"Aaaaaahh ...
Elisa couldn't help but scream.
She began to struggle frantically, and it was because of this that it took her a long time to realize that the person who had restrained her did not intend to harm her.
"...Calm down, it's me! Elisa!"
Then, that familiar voice slowly entered her ears.
Bryce's voice sounded as if it were coming from tens of thousands of light-years away.
Elisa stopped all movement. She stared in disbelief at the man so close to her, almost thinking it was a hallucination born of her fear.
"Bryce?"
"It's me, baby, oh my god... what happened to you?"
Bryce cupped Elisa's face in his hands, repeating the same words over and over, his eyes filled with sorrow and worry.
Elisa trembled uncontrollably. Her lips moved for a long time, but the sound seemed to be stuck in her throat. She had so much to say, so much extremely important information to tell the other person.
But at that moment, she couldn't say anything, yet her tears kept flowing out.
"It's alright, darling, it's all over now. I'll protect you, don't be afraid—"
Bryce gave Alyssa a tight hug. Without needing to communicate, he could already sense Alyssa's current predicament.
Elisa's body went limp the moment he hugged her, and all her strength finally vanished completely.
She was just a hair's breadth away from falling to the ground, but Bryce caught her in his arms just in time.
"It's okay, I'm here for you..."
Bryce whispered in Elisa's ear.
"Cough cough—"
Lin Xi, who had remained silent throughout, couldn't help but let out a soft, fake cough.
He looked at Bryce and Elisa, who were tightly embracing each other, his eyes somewhat unfocused.
...He always felt a strange sense of incongruity standing there in this situation.
“Bryce… I suggest we go back to the medical room first, since Elisa needs treatment.”
Lin Xi reminded him.
As he spoke, he felt as if he had heard something, and then he turned his body slightly to look at the other side of the corridor.
Of course, no strange-looking monsters were chasing after Elisa at this time, but the blood-stained footprints that Elisa had left on the ground were very conspicuous.
This made Lin Xi feel a subtle unease.
Regardless of what Elisa had encountered before, judging from her actions just now, she was clearly avoiding something.
"Oh yes, my God—"
Bryce looked at Elisa's feet in the direction Lin Xi was pointing.
The medical officer, who could remain calm even when seeing bloodied and mangled wounds with internal organs spilling out, turned pale the moment he saw the wound on his lover's foot.
Elisa had taken off her shoes to hide her footsteps, which may have been a smart decision at the time, but now it seems like a bad one.
After all, when Alyssa ran away, she didn't have time to worry about her shoes. The shoes were left in a remote warehouse, and she also injured her feet during the escape. Now there is a long gash on the sole of her foot, from which blood is constantly oozing.
Bryce nervously led Alyssa to the medical room, with Lin Xi following closely behind.
He didn't notice that after they left the corridor, a few drops of bright red, viscous blood silently fell at the other end of the corridor.
Then, the once smooth and cold corridor walls trembled, and the metallic color slowly faded, replaced by various patterns with intense colors.
"Honey."
The insect's face emerged from behind its wings. Although Lin Xi was no longer there at this time, it still appeared somewhat evasive when it revealed its face.
It stared at the spot where Bryce and Elisa had been hugging for a long time, and then, somewhat abruptly, began to recite, word by word.
"Honey."
It paused for a moment, then repeated itself, this time in a tone very similar to Bryce’s when he whispered to Elisa.
Its antennae twitched slightly behind its head, but then slowly drooped down.
"It's okay, I'm here for you."
"Number One" spoke to the air, word by word.
Then he slowly climbed two steps toward the ceiling.
The bodies of several pale-faced crew members were revealed from under its wings.
If Lin Xi were still here, he could easily recognize that these crew members were the crew members under Robert's emergency response team.
And their personal terminals are still flashing with countless unread messages.
"Number One" tapped the communicator with some curiosity.
However, when it touched the communicator, a message appeared on the screen saying "personnel mismatch".
"Number One" twitched its tentacles slightly. It bent down and picked up the corpse's fingers, placing them in front of its enormous compound eyes. After a brief examination, "Number One's" forelimbs, which looked as if they were covered with thin human skin, began to change visibly.
The skin became tight and dry, and then slowly bled—the shell inside the skin expanded and ruptured the original skin.
Shortly after being exposed to air, cracks appeared along the edges of the grayish-white carapace.
"Number One" tilted its head slightly and raised its forelimbs, waving them.
The shells quickly shattered into pieces and fell to the ground.
The structure protruding from inside the shell already has very obvious characteristics of a human hand, except that the unusually pale "skin" is actually just a layer of special chitin, with a thin membrane only on the fingertips.
The intricate folds on that membrane were exactly the same as the fingerprints on the corpse that "Number One" had carefully observed.
"Number One" tentatively placed its newly formed "hand" on the personal terminal.
This time, it opened the terminal with exceptional ease, and the messages quickly popped up.
Crew: Please report the location of Vice-Captain Elisa immediately...
"Number One" stared blankly at the characters, not understanding their meaning, so it quickly lost interest in the personal terminal and the unread messages.
"Bang--"
The body was carelessly left on the ground.
"Lin Xi".
"Number One" muttered.
It waved its arms in the air, imitating Bryce from not long ago.
Its stance made it seem as if Lin Xi were in its arms, except that at this moment, there was only air in its arms.
"Number One" was in a good mood at first.
Although this little insect hasn't evolved a very clear logic yet, its instincts tell it that what it just did... helped Lin Xi.
Although the original "Number One" was still somewhat angry. The harm Lin Xi had caused it was truly severe; it had experienced pain and sorrow it had never felt before in its life. It had even prepared itself to spit fiercely at Lin Xi when he came to visit again.
But ever since Lin Xi was called away, he has never come to the greenhouse again.
In the end, "Number One" could only anxiously drag its still-healing body out. It quickly found Lin Xi, but it dared not reveal its true form to him. "Number One" had a premonition that its current appearance would not make Lin Xi happy, so it could only secretly hide behind him and follow him all the way.
It could be said that the unfortunate crew members lying at its feet were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, neither Lin Xi nor Bryce had noticed the two crew members who had come with Elisa.
However, "Number One" easily detected their presence.
"Number One" witnessed them stealthily approaching Lin Xi and the other two humans, and the thing that the crew members were holding tightly in their hands also left a deep impression on the alien insect.
After all, not long ago, it had personally experienced the feeling of a pulse gun piercing several holes in its body.
Without much thought, "Number One" leaned out and pierced the skulls of the crew members with its tongue. The brains of these humans had a bitter taste that disgusted "Number One," so it selectively abandoned their fresh and warm flesh.
But no matter what, it knew it had helped Lin Xi.
It took care of those two annoying humans with guns.
"Lin Xi..."
Number One imagined Lin Xi curled up in its arms after finding out about this, and let out a happy mutter. Before this, it had never liked the two humans around Lin Xi, after all, Lin Xi always carried a lot of their scent. But now, Number One had subtly changed its opinion of Elisa and Bryce.
It watched Elisa and Bryce's entire interaction in the hallway with rapt attention.
Those tender kisses and hugs were as sweet as a dream.
For the first time, "Number One" felt a sense of envy.
That's why it secretly started imitating Lin Xi and Bryce's every move after they left.
Number One firmly believes this will be a happy thing.
But immediately, the light feeling in its arms made "Number One" feel a kind of unpleasant hunger. However, this hunger did not come from its stomach, but from its chest.
This feeling is really strange.
It was as if its entire body had become empty... just like its arms now.
Thinking about this, "Number One's" mood quickly plummeted.
Just then, a series of noisy footsteps came from afar.
"Number One" suddenly turned his head and met the people who were slowly walking towards him from the other end of the corridor.
However... those people looked a bit strange.
Their eyes were so empty, their expressions so wooden, that they looked more like puppets driven by machines than real humans.
"Searching...searching...finding..."
With each step they took, they would mutter these words simultaneously.
Upon seeing "Number One," the group suddenly stopped.
Some people's dark eyes flashed with a spark of emotion, something called fear.
But many more people simply stood still out of instinct.
Number One slowly turned around and faced them directly.
"No, don't be afraid."
He spoke to someone who didn't actually exist in the air.
Then it slowly crawled toward those people.
...
"Hmm..."
At the other end of the spaceship, Lin Xi couldn't help but shiver the moment she stepped into the medical room.
He rubbed his temples; just now, he seemed to feel an invisible hook gently tugging at his mind.
Although the feeling wasn't as intense as a headache, it was incredibly strange.
Lin Xi looked down at his arm, and every hair on his arm stood up without him even noticing.
After the metal door closed, Lin Xi frowned, glanced at Bryce who was busy with treatment, and then reached out and pressed the lock button.
The door to the medical room lit up red instantly, which was against the spaceship's regulations, but Lin Xi felt a little more at ease when she saw the locked light come on.
After doing all this, Lin Xi turned around and went to Bryce and Elisa's side.
Elisa was absolutely terrified.
Lin Xi looked at her with some sadness. He could say that since he had known Elisa, he had never seen her like this before. In his memory, Elisa was gentle but very strong-willed, and she could handle any task, no matter how difficult, smoothly.
Sometimes, Lin Xi even felt that Elisa was omnipotent, far stronger than Bryce and far more powerful than herself.
Even in the worst possible scenario, Lin Xi never imagined that one day she would see Elisa looking so vulnerable and dazed in Bryce's arms.
Moreover, what's worse are the injuries on Elisa's body.
Her body was covered in scrapes and bruises, and although the deep bite mark on her knuckles had stopped bleeding, it had swelled up and turned purple.
Seeing these things was enough to break Lin Xi's heart, not to mention the deep, bone-revealing wounds on her fingers and soles.
Bryce's hands trembled slightly as he cleaned the wounds, and Lin Xi's brows were furrowed tightly.
"What exactly happened... Who would dare to treat you like this... Was it Robert?"
He asked as he helped Bryce by spraying disinfectant foam on Elisa's wound.
Elisa shook her head.
Her complexion looked much better than when the two brothers first saw her.
However, she kept her hands tightly gripping the blanket that Bryce had draped over her, as if only in this way could she relieve her tension.
“It was Taran…Taran orchestrated all of this…”
At the mention of Taran, Elisa suddenly covered her mouth with her hand to suppress the nausea rising from her stomach.
Next, she intermittently told Bryce and Lin Xi what she had overheard in the warehouse.
"...There was no warp failure from the beginning. Taran must have done it on purpose. He orchestrated the warp failure himself. Oh God, I'm so stupid. Why didn't I think of that? We were all in warp dormancy at the time. It would have been so easy for him to do something, especially since the Apollo didn't have a ship AI."
As she spoke, Elisa clutched her head tightly.
"Hey, don't say that. No one could have imagined they would be this crazy. After all, no one with a normal mind would dare to do anything during a warp—they might be crushed into molecular-level fragments along with themselves by the warp gate."
Bryce comforted her from the side.
But Elisa still looked incredibly frustrated.
"The problem lies with those food bags. Good heavens, thankfully we discovered this so long ago, but I kept it a secret because of the food shortage. I thought... I thought their changes could be fixed... Once we return to Earth, we'll find a way to deal with those people's mutations. What a terrible mistake I made! Now... look at our crew, they've all become Taran's kin. No, no, they weren't kin at all. He just sacrificed these innocent humans to Sunu's evil god!"
As she spoke, Elisa became extremely agitated once again.
She did indeed appear to be on the verge of a mental breakdown.
"The Mother of Aliens, damn it... what the hell is that thing? Why haven't I noticed anything wrong with him in all the time I've worked with him? Heavens, he actually wanted to become this terrifying, and he actually did it willingly..."
"The Mother of All Species?"
Lin Xi, who had managed to remain calm despite hearing Elisa's incoherent and terrified narration, swayed slightly the moment she heard that familiar word come out of Elisa's mouth.
He looked at Elisa in horror, almost unable to believe his ears.
"You mean, Taran wants to become the Mother of the Alien?"
“No, that’s right.” Elisa forced herself to recall what she had seen and heard, and she nodded vigorously. “I heard it with my own ears, and I also... he used them as sacrifices. God knows how many innocent people he has sacrificed in recent times…”
"But that's not right."
Lin Xi couldn't help but murmur.
"What's wrong?"
Bryce had been nervously observing Lin Xi and Elisa's every move. After hearing this, he frowned and asked.
"No one can become the so-called Mother of the Species through sacrifice; the Mother of the Species is..."
At this point, Lin Xi's voice suddenly stopped.
How did the Mother of the Alien Species come to be?
He clearly knew nothing, so why could he so naturally tell Bryce and Elisa that everything Taran did was futile and meaningless?
"Lin Xi, do you know something?"
Elisa stared blankly at Lin Xi and then asked.
"I……"
Lin Xi's lips parted slightly.
Before he could speak, a heavy, strange noise suddenly came from the other side of the metal door.
"Beep beep—"
The metal door, which had been locked from the inside, made a rapid creaking sound after the strange noise. Upon hearing this, everyone in the medical room turned serious.
"Damn it."
Bryce muttered a curse under his breath.
His voice sounded as if he was still somewhat frightened.
If Lin Xi hadn't instinctively locked the metal door, it would have already been forcibly opened by now.
Even just a week ago, Bryce never imagined he would one day hear this alarm from the metal door—an alarm specifically designed for the space pirates who broke into spaceships and committed murder and plunder during the Great Age of Exploration.
"Oh, no..."
Elisa swayed and jumped off the treatment table in an instant, then stared warily at the direction of the metal door.
“They must have come for me. Taran saw me, he knows… he knows I’ve seen all his secrets…”
Elisa spoke incoherently.
Sure enough, the moment Elisa finished speaking, all three of their personal terminals started buzzing – countless incoming messages made the buzzing sound almost like a banshee's howl.
Lin Xi and Bryce exchanged a glance and pressed the mute button, letting the information on the screen scroll rapidly.
But soon, a vague and strange sound came from another corner of the medical room.
"Medical Officer Bryce, you have violated regulations by locking down the medical bay during your shift, which is a breach of the Interstellar Flight Act enacted by the United Human Government. We are issuing you a stern warning here and demand that you immediately reopen the medical bay inside the Helios..."
"Bang--"
A gunshot rang out.
The spaceship's built-in speaker, located in the corner, was reduced to a sizzling mass of melting plastic by the pulse gun bullets.
Lin Xi put down the gun in his hand and turned to look at the stunned Elisa and Bryce.
"That guy's voice sounded like he was swallowing saliva, it was disgusting, don't you think?"
After calmly blasting away the speakers without batting an eye, Lin Xi appeared much more composed.
Bryce stared at him blankly for several seconds, then surprisingly smiled.
“You’re right,” he said.
"Bang...bang bang..."
But Bryce and Lin Xi's conversation was soon interrupted by a heavy knock on the door.
"First Lieutenant Alyssa, this is Robert, the Energy Manager. There's an emergency on board, and we urgently need your assistance. Captain Taran and the entire emergency response team are waiting for you in the conference room..."
Robert's tone of voice was finally much more normal than before.
His voice was loud and steady. If it weren't for the previous strange occurrences, you might not have realized that something was wrong just by listening to the man speaking calmly outside the cabin door.
But it was precisely this "normality" that gave the three people inside the medical room goosebumps.
Bryce moved his finger and turned on the surveillance camera outside the medical room.
Soon, his image appeared on the screen.
He was still wearing that strange robe, his head and neck bowed to an unbelievable degree, pressed tightly against the door of the medical room.
After a moment, he seemed to realize that he was being watched by the surveillance cameras.
"Vice-Captain Elisa, Medical Officer Bryce... are you looking at me?"
He suddenly raised his head, opened his eyes which were gradually bulging, grinned at the camera, and said.
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