After a thorough inspection of the Peace, Miss Nuo glanced at the endless string of BUG reports displayed by the navigation system, then looked at Niao Xiaomi.
“I have good news and bad news,” she said.
I’m not choosing!
Niao Xiaomi crossed her arms and tilted her head.
“All right, the good news is that our hull has finally stopped making weird noises.”
“The bad news is… it doesn’t move anymore.”
……
It was already the third day since departure.
The initial curiosity and excitement had long faded; now, with the Peace stranded, everyone was left with nothing but waves of boredom.
“I’m telling you, this is absolutely insane, a complete scam.” Ah Lei was ranting endlessly at the Voyage Recorder.
“We never should have trusted that old witch. Who would dare board a spaceship whipped up by hand in ten minutes? If something hadn’t gone wrong, that would’ve been the real problem!”
“Look on the bright side, at least the Sewer isn’t clogged, or else…”
Ugh—
“What are you looking at?”
Bai Xiaozhi walked over to the girl’s back.
Niao Xiaomi was crouched in front of the giant floor-to-ceiling window, her silhouette tiny against the unknown blue planet outside.
[Look at the clouds on this planet. Don’t they look like a bird?]
Bai Xiaozhi looked.
—No, not at all!
How does this girl even make that connection?
“This is the Fox Constellation, 62.9 light-years from Earth,” Miss Nuo crouched down too. “Barring any surprises, it should be HD 189733b, a gaseous giant where it rains glass all year round.”
【Glass rain?】
“There’s a high concentration of silicate particles in its atmosphere, so it looks like glass rain.”
Kind of… cool?
“But the surface winds reach up to 9,000 kilometers per hour, so instead of glass rain, it’s more like a meat grinder…”
Wu Xiaomi swallowed hard, suddenly losing all interest in this planet.
“Because of gravity, we’ll be crashing into this planet soon. The hull of the Peace won’t last long against that kind of storm and impact, so our shelter will be ground to dust—then our bodies will be next…”
“…”
We really shouldn’t have come!
“Of course you’re not going to let us get turned into mince meat,” Bai Xiaozhi looked at Miss Nuo with trust. “What’s the Backup Plan?”
“First, I broadcast a Rescue Signal in Earth language to the area around us. I don’t know if there are other civilizations here or if they’ll understand… but it’s worth a try.”
“Second, the system is being re-imported; once that’s done, maybe we’ll be able to set off again.”
“Lastly, if we’re definitely going to crash on this planet, I’ll dump all the Drugs from the Ammunition Depot ahead of time. By setting off explosions and heat blasts, I’ll try to slow the wind as much as possible—of course, that’s a last resort.”
Oh.
After that, all that was left was a long wait.
“Import failed. Looks like we’ll have to attempt a forced descent.”
Miss Nuo looked toward the planet, unwillingly opening the Ammunition Depot.
She locked on to the planet below.
Dumping these Atomic Bombs might lessen the winds on the planet, but the Peace would also lose its fighting capability.
If there was any other way, she’d never choose this.
“Shouldn’t we check if there’s any life on the planet before launching the nukes?” Ah Lei asked.
“Winds of 9,000 kilometers an hour, a gas giant full of silicates—there’s simply no possibility for life to originate here,” Miss Nuo shook her head. “Of that, I’m certain.”
All right then, let’s blow it up.
The Atomic Bomb launch bay doors slowly opened, targeting the deep blue planet below.
“Angle adjustment, countdown, three—”
“Wait! There’s a reaction on the planet!”
Just as the nukes locked onto the planet.
A stream of light swept over it, and the whole planet’s color changed!
It was no longer a deep blue dotted with silicate, but became just like Earth—blue and white, with landmasses and oceans laid out in familiar patterns!
The storms across the entire planet instantly stopped, leaving only calm, gentle air.
Everyone was stunned.
Planets can be scared?
Did the planet stop the winds because it was afraid of being nuked?
Unheard of…
“Captain, we’ve received a communication invitation! Our Rescue Signal got a reply!” Ah Lei shouted.
“Connect it.”
The Communication Signal linked, and the reply to the Peace’s Rescue Signal actually came from this very HD 189733b!
After the connection, the main screen in front of the Captain’s room displayed the face of their contact.
It was a strange being—fish head, human body.
It opened its fishy mouth and spoke.
[This is the Stellar Federation HD 189733b Outpost. Please close your weapons bay immediately, or this outpost will exercise its legal right to retaliate.]
“So you can speak human language?” Miss Nuo asked.
Hmm… That question had some edge to it.
After all, they’d taken so long to reply. If she hadn’t flashed the nukes, these guys might’ve just pretended not to hear the Rescue Signal.
No wonder the crew of the Peace were annoyed.
[Your language is not in the Stellar Federation’s database. We spent a long time searching for your language family. In the end, we discovered—you are from a distant planet that has yet to master Interstellar Navigation Technology. Your appearance here caught us completely off guard.]
“Stellar Federation?”
[An alliance of many civilizations for mutual aid. I can’t disclose further information.]
“No offense, but we’re stranded. Can you help?”
[Interstellar Navigation Technology is strictly confidential. Such technology must be discovered by civilizations themselves. The Federation will never share it with others, to avoid disaster.]
“So are you helping or not? If not, I might just fire the nukes.”
[…]
The other side went silent, fish gills wrinkling—looking a bit troubled.
[Your interstellar navigation technology is extremely crude, but you possess weapons of mass destruction far beyond other civilizations—those missiles in your ship, based on the principles of atomic fission, are exceedingly dangerous for your civilization’s current level.]
To be fair, that was true.
Before the Atomic Bomb, the most powerful human explosives could only take out a city block.
After the bomb, entire cities could be erased with ease, even continents shifted.
The power wasn’t just a geometric leap.
It was as if humanity had skipped a branch on the tech tree, suddenly holding the power to destroy itself—and with no way to defend against it.
Scientists had found the sharpest spear, so sharp even these aliens feared it.
Unfortunately, no shield to match.
“No matter what, we’re a civilization with interstellar navigation capability now, aren’t we?”
Miss Nuo stared at the salty fish on screen. “We made it here by our own strength. Helping us would be an act of friendship, not leaking technology.”
[That’s reasonable.] The fish patted its fin, used a Splash move. [I can help repair your ship, but you must promise not to use your weapons within the Stellar Federation.]
“If the Stellar Federation is a friendly organization, we wouldn’t dream of harming you. But if you have ill intent, we’ll defend ourselves.”
[Agreed. That’s very reasonable.]
[Please open your bay doors. We’ll send an Engineer to your ship to improve your Voyage Recorder system.]
……
After such a strange encounter, the Peace finally stopped “not moving.”
Wu Xiaomi thought of how the other called themselves the Stellar Federation.
Stars? Federation? In the ancient texts, there had also been mentions of “thanks to the stars.”
It seemed they were the ones who provided the white space for all those in distress.
“So the universe is this lively after all.”
Once they set off again, Miss Nuo couldn’t help but sigh.
Yes, people once thought Earth was alone.
But who could’ve guessed, behind any barren-looking planet, a grand civilization could be hiding—just like this one, concealing its outpost behind silicate storms and gales.
“Let’s go. Next stop, Nerrifa!”
“It’s time for our fellow Nerrifans to feel the power of the ‘refugees’.”