Chapter 4
2060words
Felis was taken to a temporarily converted, heavily guarded isolation room. She watched those people in white protective suits with cold eyes approaching her, watched the gleaming instruments in their hands, and long-forgotten fear once again seized her heart. She instinctively looked back, searching for the only figure who could give her a sense of security.
Nikolai stood outside the observation window, but he couldn't come in as he usually did. His hands were tightly clenched into fists at his sides.
A torture session called "inspection" began.
The cold mechanical arm fixed her on the platform, sharp probes pierced her skin, extracting blood and tissue samples. Beams of high-intensity energy swept across her body, analyzing every cell.
She struggled painfully, but to no avail.
Finally, a scientist picked up a syringe filled with a phosphorescent blue liquid.
"This is 'Stasis Agent Type VIII,'" the inspector's voice echoed through the broadcast in the observation room, as if explaining to Nikolai. "It can temporarily suppress all mental activities of the target, facilitating our deep brain wave scanning. Harmless."
"No!" Felis used all her strength to scream this word in the Imperial language.
But it was too late. The cold needle pierced her neck, and the phosphorescent blue liquid was forcefully injected into her bloodstream. A bone-chilling coldness instantly swept through her entire body, her consciousness began to rapidly sink, falling into boundless darkness.
Before completely losing consciousness, the last thing she saw was a flash of something she had never seen before in Nikolai's deep eyes behind the observation window... pain.
She fell into a nightmare.
In her dream, there were towering flames and collapsing earth. It was her homeland—Earth—before it was consumed by that primordial energy. She saw countless familiar yet blurred faces, heard countless sorrowful cries.
Pain and despair submerged her like a tidal wave.
However, deep within this dark sea of despair, a faint singing voice quietly rose from the depths of her soul.
It was a melody she had never heard before, yet felt incredibly familiar. It was an ancient folk song without lyrics. The singing was ethereal and distant, carrying a compassion that soothed departed souls, while embodying a sense of destiny that gazed upon the stars.
She unconsciously, in her sleep, softly hummed this melody.
In the isolation room, the instruments monitoring her brain waves suddenly emitted a sharp beeping sound!
And outside the observation window, a previously silent investigator with graying hair was struck like lightning the moment he heard that melody!
He rushed to the observation window, staring intently at the sleeping Felis, his whole body trembling, muttering in a dreamlike tone filled with terror and disbelief:
"No... impossible... this is... this is 'The Song of the Star-Bearer'! It's the melody of the First Prophecy that's been lost for three thousand years! How... how could she possibly know how to sing it?!"
Nikolai keenly caught these unguarded words.
Star-Bearer? First Prophecy?
His heart skipped a beat.
The examination ended in an eerie atmosphere. A few days later, the investigation team left, leaving behind an official report.
The report was watertight, filled with ambiguous terminology. It acknowledged the uniqueness of the specimen, confirmed her ability to "repair" energy leakages and establish resonance with the "Titan," attributing it to the presence of an "unknown, highly adaptive energy factor" within her body. The report also mentioned her "abnormal mental resonance patterns" and suggested "longer-term, controlled observation."
However, there was not a single word about that astonishing melody.
This conspicuous silence, rather than concealing, exploded like thunder in Nikolai's mind.
He knew that the matter was far more complex than he had imagined. Felis's existence must conceal a profound secret that even the Empire's Highest Council found thorny and perhaps even feared.
That night, Nikolai sat alone in his cabin.
He played back the melody that had been recorded by the instruments, the one Felis had hummed in her dream. That ethereal and sorrowful singing echoed repeatedly in the silent room.
He closed his eyes, allowing the melody to flow into his mind. Then, he opened his eyes, his fingers swiftly typing on the console, accessing the Empire's most classified ancient document database that only commanders of his rank had permission to access.
In the search bar, he solemnly entered three characters:
"Star Retriever".
On the screen, countless encrypted files frantically flickered, performing complex authentication procedures. Finally, the cursor locked onto an ancient scroll wrapped in layers of fiery red energy beams and marked as "Top Secret."
The title of the scroll contained only four brief characters—
《The First Prophecy》
Nikolai had not left his cabin for three standard days in a row.
On the holographic screen before him were no longer cold military reports, but that ancient scroll marked "Top Secret" called 《The First Prophecy》. As the layers of encryption were unlocked with his clearance, those words once dismissed by him as nonsense, filled with mythological elements, revealed their true form to him for the first time.
The scroll was not written with text, but composed of complex energy structure diagrams and stellar evolution models. Among them, one theory was repeatedly mentioned—"Cosmic Strings."
Ancient theory held that all matter and energy in the universe are connected by invisible, higher-dimensional "strings." Under specific conditions, the spiritual force of intelligent beings can resonate with these "strings," allowing them to perceive the past, foresee the future, and even influence reality. Those with the strongest resonance ability are called—"Star Weavers."
This document went on to describe that the mental wave patterns of "Star Weavers" are highly unified with the fundamental frequency of cosmic strings. When they fall into deep mental activity, they unconsciously emit a resonance called "String Sound," which is the "anomalous mental resonance pattern" mentioned in the investigation team's report.
Nikolai's fingertips lightly glided across the screen, a chilling sensation crawling up his spine.
Science ends with theology—this sentence, which he had snorted at for half his life, now echoed repeatedly in his mind like a thunderbolt. The imperial technological system he had always been proud of, built on data and logic, seemed so... shallow before these ancient wisdoms that had spanned countless ages.
Just then, a sudden alarm interrupted his contemplation.
"Commander! Urgent communication from Outpost-7! The edge system 'Talos' we're monitoring is experiencing massive energy anomalies!"
Nikolai immediately switched the display. On the bridge's main screen, the distant Talos system was exhibiting an apocalyptic scene. The black hole at the center of the system had suddenly become extremely unstable, with the orbits of several surrounding planets beginning to disorder. Massive energy tides, like an invisible hand, roughly stirred the entire system, causing the originally stable starlight to flicker uncertainly like candles in the wind.
"This... doesn't conform to any known physical model!" The chief astrophysicist on the bridge was deathly pale, "It's almost as if... the astrophysical rules of the entire galaxy are being artificially, maliciously rewritten!"
Nikolai didn't speak. He just stared intently at the chaotic star chart while pulling up another page of "The First Prophecy."
On that page was clearly depicted a stellar vortex diagram, its energy flow pattern matching the anomalies in the Talos system... down to the smallest detail!
Below the diagram was only one brief, bone-chilling footnote:
【When the string music rises again, the stars will collapse accordingly. This marks the beginning of the end.】
The prophecy... had come true.
A greater crisis was quietly brewing in some corner of the universe. And his only clue was that Earth girl who could sing "The Star-Bearer's Song," imprisoned in the medical bay.
He had to do something.
Nikolai made a decision that would seem incredibly insane to anyone. He personally came to the medical pod and, under the astonished gaze of scientists and guards, removed all of her restraints.
"Come with me," he said to the still somewhat bewildered Felis.
He no longer viewed her as a specimen that needed protection, but as an... equal, mysterious ally who might understand the truth better than he did.
He took her, for the first time, into the heart of the "Leviathan" - the main control center.
This was the nerve center of the entire flagship, with flowing real-time star maps on the dome above, surrounded by countless control consoles emitting a soft glow. And at the very center of the entire room, a giant, perfectly cut diamond-like white crystal floated—it was the auxiliary computation core of the "Leviathan," and one of the flagship's "souls."
Felis had never seen such a magnificent and grand scene before. She looked around curiously, her eyes filled with awe. When her gaze fell upon the enormous core crystal, an inexplicable attraction from deep within her bloodline drew her toward it involuntarily.
"Don't touch it!" the adjutant instinctively called out to stop her.
But Nikolai raised his hand to restrain him, looking at Felis with complex emotions in his eyes, silently permitting her action.
This was a major gamble. He was betting that the prophecy was true, betting that she truly was the "Star Savior."
Felis reached out her hand and with her delicate fingertip, gently touched the cold surface of the crystal.
Boom——!!!
An indescribable flood of information instantly erupted from the crystal and rushed into her mind!
Before her eyes was no longer the control center, but shattered galaxies billions of light-years away, the burning wreckage of fallen massive ships, grotesque unknown alien races, and soldiers in Imperial uniforms... fighting side by side with another group of humans wearing crude spacesuits!
Countless images, sounds, and emotions flooded her consciousness like a broken dam.
All those memories—suppressed by drugs, scrambled by energy impacts, belonging to her as an Earth woman—were at this moment forcibly "reformatted" by this massive information flow and restored to their rightful place!
She remembered.
She remembered her name, remembered Earth, remembered that earth-shattering catastrophe.
She also remembered everything after being brought onto this cold steel beast—those fears, those probes, those clumsy imitations, the patience with which that man taught her to speak and showed her star charts, and... the flash of pain in his eyes when she was forcibly injected.
Everything, everything came back to her.
Two sets of memories, two identities, violently colliding and tearing at each other in her mind.
One was the vulnerable, helpless "Felis" who curled up in corners and viewed that tall Imperial man as her only support.
The other was an Earth human with an independent personality and dignity, who had been forcibly captured and treated as a pet and specimen for research.
Dependence, gratitude, affection...
Humiliation, fear, anger...
Countless contradictory emotions exploded within her heart, leaving her mind blank. She abruptly withdrew her hand, staggered back two steps, and clutched her head in agony.
"What's wrong with you?" Nikolai stepped forward quickly, his eyes filled with worry.
She slowly raised her head.
At that moment, everyone in the control center drew in a sharp breath.
In those eyes, there was no longer the previous bewilderment, innocence, and pure dependence. Instead, there was a piercing gaze that seemed capable of penetrating one's heart, mixed with endless information and complex emotions, belonging to a mature and intelligent being.
The deputy was shocked at this scene. He didn't understand what the illusion represented, but he could clearly feel that the "specimen"... had changed. He instinctively looked toward Nikolai, only to find that his commander, the man who always had everything under control, was now staring blankly at the girl, his eyes filled with shock, confusion, and a hint of... almost undisguised wavering.
The deputy's loyalty to rationality remained unchanged; he only felt that the scene before him was utterly absurd and dangerous.
As for Nikolai, that fortress of order and logic within his heart finally began to... sway violently when he saw Felis's eyes completely "awaken."
Under the uncertain gazes of everyone present, Felis slowly stood up straight. She ignored everyone else, only fixing those incredibly complex eyes—interweaving dependence, resentment, confusion, and scrutiny—silently and intensely on Nikolai before her.
This man who had rescued her from destruction, only to throw her into another cage.
This man who had given her shelter, yet stripped away her dignity.
This... alien whom she instinctively depended on, yet could not rationally forgive.
How should she face him?
