Chapter 11: 11

 

 

Draft
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Talan's fingers lightly tapped on the table.

He stared at the egg case with a strange look, for a short moment, Lin Xi felt like he saw a mixture of awe and fascination on Talan's face. But when he looked carefully, Talan Ida was still Talan Ida, a total jerk. His face was pale and expressionless, making it impossible to see what he was thinking.

"The egg case of  the Star Butterfly?"

He said hoarsely after an unknown amount of time.

"How could you be sure that this is the egg case of the Star Butterfly?"

Then he looked at Shizuo Ando.

"As you mentioned before, Star Butterflies are sacred, rare, and rarely recorded. We don't know anything about it. Professor Ando, ​​I respect your knowledge- I can swear that I do, but if you insist that this is the egg case of the Star Butterfly, you should at least produce some evidence. Otherwise, considering the relationship between you and Dr. Lin Xi, it's hard for me to believe that your statement isn't just a made-up excuse to save your colleague's hide."

He said this like he was sure it wasn't a Star Butterfly egg case. Ando froze for a moment, and a little anger appeared on that baby's face, he seemed a little offended by Talan's weird speculation.

"Yes, there's been basically no records of this mysterious creature in earth literature, but the reason why I made this immature speculation is because..." Ando paused, he hesitated before continuing, "It was my wife Liz who told me about the Star Butterfly egg case. When the picture of it was transmitted to my cabin, Liz saw it and exclaimed, I couldn't help asking and got this answer."

Ando said.

When he said Liz's name, even Taran couldn't help but choke up, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly, as if regretting that he couldn't find other words to continue criticizing.

Lin Xi and Alisa looked at each other.

Well, since that guess came from Liz...

The true identity of the thing on the table has been confirmed in their minds. After all, Liz wasn't just nobody.

Liz Chen is Shizuo Ando's wife, ​​but she isn't just the wife of an Earth researcher.

She's also Sunu.

Of course, in a strict sense, she isn't a pure-blooded Sunu (if so, she should've died in the madness of Sunu), she's just a hybrid of Sunu and human.

Liz Chen's mother was a high-ranking government official stationed on Sunu, and her father was once a high-ranking person on Sunu, at least before those people went crazy. The identities of her parents allowed Liz to grow up normally on the Sunu planet and live up to the present—even the "material exchange" between the people on Earth and the Sunu planet was inseparable from the fact that her parents in Sunu were helping along.

And when the madness of the Sunu people became more and more serious, she took advantage of this scientific research mission to escape using Helios, under the tacit approval of the government.

Of course, no one knew whether her falling in love with and marrying the earthling Shizuo Ando during this long voyage is just the part of some ulterior plan.

Many people had many doubts, but Shizuo Ando didn't care about it. He loves his alien wife deeply, like a hero from a romance novel, he would dedicate his body and soul to the other.

But no matter what kind of conspiracy theories or rumors floated, no one could deny that Liz Chen's knowledge of Sunu was probably more reliable than the entire crew of Helios combined. If she said it was the egg case of a Star Butterfly, then this thing was the egg case of the Star Butterfly.

"... If necessary, I can ask Liz to come to the captain's room. I think she'll be able to give us a more detailed explanation."

Shizuo Ando's face tensed as he spoke.

The room fell silent again.

Everyone was looking at Talan, waiting for his response or nick-pickery.

But at that moment, the egg case of the Star Butterfly suddenly squirmed inside the life-support capsule.

It's now just a huge translucent "pod", the wriggling was definitely not violent, but it's very obvious under this situation.

"Hmm..."

Lin Xi jumped back, shivering in fright.

He knew that his behavior was a bit cowardly. If this was normal, he'd never show such a worthless side in front of others, but the moment the egg case squirmed, he felt something twitching under his skin. This kind of nervous twitch while in space wasn't uncommon, but the timing of its arrival was so coincidental that Lin Xi subconsciously connected the twitch with the wriggling of the egg case.

In his illusion, the egg case felt like it was wriggling inside his body.

Fortunately, he wasn't the one with the most exaggerated reaction among the people present, so there's no need to feel ashamed about it.

"Bang—"

Talan, who was closest to the egg case of the Star Butterfly, was the one who attracted everyone's attention.

He also looked a little startled, even accidentally sweeping the drinking glass on the floor.

This made Lin Xi look at him again, Lin Xi was a little surprised to find that Talan looked extremely frightened rather than "a little frightened" - The pale bastard was staring at the egg case of the Star Butterfly so intensely that it seemed like his protruding eyeballs were about to fall out of his eye sockets.

Talan's eyes quaked unnaturally, Lin Xi even doubted whether he could still focus them normally.

But as usual, it took only a short time for Talan to return to normal, annoying expression.

"No— don't bother Liz."

Talan answered hoarsely, his throat rolling.

He ignored the drinking glass that had fallen on the ground, not looking at Ando, ​​but staring straight at the egg case on the table.

"Since you all think that this is the egg case of a Star Butterfly... in that case, Professor Ando, ​​can you take care of it?"

Talan suddenly asked.

Ando Shizuo was stunned for a moment, and then an ecstaic expression appeared on his face.

"Captain- you mean, keep this egg case and take care of it?" 

The baby-faced man was so excited, his voice trembled.

Talan had an impatient expression on his face, like he was enduring something, his breathing gradually became heavy.

"Yes, of course, it's a living alien thing, and it's worth a lot of money. We can't just leave it in the warehouse like that. And you're the only person on board who can take care of it-"

(-and Helios is now stranded on a planet that without a serial number or proper coordinates. The other regular crew members have their own things to do, you free-spirited scientific researchers should also help me solve some troubles—)

This was what Lin Xi supplemented for Talan in his heart.

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Of course, slander is slander, facing the overjoyed Shizuo Ando and the increasingly unstable Talan, he still obediently kept silent.

"In fact, Dr. Lin Xi, also—" After hearing what Talan said, Ando subconsciously thought of and mentioned Lin Xi.

However, after seeing Taran's disgusted face, he quickly changed the subject: "I will take good care of it, I can assure you, sir, I'll take good care of it!"

After getting permission , he carefully held the egg case in his arms.

"Of course I fucking know... damn it..."

Talan was still staring at the egg case, he looked like he wanted to say something more, but as soon as the egg case was held in Ando's arms, Taran suddenly bent down and let out a cry of pain mixed with curses.

"Captain?"

"Sir?"

Ando and Alyia both asked in a panic.

Huh... huh...

A few heavy pants.

After a long time, Taran rubbed his temples and straightened up with difficulty. His eyes were redder than before, and his slender fingers seemed to be trying to wound his skin.

"It's just a headache,"

Talan gasped.

"Now that things have been settled, you can all leave,"

He said impatiently.

Of course, the other three present could see that Talan's condition didn't seem to be caused by ordinary headaches. However, Lin Xi really didn't care about Talan's safety, and Shizuo Ando had already focused all his attention in the egg case of the Star Butterfly, the only person who showed concern about it was Alisa.

Moreover, Talan had already spoken, and they had to leave the captain's room quickly.

After Ando eagerly left with them, Alisa talked about Talan with Lin Xi outside.

"...I thought you knew, I don't like that guy."

Lin Xi frowned and spoke, wondering why Alisa would start this topic.

Alisa pursed her lips.

She stopped and turned to face Lin Xi.

Her complexion was still very bad, and Lin Xi could tell that Alisa herself was hesitating whether she should say the next words.

"I don't know... Lin Xi, I don't know what's going on. Sometimes I feel that something's really wrong with me. After all, this ship, the pressure from this damn accident- it's too big... I..." Alisa looked very disturbed, "But this feeling's too strong, I can't convince myself. Lin Xi, Talan he's wrong, really, really wrong, but I can't tell other people. I don't want to affect the morale..."

"I believe no one on this ship likes Talan."

Lin Xi comforted her.

Alisa shook her head vigorously.

"It has nothing to do with his popularity, but... I don't know how to put it... something terrible happened to him, and it's still happening." Alisa suddenly turned her head, looking far away at the captain's cabin at the end of the corridor, "Did you know? Today, just before you and Ando were called over, only Talan and I were inside the captain's cabin. He suddenly asked me 'Did you hear that? That guy screamed'."

"Ah?"

Lin Xi frowned even deeper.

"Sounds really bad, maybe that guy's overwhelmed by the pressure too? Everyone knows that Talan Ida suffered from mental problems before this, and everyone's saying that this voyage is probably his last trip. Just look at him now, he won't pass the next mental standard test. In short, it sounds to me that he's just suffering from space paranoia."

Lin Xi pretended to be very relaxed, comforting Alisa.

But Alisa's eyes widened, she looked terrified.

"No..."

She murmured.

"When he insisted that I listen, I felt... I ... heard the voices."

At this point, Alisa shuddered, her body went limp, and she almost fell to the ground .

"Alisa!"

Lin Xi quickly caugth her.

Then he noticed Alisa trembling slightly.

"What happened? What did you hear?"

Alisa looked up at Lin Xi dazedly.

"You... you need be careful during this time, okay?" Her voice shook, "I still can't tell what the hell this is, maybe I'm just scared by Talan's appearance, maybe... maybe It's something else. I have a very bad premonition, very bad."

Thinking of Alisa's intuition, Lin Xi became more serious.

"Premonition? About Taran? Me? Or..."

"It's about Taran, and you."

Alisa murmured weakly.

"And all of us,"

She added.

____

PastTimer: skipping lunch feels so good and so bad at the same time huh

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