Chapter 104: Reunion
At 7 o'clock in the evening, Lin Yuan and Caesar stood on the bridge overlooking the navigation route. Snow and Brian had also walked over, Brian walked up to Lin Yuan and said with a smile: "Just look at the way you hold yourself, isn’t it quite dignified, ah? How are things? Does being a commander feel super awe-inspiring and all?"
Lin Yuan said sincerely: "No, I actually feel like I'm under quite a bit of pressure."
Brian waved him off and said, "Nothing to worry about there either. Nothing bad will happen with Lieutenant Colonel Ian here. Not only that, but my Father also sent out the latest warships developed by the Hydra Legion. The equipment in this fleet is the greatest and latest in the Empire. I even gave the systems a once over just now and not a problem in sight."
Lin Yuan asked in surprise: "So you had gone to examine the systems?"
Brian laughed as he said: "If not that, then what did you think I was doing just now?"
Lin Yuan: "…"
He thought Brian was slacking off and stowed himself away somewhere to sleep, he didn't expect Brian to actually have such a high sense of self-responsibility and dutifully go with Lieutenant Colonel Ian to check the warship’s interior equipment system. Because of his relationship with Snow, Lin Yuan has always seen Brian in a not too pleasant light, but Brian is still quite reliable when it matters. After completing the upgrade of Suzaku in just one short day, Lin Yuan actually recognizes Brian’s ability in his heart.
Facing Brian’s smile, Lin Yuan also gave a friendly smile and said: “I hope nothing goes wrong throughout the duration of this journey. If all goes well, we will reach at Pavo tomorrow afternoon.”
Caesar smiled and laid a hand on Lin Yuan’s shoulder, he spoke softly: "Don't worry, I have a hunch, we should find and locate your fathers very soon."
Hearing what Caesar said, Lin Yuan couldn't help but feel happy.
Snow suddenly walked up to Lin Yuan and said: "Xiao Yuan, I have something I need to ask you, just between the two of us."
Lin Yuan glanced at Snow a bit confused. Seeing that Snow had a serious look on his face, he turned around and said to Caesar: “I’m going to go with Snow to the lounge. You help out with monitoring the navigation route, call me if there’s a problem."
Caesar nodded, "I’m right here, go right on ahead."
This put Lin Yuan at ease, he then took Snow and turned towards the direction of the private lounge.
Seeing the retreating figures of the two Omega’s turned backs, Brian shrugged somewhat helplessly and said: "Alas, these two brothers are running off again all hush-hush… Why is it that every time, they think that we’re nothing but excess baggage?"
Caesar smiled and said: "It's probably because they have something that isn’t fit for us to know about."
***
Caesar hit the bulls-eye, it was indeed unfit for those two Alphas to know of Snow's question to Lin Yuan.
After entering the lounge with Lin Yuan, Snow wasted no time and ripped the band-aid right off: "Xiao Yuan, you’ve been completely marked by Caesar, haven't you?"
Lin Yuan: "…"
Facing Snow’s unperturbed gaze, Lin Yuan's ears went a little red, he didn't know what to say.
That was way too blunt. Who would have thought he would have jumped straight to asking this kind of question, has studying medicine made his thinking so unabashed?
Seeing his younger brother blush, Snow became more certain of his previous conjecture, "How does your body feel after being marked? Is there any discomfort? Any fever?"
Lin Yuan: "…"
So it really was the tone a doctor consulting a patient would use.
For three days, with White Feather on the spacecraft keeping a constant guard on the door and isolating all freshly circulated air and sounds coming from the interior, the confidentiality measures should have been done perfectly. Even Snow believed the statement of him being sick. How could he suddenly ask him such a question?
Lin Yuan shook his head and said with some bewilderment: "How did you know?"
Snow replied, "One of the medicines my father brought you was an oral contraceptive, so I just went on from there."
So that was it…
Lin Yuan explained somewhat embarrassedly: "Well actually, the day before Uncle injected me with the inhibitor, because of a sudden reaction my body had, I took the pills that Dr. Fornt gave me and suppressed it for the time being. I didn’t think that the two medicines would have different compositions and affect each other. On the spacecraft, my inhibitor suddenly failed, so I asked for Caesar’s mark."
Thinking of the course of events leading to being marked, Lin Yuan's face went even redder and he even felt that he couldn't lift his head to face his brother.
Snow sometimes really felt that the nerves of this brother of his were awfully thick. For someone who was an Omega, he didn’t have the slightest awareness of being one. As his elder brother who also studied medicine, Snow felt that it was his duty to properly provide this little guy with some general scientific knowledge pertaining to Omegas.
After a moment of silence, Snow asked: "Did you take the emergency contraceptive Dad gave you on time?"
Lin Yuan said hurriedly: “I did."
Snow breathed out a sigh of relief and said: "Then that’s fine. I feared that you didn’t take the contraceptive pill in a moment of carelessness. If you get pregnant now, not only will you be expelled from school, but once your Omega identity is exposed, you may also attract a lot of trouble. Now isn’t the right time for you to get pregnant."
Lin Yuan said: "I know."
Snow then said: "You’ve been injecting inhibitors for a long time, the pheromone levels in your body are not very stable. Being abruptly marked is a great burden to the body. During this time, should you feel any discomfort, you must tell me immediately so that I can help you think up of measures to deal with it."
Lin Yuan nodded in earnest, "Okay."
Snow said, "Silver Snow, come and give a full examination to Xiao Yuan's body."
“Yes, Master."
The silver mech quickly came out of the space button at its master's call and shifted into a small humanoid mech. It used a probe to draw some blood out from Lin Yuan's veins for a quick lab assessment.
After a while, Silver Snow posted the assessment results in front of Snow. Snow carefully looked it over and finally relaxed. He smiled and said: "Fortunately, you got through this estrus without issue this time. Your pheromone level is currently stable. In three months, re-inject the inhibitor. Many Omegas aren’t very sure as to the time interval between estrus periods. You should be a bit more cautious."
Lin Yuan rushed his words: "I know."
Snow called for his brother alone, mainly because he was worried about his physical condition. There weren't any issues with his examination results, so he was able to relinquish his worries. After giving it some thought, Snow handed his e-reader to Lin Yuan, and briefed him in a whisper: "This here is a book, please take a closer look. In any case, we won’t arrive at Pavo until tomorrow afternoon. That is enough time for you to finish looking it over. If there is anything you don’t understand, don’t hesitate to ask me."
“What book is it?” Lin Yuan hesitantly turned the reader on, right as the screen turned on he saw a finely displayed electronic book.
“The Universal Handbook of Omega Physiology"
Inquisitively looking down the table of contents, Lin Yuan was soon thereafter struck dumb— Physiological Structure of Omega, Basic Estrus Knowledge of Omega, Detailed Processes and Precautions, Steps to Completely Marking Omega, Omega Pregnancy Symptoms, Pregnancy Precautions, Aftercare Plan Following Childbirth……
This book describes all the physiological knowledge pertaining to Omegas in great detail. Lin Yuan casually turned a page and flipped to the Complete Mark section which was so serious it went so far as to very scientifically depict the positioning of an Alpha and Omega doing a full mark.
The physiological organs in the picture— compromised of the Alpha’s sex organ and the Omega’s inner walls are drawn extremely true to life. The position of the prostate and the Omega’s deeper passageway was also marked out in detail. Even the principle of the child being born into creation following a complete mark is described…
Lin Yuan felt that his worldview was really pretty poor.
How could Snow let him see this kind of book with a straight face? Really, is everyone who studies medicine so blunt?
In reality, Snow gave Lin Yuan a book that was nearly in the hands of every Omega in the Empire. Dr. Wald had set it aside for Snow, Snow had studied it very carefully when he was ten years old.
Compared to Lin Yuan's ignorance, Snow seemed to have matured fairly early?
***
The Hydra Legion's fleet finally arrived near the Pavo Galaxy at 4 pm the next day.
After taking the third route onward, although it was a full day later than originally planned, fortunately, the journey was uneventful and everything went off without a hitch.
The warship made a pit stop over at the outer edge of the Pavo galaxy. Lin Yuan and several others closely looked over the star atlas simulation of the Pavo Galaxy.
—In this vast galaxy, excluding the large number of uninhabitable stars, the sheer number of unknown planets is also fairly impressive. Like the eyes on the tail of a peacock, they were spread over the entire starfield. Among so many planets, finding Rosen and Ling Yu’s exact position wasn’t going to be a walk in the park.
Lin Yuan lowered his head and contemplated for a moment. He looked around at the gathered crew and said: “It’s too time-consuming to scour through so many planets one by one. It would be better for me to take Suzaku to check in person. The speed of an S-Class mech is much faster than that of warships and within a certain distance from Black Dragon, Suzaku will be able to generate a connection…" Lin Yuan turned around and looked at everyone inquiringly, "What do you think?"
Zhou Yi frowned, "You going alone? Out of the question, I won’t be able to rest in peace!"
Lin Yuan Yuan said in all earnest: "Master if the fleet is to search on a planet by planet basis, it may not even be completed in ten and a half months."
Caesar rushed to speak: "I'll accompany you with White Feather, so the two of us can watch each other's back, isn’t that so?"
White Feather immediately followed up guns blazing, saying: "Yes, yes, correctamundo! I have a connection with Predecessor Black Dragon too!"
Zhou Yi couldn't help thinking in his mind: Why is this little prince so good to his apprentice?
He couldn't help give Caesar a puzzled look. Caesar turned to Zhou Yi and smiled, saying: "Pavo is far outside of the Federation’s border, so we shouldn’t encounter the Federation's Legions. On top of that, we have the two S-Class mechs, White Feather and Suzaku with us. Even if we encounter any danger, there’s no need to get too worried.”
Lin Yuan went along with his words: “That’s right, Caesar and I will pilot our S-Class mechs up ahead to map out our path, the fleet will follow behind as support. Master, do you think this is good?”
What Lin Yuan said was the quickest way. Taking advantage of the formidable jump speed and individual combat capability of an S-class mech, he and Caesar went out to a planet to probe out a path first, the huge warship followed at a relatively slow speed, providing aid and safeguarding. So long as they do not exceed a certain distance, the mech and the warship can maintain communication at any time.
Zhou Yi fell silent for a moment, then eventually nodded. Seeing that no one had had any objection to this, Lin Yuan and Caesar prepared to set off, summoning their mechs and having the warship release the hatch.
Out of nowhere, Snow suggested: "Is there a co-pilot seat in Suzaku? I'll come together with you."
He was still not confident about his younger brother's physical condition. He wanted to stay by Lin Yuan's side and Lin Yuan had no reason to refuse.
Snow wanted to come, and so Brian was naturally bound to follow after Caesar into White Feather's cockpit.
Preceding the rest of the fleet, the four people set off in the S-class mech, White Feather and Suzaku space jumped to the nearest minor planet at the fastest speed, then activated the detection system and circled around the planet, detecting whether or not there were traces of Black Dragon on it.
Even though the S-Class mech flew extremely fast, it took nearly half an hour to circle the entire planet, the results were nevertheless frustrating to no end— not a single trace of Black Dragon could be found on this planet, yet a plethora of baffling vegetation thrived.
Lin Yuan was pretending to be collected on the surface, but he was actually overcome with anxiety in his heart. He wished that he could immediately find the location of his two fathers and fly to their side in an instant, but he also knew that in the matter of looking for someone, it was nothing one should rush. He must stay calm and patient.
Taking a deep breath to put his emotions in check, Lin Yuan took the initiative to connect to White Feather's communicator, he smiled and said, "There’s nothing here, move onto the next one." He then designated a target point on a planet from the star atlas and sent it Caesar's way, "Let’s go look over here.”
There are many planets in Pavo, he searched them one by one and when the clock struck 10 in the evening, they had gone through around seven to eight planets in a row with nothing to show for it.
Lin Yuan's heart gradually grew a little uneasy…
After all, his parents being in Pavo had only a theoretical inference by Caesar and Berg, no one could say for sure whether it would hold up.
What if there were other pressing factors at that time, and Father piloted Black Dragon to another galaxy?
Or what if the two of them had encountered the Federation’s enemy forces during their voyage, what if something happened then?
So long as that possibility exists, they may not be in Pavo. Lin Yuan fixed his gaze onto the cosmic star atlas before him and he couldn't help tightening his grip on the navigation bridge.
Snow looked back at him and said: "Don't worry, there are still two planets left. If we really can't find them here, let's go to the nearby Apus Galaxy and look for them."
Suzaku perceived it’s Master’s depressed mood and softly comforted: "Master, as long as Black Dragon is still alive, it will surely protect the Marshal well. I have no doubt that both the Marshal and the General will be fine."
Lin Yuan spoke in a low voice: "I hope they are fine too, but… I’m a little worried, I want to find them as soon as possible…"
Snow put his hand on his younger brother's shoulder and said consolingly: "I understand."
Lin Yuan had been separated from his dad for many years and Snow understood his feelings about wanting to see his dad as soon as possible. At the time when he had been separated from his dad, he had also longed to see him again day and night…
Snow pointed to a small planet located on the top of the Pavo star atlas and said: "Let's continue looking over here, maybe we will find something."
Lin Yuan nodded and commanded Suzaku through the red nerve wire entwined around his fingers: "Suzaku, let's go."
***
He hadn't expected Snow's words to ring true. On the last planet in Pavo, sure enough, there was an unexpected discovery.
Through the majority of the planets they had gone through, the survivability of plants and animals was few and far in-between, but this planet had extremely lush forests. It was 10 o’clock in the evening, but strangely enough, on this planet daytime still reigned. The planet was shrouded in a beautiful purple light and the sight stretching out before their eyes were very clear. The strange trees in the forest are tall and dense and the oxygen quality in the air was higher than that of the Capital Star in Cepheus.
Lin Yuan's heart beat suddenly and fiercely. He looked at the large expanse of forest under his feet and said excitedly: "This planet is suitable for human habitation, maybe my dads are here! Suzaku, quick—”
Suzaku immediately spread out its red wings and increased its flying speed, its red eyes flashed with dazzling brilliance.
White Feather excitedly stuck to Suzaku’s heels and said to Caesar: "Master, Master, this planet is so beautiful. I'll capture panoramic imaging of this planet as we fly by later! The lighting here is much nicer-looking than the white lighting of Cepheus. The plants in the forest also look pretty interesting. The rattans on those trees look like hair, the way they float around is very fascinating! What do you think?"
Caesar said helplessly: "…don't lose focus, pay attention to your detection system!"
Bai Yu: "…oh."
After a moment of silence, White Feather couldn't help but say: "Master, I didn't sense the existence of Predecessor Black Dragon, could it be shut down?"
In all reality, White Feather had just said this casually, because Senior Suzaku often said it couldn't stand their chatter and it would shut down. Unexpectedly, these words reminded Caesar of something in an instant as if he were enlightened by Buddha’s teachings—
That’s right, S-Class mechs can only detect each other after turning on the detection system. In ordinary circumstances, an S-Class mech would turn on its detection system so they didn't stop to consider this, but what if Black Dragon had just happened to shut down its detection system? Or, as White Feather said, Black Dragon just so happened to have shut down?
If that’s the case, then, Suzaku and White Feather wouldn’t be able to sense the existence of Black Dragon at all!
Thinking of this, Caesar immediately connected to Suzaku's communicator and said: "Xiao Yuan, it is possible that the Black Dragon has not activated its detection system and with that being that, we wouldn’t have been able to sense its existence at all!"
Lin Yuan was taken aback and came to the sudden realization: "Yes, I almost overlooked this bit. We have been relying on searching around the planets for them with the detection system, but if Black Dragon hasn’t initiated its reconnaissance system, that method just isn’t of any use!"
Caesar suggested: "This planet is very suitable for human habitation. Maybe they are here. We ought to fly at low altitudes and let Suzaku and White Feather carefully scan and search the surface.
Lin Yuan nodded immediately and said: "Okay, Suzaku, quickly descend."
Suzaku heeded its Master's command and suddenly dove downward, landing close to 100 meters from the ground. White Feather also followed and descended. Two huge S-Class mechs flew side by side and began to move carefully along the dense forest, scanning inch by inch.
***
In the cave, Rosen and Ling Yu were preparing to eat breakfast.
According to the Imperial Standard Time, it was now 10 o’clock in the evening, but on this planet, the sun had just made its way over the horizon. Day and night alternate very quickly. The 6 hours of nighttime and the 6 hours of daytime caused Rosen and Ling Yu’s biological clocks to fall out of order.
Rosen washed the picked fruits, put them on the plate, and handed them to Ling Yu.
Ling Yu still had no appetite whatsoever, he frowned and picked up a fruit before putting it back down.
Rosen placed the fruit in his hand and said in a low voice: "You must eat something even if you don’t feel like eating. You need the nourishment now… I just found this kind of fruit yesterday. Although it looks strange, it actually tastes pretty good. Wanna give it a try?"
Rosen thoughtfully helped Ling Yu peel off the skin and brought the tender inner white flesh up to Ling Yu's lips.
Ling Yu opened his mouth and Rosen immediately hand-fed the fruit to Ling Yu. What was surprising was that this fruit was sour and the taste was indeed quite good, and not only that, the sourness seemed to alleviate the nausea in his stomach.
Seeing Ling Yu eating the fruit, Rosen felt a burst of joy overtake his heart, he couldn't help peeling another fruit to hand feed him with.
Ling Yu was a little embarrassed and said: "I'll do it…”
Being hand-fed things like a child, such a scene had been unthinkable for Ling Yu, but just a moment ago, he actually opened his mouth of his own initiative and ate the food Rosen fed him?
…for this man's bottom line, it seemed to be getting lower and lower.
It was at this moment that Black Dragon’s golden eyes suddenly lit up as it stood in the doorway sparing no effort in gathering light—
In the sky not too far away, two mechs, one red and one white were flying slowly over the forest with their wings spread. The white and red mech’s searchlights projected large tracts of light on the ground, cementing the fact that they were carefully examining and scanning the scene within their projection range.
As soon as it saw the two mechs hovering over the forest, Black Dragon wasted no time in calmly turning on its detection system—
In those very same moments, in Suzaku's control cabin, a constantly flashing black dot appeared on its monitoring screen like a signal indication. Suzaku reported immediately: "Master, the mech, Black Dragon has been located up ahead, the target location is 173.97.1086…"
Lin Yuan widened his eyes in surprise, looking at the black dot, "Suzaku, move towards the target point!"
In fact, there was no need for Lin Yuan to issue a command, Suzaku flew towards the target point the moment it found the target location.
White Feather was leisurely scanning the landscape of the planet, seeing Predecessor Suzaku suddenly fly off somewhere, it took a closer look at its detection system. Sure enough, it found the Black Dragon’s location and immediately followed Suzaku seething in excitement.
In the cave, Black Dragon calmly returned to the cave and reported to Rosen: "Master, White Feather and Suzaku are here."
Rosen stared blankly ahead and Ling Yu raised his head in surprise. The two had yet to fully react and respond to the up and coming situation when they heard a clear and hearty voice laced with obvious excitement coming from the entrance of the cave: "Father!"
Rosen: "……………"
Rosen, who was about to feed Ling Yu a fruit, dropped the nicely peeled fruit to the ground with a resounding “plop”.