Starting as a Wallfacer, his defection to the Three-Body Problem shocked the world.

Chapter 130 Natural Selection, Moving Forward 4

"The grand military parade will begin in three hours and will be filmed by the Reach space station and broadcast live to Earth simultaneously."

"All Space Force officers, please proceed to your designated posts immediately. Your glory will be recorded in history at this moment."

"For humanity!"

Zhang Beihai changed into the Space Force's combat uniform, quickly passed through the dock corridor, and entered the interior of the "Natural Selection".

Beside him, groups of hibernators dressed similarly to him entered their ships through the dock corridors.

As Chang Weisi had said before, the Hibernators' formation was arranged on the outermost side of the fleet, so those passing through the dock on this side were almost all Space Force soldiers reinforcing the future plan.

Some of the people Zhang Beihai knew were people who had entered hibernation a few batches later than him, so their appearances differed slightly from his memories.

Zhang Beihai wasn't very familiar with Chu Yan, but he had heard of him.

The third batch of reinforcements included in the future plan. If you count them, he hibernated about five years later than Zhang Beihai. Zhang Beihai heard that he is now the captain of the "Blue Space" ship, and his military rank is only half a rank lower than his own.

Li Wei: Chief Commander of the Main Gun of the Wannian Kunpeng. Zhang Beihai remembers this kid. Before hibernation, his military rank was very low, but he was promoted all the way to his current position because of his outstanding performance in training.

Zhao Xin: Senior technician of the radar detection system of the Beifang ship. Like Li Wei, he was specially promoted after hibernation because of his outstanding performance.

Besides these hibernators, Zhang Beihai also had many dealings with some immortals from later eras in the three major fleets.

For example, Neil Scott, the captain of the USS Bronze Age.

Zhang Beihai had spoken with him several times during training. It must be said that this man's psychological qualities were higher than any other space force member Zhang Beihai had ever met, and his views on some issues were also similar to Zhang Beihai's in many ways.

Upon arriving at the Natural Selection, I was greeted by a woman.

"I am Dongfang Yanxu, the captain of the Natural Selection."

"Zhang Beihai."

Zhang Beihai politely shook hands with Dongfang Yanxu, but the latter handed Zhang Beihai a pistol.

"Senior, this is a gift I'm presenting to you on behalf of all the officers and soldiers on board," Dongfang Yanxu said, raising an eyebrow.

"If you discover that I am a loser or a member of the Steel Seal Clan, you can kill me with this gun if I attempt to escape."

"No need," Zhang Beihai declined her offer.

Dongfang Yanxu seemed slightly disappointed by Zhang Beihai's lack of interest and turned to walk into the Natural Selection.

“Well then, senior, let’s begin your first lesson on the ship,” said Dongfang Yanxu.

"Of course, the lesson shouldn't be given by me, the captain who is under investigation, but no one else in the fleet is more reliable than me."

"Today we are demonstrating how to start the Natural Selection and get it into sailing mode. In fact, you only need to remember what we saw today, and that will block the main way out for the Stamp Clan."

As she spoke, she used her data gloves to conjure a holographic star map in the air.

"It may have changed somewhat from the space map you used back then, but it still uses the sun as the origin of the coordinate system."

“I learned it during the training, so I can basically understand it,” Zhang Beihai said.

The current star map precisely marks the positions of all celestial bodies within a radius of one hundred light-years centered on the Sun, a spatial extent that is hundreds of times larger than the original map.

"Actually, you don't need to understand it. Under the current circumstances, sailing to any position on the map is not allowed."

"To give an example, if I were a member of the Steel Seal race, attempting to hijack the Natural Selection and escape into space, the first thing I would need to do is choose a direction, like this..."

As Dongfang Yanxu spoke, he clicked on the star map, and a red warning message immediately popped up, indicating that Zhang Beihai was also required to complete this operation.

"Look, all operations must be carried out through you. I no longer have the authority. You are now the executive captain of this ship."

As Dongfang Yanxu spoke, he brought up a simple control interface. Zhang Beihai was very familiar with this interface; he had already memorized its operation during training.

“This only displays basic overall parameters, so how do you know the operational status of the spacecraft?” Zhang Beihai asked.

Upon hearing this, Dongfang Yanxu shook his head.

"The operational status is monitored by officers and petty officers at all levels. Their display interfaces are more complex, with the complexity increasing as the rank decreases. As the captain and first officer, we must focus our attention on what we should be thinking about..."

"Then... if you were a member of the Steel Seal Clan, what would you do?" Zhang Beihai countered.

"If I were a member of the stamped family, I would set the propulsion power directly to forward four."

"No other ship in the fleet could catch up with the Natural Selection when it is accelerating in forward four state, except for Chang Weisi's Navigator, of course."

"However, I heard that the Navigator will be positioned directly ahead of the fleet, even though this warship is not carrying any weapons."

"But its size is larger than the combined size of five star-class warships. If I really wanted to use the Natural Selection to escape, I would probably crash headfirst into the Navigator as soon as I accelerated."

“Besides, you can’t do it, even if you have captain’s authority,” Dongfang Yanxu said.

"Because the system will only enter forward propulsion mode 4 when it detects that all personnel on board are in deep sea conditions."

Dongfang Yanxu smiled.

"Of course, I have a way to bypass this detection, you probably already thought of it."

"As long as the spaceship is set to remote control mode, the system will assume that there is no one on board and there is no need to conduct any checks. This is under the captain's authority and is used to deal with emergencies."

"Understood." Zhang Beihai nodded slightly.

"Let me demonstrate, and you can see if it works."

As Zhang Beihai spoke, he opened an interface in front of him and set the Natural Selection spacecraft to remote control mode.

During this process, Zhang Beihai kept flipping through a small notebook in his hand.

“There’s a better way to record things now, senior,” Dongfang Yanxu said with a smile, looking at the small notebook in Zhang Beihai’s hand.

"It's just a personal habit. I always feel more at ease writing down important things like this."

"This is not an important matter. You probably won't need this operation. It was only designed in the first place because we were worried that the Sophon would interfere with the operating system. After we win this war, this operation will be abolished."

"Dongfang, what do you think our chances of winning are?" Zhang Beihai suddenly asked.

"This is not something I need to worry about. As a member of the Space Force, I only need to follow the orders of my superiors. Besides, I plan to resign in a while."

"Because of censorship?"

Dongfang Yanxu did not answer the question directly, but Zhang Beihai could roughly guess it from her somewhat defiant words.

“Dongfang, there’s no need to think so much. This is our duty as soldiers. We’ve often undergone this kind of investigation in the past,” Zhang Beihai said.

“I’ve discovered that you hibernators are really different from people of our time. It seems that in your eyes, we are forever just children. I remember once, a six or seven-year-old child actually called me a child.”

Upon hearing this, Zhang Beihai couldn't help but smile.

"You seem quite happy. Why do you never smile? ...Do you really think we're just children?" Dongfang Yanxu frowned slightly, seemingly not understanding the question.

“I just feel like you’re a bit like my daughter.”

"Your daughter?" Dongfang Yanxu was somewhat surprised.

"Didn't she come with you? I remember that as family members, they also have the right to hibernation and immortality."

"Yes, but she and my wife... and another child all refused. I've only met my daughter. I received orders from the task force before my youngest son was even born."

"Although they later had the opportunity to receive three hundred years of immortality, you know, the future at that time was almost entirely bleak..."

"I understand... but what happened next?"

"They spent a happy life at the Red Coast Base, which is the only thing that makes me feel gratified."

"Do you know Lin Xuan, the monitor?"

Zhang Beihai nodded slightly. Speaking of this, he couldn't help but recall his first meeting with Lin Xuan.

During that meeting, Lin Xuan took out the potion of immortality for the first time. At the time, no one cared, including himself. After all, extending one's lifespan by a thousand years was something that sounded magical.

But now it seems that Lin Xuan is indeed somewhat unusual.

“Perhaps your wife and children made the right choice. I didn’t inject that stuff either. I just want to be an ordinary person and live an ordinary life. If a person lives too long, there will be too many troubles,” Dongfang Yanxu said.

"It's alright. Everyone has to have their own way of living. A longer lifespan also means we can do more things," Zhang Beihai said.

"Your tone is just like my dad's, senior," Dongfang Yanxu said.

Did your father often teach you this way?

Zhang Beihai was stunned. For some reason, his father's words suddenly echoed in his ears.

"Think more."

At that time, I was just a child and could not understand the meaning of my father's words, but my father had already given me the answer. The meaning of those three words could not be explained in thirty thousand words.

"Beihai, you need to think more!"

"What will you do after you've thought about it?"

"Beihai, all I can tell you is that you need to think more than before."

Zhang Beihai took a deep breath.

“Dad, we think the same way. This is my good fortune. I won’t bring you glory, but I will put your mind at ease.”

The handover of command to the captains began quickly. More than 5,000 star-class warships were arranged in ten square formations under command. In order to deal with the upcoming ten Trisolaran probes, they needed to conduct a joint military exercise first. This could be considered the first military parade of the space force.

Zhang Beihai looked at Dongfang Yanxu behind him.

"Password."

"Men remember love only because of romance." Dongfang Yanxu slowly uttered the command, which is the legendary English meaning of Marlboro.

"You don't seem to smoke?"

"Yes, after all, this brand disappeared during a major downturn."

"That's good, after all, not many people knew this password back in my day."

After a long silence, Zhang Beihai finally spoke again.

"Dongfang, there are some things I need to tell you in advance. If one day I have to kill you, please forgive me."

Dongfang Yanxu smiled; she had a beautiful smile.

"What, you really think I might be a member of the Steel Seal Clan? Then just kill me when the time comes, using the gun I gave you."

After completing the handover procedures for the captain, Dongfang Yanxu turned and left.

It took Zhang Beihai about five minutes to complete the password reset.

"Why is it taking so long?" said Levin, the first officer of the Natural Selection, with dissatisfaction.

Akira Inoue, who was also the vice-captain, chimed in.

"If you're enjoying the thrill of owning the Natural Selection, then I must remind you that the review will be over soon, and Colonel Dongfang will still be the captain of this warship. You're just a firewall... Wait, what are you doing!"

Upon hearing this, everyone turned around and discovered that Zhang Beihai had already set the warship to unmanned remote control mode, thus bypassing the detection of the crew's deep-sea status before the fourth-stage acceleration.

The warship's communication with the outside world was also completely cut off.

Finally, the warship completed most of the captain's settings to enter maximum propulsion power. With just one more button pressed, the Natural Selection will accelerate to the target already set on the star map.

"Are you crazy!" He tried to stop Zhang Beihai, but it was too late.

"The Natural Selection will enter forward phase 4, and all personnel will immediately enter deep-sea status," Zhang Beihai said.

His voice was cold and steady, each word lingering in the air like an ancient anchor standing in the cold wind.

"No, that's impossible!"

"Are you from the Steel Seal Clan?" Dongfang Yanxu's mind raced as she tried to calm herself down.

"You know I can't be!"

"ETO?"

"Not at all."

"I'll explain after we've finished accelerating. I'll say it again: the entire ship is entering deep-sea mode!"

Zhang Beihai slowly turned around. He didn't look at the two deputy captains, but stared directly at Dongfang Yanxu.

"Dongfang, I've said it before, if one day I have to kill you, please forgive me."

Just as Zhang Beihai finished speaking, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded on the Natural Selection.

Zhang Beihai was taken aback. He had clearly cut off all communications. Could it be that someone had reported the situation here?

"The alarm came from headquarters and was sent to all fleets!" Dongfang Yanxu quickly explained.

"This is a Level 1 alert. Communication has been established. It seems something has happened at the fleet headquarters!"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Beihai immediately connected the communication, and instantly, the voice of a representative from one of the three fleets rang out across the entire ship's communication frequency band.

"Chang Weisi and the Navigator have defected from the fleet. We request that the fleet pursue them immediately. Repeat, pursue them immediately!"

"Understood, Blue Space requests pursuit!" Chu Yan's voice rang out in the channel.

"Bronze Age requests pursuit!"

Although Zhang Beihai was taken aback by this sudden accident, he quickly recovered and hurriedly said.

"Natural Selection, requesting pursuit!"

"approve!"

Dongfang Yanxu and the two deputy captains breathed a sigh of relief; the former even couldn't help but smile.

"Senior, so you anticipated that someone would defect, so you prepared to accelerate things ahead of time, right?"

Zhang Beihai remained silent for a few seconds.

"Uh...yes...yes."

Shock level from Zhang Beihai +599.

"Haha, you should have said so earlier! You scared us half to death. We thought you were going to defect!" Inoue Akira teased.

"Alright, alright, do as he says, put the whole ship into deep-sea mode."

Soon, the deep-sea acceleration fluid filled the entire Natural Selection.

Although the process was a little different from what Zhang Beihai had imagined, the result was good.

Zhang Beihai felt his father's soul descend from the darkness onto the spaceship, merging with him. He pressed the last button on the control panel, silently reciting the command he had strived for his entire life:

"Natural selection, advance four!"