Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 39: A Limit Of 24 Hours

The wait of five hours might be a rather torturous wait, but none of us was distracted. Everyone was fully focused on every single change Plum was undergoing. Energy constantly flowed from the three crystal balls into the container. The signs of life on Plum's face also grew stronger and stronger. By the time three hours had passed, we could already see his blue blood slowly flowing in his veins.

"Everything is progressing smoothly. The temperature in the stasis pod has increased to three degrees Celsius," reported Dodo.

Everyone was filled with expectation. After all, we had worked very hard to reach this far. After four hours, we saw Plum's body shiver slightly. The solid-state hydrogen had fully melted. Surprisingly, Plum still remained floating, as though he himself possessed the ability to float.

The three crystal balls slowly dimmed as all their energy was transferred to Plum's body. In fact, Plum appeared glowing. Apart from the fact that he was asleep, he basically looked as alive as Dondon. Then, with a beep, the control station stopped transmitting the energy. The three energy balls had dimmed completely.

"Time for the actual revival process," said Dodo.

Everyone approached the pod and scrutinized Plum, trying to look for any changes.

"Why is he not awake? I thought it's time?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

"He'll probably be awake soon. Keep watching," I said.

While we spoke, Plum suddenly opened his eyes, looking straight at me with his sharp gaze. With the help of technology, an ancient life form from over a hundred thousand years ago had really been revived. With his sharp gaze fixed on me, all my hair stood on end. Nobody made a single sound, observing Plum's action.

After looking at me for an entire minute, Plum finally shifted his gaze and scanned everyone present. After looking around, he waved his hand. The pod opened, and Plum floated out before landing on the control station. There, he sat down. I could see Zhang Bao'er's eyes widen in disbelief. I was also in disbelief. How had he defied gravity to float in the air?

After a short moment of silence, Titan and Amethyst suddenly charged over and prostrated themselves before Plum. Chants started coming out of their mouths. It seemed like they were praying. Dondon seemed to have been affected by its ancestor's powerful presence as well. It ran forward and sprawled before its ancestor to pay its respects.

With Titan and Amethyst speaking in Bright non-stop and Plum sitting upright on the station, we all waited respectfully. After all, this was a super senior in the field of interstellar exploration. Even Zhang Bao'er appeared respectful, a behavior he rarely displayed.

After more than ten minutes, Plum seemed to have recovered from his long slumber. He looked at Titan and Amethyst and suddenly spoke in Bright. Titan and Amethyst grew even more emotional when they heard him speak. A stream of Bright words came out of Titan's mouth as he spoke with Plum. After about half an hour, Titan and Amethyst appeared agitated as they continued describing something to Plum. Meanwhile, Plum mostly assumed the form of a listener.

"Canyue, what do you think they're talking about?" Zhang Bao'er asked me.

"They're probably telling their ancestor the history of the past hundred thousand years," I said.

"A history of a hundred thousand years? How long will that take?" Zhang Bao'er stuck his tongue out.

Just as we were solemnly observing the discussion, Titan suddenly turned toward us and pointed at us as though he was telling Plum about us.

"You came from Blue?" Plum suddenly spoke in a language that resembled ancient Chinese.

I nearly fell off my chair in shock. It was one thing to have something I viewed as an animal talk, but this animal was even speaking ancient Chinese!

"Yes, we came from Blue. We're here in search of a missing spaceship, the Milky Way ship. The captain's name is Zhang Han," said Zhang Xingxing.

"Your divineship, do you know the whereabouts of the missing shop?" Zhang Bao'er asked a rather foolish question.

Plum looked at Zhang Bao'er and shook his head. "The last time I saw a Blueling, it was over a hundred thousand years ago."

"We were guided all the way here by Prophet Nommo's prophecy," said Old Du.

"I know of the prophecy. I had known that you were going to come," said Plum.

Everyone grew excited when we heard his words. It seemed like the prophet was the real deal. We were going to keep getting more clues for our quest.

Plum looked at everyone and said, "I don't have much time left, and I have a lot of things to do. Come with me."

After saying that, Plum lightly tapped his spacesuit. He then hovered and drifted toward the room with the projection device.

"This is similar to the molecule-fission hover technology. With this technology, the spacesuit can analyze and control the molecular makeup of the air, creating a fission reaction that works as a counter to gravity," Dodo explained.

"That is an incredible technology. Where did you hear about it?" I asked.

"I read about some ancient legends describing the existence of this technology in the Milky Way Galaxy. However, this is my first time seeing it at work," said Dodo.

We followed Plum into the new room. There, Plum called Dondon over and had Dondon stand beside him. He then looked at the control station. When he saw that the prophecy case was already there, he placed his hand against the handprint in a well-practiced manner. Evidently, the long slumber had not eroded his memories.

Ka! Ka! Ka!

A string of mechanical sounds rang out as a white ray spread across the room, activating all mechanisms in the room. The projection device spun rapidly as a three-dimensional image slowly took form in the air.

"Finally, the secret of the prophecy is going to be revealed," I said with a breath of relief.

I could see Zhang Xingxing, Zhang Bao'er, and Old Du waiting expectantly for the mystery to be revealed. The scene of a planetary war appeared before us. It was most likely the scene from the Darklings' initial attack against the Brightlings. One could obviously see that the Bright ships were much slower and weaker in terms of energy compared to the Darklings. One ship after another was destroyed by the Darklings' superior firepower.

The sole surviving ship managed to escape to Sirius B, allowing the remaining Brightlings to hide away. The scene then changed to the battle of Terror Island. There, Nommo piloted his ship and led Plum and Crystal in a battle against the two-headed monster. Ultimately, Nommo utilized some sort of energy net to trap the two-headed monster before sealing it at the bottom of the lava lake with three crystal balls.

Nommo had gone to Terror Island for energy, but surprisingly, he found a large deposit of diamonds there. The deposit was rich enough for the Brightlings to recruit an army of mercenaries to fight against the Darklings.

It was an enormous sum of wealth, so, to be safe, Nommo stationed his most trusted Storm, Plum, and a spaceship there to perform the mining operation. Each year, Plum would deliver the mined diamonds to a secret location. The diamonds would be gathered to hire an army of mercenaries to deal with the Darklings.

To hide the secret of the diamonds, Nommo even hid the truth regarding Plum. Because of that, Crystal left, resulting in the loss of the Storm culture and inheritance. In the blink of an eye, over 90 years had passed. Plum had grown old, but Nommo also had more and more arrangements placed all over the universe. They were about to succeed in organizing an army, and their dream of retaking their homeland was about to be fulfilled.

One day, Nommo suddenly arrived at Terror Island personally. Plum was surprised, and there, he had a premonition that something major was about to happen. Sure enough, Nommo told Plum that he had discovered the energy source of the Darklings. He would lead an army to launch a surprise attack at that place, trying to destroy the Darklings' energy source. However, that was a dangerous mission with a low chance of success. In truth, the army was not fully ready yet. But due to Nommo's ailing age, he couldn't afford to wait.

Nommo promised that he would return no matter the result of the attack. If the attack failed, he would hide the secret of the Darklings, leaving the secret for the four alien warriors and the one inheritor of the Storms that would appear in the future. He looked forward to these warriors helping the Brightlings regain their homeworld.

He would ensure that the warriors and the Storm successor arrived before Plum. Plum was to be the sole person to know the only lead to the answer they sought. Only by facing Plum would the warriors be able to obtain their answer.

However, Plum told Nommo that he was already old. He might not be able to live long enough for the warriors to arrive. Nommo gripped Plum's paws tightly and said that if he did not return in a year, Plum was to freeze himself. Outside, Nommo had described Terror Island as an island of death. In the future, only the five chosen ones would be able to arrive. Nobody else would be able to disturb Plum's rest.

Three years passed, and Nommo was nowhere to be seen. He hadn't even shown himself at the secret location where the diamonds were delivered. When Plum sensed the end of his life span, he froze himself with the stasis technology, awaiting the arrival of the ones who would awaken him.

"The more than a hundred thousand years of stasis had harmed my body greatly. I might have been revived, but I only have a lifespan of 24 hours. Warriors, what I'm about to tell you is very important. I believe that Nommo would not choose the wrong individuals," said Plum.

"Only 24 hours? Only a day?" I cried out in alarm.

"Slumbering for over a hundred thousand years just to buy the 24 hours' worth of time he could use to pass on a messagethe Storms are truly a great race," said Old Du.

"Nommo is too magical. He managed to foresee the four of us and the blue cat!" said Zhang Bao'er.

When I looked at Dondon's face, I saw a face deep in thought, completely different from the pure and innocent animal it was before. Atop the projector, a series of buttons appeared. Plum stepped on it and used all four of his limbs to insert a complicated code. Finally, a secret that had been hidden for over a hundred thousand years was about to show itself.