"Ding Dong——" An encrypted email popped up from the side of his vision with the prompt sound of the exoskeleton system, and was then pinned to the top of the to-do list. Liu Haiyang blinked, still looking out the porthole silently.

Behind this yellow-green, high-lead optical glass, three meters wide, six meters long, and 16 centimeters thick, a crudely constructed, ultra-large spacecraft pierced the glittering stars. The forward section of the ship would periodically release high-energy radiation backwards, necessitating the installation of additional nuclear shielding armor for the accompanying vessels lagging behind. The Flint, Liu Haiyang's ship, was a space shuttle traversing this dangerous zone. For added safety, all electrical equipment on board had to be shut down when passing through the ionization zone, making the porthole the perfect place to while away the tedious hours.

"Make way, make way! Please pass! Hey, comrade, please put your feet down, thank you!" A noisy jet-propelled robot pushed a box that was much larger than itself into the cabin, meandering around the crew members floating around the cabin walls, and accurately threw the drink bags fixed to the surface of the box by molecular adsorption force in front of each person.

The flight paths of the drink bags were easy to predict, so most people caught them successfully. However, the bag belonging to Liu Haiyang spun and hit the porthole glass, making a crisp "pop" sound, and then bounced back at a slower speed.

"Why don't you drink something, little brother?"

An object with greater inertia slowly approached, grasping the shoulder armrest of Liu Haiyang's exoskeleton. It then spun, leaning against the glass in a half-reclining position, facing him. The man smiled at him, holding a drink package in each hand. The left package was already open, and the straw that came with it still had traces of fresh dark green liquid on it. Liu Haiyang saw that he was wearing a dark blue Space Force jumpsuit, with two Velcro identification stickers near his left chest. Compared to the other crew members around him, he looked a bit too retro.

"Hello, comrade!" Liu Haiyang took the right hand he offered, took out the drink, bit open the package skillfully, squeezed out a little and tasted it, then frowned, "It tastes bad!"

"That's right, it tastes bad. This is medicine, not a drink," said the person opposite.

Liu Haiyang held the drink bag up to the light filtering through the glass. He saw the words "Potassium Iodide Chlorophyll Juice" printed on the transparent film on the front. He then held his breath and took another long gulp. "This is so damned unpalatable!" he remarked.

"Get used to it, Hibernator. The current space army is more pragmatic than ever. They won't use nano-therapy devices on you if this thing can solve the problem."

Liu Haiyang glanced at the drink bag in his hand again, pouted and shook his head: "At least you still have medicine."

"Haha, my name is Song Yinglong, and I come from fifty-one centuries ago. Brother, what's your name?"

"Liu Haiyang."

"Ocean, what an ancient term. To be honest, I have never actually seen the ocean. You must be from an earlier era, right?" Song Yinglong said.

Liu Haiyang nodded: "The vast sea of ​​stars is also an ocean, so empty that only eternal light remains, and so transparent that the depths are bottomless. It's really beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah, I think even gods would like a place like this."

"God?" His words touched Liu Haiyang, bringing back memories. He focused his gaze once again on the Endless Galaxy outside the porthole, looking at its front, then its rear, and finally its light-pressure pulse engine. "There are no gods in this world, only self-serving egoists who claim to be gods. The true gods are among the people, serving the people. If you could meet them, perhaps you would change your mind."

"Could it be that there is one right before my eyes?"

"Perhaps! But right now, it seems that my people may not need me..."

At that moment, the lights in the observation cabin came on, and the view outside the portholes narrowed as the protective panels closed. Inside, several square holographic screens began to appear, showing the crew checking the status of the Flintstone's equipment. The person in front of Liu Haiyang also lit up a screen. He noticed that it displayed the shuttle's basic parameters and route changes, and used this to determine Song Yinglong's position on the Flintstone.

He waited until the man finished his operation, then spoke amidst the increasing acceleration: "Captain Song, do we need to hibernate for a short period of time now?"

"No, it'll only take a moment." He clutched the handrail on the bulkhead, his face pale and breathing heavily as he answered, "We have to catch up first... Diamond Star... She's the sister ship of Steel Atom, a highly automated research vessel. She's been accompanying the mothership all along... In a moment you'll be able to see the mothership's front shield... It's covered in hundreds of meters of ice, left over from crossing the gaseous nebula two thousand years ago. But it won't affect us. Aha, that nasty gravity!"