While the world isn't entirely clear about what dating between nonhumans is like, it's not much different from human society—it's essentially a marriage of equal status. Most people imagine it as nothing more than powerful nonhumans accommodating humans, or humans caring for weaker nonhumans, using differences in race and power to create contrasts, rarely resulting in equal power. In reality, however, there's usually no such thing as marrying up or marrying down. Strong individuals, seeking a higher starting point for their offspring and a lower barrier to higher social status, simply combine forces. When both individuals are truly powerful, the complexity of their romantic relationship is far simpler than imagined, because the strong are always rational.
Of course, they may not necessarily be happy.
The place they agreed to meet was not far from where Jiang Ling was, just outside Training Room No. 3, on a cable that no one had paid attention to today.
In reality, it didn't take Lin Yi long to reach the destination. For an intelligent being like her, distance wasn't a problem; at most, she'd just have to change bodies. When Jiang Ling floated out of the airlock, Lin Yi was already "standing" at the end of the enormous, towering cable, arms outstretched like Rose Dewitt, feeling the omnipresent high-energy rays and charged particles hitting her body.
In theory, the surface treatment of her specially made body is enough to resist these rays, so that those sophisticated sensory instruments will not actually come into contact with these dangerous substances, so she will not gain any feeling.
The vibration caused by Jiang Ling landing on the cable brought Lin Yi back to her senses. She turned, her back to the starry sea, facing the person she had promised herself to be with. The smile on her face flickered in and out of the cosmic radiation. "You're here?" she said as Jiang Ling came within a few meters. However, the vacuum of the surroundings prevented her voice from propagating, and Jiang Ling could only see the changing shapes of her lips.
Fortunately, although Jiang Ling was only wearing a transparent mask and her belongings were securely stored in the airlock's storage cabinet, the mask had an integrated speech analysis module, so she could still understand Lin Yi's words. Lin Yi's mouth shape changed several times, and two strings of numbers gradually appeared on Jiang Ling's mask. They were the radio communication frequency band and the communication encryption code.
Afterwards, Lin Yi said: "You are not wearing protective clothing."
Jiang Ling replied indifferently: "It doesn't matter, isn't it the same for you?"
Lin Yi added: "There are thrusters and flight control systems on the protective suits, so we can fly together."
Jiang Ling replied, "That's okay. There's no gravity here. As long as I'm not far from the mothership, I can still fly as freely as a bird."
Lin Yi pondered for a few seconds, then, without hesitation, clung to Jiang Ling like a koala. Her body looked light, but in reality, it had immense mass and inertia. With just one movement, she pushed Jiang Ling away from the cable. "I trust you. Take me with you!" she whispered through the mask, leaning her head against Jiang Ling's ear.
"Where do you want to go?" Jiang Ling instinctively put his arms around Lin Yi's slender waist, but his eyes remained fixed straight ahead. At the same time, he used the speed of the mothership's central axis invading his field of vision to calculate his own movement status.
"Anywhere."
"Oh? This doesn't seem like you." Jiang Ling said softly, "Lin Yi? No, the one occupying this body is no longer Lin Yi."
"Then let's go to the front! Go to the very front. I know a great place to look at the stars. He said you liked it before."
"Then you have to hold on tight!"
Jiang Ling narrowed her eyes. After thirteen millennia, she once again had the opportunity to unleash the power she trusted most. Invisible tentacles, like windswept threads, emanated from the specialized organ in her chest, passing unimpeded through the surrounding obstacles and connecting to the relatively solid mothership structure she perceived. Then, they began to accumulate more and more energy—expansion in the front, contraction in the back, like bundles of cooperating muscle fibers.
At a certain point, Jiang Ling said, "Are you ready, intelligent consciousness of unknown name?"
It didn't answer, but just hugged Jiang Ling's limbs tightly.
"So--"
By this point, Jiang Ling had stretched her telekinetic fibers to their limit. With a single thought, all the threads unleashed, silently launching the two, a combined mass of 362kg, like a slingshot. Almost instantly, they were accelerated to a speed of 200m/s relative to the mothership's axis, and everything in sight flew backwards. The space surrounding the mothership was virtually free of gravitational interference, and Jiang Ling had chosen the only solution among many possible angles that would avoid collision with obstacles. Therefore, the two's trajectory would continue in a straight line, extending endlessly forward to infinity.
They basically flew close to the central axis and returned to the living area of the mothership in just ten seconds. Then, within half a minute, they passed through six constantly rotating rings and the numerous cables supporting them in turn. Then, about a kilometer in front of the ring, they crashed into a small hole in the shield used to block the high-energy rays generated by the light pressure pulse engine, bringing out a small amount of debris while slowing down to one third of the initial speed.
Another 45 seconds passed before the two could finally see the propulsion compartment and energy center hidden in the shadow of the mothership's main propulsion structure. They were all protected by thick armor plates and redundant structures. With the remaining kinetic energy of the two, it was no longer enough to fight head-on.
"Are you ready? I'm going to start slowing down." Jiang Ling said.
"Hmm!" it responded.
The two of them stepped onto the "ground" again. They stood on the external maintenance structure of the central axis, looking up with the help of external lighting. The main engine of the mothership was as tall as a mountain.
No, it's essentially a mountain with a radius of more than four thousand meters.
"Jiang Ling, tell me the truth. My name is Lin Ke, and I am the earliest and original intelligent consciousness known to mankind." Lin Yi's body said while standing beside him.
"Lin Ke? I remember Li Wenjia mentioned you."
"Hmmmm hehe - that was around 5 years ago, Xiao Lin Yi let it slip, right? It's all recorded in my database. It's been so long without me noticing!" Lin Ke's eyes flashed with data.
Jiang Ling took a deep breath and asked, "So, the matter that requires your personal involvement must not be too simple, right?"
"Yes, otherwise it would be impossible to wake you from your slumber, people's goddess of the earth," it said.
"Why don't you hurry up? Time is running out! Let's look at the stars later!" Jiang Ling couldn't wait to grab Lin Ke's hand, tapped the "ground" with her toes, and rushed into the starry sky.
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