Chapter 4: Doubts
The biting cold and the scorching heat were repeatedly washing over his body... Chris curled up helplessly, his eyes tightly closed, and he let out an unbearable low moan. His hand tightly grasped the corner of his carefully matched evening dress in an attempt to relieve his physical discomfort.
Chris was quickly placed in a portable medical cabin for emergency treatment. He gradually calmed down, but his brows were still furrowed, as if he was trying hard to endure something.
The three security officers summoned by the security system were also bewildered by the situation. They had originally intended to take the young man, who looked ill, directly to a medical station for treatment, but they hadn't expected Admiral Nuhra to suddenly appear and ask them to perform first aid in his lounge.
After confirming that Chris's condition was temporarily under control, Nuhra took out the terminal, called a number, gave the other party a few brief instructions, and ended the call.
"Thank you for your hard work, everyone." Nuhra turned slightly and nodded to the three officers. "I'll take care of the rest."
The guard officers looked at each other calmly, saluted Nuhra solemnly, and reported: "Yes, sir!" After getting Nuhra's consent, they left the lounge quickly and quietly.
At the moment, the only people left in the lounge were Nuhra sitting on the sofa and Chris lying unconscious in the treatment cabin.
The room was silent, save for the almost inaudible hum of the thermostat. Nuhra's thoughts drifted, his eyes flicking to the medical pod in front of him, and he recalled the young man named "Corris."
Tonight wasn't the first time they had met.
Two months ago, Nuhra had just returned to the capital planet after completing his mission to defend the trading system. He had been invited by the president of Vincent Military Academy to visit and discuss becoming a visiting professor, but he happened to witness the crash of the teaching spacecraft piloted by Kris.
The situation that day was truly breathtaking. Kris's class was practicing spacecraft takeoff and landing. On the vast training grounds, the students were methodically maneuvering their training spacecraft, just like any other flight class.
"... Every spacecraft in the training range is equipped with a comprehensive teaching system, which can not only enable students to practice effectively, but also ensure their safety during practice..." In the control room of the training range, Lori, the professor of flight driving courses, was talking to Nuhra who came to visit. Nuhra nodded from time to time, and asked one or two questions about details.
"The system will analyze and predict the trainees' flight trajectories and monitor flight dynamics in real time. If an unexpected situation occurs, the system will issue a reminder and take over the spacecraft when necessary." Lori continued to explain. He took Nuhra to a huge holographic monitoring screen divided into many sections. It was displaying real-time information of each spacecraft, including personal information, physical condition, and flight status.
Lori explained very carefully, explaining each parameter and the information it represented to Nuhra one by one. Nuhra listened very carefully and roughly confirmed the situation on each spacecraft.
While Nuhra and Lori were talking, the five scheduled rounds of flight training were completed, and the trainees carefully drove the training spacecraft back to the bay where it was originally parked.
Nuhra did not raise any objection to Lowry's explanation at this time, but carefully observed the situation on the court and compared it with the information on the monitoring screen.
Lowry, who was standing by, had no idea that an accident was about to happen. He was still trying his best to show Nuhra the ingenuity of their system, not even paying attention to the students on the training ground.
It was Nuhra who first noticed the anomaly. He narrowed his eyes, pointed at one of the panels, and asked, "Why does this ship show it's back at its dock?"
"...What?" Lori reacted as if waking from a dream. He had no idea what Nuhra was talking about and was still a little confused. But since Nuhra had spoken, he had to see what was going on.
At this point, only three or four spaceships remained in the air. One of them, piloted by Krisnar, hadn't landed on the surveillance screen, but the system had already determined it had returned to its dock. Even more pressing, the training ship was straying from its designated training area and accelerating away.
"...Wait, wait, is this system malfunctioning?" Lori and the teaching assistant, who had been calm at first, became a little nervous. "Why didn't the system take over after the spacecraft left the preset orbit?" They first tried to reconnect the system, but found that it didn't work. Several operators tried to take over the operation, but all failed.
They tried to connect to the spacecraft's communication system, but it showed that the signal was jammed and communication was impossible.
"Damn it! What's going on?" Lori began to panic. He looked at Nuhra, who was silent beside him, as if asking for help, but he could only face Nuhra's focused and slightly tense profile.
Based on Lori's rambling introduction just now and the flight trajectory of the spacecraft, Nuhra roughly judged that the spacecraft wanted to fly to the boundary of the training ground, but the boundary had a transparent gravity barrier - this was a training ground facility that must be configured according to the Imperial Military Regulations.
The barrier set up according to the specified parameters is enough to easily tear apart the alloy shell of the reduced-equipment training spacecraft... If this spacecraft is allowed to directly collide with the gravity barrier at its current speed, the consequences will be unimaginable!
Without time to hesitate, Nuhra calmly began issuing orders: "Operator, continue attempting to contact and take over the spacecraft. Lorifeng, contact emergency services and evacuate the remaining trainees... Also, whoever is responsible for setting up the gravity barrier, lower the barrier parameters immediately."
Most of the assigned personnel immediately sprang into action, with the fully mechanical emergency response team moving in to deploy control. Lori, who had just been assigned to contact the emergency response team, returned, sweating profusely, and reported cautiously, "Admiral, management disagrees with lowering the parameters. Uh, they're worried about the spacecraft leaving the training ground..."
Nuhra tilted his head slightly, his eyes sharp: "Obey my orders, unless you want to watch the spacecraft explode directly." His voice was not loud, but it was very majestic and it was impossible to refute.
Lori's heart trembled, and he didn't dare to say anything more. He directly chose to put pressure on the other party, forcing the management to adjust the parameters to a value that was enough to stop the spacecraft without causing huge damage.
On the ultra-clear holographic image, the spacecraft slowed down and began to hover in place instead of continuing to fly forward.
Everyone held their breath, staring intently at the image on the screen, as if they were on guard against a nuclear bomb that could explode at any time. At this moment, the atmosphere in the control room was almost frozen.
Nuhra's face was as gloomy as water, his gaze fixed on the spacecraft's movements. He had a bad feeling and immediately made a new deployment: "Wait! Immediately, lay down swarms of nanomachines perpendicular to the ground at 10-meter intervals as a buffer!"
As soon as Nuhra finished speaking, the people present were busy making arrangements according to his orders. Countless nanomachines gushed out like a silver tide, and large groups of them spread in the air... At this moment, something unexpected happened. The front half of the spacecraft suddenly lifted up, and then sprinted at full speed, rushing towards the invisible dome in the sky.
All this happened too quickly. The more fragile front cabin of the spacecraft collided with the weakened gravity field, still causing considerable damage... Nearly half of the functions of the spacecraft were damaged to varying degrees, and it lost control and fell straight down.
The nanomachine group that Nuhra requested to be laid out was more than two layers, providing a considerable degree of cushioning for the falling spacecraft, but a small area of the spacecraft still malfunctioned and caught fire. Fortunately, the fire was not large and was quickly extinguished, and the pilot Corris was also successfully rescued.
Nuhra only witnessed from the control room, through surveillance cameras, the moment a bloodied Kress was rescued and rushed to the emergency medical bay. He then briefed the academy's senior officers who had rushed over. He had handed over all subsequent matters to his adjutant, only occasionally paying attention when he remembered. Nuhra only knew that Old Nar had expended considerable effort within the military to keep this teaching incident out of his son's file.
The biometric door of the lounge issued a short prompt tone, and Nuhra was pulled out of his thoughts. He found that the person he had just called at the terminal had arrived, so he used the terminal to open the door and let him in.
A male officer in a black uniform entered first. This was Nohra's adjutant, Louis. Following Louis were a man and a woman, both dressed in gray uniforms representing medical and logistics, carrying a complete set of lightweight medical equipment into the lounge.
All three held the rank of major general, and wore the Seventh Army's armband on their shoulders. They stood straight and saluted Nuhra in unison.
Nuhra stood up, pointed to the medical cabin in front of him, and said to the two medical officers: "Meya, Arnold, check him out and see what's going on."
The two nodded, and deftly operated the equipment, connected to the emergency medical cabin, and began inspection and analysis.
Adjutant Louis, who was standing a little further away, asked, "Admiral, do you need me to notify General Nar?"
Nuhra waved her hand, indicating that it was not necessary. Louis did not ask any more questions and stood quietly by the side waiting for instructions.
The examination was quick, but Maya and Arnold's expressions were somewhat solemn. Maya carefully considered her words before reporting to Nuhra, "Captain, we detected traces of the drug 'Reilly' on the patient."
"This patient's case is quite unique. He didn't take Renexavar directly, but rather ingested food contaminated with a small dose of Renexavar." Arnold frowned and explained their diagnosis to Nuhra. "Also, the patient has a severe allergy to Renexavar, which is why he has a high fever and fainted."
Nuhra didn't respond immediately. Instead, she rubbed the rim of the teacup with her fingertips, took a sip of the scented tea, and said calmly, "What's the situation now?"
"We've given him allergy medicine and relief medication. He'll probably wake up in a while," Maya understood. "There won't be any aftereffects. Just rest up for now."
"Hmm..." Nuhra lowered her eyes, staring at the ripples of the scented tea in the cup. She instructed, "Send him to the military hospital, and then inform Old Nar... Don't mention anything about Reilly. Just treat it as a normal allergy."
"Admiral, should I tell General Nar that it was you who sent Mr. Corris to the hospital?" Louis pushed his glasses and whispered to test Nuhra's thoughts.
Nuhra nodded, thought for a moment, and then added the details: "I came out of the lounge and ran into Corris who was unwell. Out of kindness, I personally took him to the military hospital, where the Seventh Army doctor provided emergency treatment."
The three of them took orders and quickly began to act.
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