In the dark and boundless universe, a strange group of exiles was traveling silently. They were a formation of some kind of huge spacecraft, numbering more than a dozen, and they looked like they had been sailing for many years. The shape of the spacecraft was impressive. They had a short, thick shell, covered with heavy grayish-black armor. There were neat, scale-like appendages on the armor. These scales curled up like many blunt triangular spikes. Each spacecraft was unusually large, hundreds of kilometers in size. Because they were covered with thick and gloomy armor, these spacecraft looked like a group of huge asteroids floating in the universe when seen from a distance.
These spacecraft had been sailing in the universe for god knows how many years. Without exception, they looked extremely old and dilapidated. Although objects in space would not be weathered, these huge spacecraft had obviously experienced countless impacts, high temperatures, corrosion, and the baptism of plasma. Their uneven armor was full of scratches and missing parts. On one of the most damaged spacecraft, the severe damage on its shell had even torn off a part of the armor, revealing the sponge-like support structure below. Hao Ren believed that this was most likely the result of a powerful meteorite impact, or it could be worse. But even if the situation was so bad, the structure of these spaceships was basically intact. Sparse lights were distributed along their bumpy surface, flashing various signals in space. These lights did not make the entire fleet look livelier, they only made the fleet look more strange and miserable.
But at the same time, the lights also showed one thing: these ancient flying machines were still operating.
The fleet was moving at a very slow speed. According to the various traces found before, it should have left hyperspace a few decades ago, then decelerated several times, and finally sailed at this low speed until today. It was not clear why they left hyperspace, because there was nothing in this sector that could make them stay. There were no celestial bodies or docks that could be used for resupply, and there were no traces of civilization. There was only lavender stardust everywhere. Perhaps there was a mechanical malfunction that forced these spaceships to break away from FTL travel?
The Petrachelys slowly caught up with the fleet from behind the trajectory cloud and approached one of the large spacecraft. Although the technology of these spacecraft was relatively primitive, they were huge. The Petrachelys hovered like a hummingbird on the black armor belt that stretched for miles and miles, sending back images of huge and rugged ancient structures. Some ribbon-like lights flickered slightly on the surface of the armor. The Petrachelys' approach did not change the flashing pattern of these lights: the spacecraft did not respond to the approaching unknown spacecraft.
"There is a radar shining on the spacecraft," Nolan's holographic projection enlarged to the size of a person standing beside Hao Ren. She had changed into a military uniform and reported the situation like a starship's adjutant. "There are a total of seven radar sources, from three different spacecraft, but other than that, there is no hostile response, and no weapon system activation signal."
Hao Ren looked at the image from the external monitor. The Petrachelys was slowly gliding over a large spacecraft, only a few hundred meters away from the latter's shell. He saw the rough metal shell slowly receding like a steel earth on the monitor screen. "Is there any contact signal?"
"No, I have sent out a full-band inquiry, but received no response." Nolan shook her head. "But I have intercepted the signals between these spacecraft, they are still communicating with each other, but …"
Hao Ren's eyebrows arched. "But what?"
Nolan put the intercepted signals on the holographic projection. Hao Ren saw a large number of regular symbols and numbers. When these things scrolled quickly, he found that all the content was just repeating mechanically.
"Every spacecraft is sending these things mechanically, the basic meaning is to confirm their position and the integrity of the system, nothing else. I suspect this is an automatic signal. "
Nangong Wuyue wriggled her long tail to the console and said with great interest, "So … the ghost ship?"
Hao Ren glanced at her and asked, "Why are you so excited when you say the word ghost ship?"
"Fifty percent of the ghost ship legends in human history were made by sirens, and the other fifty percent were sailors who drank too much." Nangong Wuyue raised the tip of her tail and wagged it. "Turning into a ghost ship to scare people is our ethnic culture. Do you understand ethnic culture?"
"Sirens have never been to the sea in the first half of their lives, so don't talk about it." Hao Ren waved Nangong Wuyue aside and then nodded to Nolan. "Can you find the entrance of these spacecraft?"
"The deep scan shows that there is a groove at the waist-line of the spacecraft below. It should be the entrance gate, but the size is not enough for the spacecraft to enter: it is only a dozen meters wide."
Hao Ren smacked his lips. "Tsk … for a giant spacecraft of hundreds of kilometers, this is really a shabby little door. Well, let's go down. Nolan, you follow our signal. When we go in, you prepare the teleporter outside so that we can evacuate. "
"Are we all going down?" Vivian looked at the people on the bridge. The demons and spirits that were freeloading in Hao Ren's house were all here today.
"Err … just a few will do. You and Lily, and …"
Before Hao Ren could finish, Nangong Sanba suddenly stepped forward. "Let me and my sister go too. We might need a hunter and a siren in a place like this."
Hao Ren thought for a moment and felt that what Nangong Sanba said made sense. The spacecraft in front of them was obviously neither the guardian nor the treacherous children, but a nomadic fleet of mortals who escaped from the apocalypse. According to the situation of the fleet, the probability of it being a ghost ship was quite high. In this kind of environment, what was needed was not a high combat power, but someone who was good at reconnaissance and could adapt to different environments. Nangong Sanba was a demon hunter, and Nangong Wuyue had the ever-changing form of water. They should be suitable to explore the ghost ship.
Hao Ren passed Lil Pea to Rollie and turned towards the teleporter. "The rest of you stay on the ship. We'll go down."
The Petrachelys came to a place that seemed to be the gate and hovered at a height of more than a hundred meters from the 'Steel Earth'. Hao Ren and his team appeared on the surface of the mysterious spacecraft in a beam of light.
There was almost no gravity on the surface of the spacecraft. They moved forward with the help of the auxiliary propulsion system. Hao Ren looked up into the distance. He saw a slightly curved black-gray steel extending in his field of vision. The distant stars and the pale gray interstellar dust cloud hung at the end of the steel horizon like a stain on a distant curtain. Some sporadic lights dotted a few protruding structures in the distance, faintly glowing like will-o '-the-wisp.
"Dead, dead …" Vivian muttered in the communicator. "I can't feel any life."
Hao Ren pressed his forehead. "MDT, share vision."
The MDT's radar view immediately overlaid on his human vision. He saw that the 'steel earth' in front of him had suddenly become a complex layered structure. Many orderly lines outlined the detailed information under the shell. He found the location marked as the gate, and after leading the team closer, he found that it was a wide slope that sloped downwards. The slope did not extend very deep, and they could see that there was an extraordinarily thick metal barrier below.
They came before the metal barrier. Lily quickly ran around the wall with her claws, but did not find anything that looked like a control device.
"Buddy, do you want to blow it up?" the MDT asked casually.
"No, find a normal way." Hao Ren waved his hand. "What if there are still people alive?"
"I don't like to study this stuff," Lily mumbled. "It's a headache."
Hao Ren did not say anything. He just searched for clues nearby through the shared vision. He could see the mechanical structure under the surrounding metal plates. Under the thick steel cover, there were some relatively shallow grooves where pipes and wires were distributed. Some of them should be the control device of the gate. The MDT was much faster than him. Soon, the PDA found the suspected activation switch according to the layout of the circuit around the gate and marked it in eye-catching red in Hao Ren's field of vision.
Hao Ren pointed to a metal plate on the wall next to him. "Dig this place up. Be careful not to hurt the inside."
Lily immediately floated forward and waved her Frostfire Claws. A burst of golden light flashed, and soon the metal plate was removed, revealing the complex old cable and substrate structure behind it.
The device was powered by electricity.
With the help of the MDT, Hao Ren found the key control circuit. He carefully pulled the two cables from the substrate and waved Vivian over. "Release some electricity, 28 volts DC."
Vivian was speechless.
(By the way, this year's annual Forbes list voting has begun. Although I still don't understand the mechanism of the list, I hope everyone can vote for it. Click on the Forbes Year-End Ceremony on the homepage. Well, it should be.)
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