Chapter 1280: Chapter 487: Scars on the Heart

Ren Zhong’s message was not sent only to the Reconnaissance Corps, but announced to the entire fleet.

Everyone in the fleet knew that once again, some brothers and sisters would be leaving them.

This was a new sacrifice.

...

Researchers stopped the experiments at hand, production personnel put down their semi-automatic instruments, and the recruits in combat training all broke off, raising their heads to stare at the huge projection in front of them.

All activities aboard the Source Star Fleet were momentarily frozen at this very instant.

Countless projection screens were displaying the same scene.

One after another, Willow Leaf–like workships detached from the surfaces of different Annulus Ships, accelerated, changed course, and then converged into a swarm-like fleet, setting off onto another path like dandelion seeds swept up by the wind.

From this moment on, the workship fleet and Fleet Headquarters split into two forces and parted ways.

A particular kind of emotion was fermenting in everyone’s heart; all knew that in their own lives there was now an extra share belonging to others.

Luchade Sammy and Panxim Sammy stood shoulder to shoulder, looking up together at the image above their heads.

Although they could only see the fleet as a whole, and did not even know which ship was Ahmed’s, the two of them nevertheless formed a subtle, ineffable connection with this fleet marching toward death.

"Big Brother will definitely pull it off." Luchade clenched his fist.

Panxim let out a soft hum. "Yes."

Although Ren Zhong had only made public the selection rules and decision basis, the two brothers had already understood his intent.

There was regret in their hearts, but even more, there was gratitude.

Their father had an extraordinary obsession with the surname Sammy; if all three brothers were to die in battle, who would then teach the next generation of little Sammys to become outstanding space pilots? The Earl had taken this into account and thus made this decision.

The two of them placed all their faith on their eldest brother.

They were convinced that if this mission was truly that difficult and required the very best pilot to complete it, then their big brother would of course step forward and become the brightest among them.

The two had no theoretical basis for this conviction; it was pure blind intuition.

In the communication hub command room of the Tracker Spaceship, Ren Zhong stood before the console with his hands clasped behind his back, watching the large projection directly ahead.

Chen Qiao, who had taken over Hua Yuelan’s position, was watching the slightly smaller central control screen in front of her.

On the smaller central control screen, one set of low-level data after another was flickering.

As for Ren Zhong, he was looking up at the simulated Star Map above, showing Fleet Headquarters and the workship fleet.

He controlled the overall situation; Chen Qiao was responsible for the details.

At this moment the fleet was beginning a slow change of course, shifting from its original straight-line trajectory toward the Black Mist Zone to a tangential movement.

This course adjustment would last a full twenty days, executed as gradual micro-adjustments combined with synchronized changes in the Anti-gravity devices, leaving the crew inside the fleet with no bodily sensation at all.

After a moment, Chen Qiao let out a long breath and said, "The communication stability of the information flow between the workship fleet and Headquarters is still above 99.99%, better than the pre-experiment estimate of 99.9%. The reason, according to analysis, should be that Teacher is stationed inside the forward Simulation Workship at the front line. She has optimized the algorithm based on the temporary changes at the edge of the Black Mist Zone."

Ren Zhong’s gaze fell on the thousand workships at the very front that were rapidly fanning out, and he gave a slight nod. "She is, after all, the fleet’s best programmer and artificial intelligence expert. With her holding the line at the front, this is indeed the kind of performance we should expect."

After he finished speaking, Ren Zhong turned and left.

Back in his office, Ren Zhong summoned Isu Rock, gave a few simple instructions, and told him that he was about to enter cryo-sleep, and that he was not to be awakened unless the workship fleet encountered a major situation.

While he slept, Isu would take on the primary management duties within the fleet.

Ren Zhong made some adjustments at the strategic level.

In the early phase of the fleet’s departure, contraceptive measures had been absolutely forbidden.

After a total of 10+3+12, that is, twenty-five years of deep-space voyaging, even without artificially cultivated embryos, the overall population of the fleet had gradually climbed to nearly three billion.

Although Ren Zhong wished for as many people as possible, he still had to consider the upper limit of the fleet’s carrying capacity.

Even though they had collected vast resources in the Tenglong Nebula and the fleet had used Annulus Ships to build a considerable number of small vessels, those small ships were now also packed to the brim with people, and each of them had a clearly defined role, with limited functions.

Someone had once proposed building medium- and small-sized passenger ships with weak defensive performance but a focus on living space, in order to further accommodate the population.