Chapter 105 29810: A Space Odyssey (Part 2)
Morse looked at the strange phantom cast by the wine glass on the table in the moonlight. The light and shadow circled by the rim of the glass and the surface of the red wine were nested in each other.
He touched the cup with his knuckles: "When he and Perturabo were discussing the name of the legion, I was thinking whether the word he said was sun or son. Until Perturabo asked him why he didn't use it High Gothic (sol). "
"Scholar's little problem?" Macado used a particularly gentle tone to neutralize the offensive power in the language, "The joy of discovering a breakthrough always makes people forget about new risks. The birth of the emperor."
The emperor nodded with his chin on one hand. "You gave him a chance to change, Morse. But thinking habits will not suddenly change just because you make up your mind."
After finishing speaking, he took a sip of the white wine in his glass and finished the second half of the sentence: "But he still has many years to grow up."
Maybe it was because he finally had the opportunity to take off the clothes. The cold and hard golden armor was replaced by a soft and comfortable wide linen robe. The emperor was in a high mood today, and his face with slightly darker skin always had a faint smile, which continued to grow with the consumption of alcoholic drinks. deepen.
Morse's fingertips quickly grazed the upper edge of the glass, creating a series of sliding friction sounds.
The last time he drank was at the hermitage of Olympia Lokos, where a large pile of crudely brewed old wine was buried in the land behind the house; as for drinking from a wine glass with a carved surface and gold rims Wine, that may really go back to more than 10,000 years ago.
"Anyway, this is what I did after I left Olympia." He said briskly. "I messed up a city, killed some things, and brought you a new son. I said Have you ever wondered how much Magnus looks like you?”
"Not yet." The Emperor thought for a moment, "But I know he is similar to me. A strong thirst for knowledge and curiosity."
"And a hell of a super psyker status." Morse said . "Don't stare at me, Malcador, you are a super psyker, and the Emperor is a damn super psyker."
The Imperial Prime Minister looked away and slowly rolled up a piece of ham and cut it into small pieces. of Melon, "Oh, I am but a humble servant of the Empire."
"And my friend." said the Emperor, "both of you."
Morse I feel that my eyes look like an ordinary clerk who sees an unknown alien creature lying in a ditch on the side of the road after get off work.
"You make me unable to bear to ask you if you have schizophrenia. The guy who flies down from the sky every day with golden light, the strange man who made and lost twenty sons in one breath, and the old man sitting in front of me now The Lavans don't look much like that, do they? "
"But you asked, Morse," the Emperor replied, "There's no psychiatrist who can examine me, so I guess I don't. Mental illness.”
“Don’t tell me you’re serious.”
Makado swallowed his ham and melon. "He is."
The emperor looked at Malcador innocently with his dark eyes, until the latter's fingers holding the stem of the red wine glass trembled. "Well, you made a perfect joke, my lord."
The prime minister continued: "Sometimes I feel that you are very young, younger than all of us... Morse." He paused deliberately for a moment before naming the person he was talking to.
"Because I don't want to pretend," Morse said, "just like I never change my appearance, except for an occasional change of clothes."
The Emperor looked at Morse. A few glances: "How often does this 'occasionally' happen?"
"If you want, I can make myself a new set of lotus leaf stand-up collar shirt with gold and silver piping jacket, thin brocade knee-length shorts with embroidery Stockings and black top hat, and then we can reenact the story of the guillotine in the palace."
After that, Morse drank up his wine and once again verified his taste for this sour and weird taste. Drinks that are too low in alcohol content are not favorable.
"It may not be feasible." Macado thought for a while, "If you want, I can arrange an empty room to be used as a theater."
He did consider this possibility. After all, fantasy and fantasy are allowed tonight. Relaxing break time.
"No." The Emperor refused and removed his chin from the hand holding his head, freeing his hands to carve a steak. "Today is not a bloody night."
"It's up to you." Morse said indifferently.
He paused for a moment, as if he was listening to the voice coming from far away, and then Morse raised his eyebrows: "Are you really trying to drink and eat meat with Leman Russ?"
"You never told me this story," said Malcador.
The Emperor put down his knife and fork, "It's true." He recalled the wonderful scene of meeting Russ, and he smiled. "I beat him against the wall."
"Very brave, my lord."
"Hey, what does that mean? You can't just beat your kid like that Happy."
"My child?" The Emperor's smile froze at the word, making the Lord of Mankind look like an awkward picture. Mors and Malcador stopped doing anything except breathing, leaving the Emperor some time to think.
In this rare silence, Morse was also reading the Emperor's appearance.
Even in private gatherings under the stars - well, this is a simulated starry sky projection in the palace - the year-round compassion and dissociation still slip from the face of the Lord of Humanity from time to time. In the past, he was thrown to a level higher than the mortals in this world.
The Emperor often tried to deny this, peeling off some fragments of his noble character to pretend to be a short-lived person in order to obtain the original joy and anger, tracing his original life as a mortal. identity.
He often thinks that he has successfully regained his identity other than king, wizard, consul, maester, forerunner, conspirator, religious leader, officer politician, such as friend or father, and is happy to discover that he has The mask he wears has yet to penetrate his soul.
But Morse knew that he couldn't do it, as long as he was still dreaming about that big dream about a better future for mankind.
Not long after, the Emperor came out of the depths of his thoughts. The expression in his deep eyes became firm and warm. This emotional power spread out endlessly from the emperor's small body after taking off his psychic shell, making the other two people present almost helpless. Resistance arises in love and emotion.
For a moment, Morse felt the Emperor approaching them, until he was reminded by the cold touch of the glass in his hand.
When the Emperor found Horus, was there a gurgling warmth in the heart of the Primarch wearing pearl-white armor? Does he clearly know that he is loving someone who cannot reciprocate his love?
As for Russ, Morse thought he already knew it, from the way he introduced the Emperor to his brothers.
"They are my heirs." The Emperor gave a different answer than more than a month ago, with a shining light on his face, perhaps because the Lord of Mankind thought he had thought it through. "I gave birth to them in order to create tools, and used my light to bring them close to me. However, I am still a father. This identity has never disappeared. I cannot deny it."
He's watching me say these words, Morse thought, and I can't say no.
"It's really touching." His tone was calm, and he put his right hand on the table, "So you also think it is necessary to have an architect in the tool, right?"
" I'm guessing when you're going to mention Terra," Malcador said. "We humans are always fighting with each other, and the disputes never stop. However, in the end, the planet that is destroyed will always become the planet that provides us with a place to live."
"The life cycle of most humans is very short. "Short-lived," said the Emperor, "while the vegetation and rocks regenerated over a long period of time." "So we did not destroy the planet," Morse said briskly. "We only destroyed our own pleasant habitat." It's already ugly enough for human aesthetics. I didn't expect it to become even more ugly. Should I be glad that I didn't witness how you turned the earth into this?"
"Earth," Malcador repeated thoughtfully.
"This is the core of human civilization." said the Emperor. "She was always the first to suffer and the last to be rescued."
"Times have changed, and now we have finally fallen in love with geocentrism again."
"Very accurate," the Emperor smiled , "And we have to regard the occult as serious knowledge again."
"We move forward by going back." Morse whispered.
"Because we have crossed the peak of civilization." Makado said.
"And we must move forward." The Emperor said calmly. He would repeat this sentence dozens of times a day to everyone, so after he finished speaking, he continued to eat his steak.
Morse was not sure of the name of the meat, and he had not yet read the current Galactic Creatures Guide, if such a manual existed. Anyway, it looks like a piece of beef, and it also has some reddish juices oozing out from the pressure of the knife cutting the muscle fibers.
He found that there were many things he was unclear about, but this had nothing to do with him living independently outside Terra. Even before human civilization dispersed, one person would no longer be able to exhaust the knowledge of the current era.
It is always the true geniuses who push the times forward, such as the many roles the Emperor once played. But Mors just followed him and strolled around. Whenever his name was called, he would go up and give him a hand, help him climb over a high wall or something, and then let him take him behind the wall. In the new world.
Morse didn't have any additional opinions on this, except that he was often worried that the Emperor would step out and find himself standing on the edge of a cliff just now.
“You have to know,” he poured some new wine for himself, choosing the latter between considering and ignoring the correct way to pour wine, “I saw Tyra’s look, except for being surprised, there was nothing. Sad. To me, this is just a planet. It has a crust, a mantle, an atmosphere, and there is nothing about the planet itself."
"I was born here. Just like other people were born on other planets. I spent many years living here, but what's wrong with that? I didn't leave anything behind that I couldn't bear to part with."
"But I do want to come back. "His back teeth bit each other, and the violent contraction of the muscles caused a little pain. "Many times."
"I looked for people who could navigate. Those were the few times I consciously made money. I acquired money and status, in order to pay what I prefer to call a pension, to Those who are likely to die.”
"I send talented people to penetrate the curtain between the real universe and the non-material space to spy on a distant planet where the spiritual light is no different from other places. I hope that any talented person can distinguish the place that I can't find. This makes I've killed a lot of people. I have only one reason for doing this. I think I should find you, Emperor." "I think you may have some unsent invitations. "
He suddenly stopped here, looked at the emperor's calm face and asked: "Do you still have it?"
Emperor? Huang lowered his eyes, then stood up and stretched out his right hand across the dining table. Morse took his hand and stood up similarly.
Most people would describe the emperor's words as thunder that declares fate, which cannot be violated. But what is truly irresistible is his cold and powerful will. Regardless, the Emperor's rough palms were warm enough.
"Yes," said the Emperor. Morse sat down with him only after the Emperor let go.
"You are partners again." Malcador said, relieved. The Emperor cannot fight alone, and his golden armor and throne are no match for his companions. As for the Custodes, although he had not participated in their creation, he knew that they were watchers and not companions.
"Yes." Morse looked at the emperor relaxedly, "So it's time to introduce the situation to me further? What is the purpose of the machine under your palace? You can't hide too many secrets."
A hint of surprise finally flashed across the emperor's face, "You..."
"Do you think I am showing my true feelings?" Morse said. "No, I just want to put some moral pressure on you to share your big plans with me. Last time you only said you had twenty children, and you didn't mention a word about the machine. If I didn't reply to Terra, I'm afraid I won’t know it existed until that thing blows up your palace one day.”
Malcador let out a deep sigh. "I believe that my Lord can succeed...although he has not yet started this plan."
Both of them heard that it was not a statement but a prayer.
The Emperor stared at his cooling steak for a moment, until he proved that there was no cosmic truth in the half-eaten piece of meat.
"Do you know the Eldar?" he said.
"I can speak the Eldar language." Morse spread his hands, "A beautiful but quite annoying language. Different letters have different meanings on different occasions. The body parts and expressions are all written in a written way."
"Humanity was once divided by the obstruction of the warp storm, and the Eldar had a way to avoid the corruption dangers and additional obstructions of the warp channels and travel freely across the world. The Eldar had their own communication network that spanned the galaxy and coordinated the entire world. The pace of the race is no longer being used."
"I have long said that the current way of navigating the subspace is too rough," Morse whispered, "It is like driving a submarine into an ocean trench. Collision."
"And I decided to reuse this network." The emperor glanced down, "I obtained this machine from the desert, and it will be the hub for reorganizing the network. From now on, humans will be prevented from being blocked by time and space again, and they will no longer have to be invaded by the dark gods."
Morse crossed his fingers on the table. As the one locked away from Terra by the Warp Storm, he immediately recognized the importance of this network - at least Malcador had erected an additional psychic shield for their conversation.
"After the expedition progresses to a certain extent, I will return to Terra and concentrate on the development of the Webway project. We can..." He hesitated for a moment, but said: "We can go together later Look at that machine, I named it the Golden Throne"
"I like your plan," Mors said. Although he still had many questions, getting an answer from the Emperor exceeded his initial expectations.
He would stay with Perturabo on Terra for a while, and other details could be discussed later, such as whether the Emperor planned to hand over the Empire to the obviously favored Dutch when dealing with the Webway. Russ pipe.
"Magnus will also like it, not having to sink into the warp, but also being free to release his curiosity to the entire universe." He said, remembering how the two men were exactly the same. I feel like there is a brave new world in subspace.
The Emperor nodded calmly, his words like a distant sigh: "At that time, our race will roam freely in space."
End of Volume 2, Vol. It's time for confession.
Hmm...how to put it...
Forget it, let’s just collect suggestions. If you have anything to say, just leave a comment here. Any content, critical comments are welcome. Please don't be tactful in your criticism.
Let me see if there is anything I can answer or improve.
And the preview: Two or three new original bodies will appear in the second volume.
(End of this chapter)