Author: 唇亡齿寒 / Lips Gone, Teeth Cold
Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/
Chapter 58
“Please look this way, Your Highness,” The middle-aged man named Tanaka waved grandly, indicating the large machinery to Alveira on the left. “This is our fusion reactor. It connects to the generator set and supplies power to the entire Leyting day and night.”
Alveira had no interest in these machines. Her attention was entirely focused on Duke Winnett, who was following behind her. Every word and action of the Duke didn’t escape her observation. She intended to uncover his conspiracy from his unusual behavior. As for Tanaka’s explanation, Alveira didn’t pay any attention to it and only responded vaguely.
The Duke seemed quite interested in the nuclear power plant. His enthusiasm far exceeded his duty, as if he were the one entrusted by Her Majesty the Queen to inspect, not merely Alveira’s “companion”.
“Mr. Tanaka,” the Duke asked kindly, “as far as I know, Leyting is very close to the sun, so why not build a solar power plant?”
Tanaka was very pleased with the Duke’s question, as if he were a curious good student. “Currently, solar power plants are generally built in space orbits around the equator, requiring at least three space elevators to support such an orbit. This kind of power facility is too expensive. Besides, most of Leyting’s cities are located at the poles, so the loss of transmitting electricity from the equator to the poles is too great to be worth it. Usually, only on planets with high population density and scarce resources are orbital solar power plants built. There is a lot of scattered deuterium and tritium around Leyting’s star, which are raw materials for nuclear fusion, making it more economical to build nuclear power plants.”
The Duke nodded repeatedly. “Then what about using electromagnetic waves for power transmission?”
Tanaka smiled proudly. “Ah, well, because Leyting’s atmosphere is very thin, there’s too much electromagnetic interference from outer space, so wireless power transmission isn’t practical.”
Then the two of them enthusiastically discussed, like old friends who hadn’t met in a long time, leaving Alveira out as if she were air. Alveira put her hands in her pockets, clenched her fists tightly, and her nails pierced her palms. She suppressed her anger and tried to disguise herself as an “ordinary girl who’s not interested in machinery” as she followed in the Duke’s footsteps.
Finally, the visit to the nuclear power plant was over, and Alveira returned to their hotel with an unpleasant expression. By this time, her displeased expression was so obvious that even the Duke noticed it.
“What’s wrong, Your Highness?” the Duke asked. “Your face looks terrible. Are you feeling unwell?”
“No, Uncle Winnet.” Alveira quickly put on a regretful expression. “It’s just that I found it a bit boring.”
“Aha, I understand.” The Duke gave her a sympathetic look. “These machines and military industries are indeed somewhat dull. Girls your age are definitely not interested. If Musaya were here, she would certainly scream and throw a tantrum if she had to visit a military factory.”
A holographic screen at the hotel entrance was playing a music video of the Galactic Diva Camilla, and Alveira’s attention was involuntarily drawn to the beautiful, ethereal figure of the singer. The Duke also looked at the screen. “Ah, Camilla, do you like her?”
Alveira neither confirmed nor denied, so the Duke took it as a yes. “Musaya also likes her very much. I heard Camilla is on a concert tour recently?” He turned his head and asked his secretary. “Is that right?”
The secretary nodded. “Yes. She held a solo concert in Leyting yesterday.”
“Oh, what a pity! If we had come a day earlier, we might have seen the Galactic Diva in person!”
Alveira pouted. “Yes, what a pity! But it’s okay. There will be more opportunities in the future.”
The Duke smiled. “It’s great that you can think that way.” After saying this, he stepped back and glanced at his secretary, nodding.
It was a very subtle action, but Alveira didn’t miss it.
The “Dream of a Cold Night” slowly entered Leyting’s spaceport. Because the princess was visiting, the spaceport inspections were very strict, and some areas were even under lockdown. Joanna sat in her cabin with the silver box containing the precious secret resting on her lap. There was a box of dog food on the table in front of her, and the captain looked at the dog food packaging with some melancholy—it featured a golden retriever that looked quite like Pavlov.
There were thirty-six hours left until her appointment with the Duke. She could take this time to rest a bit, put on some makeup, and take a walk on the surface of Leyting. The spaceport was located on an artificial satellite of Leyting, so to get to the surface, she had to take a small passenger ship from the spaceport. The Duke chose to meet here for a reason. If he wanted to kill her to keep the secret, this place, inaccessible by starships, was perfect.
“Leo.” The captain called out to the omnipresent artificial intelligence. “I have some things to arrange before I leave.”
“Don’t talk like you’re leaving a will, Captain.” Leo’s holographic image appeared in the cabin.
“Can’t you say something nicer?” Joanna raised an eyebrow. “Like reminding this forgetful AI?”
Leo shrugged. “It makes no difference to me.”
The captain placed the box on the table next to the dog food. “Leo, if something happens to me on Leyting, you must immediately have the starship leave port and return to Milantu. Don’t look back.”
“I thought you would say, ‘You must come to rescue me!'”
“…Do I look like someone who’s so afraid of death?”
Leo waved his hand. “But if I don’t rescue you, the people on the starship will immediately rebel! This ship can still be manually operated without intelligent navigation. I don’t want to be loaded into a storage chip and thrown into outer space.”
“After all, this is just a backup. Your main body is on the ‘Lady of the Night’, isn’t it?”
“You probably don’t know there’s something called superluminal data delay.” Leo put on a scholarly air. “The data on both sides isn’t synchronized. For me, losing data on either side is as painful as you humans losing your memory.”
“AI is really troublesome!”
“Please call it ‘the troubles of a higher intelligence’, thank you.”
Joanna shook her head. “I will never understand your troubles. Just remember, if Duke Winnet has bad intentions, you must prioritize the safety of the people on the ‘Dream of the Cold Night’. If you can’t save me in time, don’t save me. Just take everyone back to Milantu.”
“Alright, if you insist.” Leo paced uneasily.
“What are you worried about? Even the prison planet Hecate couldn’t hold me. I’ll find a way.”
“…Who said I’m worried about you!”
Joanna smiled. “I’m going to put on some makeup later. If I leave the cabin like this, I’ll definitely be surrounded by police.” She thought for a moment. “By the way, tell Celia to bring the disguise tools to Alois. I want him and Planck to come with me.”
“Got it.”
“One more thing.” The captain tapped the silver box on the table. “The lock on this thing is said to be encrypted by high-end AI from Neo Athens, and no one can open it.” She looked at Leo, as if challenging him.
Leo snorted. “Are you testing me?”
“Of course not… I just said it casually.” Joanna stood up. “I’m an honest pirate. I wouldn’t casually open a client’s things.”
“So you plan to hand this ‘secret that shakes the universe’ over to Duke Winnet?”
Joanna’s smile was so obvious that it gave Leo goosebumps. “Captain, do you want to open this box?”
“Oh… it’s encrypted and has a built-in micro nuke…”
Before she could finish, a small robot clambered onto the table, waving a fine, sharp data interface. Leo’s face seemed to say, “Who says I can’t open it,” as he directed the robot to connect the interface to the box’s smart lock.
Ten minutes later, the smart lock lit up green, indicating that the password had been unlocked.
The small robot lifted the lid of the box, making a “clunk” sound, expressing its confusion.
Joanna was equally puzzled. The box was lined with soft velvet and contained a book. A rare paper book with a brown hardcover, without any writing on it. She looked at Leo, puzzled, and Leo looked back at her, equally confused.
Finally, the small robot jumped into the box, struggling to lift the hardcover book onto the table, giggling as it did so, and opened the book.
The words on the pages weren’t printed but handwritten. It seemed to be a paper notebook, with someone writing in it.
“1277, Standard Calendar. This is destined to be an extraordinary year. In this year, I, Jacob Yutz, led a fleet headed by the ‘Child of the Wind’, crossing half the galaxy to the cradle of humanity—Old Earth…”
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