Imperfections

4

1300 UT*

It was late night in Venus Harbour, Beijing-ß.

Venus harbour was a galaxy harbour about to be abandoned. Only a few workers were left working here, living on low wages paid by the government.

It was a cold night. There was no one at the Venus Harbour. Large tracts of wasteland were covered with weeds higher than an adult, which were dying, rustling, waving in the howling gale. It was like a ghost town, run-down and sombre. The obsolete buildings and launchers in Venus Harbour were standing in the desolation, reminding you of those ugly scenes in ancient sci-fictions, more than words could describe.

There was a narrow path between the pale green weeds for the workers to in and out. The homeless were marching toward to the Venus through the path. Workers would drive them away during the daytime, however they could still take here as a refuge at night.

One of them was an old man, on his back was a child wearing shabby clothes exactly like himself. Suddenly he fell to the ground, and the child fell as well like a senseless ball. The kid rolled over stiffly, showing his cyanosed face——he had been already dead for some time.

A trashcan detected a corpse of carbon-based life form, and then the cleaning programme worked automatically. It moved closer, reaching out a cold robot arm with a shovel to take the corpse away. The old man covered the kid’s body by himself right at the moment, as if he could share his vitality with his boy.

It was a pity that the trashcan wasn’t so that dumb. It kept spading, engaging a cruel fight against the elder in the small s.p.a.ce.

There was no doubt that the trashcan won.

Hit by the rude trashcan, the poor old kneeled down, crying out loud for all he had suffered. His companions kept going on without giving a glance. They did not give a s.h.i.t. After all, taking a corpse as rubbish was not so rare here.

The homeless men walked away. Then a pair of boots showed up in the pale weeds, going straight to the trashcan after hesitating for a few seconds.

That was a tall man who has flaxen hair and pale skin. He seemed to be kind of stiff because his face was way too perfect. Every step he walked was of exactly the same length, which made him look like a soldier even though he dressed casually.

He entered the trashcan’s background program in silence. After what he had done then, the trashcan reached out the shovel and gave out the little corpse.

The man did not mind about his dirty. He gave the body to the old man, who was still sitting on the ground. “Sorry about your loss.”

The old man looked at him in shock. The man then pointed a direction. “At 3 ’o clock, about 200 meters from here, the soil texture is most soft there at which you can bury your child. I’m genuinely sorry about your loss.”

Not only his steps, but also his tunes were exactly the same, like a machine. After talking like reciting, he stroke heels and bowed, ready to leave.

The old homeless could not help asking. “You are……”

He regretted the moment he had asked. The man dressed so well, showing the smell of richness from head to toe, like a upper cla.s.s. According to his life experience, he had better leave the upper cla.s.s as far as he can, or he would be the one who suffer the most.

But the man stopped, and answered seriously. “My identification is confidential. No access. My name is Zhanlu.”

The old was even more panic now.

The man who called himself Zhanlu asked. “Do you have any more questions?”

The nervous old man shook his head, blowing his nose. The man then left with his long legs, following the other homeless men.

There was a heating system in Harbour V. The homeless dropped their coats, trying to win some warmness for themselves. They took every second to sleep as long as they could.

The snore was loud within half an hour.

A sneaking small guy stood up at the corner, walking into the harbour without others’ attention.

If Jingshu Huang the bad girl had been here, she could recognize the man at the first sight. That was the trader monster in disguise, who had been forced to run away from the shabby speakeasy. Then he landed near the Harbour V through small-size s.p.a.ce field, pretending to be one of the homeless and trying to leave Beijing-ß.

The safety pa.s.sageway between the terminal and the launcher was locked. The fake homeless man took out a chip and covered it on the lock. The locked program opened silently in three seconds while the heavy door opened as well. He sneaked in cautiously and quickly.

“It’s me, Spider.” There was no other man in the safety pa.s.sageway. The thin and short beggar threw away his shabby coat. His bones cracked to widen, turning into the shape he really was. He talked to his companion in low voice. “Did I gain anything? I gained a piece of s.h.i.t! I was spied on. Almost being trapped there!”

The pa.s.sage was long and narrow, which volumed up the voice. Although knowing the surveillance centre was shielded, he was still nervous about the echo. He complained: “Son of b.i.t.c.h, the only thing they know is asking for more people and more stuffs. But they can’t even copy the h.e.l.la soundless phone. It is almost popularized among the IU jackals. f.u.c.king the IU by doing like this? Is it fun to make yourself a f.u.c.king daydream……I dunno, a woman——How could I know who the f.u.c.k is she?”

The Spider pressed on his wrist while talking. Jingshu Huang’s photos rose on his wrist.

Then the photos became detail information including identification, address and so on. The man glared at the girl with his b.l.o.o.d.y eyes. “Got her details, don’t know true or fake. But I don’t think she was some government guy……ew, it could be simply coincidence, you know, vacucerebral blockheads are everywhere in the f.u.c.king eighth galaxy……”

He walked to the end of the pa.s.sageway. There were just a few security robots in the empty platform. The Spider estimated the number of the robots, then he pressed the disturbing apparatus on his hand.

The security robots and the monitoring program stopped at the same time. The Spider walked by the freezing robots to the outline of the railway. Taking out a tiny mech in the s.p.a.ce field, he saw the mech landed on the launchers and opened the door.

The Spider walked into the mech. In the light of the launcher, it seemed like his face had wore a metal mask. “No matter who she really is, whether coincidence or not, for safety, anyway we should kill——”

The alarm rang before he finished his words. His phone call was cut off. He headed up in a rush, only to find the mech on the launcher shivered like it had been alive. The spirit net of the mech was not connect to the owner yet. Shivers became earthquake-like tremble, which made the Spider fell back. The spirit net was full of sparks and the smell of ozone——as the result of serious mech disturbing!

Nonetheless in fact most people in the eighth galaxy would never see a real mech in their whole lives. Where in the h.e.l.l could those poorly poor find a disturbing technology like this?

The Spider’s skin was full of goose b.u.mps.

No one can survive in such messy spirit net condition, not mention to him. Therefore he crushed the emergency safety valve without thinking twice and transferred into manual operation, opening the cabin door already heating up, then rolled out with screaming.

Smoke coverd the mech behind him, while the security robots back to life for no reason. Seven or eight laser guns were pointed at his head. No one else was in the platform.

He failed to get rid of these flies!

The Spider put a hand on his left chest——there was an insert chip which was his Sunday punch.

The robots approached him——

“Trespa.s.sing! Trespa.s.sing!”

“Fail to identify the trespa.s.ser!”

“Warning! Put your hands up!”

Then, an invisible field, which centred him, spread out. The locaters lost targets, while the scan results were all that no one was on the platform. The security robots wandered around with laser guns for some time, but found nothing. They had to go back to where they were before.

The Spider rested in relief, smiling c.o.c.k-hoop. “Those b.i.t.c.hes are useful in some way after all.”

With the “secret weapon”, he could control the sense of any people or robots whenever he wanted, like what he did on the “gay sport”. It could work for vacant brain b.i.t.c.hes for some time even.

“Come and get me!” The Spider shouted and whistled, bursting out laughter and putting middle fingers to the sky. He was ready for entering the mech again.

A thin beam red light shoot out of the wall straight through his neck, right at the moment he turned around. He fell to the ground without making any noise, while his mouth was still laughing.

A flaxen-short-hair man came out of the wall magically. It was the man who called himself Zhanlu.

He reached out his right hand. The pale hand turned into a robot hand exactly the same as the one in the speakeasy.

The robot hand scanned the insensible Spider from head to toe, and found a strong energy field inside his heart.

Zhanlu’s head was slightly aside. A threadlike probe reached out of his hand while five finger pulps sprinkled foggy disinfector. A temporary small sterilized s.p.a.ce was created. The probe stabbed into Spider’ chest quickly. The little operation finished in five minutes——Zhanlu took a biology chip out of the Spider’s heart.

At the moment the chip was taken away, Spider’s metal-like skin subsided. His temperature, heart rate and metabolism decreased suddenly. He seemed older for decades in a second.

The robot hand sounded like Zhanlu himself. “Found unknown energy field——”

“Failed to recognize.”

“Failed again——failed to recognize——warning——”

“Block it.” Zhanlu ordered.

Zhanlu collected it cautiously. The robot hand turned into the human one, taking every electronic equipment from Spider. He bent to shoulder Spider and then destroyed the encryption system of the mech and taking the mech as well. Zhanlu left the Venus Harbour.

He planned to go back through the way he had come here at first, however he stopped near the terminal. Heading up and eyes closed, he changed his direction like he was called, going straight into the thick pale-green weeds.

There was a car in the deep of the weeds. B4 leaned against the car, two arms crossed before his chest, seemed to have been waiting for some time.

Zhanlu bowed. “Sir.”

B4 raised his jaw, suggesting him to get on the car. Zhanlu put Spider into the trunk and put a hand on the car. His hand melted unexpectedly, then his body, his head……He disappeared, or to say he mixed with the car. At the same time, the dormant car restarted automatically.

The tall handsome man named Zhanlu was an artificial intelligence.

Zhanlu said: “Where will we go, sir?”

“Back to the speakeasy.” B4 answered, “Can you tell where he belongs to?”

“Prepare to start the s.p.a.ce filed. Location: the speakeasy——He is supposed to be one of the Toxic Nest according to the mech type.”

The Toxic Nest was an organization at the edge of the eighth galaxy, at where it would be hard to survive if going more further. The Toxic Nest seldom contacted with the other gangsters in the galaxy. It was more like a heresy than a gangster. There were tons of heresies among those ambitious brothers and sisters in the eighth galaxy, but generally they worshiped some G.o.ds in ancient myths, or some animals, mammals at least——it was really rare, and odd enough to worship bugs like the Toxic Nest did.

B4 was a bit of surprised. “What are they doing on the Beijing planet?”

Note:

1. UT = Universal Time