DOTM: Chapter 523/524

Chapter 523: The Temptation of Returning
Meredith moved quickly, arriving almost immediately after Elizabeth and the others returned with the message.

She did not know what Ethan wanted to talk about, but he had already proven what he said before. His appearance was indeed a stroke of luck for everyone on the Prometheus.

If not for Ethan's presence, no one would know what might have happened in this place with aliens and terrifying bioweapons. The entire exploration team could have been wiped out.

Although there were some casualties, they were within an acceptable range. At the same time, this scientific mission achieved results far exceeding expectations, a living Engineer, which was incredibly significant.

Even if they returned to Earth immediately, the gains were enough to cause a huge sensation.

The only pity was that Peter Weyland never gave her what he wanted, even after his death. No matter how successful this mission was, she would still gain nothing upon returning to Earth, and might even face a worse situation than before.

But now was not the time to think about these things. Meredith was wondering what exactly Ethan wanted to do.

This alien suddenly appeared on the Prometheus, harmed no one, and even saved many people. She did not believe this person, who claimed to just be passing by and watching, was truly that kind. She was certain he had an ulterior motive.

Unfortunately, she had already tried to pry some information from the man named Logan, but he was tight-lipped and did not reveal anything at all.

It seemed she could only get the specifics from the person named Ethan.

"Is this... a black hole?"

When Meredith arrived, Ethan was standing in the armory, lifting all the surrounding canisters into the air. Without seeing him make any special movements, the canisters flew one after another into the pitch-black sphere above Ethan's head, which seemed capable of swallowing everything.

From Meredith's perspective, the thing above Ethan's head looked exactly like a small black hole. When she realized this, she felt her legs go a bit weak, and even had an impulse to turn and run.

"Do not worry, it will not accidentally hurt you."

The thing above Ethan's head was an aggregate of spatial energy, the same move he had used against Ego recently, creating a massive spatial storm within a limited range. This time, Ethan had made some improvements, opening a teleportation channel with a certain suction force at the center of the storm to discard the already pulverized but potentially remaining residue.

The other side of the teleportation channel was still a nearby star, so even if any residue remained, it would be completely destroyed by the star.

However, the suction force at the center of this energy storm would only affect objects it actually touched. The reason the canisters were flying was that Ethan was using Mage Hand to pick them up and then throw them into the energy storm above his head.

This meant that unless Ethan made specific adjustments, as long as you did not actively touch this energy mass, you would not be harmed by it.

Considering that thing looked like a black hole from the outside, no one would actively touch it.

Waving his hands, Ethan cleared all the canisters in this storage area clean, then lowered his outstretched hands.

As he moved, the black-hole-like energy storm above his head gradually subsided, seeming to disappear as if sucked into the singularity at its very center.

"What exactly was that?"

Meredith's first thought was some kind of small black hole generator. This alien named Ethan, who looked no different from an Earthling, must possess a higher level of civilization. Perhaps those wondrous abilities before were the effects of equipment she did not understand.

But Ethan overturned her speculation with a single sentence.

"Magic."

"..."

Meredith clearly did not believe it. Although she was not a scientist, the environment she grew up in and the fact that she was leading a group of scientists on a scientific expedition to explore human origins, which had almost overthrown all religious legends and proven that humans were created by another higher-level civilization, made her skeptical.

And right at this moment, you are telling me you are using magic?

"Do not joke. That is not funny at all."

Ethan shrugged. He was telling the truth, but if the other party did not believe it, so be it. He did not have to force her to accept his explanation.

"Let us get down to business."

Hearing Ethan mention business, Meredith immediately cast aside the magic joke.

"You are finally willing to state your purpose?"

"Before that, what do you think of this spaceship?"

"Spaceship?" Meredith immediately remembered that the structure they were in was actually an Engineer's ship. According to the star charts the scientists had found, the destination of this ship was Earth. "What about this spaceship?"

"This ship has a faster speed, allowing you to return to Earth in less time."

As Ethan spoke, he did not stay still but kept moving through the ship. Meredith could only follow him forward.

As a result, she also gained some understanding of the ship's internal structure. She now knew the locations of the various storage areas, and she had personally witnessed Ethan throwing those terrifying canisters into the black hole.

"And then? You are going to give us this ship? What do you want in return?"

Meredith watched Ethan continuously clear these dangerous items and mention the ship's faster speed. Considering his abilities to hypnotize Engineers, control objects, and even create small black holes, she understood that he had already claimed the ship beneath their feet as his spoils of war.

He would not be so kind as to give away his spoils for free. She probably had to pay something to get it.

Did this ship tempt Meredith? It would be false to say it did not.

Setting aside the inherent dangers of things like the stasis pods, the sheer flight time alone was enough to make them want to switch ships.

"The Prometheus."

"What?"

Meredith thought she had misheard. Did she just hear the Prometheus?

"How about trading this Engineer's ship for your Prometheus? You will not lose out on this deal."

Of course, they would not lose out. Although the Prometheus was an interstellar spaceship meticulously built using Earth's most advanced technology, draining most of Weyland Corporation's funds...

Compared to a spaceship from a higher civilization with mature interstellar navigation technology, it still was not impressive enough.

What is more, besides its more advanced technology, this ship had an even more important special significance, it was an alien ship, a ship used by humanity's creators.

Even just one reason would be enough to drive the entire Earth mad, let alone both.

But she could not understand what Ethan wanted with the Prometheus. It was not that she was reluctant to give up the ship, she was just curious.

"The external design of the Prometheus suits my preference, so I want to collect it."

"Coll...ect?"

Meredith was speechless. Then she glanced sideways at Hill and Logan, noticing their completely unsurprised reactions, as if Ethan was telling the truth.

Thinking about it, many wealthy people on Earth also had the habit of collecting antique cars or even antique planes. This did not seem entirely incomprehensible.

It just felt strange to her that the most advanced ship on Earth was, in the eyes of the other party, merely something to be collected.

"You are still hesitating with such a good offer?"

"No, I think this deal is excellent, but there is one issue."

"What?"

"How can I be sure this ship is safe enough? And none of us know how to operate this ship."

This was indeed a problem. In Meredith's eyes, Ethan was also an alien, no different from the Engineers who wanted to destroy humanity.

She could not be sure that Ethan having Meredith and the others fly this ship back to Earth was not a plan to destroy Earth. After all, this ship was filled with terrifying weapons. If Ethan spread even a little bit of them anywhere, the entire crew might die before reaching Earth, bringing death to Earth along the way.

The most sensible person in this team was this woman. If it were those scientists, they would probably have happily agreed to the ship exchange.

"I can wait for you to conduct a thorough inspection yourselves to ensure safety before completing this transaction."

Ethan pointed downwards.

"Furthermore, if you do not trust the results of my work, you can also choose a ship that I have not been to yet and clear out the dangerous items yourselves."

Regardless of whether they could do it more cleanly and thoroughly than Ethan, doing it themselves would always be more reassuring than having an outsider do it.

So Meredith felt this proposal was quite reliable. She was just surprised that there was more than one alien ship here, which made it less surprising that Ethan was willing to offer one for exchange.

"As for piloting the ship, you will likely have to figure that out yourselves."

If David had not died, that robot would have been an excellent pilot. He had already learned the Engineers' language and quickly figured out how to operate this ship.

However, the scientists under Meredith's command were guaranteed to be intelligent. Given some time, fully understanding the ship might be difficult, but flying it back to Earth would not be too difficult a task.

At this point, both sides had essentially reached an agreement, but the transaction could not be completed immediately just because they had talked it over.

Meredith's crew needed to personally clean out a ship. Even after cleaning, they would need to transfer supplies from the Prometheus, especially equipment related to living, which all needed to be moved over.

As for anyone opposing this deal? Only Captain Janek felt some concern about piloting an unfamiliar ship for interstellar travel, but he did not strongly object. After all, they all understood what this deal meant.

More importantly, everyone, including Captain Janek, wanted to return to Earth sooner.

(To be continued.)

Chapter 524: Testing Platform for New Technologies

It took a full month for Meredith and her crew to clear out the Prometheus and transfer some essential living equipment to the new ship.

Because it was a long-distance interstellar journey, and considering they might not need to live on a distant, unfamiliar planet for long, the Prometheus carried a full set of daily necessities and equipment, making it convenient to set up a camp if necessary.

Now all these items had been transferred to the new ship and would become the necessities for their daily life for a period of time.

In addition, all the various food resources loaded on the Prometheus were also transferred out. On this donut-shaped ship, the crew could no longer choose hibernation to pass the long journey, and everyone needed sufficient food security. Furthermore, Meredith did not think Ethan needed these things.

What Ethan ultimately received was a completely emptied Prometheus, which was exactly what he wanted. After getting this ship, Ethan needed to hand it over to Tony for some modifications, and modifications also required clearing out the ship's cargo hold first. Meredith directly emptying the contents actually saved Ethan a lot of trouble.

After the transfer of supplies was complete, the jars were also cleaned out, and after a period of exploration, they had figured out how to pilot this ship. The main reason was that the awakened Engineer had helped to some extent. Not help? That was out of the question, because Ethan, who wanted to leave, would not allow him not to help.

Anyway, Earthlings did not necessarily need a living Engineer, a dead one could also be used for research, so Ethan showed no mercy when he acted.

This alien had a strange sense of superiority when facing people like Meredith and Elizabeth, but when facing Ethan, he could not feel superior at all. He had already realized that the person in front of him was a higher life form than himself.

The other party had even evolved more powerful and miraculous abilities, including directly extracting some knowledge from his mind.

Ethan did not extract too much knowledge, this spell's effect was not very stable. He barely managed to learn the language used by the other party's race.

However, this was enough to scare the other party, because Ethan proved with his actions that even if you said nothing, he could still get what he wanted, so the Engineer chose to compromise.

The Engineer's compromise solved the last problem. When the donut ship finally took off smoothly and headed toward space, Ethan finally let out a sigh of relief.

"After wasting so much time, I finally got what I wanted."

During this time, Ethan was bored and wandered around this base every day, destroying all the iron jars he saw to ensure there were no remnants left.

Now he was a little curious about what this world would become in the future.

Because Ethan killed David in advance, the exploration team on the Prometheus basically survived, and the crazy death-seeker Elizabeth did not push her luck too much, nor did she lose her husband, so she did not go crazy wanting to attack the Engineers' homeworld with David.

Naturally, she was not used as a test subject by David for various experiments, and at the same time, David did not have the chance to spray the black liquid from those iron jars onto all the Engineers, completely destroying this civilized race.

Since these things did not happen, the Engineer civilization was still living vibrantly on their homeworld, and at the same time, they still had the ability to continuously produce this black liquid. Whether they would spread these things throughout the universe in the future, Ethan did not know either.

"How does it feel like this universe has become more dangerous than the original plot?"

Pushing this question aside, Ethan boarded the Prometheus and conducted a detailed inspection of the ship. Meredith did not trust them, and he likewise did not trust Meredith's group that much. Who knew if anyone among them might see them as a potential threat and secretly add something to this ship?

Ethan checked almost every corner of the Prometheus, making sure the new ship had no problems, and only then did he put the ship away with satisfaction.

"Should we go back now?"

"Yes."

Ethan looked at Logan beside him. The one who had the most fun on this trip was not Ethan, nor was it Hill, who finally had the chance to see more new and interesting things, but Logan, the old wolf.

"I originally thought you would bring that woman back with you."

Logan was not surprised at all that Ethan would discover this, he had not tried to hide it at all, anyone with decent observation skills could have noticed.

"We just have a very simple relationship, helping each other satisfy personal needs."

Perhaps there was also the idea of trying to extract some information? It was just that Logan had not revealed anything.

"There is no emotional basis, and she could not possibly give up everything here to go with us."

Ethan nodded. He did not think Meredith would be willing to give up everything here either. Of course, this was because she did not know what she could gain by following Ethan and the others. If she did, it would be hard to guarantee that she would not harden her heart, risk everything, and wholeheartedly cling to Logan's, Ethan's, thigh.

"I originally thought a family member was finally going to appear in the team."

"If I really find a suitable family member, I will tell you myself."

The subtext was that for this kind of simple, direct physical relationship, there was no need to specifically report it to the Captain, because the other party would not truly enter his life.

"Let's go."

As he spoke, the Prometheus had already been placed into a container by Ethan.

As his magical power increased, many spells Ethan mastered became simpler to cast, basically requiring no materials or incantations, often a single thought was enough to use them.

Only this spell for putting objects into containers had not seen much improvement, so he needed to prepare a large number of special containers in his storage space. At most, these containers had become a bit smaller than before, taking up slightly less space.

Looking at the Prometheus in the glass container, Ethan looked at it back and forth for a long time, finally put it away with satisfaction, and left the Prometheus world.

It was evening when they returned to the Marvel world. When Ethan came back, everyone was preparing to eat dinner. Most of those present were members of Ethan's team. As for the Guardians of the Galaxy guys, they had long since returned to the universe to continue their adventurous lives.

"Do you know what Tony has been busy with lately?"

Tony usually did not stay here, after all, he had his own residence and work to do. He used to come here often, which was related to his parents, Howard and Maria, being in the important stage of resurrection.

Now that Howard and his wife had truly been resurrected and had even gone out to travel together, he naturally would not come here every day anymore.

"Stark Industries is currently preparing for a new product launch, getting ready to release new products. Tony is probably busy with this."

Selene, who had been with Ethan for a relatively long time, seemed to have anticipated what Ethan would ask and immediately gave a relatively clear answer.

"Do you need me to call Tony and tell him you are back?"

"No need, I will go find him directly tomorrow."

During the time living on the alien planet, although they did not suffer much hardship, the living environment certainly could not compare to the manor here. How could that desolate planet with only rocks compare to a California seaside mansion facing the sea, where it is like spring all year round?

Even without needing to sleep, just lying on a lounge chair on the open-air balcony and feeling the cool sea breeze would bring comfort from the inside out.

Ethan lay there, watching the distant starlight and enjoying the peaceful night, when he was startled awake by the sound of a Mark series armor flying.

Watching the approaching red and gold figure, Ethan could only helplessly use Mage Hand to grab another glass and pour a glass of whiskey, watching the red and gold armored figure flying from afar suddenly slow down, then gently land on the open-air balcony.

The initial flight used the armor's flight capability, while the final landing used magic.

If it were Tony before he knew magic, this guy would have just crashed down simply and brutally. It would not be surprising if that impact directly caused the balcony to collapse.

The iron armor on his body retracted at an astonishing speed into the devices on his chest and wrists. Tony was wearing very ordinary casual clothes, and then he casually sat down on a nearby chair.

"You came back and did not even tell me?"

"Even without telling you, did you not know I was back? Did you install surveillance equipment in my manor?"

Tony shrugged. "It just so happens that I expanded Jarvis's activity range a while ago, so Jarvis knew as soon as you came back."

Jarvis knowing meant Tony knew. In some ways, this was no different from having surveillance installed.

"You do not need to worry, there are no surveillance cameras or anything inside the rooms. I can guarantee that."

"Installing it inside the house is fine too, after all, I am often not here, and Jarvis can also help monitor things."

In fact, Tony expanded Jarvis's activity range, surveillance range, for this very reason. Because beneath Ethan's manor was a new large secret laboratory, and if the things hidden inside were known, it would likely attract a whole host of troublemakers.

"As long as you do not install it in the bedroom, there is no problem."

"Do not worry, I have no interest in your bedroom at all."

While chatting idly, Ethan casually took out the Prometheus and handed it to Tony using Mage Hand.

"Is this it?"

Tony had come over voluntarily, essentially because he was interested in Ethan's haul this time.

He held it in his hand and looked at it for a while, not seeing anything special about this ship. Moreover, as Ethan reported the various parameters, he realized that this ship was not advanced in any way.

"So this ship needs major modifications. You can use any new ideas you have on it, it is perfect for testing."

(To be continued.)