"Survivors?" Hao Ren looked at the MDT in surprise when he heard what it said.
The MDT floated next to a control device. It emitted a blue light that shone on the cables and extensions around the device. It pulsed gently as if it was breathing. Through this method, it finally read the last bit of data that had yet to be completely erased from the depths of the weathered equipment. "I've connected to the navigation brain of this ship. I have a rough idea of how this fleet navigates — it needs someone alive to navigate."
Hao Ren looked at the MDT and motioned for it to continue.
The MDT opened a set of holographic projections. On it was a fleet of thirteen ellipsoidal arks, and around each fleet were complex lines that extended in a radial fashion. "These are the repeated signals that we detected earlier. Based on what we know so far, the operator of the arks is dead, so these arks are relying on an automated system, and the signal transmission between them is mechanical. According to their navigation model, these arks do not have a fixed flagship. They rely on a network to connect all the navigation brains together to create a unified, virtual navigation program. I guess this is because the designers from the beginning had considered that any ship, including the flagship, could suddenly be wiped out. So they gave the highest navigation authority to a spectral host that is active on the network. This way, as long as the fleet maintains a certain size, it can continue to sail without having to worry about the replacement of the flagship … "
Hao Ren waved his hand. "Get to the point, get to the point."
"The point is, this spectral host is not installed on any of the arks. And considering that the host of each ship is not necessarily reliable during such a long journey, this navigation program is not controlled by any specific terminal. It automatically monitors the fleet, and depends on certain conditions to determine if its navigation mission still needs to continue. "The MDT floated up and down." Its detection pattern is' life continues'. I found this information from the bottom of the database. "
The arks built by every civilization had a different way of operating, and this time, they would only continue to sail if the life inside them was still alive. Their thrusters were still active, so unless there was a problem with the navigational program these ships had developed, there was only one explanation.
"There are still living people on one of the ships …" Hao Ren muttered to himself and then frowned. "But they did not respond to Nolan's call."
"Maybe it's a system failure, or maybe they don't understand Nolan's high-level language, or maybe they're scared out of their wits. They may think that we're with the Guardians," the MDT said as it retracted all the light. "Of course, there's a worse possibility. Only a few survivors are left, and no one knows how to operate the radar. Anyway, they didn't respond, so we can only check every ship. "
Hao Ren was startled and looked up at the control panel in front of him. One of the screens on the control panel was displaying the scene of the vast space. A few dim lights glowed in the darkness. It was the silhouette of the other twelve arks in space.
"I hope every ship has the same structure as this one …" Hao Ren mumbled and connected to Nolan. "Nolan, you've heard what I'm saying over here, right? Summon the engineering droids, cut open the hull of each ship, and shoot the life detectors in. Do it until you can scan the deepest part of the ship. Also, don't cut off communications with these ships. If anyone is willing to respond, we don't have to drill holes in their ceilings. "
"I don't think drilling a few small holes in these hundred-kilometer-long behemoths will destroy their entire system," the MDT muttered, shaking its body. "Unless you accidentally cut through their large air pump or reactor."
Hao Ren sighed softly. "You still believe in my luck after following me for two years?"
The MDT was stunned for a moment, and then called the Petrachelys. "Nolan, tell the droids to be careful. It's best if they scan at least three times every time they shoot the drill … Oh no, four times."
They left the central control station and looked at the entire structure from the outside. Now its core reactor had been reactivated, and the once dim light grid and heat sink were glowing brightly. But as most of the important parts of the city's ecosystem had been dismantled, the control station was like the head of a giant, unable to do anything. It could only operate silently in the vacuum, like an artificial star in this cold world, shining on the lifeless sanctuary. Hao Ren looked at the frozen and ruined city around him, and knew that there was nothing else worth investigating in this ship. So he left some autonomous droids to study the structure of the city, while he brought the rest back to the Petrachelys.
The Petrachelys slowly left the ark called "Terra Firma", and then a few silver-white dots of light flew over from afar. They had a squarish shape and some sharp engineering arms. They were the responding droids. The droids flew towards the silent arks in space, and then a few flashes of light burst out from the hull of each ark.
The droids began to cut these strange and silent steel domes, and placed small probes into them.
"I've figured out how to modify the Petrachelys for the first time." Hao Ren stood on the bridge, and knocked on the control panel in front of him. "I need at least a high-powered life detection radar, or a new model of detector hive. Now, these devices are becoming more and more inadequate. It is difficult for the universal basic model to detect signs of life through kilometers of steel plates and energy fields, not to mention that most of the time, what I need to detect are those strange species created by the goddess of creation. "
"With all due respect, partner," the MDT said in a deliberately serious tone. "Based on your work history, your life detector will rarely be put to use."
Hao Ren said, "… It's not like I want to blow it up wherever I go!"
Each of the thirteen arks was more than a hundred kilometers long, and they had an outer protective layer that was a few kilometers or even a dozen kilometers thick. They also had a complicated shallow pipeline and corridor system, and a spherical city surrounded by a thick steel shell. All of these things had fallen into disrepair, and tens of thousands of old air locks and air pumps maintained the fragile internal balance of the arks, which caused a lot of trouble for the droids. But everything went according to Hao Ren's plan. After a few hours, the data from the probes was continuously transmitted back to the Petrachelys.
Hao Ren stood in front of the control panel, and Nolan sorted out the more important images from the probes and projected them onto the main device. Hao Ren saw the situation inside the remaining twelve arks — some had just reached the surface, but some had already penetrated into the core.
The conditions inside these arks were different, and while their structures were similar, they had different defects. In one of the arks, there was a frozen city similar to the Terra Firma, but in another ark, there was only a huge and horrifying hole. The city itself had been dismantled and turned into parts for another ship, and that ship was probably left behind hundreds of years ago.
"The situation is getting worse … so far, we haven't found any signs of life, only a variety of wreckage," Nolan's voice sounded next to him. "Their shells are intact, but their insides are riddled with holes. These ships have been surviving by devouring each other for the past thousands of years. There may have been hundreds of them when they set sail, but now only thirteen ships are still sailing … These thirteen ships look like floating corpses to me, dry and empty inside."
"You've become more emotional after becoming a ship." Hao Ren smiled. "Are there any arks responding to your call?"
"No, there's no response on any frequency, but I can confirm that my signal has been sent to the inside of these arks." Nolan nodded slightly. "The shallowest probes have already drilled into the cables of the arks. If there's still no response under such circumstances, then I'm afraid there's really no one."
Hao Ren did not say anything. He looked back at the holographic projection, and a small probe was drilling into the dome of the spherical city on the sixth ark. In its constantly shaking field of view, darkness flashed past, followed by a cold silence in the dim light. A deserted city appeared in the probe's lens, and the other data from the probe showed that there was no sign of life.
Hao Ren began to seriously consider if these arks had really lost all life, or if there was something wrong with the navigation program that allowed them to continue operating even after all life was lost. But just as the thought popped up in his mind, a message popped up on the holographic projection.
Nolan and the MDT said at the same time, "There's signs of life!"
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