"This is an empty spaceship." Sandora looked at the dark and slanted corridor and said in a low voice, almost as if she was talking to herself, "There's no destination, no serial number, not even a military emblem … Who built this thing?"
With Sandora's reminder, I also noticed the strange details of the spaceship. We had been moving along the outer corridor for more than ten minutes, but there was no indication of the spaceship's destination along the way. There wasn't even a device model or serial number on it. It could be explained if there was no destination information. Perhaps this spaceship was a joint creation of multiple celestial zones, or its destination was somewhere else. But even the devices embedded in the corridor didn't have any type information, which was unusual.
"Don't think too much about it. Let's move forward." Sandora shook her head and put the question aside for now. After all, we had only explored a small part of the corridor of the spaceship. It was too early to make any conclusions.
We continued along the corridor leading to the inner area of the spaceship. There was still no gravity, no air, and no lights. The alloy walls that were supposed to be glowing now looked lifeless. The psionic light and flashing devices that used to flow on them were now completely silent. Because of the age, there was a thin layer of dust floating in the corridor. It was probably the result of something being weathered and crushed. I had no idea how long the dust had been floating in the gravity-free environment. Alaya released a gentle halo with himself as the center, and the dust floating in the vacuum looked even more obvious under the light. Liliana looked at the dust thoughtfully. She floated to the wall and wiped it before rubbing her fingers together. "It's organic, but it has completely changed."
I didn't understand. "What do you mean?"
"Nothing. Maybe it's the 'dust' produced by the weathering of the carcasses of carbon-based organisms," Liliana replied casually. "There's nothing on the Empire spaceship that can be weathered. The shelf life of the equipment is in the hundreds of thousands of years. So, only the passengers of the spaceship were weathered. The bodies of the Shiring Apostles are as immortal as the spaceship. After eliminating them, the only thing left is the servant army. The 'dust' in the corridor should have come from the corpses. There should have been air here when they were weathered, but now the air has run out. "
I hurriedly put up a shield to keep the dust outside. Liliana shrugged when she saw me like this. "Boss, don't be so bothered. The dust has already been completely weathered. It's basically just a bunch of large molecules now."
I thought about it and agreed. However, I still felt uncomfortable. "Why does it make me feel uncomfortable?"
"Boss, you're just being unreasonable."
Me: "..."
This corridor was longer than the previous one. Perhaps it was because it happened to be in the damaged part of the spaceship, but it looked a little crooked. There was even an abnormal bend in the middle. However, it was still intact. There were no cracks or cracks, so it didn't cause any more trouble for us. We quickly moved forward along the corridor. This time, we paid attention to any signs that might be useful. However, it was just as Sandora had said. There was nothing that could indicate the spaceship, and there were no signs on the equipment installed in the corridor.
We stopped in front of the second fork. This fork was in the shape of a T, and the alloy wall facing the direction that everyone had come from had an obvious cover for an embedded device that could be opened. It was about half a meter square. Based on my experience, I deduced that it should be the control point for these corridors. Liliana knocked on the silver-gray metal plate. The embedded equipment that had lost its power supply obviously couldn't respond to external stimuli. So, Sandora inserted her finger into the upper edge of the metal plate and forcefully pulled it off.
After removing the cover, what was revealed was a dull crystallized grid and two hexagonal crystal panels that looked no different from black quartz. The interactive holographic image that was supposed to be automatically displayed after the cover was opened was, of course, gone. This thing had completely lost its energy supply.
Sandora pressed her hand on one of the crystal panels. After she injected energy from the outside, the panel finally emitted a faint blue light. Then, we saw the surrounding three corridors began to flash. Blue light spots that looked like fireflies quickly flowed into the distance in the dark corridor. Then, there was a second and third wave of light spots. Sandora was using the most primitive but effective method to check the corridor's wiring.
"The wiring is intact, but the power supply is interrupted." Sandora retracted her hand, and the blue light spots in the corridor quickly disappeared. "I can't find any signs of backup power. That part might have been lost in the void along with the spaceship's missing cabin."
I looked at the lifeless place. The biggest difference between it and the relics of the Empire that we had seen before was that it was completely 'dead'. There was no sign of operation at all. In the past, the relics of the empire that we had found usually had some residual energy and were operating in a limited manner. However, this place didn't even have the slightest sign of "limited operation". I couldn't help but sigh in our mental connection. "This really is a 'ghost' ship. It's completely dead."
"Not necessarily," Sandora shook her head slightly. "Its core area should still be operating. The part that provides power to the engine module and the automatic navigation system should be working as usual. Otherwise, how could this thing jump between worlds? I just don't know how long we have to go to find a cabin with power supply. This spaceship uses a very unusual design. Until now, I still can't tell what kind of architecture it is based on. "
"I still can't feel any life," Liliana stared at the dark corridor and muttered in the mental connection. "My intuition is getting stronger. There must be a source of interference deep inside the spaceship. That thing should have an energy supply."
I was busy scanning the entire spaceship. However, I did not have the knack of distinguishing life like Liliana and Jingle. So, I was looking for the source of energy. After a round of scanning, I found a weak psionic reaction more than ten kilometers away. It was just that the reaction was subtle and weak. At first, I almost missed it.
Everyone sped up with the core area of the spaceship as their target. The lifeless cabin areas on the periphery were really not worth exploring. It was better to leave it to the scouts and scientific researchers to study. We passed through the long and deep alloy passageways. We passed through the twisted and overturned connection sections. Sometimes, we even had to use brute force to cut a hole in the passageway control gate. The spaceship automatically closed most of the internal gates when it encountered an emergency. Now, these gates were all jammed. Even if Sandora supplied them with power from the outside, these gates were hard to activate due to the malfunction of the components. So, we could only dig holes as we moved forward. Sandora's claws were really useful. She scratched and scratched like a mole. Unfortunately, I did not dare to say it in front of her.
We moved forward like this for a long time. We passed through countless dark and silent function cabins and even a large building complex. This spaceship was tens of kilometers long. Some of the interior spaces were built in the style of towns. However, those buildings looked like ghost towns. Finally, we slowly approached the core area of the spaceship. I could feel the faint flow of energy in the facilities around us. This good phenomenon made my mood better. The energy meant that some facilities were still operating normally. The facilities in the Empire basically had a self-recording function. An ancient facility that had been in operation since the era of the old Empire could often reveal a lot of secrets. So, it was always good to find such antiques.
The little crow seemed to have sensed my good mood, or maybe it was just that she found this novel 'adventure game' fun. She happily flew in front of the group. I tried my best to tell her to slow down through our mental connection, but to no avail. In the end, after passing through a large door, the little crow finally suffered a tragedy. Her body suddenly sank in mid-air and she fell to the ground. She slid forward for about six to seven meters like a dog chewing on the mud …
I saw this scene from behind. Of course, I quickly flew over to rescue her. In the end, the moment I passed the 'little crow's landing point', I felt my body sink. The gravity that I hadn't felt for a long time suddenly attacked me. Fortunately, I reacted quickly. The moment I felt my body sinking, I adjusted my posture and stood steadily on the ground. Then, Sandora landed beside me. The two of us stood side by side and watched Liliana lie on the ground and slide out in the same posture as the silly bird …
Liliana was so busy looking for signs of life that she didn't even notice that the artificial gravity had been restored. Otherwise, with her agility, how could she have made the same mistake as the silly bird? Of course, I couldn't rule out the possibility that she was just acting cute.
I picked up the young loli duo and patted them clean. Then, I said to Sandora through our mental connection, "This place has artificial gravity. It seems that the energy supply will be restored here."
"Don't use your mental connection," Sandora suddenly said, "Didn't you notice that there's air here?"
I was stunned. Only then did I notice that not only could we walk upright, we could also open our mouths to breathe. The surrounding temperature had also risen. It should still be around zero degrees Celsius. It was very cold for earthlings, but it was obviously a temperature that could support the survival of carbon-based lifeforms. Apart from the darkness, the life-sustaining environment here seemed to have returned to normal.
I looked at the last door that I had just passed through. It was wide open without any obstruction, but one side of the door maintained pressure and temperature, while the other side was a space environment. This was obviously the use of invisible environmental circle technology. This kind of technology was common in Empire facilities, but most of the time, it was used on open platforms that were exposed outside the facilities. This was the first time I saw it being used in a spaceship. Could it be that the designer of this spaceship from the beginning had considered that the spaceship would one day fall apart, so he designed the spaceship with the function of dividing the compartments to create the nightmare zone?
"The layout of this place doesn't look like a warship, but more like a long-distance immigration ship." Sandora didn't pay attention to the problem of the nightmare zone. She only used the holy light released by Alaya to observe the layout of the place. We were now in a large hall. I couldn't see the function of it, but it definitely wasn't a strategic center or a command center. There weren't many terminals here, and there weren't any large holographic equipment. The seats in the hall were far apart and scattered. This obviously wasn't the layout of a military command center, but more like …
An activity center for civilians to rest and relax.
Sandora obviously had the same opinion. She wandered around the hall, looking for any signs that could explain the origin and function of this strange spaceship. Liliana placed Jingle on top of her head, and the two of them formed a combination to search for signs of life nearby. Alaya continued to dutifully act as the lighting equipment, and I adjusted the brightness for Alaya.
At this moment, a series of "Bang! Bang! Bang!" came from all directions. Before I could react, the hall was suddenly lit up. Did the lighting in this place recover?!
As the lighting was restored, the energy supply naturally returned to normal as well. The facilities in the hall started up one after another as if they had just woken up from hibernation. Amid the low buzzing sound, flashing holographic images appeared next to the seats, and a virtual information screen appeared in midair. The data terminal in the middle of the hall lit up and began to play a standby image. A low, soft sound came from all directions. It didn't sound like the sound of any equipment starting up, but was simply playing an audio track. I didn't know what it meant.
We were shocked by the sudden activation of the equipment. Liliana quickly looked around and asked, "Where? Where are the ghosts on the ghost ship?"
I pressed down on the head of the little lass who was babbling nonsense. I was extremely confused in my heart. I wondered if there was some kind of hibernation device in the hall that sensed our arrival and activated itself. In the end, just as I was thinking about this, I heard a 'Gah Oh' sound from afar. Looking towards the source of the sound, it turned out that Medivh had run to the side of a gate at the end of the hall. The little lass was excitedly waving her hands in my direction as she shouted, "Master Gah! Just press this, and it's all lit up! "
I rushed over and saw the little crow's hand pressing on a crystal panel next to the gate. A lot of data was moving quickly on the wall next to the panel. I glanced at it and found that it was a report on the status of each section of the spaceship. It looked like the self-test report that the main computer of the spaceship would automatically produce after rebooting. It turned out that the little crow had activated this place.
Sandora heard the noise and rushed over. She was puzzled when she saw the situation. "Birdie, how did you activate these things?"
"I just need to press my paw … hand on it!" The little crow knew that she had done a good deed, so she looked very excited. She gestured and pointed at the crystal panel. "I saw a lot of these things in the city. You just need to press your paw … hand on it, and you can activate it!"
It turned out that the little crow had confused this spaceship with the civilian facilities that she had seen in the Shadow City. The bird didn't quite understand what the authorization system was, but I could tell that something was wrong. The spaceships created by the Empire were controlled by a strict authorization system. The person who could activate this hall should be the original owner of the spaceship. How did the little crow activate this place just by placing her hand on the recognition device?
The crystal panel wasn't just a simple light switch. It had just activated the energy supply of all the equipment here, and it was now displaying the self-test report of the spaceship! This thing was obviously connected to the main computer of the spaceship!
Just as Sandora and I looked at each other, thinking that the authorization system had malfunctioned, Liliana suddenly pointed to the side and shouted, "Boss, there are words here!"
I looked in the direction where Liliana was pointing and saw that there was a sign hanging on the door. The sign was written in Schilling:
"Last hint: You have arrived at the activity hall. You can rest and relax here. Follow the light to find your workshop. Now, press your hand on the fluorescent panel next to the door. The system has been unlocked. Anyone who wakes up can activate the equipment here. Don't worry about the confusion in your mind. That is a normal after-effect. It will dissipate soon after the audio broadcast. "
The sign emitted a constant glow. It seemed that even in the darkness, it was still lit. However, our attention was elsewhere, so no one saw it. Only the little crow noticed and was attracted by the light of the sign. Crows always like shiny things.
"Did someone know we were coming?" The little crow shook my arm. "And left us a message?"
"No, it wasn't written for us." Sandora understood the meaning of the handwriting at a glance. "It was written for someone on this spaceship. 'Anyone who wakes up'. This is a hint left for those who have woken up. Think about it. We entered this spaceship from the outside, so the message we saw should be the last message for those who walked out from the inside of the spaceship. According to what is written here, there should be other messages. "
"That's easy," I said, vaguely forming an idea. "Just go back and look for it."
Based on the content of the sign, if someone walked out from somewhere, saw the words on the sign, and then activated the equipment in the hall, then this person could only enter the hall from the door in front of us.
Sandora reached out and pressed on the alloy door. The alloy door slid open silently. This thing could be used, and there were no restrictions.
Behind the alloy door was a brightly lit corridor. However, I didn't know if the lights in this corridor were always on or just activated by the little crow. Liliana's eyes were sharp. She quickly saw another sign on the wall of the corridor. It read:
"New hint: You have passed through the second corridor. In front of you is the activity hall. Press your hand on the automatic door."
As expected.
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