Space Odyssey from Abandoned Mining Space Station

Chapter 82: Chapter 65: Excuses and Alarms

Chen Ming returned to the hotel he rented, which wasn’t expired yet, in the core city of the Space Station and barely rested for a few hours.

He returned to the repair shop full of sleepiness after dawn.

As soon as he entered the repair shop, he saw Old Wu with a face full of astonishment, rushing into the repair area of the shop.

Old Wu didn’t see Chen Ming, but Chen Ming was quite curious about what Old Wu was doing, so he immediately followed him.

Then he saw Old Wu, after entering the repair area, staring at the half Dusk Destroyer parked there, shocked, saying, ”Holy crap, it’s real?”

”What’s real?”

Old Wu heard Chen Ming’s words and suddenly shivered, hurriedly approached him, pointed to the Iron Ore No. in the dock through the passage leading to the dock, and asked, ”Xiao Mu, is that your ship?”

”Yes.”

Chen Ming didn’t bother to deny it since Old Wu, the factory director, must have investigated his situation.

Checking the surveillance is as simple as it gets; admitting or not doesn’t make a difference.

After hearing Chen Ming’s affirmative response, Old Wu pointed to the half Radiant Level vessel and asked, ”Was this thing brought back by your ship yesterday?”

”Yes.”

Chen Ming glanced at the Dusk Destroyer beside him that he dragged back with great effort last night and did not deny it.

”But I remember you should have been staying in the basement of the administration bureau all day yesterday, right?”

”Indeed.”

”Then look at this.”

Old Wu took out a terminal and played a sensor scan recording.

This recording captured everything the Iron Ore No. did last night.

The perspective recorded was from the ship abandoned before the conflict between Chen Ming and the caravan.

Old Wu, eager to speak as soon as the recording ended, said, ”Since last night, news has spread on the forum that a civilian mining ship directly smashed four ships head-on, and they were all armed ships.”

”When I came over just now, I also saw that Sentinel. Don’t you have anything to say?”

”Say what?”

”Was your ship stolen?”

Chen Ming had already thought of an excuse last night, but Old Wu’s sudden strange question made it hard for him to continue.

He really wanted to say that if his ship were truly stolen, how could the thief return it and gift a half Radiant Level at that?

However, Chen Ming quickly realized that Old Wu might be giving him a way out.

Because at some point, the factory director suddenly stood not far from Chen Ming. Although he didn’t disturb them, he could definitely hear Chen Ming and Old Wu’s conversation.

Although Chen Ming had already gained some trust from the factory director and Old Wu before, trust is not blind faith.

If Chen Ming showed too many dangerous suspicions on himself, the trust would naturally crumble.

However, this is the Pirate Space Station, and the Pirate Space Station isn’t inclined to find out others’ secrets and origins, so the factory director and Old Wu just needed Chen Ming to give them a plausible explanation.

Of course, it might also be that Old Wu’s way of thinking was just like that, but honestly, the probability of that is a bit low.

So Chen Ming started to talk about the reason he had prepared last night: ”Actually, there is still a captain on my ship.”

He had assigned the position of captain to Xiao Shi before going to sleep, and he himself was the chief maintenance master of the Iron Ore No.

”The captain took the ship out when the Dusk attacked yesterday.”

”Then someone fought with it for the Dusk’s ship, and it just acted directly.”

”In the end, it left a Sentinel, and I went out with it last night and brought the two ships back.”

After hearing Chen Ming’s explanation, Old Wu was still somewhat skeptical.

He wasn’t quite sure if Chen Ming was spouting nonsense,

but when he thought of the recording already circulating on the forum, he could basically confirm that the pilot must be a professional, as the smoothness of the flight couldn’t be achieved by an ordinary pilot.

Although Chen Ming also stated yesterday that his piloting skills were good, he stayed in the administration bureau the whole time and had no chance to directly fly a ship.

While long-distance remote ship control in the universe could be done with faster-than-light communication technology, it can only be done near a communication station.

It’s obvious there is no communication station around the Pirate Space Station.

Adding to that, with the various interferences on the battlefield, and the electronic warfare between ships, remotely controlling a ship to pilot and fight is extremely difficult to achieve.

It’s excluded that Chen Ming was piloting the ship.

Also, it’s certain that the ship’s weapons were modified from the Mechanical Race’s weapons, likely tinkered by Chen Ming himself.

A maintenance master pairing with a pilot captain seems not problematic.

However, from the time after the landing of Chen Ming’s captain, it never got off the ship, just letting Chen Ming come down to find work and earn money.

What kind of person could make Chen Ming, a skilled maintenance master, willingly do something like this?

Old Wu really wanted to voice his thoughts, but he also knew when certain remarks were inappropriate, so he just reminded, ”You better have your captain keep a low profile; being too noticeable isn’t good.”

At this time, Chen Ming caught a glimpse of the factory director busying himself elsewhere, nodded, and said, ”I’ll let it know.”

Before Old Wu left after his words, Chen Ming suddenly pulled him and said, ”Old Wu, does the Space Station have any plans to take in that half Dusk ship?”

Old Wu wasn’t annoyed by Chen Ming frequently asking him questions; he explained seriously, ”The Space Station has always been accepting Dusk ships.”

”After all, the Dusk is evolving, and even though the technology used on their ships has different design philosophies from ours, there are still many things to learn from.”