When Nolan returned from Earth, she was no longer stuck and had returned to her normal form.
"This form is still the most comfortable." Nolan's full-sized holographic projection spun around on the bridge. "It was the same as before."
Hao Ren asked about the unloading situation. "Where did you throw the ark? Is everything going well? "
"Following the navigation signal sent by the sirens, I sent the ark directly to the bottom of the sea, right next to Nasaton. The Queen of the Sirens will be able to see it when she gets back." Nolan nodded. "It's fine. There was some turbulence when the cargo was being unloaded, but it didn't affect Nasaton. The sirens in charge of 'receiving' the cargo should be busy inspecting and waterproofing the arks. Such a big thing … it'll take them a while. "
Hao Ren nodded and turned to look at the remaining twelve arks. Under Nolan's remote control, these giant arks gradually accelerated out of the control zone of the drone nest. As they used a relatively outdated curvature engine, they had to wait until they were a certain distance away before they could initiate a warp jump. Similarly, when they reached Io, they had to exit hyperspace and slow down. The entire process would take three to four days. He glanced at Lorenz beside him. "You can stay on my ship for the next two days. I'll also take this opportunity to explain the current state of the universe to you, as well as more about the disaster that happened back then."
Time passed peacefully, and the ark fleet embarked on their journey to Io according to plan.
On the second day of the fleet's acceleration, the ark fleet arrived at the 'jump window' about one light-year away from the drone frontier at sub-light speed. The Petrachelys then entered hyperspace with the rest of the fleet and sailed at superluminal speed to the 'escape window' position 1.5 light-years away from Io. On the third day after leaving the drone nest, the entire fleet left hyperspace and left a distorted lens millions of kilometers long at the edge of Io's solar system. After that, Nolan conducted a final inspection of the twelve arks. After confirming that all the main functions of the arks were still in good condition, and the relevant landing mechanisms were also in standby mode, she conducted a final calibration of the arks. The mighty fleet readjusted their course and headed towards the blue planet 1.5 light-years away.
When Io's Azure Sea appeared on the main projection, Lorenz didn't say a word for several minutes.
"Io has no land, and your ark is the only island. So, for the next two hundred years, you will have to guard this piece of ocean." Katreina was in a good mood after getting the spacecraft she wanted. She took the initiative to introduce the new residence to her tenants. "We sirens like this planet very much, but it's probably not very comfortable for you … It's a place to stay, but if you want to rebuild your civilization, it's not suitable."
Lorenz still didn't speak. He just stared at the blue ocean on the holographic projection and remained silent for a long time.
"Are you stunned?" Lily poked the old man's back. "Or are you fascinated by Io?"
Only then did Lorenz react. It was as if he had just escaped from Io's boundless ocean. He took a few deep breaths and said in a low voice, "… This is the ocean …"
"This is just a remote image." Hao Ren smiled. "You'll be more surprised next. Nolan, initiate the ark landing sequence. "
The twelve arks had already decelerated to the point where they could land on the planet at any time. After receiving the remote command from the Petrachelys, the mountainous arks immediately adjusted their attitude and began to descend into Io's dense atmosphere. The rough, olive-shaped hull of the arks scraped against the atmosphere, and a bright red light burst forth. They looked like twelve flaming mountains sliding down from space. The Petrachelys followed the King's Throne's shadow into Io's atmosphere along with the rest of the fleet.
As they descended, the arks activated a series of additional systems. A translucent "membrane" that looked like it could distort space appeared around each of the arks. This was the effect of the gravitational distortion device. The huge gravity control device, which could wrap the entire spaceship, isolated the spaceship from Io's gravitational pull to prevent these monsters, which were more than 100 kilometers long, from being twisted into scrap metal by the planet's strong gravity. As the gravitational force between the arks and Io weakened, the arks' deceleration gradually came to an end.
The first to approach Io's ocean was the Terra Firma. This ancient ark, which had sacrificed itself to save the entire fleet, slowly descended in a dignified manner. The strong airflow around the ark caused waves to form in the ocean, and the waves retreated in all directions. When the ark touched the water's surface in a horizontal position, the ark's built-in universal adaptive landing system was activated. The thick black armor slowly rose up with a loud rumble, and the armor belt beneath the ark slowly opened up to both sides. These were the parts that Nolan had cut and embrittled beforehand. As the system was too old, if the deformed parts were not cut off, it would not be able to complete the subsequent series of modifications.
After the ark's bottom opened up, a large number of large pipes, metal pillars, floating cylinders, and all kinds of immersive detection devices extended out from the previously hidden cabins. They were immersed in Io's seawater. These ancient devices, which had been thirsty for ten thousand years, were finally put to use for the first time. On this foreign planet, they hungrily collected information about the surrounding environment, and then reported it to the ark's main control computer.
However, the data they reported would not be executed. Nolan had already disconnected the main control computer of the arks, and replaced it with a series of simulation mainframes built by the droid swarm. This way, after the ark's landing, it would not act rashly, and the entire process would be under control.
The twelve arks descended one by one, forming a ring-shaped "archipelago" on the vast Ocean of Io. The only undamaged ark, the Royal Throne, was in the center under Nolan's control. The airflow caused by the landing of these giant spaceships and the vibration of the spaceships when the gravity isolation system was deactivated rolled up huge waves on the surface of the sea. In a large area of the sea around the fleet landing zone, the wind howled as if a storm had suddenly arisen, the waves surged, and the rain poured down. The Petrachelys circled around the Royal Throne in the storm, making sure that the most important ark had not suffered any damage during the landing.
The various sensors inside the Royal Throne, as well as the infiltration core that had infiltrated the control circuits of the ark, also sent the latest data, indicating that everything was fine. Other than the two isolation cabins at the bottom of the ark that had slightly flooded, the landing process was smoother than expected.
As Nolan read the latest data, she reported to Hao Ren. "The water detection and atmospheric sensors have been activated. The ark's life-support system is updating the gas pool and reservoir. These things that have been circulating for ten thousand years can finally be replenished a little. The other arks are still using the deep-water radar to survey the seabed, but the ocean of Io is too deep, and the resources at the bottom of the sea are beyond the reach of the ark civilization. I've decided to turn off the radar for now — it's useless anyway. "
Hao Ren nodded. "Notify the droid swarm. Send some engineering units over to start repairing the arks."
Nolan issued a call to the droid swarm, and at the same time, remotely controlled the arks to enter the shutdown process.
After operating for ten thousand years, the ancient arks finally landed on a planet, and their heavily overloaded machinery could finally take a break. Of course, it was not possible to shut down all the machinery in the arks at once. While the droid swarm was here to repair the arks, the machinery would take turns to rest and restart. This would allow for the entire repair process.
While Nolan was busy with these technical operations, Hao Ren turned to Lorenz. "Next is the most important part — opening the dome of the ark. Are you sure the people in the arks can accept what's going to happen next? "
Lorenz nodded slowly. "They'll see the sky sooner or later. Why don't we do this while they're still willing to believe me?"
"Wait a minute," Lily suddenly exclaimed. "You're going to open the hull of the arks?!"
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