After two hours of flying at full speed, the shuttle arrived at the universe where the accident happened.
This was a small world located in the border area. The basic cosmological constant was quite different from that of the capital world. These differences caused the matter density of this universe to be much lower than that of the capital world. The data showed that there was no dark matter in this world, and there were almost no large galaxy clusters in space. Although it was still very young, the star formation in the universe had almost stopped. Space was extraordinarily dark, cold, empty, and lifeless. This was not a place suitable for the birth of advanced civilizations or colonization. It was barren and almost cruel, but it was the perfect place for deep diving experiments. The low matter density and the low number of celestial bodies could prevent the rapid spread of abyssal pollution. The unsuitable environment for the birth of life allowed the engineering team to complete the evacuation of the experimental port without much effort. It was said that there were only two galaxies in this universe that had life.
It was a barren land in the truest sense.
Of course, this was not the universe where the first deep diving experiment was conducted. Because the Gate of the Abyss and the deep diving port had a "shelf life". With continuous testing, sampling, external stimulation, and throwing probes into the Gate of the Abyss, each exchange of information would lead to a decline in the stability of the gate. When the stability dropped to a certain extent, it naturally increased the risk of the experiment. So, the original deep diving gate had been destroyed along with the entire universe. This was the new experimental site that we found a few months ago. Of course, if this experimental site was abandoned, the deep diving project could still continue. Things like the Gate of the Abyss would never go extinct. Tawil still had a few qualified Gates of the Abyss in his material library that could be used. This was definitely the most dangerous' material 'in the history of the Empire. Anyway, a few years ago, I would never have imagined that I would have to put a few of these things in my backyard for experiments...
After the registration, the shuttle passed through the sealed space barrier, and the current situation of the port appeared in front of us. Tawil pointed to the space outside the porthole. There was a large space building made of modules. "In the middle is the control center. The monitoring station and observation tower are all up there. There used to be four observation towers, but now two of them have been scrapped, and the remaining two have stopped operating due to energy outages. "
I nodded and carefully observed the situation outside. Now that we were close to the 'radiation critical point' of the Gate of the Abyss, the shuttle slowly circled the control center at a low speed for a dozen kilometers. I had a chance to check if there was any other damage except for the control center. There were many huge independent floating buildings in the surrounding space. These buildings had silver-white outer armor and were fully enclosed structures. Most of them were obelisks or prisms. they were ancillary facilities of the port, such as data centers, material transfer stations, automatic turrets, or barracks. In addition to the iconic blue energy patterns on the surface of all the buildings, there was also a faint golden halo floating in the air. This halo was actually holy light. A small team of Xi Ling Angels had also recently participated in the deep diving project. The holy light that they were proficient in could be enchanted on anything, which was equivalent to adding an additional layer of protection to the facilities here other than the psionic shield. In addition to the holy light's extreme sensitivity to the abyss, these facilities that were enchanted with holy light could also be used as alarm devices. Now that these buildings were in good condition, it seemed that the inexplicable explosion did not spread to other facilities, which basically ruled out the possibility of the abyss causing trouble. The abyss was best at pollution and spreading. If it could really destroy the most heavily guarded control center, there was no reason that the surrounding facilities were still intact.
My eyes finally focused on the control center that Tawil had pointed out. It was very conspicuous and large. Although it was more than ten kilometers away, with my enhanced eyesight, I could see every inch of it clearly. It was a huge square platform with a side length of about a few kilometers (not accurate with my eyes, I roughly estimated the size of the platform based on a small battleship parked above the platform). The bottom part of the platform was a double-layered structure — at least it was now a double-layered structure. The empty space between the two levels looked like a horizontal rift. In the depths of the rift, there were still huge energy jets bursting out of nowhere. The giant 'lightning' could jump a few kilometers away in space. Based on the damage of the double-layered structure, there should have been some armor plates or vertical bridges connecting the upper and lower levels, but now I could only see torn metal stubble poking out from the row of fracture points. Broken crystallized circuits and various pipes were slightly swaying due to the impact of the energy jets.
The upper half of the platform was distributed with the main building facilities. A large hexagonal building was located in the center, and the ground around it was a large area of extremely dim, spider-web-like light. Probably because there was still some psionic energy left in the energy network of the station, the crystallized network was still emitting a very dim blue light, so I could tell at a glance. And the hexagonal building was undoubtedly the central monitoring station: the heart of the control center. At first, I thought that the monitoring station was at least intact on the surface, but after careful observation, I found that it had a crack in one corner. Converting the distance, I judged that the "small crack" was probably quite large. This was really bad. It seemed that the big explosion in the lower level of the control center had even penetrated the monitoring station above. How big was the explosion?!
There were four huge obelisks around the upper platform. Those silver obelisks were naturally the observation towers used to monitor the Gate of the Abyss. At first glance, I saw two of the towers that were completely destroyed. They were located diagonally, and the lower half of the towers burst like a balloon. The originally indestructible rechargeable armor was easily torn apart because of the damage from the inside. The rugged metal beams at the lower part of the tower maintained the connection between the tower and the platform, just like the bones after the skin and flesh had been removed. Fortunately, these metal beams were strong enough to prevent the observation tower from being completely blown away, although they seemed to be useless here.
The remaining two towers looked intact, but due to the interruption of the energy supply, they were also pitch-black. There were only a few flickering lights on the surface, which should be the key equipment with independent energy.
The entire control center was in tatters, as if it had been shot through by the enemy. The energy was completely paralyzed, and most of the places were dark and lifeless. Lin Xue looked at the scene in silence, and could not help but grit her teeth. "It looks so pitiful..."
"Find a place to stop first, and gather the person in charge of the security and the people who were closest to the explosion," Sandora said in a low voice. Looking at the state of the control center, her expression was not good. "Oh yeah, have the people who were closest to the explosion been resurrected?"
Tawil was silent for a while, as if he was communicating with the people in the resurrection center. Then, he shook his head. "The frontline personnel were seriously injured. Their souls need to recover before they can be resurrected, but you can directly communicate with their souls."
"Okay, then go and arrange it," Sandora nodded. "Also, send me the structural diagram of the control center, and all the readings of the Gate of the Abyss before the accident."
The shuttle finally stopped at the control center, which was basically destroyed. There was a small landing point and a temporary workstation at the corner of the upper platform. This workstation was set up by the person in charge of the Deep Submersible Harbor after the accident (in fact, it was one of Tawil's mass projections). It was about the size of a small office building when it was unfolded, enough to serve as an office and command center for all the teams. The team of experts that we had brought with us met up with the accident response team that the Deep Submersible Harbor had organized. Then, everyone got busy with their work. I stood next to the shuttle and looked at the magnificent space building complex. It had lost all its luster after losing its power supply. The huge armor plates looked particularly desolate under the sparse lights. In the distance was the central monitoring station. From here, I saw the crack. It looked to be a few meters wide and more than ten meters long, curling outwards. It must have been a violent impact from the inside that had broken through the roof of the building. A large number of autonomous robots were running around in my sight, repairing the burned wiring, fusing the broken support beams to prevent the platform from further structural collapse, or installing various sensors. There should have been a stable gravity field and an open air ring, but now, I felt that the gravity under my feet was less than a third of the normal value, and the air ring around me was gone.
I jumped lightly and rubbed my nose awkwardly because I couldn't breathe. Tawil saw my movement.
"After the power supply was cut off, all the unimportant equipment was shut down and the remaining energy was transferred to the database and the core engine room." A projection of Tawil suddenly appeared next to me. "The database was saved, but the core engine room... is still inaccessible, so I'm not sure what the situation is like there. The gravity field and the open air ring were just things that provided comfort. They were the first to be shut down. "
I waved my hand. "I'm fine. I'm just not used to it... D * mn, what happened to you?!"
I stared at the mass projection of Tarver with a horrified expression. Her appearance scared the hell out of me! There was a huge hole in her abdomen, and her legs were empty from the top of her thighs down. Hence, she could only float in midair to talk to people. She looked like she had been blown into two on the battlefield! Of course, there was no blood on her body, nor was there any horrifying scene where her muscles and bones were exposed. Firstly, the Shiring Apostles didn't have blood or the body structure of a human. Secondly, the one before me was only a projection. The wounds on her body looked terrifying, but they weren't real. But... they were still horrifying.
"Oh, although I wasn't there when the explosion happened, I was in the monitoring station. It was over there..." Tawil's projection, who looked horrifying from the explosion, said nonchalantly. She even turned around and pointed at the huge crack on the monitoring station. "A psionic energy shot through the dome, and the sparks from the explosion landed on her body. Since she is a projection, she can still work. That's why I didn't 'regenerate' her. Let's talk about it when we are too busy and forget about it. Efficiency is the most important thing."
I was speechless. Even though she was a bespectacled girl, her image of a tough man was really frightening. I knew that I couldn't think like a human and tell Tawil to quickly change her projection, but I couldn't bear to see her in such a miserable state. I could only take off my oversized coat and tie it below her chest to more or less cover her stomach and the crack on her lower body. "Let's do this. I will try my best to treat you as a coconut tree spirit. Otherwise, I will feel uncomfortable with you swinging around like this..."
Projection Tawil: "... Oh."
She said goodbye to this very shocking projection. Actually, it was not really goodbye because Tawil's main body was standing right next to her, and all the projections were under Tawil's direct control. So, it should be said that after Tawil moved her body to another work site, Sandora and the others came to the incident management center, which was the temporary work station next to it.
An assistant technician connected the structure diagram of the control center to a holographic projection. Next to it was an image of the Gate of the Abyss. Another projection of Tawil, which was in good condition, introduced the location of the explosion and the situation at that time to us. "Now, we can confirm that the initial explosion occurred here. The lower layer is A-13 to A-15, and the hyperspace output of the power furnace is concentrated here. Whether the explosion destroyed the power furnace or the power furnace first exploded and destroyed other things, the chain reaction started here. Then, all the energy lines in the control center overloaded, and along the main energy supply pipeline, the explosion rushed from the lower layer to the upper layer. Along the way, all the connecting bridges and protective walls in the middle were blown away, and finally, observation towers No. 1 and No. 3 were destroyed. Another wave of impact reached the monitoring station three seconds after the first round of explosion. This time, the explosion did not completely destroy the monitoring station, but it pierced through its dome. After that, all the equipment was offline. Fortunately, the automatic disaster protection system was activated in those three seconds, and the monitoring station's database survived. However, because the main computer room was buried deep under the platform's armor plate, close to the place where the first round of explosion occurred, it has been shrouded in a super-strong psionic energy field, and no one can enter for the time being. The probability of the main computer room being completely destroyed is more than 80%. "
"What's so special about the main computer room?" Sandora raised her eyebrows slightly.
"Data. Because all the information collected from the Gate of the Abyss must be filtered and tested before being sent to the database, the main computer room has a cache mechanism. The detailed test data of the Gate of the Abyss at the time of the explosion are stored there, and it has not been uploaded to the database in time..."
"In other words, the rescued database is of no help in investigating the cause of this accident, right?" Sandora shook her head. "The things in the database are old data … from the buffer period before the explosion."
"We have external observation records." An assistant technician stood up. "It's about the Gate of the Abyss. A few days ago, under Matriarch Lin Xue's suggestion, we built an additional observation point on the Gate of the Abyss. Although it is not functional enough, we still have some basic information. "
I turned to look at Milady next to me. She was currently shaking her head with an unfathomable expression, as if she had everything under her control. In fact, she had been shaking her head for more than ten minutes, but I didn't know what was wrong with her. I thought she had taken the wrong medicine. At this time, Milady noticed my gaze and revealed an even more unfathomable smile. "Carving the future is a matter of meticulous carving. Some things can be done but not said, and some things can be said but not done... Hey, wait for me to finish, don't turn your head..."
I had already turned to look at Sandora analyzing the monitoring data of the Gate of the Abyss. From the image, the Gate of the Abyss was always the same, a black, two-dimensional pancake. At most, the edges of the pancake would be slightly scaled under the control of the surrounding suppression towers. However, the various charts that recorded the monitoring data were refreshed at an extremely high speed. The data on the charts was simply dazzling. Although I didn't really understand it … Alright, although I didn't understand it at all, Sandora nodded as she looked. In the end, she frowned and said, "There is no problem with the data. It seems that the Gate of the Abyss has not moved at all... except for a very small information overflow, but this information overflow is probably not bigger than a meteorite."
"You suspect that something escaped from the Gate of the Abyss and hit the control center?" I asked.
"Look at the structure of the control center." Sandora pointed at the holographic analysis. "This is the protection of the energy units... Oh, it's okay if you don't understand it. In short, the safety factor of this building complex is extremely high. Apart from external causes, the probability of internal collapse is infinitely close to zero. The first explosion occurred at the energy center of the lower layer. Of course, this position is protected by four layers of armor and two independently operating shields. It looks indestructible, but compared to the probability of internal collapse, there is at least a possibility that the armor and shields can be breached. "
One was a defense system that had almost no loopholes, and the other was a sturdy but solid armor and shields with an upper limit of protection. Indeed, the latter had a higher probability of being breached.
The team of experts also came to the same conclusion as Sandora: the possibility of the control center being destroyed by external causes was far greater than the possibility of internal causes. Although it was the internal explosion that destroyed the entire station in the end, this internal explosion should have been triggered by external causes.
Thus, I could only agree with Sandora. However, there was still something I didn't understand, so I turned to look at Tawil (main body) next to me. "Before the explosion, did you detect anything flying out from the Gate of the Abyss?"
Tawil's main body had always been in the City of Shadows, but her projection had personally witnessed the scene here. So, I could just ask her directly. Speaking of which, the bespectacled girl's ability was really amazing. I felt that no matter which corner of the Empire's research facility had a problem, I could ask her. She could be considered a witness at any time, anywhere...
"There were no such reports." Tawil nodded, but quickly changed the topic. "But we can't rule out the possibility of something rushing out from the Gate of the Abyss. What comes out from the Gate of the Abyss may not necessarily be a target that can be observed. Due to the special nature of the Abyss, anything that spills out from the Gate of the Abyss may appear as disordered data. After passing through the critical radiation point, it will transform back to its original form: matter or energy. So, within the critical radiation point around the Gate of the Abyss, it is impossible to see if it is ejecting matter (or energy). Everything is disguised. We can only determine if it is leaking something based on the information overflowing from the Gate of the Abyss. Of course, this is only limited to the more 'natural' things. If it is something like a submersible ship that comes out from the Gate of the Abyss, it will automatically eliminate the influence of the Abyss. "
This was the reason why Sandora had checked the information overflowing from the Gate of the Abyss.
At this moment, another tremor came from deep underground. The workstation echoed with a rumbling resonance.
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