The spaceship was in the void of space, so how could it possibly cause such a huge vibration? Unless it hit something during the warp...
However, in the next second, Shaw had no choice but to abandon this thought.
This was not a car or a ship. Based on the speed of the spaceship, if it really hit something, it would have been torn apart by now. How could it still be sitting here unscathed?
However, if it did not hit something, then it must have been interfered with by something?
Just when Shaw was at a loss, he faintly heard the faint sound of a sobbing.
The cry was very far away, as if it came from the corridor outside the room. The voice was a little hoarse and he could not tell whether it was a man or a woman.
Shaw frowned slightly.
Who was crying, was it one of the ten people who came with him? However, he seemed to remember that there were no women among the ten people who came this time.
If it was not one of the ten people who came with him, then it must be one of the original people in the spaceship.
Shaw thought about it and did not pay much attention to this. But then again, this spaceship seemed to have stopped after the warp. What was going on?
With his keen senses, Shaw could sense that the spaceship under him had stopped flying. This was not a good sign for him as he was in outer space.
If it did not stop because it hit something, then the thruster engine had stalled. Could the nuclear fusion engine have stalled as well?
Shaw was even more confused and worried at the same time.
"Woo..."
Just as Shaw was worrying, he suddenly heard the cry outside the door again. He did not know if it was an illusion, but Shaw felt that the sound seemed to have gotten louder.
At the same time, the faint smell of sulfur became stronger...
At this moment, Shaw suddenly felt his heart palpitate as if he was being stared at by something. He shifted his butt a little anxiously and moved deeper into the bed.
Was it an illusion? Why did the voice sound vaguely familiar?
Just as he was feeling bewildered, the sound of footsteps suddenly came from the corridor. This sound carried a heavy feeling, echoing in the long and narrow corridor, with a special kind of gloominess.
That footstep did not belong to one...
Shaw was a little surprised. Although the footsteps were uniform, with his keen hearing as a blind person, he quickly determined the existence of the accent. At least two people were approaching at the same pace.
Was it the owner of the cry just now?
Shaw felt a little uneasy. He raised his head and looked in the direction he came from, silently listening to the sound that kept coming.
"Dong, dong, dong …"
Finally, the series of footsteps stopped outside Shaw's door and stopped abruptly. At the same time, there was the creak of the door being unlocked.
"Who is it?"
Shaw couldn't help but ask loudly.
"This is the person who came to pick you up."
However, the caller did not answer, and the voice from before came again. "Mr. Xiao, go to the bridge immediately. I have a mission for you."
Shaw could only feel the two of them coming up to him and holding him up with their arms raised. From the sounds they made, the physical fitness of the two seemed to be extremely exaggerated. He could even hear the thumping sound of each other's chests.
Then, the two of them carried Shaw out.
"What happened?"
Shaw sensed that something was amiss and quickly asked, "Didn't you just say that we're in the midst of warping? Why now … "
"The Courage Voyager has completed its warp."
The female voice came from above, and as Shaw continued to move forward, the voice also passed behind him. "But we've encountered a spaceship malfunction. According to the Commander's orders, if the spaceship malfunctions, you're to be brought out. Perhaps you'll have a solution."
"Spaceship malfunction?"
Shaw was even more puzzled now. He said with some apprehension, "Although I'd like to help you, I'm not a mechanical engineer. If you're looking for me, I'm afraid you've got the wrong person."
"This is an order from the Commander."
The voice continued. "I'm just the artificial intelligence of the spaceship. My authority only allows me to solve the problem according to predetermined circumstances."
"What?"
Shaw's body suddenly trembled when he heard this. He was originally in the IT industry, so naturally, he understood the meaning of this sentence. He looked up in disbelief and asked, "What did you say, you're not talking to me through the communicator?"
"I'm not."
The voice replied calmly, "I'm just the artificial intelligence of the spaceship, or the main control system, but I'm not human."
"How, how is this possible..."
Shaw felt his body and mind trembling. If the other party was not making fun of him, did that not mean that Blackwatch had already developed the ability to create powerful artificial intelligence?
After all, whether it was the androids or the XTN model robots on the market today, they were only weak artificial intelligence. The only reason they could communicate with humans so easily was because of the existence of cloud servers. Without the network, these weak artificial intelligence would become idiots who could not even perform basic tasks.
On the other hand, powerful artificial intelligence was different. It was an existence that could truly think independently and had its own emotions and cognition. It could even be called an intelligent life!
"Nothing is impossible. As far as I know, my mother was born more than ten years ago."
The artificial intelligence continued. "Now is not the time to focus on this issue, Mr. Shaw, I need your help."
Shaw suddenly sighed and asked tentatively, "What do you need me to do?"
"The Courage Voyager seems to be imprisoned by some kind of existence."
The artificial intelligence replied, "This is my third subspace warp experiment. The first time was normal, but the second time was the same. In the end, it took me five hours to break free."
"How did you break free?"
Shaw continued to ask while silently digesting the clues in the artificial intelligence's words.
"As far as I know, this kind of imprisonment is not permanent. After a long time, it will automatically disappear and the spaceship can escape from the subspace."
"In that case, why can't we wait a little longer this time?"
Shaw was even more puzzled.
"Because the longer we stay in the subspace, the higher the mortality rate of the crew members."
The artificial intelligence replied, "The subspace airflow is corrosive. The longer we stay, the more the outer shell of the spaceship will be corroded. I'm not sure if we can successfully escape this time. Perhaps the spaceship will disintegrate before we can break free."
Shaw's heart skipped a beat when he heard this. "What do you mean, the longer we stay, the higher the mortality rate of the crew members? What's the subspace? "
"The so-called subspace is a world that doesn't belong to the real universe."
The artificial intelligence explained patiently, "It has a special characteristic. When traveling in the subspace, the distance between the main universe and the main universe will be shortened in a straight line. The ratio between the two is about one to ten thousand. This means that traveling one kilometer in the subspace is equivalent to traveling ten thousand kilometers in the main universe. With this characteristic, the travel period of the spaceship can be greatly reduced, making interstellar travel a common occurrence."
"So that's how it is..."
Shaw was completely shocked, but he did not have time to dwell on it. The artificial intelligence continued to explain, "However, there is also a side effect of traveling in the subspace, and that is its danger. Traveling in the subspace is dozens of times more dangerous than traveling in the main universe. The last time we stayed in the subspace for only five hours, nine out of ten crew members died. All of them died of madness."
"So... So dangerous..."
Shaw's heart tightened. As the two continued to talk, he was finally brought to the destination. Shaw felt the two people who were holding him down release him at the same time.
"This is the position of the spaceship's bridge."
The artificial intelligence continued, "And your mission is to open your eyes."
"Open my eyes? I'm blind, there shouldn't be any use in opening my eyes... "
Shaw was puzzled. Although he said that, he still opened his eyes according to the artificial intelligence's order.
In an instant, Shaw choked on his words. His eyes widened and he stared at the scene in front of him in shock...
What came into view were two diamond-shaped floor-to-ceiling windows. Behind the floor-to-ceiling windows, there was only darkness, or rather, nothingness. That was his original vision, but outside the floor-to-ceiling windows, he saw an endless sea of black vines. These things entwined in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows and stretched as far as the eye could see...
"What is this..."
Shaw's body trembled and he involuntarily took two steps back.
"Tell me, what do you see?"
The artificial intelligence in the spaceship asked again in his ear.
"You, you can't see it?"
Shaw's cheeks twitched slightly as he shifted his gaze away from the endless black vines. "There are many vines wrapped around the entire spaceship, and they can even move. It's almost like a living organism..."
Hearing Shaw's words, the voice suddenly fell silent. After a long time, it spoke again, "Yes, I can't see it. It's not just me, neither ordinary people nor camera equipment can see the vines you mentioned. In front of us, we can only see endless dark yellow fog..."
"What's the reason for this?"
Shaw was startled and asked subconsciously.
"I think, this may have something to do with your superpower."
The artificial intelligence speculated, "In the subspace, only those who have lost their vision can initially observe the operation of the subspace, and your superpower is to observe psionic energy. Perhaps it's the combination of these two reasons that allows you to observe the reality of the subspace."
"Reality..."
Shaw could not help but shake his head and did not continue to speak.
At this moment, a cold cry suddenly came from behind Shaw. The moment he heard this cry, Shaw's body trembled slightly. He turned around in shock but only saw a void behind him.
That's right, the world outside the floor-to-ceiling windows was the world of the subspace. Behind the floor-to-ceiling windows was a spaceship that was related to reality, and he could not see inside the spaceship...
Shaw's reaction prompted another question from the artificial intelligence. "Mr. Shaw, when you turned around just now, your heart rate increased by eighty percent and your blood pressure increased by fifty percent. May I know the reason for this?"
"Didn't you hear it?"
This time, it was Shaw's turn to be puzzled. "There should be a female passenger in your spaceship, right? I heard her crying just now, and it was quite a frightening sound."
"..."
The artificial intelligence was silent for a moment before it said, "I'm sorry, we don't have any female passengers on the spaceship. Including you, there are only ten members of the Black Knights and ten psionicist researchers on the spaceship."
"What?"
Shaw's pupils shrank and he quickly looked behind him again, but the artificial intelligence reminded him again, "You keep looking behind you because the voice is coming from behind you?"
"Yes... The voice is about twenty to thirty meters away from me."
Shaw nodded quickly and estimated the distance.
"The spaceship is only thirty meters long, Mr. Shaw."
The artificial intelligence said, "And two meters behind you is the isolation door of the bridge. In terms of sturdiness, it can withstand a shot from a small-caliber pulse rifle. In terms of soundproofing, even if a shot were fired from the outside, no sound would be heard."
"Are, are you kidding me?"
Shaw felt even more uneasy when he heard this. From the artificial intelligence's words, he knew that being exposed to the subspace was extremely dangerous. The longer one stayed in the subspace, the higher the chances of death. Although he had found the reason why the spaceship could not move forward, there was nothing he could do but let the spaceship wait in place...
And now, he even heard a strange cry that no one else could hear?
This cry, this cry...
It was as if a layer of membrane had formed in his mind and slowly overlapped with his dusty memories. But at this moment, the cry rang out again!
"Ugh..."
In an instant, Shaw felt goosebumps all over his body. He felt like his hair was about to explode because he realized that the voice was less than ten meters away from him at this moment!
The cry was getting closer and closer to him!
At this moment, Shaw felt a chill seep into his bones. He stumbled backward and fell to the ground, staring at the void in front of him.
"Mr. Shaw? Mr. Shaw! "
The artificial intelligence's voice was still ringing in his ears, but it had gradually become longer and longer like a damp tape that had lost its original tone.
At the same time, Shaw felt as if something had appeared in front of him...
He stared straight ahead. In the endless void in front of him, he saw a figure lying on the ground.
This figure was completely naked, but there was a large amount of blood splattered all over it. It seemed to be a corpse...
But how could a corpse appear in front of a blind man's eyes?
The corners of Shaw's mouth twitched uncontrollably. He could see clearly that the corpse was his wife of many years!
Crack...
Suddenly, the sound of joints moving could be heard. One of the corpse's arms seemed to move slightly. This slight movement affected Shaw's nerves and caused his body to tremble!
What followed next was a nightmarish scene — Shaw saw the corpse's other arm move as well. The two arms slowly lifted her body, and in an instant, the corpse's limbs propped herself up, and she crawled toward him step by step in a reverse jointed fashion!
Shaw felt as if all the strength in his body had been drained. He could only collapse in front of the floor-to-ceiling window and watch helplessly as the corpse approached him...
"Shaw, Shaw, Shaw..."
A hoarse murmur came from the corpse's mouth. Amidst a series of joints cracking, she slowly crawled toward him and then raised her head like a robot...
Before Shaw completely broke down, he seemed to smell the pungent smell of sulfur assaulting his nostrils...
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