novelhk Chapter 35 Return to Lucius
Chapter 35 Return to Lucius
The Black Pearl departed from the port of Wandering and headed toward Lucis.
The lights of the harbor faded into the distance outside the portholes, the densely packed berths, docks, and weapon platforms shrinking into a patch of light before disappearing into the starry sky. On the bridge, Marcus sat in the executive officer's chair, a holographic projection displaying the course map before him. Phyllis worked behind the logistics control panel, organizing data panels. No one spoke; everything proceeded as planned.
Liu En stood by the porthole, watching the starry sky gradually darken. The last glimmer of light in the Wandering Harbor had vanished. He turned and walked back to his commander's seat, where he sat down.
"Mandeville is still a day's flight away," Marcus said without looking up. "Sierra is all set."
"Status of each department?"
"Everything is normal. The garrison is patrolling as usual, the engine room reactor output is stable, and the Void Shield is fully charged."
Liu En pressed the communication button: "All ships, prepare to enter subspace. Final checks for all departments."
The responses came in one by one from each department. Engine room, weapons systems, Void Shield, logistics, medical services—all normal.
Finally, there was Hera Worth's voice. She always spoke slowly, as if an invisible weight was pressing down on her tongue, but every word was clear and steady.
"Captain. The interstellar communication array is ready. The daily reception channel is stable, and remote broadcasting is readily available. The Emperor's Starlight continues to guide the way." She paused, her tone as calm as a statement of fact. "If necessary, I can monitor surrounding sectors during the voyage. However, there's too much noise in warp; I can't understand much of it."
"Received. Remain on standby."
"Yes, Captain."
Hera Voss, the astro-speaker of the Black Pearl, simply sat before the old astro-speaking receiver array in the communications bay, "watching" the waveforms on the instruments with her nearly blind eyes, occasionally whispering a few prayers. The crew had grown accustomed to her silence and her accuracy. After the Black Pearl entered warp space, she always reported the communications status immediately, without delay.
One day later, the Black Pearl arrived at Mandeville.
Sera's voice came through the navigation console, calm and composed: "Mandeville point reached. Warp engine activation countdown: sixty seconds. All personnel in position."
The atmosphere on the bridge was tense. Logistics personnel fastened their seatbelts, and the patrol team from the garrison regiment secured themselves nearby. Several young logistics personnel were pale-faced, their fingers gripping the handrails.
A tremor surged from the depths of the ship. The power of the subspace engines increased, and the hum of the energy coils grew louder. Sera's third eye began to glow—a pale purple light seeped from the gaps in the metal disc on her forehead. An invisible pressure gathered in the air.
Thirty seconds.
"Fifteen seconds."
"Five seconds, four, three, two, one. Start."
The ship shuddered violently. Everyone knew they had entered the warp.
The atmosphere on the bridge relaxed. Logistics personnel unbuckled their seatbelts, and the garrison patrol resumed their patrols. Several veteran sailors shrugged and went about their business. The newly arrived logistics personnel still looked somewhat unwell, but much better than the first time.
"Subspace travel status is stable," Sierra reported. "Estimated travel time: five weeks. Current stellar flow along the route is normal, and Void Shield pressure readings are within safe limits."
Marcus nodded, swiped his finger across the holographic platform a few times, and synchronized the flight path data. Liu En stood up and left the bridge.
He walked back to his private workshop. The workshop door could only be opened by his biometrics; the indicator light changed from green to red, and access was locked. He entered the workshop, and the porthole—the thick armored glass embedded with a layer of adamantine armor—lit up the surging purple chaos outside. Those colors were filtered by the armor, less glaring, more like a flowing dark purple curtain of light.
He sat down in the chair by the porthole and leaned back.
The field unfolded. A spherical field with a radius of ten meters extended outward from his body, penetrating the terracotta steel walls of the workshop, piercing through the armor layer, and touching the thin material boundary outside the ship's hull. The indescribable matter in the subspace—omnipotent atoms—surged into his perception range like a tide.
His consciousness did not merely remain at the level of decomposition and storage. Tens of thousands of blueprints in the database unfolded layer by layer in his consciousness—the joint optimization scheme for the power armor, the rifling parameters of the bullet gun ammunition, the efficiency of the energy focusing array of the Void Shield, and the cooling channel design of the warp engine. Ancient records from the Marcus Ambrose data core, technological fragments from the wreckage of a wrecked ship, and alien technology fragments from the Dark Eldar frigate—all operated in parallel in his consciousness, cross-referencing and continuously optimizing.
It's not linear thinking, it's simultaneous processing. A typical mechanical cleric might need months or even years to complete the theoretical derivation of a Void Shield energy focusing array, but for Liu En, atomic-level simulation and instantaneous reshaping under the field coverage compresses this time into a few days. His workload in one day might be something an ordinary mechanical cleric couldn't complete in several years.
Marcus's exploration data from 3,700 years ago is being compared point by point with the Black Pearl's actual navigation parameters. Star chart discrepancies caused by the passage of time are being corrected one by one. The energy distribution logic of several powered armors has been redesigned, and optimized versions have been finalized in the database. Meanwhile, universal atoms from the subspace are constantly pouring in, decomposing, and being stored. The numbers in the warehouse are silently rising.
These universal atoms will become the industrial foundation of Garros. The mining rights for adamantite belong to the Imperial Navy and the Advanced Foundry World, and the formula for subspace alloys is classified as top secret by the Mechanicus. But universal atoms can bypass all of this—directly creating materials with equivalent properties, without mining rights, without formulas, and without needing to report to anyone.
After several days at sea, Liu En left the workshop and went to the mess hall for lunch. The unlimited food had put the crew in much better spirits than the Imperial Navy standard. He sat in a corner, his plate containing Grox steak and synthetic starch cake, and took a sip of coffee. The veterans chatted, and he listened, nodding occasionally.
Phyllis sat down opposite him with her plate.
"Captain, trade at Wandering Harbor is going very smoothly. Ms. Silver and several merchants have been full of praise for our goods. In addition, we still have a considerable amount of stock left, enough to serve as long-term reserves for the Black Pearl. Do you think we need to order more? Or perhaps this grade?"
Liu En put down his coffee cup. "It depends. There probably won't be any in the short term."
Phyllis nodded without asking further questions. She took a data panel from her pocket and pushed it in front of Liu En. "These are the contact details for several business partners I've connected with in Wandering Harbor. They're all legitimate businesses, including mine owners, material suppliers, and purchasing managers from two trading companies. You can contact them directly if needed in the future."
Liu En glanced at it, then put it in his pocket. "Keep it."
Phyllis smiled, picked up her plate, and left.
Liu En knew what she was thinking—she was paving the way for the future of the Black Pearl. But the crew didn't know about Garros yet. And he wasn't going to let them get involved right now.
Midway through the subspace voyage, during a quiet shift, Liu En returned to the bridge for inspection.
Hera's voice came through the communication channel again, still as unhurried as ever.
"Captain. Warp communication... isn't too bad. I heard a few fragmented, incomplete snippets, coming from the direction of the Sintira sector. It sounds like routine calls between merchant ships, or it could just be an echo from the warp. At this distance, I can't hear clearly." She paused, seemingly listening intently. "However, our ship's internal arrays are all functioning normally. If necessary, I can try to expand the listening range, but that would consume more psionic energy. The decision is yours."
"No need to expand. Just maintain routine monitoring."
"Understood." Her voice carried a hint of relief. "After listening to so many things in the warp, my head is filled with too many voices. Listening less is a kind of rest for me."
Liu En didn't say anything more. Hera also cut off the communication.
The Star Speaker in the cabin fell silent again. She sat before the psychic amplifier riddled with cables, "watching" the waveforms on the instruments with her nearly blind eyes, occasionally whispering a prayer no one could hear. Her face always wore the expression of someone who had traveled a long way—not from exhaustion, but from having seen too much that others could not.
After several days of sailing, Sera's voice came from the bridge: "We expect to jump out of the subspace in three days."
Liu En left the workshop and returned to the bridge. Marcus was sitting in the executive officer's chair, reviewing the flight path data.
"Everything is normal," Marcus said. "The route Sera chose is very stable, and the Void Shield has hardly fluctuated."
"What is the condition of the crew?"
"The garrison regiment's training is proceeding as usual, and logistics are also fine. Kara said a few veterans want to apply for a few days off when they return, and they'll be granted that."
Liu En nodded.
Three days later, Sera began its countdown. The ship shuddered, the chaos outside the porthole was torn apart, and a starry sky appeared before them. Liu En pressed a button, the armored porthole cover opened, and the long-awaited starlight shone in.
Lucius.
The stars burned brightly in the distance, and the confinement rings of the artificial sun shimmered with a dark red light in their orbit. The dock, the space station, the shuttle, the cargo ships—everything was in its proper place. A low cheer rose from the bridge. Several logistics personnel stood up, craning their necks to look outside. The veterans of the garrison regiment smiled. Phyllis put down her data panel and let out a long sigh. Marcus's lips curled slightly.
"We're home," an old soldier said.
"That's right. I've been away for over a year this time."
Berth docking complete. Shore-based supply pipelines have been connected, with energy cables and water supply pipes linking to the Black Pearl's side ports like umbilical cords.
Liu En stood by the porthole, gazing at the lights. He thought of where he had come from—Armageddon, the bottom hive of Helsard's nest capital. In a few years, the Second War of Armageddon would break out. Lucis, as the most recent forging world, would inevitably be drawn in. The Black Pearl would also be requisitioned.
But that's for later.
Phyllis's voice came through the communicator: "Captain, berth formalities are complete. The garrison is beginning its rest period."
"understood."
Liu En turned away from the porthole and walked back to his private workshop. The workshop door closed behind him. He didn't turn on the lights; only the lights from the dock outside shone in, casting blurry patches of light on the floor. He sat down by the window, habitually setting up the space.
Then he stopped.
The boundary of the field—that spherical limit with a ten-meter radius that he had always been able to clearly perceive—was trembling slightly. Not contracting, not blurring, but expanding outward. Extremely slow, but definitely moving. A few millimeters? Perhaps less. But the feeling that "the boundary is moving" pierced his consciousness like a needle. The bottleneck that had once been stuck was loosening.
Over the years, his abilities have been pushed to the limit. Deconstructing, shaping, and blueprinting—day after day, without stopping. And now, cracks have appeared in that ceiling.
Liu En opened his eyes. The starlight outside the window was still cold.
He stood up, opened the workshop door, and walked into the corridor. The lights of Lucis shone through the portholes lining the passageway, a scene of bustling activity, noise, and crowding. Over two hundred billion people lived on this planet, producing weapons, ammunition, and ships for the Empire.
Liu En walked back to the bridge and sat down next to Marcus.
"Captain, everything is normal." Marcus glanced at him.
"That's good."
He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. In the higher dimension, only one anchor point floated.
Outside the porthole, the lights of Lucis Spaceport stretched as far as the eye could see. The Black Pearl sat quietly in its berth, its exterior worn and weathered, looking like a decent secondhand cruiser.