An hour later.
Inside the brightly lit cockpit.
Cao Ge swept his gaze across the room, then said, "Soldiers, it's time for us to strike back, it's time to decide where we go from here."
"Mission will be completed." Eric led the response.
No sooner had he finished speaking than the next several people chorused unanimously: "Mission will be completed."
"Good," Cao Ge nodded, then turned his gaze towards Eric.
Meeting Cao Ge's eyes, Eric stepped out of the lineup and then turned around to say, "Check your equipment, we leave in five minutes."
"Yes."
......
"Murphy, activate the navigation system and pinpoint the current location of the Elysium Space," Cao Ge said, seated in front of the terminal, moving his fingers across the keyboard.
"Please wait, searching for the reference star domain," Murphy replied.
About ten seconds later, Murphy spoke again: "Current location is in the C0816 Star Domain, we've strayed off course, 0.5 light-years away from the Tanis Star Domain."
"Set course for the target planet and depart immediately," Cao Ge instructed.
"Setting course now... "
In front of Cao Ge, a 3D map materialized, with the entirety of the star domain expanding a few light-years around the Elysium Space condensed into this cubic spatial map. A giant golden line appeared on the blue map, connecting the spaceship to a blue planet half a light-year away.
"Course set successfully, adjusting engine angle now..."
"Murphy, how long until we reach the target planet?" Cao Ge immediately asked again.
"After calculation, it will take one month of decelerating and turning the ship, followed by six months of travel at the ship's maximum speed, and then another month of deceleration to arrive at the target planet," Murphy's emotionless voice emerged from the speaker.
"Seven months, huh?"
"Should be enough," Cao Ge muttered to himself.
He planned to search the Elysium Space during this time for technologies that he could master.
Once they arrived at Tanis Planet, he would have completed the world-saving mission given by the system. Then he could leave.
In this world, there wasn't much he could do. With Earth destroyed, he could either continue to stay on the spaceship or head to the planet the ship was originally assigned to.
And that planet was a primitive one; landing there would mean their civilization would regress by hundreds of years, from modern to early modern, or even ancient times.
He wasn't here to farm, so going to that planet didn't mean much to him.
......
In the following days, the sound of gunfire echoed throughout the ship.
Mutated creatures fell one after another.
Armed combat personnel methodically searched the ship, steadily reducing the creatures' living spaces.
The cleanup took half a month. In a huge ship that could support sixty thousand people, it took some time for a bit more than a hundred people to explore.
In the blink of an eye, fifteen days had passed.
The spaceship had essentially returned to normal operation, with the addition of more than a hundred armed personnel and crew members who were awakened later to control the ship.
At this point, the number of awakened individuals on the ship had reached two hundred, but it was still a tiny number for a ship built to support sixty thousand.
Therefore, he only activated a small portion of the living compartments, keeping most of the chambers sealed, especially those that the creatures had destroyed.
During these fifteen days, the armed personnel cleared out the creatures, while the technicians were busy with repairs.
They either fixed or replaced damaged instruments and also conducted routine checks on the undamaged ones.
After all, even the best instruments wouldn't last forever without fault because most parts of this ship had been shut down for nearly a thousand years.
"Minister, the ship has been completely cleared, awaiting your instructions."
In the ship's combat room, Cao Ge stood in front of over a hundred armed personnel, listening to Eric's report.
"Well done. Everyone has worked hard during these past fifteen days; you can take a rest now," Cao Ge said without any pomp, calmly giving them some time off.
"Eric, come over here for a moment," Cao Ge called to Eric as he turned around.
"Minister, what do you need?" Eric answered with a smile.
It was obvious that he was quite pleased with the clearing of the ship.
Cao Ge was thinking as he walked and suddenly stopped to say, "I need you to conduct an investigation."
"Minister, please give your orders, mission will be completed."
"Hmm."
"You're to investigate those who woke up before us and what they did after awakening, their psychological changes…"
"This is very important because it concerns the safety of everyone on board. Thus, you must be careful and discreet, and ensure that the subjects of the investigation are unaware. Understand?" Cao Ge directed towards Eric, every word deliberate and firm.
"Minister, do you want me to investigate how long they've been awake and what they did after waking up?"
"That's correct."
"Considering the matter of expertise, I'll assign a psychologist to assist you, allowing you to get involved under the pretense of a psychological evaluation."
"Does this psychological check involve everyone?"
"Yes, everyone who's awake, including me. With only less than three thousand left of sixty thousand, I believe you understand what this means. It's a test for everyone's psyche. Only those who pass the psychological assessment can continue working. If not, they will have to go back into hibernation until we reach the target planet," Cao Ge explained.
"Minister, I need to know, how in-depth should this investigation go?" Eric asked.
After a moment of thought, Cao Ge responded, looking straight at Eric, "Focus the investigation on any illegal acts the individuals have committed since awakening."
"It's for everyone's good, I hope you can understand that," Cao Ge added, seeing that Eric was silent.
"Minister, in such a chaotic situation, I think it'll be difficult for them to abide by the law."
"Eric, you're right, but I need to know what those people did to survive. It's critical for me to make the right assignments in the future," Cao Ge stated.
"Alright, I accept the assignment."
"You have one day to prepare. The psychological evaluation starts at 8 AM tomorrow," Cao Ge said.
Cao Ge had made this decision to ensure that in the ensuing seven months, no one like Sergeant Galen would emerge.
The tragedy of sixty thousand reduced to three thousand was grave, and the cause of it all was simply the mental instability of a single soldier.
Mental issues, while generally not critically dangerous on Earth, could be significant in space. Prolonged, aimless space travel meant that people couldn't stay awake all the time and would have to enter hibernation.
Therefore, deciding who stays awake became a crucial issue.