Since the artificial atmosphere had disappeared, it was a vacuum. Hao Ren could not hear the sound of the huge machine running under his feet, but he saw the indicator lights on the equipment in front of him were lighting up one by one, and the frost covering the roof and pipes was shaken off as if it was atomized. He knew that the facility had been successfully activated. He pressed his hand on the frozen wall and felt a weak vibration coming from the depths of the building, and then the vibration began to weaken. A huge machine was running, and it was slowly stabilizing.
"These things are actually working," Lily stuck out her tongue in surprise. "I thought it was frozen."
Hao Ren did not say anything, but carefully studied the various indicators on the equipment nearby and the prompts that popped up from the small screens. He knew nothing about this strange system, and he did not know how much damage it had accumulated in the thousands of years of shutdown. So he was very worried that there would be an emergency during the system activation process. Fortunately, it was not difficult to understand the prompts on the equipment. Probably considering that this was going to be a long voyage, and that the future operators might not be able to retain the complete knowledge of sailing, the designers of this giant spaceship strived to design the spaceship control system to be simple and easy to understand. Most of the machines were automatic, and the parts that needed to be operated by humans were explained in a concise and clear manner.
As the vibration from deep underground calmed down, the main furnace and generator seemed to have begun to operate normally. The various equipment in the control room lit up one by one, and the busy flashing indicator lights showed the restart and self-check progress of various equipment. A rectangular silver-white metal plate slowly rose from the main console in front of Hao Ren. From this metal plate, the operating status of all the units appeared. "The main generator has restarted. The ecological computer has entered the restart process. Taking over the accumulated data of the emergency system. System error. The accumulated data of the emergency system has been deleted. Entering the special process. Resetting the ecological computer to beta mode …"
As the ecological computer slowly recovered from its hibernation state, Hao Ren found the local ecological mode reset function on the console. He pressed the button, and a new window popped up on the display. "Checking the central control station status … Serious error! Atmospheric pressure not detected! Multiple leakage points found! The central control station has entered a zoning lockdown state. Atmospheric reconstruction in progress … All personnel immediately evacuate each connection section and enter the nearest sealed cabin. I repeat, all personnel immediately evacuate each connection section and enter the nearest sealed cabin … "
A series of automatic procedures began to be executed. From the corner of his eye, Hao Ren saw the doors outside closing one by one through the large glass window on the side of the control room. Then, the ventilation system of each cabin began to operate. A faint airflow and a slight pressure came from his skin: the environment of this place had begun to recover.
The place they were in was called the central control station. It seemed that the ecosystem of this place was independent of the outside. So even though the atmosphere of the entire city had disappeared, the atmospheric pressure here returned to normal within a minute. The MDT checked the composition of the surrounding air and found that although it was not the same as on Earth, the group of superhumans could still breathe smoothly. So, it asked everyone to temporarily turn off the life-support collar.
"Phew …" Lily let out a long sigh of relief. "Finally, we don't have to talk through the communicator anymore."
"I'm looking for something like the mainframe log," Hao Ren muttered as he fiddled with the console. "I want to figure out what happened here … But the log files seem to be destroyed."
At this time, a soft system prompt sounded. The ecological computer had finally completed all the self-examination procedures and returned from hibernation to beta mode. Then, it began to check the state of the city in the ship. Of course, this machine immediately began to alarm.
A series of red warning lights lit up in each cabin of the central control station, and the harsh alarm rang loudly in the area where the atmospheric environment had been restored. Hao Ren heard a mechanical and heavily distorted synthetic voice warning loudly. "Serious failure! Urban ecosystem shutdown! Serious failure! Urban ecosystem shutdown! Operators level two and above immediately return to work. Operators level two and above immediately return to work … "
Hao Ren turned off the irritating alarm and began to restore the artificial atmosphere of the city. However, when he activated this function, an unexpected error message popped up. "Fatal error. No atmospheric circulation pump and atmospheric storage facilities found."
"What's going on?" Vivian did not quite understand what was going on.
"It sounds like two very important things are missing." Hao Ren frowned as he fiddled with the console for a while. Finally, he found the function to switch the monitoring window. The main screen immediately showed some monitoring images of some important facilities. He saw a huge gap in the middle of a pile of pipes and machinery on one of the images. Obviously, someone had dismantled something there.
As more monitoring images came back, he found that there was more than one similar situation.
He let the control station's mainframe check all the systems one by one, and a series of shocking error messages popped up.
"Fatal error. No water circulation and purification core unit found …"
"Fatal error. No thermostat controller and related servo unit found …"
"Fatal error. No signal from B-2 to C-12 keel mechanical cabins …"
"More than half of the important facilities have been dismantled …" Hao Ren dragged the monitoring images of the relevant areas to the center of the main monitor. "The life-support system of this ship has almost been dismantled into an empty shell."
As he spoke, he fumbled on the console. Finally, he accidentally touched an irrelevant small device. A metal plate next to the main monitor suddenly lit up, and the following sound and images interrupted him.
An old man appeared on the small monitor. He was wearing a commander's uniform, and his chest was full of medals and emblems. His face was not angry, but it was the old man who had turned into an ice sculpture on the operating table. This was a video recording, probably left at the last moment of his life.
"… Information code … Forget it, this is Terra Firma. Lord Geen Shiron is here to record. All shutdown commands have entered the countdown. It is estimated that the ship's ecosystem will be shut down in ten minutes. Now I repeat the previously agreed distribution plan: the atmospheric circulation pump will be allocated to Long Night, the atmospheric storage facility will be allocated to Eversong, the thermostat controller and its servo unit will be allocated to Daybreak, and the water circulation and purification unit and all mechanical cabins will be dedicated to our king. May he and his giant ship, King's Throne, be safe forever. According to the plan, I have blown 'gas' into the atmospheric circulation pump, so please wait for twenty-four hours after this message is sent, until the purification pump completes the filtration and recycling of the atmosphere … Ha … "
The old man in the video took a few deep breaths, and he calmed down again.
"The ship's propulsion unit will remain, and continue to follow the fleet until all systems are destroyed. In the name of the Lord of Terra Firma, Duke Geen Shiron, I now declare: After my death, all the assets of this ship will be returned to our great kingdom, including the propulsion unit, the core reactor, and everything in the hull. If the kingdom is in danger, please dismantle … Ha … Dismantle the remaining components of this ship. To our king, the message is over. "
The small monitor dimmed, and the short message ended. Hao Ren and the others looked at each other. Lily was the first to break the silence. "They dismantled the parts of their spacecraft and gave them to others?"
"These ships have a limited lifespan. With their technology, it is a miracle that they can sail to this day," the MDT said slowly. "The second half of this voyage is bound to be dangerous, and various system failures are the most common and the most difficult to solve. As long as the mass extinction caused by the deicide continues, there is no possibility for them to stop and recuperate. So the only solution is to keep piecing together the parts that can still be used, at least to ensure that the ecosystem of these ships is intact. "
Hao Ren shook his head. "But the number of people that can be fed is getting smaller and smaller."
"So those who are chosen to be sacrificed can only be euthanized." Nangong Wuyue bit her lip, not knowing how to comment on this matter. She thought of the frozen city of death outside, and the victims who died peacefully and solemnly in the banquet hall. "How long did they last in this way?"
Hao Ren shook his head. "No matter how long they lasted, it seems that they could not last until we came. Nolan had sent a message to all the arks, but there was no response. "
Everyone was silent, feeling deeply regretful. But the MDT seemed to have suddenly found something. "Wait a minute, there should be survivors!"
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