Hao Ren looked up at the massive machine in front of him. In fact, he did not know whether to call it a machine or a building, or more exaggeratedly, a man-made mountain, because it was really big. The warped land of the city inside the spaceship was closed into an ellipsoidal shell-like space, and the machine was placed at the end of the ellipsoidal space, perpendicular to all the buildings in the city. Its main body was a huge cylinder, several kilometers high, made of black steel, with a large heat dissipation grid and various glowing windows on its surface, and a series of smaller cylindrical structures around the main body. Whether it was the main body or the ancillary facilities, there was a circle of openings at the top of each cylindrical structure that looked like exhaust holes. The openings emitted a faint red light as if there was still a trace of energy left. As Lily said, the entire facility had apparently stopped working because most of its external lights had been extinguished, and several ancillary buildings around it were also dark. But there was still some energy emitting from inside the behemoth, and it seemed that it could still be activated.
"The energy flow of this device is separated from the propulsion force of the spaceship. It should be dedicated to supplying energy to the city inside the spaceship. Simply put, it is the generator of the life-support system." The MDT briefly sensed the energy flow around the giant building. "Very clever design. This spaceship has multiple sets of power and control centers that are isolated from each other. The life-support system and the engine group do not affect each other. No wonder the city inside is dead, but the spaceship's navigation and propulsion system are still working."
"Unmanned …" Hao Ren muttered, and then connected to the Petrachelys. "Nolan, how's your inspection going?"
"I have completed the inspection of the target spaceship's outer shell, and found no fatal leaks. In fact, except for some scratches on the outer shell, its structure is intact, and even the buffer layer is undamaged. In addition, its engine is working well, at least for a spaceship of this level, it is considered to be full of power. "
"But the people inside are still dead. The energy of the engine group and the life-support system are separated," Hao Ren replied. "Send out some detectors and see how the other spaceships are doing. Be careful, these old antiques are very fragile, I hope they are all intact. "
After hanging up, Hao Ren spread his hands and said, "The spaceship is not damaged."
"Then where did the atmosphere in the city go?" Lily stared at him. "If there are no holes, is it because the atmosphere has been leaking out for too long?"
"Looks like the temperature was too low and turned into ice. After the life support system shut down, the temperature dropped, and then the air froze …" Hao Ren scratched his chin as he guessed. Before he could finish, Nangong Wuyue interrupted him. The siren maiden picked up an ice crystal and put it in her mouth. "No, this is water ice. Since just now, 99.99% of the ice crystals here are water. The rest is not enough to fill the entire city."
"It seems that the atmosphere in here is really gone," Hao Ren smacked his lips and walked forward. "Let's find the entrance to this thing. If the MDT is right, this thing is the backbone of the life-support system. "
It was not easy to find a small door in such a huge facility, but fortunately, with the help of the MDT, they soon found the entrance where the huge facility connected to the base of the city. At the foot of this huge mountain of steel, where it was connected to the inner shell of the spacecraft, there was a series of large pipes that extended out like roots. Between the intertwined nodes of the pipes, there were some small buildings that looked like airlocks or staff preparation rooms. There was a passage leading to the depths of the facility.
Hao Ren did not take much effort to open the passage to the inside of the facility. Then he was surprised to find that the lights were working.
The bright yellow warm light illuminated the metal corridor inside the facility. Although it was still as cold as space, the light more or less warmed people's hearts. There were many pieces of equipment that had come to a standstill in the corridor, but there were also some small devices, such as some lights and small monitors embedded in the walls, that were still working. These devices were all alarms, but there was no operator to correct any errors.
"It seems that even if the main system is down, the backup power here has lasted until today." Nangong Sanba caressed a small monitor embedded in the wall and wiped off the thin layer of frost on it. "It says that the reactor is down, and the 'guardian' host is in hibernation mode."
Hao Ren's heart skipped a beat. Was it down, not malfunctioning? Or was there something wrong with the self-detection system here?
He looked up into the depths of the corridor. Under the guidance of a series of orange glowing signs, he found the sign labeled "to the control room."
The control room was not in the depths of the 'steel mountain'. In fact, it was not too far from where they were. It seemed that the energy inside the steel mountain was surging, and it was not suitable to put people in it. Hao Ren and his team followed the signs and quickly found the control center of the facility. An alloy door stood in front of them. This time, without Hao Ren's order, Lily had already waved her claws and cut the door open.
The inside of the control room was much simpler and narrower than Hao Ren had expected. In fact, it was just an ordinary computer room with a lot of machines. The area seemed to be no bigger than a home office. A large number of silver-gray and light-blue cabinets occupied two-thirds of the space inside, leaving only a few seats for the staff. As the control center of the life-support system of the entire spaceship city, this place was very cramped. Hao Ren guessed that it must be because the system here was highly automated, and there were only a few parts that required human participation.
Hao Ren's eyes quickly fell on a special high-back chair in the center of a few machines. It was obviously the seat of the chief officer. According to the little knowledge that Hao Ren had read in the inspector's public database, in this kind of doomsday shelter, the chief officer was often the chief operator, or at least the person responsible for the start and stop of the highest level system.
He stepped forward and gently pushed the chair that had been frozen on the ground to turn around. He could not help but hold his breath. A dignified old man in his sixties, covered in frost, was sitting there. He was wearing a commander's uniform, and he still sat upright even at the moment of his death. There were many medals of honor and strange insignia on his chest, indicating that he was an extraordinary person. Even though this old man was already dead, the expression on his face was still dignified without being angry. His eyes were still wide open, and there seemed to be a trace of flame hidden in the depths of his already turbid and cracked eyeballs. The thousand years of ice did not make this old man lose his imposing manner. Instead, it was like an old but firm sharp sword was sealed together with its aura of steel until today.
"What an imposing commander …" Hao Ren murmured in a low voice. He gently pushed the chair to the side and then came to the pile of control equipment that the old man was looking at before he died. "Now let's see if we can still activate this antique …"
The ultra-low temperature had caused some parts of the console to become fragile. Its plastic cover and instrument cover would shatter into pieces with a light touch. However, the most critical buttons and internal circuits seemed to be made of special materials, and they were still intact after thousands of years in space. Nangong Wuyue carefully controlled the power of water to sublimate the condensed frost inside and outside the console. The machine was as clean as new — at least it looked like that.
"Core communication group … generator indicator … shelter atmosphere monitoring … artificial gravity …" Hao Ren's eyes wandered on a string of alien words and finally saw a special slot in the corner of the console. "Core reactor, this is it."
"Looks like we need a key … or something like an identification card." Nangong Sanba checked the slot. "Someone pulled out the key after the system shut down."
"The key is here!" Lily suddenly held up a shiny silver-white metal plate and pointed in the direction of the old man with her tail. "It's in the old man's hand!"
What else could Hao Ren say? Dogs were really good at finding things.
He scratched the back of Lily's ear, took the metal plate, and carefully inserted it into the card slot of the console.
Several indicator lights lit up, and then the entire facility began to shake.
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