However, even when Taran Ida didn't show any signs of his abnormality, Lin Xi's relationship with him was quite bad.
Regarding this "scientific research project," the tall, thin, pale man displayed a kind of obsession and controlling desire that is difficult for normal people to understand.
Lin Xi had no doubt that, if possible, Taran would even number every single plastic bolt on the Helios and count them every night.
However, in front of such a captain, Lin Xi couldn't be as "obedient" as the well-trained professional crew members on the Sun God. In fact, even at the Earth-Moon Union University, Lin Xi was known for his free and undisciplined lifestyle; otherwise, the bald department head wouldn't have been so eager to expel him from the university and even from Earth.
Taran utterly loathed Lin Xi. If it weren't for the fact that the cargo the Earthlings had plundered from Sunu contained dozens of rather delicate Sunu plants, and these adorable little creatures needed to be cared for by professionals ("Ha, that's right, it's me!"—Lin Xi), Taran would probably have already gotten rid of Lin Xi at the very beginning of the voyage.
However, considering that Bryce Drake was his brother and also the medical officer of the Sun God, the conflict between Taran and Lin Xi was kept under control. Later in the voyage, as Taran's neuroticism worsened, Lin Xi spent more time in the cultivation laboratory to avoid him.
Lin Xi had thought that the days when he and Taran could no longer stand each other were about to end, but judging from the current situation, his beautiful expectations were clearly dashed.
Taran was still looking at him, his gaze hateful.
"captain……"
Seeing that Taran's gaze toward Lin Xi was becoming increasingly sharp and strange, Bryce couldn't help but speak in a low voice, and then intentionally or unintentionally took a step forward, blocking Lin Xi's path.
"Dr. Lin Xi, you look very well."
Taran finally spoke softly, as if he hadn't seen Bryce at all, his attention focused entirely on Lin Xi the whole time.
"The aftereffects of the shock don't seem to be bothering you much. I suppose that has nothing to do with Medical Officer Bryce? But I heard he brought extra vials of medicine on board... just because he has a fragile, delicate scholar brother. Oh, by the way, his brother is said to suffer from exceptionally severe space sickness."
Taran whispered in a sarcastic tone.
Lin Xi's space vertigo was indeed very serious. In the past two years, if it weren't for the medications that Bryce had prepared for him in advance, he would probably wake up every night in endless nightmares and auditory hallucinations.
The last dose of the drug that Bryce injected Lin Xi with was next to the broken sleep pod.
However, what was clearly a perfectly normal thing, when Taran said it in this way, had a strange and peculiar meaning.
Both Elisa and Bryce involuntarily frowned.
“Those were approved—”
“I just heard you expressing concern about the condition of the goods in the warehouse.”
Before Bryce could explain, Lin Xi spoke first.
"Oh……"
As expected, a smile appeared on Taran's lips upon hearing Lin Xi's response.
"That shitty man was definitely doing this on purpose," Lin Xi thought silently, putting his hand behind his back and giving Taran the middle finger.
“Yes, I’m very worried, extremely worried,” Taran murmured, pressing a hand to his chest. Then, his strange, viscous gaze swept across Elisa’s face, whom he had been confronting earlier. “However, some people have been very worried about the crew’s condition, especially the aftereffects of the jump and the interrupted sleep. But Dr. Lin Xi doesn’t seem to be having any problems with that.”
In reality, Lin Xi's head was throbbing terribly and he felt nauseous—he really wished he could vomit directly onto Taran's perverted face.
However, things are different now.
This wasn't a normal, uneventful flight; it was a terrible moment of failed jump, forced landing, and utterly losing track of their coordinates. At this point, Lin Xi didn't want Bryce and Elisa to waste their precious energy dealing with Taran or mediating the power struggle between him and that madman.
Therefore, Lin Xi accepted the task assigned by Taran quite directly.
Bryce and Elisa were naturally vehemently opposed to this. However, just as Lin Xi had worried, when you have a spaceship that has failed to jump and has to crash-land on an unknown planet, with a crew in extremely poor condition and an exceptionally unreasonable captain, then many of your concerns and objections can only be put off until later.
A dozen minutes later, Lin Xi was already standing at the entrance to the passage leading to the lower warehouse. He had obtained a Slavic exoskeleton light armor as equipment for exploring the lower warehouse.
This armor is thick, highly mobile, and equipped with an independent survival system, even allowing Lin Xi to wear it for extravehicular activities. The only problem is that it is somewhat too bulky for the interior of a spaceship like the Sun God.
Lin Xi barely managed to maneuver the light armor through the gangway into the dimly lit lower level.
"...Because of the impact, we have completely lost power and communication support from B-1 to C-12. I think the system settings must have been jammed during the violent shaking—hey, Lin Xi, don't worry about that guy Taran, you need to know that your safety is always the most important thing."
Elisa's gentle voice came from the other end of the communication system.
Lin Xi inserted the mechanical claw into the wall of the ventilation duct and slowly bypassed a pile of deformed support structure fragments.
He is slowly descending.
Even the emergency lighting failed, and this place was as dark as the seabed.
“Of course, but if it’s for you, I’m still willing to try to fix those damn system settings.” Lin Xi began to pant as he manipulated the Slavic light armor, and he muttered to Elisa.
Lin Xi was certain that her sweat had completely soaked through her bodysuit lining.
He had to hypnotize himself, to believe that the clumsy metal garment around his body represented some of Bryce's love, so that he wouldn't curse out loud.
"I know you're cursing me, darling."
Just as that thought flashed through Lin Xi's mind, Bryce's voice came through.
"I'm just doing this as a precaution. Nobody knows if the storage facilities are still powered on. If the emergency equipment malfunctions, the sealing and isolation of those things will definitely fail. I don't want you to risk coming into contact with anything you shouldn't..."
Even during communications, Bryce seemed unusually talkative.
Lin Xi's feet were already on solid ground. The screen inside the armor showed that he had arrived at the location of the first warehouse.
Taking advantage of the darkness, Lin Xi rolled his eyes to his heart's content inside the light armor.
"Please, those are just some Sunu specialties. We went to several Sunu civilization exhibitions when we were kids, and I even touched those incredibly beautiful Sunu star butterflies with my own hands... Oh, right, I remember you were so jealous you almost cried in the museum back then... If those Sunu trinkets really had some kind of alien virus like you imagine, you and I would have died countless times already—"
"Hey, Bryce, are you still listening?"
An unpleasant hissing sound came from the cellular communicator. Lin Xi glanced at the screen; the communication symbol had changed from a cute green to red.
"Fuck it—"
Lin Xi cursed.
He knew that these ancient artifacts left over from the era of great exploration were prone to various malfunctions...
However, apart from being in a somewhat bad mood, Lin Xi's actions were not affected by the sudden interruption of communication.
He quickly inspected the warehouse between C12 and B-7.
The damage was more severe in the lower levels of the warehouse; the only saving grace was that, so far, the goods Lin Xi had inspected were mostly intact.
In addition to the valuables storage area in B-3.
That's right, it's the location of the fossil site that made Taran so irritable and sensitive.
Lin Xi skillfully used the armored mechanical arm to lift a thick steel plate, and then, with the help of a searchlight, he could see the situation in area B-3.
"Oh, this is really bad."
Lin Xi sighed, feeling that her headache had worsened again.
The solid and sturdy protective layer of the valuables storage area had the opposite effect in this accident; the heavy alloys crushed the storage container containing the fossil sculpture during the forced landing.
The current situation here is like letting a three-year-old child run into a crystal craft store to play hide-and-seek, with hard composite resin fragments and overflowing gel everywhere.
The Sunu relic sculpture had slipped out of its container and lay wet on the ground.
Under the bright light of the searchlight, it took on a strange bluish-white color.
This sculpture was carved directly from a fossil, but anyone can see that the Sunu craftsmen did not actually leave many traces of carving on it. To a large extent, it still retains the original appearance of the fossil, which is an irregular and smooth pupa-like mass.
Only at the very top of the fossil, where countless intricate and detailed lines were carved, did it suddenly resemble the face of a dying human. Lin Xi took a step forward and realized that the so-called "face" was merely an illusion caused by the light.
That thing actually looked more like the mouthparts of some kind of exceptionally large insect; Lin Xi could even see its sharp, menacing teeth and slender tongue.
"This thing is disgusting."
Even knowing that communication had long been cut off, Lin Xi couldn't help but mutter to himself after seeing the fossil sculpture clearly. Considering that its innermost part still retained biological activity and that it could still secrete a fluid called "earth milk," Lin Xi increasingly felt that he was facing the corpse of some kind of animal rather than a fossil.
It looks... almost as if it could start wriggling again at any moment.
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