Kupa and Brand were stunned in place.
"Wasn't Miller said to have died already?" Kupa turned to Brand.
"If you keep delaying, perhaps Earth really will have no one left to rescue it." Cao Ge sat at the pilot's seat, speaking into the microphone.
"Quick, grab what you need." Kupa was the first to snap out of it, quickly putting his helmet back on, and then said to Brand.
"Hiss, hiss~"
Two hatch doors opened instantaneously, and stepping out, they indeed found a space shuttle not much different from the Hope.
Both of them dove into the water and then immediately climbed aboard the Explorer, followed by the poker-playing robot CASE.
"Hiss~" The hatch opened, the two entered the spaceship, and soon saw Cao Ge at the pilot's seat.
"Dr. Miller."
"Say nothing, now's not the time to talk. Everyone take a seat quickly." Cao Ge glanced at them and spoke.
"Murphy, start the spaceship engine." Cao Ge spoke to Murphy while toggling the buttons in front of him.
"Engine starting..."
"Bang~"
Flames burst from the rear of the spaceship, and the space shuttle rocketed towards the sky.
In no time, they left the troposphere and entered the stratosphere, continuing to ascend to the upper atmosphere, which is the thickest layer of the planet's atmosphere.
Cao Ge ascended at full speed, so the temperature on the surface of the spaceship was very high, showing signs of burning red at the top, but as they gained more altitude, the atmosphere became thinner, and this situation slowly improved.
Soon, the Explorer left the upper atmosphere and arrived in outer space.
"Lock onto the Jerusalem Space Station," Cao Ge said from within the ship.
"Target locked." Murphy's voice came through.
"Plot the optimal course, proceed at full speed," Cao Ge continued.
Although they had escaped the planet, this did not mean that their time was now synchronized with Earth, because the disparity in time was not caused by this planet, but by the massive black hole in the distance, whose tremendous gravity warped time.
So if they wanted time to return to normal, they had to maintain a certain distance from the black hole. Therefore, they couldn't decrease their speed until they were greater than this distance.
The spaceship entered autopilot mode.
Cao Ge then turned to look at Kupa and Brand.
"My name is Miller Mutiny, you can call me Dr. Miller," Cao Ge said with a smile.
"Brand."
"Kupa."
"Nice to meet you," Cao Ge replied.
Seeing the puzzled looks on Kupa and Brand's faces, Cao Ge knew they had many questions, so he simply said, "I know you have many doubts in your minds, ask anything you want, and if I know it, I'll tell you."
"Dr. Miller, we were ordered by Dr. Brand to search for habitable lands, but as you've seen the situation just now, Planet 8 is not suitable for human habitation. So far, we've even lost a team member, and we hope you can explain this, give us a valid reason."
"I guessed you might ask this question, and even if you did not, I was going to tell you."
"It was like this: you must have seen that Planet 8 has water, organic materials, and an atmosphere suitable for human respiration, all these conditions perfectly meet human survival needs."
"When I saw these scenes, I was equally astonished, because considering the gap in time between this planet and Earth, by the time I finished my thorough investigation, Earth might have no one left, so after much thought, I did not conduct a deeper investigation but chose to immediately send information back to Earth."
"After I installed the signal transmitter, I was about to embark on a more in-depth investigation, but a sudden giant wave disrupted my plans; I almost perished. The waves, I believe you've already experienced. Afterwards, I was lucky to survive, but the signal transmitter was damaged, and I could no longer send any messages to Earth," Cao Ge replied.
After Cao Ge finished speaking, Kupa and Brand were silent for a long time, because what Cao Ge said was very logical, and they had no grounds for doubt.
Seeing the two silent, Cao Ge spoke again, "In fact, Planet 8 isn't exactly like what you saw; it's not completely uninhabitable for humans. Near the polar region, there's a land mass spanning 20,000 square kilometers, with fresh water and plants capable of photosynthesis."
"Land? Plants?" Kupa immediately latched onto the key points.
"Yes, that's correct, land. Due to its peculiar geographical location, the waves simply can't reach there. Based on rough estimates, once that land is fully developed, it could sustain life for hundreds of thousands of people," Cao Ge replied.
"It's just that, given our current situation, before saving Earth, we no longer have the time to continue exploring whether there is land at the South Pole, nor can we find out the exact situation on the landmass," Cao Ge replied.
"Dr. Miller, the information you've acquired is very important, thank you for your contributions to humanity," Brand spoke.
Cao Ge nodded and fell silent again.
Silence fell within the spaceship.
"Dr. Miller, where is Bob?" CASE, by the side, broke the silence and asked.
Cao Ge glanced at CASE and then said, "Are you talking about it?"
"When the giant wave hit, it was outside organizing equipment, it didn't make it onto the ship in time, and was destroyed by the wave that came crashing over."
CASE was silent for a while, then asked again, "Then who is Murphy?"
CASE and Murphy both being artificial intelligences, it sensed Murphy's presence as soon as it boarded the ship. It felt that Murphy was different; their core codes were not the same, which is why it was curiously asking.
"You should know, my field is computer science, and since Bob was destroyed, I wrote another piece of code. It's a modification I made based on Bob's framework, with changed adaptability to better assist me with controlling the spaceship. I named it Murphy."
On hearing the name "Murphy," Kupa, who was by the side, fell into a long silence, frowning deeply. The name Murphy was the same as his daughter's.
When he left, she was only ten years old, and now she might be nearly thirty, yet for him, it had been only a few hours.
The massive time disparity troubled him greatly.
"Alright, we've arrived, prepare for mid-air docking," Cao Ge said, looking at the space station not far away.
"Murphy, initiate the automatic docking program."
"Automatic docking initiated, docking in progress..." Cao Ge responded.
The Explorer, under Murphy's control, moved slowly towards the space station.
"Click~"
A circular passage extended slowly out of the spaceship, moving toward a circular hatch on the space station.
"Boom!"
After the successful docking, Cao Ge unbuckled his seatbelt and moved to the door.