Chapter 63: No Longer Actor
The other remaining component of Inle's upper fuselage took most of the damage under the impact of the explosion, and after protecting its master, it was finally forced to separate from the fuselage and fly off to nowhere. Hyzenthlays's functions were almost destroyed, but fortunately, the cockpit was almost undamaged.
The wrecked Hyzenthlays did a uniform linear motion in the zero resistance vacuum, and its twenty tons of weight smashed many rocks along the way, changing speed and direction with it, and becoming more broken itself. After flying like that for an unknown period of time, it finally hit a huge piece of satellite debris and was robbed of its last kinetic energy. The remaining of Inle floated slowly in the empty universe.
"So we've finally stopped?" The sudden shock was not weakened even after being transmitted to the cockpit. Ade unbuckled the somewhat unpleasantly strangled seatbelt and stood up straight to casually move around a bit. He tried to release his NT perception to the maximum, however, there was nothing in his sense, "Where am I now?"
"Radar and communications are down, Ade." Alice said listlessly, "The posture control vents didn't survive either, I don't know where we are drifting to."
"That's the problem." He looked at the broken display screen, "The cameras are also all burned, I can't see anything. Alice, is there anything we can use in the whole Hyzenthlays?"
"There are no more features that can help us survive." Alice said sadly, "I'm sorry, Ade."
"Why do you have to apologize? It's not Alice's fault." He tried to correct Alice's self-blaming statement, "You should say 'I'm still being good' at this time, so I'll be happy."
"Well … there's still me being good?"
"Yes, that's the best news of all." He fumbled back to his seat and checked the dashboard, "The oxygen reserve is less than twenty hours, it is better not to waste oxygen to go out and take a look, anyway, there is no use to look. I just don't know if it's hard to die of asphyxiation …"
"If Ade died," Alice hesitated for a moment and asked tentatively in a soft voice, "Can you--"
"I will do it when it's time." He interrupted Alice's words. This is too cruel to let her say it herself, "If I can't find any chance to survive, I will turn you off at the last moment. I've been thinking about this for a long time, and it's true that for both of us, the one who dies first is the luckier one, right? I want Alice to be the lucky one."
"… Thanks, Ade."
He didn't know how to answer because he was scared too. He was just pretending to be calm, at least, he couldn't make a disgraceful appearance in front of Alice, so he decided to hold on a little longer, at least until the oxygen ran out, and that would be the last moment for him to turn Alice off.
…
Lacus kept correcting the coordinates with her vague sense, and the spaceship moved forward under her instructions.
She could sense that Ghingham and even Shinn didn't believe her, just saw her as a woman who became hysterical after the loss of her lover, and didn't stop her because of courtesy or sympathy. It doesn't matter, she even acts more hysterical on purpose, she just wants results.
Lacus could not sense any other people at all, and did not understand at all what the so-called NT radar was, but she really felt that she could feel the general direction of Ade, and could even feel his courage and his fear. It is this Ade that makes her feel very real and very warm.
She lost her country, lost her career, lost her only family. She did not lie to Ade, he really is her last place to stay. This feeling is certainly not pure, she has no experience of love, but she never felt that she would have any pure love, and never wanted to be the heroine of a romance story.
There was gratitude, dependence, appreciation, exploitation, and even self-hypnosis under no choice, all of which were familiar to her. Then eliminate these, the only thing left unfamiliar is her free will, right?
But he never understood or did not want to understand it. It is probably in the nature of men to avoid choices? It doesn't matter, she has confidence in herself, and it's fun to watch someone you like gradually begin to like you.
It was as if she was back to the perfect three-step plan she made, and now, she was already on the third step. Although the order was reversed, at least, neither the male nor the female protagonist has left the stage, and she wanted to finish the story.
"I see it, Miss Lacus! I see Hyzenthlays! But the communication seems to be broken, I got no response." The bridge rang with Shinn's excited voice, and after a moment, his voice rang again, "The fuselage is badly broken, but the cockpit is intact, Mr. Adrien may be alive!"
"Well done, bring it back to the ship." Lacus's heart still beats a little faster irrepressibly, "Wait for me to get over there."
She left the bridge as she gathered her thoughts. When Ade came out, the first person he saw had to be her not Shinn. The first person one sees in desperation is important, just as Stella told her how she was saved by Shinn.
The tear tracks dried on her face, looked a little ugly, but she purposely did not clean them up. Of course, it's to let him know that she had cried hard, and it would be better if it made him feel guilty. But she can't cry out in front of him, because it will make her look cheap, and men won't cherish the love that comes too easily.
Shinn brought Hyzenthlays back to the hangar, and by the time she arrived, the cockpit had already been taken down. Under Shinn's instructions, she found the cockpit door's switch.
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, opened the cockpit with her somewhat trembling hand, and Ade's familiar face and blank expression appeared in front of her. She carefully observed the changes in his eyes and every muscle in his face, from bewilderment to shock, from shock to surprise, and from surprise to feigned calmness.
You're so expressive, you could be an actor. She thought inexplicably, and then the tears flowed down by themselves.
No, this is not the same as planned, but since I have cried, there is no way, I can only play to the score. The first thing I can do is to make use of the tears, show a more intense expression, and choose his own words to break the scene, reflecting the intense inner conflict she had when she saw him and remembering the good memories between them.
This is not acting, right? Well, it's not.
"Welcome back." Her body betrayed her brain by making the exact opposite choice… this isn't going to work, I'm going to lose the initiative.
"I'm back." Ade looked around for a moment, "How did you find me?"
Lacus sighed breathlessly in her mind.
Ade, what the hell is wrong with you? Why did the topic suddenly jump over there under such a touching reunion scene? Now you should obviously be looking at me and saying some classic lines instead of looking around, right? It's because of this that you never had a girlfriend, you know? But fortunately, after a burst of internal complaint, she found her rhythm again.
"Let's make good on my promise, shall we?" She gave a gentle smile and forced Ade's eyes back to herself, "Let's continue with what we didn't finish before."
"Hey? Here?" Ade looked at the staff not too far away with a surprised look and found Shinn looking at them with a relieved look.
Yes, that's it, men are so easy to be understood, and he really thought of that right away. She locked eyes with him, smiled, then hugged him hard and kissed him. She had no experience, but judging from movies and TV, it's better to close your eyes in this situation, right? It felt quite strange and not very comfortable, just a little dizzy in the head.
But I can't let him get carried away. Perhaps thirty seconds have passed? She thought, and then let go of Ade and whispered in his ear, "This is the end, my appointment is completed."
Then she stood back up and admired Ade's dumbfounded look. Idiot, if you want to do something further, you have to confess first!
"By the way, you should go to see the doctor, in case there are any internal injuries." She said in a worried tone, and took his hand naturally, "Let's go home?"
"Wait a minute, I'll explain to Alice first." Ade gave her a solemn eye gesture.
"Ok, I'll wait for you." Lacus thoughtfully walked away to the distance. Men have their own little secrets, and I should give him some privacy at times like this. Shinn and the staff in the distance were shocked, good, that's the effect I want.
"Alice?" Ade returned to the cockpit to Alice's main camera, "We will-"
"Two minutes and sixteen seconds." Alice's voice was undulating, "It's shorter than the last time with Miss C.C., Ade, do you want to know how long it was last time?"
