Chapter 28 Chapter Twenty Seven

Only Isaac saw the whole thing, because only his eyes could see. He could see many things, but he never told Mrs. Rebuka or Suliane.Moy mentioned that the two were his most trusted friends. For example, he can see himself.And in the darkness of the storage room, he could see more clearly than ever.What I saw couldn't be said to be his body at all, but a bunch of silver-white things formed in the body of a hypothetical intelligent creature.The shiny vines intertwined with his nervous system, and then connected in bunches to his shiny spine.If others saw him like this, they would be terrified.Part of Isaac (the human part) freaked out, too.But that voice faded away, and another dissenting voice thought he was so beautiful.Say he looks like electricity, say he looks like fireworks.

He could see the women too (Mrs. Rebuka, Suliane Moy, Diane), but their light was much dimmer.Isaac guessed it was the fourth-year therapy, infecting them with a little (just a little) life from hypothetical intelligent beings.They are like faint street lights in the fog, but Isaac Isaac is a searchlight shining brightly. And he could see other things too, beyond the walls. He saw falling dust.In Isaac's eyes, this is a storm of stars, each dust particle is shining brightly, merged into a large bright, a kind of radiant atmosphere.Bright, yes, but also transparent.He could see through it, especially the West at a glance.

These tiny pieces of hypothetical intelligent biological machines did not fall randomly.In general, their orbits are focused on something ancient.It emerged from the bedrock of the desert, moving in its sleep like a lazy beast.So the ground shook, the iron tower tilted, and the oil drilling rig and the oil pipeline broke.It moved and moved as more dust fell under an inexplicable tug. And now it moved again, violently.This time the ground was not only shaking, but also roaring.Although Isaac's human part could not be seen in the dark, he could clearly hear the groans of the rocks deep underground being crushed to the point of breaking, and the cracking and crashing of the collapsing walls.He felt a foul-smelling air rush against his face, and his breathing became labored and painful again.

But the part Isaac can see doesn't affect any of this. He watched the huge device rise from the sleeping desert more than a hundred kilometers to the west.That is a machine.Machines, yes, but living, living machines.That Jason in his body.Roden's voice said: A living cell is a machine made of proteins.What falls from the sky and what emerges from the earth is nothing but life that exists in other ways. The gigantic structure drilled out of the western surface was like an arch, very similar to the one Isaac had seen in the photograph.It was a gigantic semi-ellipse, made up like dust falling from the sky, its molecules and unusual atoms densely packed and arranged in a way that defied the laws of nature.Isaac didn't know what to call this natural law, so he could only call it Jason.The so-called strong and weak forces in Lawton's memory.The gigantic structure itself exudes a light, very beautiful, like a rainbow, shining in various nameless colors.The arch is meant to allow things to pass through it, but it doesn't lead to another planet.

Something is going through the arch right now.From the darkness within the archway, beyond Isaac's sight, glowing clouds rose among the stars. ☆ Jason still lingers in Diane's mind, even after her injury. The quake caused a cascade of jolts and crashes that were almost unbearable in the dark.She was able to understand this, and she suppressed her fear, at least initially.Then the building began to collapse. Maybe it was a collapse, she knew intuitively.First I felt a violent blow to my right arm and neck, followed by a dizziness.Waking up from a coma with pain, nausea, and a horrible feeling of suffocation.She gasped for air, a little air entered her lungs, but not enough.

Lie down and don't move.The voice was rough and came from the throat.Is that Mrs. Rebuka?No, it must be Su Lian.Moai.Diane wanted to answer but couldn't.Her lungs were barely able to take in air, and she could do nothing but convulsions.She wanted to sit up, at least turn to one side, so she wouldn't puke all over herself sometimes. At this time, she found that the left side of her body was numb, dead, and useless. The ceiling is pressing down on you.Su Lian.Moy said. Diane opened her mouth to retch, but she couldn't spit out anything, so she was a little relieved.The earthquake also stopped, which is good.She wanted to assess her injuries, but her brain was not clear enough, and she struggled to get air, so she couldn't manage where she was injured.She was in pain and scared.She wasn't particularly afraid of death, but this oh, it was worse than death.This is why people choose to die so that they can end their suffering.

She thought of Jason again.Why do I keep thinking of Jason?Then there was Taylor, her late husband.Then even those thoughts became heavy and untenable, and she passed out. ☆ Isaac could see that Diane was badly hurt.Even in the dark, it is still possible to see.Her feeble light was nearly extinguished.and Su Lian.Compared to Moai, Diane is like a dying candle. It's hard to concentrate.He was fascinated by the unseen sights that surrounded him.Fascinated because he is part of it, he is becoming those things but it can wait.Now that the new arch has been assembled in the west (from molecules, granite, magma, memories of hypothetical intelligent beings), the situation pauses for a while.In a radius of several kilometers around him, the newly laid dust carpet began to enter a new stage of metabolism.That will take some time.Isaac can be patient.

Su Lian.Moai and Mrs. Rebuka were startled by Isaac.He crawled over fallen beams, fragments of drystone wall, stray latex insulation, and fallen aluminum ventilation ducts to Diane.Dupree there.She was pinned down by a heavy beam and couldn't move.Isaac's lungs were straining and his mouth was full of dust, but at least he could breathe, and Diane obviously couldn't breathe properly.When he reached out to touch it, he knew that the falling fragments had hurt her head.He wanted to stroke her hair the way Mrs. Rebuka had stroked his when he was sick.But when it touched the top of Diane's left ear, there was a dent there.He moved his hand away, feeling sticky.

☆ Taylor.Dupre died one day in August two years ago.That year is relatively long, the year of Equatoria; that August is also the relatively long August in Equatoria. Diane hiked with him that day, up one of those steep, undulating ridges along the coast.Not for anything else, just to sit on the top of the mountain and watch the forest fall straight down, like a large piece of dark green cloth spreading to the sea. Neither of them was young anymore, and both had lived more than half of their extended lives.Taylor has been complaining of fatigue at times lately, but he continues to see doctors, mainly young shipbreakers (who have suffered some horrific injuries) and the Minangkabau villagers who live with them.Today he said he felt great and insisted on a long hike.He said it was the most vacation-like thing I could ever have.So Diane accompanied him, savoring the gloom under the trees and the light of the tall grass, watching him warily.

The metabolism in the fourth year is very strong, but it is not easy to maintain a stable state.Although it can be continuously strengthened, like any other entity, it also has a breaking point.Age cannot be pushed back forever, because therapy itself ages.When fourth-year people fail, they mostly fail right away. That's how Taylor failed. She thought he might have sensed it, which was why he insisted on taking the trip.They came to a place he loved but had little time for, a large expanse of granite and overgrown with mountain grass.They spread out a blanket, and Diane unpacked her backpack and pulled out goodies prepared especially for the occasion: Australian wine, bread from the bakery in Port Magellan, and cold roast beef, a rarity in Minangkabau , they are used to the food here.But Tyler wasn't hungry.He lay down with a tuft of moss on his head.He had lost weight these days, and although he was exposed to the sun, his skin was very white.Looks like an elf, Diane thought.

I think I'm going to sleep.He said.At that moment, in the August sun, in the smell of rock and water and black earth, she knew he was going to die. There was a primal urge in her to save him, to carry him down the mountain, just as he had carried her across most of America when she was sick.But now there is no cure, and the fourth-year therapy can only be used once. Save it for later to grieve.She knelt beside him and stroked his head.She said: Do you want to get something for you?He said: "I'm very happy here. So she lay down beside him and put her arms around him.At this time, the afternoon sun gradually faded away.A long time later (but too soon), the sun went down.It was time to go home, but only Diane got up. I am very happy here. Was this Jason with her in the dark?Was it her brother Jason who passed away many years ago?No, it's that weird boy Isaac, but it sounds like Jason I can remember you, Diane.If you want that, I can do it. She understood what he was going to give her.The hypothetical sap remembered Jason, and so did she, but the hypothetical sap's long, slow memory was less indelible, lasting millions of years.Does she want to meet him in such a boundless time? She wanted to turn her head, but couldn't.She took a breath, just enough for her to utter a word. Need not.