same age
Chapter 119 You said that when we come back, we will be the same age
When Cooper and Little Brand returned to the Eternity, the Romilly they saw was no longer the same as before. His beard and sparse hair had begun to turn white.
"I've been waiting for you for many years." Thanks to Tass, Romilly, who had a person to communicate with, did not lose the ability to speak.
Cooper looked at Romilly guiltily: "How many years have you been waiting?"
"It should be... 23 years, 4 months and 8 days now..." Romilly said calmly. He noticed that one person was missing: "Where's Doyle?"
Cooper did not answer, but stepped through the airtight cabin and walked towards his bed.
Little Brand thought of Doyle, his eyes turned red again, and he said in a crying voice: "I thought I was ready... I am proficient in theory... but the facts are completely different..."
"What about Miller?" The long period of loneliness seemed to have reduced Romilly's emotions. Even when his teammates were killed, he did not show too much sadness.
Little Brand crossed his arms and did not answer directly: "There is nothing we are looking for on that planet."
Looking forward to the much older Romilly, Little Brand asked distressedly: "Why don't you sleep?"
"I have been in sleep several times, and I thought you would never come back." Romilly said: "I think it is a waste to spend my life and time sleeping, so I have been studying black holes."
"But I can't pass the information to your father. We can only receive, but can't send anything." Romilly was very regretful.
Little Brand asked: "Is he still alive?"
"Of course, he is still alive." Romilly said: "Really, I saved all the information over the years, go and have a look."
[More than 23 years... Countless ordinary people do not have a clear concept of this number. Only some older people recall the clearer youth years in their memories. From that time on, it has been like a revolving lantern. Only when they recall it now can they barely understand how long it is.
And Romilly, alone, has been waiting for his companions who don't know whether they will come back or not for more than 20 years at a place not known how far away from the earth.
Many people thought of what the pink-haired killer did when they were watching the inventory yesterday. He hid his biological mother under the dark floor. No one knew how long it had been, but one thing was certain. Even though she could see the light with her eyes and was just a little bit away from being rescued, she was as unresponsive as a corpse.
Loneliness will not make people bleed profusely.
But it will make people feel ashamed.
In the interstellar world, Cooper looked at Tas next to him with relief. If he had not left Tas behind in the future, it would be unimaginable what Romilly would become without anyone to communicate with.
"At least, we won't make the same mistake a second time." Romilly said easily in the clean room. He had not experienced it himself, and he himself could not imagine what kind of pain it would be.
But if possible, don't go through it.
For the four people in this clean room, the inventory video can really be said to be a lifesaver, especially for Doyle, who really died in the inventory. Not to mention that this planet is worthless, they will not go there again; now even if they go, they can have some experience and know how to deal with it, so as not to panic like in the video, and then lose their lives in the reality that is too far from the plan. In
a certain historical world, Bai Juyi looked at the "Reply to Le Tian for the Gift at the First Meeting in Yangzhou" given by Liu Yuxi in his hand and sighed. At this time, he and Liu Yuxi had returned to Luoyang. At that time, when they wrote poems and gifts to each other at the Yangzhou banquet, they thought they had enough mixed feelings.
But now, looking at this Kunlun slave who has been alone for twenty-three years, I suddenly feel that the difficulties in the past are nothing.
Laughing up to the sky a few times, Bai Juyi cheered up, left the place where he stayed, and walked into the crowd. ]
Sitting in his seat, Cooper clicked on the communication information that had been cached for twenty-three years.
Taking a deep breath, Cooper looked at the screen nervously.
"Hi, Dad." Tom on the screen has changed a little, becoming more mature, his voice is a little deeper: "I graduated, and my grades are second in my class... Because a teacher still only gave me a C grade, which lowered the average score, so I... Second place is actually pretty good, right?"
Cooper looked at his son who was a little proud on the screen, wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes and smiled.
Good boy, you proved that the son of a bitch teacher was wrong.
"Grandpa came to the graduation ceremony... uh... um..." Tom was a little embarrassed: "I met another girl... I think if nothing unexpected happens, she will become your daughter-in-law... Her name is Louise."
Handing the photo to the camera, Tom's face was full of regret, but the happiness in his tone could not be hidden: "This is her photo, very beautiful, right? Murphy, the stubborn little girl, said that we are a good match."
Tom could not see that his father was in tears 23 years later. He gritted his teeth to prevent himself from crying out loud. Although the tears kept pouring out, he had to see everything shown on the screen clearly.
But Tom did a good job of being a bridge of communication: "Speaking of Murphy... Murphy stole grandpa's car... and then the car crashed, but don't worry, she's fine. After all, she crashed into the tractor right after the car started, and the airbag didn't even deploy."
Cooper knew that he had missed the most important time in his children's lives. Murphy was now in her thirties and might even have her own children. He wasn't there for Tom and Murphy's graduation ceremony... their wedding... The corn harvest might have failed again... Did the tractor break something... Did Donald rashly break anything...
He missed too many things...
"Hi, Dad." On the screen, the newly graduated Tom was replaced by a somewhat plump and weathered man. Cooper did not recognize him for a moment, and it took him a while to confirm that this was Tom after he grew up.
"You're a grandfather now!" Tom on the screen was holding a confused baby, and said with pride on his face: "We named him Jesse, and I wanted him to be called Cooper, but Louise said that this name can be kept for the next child..."
Handing the child to his wife Louise, Tom asked little Jesse to say goodbye to the camera.
On the other side of the screen, Cooper wiped the tears from his face and subconsciously waved to the video, as if it was an instant video call.
"Sorry, I haven't sent you a message for a while." The video was automatically played. Compared with when he showed his son, Tom, who was much more weathered, looked at the camera alone again, wanting to see his father in the starry sky through the camera: "Because... because of Jesse..."
A few seconds ago, the video was still the joy of having a child. Cooper didn't know how long he had been on Earth, but all the videos of these twenty-three years were accumulated together, and Cooper had a feeling of time and space confusion.
A few seconds ago... it was the joy of a newborn baby... now... has the earth's condition become so bad that newborn babies are prone to stillbirth...
"Grandpa passed away last week..." Tom, who was vicissitudes of life on the screen, had endless sorrow between his brows: "We buried him in the wasteland behind the farm... with mom... and Jesse... Jesse's place was actually reserved for you."
Cooper had stopped crying, with countless emotions in his heart, and it was hard to say what his specific mood was now.
"Murphy came to Grandpa's funeral... Although we haven't seen each other much in recent years, she still came..." Tom stared at the camera blankly, turned his head and sighed: "I know you can't actually see these... all this information... just floating in the endless darkness... Louise said... I have to let you go."
Looking up at the camera, Tom's eyes were full of confusion, but as he was silent for a while, the confusion had dissipated for the most part: "I also think I should let you go. I don't know where you are, Dad, but I hope you are safe... Goodbye."
The screen went out, and everything stopped abruptly.
Cooper subconsciously reached out, thinking there was something else, but the video sent by his son over the past 20 years had already been played.
[In the interstellar world, Little Brand, Doyle, and Romilly looked at Cooper, who was crying just like in the video, with concern.
Graduation, love, marriage, childbirth... losing a child, losing a parent...
every node is crucial for anyone, but Cooper is not there.
They have prepared everything, including their hearts, to dedicate to finding hope, because they are all free of worries. Even Little Brand participated in Operation Lazarus with the support of his father.
But Cooper is not like that.
If it weren't for 'them' finding him, he should have a very happy middle-aged life. The only spiritual blow might be that his grandson died prematurely due to desertification and the deterioration of air quality.
For a while, they had such an idea in their hearts: if we still need to set off, it would be better to let him stay on Earth, and the three of us will go. At least, we don't have to go to the most terrible planet. ]
The video stopped abruptly. This was the despair that Cooper had never felt so lonely.
The screen didn't go out for long, and a strange woman appeared on the screen.
"Hi, Dad." It was very different from Murphy when she was a child. The grown-up Murphy seemed to have never woken up. He had never seen her teenage appearance. If it weren't for that call, Cooper really couldn't recognize that this was his daughter.
"Hi, Murphy..." Cooper called out to the woman on the screen in a voice that he could hardly hear.
"You bastard." Murphy's first words after greeting were not very gentle, but Cooper couldn't control his tears and expression again, and laughed and cried again.
"When you had news, I didn't say anything, because I was still angry about your leaving." Murphy in the video was a little thin and looked very haggard: "But when you lost contact, I felt that it was all my own fault."
The screen on the Eternal was not high-definition. In order to send information to such a long distance, the video itself could not be too large.
But even so, on the unclear screen, it can be seen that Murphy's eyes are red: "Today is my birthday, this birthday is very special, because when you left..."
Cooper covered his mouth, his lips trembling.
Murphy on the screen opened his mouth several times, but couldn't say a word: "Because when you left, you said that when you come back, we will be the same age."
Murphy on the screen can't see Cooper who can't hold back his tears: "Now I'm the age you were when you left, so it stands to reason that now is the time for you to come back..."
But you didn't.
Murphy didn't say this, but her heartbroken eyes told everyone how sad she was.
(End of this chapterEverything
Chapter 120 Only love transcends everything
[In the Interstellar world, Cooper stood up: "I'm sorry, everyone, I have to... I have to..."
"It's okay," said Little Brand: "It's okay, Cooper, just finish the review first, you are free to leave, you just need to teach us more during this window period."
Cooper took a deep breath, the surface of the space suit was not smooth, and the skin was actually very unfriendly, but Cooper didn't care and wiped his tears with the space suit again.
"Thank you..." Realizing that his voice was a little low, Cooper raised his voice a little and looked at the three people: "Thank you for your understanding."
In the Marvel world, Tony Stark stroked Pepper's big pregnant belly, and the final battle in the review video kept flashing back in his mind.
Morgan, as seen in the video, was only a few years old.
He didn't know what Morgan would look like when he grew up.
But he knew that he definitely didn't want to miss his child's life like Cooper in the review.
He can use a hammer to build a simple cold nuclear fusion reactor in a cave in the Gobi Desert. He can use his extraordinary intelligence to build armor to fight against gods.
But as smart as he is, he can't imagine how he would feel if he encountered such a situation.
Missing the life of a child...
As a parent, there should be few things more painful than this...
In the Naruto world, Uzumaki Kushina specially allowed the two clowns to eat popsicles in the middle of winter.
Her eyes were far away, thinking of many years ago when the inventory video first appeared.
If... If Minato was not lucky enough to be on the list, what they experienced as a couple should be similar to this Cooper...]
"I didn't mean to disturb you, but I've never seen you here before." Old Brand said, sitting behind Murphy.
At this time, Murphy had turned off the camera and was calming down.
"I've never been here before." Murphy said, pushing Old Brand in a wheelchair outside.
Old Brand looked ahead absentmindedly with cloudy eyes: "I often send videos to Emilia. Talking to her is very useful for adjusting the psychological state. I'm glad you've started doing this too."
"I just have to say something." Murphy said.
Coming to the research room that has not changed much in more than 20 years, Old Brand said: "The information between us cannot be transmitted by normal means. To be honest, we don't know if they have received it over the years, and they may not know that we haven't talked."
"Now I don't even know which one I'm more afraid of." Old Brand looked at Murphy: "Am I more afraid that they won't come back... or that they will find that we have failed after they come back..."
"Then we will show them that we succeeded." Murphy said with a smile.
There was an inexplicable flash in old Brand's eyes: "Okay... Now you look at your notebook, let's go back to the fourth iteration and try again from a new angle."
"To be honest, professor." Murphy's smile disappeared, and he looked at old Brand with doubt: "We have tried this step... hundreds of times, and it has not worked."
Old Brand looked into Murphy's eyes: "Just one success is enough."
Without wasting time to deduce the result that could not get the correct answer, Murphy and old Brand leaned against the corridor next to the launch center.
Old Brand pointed to the engineers who were working on the construction: "Every rivet they used may have been a bullet in the past. We have done our best for this world. For me personally, even if I don't solve this equation on the day I die, it doesn't matter."
"Don't be so negative." Murphy said after taking a sip of coffee.
Old Brand opened his cloudy eyes, trying to see the ongoing construction as clearly as possible: "I am not afraid of death, I am a determined old physicist, what I am afraid of is time."
The scene changed, and Murphy, who seemed to have been inspired, stood in front of the blackboard, looking at the complicated formula: "You said you are afraid of time..."
Old Brand raised his head, only to see Murphy waving his fingers thoughtfully, as if calculating something in his mind.
"We have been trying to solve this equation under the premise that time does not change..." Murphy waved his hands and tried to sort out his thoughts: "This means that every iteration of ours is just trying to prove ourselves, which is recursive and meaningless..."
"Are you saying that my life's efforts are meaningless?" Old Brand raised his eyebrows.
Murphy shook his head: "No, I mean you have been tying one hand... no, both hands behind your back to solve the problem in front of you..."
Murphy turned his head: "I don't understand why you have to calculate like this? It is meaningless to calculate like this, just like solving the same linear equation over and over again, but it is much more difficult."
Old Brand was obviously hiding something from Murphy, and pretended to be stupid: "I'm an old man already, and my brain can't keep up with you, Murphy, let's talk about this later, I want to talk to my daughter."
Old Brand sat in a wheelchair, pushed the wheels himself and disappeared around the corner of the corridor.
Like the camera movement in a movie, the perspective shifted from the video of Cooper and Murphy to Earth, and then on Earth, from the back of old Brand to the Eternity where his daughter was.
"Tas stopped the Eternity at the designated location," Cooper, who had already sorted out his mental state, explained his ideas to Romilly and Little Brand, "But our plan to land on Miller's planet ran into an accident, which delayed a lot of time, so we don't have enough time to go to both planets, so we have to choose a target."
"How to choose? Both are good," Romilly said, "The data sent back by Edmonds is very good, but Dr. Mann is continuously sending data, and is sending it now."
"There is no evidence that Edmonds' data has changed, and his planet may still be in good condition." Little Brand remembered the data returned by the two planets very clearly: "He has the elements needed for life there."
"But Dr. Mann also has these," Cooper said, and Dr. Mann's planet is closer.
"Cooper, this is my area of expertise." Although Little Brand was still upset about Doyle's death, he now understood the gap between theory and reality. That's why he felt that Edmonds' planet was more suitable: "Look at Miller's planet. There are organic matter, but that's all. It's a wasteland full of water. Mann's planet is not as close to Gargantua as Miller's planet, but his planet is likely to be the same as Miller's planet. It looks nothing on the surface, but in fact there is nothing. It is not suitable for humans to move here." "
[Accidents] are the first building block of evolution. Mann's planet is too close to a black hole, so it is impossible for this planet to have enough accidents. The existence of organic matter may be a coincidence. The probability of the birth of life is very small." Little Brand stated her inference: "The black hole swallowed up asteroids, comets and even cosmic rays, all accidents that can cause organic matter to transform into life."
"That is to say, the black hole wipes out all possibilities, right?" Cooper concluded. He looked at Little Brand: "You said Dr. Mann was the best. Without him, we wouldn't be here. And now he is there, visible to the naked eye, a very bright star, sending us a very clear message on that star."
Little Brand nodded: "Yes, but Edmonds' data is more reliable."
"Vote, both of you are right." Romilly said.
Cooper looked at the two of them, and finally looked at Little Brand: "If you want to vote, you must tell Romilly about that. He has the right to know."
"That has nothing to do with this." Little Brand's heart tightened. How did he know?
Romilly frowned: "What is it?"
"She and Wolf Edmonds are in a relationship." Cooper said mercilessly.
After experiencing the terrifying waves and the passage of twenty-three years, Cooper's decision at this time is no longer purely rational.
He couldn't deny that he had the idea of going against Little Brand, but one thing was more certain, that is, he wanted to go home very much, and choosing to go to a closer planet would allow him to go home earlier.
"Is that really the case?" Romilly frowned.
Little Brand knew that it was useless to hide, so he admitted generously: "Yes, so I decided to follow the guidance of my heart... We may have been too accustomed to... using theories to explain everything... We must understand that [love] is not something invented by humans... Love has always existed, and it is also very powerful, and it is meaningful."
Little Brand cast her eyes on Cooper. She knew that Cooper wanted to go home, so she wanted to convince Cooper, because his heart was also full of love, full of love for children.
"Love is meaningful, yes, social benefits, interpersonal communication, racial reproduction..." Cooper gave an example.
Little Brand heard that he was hinting that his love was different from his, and argued, "We also love some people who have passed away. What are the social benefits of such love? It may mean more things... things we can't understand now... Maybe love is some kind of mysterious evidence, something from a higher-dimensional civilization that we can't perceive at present... something I can't describe in words."
"I've traveled a long way, across the stars to find a person who has disappeared for ten years. I know he may be dead..." Little Brand's eyes were filled with tears. It had been too difficult along the way: "Love is the only thing we can perceive that can transcend the dimensions of time and space... Maybe we can believe in [love] with confidence, even though we can't fully understand it yet..."
But Romilly and Cooper were silent. Little Brand understood what they meant and confessed, "Okay... No matter how slim the chance of meeting Edmonds is, I'm not willing to give up, because he and I love each other, so I believe he won't hurt me..."
"Emilia..." Cooper called out Little Brand's name for the first time: "Maybe you are wrong this time."
Little Brand didn't want to get entangled in this issue anymore. She also knew that she couldn't argue anymore, so she got up and left, and asked Cooper to let Tas start planning the route to Mann's planet.
[In the God of War world, Kratos sat by the fire, sharpening arrows that his son Atreus could use.
The Fimbul Winter has lasted for three years, and it has been almost that long since Fei left. Many nights over the years, Kratos would dream of things related to Fei in the past.
At the beginning of this inventory, Atreus was hunting outside, but Kratos was not worried about him. Over the years, he has become a big boy, and he is not worried that conventional difficulties will threaten him.
For the Spartans, blindly protecting children is harming children.
As usual, he can't understand much of the inventory this time, such as their world is different from his own, it is actually spherical, and they are suffering from a famine that is more cruel than the Fimbul Winter.
For Kratos, understanding these things didn't mean much, but the woman's words touched him deeply.
He didn't understand the professional terms, but he understood the meaning.
Only love transcends everything.
Hearing the familiar footsteps coming from behind, Kratos knew that Atreus had returned.
The arrows in his hand were almost sharpened. Kratos stood up and turned around, frowning as he watched Atreus walking while watching the video.
"Multitasking?" Kratos's low voice echoed in the cave: "How come you can only kill a rabbit when you are so powerful? What we need is deer. Besides us, there are also wolves to feed."
(End of this chapter