Alien Hotel.

Chapter 669 Fishing

Two deep-space probes detached from the shuttle's bay, and the "Star" engines released force field fluctuations in the vacuum that could not be observed by conventional means. They disappeared from their original positions in an instant, and the next second they had already passed through this massive star ruin belt and jumped into the shimmering excitation cloud at the edge of the Morona Fault.

The probe will then pass through the gravitational fault and find a relatively safe "course" within it.

Within a gravitational tear spanning several light-years, there may be hundreds or even thousands of such invisible channels. However, not all of these "channels" are stable enough for spaceships to pass through. Some are as narrow as a few meters, while others are so short-lived that they only last for a few seconds. According to the information provided by Old Joe, the location where he conducted his secret transaction with the Hermitage contact was within a gravitational collapse point on the Morena Fault. There are several stable cracks that allow one to pass through the gravitational fault and safely reach the collapse point.

Luo gently narrowed her eyes, and under the distant starlight, she slowly "released" her consciousness.

Two deep-space probes were directly connected to her thoughts. The data transmitted back by the sensors was precise and cold. The whispers of the stars and deep space were now transformed into countless characters and charts dancing in her mind. This information was quickly processed by her electronic brain and then output as coordinate parameters that could be recognized by the navigation computer.

...But it wasn't always like this.

She could once hear the "voice" of the stars directly, not as precise, cold data, but as gentle as the sound of a breeze or the melodious trembling of crystals. At that time, the entire universe would whisper to her, and the stars would tell her, in their slow twinkling, the things that the starry sky had witnessed and remembered. She also remembered gazing at the stars in the old observatory in her hometown, and when she was sleepy, she would lie down and sleep among the huge lens arrays. At that time, she would be lulled to sleep by the starlight, and every dream was peaceful and gentle.

She imagined herself becoming a astrologer or a star reader navigator on some distant spaceship—like most gifted Algerians, guided by the stars to one faraway place after another.

A slight tingling sensation came from near her spine, jolting Luo awake from her hazy memories. Her electronic brain had finished processing the probe data, and her gaze fell on the holographic projection on the control panel.

A large face appeared on the panel near the porthole: "How's the situation? Any findings?"

Luo jumped up and down in her seat: "...Boss, you're going to scare people to death if you keep doing this! I'm telling you! You can't do this..."

Actually, she wasn't scared, or at least not that scared.

"Alright, I'll knock next time," Yu Sheng's face slowly shifted to the porthole directly opposite the driver's seat. "Have you found that...what...collapse point yet?"

“…It’s a gravitational collapse point,” Luo sighed like a late Homo sapiens, but the corners of his mouth slowly turned up. “The probe scanned a safe rift leading deep into the Morona Fault, which matches the navigation information recorded by the shuttle. It should be the ‘rendezvous point’ that Old Joe mentioned. However, I haven’t scanned anything else near the collapse point yet…The Secret Order shouldn’t have set up any long-term anchored spatial facilities here, nor does it seem like someone is watching.”

“It seems Old Joe wasn’t lying about this,” Yu Sheng said thoughtfully. “Alright, once you’ve confirmed the location of the collapse, hurry back. Otherwise, some secret society contact might just wander around and expose you—it’s time to move on to the next step.”

“Understood,” Luo said, quickly typing a few commands into the control panel. “I’ll retract the probe first.”

……

At the same time, in the high-altitude orbit of the garrison, inside the "Deep Rock Fortress".

Inside the communications room, where large communication devices are installed, several large pieces of equipment temporarily connected to the communication instruments are humming. Several technicians dressed in researchers' uniforms are adjusting the equipment parameters, while a tall and robust steel shell is "standing" on the platform in front of the communication equipment.

The metal shell resembled Old Joe—but it only had an upper body; its lower body was fixed to a wheeled engineering vehicle, with numerous cables extending from the back of this steel body and connecting to the server interface of the engineering vehicle.

"Finally, we'll test the dexterity and the sound synthesizer."

A technician, holding a data terminal, stood next to the platform and said.

Many flashing lights illuminated the sides of the engineering vehicle's chassis. A deep hum emanated from "Old Joe's" metal shell, followed by the movement of its arms and upper body. It then leaned forward, gripping the guardrail of the communication platform, and emitted a hoarse, menacing voice: "Test, test, 111111..."

Momo, who was adjusting the equipment not far away, shuddered involuntarily. Her ears instantly pressed tightly back against her scalp, and the downy hair on her tail stood on end.

But suddenly a hand reached out from the side and pressed on her head, and then a mint stick was handed to her.

Momo looked up and saw Yu Sheng looking at her with a smile.

"Thank you, boss..." the girl said nervously, but she relaxed a little when she took the mint stick, and her tail was no longer tense.

"You assembled this metal shell yourself with your team, are you still afraid?" Yu Sheng asked curiously.

“It’s fine when it’s still,” Momo muttered as her ears slowly perked up, holding the mint stick in her mouth. “But when it suddenly moves and starts talking, it’s a little scary.”

Yu Sheng didn't speak, but reached out and patted the other person's head again—this was something he had heard from Lingdang, who said that this could quickly relieve the tension of the Jipros, but of course, the premise for doing so was that the relationship was good enough; if the relationship was not good, it would result in breaths and scratches.

Then a low whimpering or howling sound came from the side.

Yu Sheng turned his head and saw Hu Li standing to the side, her eyes fixed on his hand, her tail bristling like a sword mound. In the short time he was stunned, the fox girl quickly came over and nudged her head forward as well.

“My benefactor, please pet me.”

Yu Sheng: "..."

He held back his laughter and tears for a long time, but finally he patted the fox girl's head a few times and scratched the fur behind her ears, which finally made her squint her eyes in satisfaction.

Eileen sat on a machine not far away, looking up at Yu Sheng and then at Hu Li, before whispering to Luna beside her, "They say keeping cats and dogs together always leads to chaos, and that's all the silly fox is good for..."

Luna glanced at the little doll silently for a while before slowly saying, "You're sitting on the vent again."

Eileen: "...Wow!"

Yu Sheng didn't know why Eileen suddenly jumped off the machine and started running around. After all, this little thing had always been a bit neurotic, and he was used to it. When Eileen ran to the third lap, he casually picked her up and threw her into Hu Li's arms. A little while later, Luo, who had gone out to investigate, also returned.

Logically speaking, even with the fastest shuttle and a direct route through the stargate, it shouldn't be possible to return to Shuji from the Dark Current Starfield so quickly. However, her shuttle had been "modified" by Yu Sheng, just like the Otherworldly Hotel. The teleportation back was just a matter of opening the door—the time wasted in the middle was spent on retrieving the probe.

"...No matter how many times I look at it, this face is still disgusting."

Luo entered the room, leaned against the wall, crossed his arms, and looked at "Old Joe," which was pieced together from a machine shell and a small engineering vehicle, with a deep frown.

Yu Sheng waved his hand: "But now you've burned his brains, taken over his base, plundered his assets, and can even use his corpse to fool those hermit cult cultists—doesn't it seem better to think about it this way?"

Luo raised an eyebrow: "If you put it that way, then I feel much better."

Then she thought for a moment and asked, "How's the 'supporting work' for that expressionless face going?"

“The Secret Service released the information a couple of days ago,” Yu Sheng nodded. “They have prepared several versions of the story, but the core point is that some of the debris from the collapse of the border bridge is missing and has most likely been smuggled out of the country. The Secret Service has even sent a large number of people to pretend to search for it, making quite a fuss.”

Luo frowned: "She's quite adept at this... I have a feeling this isn't the first time she's done this."

Yu Sheng remained noncommittal, then glanced at the communication devices in the room, as well as the various strange and unusual devices placed around it.

Is this system you've developed reliable?

“Trust my skills,” Luo said confidently, arms crossed. “I used this agreement to smuggle a complete set of Starport kits right under that stoic, emotionless man’s nose. These kits can disguise communication signals from here as illegal broadcasts that are common in the Dark Currents region, and they can also simulate the encrypted channels that Old Joe used. Don’t worry, I’ve cracked the data in this area, and it won’t be detected.”

Seeing the confident look on the face of this secondhand scientist, Yu Sheng nodded slightly and finally said nothing more.

Momo walked over at that moment: "Boss, the equipment is all ready."

Yu Sheng and Luo exchanged a glance, and then nodded slightly.

"All personnel leave the communication platform and retreat behind the marked line," Luo said quickly as he walked toward a control terminal. "Momo, activate the sound field shielding and jamming devices, and transfer control of 'Old Joe' to the second control panel."

"it is good!"

The technicians in the room quickly moved to a specific location, the lights on both sides of the communication equipment dimmed, and a mechanical limb behind Luo clicked to connect to the control panel in front of her. In front of the communication platform, the "Old Joe" figure pieced together from the recycled robot shell seemed to suddenly come to life, looking up and turning to look at the holographic projection in the center of the room.

"Calling, invoking masquerade code... Signal simulation successful, Dark Current Starfield Hyper-Light Communication Array responding, ports ES-17, ES-266, ES-105..."

"The listening antenna has responded and is streaming to the analysis server."

"The signal strength at the remote end is increasing."

"The fish has taken the bait!"

(End of this chapter)