The path to the core area of the wreckage was unobstructed. Tawil was right, we were walking on an emergency escape route. Due to the special design and high strength structure, this route miraculously remained intact after the spaceship crashed. The only obstacle to walking was the angle of the corridor. Because the spaceship crashed on the ground, the entire space inside the spaceship was at a 45-degree angle. Walking in such an inclined area … In fact, we had to fly for a long distance in the end, and I was stunned to see dizziness walking on a straight path …
"This is the entrance to the core area." Finally, a hexagonal alloy gate appeared at the end of the corridor. The gate could no longer be completely closed, and the slightly distorted gate caused a 20-centimeter crack to appear in the center of the armor plate of the gate. Tawil walked forward and pushed the gate, but it didn't budge at all. "Looks like we have to destroy this."
Icetis walked forward and touched the gate that had stood for god knows how many years. The gate instantly turned into dust without a sound. Sandora's gaze changed slightly. She wasn't moved by the destruction of the ancestor's relic, but she seemed to have thought of something suspicious. But she didn't say anything and just walked in first.
"Speaking of which, how did you guys get in …" I asked Liliana a very stupid question. But the next second, I saw the resentful little girl's washboard-like body, and the doll girl hanging on my wrist, which was not much bigger than an SD doll. I instantly understood. "Oh, I got it."
Liliana angrily looked at Tawil, Sandora, Icetis, and even Shallow Shallow who wasn't super curvy but still had a normal growth rate. Her anger burned for a while, then she patted her chest and walked in, "Tsk, what do you know? Flat breasts are a rare resource. Sooner or later, you will realize that straight breasts are the mainstream, and flippers are already a thing of the past …"
I was speechless for a while, and followed the team to the control center of the spaceship.
The control center was huge, and had a style that matched the size of the spaceship. But I couldn't see a single trace of "Schilling" in the strange equipment around me. The spaceship built by the creator was of a completely different style. If it wasn't for the fact that all the materials around me carried the characteristics of my homeworld, I'm afraid that Tawil and Sandora wouldn't have been able to connect this strange and strange spaceship with the origin of Schilling. As a layman, I couldn't see too many technical details, and I didn't know how far behind this spaceship was compared to the New Empire's warships. But it was obvious that this control center was made for "mortals". It was a huge circular hall, and neatly arranged seats and operating terminals took up half of the space. There was no interactive console or terminal of the ship's mainframe. This was the biggest difference between the spaceships of the Empire. This spaceship needed to be operated manually, and there were many operators. The ship's mainframe could not take on independent tasks, and could not even appear in the hall as one of the spaceship's commanders. On the other hand, on the Empire's spaceship, the mainframe almost took up the role of the vice-captain, and the number of people needed to directly control the Empire's spaceship was unbelievably small.
The assistant technicians immediately went to work with a cautious attitude. They began to examine the ancient equipment, and tried to figure out how to activate and what kind of energy they used. Although no one could explain how this "mortal creation" had survived such a long and terrifying period of time, it was obvious that the control panels were in good condition. Don't explain things that can't be explained, just finish the work at hand. This was the consistent idea of Tawil's team.
Sandora came to the seat closest to her. One of the creators had once sat here, but the ancestor who created the Third Protoss of the Void was no longer there. Only a dust-covered broken seat and a strange-looking control terminal was left. Sandora reached out and brushed the dust off the console, revealing the light blue panel below. The material reminded me of a touch screen, and its shape was like an elongated hexagon.
"This shape is the only thing that has been preserved to this day." Sandora sighed softly. I thought of the equipment on the Empire's starships. Most of the terminals had a hexagonal control crystal plate. Its material was created by the Shiring Apostles out of thin air, one of the immortal substances that would not be eroded by time. It had an amazing sturdiness and physicochemical properties, and was countless times more advanced than the glass plate fixed on the steel platform. However, the precise ratio of the hexagons transcended time and space, connecting the two eras, becoming a proof of the immortal connection between this wreckage and the Shiring Apostles. Fate, such a wonderful thing.
"Where are the remains that the two girls mentioned?" Icetis could not help but remind them when she saw that the group of people seemed to be completely attracted by the ancient equipment at the scene. Of course, Sandora did not forget about it, but I did not know why she did not take the initiative to mention it until now. Instead, she seemed to be deliberately diverting attention to the ancient equipment and other messy things in the control center.
"Could it be that you are afraid of homesickness?" Icetis looked at Sandora with interest, and suddenly said playfully, "Oh, the term 'being afraid of homesickness' doesn't seem to be used in this way … But don't mind the details."
"It's over here!" Liliana ran to the side and waved at us. Sandora wanted to say something, but she could not care anymore. In order to show that she was not "afraid of homesickness", she took the lead and ran over, and I followed closely behind her. Then, I saw where the "remains" that Liliana mentioned were.
What was unexpected was that a place like the control center actually had a "hibernation pod"!
Well, it could also be a medical pod, rescue pod, escape pod, or something like that. In short, at the edge of the control center, against the circular wall, there were countless neatly arranged containers. When I first came in, I saw them, but at that time, I thought that they were some kind of control terminal or decoration. If it was not for Liliana's strong ability to sense anything related to life (including remains) and discovered the secret of these containers on her first visit, perhaps we would have had to scan the entire ship to find out that these containers contained the remains of the creators.
These containers were elongated hexagons, roughly similar to the coffins used by the ancient Egyptians (perhaps the coffin style was also part of the Schilling Civilization?). From the looks of it, it was only enough for one person. They had a pitch-black appearance, a fully enclosed alloy box, placed vertically, and half-buried in the circular wall of the control center. Like all the equipment in the hall, there was no light on the surface of these "hibernation pods," and the inside was also silent. Their energy supply had long been terminated. Although for unknown reasons, they had existed far beyond the limits of matter, no one would expect that the people in these containers were still alive.
"There is no sign of life." Sandora reached out and gently touched the surface of the container closest to her. She made a conclusion that was self-evident. Then, she looked around the entire hall and instantly counted the number of hibernation pods. "If I'm not wrong, these hibernation pods correspond to the number of people in the control center. These small pods seem to have independent energy and navigation mechanisms. I also scanned a structure that looks like a thruster, which makes them more like escape pods. The creators set up these devices in the control center, perhaps it means … "
"They lived in an era where they needed to abandon the ship at any time, and even the control center was not safe." Tawil's mass projection came over. She looked at the small pods in front of her. "Your Majesty, do you want to open one and have a look?"
Sandora frowned. After a long time, she made up her mind. "Be careful. Don't damage the ancestor's remains."
A 'hibernation pod' was dismantled smoothly. It was connected to the wall behind it only by a clamp and an energy line. Just as Sandora said, these pods were designed to escape independently from the mothership. The senior assistant technicians carefully placed the container flat on the ground, which raised a cloud of dust. The opening and closing mechanism of the container had been completely destroyed, so it could only be dismantled by force. When the light of the cutting beam wandered around the container, I noticed that Sandora clenched her fists nervously.
Then, the lid of the container was carefully opened.
A tall, slightly grizzled man lay quietly inside. He was wearing some kind of ancient military uniform that we did not recognize. His expression was peaceful, just like when he was alive.
It wasn't a shriveled corpse, nor was it the remains of a skeleton. It wasn't a tattered clothing that had been eroded by the wind. Instead, it was a middle-aged military officer who looked as though he had just fallen asleep. I was stunned for a moment. I couldn't believe that this was the ancestor of the Xi Ling Empire who had perished countless years ago. History was so 'young' that it made me feel a strong sense of dissonance. He did not look like he had been dead for a long time. I even felt that … he had just laid in this hibernation escape pod a few minutes ago and was about to be suddenly awakened by us.
"This is the creator …" Sandora said in a surprised tone. Perhaps she did not expect the person in the container to be like this. Then, her eyes glowed faintly, and she switched to data analysis mode. "As expected … inexplicable situations also exist here."
"What exactly is going on?"
I looked at Sandora and Tawil's strange expressions and could not help but ask.
"It is impossible for mundane matter to be immortal," Tawil replied in a deep voice. "That is why we have to use information materialization technology to create Empire equipment, so that those extraordinary matters can withstand the impact of time. Mundane matter … Using the example that you can most easily understand, you should also know the effect of molecular infiltration, and many other factors that can cause the decay of matter. As long as it is in a conventional environment, everything in the world will slowly change. Even if there is only one atom in a universe, there will always be a moment when it decays. However, this spaceship, the remains of the creator in front of us, and the homeworld matter we found in the asteroid belt, have all transcended 'time.' In theory, that is. "
"They are in an inexplicable 'immortal state,'" Sandora continued. "It is not that time has stopped, but that time cannot change their 'state.' They are like snapshots, fixed in some 'normal order.' They repeat the basic evolution over and over again, and every short period of time, they will 'refresh' themselves at the microscopic level. This causes everything in front of us to show an incredibly intact state, as if they had just escaped from the homeworld … "
"What is even more incredible is that in this microscopic immortal state, they still evolve according to the normal law at the macroscopic level." Tawil easily crushed a metal protrusion on the corner of the hibernation cabin with his fingers. "As you can see, it can be destroyed at the macroscopic level, and it will not be restored through 'refresh.' But at the microscopic level, its atoms no longer decay and no longer change. Even after hundreds of millions of years have passed, it … still maintains the appearance when it left the homeworld. It is precisely because of this that the homeworld matter we have measured is far 'younger' than its theoretical lifespan. In theory, that is. "
I quickly understood what these words meant and looked at Tawil and Sandora in surprise. What they were talking about was the reason why the homeworld had survived against the norm, and the reason why the ancient wreckage in front of us was still immortal after so many years. This question was still very troubling a few hours ago, and I did not expect Tawil and Sandora to understand it now.
"I have long thought about the microscopic immortality theory," Tawil explained why she suddenly understood. "It is just that there is only primitive matter in the asteroid belt, and those matter came from the same area. They could be preserved until now because of a small-scale world distortion, so they do not have any value as evidence. But here, the spaceship and the creator's body are in the same 'immortal' state, so my guess has been confirmed. I had a brief discussion with Her Majesty Sandora just now, and we think that since even the creator's body is in this strange 'immortal state,' then the entire homeworld is likely to be in the same state. In theory, that is so. "
It turned out that Tawil already had a vague guess, but because it could not be confirmed, she did not say it out of the cautious attitude of a scientist. As expected of the best researcher in the New Empire, her reasoning ability was very strong.
"Next, we have to verify these guesses through experiments," Tawil said solemnly. "Let these matter experience the passage of time to see if they are immortal. I have already ordered the laboratory to prepare the time acceleration chamber, and soon … "
"What's the point?" I pointed at Shallow Shallow who was squatting on the ground playing Gomoku with Visca not far away. "The time acceleration chamber is much less accurate than Shallow Shallow's, and that girl will get sick if she doesn't do something serious."
Tawil was dumbfounded.
Of course, the ancestor's body could not be used as a test subject, so Tawil asked her assistant to take out the material samples collected from the spaceship wreckage and the asteroid belt, and handed them to Shallow Shallow to speed up the experiment. Meanwhile, Sandora ordered the engineers to carefully dismantle all the hibernation pods in the hall and prepare to transport them back to the base. Each of these hibernation pods had a person in them. Based on the state of the spaceship and the fact that the hibernation pods could not be ejected, Sandora tried to retrace the events of the spaceship.
The spaceship was severely damaged (probably by the Abyss, but since there were no traces of the Abyss on the spaceship, it could also be a secondary space disaster caused by the Abyss, but let's not talk about that for now), but the creators still had enough time to react, so they all moved into the hibernation pods used for escape. However, fate played a joke on the people on the spaceship. Perhaps at the moment when the escape pod was about to eject, the spaceship's power section finally could not support it: a violent explosion tore it in half.
The control signal of the spaceship was suddenly cut off, so all the escape pods could not be activated properly. Although good protective measures protected the bodies of the creators in the pods, they could not wake up.
The wreckage of the spaceship should have originally drifted in the homeworld for a long time. It could not have been wrecked in the void, otherwise, it would have long been assimilated. After that, it came to this universe with the sudden flash of space 20,000 years ago.
After a while, looking at the busy scene in front of me, I suddenly remembered something, and it was a matter of great importance. So, I jumped next to Sandora, who was supervising the soldiers moving the hibernation pods, and said, "Girl, do you think the ship's navigation system will have the coordinates of the homeworld?!"
I had a pretty good idea. Any normal spaceship that could fly out of the world would have a navigation system, right? Although the creators' technology was not very advanced, that was only in comparison to today's Shiring Apostles. In terms of absolute technology, they were already an advanced civilization that could jump out of the void, and they must have known how to accurately mark their homeworld. The spaceship before us was huge, and there was plenty of living space. It looked more like an Ark of Exile than a battleship, and there was a device in the middle of the spaceship that seemed to be an orderly field generator. So, the original purpose of the spaceship was to travel in the void. I had countless reasons to believe that the spaceship carried the coordinates of the homeworld.
Even if the homeworld was about to be destroyed, the creators would have input the coordinates into the spaceship's navigation system. That was what I thought.
Sandora's eyes seemed to light up for a moment, but soon she sighed, indicating that the truth was definitely not so optimistic.
"The 'position' of the world in the void is not eternal. Every world changes its coordinates at a very slow speed. On a conventional scale, this change is negligible. The Void Navigation Database is only updated once every million years, but who knows how many millions of years have passed in the homeworld … You know. "
I blinked, trying to put aside the messy thoughts of continents drifting and plate tectonics, and then sighed in disappointment.
"What are you thinking about?" I saw Sandora's gaze fall back on the ancestral hibernation pods, and she had a thoughtful look on her face, so I could not help but ask curiously.
"If they are already immortal," Sandora said word by word, "does that mean … we can resurrect these ancestors …"
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