Planet; in her words, maybe the rogues of the Ninth Legion were still looking for Dawn Lucius everywhere, and she could at least protect him. And so the two of them entered the Star Bridge. The sky converged into a single point, the stars rushed forward as thin lines in front of their eyes, and then the sky opened again from a point into a net, and their ship appeared near Mars. Only, the rings of Mars had been blown up, and the tranquility he had seen on his first return had been replaced by ships chasing and firing at each other; even though sound was inaudible in space, the shockwaves from the explosions were pushing Dawn Lucius and Sandra’s ship.

“Not good,” Sandra said after peering forward and recognizing the logo on the ship. “It’s the Strath people’s ship.”

“We’ll go to Earth first.” Dawn Lucius adjusted the angle of the ship and flew in the direction of Stacean Lucius.

The moon was brighter than ever, probably because it had been abandoned after Earth’s nuclear war, and all traces of humans on the moon had disappeared. The solar system’s armies were deployed near Mars and in the Kuiper belt, and the Strath people were invading the solar system from near Mars, causing all the solar system’s armies to flock there, and no one cared whether any ships were flying towards Earth. The ship the lord of Smyrni Planet had given the two of them was a small landing craft that could fly directly to a planet’s surface, and Dawn Lucius flew it to the gates of Project Nv Wa and stopped. He remembered the way Katherine had brought him here, and as he stepped quickly into the elevator, he saw that the numbers on the buttons were almost invisible, the thick layer of gray like the embodiment of lost time, and something vaguely unsettling came over Dawn Lucius. He pressed the bottom button hard, but the elevator did not respond. Dawn Lucius pressed it hard a few more times, and the elevator overreacted and quickly dropped a short distance, stopping for a moment before it began to descend normally. Countless images flashed through Dawn Lucius’s head, Stacean Lucius as a child, scenes playing in his heart like a movie. He was really afraid that Stacean Lucius was no longer there, afraid that he would never see him again.

When the elevator stopped, Dawn Lucius ran towards the glass dome, with Sandra right behind him. The place had fallen into disrepair like a forgotten city; the inspection craft had disappeared. Dawn Lucius arrived in front of the glass dome, and the door was open. He remembered that last time Katherine had used her authority to open it, and his heart seized up at once. Dawn Lucius ran inside, towards the dormant compartment where his little man lay. The dormant compartment where his little man had once lain was empty. Dawn Lucius felt around inside; there was nothing in it except the cold metal walls that met his skin when he touched them.

Dawn Lucius rushed into a sea of dormant bins, checking every dormant bin he came across. The more he searched, the heavier his heart became; each empty dormant bin sucked away a little of his strength, a piece of his confidence, an inch of his longing. Dawn Lucius sat on the floor, tears squeezing out of his eyes like peas, dripping onto the back of his hands as he began to cry.

“I must have missed something?” Dawn Lucius thought to himself. “If someone removed Stacean Lucius, where did he go? Who removed him?” He couldn’t just give up. He had a story to tell Stacean Lucius, and a promise to pick him a star and bring him back, so he couldn’t just let it go.

“Don’t worry, I’m with you. I’ll be with you even if you search the whole universe,” Sandra said, patting Dawn Lucius’s back.

The two exchanged a look, then ran towards the elevator. Dawn Lucius planned to find Katherine in the Kuiper belt and ask her what was going on. The elevator went up at breakneck speed, and when it had come to a stop, the two creaking steel doors opened with difficulty. Dawn Lucius had just stepped out when countless guns were aimed at him, and a host of armed warplanes floated in front of him, surrounding him in a fan shape. “Right on time.” Dawn Lucius had been about to find someone to ask where the people in the dormant silos here had gone, and without stopping, he walked straight towards the people aiming at him.

“Please stop, or we’ll start shooting,” someone shouted at Dawn Lucius. They were all dressed in heavy radiation-proof clothing and looked the same, so Dawn Lucius could not tell who it was.

“Tell me, where did the people in the dormant bins go? Where did my son go?” Dawn Lucius continued to walk toward the crowd.

“Please stop.” The crowd began to move back.

Dawn Lucius stopped. There was no point in asking; the people in front of him would only treat him as an invader, or as a threat that they themselves could not figure out. Whether they opened fire or not meant nothing to Dawn Lucius; besides, he needed the people of Earth to keep the peace to ensure Stacean Lucius’s safety.

“Will your leader please talk to me?” Dawn Lucius looked up and shouted. After a moment, a protective suit stepped out of the crowd, but he never came close to Dawn Lucius; he was just that much further forward than the group behind him.

“Commander Lucius, what is the purpose of your return to Earth this time?” the protective suit asked.

“I’m looking for my son. Where is he?”

“Commander Lucius, he’s safe, but I want to ask, are you on our side?”

“What?” Dawn Lucius didn’t understand his question.

“I don’t care whether you are still an Earthling or not, but I want to ask you about your position. Are you on the side of the Earth?”

“What other side could I take?”

“Sorry, Commander Lucius. The last time you emerged from the interstellar lanes near Mars, we didn’t worry about it. But this time, you are not the only one who has emerged from there. They are attacking the solar system, and we want to ask: are you on our side?”

Dawn Lucius was a little angered by the question. If Dawn Lucius had not been on this side, the Strath people would have attacked long ago. He spoke up. “I am an Earthling, and all I do is to protect the Earth and protect my son’s home. Let Katherine talk to me.”

“Commander Lucius, that’s not necessary, but this time, you have to leave your ship here.” The protective suit pointed backward to the ship the two were on.

Dawn Lucius did not need an explanation. The solar system’s technology had still not progressed much; human beings were like busy farmers, aspiring in their hearts to faraway places but in practice just busy plowing the land at hand, and when they saw something high-tech, wanting to keep it was not surprising. But his goal was Stacean Lucius. If he did not agree to the demands of this group of people, then even if he turned the Earth upside down today, he would only be turning over countless uncertain dormant silos.

“Yes, the ship and the technology stay, but you will take me to my son.” Dawn Lucius slowly stepped toward the protective suit.

“Commander Lucius, you have to keep your word.”

“No problem. Take your soldiers onto the ship, take me to my son, and then the ship is yours to sail away.” Dawn Lucius turned to look at Sandra, and she nodded.

The protective suit froze. He looked back at the people behind him and then turned to look at Dawn Lucius, and he waved his hand back, and the twenty or so people hastily gathered under Dawn Lucius’ ship. The protective suit reached out and gestured for Dawn Lucius to go ahead, and when they came to the ship, Dawn Lucius turned to the protective suit and said, “This ship has no name, only a number, N72.”

When Dawn Lucius approached the ship, an energy body built a suspended ladder between the ground and the hull. Dawn Lucius led them all to the cockpit, and after he confirmed the coordinates of the Mars lab, the ship arrived almost instantly; before the crowd could feel the pull of Earth’s gravity or the strain of the engines, they appeared openly over the lab base. There were no military defenses near the Martian labs; even if the population of the solar system was large, it could not guard everything, not to mention that they were now busy with the Strath people’s ships. Dawn Lucius remembered that the Earth Space Agency had proposed to blow up the two poles of Mars, melting the glaciers at the same time to form an atmosphere for Mars. Back then, they probably had not thought of building living areas directly on Mars and designing self-circulating ecosystems for each living area, which was also possible. It was also proposed to build a big glass cover over the outside of Mars, and later the improved solution was a huge ring outside Mars.

The young man in the lead looked to be in his twenties. His chin and cheeks were starting to grow a beard, his features were well defined, and he looked full of ambition. Dawn Lucius turned around and took Sandra’s hand, letting her walk side by side with him. He didn’t want Sandra to suddenly disappear behind him, or maybe he wanted to look at her for peace of mind. The group walked up to a large gray metal door. The young man in the lead took out a special key, and after a complicated confirmation procedure, the door opened a gap, only wide enough for five or six people to pass through at the same time.

“You’re back.” The person who spoke was Katherine; these were the first words Dawn Lucius heard upon entering the lab.

“Yes, where is my son?” Dawn Lucius bowed slightly in greeting.

“He’s right here. When the nuclear radiation on Earth couldn’t dissipate and the last of the humans had evacuated, we moved to the Mars lab, which is dedicated to genetic technology,” Katherine told Dawn Lucius happily.

“So has this place found a way to wake Stacean Lucius up yet?” Dawn Lucius looked around.

“Not a perfect solution, but we found one.”

When Dawn Lucius heard this, his heart, which had been constricted, suddenly loosened, and he almost choked.

“And how is my son?” Dawn Lucius asked, grabbing Katherine’s arm.

“Commander Lucius ......” Katherine spoke up as she broke away from Dawn Lucius’ hand. “You’re hurting me.”

Dawn Lucius pulled back his hand, which was hanging in mid-air, as he said in a rush, “I’m sorry, sorry.”

Katherine leaned the back of her hand gently against her lips to hide the teeth that showed when she smiled.

“And this is?” Katherine asked, pointing to Sandra.

“She?” Dawn Lucius replied as he turned to look at Sandra and turned his face to Katherine. “She’s my wife, Sandra. She’s ......” Dawn Lucius paused as he scanned the lab before continuing. “It can’t be explained in one sentence. Where is Stacean Lucius?”

“Nice to meet you.” Katherine and Sandra nodded to each other, and Katherine’s face looked a little different when she looked at Dawn Lucius as she turned and walked in the other direction. “Follow me.”

They came to an operating room, and through the glass, Dawn Lucius saw five doctors standing inside, with several robot arms busy over the operating table. Dawn Lucius touched the glass cover above the operating table. Inside lay his little man; he was still there. Dawn Lucius’ heart steadied, tears flowed, and he laughed out loud: at this long-awaited meeting, still nothing bad had happened.

“What are they doing now?” Dawn Lucius asked, staring inside the glass bin.

“Commander Lucius, we’re doing the genetic sequence tagging on Stacean Lucius. It’s almost done. After the tagging, we can work on fixing the bad part of his genes and then on rebooting his body,” Katherine replied.

“It sounds like fixing a machine,” Sandra spoke up.

“Right.” Katherine came to her senses as she moved closer to Dawn Lucius and Sandra and continued. “In our search for a cure for Stacean Lucius, we also discovered that genes work like a pre-arranged to-do list: at a certain point in time it’s time to grow, at a certain point it’s time to replace, and the genes do these things only if the substrate is in a living state. Stacean Lucius is frozen now, so his genes have simply suspended their activity. The reason Earth failed long ago when researching freezing technology was that the substrate was frozen but the genes were still doing things, which led to the frozen people getting older as well.”

“And what is your approach?” Dawn Lucius asked.

“Gene intervention,” Katherine replied as she brushed her hair back behind her ear.

“Intervention?”

“Yes, it’s like cheating the genes.”

“Cheating the genes?” Dawn Lucius looked at Katherine as he wondered if he could cure his son.

“Think of it this way: genes are like a clock, and the end of life is an alarm. What we have to do is set the alarm later so that the genes will keep the person’s body functioning at a certain stage for a long time, but ......” Katherine shook her head, put away her smile, and continued. “We don’t know yet what the principle behind setting this alarm is, or how it can be canceled, so in the experiments, some people’s alarms were brought forward instead. That’s why there are very few people in the solar system receiving genetic interventions now.”

“Will that save my son?”

“The chances are slim, but Stacean Lucius is special in that there is only one alarm clock inside his genes that controls his illness, and we have found a way to take that alarm clock out,” Katherine said confidently.

“Thank you for taking care of him for me.” Dawn Lucius patted Katherine’s shoulder.

“I’m just not smart enough to have found a way to get him back yet.”

“It’s not your fault. We have to have some patience. As long as his body is still intact, there is a chance that he will come back.”

“With all the technology you carry, couldn’t you have saved him?” Katherine asked, pointing to Dawn Lucius’ right arm.

“This?” Dawn Lucius pointed at the right arm and laughed bitterly. “I don’t even know what it really is. Datheon probably doesn’t care about the lives of ordinary individuals. They probably care more about the safety of the entire galaxy and didn’t consider doing anything for ordinary lives when designing this sort of thing.”

“Katherine, please make sure my son is cured.”

“Commander Lucius, let me also remind you that with our current technology, we wouldn’t be able to do it a second time. You have a right to know.”

“I understand.” Dawn Lucius bowed his head as he looked at the silvery gray floor and continued in a low voice. “He’s everything to me.”

“I understand.” Katherine stood up, took a deep breath, and headed off toward another room.

“Where are you going?”

“I’m going to work hard, continue researching genetic technology, and help you get your son back sooner.”

Dawn Lucius also stood up and bowed to Katherine. “Thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for everything you’ve done for us.”

“You do have to thank me, but I have to thank you too.”

“Why?”

“My father is Norm Quentin, and I’ve been living in his shadow. I wanted to make my life more meaningful, so I chased power, but women don’t stand a chance in this system. After you came along, I realized that if I could go save more lives, I’d have the power of life, and that would be more meaningful. After I threw myself into the genetic engineering I do now, I found it much more real than chasing power.”

Dawn Lucius didn’t say anything; he smiled and nodded as he followed Katherine toward another lab.

After the last genetic marker was completed, the doctors packed up the operating table and put Stacean Lucius back into the dormant bin. The soldiers arranged for Dawn Lucius to be connected with Norm Quentin, and Dawn Lucius told the whole story, went over the Star Map Draftsman business again, and demonstrated how he controlled dark matter, though he himself couldn’t figure out what this dark matter was. Until now, the people of the solar system had relied on previous scientific observations and research data, and for the scientists who had dedicated their lives to them, Dawn Lucius’ words were a direct denial of a lifetime of hard work.

“Now that the solar system has been targeted, the solar system should focus on spaceflight and go far away to find a new home. Don’t put your energy into internal struggles. The enemy from outside is not terrible; what’s terrible is the enemy within. You should know that even a civilization as developed as the Ashton Federation can’t withstand internal struggles.” Dawn Lucius finished speaking to the camera.

“We in the Norm department will manage things in the solar system, Commander Lucius,” the greasy middle-aged man in the shot said dismissively.

“Well then, we still have to go back to the Ashton Federation to stop the Strath people. If we can’t hold them off over there, the solar system will belong to the Strath people after that.” Dawn Lucius looked at Sandra as he spoke.

“I’m afraid you’re going to need to stay this time.”

“Why?” Dawn Lucius asked with a face full of impatience.

“You and the technology you brought with you need to stay. The solar system needs such samples to learn from.”

“You can’t catch me, you know that?”

“Not necessarily.” The greasy man was still so confident.

“First of all, the ship is a very ordinary, common ship. I can quickly cross the star river because of Moreth Federation’s Star Bridge technology. You should pay attention to the Star Bridge technology.”

“That’s what the chief scientists told me, but I don’t think they’ve looked hard enough, Commander Lucius.”

“The device on me is called a Star Source. I can control dark matter. No weapon can harm me; on the contrary, I can do more damage. Did you know that?”

There was a moment of silence on the other side of the camera. “Not necessarily.” Still so confident.

“My goal is simple: protect my son and protect the solar system. Your confidence and your ‘not necessarily’ are worthless in front of me. I’m not your enemy; I’m your outpost soldier. Norm Quentin, you have enough power. You don’t need to prove to anyone how capable you are; you just need to keep the solar system running properly.” Dawn Lucius said this calmly, pointing his index finger at the camera.

“You don’t have to teach me that, Commander Lucius. Just do your thing and cooperate with the solar system, and since you’ve decided you’re still an Earthling, please do your duty and leave behind the high tech for us to learn from.” The greasy man had no intention of backing down.

“All right.” Norm Quentin interrupted the greasy man and continued. “Commander Lucius, are there going to be more armies coming to the solar system, and are they all showing up near Mars?”

“Yes, that’s the only place where there’s an entrance and exit to Star Bridge.”

“Can we close it?” Norm Quentin sat forward a bit.

“That’s not known.”

“Looks like we’ll just have to put a heavy guard around there.” Norm Quentin scanned the room.

“Yes, Norm Quentin. It would be better to reinforce the troops around the Kuiper belt as well and use that as a second line of defense.”

“Understood. Commander Lucius, if your son wakes up, do you still want to leave?” Norm Quentin asked thoughtfully.

Dawn Lucius didn’t answer; he just shook his head. He hung up the video and hurried back to the operating room. Katherine was busy processing the data. Dawn Lucius walked up to her, patted her, and spoke. “I’m worried that Norm’s department will hold my son hostage, can you protect him?”

Katherine looked at Dawn Lucius solemnly and said, “Don’t worry. I hold the genetic technology, and more than half of the solar system is on my side. They can’t touch Stacean Lucius.”

“No, I still need to come up with an insurance plan for Stacean Lucius.” Dawn Lucius thought to himself; there was hardly anyone else he trusted now.

Before Dawn Lucius officially set off, he demonstrated dark energy to Norm Quentin. With the help of the Star Source, Dawn Lucius was able to gather a purple energy body. With the ability well gathered, he could hold up a soft cotton T-shirt, move a cup full of water without spilling a drop, and distort the path of light going forward, just as a black hole bends the starlight passing by it, and it could also easily break through any object; even hard spaceship shields were as brittle as a piece of paper under the impact of dark energy. The demonstration was broadcast throughout the solar system, and Sandra revealed her identity and explained the vastness of the universe to the citizens of the solar system, and suggesting that mankind should not focus on the solar system but should look outward; regardless of whether technology was advancing or not, mankind should do what it had to do, devoutly, like a gold digger. Norm Quentin’s long-standing confusion had all come from longing for the universe and fear of the unknown. After Dawn Lucius and Sandra’s demonstration, the solar system had more confidence, and this seemed to dispel Norm Quentin’s doubts. He decided that instead of communicating with Dawn Lucius through the camera, he would arrange a real meeting with Dawn Lucius alone. It was not until he got on the ship to meet Norm Quentin that Dawn Lucius learned that no one in the solar system knew where Norm Quentin was, that the ship was disguised, and that the crew were Norm Quentin’s cronies. They took Dawn Lucius back inside the Nv Wa project and walked to the place where Dawn Lucius’s wife was buried, where Norm Quentin was already waiting.

After the two had greeted each other, Dawn Lucius walked over to his wife’s grave, knelt down, and pulled out the weeds that had grown there. The memorial photo showed her with a smile on her face, as always. Dawn Lucius wiped the dew off the photo with the back of his index finger, got up, walked over to Norm Quentin, and spoke with a bow. “What is the purpose of our meeting?” He had heard that Norm Quentin was almost eighty years old, but the man Dawn Lucius met now was a middle-aged man who looked the same age as him, and Dawn Lucius wondered whether this Norm Quentin was real.

“I suppose your question is that my body doesn’t look right for my age?” Norm Quentin asked with an expressionless face.

“So you really are Norm Quentin.” Dawn Lucius replied.

“This is thanks to Katherine’s improvements in genetic technology, which allowed my body to be repaired even at an older age. That would have been considered unethical back when Earth civilization was still around.”

“I prefer to look farther ahead. The ethical rules prescribed on Earth can’t help us go farther.”

“That’s very much the way Commander Lucius does things, which is why Commander Lucius always preferred to leave his family on Earth and go exploring in space.”

“I think you misunderstood.” Dawn Lucius turned to look at his wife’s grave and continued, “I’m exploring into space to find more survival options for my family.”

“Even if your wife doesn’t support you?”

“My wife and I had very different values. She liked to stay on Earth; I looked outward to space. It wasn’t a matter of support; we were just pursuing different things.”

“Commander Lucius, have you found the secret of immortality? If you were on Earth, you would be at least over a hundred years old, and now you look no different than when you left Earth.”

“Norm Quentin, immortality is not my goal. I just want my son to live. I just want to be there for him.”

“Is Commander Lucius so eager to accompany Stacean Lucius that he is making up for his regrets?” Norm Quentin laughed contemptuously.

“Guilt or longing or regret, it has nothing to do with you; it’s about me.”

“Don’t you know? What’s missed is missed, and there’s no chance to make it up.”

“Norm Quentin,” Dawn Lucius continued after a moment’s pause as he sniffled. “I’d like to know what the purpose of our meeting alone is.”

“There is no clear purpose. How about a deal?”

“Go ahead.”

“It’s simple: help me find a bigger galaxy for the people of the solar system to live in.”

“How can I help?”

“Here,” Norm Quentin said, pointing to the Star Source on Dawn Lucius’ right arm. “I don’t know what the mission of this ability, the Star Map Draftsman, is, but it can be a powerful weapon that can clear away a lot of obstacles. At the moment we already know about the existence of Star Bridge technology, and there are people who have helped us master it, but only I and a few others know about it. If everyone in the solar system knew that we had Star Bridge technology, it wouldn’t be long before the solar system saw the kind of nuclear war that happened in Earth’s time again, and it wouldn’t be long before the solar system was plunged into darkness.”

“There’s no obstacle to looking for a new living space. Since you can fly out, just fly out. Like I said, just master the Star Bridge technology.”

“There are three major Federations and two secondary civilizations on Orion Arm, and wherever the people of the solar system go, they can only belong to one Federation or another. We went a little further out, to the Big Horn system, and, hell, either the Ashton Federation or the Moreth Federation came out and said it was their domain. Recently, our exploration team told me that there are two planets in the Pegasus 51 system that are very similar to Earth, in terms of climate and gravity, and they are very suitable for people in the solar system. Don’t you wish Stacean Lucius could live there? But one thing you need to be aware of is that the Pegasus 51 galaxy is a fringe galaxy of the Ashton Federation.”

“Norm Quentin,” Dawn Lucius said, changing his usual tone and opening up as if he were talking to a friend. “Thankfully, the solar system has a leader like you. I suppose you want to use my ability to control dark matter as a weapon, or as an insurance policy to help the people of the solar system find a new home, which is fine. But I’ll be honest with you: I don’t know what a Star Map Draftsman is, I don’t know what harm this thing can actually do, and with so much unknown, we’re better off playing it safe.”

“Commander Lucius, now that you’ve said that, I understand your attitude.” Norm Quentin sighed as he turned to look at the tombstone of Mrs. Dawn Lucius and spoke. “It looks like the solar system can’t count on you anymore; maybe it never could. I’ll just say one thing, and I hope you’ll give me your assurance.”

“Sorry about that. Norm Quentin, please go ahead.”

“If, in the future, the war in Orion Arm involves the solar system, please just don’t make it difficult for the solar system.”

“Of that, I can assure you.”

After the two talked, Norm Quentin proposed that Dawn Lucius go to the Mars lab to see Stacean Lucius. Katherine sent a new message that they were sure Stacean Lucius would wake up, which excited Dawn Lucius, who was annoyed at Norm Quentin’s slow walk and urged him to go faster every few steps. Dawn Lucius was still blaming Norm Quentin for choosing such a long way back, but after Dawn Lucius’ persuasion, Norm Quentin decided to go to Mars with him to witness the moment Stacean Lucius woke up. When a soldier asked if more troops were needed to protect Norm Quentin’s safety, he refused. According to the plan, he would not stay on Mars for long and would need to return to a hidden command center in the Kuiper belt to continue making plans to defend against the Strath people.

“Commander Lucius reminds me of how anxious I was when Katherine was born,” Norm Quentin said to Dawn Lucius in the waiting area at the Mars Lab.

“I was so anxious when Stacean Lucius was born; every second was so long and so intense,” Dawn Lucius said with his eyes fixed on the operating room.

“Yes, not everyone is qualified to be a father, and if life gives a man this opportunity, then he should take it.”

“That ......” Dawn Lucius turned his face to look at Norm Quentin. It was a phrase Dawn Lucius seemed to have heard somewhere but couldn’t remember where. He opened his mouth and asked, “Norm Quentin, where did you hear that?”

“It’s been a long time and I’ve forgotten. Maybe someone important told me.” Norm Quentin laughed.

“By the way, is Norm Quentin a descendant of General Quentin? Maybe it’s because your first name is Quentin that I made the association.”

“That’s not so. My father was also an aerospace engineer, just a very ordinary one.”

“Do I know him?”

“I don’t think so. Your era was full of heroes; he was as simple as any ordinary father, unlike you ......”

“I wish I had been just a normal father too; then I wouldn’t have been gone so long.” Dawn Lucius grew sad. He looked towards the operating room, and just then Sandra and Katherine came out of the operating room. Dawn Lucius and Norm Quentin went to meet them, and Sandra walked to Dawn Lucius and held his hand. “How did it go?” Dawn Lucius asked in a loud voice.

“He’s awake.” Katherine smiled, the beads of sweat on her forehead moving slowly downward.

“Thank you, thank you,” Dawn Lucius said, and then he knelt down before Katherine, holding her hand and shaking it again and again.

“Commander Lucius, don’t do this ......” Norm Quentin and Katherine rushed to help Dawn Lucius up, and from Katherine, they learned that only Stacean Lucius’ consciousness had woken up; the rest of him had not yet woken, and they needed to observe him for a while, so Dawn Lucius should not go in and disturb Stacean Lucius’ rest yet. Moreover, Katherine told Dawn Lucius to be prepared: even if Stacean Lucius woke up, he might not live to adulthood. The Martian lab’s genetic modification techniques were almost always effective, for example on Norm Quentin, but as for Stacean Lucius, in Katherine’s words, “He has a blank behind his genes.”

“Norm Quentin ......” Just as Dawn Lucius was about to ask what was next, a wounded soldier hurried in and said breathlessly, “Another force of Strath people is coming in. The military has recommended abandoning Mars. We need to hold the fortress in the Kuiper belt; most of the men have already evacuated there. You need to hurry up and leave too.”

After the soldier finished, he turned around and flew his warplane into the sky to fight. Dawn Lucius briefly thought it over. With the Strath people fighting inside the solar system, there were two things to figure out. The first was whether the Moreth Federation had helped the Strath people invade the solar system. Jonathan had said that the Star Bridge technology could not be used to transport soldiers to take part in a war, but now the facts were contrary to what Jonathan had said. If the Moreth Federation was on the side of the Strath Federation, then was the governor of Moreth Federation’s Maniya Planet directly involved? Or did the treasurer give the Strath people permission to use the Star Bridge? Regardless of the extent of Moreth Federation’s involvement, in general, the solar system was in jeopardy. The second thing to figure out was whether Visadio Planet had fallen. When Dawn Lucius and Sandra came to Earth, Burt and Carlson had been fighting near the equator of Visadio Planet, in a standoff with Madam Winifred. If Visadio Planet fell, then the solar system would have to fend for itself.

“Dawn, let’s take Stacean Lucius and retreat to safety. His safety is most important now,” Sandra said as she shook Dawn Lucius’ hand.

“Right, so where do we retreat to?” Dawn Lucius asked, looking at Norm Quentin.

“We could go to the Kuiper Belt, where there are the most soldiers and it’s relatively safe,” Norm Quentin replied.

“No. If we go where there are many soldiers, we’ll be more easily attacked,” Katherine said.

“That ......,” Dawn Lucius asked, looking at Katherine. “Is the ship relatively well-stocked?”

“Quite sufficient. The Mars Lab ship is the equivalent of a mobile laboratory.”

“Okay, then let’s go to Tianwei I,” Dawn Lucius said.

“Tianwei I?” Norm Quentin asked, puzzled.

“Yes, the moon of Uranus. In my day, it was detected that there was soil there; it was just that the sun did not shine there, so no plants could grow,” Dawn Lucius replied.

“Why go there?” Katherine asked, also puzzled.

“I promised my son that when he was on vacation, we would go live on the moons of Uranus and change moons every day ......” Dawn Lucius remembered when he and Stacean Lucius used the telescope to look at the stars, and what Stacean Lucius had said to him. Dawn Lucius took a deep breath, but his tears fell like strawberries knocked off by the wind before they were ripe. Sandra put one arm around Dawn Lucius’ waist and with the other hand smoothed his chest.

“Come on in, you guys.” The doctor in the operating room called out to several people.

Dawn Lucius was the first to rush forward. He ran to Stacean Lucius’ bedside and knelt on the floor to keep his eyes level with Stacean Lucius. His heart was pounding hard against his chest like a beast about to break free. His little man opened his eyes and grinned a big grin when he saw Dawn Lucius, his eyes narrowing to slits. Stacean Lucius reached out to Dawn Lucius, who brought his head close to him. Stacean Lucius first touched the back of Dawn Lucius’ head, then held his ears, and finally touched Dawn Lucius’ nose, and only when he was sure it was a real person did he speak. “Daddy, Daddy, you’re back.”

“Yes, Daddy’s back.” When Dawn Lucius heard Stacean Lucius speak, he broke down completely into sobs.

“Where’s Mom?”

“Mom is going out.”

“What about you? Going out?”

“No, Daddy isn’t going anywhere.”

“You said you went to pick stars for me. Did you pick them?” Stacean Lucius spoke, his whole being still weak.

“This is the star your father picked.” Just when Dawn Lucius was at a loss, Sandra handed Stacean Lucius a planet pendant from behind. Dawn Lucius knew this pendant; it had been left to her by Sandra’s mother. When Sandra was a child, her father was always out fighting, and to help her figure out which planet her father was on, her mother had made this pendant for her, telling her that her father was always with her on the planet around her neck. Dawn Lucius squeezed Sandra’s hand; he was grateful to her.

“Thank you, auntie. It’s beautiful.” Stacean Lucius took the pendant and then closed his eyes after hugging it to his chest.

“Little tiger, are you sleepy?” Dawn Lucius stroked Stacean Lucius’ face, and a warmth came to his heart. He looked carefully at every inch of Stacean Lucius’ skin, every strand of his hair, and he put his nose to Stacean Lucius’ hair and smelled the scent he gave off.

“Dawn, listen to me.” Sandra tapped Dawn Lucius from behind. Dawn Lucius didn’t turn around, but he already knew in his heart.

Dawn Lucius had discussed life with Sandra before. In some faiths, people believe that the death of a loved one is just a physical disappearance, and that their soul will reunite with the departed loved one in another place. “We can sense their presence, can’t we?” Sandra had said. If a loved one disappears after passing away, then why does our heart’s longing not disappear? It’s just that we can’t yet understand and measure that attachment. Dawn Lucius had died twice. The first time was the death of his body, when he was struck through the chest by an energy object on the Sane ship. This time it was the death of his heart. Stacean Lucius woke up briefly to speak to him and then closed his eyes forever. Dawn Lucius’ heart had gone with Stacean Lucius. He had no strength to cry, no strength to breathe, no strength to hear the words of those around him; he only felt that Stacean Lucius was beckoning to him, and Dawn Lucius closed his eyes as Stacean Lucius invited him to roam the universe together.

Stacean Lucius was sitting on the lap of Dawn Lucius, who was flying a colorful spaceship. “Look, there’s Mommy.” Looking in the direction Stacean Lucius pointed, the nebula outside the porthole was cascading, and there was a mushroom-shaped nebula that was smoking hot. At first, the shape of the mushroom was still intact, but as the ship approached, the cap of the mushroom looked as if it had been broken up by a heavy rain, with small pieces hanging behind it. And this time, the shimmering bright spots became visible to the naked eye. It was like a stellar cradle, with stars formed from gathered gas spinning fast, and when they had enough gravity and speed, they were free to rush among the stars. They wandered, clashing limb by limb with other stars, until they were captured by a small, stable galaxy. The small galaxy was like an old man who had been through the mill, placing the newborn stars in the right places around him, and as the months went by, a star would begin to mature, like a grown man, and begin to acquire lost planets, giving them their places and then continuing to give its love, spreading its warmth unstintingly. These planets liked being taken care of, and with their own personalities, they gave birth to new little lives inside them. At first, life was a single cell; the cells did not feel their own existence, nor the presence of other single-celled bodies. Later, they evolved into more complex forms of life and grew four legs. This was the story that Stacean Lucius liked; he liked Dawn Lucius to tell him how a tadpole grows four legs and becomes a frog.

“Dad, I’m old enough not to need you with me anymore,” Stacean Lucius said as he turned to look at Dawn Lucius.

“My little man is growing up, but I can’t leave you alone.” Dawn Lucius pressed his nose to Stacean Lucius’ forehead and kissed Stacean Lucius’ eyebrows.

“You didn’t leave me. We’re just going to take different paths. We’ll see each other again, I promise.”

“What about when Daddy misses you?” Dawn Lucius opened his hands wide and placed them on Stacean Lucius’ chest and his stomach, trying to hold Stacean Lucius tighter.

“Tell the stars when you miss me. They’ll pass it on for me. I’m your sea of stars, remember, Dad?”

“Of course I remember, you’re the only star Daddy has.”

“I’m going to miss Daddy too. I’m going to go find Mommy. I’ll see you on the other side, okay?”

“Wait a little longer ......” Dawn Lucius woke up. He felt as cold as if he had just been fished out of an ice cave; his throat was tight with a burst of pain, he couldn’t swallow, and no matter how hard he tried to breathe, his lungs couldn’t hold enough air. Sandra helped him stand up from the bed; Katherine and Norm Quentin were still there.

“Commander Lucius, we’re sorry. We’re so sorry about this.” Norm Quentin walked up to Dawn Lucius and held his hand tightly, tears welling up in his eyes. Dawn Lucius could feel his sincerity; the warmth in Norm Quentin’s hand was so familiar. “I’m sorry we can’t stay with you. We’re in orbit on the far side of Mars now, and I have to get back to the Kuiper belt. I hope you pull yourself together and join me in guarding this galaxy that Stacean Lucius loves.”

Norm Quentin handed Dawn Lucius a screen containing the video Stacean Lucius had recorded, the one Katherine had shown him the last time he was on Earth. Norm Quentin came up and hugged Dawn Lucius, and he pressed his chin into Dawn Lucius’ shoulder socket, giving Dawn Lucius the illusion that he was Stacean Lucius. After saying a brief goodbye to Sandra, Katherine hurriedly boarded another ship and disappeared from Dawn Lucius’ sight. Dawn Lucius swept a glance over this familiar yet unfamiliar star field. He drew a fresh breath and clenched his fist, not letting go even when his nails sank into the skin of his palm.

Sandra told him that Stacean Lucius’ body had been returned to the Nv Wa project and that he was buried with his mother, and that Norm Quentin had arranged for some soldiers to reinforce the supports and gates of Nv Wa. Dawn Lucius stared at the once-blue planet, where the nuclear contamination had not dissipated, and the Earth looked like a gray glass bead in the sunlight. After Dawn Lucius and Sandra had adjusted their ship, they activated the Star Bridge and, with powerless bodies and mixed emotions, set out for Smyrni Planet.