Chapter 240: Scenes At The Exit
One hour later.
Third Military Escort Ship Spaceport’s exit hall.
After walking out of the exit, Xiang Chuan stretched lazily and looked around.
The vicinity of the Spaceport is basically logistics factories. According to the tour handbook, the layout around the ports of Military Escort Ships and Production Escort Ships has no major difference; they are all logistics factories, commercial districts, and residential areas. Only when entering the suburbs can one see some different things.
However, at this time, the students around had no attention on the scenery outside the port; they all gathered in front of the glass windows by the aisle, pressing against the floor-to-ceiling windows made of glass material, looking at the Spaceships outside.
“That’s the Exploration Force’s fleet, right? How could they be here… Good grief, it’s the Eleventh Fleet!”
An observant student saw the logo on the Spaceship and couldn’t help exclaiming.
This exclamation drew everyone’s attention, so more people pressed against the glass to look at the Spaceships.
Xiang Chuan didn’t go over, but quietly opened the light screen to search for information on the Eleventh Fleet.
She had an impression of this fleet. When she had just transmigrated to this era, Xiang Chuan had searched for the origins of modern history. According to historical records, in 5022 CE, the fleets “Hermes” and “Ares” officially set sail, returned in 5322 CE, and achieved the first exploratory cosmic voyage using the Time-Space Jump System.
After the Twelfth Fleet was officially established, these two fleets, which were the first to be formed, were incorporated into the Formation; “Hermes” became the Eleventh Fleet, and “Ares” became the Ninth Fleet.
These two fleets still perform route exploration duties for the Twelfth Fleet even now.
The Eleventh Fleet is the lead fleet; they travel at the forefront of the route, formulating reasonable and safe voyage route suggestions for the eleven fleets behind them.
The Ninth Fleet provides the most advanced exploration technology; technologies such as Time-Space Jump, Space-time Network signal tower construction, and methods for handling planetary belts and asteroids are continuously improved and upgraded by them, and shared with the other eleven fleets in the form of technical exchange during each Fleet Exchange Period.
After reading the online information about these two fleets, Xiang Chuan couldn’t help but feel deep respect for the Spaceship in front of her.
Walking ahead of everyone, pioneering a path for those who come after—this spirit of sacrifice and dedication as pioneers is the human trait that Xiang Chuan, who received a 21st Century education, finds most irresistible.
“Why would people from the Exploration Force be here… Is it for the Space-time Network matter?”
Xiang Chuan heard someone whispering nearby. She turned her head and saw Ainuo, Nancy, and Ouyang Yating, her three childhood friends, standing to her right, huddled together murmuring about something.
It was also because they were close; now the entire exit was filled with the excited discussion voices of the young people, buzzing noisily. If they were farther away, Xiang Chuan really wouldn’t have heard them talking.
“Yating, what is the Exploration Force? Do they also handle the Space-time Network? Isn’t that the Ninth Fleet’s job?”
Xiang Chuan leaned over and asked.
Ouyang Yating was almost startled by Xiang Chuan suddenly leaning over. She patted her little heart that kept jumping from the scare and explained:
“The Exploration Force is an independent troop with independent action rights, capable of conducting in-depth exploration inside and outside routes alone. Actually, all fleets have such troops, but the most famous is still the Eleventh Fleet’s Exploration Force; they can even independently explore and develop unopened routes.”
Simply put, the Exploration Forces of the other eleven fleets are like maritime merchant teams following sea charts, while the Eleventh Fleet’s Exploration Force is like a ruthless Columbus-style exchange group. Xiang Chuan nodded, indicating she understood.
Ouyang Yating: …Somehow feels like her club president is again wildly associating other things in her mind.
——
At the same time, the other end of the Third Military Escort Ship Spaceport exit hall.
Several young men and women in spacesuits entered from another entrance, and the noise at the other end of the hall also drew their attention.
“Why are there so many students? Is there some activity?” a woman asked.
The black-haired young man at the front of the group opened his light screen, checked the message, and said, “It’s the first-year high school students from the two schools on the Third Fleet Main Ship. It just happens to coincide with their visit activity today.”
“Hey, first-year high school students.” The blond man walking at the front of the group squinted and looked, “Kids these days are really precocious. Li Wei, look, those students at the corner look no different from adults.”
“Sixteen-year-olds do mature a bit early, and Captain, I suggest you stop staring at girls all the time.” The black-haired man who was named glanced sideways at the direction the blond man was looking, “If you’re treated as a socially unstable element harassing minors, I won’t bail you out.”
“Hey, looking twice won’t cause any proble… uh.”
The blond man dismissively waved his hand, continued staring in that direction, then suddenly received two fierce glares from the opposite side. He quickly looked away and pretended nothing happened with a couple of dry coughs.
“Cough, alright, Captain Huaken is still waiting for us. Let’s not waste time. If these students all exit together later, who knows how crowded it will be.”
With that, he strode toward the exit with his head held high, pretending to be dignified amid the speechless gazes of the members behind him.
The black-haired man sighed lightly and shook his head at his captain’s unserious demeanor. At this moment, his gaze inadvertently caught a few students looking their way.
Four students were looking their way across a wide aisle in between; two girls had unfriendly looks in their eyes, another girl was blinking with some curiosity, and the only boy had a blank expression, showing no emotions.
The two girls—one looked very elegant, the other had a refreshing heroic spirit—were indeed the type to immediately catch the viewer’s eye. However, since it was his own captain who was rude first, the black-haired man ultimately chose to bow his head toward the four as an apology, then caught up with the main group.
——
The four who had just been stared at by the black-haired man’s captain—namely Xiang Chuan and her three childhood friends Ouyang Yating, Ainuo, and Nancy—were now talking about them.
“Those people should be the Exploration Force from this Spaceship.” Ainuo said confidently, “I saw the logo on their spacesuits; it’s the Eleventh Fleet’s marking.”
“Even if they’re from the Exploration Force, that was too rude just now.” Ouyang Yating said with a frown.
In comparison, Nancy was more direct: “If we run into them again, I wouldn’t mind poking out that man’s eyes.”
Whoa—no! Xiang Chuan jolted and quickly advised, “But the other party’s subordinate already apologized, right? And they’re from another fleet’s troop; it wouldn’t be good if we caused any trouble.”
It wasn’t that Xiang Chuan was too worldly-wise, but the relationships between fleets in the modern era were actually similar to those between 21st Century countries—aside from no language barriers, there were still obvious differences in social composition, style, and environment.
She even remembered that when she first transmigrated, she saw on SNS many complaints from Third Fleet residents about their fleet being looked down on by other fleets for mainly developing agriculture. Although the physical distances between fleets were too vast, making it hard for online spats on the Space-time Network to escalate into military conflicts, based on the international conflicts Xiang Chuan had seen on 21st Century networks, it was still best to avoid trouble as much as possible—or at least, even if trouble arose, it shouldn’t start from their side!
Looking at Ouyang Yating and Nancy, who seemed mature usually but were actually quite emotionally expressive, Xiang Chuan pondered whether to teach them some things in this regard.
Or… watch some films on this topic?
Xiang Chuan suddenly felt that the list of American dramas she had made this time might not be needed for a while.
